Baby Dee: Cleveland’s Harp Playing Transgender Legend

by Jacob Anderson-Minshall
The San Francisco Bay Times

Fifty-something classically- trained musician, Baby Dee - who just began releasing albums this decade - has an eclectic resume (including stints as go-go girl and circus freak).

“All that stuff about my life - the oddities and stupidities of it, I find incredibly boring,” insists Dee now.

“At first,” Dee acknowledges about her carnival act, “I really, really hated having…half my body be perceived as male. But after the first week I got to enjoy it. I’d catch a man’s eye as a girl and then whirl around…and I’d be the guy and say, ‘What the fuck are you looking at, you fucking faggot?’ It was great fun!”

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Verizon says no to trans-inclusive policy

by Bryan Whitley-Grassi

In 2007, the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, owner of 1,300 shares of the Verizon common stock, proposed that the company add a gender identity clause to its nondiscrimination policy. A proxy statement was put before shareholders for a vote, and the shareholders who supported the proposal received this response from the Verizon Board of Directors: “The Board shares the proponent’s interest in preventing discrimination and harassment on the basis of gender identity and believes that Verizon’s strong anti-discrimination policies and strict enforcement of its zero tolerance policy make the requested amendment to those policies unnecessary. The Board of Directors recommends a vote AGAINST this proposal.”

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Mexican transwoman Victoria Arellano dies in immigration custody

Victoria Arellano, 23, died July 20 in the intensive care unit of a San Pedro, Calif., hospital. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials detained the undocumented immigrant in May after she entered the country for the second time.

At least 63 detainees, including Arellano and two others held in San Pedro, have died in ICE custody since 2004.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/po/20070823/co_po/answerssoughtinposdetaineesdeath