Maryland Coalition for Trans Equality

Contact: Carrie Evans,

443-514‐4999,

carrie@equalitymaryland.org

Donna Cartwright,

201-328‐6175,

donna@mdtransequality.org

19 Organizations Come Together to Pursue Trans Equality in Maryland

January 2, 2013

Maryland — Nineteen local, state and national organizations have joined with individual activists to form the Maryland Coalition for Trans* Equality, in the most broadly based effort the state has ever seen for trans* rights. The formation of the coalition represents the fruition of a year of intensive outreach, organizing, listening and discussion.

MCTE’s mission is to advance equal rights for transgender, transsexual, and gender non-conforming (trans*) people in Maryland through shared leadership, collaborative decision making processes, and resources.

Over the spring and summer of 2012 MCTE held several listening sessions across the state. Through these sessions MCTE asked community members to share their vision of progress for trans people in the state.  Attendees articulated a clear demand for a broader coalition to do this work. Acting on that Directive MCTE has brought together numerous organizations working for equality and justice in Maryland.

“Equality Maryland embraces doing this vital work in a coalition that has trans individuals at the center of decision making. We witnessed the power of a coalition winning and preserving marriage equality and we are confident this model will succeed for trans equality,” comments Equality Maryland’s Executive Director, Carrie Evans.

“For too long trans people of color, who disproportionately experience discrimination and harassment, have been on the sidelines of the trans equality movement. With our inclusion in MCTE the needs of trans people of color will be recognized, heard and addressed,” comments Vann Michael Millhouse, Community Board of Directors, MD/DC State Representative, Black Transmen, Inc.

Linda Mahoney, President of Maryland NOW affirms, “The National Organization for Women is committed to fighting discrimination in all of its forms. This included discrimination based on gender identity and expression. Our alliance with MCTE is one way we will continue to work to ensure transgender people in Maryland can live their lives with dignity and security.”

Donna Cartwright, Secretary of the Baltimore Washington Chapter of Pride @ Work said, “Pride @ Work has worked for many years in Maryland to achieve trans equality and we are happy to work with all of these organizations to achieve legal equality for trans Marylanders.”

Coalition Members

(as of 01.01.13)

ACLU of Maryland

Baltimore Black Pride

Black Trans Men

CASA de Maryland
Coalitions in Action for Transgender Community Health (CATCH) 
Equality Maryland

FreeState Legal Project

Gender Empowerment Maryland (GEM)

Hollaback Baltimore

Human Rights Campaign

Maryland Black Family Alliance

Maryland NOW (National Organization for Women)

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

PFLAG

Pride  At Work, Baltimore-Washington Chapter

Trans People of Color Coalition (TPOCC)

SEIU 500

SEIU 1199

Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of Maryland

Baltimore Transgender Day of Remembrance

For Immediate Release

PLEASE CIRCULATE

Contact: Jenna Fischetti, 410-863-8001, Jenna.Fischetti@GMail.com

www.transmaryland.org

BALTIMORE TO HOLD A TRANSGENDER DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

Press Conference with the Mayor of Baltimore, Monday November 19, 10:00a.m., City Hall

Community Service, Vigil on Tuesday, November 20, 6:30p.m., First Unitarian Church, Baltimore

Each November 20, the worldwide transgender community turns its attention to its family, friends and loved ones lost to violence and prejudice. A tradition inspired by the vigil for slain transsexual Rita Hester in 1998, this day has become the worldwide rallying point for a community long under siege.

In Baltimore, folks will gather in the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore 12 W. Franklin downtown for a service, which begins at 6:30 pm and concludes with a reading of the name of those lost and a candle light vigil.

 For more details, please visit https://sites.google.com/site/tdorbaltimore/.

Maryland’s Transgender and LGB communities extends a warm welcome to all who would like to attend this important event to memorialize our dead and underscore the serious suffering in our communities. No persons should be subjected to violence simply because of their gender identity or expression. No persons should be denied the basic rights that enable their safety and security. No one should consider taking their own life to escape harassment and bullying. Please join with us on this day to remember those who are gone, whatever the cause of their departure.

Event Background:

The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester’s murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved.

Although not every person represented during the Day of Remembrance self-identified as transgender — that is, as a transsexual, or otherwise gender-variant — each was a victim of violence based on bias against transgender people.

Maryland’s transgender community remembers local victims Chrissey Johnson, Tacy Raino Ranta, Carla Natasha Hunt, Venus LaBeija, Stacey Brown,  April Green, Aiden Rivera Schaeff, Tyra Trent, and Tracy Johnson. There have been many more, mostly uncounted and unnoticed by all but their friends and family.

Organized by the all-volunteer Transgender Response Team’s Transgender Day of Remembrance Organizing Committee.

https://sites.google.com/site/tdorbaltimore/