Articles- Collected Articles For The Transgender Community

Matthai Kuruvila, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Victoria Kolakowski, who’s running for Alameda Count Superior Court judge in a November runoff election, declares on her campaign Web site that she hopes to make history.

“If I am elected, I would be the first openly LGBT superior court judge elected in Alameda County, the first openly LGBT person elected countywide, and the first transgender trial court judge in the United States,” it states.

The question is how much it should matter.

Kolakowski, 48, transitioned from male to female in 1989 during her last year in law school and had sex reassignment surgery in 1991. She has 21 years of legal experience, including stints as a private attorney, corporate attorney and, currently, an administrative law judge.
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Julian Guthrie, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tiffany Woods left her office in Fremont one day last week to meet with a 17-year-old boy who identifies as a girl and has been rejected by her family.

Woods is working with the youth to help her finish high school, set goals, think about a job and understand that she is not alone.

“This girl’s family is traditional Catholic Latino,” says Woods. “They expect their son to be a son.”

Woods, a 47-year-old male-to-female transgender person, added, “I was the first transgender this teenager had ever met. It’s different over here in the East Bay.”
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Posted By Karen Ocamb on LGBT POV – http://www.lgbtpov.com

While the nation focused on the victories of Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, two corporate Republican women who spent millions to win their gubernatorial and Senate primary campaigns, respectively, LGBTs were focused on statewide and local races that boosted the fight for equality in California.

As of midnight, with more than half of the precincts reporting, Victoria Kolakowski, a transgender administrative law judge and attorney for over 20 years is leading in her race for Alameda County Superior Court Judge with 46.11% of the vote, compared to her nearest competitor with 31.52% of the vote. While she will likely have to face a run-off, her lead is significant and her win would be historic.

In Southern California, openly gay Ricardo Lara, a founding member of HONOR PAC, appears to have won his race in the 50th Assembly District in the East LA area. He becomes the second openly gay Latino in the state Legislature in California history.

And in what openly gay Assembly Speaker John A. Perez described as a “huge win,” pro-gay Democrat Matt Gatto beat National Organization for Marriage favorite Sunder Ramani who “used H8 card with the Armenian community,” which backfired. Perez called the special election for Assembly District 43 a “bell-weather” for November since it was the only race where a Democrat went head-to-head with a Republican. As of midnight, Gatto was up almost 56% to Ramani’s 44%.
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Geoff Kors.- Executive Director, Equality California

It’s time to make more history in California.

We are on the verge of electing the first transgender trial court judge. Victoria Kolakowski, candidate for Superior Court Judge in Alameda County, led her primary with 45 percent of the vote. She’ll face the second highest vote-getter, Deputy District Attorney John Creighton, in a runoff this November. What’s more, three openly gay and lesbian candidates for the legislature — Toni Atkins (Assembly District 76), Rich Gordon (Assembly District 21) and Ricardo Lara (Assembly District 50) — won their primaries and are now the clear favorites to win seats in the California Legislature in this year’s general elections. If they prevail in November, the LGBT Legislative Caucus will be at seven, the largest number of LGBT legislators in the history of our nation. Out lesbian Linda Colfax won a seat on the bench of the Superior Court of San Francisco with 52.61% of the vote, while out gay Latino Michael Nava earned the most votes in his race and will advance to a runoff in November. And openly gay married father of twins Steve Pougnet, Mayor of Palm Springs, prevailed in his primary to represent the 45th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Incredible allies like Mary Salas in Assembly District 40 and Equality California Institute Board Member Betsy Butler in Assembly District 53 faced incredibly tough opponents, but both ran the strong campaigns they needed to take their primaries.
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Posted on Advocate.com June 09, 2010 11:11:00 AM

Openly LGBT candidates made gains in primary elections across the country Tuesday, with wins in states including California, Montana, and Maine. Among the winners is Palm Springs mayor Steve Pougnet, who will challenge Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack this fall.

By Julie Bolcer

Openly LGBT candidates made gains in primary elections across the country Tuesday, with wins in states including California, Montana, and Maine.

According to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which supports out candidates, “Openly LGBT candidates won political races literally from coast to coast last night, with key wins in California, Montana and Maine. At least 16 of the Victory Fund’s 21 endorsed candidates on the ballot yesterday either won their races outright or advanced to general elections.”

Winners include gay Palm Springs mayor Steve Pougnet (pictured, right), a Democrat, who will face Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack, the widow of the late congressman Sonny Bono.
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By the CNN Wire Staff
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
New policy goes into effect Thursday
Guidelines will require only certification of gender transition process
Announcement made to coincide with LGBT Pride Month

Washington (CNN) — The U.S. State Department announced Wednesday a new policy that no longer requires passport applicants seeking a gender change to have undergone sexual reassignment surgery.

The policy, which goes into effect Thursday, allows a gender change with a certification from an attending physician.

The doctor’s certification must confirm only that the passport applicant has undergone treatment for gender transition. Limited-validity passports for applicants who are in the process of gender transition also will be available under the policy.

Previously, individuals had to provide documentation from a surgeon that sex reassignment surgery had been performed on them, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.

The announcement was made to coincide with Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Month, the State Department said.

Bay Area Reporter, June 3, 2010
by Matthew S. Bajko, m.bajko@ebar.com

A group for LGBT lawyers in the Bay Area has split its endorsement between the out candidates in two San Francisco judicial races on next week’s primary ballot. The organization also endorsed a transgender judicial candidate in the East Bay.

In her three-person race for an open seat on the Alameda County Superior Court, Victoria Kolakowski earned the backing of the San Francisco-based Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, the nation’s oldest and largest LGBT bar association. According to statewide LGBT lobbying group Equality California, Kolakowski would be the country’s first transgender judge should she be elected.

She is running against Alameda County Deputy District Attorney John Creighton and Louis Goodman, a criminal defense attorney and former Alameda County prosecutor. If no one wins more than 50 percent of the vote Tuesday, June 8, then the top two vote-getters will advance to a November runoff election.
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The Oakland Post, May 12th, 2010

The Post tuned in on the team of Azul MaresDel-Grasso and Eric Boyd, as they drove the Magic Johnson Mobile testing unit through Billings, Montana. There, on April 27th, they worked with Jace Dyckman, a Prevention Health Specialist with the Riverstone Public Health Services.

He reported that even though there were not large percentages of HIV/AIDS cases in Montana, there is still a need to combat the negative stigmas surrounding the disease, the patients and its treatments. As they traverse through each state, I continually look for the similarities and differences of their experiences to those here in the Bay Area. To follow the team’s blog, as I do, visit: http://www.freehivtest.net/testingusablog/.
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