TRANS FRANCISCO
Photo: Tiffany Woods		Photo: Tiffany Woods
WEBSITE- www.transfrancisco.com FACEBOOK- www.facebok.com/TransFrancisco FRAMELINE- http://www.frameline.org/now-showing/at-the-center/february.aspx

"Trans Francisco" is now available for purchase through the official website: http://www.transfrancisco.com/

Please consider buying a copy or passing on the website to those who may be interested in purchasing. This important, award winning film would benefit the libraries of LGBT/Trans orgs, HIV agencies/ASOs, LGBT community centers, and Universities with human sexuality/LGBT/gender studies departments; as well as personal film collections.

"Trans Francisco" to play in Birmingham, Alabama!

"Trans Francisco" has been selected to screen at the 5th Annual Birmingham SHOUT Gay & Lesbian Film Festival Saturday, September 25th - 11:00am - Hill Arts Center

SHOUT

Birmingham SHOUT is Alabama's first and only gay & lesbian film festival and is proud to support the growing GLBT community in the Magic City, along with providing compelling content for anyone interested in independent films.
http://almovingimage.org/shout-schedule.html

San Francisco, CA-Transsexual documentary debuts at Frameline34 Film Fest

"Trans Francisco" an hour-long feature documentary about life as a male-to-female transsexual, has been selected for screening at the prestigious Frameline34 International LGBT Film Festival, June 17-27. The Film Festival is the longest-running, largest and most widely recognized LGBT film exhibition event in the world. Trans Francisco will be shown on June 19, 2010 at 11:00 AM at the Victoria Theater, 2961 16th Street, SF.

Unlike other films on the subject, Trans Francisco introduces several trans women who, through their most personal stories, allow the audience to better understand their needs, their goals, their tragedy and their joy. With surprising candor, these women describe their lives and themselves as if talking to each other, truly without embarrassment or reluctance.

Films: Trans Francisco

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today launched a new website <http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/LGBT_Discrimination_Study> to allow citizens to offer comment on the design of an unprecedented national study that will examine housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. While there have been no national assessments of housing discrimination targeting the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) community, there is a body of evidence suggesting this sort of bias exists.

HUD recently hosted town hall meetings in Chicago, San Francisco and New York City to solicit feedback on how it might approach such ground-breaking research. This 'online suggestion box <http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/LGBT_Discrimination_Study/comments> ' is intended to offer the public throughout the U.S. an opportunity to comment on HUD's study.

"It is critical that as we embark on this historic discrimination study, that we hear from those who may have been denied housing based on their sexual orientation or gender identity," said Dr. Raphael Bostic, HUD's Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research. "The comments we received in our town hall meetings, and those we will gather from this new website, will help inform how we might test for housing discrimination in the sale or rental of housing based on LBGT status."

While there are no national assessments of LGBT housing discrimination, there are state and local studies that have shown this sort of bias. For example, Michigan's Fair Housing Centers found that nearly 30 percent of same-sex couples were treated differently when attempting to buy or rent a home (www.fhcmichigan.org/images/Arcus_web1.pdf <http://www.fhcmichigan.org/images/Arcus_web1.pdf> ).

HUD's new LGBT website will seek suggestions on how best to execute the study. For example, how would a 'tester' signal in a conversation with a landlord that an individual or couple was LGBT? The website is not designed for users to lodge complaints about a particular incident. However, if you believe you have been a victim of housing discrimination, you may file an online complaint <http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/topics/housing_discrimination> , or call HUD's Housing Discrimination Hotline at 1-800-669-9777.

HUD is the nation's housing agency committed to sustaining homeownership; creating affordable housing opportunities for low-income Americans; and supporting the homeless, elderly, people with disabilities and people living with AIDS. The Department also promotes economic and community development and enforces the nation's fair housing laws. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov <http://www.hud.gov> and espanol.hud.gov.

The First Transgender Town Hall Meeting in Alameda County Focusing on Transgender Health Care

From Tiffany Woods

Tanasjsha and Brandy

Audience

James Green, Supervisor Carson, and Kriss Worthington

After 6 months of planning and organizing, the historic first ever town hall focusing on health care issues for transgender men and women in Alameda County was held on July 25, at the State Office Building in downtown Oakland, CA. With well over 100 transgender community members, supporters, and medical professionals on hand to give and listen to testimony, the town hall was a major achievement and a success.

Many elements came together to create a forum that finally put the health and medical needs of transgender people of Alameda County first and foremost. Months of meetings with elected officials and their representatives culminated in an esteemed panel representing Berkeley, Oakland, Hayward and Fremont.

A diverse panel of community members and medical providers presented expert testimony and public comment, on where we have been, where we currently are, and where we need to be in providing competent transgender health care services for the transgender community of Alameda County.

As the community organizer for this project, I would like to extend my gratitude and thanks for all who attended this historic and important evening. For those trans men and women who became "visible" for a few hours, thank you. Your visibility and advocacy will go a long way in making competent and affordable health care for trans men and women a reality in Alameda County.

Kim Hraca and Lucia Kim, for taking time out of their busy schedules to attend and advocate for the need for mental health services, our moderator, James Green, always the consummate professional who navigated the evening flawlessly, Kerry Murphy, our wonderful Nurse Practitioner here at Tri-City, for testifying on behalf of the many transgender clients we serve, Tanasjsha and Brandy of TransVision, for all of their help at the front table and representing African American Transgender women, the many TransVision clients who came, and our program manager, Lisa Carver, for her Public Comment being the last testimony as well for all of her support.

Special thank you's go to our Video team, Everett, Deanne and Dr. Claudia Kenworthy. Not only did they spend the evening setting up early and filming, Deanne and Claudia spent many hours editing the tapes so that the town hall will be available in its entirety.

I also want to thank Katie Teague from state Senator Ellen Corbett's office for all of the calls, emails, and support during the planning process. Although Senator Corbett was unable to attend as scheduled due to the budget stalemate in Sacramento (blame the Republicans once again), her support is greatly appreciated and we will continue working with her office not only on this project, but all others that affect transgender people in Alameda County.

Finally, Thank you to Chris Daly, Cecilia Chung and The Transgender Law Center for helping the transgender community of Alameda County step up and advocate for our right to competent health care services for the transgender community.

Please continue to be involved in the HCAP process.

Creating change is never easy, sometimes risky,and takes many, but is always rewarding in the end. Be part of that change in Alameda County! Be visible when you need to be, speak and advocate when you have to. Only you can speak to your needs.

Supervisor Carson	Councilman Moore, Councilman Woorthington, and Katie Teague	Audience
Katie Teague, Annie Flores, and Chris Parman	Panel/Audience	Audience

Town Hall Video now available on the net.

From The Transgender Law Center:

A report Back From Transgender Health Care Access
An Alameda County Town Hall

July 25th, 7 - 9pm

Over 100 transgender community members, relatives, advocates, and allies opened a dialogue with local, county, and state officials about the need for increased access to low-cost, culturally competent health care. Taking over the auditorium of the Elihu Harris State Office Building, the Town Hall, the first of its kind in Alameda County, covered the need for increased County-wide investment in health care available to low-income, uninsured, and underinsured transgender community members and their families.

County Supervisor Keith Carson and Berkeley City Councilmember's Darryl Moore and Kriss Worthington opened the Town Hall by expressing support for an initiative to address a lack of services to meet the primary, preventative, and mental health needs of the community.

Two community members, Darel Ayap and Yavanté Thomas-Guess, shared their own stories of transition. Including Darel's sobering experience of beginning hormone therapy at a time when she didn't have health insurance. Without access to a doctor, she bought hormones brought up from Mexico and administered them on a trial and error basis.

A number of health care professionals testified about the degree to which the health care needs of the transgender community are going mostly unmet. One provider mentioned that her organization has to turn transgender clients away due to a lack of resources. Another provider talked about how competent care now leads to the prevention of serious illnesses in the future.

Finally, two community leaders, Tiffany Woods-Bodine and Patricia Kevena Fili, provided a vision for moving towards better health care county-wide. Emphasizing the need for training, Tiffany called on the county to ensure that all county health care providers (including support and administrative staff) participate in effective training opportunities. Patricia followed this request by inviting the county to invest in a collaboration developing between Berkeley Free Clinic, Tri-City Health Center, and Highland Hospital to create a transgender health care network of providers that spans most of the County.

Moderator James Green closed the evening by reminding attendees that the Town Hall was made possible through an ongoing community organizing effort and that interested community members and advocates can get involved by emailing info@transgenderlawcenter.org.

Joanne Keatley	Panel	Barry Zevin, Md Tom Waddel Kline
Darryl Ayap	Yavante Thomas-Guess	Tanasjsha, Brandy, and Mimi

	www.lighthousecommunitycenter.org (510)881-8167	www.transgenderlawcenter.org (415)865-0184

TransVision Research Project

TransVision staff has completed the interview portion of the research project. One Hundred transgender women have been interviewed throughout Alameda County. Tri-City Health Center and TransVision would like to extend our sincerest thank you for all of you who came forward to be interviewed and your willingness to be honest and candid with your responses. We met some amazing and dynamic women who epitomize the meaning of "diversity".

We are now in the process of putting all of the interviews into a database for analyzing and producing a report that will be presented to the Alameda County Office of AIDS as well as other agencies and community organizations. We anticipate being able to post the report here on the TransVision website in July.

It's my Time, It's My Life

TransVision received a grant from the California AIDS Clearinghouse to produce an educational brochure for transgender women that addresses issues such a HIV risk, depression, and health and well being. This brochure will be added to the Clearinghouse statewide collection. The finished brochure, a collaboration of TransVision staff, program coordinator, program manager, graphic designer, and community input is a beautiful black and white brochure in English and Spanish with beautiful, stylized images of healthy transgender women from different cultures and backgrounds. Resources for transgender women in Northern and Southern California are listed.