GLAD to have Met You

Thank you Lee Swislow   Dear Tessa, My friend and colleague Lee Swislow has overseen GLAD with skill, finesse, and vision since 2005. Lee Swislow will retire as GLAD's Executive Director when she turns 65 next April. Lee will celebrate her 65th birthday next April, and when she does, she will also embark on a new adventure: retirement. Lee has led GLAD to major advances in LGBT rights, from the spread of marriage equality across New England to spearheading the fight to bring down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, to winning the right of transgender people to deduct transition-related medical expenses from their taxes, to name only a few recent victories. And if you've had the opportunity to talk to Lee over the past eight years, you know that she brings incredible wisdom, patience, and passion to her role in guiding GLAD's critical work. As I work with my fellow board members to plan a thoughtful search for our next Executive Director, I am both sad to see Lee go and excited for the future. Our next leader will guide GLAD into a new era, as we attack ongoing and vitally important issues, such as transgender rights, the quality of life of LGBTQ youth and elders, ending the scourge of HIV, and so much more. I know we will find exactly the right person to lead GLAD's next phase. And with the work of our dedicated, talented staff - and your invaluable ongoing support - we will continue our strong and steady progress toward our shared goal of equal justice under law for all. Fortunately, we have several more months to benefit from Lee's stellar leadership, and ample opportunity to express our gratitude for her years of incredible service. Please join me in thanking Lee for all she's done for GLAD and for our community - and in wishing her well as she prepares for this next adventure. Sincerely,   Dianne Phillips President, Board of Directors Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders

Beyond Pancakes

Coolness!
Registration is now open for the 2013 Transgender Lives Conference to be held on April 27th, 2013 at the UConn Health Center, Farmington Connecticut.

Learn more every day -- become a smarter and better person.

When Saturday April 27, 2013 from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM EDT Add to Calendar   Where Academic Building of the UConn Health Center 263 Farmington Avenue Academic Building Farmington, CT 06030 Driving Directions

CHES nd NASW credits are available for the 2013 Transgender Lives Conference [click here for workshops]. Don't miss our keynote speaker Mara Keisling, the Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. Mara Keisling is the founding Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. Mara is a transgender-identified woman and a parent. As one of the nation's leading voices for transgender equality, Mara has appeared on news outlets such as CNN and CSPAN, and is regularly quoted in the New York Times, the Washington Post and hundreds of other national and local print and electronic media.     AND this year we are offering CEU accreditation's from NASW/CT and CHES! However, to take advantage of this unique and wonderful opportunity to listen to Mara Keisling, as well as attend the many exciting and challenging workshops you must be registered for the conference. If you have not done so yet, you do need to register ~ so don't delay and do it today!! Get more information Register Now!   Sincerely,    Transgender Lives Organizing Committee Ct TransAdvocacy Coalition conference2013@transadvocacy.org 860 255 8812

ICYMI: Shockingly Good Editorial on Reproductive Rights

With other people writing terrific articles, letters to the editor, and (shocking!) editors themselves writing decent editorials, I hardly need to write anything myself. I can just watch, rinse, and repeat.

Ladies and Gents --  I proudly reprint the following Editorial from the Hartford Courant on January 23, 2013:

Abortion Opponents Still Working To Turn Back Clock -   
Roe v. Wade at 40

The Roe vs. Wade decision that the Supreme Court handed down 40 years ago this week gave American women a right that most then did not have: The right to make reproductive medical decisions for themselves. That single right is critical to the ability of a woman of child-bearing age to determine the course of her own life. Roe was a sound decision in 1973 and remains so today.

But consider this paradox: With the passage of time, more and more Americans — 63 percent in a Pew poll, and 70 percent in an NBC/Wall Street Journal survey — believe that the decision should remain law and not be overturned. Yet states are passing ever-increasing restrictions on women's abortion rights.

In the last two years, states passed 135 restrictions on when and how women can obtain an abortion. In four states, there is just one clinic where women can obtain an abortion — the Dakotas, Mississippi and Arkansas. Twenty-six states impose waiting periods and eight states restrict abortion coverage available even in private insurance. Other restrictions include forcing women to listen to ideological statements on the alleged greater risk of depression, suicide or cancer from having an abortion, assertions that scientific studies soundly contradict.

It is hard to imagine fundamental male reproductive decisions being the subject of the same level of legislative debate, harassment, patronizing lectures and legal restrictions as women routinely endure. That, unfortunately, shows no sign of changing. What will help lower the incidence of abortion even more is the expansion of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, as it makes contraception available without cost sharing. That is all to the good.

Meanwhile, opponents of Roe will continue to attempt to chip away at women's right to an abortion. The majority that supports Roe could use the opposition's tenacity and not, even on this 40th anniversary, take the current right for granted.

Intersection of Health and Law: Transgender Lives Conference

Transgender Lives

The Intersection of Health and Law Conference

Registration is now open for the 2012 Transgender Lives Conference to be held on April 28th, 2012 at the UConn Health Center, Farmington Connecticut. The event will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The conference will be held at the Academic Building of the UConn Health Center, located at 263 Farmington Avenue, Academic Building, Farmington, CT 06030.  Cross Post from The Rainbow Times Newsletter

The 6th Annual Transgender Lives Conference, to be held on April 28, 2012, provides important educational opportunities on topics important to the transgender community and the professionals who serve this diverse group. Jennifer Levi, Esq. will be the Keynote speaker for the event. Levi, Transgender Rights Project Director, is one of our nation’s leading experts on transgender legal issues. She has been with GLAD since 1998, and has served as lead counsel in a number of precedent setting cases establishing basic rights for transgender people.  Besides having Levi speak, CEU accreditation’s from NASW/CT and CHES will be offered! However, to take advantage of this unique and wonderful opportunity to listen to Jennifer Levi, Esq., as well as attend the many exciting and challenging workshops (found at othe organization's website) you must be registered for the conference. If you have not done so yet, you do need to register ~ so don’t delay and do it today!! You can support this effort through advertising, by becoming a sponsor, volunteering, or by making a donation.

Ensuring Equality - Learn Your Rights

Implementing and Enforcing
the new Non-Discrimination law
Educational Session
October 26th
5:30 - 7:00 panel discussion
7:00 opportunity to chat!
Legislative Office Building
Room 2E
300 Capitol Avenue
Hartford, CT 06106
 

Guest Speaker-- Senator Beth Bye
Panel:
Jennifer Levi, GLAD
Alix Simonetti, CHRO
Cheryl Sharp, CHRO
 

A workshop about the new legal protections provided by the addition this year of gender identity or expression to Connecticut's non-discrimation law.

• LEARN what the new law covers and does not cover
  and 
• LEARN how to file a discrimination claim 

 Sponsored by: CT TransAdvocacy Coalition, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, and CT Women's Education and Legal Fund

Connecticut Women's Education and Legal Fund
One Hartford Square West
Suite 1-300
Hartford, CT 06106

Paid Sick Days gets Inked

On Friday July 1st, while everyone was driving or stuck in traffic, Connecticut officially became the first state in the Union to enact Paid Sick Days legislation. 

Governor Malloy signed it into Law the day after this was posted online:

New Report Quantifies Paid Sick Days’ Value to Working Families
Published on June 30, 2011 by Vicki Shabo, Director of Work and Family Programs, National Partnership for Women and Families

For working families today, paid sick days can mean the difference between staying afloat and being unable to afford basic expenses like food and transportation – and this lifeline comes at minimal or no cost to businesses. This is the theme of a report released yesterday at a briefing co-hosted by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the National Partnership.   [...]

EPI’s new report, authored by Gould, paints a stark picture of what it means when a working parent’s job offers no paid sick days. In the best case, the worker takes time off without pay. For the average family without paid sick days, if one parent misses three-and-a-half days of work in a month, it loses the equivalent of the family’s entire grocery budget. Missing five days of work reduces the same family’s income to 84 percent of the amount needed to get by.

Even worse, taking an unsanctioned sick day means job loss. At a time when nearly half of all unemployed Americans have been looking for new work for six months or more, this is a cost that struggling families can’t afford to bear.     [...]

An EPI report released in March [...] showed that Connecticut businesses – many of which, beginning in January 2012, will be required to provide paid sick time to certain workers under America’s first statewide paid sick days law – will bear minimal costs as a percentage of sales (fewer than one-half of one percent).

I will be attending a conference next week in Washington DC, as a guest of the Working Families Party, to learn more about how legislation such as ours can be rolled out nationwide.

For now, I am very proud of the solid work done by Jon Green, Lindsay Farrell, and Joe Dinkin of the Connecticut Working Families Party. They were intelligent advocates, great organizers, and able to use humor and street theater to make serious points about the issue.

Thank you all and thank you to our legislators who voted this through the Connecticut House and State Senate.