Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) has finally come around to endorsing a trans-inclusive hate crimes legislation package. As the lead voice on such issues in the Senate, Kennedy's prior refusal to endorse trans inclusive legislation blocked any hope of passage. Kennedy's long-awaited endorsement fulfills a promise he made to members of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, who met with Senator Kennedy at his GLBT-specific fundraiser in Boston last fall.

The US House of Representatives passed a trans-inclusive hate crimes package in late 2005, at which time trans activists mounted an intense campaign to push Kennedy to support similar legislation in the senate. But, despite being inundated with phone calls and emails urging his support, the senator refused to budge. This led to some bitterness on the part of trans activists, as Kennedy has long stood as a beacon of fairness and support for the underdog.

Boston-area LGBT activists invited MTPC to participate in a fundraiser for Kennedy last fall, at which Diego Sanchez, Holly Ryan, Gunner Scott, and others spoke with the Senator, urging him to reconsider his position. Moved by their words, he made a commitment then to reconsider his position, and make sure "no one is left behind". On Tuesday of this week, he made good on his word.

Please take a moment to email Senator Kennedy and thank him for throwing his support behind fairness for all people of diverse gender identity or expression. It just takes a minute, using his convenient contact form.

Transgender people are being warned to stay out of Valparaiso, Chile's sector V. This is scary stuff. The alert, issued by Chile's leading gay rights advocacy group, is quoted as calling the region "extremely dangerous" because of "constant attacks" on transgender persons, the most recent a shooting. It refers to 4 murders in the last five years, as well as 18 "brutal beatings". Kudos to The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Freedom (MOVILH) for this helpful move.

Here's the full story.

Thanks to the wonders of DVR technology, I can this evening watch last night's Daily Show, which I have just finished. John Stewart had a brilliant comment on Republican rhetoric in the debate over Iraq, which I will paraphrase here: 'Republicans criticize the Democrats for "admitting defeat", but all the Republicans are doing is "defeat without admission" '. Now that's smart. How anyone of the slightest intelligence can buy into this Republican rhetoric is beyond me. I guess it's the old "if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullsh*t". This seems to have been raised to a high - and, for a time, quite powerful - art by the current administration.

From transfm.org's Ethan St. Pierre, here's where you can learn more about Michael Savage and other conservatives as they trash talk trans folks and others.

http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/people/michaelsavage

Letters written to these unscrupulous hosts, as well as the sponsors whose advertisements support them (not to mention street demonstrations at the station producing such trash) could help alert listeners to the misinformation these cynical voices are promoting.

Anything you can do, however small, to publicly object to the lies being told (not to mention insults being casually hurled) by these self-promoting scoundrels could be just what's needed to push things past the tipping point towards a more compassionate world.

Send an email, write a letter, make a phone call. Speak up against the rhetoric of bigotry, it's the only way to end gender intolerance, not to mention war and injustice in general.

I would like to present a subject very near and dear to my heart; the proliferation of support groups which actually isolate and alienate our partners and many times, ourselves.

Please do not read this if offended by some graphic content. I have tried to be tasteful.

I speak from experience and so does my wife. We have thought and thought of a way to correct this and I will offer that suggestion at the end of this message.

Last week, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) determined royalty rates so high that they will almost certainly put most major webcasting services such as Live365, which TransFM broadcasts on, and streaming Internet radio in general, such as WMBR and other broadcast radio station online streams, out of business. With added fees and performance royalty payments that only webcasters are obligated to pay, these rates work out to roughly four times what terrestrial broadcast radio stations pay for the very same content!

New Mexico was nice, 70s and 80s (breaking some records), but unfortunately Junipers chose this time to celebrate with a pollenfest. I seem to be allergic to Juniper, and spent several days in misery. But Gordene got some work done towards her next book (about ranching women in the Southwest), we had some good times together, visited with some great folks, enjoyed some gorgeous nature, and arrived home feeling at least somewhat recharged.

By the way, I'm very frustrated with this new GenderTalk website,