MVA Threatens to Change Policy on Gender Markers

The MVA (Maryland Vehicle Administration) is updating their policies for next year and are thinking about changing their policy on gender markers. The new policy would make it harder for transgender individuals to change their gender, forcing them to show an amended birth certificate, go to court, and pay more fees. The current policy is working for everybody, so there isn't a reason to change it. For many transgender people it is very important to have legal documents that match their gender identity for a variety of reasons. The change would be effective on January 1st, 2010.

Current Policy: To change the gender marker, an applicant must provide a physician or psychologist’s report to confirm that the applicant is in active treatment. The MVA requires annual re-evaluations until the applicant "meets requirements for permanent gender change." If you are using a name other than your birth name, you must bring the document that initiated the change of name, such as a marriage certificate, divorce decree or court name change order and your current License.

New Policy: The new policy would require an amended birth certificate. This requires going through the court system. Maryland code states that they will issue a birth certificate reflecting the proper gender only upon receipt of a certified copy of an order of from a court indicating that the sex of an individual born has been changed by surgical procedure and whether such individual's name has been changed. You cannot change the sex on a birth certificate simply by providing proof that you are undergoing medical treatment or procedures for gender reassignment.

Do do something about this send a message here.

You can learn more at Equality Maryland.

Marriage Equality has Passed in D.C!

This is really great news. This Tuesday, D.C. approved the bill that legalizes gay marriage, so we could to over there and get legally married right now. The bill was approved 11-2 and will become a law in the spring after it goes through a 30 day legislative review period. Of course, many religious and conservative e groups will try and overturn it. The National Organization for Marriage sent out an e-mail almost instantly saying that they would overturn it but LGBT leaders in D.C. anticipated this this moment for a long time and are confident that they will be prepared.

Conservapeida

An conservative alternative to wikipedia has been made. Apparently wikipedia has too much liberal bias, which is why they created Conservapedia. It claims to be un-biased, factual, and represent the american public. I googled it and underneath the headline was a list of popular searches.
Here they are:
Barack Obama
Homosexuality
Richard Dawkins
Conservative Bible Project
Atheism
Bias in Wikipedia
Evolution
Global Warming

So I went ahead and clicked on the link to homosexuality. The entire article is so biased I couldn't even read the whole thing. The sub-headlines associate homosexuality with drugs, pedophilia, and domestic violence among other things, but fail to mention anything remotely positive.

Here's a quote, "Studies have long indicated that homosexuals have a substantially greater risk of suffering from psychiatric problems (suicide, depression, bulimia, antisocial personality disorder, and substance abuse)".
Basically they're saying that being queer makes you depressed, etc. when really intolerance and discrimination is the catalyst.

Anywhoooo
you can go check it out at www.conservapedia.com and be angry.
It is also featured in this episode of the Colbert Report.

New York State Senator Diane Savino speaks on marriage equality. This is an amazing speech by an amazing woman. She makes a lot of excellent points.