via The Bee.
This Is Nice-
via The Bee.
Category: Diversity / Inclusivity
Not All Religious People, Though
(I was about to post this one but I wanted to read Ten Bears’s first, and that one’s an essential with lots of news. This is a single positive, and possibly a resource for someone. -A)
The Catholic Law Students Who Help Trans Folks Change Legal Names
Last year, Sammi Mrowka, a graduate student at San Diego State University who is nonbinary and transgender, completed the legal process for changing their name and gender marker on IDs. Mrowka, who uses “he” and “they” pronouns, participated in a name and gender marker change clinic run by law students at the University of San Diego, who helped him fill out the paperwork.
“It was worth it to go through all of the mental stress and gymnastics with these government offices to finally get the relief of, for example, going to a doctor’s office and not having to worry about them using my deadname or misgendering me,” Mrowka said. “I can feel the huge, huge relief, realizing how intense it was every single day having to think about all that, to now, where everything’s done.”
University of San Diego and Loyola Marymount University, both Catholic colleges, host name and gender marker change clinics run by law students. The clinics assist trans and nonbinary people in California who want to change their name and/or gender marker on documents like birth certificates, marriage licenses, driver’s licenses, passports, and social security cards.
Accurate IDs allow trans and nonbinary people to live more safely and gain access to resources and public spaces. Accurate IDs can also reduce the risk of harassment, discrimination, or violence.
At LMU in Los Angeles, Siobhan Kelly Fogarty and Rachana Reddi, both third-year law students, are the leaders of Loyola Maymount’s name and gender marker change clinic. LMU had a name-change clinic in 2022, but it had been on hiatus, and Fogarty and Reddi spent the last year reviving it. They held their first virtual clinic this fall, with five people in attendance. At their first in-person clinic at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, around 75 people came.
Especially now, when anti-trans rhetoric and legislation is on the rise, Fogarty said the Loyola clinic explicitly connects to the school’s religious mission.
“We’re a Jesuit university, and our school has this social justice mission. [The clinic’s] mission is to serve the LGBTQIA+ community seeking name and gender marker changes,” Fogarty said.
USD’s clinic started in 2018 and meets virtually about once a month. Mrowka contacted the clinic in July 2023 after hearing about it on Instagram and through their therapist. Soon after, he had a Zoom meeting with a student volunteer and lawyer who helped him fill out the paperwork.
“I was kind of shocked initially since it is affiliated with a religious institution, but them even having this clinic made me feel comfortable talking to them,” he said. According to clinic volunteers and attorneys, USD’s clinic has helped more than 1,200 people since opening in 2018.
Lilly Wood is a law student at USD and on the clinic’s board. “The school is supportive of the clinic, but it’s unique in the sense that it is entirely student run,” Wood said. Other clinics at USD, Wood said, are either run through the school itself, meaning students can participate for credit, or are run through Legal Aid Society and facilitated by the school.
“The name change and gender marker clinic is run more like a student organization,” Wood said. “There are six or seven of us right now and we run everything.” In addition, attorney volunteers supervise and assist as needed.
As a virtual clinic, Wood said people reach out via email and give basic information, and law student volunteers begin filling out the proper paperwork. There are multiple forms — “it’s very complicated, but they all make up the petition for a name and gender marker change,” Wood said.
On the night of the clinic, participants from all over the state join on a Zoom call, and the volunteers meet with participants individually to make sure the paperwork is correct, then cover next steps for how to proceed.
“A lot of the legal clinics at USD are very meaningful but different from the gender marker clinic,” Wood said. “We have a domestic violence clinic, a worker’s rights clinic, and a lot of times people are coming in with challenging, sad issues that are happening in their personal lives. Usually when people come into the [gender marker change] clinic, they’re so happy to be there. You’re helping them be themselves in a more honest way. It’s celebratory.”
Shortly before Wood came to law school, she said her friend from high school who was a trans woman passed away.
“She really inspired me with her optimism for life even under horrible transphobia,” Wood said. “When I learned about the clinic, it made me want to honor her memory in lending assistance to other trans people in the community.”
Although Mrowka had been out as nonbinary and trans for about a year before coming to the clinic, they said they had little experience finding affirmation in legal and medical spaces.
“It was really nice to feel the difference of talking to professionals and not having to feel the tension in my body,” he said. “There was no, ‘oh god, hopefully they don’t ask about this or that.’”
Mrowka said he also has trouble filling out forms, and having the volunteers fill them out and answer any questions was a huge help. Once the forms were filled out, Mrowka brought them to the courthouse.
LMU’s clinic is one of the only on campus that isn’t officially organized, meaning they don’t receive school funding, which would allow for a director, office on campus, and for students to get school credit.
Reddi and Fogarty are pushing for it to become an official clinic and hope to see it grow in the coming years, continuing their partnerships with the Long Beach and Los Angeles LGBTQ+ centers and faculty members at Loyola. They’ve received a lot of interest from student volunteers.
“Being able to sit with people and fill out the forms, which for me didn’t feel like a huge task — I would have done as many as they needed me to do — it felt good to be a part of someone’s journey in that way,” Reddi said. “It’s more important than ever to continue to do the work that we’re doing.”
Fogarty went to Catholic school growing up and “didn’t have the best experience as an openly queer kid,” she said. “I was concerned about coming to Loyola at first, and finding these communities is what made me feel okay. I saw that Loyola had an LGBTQ org that was the first of its kind in the country. [It’s important] to create space in these faith-based communities where everyone is welcome and seen and heard and safe.”
Part of Wood’s role on the clinic board at USD is keeping up-to-date on changes in the legal landscape of gender record changes.
“It’s hard to be optimistic right now,” Wood said. “We hear a lot from participants about their concerns. It’s unsettling to not know what’s going to happen next, but we’ll be here to support the community as much as possible. We’re lucky enough to be in California, which is very protective of trans rights, but we’re still kind of at the mercy of the federal government in some ways.”
For Mrowka, though they are no longer religious, USD’s clinic “practiced a lot of the virtues that I learned as a kid growing up in church, in terms of radical acceptance and deep compassion and servitude toward the community,” they said. “It’s another example of what neighborly love could look like. They don’t pretend everything is fine in the United States, but it’s so focused on what we can do with what we have.”
Interview of US Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez re the upcoming session, and the Dem Women’s Caucus
None on Friday, Two on Saturday
As always, the titles are links to learn more about the poets and their poems.
Rican Issues Carmen Bardeguez-Brown
Say What?
Could you please, Pleeeeeeeeeeease repeat
Did you say: Molleta?
Prieta?
Morena?
Ohh African!
Hmmm Soy Puertorriquena
Yes, Puertorican
That I don’t look What ?
Oh, I guess I don’t look cafe con leche
mancha de plátano
Mulata,
high yellow
grifa
By the way
I did not know that there was a puertorican look.
And what exactly is that?
That I just look more what?
Well, Y Tu abuela dónde Está?
I should say abuela, tío, Tía, y to el barrio
Let me tell you something
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
Most ricans are a mix of Africans, Spaniards, and Native Americans called
Taínos
By the way, no one has seen a Taíno in the last 500 years.
Sooooo exactly … You know what that means
My English is covered with spices
spices from the Caribbean
Spices that you might find Strange
Because you were born in this cold fast food of a mall of a country
Where Spanish is a foreign word
That you are ashamed to learn
And when you try
Is not there
Only mumbles of a murmur
Susurando el olvido
A reganadientes
Pretendiendo
Escondiendo la vergüenza
You remember Puerto Rico on the 2nd Sunday of every June
When everybody is suddenly proud to be Puerto Rican
No the word is Boricua
Boricuas Here, Boricuas THERE, Boricuas everywhere
And everyone waves the flags
The flags that they don’t even understand
And no one knows why they are here
Yes HERE Now
Do you Know?
why your parents or grandparents vinieron aqui?
De que Pueblo?
Cuando te bañaste en las aguas calientes del Caribe?
Better yet
Do you really know that …?
We all came from the Motherland
Africa
Even the Spanish people that came with Colon, Columbus
However you want to say it
Lived 700 hundred years under the Moors
You heard that right
The moors as in Arabs as in black Arabs
SO … in other words
Not only I
But we
Have over 500 years of African mestizaje
The so called “white people” that everyone is so proud of
As in “my grandparents are from Spain
Well if they are …
They
Too have negrITOs in them
Remember the Gitanos
But that is another story …
Getting back to the Boricua’s issue
What history do you know?
Ever heard of
Agüeybaná
Albizu Campos
Luis Palés Matos
Rafael Betances
Arturo Schomburg
Francisco Oller
Julia De Burgos
Rafael Hernández
Segundo Ruiz Belvís
Enrique Laguerre
Mariana Bracetti
Pedro Pietri
Still havING problems figuring me out?
Or is it that you just don’t know
Who you are?
Copyright © 2024 by Carmen Bardeguez-Brown. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 12, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.
=====
On Water Street,
scaffolds envelop the buildings,
wire screens surround the benches,
iron fences line the street.
You must walk a hot summer block
in either direction to cross.
To the east, construction continues.
To the west, trucks sit, waiting.
Approaching or leaving,
it feels like a detention center
without passports or means of escape.
Late nights on Water Street,
beneath the scaffolding,
behind the steaming sidewalks,
and the screens and the fences,
the men set up their dominoes table
and their friends watch them play,
awaiting their turns.
We wave on our way to walk our dogs
and when returning home in the humid air.
There are no passersby on Water Street,
no loitering without intent or purpose
but I will reply to the questions
they might have asked had they existed.
Why, they might wonder, do the men sit
at a bridge table in the stifling heat
beneath scaffolds, behind screens and fences?
Surely, there are air-conditioned apartments
where they might socialize and yell Capicu!
Because, I would answer, it is our street,
this is our Lower East Side that we breathe,
this is our space where neighbors smile
as they pass by and call out, Otra vez
you’re still at it, as time slowly propels
us closer to wherever we are headed,
but until we get there, the table is set
for another night of apocalyptic dominos.
Copyright © 2024 by Puma Perl. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 13, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.
“Shore Lark”
Click through to hear its song while it eats snow!
ERA Now!
Human, Just Like You
Some More Poetry
Delightful Poetry On Thursday
Just click the title to read more about the poet and the poem.
In a Grain of Sand by Jesús Papoleto Meléndez
To see a world in a grain of sand …
—from “Auguries of Innocence” by William Blake
We are Starseeds
every one of us –
you & me,
& me and you
& him & her,
& them
& they
& those
Who know of this
are truly blessed …
True for all
living beings,
beings living –
not humans only,
but ants & trees
& the open breeze,
things that breathe
air or fire,
water, earth
all kinds of dust
& dirt,
particles
a part of all,
all a part
of
Everything
that is
in everything;
Thus, it Sings!!!
& its song
is Life,
& Life
is!!! …
a seed of Stars,
the dust of Suns
& Moons
rocks & dust
& outer smoke
in outer space
Floating
in a bath of timelessness,
counted, measured
numbered
by some species –
others caring not;
Science & Mathematics
trying to plot
Poetry in motion,
Motion
in a Helix’s curve,
And Life
on Earth
becomes visible
to You
through the naked I!
Copyright © 2024 by Jesús Papoleto Meléndez. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 11, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.
Republicans doing what? Causing what?
Republicans are against the public having healthcare for some reason. Paxton, Texas leadership, and a good segment of the republican part simply want non-white people / all immigrants to suffer as much as possible. As if just by living they have committed the worst possible crime. Plus dreamers? Look republicans keep passing laws that kids are property so they had no choice being dragged to the US with their parents. Plus they have been here, raised here, never caused problems, added to the economy. Denying them healthcare is stupid and just trying to hurt them. Plus it costs taxpayers more as dreamers need care they must have but can’t afford to pay for. Hugs
PSA: migrants desperately seeking shelter may be in your area. Call ICE asap if seen.
Government run by gang thugs. That is what maga and the maga republicans want. tRump has always been a mob boss wannabe but was never good enough to really do it. He is a school yard bully who never grew up and has only regressed over the years. He thinks might make right, and that who ever can bully or threaten the most gets all the toys and their way on everything. Is this how we think things should be run? Is this for the good of the country? And if this is the way the republicans are going to act then how should democrats respond? Corporate media both print and video are afraid to attack tRump so they ganged up on Biden and the democrats, but they never pointed out that tRump was everything they attacked Biden for being. Now the brownshirts and thugs are making congress people offers they don’t dare refuse. Hugs
In recent days, allies of Trump adopted an approach that is not novel for the president-elect and his followers: Make life extremely uncomfortable for anyone who dares to oppose him. The swarm of MAGA attacks that Sen. Joni Ernst has experienced is a warning of what’s in store for others who express skepticism of his personnel choices.
Read the full article. As I noted yesterday, among the attacks on Ernst are threats to resurface allegations of an adulterous affair.
If you are a bigot who hates gay people then you believe this false idea. If you are a racist you believe that black / brown people are inferior and erode standards. In fact that was said about blacks when the military was first integrated. However that notion got totally destroyed due to the bravery and proficiency of the black divisions in the 1930s and 1940s. Same with gay people. Most people in the military don’t care your sex partner as longs as they are not forced against their will to join you. It is only the bigots, the fundamentalist religious people. It is the Christians like Hegseth who has said that the goal is to make the military Christians who want all the gay people out. Notice it was gays he objected to, not lesbians. The upper military brass has studied this, the idea of LGBTQ+ in the military and all the studies show that the military benefits greatly for allowing the LGBTQ+ to serve openly. Look let’s be honest the military was full of gay people in the 1980s when I was in, both the Navy and the Army. We just stood the chance of getting blackmailed or discharged if a bigot like Hegseth found out. Again all of maga want desperately to return to the fantasy time of the 1950s thinking that was the best of times, but only if you were a white straight cis male. The rest of the population suffered from the unfair laws. Hugs.
From the linked article which I suggest reading.
Hegseth’s views risk alienating large segments of the armed forces and undermining morale by suggesting that certain groups are inherently less capable of serving. The Department of Defense has long moved toward embracing equality and diversity as pillars of strength. A leader who dismisses these values could jeopardize decades of progress and fail to inspire trust and cohesion among service members.
In a time when military challenges require unity and innovation, the Secretary of Defense must represent the best of modern leadership—respect for diversity, evidence-based policy, and a commitment to national security above outdated biases. Pete Hegseth’s comments reveal a personal belief system with negative views which raises doubts about his fitness to lead the military
This is more gang thuggery. Notice this part: … as he threatened local officials to open the city and its county jail to the will of federal immigration agents. Hugs
The very same weaponizing the government and the DOJ to attack enemies that tRump and the maga right claims is happening under Biden was routine under tRump. Notice the use of the deep state tools to gather information including personal information which should have been protected legally. That is why all these people who claim tRump won’t be vengeful and won’t weaponize the government are just blowing smoke, he will and he has. Hugs
Oh wow, think of all those poor people who voted for tRump because they believe everything he says and think he is a smart businessman. Too bad no one tried to explain to them that tariffs are paid by the consumer, that means the person buying the item. Oh wait yes there were people trying hard to tell them that. In fact the black woman they just couldn’t vote for was saying that very clearly as was everyone but right wing media that is deep into the cult of tRump. Hugs
This man has shown nothing but contempt for all normal behavior and respect for the those in congress. He has done a lot to destroy the post office and to make it unreliable. Remember that he was destroying sorting machines and shortening delivery routes during an election so many mail in ballots never got counted. In deeply rural areas no other mail delivery service covers that area so they depend on the post office. The post office is the only government service mandated in the constitution. Remember DeJoy is a multimillionaire who owns a company that competes with and contracts with the post office that he is in charge of. Sounds like a conflict of ethics that needs real instigating. Hugs
As normal Musk is spouting off on stuff he knows nothing about. Homelessness is caused by several factors, a major one being the cost of housing. With hedge funds and wealthy investment companies buying up all the housing in an area and jacking up the rents while providing no maintenance support. They don’t care, a large profit is demanded. The fact that people can not afford to live these days because people like Musk demand ever more profit, a man who has so much money he could waste 44 billion on a whim and not suffer any lowering of his lifestyle. That is what life is like for these clowns. They have no conception of what life is like for the rest of us. By the way, the article he cites as his proof says the exact opposite of what Musk claims. That is why you need to read more than the headlines and look at the pictures. Providing housing does work, but as the article referenced states the programs need the correct amount of funding and supervision. Hugs
The article does not support the contention that providing shelter to people who need it is fruitless or that all unhoused people are criminals. Rather, the article details how the converted hotels in San Francisco were “underfunded and understaffed,” leading to substandard living conditions.
Read the full article. As the linked piece notes, a large percentage of the homeless are children, veterans, queer kids rejected by their parents, and women escaping domestic violence. But they’re all violent, drug-addicted liars, according to Musk, whose tweet currently has 25 million views.
Delusion run strong in this one. Need I say more. A fox entertainment host is also claiming tRump will buy a large track of property for the US making more states. Hugs
