Robert Eads was a transgender man who transitioned later in life and as such it was deemed inadvisable for him to seek sex reassignment surgery. He was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1996 but was refused treatment by more than a dozen doctors, some for personal reasons and others on the grounds that taking him on as a patient might harm their practice. When he finally found a doctor to treat him in 1997, the cancer had already metastasized to other parts of his body, rendering any further treatments futile. He passed away in 1999. His life and death was the subject of the award-winning documentary Southern Comfort (2001).
As i’m sure many of you have heard, the Trump administration just passed a ruling that would remove LGBT+ anti-discrimination protections in health care and health insurance. I immediately thought of this man’s story when I heard about the ruling. Stories like this are the reason why those protections are necessary.
It’s easy to feel hopeless with all the bad news our community has been bombarded with recently. But we have to keep fighting, and one way we can fight is through legal means.
Here are some organizations that have announced plans to take action in court. If you can donate to any of them, please do!
Lambda Legal: one of the first to announce they would take legal action against the ruling, Lambda Legal is the oldest and largest national legal organization advocating for LGBTQ+ people and people with HIV.
Transgender Law Center: the largest American transgender-led civil rights organization in the United States. The stated mission of TLC is to connect transgender people and their families to technically sound and culturally competent legal services, increase acceptance and enforcement of laws and policies that support transgender communities, and work to change laws and systems that fail to incorporate the needs and experiences of transgender people.
Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund: Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund is committed to ending discrimination based upon gender identity and expression and to achieving equality for transgender people through public education, test-case litigation, direct legal services, and public policy efforts.
UPDATE: removed one group from the list as I heard they’ve been involved in some shady stuff. Plus, I want to focus more attention on the LGBT+ specific groups
Crooked Media also has a site that allocates donations to the senate campaigns that can make the biggest difference in actually flipping or protecting seats.
Please reblog this, Americans. Keep reblogging until November.
Postcards to Voters helps remind people to vote–before Doug Jones’ election, they had sent a card to every registered Democratic household in Alabama.
Most of these elections won’t be won or lost by convincing anyone to change their mind – they’re won or lost based on who gets to the polls. And they’re rigged; Republicans have worked hard to disenfranchise and discourage anyone who might vote against them.
Dan Sullivan won Alasaka’s senate seat by just over 6,000 votes. The Republican machine is arranged to win on very narrow margins – It doesn’t take much to tip the scales.
Keep the house; flip the Senate; take the White House – and let’s show them what real reform looks like when all three are blue.
ik i said it before but if you care about black artists you should really be spreading the word and helping out Amina Mucciolo rn
she’s a black, autistic, queer woman and this is the second time a big brand has profited off of her & her ideas without even so much as acknowledging they were hers to begin with.
also i know this post is getting rly long but please reblog this version too!! also her gofundme from the Lisa Frank incident still hasn’t reached its goal,
Justin is in the clear but recovering from a traumatic brain injury + searching for legal options against the apd is expensive! If you can’t donate then please share for Justin and his family #HisNameIsJustinHowell
hey y’all. it would mean the world to me if you would share Justin Howell’s gofundme. We’re from the same area, and hearing about him on the news yesterday was like a punch to the gut. During a protest in Austin, Texas, Justin was shot in the head by an officer. He suffered a severe brain injury and is in for a long, long road of recovery. his family are accepting donations here for medical bills and more importantly, bringing the APD to justice. #HisNameIsJustinHowell
Just want to raise awareness for the Chicago Torture Justice Center, the first and only organization in the US providing trauma recovery services for survivors of police violence. You can donate here.
“It’s not a coincidence that we’re seeing protests against racism during a pandemic. Racism is dangerous to public health because black people experience disproportionate effects of the coronavirus, as Craven has documented extensively. Race can affect how difficult it is to get a test, whether drugs and vaccines are designed to work for you, whether health professionals believe and listen to you. Incarceration rates are higher for black people—the virus thrives in prison—as are rates for diseases that in turn exacerbate COVID-19. “The reason why we have such high levels of diabetes, hypertension, and asthma is directly linked to structural racism,” physician Uché Blackstock told Craven in March. “We’re already very vulnerable.””
So I’ve been keeping track of the Chrystul Kizer case (a 19 year old black woman charged with killing her abuser when she was 17). You can find the full story here: https://nypost.com/2019/12/18/chrystul-kizer-faces-life-in-prison-for-killing-her-alleged-pedophile-abuser-randy-volar/. In case anyone didn’t know:
-her hearing is set for June 8, 2020
-her bail is set for $400,000
-you can keep updates on her here: https://freechrystul.wordpress.com/2020/03/05/some-good-news-for-chrystul/, as well as find resources to support her. You can write her a letter, sign petitions, etc.
Not even close to the $45K goal. She needs money not only for court and bail, but also for things afterwards, like therapy.
If you could reblog and share this, that would be great!
WE REACHED THE 25K MARK!!!
Congrats guys! 44% of the way to go. Please keep reblogging and donating.
9K TO GO!!!
Today is June 7. The day before her hearing. Her lawyer’s fee hasn’t been completely paid yet. Please, please, please, do not stop reblogging and donating.
I couldn’t find an informative post on Tumblr about him to share, so I made one myself with hopes of spreading this with the little platform I have here.
