HRC Blog

Today we are exicted to announce the inaugural event of our Back to Work project in Boston on February 26-27, 2011.  The Back to Work project empowers transgender people who are unemployed or underemployed to find jobs that match their expertise and experience by providing them with essential skills needed to make the most of the job market.

Today, the Department of Health and Human Services issued Healthy People 2020, a set of goals and objectives to guide health promotion and disease prevention efforts in the United States for the next 10 years. LGBT health is among thirteen new areas of focus in this year’s report, which specifically recognizes that LGBT people face significant health disparities, yet remain alarmingly ignored in the collection of health data and continue to face stigma and discrimination that negatively impact their health.

A transgender woman, Tyjanae Moore, was arrested and throw into jail for using the women’s restroom at a Houston public library, according to a local TV station.

The following is from HRC’s Associate Director of Diversity Allyson Robinson: Over the next few days, transgender people and their allies all over the world will be gathering to observe the twelfth annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. I was asked recently why violence against transgender people continues when our society seems to have made so much progress toward diversity and inclusion.

Yesterday saw history made with the election and appointment of the nation’s first two openly-transgender judges. In California, Victoria Kolakowski declared victory in an election for a seat on the Alameda County Superior Court. Kolakowski has more than 20 years of judicial experience, but was initially denied the ability to sit for the Louisiana Bar Exam because she is transgender.