Lindsay Lohan – Stuck

I wasn’t looking but I found you
I wasn’t ready but you got me anyway
I wasn’t looking but I had to
And now it seems like I can’t never look away

I’m going down down down
I am not myself when you’re around
Round round
No matter what I do
It’s too fast, too slow
This won’t last but I should go
But I can’t help it
I can’t, I am…

Stuck stuck stuck
I can try to run
But I am out of luck, luck, luck
It doesn’t matter where I go, I feel stuck,
Sticky fingers, sticky hands, sticky…
I am stuck stuck stuck
And I ain’t going I’m stuck

I didn’t listen but I heard you
I wasn’t there and yet you swept me off my feet
And there is no one I can turn to
Yeah I can run but you have got me on the peak,

I am not okay, kay, kay
Once again my heart got in the way, way, way
No matter what I do
It’s too wrong, too right
Tried to reason, tried to fight
But I can’t help it
I can’t, I am…

Stuck stuck stuck
I can try to run
But I am out of luck, luck, luck
It doesn’t matter where I go, I feel stuck,
Sticky fingers, sticky hands, sticky…
I am stuck stuck stuck

I’m still stuck
Stuck stuck
I can try to run
But I am out of luck, luck,
It doesn’t matter where I go
I’m still stuck, stuck
I can try to run
But I am out of luck, luck
Stuck stuck
I’m stuck stuck

I can’t, I am…

Stuck stuck stuck
I can try to run
But I am not unlocked, locked, locked
It doesn’t matter where I go, I feel stuck,
Sticky fingers, sticky hands, sticky…
I am stuck stuck stuck
And I ain’t going I’m stuck

Ten years ago, I was in a city called Edmonton chillin at my favorite nightclub, The Roost, all dressed fine having a great time. The music was slammin with the live dj, but I wasn’t dancing, just having a good time looking around hoping to get lucky.

Prior background, it was also the same month I had lost my job because I was transgendered (yes, in Canada that happened, so dont believe the freedom myth, reality is prejudice is a rampent epidemic at that time.) I really wanted to get away, loose myself in the crowd and feel good about being me while being free to be me.

Anyways, this girl came over and we started talking, just usual hello’s how you doing ect small talk. She was very friendly and we hit it off right away, little flirting too. Well ok, alot but thats why some people went to that club. We talked clear into the morning when last call was announced so we both left. She seen I had a car and asked if I could drive her to work, and I was like sure. We took off and talked while driving around, all the while I’m thinking where is this work place and damn going to work lookin that sexy, wow. Coming accross a side street she asked me to pull into it and park and I did. It was then she just kissed, no idea where it came from but it was one long slow make your legs feel weak kinda kiss. I was almost speachless it was that good. She was like I dont have to work tonight so lets head back to your place. Got some booze, cigarettes and a couple snacks and off we went back to my hotel room.

We started kissing as soon as we got there, had a few drinks and was getting crazy intimate with each other. Stopping for a brief moment she used the telephone to reply to a few messages on her voice box, and I heard some of what she was saying. So intriguing. When she got off, she asked why I was there and of course I told her about being fired for being tranny and went there looking for work. She understood and took a couple more calls and I knew what work she was in by the conversation I could hear. Turning to me and looking me up and down, she asked if I wanted to do what she did. I was really interested and said yes without even thinking. We both smiled and took yet another call of which this time she put me on the phone half way into the conversation. This was it, my first time talking to someone who wanted to pay … for sex. He asked my name and I made like I couldnt hear him and said one second, looked to her and said “he asked my name”. Instantly she replied “Passion”.

By the time morning came around, we left because she was taking me to the spots, where to hang out at, where to find a safe shelter, and to get my first outfit for my first night out. This was another defining moment of my life, not only this whole experience, but also the going out. As we were looking at dresses I was so into a bunch of micro mini skirts but no, I couldnt get any of those. “Here” she said “this is your first night dress.” I looked and it was a long black dress, so long all you could see is my ankles and a tiny bit of lower leg. I was like are you kidding me? No, she wasn’t. Any girl with short skirts and a tiny tight top, and I dont want any girl, only a true beauty can get paid for sex using her beauty and not just relying on her body alone. She was so right. And yes, I was in a sense, hers, in other words she was pretty much my mentor and pimp.

I did work that night, as she continuously raised my price, kept making money spending money, never saving money. I was one hell of a week, sometimes scarey, and sometimes it made me feel like that is where I belong doing what I love to do … having sex. I really did enjoy it looking back, I met some really cool people and had a wonderful time. My last day, I was having weird flashback like things going on in my head, and by the time they stopped I had driven out of the city. I still have no idea how I got out without having an accident in that state of mind. lol. All I knew was, I was part of a sex industry and I loved it, and it was exactly what I wanted to do. I also knew that, streets were dangerous and I would eventually end up dead if I kept up being a prostitute. It was during the rest of the drive back home that I decided the internet was the way to go, and become a pornstar.

I really wish I could meet this girl again though, even just to say hello. Her name was Velvet and was also Miss Gay Saskatoon (yes, she was a transsexual too). If anyone knows where she is or heard of her, please let me know.

And thats the beginnings of what started it all. The story is true, but some details nobody will ever know. I do not reccomend anyone to dive into a life of prostitution if they want to see what its like in any way. However, I have no regrets what so ever about what I did. If I woke up and had to do it all over, I would in a heartbeat.

Well, it’s becoming a sideline story for me.

*Warning: If you don’t want to know some sexual details about me, then, I suggest you read another posting. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.*

My sex – love life is one big contradiction. This is just part of it and why it is.

There is two opposite sides to me. Some only know what they see, and some know the inner me.

The one side is a die hard romantic at heart. I am very loving, want to do so many sweet things, and just be with a special someone because being with them is the place to be and the best moments in life ever. I do believe in love, true love, the kind that lasts forever no matter what. I like to cook clean do dishes laundry and all the things thats “housewife” in the traditional sense. Laying in someone’s arms, just sitting with each other at the beach or in a park, savoring every moment wishing that moment would last a lifetime. I like to be loved like that in return and actually demand to be treated with the respect, courtesy kindness that someone would treat their special sweetheart with. Real love, not some cheap “myspace comment” generic love, or some fake ass “gangsta” steet love. I have to be the one, the only, the queen of the world. And I do like making love, at times.

But …

The other side of me is what contradicts this. I have this very kinky submissive side. I’m also the person who likes pain, you know, hard going rough sex. I like name calling, call me a bitch a slut a whore and it turns me on, at times. Pull my hair, hit me, tie me up or just throw me down and do me. It drives me crazy all of that. Make me do sexual things for money, yes, you know what that means. All of these things also gets me turned on, alot to be honest.

I do attract both types of persona’s, however, nobody has been both. Some try but one will always overpower the other and it makes a one way or the other senario.

The sweet sincere person for some reason, I just can’t believe that someone would want to be that person to me. You know, things too good to be true usually are, and that is what I live by. I do have trust issues, anyone who knows me will tell you that. So, I look for the bad, expecting it, because nothing can be one hundred percent good. That is why I think I never go for that type.

I am attracted to danger, and I think that shows in me. I think that if someone says “I’ll beat you until your ass is bruised” then I know it will happen and know what to expect. It’s like, it’s bad yes but it’s honest. What you see is what you get. But, I want mutual conscentual things to happen. The wild kinky stuff because we both want it. However, there are the days, even the day after the rough stuff, that I don’t want to be treated like that and want to just do the lovey stuff and be respected. But this type can’t do that and in the end, it doesn’t work because it turns to abuse. Being neglected, humiliated, cheated on and left to feel like complete trash.

It’s not the persons fault at all in my case. I want things and I know full well that they will turn to the things I hate. In the end when it doesn’t work, it leaves two people hurt. The other is hurt because they think I want one thing and they give it to me and I do a complete flip and wonder why I’m being treated like a whore when in fact, I wanted to be. If I ever went for someone who wants to be sweet and give me flowers and such, I’d flip because they wouldn’t be the type to give me the pain I want and I’d be left unsatisfied and I’d leave them too, not for doing wrong, but probably for doing everything right. I would also suspect anyone treating me too nice, to be doing dumb shit and trying to cover it up.

I am in control of my own destiny and I know this. This cycle I do bring on myself, and I end up hurting people, and end up being lost wondering if it is possible for the two types to be in one person and one day I will find that special someone.

Why did I post this? It’s what is going on inside my head at the moment, and it does bug me. You can comment if you like. But another warning, I do get alot of good advice and go do the opposite anyways. I may be smart, but I’m also hard headed. When I get an idea I just go with it and ignore the warning signs.

Thats all for now.

Have you ever had a broken or fractured bone? Maybe burned yourself by accident? How about having been stuck in a crowd, public transit or busy line while checking out for example, and was next to someone with a severe cold and they were coughing and or sneezing on you?

How did you cope with these things? Did you want the side effects? The pain you endured in the case of injury? Was it your plan to get coughed and sneezed on?

You got by with things that you wished never happened. You endured the pain, a pain you did not want, did not like, and wished it would just go away. You got through the crowd, either getting to your destination or getting what you went to shop for. But, you didn’t want to be that close to someone with a cold, never wanted to be coughed and sneezed on, all the while being nice you didn’t tell that person to just go away even though you wished they would.

All these things you never wanted, didn’t like, wished would go away have one thing in common. You tolerated them. See, tolerance is something you do to things you don’t have a liking towards, in other words, things you hate. Even the dictionary says so:

Tolerate: to endure or resist the action of without serious side effects or discomfort, exibit physiological tolerance for; to allow to be or be done without prohibition, hindrance or contradiction; to put up with.

Basically straight up and to the point, to tolerate is just the politically correct way to say one hates, kind of like a diet hate.

Now after reading the facts, and how that word was used before the days of being all “pc”, do you honestly think that “yeah we tolerate homosexuals” is really the right thing to be saying? Read that statement again and think about it. What does it really say to you?

It’s time to stop closeted haters. Quit saying you tolerate, because it’s really not that much better.

“We accept homosexuals”

Now that is how it is supposed to be. Get it right people and quit masking your indirect hatred behind a false politically correct term that by definition is not exactly a pc thing to say towards a group of people.

Why? Because I will not “tolerate” hate … even if it’s made up to be all sweet sugar coated language, it still is what it is.

Ok I got a WAY off topic. I do that but hey it’s my Planet damnit! lol. I’m feelin good right now, everything is … right. This is something I always wanted to do. Hope you like. And yes, I am going to be using this as a journal of sorts. My life and things important to me … out there for you.

Take care and have a wonderful day. Toodle di do’s.

P.S. Here is one of my current favorite video’s

Mandi Faux during a live video chat February 17th 2010

Planet Mandi – Mandi Faux, transsexual internet celebrity model and entertainer, announces launch date of her brand new official blogging site.

July 2nd 2010 – Mandi Faux, one of the internet’s most popular transsexual internet celebrities, today has released her official online blog entitled Planet Mandi.

The blog will be an extension for friends and fans alike to have a more in depth look into the personal and professional life of Mandi Faux, direct from Mandi herself.

Not only will she be making entries about her, but Mandi will also be publishing news stories surrounding the Gay Lesbian Transgender community plus articles about other celebrities that Mandi has a personal liking of.

The personal blogs will have an in depth insight into the life and times of Mandi, giving the reader a glimpse of the triumphs, tragedies, the loves and losses, some rantings about things that bother Mandi and the transgender transitions that are ongoing with her.

“If a picture is worth a thousand words, then there must be a million more that I need to say. I don’t want to be known as just another model, be the stereotypical transsexual, nor will I be the complacent one who sits by and allows unjust behaviors to go unnoticed. I want people to know who I am, not just for what I look like or what I do.”

The reader will also have a very professional look into Mandi Faux’s many careers of modelling, video chat hostessing, music as well as the various other ventures through her own company, FauxStars Entertainment.

“Transsexuals can do more than just escort and porn. I happen to do those things by choice, but I, like a lot of others, do so much more. I do not have agents, webmasters, or promoters. I do everything myself, it’s a lot harder doing things that way, but I do have the satisfaction of knowing that my success is made because of my brains and not just beauty alone.”

Breaking away from the all too typical “celebrity gossip blogs”, Miss Faux is not going to print any article that has no merit what so ever to the world, but rather make news entries about the celebrities that are informative, insightful, and have more of a real appeal than to just trash talk about someone for personal gain.

The Gay Lesbian Transgender articles will be of interest to Mandi’s fans, being that Mandi Faux is a male to female transsexual herself, these news stories will be to let the people know who haven’t already heard about the positive things going on in the GLBT world, the human rights improvements, and the pioneers blazing trails for others like themselves to show the world that just because you happen to be GLBT it doesn’t mean that you will never be a certain person or have less success because of it.

All of the entries made on Planet Mandi about Mandi will be exclusive to Planet Mandi; nowhere else will this information be published making this the premier source of information regarding Mandi’s personal life and professional career.

You can view Planet Mandi at http://www.planetmandi.com

By: Mandi Faux

Courtney Love with Frances Bean Cobain at the American Idol Season 4 Finale Arrivals, Kodak Theater May 25th 2005

Frances Bean Cobain, the sole child of Kurt and Courtney Love Cobain, is at the center of a mother- daughter conflict involving millions of dollars in lost trust fund money, violence, private meetings and “super lawyers” from both California and Washington states.

Love lost legal custody of her 17-year-old daughter on Dec. 11 for undisclosed reasons.  Since then, Frances has been under the co-guardianship of Kurt’s mother, Wendy O’Connor, and his sister, Kimberly Dawn Cobain.  In January, in a separate matter from the guardianship, the trustee over Frances’ trust fund, filed to remove Love from her daughter’s trust fund and replace her with O’Connor .

The trust fund litigation is separate from the Los Angeles-based guardianship proceeding.  The trust fund was created in Seattle, King County, Wash. in 1997 after Frances’ father Kurt, the former lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of Nirvana died in April 1994 without a will. 

Frances is the trust’s sole beneficiary but Love has a responsibility to review expenses and disbursements before they are paid out by the trustee of the Frances Bean Cobain Irrevocable Trust Fund.  She also has the right to review financial statements and to act as an adviser regarding the management of the trust, but after statements revealed that the trustee, Laird Norton Tyee Trust Company, lost $8 million of Frances’ money in 2008, Love stopped receiving financial statements, her attorneys say.     

Laird Norton, a Seattle wealth and investment management firm, is the fiduciary meaning primary trustee over Frances’ money with investment and financial distribution power.  Love filed in February to remove Laird Norton as trustee after her attorneys discovered what they say is the extent of prolonged misconduct, wholesale breaches of duty and concealment thereof.  In addition to withholding financial information, they say Laird has and/or plans to use trust funds for improper purposes such as retaining and paying for legal counsel for O’Connor.

“The last statements which it provided before deciding to proceed in secret reveal that in calendar year 2008, LNTCC (Laird) lost over $8,000,000 in trust assets.  It is ironic that LNTCC now asserts that it must keep further disclosure of its activities from Ms. Love, as Advisory Trustee, in order to prevent her from supposedly ‘depleting the trust,’” say Love’s lawyers from Pryor Cashman and the Seattle-based firm of Danielson Harrigan Leyh & Tollefson.

In May 2009, Barbara Potter, executive vice president and managing director of fiduciary services at Laird Norton, conducted a meeting without Love being present:  Participants included Karen Boxx, guardian ad litem;  O’Connor, the grandmother and a then 16-year-old Frances.  During that time,  Potter declares, she discussed “the support that the trust provides as well as other matters” with Frances.

“In that meeting Frances expressed concern about her mother’s access to the trust.  She was concerned that her mother’s actions were depleting the trust.  At that time, Frances asked that her mother not have any control over, or information regarding, her trust,” says Potter.

The guardian ad litem adds, “During that meeting, Frances indicated to me that she did not want the trustee sending statements to her mother, Courtney Love.  Frances expressed concern about safeguarding her trust assets from her mother.”

However, Love hasn’t been entitled to act on behalf of the trust or to dispose of trust assets since 2006 when the parties reached a revised agreement on their respective roles.  Further, any discretionary expenses submitted to the trust in excess of $5,000 would have been approved by the guardian ad litem.

Who wins financial control now may rest on findings regarding the lost $8 million, the financial details of the trust’s health to date, and whether a judge agrees that Laird violated the terms of the trust agreement.  Meanwhile, lawyers for Laird Norton refuse to share any financial details with Love. 

In January 2010, Love’s attorney William Charron of Pryor Cashman, contacted Matt Harrington of Stokes Lawrence, lawyers for Laird Norton, and asked him to provide the financial reports that Love was entitled to see under the revised 2006 agreement.

Though Harrington indicated he would send them, he never did so.  Therefore, James Janowitz, who is also with Pryor Cashman, contacted Scott Johnson, another lawyer at Stokes Lawrence associated with Laird.  Johnson told him that no such statements would be provided.  He informed Janowitz that they had sent statements through February or March 2009, but then there was “considerable uncertainty and instability in who serves as the business manager” and “the trustee had not had an address for Ms. Love.” 

Pryor Cashman says that as per the declaration of Potter, Laird Norton had met Frances in May 2009 and maintained communications with O’Connor, Frances’ grandmother and Kimberly Dawn, Frances’ aunt; therefore, they could have asked Frances or her grandmother at any time what address Frances lived at with her mother in New York.  Pryor Cashman also asserts that Laird knew and communicated with Steven Pines whom Love appointed as her business manager in June 2009.

The financial records may be telling and further investigation, if supported by the court, may reveal  who lost the money from Frances’ account, and who if anyone should be removed from her trust fund.

“The money is never missing, not really.  You just have to find it,” says Seattle attorney Scott Henrie.  “The thing you need to trace money is the bank records, although financial statements help.  It is much harder to falsify bank records.  Checks get negotiated through the banking system and flow through other parties.”

Henrie, an attorney with William Kastner of Seattle, has extensive experience in forensic accounting and trust litigation.  He says that the easiest way for someone to find where money went is to sue and get the financial statements.  Henrie, who is not assigned to the case, represents the creditors and trustee in the Michael R. Mastro case, one of the largest bankruptcy and fraud cases in Washington state history, involving millions of “lost” dollars.  He is currently in litigation and investigating a Seattle real estate developer for money laundering in the Mastro case. 

As for the lost $8 million and who might be at fault, Love doesn’t have direct access to the trust and submits bills and receipts for Frances’ health, support and education, through a third party.

Meanwhile, Laird claims that in 2006, Love, “desired a role, so the purely ceremonial role of ‘Advisory Trustee’ was created.” 

Love’s attorneys counter that Laird’s characterization of the role as “purely ceremonial” reflects its dismissal and significance, “or necessity of the advisory trustee’s oversight of its activities, which, as set forth, have cost the trust millions of dollars.” 

Laird Norton, toward its effort to replace Love as the advisory trustee with O’Connor to become the adviser and one to submit bills and receipts on behalf of Frances in an arrangement that could last until Frances turns 25, Laird has attempted to get at private, sealed documents from the Los Angeles guardianship case.

On Feb. 11, Laird’s attorneys produced a subpoena requesting “all pleadings and exhibits filed, including those under seal” and all documents produced to other parties by the guardians’ attorney, Geraldine Wyle,  Hoffman, Sabban & Watenmaker.  But Love’s lawyers in the family matter, Trope and Trope, object.

“The matters at issue in the guardianship case are of a very sensitive and private nature between a mother and a daughter,” says Trope and Trope. 

They add that the subpoena itself is “contrary to a minor child’s (Frances) wishes to have the records in her Los Angeles case sealed.” 

They also say the documents contain, “private, personal sensitive information” and that it would be a violation of Love and her daughter’s right to privacy.  A Los Angeles Superior Court judge will hear the matter on May 28. 

Meanwhile, the guardianship will terminate in August when Frances turns 18 and many in the blogosphere have wondered what happens then. 

“When Francis turns 18, she becomes legally competent to enter into contracts and can therefore manage her own money,” says Henrie.  “Someone under 18 needs a legal guardian because they can not enter into contracts on their own behalf.  The inability to contract makes it impossible to manage property.

“The issue of her turning 18, may be that at age 18 she will have capacity to sue her trustees for any breaches of fiduciary duty. There are also various provisions for replacing trustees,” he says. 

The trust itself is fairly standard, says Henrie.  Until Frances turns 25, she gets what the trustee(s) think is necessary for her health, support and education while taking into account her mother’s resources.  Frances is not supposed to receive any of the principal from the trust until then unless there is an emergency.  At 25 she will receive one quarter of the principal, one-third at age 30, one half at 35 and whatever is left of the principal when she turns 40 and the trust terminates.  

Love herself is not financially dependent on the trust funds for her independent support and maintenance as a court ruled in December 1996 that Kurt’s estate consisted of both separate and community property. 

Henrie explains, therefore, that the trust only holds half of Kurt’s separate property, while Love holds the other half and also holds everything that was formerly community property.  Frances basically has in trust half of what Kurt had at the time he married Love.  

“You could figure it out to some extent by looking at what Kurt had copyrighted at the time he married Courtney, basically anything he wrote, even if it was not released, at the time he married. Once music or a song is reduced to writing, it has a common law copyright. 

There is no need to take any formal action.  The daughter has half of that in trust.”

The initial assets of the trust included the rights relating to merchandising, image and likeness of her father, compositions owned by EMI/Virgin Music and an interest in Nirvana, LLC.  A 1998 court document from 1998 reveals that as to royalties from the music, Love gets 72.6 percent while the trust receives 27.4 percent.   As to the rights and interests related to Kurt’s image and likeness, Love receives 55 percent while the trust receives 45 percent. 

There have been previous conflicts between Love and Laird Norton over money and financial control.  In 1998, when Love and Laird were co-trustees of the trust, they created The End of Music LLC to receive and disburse royalties from Kurt’s estate to accounts such as to Frances’ trust fund. 

Ten years later, EOM opened an account at First Republic Bank in California.  When the bank attempted to close the account a year later they quickly became aware of a dispute between Laird and Love.  The bank froze the $1.2 million account in late summer 2009 and deposited the money with the court.  A judge dismissed the case on Nov. 6, 2009 after an undisclosed settlement was reached with no details as to where the funds were put.   

A jury trial is scheduled in current Love and Laird action for July 6, 2010 unless a settlement is reached or the case is otherwise dismissed.  Lawyers for Laird want the trial and all related documents to be sealed.  If successful, the public may never know who is responsible for the depleted funds.  However they may be thwarted in their quest for privacy and silence.

“As for sealing, Washington courts are loath to that,” says Henrie.  “But if it can be justified, say one of the reasons they are trying to ditch the mother is a health concern, then the court may find that sealing the record from the public is appropriate.  Sometimes there is a commercial reason, a trade secret or something similar.  It is very factually specific and the court must make specific factual findings to support sealing the record.”

Source: Puma Press

By: Carmela Kelly, May 2010

Iceland, a socially tolerant island nation of about 320,000 people, became the first country to elect an openly gay head of state in 2009 when Social Democrat Johanna Sigurdardottir became prime minister after being nominated by her party.

“The attitude in Iceland is fairly pragmatic,” said Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson, a political scientist at the University of Iceland. “It (gay marriage) has not been a big issue in national politics — it’s not been controversial.”

The prime minister’s sexual orientation garnered far more interest among foreign media than in Iceland, where the attitude toward homosexuality has grown increasingly relaxed in the past two or three decades, Kristinsson added.

Iceland’s protestant church has yet to decide whether to allow same-sex marriages in church, although the law says “ministers will always be free to perform (gay) marriage ceremonies, but never obliged to.”

Iceland will become the ninth country to legalize same-sex marriage following legislation that passed the country’s parliament earlier this month. Same-sex marriage is already legal in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain and Sweden, but the issue creates more controversy in Mediterranean Catholic nations.

In the United States, gay marriage remains a frought political issue, with laws varying widely from state to state. Vermont was the first state to allow same-sex civil unions in 1999, followed by Massachusetts and Connecticut and others.

 State said it was “pleased to use the occasion of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Month to announce its new policy guidelines regarding gender change in passports and Consular Reports of Births Abroad.”

Effective immediately, “When a passport applicant presents a certification from an attending medical physician that the applicant has undergone appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition, the passport will reflect the new gender.”

“Sexual reassignment surgery is no longer a prerequisite for passport issuance.”

The department said “It is also possible to obtain a limited-validity passport if the physician’s statement shows the applicant is in the process of gender transition. No additional medical records are required.”

The policy is based on the standards of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, which is “recognized by the American Medical Association as the authority in this field,” the State Department said.

Prior to the policy change, trans people had to undergo sex-reassignment surgery before a new passport would be issued.

“By issuing this policy change, the State Department has recognized that transgender people need to be able to travel and live with identity documents that accurately reflect who they are,” said National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey. “The old policy regularly put transgender people at increased risk for harassment and violence.”

Lambda Legal’s Dru Levasseur said he was “grateful” for the change.

“When traveling at home and abroad, transgender people have been subject to dangerous situations because their passports did not reflect their gender,” Levasseur said. “These policy changes will have a real impact on people’s lives.”

Source: Yahoo News

Amanda Simpson is the first transgender person to be appointed by the Obama administration.

President Barack Obama has selected Amanda Simpson as a senior technical adviser to the Department of Commerce, making her the first transgender appointment of his administration.

“I’m truly honored to have received this appointment and am eager and excited about this opportunity that is before me,” Simpson said in a news release posted at the National Center for Transgender Equality’s Web site. “And at the same time, as one of the first transgender presidential appointees to the federal government, I hope that I will soon be one of hundreds, and that this appointment opens future opportunities for many others.”

Simpson has worked for over 30 years in the defense and aerospace industries, most notably at Raytheon, the news release said. A former military test pilot with degrees in physics, engineering and business administration, Simpson was named a “Woman on the Move,” by the YWCA in 2004, and received Arizona’s Human Rights Foundation Individual Award in 2005.

Simpson was the first transgender person to win a primary election when she became the Democratic nominee running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in Tucson. She later lost her bid to become the first transgender member of Congress. In 2002, she made the transition from male to female, undergoing gender reassignment surgery while at Raytheon.

“Amanda is incredibly smart and capable,” said Mara Keisling, executive director for the National Center for Transgender Equality, where Simpson has served as member of the board of directors for the past three years. “This was a merit-based appointment. What’s significant about it is that we finally have an administration in which being transgender isn’t a disqualifying factor for a job.”