Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 08:36:09 +0000 From: Clare Howell Subject: InYourFace MEDIA ADVISORY - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Editor: Clare Howell (718) 638-7062 clareq@gpac.org .TRANSEXUAL FILES DISCRIMINATION CLAIM, ALLEGES TAMPERING WITH U.S. MAIL .DC SAYS RESCUE WORKER HAD 'RIGHT' TO TAUNT DYING VICTIM .PBS HIGHLIGHTS USE OF GID AGAINST QUEER KIDS .TRANSEXUAL WITNESS TO BIRMINGHAM CHURCH BOMBING DIES TRANSEXUAL FILES DISCRIMINATION CLAIM, ALLEGES TAMPERING WITH U.S. MAIL ====================================== [Corvallis, OR: 10 Feb 98] TRANS-ACTIVIST ASHLEY Sinclaire has filed a compliant with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), charging that the Corvallis Mail Center violated her civil rights and Corvallis' anti-discrimination law. She alleges that an employee of the Center, a private company that provides mail boxes and postal services, wrote a hate letter about her which led her to suspect that the employee had opened mail she had posted there. Local police say there is no evidence of a crime and have declined to pursue the matter. However, if the allegation is true, the Mail Center employee has not only violated Corvallis' anti-discrimination law but committed a federal crime. Ms. Sinclaire changed her name in the Spring of 1997 and completed her transition. Several months later she received a letter from a man, Donald Snook, who is imprisoned in Washington state and with whom she is involved in a romantic relationship. She and Snook corresponded frequently using the Mail Center. Snook supports Ms. Sinclaire's transition and forwarded her the letter: "Don--Ashley let me read your letter. I hope you know she is a he. His reall [sic] name is [Ashley's former name]. He is a fag. You are getting letters from a man who wants to be a woman. Think about it. He wants to move to San Francisco. This place is known as gay bay... HA, HA, HA, HA. You stupid ass. You want pussy so bad you will let a fag turn you on." Neither Sinclaire nor Snook knew the employee who wrote the letter. When confronted by police, the employee, the daughter of the Mail Center owner, admitted she had written the letter, but denied opening Sinclaire's mail. The employee said she figured out that Sinclaire was "pretending" to be a woman and that she wanted to warn Snook. The BOLI is currently investigating the matter because Corvallis' anti-discrimination law that prohibits discrimination in public accomodations based on sexual orientation. ### DC SAYS RESCUE WORKER HAD 'RIGHT' TO TAUNT DYING VICTIM ========================================== [Washington, DC: 10 Feb 98] WASHINGTON DC Counsel John Ferren contends that an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) had a 'First Amendment right' to shout derogatory names at transexual woman Tyra Hunter, who lay dying in the street. The Washington Blade reports that the Counsel's statement was part of the city's response to a $10 million wrongful-death suit brought by Hunter's mother. The city did withdraw language from its brief asserting that the city's Fire Department is exempt from DC's Human Rights Act which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and personal appearance. The unnamed EMT was applying first aid to Ms. Hunter after a 1995 car crash when he discovered that Hunter had a penis, whereupon he ceased giving aid and began making derogatory remarks that were witnessed by horrified bystanders. ### PBS HIGHLIGHTS USE OF GID AGAINST QUEER KIDS ============================================ [New York, NY: 9 Feb 98] REFLECTING THE escalating debate over Gender Identity Disorder (GID), a segment of PBS's respected gay newsmagazine, 'In The Life,' last night joined the chorus of voices questioning whether GID is not another covert means of controlling difference. The segment, produced by host Katherine Linton, featured an interview with GID proponent Kenneth Zucker, a well-known doctor whose primary practice is "curing" children of GID so they don't grow up gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered. Zucker identified GID as a symptom that could lead to homosexuality in later life. In a surreal moment, as he sat across from the openly gay, short-haired, slacks-clad Linton, he explained that masculine dress and behavior in girls can be diagnosed and treated with therapy and behavioral conditioning so they don't become lesbians. The segment also featured responses from the National Center for Lesbian Rights' staff attorney, Shannon Minter, an out male transexual, and GenderPAC's Riki Wilchins. Both noted that, since homosexuality was removed as a psychiatric disorder, GID has become the new way to pathologize queerness. Noted Wilchins, "GID is a solution in search of a problem... Gender variance is good." GID was first created as an illness in the early 1960s. Although 'In The Life' dealt only with children, GID is also used to pathologize gender- variant adults, particularly those requesting hormones or sex-reassignment surgery. ### TRANSEXUAL WITNESS TO CHURCH BOMBING DIES ========================================= [Birmingham, AL: 10 Feb 98] PETE SMITH, WHOSE testimony against his Klu Klux Klansman uncle, Robert Chambliss, led to the only conviction in the 1963 bombing that killed 4 black girls, died of lung cancer at 57. The AP reports that, at the 1977 trial, Smith was a woman, Elizabeth Cobbs, and a Methodist minister. She testified that she was with Chambliss as he watched TV reports that Sunday morning of the bombing and heard him say, "It wasn't supposed to hurt anybody. It didn't go off when it was supposed to." Chambliss, found guilty of murder in the bombing, died in prison in 1985. Smith underwent sexual reassignment surgery in 1981. He published an autobiography in 1994 naming dozens of people he suggested might have been involved in the bombing. Federal investigators have long believed that at least 4 men were involved. They reopened the case last summer. U.S. Attorney Doug Jones said that Smith's death will not affect the investigation. ### Subscriptions. Please send: subscribe iyf-online or: unsubscribe iyf-online to: MajorDomo@Apocalypse.org For prior press releases, check the GenderPAC website at: http://www.Gpac.org (c) 1996 InYourFace Our on-line news-only service for gender activism. When re- postin