Brief Summary of What Can Come for the LGBT Under Trump Adminstration

With the upcoming Trump administration we have to remember that with the first time he was in the White House he executed an effort to erase protections for LGBTQ people, within the Trump administration included an effort to define transgender out of existence and erode protections for transgender students and workers by weakening gender-affirming health care that most transgender had difficulty accessing them.

During Biden's administration a lot of the Trump's-era laws were reversed, but Trump vowed to dismantle Biden's policies that offer protection for transgender students under Title IX, a federal civil right law that prohibits sex discrimination in education. In the late 1990's and early 2000's Trump expressed support for domestic partnership laws - a position that the GOP opposed at the time, he even showed personal tolerance for LGBTQ issues such as queer people serving in the military; but  his views shifted around 2011 where amid a possible presidential bid, he mentioned he was opposed to gay marriage and in 2015 he mentioned he supported traditional marriage.

Trump became the first GOP presidential nominee to mention LGBTQ issues in his 2016 Republican National Convention speech, where he pledged to protect the community in the aftermath of the Pulse nightclub shooting, albeit the juxtaposition came with his election of vice-president with Mike Pence who had opposed marriage equality.

With his 2016 campaign Trump said that he would strongly consider appointing Supreme Court Justices who would overturn the 2015 ruling that legalized marriage equality, but his perspective have never been precise as he changed his point of views to adjust to what the situation need it. His comments on transgender issues, Trump said over the North Carolina bathroom ban, that transgender people "Should use the bathroom they feel appropriate" But his administration went to reverse a policy that allowed transgender students to use bathrooms that corresponded with gender identity plus his administration banned some transgender people from serving in the military while Trump was in office.

Trump even mentioned if he goes back to the White House, he will impose punishment for doctors and teachers who discuss gender affirming care with minors, which the sentiment reflected on his 2024 campaign. 

References:

1. Trump on LGBT Rights: https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/trump-on-lgbtq-rights-rolling-back-protections-and-criminalizing-gender-nonconformity
2. Compare Trump and Harris views on LGBT Rights

The Murder of Venus Xtravaganza

Venus on one of her last interviews

It's been 29 years, as of July the 2nd of 2017 since Venus Xtravaganza (1) was assassinated and a little bit over 33 years since Jennie Livingston socioeconomic documentary Paris is Burning (2) interviews happened.

It was 26 years ago that for the first time on contemporary media, the phrase "transgender murder" happened within the mouth of the late drag mother Angie Xtravaganza (3), the importance of Venus and Angie comes that on that moment on  August 16th of 1991 where a documentary on the AIDS pandemic bring the life of young LGBT individuals who were shunned by their families and thousands of them dying and being unreported because of their families didn't wanted them.

More importantly, Paris is Burning shows the different aspects of transgender youth who after being rejected by their families, and being left to their own lucks (4) and ultimately finding ways to survive such as resorting into prostitution (5) in which is one of the ways that many meet their untimely death, because there aren't protections on a federal level for transgender women and transgender men that will guarantee a dignified life in which there shouldn't be fear to live on your authentic self.

29 years later after the murder of Venus, there is not enough protections and treatments to give the opportunity to someone to transition and be happy, but also that work related they could have an enviroment in which they shouldn't fear of getting fired for any reason, which could involve harassment or termination without notice

Venus and Willie Ninja

As many transgender women who were murdered, her killer was never apprehended; other killers go with the gay/ trans panic defense (6) which is still used by the perpetrators to avoid jail time and is insane that courts still rule in favor of that. We have reach a point where we should change the word equality to equity in order to represent that we are all equal, because we still as a society give preference.

We can take a look at what happened to Texas (7) in which the Texas Supreme Court reversed the spousal benefits for same sex couples, there is no equality when people in power are playing with the dignity and basic rights of human beings. The importance of Venus goes as she is an icon beyond the NYC ball scene, she is one of the many who represent that 30 years later, there is still inequality.

If someone who reads this entry, has a clue such as the hotel or motel she was murdered, or where to find the police records, please comment below. Thank you.

References:

1. http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/17921/1/the-legacy-of-venus-xtravaganza
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Is_Burning_(film)
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angie_Xtravaganza
4. http://www.newsweek.com/transgender-murders-protect-trans-women-568558
5. http://www.refinery29.com/2017/04/151401/transgender-women-murder-rate-us-2017
6. https://web.archive.org/web/20080205180344/http://www.courttv.com/archive/trials/mckinney/gay_panic_ruling_ctv.html
7. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/lgbt/2017/06/30/texas-supreme-court-rules-gay-couples-notguaranteedspousal-benefits

Carmen Carrera, Where Beauty Goes Beyond Any Binary System

Carmen

Gender does not exist in terms of beauty, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and yet beauty does not exist, is something that is not tangible, something that on a popular level magazines define, but yet the ideal of beauty on a pop level is far away from reality itself.

As far as contemporary pop culture can mention, magazines as Vogue, Glamour or Fashion can give a final outlook on what it is and what is out.- It is kind of a crude description, almost childish, but it also plays the game on how people will analyze other realities beyond theirs.

It's almost impossible to think how these kind of magazines, that sustain themselves on the body of their works and not the essence, can place the LGTBQ realities into a mainstream, specially towards topics such as gender identity, sexuality as well more positive image that reflect the different realities of femininity.

Beauty magazines, they never offer a small or big dose of reality, they perpetuate the stereotype that women come in only one package, that they are there to look pretty, and not do anything else; yet, the paradigm of beauty could be broken, towards the different perceptions on what woman are. Beauty can be such a shallow word, yet quite complex. It can go toward intellectuality and empowerment; it can be the whole meaning of individual existence; just making a person beautiful, by the way the person is.

There is something else, beyond 0's and 1's, there are 2's, 3's and more numbers in the coordinate; there are different systems that are part of the same wavelength and reality planes. Beauty is just a mere word, beauty goes on attitude and with the essence of human being; yet, the conditioning we have as a specie that we are set on binary; at least on terms of westernized culture.

Probably we tend to mix the concepts of sexual identity, gender, and sexual orientation among with the social roles, that people expect to be. Identity syncretism could be a solution to help expand the definition of gender and identity, as well social roles. There could be non conformity towards social roles, but yet the idea of medium class people seeking understanding in a concept of Ardhanarishvara were a being is composed by two, and there is some form of adoration because the being is essentially a representation of the core of existence.

The beauty of humanity can go beyond an organ, chromosomes, gamets, social roles; beyond the binary system we have as humans; but, yet as humanity we define ourselves with the number two, while other species gender is just a mere word and sometimes it doesn't even exists. Such as the clown fish or the New Mexico whiptail.