Out In The City member, Chris plays “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)” on a digital piano. Press the red arrow.

 

Out In The City in 2020

On March 12 we didn’t know

We celebrated 6 birthdays

With four candles

40 of us mingling

Having fun at Church House

Now its almost Christmas

We spent months without meeting each other

Except on summer lawns

Thanks to Tony we are meeting again

At the Methodist Hall and Cross Street Chapel

 

Old and bold

Still with sparkles in our eyes

With laughter and jokes

About how we are still here

Proud of who we are

 

Our new home is welcoming

Gives us time to chat

Nibble mince pies with tea or coffee

Chat about the olden days

And those more recent

 

Some of us Zoom some don’t

We look forward to the vaccines

Sometime soon we can be safe

All of us still at risk

We look forward with hope

To new ventures in 2021

 

Pauline Smith – 15 December 2020

 

Future Meetings

The Out In The City meetings held during November and December 2020 were supported with funding from the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership.

The next meetings will be on Wednesday, 6 January 2021 and Thursday, 7 January 2021 and will be supported with funding from Comic relief’s LGBTQ+ COVID-19 Recovery Fund, in partnership with METRO Charity, Yorkshire MESMAC and Birmingham LGBT.

 

Trans people lifted up Biden. As president, he needs to do the same for them.

At least 41 trans and gender nonconforming people have been murdered this year in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Last month, Joe Biden did something no other president-elect had done in a victory speech — he specifically thanked the transgender community as part of what he called “the broadest and most diverse” coalition in history. It wasn’t the first time Biden mentioned the trans community, which has suffered its deadliest year ever. As the Democratic nominee, Biden called anti-trans violence “an epidemic that needs national leadership.”

When he becomes president next month, Biden must be that leader.

In the United States and Puerto Rico, at least 41 trans and gender nonconforming people have been murdered this year, most of them Black and Latinx transwomen. That’s a record, and there are still several weeks left in 2020. And I say “at least,” instead of a definitive number because trans people are often misgendered by police, in media reports, and by family members.

Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Trans Equality (NCTE), said that what’s facing Biden “is not just a criminal justice challenge. It’s also about eradicating the underlying issues that leave trans people vulnerable.”

“This is about economic opportunity and ending economic marginalisation. It’s about housing. In this country, people who are homeless are much more likely to face violence,” she said. “People who don’t have health insurance — that triggers other kinds of economic marginalisation where victimisation is more likely. We’re going to need anti-bullying legislation in schools. It’s going to require a comprehensive domestic policy plan across all agencies.”

According to NCTE, 25 percent of trans people have been fired due to bias, while 75 percent have experienced workplace discrimination. Twenty percent of trans people report facing discrimination when looking for a home; 10 percent have been evicted because of their gender identity. Up to 40 percent of young people who experience homelessness are trans or gender nonconforming. The Trump administration’s anti-trans policies have only exacerbated the problem.

“One of the first things we’re asking the new administration to do is create a comprehensive approach to implementing the Bostock Supreme Court decision, which basically said that job discrimination against LGBT people is sex discrimination,” Keisling said. “It’s about employment, but it clearly also implicates health care, housing, education, and credit. “What the Biden administration needs to do is enforce the law,” which Trump refused to do.

“The violence problem against trans people is a three-part problem — stigmatisation, marginalisation, criminalisation,” Keisling said. “In this country, once you get into the criminal justice system, it’s really hard to break out. It’s hard not to get economically marginalised, and the marginalisation is much worse right now. And President Trump has so viciously attacked trans people, he has made the stigmatisation much worse.”

That stigmatisation feeds the violence that kills trans and gender nonconforming people.