16 justput
JUNE 13, 2008
jnorthwest
Gimme Shelter
No protection from trans discrimination
by Jacob Anderson-Minshall
ueer community leaders were stunned
According to last month’s BOLI “Notice
last month when the Oregon Bureau
of Substantial Evidence Determination,” ex
of Labor and Industries (BOLI)
ecutive director Karla McFarland acknowledged
determined that there was substantial
that Bradley-Angle House referred transgender
evidence that the domestic violence survivors elsewhere. BOLI’s investigator also
shelter Bradley-Angle House discriminated
established that the shelter “has a policy which
against bi-gendered client Lee (Lisa) Iacuzzi.
requires its residents to identify as female while
“It’s kind of surprising,” admits Jonathan
staying at the shelter, regardless of the resident’s
Weedman, Sexual Minority Youth Resource
actual gender identity.”
Center’s outgoing executive director. “Bradley-
“Having a policy that says you must identify as
Angle... was the only queer-specific resource [for
this gender...is akin to saying no disabled people
domestic violence survivors] I even knew of.”
allowed.. .no black people allowed,” says Matthew
The first battered women’s shelter on the West
Ellis of Kell, Alterman & Runstein, the law firm
Coast, Bradley-Angle House was founded in 1975,
that represents Iacuzzi in an associated civil suit.
when domestic violence was barely acknowledged
Ellis adds that Bradley-Angle housed Iacuzzi in a
and far from understood. In the three decades since,
utility closet on a separate floor from the other
the shelter has become a vital community resource.
residents. “1 think that was [them] being sensitive
Recently awarded a million-dollar grant to expand
about the gender issue.”
its work, Bradley-Angle offers short-term emer
Iacuzzi, who was bom female-bodied, identi
gency shelter, longer-term housing for women,
fies as bi-gendered and says s/he has no interest in
a 24-hour crisis line and support groups for youth,
altering his/her body, wonders: “I don’t have any
lesbians and African-American women.
hormones, I don’t have any surgery, so what’s the
Q
BOU's investigator also established that
the shelter "has a policy which requires
its residents to identify as female while
staying at the shelter, regardless of the
resident's actual gender identity."
ON BRO AO W AY
2300 NE BROADWAY PORTLAND, OR 97232 5O3-2B4-23OO
Internet sites from GayPDX.com to Multnomah
County’s General Services for Domestic Violence
Victims/Survivors Web page list Bradley-Angle as
the place to go if you are lesbian or transgender
and need services.
How does a progressive, queer-friendly shelter
like Bradley-Angle lose a decision on alleged gen
der discrimination? Complicating issues may exist,
but they’re hard to determine, because no one—
not even the shelter’s sexual and gender minorities
outreach program coordinator—is willing to discuss
the situation or the agency’s gender policies.
Iacuzzi was also surprised by the win but adds,
“Bradley-Angle House has admitted, publicly—in
fact this is their argument...that they are justified
[because] they’re a women’s-only organization.”
While Bradley-Angle offers support services
for transgender domestic violence survivors,
it won’t provide shelter. “I can go to a support
group and get a caseworker,” acknowledges Ia
cuzzi, “but I can’t get housing, which is probably
the biggest need when somebody’s experiencing
domestic violence.”
Tyler Smith, Outside In’s trans clinic coordi
nator, contends: “There was very recently a trans
woman seeking shelter that had a lot of difficulty
finding a place that would accept her. She was
working with case managers who were desperately
trying to find a place for her and ran into brick
wall after brick wall.”
problem? Why can’t 1 be with the other women?
I think it’s...the fear of masculinity. Just because
someone is male or male-ish, they’re stereotyped
to be violent, aggressive, threatening, crazy.”
The Trans Communities Shelter Access Proj
ect of the 519 Community Centre in Toronto
insists, “These two choices are not acceptable:
facing risks at a men’s shelter, or hiding their
identities at a women’s shelter.”
Weedman agrees. “I don’t think it’s ever
healthy to ask anybody to identify as any way
other than how they really do identify,” he said.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s
2003 publication Transitioning Our Shelters:
A Guide to Making Homeless Shelters Safe for T rans-
gender People notes, “Not only are transgender
people frequently asked to endure the emotional
injury of being classified as the gender with which
they do not identify, but many shelters are physi
cally unsafe for transgender people.”
The guide argues that someone like Iacuzzi,
who has a female body, would.face substantial
risk of physical, verbal and sexual assault in
men’s spaces. In fact, the NGLTF reports, “There
have been incidents of gang rape toward FtMs in
men’s shelters."
Iacuzzi says Bradley-Angle’s position was
twisted: “Your gender is male and you’re in a
female body; therefore, I’m respecting you by ac
knowledging your male gender.”