California Activists Explore Transgender Civil Rights at San Diego Conference

CommonDreams.org – Equality California (EQCA) and Transgender Law Center

San Diego – More than 200 transgender community members and allies will meet in San Diego on March 27, 2009 for the 4th annual Transgender Leadership Summit. The Summit comes at a critical time for the transgender rights movement, as the current economic crisis has made transgender people even more vulnerable to un- and under-employment, lack of health care access, discrimination, and violence. Even before the most recent downturn, a 2008 study conducted by the Transgender Law Center found that transgender Californians were twice as likely to earn wages below the federal poverty line compared to the state’s general population.