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http://www.wbez.org/news/first-comprehensive-transgender-housing-center-nation-opens-chicago-108056

Reverend Stan Sloan sat in the freshly designed living room of the new TransLife Center. As CEO of Chicago House he spent years in this home, running it as an AIDS hospice, “These beautiful wooden floors were covered with linoleum because we had IV drips and blood and everything that came with AIDS in the early days.”

Sloan says thousands of gay men died with dignity in this home. Now he hopes it will help transgender people live with dignity. The center will provide housing, medical services, legal services, and employment training with many staff coming from the transgender community.

Mara Keisling founded the National Center for Transgender Equality. “It’s such an honor that now it’s going to be dedicated to trans people, helping trans people.”

Lana Wachowski attended the opening. She said she had observed transgender homelessness in her neighborhood. “Often LGBT people, especially the T’s, are in need of family,” she said. Wachowski said that this center recognizes that family extends beyond just our blood and kin.

Stormie Williams cut the ribbon for the opening. She will be one of the first residents and has already found employment with help from the staff. “I know there are more things to come,” she said.

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2013...ter-opens-its-doors-homeless-trans-chicagoans

Stan Sloan, who runs the nearly 30-year-old organization, said the new center near Loyola University — the exact location kept secret to protect its occupants — would help many people like Allen.

"People can get off the street, take a shower, have a meal — just be free of discrimination and free of all that hatred for a few hours a day," Sloan said.

The house will have nine bedrooms and will manage 30 scattered sites throughout the city to house transgender people.

It will also be the hub for several other services, like a four-week employment program, a legal program to help people navigate life after transitioning to another gender, and a health program. A doctor would be on site to direct people to transgender-safe health services, Sloan said.

Sounds pretty good.

 

[Kano on the Phone]

That's very cool. It would be great to see more cities follow suit.

 

[Krev]

I'm surprised and impressed at how much she's emerged from reclusiveness to speak up and bring attention to trans issues.
The center is a very good idea.

 

[Chojin]

That's pretty rad. I wasn't aware that there was such a big issue with Transgendered people and homelessness, but upon reflection I could imagine many scenarios where families are ignorant of it and throw their children out leaving them lost.

Good on Lana.

 

[AbsolutBro]

I'm surprised and impressed at how much she's emerged from reclusiveness to speak up and bring attention to trans issues.
The center is a very good idea.

It's sad that so often it requires a celebrity to come out for a topic for people to stop trying to shutter it away. Barbara Bush for breast cancer, Sharon Stone (I believe) for post partem depression, and now Lana Wachowski for trans. Brave people, all of them.

 

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Interview with Lana: http://www.redeyechicago.com/news/ct-red-trans-sidebar-2-20130821,0,4892044.story

 

[CF_Fighter]

I'm surprised and impressed at how much she's emerged from reclusiveness to speak up and bring attention to trans issues.
The center is a very good idea.

Maybe she was such a recluse before was because she just didn't feel right in a man's body. Now that she is living as the person she truly feels she should be she can be out in the open with a newly acquired confidence. I noticed this when she was out and about for all of the "Cloud Atlas" promotion. I'm very happy for her and it's good the trans community has such a strong voice in her.

Addendum: I believe this might be my first post on the trans community and the issues surrounding it so if I worded any of this wrong please feel free to correct me.

Sharon Stone (I believe) for post partem depression

I think you mean Brooke Shields. She had that huge beef with Tom Cruise back in 05 when he went in on her for using psychiatric medicine to help treat it.

 

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Maybe she was such a recluse before was because she just didn't feel right in a man's body. Now that she is living as the person she truly feels she should be she can be out in the open with a newly acquired confidence. I noticed this when she was out and about for all of the "Cloud Atlas" promotion. I'm very happy for her and it's good the trans community has such a strong voice in her.

Addendum: I believe this might be my first post on the trans community and the issues surrounding it so if I worded any of this wrong please feel free to correct me.

Well, no, both of the siblings, multiple times, have confirmed they avoided the press because they didn't want to lose the benefits of anonymity and Lana's transition was never the issue. Cloud Atlas was an independent production and it was partly self financed (they had to mortgage their house to do that!!) so they thought since the film would need every help it can get it would be worth the sacrifice.

This can be backed up with this interview published a couple of days after the opening of The Matrix in 1999 (when Lana was still Larry and hadn't come out to anyone yet):

Q: Is it the film you hoped to make?

Andy: It's pretty close.

Q: Are you ready to make another movie?

Andy: We have to wait and see how this one does.

Q: If it does well, you'll have to do a lot more interviews.

Andy: Oh, no. We'll have more power then.

Larry: We can put it in our contracts that we won't do interviews.

Q: So this could be it?

Larry: With any luck.

Which confirms they pretty much always hated doing press.

Having said that, Lana has said she owed it to the trans community to come out publicly BUT that doesn't explain them started doing interviews about their films.

My point is if Cloud Atlas wasn't such a risky production, Lana would probably have come out and supported the trans community, but she wouldn't have started doing interviews about her (their) films.

 

[hat_hair]

Having said that, Lana has said she owed it to the trans community to come out publicly BUT that doesn't explain them started doing interviews about their films.

My point is if Cloud Atlas wasn't such a risky production, Lana would probably have come out and supported the trans community, but she wouldn't have started doing interviews about her (their) films.

I'm not sure about that. Doing film related interviews, even if there are no questions about her trans experiences, puts her out into the public eye as a positive example for others.

 

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It's reddit so grain of salt etc but if true it's very nice; http://www.reddit.com/r/transgender/comments/1lyl7s/

Lana saved my life . I was going to commit suicide until I saw her speech. Everything was planned out it was a done deal for me . I also work in the film industry and I was looking at two paths , continue as male and try to be successful in a lie or possibly lose everything I have worked so hard to achieve by Transitioning to be myself .

It wasn't fair , it just wasn't fair I so wanted to live but I didn't see how I could anymore and then someone changed my perspective in my darkest hour .

I know exactly how hard it must have been for her having to make the same decisions I did . She could have continued living her life and rightfully avoiding the system known as the "media" but she didn't, she took a stand and used it as a tool . Maybe she was reluctant , maybe she didn't think that it should be or would be a big deal if she publicly addressed her story . Though it did matter and greatly to me, that night she rescued 29 years of life . A life filled with beautiful memories , perspective and love, a life that deserved a second chance and a new chapter . Somehow out there her words reached me across a glowing lcd and i "woke up" .

So if your out there Thank you . You have done more for me with your courage than you will ever know . I hope one day to thank you in person until then all I can do is pay it forward and live the best life I can, finally reaching my potential as my authentic self and that's fucking awesome isn't it ?

Kyla .

P.S.

I Personally don't think it's a coincidence that people like Lana Wachowski or for that matter Chelsea Manning are out there doing what there doing . I found this scene in the matrix really speaks to that concept . Life imitating art .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTL4qIIxg8A

 

[Amagon]

Lana is good people. Its cool what she is doing.

 

[ivysaur12]

That's pretty rad. I wasn't aware that there was such a big issue with Transgendered people and homelessness, but upon reflection I could imagine many scenarios where families are ignorant of it and throw their children out leaving them lost.

Good on Lana.

Huge issue in the Trans community with employment discrimination, too. It's pretty awful.

This is fantastic and is a huge step in the right direction. While there are plenty of resources in LA, there are still many homeless trans people here, or trans people that have to resort to illicit work in order to just get by.