Putting Your Money Where Your Beliefs Are?

This story actually is from last summer but is still very current of course and maybe more so as time goes by.

There is one thing about being transgender, another thing about being wealthy and yet another to use your wealth to attempt to effect real  change. (Caitlin Jenner?)

One of the wealthy heirs of the Pritzker hotel fortune — a former lieutenant colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard — came out as transgender recently.

Jennifer Natalya Pritzker — formerly known as James Pritzker — is part of the prominent Chicago Pritzker family that founded the Marmon Group and owns the Hyatt hotel chain, the TransUnion credit agency and other businesses.

She (Jennifer) enlisted in the Army in 1974 and earned a commission as an infantry officer in 1979, serving with the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions before moving to the Illinois Army National Guard. She retired from military service in 2001.

According to Buzz Feed :  in July  Pritzker’s Tawani Foundation — a charitable organization promoting citizen service through the support of ROTC programs and other grants — had funded a $1.35 million “launch grant” to the Palm Center, a research organization studying sexuality in the military.

Of course I am a transgender veteran myself and believe the active discrimination against military members is the height of hypocrisy. So, there is a special place for those in the transgender community out and trying to make a true change.  Thanks Jennifer!

And, thanks Bobbie for passing this along.

Out and About

All of the sudden if you look around, there are transgender women and men who are jumping into the spotlight simply because of who they are.

Take Kristin Beck, the Navy Seal and now Jennifer Pritzker, 63, formerly James, who officially changed her listing to female and has become the world's first transgender billionaire. Only 12 percent of the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans are female, but in 2013, the ranks gained one member from the other side of the list.

Or the South Dakota woman who just reached a landmark transgender discrimination settlement, keeping in step with a growing trend of cases that say transgender discrimination is applicable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

 The $50,000 settlement is bringing transgender workers one step closer to federally recognized equal opportunity in the workplace. Transgender Discrimination Settlement Cori McCreery, 29, was fired in 2010 after telling her employer at Don's Valley Market in Rapid City, S.D. that she would be transitioning from a man to a woman, reports Time.

We can't forget the omni present Lynn Conway the transgender pioneer whose longtime passion has been sports, particularly adventure sports. She's overcome two similar life obstacles (transitioning and a fear of heights) en route to her current state: a 75-year-old Michigan resident—reflective and respected, passionate and accomplished, innovative and intelligent. "In a strange way, while rock-climbing years ago I was learning exactly what I needed to transition, learning how to overcome fear," Conway said. "Although scared of heights, I worked up to some modest climbing in Yosemite Valley—and passionately enjoyed it."

Or Nikki Araguz's incredibly important court fight in Texas:.  The result of her case in the appeals court could affect the transition status of transgender people throughout the state of Texas and beyond.  Cristan Williams, director of Houston's Transgender Center Williams said. "I think that this case is incredibly important not only to transgender people throughout Texas, but transgender people throughout the nation."

Wow, the good news is we are just beginning to scratch the surface thanks to all these determined transgender citizens!

Fear and the "Immoral Right".

Stories like this just have to send denizens of the "immoral right" scurrying in fear. From the American Conservative:


"The billionaire retired U.S. Army colonel James Pritzker has announced he is a woman — Jennifer Natalya Pritzker. (left)  According to Crain’s Chicago Business, a memo dated Aug. 16 and sent to the Pritzker Military Library and Tawani Enterprises announced Pritzker’s name officially had been changed. “This change will reflect the beliefs of her true identity that she has held privately and will now share publicly,” the memo stated. “Pritzker now identifies herself as a woman for all business and personal undertakings.” Pritzker’s father was the late Robert Pritzker. Robert Pritzker founded Marmon Group, a manufacturing and industrial conglomerate. Her uncles founded the Hyatt Hotel chain."

For a hot second the right must have thought when Bradley Manning hitched his blond wig to the transgender coat tails they had a chance to gain on us again.

Thanks to Jennifer though, who decided to step up and not to be a "stealth queen", the immoral right was struck another blow. Plus, she is yet another transgender veteran.  Thanks Jennifer!