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VOL. XCVIII, NO. 7
NOVEMBER 30, 2017
Bursted Transgender Awareness Week pipeline celebrations rock the Inland Empire creates havoc SAMANTHA BARTHOLOMEW
@SLGBartholomew
The Keystone Pipeline leak earlier this month resulted in significantly more spillage than the company estimated was likely, according to a new report. The incident, which spewed over 200,000 gallons of oil into fields near Amherst, South Dakota, was one of three substantial leaks in the pipeline since operations began, according to Reuters. The others took place in South Dakota in 2016 and North Dakota in 2011, each expelling around 400 barrels of oil. Risk assessments, which were submitted to regulators before the start of the project in 2010, estimated that a leak of more than 50 barrels of oil would not occur more than once every seven to 11 years. Where the two South Dakota spills took place, no more than one spill was predicted once every 41 years, according to TransCanada Corp. documents. The spill took place days before regulators in neighboring Nebraska lifted the last major regulatory hurdle for the expansion that has been delayed for years by environmental opposition. President Donald Trump handed TransCanada a presidential permit for Keystone XL in March, reversing former President Barack Obama’s decision to reject the line on economic and environmental grounds, saying that it would create jobs and boost national security. As of Nov. 26, 44,000 gallons of oil have been recovered from the Amherst site and monitoring air and local well water revealed no significant concerns While cleanup continues, the company resumed operation of the Keystone pipeline Nov. 28.
ILLUSTRATION BY ISELA OROZCO
SAMANTHA BARTHOLOMEW @SLGBartholomew
There were many ideas on display throughout Transgender Awareness Week, however, chief among them was freedom to celebrate. “We’re here to celebrate each other and ourselves,” Darby Osnaya, the event’s organizer, said. “We are all beautiful people with beautiful stories.” Transgender Awareness Week kicked off Nov. 18 with an event put on by Royalty on the Roof, a growing annual
event at Riverside City Hall’s Grier Pavilion celebrating the lives and success stories of “our transgender family and community.” “We are all royalty,” Osnaya said. “Some of us are just waiting to earn our crowns.” The event included entertainment that featured and honored the talents and passions of the Inland Empire’s outspoken transgender community. “There are hurdles at every turn for the transgender community, from coming out to simply living,” Osnaya said. “Tonight is about living your most authentic self.”
Being transgender is a t o p i c t h a t ’s b e e n m a k i n g headlines lately for numerous reasons. However, living life as a transgender individual is a struggle many people don’t understand and the struggles have only increased under the Trump administration. “We need politicians that serve everybody,” Osnaya said. “We need new blood coming into politics.” This event was followed by a screening of “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson,” a documentary that paints a poignant portrait of the transgender woman noted for
throwing the first stone in what we now know as the Stonewall riots. “We need to remember those that paved for the community,” event attendee Mykal Gabon said. “Because it was they who fought to get us to where we are now.” Finally, the week concluded with the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance Nov. 19. TDOR was launched in 1999 after the brutal murder of Boston’s Rita Hester, a crime that to this day remains unsolved. Even in death, Hester’s victimization continued as news
See TRANS on Page 2