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Lamm focuses on rights of transgendered NO LIMITS from page 1 gender roles in life. “I personally don’t believe I was bom a woman,” she said. “I was bom a baby who grew up to be a woman.” There are many transgendered people who are convincing in their chosen gender, Lamm said. “I know plenty of people who pass as men every day and.have vagin^,” she said. People have to let others choose which gender to live as, Lamm said. “The heart of the issue is that you have to trust people to come up with their own identity,” she said. Last year at a music festival only for women in Michigan, transgen dered people were put in a dangerous situation, Lamm said. Some transgendered people were let in, but they were surrounded by upset women, she said. “People were screaming, ‘Men on the land! Men on the land! she said. “It was weird because the women who felt threatened were doing the threat ening.” Lamm said she understood why some of the women were upset because of bad experiences with men. But she also said that just because there aren’t any men around, that doesn’t mean women are safe. “It should be about a person who did something to you, not about a gen ital,” she said. “The idea that a woman is safe without a penis around is absurd.” Transgendered people have other difficulties in their daily lives, such as choosing which gender of public bathrooms to use, Lamm said. Because most public bathrooms are segregated, many transgendered people won’t use them, she said. “Most of the transgendered peo ple that I know won’t go into the bath room,” she said. “It’s too scary.” One of the ways people can help transgendered people is to purposely go into the wrong bathroom, she said. This will make people more used to the idea of sharing a bathroom with the opposite sex. Another issue facing transgen dered people is the lack of shelters for them when they are in abusive rela tionships, Lamm said. Vanderwerff said she agreed fem inists should fight for more than themselves. “I think that she made a good point that to be a feminist doesn’t mean you have to be inclusive to one group,” Vanderwerff said. “We should try to identify and accommodate.” ^ I know plenty of people who pass as men every day and have vaginas.” Nomy Lamm writer, lecturer, performance artist, musician Parking fees may increase in fall PARKING from page 1, fees by charging students and faculty fees to ride the buses or shuttles. The fee, estimated at $20 per year, would be charged to an estimated 6,250 people. “This assumes that we are going to make people pay their fair share,” Specht said. James Main, the assistant vice chancellor of business and finance and PAC member, introduced another pro posal attempting to reduce the parking fees by using alternative funding. “We have not been neglectful in pursuing alternatives,” Main said. The alternative funding would come from increased meter rates, meter fines and fees for football parking. Revenue from these sources was estimated at $192,000. This proposal was rejected because it relied on soft money. “If the projections show we’ll come up short, we’ll have to raise rates,” Main said. Since the fees have yet to be final ized, Myers said students and faculty can keep parking fees low by encour aging the administration to delay build ing the parking garage and eliminating parking spaces. By delaying one year, “we would be financially ahead and not lose those spaces,” Myers said. But according to Stan Campbell, PAC committee member, building costs are expected to increase in the next few years. Delaying construction would add to the cost of the buildings, Campbell said, and higher costs could mean fewer buildings. With the elimination of the 260 parking spots, Myers expects a large demand for parking. “We’re going to be in a mess next fall,” Myers said. Sandy Lineberry, PAC committee member, encouraged the committee to keep parking permit fees low. Let’s try to keep these down, so we can show some face to those we repre sent,” she said. Prison care investigation continues TASK FORCE from page 1 mistreatment or lack of treatment pro vided for inmates throughout the state by the Department of Correctional Services. Arlene Trainor, a registered nurse who worked for the department for 14 years, said mostly the nurses and physician assistants, not the doctors, had problems thinking of the inmates as people. “The inmates have become very dehumanized,” Trainor said. “(Staff members) don’t like inmates as a group of people. If you can’t work \*ith this population, you need to move on.” Trainor, who left the department in July 1995, said the staff, excluding most of the physicians, were hateful and vindictive when it came to inmates’ medical treatment. She said Dan Danaher, a physi cian’s assistant for the department who also addressed the task force Friday, had once told her if inmates requested something such as new shoes, they should be sent through various sec tions within the department. The section would send them to another and then to another, until the inmate got tired and gave up on the request. But when Danaher gave testimony to the task force Friday, he said “any thing short of our best effort (for patient care) is unacceptable.” Claudia Werner, who has been a nurse for 21 years and left the depart ment in 1996 after three years, dis agreed with Danaher. , “The administration said we could be patient advocates but not prison advocates,” Werner said. “But the inmates were our patients. I don’t understand.” She said the standard answer for medical requests was on the same level as instructing them to take two aspirin and call in the morning. But that answer does not work for chronic pain or life-threatening ailments, such as heart conditions. She also said she had seen repeated requests for medical treatment go ^ (Staff members) don’t like inmates as a group ofpeople. If you can’t work with this population, you need to move on. Arlene Trainor registered nurse and former department worker unnoticed. Wemer and Trainor left the depart ment because of the treatment and atti tude toward the patients, they said. Danaher also testified that some of Pedersen’s testimony on Feb. 25, which asked the task force to investi gate such things as response time, staff salaries and the number of medical contacts to patients each day, were inaccurate. • One of Pedersen’s greatest con cerns was the amount of time it took to reach a patient in need. Danaher said maintaining security in the facility is the No. 1 responsibili ty, even during a medical emergency when response times are crucial. He also said that the recorded med ical contacts for patients were 150 a day, which was not unreasonable when it equals 15 contacts for each facility in the department throughout the state. As for staff salaries, he said the department is constantly asking for revisions and adjustments to ensure enough money to employ quality care givers, Danaher said. Julia Andretti, who worked for the department in food service, said the department did not have high-quality physicians. “They (doctors) have all been in trouble and can’t go anywhere else,” Andretti said. “So they’re here.” She was appalled at the treatment given to patients and was aware of how her husband, Anthony, had been treat ed. Anthony Andretti suffered a heart attack while incarcerated, Julia Andretti said. Medical staff had wanted him to walk about a mi|e from the Lincoln Correctional Center to the Diagnostic and Evaluation Center, which are con nected by a tunnel, she said. When he made it over to the center in a wheelchair, the staff hooked him up to a monitor that did not work, and they could not get a reading, she said. Anthony Andretti told his wife that the nurse’s statement to the doctor was, “My god, don’t you know a heart attack when you see one?” Julia Andretti said she was told by Anthony Andretti’s caseworker that “it does not matter what kind of care he gets - he is only an inmate. I’m sorry, I know he is your husband, but he is only an inmate, and therefore his care does not matter. We will give him whatever care we decide.” Danaher agreed with the case worker, saying physicians have con trol. “It is the practitioner’s responsibil ity to determine what the patient needs, not what the patient wants,” Danaher said. Julia Andretti, after speaking to inmates, said care should be more like the care on the outside. She suggested that like the outside, prisoners should be charged a dollar, which is basically a day’s wage, foi medical examination. It would cul down on unnecessary medical requests. No matter the department’s defense, Julia Andretti said the prob lem with the care is the lack of it. “It’s so inadequate that our pets gel better care.” www.dailyneb.com/revolutionnow Lectures by Gerald Early Princes Kept the View: America in the 50s and 60s 7-9 March 2000 7-9 March 2000 7:00 each evening Great Plains Art Collection 215 Love Library University of Nebraska-Lincoln Gerald Early will deliver the annual Abraham Lincoln Lectures on March 7, 8, and 9. His program, “Princes Kept the View: America in the 50s and 60s,” will feature talks entitled “Muhammad Ali as Third World Hero,” “Sammy Davis Jr. as Establishment Rebel,” and “The Rise of Black Philadelphia,” a look at militant political action in Early’s hometown during the 1960s. Gerald Early is a professor of English and Afro-American studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Early also serves as Washington University’s Director of African and Afro-American Studies and Director of the American Culture Studies Program. A frequent commentator for National Public Radio, Early’s books include The Muhammad Ali Reader and The Culture of Bruising which won the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. The talks are free and open to the public and will commence at 7:00 each evening in the Great Plains Art Collectiop, 215 Love Library, on the University of Nebraska campus in Lincoln. A reception and book signing will immediately follow Thursday’s lecture. Begun in 1995, this annual series aims to remind the citizens of Lincoln and beyond of the principles that Abraham Lincoln championed: education, justice, tolerance, and union. Each year the University of Nebraska Press invites a noted scholar to deliver a series of lectures, co-sponsored with other University of Nebraska depart ments. In addition, the press publishes each year’s lectures in a single volume. If you wish to receive further information about the Abraham Lincoln Lecture Series, contact: University of Nebraska Press 402-472-3581 • pressmail@unl.edu