A lot has happened in Washington DC this past month as it relates to the trans community, and I have been busy as of late with other commitments. However, I would like to provide an overview on what has been going on in the nation's capital, from the positive to the negative:

THE GOOD:

Washington DC just implemented a program as part of Project Empowerment, which provides job skills specifically for the transgender community, the first class containing 19 transwomen and 2 transmen:

The program, which began Sept. 12 for current enrollees, involves three weeks of pre-employment training, where the students take classes and seminars to learn skills such as interview techniques and résumé writing, says Jeffrey Richardson, director of the Mayor's Office of GLBT Affairs.

Upon completion of the first three weeks, the students then enroll in a subsidized employment program, similar to an apprenticeship, where they will be placed with employers representing a wide variety of public- and private-sector jobs for a period of up to six months.

During that six-month period, the participants will earn minimum wage, which is $8.25 an hour in D.C., Richardson explains. That job history, in turn, should give participants a résumé boost as they seek permanent employment.

Police say 20-year-old Darryl Willard of northeast Washington surrendered Tuesday and was charged with assault with intent to kill while armed.

Police say the woman he's accused of shooting went into a police station on Monday around 2 a.m. to report she was wounded while walking in the city's Southeast section. Police say the victim knows the suspect and is expected to survive.

A D.C. Department of Corrections officer is under investigation for making death threats against two women, one of them a transgender inmate.

The officer allegedly threatened to kill the transgender inmate and an activist that works with transgender individuals after the pair complained to authorities that the officer was harassing the inmate and behaving in a trans-phobic manner.

Metropolitan police are looking into the threat, which the transgender woman says occurred at the Department of Corrections' Central Detention Facility on D Street SE. "You're going to threaten someone's life in the District of Columbia, we take it very seriously," says Assistant Police Chief Peter Newsham.

"We went over to the jail and interviewed a number of people and I think we're gathering information at this point," Newsham says. "I can't tell you what the final outcome will be."

The 35 year-old Gopalan was an engineer who ran a consulting business. He was also openly gay and sometimes dressed in women's clothing, as he did the night he was murdered. On Sunday night, however, he was remembered not for what he wore, but for who he was.

Members of Washington's gay, lesbian, and transgender community are concerned that Gopalan might have been targeted because of his sexual orientation. A concern heightened by the fact that several transgender people have been attacked recently in Washington, and all the attacks, including the one on Gopolan, have so far gone unsolved.

The hatred goes on as this memorial just placed for Lashai McLean was burned and left in the street as she was as silent testimony to peoples capacity for cruelty.