Tonight On "What Would You Do?"

Should Mom Support Teen’s Transgender Surgery Request?
ABC News
By ASHLEY LOUSZKO
March 9, 2012

Thanks to Bono, the issue of gender reassignment surgery has received much press, but — as the backlash proved — publicity doesn’t necessarily equal acceptance. ”What Would You Do?” decided to test how bystanders would react to witnessing a teenage boy tell his mother that he is interested in gender reassignment surgery. Both the boy and the mother were actors hired by “What Would You Do?”
Watch “What Would You Do?” Friday at 9 p.m. EST to see the other dramatic reactions and vote below to tell us how you feel.

My Story Part 110 – I Have A Dream

Ever since I attended my first support meeting, I asked a simple question… How can I help?” And that question led me down a path that I never dreamed of going down. It led me to get my MSW and now for the first time I see that it might lead to a new career. I have been talking to a group of people that provides training on diversity, one is a lesbian and the other is a gay man (they own the company) and we have been talking with a third person who is a former HR manager. What we want to do is to go into companies and do diversity training and I will be doing the “T” portion of the training. I would be a contract employee or a consultant, which would mean that I’ll have to do a little research to find out how that would work for tax purposes. Would I have to collect sales tax and pay my own Social Security, or whatever?

With the passage of the new gender inclusive anti-discrimination statute and the work that I did helping pass it, along with my MSW, it has puts me in a good position for teaching diversity to companies.

I have always felt that change is brought about by education and this is natural extension to my dream.

They are going to the workshop that I am giving at the True Colors conference, so it will be a kind of audition for me, so wish me luck next week.

Busy Day Today…

I have a Stonewall Speakers engagement this morning at Asnuntuck Community College, in the afternoon a meeting about consultant work and in the evening a meeting with my intern. So I’ll be running around for about 12 hours from one engagement to another.

How Crazy Is This…

Can you imagine having to sign a promise not to have premarital sex and not to watch porn before you can vote in the primary! In Laurens County Republican Party in South Carolina they are asking you to sign the pledge before joining the party. Welcome to the new Republican party.

SC County GOP: If You’ve Had Pre-Marital Sex, You Can’t Be A Republican
TPM
By Jillian Rayfield
March 5, 2012

Before you can join the Laurens County Republican Party in South Carolina and get on the primary ballot, they ask that you pledge that you’ve never ever had pre-marital sex — and that you will never ever look at porn again.

Last Tuesday, the LCGOP unanimously adopted a resolution that would ask all candidates who want to get on the primary ballot to sign a pledge with 28 principles, because the party “does not want to associate with candidates who do not act and speak in a manner that is consistent with the SC Republican Party Platform.”
[…]
But then they get even more specific. From the Chronicle:

You must favor, and live up to, abstinence before marriage.

You must be faithful to your spouse. Your spouse cannot be a person of the same gender, and you are not allowed to favor any government action that would allow for civil unions of people of the same sex.

You cannot now, from the moment you sign this pledge, look at pornography.

I know people who vote Republican because they say like the financial policies. That may have been the case in the past, but it sure isn’t today’s Republican party, the new Republican is all about taking use back to the 50s, the era of “Father Knows Best” where the wife was barefoot and pregnant and in the kitchen. Where LGBT people are thrown into jail and persecuted. The new Republican party is all about “I got mine, screw you”.

LGBT History

When I was first going out in public as Diana, I saw a flier advertising a talk at the University of Hartford, a woman PhD candidate was going to talk on her thesis “LGBT” in the media. It sounded like it would be interesting so I attended it with some friends. This woman from some college in Pennsylvania talked for about an hour on "LG" and then had a Q&A session afterward. During her whole talk she didn’t mentioned one TV show or movie that had a trans character in it, when we questioned her on it, she said that she didn’t find any shows or movies that had a trans-character or plot. We started to name shows which had a trans-character, like the “The Education of Max Bickford” and she stood there dumbfounded, she had not a clue. If I was her PhD adviser, I would have flunked her.

While I was in grad school, I got an email advertising a library exhibit on “LGBT” history at UConn's main campus and once again I rounded up some friends and we went up to see the show… well surprise, the show was all “LG” and no "T"!

I went down to a Pride Festival in Norwalk in 2009, the 40^th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising and they had all these posters up around the festival about the Stonewall Uprising and they were all about “Gays” and not one word any of the trans-people who were there. When I talked to the person who made the posters, he was so proud of them and when I asked him about trans-people like Sylvia Rivera, Miss Majors and Marsha P. Johnson, he had a blank expression on his face and he said that he never heard of any of them.

Later that month I received an invitation from the director of the Rainbow Center at UConn asking if I want to do a lecture for her class and I knew right away what I was going to talk about… “T” history. I developed a presentation called “The History of Trans Activism: From World War II to the Present” and I will be given it again at the True Colors conference at 10:45 on March 17

There was also an article about the news media lumping trans-people with “gays”.

Transgender Issues: Some Media Still Confused About the ‘LGBT’ Term
Montreal Gazette
By Jillian Page
March 2, 2012

Another media story today, this one on the CBS site, seems to think that being gay and being a trans person are synonymous. It’s a myth perpetuated by some religious organizations, ie. that if you are a trans woman in a relationship with a man, you are gay. And it seems that some media organizations are still stuck in that mindset.

The CBS article is about a “full service senior centre” in NYC that caters to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans people. Except the article says the centre was designed specifically for gay folks. The headline reads: New NYC center caters to gay and lesbian seniors

I don’t know if it is a “myth perpetuated by some religious organizations” or it is just plan ignorance or laziness on the reporters part. However, whatever the reason is some people want to lump lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people all under the umbrella of “gay” and as a result we lose our unique history of the trans-community.

Transitioning In College

When I started grad school, I was still saddled with my male identity. The first day of classes the professors called out my legal male name, when I replied I said that I went by “Diana” and from that point on, they always called me Diana and use female pronouns. It was a non-issue. But then again it was the School of Social Work and I wouldn’t expect anything less. When I matriculated, I had transitioned and legally changed all my records from earlier classes. When I submitted my application to the university, all my old college records were in my male name. I received a voice mail one day from admissions saying that there was discrepancy in my record and could I come in and discuss it with them. When walked through the door, they took one look at me and said, that everything was straighten out.

However, there are many other college students who have transitioned in college with mixed results, but there are success stories. One of them is in the Philippines where a trans-student was elected to the chair of the student government.

Transgender heads Philippine university's student body
By Julie M. Aurelio
Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network
Sunday, Mar 04, 2012

QUEZON CITY, Philippines - Marking a new milestone, students of the premier University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, elected their first openly transgender chairperson of the university student council (USC).

In elections concluded Thursday night, Heart Diño bested three other candidates, including independent candidate Martin Loon of the UP College of Law and Amancio Melad III of the militant Stand UP coalition.
[…]
According to the Philippine Collegian, the official organ of the UP Diliman students, Diño's party clinched 13 out of 34 seats in the USC, including six councillor seats and six college representatives. The Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights in UP (Stand UP) won 10 seats while the Nagkakaisang Iskolar para sa Pamantasan at Sambayanan sa UP (Kaisa) also got 10 seats.

It is hearting to see positive change happening around the world. While I was in grad school, I was also on the student government at school and chair of two organizations.

Here in the U.S. conservative heartland, Kansas, a professor at University of Nebraska at Omaha has transitioned.

Kelly: Protecting rights hits home for transgendered prof
WORLD-HERALD COLUMNIST
By Michael Kelly
March 4, 2012

Despite her initial fears of becoming "a social outcast," the professor said, UNO faculty members and students accepted her new identity.

"Around here, I don't get many glances," said Meredith, who stands 6-foot-3. "Some might look at me and think 'I hope you play basketball' or something like that. But aside from that, I blend into the woodwork."

There are other trans-professors who have transitioned and have had no problems. One I know is a professor at a college in Maine, another is now retired and was dean of Engineering at a Michigan university.

Place Saturday Six Episode #412

Patrick’s Place Saturday Six Episode #412

1. When you hear that a movie is a likely nominee for an Academy Award, are you any more likely to watch that movie in the theater?
Well first of all, I have no idea which movies were nominee this year. I think one of them was the Artist, but I don’t know if it won or not.

2. When you hear that a movie you haven’t yet seen actually is nominated for an Academy Award, are you more likely to watch that film?
Since I don’t pay attention to the Academy Awards or go to the movie theater, no I am not more likely to see the movie.

3. Of the nominated films this year, how many of them did you watch?
-0-

4. Have a look at the former winners for Best Picture prior to this year. Which is the last one you remember watching at home?
Avatar. Actually it was up at our cottage, I brought my computer projector and we watched it on the 92” screen. We also watched “Chicago” the next night.

5. From that same list, which is the last one you remember seeing in a theater?
Doctor Zhivago. As I said, I’m not a big fan of the movies and the movies that I like to watch are science fiction and they usually do not get nominated. I’m surprised that none of the Harry Potter movies were nominated.

6. If you could experience any Best Picture winner in a theater environment, which would you choose?
The Artist. I will probably watch it up at the cottage this summer, since we do not get any over the air TV stations since the bandwidth grab by the wireless companies did away with VHF TV.

Saturday 9: Look Out Here Comes Tomorrow (RIP Davy Jones)

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: Look Out Here Comes Tomorrow (RIP Davy Jones)



1. How much do you worry about your future?
What me worry! I never worry; I’m always cool as a cucumber.

2. Do you believe that anyone could be perfect?
Nobody is perfect, except for me. Everyone else has flaws

3. Regarding your future, what is the best thing you could hope for?
That I am still breathing in twenty years

4. What's the greatest extent you've gone to help a friend in need?
I don’t really keep track of those things. Lately I have been taking a friend to her doctors appointments.

5. What did you do lately that was really brave?
I can’t think of anything.

6. Tell us one thing you wish you hadn't let yourself do.
Had the leftover pizza last night at 11.

7. Who is the wisest person you know?
No, I’m not going to name names. You want o cause a fight or something?

8. What's the most tasteless joke you've ever heard?
The one that Montana's chief federal judge, Richard Cebull passed along about President Obama last week.

9. What does your answering machine / voice mail message say?
My cell voice mail greeting says, “Hi, I am unable to answers the phone right now, but I call you back as soon as I remember to check my messages.” Usually it is four or five days before I remember that I turned off the ringer. One time it was over a month…opps. I didn’t realize that the voice mail was a month old and called her back. She didn’t even remember what she called me about, we had a good laugh over that one.

Friday Fill-ins

Janet’s Friday Fill-ins



1. When I heard _about your parents, I cried_.
2. _This year’s mild winter_ makes me want _to long for spring_.
3. Get _out of here_!
4. _My heart_ is where _there are warm sunny beaches with palm trees_.
5. Hands _down, that was the best dinner ever_.
6. _I never want_ to put anybody down.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _reading a new book in front of the fire_, tomorrow my plans include _going to the coffeehouse to listen to some folk music_ and Sunday, I want to _go to a family get together_!

My Story Part 108 – Diversity, Isn’t It Beautiful

Most outsiders think that the trans-community is homogeneous but it is really diverse and we do not follow the gender binary. Even though there are some within the community that try to enforce the gender binary. As late as the 90s, the medical community wanted trans-people to fit in a nice little box either male or female. They required trans-women to be attracted to men and they had to be able to blend into the gender norms. So when a trans-woman went before the “Gatekeepers” [therapists] and when the gatekeeper asked who you were sexually attracted to, you answered “men” and they rewarded you with the blessing of hormones. Eventually the gatekeepers found out that they were lied to and they pronounced that all trans-people are liars. They wanted us to fit into their image of what a woman should be. Overtime some gatekeepers have come

to realize that the trans-community reflects that of the general population that some trans-women like women and some trans-men like men. The medical community is also coming to realize that there are many transsexuals who do not want to or cannot pass as women or men, but by allowing them to transition their quality of life improves. The gatekeepers have begun to realize that gender is a continuum and not a binary. For some in the trans-community however, they have not realized that yet, they still live in the world of the binary.

I first was exposed to the binary and the gender pyramid at a First Event conference, this was before I was able to admit to myself that I was transsexual and still identified as a crossdresser. I was sitting in a chair in the lobby of the hotel and a trans-woman sat down across from me. She asked me if I was a transsexual, I said no, she scrunched up her nose and got up and left. For some trans-women there is a pyramid with the post-op passible trans-woman on top, below them are the pre-ops and below them are the non-ops and down near the bottom are the crossdressers. Even lower down in the muck are the drag queens and kings. It does matter if you can’t afford surgery or if you have a medical problem that prohibits surgery, you are not a true “Transsexual” unless you are willing to give up everything in order to reach that mystical ring. To them you will always be “men in dresses”

There is an article in the Huffington Post that talks about this,

Transgender (Mis)Education
Huffington Post
Ira Gray
Posted: 02/28/2012

Something didn't feel right for me anymore, and I couldn't put my finger on it. According to every resource I turned to -- whether it be Tyra Banks' interviews with trans* people, or reading resources by and for transgender individuals -- I was not binary enough in my gender to be transgender. I didn't know from the time I was born, never felt trapped in my body, and would never describe my identity as a trans* person as a "birth defect" like Chaz Bono describes his.
[…]
Fast forward two years, and you'll find me typing this out on a plane to Florida. I just had my chest reconstructed after having been on testosterone for 20 months. Despite taking these medical steps, I would not describe myself as masculine, and my gender goes way beyond the bounds of "man" and reaches genderqueer, femme, and trans* guy.
[…]
Trans* folks have nothing to lose and everything to gain by educating the public about our existence and about the true diversity of our narratives. Within the GSM (gender and/or sexuality minority) community, trans* people are the most likely targets for assault. We have the highest unemployment rate, suicide rate, and homelessness rate. What do we have to lose?

For me before I transitioned, I dreamed of grabbing that golden ring, to be able to pass and no one would guess my history. But since then I have come to realize that it is more important to be yourself, I have found comfort in just being myself. Would I like to have surgery? Yes, it would be icing on the cake, but I can’t afford it on a pension.

Gender is a continuum, a spectrum. Let us embrace diversity.

Transgender Employees And Health Care

I do not like the HRC after what they have done to the community, but at the same time I must recognize that there are some good publications that come from them. The latest is… “Transgender-Inclusive Health Care Coverage and the Corporate Equality Index”. For states that now have protection against discrimination, I think that we should work toward ending insurance discrimination. I the health insurance that I have through my former employer, it has a clause that denies healthcare coverage for anything related to Gender Identity Disorder (GID) which I believe is now in direct violation of Connecticut anti-discrimination statute. My policy says…

Transsexual Surgery

For any treatment leading to or in connection with transsexual surgery, except for sickness or injury resulting from such treatment or surgery.

You can’t get anymore discriminatory, it says in black and white, we are discriminating against transsexuals and will not cover what the AMA, APA, WPATH and the federal government all say is a medical necessity. It is time to end that discrimination!

If You’re Trans, You Know This

I have a number of trans-friends who were stopped for minor traffic violations and they tell me that they fear being pulled over, that you never know how the officer will treat you. I know a black trans-man who lives in a white neighborhood and before his transition when as a black woman when “she” walked to the bus stop “she” was never questioned by the police, but as a black man, he was routinely questioned why he was in the neighborhood.

The Hartford Courant and Fox61 News looked into racial bias in police stops.

Unequal Enforcement: Black, Hispanic Drivers Faced Tougher Treatment From Police
Hartford Courant/Fox61 News
By Matthew Kauffman
February 25, 2012

Black and Hispanic drivers stopped by police across Connecticut are significantly more likely to leave the encounter with a ticket or a court date than are white motorists pulled over for the same offense, a first-ever analysis of state data shows.

From running stop signs to busted taillights, an analysis by the Courant of more than 100,000 traffic stops by dozens of local departments in 2011 found widespread disparity in how racial and ethnic minorities are treated.

Blacks and Hispanics fared especially poorly when stopped for equipment-related violations. Among nearly 4,000 stops related to the display or use of license plates, for example, 13 percent of white motorists left with a citation, compared with 27 percent of black drivers and 36 percent of Hispanics.

For more than 2,600 stops involving improper taillights, black motorists were twice as likely and Hispanics nearly four times as likely to be ticketed, compared to white drivers.
[…]
"This is beyond profiling. This goes to actually a level of discrimination, and who gets the wink and who doesn't get the wink," he said. "An officer can make a decision on whether or not to give a ticket, and it seems they've landed on a decision that if you're a minority, you're going to get a ticket."

The disparity was evident in stops as serious as speeding and running red lights, and as mundane as being overdue for an emissions inspection. Among the findings:

--Stops for traffic-signal violations led to citations for 26 percent of white motorists, compared to 30 percent of black drivers and 42 percent of Hispanics.

--For violations of state laws on tinted windows, white motorists were ticketed 12 percent of the time. For blacks and Hispanics, the figure was 17 percent and 24 percent, respectively.

--Among drivers stopped for an improper turn or stop, blacks were nearly 50 percent more likely to be ticketed than whites. Hispanics were twice as likely.

What is interesting is that the Courant last week had a poll that asked the question, “The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a new case challenging the constitutionality of affirmative action. Is it time to end race-based preferences?” and 36% said yes it is time to end affirmative action. I would have loved to see how that was broken down by race and income.

I get in debates with friends over racial profiling and they say it is necessary and I say that by profiling there are two effects of profiling, first you are less likely to catch a person who does not fit the profile and second it becomes self-filling. From the data that the article looked at, you can say, “see, minority drivers are bad drivers so therefore we should charge them more for car insurance”. Or it could also lead to more drug arrest because they stop more minority drivers; meanwhile other drivers are not stopped as often and would have less drug arrests.

At a support group meeting, a member at one of the meetings said that one night she was waiting for her daughter at a park and ride. The daughter was coming back from college and a friend was going to drop her off at the park and ride just off the highway. While the trans-woman was waiting for her daughter, a state police officer spied her sitting in the car and asked her what she was waiting there for. She told them that she waiting for her daughter and he accused her of waiting for a “John”, by then three more polices cars arrived. They ordered her out of her and she complied, then one of the officers took out a camera and was going to take her picture. When she protested about them taking the picture and she said that she was doing nothing wrong, they arrested her for “Disorderly Conduct”. They took her to the station and booked her. Meanwhile, her daughter arrived and found her father’s car empty and called her mother. They panicked and called the local police, who knew nothing because it was the state police that arrested her. It wasn’t until she was she was released on her own recognizance that they knew where she was. When she was telling her story at the support group, she had already spent almost a thousand dollars on a lawyer. This all happened just because she is trans and was sitting in a parking lot.

John F. Kennedy – My How Times Have Changed: Part 2

No sooner did I finish write the other blog post I came across this New York Times opinion page…

Back to First Principles on Religious Freedom
New York Times
By DOROTHY SAMUELS
Published: February 25, 2012

Catholic bishops, leading Republicans and other social conservatives persist in portraying the Obama administration’s new rule requiring employer health plans to cover birth control without a co-pay as an assault on religious freedom.

But the real departure from the Constitution is their specious claim to a right to impose their religious views on millions of Americans who do not share them. Virtually all American women, including Catholic women, use contraceptives sometime in their lives. In essence, the bishops and their allies are arguing that they are above the law and their beliefs should be elevated over pressing societal interests.
[…]
Insupportable claims of religious infringement are being made in other contexts, too. Religious service providers say it is religious discrimination to deny them government contracts to help human-trafficking victims or arrange adoptions because of their unwillingness to provide emergency contraception or stop discriminating against qualified gay couples.

Several lawsuits challenging the contraception rule have already been filed, and two main legal elements come into play: the Supreme Court’s 1990 ruling in Employment Division v. Smith and the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (R.F.R.A.), which Congress passed in response to that ruling.

The Smith decision, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, involved two workers who sought unemployment benefits after they were fired for using peyote, an illegal drug. The court found that Oregon could deny the benefits — even though the workers said their use of peyote was part of a religious ritual — under the general principle that Oregon’s ban on peyote was a “valid and neutral law of general applicability.”

But that was not the only case that the Supreme Court heard on religion and government, a 1982 court case, United States v. Lee, involved the Amish having to pay Social Security tax, they claimed it went against their religious beliefs. Read my blog entry OK, "This Is Going To Be Controversial".

John F. Kennedy – My How Times Have Changed.

I am old enough to remember when Kennedy was running for president; the Republicans were all over him because he was Catholic. They said that he would bring his religion beliefs to the presidency and his religious beliefs would unduly influence his judgment. It forced then candidate Kennedy to give a speech at the Baptist Greater Houston Ministerial Association,

While the so-called religious issue is necessarily and properly the chief topic here tonight, I want to emphasize from the outset that we have far more critical issues to face in the 1960 election; the spread of Communist influence, until it now festers 90 miles off the coast of Florida--the humiliating treatment of our President and Vice President by those who no longer respect our power--the hungry children I saw in West Virginia, the old people who cannot pay their doctor bills, the families forced to give up their farms--an America with too many slums, with too few schools, and too late to the moon and outer space.

These are the real issues which should decide this campaign. And they are not religious issues--for war and hunger and ignorance and despair know no religious barriers.

But because I am a Catholic, and no Catholic has ever been elected President, the real issues in this campaign have been obscured--perhaps deliberately, in some quarters less responsible than this. So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again--not what kind of church I believe in, for that should be important only to me--but what kind of America I believe in.

And today we still have more important issues that should be the topics of debates, not who is more Christian than the other candidates.

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute--where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote--where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference--and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.

Now religious leaders have no qualms of telling their parishioners how to vote.

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish--where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source--where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials--and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew--or a Quaker--or a Unitarian--or a Baptist. It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victim--but tomorrow it may be you--until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril.

Nor Muslim

Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end--where all men and all churches are treated as equal--where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice--where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind--and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood.

Now read what former Senator Rick Santorum

"I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute," Santorum, a devout Catholic, said in an interview from Michigan on ABC's "This Week."

"The First Amendment means the free exercise of religion and that means bringing people and their faith into the public square."

How did we go from a nation where we believed that to govern meant to respect everyone’s beliefs to where we should impose religious beliefs on everyone. We see our politics being polarized by liberal and conservative beliefs and now we are being polarized by our religious beliefs and not just any religious beliefs, but evangelical religious belief, to be Christian is not good enough, you have to believe in a strict religious dogma. You have to hate gays, you have to be anti-abortion, you have to believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible.

Have we become like the Taliban?

Forced Sterilization

There has been a huge outcry from the trans-community over the last couple of months about Sweden requiring sterilization for trans-people before they have surgery (I wrote a blog post about it here). It turns out that Sweden is not the only European country to require sterilization for trans-people, 17 other European countries also require sterilization…

17 European Countries Force Transgender Sterilization (Map)
Mother Jones
By Nicole Pasulka
Feb. 16, 2012

People rightly flipped out across the internet last month over news that the Swedish parliament would not be repealing a barbaric law that forces sterilization on trans people seeking to change their gender on legal documents. While it's despicable that Swedish politicians are opposing the law change, much of the outrage, no doubt, occurred because people previously didn't realize that a forced sterilization law existed in Sweden.

Considering how shocking people find Sweden’s law, it's worth pointing out the country is 1 of 17 in Europe (shown in red below) that require trans people to have a surgical procedure that results in sterilization before legal gender change is made to their identification ID. The law is currently under review in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Portugal, and in Ireland a name change (which acknowledged gender change) was granted for one woman after a legal challenge that went to the high courts, but no laws exist on the matter.
Data source: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights

It is unethical to require doctors to preform unnecessary surgery on a people and put their lives in danger just to satisfy societal transphobia, because some people are uncomfortable with the idea. The article goes on to say,

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights 2009 "Issue Paper on Human Rights and Gender Identity" (PDF) takes particular aim at surgical or sterilization requirements, saying they "ignore the fact that while such operations are often desired by transgender persons, this is not always the case." People don't always want surgery, and it's often impossible because of physical or economic impediments. The Issue Paper's conclusions are clear; these sterilization requirements are "putting the transgender person in a limbo without any apparent exit.”

Saturday Six #411

Patrick’s Place Saturday Six #411

Here’s the 411…

1. Consider the last time you went shopping to a single store: which store was it?
The grocery store.

2. Consider the last time you went shopping at a mall: which store was the first one you went into?
I can’t even remember that far back.

3. Do you prefer to shop in a mall or in a strip of stores downtown?
I’m not a big fan of malls, I prefer strip stores. The local malls have become hangouts for teenagers.

4. You have to go downtown to purchase something in a store there, but the only parking places are parallel spaces near the store or a parking garage five blocks away: which are you more comfortable using?
I would park in the parallel parking space even though I hate them. One time I had to parallel park when I went to Yale for a conference, I must pulled back and forth over a dozen times. When I got out of my car there were students sitting on a wall in front of the building and they clapped. I curtsied for them.

5.Have you ever bumped another car while trying to park your own car?
Sad to say yes. It was snowing and the parking lot was covered with ice, I slid and broke their headlight.

6. If you bumped a car while parking and you noticed a small mark on the car’s fender that you might have caused, but saw that no one saw you bump it, would you leave a note, or just move elsewhere and pretend it never happened?
I had them paged over the store PA system.

Saturday 9: Da Ya Think I'm Sexy

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: Da Ya Think I'm Sexy



1. When do you feel that you are at your sexiest?
After 3 rum and cokes

2. What's your favorite magazine? Why?
I don’t get any magazine any more, they gotten way too expensive. The last magazine that I got was PC Photo

3. What’s something you do more quickly than most people?
Get in-line for a buffet. Don’t get between me and food!

4. When do you first remember using a computer?
It was back in 1968 and it was an IBM1620. The first computer that I own was an AIM 65 back in 1977 with an amazing 8K of RAM and the program was stored on a tape recocder.

5. Who is the craziest person in your family?
I guess I am.

What one thing are you craving today?
Food! Or more practically seafood

What is your favorite thing to spend money on?
Photography

8. What’s the part of your morning you least look forward to every day?
Getting out of bed. When you are retired there is no rush to get out of bed. I usually get out of bed when my stomach starts to growl for breakfast

9. What are some rules you have for yourself that don’t really make much sense?
Get dressed before 9:00 AM.

Friday Fill-ins

Janet’s Friday Fill-ins



1. I'm feeling _mischievous_.
2. I want _to win Poweball for 270 million dollars_
3. I need _a break today_. I know, it’s a copout
4. I was thinking _what a crazy winter we are having, yesterday was 60 degrees and today we had 6 inches of snow_.
5. I wish _spring will arrive, I had enough of this crazy winter_.
6. I'm reading _Dune_.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _reading in front of the fireplace_, tomorrow my plans include _going to Jitters coffeeshop and listening to folk music_ and Sunday, I want to _I don’t know, but something will come up_!

This Is Nothing New

When I was going to grad school a number of classes discussed the effects of oppression on minorities and no matter what community that you studied the effects were the same. So this article in the Huffington Post comes as no shock…

The Inseparable Link Between Discrimination, Economic Injustice, and Anti-Transgender Violence
By Peggy Shorey
Posted: 02/23/2012

In the labor movement, we organize by the spirit of the motto, "An injury to one is an injury to all." In the LGBT community, we must find that sense of shared struggle with a movement that truly includes all of us. Our people are getting killed. Every one of us has a moral obligation to stand up and talk about it, to find a way to take action, to do more. Those of us who are the "LGB" of our community must stand in real solidarity with our transgender sisters and brothers. Allies, you are just as vital.

There is an inseparable link between violence, discrimination, and economic injustice. Working people across all sectors are facing extraordinary levels of unemployment and underemployment. Youth, immigrants, women, people of color, and LGBT people face disproportionate hardship. Black transgender individuals are estimated to have four times the unemployment rate of the general population.

If you are trans and you are a member of another minority the effects discrimination are not just double, but are multiplied. If you are a black female trans-woman, the deck is stacked against you.

We should not be hopeless, but we should be angry. There are actions that we can take:

Speaking out against violence: We cannot let hate crimes against our community pass by in silence. In the words of the ACT-UP community, silence equals death. As an LGBT community, we must speak the women's names aloud, remember them, take the pain of their murders, and use it as our fuel to go out and make it better.

Educating within the LGBT community: In addition to the work of educating our allies, we must continue to educate within the LGBT community about issues of both gender identity/expression and racial justice. We must do the work to learn what we don't know, and share what we do. We must have frank conversations and create meaningful action plans to make our work more whole.

Withdrawing our dollars from corporations that don't genuinely support LGBT workers: There's a difference between saying the LGBT community supports people of color and transgender folks within our movement, and actually standing in support of their struggles. While the regular working people and jobless folks in the LGBT community may not have all that mythical gay community disposable income, we absolutely do have strength in numbers, and we should recognize and use our power
Fighting for good jobs and economic security: While we continue the fight for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, we must take action for economic relief that will have a meaningful, immediate impact in workers' lives. LGBT groups must prioritize fighting for those in deepest struggle within our community. All of us in the LGBT community should be standing up for good jobs that let our community survive and thrive, living as our whole selves and supporting our families with dignity.

What can you do? You can demand that your local schools here in Connecticut obey Public Act No. 11-232 - AN ACT CONCERNING THE STRENGTHENING OF SCHOOL BULLYING LAWS and on a national level can tell your congressional legislators to support the gender inclusive and and only a gender inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act(ENDA) and the Safe Schools Improvement Act.