Saturday 9: Come Monday

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: Come Monday



Thanks to AuntieM4Cabs for recommending the Buffett theme

1) What will you be doing come Monday (Labor Day)?
Sitting around collecting the sun up at the lake.

2) This song is about a performer who is "heading up to San Francisco for the Labor Day weekend show." When you think of San Francisco, what's the first thing that comes to mind?
Earthquakes!

3) As he sings, Buffett tells us he's wearing Hush Puppies casual shoes. What's on your feet as you answer these nine questions?
Nothing at all! My feet are naked as a jay bird.   

4) So many Jimmy Buffett songs take place on or around the water. When was the last time you were on a boat?
Um… yesterday. I checked out the bilge pump on the boat.

5) Everyone knows Jimmy Buffett can write music, but he also has more than half a dozen books to his credit. What's the last book you read?
I’m reading the “Wheel of Time” series of books by Robert Jordan; right now I’m on book seven “A Crown of Swords”

6) Jimmy's persona is that of a simple beach bum, but in reality he's a conglomerate, with his own beverage company, more than a dozen restaurants and a couple hotels. He's so successful he has several homes, including a luxury mansion in the Hamptons! If you, like Buffett, could just take off and spend Labor Day weekend anywhere, where would you go? Who would you take along?
I would go up to the lakes of New Hampshire with my family… oh wait I did that.

7) This weekend may offer a golden opportunity for napping and sleeping in. Do you snore?
Like you wouldn’t believe!

8) Labor Day was introduced to celebrate the achievements of the American worker. Yet this Recession has taken its toll on many of us laborers. Sam's brother, a movie projectionist, hasn't worked full-time in his chosen profession in more than a year. Is anyone close to you struggling with unemployment or underemployment? (If so, they are in our thoughts this weekend, too.)
They all have jobs. But I was laid off and took early retirement because I knew at my age I would never get a job.

9) Onto something happier ... Labor Day traditionally marks the beginning of the new school year. When she was a kid, Samantha was crazy for her brand new box of 96 Crayola Crayons. It even had a sharpener in the back! What do you remember about preparing to go back to school? If you're a parent with schoolage kids, are they ready?
I remember being dragged to school, I hated it with a passion.

Everyone Lets Sing Kumbaya Together

I think it was the second time that I went to Fantasia Fair when we went up a day early and were there for the last weekend of “Women’s Week” in Provincetown. We (three or four of us) were sitting around in the living room of the B&B having wine and cheese that the owners put out at five every afternoon when we were joined by a group of lesbians.

We sat staring at one another for an awkward few minutes, kind of like when you get into an elevator with strangers. I don’t remember how the topic came up but someone mentioned that LG have nothing in common with T and I said we both come “out” and started telling my coming out story. Several bottles of wine later we all found more common interests, we were no longer sitting with “them” on one side of the room and “us” on the other side of the room but were commingled.

There has been a number of blogs recently that I have read with “us” against “them” theme and I don’t think that is truly true. Are there gays and lesbians who hate us? Most definitely, but there are many others who do not. I believe that there is “Gay Inc.” and “Radical Fems” that hate us, but I also believe that they are small in numbers compared to the total LG population and they are very vocal.

I have been to lesbian dances and private parties where I was totally accepted. I have been to gay events where we all got along. I have both gay and lesbian friends and I have gone to a lesbian bridal shower and also I have attended events with gay friends.

I also know that gay and lesbian organizations put their interest before ours and that most of their funding comes from “Gay Inc.” and once they get marriage equality all their $25 and $50 donations dry up. I understand it, but I don’t like it. People tend to give money to causes that directly affect them and that is human nature. I also recognize that organizations like the HRC are run by “Gay Inc.” and their primary interest is “Gay Rights” not trans-rights and that they only give us lip service.

After Connecticut got marriage equality I was going to “Town Hall Meetings” with the organization that worked to pass the marriage legislation and I talked about trans-equality my story moved a number of gays and lesbians to donation. However, the vast majority of their small donors stopped giving, not because they hated us but because it was no longer in their self-interest.

When I was going to class for community organizing we learned how to motivate people and the two ways were appeal to their self-interest and through their emotions. When I talked at the meetings I appealed to their emotions and they gave, but for all those gays and lesbians who didn’t attend there was no way to appeal to their emotions or to their self-interest and the funding stopped.

I don’t think that the vast majority of gays and lesbians hate us, I think just like most people they don’t understand us.

Another Complete Useless Ballot Initiative

Here we go again, in California another ballot initiative that will get overturned in the courts.

State OKs anti-trans signature effort

Bay Area Reporter

Published 08/29/2013

by Seth Hemmelgarn

Anti-trans activists received the go-ahead to gather more than 500,000 signatures in their efforts to undo a new California law designed to support transgender students.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced Monday, August 26 that Karen England, executive director of the Capitol Resource Institute and its affiliated Capitol Resource Family Impact, and others have until November 10 to submit at least 504,760 valid signatures to put their attempt to overturn Assembly Bill 1266 on the state ballot next year.

AB 1266, which Governor Jerry Brown signed into law August 12, aims to make sure that transgender youth can fully participate in all school activities, sports teams, programs, and facilities that match their gender identity.

[…]

Turner added that AB 1266 is "a clarification and codification of existing non-discrimination requirements that already prohibit schools" from treating transgender boys different from other boys, and from treating transgender girls different from other girls.

"Even if they were successful in repealing AB 1266, that non-discrimination principle would still be a part of both California and federal non-discrimination law," she said.

So even if they did get enough signatures and even if they did get enough votes to repeal AB 1266 the schools will still have to integrate the schools for trans-students. It doesn’t make any sense to put this on the ballot, but then again who ever said that the rightwing conservatives had any sense.

This past spring under an agreement with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the Arcadia Unified School District in Arcadia, California agreed to integrate the school system for transgender students. Both the DofED and the DOJ believe that discriminate against trans-students violate Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 so the ballot initiative would be totally useless.

I Have Seen The Promised Land

On today the anniversary I wish that Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream has come true. Instead racism and discrimination has become covert, people know not to say that they didn’t hire you because you are… black or gay or a woman or your religion or your age. They know enough not to say those words that could get them sued.

Just look at New York City’s “Stop and Frisk” policy that a judge just order oversight of the policy because the way it was being enforced. We don’t discriminate because of race, we now discriminate because of socioeconomic class and it is a vicious circle. Crime is higher in black communities because of the lack of jobs. There is a lack of jobs because of poor education. There is poor education because the funding is now going to “charter schools” that cherry pick the best and brightest students and send the others back to the city schools.

On Martin Luther King Day back in 2011 I posted this blog that asked if Connecticut was the “Promised Land?”

When Martin Luther King said “I have seen the promised land”, it was Simsbury CT... WHAT!
 

When Martin Luther King said “I have seen the promised land” he might have been talking of Simsbury CT. When he was a Morehouse College student, he worked two summers in Simsbury at a tobacco farm and in a letter home he wrote, "Yesterday, we didn't work, so went to Hartford," King wrote. "We really had a nice time there. I never thought that a person my race could eat anywhere, but we ate in one of the finest restaurants in Hartford." (Hartford Courant)

Students at Simsbury High created this video… Summers of Freedom: Martin Luther King Jr. in Connecticut

Summers of Freedom: the Story of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Connecticut from Simsbury History Scholars on Vimeo

Intersex

It used to be standard procedure to do “corrective surgery” on intersex babies to make them "normal". Society is so hung up on gender that the first question that is asked on birth of a baby is… you all know the answer, is the baby “a boy or a girl?” Slowly the surgery is being discontinued and a more reasoned approach of letting the child when they are old enough to make the decision.

Sex-assignment surgery on a child ruled unconstitutional
Federal court decides in favor of 8-year-old boy born with intersex condition subjected to procedure as an infant
By Southern Poverty Law Center
August 24, 2013

For the first time, a federal court has concluded that a medically unnecessary sex-assignment surgery on a child with an intersex condition could be a violation of the Constitution. This marks an important step forward in seeking justice for “M.C.,” a young man who was needlessly subjected to the procedure as an infant in the care of the South Carolina Department of Social Services.
[…]
“We applaud the court’s decision and we are pleased that the court will have the opportunity to consider the deeply important constitutional issues at stake,” said Alesdair Ittelson, staff attorney for the SPLC. “By removing M.C.’s healthy body parts and trying to make him a girl absent any pressing reason, defendants violated M.C.’s constitutional rights. We look forward to the chance to make our case at trial and bring justice to M.C. and children like him.”

Hopefully, this will make doctors think twice before medically unnecessary sex-assignment surgery.

Gender identity was once thought of being all “nurture” that gender identity was a social construct but we are now learning that our identity is hardwired in our brain. In “Your Personal Pathology” by Rober Sapolsky he writes about how our personality is programed in our brains.

Neuroscience has progressed at a startling speed. We now understand how neurons find and connect to one another during development and how they die after injuries, how our brains decode sensory information and coordinate muscle movement, how sea slugs and even humans learn. Perhaps most excitingly, we are uncovering the brain basis of our behaviors--normal, abnormal and in-between. We are mapping a neurobiology of what makes us us.
[…]
Other findings, though not as readily categorized in the nature-versus-nurture debate, reveal new ways in which we are the products of our brains. Take a report by Frank Kruijver and his team at the Netherlands Institute of Brain Research. It has been known for some time that in a brain region called the bed nucleus of the striae terminalis (BNST), men and women differ consistently in their number of neurons. Kruijver counted neurons in postmortem human brains, including those from transsexuals. And in both sexes, transsexuals did not have the number of neurons typical of their birth gender. Rather they had the number typical of the sex that they always felt they should be. This pattern was independent of whether the person had actually ever changed sex behaviorally or been treated with hormones.

Think of it: these people's chromosomes, gonads, genitals, hormones and societal treatment all say they are one gender. But they and their BNSTs insist otherwise. This discovery suggests that transsexualism is not a problem of thinking that one is the wrong sex. It is a problem of having the body of the wrong sex.
When doctors preform “corrective surgery” on intersex babies they only change the outward appearance not how the brain is programed.

In an article by Doctors William G. Reiner and John P. Gearhart, M.D. in the New England Journal of Medicine titled “Discordant Sexual Identity in Some Genetic Males with Cloacal Exstrophy Assigned to Female Sex at Birth” they wrote,

The concept of sexual identity in persons with genital malformations has intrigued the medical world since Money and colleagues' pioneering studies of intersex in the 1950s. They later reasoned that an infant's sex could be assigned if corresponding genitalia were constructed during infancy and the child's upbringing corresponded to that sex.

In other words, they want the child look normal. They thought gender identity was all nurture and nature was not involved with gender identity. The study was a small convenience sample of 16 children who had “corrective surgery.”

Sexual identity varied among the subjects assigned to female sex. Five persistently declared unwavering female identity. One other subject refused to discuss sexual identity with anyone. Eight declared unwavering male identity: four of these subjects declared male identity spontaneously, at the ages of 7, 9, 9, and 12 years, although the parents of two persistently rejected these declarations. Four others declared male identity after their parents revealed to them that their birth status was male, at ages 5, 7, 7, and 18 years. Two subjects were reared male and identified themselves as male. Table shows neonatal sexual assignment, sex at initial assessment, and present sex. All subjects were in medically stable condition, although they had had various health problems. All attended regular schools.
[…]
Assessments revealed moderate-to-marked male-typical behaviors in all 16 subjects…

It is an interesting study in that it shows that something deep inside us know what our true gender identity is no matter what we look like on the outside.

I am glad that the courts have stepped in and are hearing arguments on “M.C.” case against South Carolina Department of Social Services.

References:
Reiner, W. G., & Gearhart, J. P. (2004). Discordant sexual identity in some genetic males with cloacal exstrophy assigned to female sex at birth. New England Journal of Medicine, 350(4), 333-341.
Sapolsky, R. M. (2004). Your Personal Pathology. Scientific American Special Edition, 14(1), 94-95.

Money & Privilege

CNN and NPR and other news agencies said they are not going to use the correct pronouns until Chelsea Manning receives hormones and transitions. The New York Times wrote…

National Public Radio will continue for now to refer to Private Manning as “he,” according to a spokeswoman, Anna Bross. “Until Bradley Manning’s desire to have his gender changed actually physically happens, we will be using male-related pronouns to identify him,” she said.

The policy goes against the AP guidelines for trans-people in that the AP stylesheet “use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.” In addition, the policy assumes that a person has enough money to begin transitioning, for many the cost is prohibitive. For many trans-people the cost of transition is way out of reach costing several thousand dollars for therapy, hormones and for trans-women electrolysis and that does not even include surgery.

In a Maine homeless shelter clients complained about a trans-woman staying at the shelter, they said,

“That person did not have any feminine mannerisms and often dresses in a T-shirt and jeans, sporting a 5 o'clock shadow of male facial hair”

I said in my blog that,

Honey, if you want to give them a couple of thousand dollars for them to have electrolysis or laser treatment, I sure they would be happy to have their beards removed. But since it is unlikely you will give them the money and since they are living in a homeless shelter I doubt very much that they have the money.

I know of a number of trans-women who are on assistance and cannot afford electrolysis and Medicaid just pays for their hormones. It puts additional stress on them because they have a “5 o’clock shadows” and it decreases their ability to pass which in turn limits their chances of getting a job.

Money also increases the opportunity for passing, visual non-conformity is a risk factor in causing anti-transgender bias and its attendant social and economic burdens. A number of trans-women have what is called “Full Face Feminization Surgery” that makes the face have a more feminine appearance and it can cost over $60,000. The better that you pass the better your chances are to finding a good job, so it is a vicious circle.


It no different in the non-trans world, those with money have privilege, but in the trans-world having money to transition makes all the difference between a homeless shelter and passing.

Lateral Oppression or Peer to Peer Oppression

Earlier this month one of my blog posts went viral, it was referenced in a national trans-blog and my hit counter went wild. The post was about how an Austrian military officer said that she knows that she will never be “a woman,” that she will always be transgender and I agreed with her. I said you can never leave your past behind. Well that generated all kind of spam (using my email address to sign up for newsletters) and derogatory comments by “Anonymous” like this…

Diana, is it true that you lost your wig once while swimming... right in front of everyone? OMG, that must have been so embarrassing! It's no small wonder you don't think we can ever be real women... it's obvious that you'll never be one!

There is a name for this type of behavior, it is called “Lateral Oppression” or “Lateral Violence” and it is common in all marginalized communities.* The definition is,

Later Oppression or Violence: oppression or violence that is directed towards other members of the social group or community, usually toward a subculture of the social group or community.

U.S. Legal Definitions defines it as,

Lateral violence happens when people who are both victims of a situation of dominance, in fact turn on each other rather than confront the system that oppresses them both. Lateral violence occurs when oppressed groups/individuals internalize feelings such as anger and rage, and manifest their feelings through behaviors such as gossip, jealousy, putdowns and blaming.

We find lateral violence or oppression wherever we look…

We find it with teenage girls
We find it with immigrants
We find it in socioeconomic classes
We find it in racial groups
We find it in the gay and lesbian communities
And we find it in within the transgender community

So what causes it?

It is caused by internalize of guilt and prejudice. It is used as a defense mechanism against otherwise unbearable discomfort that they have as a member of the oppressed group. It is a method which a member of the marginalized group uses to separate themselves from that group. For an example, during the early 70s many gays and lesbians of the “Gay Liberation Front” did not want any feminine gays or masculine lesbian in their organization. Because of their internalized guilt and prejudice they want to separate themselves from the flamboyant gays or lesbians. The straight looking and acting gays and lesbians want to be disassociate from them; they only wanted gays and lesbians who can be assimilated into the straight society so they could blend in with everyone else.

The same thing for trans-people, those that can pass or have had surgery want to disassociate from trans-people who cannot pass. They want to establish a pecking order with passible post-op trans-people on top. They want to be assimilated into the straight society and not be associated with what they call “men in dresses” meaning anyone who cannot pass.

Here is a video that talks about Lateral Violence within the First Nation community (Only the first 1:45 of video pertains to my discussion). The same type of oppression exists in  other marginalized communities.

In the video “7 Symptoms of Lateral Violence” Denise Findlay talks about the symptoms of Lateral Violence and I think the important symptoms are,
3. Marginalized Voices
4. Internalized Voice of Oppression
7. Revenge

In the video the “7 Antiodotes to Lateral Violence” she talks about ways to counter lateral violence.



*Community: in this case I use the word in a sociological sense, where a group of people have cultural, religious, ethnic, or other characteristics in common. You do not need to feel a member of the community, you are part of the community because you share a characteristics in common, we are all trans.

Update 2:00PM : Ops, I forgot to embed the first video

Vocabulary Of Oppression

So what do you think are the characteristics of a marginalized community?

Stop and think for a moment, what are the signs of oppression?

When I was in grad school we studied oppression and how it affects society and one of the first things that we learned was the language of oppression. What terms have been used to describe immigrants? Pick any ethnic group and there were derogatory terms used, whether it was the Italians, Irish, Chinese or Mexicans there was some slang term that was used to oppress them.

The trans-community is no exception; there is a language that is used to oppress us; shemales, he-shes, it and many more. There was an article on NBC News Technology webpage about pronouns and what caught my attention was this,

"I know personally how dehumanizing it is to have someone address me with a name or a pronoun that does not fit who I am as a person," said Masen Davis, executive director of the Transgender Law Center, who is a transgender man. "When people and the media are not accepting Manning's news of her transition, it sends a message to other transgender people, that they are not accepted."

This dehumanizing effect influences how transgender people are treated in society and the workplace and how they see themselves.

Given these cultural and legal struggles, accepting the use of a requested pronoun is a minimal trade-off, advocates argue.

The language of oppression is meant to dehumanizing, it is meant to marginalize, us against them. In Stephanie Wildman’s “Language of Silence: Making System of Privilege Visible” she writes, “Language contributes to the invisibility and the regeneration of privilege.” She goes on to write what is the first question that is asked about when someone has a baby, “is it a boy or girl?” Why do we ask that question and not “is the baby healthy?” It is because we want to label the child, we want to put the baby in a box either marked boy or girl. We use language to define who is in a privilege group and who is not; when someone calls us “it” they are identifying us to be outside of the privilege group. We also use language to oppress within a culture, when someone uses the word “transvestite” or “just a crossdresser” they are using language to establish their dominance over a sub-culture.

There is a term for this type of use of the language of oppression, microagression. It is not all out violent; it is not physical but psychological in its use of language to establish dominance over a group. Miss use of pronouns, call us by our old name, ridiculing, shunning or ignoring are all forms of microagression. Microagression is like a dripping faucet, it is no big deal but over time that dip, dip, dip… adds up to a headache. Miss using pronouns is no big deal but constant pin prick tears down your self-esteem and is used to dehumanize and marginalize you and the community.

The best defense is an offense, speak up, act out! When you hear a radio DJ make derogatory comments or use putdowns call the station or write to the station or post on their Facebook page, do anything to make it known that their comments are not acceptable. The way to fight microagression is to let them know that their behavior is unacceptable.

Saturday Six #489

Patrick Place Saturday Six #489

1. You want a nice sit-down dinner you know you’ll enjoy at a restaurant and you’re alone: which local restaurant are you likely to choose?
I like a local seafood restaurant, the Blue Lobster I like to go to with my Kindle

2. Which dish are you most likely to order and why?
Fried clam strips without fries because I like fried clams.

3. Now you have the chance to entertain someone visiting from out of town: which restaurant are you likely to choose and why?
There are several good restaurants in the area that I go to, one is Tuscany Grill and another that like is Skipper’s Dock which is a longer drive but it is right on pier in Stonington.

4. Which dish from a restaurant have you most diligently tried to duplicate in your own kitchen?
None, but I do a lot of cooking and experimenting with different dishes.

5. How close have you come to matching the flavors of restaurant chefs you’ve tried to emulate?
I don’t really try to duplicate them.

6. What’s your favorite drink — it can be alcoholic or non-alcoholic — to have with a nice dinner?
Ice tea or ice coffee during the summer.

Saturday 9: Easy Lover

Crazy Sam’s  Saturday 9: Easy Lover



1) This song is about a heartbreaker who just can't commit. Have you ever fallen for an "easy lover?"
Nope, just hard love.

2) This song is one of Crazy Sam's "earwigs." Each time she hears it, it bores in and stays in her head forever! (Hear it here, if you dare!) Do you have a song like that?
I have many of them and I don’t want to mention their names because I’ll be humming them all day.

3) Both Phil Collins and Philip Bailey* have stars on The Hollywood Walk of Fame. Have you ever visited Hollywood?
Nope and I have no desire to visit Hollywood.

4) Hollywood is the movie capital of the world. What's the last movie you saw in the theater?
Hope Springs, I loved it.

5) Phil Collins was a child actor in his native England, appearing onstage in musicals like Oliver! Can you think of another child performer who went on to entertainment industry success as an adult?
Shirley Temple Black

6) Philip Bailey joined Earth, Wind & Fire while still in college, so he's been a performer throughout his working life, as well. Have you ever been tempted to try your hand at show biz?
Nope, I have a hard enough time remembering my name let alone lines

7) Is there a profession that you never, under any circumstances, want to try?
Knife swallowing.

8) What are you looking forward to right now?
Having friends over the cottage today

9) Do you suffer from trypanophobia (fear of needles/injections)? Or can you bravely donate blood or get a shot, without freaking out?
Nope, I’m diabetic and I got over my fear of shots early. However, I am not allowed to give blood because of the meds I take.

Well It Is About Time…

To take action against non-profits that abuse their tax exempt status. The non-profit that I’m on the Board of Directors we are very careful that we do not endorse any candidate or party, we can lobby for a bill as long as we do not spend is not a “significant” amount of our income on lobbying. A “significant” portion is usually considered less than 15% of your income.

Churches are usually register as a 501(c)3 non-profit to avoid paying taxes because there is no law that don’t have to pay taxes. The separation of church and state does not mean they are exempt from taxes.

IRS faces lawsuit for failing to enforce church electioneering ban
By Eric W. Dolan
Tuesday, August 20, 2013

The Internal Revenue Service was unable to suppress a lawsuit over its failure to audit thousand of churches that allegedly violated federal tax law by engaging in partisan advocacy.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman of the Western District of Wisconsin on Monday denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation against the IRS.

“If it is true that the IRS has a policy of not enforcing the prohibition on campaigning against religious organizations, then the IRS is conferring a benefit on religious organizations (the ability to participate in political campaigns) that it denies to all other 501(c)(3) organizations, including the Foundation,” Adelman wrote.

There are a number of churches that have thumb-up their noses at the non-profit rules.

In an annual event called “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” pastors from more than 1,000 churches have challenged the regulation by preaching about political topics. Some pastors even record their overtly partisan sermons and send them to the IRS…

It is time for them to call their dare and to file paperwork to strip them of their non-profit status. But the Tea Party has them running scared. Scared of accusations that they are singling out conservative religions. 

No Hope In Military Prisons If You Are Trans.

Right now if you are a trans-servicemembers things look bleak. Nothing is going to happen for at least two or more likely three years until the study for the integration of trans-people into the military is completed. And it looks even bleaker is you are incarcerated in a military prison like Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas.

According to the Courthouse News,

Ft. Leavenworth spokeswoman Kimberly Lewis told Courthouse News that treatment for transgender inmates does not extend beyond psychiatric care.

"All inmates are considered soldiers and are treated as such with access to mental health professionals, including a psychiatrist, psychologist, social workers and behavioral science noncommissioned officers with experience in addressing the needs of military personnel in pre- and post-trial confinement," Lewis said in an email. "The Army does not provide hormone therapy or sex-reassignment surgery for gender identity disorder."

In the civilian prison system there have been a number of court cases both state and federal that have ruled that the 14th Amendment for equal treatment applies to prisoners and they must get medically necessary treatment in prison. Also the courts have ruled that denying treatment for inmates constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

The Courthouse article goes on to say,

After the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the Pentagon has tried to clean up its image regarding transgender armed service members, even while officially banning them from serving under so-called "medical" restrictions.

Banning gays and lesbians in the military was by law, but banning trans-people in the military is by policy not by law and can be changed by a policy change only. The reason why the ban was in place was that trans-servicemembers suffered from a “mental illness” and were unfit for duty; however, under the changes in the DSM V that argument is no long valid.

So how are transgender inmates treated at Ft. Leavenworth? According to the article,

 Ft. Leavenworth spokeswoman Kimberly Lewis told Courthouse News that treatment for transgender inmates does not extend beyond psychiatric care.

That means loading them up with anti-depressant, anti-anxiety drugs, not hormones (which are much more expensive than hormones).

I’m Disappointed…

That President Obama hasn’t signed an executive order banning discrimination gender identity and expression for federal contractors and federal employees.

Labor Department Refuses To Answer Questions On Transgender Protections

“I don’t have anything on that, I’m afraid, but I’ll let you know if anything changes,” a department spokeswoman says. Action is “imperative,” one advocate says, while another says the Labor Department’s continued inaction is “lawless.”
BuzzFeed
Chris Geidner BuzzFeed Staff
August 20, 2013 at 9:23pm EDT

WASHINGTON — Labor Department officials have refused for more than a year to answer questions from BuzzFeed about whether transgender workers for federal contractors are legally protected from discrimination. And, nearly a month into Labor Secretary Tom Perez’s tenure, answers are no more forthcoming.

The questions surround Executive Order 11246, which was signed by President Lyndon Johnson and bans federal contractors doing more than $10,000 a year of business with the federal government from discriminating on the basis of race, sex, religion or national origin. The executive order is enforced by the Labor Department, and, under the department’s policies, an April 2012 ruling by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission should have led the department to expand its definition of sex in the executive order to include anti-transgender discrimination.

Just Let Me Connect Up These Electrodes…

…To “cure” you. Those of us who are in LGBT community probably know at least one person who spent thousands of dollars to be cured (reparative therapy). One friend went for years before he realized that it wasn’t working and spent over ten thousand dollars for the “cure” and then he wrote a play called “Doin' Time in The Homo No Mo Halfway House” about his experience there.

Well if you live in California or New Jersey and you are gay or lesbian or bisexual or trans you don’t have to worry about them hooking electrodes up to your brain anymore because reparative therapy on minors have been banned. In California bill SB1172 that passed this spring prohibits reparative therapy to cure homosexuality on minors under 12 and in New Jersey the bill A3371 which Governor Christie signed in to law.

Christie signs bill banning gay conversion therapy in New Jersey
CBS/AP
August 19, 2013

TRENTON, N.J. Gov. Chris Christie on Monday signed a bill barring licensed therapists from trying to turn gay teenagers straight, making New Jersey the second state to ban so-called conversion therapy, along with California.

The bill passed both houses of the New Jersey Legislature with bipartisan support in June. Assemblyman Tim Eustace, who sponsored the bill and is openly gay, described the therapy as "an insidious form of child abuse."

In a signing note accompanying the bill, Christie said he believes people are born gay and that homosexuality is not a sin. That view is inconsistent with his Catholic faith, which teaches that homosexual acts are sins.

In nether of the laws does stop religious organizations from reparative therapy, but that did stop them from suing the two states. They want the right to brain zap their children.

Liberty Counsel To File Suit Over New Jersey's Gay 'Conversion Therapy' Ban
The Huffington Post
By James Nichols
Posted: 08/19/2013

Right-wing religious organization Liberty Counsel is threatening to file suit over New Jersey's ban on gay conversion therapy, a bill that Governor Chris Christie signed into law early this afternoon, Aug 19. The bill will bar attempted "conversion" by licensed therapists of a minor's sexuality from gay to straight.

Christie's signing of Bill A3371 echoes California's passage of a similar piece of legislation last year that now bans conversion therapy in the Golden State. In response, California opposition groups have filed similar lawsuits to the one currently being pushed by Liberty Counsel.
[…]
According to Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel:

    This bill is so broad that parents would be prohibited from seeking help for their son who developed unwanted same-sex attractions after being molested by the likes of Jerry Sandusky. Counselors would only be allowed to affirm these unwanted feelings as good and normal. This is absurd and dangerous. This law would inflict serious damage to children, parents, and counselors.

That is total bull! First the laws do not ban treatment for PTSD or any other psychiatric problems that resulted from the sexual assault. Second, you cannot be made “gay” and third, priests still can perform their exorcisms or whatever they do to “make them straight.”

Kids Say The Darndest Things

Out in California the conservatives are going crazy over the new legislation to integrate trans-students into the general school population. In California they passed non-discrimination laws to protect gender identity and expression back in 2003 and the schools already had gender identity and expression policies in place when the current law was passed. In addition, the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education have taken the stance that not letting trans-students live and use the facilities of their gender identity violates both Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Therefore, the new California law just clarifies the existing laws.

If you look at all the other states with gender identity inclusive non-discrimination laws, it is not the students that have a problem with trans-students but the parents. In Maine it was a custodial grandparent who stirred up the hornet’s nest; the students were OK until the grandparent told his grandson to go into the girls’ bathroom.

In an article in the Huffington Post Gay Voices by Beth Kohm  she said,

About six months ago my 6-year-old, Joshua, walked into our room while my husband Bob and I were watching a show in which the word "transgender" came up. He asked, "Mom, what is 'transgender'?" For a moment I hesitated over how to respond. In my work persona, I still worry that I might use the wrong pronouns or just generally not get it right on trans issues and unintentionally hurt some great people. Should I quote the American Academy of Pediatrics research? Should I cite resources from PFLAG and Gender Spectrum?

I took a deep breath, and my mommy persona took over; I always try to answer questions from my sons as honestly and age-appropriately as I can. I simply explained as best as I could what being transgender is, but I also said that it's a very complicated topic that sometimes even grownups struggle with. Joshua thought about it for a moment and then issued his surprising response: "No, it isn't, Mom. It is just like my Lego Ninjagos when I put the male heads on the female bodies. No biggie. Can I have a cookie?" The whole exchange took three minutes.

How kids react is a reflection of how the parents react. If the parents run around screaming like a chicken with its head cutoff, the kids will react the same way. If the parents handle telling a child about a trans-student the way the Kohms’ reacted then the child will mirror that reaction, it would not be an issue. The author goes on to write,

He left to get his cookie, and I sat there in amused reflection. We all quickly learn that our kids model our responses; if you make an issue out of something, then they will too. In this case, I can't help but think that adults should start learning from kids. For Joshua it was not a big deal. He figured out gender identity in his kindergartener brain using Legos.

It is too bad that the legislators can’t figure that out in their own kindergartener brains.

I’m Waiting…

...For Medicare here to including Gender Confirming Surgery surgery coverage.

GENDER DISCRIMINATION REMOVED FROM MEDICARE
qNews
By Jordan Hirst
August 7th 2013

New changes to Medicare will remove gender discrimination from the health system and remove barriers to some medical treatments for transgender and intersex Australians.

Some of the 6000 services covered by Medicare are only available to men or women, and Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said this has caused discrimination against some people who had been forced to have discussions about their gender identity in order to access a service or claim a Medicare rebate for one.

“If you need a medical treatment under Medicare you should be able to get it without a discussion about or disclosure of your gender - male, female, transgender, or otherwise,” she said.

I believe that is true here in the U.S. now, that the barriers to treating trans-patients have been removed. So if I have a prostrate problem it will be covered by Medicare. However, at this time Gender Confirming Surgery is not covered, but I believe that there have been several legal brief filed to appeal the policy that denies GCS surgery for trans-people.

As more companies add GCS to their insurance coverage and interesting thing has been happening, some trans-people have found that many of the surgeons do not accept insurance. Many of the surgeons who do GCS are plastic surgeons who are not use to their patients having insurance coverage.

Saturday Six #488

Patrick’s Place Saturday Six #488

For all of these questions, assume you’ve just read the morning paper and spotted a false report of your own death.

1. Who would be the first person close to you whom you’d call to set the record straight?
Well actually it was my brother who called me. Since I am retired and live alone I use something called “Deathswitch” and every morning I get an email that I have to click on. One morning I didn’t notice that I didn’t get an email from them and the next day I get a call from my brother asking me if I’m alright. But if the paper reported my death I’ll probably post something on Facebook since I do not have any local family.

2. Would you call the newspaper to dispute the report before or after calling the person you named in Question 1?
Probably Facebook first because the news would have spread all over Facebook by then.

3. Would you be tempted to play along with the situation and show up somewhere that you knew people who thought you’d died would be, just to see their reaction?
No, that would be a cruel joke.

4. Would you go online to read comments if you knew your newspaper’s website had such a place for people to leave memories of you?
Yes. Like I said it would be cruel to let everyone thing I died.

5. If you could find an honest listing of such memories and thoughts from people who knew you, would you expect the comments to be all positive, all negative, mostly positive, mostly negative, or in the middle?
I would think that they would all be positive and I would post thank yous. Which probably would be the first time anyone thanked people for leaving a comment on their Obit.

6. If you were to see your obituary, would you hope that your true age was or wasn’t mentioned?
No, I not that fussy about my age. However, when I was interviewed by reporters from newspapers and  television interviews I didn’t give my true age.

Saturday 9: Cowboy Casanova

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: Cowboy Casanova



This is for all the country music fans out there

1) The singer tries to warn her friend against a neighborhood Lothario. Do you advise your friends when it comes to love? Or do you stay out of it?
I stay out of matters of the heart because friends follow their heart and not their friends advice.

2) This song is about the hot guy "leaning up against the record machine." Does your favorite restaurant or bar still have a juke box?
Nope. It is just the basic seafood shack.

3) Carrie is an American Idol winner. Have you ever gone online or picked up the phone and voted for a contestant on Dancing with the Stars, American Idol or any similar show?
Nope, I don’t even watch those shows.

4) Carrie graduated magna cum laude and majored in journalism, yet instead of being a reporter, she's a country music superstar. How similar are your life/career today to the way you envisioned them when you were 21?
I always wanted to be an engineer and I was; however, later in life after retirement I shifted over to social work.

5) Carrie also competed in beauty pageants and was a runner up for Miss NSU (Northeastern State University). If you were a contestant in a pageant, what would you do for the talent competition?
I would compete in the nose and ear wiggling competition.

6) This December, Carrie is scheduled to star in a televised remake of The Sound of Music. Do you have any year-end plans?
Yes, to make it to the end of the year.

7) She is married to NHL player Mike Fisher, center for the Nashville Predators. What's your favorite professional sports team?
The Oracle America’s Cup team.

It is not your parent’s America’s Cup…


8) Hockey is a tough game! Do you currently have an owie or an ouchie or a boo-boo that requires a bandaid?
Nope, not right now.

9) Summer brings a lot of power outages and brown outs. Do you have a flashlight? If so, have you checked the batteries?
I keep spare batteries on hand along with a gas lantern and oil lamps. I’m a good scout.

Today's Post

Normally I search the news for topics to write about but all that is in the news lately is about California’s new law for trans-student. It is either about the conservative response or the liberal response to the conservative response. So it took a little searching to find today’s topic.

While the U.S. military struggles with transgender solders other nationals around the forge ahead with diversity.

Transgender: Israel drafts first sex-changed female soldier
The Washington Times
Date: 15 August 2013
Posted By: By Cheryl K. Chumley

For the first time in the nation’s history, Israel has drafted a transgender female soldier — a teenager who is currently undergoing sex change surgery to be a girl.

Breitbart reported the action, based on various blog reports.

The transgendered draftee reported for duty at a base near Tel Aviv this week, Breitbart reported. She immediately advised doctors there of her surgery for gender-change. And the military’s response: So what?

So what! Here in the U.S. she would have been discharged from the military. Mother Jones has an article about trans-servicemembers…

The Pentagon's Transgender Problem
New studies suggest that transgender civilians are twice as likely to enlist, and transgender veterans are 20 times as likely to commit suicide.
By Adam Klasfeld and Brett Brownell
Aug. 15, 2013

Transgender soldiers and sailors largely fly under the radar, but they are hardly uncommon. In a recent survey (PDF) by the Harvard Kennedy School's LGBTQ Policy Journal, 20 percent of transgender people contacted said they had served in the military—that's twice the rate of the general population. A 2011 study estimates there are nearly 700,000 transgender individuals (about three people per thousand) living in the United States. Meanwhile, the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) is scheduled to release a report today, which draws from Department of Veterans Affairs data, showing that the number of veterans accepting treatment for transgender health issues has doubled in the past decade. (While viewing the full report requires a subscription, an abstract should be available online as of today.)

These two new peer-reviewed studies indicate that, beyond being discriminatory, the military's current policy starves the armed services of some of their likeliest recruits, and puts transgender people who serve at greater risk of discrimination, homelessness, and assault than those who don't.

In typical military fashion, the military commissioned a three year study to study “the problem.” By that time we will have a new president and the president may not be a Democrat and the conservatives I don’t think will initiate any changes in military policy.

This Is Huge! This Is A Ground Breaking Case.

A federal judge in Springfield MA has agreed to hear the law suit against Pastor Scott Lively, he is being sued by Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) for his involvement in anti-gay efforts in Uganda.

Sexual Minorities Uganda v. Scott Lively
Center For Constitutional Rights

On March 14, 2012, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Sexual Minorities Uganda, a non-profit umbrella organization for LGBT advocacy groups in Uganda, against Abiding Truth Ministries President Scott Lively. Filed in the United States District Court in Springfield, Massachusetts, the suit alleges that Lively’s involvement in anti-gay efforts in Uganda, including his active participation in the conspiracy to strip away fundamental rights from LGBT persons, constitutes persecution. This is the first known Alien Tort Statute (ATS) case seeking accountability for persecution on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The judge in the case ruled on the motion by the defendant’s counsel the Liberty Counsel, a conservative evangelical legal group affiliated with Jerry Falwell-founded Liberty University to drop the law suit. He is allowing the case to proceed.

Historic ruling: Judge orders anti-gay Scott Lively to stand trial for crimes against humanity
Extremist anti-gay US pastor is accused of engineering the Uganda 'Kill The Gays' bill, saying LGBT people are the 'new Nazis' and recommending Russia's 'gay propaganda' laws
GayStarNews
15 August 2013
By Joe Morgan

For the first time, a federal US judge has ruled a persecution of LGBT people is a crime against humanity.

This sets a precedent ensuring the fundamental human rights of LGBTI people are protected under international law.
[…]
Michael Ponsor, the US District Judge in Springfield, Maryland [Massachusetts], said: ‘Widespread, systematic persecution of LGBTI people constitutes a crime against humanity that unquestionably violates international norms.’

‘The history and current existence of discrimination against LGBTI people is precisely what qualifies them as a distinct targeted group eligible for protection under international law.

‘The fact that a group continues to be vulnerable to widespread, systematic persecution in some parts of the world simply cannot shield one who commits a crime against humanity from liability.’

This case revolves around two issues; free speech and the Alien Tort Statute; Pastor Scott Lively will argue that he has a right to say what he thinks about LGBT people and he did nothing more than express his opinion. While the plaintiffs will argue that he lobbied the Uganda legislature to pass the bill that would have made being LGBT punishable by death, the lobbying would be a violation of the Alien Tort Statute.

Your Papers Please. [2]

I don’t know how many of you read about a judge ordering New York City to change their policy on Stop & Frisk. The New York City police were stopping youth and frisking them based on their minority status and included in the group were trans-people. The New York Times reported back in April that,

Here is a vignette from March 2013: A 24-year-old gay man named Yhatzine Lafontain is leaving a restaurant late at night with a friend on Roosevelt Avenue and 95th Street in Queens. Both are dressed as women, Mr. Lafontain in a jacket, short dress and heels. Exchanging goodbyes outside, they are approached by a man who tells them they look good.

In Mr. Lafontain’s account, they chatted briefly to avoid seeming rude and the man departed. Within a few minutes, an undercover police officer approached Mr. Lafontain and his friend and arrested them, suspecting them of prostitution. “We were surprised,” Mr. Lafontain told me, “because we had never talked to anyone about sex or money.”
[…]
Last week, Mitchyll Mora, a youth leader at a group called Streetwise and Safe told me about an experience he had last spring, on his way to a poetry reading on the Lower East Side. Dressed in a style he called non-gender-conforming — makeup, boots, long earrings — he was stopped and searched by the police for no reason he could understand. The police made him throw his hands up against the wall, invoked a gay slur and grabbed his buttocks, he said. “I should have tried to file a report, but it’s hard to feel empowered in this kind of situation,” he said.
[…]
Two years ago, Ms. Ritchie settled a lawsuit against the Police Department for a transgender client, Ryhannah Combs, who was arrested on suspicion of prostitution while making her way to a McDonald’s in the Village. The complaint said the police had listed nine condoms among her possessions even though Ms. Combs was not carrying any at the time of her arrest.

Last week a Federal Judge said that the way the NYPD was conducting the “Stop & Frisk” was unconstitutional.

‘Stop and frisk’: why a judge ruled the New York tactic unconstitutional (+video)
The judge in the stop-and-frisk decision also appointed an independent monitor to ensure that the New York Police Department’s practices would be in line with constitutional standards in the future.
Christian Science Monitor
By Harry Bruinius, Staff writer
August 12, 2013

In a blow to the administration of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a federal judge declared on Monday that the city’s long-contentious police tactic known as “stop and frisk” violated the constitutional rights of perhaps millions of citizens.
[…]
Judge Scheindlin, appointed by President Clinton in 1994, found the city’s practices did not meet the “reasonable suspicion” standard set by the US Supreme Court, which allows police to stop people if they believe criminal activity “may be afoot.” This is a lower standard than “probable cause,” the most well-known standard in the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

"They have received both actual and constructive notice since at least 1999 of widespread Fourth Amendment violations occurring as a result of the NYPD's stop and frisk practices,” the judge wrote in her 195-page ruling. “Despite this notice, they deliberately maintained and even escalated policies and practices that predictably resulted in even more widespread Fourth Amendment violations."

The judge also found that the city was profiling racial minorities, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s "equal protection" clause.

Besides racial profiling the police were stopping and frisking trans-people and arresting them on prostitution if they carried condoms. Anyone who was a teenager knows that you always carry condoms just in case you got lucky but in NYC that practice could get you arrested for prostitution. Also many AIDS/HIV clinics hand out safe sex packages and carrying one of those could also lead to an arrest under the old guidelines.

Lefties Of The World UNITE!!!!!

Did you know that only around 6.5% – 7.5% are left handed*?
Did you know that in twins there is a significantly higher percentage for both twins to be left handed?
Did you know that left handedness tends to run in families?
Did you know that left handers on average lived nine years less than right handers?
Did you now that Gay and Lesbians have an “increased incidence” of left handedness?

Buzzfeed had this article about 18 Worst Things for Left-Handers People,

1. Spiral notebooks. Yup, I hate them and sometimes I use the notebook upside down.
2. Writing in a three-ring binder. Ditto.
4. Only two pairs of the green lefty scissors in class, three lefty kids. I got a left-handed scissors but they get mixed in with the right-handed scissors and the right-handers cruse me out.
6. Ink all over the side of your hand. Do you know how many times I had my knuckles rapped with a ruler by the sisters?
7. Bonking elbows with a righty at the dinner table. I always take the left-hand corner of the tables
12. These desks (Student desk with the armrest on the right). Let the battle begin for the only left-handed desk.
13. Measuring cups show you the stupid metric side. Yup, I hate them. I have to hold it in my right-hand and pour with my left which is awkward. Put the measuring cup down and pick it up in my left handed to pour.
16. Cord on the credit card machine pen is never long enough. Not only that but also they pile stuff on the left side to block your elbow.

*I used Google Scholar and googled the various topic and the percentage of left handedness varies depending upon the tests used.

Terror And Damnation!

How many of you have seen the news about California new gender identity and expression law for students? So what have you seen?

If you read the news you would think that the end of the world is coming because California passed the law. Our “Fair and Balanced” news network wrote this about the law…

Randy Thomasson, of savecalifornia.com, says the law would “damage” kids.

"This radical bill warps the gender expectations of children by forcing all California public schools to permit biological boys in girls restrooms, showers, clubs and on girls sports teams and biological girls in boys restrooms, showers, clubs and sports teams," Thomasson said. "This is insanity."

Biology is way more complicated than just genes and in addition restrooms, showers now a day all have private stalls and if anyone does anything improper it is still against the law. As for playing on sports teams, hormone blockers will even out the playing field. A teenage trans-student girl will have the same muscle mass as a teenage girl after she has been on hormone blockers or hormone for a while. As for law damaging kids, hiding your head in the sand and denying the LGBT kids exist I think is more damaging.

There have also been assertions that boys will use this law to sneak into the girl’s bathrooms or use it to get on girls’ sports teams. Which is totally ridiculous! What boy is going to dress up as a girl? And why would a boy want to play on a girl’s teams? Are they going to use that to get into college on a sports scholarship; I can just see a boy on his college application, I battled 300 on a girls’ softball team.

Where the problem lies is when the parents tell their child to go into the girls bathroom as a protest. That happened in Maine where a grandfather whose was the custodial parent told his grandson to use the girls’ bathroom and then filed discrimination complain when the grandson was disciplined (I believe the case is still in litigation).

I think that this is more likely with all the publicity,

Proponents Worry Transgender Law May Bring Bullies Out Of The Woodwork
CBS SACRAMENTO
August 13, 2013

Some of Dr. Jenny Cartinella’s clients are transgender youth. She’s concerned the law is going to place an even brighter spotlight on transgender kids, forcing more school bullies out of the woodwork.

With all the negative and hateful news article and comments kids might think that they have a green light to bully trans-kids

Update  7:03PM

So You Want To Travel.

People ask me do I want to travel and my answer is usually yes, but I want to see the U.S.A. in my Chevrolet or in my case, my Prius. That is because many other countries around the world are not so trans-friendly, in some countries you can actually lose your head for being trans* or lesbian or gay.

This morning’s Washington Post had an article about “40 maps that explain the world” and number sixteen was “Where people are the most and least tolerant of homosexuality”

Notice the Caribbean, see all the red! Along with the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Northern Africa you could get killed traveling there. There are parts of Central America and Eastern Europe are not all that friendly towards LGBT people and definitely not Russia.

Even in friendly countries you still have to know the “safe” areas to travel and the areas to stay away from and that includes here in the U.S.A.

If you doubt me just look what happened in Philadelphia last month,

A man is in custody after he allegedly murdered his transgender lover and then dumped her body parts in a vacant lot in the Strawberry Mansion section of Philadelphia.

That is right, “body parts” he hacked her up into pieces and there usually are about a dozen other murders of trans-people here in the US. All it takes if for some guy who has the “hots” for you in a restaurant to find out he has the hots for a trans-woman to get you killed. Anywhere! In your neighborhood tavern or walking down the streets of London.

So do I want to travel? Yes, here in the US and Canada first and if I go to Europe I think I travel with a “Gay” tour, but I would never travel to a red country.

Last Night...

Last night was my second attempt at night sky pictures (You don't want to see my first attempt), here is the best picture so far...

f3.5 @ 30s with a ISO of 400.

The Pecking Order…

Have you ever heard someone say that you are not really transsexual unless you have surgery? They think that only they are true transsexuals everyone else are only “transvestites” and they also refuse to use the name “crossdresser.”

Back in March there was an article about it,

Lateral Hostility and the Transgender Woman
Info Barrel
By m_spicer
March 1, 2013

Are you a transgender women who has experienced hostility from the transgender community? I would dare to say that a lot of transgender women have been the victim of bullying and pigeonholing into the brutally enforced “hierarchy” of transgender women through cyber-bullying, ostrification and deadly gossip. I use the word deadly because I believe that this behaviour is directly related to the skyrocketing transgender suicide rate. We don't we just add to the suffering and feeling of isolation that most of us feel. Some of us take their own lives; could this hostility among trans women be a factor? Perhaps something to think about the next time someone is being persecuted by our very own. We are doing it too ourselves people! It has to stop if we are going to get anywhere in society as a group of oppressed people. I asked my doctor about this phenomenon and he simply relied “it's called lateral violence”; he continued “when a group of people are singled out and ridiculed in society and have no place to put the anger and frustration they feel so they put it on the closest people to them who are on the same social rung as themselves".

We see lateral hostility in almost all oppressed groups; it is not unique to the trans-community*. In gay and lesbian communities we see it; those who can assimilate into the general population look down on those who display stereotypical gay and lesbian characteristics. People in oppressed community try to separate themselves from the community or from the more identifiable members of the community.

The article goes on to say,

There are some key characteristics of lateral hostility that you can watch out for:

• We repeat our oppression by oppressing those around us. Often being harsher on ourselves than our oppressors ever were.
• We intensely focus on the negative in another person or group. Pieces of information about you can be twisted into some negative, fear based, conclusions. Once you have been labelled “bad”, “wrong” or even better “your actually trans-phobic!” then the attack can begin.
• Collective cooperation is a key element in lateral violence. A number of transgender people will work together to attack and undermine another person or group.

The reason why I have gone to monitoring the comments on my blog is not because derogatory comments from non-trans individuals but because of derogatory comments from members of the trans-community.


When I was first coming out and finding myself, I was at a First Event conference and a trans-woman sat down next to me and she asked me if I was transsexual and when I said no, she said, oh and looked at me and got up and left. I know a lot of post-op trans-women who do not want to be associated with non-transsexuals and I know a lot of crossdressers who do not want to be around transsexuals.

But stop and think; when the person is attacking you with a baseball bat are they asking themselves is that a crossdresser or transsexual? They just see us as “A man in a dress,” they don’t think about the pecking order, it is only us within the community who tries to distinguish a trans-pyramid. 

*Community: in this case I use the word in a sociological sense, where a group of people have cultural, religious, ethnic, or other characteristics in common. You do not need to feel a member of the community, you are part of the community because you share a characteristics in common, we are all trans.

Saturday Six #487

Patrick’s Place Saturday Six #487

1. What do you hear around you right this minute?
I hear my niece talking to my nephew’s daughter who is helping  her bake a carrot cake

2. Whose laughter do you most enjoy hearing?
My other nephew’s two yea old daughter laughing.

3. Whose voice do you miss hearing most?
My parent’s voices, they died over five years ago.

4. If you had to pick a recorded song or tune as your personal theme song, which would you choose?
I have no idea, I am horrible with these types of questions

5. How many alarm clocks do you use to wake up on time?
None; I’m retired.

6. Which musical instrument creates what you consider to be the most poignant sound?
A violin.

Saturday 9: Waking Up in Vegas

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: Waking Up in Vegas

Thanks to Cat for recommending Katy Perry

1) As she sings about her night in Las Vegas, Katy wonders if she "got hitched last night dressed up like Elvis." Tell us about the last wedding you attended.
My nephews down in Asheville, they got married out a field with the mountains all around and the reception was held in a barn.

2) Whenever Crazy Sam visits Las Vegas, she stays at the Paris Hotel and Casino. Have you ever been to Las Vegas, Nevada? What about Paris, France?
Nope & nope. No desire to visit either pace,

3) Do you enjoy gambling? Have you had any success at it?
Nope, I have been to the casinos here in Connecticut but I figure it is more like entrainment, anything I win is like frosting on a cake,

4) Las Vegas is served by the RTC Bus Service and the Vegas Monorail System connects many of casinos on The Strip. When was the last time you rode a bus or a train?
A bus? It was so long ago I don’t remember, but the last time I rode a train was in 2009 in June on a train to hell and back.

5) It's not unusual for the mercury to hit 100º in Vegas in August. Which are you more comfortable in -- extreme heat or bone-chilling cold?
I like cold better, you can always add layers, but it the heat you can only take off so many layers.

6) As a little girl, Katy Perry sang nothing but gospel. Do you remember any church songs from your childhood?
Nope, I don’t sing. If I did the church would probably empty out.

7) She made her film debut as the voice of Smurfette in The Smurfs (2011). Who is your all-time favorite cartoon character?
Scrooge McDuck, I like his money.

8) Do you consider yourself a picky eater?
Yes, I hate vegetables.

9) You receive an invitation to a party that starts at 7:00 PM. When will you arrive?
7:02, I’m always a couple of minutes for parties, meetings, you name it.

I will be at my brother's birthday party all day so I don't know when I can leave comments on your blogs.