Mom, Dad I Have Something To Tell

How many of us have said that to our parents after years of soul searching until we realize that we can’t go on living a lie.

Well the right-wing has developed a name for it.

'Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria' Is Biased Junk Science
A frighteningly biased piece on trans youth was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, says Brynn Tannehill, who breaks down why it's so wrong.
The Advocate
By Brynn Tannehill
February 20, 2018

Recently, a new anti-transgender narrative has emerged among the right wing. The narrative states that teens, particularly those assigned female at birth, are going on the internet and convincing themselves that they are transgender because being transgender is “trendy.” It treats transgender identities as a form of social contagion. This theory has been picked up on by numerous hate groups and conservative news outlets, including LifeSite, Barbara Kay, the Catholic Institute for Marital Healing, the Minnesota Family Council, MercatorNet, the Illinois Family Institute, the Family Research Council, the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal, and an advocacy group of anti-gay therapists.

The entire theory is based on a single poster abstract in 2017 by Dr. Lisa Littman. Poster abstracts are often published when not only is the material too weak to be a journal article, but of insufficient quality to even be accepted for oral presentation at a conference. As such, the academic bar for a poster abstract getting accepted is very low. It was, however, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

The article goes on to list the reasons why this is garbage…

1. The sample group has a heavy and unacknowledged bias which affects the results
Littman posted a survey on three websites asking parents about their transgender teens. What she failed to mention in her abstract is that all three websites — 4thwavenow.com, transgendertrend.com, and YouthTransCriticalProfessionals.org — are all dedicated to parents who do not recognize the gender identities of their children, and do not support their transitions. Littman did not post her survey to sites where parents of transgender adolescents support their children or even neutral sites.

Talk about a “convenience sample”

Using disgruntled parents who cannot accept their child’s transition kind of slightly bias the survey [satire]. I sometime explain this type of sampling as going to a prison and finding most prisoners smoke cigarettes and come to the conclusion that smoking cigarettes causes criminal behavior.

2. One of her survey questions appears to be a deliberate attempt to hide her bias
One of the survey questions asked respondents whether they believe “transgender people deserve the rights and protections as other people.” The abstract notes that 87.7 percent answered yes, and is presented in such a way as to suggest that the respondents did not harbor anti-transgender animus. However, this question, and statistic, appear to be deliberately misleading.

This phrasing suggests a deliberate attempt to hide bias in the study, because even people who are vehemently against transgender people are likely to answer yes. For over a decade, anti-LGBT hate groups have framed protections for LGBT people, and even marriage equality, as “special rights.”
[…]
3. The unacknowledged bias in Littman’s sample leads her to ignore plausible explanations for her data supported by extant literature
Littman asks “before and after” coming out questions in her survey. This includes things such as whether the parent-child relationship improved or got worse after they came out, and whether the mental well-being of the child improved or declined after the child came out. Based on parents’ perceptions, both declined according to her survey.  She notes that this observation contradicts the existing body of research, which shows improvement when trans youth come out.
[…]
4. The conclusions reached by this abstract rely on poor logic and what appears to be a deliberately biased sample
The abstract concludes that “rapid onset gender dysphoria” is dangerous, real, and is caused by interactions with friends and people on the internet. This conclusion is based on some rather heroic leaps of logic.

The most grievous logical error is the conclusion that this is a new phenomenon, when current literature in the context of youth living in unsupportive homes would explain the observations. The abstract conclusion also seems to imply that sources of information which encourage parents to reject the identities of transgender youth are mainstream voices.

“Rapid Onset Gender Dyshphoria” [sic] was first proposed as a diagnosis on anti-transgender websites in 2016, and this study appears to be a naked attempt to legitimize anti-transgender animus with a veneer of academic respectability. In the process, however, Littman’s work shreds all standards of academic integrity.

When I came out to my brother one of the questions he asked how long have I been trans and I told remember in 1962 when came home from work for lunch and you found me in bed at noon? Of course he didn’t but for me it was burned into my memory because of the panic of him pulling into the driveway and I was crossdressed, and I panicked.

For my brother when I told him in 2004 it was “Rapid Onset Gender Dyshphoria” but for me I suffered with gender dysphoria all my life.

There is a lot of “junk science” out there, the right like to cut and paste what they want to use to support their claims and ignore the conclusion of the report*.

I am very surprised that Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine would publish something that doesn’t follow standards of research practices, it belittles them.

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The public doesn’t really understand anything about us so they don’t know what is true and what is junk.

Our question this week: Should children be allowed to select their own gender? Let us know by email or in the comments below.
By OZY Editors
In 2011, The Toronto Star reported on a controversial baby, Storm Stocker-Witterick. Storm’s parents had decided not to reveal the sex of their child and to let Storm determine which gender she or he wanted to identify with. The public outcry in response to the story was overwhelming. Angry letters came pouring in; drivers rolled down their windows to shout “Boy!” at the Stocker-Wittericks as they walked down the street. When The Star revisited the family more than five years later, it found that the young Storm now confidently identified herself as a “she.”
[…]
In Storm’s native Canada, accommodating a child’s gender identity or gender expression is now protected by the nation’s human rights code. It remains a raging debate in Canada’s neighbor to the south, with many arguing that children should not be afforded that option. For example, according to a recent statement issued by the American College of Pediatricians, a socially conservative advocacy group of pediatricians and other health care professionals, “[a] person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking.”

Such self-knowledge is not confused thinking, says Morgane Oger, chair of the Trans Alliance and founder of the Morgane Oger Foundation, and there are several recent research studies to support the benefits of allowing transgender children to socially transition (like adopting changes to appearance, name and pronouns) at an early age. A recent study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, for example, found that allowing transgender children to socially transition was beneficial to their mental health, and they did not demonstrate any higher levels of depression or anxiety to their peers. What can create mental issues, on the other hand, is being stigmatized or not allowed to transition.

When cisgender people read an article they don’t know what is right and what is a lie, if it has a highfaluting sounding name like “American College of Pediatricians” they don’t know that there are only about 200 religious conservatives compared to the American Academy of Pediatrics that has 66,000 pediatricians.

The right-wing religious groups like to do that with not just us but also with other issues. In Hartford the city council had to pass an ordinance to ban fake doctors. In their zealousness they have open and anti-abortion clinic right next door to a women’s clinic. Even though they were not doctors they had people out in front of the women’s clinic in lab coats directing people to the anti-abortion office to argue not to have an abortion, some women complained to the city that they wanted only to have other medical tests when they were corralled in to the anti-abortion offices.

More Lies From The Right

We are used to their lies, this time they have been passing post about a boy who was said he faked being trans to get into a girls locker room. But Snopes caught them in the lie.

Was a Student Suspended for Pretending to be Transgender to Use the Girls' Locker Room?
A story about a high school student talking his way into showering with girls after gym class is a work of fiction.

CLAIM
A high school student pretended to be transgender so that he could take showers in the girls' locker room during gym class.

RATING
FALSE

ORIGIN
On 22 February 2018, the entertainment web site WorldNewsDailyReport.com published a fake article which appeared to report that a student pretended be transgender as an excuse to get into the girls’ locker room and use their shower during gym class:
[…]
This is not a genuine story; World News Daily Report is an entertainment outlet that solely publishes works of fiction:
[…]
The article also used an old and unrelated photograph as illustration, actually showing an image of Warren Evans, an openly bisexual student who was suspended from a Maryland high school in 2012 for wearing a skirt:

This is not the first time that the right has tried to disparaged us and it will not be the last.

They have tried to stage a fake a man in the women’s locker in Maryland, only to brag about it on a conservative radio show to running a video ad showing a grubby man following  a little girl into a bathroom.

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Yesterday I headed up to Cape Cod, hence no posts yesterday.

Those who follow my blog know that we sold the family cottage in New Hampshire and I have been looking for a new cottage on the Cape.

It is so hard for me to choose a place, it seems like it is always the latest cottages that I look at that I like.

I Keep On Saying Don’t Paint With A Broad Brush

But it is hard, especially when this happens...

ANTI-TRANS PROTESTERS INTERRUPT AUCKLAND’S PRIDE MARCH
The pair held a sign reading: "Stop giving kids sex hormones, protect lesbian youth".
Star Observer
By Jess Jones
February 22, 2018

A pair of trans-exclusionary feminist protesters jumped the barriers and interrupted this year’s Auckland Pride march on the weekend, carrying an anti-trans sign at the front of the parade.

The two held a sign reading ‘Stop giving kids sex hormones, protect lesbian youth’, Express has reported.
[…]
The protestors followed up their appearance in the Pride parade with a press release.

“Organisations like RainbowYouth and InsideOut, as well as the Pride Parade, must stop endorsing medical experimentation, child abuse, sexist stereotyping, and the destruction of female-only and lesbian spaces,” said their statement.
[…]
Despite its place at the front of the Pride parade, the anti-trans protest has drawn little attention, though a few social media users have posted their criticism.

There are radicals everywhere including in the LGBT community, there are trans people who are homophobes and there transphobes in the LGB community, but there are so many more who support us.

I have met many great lesbian and gay people who go out of their way to support us. I work with many LGB people on committees, where I volunteer, and in my play.

I go to a lesbian game night with no problems, I am a member of lesbian science group, I have been to many parties with lesbians, gone to fundraisers by an international organization  gay organization who were raising donations for a trans organization.

So  please don’t condemn all lesbians and gays because the action of a few.

News Flash… Appeals Court Rules In Favor Of Sexual Orientation!

The courts has thumbs its nose the Justice Department, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Manhattan) has ruled that Title VII does cover sexual orientation.

Sexual-Orientation Bias Violates Law, Appeals Court Says
Bloomberg
By Erik Larson and Jeff Green
February 26, 2018

The LGBT community and its corporate supporters won a legal victory over the Trump administration as a federal appeals court ruled that firing workers over their sexual orientation is a form of sex discrimination.

The landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars workplace discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin and religion, covers lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees who complain that they’re discriminated against due to sexual preference, the federal appeals court in Manhattan said Monday.

At least two federal appeals courts have banned discrimination over sexual orientation, while a third appeals court has reached a different conclusion, setting up a possible Supreme Court appeal.

"Sexual orientation discrimination -- which is motivated by an employer’s opposition to romantic association between particular sexes -- is discrimination based on the employee’s own sex," the appeals court said.
[…]
The Trump administration filed a legal brief in support of the skydiving company, based on New York’s Long Island. The U.S. argued that courts must take legislative intent into consideration, and that Congress didn’t have the LGBT community in mind when it crafted the legislation.

Now the Department of Justice has a lot of lawyers they should know about legal precedent… The Supreme Court has ruled that “sex” discrimination also includes “sexual stereotype” and as other federal courts and appeals courts have said what could be more stereotypical of sex than trans people or who a person is attracted to.

This is a big step forward to counter Trump and his stooges cabinet.

Yes, There Are Conservative Trans People

I cannot understand why, but there are conservative trans people and they still are trans even though they are conservatives.

A Brief Conversation With a Transgender Conservative at CPAC
Slate
By Ostia Nwanevu
February 24, 2018

What has the conference been like for you?

We did something similar last year where we had only two of us. This year, we had four people here who are openly transgender, trying to advocate for the greater LGBTQ community. This year is different because the support we got last year was kind of like, “Oh my God, this is amazing. I’ve never seen a trans person before.” So this year, it’s been more thoughtful. People coming up to hug us, whereas last year, it was more like fist bumps, that type of thing. Questions, but also more people coming to express support. “I’m glad you’re here, because I’m not homophobic.” Or: “I’m not a transphobic person.” We’ve gotten a few more of the older generation give us dirty looks, more than that. But people argued with us. I had one woman, a lawyer from England, try to convince me that the threat of medical care discrimination doesn’t exist, which is totally bogus, of course. So you end up in some intellectual discussions. But overall, the response has been great. And the fact that CPAC hasn’t come down on us for doing this. What we’re trying to do is start a conversation with people and dispel the myths.

Ben Shapiro was a very well-received speaker yesterday—

Yeah, unfortunately.

—and one of his applause lines is always “Men are men and women are women,” or something to that effect. I was downstairs at the CPAC Hub yesterday and they were giving out coloring books making fun of liberals and the trans bathroom issue. But you think people have been pretty positive nevertheless.

Oh, absolutely. Ben Shapiro is going to say what he says in his speech. Moreso guys than women are going to hoot and holler and think it’s funny. But if we’re not out here doing this, we can’t refute what he’s saying with the truth—our authenticity and existence. But the reaction’s been great. I mean, I literally had a veteran who was in a wheelchair come over to us and essentially thank us for exhibiting our free speech that he fought for. And said, “I may not understand y’all, but I’m so glad you’re doing this.” It was hard not to start tearing up, I’ve got to tell you. It was really cool.

I can’t understand how they can support an organization that wants to deny our existence. I can’t understand how they can support an organization that wants to criminalize us.

So far this legislation section something like over 20 bills have been introduced by state Republicans legislators that makes it illegal for us to pee, or to make it legal to discriminate against us.

The people who are among those doing the most to push trans rights have been politically correct college students on the left who have gotten a lot of flak from the main stage. What do you think about campus politics and political correctness, broadly speaking?

I think we lose when we confine free speech and when we shut people down. Because when we do that, we show that we can’t take criticism, even if it’s not based on anything, or if it’s wrong. But also, when we do that, we shut down our own voices. Rather than scream at someone on the stage, if they take questions, politely, correctly, succinctly, eloquently ask that question that they can’t answer, which is, “Prove it. Prove that I am not real, prove that my love for someone of the same sex or gender isn’t the same as your love.” And they can’t. But we inhibit ourselves when we shut down anybody else’s free speech. 

There is a difference between “free speech” and “hate speech” and the Supreme Court has recognized the difference… the First Amendment is not absolute!

6 Surprising Exceptions to Freedom of Speech
Saturday Evening Post
By: Jeff Nilsson
Published: March 21, 2017

Although the First Amendment to the Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech,” Americans don’t have the luxury of always saying whatever they want. Your right to free speech is limited by where you are, what you say, and how you say it.

Here are six areas where your talk can make you liable in criminal or civil court.
[…]
3. Violence
You can’t make offensive remarks or personal insults that would immediately lead to a fight. You also can’t threaten violence to a specific person unless you’re making an obvious exaggeration (for instance, “I’m going to kill my opponent at the polls”). Finally, you can’t knowingly say things that cause severe emotional distress or incite others to “immediate lawless action.”

In 1951, the Supreme Court concluded in Dennis v. United States that the First Amendment doesn’t protect the speech of people plotting to overthrow the government.

You got that? “…Finally, you can’t knowingly say things that cause severe emotional distress…” so those speakers who come to campuses that talk hate and still up unrest on campuses cannot claim “First Amendment rights.”

Some say that they are conservatives because they want less government intrusion in their lives, but the Republicans are creating a major intrusion in our lives by trying to ban where we pee, by allowing people to refuse to service us in restaurants and other public accommodations, they want to deny housing for us or employment. To me this seems like government intrusion in my life.

So the only reason that I can think of why trans people ignore the bigotry and hate of the Republican Party is financial… they care more about their pocketbooks than their freedom.

The bottom line; there is no requirement for trans people to be liberal, but at the same time we do not have to like them.

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The Republican Party of the 50s is no longer, it has been replaced by a radical right-wing that wants to tear the U.S.. It is a party of hate and bigotry. It is a party happier backing Russia than the Constitution.

OpinionsIf this is what conservatism has become, count me out
Washington Post
By Max Boot
February 25, 2018

I’m used to being vilified by the far left as a bloodthirsty neocon warmonger for the Original Sin of having supported the invasion of Iraq along with 72 percent of the American public. It has been a little more surprising to be simultaneously vilified by the far right as a dangerous left-winger.

David Horowitz’s FrontPage magazine accused me of going “full leftist” for acknowledging that racism and sexism remain pervasive problems. Breitbart called me, with ironic quotation marks, the “Washington Post’s ostensibly new ‘conservative’ columnist,” because, among other sins, I support gun control and immigration. American Greatness wrote that I am a “soulless, craven opportunist” whose “brain is broken,” because I compared President Trump’s indifference to the 2016 Russian election assault to a president ignoring 9/11. For the same offense, Jack Posobiec — an Internet troll notorious for pushing the theory that Hillary Clinton was running a child-sex ring out of a Washington pizza parlor — said I was “sick” and a “Russian propagandist.” In the Orwellian language of the far right, someone who wants to combat Russian aggression is a “Russian propagandist,” whereas someone who echoes Russian propaganda is putting “America first.”

In the past I would have been indignant at such attacks and eager to assert my conservative credentials. I spent years writing for conservative publications such as the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Commentary magazine and working as a foreign policy adviser for three Republican presidential campaigns. Being conservative used to be central to my identity. But now, frankly, I don’t give a damn. I prefer to think of myself as a classical liberal, because “conservative” has become practically synonymous with “Trump lackey.”
[…]
Principled conservativism continues to exist, primarily at small journals of opinion, but it is increasingly disconnected from the stuff that thrills the masses. I remember as a high school student in the 1980s attending a lecture at UCLA by William F. Buckley Jr. I was dazzled by his erudition, wit and oratorical skill. Today, young conservatives flock to the boorish and racist performance art of Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter. The Conservative Political Action Conference couldn’t find room for critics of Trump, save for the brave and booed Mona Charen, but it did showcase French fascist scion Marion Maréchal-Le Pen.

Those who still believe in the Republican Party of the 50s are living a in a dream.

I Have To Wonder…

If those who are demonizing the Parkland students who are speaking out for gun control are Russian trolls.

PRO-GUN RUSSIAN BOTS FLOOD TWITTER AFTER PARKLAND SHOOTING
Wired
By N Griffith
February 15, 2018

EACH NEW BREAKING news situation is an opportunity for trolls to grab attention, provoke emotions, and spread propaganda. The Russian government knows this. Fake-news manufacturing teenagers in Macedonia know this. Twitter bot creators know this. And thanks to data-gathering operations from groups like the Alliance for Securing Democracy and RoBhat Labs, the world knows this.

In the wake of Wednesday’s Parkland, Florida, school shooting, which resulted in 17 deaths, troll and bot-tracking sites reported an immediate uptick in related tweets from political propaganda bots and Russia-linked Twitter accounts. Hamilton 68, a website created by Alliance for Securing Democracy, tracks Twitter activity from accounts it has identified as linked to Russian influence campaigns. As of morning, shooting-related terms dominated the site’s trending hashtags and topics, including Parkland, guncontrolnow, Florida, guncontrol, and Nikolas Cruz, the name of the alleged shooter. Popular trending topics among the bot network include shooter, NRA, shooting, Nikolas, Florida, and teacher.
[…]
The use of pro-gun control hashtags like #guncontrolnow, along with the spread of anti-gun control links like the Politifact article, appear at first to show the Russian strategy of promoting discord on both sides of a debate. Russian-linked Twitter accounts have attempted to spread confusion and angst on topics ranging from police violence against black people, to NFL player protests, to Al Franken’s sexual misconduct accusations. (On other topics, like special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 election, the bots have worked in concert to further the Kremlin's agenda.)

What can be done to stop this interference from Russia?

Well shutting down the Russian Tweeter and Facebook accounts helps but I think that they will popup at another new account as fast as you shut them down. But at least that might keep them from getting a large following.

I also think that we should cut the internet fiber optic links to Russia… it is drastic but it probably will get results.

We need them to play fair in the international sand box otherwise we need to have a forced timeout until they stop their interference and destabilization of world politics.

I Do Not Like Speaking Ill Of The Dead

But this needs to be told, I used to respect him in my younger days, he was inclusive but as he aged his bigotry showed. I was with him until he said AIDS was “a judgment of God,” and when he didn’t back the civil rights movement then he lost me as his true colors came out.

Billy Graham Built a Movement. Now His Son Is Dismantling It.
If you want to understand the evangelical decline in the United States, look no further than the transition from Billy to Franklin Graham.
Politico
By Stephen Prothero
February 24, 2018

While Billy Graham was leading a revival in Los Angeles in 1949, William Randolph Hearst looked at the handsome thirtysomething evangelist with flowing blond hair and famously directed editors in his publishing empire to “puff Graham.” Some six decades later, the preacher had become a silver-haired retiree whose Parkinson’s disease kept him largely out of view, but the puffery never stopped. When Graham died this week, he was hailed by President George W. Bush as “America’s pastor,” and even more lavishly by Vice-President Mike Pence as “one of the greatest Americans of the past century.” President Bill Clinton praised him for integrating his revivals. Russell Moore, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, called him “the most important evangelist since the Apostle Paul.”
[…]
But almost two decades ago, Graham handed over the keys of the empire to his son, Franklin. And if you want to chart the troubled recent course of American evangelicalism—its powerful rise after World War II and its surprisingly quick demise in recent years—you need look no further than this father-and-son duo of Billy and Franklin Graham. The father was a powerful evangelist who turned evangelicalism into the dominant spiritual impulse in modern America. His son is—not to put too fine a point on it—a political hack, one who is rapidly rebranding evangelicalism as a belief system marked not by faith, hope, and love but by fear of Muslims and homophobia.

But the father is just as guilty as the son,

…And while he must be praised for integrating his revivals (which he called crusades) and for inviting the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. to deliver an invocation at his massive New York City crusade in 1957, he was missing in action when it came to civil rights legislation. After King imagined in his 1963 “I Have a Dream Speech” a “beloved community” in which “little black boys and little black girls will join hands with little white boys and white girls,” Graham dismissed that dream as utopian. "Only when Christ comes again will the little white children of Alabama walk hand in hand with little black children," he said.

…And almost immediately after saying during a 1993 crusade in Columbus, Ohio, that AIDS might be “a judgment of God,” he retracted those words, telling the Cleveland Plain Dealer a few days later, “I don't believe that and I don't know why I said it. . . . To say God has judged people with AIDS would be very wrong and very cruel. I would like to say that I am very sorry for what I said.”

Even though he retracted the statement he still said it and his statement was used by others to justify their oppression of gays and lesbians.

He never corrected his son when his son,

…His son is—not to put too fine a point on it—a political hack, one who is rapidly rebranding evangelicalism as a belief system marked not by faith, hope, and love but by fear of Muslims and homophobia.

His son found out that there was money in spreading hate of Muslims and LGBT community and his father didn’t correct him. His father’s silence said a lot.

I don't hate him, but I don't respect him.

The Love Club

Crazy Sam’s The Love Club (2013)



On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…
Unfamiliar with this week's song. Hear it here.

1) Lorde has said this song is about a time when she fell into "a bad crowd." Her high-maintenance new friends were all about their romantic dramas and it overwhelmed her. Have you ever had a friend who was just too much work?
Yes he is too much work, but he has many medical problems including being suicidal and has been disowned by his family. I hate to give up on somebody.

2) She sings that she longs to be alone. Where do you go when you want peace and quiet?
Since I live alone it is always peace and quiet; sometimes a little too much.

3) Lorde credits her mother for encouraging her verbal skills. "Mum" let her join a theater class when she was just 5 and was always giving her books. Tell us about an encouraging, understanding adult who assisted you when you were growing up.
My parents, they never gave up on me.

4) Lorde is not the only celebrity from her class at Belmont School in Auckland, New Zealand. Olympian Eliza McCartney was a classmate who went on to win a bronze medal in Rio for the pole vault. Did you participate in any sports in high school?
HA!

6) Lorde wrote music for one of the Hunger Games soundtracks. Have you seen any of the Hunger Games movies, or read any of the books?
I watched the movies, and much to my surprise I liked them. I am not a fan of dystopia movies or books.

7) Her favorite candy is Peanut M&Ms. Do you prefer Milk Chocolate, Peanut, Almond, Mint or Cripsy M&Ms?
There is only one true… well maybe two true M&Ms and they are plain and maybe peanut M&Ms

8) When Lorde was on stage at Lollapalooza, a sudden storm interrupted her set. The music festival was evacuated and her performance was cancelled. Can you think of a time when the weather had a major impact on your plans?
This is another HA! Being almost 70 I have had many times when weather disrupted my plans. Thursday night I was going to go see Oscar Nominated Short Films but I was snowing with freezing rain

9) Random question: Please complete this sentence -- Before I leave the house, I always __________________________.
Before I leave the house, I always remember what my mother always said “Wear clean underwear, because you never know when you might have a car accident.”

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Thanks so much for joining us again at Saturday: 9. As always, feel free to come back, see who has participated and comment on their posts. In fact sometimes, if you want to read & comment on everyone's responses, you might want to check back again tomorrow. But it is not a rule. We haven’t any rules here. Join us on next Saturday for another version of Saturday: 9, "Just A Silly Meme on a Saturday!" Enjoy your weekend!

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I am working on a PowerPoint for Monday where i am giving a talk at a local community college on LGBT legislation.

Small Towns

When we transition in the suburbs or in the city there is a certain amount of anonymity but when you transition in a small rural town everyone knows.

What happened in my small town when my transgender daughter transitioned
ABC
By Luchina Fisher
Feb 22, 2018

The note was draped casually on my husband’s pillow but I was the first to see it.

In my 11-year-old’s careful handwriting, it read: "Dear Mother and Father, can we move to a different country because I think I don’t want to be a boy lots of times ... We’ll discuss later."

There were many things that struck me all at once: the formal salutation, the question of moving to another country and, in my line of work, burying the lede -- that part about not wanting to be a boy lots of times.
[…]
Yet, G was terrified of coming out. The biggest fear: being rejected. In our small New England town, G had been in school with most of these kids since first grade. Everyone knew G, but none knew the secret G had been hiding. Zoe, the one friend in town who did know, had moved to the U.K. the year before -- hence G’s desire to move to another country.

This is something that we all are scared about, walking outside for the first time, what will the neighbors say and if you live in a small town the whole town is your neighborhood.

When we had our cottage up in New Hampshire the year round population was under a thousand and I am sure that half of the town knew about me. A couple I drove around while we had a trade person working on something in the cottage, I wasn’t scared but rather worried about discrimination such as jacking up the bill or refusing to work on the cottage.

But sometimes the results are surprising,

Emails and text messages poured in from parents we knew from class parties, soccer games and the local Starbucks. "Congrats," a mom of two boys wrote. "You now have a girl in the family:)"

"Good morning," wrote a mom whose daughter had known G since first grade. "I just read your letter and wanted to send you all a big hug and especially Gia. So proud of her!" Then, she wrote, "This may be a silly question, but what size does she wear and does she need or want any hand-me-downs." I quickly texted back, "Yes!"

Gia’s phone lit up with text messages of love and support from friends, and new requests from kids wanting to follow her on Instagram. Sitting on the kitchen floor, her phone buzzing, she shrieked that her social life was getting bigger, not smaller.

The next day, 10 girls showed up at the school for lunch with Gia -- the first time anyone from town would be seeing her. The girls embraced her in a group hug even before Gia made it to the front door. Together, they spent the next two hours talking nonstop over pizza and soda in the school library.

It is always a crap shot when you come out; there are a lot of variables such as where you live. How do you think it would have gone if it was south of the Mason–Dixon Line? But even then there are pockets of liberals and New England we have pockets of bigots, there are hate groups here in Connecticut.

When they shut down the factory where I worked for 28 one of my technicians found out I was trans and blabbed the news all over the company thinking that there would be universal condemnation but instead there was universal affirmation.

Slim Pickings

Trying to find something to write about is getting harder if I don’t want to write about politics and the military, it seems like the news is only filled with those stories.

The right-wing bigots are now attacking the children I wrote about their lies here and these are their latest lies.

These Transgender Children Say They’re Thriving. They Want to Help Others Do the Same.
New York Times
By Christina Caron
February 20, 2018

For some, it would be their news media debut. Others have fought for transgender rights in their home states and were well acquainted with the press. But all had the same hope: to shift the conversation about transgender youth from one that dwells on bullying, suicide and murder, to one that focuses on positivity, through an online campaign called the GenderCool Project.
[…]
Soon after, she [Jen Grosshandler] created the GenderCool Project with Gearah Goldstein, a transgender woman who trains people on how to create gender-inclusive environments.

“Our mission is to just get rid of the stigmas and just live our lives,” said Nicole, one of the participants. “And that’s what everybody else is doing. So my question to the world is: ‘Why can’t we? Why should we not?’”
[…]
“We’re all diamonds. Being trans is just one face, one edge of the diamond,” Landon said. “But there is so much else that makes us diamonds. It’s not just a single sliver.”
So many people see us as one sided but like diamonds we have many facets.
The GenderCool Project is a call to action, Ms. Goldstein said. “What are you doing for the community? How are you using voices, how are you telling stories, how are you being inclusive?” As a transgender adult, she added, “I wish I had some positive messaging around when I was growing up.”

As we make great strides in equality so is the opposition in their spread of their hate and lies.

Growing body of research rejects transgender movement
The Washington Times
By Bradford Richardson
February 22, 2018

Is Caitlyn Jenner a woman? A growing body of research from scientists, philosophers and feminists says no.

The latest contribution to the debate is “When Harry Became Sally,” a just-released book by Heritage Foundation senior research fellow Ryan T. Anderson, who critiques the transgender movement on the grounds of metaphysics, medicine and public policy.

Contrary to the transgender movement’s central claim — that “gender identity” determines whether someone is a man, a woman or something else — Mr. Anderson said the only rationale for determining an organism’s sex is “by that organism’s organization with respect to sexual reproduction.”

“Apart from that, all you have are sex stereotypes,” Mr. Anderson said Wednesday at a Heritage Foundation gathering. “There’s no other objective standard for identifying the sex of an individual.”

Human beings are a “sexually dimorphic species,” with complementary reproductive systems that are either male or female, Mr. Anderson said. One’s sex is evident in DNA, can be tracked in the womb and manifests itself “in many of our bodily systems and organs all the way down to the molecular level.”

Okay first of all the Washington Times is owned by the Moonies, you remember them… they are a cult that was founded by Sun Myung Moon (Hence the name “Moonies”) their official name is the Unification Church.

They cherry pick research and twist it to fit their hate and bigotry, they say that DNA determines gender but that is only a half truth, they don’t mention all the other factors that disprove their warped ideas.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Silicon Valley prides itself on being LGBT friendly (maybe not for sex discrimination) in hiring of LGBT employees. But I have to wonder how deep that commitment goes, will it be a factor in where Amazon picks headquarters 2?

'No Gay? No Way' is wrong message on Amazon HQ2 decision

• LGBT activists want Amazon to reject bids for its second headquarters from cities located in states without civil right protections.
• Urging employers, like Amazon, to boycott and sidestep states and regions wholesale, is flawed at best and risky and harmful at worst.
• Welcoming more forward-thinking companies will help raise the tide of equality in states that lack protections now.

CNBC
By Ryan Roemerman and Bob Witeck
20 Feb 2018

Last fall, Amazon spurred a 21st Century gold rush by inviting every U.S. city and state to bid for their second corporate headquarters. Who could resist the economic genie promising thousands of jobs and potential billions in revenues?

While the suspense mounts, however, some LGBT activists declared "No Gay? No Way" to pressure Amazon to avoid all states that cannot offer statewide LGBT civil rights protections. The activists' case emerged first on a website, unsourced and unsigned. When asked about the campaign by a journalist, one of the unnamed activists remarked the "campaign is not meant to harm the gay people who live in the nine cities" [in unprotected states] that are bidding for Amazon's foothold.

As LGBT leaders in Georgia and Virginia, we take that in good faith. However, we also fear that urging employers, like Amazon, to boycott and sidestep states and regions wholesale, is flawed at best and risky and harmful at worst.

If you are trans, lesbian, or gay employee what would you think if they pick a city where their employees could denied services at restaurants or other public accommodations?  Why would a company pick a  location where their employees can refuse to work just because they say “it is against my religious beliefs” I know that I wouldn’t want have a business in those states.

Some argue that Amazon and businesses like them can be used to leverage pro-LGBT legislation.

They know firsthand the impact that progressive leaders like Amazon can do to help fuel LGBT civil rights. We've seen the clout corporations can have when they successfully work with LGBT communities from North Carolina to Indiana and states to defeat and derail so-called religious freedom laws. In Texas for example, last fall, major corporations across the state united to stop anti-LGBT legislation in its tracks. Two years ago, here in Georgia, many companies banded together to persuade our Republican Governor to veto anti-gay legislation.

But what I say is to let the states know why you didn’t chose them was because of their anti-LGBT policies. I say that if you move to a state like North Carolina while you work to change the law your employees will be facing disctimination.

---

It is a secret… sh…

The deadline has come and going, was the policy to ban trans servicemembers secretly submitted to Trump?

Mattis faces deadline today on the military’s transgender policy
Military Times
By: Tara Copp
February 21, 2018

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis faced a Wednesday deadline to provide President Donald Trump guidance on transgender service members, as news reports surfaced revealing that the president initiated the ban last summer without consulting his top general.

“Things are at a very confusing moment right now,” said Shannon Minter, who is representing transgender personnel in two of the four federal lawsuits challenging Trump’s ban.

“When President Trump issued his official memorandum [in August of 2017] he ordered Mattis in that memo to provide the president with a written plan on how to implement the plan by Feb 21. So we’ve all been waiting, It’s obviously an important recommendation on exactly how the plan would be implemented.”

Well the deadline came and went but no policy… or was it?

“The secretary has his recommendation for the President but has not provided it yet. When he’s ready to provide it, he will,” Eastburn said.

The guidance is not expected to be made public, several defense officials told Military Times.

So is there a secret policy banning trans servicemembers?

What is going to happen on March 23^rd?

Not A Good Legacy

When I think about what legacy our presidents leave behind I think of Cater who in his late 90s is building homes for Habitat for Humanity, Kennedy “ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country,” Obama for his support of LGBT people and other minorities, Trump for his rise in hate organizations and crimes…

U.S. hate groups proliferate in Trump's first year, watchdog says
Reuters
By Ian Simpson
February 21, 2018

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. hate groups expanded last year under President Donald Trump, fueled by his immigration stance and the perception that he sympathized with those espousing white supremacy, the Southern Poverty Law Center said on Wednesday

There were 954 hate groups in the country in 2017, marking a 4 percent increase over the previous year when the number rose 2.8 percent, the civil rights watchdog said in its annual census of such groups.

Since 2014, the number has jumped 20 percent, it said.

Among the more than 600 white supremacist groups, neo-Nazi organizations rose to 121 from 99. Anti-Muslim groups increased for a third year in a row, to 114 from 101 in 2016, the report said.

Last year brought “a substantial emboldening of the radical right, and that is largely due to the actions of President Trump, who’s tweeted out hate materials and made light of the threats to our society posed by hate groups,” Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, told reporters.
[…]
The Southern Poverty Law Center, founded in 1971, defines hate groups as organizations with beliefs or practices that demonize a class of people.

Not only did the number of hate organization increase so did the number of hate crimes,

Hate Crimes Rise in 9 Major US Cities in 2017, Preliminary Data Show
VOA
By Masood Farivar
January 6, 2018

WASHINGTON —
The number of hate crimes in major U.S. cities rose for the third consecutive year last year, driven by attacks on Jews, Muslims, blacks and LGBT people, preliminary police data exclusively provided to VOA show.

At least 1,056 hate crimes were committed in nine of nation’s largest cities in 2017, an increase of 18 percent from 2016 levels, according to police data compiled by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino.

Several major metropolitan areas, such as Washington, Philadelphia, Seattle and Phoenix, reported double-digit increases in hate-based crimes, extending a trend that started in 2015 and accelerated during the contentious presidential election campaign in 2016.
[…]
Gay-friendly cities such as San Francisco, Seattle and Washington have become magnets for violent homophobes.

In Washington, nearly one-third of all hate crimes in 2017 were directed at gays, while in Seattle more than a quarter of hate crime victims were gay. San Francisco data were not available.
[…]
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy organization, recorded 1,299 anti-Semitic incidents during the first three-quarters of last year, an increase of 67 percent from the same period in 2016.
[…]
There were 195 anti-Muslim hate crimes through the first nine months of 2017, a 20 percent increase from the same period in 2016, according to the rights group Council on American-Islamic Relations.

This is the legacy that Trump is going to leave.

Liars can Figure, But Figures don’t Lie

Do you remember that saying?

Well the right-wing anti-LGBT haters came up with this weird new theory…

'Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria' Is Biased Junk Science
A frighteningly biased piece on trans youth was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, says Brynn Tannehill, who breaks down why it's so wrong.
The Advocate
By Brynn Tannehill
February 20, 2018

Recently, a new anti-transgender narrative has emerged among the right wing. The narrative states that teens, particularly those assigned female at birth, are going on the internet and convincing themselves that they are transgender because being transgender is “trendy.” It treats transgender identities as a form of social contagion. This theory has been picked up on by numerous hate groups and conservative news outlets, including LifeSite, Barbara Kay, the Catholic Institute for Marital Healing, the Minnesota Family Council, MercatorNet, the Illinois Family Institute, the Family Research Council, the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal, and an advocacy group of anti-gay therapists.

The entire theory is based on a single poster abstract in 2017 by Dr. Lisa Littman. Poster abstracts are often published when not only is the material too weak to be a journal article, but of insufficient quality to even be accepted for oral presentation at a conference. As such, the academic bar for a poster abstract getting accepted is very low. It was, however, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Littman’s abstract suffers from so many methodological flaws, logical errors, and unacknowledged biases that it fits firmly in the category of junk science. Given how glaring these issues were, it is surprising that the Journal of Adolescent Health published it regardless of how low the bar was set.

Here’s why this abstract by Littman is poor science.

1. The sample group has a heavy and unacknowledged bias which affects the results
Littman posted a survey on three websites asking parents about their transgender teens. What she failed to mention in her abstract is that all three websites — 4thwavenow.com, transgendertrend.com, and YouthTransCriticalProfessionals.org — are all dedicated to parents who do not recognize the gender identities of their children, and do not support their transitions. Littman did not post her survey to sites where parents of transgender adolescents support their children or even neutral sites.

Wow, so much for a random sample, she went out looking for people to fit her hypothesis!

2. One of her survey questions appears to be a deliberate attempt to hide her bias
One of the survey questions asked respondents whether they believe “transgender people deserve the rights and protections as other people.” The abstract notes that 87.7 percent answered yes, and is presented in such a way as to suggest that the respondents did not harbor anti-transgender animus. However, this question, and statistic, appear to be deliberately misleading.

3. The unacknowledged bias in Littman’s sample leads her to ignore plausible explanations for her data supported by extant literature
Littman asks “before and after” coming out questions in her survey. This includes things such as whether the parent-child relationship improved or got worse after they came out, and whether the mental well-being of the child improved or declined after the child came out. Based on parents’ perceptions, both declined according to her survey.  She notes that this observation contradicts the existing body of research, which shows improvement when trans youth come out.

Tell me, if the parents do not accept their trans child what do you think they will say?

And the last flaw that the Advocate article pointed out was,

4. The conclusions reached by this abstract rely on poor logic and what appears to be a deliberately biased sample
The abstract concludes that “rapid onset gender dysphoria” is dangerous, real, and is caused by interactions with friends and people on the internet. This conclusion is based on some rather heroic leaps of logic.

The most grievous logical error is the conclusion that this is a new phenomenon, when current literature in the context of youth living in unsupportive homes would explain the observations. The abstract conclusion also seems to imply that sources of information which encourage parents to reject the identities of transgender youth are mainstream voices.

But do you want to bet that the anti-trans group will hold this up as an example against us?

Yeah, I had 'Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria' after fifty years of living with gender dysphoria. When I came out to him it was like 'Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria' for him but for me I have been fighting gender dysphoria all my life.

As one commenter said on the WPATH Facebook page…

“Rapid Onset???” I guess that’s what some people think when we finally come out to them after living with gender dysphoria for a lifetime.

The haters are going to make the most of this farce of junk science.

Order In The Court!

As many of you know Trump is being sued over his ban on trans servicemembers; he is saying that the new policy was discussed with generals.

One of the things that President Obama did was have an independent review of the military accepting trans servicemembers, do you remember the RAND Report? Also the William’s Institute conducted it own research on the topic. President Obama didn’t request the RAND Report just to study trans in the military on a whim but to satisfy a legal requirement.

So now with Trump he wants to change the policy and he said he talked it over with some generals before he created his policy, well now he is in court…

What's Trump Hiding on Trans Military Ban?
A Justice Department lawyer says the administration doesn't have to reveal certain details about the decision on the ban, but a judge says not so fast.
The Advocate
By Trudy Ring
February 16 2018

The Trump administration wants to keep secret the details of how it reached the decision to reinstate the ban on military service by transgender people.

A Justice Department lawyer argued this week, in one of the lawsuits challenging the ban, that executive privilege means the administration doesn’t have to turn over the information, BuzzFeed reports. But U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who is hearing the suit, says that privilege isn’t absolute.

The Justice Department doesn’t want to reveal “certain information regarding meetings or conversations the president had” before his tweet last July announcing reinstatement of the ban, according to BuzzFeed. Donald Trump tweeted that he’d reached the decision “after consultation with my Generals and other military experts.” However, President Barack Obama and his Defense secretary, Ash Carter, had engaged in extensive study and consultation with experts before lifting the ban in 2016.
[…]
The challengers want the administration to turn over information about which generals and experts were consulted by Trump, and what meetings and conversations they had, BuzzFeed reports. Justice Department lawyer Ryan Parker contended that those details could be kept confidential because of the presidential communications privilege, a form of executive privilege that protects the president from having to reveal certain information regarding executive decisions. Another form of executive privilege, the deliberative process privilege, protects less information, and even the presidential communications privilege is not absolute, BuzzFeed notes.

The judge is not having any of it.

She is studying it now and will respond after she had time to review the law on executive privilege, this is the heart of the case; if Trump didn‘t have a thorough review of the legal issues and did it on a whim we win. So it shall be very interesting to see how she decides, whichever way she decides you can bet the other side will appeal her decision.

---

Another article in the Advocate says that Trump will reveal his new trans policy later today.

Amid Legal Chaos, New Trans Military Policy Expected Wednesday
But will the administration keep in mind that courts have taken a dim view of banning transgender troops?
By Trudy Ring
February 20, 2018

The Department of Defense is likely to announce a new policy on service by transgender troops this week, even though the Trump administration’s ban on trans service members has been temporarily blocked by four federal courts.

Also, emails have been made public that, if authentic, provide evidence that Donald Trump did not consult with military leaders before announcing the ban via Twitter last July, reversing the action by President Barack Obama’s administration to lift the ban. Lifting the ban meant trans people already in the military could serve openly without fear of being discharged solely for their identity, and paved the way for enlistment of new openly trans troops.
[…]
“As Sec. Mattis prepares to release the road map for implementing President Trump’s ban tomorrow, he should keep in mind that four federal courts have blocked the ban from going into effect and have ruled that the only constitutional option is to apply the same standards to every service member, meaning that troops who are fit for duty can serve,” said a statement issued by Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a think tank that deals, among other issues, with sexual minorities in the military.

I will publish the policy once it is released later today.

No matter what the new policy says, remember it is up to the courts to decide if the ban on trans servicemember was purely political based.

"Fair & Balanced"

You all heard that motto from Fox which is something of a joke coming from Fox, but there are many other news sources that are fair and balanced.

Fair and accurate media coverage really could improve the lives of transgender people like me
A recent report by Kings College London found that negative representations of trans people in the media can worsen dysphoria causing feelings of shame
The Independent
By Owl Fisher
February 20, 2018

Yes — this is yet another piece about transgender people. You’d be forgiven for thinking that we make up 90 per cent of the population (the reality is between 1-2 per cent). We are everywhere in the media, and not in a terribly good way lately.

Ever since the Government announced they’re considering reforming the Gender Recognition Act (2004) about six months ago a very corrosive and heated public debate in the UK about trans rights and the reality of trans people is being played out in the media, and we are the fodder. Under the act trans people will no longer need a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a health care professional to receive their gender recognition certificate. This means that trans people can get a new birth certificate without having to jump through hoops to prove who they are. We have seen many trans voices being heard in positive ways amidst the chaos, however much media coverage has shown trans people in an extremely negative light.
[…]
What is the impact of these attacks on us? How is this affecting our mental health? Can fair and accurate media coverage improve the lives of trans people, making our children safer and happier? Happily, the answer to the last question is yes, as a new study shows.

News coverage can make or break a trans bill. In New Hampshire when a trans rights bill was introduced the Union Leader relentlessly attacked the trans bill calling it the “Bathroom Bill” and the articles created such a backlash to the bill that even the bill sponsors didn’t vote for the bill.

The research, carried out by King’s College London in partnership with All About Trans, looked at how media representation of trans people affects trans people themselves. 78 per cent thought that coverage about trans people was inaccurate and when seeing negative media coverage, 69 per cent felt unhappy, 78 per cent felt angry, 69 per cent felt bad about society, 49 per cent felt excluded and 41 per cent felt frightened.

It found that negative representations can worsen the dysphoria of trans people causing feelings of shame, making one respondent feel “like I will never be accepted in society as my true self and this hurts deeply”.

The study also found that,

Where there is fear and misinformation, there is hate. Research published by Stonewall in January 2018 showed that two fifths of trans people (41 per cent) experienced a hate crime in the last 12 months, nearly half of trans people (48 per cent) avoid using public bathrooms, one in four (25 per cent) have experienced homelessness, two in five (40 per cent) have adjusted the way they dress out of fear of harassment or discrimination and one in eight (12 per cent) have been physically assaulted by colleagues or customers in the last year, simply for being trans.

We are seeing that now in the U.S. the number of hate crimes directed against LGBT people has risen, we now see many more hate comments on websites.

As Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said,

Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.

But when politicians advocate violence the heartless are no longer restrained.

Call to Action!

We need to stop the haters.

There has been a building campaign against Supreme Court Justice Andrew McDonald who Gov. Malloy has nominated to be the next Chief Justice of the state’s high Court. Two of the architects of this campaign are the Family Institute of CT and the Catholic League (not the Catholic Church itself).

Andrew has been a leader in the state senate on marriage equality, transgender protections, and other issues that impact the LGBTQ community. He is being attacked in part for these positions, and is also being attacked by some of the fringe opponents simply for being gay.

The Judiciary Committee is meeting this Friday. The Family Institute and others are mobilizing against his nomination, and it is critical that we counter their lobbying efforts by getting calls and emails into legislators in support of Andrew.

This is what the FIC has said…

Oppose Andrew McDonald's confirmation for Chief Justice. What form this opposition will take remains a work in progress. But a man who tried to use the power of the state to strip the Catholic Church's bishops and priests of financial authority over their own parishes, a man who seems to exhibit a pattern of placing personal agendas above the law, is a man who should not be the head of the most powerful and least accountable branch of our state government.

And in another email the FIC has quote from the Waterbury Republican-American…

The Family Institute of Connecticut just launched an opposition campaign, alleging McDonald is hostile to religious liberty, puts his own agenda above the law and feigns moderation until he has the power to enact his true goals.

The infringement that they are talking about is a bill that was submitted on behalf of a constituent, a common practice in the legislature and the bill never got anywhere and was submitted because of a priest who embezzled from the Catholic parish funds and the bill would have required oversight by lay church council.

They further go on to say…

McDonald is the first openly gay justice in state history, and he would be the first openly gay chief justice of a U.S. state if confirmed.

Executive director Peter Wolfgang said FIC is not opposing McDonald's nomination because he is gay or because the advocacy group and McDonald clashed over the legalization of same-sex marriage in Connecticut.

Yeah, right and I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

The President of the CT Bar Association and Deans of UConn and Quinnipiac law schools endorsed Governor Malloy’s nomination of Justice McDonald as Chief Justice of CT’s Supreme Court campaign and I have known him since around 2005, 2006 timeframe.

In the CT  Mirror in an article from January they say,

McDonald would be the first openly gay chief justice of the highest court in any state, though not any jurisdiction. Maite Orono Rodríguez, who is a lesbian, was confirmed a year ago as the chief justice of the highest court in Puerto Rico. Nationally, there are only about a dozen LGBT justices in state supreme courts.

As an openly gay candidate, McDonald was a political rarity when he was narrowly elected to the state Senate from Stamford in 2002. Three years later, he helped win passage of a civil-unions law that extended marriage rights to same-sex couples, albeit under a different name. The distinction was erased in 2008 in a decision by the court he now hopes to lead.
[…]
McDonald was confirmed by votes of 30-3 in the Senate and 125-20 in the House after a debate in which opponents focused on his lack of previous judicial experience and his sponsorship of a bill in 2009 that Catholics deemed an intrusion into church affairs. It would have made changes in the state’s religious corporations act, which governs the corporate structure of several denominations.
[…]
All 23 legislators opposing his nomination five years ago were Republicans, though the ranking GOP House and Senate members of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee, which screens nominees, pronounced him qualified, as did the leaders of the Republican minorities in the House and Senate.

Notice the vote, it was almost unanimous and in the House it was a landslide in his favor, so what has changed?

What changed is the religious right does not want someone on the bench who puts the state and U.S. Constitutions ahead of the Bible and they sure as hell don’t want a gay Supreme Court Chief Justice.

I met him at a fundraiser for GenderPAC which was a Washington DC based trans lobbying political action committee. The fundraiser was held at the home of Westport’s First Selectman’s home, attending the fundraiser was the then mayor of Stamford, Dannel Malloy, and the co-chairs of the Judiciary Committee, Rep. Mike Lawlor and Sen. Andrew McDonald. I have also contributed to the campaign of all three.

When I testified before the Judiciary Committee for the gender inclusive non-discrimination bills both McDonald and Lawlor were there and encouraged me during my testimony.

We cannot let the bigots win…call or email your legislators!

They don't want a gay man as Chief Justice of the CT Supreme Court. They also don't want a gay justice ruling on a involving a LGBT case, but they have no problem with a straight person ruling on a case involving LGBT issues... a double standard.

To find your legislator click here, it is about half way down the page.

Please share widely, we need to counter the far right.

---

This morning I am given cultural competency training to a non-profit that I have worked with in the pass. We worked with them on  

Fight For The Next Generation.

That is what I am fighting for, the next generation of trans children coming out.

Let us all work to make their lives easier that what we have now.

Even as gay rights battles are won, transgender people continue to face obstacles
Los Angles Times
By Jaclyn Cosgrove
February 19, 2018

In post-marriage-equality America, where same-sex couples live openly and increasingly are embraced in their communities, those on the conservative right who once pushed back against gay rights now appear to have shifted their focus to the transgender community.

So far this year, 10 states have introduced a flurry of bills that would make life tougher for transgender people, especially students who try to use campus restrooms that match their gender identity. And earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Education confirmed that it will no longer investigate civil rights complaints from transgender students who say they were barred from using restrooms that align with their gender identity.

"We're seeing proposals around the country that would make it harder for trans people to go to work, go to school, participate in public life, or even do things as simple as go to the store or go to a restaurant with their family," said Jay Wu, communications manager at the National Center for Transgender Equality. "If laws like this pass, they can send a message to transgender people and their families that they are not as worthy as their peers and that they don't deserve to have the same rights as everyone else."

We are in an era of right-wing backlash to the advances we have made in the past few years; they have circled the wagons and have used hate, lies, and fear to win control of the government. They have used people’s fear and hatred of “Big Government” to win elections but people are now realizing that they were only lies, smoke and mirrors to divert the attention of the voters to their real agenda and that is making us a third world country.

We will survive…

The pendulum will swing back but the question is what will the damage be?

The Republican Party… The Party Of Hate

Well the Republicans are at it again, a new legislative session, a new session of hate legislation and resolutions. This time it is Kansas.

Kansas GOP votes to ‘oppose all efforts to validate transgender identity’
The Wichita Eagle
By Jonathan Shorman and Hunter Woodall
February 18, 2018

The Kansas Republican Party has voted to "oppose all efforts to validate transgender identity."

The party’s state committee endorsed that statement on Saturday and also said it recognizes the dignity of those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender.

The committee approved a resolution on human sexuality after a debate where some questioned the state party’s priorities. The lead proponent of the resolution said he was motivated by love.

In the resolution, the party affirms "God’s design for gender as determined by biological sex and not by self-perception." The document also opposes efforts to surgically or hormonally alter an individual’s body to conform with "perceived gender identity."

The committee approved the resolution on a voice vote. The committee is made up of about 180 people, with delegates from each congressional district, along with elected officials and leaders of groups affiliated with the party.

Last year they also had another resolution…

Shelby County GOP passes resolution in support of Moore
The Hill
By Rebecca Savransky
November 15, 2017

The Shelby County Republican Executive Committee on Tuesday passed a resolution in support of GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore, according to multiple reports.

The committee said in its resolution it would "assist and support" Moore's effort to win the Alabama Senate seat and urged Republicans to back Moore's candidacy.

The resolution says Moore has been a "consistent proponent" of the positions of the Alabama GOP, listing his stances on issues such as fiscal policy and government regulations, according to the Alabama Political Reporter, which obtained a copy of the resolution before the meeting Tuesday.

I guess that God speaks to the Republican Party… hate thy neighbor, kill thy neighbor, covet thy neighbor… maybe it is really Satan whispering in their ear and not God.

Meanwhile all these resolutions are going on Kansas has a massive deficit with massive cuts to the budget, maybe they should tackle instead of spreading hate.

“It's Just This Little Chromium Switch Here"

I have my theories (totally unscientific) with the causes of gender dysphoria and I think that it all happens in the womb.

I think that there are serval vectors that might cause GD, the first is that the fetus get washed with male hormone around the 8^th to the 10^th week the fetus which starts out in life as female gets washed with testosterone that creates the male genital. Then around the 20^th week the fetus gets a second wash to masculinize the brain, if that doesn’t happen then the brain continues to develop as female. I also believe that there can be various degrees of transformation of the brain, that the brain can be masculinized to various degrees.

Another possibility can be that there are no androgen receptors for the DHT (testosterone is changed into DHT by enzyme 5-alpha-reductase, lacking the enzyme the fetus will continue developing as a female) the BST_c area of the brain, the area that is believed to determine gender.

Though out the body there are DHT receptors, a classic case where there are no receptors where there are supposed to be receptors is male pattern baldness which is cause by a genetic mutation that did away with the DHT receptors on hair follicles. So why can’t a similar type of mutation be involved with gender dysphoria? Maybe there is a lack androgen receptor (AR) in the brain’s BST_c area?

So maybe there is no switch to turn on the masculinizing the brain.

Amend The Second Amendment?

[RANT]
I am against it for the following reasons; there are two ways to amend the U.S. Constitution, the first is Congress by a vote two thirds of its members can propose an amendment and then three fourths of the states have to vote in favor of the amendment or the states can call for a Constitutional Convention where three fourths of the delegates vote in favor of the amendment.

I fear a Constitutional Convention because once convened they are limited to just the Second Amendment, I can see the Republican states delegates adding an antiabortion, an anti-LGBT, and a pro “religious freedom” amendments. Since the Republicans control almost enough states to get the ¾ is the states this is a real possibility.

The second reason that I am against is that this country is already divided on gun control and passing an amendment to the Second Amendment would rip this country apart.

I much rather that they pass sane gun laws first as I wrote about in this rant.
[/RANT]

Follow-Up… We Won!

I have been following (here) a case in Cincinnati where a trans woman has applied to have her grandparents appointed as her guardians because her parents will allow her to get Cross-sex Hormone Treatment (CHT).

Judge paves way for transgender teen to get hormone therapy at Cincinnati Children's Hospital
Cincinnati.com
By Kevin Grasha,
February 16, 2018

A Hamilton County judge has paved the way for a 17-year-old who wants to transition in gender to undergo hormone therapy. The case pitted the teen against his parents.

Sylvia Hendon, a visiting Juvenile Court judge, issued a ruling Friday granting legal custody to the teen’s grandparents, who according to a prosecutor "accept their grandson for who he is."

But the ruling comes with conditions.

Hendon said before hormone therapy can begin at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, the teen must be evaluated by a psychologist not affiliated with the hospital.

I don’t think that will be a problem as long as the therapist has worked with trans clients.

It must have been a hard decision for the judge to make, to take away custody from the parents.

Hendon said it was understandable that the teen’s parents “were legitimately surprised and confused when the child’s anxiety and depression symptoms became the basis for the diagnosis of gender dysphoria.”

She also said it was unfortunate the case had to be resolved in the courts.

“The family would have been best served if this could have been settled within the family after all parties had ample exposure to the reality of the fact that the child truly may be gender nonconforming and has a legitimate right to pursue life with a different gender identity than the one assigned at birth," she said.

She is right that it is best to keep the guardianship with the parents but unfortunately the parents are deeply religious and they forced her to listen to Bible verses for six hours and the father wanted her to go through conversion therapy.

I have heard rumors that in Connecticut the Department of Families (DCF) has taken the stance that not letting a child transition is a form of child abuse.

Violence

[RANT]
Have we become immune to the everyday violence we see? Have we become numb to it?

We are exposed to so much violence today, from video games, to television shows, to the movies, to the Middle East, and all the bombings and mass killings around the world.

From what I read in the news the common thread in all the killings at schools around the country and there are two things that stand out for me. The first thing is that they are all young white males. The second thing is that they all played violent video games.

I am not saying that everyone who plays video games is going to be a mass killer but it does make you think that in certain young individuals there could be a link there.

Other thing that makes me wonder about is all the violence in the movies and on television. Go and watch some old movies, the westerns, the mysteries and the crime dramas, do you see any blood and guts and gore? No. The bodies are covered with a sheet or there is no blood showing when a person got shot. Even without all the blood and guts they still manage to make a great movie. But now movies and television shows seems like they are competing with each on who can make the bloodiest, goriest, and blow-them-up movies.

Everyone said you got to watch “Wonder Woman” well I did and it is just like all the other super hero movies with violence is glorious living color. I imagine “Black Panther” is the same way.

For me, I’ll stick with Alfred Hitchcock with movies like “Dial M for Murder”, “Rear Window”, and classic suspense movie “North by Northwest.”

[/RANT]

Saturday 9: Baby Love

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: Baby Love (1964)



On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) When this song was popular, the Supremes were known for their elaborate hairstyles, make up and full-length gowns. When was the last time you got dressed up?
In October for the fundraiser for the Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective’s One Big Event

2) "The girls," as they were known to the engineers and executives at Motown Records, were Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross. They began singing together when they were high school classmates. Are you still in touch with any friends from your high school days?
Yes, a couple of them but now it is more with them on Facebook.

3) Mary Wilson was born in Mississippi and her family moved a great deal before settling in Detroit, where she fatefully met Florence and Diana. Were you uprooted often when you were a child? Or did you spend your school years in the same neighborhood?
I only lived in two towns, my current town where I lived since 1955 and the town in Connecticut (which shall remain anonymous since it is used as a security questions) where I was born.

4) The Supremes began as a quartet called the Primettes. In addition to Mary, Flo and Diana, there was Betty McGlown. In 1960, Betty left the group to get married and was replaced by Barbara Martin. In 1962, Barbara left the group to have a baby. They quit trying to replace the fourth voice, soldiered on as a trio, and made pop history. Have you ever found yourself in a position similar to Betty's or Barbara's, where you had to make a difficult decision and choose between your personal life and your career?
No not really, but in life I have made some wrong decisions which sometimes worked out for the better.

5) Thinking of babies and "baby love," is anyone in your life expecting a baby in 2018?
Not that I know, last year was different it seemed like it was a marathon year for friends who were having babies.

6) With twelve #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, The Supremes remain America's most commercially successfully recording group, and this song (along with "Stop! In the Name of Love") is one of the most popular karaoke songs. If we handed you the mic this morning and absolutely insisted you perform, what song would you choose (any song, any genre)?
Okay, here is the deal I cannot carry a tune or stay on key.
At work we had contracts with South Korean companies and I was told (or rather ordered) that I had to have a karaoke song ready is we went out with our customers, so… I picked Row, Row Your Boat.

7) Original group member Florence Ballard left the group in 1967. She died of cardiac arrest in 1976 at the age of 32. Since February is National Heart Month, it seems appropriate to ask: Is anyone in your life battling heart disease?
Not right now that I know of, but my father had a heart attack once when he was in his nineties (he died of aspiration pneumonia).

8) Florence Ballard's brother, Hank, wrote Chubby Checker's famous dance song, "The Twist." When did you last dance?
Wow! I can’t remember maybe five or ten years ago.

9) Random question: Close your eyes and visualize the most beautiful place you've ever been. Now describe it to us.
Pharaoh Lake Wilderness in the Adirondacks.
It is a seven mile walk into the lake and the wilderness area, there are no motors allowed, it is accessible only by foot and horseback. It is pristine mountain lake surrounded by the Adirondack Mountains. The lake is over 400 acres with not a motorboat on it and if you want a canoe you will have to carry it in.
At night the stars come out and the sky is a blaze with them, you can hear the cry of the loons echo off the mountains.
One time when we backpacked in the Northern Lights lit up the sky and reflexed off the lake. It was the first time in 50 years that the Northern Lights were visible that far south.

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Thanks so much for joining us again at Saturday: 9. As always, feel free to come back, see who has participated and comment on their posts. In fact sometimes, if you want to read & comment on everyone's responses, you might want to check back again tomorrow. But it is not a rule. We haven’t any rules here. Join us on next Saturday for another version of Saturday: 9, "Just A Silly Meme on a Saturday!" Enjoy your weekend!

Do We Ever Forget The Past?

I am a women!

We all have heard trans people say that they are a woman or a man after they have transitioned or had surgery but can we ever forget our past history?

I transitioned over 10 years ago when I think or dream I am just “I” I am genderless in my dreams, in my memories. When I think of the time long,long ago when my father and my brother used to go out on Lake Winnisquam (A smaller lake off of Lake Winnipesaukee) at night and come back with a bucket  loaded with bullheads, I am just me. I am not a little boy or girl in my memory but just me.

But when I think of when I was a scout I know I was a boy scout, I know that I was never in the girl scouts.

I know many trans people who do not want any pictures that remind them of their past, many tear up or burn all their old pictures… do does that really do away with our past?

When we destroy our past are we destroying ourselves? When we burn all our old photos and anything that reminds us of our past are we erasing a part of ourselves? Are we performing Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) therapy on ourselves to burn out the past? 

I transitioned when I was 59 so I have a lot of history.

At one of my birthday parties

What about someone who transitioned when they were five? Will they ever forget that they are trans?

I know many trans people who transitioned at an early age; when they are 59 will they still remember that they are trans?

When I get comments on my blog saying that “I am a woman because I had surgery and you didn’t so you are just “a man in a dress.” my thoughts are… well if you are a woman why does it bother you so much that I am an out trans woman? You must still be remembering your past. Why are you still visiting trans blogs?


I read a news article about a trans woman down under in Australia and she described herself as a “Woman with a unique history.” I like that definition, it doesn’t destroy our past but acknowledges it