Another Draconian Bill…

That doesn’t deserve to see the light of day.

Down in Georgia a Republican legislator has introduced a bill that make it a crime for a child to transition!

Georgia lawmaker: Make aiding gender transition of minors a felony
The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionBy Maya T. PrabhuOctober 30, 2019

A Cobb County lawmaker wants to make it a felony for medical professionals to help a minor with gender transition.

State Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, said the legislation aims to protect children from having irreversible procedures done when they are young. Current law requires a parent to consent to surgery or for a minor to be prescribed medication.

While the bill is still being drafted, Ehrhart said Georgia medical providers who perform surgeries or administer or prescribe medications that assist minors with gender transition could be charged with a felony. The legislation would not effect doctors working with adults who seek to undergo gender transition.“We’re talking about children that can’t get a tattoo or smoke a cigar or a cigarette in the state of Georgia, but can be castrated and get sterilized,” she said.

What a complete a**, she has no idea what she is talking about!

First… nothing that isn’t completely reversible I done to the child. 

Second… hormone are usually started at around 16.

Third… no surgery are done until the person is able to give informed consent, usually at age 18. 

She is only doing this to rally support for her voter base at our expense, this proposed law is nothing but grandstanding and will do more harm than good.

Research has shown that the suicide rates skyrocket if they don’t get proper medical care.

And of course she has a "medical expert" on her side.

In her press release, Ehrhart included quotes from Atlanta-based pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Quentin Van Meter, who said the proposal is needed to protect children from “medical experimentation based on wishful social theory.“

These children are suffering from a psychological condition without biologic basis,” he said. “Using the bludgeon of threatened suicide as justification is first of all cruel, and secondly, not supported by valid published studies.”

It just goes to show you that you can always find a quack to back you up.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) all believe denying proper healthcare increases the risks of suicides and long term negative affects on the child.

You Can Check Out Any Time You Like, But You Can Never Leave!'*

This Is Something Out Of A Horror Movie… can you imagine you voluntarily check yourself in to a psychiatric hospital and you want to leave but the hospital starts initiate involuntary-commitment proceedings against you. Not because you are  threat to yourself or others but because you have insurance and they will pay for more days of treatment.

Free to check in, but not to leavePatients seeking mental-health treatment in Washington have been held against their will or threatened with involuntary commitmentSeattle TimesBy Daniel GilbertOctober 6, 2019

Carol Jason had been a patient of BHC Fairfax Hospital for just minutes when she began rethinking the decision to check herself in to the psychiatric hospital.[…]For Jason and other patients who check in voluntarily, the revelation that they can’t leave when they want to has shaken their faith in a system they turned to for help. The reasons for holding such patients vary, but the practice of doing so — sometimes for days — is a regular occurrence at some of Washington state’s private psychiatric hospitals, an investigation by The Seattle Times has found.[…]To do so, a hospital physician or nurse has to conclude that the patient poses an immediate danger and then initiate involuntary-commitment proceedings. In Washington state, this begins with a call to county government, which then sends a mental-health professional to evaluate the patient. The county evaluator can involuntarily commit patients for up to 72 hours before patients can make their case to a judge.

Fairfax, the state’s largest private psychiatric hospital, with 157 beds, routinely has held patients by claiming they wouldn’t be safe if released, only to be contradicted by government evaluators who find no grounds for committing them. At Smokey Point Behavioral Hospital in Snohomish County, nurses were told to notify the hospital’s chief executive any time a patient asked to leave early, internal records show, and several patients have complained that staff delayed their release or tried to intimidate them into staying.

Now suppose you are trans and you check yourself in to the psychiatric hospital…

One of them, a young transgender man, said he overheard nurses refer to him as “it” when he arrived last September and was later pushed to attend women-only group therapy. When the patient told hospital staff his mother was coming to get him, they told him it wouldn’t be that easy.

“I felt intimidated by one of the nurses as he threatened that my insurance wouldn’t pay for anything” if he left against medical advice, the patient wrote in a complaint to the Department of Health.

The patient’s mother, a nurse manager, called Smokey Point 47 times over a couple days but never received a call back, she told The Times. She made the four-hour drive from their home in Southwest Washington and spent hours waiting in the hospital’s lobby.

Inside, a counselor told the patient that there was no record of his request to leave and that “she had no idea how to file an AMA discharge,” he wrote in the complaint. A nurse practitioner informed him that the hospital would start the process to involuntarily commit him if he insisted on leaving. Two crisis counselors tried persuading him to stay another day. Finally, to his bafflement, a nurse told him he could go.

“That whole experience was everything I feared about going to inpatient,” he said in an interview.

I know that would be a frighting experience, being forced to be in a ward of your birth gender and being constantly misgendered, it I something nightmares are made of! And it is all because of an insurance scam. 

*The Eagles: Hotel California

We Are The Guinea Pigs

When it comes to our health, no one really knows how the Cross-gender Hormone Therapy affects us. We are learning about side-effects as we go along.

AHA News: How Does Hormone Therapy Affect Heart Health in Transgender People?
US News and World ReportOctober 28, 2019

MONDAY, OCT. 28, 2019 (American Heart Association News) -- Cardiovascular health in transgender people requires a multifaceted approach to care, according to a new report that looked at a range of issues in how hormone therapy affects heart health.[...]"It's a pretty unique situation, and there's not a lot of literature available," said the study's lead author, Dr. Christian Delles.

"We already know sex hormones are important to cardiovascular health, and now we have people being exposed to high levels of sex hormones they normally would not have, which could be associated with cardiovascular benefit or risk. If there's a risk, we have to find how big the risk is and how we can manage it," said Delles, a professor at the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow.

After reviewing dozens of studies, the researchers concluded the use of estrogen by transgender women may be associated with an increased risk of heart attack and ischemic stroke. On the other hand, the use of testosterone by transgender men did not seem to increase cardiovascular risk.

Gee I knew that. My doctor back in 2004 told me that was one of the risks along with blood clots.

The study focused on gender hormone therapy's affect on cardiovascular health, but it also concluded that hormone therapy also impacts bone metabolism and the risk of malignancy. As a result, "a cross-disciplinary approach is required to provide transgender people with optimal care," the report said.

I knew that also, my healthcare provider does a bone density scan and also have me taking vitamin D.

A Double Whammy

As trans people we see the results of male privilege as no one can see it. We see life from both sides, male and female…

Transgender employees in tech: Why this "progressive" industry has more work to do to achieve true gender inclusivity
The tech industry is seen as being inclusive, but the reality for transgender workers is often very different.Tech RepublicBy Alison DeNisco RayomeOctober 25, 2019

Delaney King created a successful career as a freelance digital artist working in video games in Australia—with more than 20 years of experience and several awards under her belt, she had been headhunted by large studios and offered salaries of over $100,000 AUD. 

But that was before her gender transition. 

King is intersex, which means she biologically falls somewhere between the definitions of male and female. About four years ago, she decided to transition from presenting as a man to presenting as a woman. 
Despite her years of experience and accolades, suddenly studios were no longer eager to hire someone with the name "Delaney" on a resume. When presenting as a male, she had sent out about 10 applications, and received eight interviews and seven offers over the course of her career. As a female, she sent out about 10 applications, and received two interviews and two offers, one in a more junior position. 

"It's absolutely striking," King said. "It is essentially the same CV. It's simply that the rules are different as an apparent cisgender woman." (Cisgender is a term for people who are not transgender, according to GLAAD.)

The tech industry represents itself as a champion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. But the experience of transgender individuals working in tech has not always been as positive, suggesting there is still plenty more work to do before the tech industry is as inclusive as it likes to think it is.

One of the things that tell trans people if asked is try to transition after you get the job and you had one or two reviews under your belt… it makes it harder for the company to say that you didn’t fit in with the company was looking for.

Hill returned to freelance work, and began applying again to full-time jobs. She quickly noticed a far lower response rate with the name "Olivia" on her resume, and decided to conduct an experiment: She sent out about 100 resumes under the name "Michael" (*name has been changed) and 100 resumes under the name "Olivia" to jobs all over the world. 

The result? "I've had about 30 responses under my male name—I've had two under my female name, and one was a staffing agency," Hill said. "This isn't margin of error. The only thing that's different is the name." 

Research on unconscious bias—when someone makes a judgement based on a job candidate's gender, race, or other factor without realizing they are doing so—reflects Hill's experiences: Both male and female managers are twice as likely to hire a man as a woman in the academic sciences, according to a 2015 study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

I know a trans woman who was a project manager (she has a BSEE and a MBA) and before she transitioned “his” word was law, once she transitioned “her” word no one paid any attention to and it was until a man said the same thing that people that others listened. One time even a client asked her to get the coffee.

Before Averill transitioned from female to male, he had already worked his way up to an advanced technical team at Symantec. When he decided to transition to male in 2009, he first checked state and company anti-discrimination policies to ensure he wouldn't lose his job. His manager was supportive, and he worked with HR, legal, and the management team to draft an email to send to the company letting them know.[…]After a few years of hormone replacement therapy, Averill began to notice a distinct change: The people he had been working with for years started treating him very differently. 

As a help desk technician, his job was to help employees fix technical problems and explain his process for doing so, and teach them how to solve issues themselves the next time around. Suddenly, the same people who he had been teaching for years would stop him mid-process and say the same thing: "No, no, no, I trust you. Just give me the answer."

Here are my words of wisdom…

You are going to face “male privilege” first hand whether it is losing privilege or gaining privilege… be prepared!

Torn Apart

A child down in Texas is being torn apart by the court system and she has been put in jeopardy by a judge who overturned a jury verdict that looked out for the child’s wellbeing.

A custody battle between parents who disagree on the gender of their 7-year-old draws attention of Texas politicians
CNN
By Jay Croft, Ashley Killough and Amir Vera\
October 26, 2019


(CNN)A Dallas judge has ruled that both parents should have joint custody of a 7-year-old whose gender identity became central to their court battle, which drew attention from politicians across Texas.

The judge's order came just days after a jury rendered a verdict giving the mother sole conservatorship of the child.

In her ruling, Judge Kim Cooks said a "substantial change in circumstances with child or parent," warranted her decision to award joint custody.
[…]
In 2018, Georgulas filed a lawsuit seeking to modify her custody agreement with Younger. She wanted Younger to affirm the child with a girl's name inside and outside the home, among other requests essentially forcing the father to embrace the child's gender expressions. Judge Kim Cooks ultimately denied the request, saying Friday that "the Court finds that the State of Texas has no compelling interest to justify such interference."

But the judge ruled that Georgulas did not make a request to be appointed sole managing conservator, nor did she make a request to surgically or chemically transition the child's sex or chemically castrate the child. Younger has previously accused Georgulas of wanting to medically transition the child.

So this being Texas you know that the Republican politicians had to step in.

Texas GOP leaders enter parents' battle over child's gender
CBS7
By Jamie Stengle and Clarice Silber Associated Press
October 25, 2019


DALLAS (AP) — Top Republican leaders in Texas this week weighed in on two parents' battle over their 7-year-old child's gender identity after the case was shared widely on social media and conservative news sites.[…]Younger, who says the child acts like a boy around him, asked to be the sole decision-maker and launched a website in which he pleads for help to "save" his child.

Inaccurate and misleading stories about the 7-year-old have since circulated in blogs, Facebook posts, YouTube videos and petitions, bringing attention to a usually private matter.[...]Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted Wednesday evening that the attorney general's office and Texas Department of Family and Protective Services were looking into "the matter" of the child. And on Thursday, Attorney General Ken Paxton said he was asking Family and Protective Services to investigate the mother for possible child abuse, citing "public reports" in a letter that alleges she is "forcing" the child to transition to a girl.

It is the father who is stirring up trouble for his child.

The judge scolded the father, who she noted was unemployed, for seeking publicity on the case and raising money on his website, but she also pointed out how the mother testified that her encouragement of the child being transgender may have been excessive.

"The father finds comfort in public controversy and attention surrounded by his use of unfounded facts and is thus motivated by financial gain," Cooks said, adding that the gain came "at the cost of the protection and privacy of his children."

Much of the public reaction to the case has focused on backing the narrative laid out on the father's website, which features a headline saying he's fighting "chemical castration and sex-change of his son."

Meanwhile many states see it the opposite as Texas, they see it as a form of child  abuse not to let a child transition, they see it as lessening the chance of self-harm by the child. 

Connecticut has these guidelines…

The following is a list of parental behaviors that increase a child’s risk factors (behaviors to avoid) and decrease a child’s risk factors (behaviors that help). The list emerged from longitudinal research conducted by Caitlin Ryan, Ph.D. at the Family Acceptance Project.   

Behaviors to Avoid:   

• hitting, slapping or physically hurting your child because of his or her identity
• verbal harassment or name calling because of the child’s identity
• excluding LGBT youth from family and family activities
• blocking access to LGBT friends, events and resources
• blaming your child when he or she is discriminated against because of his or her identity
• pressuring your child to be more (or less) masculine or feminine
• telling your child that God will punish him or her because he or she is gay
• telling your child that you are ashamed of him or her or that how he or she looks or acts will shame the family
• making your child keep his or her LGBT identity a secret in the family and not letting the child talk about it

Behaviors that Help

• talk with your child about his or her LGBT identity  
• express affection when your child tells you or when you learn that your child is gay or transgender
• support your child’s LGBT identity even though you may feel uncomfortable
• advocate for your child when he or she is mistreated because of his or her LGBT identity
• require that other family members respect your LGBT child
• bring your child to LGBT organizations and events
• connect your child with an LGBT adult role model  
• welcome your child’s LGBT friends and partners into your home  
• support your child’s gender expression  
• believe your child can have a happy future as an LGBT adult.

Hopefully the child down in Texas will be able to find support and transition okay despite the bigotry of the Republicans politicians jumping in to the fray.

Saturday 9: Miss Me More

Sam’s Saturday 9: Miss Me More (2018)

On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…
Once again I’m driving up to the Cape this morning so I will not be able to post your comment until this afternoon



Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.
Chosen because October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Learn more and spread the word that help is available.


1) This song is about a girl who ditched her high heels so she wouldn't be taller than her beau. Tell us about the most recent addition to your footwear wardrobe. Do you need to go shoe shopping?
I have to get a new pair of sneakers

2) She sings that she misses the sheets on the bed she made herself. As you answer these questions, is your bed made?
Define “made?”
It has sheets and a blanket but do you mean all tucked and neat… nope.

3) This video shows her in a ring. Have you ever worn boxing gloves?
Nope and I don’t care to do so in the future. I don’t like violence. 

4) This week's featured artist, Kelsea Ballerini, got married on Christmas Day in 2017. That makes their anniversary easy to remember. Are you celebrating any birthdays or anniversaries this month?
Yes, my birthday was earlier in the month.

5) Kelsea has been quoted as saying, "Perfect doesn't exist." She worries that we exhaust ourselves "trying to be something that isn't real." How about you? Do you believe your best is good enough? Or do you strive for perfection?
I don’t strive for perfection, but I do like to improve on doing a better job.

6) One of Kelsea's tattoos is a square inside of a circle, aka a square peg in a round hole, on her left wrist. She says it's there to remind her that it's OK to "not fit the mold of what normal might be." Tell us about a time where you felt like a square peg in a round hole.
Um… ever day.
To paraphrase Kermit the Frog… it’s not easy being trans. 

7) In 2018, when this song was popular, French President Emmanuel Macron lowered fuel taxes. When it's time to fill your tank, do you shop around for the best price?
Hmm… it was last Tuesday when I was coming home from the Cape, gas was $2.99/gal. On the Cape gas is expensive everywhere. But I usually don’t shop around because my tank only hold 11 gallons of gas and the last tankful I got 65 mpg.

8) Also in 2018, Luxembourg made all public transportation free. When is the last time you rode a bus or train?
Over the summer, I take the bus into P’town (otherwise known as Provincetown). Parking and pedestrian traffic is a nightmare and the bus it only a dollar.

9) Random question: When did you most recently say, either out loud or to yourself, "I haven't got a thing to wear?"
Thursday.
Which reminds me… I have clothes to put in the drier.


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!

A Tool In Our Arsenal

We have a tool that we can fight discrimination and harassment in certain situations, where we are covered by HIPAA and it is a mighty weapon.

Prison Guards Made Fun Of Transgender Inmates And Released Their Medical Info In A Private Facebook Group
The groups⁠, both named “Behind the Walls” and followed by different spellings of “Illinois Department of Corrections," each have more than 4,000 members.BuzzFeedBy Emily HoernerOctober 17, 2019

CHICAGO — At least 25 Illinois Department of Corrections employees have taken part in online conversations that mocked, demeaned, or disclosed personal and medical information about transgender inmates — including calling transgender women “it” and “he” — in two private Facebook groups, an Injustice Watch review has found.

The posts were written by low-level officers, sergeants, lieutenants, and other correctional staffers — including a counselor and a parole officer — from across the state. The posts included comments degrading transgender women and outing other LGBTQ prisoners. They openly discussed private information about inmates, including alleged sexual acts and medical treatments they received.

Wednesday morning I gave a workshop to court employees and one of my slide I mention that we are covered by HIPAA.

We hate that we are in the DSM and the ICD-10 but they give us heavy artillery to use against the bigots.

HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that was passed in 1996 and what it does is protect your privacy of your medical health records. You know it is all those forms you sign at your doctor’s office when you need to send your medical records to another healthcare provider.

And the law has teeth.

Criminal Penalties.  A person who knowingly obtains or discloses individually identifiable health information in violation of the Privacy Rule may face a criminal penalty of up to $50,000 and up to one-year imprisonment.  The criminal penalties increase to $100,000 and up to five years imprisonment if the wrongful conduct involves false pretenses, and to $250,000 and up to 10 years imprisonment if the wrongful conduct involves the intent to sell, transfer, or use identifiable health information for commercial advantage, personal gain or malicious harm.  The Department of Justice is responsible for criminal prosecutions under the Priv

You got that? The correctional officers can be fined up to $250,000 and 10 years in prison!

So do correction officers come under HIPAA?

Most likely according to Ultra Risk Advisors.

With respect to correctional healthcare, issues of breach of privacy/confidentiality are becoming more frequent additions to the broad allegations asserted in most complaints alleging breach of confidentiality.  At least in very narrow circumstances, these types of allegations might form the basis of a colorable Section 1983 claim that could withstand a motion to dismiss. And at least one court, in Michigan, has found that requirement of a showing of physical injury to be unconstitutional with respect to breach of privacy injuries. State laws may also provide more protection for the recipient of healthcare services than HIPAA.

HIPAA allows correctional facilities to obtain or use protected health information if necessary for providing health care to an inmate; for the health and safety of inmates, officers, or staff; and for administration and maintenance of the safety, security, and good order of the correctional institution. Section 45 C.F.R. 164.512 (k) (5) (i) of the code indicates grounds for which inmate medical information may be provided. Disclosing an inmate’s history may ensure the inmate’s health and safety and those of other inmates. Officers may need to know about an inmate’s seizures before placing the inmate in isolation. Disabilities may require accommodation and assistive devices, and inmate medication management may warrant recurring medical appointments. Medical conditions or certain medications could affect what tasks an inmate can perform safely. Staff needs to be aware of an inmate’s physical limitations while recovering from surgery. Many circumstances exist in which an inmate’s health and safety, coupled with the logistics of running a correctional institution, necessitate the correctional healthcare provider sharing health information.

Their transgender status is common knowledge but when the correctional officers posted that information on Facebook I believe that they broke HIPAA.

Also keep in mind that HIPAA applies to all healthcare facilities; nursing homes, hospitals, doctor’s offices, and all other healthcare facilities.

It’s A Brave New World.

I was reading an employment blog and it was about Artificial Intelligence or AI being used for job interviews and I wrote a comment on their Facebook page…

As a trans woman and a person with a speech impediment I sure hope that they test out their AI with us. From what I read AI cannot recognize trans people, its batting average in identifying trans is zero, I would hate not to be able get a job because some computer program misgendered me.

Or that I didn’t get a job because of a speech impediment or have an accent.

Before I wrote that I did some research on AI and trans people.

Facial Recognition Software Regularly Misgenders Trans People
Human computer interfaces are almost never built with transgender people in mind, and continue to reinforce existing biases.
Vice
By Matthew Gault
February 19, 2019

Facial recognition software is a billion dollar industry, with Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook developing systems, some of which have been sold to governments and private companies. Those systems are a nightmare for various reasons—some systems have, for example, been shown to misidentify black people in criminal databases while others have been unable to see black faces at all.

The problems can be severe for transgender and nonbinary people because most facial recognition software is programmed to sort people into two groups—male or female. Because these systems aren’t designed with transgender and gender nonconforming people in mind, something as common as catching a flight can become a complicated nightmare. It’s a problem that will only get worse as the TSA moves to a full biometric system at all airports and facial recognition technology spreads.

These biases programmed into facial recognition software means that transgender and gender nonconforming people may not be able to use facial recognition advancements that are at least nominally intended to make people’s lives easier, and, perhaps more importantly, may be unfairly targeted, discriminated against, misgendered, or otherwise misidentified by the creeping surveillance state's facial recognition software.

My guess is that the people working to develop AI are mainly white and mainly cisgender males. The Next Web writes,

Unfortunately, facial recognition proponents often don’t see this as a problem. Scientists from the University of Boulder in Colorado recently conducted a study to demonstrate how poorly AI performs when attempting to recognize the faces of transgender and non-binary people. This is a problem that’s been framed as horrific by people who believe AI should work for everyone, and “not a problem” by those who think only in unnatural, binary terms.

It’s easy for a bigot to dismiss the tribulations of those whose identity falls outside of their world-view, but these people are missing the point entirely. We’re teaching AI to ignore basic human physiology.

We are teaching AI to be bigots.

And it is not just us…

Researcher Morgan Klaus Scheuerman, who worked on the Boulder study, appears to be a cis-male. But because he has long hair, IBM’s facial recognition software labels him “female.”

And then there’s beards. About 1 in 14 women have a condition called hirsutism that causes them to grow “excess” facial hair. Almost every human, male or female, grows some facial hair. However, at a rate of about 100 percent, AI concludes that facial hair is a male trait. Not because it is, but because it’s socially unacceptable for a woman to have facial hair.

Meanwhile VOX writes,

Human bias can seep into AI systems. Amazon abandoned a recruiting algorithm after it was shown to favor men’s resumes over women’s; researchers concluded an algorithm used in courtroom sentencing was more lenient to white people than to black people; a study found that mortgage algorithms discriminate against Latino and African American borrowers.
[…]
Facial recognition tech has also caused problems for transgender people. For example, some trans Uber drivers have had their accounts suspended because the company uses a facial recognition system as a built-in security feature, and the system is bad at identifying the faces of people who are transitioning. Getting kicked off the app cost the trans drivers fares and effectively cost them a job.

It is hard enough now for trans people to get jobs can you imagine trying to get a job when the AI is a bigot?

Will we end up like this ad…

Trans People Are Destroying America!

Well that is what HUD Ben Carson thinks, I bet you would have never thought that the administration would think that of us… Not. The Trump administration is the most oppressive I think in history, not just about LGBTQ+ people but for all minorities.

Pressed on transgender comments, HUD’s Carson says political correctness is ‘going to destroy our nation’
Some HUD staff were outraged over Ben Carson’s comments about “big, hairy men"
The Washington Post
By Tracy Jan
October 22, 2019

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson decried political correctness during a congressional hearing Tuesday instead of apologizing for controversial comments he made recently about transgender people.

Asked by Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) on whether he felt the need to apologize for his remarks about “big, hairy men” trying to infiltrate women’s homeless shelters during a meeting with HUD staff in San Francisco last month, Carson declined.

“No,” he said, his hands clasped at the table where he had sat for nearly three hours during the House Financial Services hearing about affordable housing. “I think this whole concept of political correctness -- you can say this, you can’t say that, you can’t repeat what someone said -- is total foolishness, and it’s going to destroy our nation, and we need to be more mature than that.”

This is only going to get worst before January 20^th 2021. The Senate just approved 44 more federal Christians judges who put their religion before the Constitution. I think you are going to see more cases where “religious freedom” chips away at our liberties.

Our only hope I believe is the ruling of the Supreme Court this coming June, I hope that Chief Justice Roberts sees the folly in allowing discrimination us.

---

This morning I am giving a presentation for the Judicial Branch’s 2019 Diversity Week 

Travel Day

I’m heading home today and I will be back up next Saturday.

Well I made it to a sunset at Lieutenant Island, Wellfleet, MA I wanted to go yesterday but it was overcast so I went today and there were almost no clouds today.

These were processed using Lightroom HDR

This one was processed using Photomatix Pro6 for the HDR and then to Lightroom for tweaking.

Have You Heard The One About…

Isn’t that how jokes begin? Well this is no joking matter, this is how the opposition sees us.

The Origins of the Transgender Movement
The National Review
By Madeleine Kearns
October 14, 2019

Editor’s Note: This article has been adapted from remarks delivered at a Heritage Foundation summit.

I’ve been asked to talk about the origins of transgenderism and how it relates to children and their exploitation. But first, I would like to start with a little story.
[…]
I’ve been asked to get to the origins of this movement, and I’m going to try to do that. Of course, as you know, it’s just one stripe of the rainbow, and I couldn’t possibly do it justice in ten minutes, but I’ll do my absolute best. There are three things that I think have been changing since the mid-20th century. The first is in medicine, the second is what I like to call an ontology of desire, and the third is what I and others call the politicization of everything.

So what does she think started the trans movement?

She starts off with the movie “The Danish Girl and our favorite doctor Paul McHugh and then goes on from there to Ray Blanchard and Anne Lawrence and their debunked theory of autogynophilia. Then she blames it on the internet…

The third point is the massive cultural and political tidal wave. The thing is, in the 1990s people might have been forgiven for thinking, “This will never catch on. This is so outrageous. This is absurd.” They would obviously be right, but the thing was the Internet and all these other things came into play. Society had just gotten used to defining whole sections of the population by their desires with regards to homosexuality, which was trying to correct genuine injustices that gay people faced in this country and still face across the world. They overcorrected and they became obsessed with identity. We moved further and further away from the sort of vision that Martin Luther King set out. We started to lose sight of all these different intricacies with regard to sexuality. Then, trans piggybacked onto gay rights, which had piggybacked onto civil rights.

Gee she must have never heard of Stonewall? Or the Cooper’s Donuts Uprising of 1959, or the 1965 Dewey’s Lunch Counter Protest or even the Compton Cafeteria Uprising in 66?

Of course she interviewed a Drag Queen…

Davis yesterday was agreeing with me. While he was saying that for him it’s about performance, he recognizes that when he’s in bars and other public places, people come up to him at the end, and it’s all about sex for them. As an adult, who knows that and understands that, he can deal with it. He can say whether he wants to get involved or not — after all, it’s a free country — but why would we put children in that situation? Why would we invite salacious interest in children by dressing them up in drag? We shouldn’t do that, and I’m referring here to a whole new phenomenon called “drag kids.”

The argument we’re supposed to accept rather unthinkingly is that, “Oh you’re just being bigoted, and you’re just prejudiced, because this about self-expression.” And I’m thinking well no, because yes children dress up, but again, it’s context dependent.

The author totally ignores the fact that autogynophilia and Rapid Onset of Gender Dysphoria is based on junk science. That there has been zero research done on them, they are based on flawed inquiries and psychologist J. Michael Bailey admitted that in his book that it was all anecdotal. But that doesn’t stop the conservatives from using it, after all they have initials after their name so it must be true.

This article would be a joke if it was for the fact that conservatives believe it.

It’s One Of Those Days

It is one of those days when I search the web and all I find is about violence and hate and politics and I don’t want to write about any of that.

I see trans friends who crossdress write about the clothes they picked out for a night out on the town and I remember those days but after twelve years those days are long gone. Now I have two LBDs and I have also been thinking about another LBD.

Now I dress for comfort; jeans, tee shirts, and sneakers.

I very rarely wear high heels, usually just when I go to a fundraiser two or three times a year, I have one coming up in two weeks so I have to dig them out of the shoe boxes in the back of my closet.

I read the blogs and I smile when I read that “I feel womanly when I put on my bra” well when you wear one every days I feel womanly when I let the girls free for the day. I hate hot muggy weather because your bra gets soaked with sweat.

There is a bra ad on television where the women are tugging, and pulling their bra and the announcer is talking about the “prefect” bra… I can relate to that.

Remember we are all different, there is no one way to be trans.

Saturday 9: I'd Really Love to See You Tonight

Sam’s Saturday 9: I'd Really Love to See You Tonight (1976)

On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…
This morning I’m driving up to the Cape so I will not be able to post your comment until this afternoon



Unfamiliar with this week's song. Hear it here.

1) This song is about a guy who, out of the blue, phones an ex. Have you ever spontaneously phoned or emailed a former lover? Has an ex ever reached out to you?
No, but I received a call from an ex girl friend… she pressed the wrong button on her speed dial and we had a nice talk.
One thing that I thought of after we hung up… she still has me on her speed dial

2) He suggests walking through the park, taking a drive along the beach, or watching TV. Do any of those suggestions appeal to you right now?
Well this afternoon I will be on the Cape and I will be down on the beach to see the sunset.

Newcomb Hollow Beach (Wellfleet) MA)

3) "England Dan" got his nickname because he was a passionate Beatles fan and would affect a British accent when he talked about his favorite group. Are you good at imitating accents?
No… I have a hard time just pronouncing the works correctly. Sometime I have to tell you how I pronounce “paradigm.”

4) Dan met John Colley when they were high school classmates in Dallas. When they were still kids, they agreed that "John Ford Coley" would be a better stage name. Think back to your high school days. Which of your friends daydreamed along with you?
I had a few friends that we dreamed about becoming an astronaut.

5) After the duo disbanded, "England Dan" went to Nashville, billed himself by his real name -- Dan Seals -- and recorded country music. Who is your favorite country performer?
Willy Nelson

6) Today John Ford Coley lives in TN. He performs occasionally and raises horses. Have you ever been to TN?
Yes, when I was little we traveled to all the Civil War battlefields in eastern Tennessee.
Then recently I traveled down to Asheville via I-81

7) In 1975, when this song was popular, Foster Grant Sunglasses had a suggested retail price of $5/pair. Do you buy sunglasses more for fashion or utility?
I have a pair of clip-on sunglasses.

8) The most popular movie of 1975 was Jaws. Have you seen it?
Yeah when it first came out, I didn’t like it then I don;t like it now.

9) Random question: Excluding anyone related to you by blood or marriage, what man are you closest to?
Hmm… I don’t think any are.

Too Good To Be True

When I saw that Utah was trying to pass a ban on conversion therapy I thought wow… the Mormon Church is allowing that! Well it was too good,

Mormon Church Opposes Utah’s ‘Conversion Therapy’ Ban, Calling It Overreaching
The practice has been condemned by leading medical and mental health groups. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is standing behind it.
Huff Post
By Nina Golgowski
October 17, 2019

Lawmakers’ latest attempt to ban so-called conversion therapy on LGBTQ youth in Utah is under threat by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) after the influential religious group released a statement publicly condemning a ban.

The Mormon church, as the faith is commonly known, called the proposed ban overreaching, claiming it does not protect individuals’ religious beliefs or “account for important realities of gender identity in the development of children.”

However, the governor supports the ban…

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R), who’s a member of the LDS church, back in June had proposed regulating how psychologists practice conversion therapy, saying he was “troubled” by it.

So we are going to have to wait to see who wins, the governor or the church.

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This will be the first in a while where I will not be attending Fantasia Fair. Fan Fair starts on Sunday with a reception and end the following Sunday with a brunch. Eight days en fem.

The first time that I went was back in 2000, I went for three days and I liked it so much that I have been going just about every year since. I’ve been to other conventions but they were all in the same motel, even though you’re en fem for three or four days you are pretty much isolated from the general public but at Fan Fair you walk around town meeting tourists and the town’s folk. You wander around window  shopping and eat lunch (which is provided as part of Fan Fair), one time when I was walking down the main drag… um… street I overheard a husband comment to his wife; “There are a lot of tall women in town, I wonder if there’s a women’s basketball game tonight?”

It was during Fan Fair that I first felt rain on my stockings. It was during Fan Fair that I first walked down a street in a snow storm. It was at Fan Fair that for the first time I was in a hot tube with seven lesbians. (Did I mention that the first day of the fair is the last day of Women’s Week)

The reason that I cannot attend Fan Fair is that I have to do training for the Connecticut Court system, I have 17 signed up for my workshop on Wednesday. This will be the second time that I did training for the court system and next week’s training is for the Judicial Branch’s 2019 Diversity Week. I got invited because a therapist couldn’t give the training that week and he recommended me.

Then next Friday I am on a panel talking about trans athletes.This invite came about because of my internship for my MSW at the Connecticut Women Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF)

I will be up on the Cape tomorrow but I think that I will be going to the Wellfleet Oyster festival and then I will be sanding down the radiators in the cottage to get them ready to paint before I leave on Tuesday. I will then head back up to the Cape on Saturday and come home on the 28^th.

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Today I am down in New Haven teaching two classes on public health at Southern Connecticut State University

Say No To Hate.

What do you do if you’re a waitress or waiter and you hear bigotry? Do you still wait on them or do you refuse to serve them and you do it could cost you your job?

Server in Wisconsin fired for refusing to serve anti-transgender customers
By: WTMJ Staff
October 15, 2019

FOND DU LAC, Wisc. — A woman says she was fired from her serving job at a local restaurant after he refused to serve guests she says were making transphobic remarks.

Brittany Spencer worked as a server at Fat Joe's Bar & Grill in Fond du Lac for a few months. On Saturday night, she says some of the guests she was serving began making disparaging comments about gender identity while a transgender woman was in the bar.

"They were asking me if I thought it was disgusting and wrong and why we would let someone like that into the establishment," Spencer said. "To which I answered, no, I do not agree with that and walked away."
[…]
Spencer says she went to her manager to ask if someone else could serve the table because she didn't feel comfortable.

"[My manager] essentially told me to suck it up or go home," Spencer said. "To which I said, OK. I will leave."

Then I feel that she made a big mistake…

But before their conversation, Spencer took to Facebook to sound off about what happened. Her post generated more than a dozen comments.

Her boss said he was going to talk to her the next day and not firer her but he said when she posted it on Facebook he decided to fire her.

So what are the issues here?

• First Amendment
• Non-discrimination laws
• Labor Laws

First off… I am not a lawyer so these are only my interpretation of the laws.

Unfortunately, there is a right to spew hate but it only applies to the government “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press...” So you do not have right, what most people think, to say anything you want wherever you want, what the law does mean is that anti-discrimination laws cannot prohibit speech. In other words bigots can say anything they want and the law cannot stop them. However, businesses are not covered by the First Amendment.

That means the bar owner didn’t have to put up with what the patrons were saying, there was no 1^st Amendment rights for the patrons.

Non-discrimination laws in Wisconsin do not cover gender identity and/or expression discrimination.

Title VII might covers employment but since the waitress is not trans the law does not cover her.

The bar owner said,

"We don't discriminate against anyone," Wallender said. "If you want to walk in our front door and you want to have our food or drinks, watch TV, watch live music we provide, we're going to serve you as best we can and make you happy to your standards."

The bar owner sounds like he took the high ground but he didn’t, instead he copped out and said he didn’t discriminate. But I wonder how it be if instead of lambasting us the patrons were “white supremacist” and were saying racist speech would he still let them stay? Or was it just because they were attacking us that it was okay.

If the bar was in a state that protects us, then from what I understand the business would have had a duty to have a place of business free from discrimination but since Wisconsin does not have a law protecting us there is not much the waitress can do.

I feel glad she stood up for us and sad that she fired for protecting us. 

You Never Know

I remember once a trans women who attended a support group meeting passed away and we never knew because we only knew her preferred name not her legal name.

Police are 'deadnaming' transgender murder victims — here's what that means, and why it makes tracking crimes so much more difficult

• There have been 20 murders of transgender people in the US so far this year.
• But LGBTQ activists say there may actually be more. Deadnaming victims — or referring to a victim by their birth name rather than their chosen name — makes it difficult to know the actual number of transgender murder victims. 
• It can also hinder the ability of police to connect with the transgender community for tips and help, activists say.

Insider
By Tracey Eaton
October 14, 2019


Cathalina Christina James loved to travel and hoped to visit all 50 states, her father said. But he worried about her.

"I used to tell her all the time: Strike one, you're black. Strike two, you are transgender, and strike three, you are outgoing, and you're not afraid being in public," said Donald James, a truck driver in Bishopville, South Carolina. "You got three strikes against you, so you got to be real, real, real careful. She always told me, 'Don't y'all worry. It'll be all right.'"

On June 24, 2018, she was shot to death in Jacksonville, Florida. Her body was found at around 1 p.m. on the third floor of the Quality Inn & Suites along Dixie Ellis Trail, Jacksonville sheriff's deputies say.
[…]
Transgender activists fear the toll is higher, and no one knows for sure how many have been killed. That's because the FBI does not classify homicides by gender identity, leaving activists and researchers to track transgender murders.
[…]
Deadnaming in cases of murder or assault makes it difficult to accurately track the breadth and scope of violence against transgender people. And sometimes, the families of transgender people complicate the matter.

Many time the family doesn’t respect their daughter or son being trans so they use their deadname, sometimes it is the police that use their deadname, and since we don’t know what their old name was we don’t realize that we knew the person.

Like our friend who passed away we never knew until one member who knew her legal name told us she died.

The victims' friends and family can often help investigators during the crucial 48 hours after a murder, said Roberts, who is transgender. But if investigators deadname the victim, they lose precious time.

"When you refuse to use the preferred name of that person and a community will probably have information based on that name, you're hampering your ability to solve the case," said Roberts, creator of TransGriot, an award-winning blog.

The sheriff said that…

 "Gina Duncan is not here and does not know what is being done on the ground. She doesn't know the tireless hours that have been spent by investigators and the work done with the family and friends of Slater. The family has been very satisfied with the investigation. The only person making this a political issue is Duncan. If anything, she is hindering the investigation.

But get a load of what one of the deputies said,

Sheriff's deputies say they used Slater's birth name at first because it was her legal name. After Duncan and others protested, they began adding "Bee Love" to the name.

Being trans is complicated and sometimes we live in both worlds, before I transitioned I lived in both worlds. There was no overlap between my worlds, the two circles didn’t overlap and I actually want that.

I think we have to acknowledge worlds that we live in, that sometimes our worlds collide.

When my father passed way I was named executor of his estate but it was in my deadname. The probate judge issued an order that had my deadname as AKA, I didn’t like it but that was what I had to do to act as executor of my father’s estate.

Three Steps Forward, Ten Steps Back

It feels like hate is getting worst, that the hate is getting front page news in the media and the hate is not just words but acts.

Transphobic flyers highlight fears among transgender community in Des Moines
Des Moines Register
By Andrea May Sahouri
October 12, 2019

At the bottom of the flyers, the Stormer Book Club, an identified neo-Nazi group, encouraged residents to join the local chapter. The flyers depicted a little girl running away from a transgender woman in the women's bathroom, and urged taxpayers to tell representatives they are against "gay socialism." They also included a historically offensive slur against transgender people.

The Stormer Book Clubs are local white nationalist groups affiliated with the website the Daily Stormer. The Iowa Department of Human Rights, the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, both state agencies, and the independent advocacy group Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement said they were not sure about the extent of the groups' presence in Des Moines.

Was the hate spurred on by the action of the Republican legislature?

In April, the Iowa Legislature passed a law that denies public health insurance coverage for transgender Iowas seeking transition-related medical services by allowing government entities to opt out of using public insurance dollars, including Medicaid, for this type of care. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds in May.

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American views of transgender people: the impact of politics, personal contact, and religionEconomist/YouGov
By Kathy Frankovic
October 11, 2019

As the Supreme Court examines cases it has already heard this term about the rights of gay and transgender people, the American public in the latest Economist/YouGov poll are – for the most part – tolerant and supportive of transgender employment rights. However, Republicans (and in some cases, men) take different positions.

The overall public supports laws prohibiting discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, with Republicans closely divided.

This ties in with what happened with Ms. DeGeneres and former President Bush sitting together at a football game. We need to not shun away from those we disagree with but open a dialog with them, I not say we do that with the far right who we have no hope in changing but rather with the centrists who we can possibly change.

More than one in three (39%) people know someone who is transgender, and the probability of this is even higher among Democrats and younger adults. Those with personal contact are more likely to believe there is “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of discrimination against transgender people. Half of Republicans (50%) and 88 percent of Democrats say there is “a fair amount” or “a great deal” of discrimination against transgender people.

If you know a trans person you’re less likely to hate trans people.

More people support us in military than oppose us.

About half (49%) of Americans support allowing transgender people to serve in the military—opposing the president’s executive order banning most transgender military personnel. The order is now being enforced while it continues to be litigated. Republicans (58%) support the ban.

Another finding is not a surprise, religious conservatives oppose us more than other religions…

That helps explain why Republicans support (53%-29%) allowing a religious exemption for medical personnel to refuse to provide services they say violates their religious beliefs. The overall public takes the opposite view, 50%-28%. Very religious Republicans favor the exception by nearly three to one; other Republicans are closely divided.

Republicans are very different from the rest of the public when it comes to how they look at transgender people. Republicans mostly believe someone should be thought of as the gender they were assigned at birth, while other adults are more likely to acknowledge the transition.

There is a quote that I like from James Baldwin,

“We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”

The Republicans’ hatred of us is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.

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Transgender woman describes hate-filled attack that almost killed herCNN
By Sara Sidner and Meridith Edwards
October 10, 2019

Dallas (CNN)The staples keeping Daniela Calderon Rivera's skin together look like a zipper down her abdomen.

Stitches and scars mark her right arm. There's an exit wound on her back.
She was shot six times in an apparently hate-fueled attack by a stranger she thought would kill her.
She survived. But her fear is far from over.

Calderon Rivera lives in Dallas, where there has been a string of brutal attacks on transgender women in the last few years.

Hatred is top down, the president sets the tone and Trump has set a tone where violence and discrimination is acceptable. It is not only acceptable against us but also the disabled, foreigners, non-Christian, and those who are different from “us.”

Seven Days In October

When someone refuses to comply with a Congressional subpoena?

Find them in contempt?

Unfortunately it is a lot more complicated than that because Congress is not a court.

How can Congress compel the Trump administration to provide testimony and documents?
The Washington Post – Opinion
By
David Ignatius
Image without a caption
By David Ignatius
October 1, 2019

After Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s angry refusal Tuesday to allow State Department officials to testify before a House of Representatives committee about Ukraine, congressional Democrats face a newly urgent question: What legal tools does Congress have to compel the Trump administration to provide testimony and documents?

This fundamental constitutional question may begin moving gradually toward the Supreme Court in coming months, perhaps slowing the Democrats’ timeline for impeachment proceedings. For such a confrontation between the legislative and executive branches probably can only be resolved by the third leg of our government, the judiciary.
[…]
A simple summary is that it isn’t easy for Congress to compel executive branch testimony. Congress can subpoena witnesses. Yet if the witness refuses to testify, and the House votes that he’s in contempt of Congress, what remedy exists to enforce the contempt finding? Scholars cite three legal avenues that could be pursued. But all are problematic.

First, the House could try to enforce a contempt finding on its own. The Supreme Court affirmed in 1821 that Congress’s contempt power, like its authority to investigate and subpoena, is inherent in the Constitution’s grant of legislative functions. So, in theory, the House could order its sergeant at arms to arrest the recalcitrant witness.
[…]
A second pathway would be for the House to use an 1857 statute that allows criminal prosecution of a witness who refuses to comply. The problem is that the prosecution would be in the hands of Trump’s Justice Department, controlled by Attorney General William P. Barr, who was named in the whistleblower’s complaint. If Barr recused himself, a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney might still refuse to present the contempt allegation to a grand jury. And even if the grand jury returned an indictment on its own, the U.S. attorney could decline to sign or prosecute it.
[…]
The third avenue is a lawsuit to enforce congressional subpoenas, and this is the one that scholars say would probably be most appropriate, even though the case could take months. Even if Congress asked for an expedited summary judgment by the district court, that decision would almost certainly be reviewed by an appeals court before the decisive Supreme Court ruling.

PBS had this to say about subpoenas and Contempt of Congress.

Push and pull between the executive and legislative branches is typical, Taylor said, but what is unusual is the current administration’s staunch refusal to cooperate, she added. The administration’s stonewalling in the Ukraine probe, paired with its lack of cooperation since Democrats took control of the House, underscore Congress’ limited options. These present challenges for a government system that often “relies on the good faith” of individuals, Griffin said.

“The government in many respects is held together by norms and customs and unwritten rules, Griffin said. “Probably the clearest lesson of the Trump era is that unwritten rules don’t work when they run up against bad faith.”
[…]
So, what will House lawmakers do?One option is for the House to avoid the courts and instead use the administration’s noncompliance as further evidence for articles of impeachment against the president. “The failure to produce this witness, the failure to produce these documents, we consider yet additional strong evidence of obstruction of the constitutional functions of Congress,” House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff said to reporters on Tuesday.

My thoughts are that the House will pick the court option and that it will be fast tracked to the Supreme Court and I think that even then Trump will not comply. So it may not be that easy to jail those who don’t comply with the subpoenas.

I think it might be time to watch “Seven Days in May.”

My Thoughts

As I write this at 3:00 AM Friday morning I just got finished reading the outcry from Ellen DeGeneres being spotted with former President George W. Bush at a NFL game.

My thoughts are, are we just associate with like minded people? If so we will not bring about change.

There is an old saying that goes something like this… it is hard to hate someone you know.

Maybe President Bush walked away from that encounter thinking maybe I was wrong.

We can vilify Ms. DeGeneres or we can look at it as an opportunity to bring about change.

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The other topic that I want to write about is the protests at the LGBTQ+ town hall on CNN this past week.

The Democrats had the town hall meeting to discuss LGBTQ+ issues and there were protests because enough haven't been done and they are right enough hasn't been done to end the violence.

Yes, the Democrats are not perfect but the alternative?

However, the Republicans want to crucify us.

The Democrats gave us healthcare… the Republicans took it away.

The Democrats gave us employment protects… the Republicans took it away.

The Democrats gave us protections in schools… the Republicans took it away.

The Democrats gave us protections for which bathrooms we can use… the Republicans took it away.

The Democrats let us be in the military… the Republicans took it away.

The Democrats passed the Equal Rights Amendment... the Republicans blocked it.

The Democrats took the stage to discuss our human rights… why are we protesting it?

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Vote!

And if you are not registered… register and vote!

That is the only to bring about change.

Saturday 9: Live Like You Were Dying

Sam’s Saturday 9: Live Like You Were Dying (2003)

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



Unfamiliar with this week's song. Hear it here.

1) This song is about a man whose father advises him to live life to the fullest, to become "the friend you'd like to have." How about you? Are you the friend you'd like to have?
My friends will probably say yes, but we always have self doubt… maybe I could have done something more.

2) The song lists several "bucket list" items: skydiving, mountain climbing, riding a bull. Have you done any of those things? Would you like to?
No, no, and no.
But I do wish that I was healthy enough to go backpacking again, I really miss the camping in the wilderness by a lake.

Rocky Mountain National Park 1974 -- Backing to
the high peaks with a friend

3) In the music video, Tim McGraw is wearing a white button-down shirt, blue jeans and a cowboy hat. Which of those items is in your wardrobe?
A white button-down shirt and blue jeans

4) He wears a cowboy hat because he is embarrassed by the size of his forehead. When you wear a hat, are you more likely doing it for style, like Tim, or for protection from the elements?
For protection.
I happened to be going though a box of old stuff a  couple of months ago when I came across my old backpacking hat.

5) McGraw's biological father was Tug McGraw, pitcher for the Mets and Phillies. How did your baseball team do this season?
Since I don’t care for sports I have to answer NA for this question.

6) Tim McGraw and wife Faith Hill live just outside of Nashville. They enjoy inviting friends over to sit around a bonfire, drinking beer and playing guitars. Tell us about the most recent gettogether you had with friends.
It was with the birthday girls… a number of us have our birthdays in October so we celebrated by going out to dinner together.

7) Tim likes his tattoos. He admits his silliest one -- a leprechaun wearing a cowboy hat -- was acquired during a night of drinking. Do you have a tattoo? If so, are you glad you have it and would you get it again?
No it don’t have any tats and never will.
Personally I don’t like tats but if you like them that’s okay with me.

8) In 2003, when this song was popular, the supersonic Concord took its last flight. When did you most recently board a plane? What was your destination?
In 1999. Seattle for my cousin's wedding.
I guess you might say that I’m not a frequent flier/

9) Random question: When did you last walk around the house naked?
Thursday morning… after my shower when I remembered that I had left my “unmentionalbes” in the drier.

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!

The Twentieth

Sadly the count continues to grow.

Itali Marlowe Is the 20th Trans Person Killed in 2019
Out
By Nico Lang
October 9, 2019

For the already 20th time this year, the trans community is mourning the killing of one of its own.

According to the LGBTQ+ magazine OutSmart, Itali Marlowe died after sustaining multiple gunshot injuries in Southwest Houston. After police responded to reports of a shooting at 15829 Ridgeroe Lane near the neighborhood of Ridgemont around 2 p.m. local time, the 29-year-old was found in a nearby driveway.
[...]
Authorities have reportedly identified a suspect in her killing: 23-year-old Raymond Donald Williams, who was living with Marlowe at the time of her death. Williams is said to have fled the scene and has not yet been arrested.

Marlowe is the fourth trans woman to be murdered in Texas this year, following Muhlaysia Booker, Chynal Lindsey, and Tracy Single. Booker and Lindsey were both killed in Dallas, while Single also lost her life in Houston. All of the victims were Black, as have been the majority of transgender women killed this year.

Last year it was Ohio that was the trans murder capitol, before that Florida, and now Texas… Next year what state will claim the title?

When will the hate end?

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“A Backlash Against Our Existence”: Laverne Cox Speaks Out on Violence Against Trans Women of Color
Democracy Now
By Laverne Cox and Chase Strangio
October 7, 2019

[…]
LAVERNE COX: It is really hard for me to continue to talk about the murders of trans women of color. I was talking to my makeup artist, Deja, who’s also openly trans, early yesterday. And I told her, when I started transitioning medically in 1998, that violence — that this was a reality in my life in 1998, that there were trans people being murdered all around me, and this insane fear: “Will I be next?” I remember going to a memorial for Amanda Milan, a trans woman who was murdered in the early 2000s here in New York City. She was stabbed outside of the Port Authority. And for my entire life as a trans woman, for 21 years, I have been hearing about, witnessing, going to memorials, going to Trans Days of Remembrance. And the trauma of that is — I don’t actually even have words for the trauma of that. And I think about just black people in general who have watched our people be murdered in the streets and the collective trauma of that. And I disassociated from it so much because it’s too much. It is way too much.

And we live in a culture that consistently stigmatizes trans people, tell us that we aren’t who we say we are. When I read the Alliance Defending [Freedom] brief on Aimee Stephens’ case, they bent over backwards to not use female pronouns to refer to Aimee Stephens. There was this insistence in misgendering her. And what underlines most of the discrimination against trans people is the insistence that we are always and only the gender we were assigned at birth, that we’re somehow fraudulent. And when we have an administration and we have government policies that continually stigmatize us, it makes it OK for the person on the street who sees a trans person and decides that we should not exist anymore.

And it is just — I’m really at a loss, because I know it’s intersectional. I know that it’s about employment. I know it’s about healthcare. I know it’s about homelessness and having access to all of these things to keep us out of harm’s way, that so many of us don’t have access to. The unemployment rate in the trans community is three times the national average, four times that for trans people of color. The majority of us make less than $10,000 a year. And so, when you cannot make a living, you find yourself in street economies, you find yourself homeless. That makes you more of a target of violence.