Pride.

Yup, more thoughts about Pride month.

I share many of his thoughts, but I still attend Pride events.

5 Reasons Why I Don’t Celebrate Pride
I’m a gay Black man who used to enjoy the June festivities. But guess what, my Pride is not a Christmas tree.
POZ
By Aundaray Guess


June is Pride month. It’s a time for the LGBTQ community to enjoy their turn in the national spotlight. Also this year, the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riot that is credited with helping launch the modern gay rights movement. As the nation show off its pride colors, I sit alone as I have a secret: I don’t like Pride month.

Before I’m asked to turn in my gay card, let me explain. While growing up, I never embraced Pride because of my own insecurities of accepting my sexuality. I would view from afar those who were comfortable to express themselves in public and live in their truth, as I hid in my tiny closet.  As I got older and embraced who I am, my feelings of Pride started to shift as I was now able to align the pride I have for myself with the June happenings. I was now in a space to say out loud that I was a gay black man and didn’t care how anyone else felt about it.

He goes on to list the reasons why he doesn’t attend Pride, his first reason is,

Pride has lost its cause.

The original prides had context as it brought together people to rally for our cause. Like the riots of Stonewall, Pride was our time for the world to not only pay attention but also to make some changes. Sadly, it seemed that once gay marriage was approved, the gay community lost its steam or way. And also, to be frank, those whose interests were met with the passing of gay marriage found no need to stay in the fight to help others. There is still so much in the LGBTQ community that needs to be addressed, from trans rights to AIDS funding to global cases of countries not only denying the rights of gays but also killing their LGBT members. 

Bingo!

Pride was the celebration of overthrowing the yoke of oppression now it seems like many people seem to think of it as the Fourth of July, or Labor Day and I time for partying.

The attacks on us are still happening around the country, in some states they are trying to get around marriage equality. In Tennessee they are trying to pass a bill to create a marriage for straight people only. But as he says many gays and lesbians thought that once marriage equality was passed the battle was over.

Love Makes a Family closed their doors once marriage was achieved, they didn’t want to close but the donations that kept it alive dried up and they had no choice but to close their doors.

Pride is too corporate.

Pride and its marches have turned into a very long corporate commercial. In essence, corporations have bought out Pride and placed themselves in the front, literally. In NYC, this has been a contentious issue that from it has created an off-shoot Pride in which corporations are not invited. At the same time, it also divides the community. Instead of coming together as a strong unit, we’ve fallen into different camps. We have to stop allowing our Prides to be monetized and instead bring the community the Pride is meant for, back to the front. 

I also realize the need for corporate sponsor, we need them for the Trans Health and Law conference to offset the costs, instead of holding the price of the conference to twenty dollars it would be a lot more without the sponsors. Pride events need the sponsors for insurance, police protection, rental of the park,  clean-up, advertising… and on and on. However. Is a massive Pride really needed? And does the Pride need a to be named after the sponsor? Do we really need a week of bar hoping?

And then we have…

Pride is not senior- or special-needs friendly.

Like other aspects of the LGBTQ community, gay elders are invisible as you find little to no inclusions for them either to be involved or invited.

One town in Connecticut holds a parade… do they have a senior float or trolley? The pioneers of the LGBTQ+ movement are getting old and many of them cannot walk any distance, so are disabled and need help in getting around. Are they being forced out by not having any transportation for them?

Also what about the kids?

Now we have our children attending Pride celebrations, are they kid friendly? Before True Colors folded they used to set up a play area for the children, now…?

We’re suddenly visible.

It’s interesting that in the month of June, everyone now sees us. From the media that run numerous stories of our lives to companies that sell rainbow gear, they see nothing but sales.

They see dollars in our community.

I remember once at a LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce they were talking about demographics of our community… DINKS, Double Income, No Kids.

But those demographics are skewed by gays and marriage is also changed them. Now we have children. On the Tenth Anniversary of marriage equality celebration there were a lot of ten year old's running around.

Lets reclaim Pride from the corporations!

I am now encouraged in seeing a lot of local Prides being held around the state, many of them organized by a group of families with LGBTQ children or by churches and not by large LGBTQ+ organizations with corporate sponsors. My nephew’s family organized one in their town and in my town one was organized by the high school GSA.

My Story Part 174: The First Time [Reprint from July 28, 2021]

[Reprint from July 28, 2021]

(Switch Day!)

View from my desk

We all have started off on a new job and know how nerve wracking and rewarding it can be, but now imagine what it would be like if you started off your new job as a woman for the first time.

In 2007 I got laid off, transitioned, changed all my legal documents including grad school and in the following year I started my internship at a women’s rights organization.

Talk about stress!

Remember those little quizzes in women’s magazines about life stresses; 20 points for a divorce, 10 points for being laid off, etc. Well I always thought we should a 100 points for transitioning and that year I hit jackpot!

So that morning I got ready to go to work… I actually wore a dress! And for those that know me that’s amazing.

The first hurdle was getting by building security. The building housed the YWCA and other non-profits and they had a separate entrance than the YWCA besides the YWCA offices, there was NARAL and CWEALF (Where I was interning).

“Hi! I am the new intern at CWEALF.” and all he said was “Second floor to your right.”

And so began my internship.

I know that crossdessers dream of going to work as a woman but really it isn’t all that exciting, you are concentrating on your work, not your clothes.

My desk overlooked the Capitol and swiveling around in my chair I could look out and see the Capitol dome and one of my duties was to go down to the Capitol to pickup the mail and to drop-off the mail. (Yes, the legislature does have its own mail room and I also wrote a weekly newsletter that was sent to every legislator.), so I got to know the Legislative Office Building (LOB) pretty well.

Lobby Day

Another thing that I did as an intern was to organize a Lobby Day (Here I am helping trans people find their legislators).

Testifying on a trans bill 

There are no dress codes for the LOB; jeans, a tee shirt, and sneakers are perfectly fine but being from the old school I prefer business dress so I always wore slacks, a blouse, and flats. I feel that as a representative of a non-profit that I should present a positive profile.

After graduation I found myself giving testimony at public hearings. I also

Press conference at the LOB

have been part of press conferences, a couple of times the press conferences we held at the LOB in hearing chambers with different legislators including the US senators and congressmen. 

I am on a legislative committee and also the governor’s council on hate crimes so I have to look my best when I attend those meetings. Most of the other meetings that I attend are at various state agencies such as the Department of Aging and Disability Services.

With Dress Barn out of business and the wig store closed I have to find a new clothing source for plus size clothes. While for shoes I go to Footprints on the Berlin Turnpike, they care large size shoes and the staff will measure your foot. I have bought everything from ankle boots to sneakers to mid heel dress pumps.

~~~~~~~~~

Switch day is usually either Saturday or Sunday when the motels or cottages usually end their week, those days are usually mobbed with people either coming to the Cape or leaving the Cape. For me it is the day I come or leave the Cape.

My Story Part 175: Jury Duty [Reprint from August 19, 2021]

 [Reprint from  August 19, 2021]

This a short story today, it is very anticlimactic. 

A few years after I transitioned I got a summons for jury duty, being retired I had no problem with it as a matter of fact I looked forward to it.

One, I wanted to see how they handle a trans juror.

Two, being retired it was a good excuse to get out of the house and do something different.

And three, I had been on juries before and it was like a live soap opera. I wouldn’t want a murder trial but a nice fender bender sure why not.

So the night before I called the phone number of the court house and it was a “go” for the next day and I laid out my clothes for the next; slacks, blouse, and low heel pumps with knee highs.

I showed up at where you sign-in, the bored clerk looked asked me my name, checked me off on the list, and handed me a pamphlet. She said that we couldn’t listen to the radio because it might have something about the trial, and she asked me if I had any reading material related to the trial, I said no unless we are on the planet Darkover.

I walked in to the room marked “Jury Waiting Room” as I walked in the room people looked up at me and then went back to what they were doing. To one side was a row of vending machines and on the other side approved reading material.

I got a vending machine coffee… Mmm, and a day old New York Times and sat at a table with an open seat. We each had a yellow sticker marked “Juror.”

The bored clerk from the check-in desk called us to order and showed a video of some bored judge telling us how important juror duty was. One by one we went into to be drilled by the attorneys for the Voir dire... lunch… rushed out to a Burger King… back to our very own waiting room.

The bored clerk put on the movie “The Help” for those who wanted to watch. I was reading my book, but the movie kept on calling me. I would glance up now and then, but I started to get into the movie.

The bored clerk came out and said that the case was settled, and we can go home now. She then turned off the TV. One juror said that she wanted to see the end of the movie, we all chimed in… Yeah, it is almost over! The bored clerk shrugged and turned it back on and retreated to her office.

When I got home… off came the pumps and on came the slippers.

It was a totally uneventfull day. No stares. No comments. Being a trans juror was no different than when I was a cis gender juror.

My Story Part 180: Pride [Reprint from September 12, 2021]

[Reprint from September 12, 2021]

Yesterday was the Hartford Pride.

I looked up in my diary the first Pride that I went to and it was on September 2001. Wow! I cannot believe that it has been twenty years!

The COS tabling crew, I'm on the left

I wrote back then in my diary (note over the 20 years meaning and usage of words have changed),

If you asked me a year ago if I would be in the Connecticut PRIDE, I would of said “No way!”. Even six months ago or last week I would have said the same thing. But, T caught me in a good mood and I said yes. So, here I am shaving my legs, doing my nails getting ready to go out, march and help out at the COS [Connecticut Outreach Society] table. In a most public GLBT event of the year, with newspaper and televisions reporters. I’m scared, but I’m going. As the Grateful Dead said “What a long strange trip it’s been.”

Just got back from the Pride Day festivities. I had a very good time. Sat around the COS table-answering questions people had about COS and Transgenderism. The Pride day celebrations were held in Bushnell Park right behind the state capital. As usual T got here two hours late and we got there to late for breakfast with the state legislators or the parade.

It was a very good experience, I meet a lot of interesting people and possibly some new members. All in all a very productive and positive day.

Now it is different then it was 20 years ago, the difference is that twenty years ago I didn’t know anyone, Saturday it was like old home week. I knew so many of the people there, as they went by the CTAC table we said hi and talked for awhile. I got up and made the rounds of the other booths, someone from the Stonewall Speaker recognized me and we talked, and at the Prime Timers table I recognized the whole crew at the table, I took a bus trip with them to the Culinary Institute of America and then to West Point. Wandering down some more booths we a cooperate sponsor’s booth where I picked up a couple of flags. About three quarters around the circle of tents was the Health Collective tent where I volunteer.

2021 Hartford Pride --Photo by Sue.

Then I stumbled down to one of the last tents and it was the Planned Parenthood tent and it was tabled by an old friend, I have know here since 2006 when we were at the first meeting of the anti-discrimination coalition’s meeting on passing the gender inclusive non-discrimination bill, over the years we have worked on many bills together. She is the lobbyist for Planned Parenthood here in Connecticut and a classmate at the UConn School of Social Work and is the one who told me at the Legislative Office Building that I was named in the state budget appointing me to the legislative committee, “LGBTQ+ Health and Human Services Network.”

There are so many good memories at the Pride.

My Story Part 185: Makeup [Reprint from November 24, 2021]

[Reprint from November 24, 2021]

Those that know me know that I very rarely wear any makeup, well there was an exception to that.

I get requests for interviews all the time and in 2018 I got one from Comcast… Hun?

Well they have a program that they call “Newsmakers” and they invited me on their program and they were taping it at the Infinity Music Hall in Hartford, that peaked my interest in doing the interview.

So I am wandering around the deserted lobby of the music hall wondering if this was the right place. The place is deserted. So I go into the music hall and there are people up on the stage just milling about and I walk down there, and say “Hi I here for an interview for ‘Newsmakers.’”

This woman walks over to me and says she’s someone with the show and puts her arm around my shoulders and steers me backstage. Whoa how neat is that wandering around backstage of Connecticut premier music venues! She then introduces me to the person who will be doing the interview and then she asks me the question… do I want any makeup for the show?

My first inclination was to say no. But then I remembered the Nixon Kennedy debates how Nixon refused makeup and lost the election to Kennedy. So I said yes.

The woman leads me over to another woman next to a tall director’s chairs and seats me in it, puts a towel over my dress… yes you read right I was wearing a dress and not my usual Tee shirt and jeans. I was then lead out on to the stage and seated at a desk with the interviewer.

We chatted for a while and somebody said “Two minutes” and the interviewer went over the questions he was going to ask (I found out that when you are going to be interviewed for a show like the Sunday talking heads show they go over the questions they are going to ask.) and then someone said “30 seconds.”

We sat up straight in our chairs… 3, 2, 1!

When it was over we shook hands, they said that they would email me with the link when the show came out.

I emailed the link to my brother’s family, I thought that it was neat that I was on a cable show that is on the New England News Network, the response I got blew me away!

Instead of hearing back “That’s cool!” I go emails back from them “You got to meet Eric Clemons!!!!”

Who?

Eric Clemons!!!! 

Who?

The ESPN sportscaster!

Who?

You don’t know who Eric Clemons is?

Um… no.

He’s been a sportscaster for ESPN, FOX NFL Sunday, and FOX Sports Net!

Okay if you say so. 

Photo by Comcast

Oh... getting the makeup done was really neat. Sitting up on stage with the lights, mic booms, and the bustle of the stage crew made it feel like I was in a Hollywood movie. I have been on the local Sunday talk shows on the local network affiliates for Fox, NBC, and CBS and they don’t do any makeup so this made me feel kind of neat, like it was a big production and it made the interview special.

On Vaction!

 

I will be posting some of "My Story" post while I am out on Long Island for the holiday weekend.

Worser And Worser

The laws the Republicans are passing are getting down right horrible.

Oklahoma's Gov. Stitt signs bill restricting school bathrooms to birth sex, effective immediately
Oklahoman
By Nuria Martinez-Keel
May 25, 2022


An Oklahoma bill limiting access to public-school bathrooms by a person's birth sex is now law.

School districts and charter schools that don't comply face a 5% deduction in their state funding. That could subtract thousands to millions of dollars, depending on the school system.

Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 615 into law Wednesday. An emergency provision in the bill caused it to take effect as soon as the governor wrote his signature.

Then get a load of this bull,

Parents and legal guardians would have grounds to sue if their children's public school fails to comply with the law, the bill states.

The legislation follows months of debate over whether students should be allowed to use the restroom that matches their gender identity, not strictly their sex at birth.

It is like the Republicans are in a contest to see which state can pass the most oppressive laws.

The Republicans know that this violates federal law but they don’t care they are posturing their evangelical base.

Discrimination on the basis of gender identity is prohibited under federal Title IX laws, according to U.S. Department of Education guidance released last year.

The U.S. Supreme Court let two rulings stand in 2021 from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that determined it to be unconstitutional and a Title IX violation to prevent students from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.

They also don’t care that they are causing harm to trans children.

“The idea of passing trans-exclusionary bathroom protocol will do a lot of harm,” McAfee [The executive director of Freedom Oklahoma] said. “Even the possibilities of discussing it are actively causing harm right now.” 

For a political party whose motto is “Get the government off your backs.” they sure are trying to control out lives are trying control our bodies, what we do in the bedrooms, which bathrooms to use and what’s on our bookshelves.

My Story Part 188: It Is Official

2008 Trans-Pride March and
Rally up in Northampton MA

I have retired from the Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition as its Executive Director.

I have been with CTAC since the early 2000’s and I am one of the original signers of the corporation By-Laws and was there when incorporation papers were signed. I was there for all the pro-trans legislation was passed and I was there when we blocked the anti-trans legislation. I was there for the very first Trans Health and Law conference.

I was there when CTAC went from a dream in Jerimarie’s eye to the premier trans organization in Connecticut.

2009 Love Makes A Family
Town Hall Forum

But it was time to step down and let someone else’s vision take over, it is time to move on.

I am not disappearing, I have other projects to work on.

One is a project to help trans people change their documentation, it is a coalition with MCC Church in Hartford, social work students from the University of St. Joseph's, and GLAD.

The other project is with the New Haven Pride Center’s Rainbow Elders program.

I am also still active in the LGBTQ Aging Advocacy group and I am their representative for the Legislative LGBTQ Health & Human Services Network, along with the Governor's Advisory Council on Hate Crimes.

I imagine that as other groups ask for help, I will step forward and help them. 

Lies, Lies, And More Lies

That is all that comes from Republicans…

GOP Rep. Paul Gosar spread a baseless transphobic rumor that the Uvalde school shooting suspect was a 'transsexual leftist illegal alien'
Business Insider
By Matthew Loh
May 25, 2022

Following Tuesday's mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, Arizona GOP congressman Paul Gosar spread a false and transphobic claim that the suspected shooter was a "transsexual leftist illegal alien."

Gosar tweeted the claim even though authorities had already identified the suspect as an 18-year-old male resident of Uvalde, where the shooting occurred.

As of Tuesday evening, the GOP representative has not commented on his tweet, which was deleted about two hours after being published.

This false claim has been proliferating on social media with photos of a transgender person unrelated to the attack. The images appear to have been taken off the Reddit account of a transgender artist.

Why did he lie?

He had to know that it wasn’t true but he said it anyway, that is just pure evil.

This Is What I Have Been Saying.

All the pain and suffering, all the fears, and all of the thoughts of self-harm are just for votes and campaign donations.

They don’t care the harm they do as long as it gets them votes!

How did trans people become a GOP target? Experts say it’s all about keeping evangelicals voting
The recent blitz of anti-trans bills may not align with what many Republicans believe, but party lawmakers pursue them on behalf of their most important interest group.
The 19^th News
By Kate Sosin
May 17, 2022


When it came down to it, Rick Colby called on his spirituality in deciding how to support his transgender child, Ashton. 

It wasn’t a guarantee. Colby had dedicated his life to Republican politics, starting in 1984 on the field campaign to reelect Ronald Reagan. Reagan and the Republican Party with him and in the decades following would push anti-LGBTQ+ policies. But Colby’s Methodist church by comparison preached inclusivity and empathy, a message that conflicted with what he was hearing from Republicans. 

Colby went with Ashton to his first endocrinologist appointment. He held Ashton’s hand the following year as Ashton awoke from gender-affirming top surgery.

 “You know, as a parent, you want to protect your child from the nastiness of the world,” Colby said. “I was so relieved as a parent that he was being accepted. And it was just wonderful.” 

If you are a Republican you will have to decide if you like the hate that is causing much harm to the children, your vote is giving support to the increase in hate crimes that have been directly linked to the political rhetoric now being pushed by the right.

Survey after survey show that Americans support LGBTQ+ equality, and Republicans are no exception. Still, Republican-dominated states have seen a blitz of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation since 2020, particularly anti-transgender bills. That dissonance — between the reality of the electorate and the priorities of Republican lawmakers — may seem counterintuitive to many. 

The love affair with evangelicals goes way back to the Lavender Scare of the 1950s and early 60s, then in the 70s and 80s we have the “Save the Children” campaign where states changed their constitutions to ban marriage equality and with the 2003 Supreme Court’s Lawrence v. Texas ruling which invalidated sodomy law across the United States, making same-sex sexual activity legal in every State and United States territory.

The Republicans saw an angry voting block that they made Faustian bargain with.

Any Republican who wanted to cross the finish line would have to kneel at the feet of the evangelical base, Balmer says. Decades later, Donald Trump would initially campaign on welcoming LGBTQ+ people into his Republican platform, only to later adopt the ideology of the far-right evangelical base he needed to win.

[…]

The religious right’s fixation on “social issues” — abortion, religious-based education, LGBTQ+ rights — served two purposes. In addition to keeping evangelicals a cohesive voting unit, they also formed an ideological bedrock for the religious right. Before Weyrich died, he argued that conservatives should be fighting to return to family structures of the 1950s, a goal that has been picked up by leaders after him. 

The Republicans sold their soul to the devil, they were no longer the party of small government and low taxes but a poster child of hate. They were now anti-immigrants, anti-Black, and anti-LGBTQ+. 

The evangelicals are willing to give up a democracy for an authoritarian dictatorship as long as your enemies are my enemies.

They were against any change in the status quo, they harken back to the 1950s where Blacks knew their place, gays were in the closet, and we didn’t exist. They dreamed of the days when women were barefoot, pregnant, and it the kitchen and the “man” of the family was the sole breadwinner and lord of the house whose every word was obeyed.

In a time where political wins were just by a percentage or two, every vote counted and having a voting block that you can count on no matter what you did as long as you hated what they hated gave them an edge in the elections that they could count upon.

I Am Concerned That They Will Be Blinded By His Celebrity Status

Sometimes people vote not because of a candidate position on issues but rather by their celebrity status and that is what I worry about with Herschel Walker.

On the website ISideWith they report that…

Do you support the legalization of same sex marriage?

HERSCHEL WALKER: Yes, but allow churches the right to refuse same-sex ceremonies

Should gay couples have the same adoption rights as straight couples?

HERSCHEL WALKER : Yes, as long as they pass the same background checks as straight couples

Should “gender identity” be added to anti-discrimination laws?

HERSCHEL WALKER: No

Should transgender athletes be allowed to compete against athletes that differ from their assigned sex at birth?

HERSCHEL WALKER: No

Should bakeries be required to make wedding cakes for gay couples?

HERSCHEL WALKER: No

He is strongly anti-trans and that concerns me, we do not need another bigoted anti-Trans Republican!

~~~~~~

Updated Noon May 27,

They Are Grooming Us

The conservatives are always saying that we are “grooming” their children but in reality they are grooming children to be straight by denying students from talking about being LGBTQ+.

Homework assignment requires kids to explain how they would de-gay their friends
The assignment said to write a letter to "a friend of your same gender who is struggling with homosexuality" and use "the Bible, reason, and your personal friendship" to talk them out of being gay.
LGBTQ Nation
By Alex Bollinger
May 16, 2022


A Christian school in Kentucky told students to explain how they would take a friend out of being gay in a homework assignment entitled “Letter to a Homosexual Friend.”

“Essay: Write a letter to a friend of your same gender who is struggling with homosexuality,” a screenshot of the middle school homework assignment from the Christian Academy of Louisville (CAL).

Assume that you have known this friend since Kindergarten, that you go to the same church, and that you have been pretty good friends over the years until now. This friend is your same age.”

“The aim of the letter should be to lovingly and compassionately speak truth to the person you’re talking to in a way that does not approve of any sin. Instead, TRY TO PERSUADE THEM OF THE GOODNESS OF GOD’S DESIGN for them.”

What would you write? Would you say that you would encourage them to follow their heart?

One person responded to Davis with a letter that probably wouldn’t have gotten a good grade but that the friend may have actually appreciated.

Here is his letter.

In another article about this…

Kentucky middle school students asked to write letters to imaginary friend ‘struggling with homosexuality’
Students were asked to convince their friend that they are not gay using lessons from the Bible.
The Hill
By Brooke Migdon
May 16, 2022


Middle school students at a private Christian school in Kentucky last week were sent home with an assignment to write a letter to an imaginary friend “struggling with homosexuality.” Using teachings from the Bible, students were asked to “persuade” their friend in no less than eight sentences that they are not gay.

[…]

Davis told the Louisville Courier Journal that a close friend whose child attends CAL had shown him the homework and was “visibly and understandably upset about the assignment.”

“She doesn’t know how to handle it. … And her kid’s upset,” Davis said. In a series of follow-up tweets, Davis “completed” the homework assignment himself, writing a letter addressed to his seventh-grade self, who had been afraid to come out as gay.

“I’m sorry you can’t be yourself,” Davis wrote to his younger self. “I’m sorry adults teach something is wrong with you. Stay strong. You’ll find out by being yourself and staying strong…things really work out for you.”

Oh... By the way now that the school is in the spotlight the school is back peddling saying that the assignment was to use the Bible for or against being gay. It is funny that the assignment only mentioned "De-gay."  

They are the ones who are grooming targeting us with their hate and it is taking a toll on children who are afraid to come out, who do self-harm, but that is what the conservatives want… they want us back in the closet.

What A Long Slippery Slope Part 2

Sometime after I post a blog I find another news article that I could have used in the blog, well that happened yesterday, in the evening I came across another article on the topic.

Yesterday I wrong about the Republicans wanted to define a woman with biology and gender is a binary. I wrote that sex is much more than chromosomes, well today’s post backs that up.

Biological Science Rejects the Sex Binary, and That’s Good for Humanity
Evidence from various sciences reveals that there are diverse ways of being male, female, or both. An anthropologist argues that embracing these truths will help humans flourish.
Sapiens
By Agustín Fuentes
11 MAY 2022


At the recent U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sen. Marsha Blackburn triggered controversy when she asked Jackson to define the word “woman.” After Jackson declined, several Republican congresspeople chimed in with definitions for “woman” that ranged from dubious to shocking, including “the weaker sex,” “someone who has a uterus,” and “X chromosomes, no tallywhacker.”

Such notions haven’t evolved much since 1871, when naturalist Charles Darwin told the world that “man is more courageous, pugnacious, and energetic than women, and has more inventive genius.” Most 19th- and 20th-century evolutionary theories (and theorists) asserted that evolution created two kinds of creatures—male and female—and individuals’ behavior and nature reflected this biological binary.

[…]

These assertions and beliefs are wrong. In addition, the commitment to a simple binary view creates a fictitious template for a “battle of the sexes” that manifests in miseducation about basic biology, the denigration of women’s rights, the justifications of incel and “men’s rights” violence, and the creation of anti-transgender laws.

Science has moved beyond that and now realized that gender is much more complicated and we realize that Mother Nature is very complex.

Starting at the most basic level of animal biology, there are multitudes of ways to be female or male or both. The oceans are filled with species of fish that change from one sex to another midlife, and some who change back again. There are invertebrate hermaphrodites and ladies-only lizards who reproduce by recombining their own chromosomes. In some mammals, females are brimming with testosterone and have large “penises.” In various fish and mammals, males do all the caretaking of infants. And in a variety of species, females are authoritarian, promiscuous, and—yes, Darwin—pugnacious.

But the Republicans cling to the binary because they don’t like things that gives them headaches. They like to live in a “Father Knows Best” world where everything knows their place.  From the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English dictionary…

A US television programme made in the 1950s, whose characters were considered to be a perfect happy family with typical American values. The father went to work and always knew how to solve his children's problems, the mother stayed at home with the children and was caring and kind, and the children were good and respected their parents.

It was a world where Blacks “knew their place” gays were in the closet and trans people were none existent.

The article goes on to say,

Biologically, there is no simple dichotomy between female and male. As I demonstrate in my book Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You, brains are no more “sexed” at birth than are kidneys and livers. Rather, brains are “mosaics” of characteristically female and male features.

Did you know that males have milk glands?

Well they do. I know because when I first started taking hormones I lactated. I was at the Monday morning staff meeting at work when I notice two wet spots over my nipples on my shirt. After the meeting I went to bathroom and look at where the wetness was coming from, there was white liquid coming from my nipples and there were a number of what looked like puss filled zits on the nipples… Whoa! What the hell is that?

A quick call to my endo, when I called him he said, “Oh, it is nothing you are just producing milk from the hormones.” He told me if it gets too painful soak your nipples in warm water. After I hung I thought, “How the hell do you soak your chest in warm water?”

So, instead of listening to people who are misogynistic, sexist, or homo/transphobic; incels; or politicians who base their ideologies on a biological sex binary and myths about its evolution, we can and should be open to a serious understanding of biology and its better options for human flourishing. The simple male/female binary does not effectively express the normal range of being human. Understanding this and incorporating it into our education, lives, and laws offers better possibilities, greater equity, and more joy for human society.

But that is too complicated for the Republicans it disrupts their little orderly world.

What A Long Slippery Slope Part 1

The Republicans are backing themselves into a corner when they try to define Mother Nature with their 1950 view of gender. In their hate of us the Republicans are taking a simplistic view of biology and Trump’s Secretary of Education DeVos who tried to strip public education is putting in her two cents.

Republicans introduce 'Women's Bill of Rights' to protect accomplishments, ensure safety of biological females
The lawmakers say the bill is necessary to clarify the legal term of 'sex' in order to afford women protections
Fox News
By Kelly Laco
May 20, 2022


Republicans are introducing a "Women's Bill of Rights" in order to enshrine into law protections for females based on their biological sex.

Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., is leading lawmakers on the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the largest group of conservative lawmakers on the Hill, in formally introducing the legislation Thursday morning. 

"I am proud to introduce the Women’s Bill of Rights to affirm the importance of acknowledging women and their unique and distinguishing characteristics and contributions to our nation. As the Left continues to erase women, we must fight for women and their place in our society. Whether it’s keeping the word "mother" in written law, or ensuring women’s domestic violence shelters do not have to accept biological men, we must stand up for women," Lesko told Fox News Digital.

Okay what the heck is biological sex?

XX chromosomes?

What happens to a woman has XXY?

What happens to a women who have AIS and XY chromosomes?

What happens to a women who has Alpha-5-reductase deficiency?

The bill states that the Women's Bill of Rights is necessary to establish in order to "reaffirm legal protections afforded to women under Federal law" due to that face that males and females have unique biological differences, which increases as they age.

The lawmakers' bill says that due to biological differences, only females are able to "get pregnant, give birth, breastfeed children." In addition, males are larger and possess greater strength than females due to biology. The text also states that females are subjected to more specific forms of violence, including sexual violence.

What happens to a woman who is sterile? Is she no longer considered a woman?

Mother Nature loves to experiment when you try to fit gender in a box Mother Nature laughs at you.

---

Down in Florida since you can no longer say “Gay” a United Church of Christ decided to help out children who are LGBTQ+ with a Pride event.

LGBTQ event at Florida church ignites public anger and protest threats
Controversy surrounding the Naples, Florida, Pride event for teens has led organizers to request extra police protection.
NBC News
By Brooke Sopelsa
May 20, 2022


An upcoming Pride event for LGBTQ teens to be held at a Florida church on Saturday has ignited public anger and protest threats, according to WBBH-TV, an NBC affiliate in Southwest Florida.

The Youth Pride Conference is geared toward students between the ages of 12 and 18. The event is being organized by GLSEN, a nonprofit focused on making schools more inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youths, and it's being hosted by the Naples United Church of Christ.

Daniel Shaw, one of the event's organizers, said the controversy surrounding the event — particularly the planned drag show — led him to request extra protection from the Naples Police Department.

“This will obviously be a family-friendly event," Shaw told WBBH-TV. "It’s nothing I wouldn’t take my 3- and 4-year-old kids to."

But the holier-than-thou crowd is having none of that and they are attacking another church’s religious beliefs.

In another article, this one on Ch2 website,

An LGBTQ pride event for teens is happening in Naples this weekend and there’s been so much controversy the organizer is now asking Naples Police for extra police protection.

The request comes after the church hosting the event and its organizers have faced threats of protests and anger. Organizers say it’s all due to misinformation about the event.

“It’s just fear I guess. People are afraid of the unknown,” said Hornet Bosa who will attend the event.

I’m really hoping people will still show up despite the negative publicity,” Bosa said.

Online misinformation; however, has led to threats of protest at the private event.

It was held yesterday and the protest was a dud.

LGBTQ+ pride conference at Naples church draws few protestors
WINK
By reporter Michelle Alvarez and writer Paul Dola
May 21, 2022


A local group hosted their inaugural Youth Pride Conference at Naples United Church of Christ Saturday. Between 40 to 50 students from Southwest Florida got to participate.

The event aimed to empower and educate LGBTQ+ kids ages 12 to 18 on issues like mental health and religion, but not everyone was happy about it.

“We are protesting something because we believe people are in danger,” is what Fred said while he was protesting. Protesters started showing up before the event began.

“It can look like we’re against them. But the reality is, we are for them, and we are terrified. We are concerned for them. We’re scared for them, we are trying to pull as many of them out as we can, because we love them,” Fred says.

In a way Fred is right “we believe people are in danger” but rather from people like him who are closed minded.

One protester said her main concern was parental consent in regards to attending the event, however, organizers told WINK News they required written parental consent and medical waivers from all attendees. The event ended at 3 p.m. and was hosted by Collier County’s GLSEN which stands for Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network.

Yes, it is a concern of parental consent. Especially parents of LGBTQ+ children who are religious zealots and try to make their children straight, research has shown that conversion therapy creates much harm to the children. 

~~~~~

Meanwhile here in Connecticut, no fuss, no muss, no protests.

PRIDE Sunday Service @FCC

Sunday May 22nd - 10:15am

Join First Congregational Church on Sunday May 22nd for their PRIDE Sunday Service! First Congregational Church is an open and affirming congregation located in downtown Southington. FCC has a long-standing history of being a safe and inclusive place for all here in Southington. 

Their PRIDE Sunday Service is a great opportunity to gather with our neighbors to honor God's covenant to "love one another as I have loved you." All are welcome and encouraged to attend this wonderful service.

Location & Time
First Congregational Church
Sunday May 22nd
Time: 10:15am
Price: Free
37 Main Street
Southington, CT, 06489

Saturday 9: River of No Return

Sam’s Saturday 9: River of No Return (1954)

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

I will be at a picnic all day today.

Last week I mentioned a book that a friend wrote the title is The Enemy Within by William Brett, I gave it to my brother and he has started to read it.

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

1) Marilyn Monroe performed this song in the 1954 western, River of No Return. In the movie (and at the beginning of this clip) she wears jeans. The wardrobe mistress bought the jeans off the rack at JC Penney's. Yet because of their connection to Marilyn, they are valuable memorabilia. Designer Tommy Hilfiger bought them for a reported $75,000 and today they hang in the closet of Britney Spears. Do you ever shop at thrift stores or websites for second-hand or vintage clothes?  

No, but when I was an intern I brought a women there who needed a dress for her daughter’s wedding. They had some nice clothes there.

2) In this song, she sounds melancholy as she recalls a lover who has gone. We hope this morning you're feeling more chipper than Marilyn. In one word, describe your mood.

Tired. 

3) In real life, Marilyn's love life was sailing along. During the filming of this movie, her famous boyfriend, Joe DiMaggio, visited her on location in Canada and they were married by the time the movie was released. Joltin' Joe was of course one of baseball's greats. How is your baseball team doing this season?

What baseball team?

It is interesting where I live in the center of the state that to the north of me are the Red Sox fans and south of me are the Yankee fans..

4) It was during her romance with Joe that Marilyn learned to cook. She enjoyed preparing Thanksgiving stuffing from scratch. Do you have a favorite recipe to share?

No, I am afraid not but one of my aunts made a nice cranberry-orange chutney. Alas when she passed away so did the tradition.

5) Over her lifetime, Marilyn had 43 different addresses. She was always a renter until February 1962, when she bought her final home in Brentwood. If you're a renter, do you ever wish you owned? If you're an owner, do you ever think you'd be happier as a renter?

Well now, I am getting to the age where it is going to be hard to get around and I might have to consider that possibility.

6) Marilyn tended to her famous alabaster complexion with Nivea, which is still available at drugstores today. What's the last thing you purchased at a drugstore? Was it medication? Food or snacks? Health and beauty? Something else?

Actually it was a shot in the arm yesterday I got my second booster.

7) Her signature scent was Chanel No. 5. What fragrance do you wear most often?

No fragrance, I know some people who are allergic to it.

One women came to my house wore so much perfume that I could smell for a month or more.

8) The year Marilyn's recording was released, John Travolta was born. What's your favorite John Travolta movie?

Um… I was never a fan of his. He was always portrayed in the movies as too full of himself.

9) Random question: What happened to your first car? (Sold? Traded in? Still in your garage?)

My parents always traded a car in early, he said that you get the best trading-in- price for it then because there is a good resale. And I care on the tradition.

~~~

As I type this 3AM Saturday morning there is an owl in the neighborhood.

Don’t Sign Our Death Warrant

Yes there is difference between the Democrats and the Republicans, one wants to kill us.

I don’t know if you ever used Google News? It is buried in the nine dots in the upper right on Google, what it does is it gives the headlines from news sources from around the world in different topics and select the time search. So I search on “transgender” and limit to one week, and these are some of the results;

CNN
Oklahoma Legislature sends governor anti-transgender bathroom bill
NPR
South Carolina becomes the latest state to enact a transgender sports ban
NBC
GOP candidates unleash wave of ads targeting transgender rights
American Press
House passes bill restricting transgender athletes
Topeka Capital-Journal
Kansas school can't block Christian teacher from outing transgender students to parents, judge rules
PBS NewsHour
Alabama law criminalizing care for transgender youth faces federal test
NBC
Alabama ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth takes effect

Now each and everyone of these bills have been introduced by Republicans, they are targeting us, each state seeing who can introduce the most horrible bill against us.

So please do not tell me that you are not voting because you see no difference between the parties, one wants to use our dead bodies to get elected to pass more of these horrendous laws.

Don’t sign our death warrants with your vote.

There Are Some Questions

[EDITORIAL]

They are here to stay.

There is one on Maple Avenue in Wethersfield just before joining the Berlin Turnpike.

You see them on the trunk of police cars.

What are they?

License plate readers as you drive by either the camera mounted on a telephone pole or the backs of police cars read your license plate, check the database to see if the car is wanted or stolen, and records the date, time, and place of the reading, and then stores the data.

It is the very last part in have trouble with, the storing and the usage of the data.

License plate-reading cameras, just installed in West Hartford, meant to fight crime, police say
By Jesse Leavenworth
Hartford Courant
May 18, 2022


West Hartford — License plate-reading cameras have been placed around West Hartford to help solve and reduce crime, police said.

The 13 cameras were installed in strategic areas during a trial period for testing and evaluation that runs through June 30, Assistant Police Chief Lawrence Terra said Wednesday. Built by Flock Safety, the cameras are not meant to record plates for traffic and parking offenses, but rather for serious crimes, police said.

The cameras capture vehicle information, not people or faces, and send instant alerts to police when a stolen car or wanted suspect from a state or national database enters town, police said. The cameras also can send alerts if a vehicle associated with a missing person in an AMBER or Silver Alert is detected.

Police want to see how efficient, cost effective and useful the system is and plan to compare the Flock Safety cameras with similar products made by other companies, Terra said.

Police say they will maintain an updated policy around the system. Each search requires justification, and the data is never sold or shared with third parties, police said.

“...the data is never sold or shared with third parties…” but there are no laws preventing that, it is just a policy and a policy can be changed with a stroke of a pen, or now a days with a click of a key.

Atlanta-based Flock Safety is described on its website as a public safety operating system that helps communities and law enforcement in over 1,500 cities work together to eliminate crime. The company cites statistics from the International Association of Chiefs of Police that up to 70% of crime involves the use of a vehicle, making registration records crucial to many investigations.

Now suppose their database is hacked?

Or suppose that Flock Safety is sold and the new company sells the information to ad companies and all of sudden you are getting ads to your favorite store that you visit just like the ads on Facebook when  you look at other ads and like ads are now popping up on Facebook and other websites?

Can you imagine what towns would think if someone offers the town millions of dollars to be able to sell your data? Would the towns say no, or would they go for the money so that they can keep taxes lower?

Another question pops up. Who owns the data? The police? The data reader company?

Then there is the questions on what the data can be used for by the police and which departments?

What happens when it misreads a license plate? (Someone ran a toll in New Jersey and I was told a warrant for my arrest would be issued if I didn’t pay the toll plus the fine. The summons had a picture of “my car” running the tolls, only it wasn’t my car and the license plate. After several back and forths , where I said look at the photo and look at my registration you can see that they are different, that they sent my a form that I had to sign and have it notarized.)

Where will they be located? In black and minority neighborhoods? In the white suburbs? In front of a drug clinic? What about by a homeless shelter? How about an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office?

Also how long is the data kept? I read some testimony from a bill that addresses these questions and many police department want to keep the data forever and ever. The ACLU wanted something like 30 days.

The new technology is not going away, it is here and the genie is out of the bottle and there is no stopping it.

But we can control it.

We can pass laws on who owns the data, to limit who has access to the information, and how long can the data be kept. 30 days? 90 days? A year? 10 year? Forever? And also how do we correct errors in the information like I had? We can control where they are used, could one be put outside of a lawyers office? 

---

So what does this have to do with trans people?

Well suppose you lived down in Texas and they stuck up one of these readers in front of a gender client? Would you feel safe to go there for your medical care? Would you take you trans child there?

What about if they put one outside of a LGBTQ community center where a trans support group meets?

Suppose that there was a big peaceful rally out in front of the statehouse in Austin and the police with police car mounted license plate-readers drove up and the streets around the peaceful protest recording the license plates of all the cars parked nearby, would you go to the protests or would you be intimidated and keep away?

---

These are some of the questions that we need to ask and we need laws to set the ground rules. There have been bills introduced and hearing held. Some of the information that came out of the hearings were…

HB 6965 AN ACT CONCERNING THE RETENTION OF INFORMATION COLLECTED USING INFRARED NUMBER PLATE SCANNING TECHNOLOGY.

AUTOMATIC LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION SYSTEMS

Written Testimony Supporting  House Bill 6965, An Act Concerning the Retention of Information Collected When Using Infrared Number Plate Scanning Technology

We cannot put the genie back in the bottle but we can regulate it.

We can set the ground rules now. Will we be like China where your every movement is tracked by the government cameras?

[/EDITORIAL]

A Little Good News

Down in Tennessee the state got its hand slapped pretty good,

“... anything other than what it is: a brazen attempt to single out trans-inclusive establishments and force them to parrot a message that they reasonably believe would sow fear and misunderstanding about the very transgender Tennesseans whom those establishments are trying to provide with some semblance of a safe and welcoming environment," Trauger wrote.”

That is what a federal judge said about the Tennessee bathroom bill according to NBC News.

Federal judge strikes down Tennessee's transgender bathroom sign law
"Transgender Tennesseans are real. The businesses and establishments that wish to welcome them are real," District Judge Aleta A. Trauger wrote.
NBC News
By Jo Yurcaba
May 18, 2022


A federal judge struck down a Tennessee law Tuesday that would have required businesses in the state to post warning notices on their public restrooms if they have policies allowing transgender patrons to use the facilities that match their gender identities.

The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the law in June on behalf of two business owners — the owner of Sanctuary, a performing arts and community center in Chattanooga, and the owner of Fido, a restaurant in Nashville, among other businesses.

The law went into effect on July 1, but U.S. District Judge Aleta A. Trauger issued a preliminary injunction against it a week later. Then on Tuesday, Trauger permanently blocked the law by granting the ACLU's motion for summary judgment, which asks a court to decide a case without a full trial.

She wrote in a 40-page decision that the law violates the First Amendment of the Constitution because it compels speech that is controversial and with which the plaintiffs disagree.

I didn’t think that peeing involved the First Amendment, but I will take her decision.

CNN reported that the judge wrote,

In her decision, Trauger took aim at the state’s argument that the plaintiffs had “imagined” undertones that would be seen in such signs, saying: “The only thing that is imaginary in this case, though, is the imagined consensus on issues of sex and gender on which the defendants seek to rely.”

“Transgender Tennesseans are real. The businesses and establishments that wish to welcome them are real. And the viewpoints that those individuals and businesses hold are real, even if they differ from the views of some legislators or government officials,” she wrote. “While those government officials have considerable power, they have no authority to wish those opposing viewpoints away.”

CNN has reached out to Lee’s office for comment on the ruling.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Tim Rudd, said last year that HB 1182 was designated for the “protection of women and children against sexual predators” who enter the restroom of the opposite sex, a transphobic argument that has been used by anti-trans activists in recent history to smear and marginalize members of the community. He said the bill was not specifically aimed at keeping trans Tennesseans out of restrooms that align with their gender.

Oh yeah, we are “ sexual predators” or at least that is what the Republicans think of us and I think that the Republicans are the true predators causing harm to children for political gain.

---

And it is getting worst, with a petty law banning pronoun use.

Transgender pronoun bill advances in Tennessee's Legislature
The bill would allow public school teachers to refuse to “use a student’s preferred pronoun" if the pronoun is "not consistent with the student’s biological sex.”
NBC News
By Matt Lavietes
April 26, 2022


A bill that would permit teachers to misgender their transgender students is advancing through Tennessee's state legislature.

The measure, SB 2777, would allow the state's public school staff to refuse to "use a student's preferred pronoun when referring to the student if the preferred pronoun is not consistent with the student's biological sex" and protect educators from “civil liability and adverse employment action" for doing so.

Tennessee's House of Representatives passed the measure on Monday by a 67-to-25 vote, and the bill advanced in a state Senate committee on Tuesday. Advocates say that this type of legislation has previously been proposed in West Virginia and Rhode Island, but has never passed through a state's legislative chamber.

The bill's authors have argued that the legislation is necessary to protect teachers and other school staff from "coerced speech."

And the Republicans don’t care if the bill violates federal law…

The Tennessee General Assembly’s Fiscal Review Committee has warned that the bill could be in "violation of federal law" and "jeopardize federal funding." In a fiscal note published shortly after the new bill was introduced in February, the committee cited a 2021 decision by the U.S. Department of Education to interpret Title IX — a federal law that protects students from sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools — to protect LGBTQ students from discrimination.

Can you imagine a more vengeful law than this bill. What could be meaner that denying pronouns to trans child? It is just so mean spirited.

My Story Part 169

I am tired of being angry and writing about hate and politics.

---

All my life I hid, no one knew the real me, I kept it so far hiding that no one had a clue until one day…

At work back in the late 90s we got this newfangled thing called an IBM PC (All you Mac fans out there in business it was all IBM pcs because businesses had Mainframe. IBM PCs worked with mainframe and we used MAPICS and the PCs had an emulator to connect to the mainframe.) and they connected to something called the Internet. We had 4 T1 phone lines. Wow!

But computers were old hats for me, back in 1969 I had my first introduction to computers, in college I learned FORTAN IV on a IBM 1620 which used punch cards, that was followed by BASIC on an IBM 360.

I had my first computer back in 1977 with an amazing about of RAM memory 4K! Yes, you read that right, not 4M but 4K. The computer was a Rockwell AIM 65 with a BASIC Assembler, the AIM 65 used a Rockwell 6502 processor. Then I read something about an Apple coming out with something entirely new a disc operating system and I had to have it! (Somewhere I have the original bill of sale for it) and I got mine months after they went on sale, it also used a 6502 processor but had 64K memory. At home I had a dial-up modem (Which my parents hated because I tired up the phone for hours at a time) and was connected with DELPHI via GE Timesharing Systems.

At work with the IBM PC and the internet my boss asked me to find a replacement for a transformer that we used in a power supply that we made so I went online to the search engine Lycos and typed in “Transformer” and what popped up?

“Holy S**t!”

All of these sites about crossdressers, drag queens, and transsexuals came up!

WTF!

I quickly turned off the computer and sat back and digested what just happened.

At work they offered an interest free loan to buy a PC and they gave us a copy of all the software that the company used. I got up from my desk and marched down to accounting and said I want to buy a computer.

At home I connected up my brand new PC to the internet and started searching, I found the web sites of Melanie Phillips and Dr Becky, along with all the support groups. It was one of those support groups that I found on-line that I went to, Connecticut Outreach Society.

Reading the stories of our early pioneers gave me hope that maybe, just maybe I could survive being an  out trans woman. I joined the Connecticut Outreach Society and started going out in public with the group.

And guess what, my world didn’t collapse, no one really paid any attention to me… I could do it.

---

Computers untied the world and made a community for us, but it also united the hate.

Bad News From Texas

It seems like all the bad news comes out the south and mid-west, and this is really bad news.

Texas Can Resume 'Child Abuse' Probes of Trans-Supportive Parents
But the Texas Supreme Court, in allowing the probes to continue, questioned the authority of the governor to order them.
The Advocate
By Trudy Ring
May 13, 2022


Texas authorities can resume investigating supportive parents of transgender children for child abuse, although they are not legally required to do so, the state’s Supreme Court ruled Friday.

An appeals court had blocked the investigations while a lawsuit against the state is heard. But the Texas Supreme Court, ruling in an emergency appeal from state officials, asserted that the appeals court had “abused its discretion,” The New York Times reports.

However, the state cannot investigate the family and psychologist who sued, the high court said, as that would cause “irreparable harm.” And the court cast doubt on the authority of the governor to order the probes in the first place, saying whether to investigate any case is at the discretion of the state’s child welfare agency.

[…]

The Supreme Court, in allowing the investigations to resume, did rule that Abbott and Paxton could not “directly control” the DFPS probes. But it said the appeals court did not have the authority to halt them statewide.

And Texas Tribune reported…

Texas Supreme Court allows child abuse investigations into families of transgender teens to continue
The high court also raised questions about why the state opened these investigations in the first place, noting that the child welfare agency is not bound by directives from the governor.
By Eleanor Klibanoff
May 13, 2022


Texas’ child welfare agency remains blocked from investigating the family of a transgender teen that sued the state in March, but can once again investigate other families that provide gender-affirming care after the Supreme Court of Texas struck down a statewide injunction Friday.

Though it overturned the injunction on procedural grounds, the high court raised questions about why the Department of Family and Protective Services opened these investigations in the first place. The court affirmed in Friday’s ruling that neither Attorney General Ken Paxton nor Gov. Greg Abbott had any grounds to direct the agency’s actions.

Meanwhile NBC News reported that,

An increasing number of child welfare workers in Texas are quitting because of a directive from Gov. Greg Abbott that requires them to investigate child abuse claims against parents suspected of providing gender-affirming care to their transgender children.

[…]

Davis is reportedly not alone. More than a half dozen Child Protective Services employees in the state told The Texas Tribune this month that they have either resigned or were looking for new jobs as a result of Abbott’s directive. 

Sadly these types of laws are spreading through out the Republican states.

This Shouldn't Happen Here

As Republican state keep passing cruel laws designed to cause us harm and they are using it to strip parental rights from the parents and force the children into foster care. One trans child was "dragging her into foster care" by the police.

Police Burst Into 16-Year Old Trans Girl's Bedroom During Livestream
The Advocate
By Donald Padgett
May 11, 2022

Police in Tennessee burst into the room of a 16-year-old transgender girl while she was live streaming on Twitch.

In a video of the stream later posted to YouTube, police can be seen in the background forcing open the door which had been blocked by a chair. Wynn, who posts under the name VioWynn, tells viewers she had been coerced into online schooling because she refused to use the boys’ restroom before the stream abruptly ends.

[…]

Wynn continued playing, saying she was going to act like the police weren’t there because that was “easier.” The stream stopped after the officers and Wynn’s father cut power to the device she was streaming.

Police in Tennessee burst into the room of a 16-year-old transgender girl while she was live streaming on Twitch.

In a video of the stream later posted to YouTube, police can be seen in the background forcing open the door which had been blocked by a chair. Wynn, who posts under the name VioWynn, tells viewers she had been coerced into online schooling because she refused to use the boys’ restroom before the stream abruptly ends.

“Okay well now there’s an officer in here, just trying to join the stream,” Wynn says as the police forced open the blocked door.

[…]

Wynn earlier said the video might be her last “because they're trying to get me to either kill myself or go into foster care” instead of providing her with an in-school education.

According Motherboard,

Wynn told Motherboard that although she’s in foster care currently, she’s doing better now. “I feel less stressed since I now understand more of the ins and outs of foster care,” she said. She was able to have “two amazing streams” at home since then. “The plan now is to try getting a new court date for the foster care people to tell a judge that I don't need to be in foster care in hopes that I can be officially released from DCS custody,” she said, and the school has agreed to let her attend summer school to catch up in time for the second semester of 11th grade next year.

The state with all its power came down on a sixteen old girl just because she is trans and the school systems was discriminating against her.

The website "The Gamer" reported that,

Keffals [a fellow trans livestreamer] has asked legal professionals to reach out to her at inquiries@keffals.info if they are able to help Wynn. TheGamer has reached out to the streamer, and will update this report if we hear anything else about Wynn's situation.

Let's hope that the school respects her gender and stops the bullying and harassment. 

Sunday

For some people it is a holy day day but what happens when your religion says get lost, we don’t want you.

I have been Catholic all my life. A new Milwaukee Archdiocese policy on transgender people has driven me from my church.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Anne Curley
May 11, 2022


As a cradle Catholic whose values were shaped by 12 years of Catholic education and 60-plus years of Mass attendance, I feel great gratitude for the countless caring sisters, priests and Catholic laypeople who have guided and inspired me through much of my life. I’ve been proud to be associated with the good done by Catholic schools, hospitals and charitable organizations throughout the world.

So it’s with real sadness that I’ve joined the throng who have left the church.

The recently released policy of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee on how to treat transgender individuals has made it impossible for me, in good conscience, to call myself a Catholic.

I didn’t come to this decision lightly. When friends would ask how I could be a Catholic despite (choose one or more) the clergy sex abuse scandal, the ban on women priests, the treatment of homosexuality as a disorder, the rules on birth control … I had three well-honed responses:

“A 2,000-year-old, global institution doesn’t change quickly,” “Show me a major human institution that isn’t a mixed bag of strengths and corruption,” and “It’s the good, grace-filled people that keep me hanging in there — not the policies.” 

In the Guardian they wrote,

Centuries ago, the Catholic church denounced left-handed people as servants of the devil. For generations, left-handed Catholic children were forced against their will to become right-handed.

And it was even doing it in the 1960s, when I went to Catholic parochial school my left hand was rapped so many times because I am left handed and I was forced to write at an unnatural angle so I didn’t smudged the fountain pen ink.

The article goes on to say,

I was disillusioned back in my teenage years when I saw all these people in church where holy pious in church and “sinners” the rest of the week and I developed my religious own beliefs that what is important is not what building you sat in on the holly day but rather how you lived your life that counted and how you treat others.

I am not an expert on it, but I think it’s safe to say the subject of gender identity is complex, nuanced and not a good candidate for rigid rules. What I know for sure is that my Catholic education taught me Jesus identified with those whom the rule-makers rejected. I learned that he reserved his harshest criticism for religious leaders who piled heavy burdens on others. Thanks to my Catholic formation, I know that to be Christian means to uplift the dignity of others, especially those who most need uplifting.

I know many trans people who migrated to other affirming churches, some when to Dignity, some went to Episcopal or congregational or MCC or other progressive churches.

I believe that truth is embedded in each of us — that God implanted a unique identity that is ours alone to experience, express and put to good use during our time on Earth.  The fact that society is becoming more accepting of differences in our identities — race, sexual orientation and gender expression being prime examples — strikes me as part of God’s unfolding plan to enable each of us to achieve our full potential.

We each have to find our own spiritual pathway in our journey in life.

I don’t believe in the “Golden Rule,” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” I believe that it is seriously flawed. What happens when that person is sadistic or is a masochist, the Golden Rule kind of breaks down. I believe that our goal should be to leave a foot print on this world that make it a safer place for all to live. That includes minimizing our impact on the environment, ending discrimination and doing our part to end disease and pestilence.

To this day my goal and belief in life is when I leave this world that I have made a better life for those who come after me.

Property Taxes

[RANT]

The governor has said that he wants to cut property taxes.

Property taxes are very regressive, first you need to own property that is taxable, for many low income and marginalized communities that is not possible.

Second for many people living on fixed income like retirees it hurts them when taxes goes up and property value goes up. This is seen in many vacation areas like the shore or lake front properties. Many of the homes and farms that have been in families for generations are being forced to sell. When I was in Bar Harbor over fifteen years ago and there were a number of articles in the local media about a farm that was up on the market to be sold. The farm was a working farm on the ocean that was in the family since around the Revolutionary War but the property owner said that the property tax has nearly doubled each year because of the value of the house and land were skyrocketing. The article said that he sold the property for millions of dollars and the builder from Boston was going to build over two dozen 1 million dollar homes on the property.

On the Cape they also have a housing crisis, the summer employees cannot find housing. In the town next to where I have my cottage the town wanted to put in low income housing, but… (You always know there is but somewhere.) the neighbors sued to block the development, after a four year battle they lost. It will be a mixture of low income condos and seasonal apartments. While in Provincetown a whole block was sold  and the new owners what to keep the restaurant for themselves, and covert the apartments to upscale condos, keeping the less desirable apartments to seasonal help.

In Hartford I read that homes were being bought out by large hedge funds, fixed up, and rented out in a price range that locks out most of the residents of Hartford.

Between the rising interest rates, and the skyrocketing price of home, home ownership is becoming even more out of sight for the average income person (Forget low income buyers they were already priced out of the market.).

What the Democrats have proposed is a property tax cap, over a certain mill rate the state will pay the difference. Say if a city has a 40 mill property tax rate and the state caps it at 30 mills per thousand, the state will pay the city the difference, Well I am a staunch supporter of the Democrats but that is ridiculous! If that passes I can just see the cities raising the mills rates, say they raise the rate to 60 mills, that would mean that the state pays the difference, where is the incentive to keep taxes down?

Suppose instead of a cap, the state reimburses the property owners directly? That way the state can tailor the tax relief to low income people to help them buy property.

The state could also focus the tax relief on multifamily homes. The town where I live has zones large areas to multifamily home, but (Here we go again with the “buts.”) they are next to highways, railroad tracks, and next to swamps (Ops… I mean wetlands.).

I saw on the news that we are short millions of housing units, lets talk about how we can cut that shortage and still allow people from all income levels to own their homes.

[/RANTS]

Saturday 9: Give a Little Love

Saturday 9: Give a Little Love (1988)

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

Sorry about not answering last week’s Saturday 9, something came up that side tracked me.

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

In memory of Naomi Judd (1946-2022)

1) In this week's song, the Judds tell us they aren't impressed by diamonds or foreign travel. If you had your choice, would you prefer a $1,500 diamond pendant or a $1,500 voucher from United Airlines?

Hmm… I’ll take the diamond, you could always sell the diamond. There is no place that I would like to go.

2) In the video for this song, the Judds are shown having fun on the beach. Do you have any trips to the beach planned for the upcoming summer months?

Yes, to my cottage but doctor’s appointment, graduation parties, and another events got in my way.

3) Early in their career, this mother-daughter duo performed in clubs venues around San Francisco, where they called themselves The Hillbilly Women. Have you recently been to a bar or restaurant with live music?

Nope, there used to be a coffee shop that I went to for folk music.

4) They moved to Nashville in 1979 in search of greater success. During the three years it took them to score a record contract, Naomi supported the family as a part-time nurse and occasional model. She enjoyed the flexibility so her schedule could accommodate auditions. Do you like having a pre-planned schedule? Or would you rather keep things loose?

Nope. I am retired.

5) Wynona sang the Elvis classic "Burning Love" in 2002 Disney movie Lilo and Stitch. What's the most recent Disney movie you've seen?

Um… it was so long ago I don’t remember. Was Up a Disney movie?

6) In 2011, Wynona wrote her first novel, Restless Heart, about a country singer struggling with the price of fame. Have you ever tried your hand at writing fiction?

Nope, but a friend just write a spy novel that is pretty good. Unfortunately I gave it to my brother to read and I forgot the name.

7) Kid sister Ashley Judd is the only woman in her immediate family to not change her first name. Naomi was born Diana, and Wynona was originally Christina. Do you like your first name?

 Yes, I picked it out myself.

8) In 1988, the year this song was popular, Sonny Bono went from entertainer to politician when he was elected Mayor of Palm Springs. Have you met the mayor of your town?

No. However, I am on an advisory council for the governor does that count?

9) Random question: Were you a member of the Columbia House Record Club?

Yes, I got many of my CDs from them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last month I went to see Amy Schneider of Jeopardy fame at a talk she gave at Sacred Heart University.