A Tale Of Two Politicians

One politician who is running for president attended a conference where a pastor called for the annihilation of gays; the Right Wing Watch reports that,

When three Republican presidential candidates decided to address a conference in Iowa this weekend organized by Colorado pastor Kevin Swanson — a radical activist who thinks that Girl Scout cookies and the movie “Frozen” are turning girls into lesbians and has defended the death penalty for homosexuality — it showed once again that the Republican primary seems to be a competition of who can move farther to the right.

Swanson cleverly focused his Iowa conference on the theme of “religious liberties,” warning that “persecution against Christians is on the rise in Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, China, Oregon, and Kentucky.” It was apparently an invitation that Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee and Bobby Jindal — who are constantly harping on the theme that American Christians are on the road to facing persecution on par with Christians living under oppressive regimes — couldn’t pass up.

Meanwhile at the other end of the spectrum President Obama is calling for legislation to protect our rights. The Washington Post reported that,

The White House endorsed legislation Tuesday that would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the Obama administration had been reviewing the bill “for several weeks.”

“Upon that review it is now clear that the administration strongly supports the Equality Act,” he said. “That bill is historic legislation that would advance the cause of equality for millions of Americans.

“We look forward to working with Congress to ensure that the legislative process produces a result that balances both the bedrock principles of civil rights . . . with the religious liberty that we hold dear in this country,” Earnest added.

One party wants to demonize us, calling us perverts and child molesters, which thinks nothing of lying to create fear and panic. While the other party in the spirit of the Civil Rights movement wants us from discrimination and violence.

There are those who say that they vote Republican because they are fiscally conservative but for me I cannot vote for a party that is morally corrupt. A party that stands by and does nothing when people call for our execution, a party that lies about us, a party that uses hate and fear to win elections. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott a said in a tweet “No men in women's bathrooms.”

A party that kept quiet about ads like this…

Homeless Vets

Many in Connecticut do not realize that Connecticut has a very aggressive homeless policy to end homelessness for vets.

Gov. Malloy Announces that Connecticut is First State in America to End Chronic Veteran Homelessness
State Receives First-in-the-Nation Designation from Federal Government in Response to Positive Housing Efforts

(HARTFORD, CT) - Governor Dannel P. Malloy today announced that the State of Connecticut has been designated by the federal government as being the first state in the nation to have ended chronic homelessness among veterans.

Last year, Governor Malloy announced several initiatives aimed at combatting veteran homelessness with the goal of ending homelessness among veterans by the end of 2015.  The state has since made major investments in housing, becoming a national leader for its work.

Ending chronic homelessness among veterans is a milestone for Connecticut in its efforts to end homelessness entirely among veterans by the end of the year.  Connecticut is one of just a handful of states designated for, and participating in, the Zero:2016 initiative, which aims to end all chronic homelessness by the end of next year.  Today's announcement means that all known veterans experiencing chronic homelessness are either housed or are on an immediate path to permanent housing, and that the state will be able to rapidly place any veteran who newly experiences chronic homelessness on the path to permanent housing. [My emphasis]  Chronic homelessness is defined as an individual with a disability who has been homeless for a period of at least one year or has experienced four separate episodes of homelessness in the past three years.

Connecticut is one of only a few states that are working to end homelessness for our veterans. Hopefully other states will join us.

We Won!

Not quite, the gays were celebrating their victory when the Boy Scouts allowed gay scouts and scout leaders. Many called for the end to the boycott because they won, but it wasn’t a total victory because trans scouts were not included. There is a petition drive to change that,

Allow Transgender Boys in the Boy Scouts Now!
Care2 Petition
By: Peter Tomaszewski

Recently, the Boy Scouts of America made a landmark decision in allowing gay and lesbian Scout leaders in their program. While this is a major step, the civil rights battle in the BSA isn't over yet.

Transgender boys are not currently allowed to be members of the Boy Scouts, and their acceptance is only sometimes considered based on a troop's individual membership policy. This means that if a troop doesn't want a transgender boy, they are under no obligation to accept his application.

So instead of declaring victory, sign the petition to end the discrimination!

# # # # #

Right now I am in Manchester doing training with CT Coalition to End Homelessness, CT Fair Housing Center, AIDS Connecticut, and HUD for homeless shelter staff and 211 operators. This is the fifth in a series of training that we are doing around the state.

The Bathroom Police…

…Gets the wrong person!

Woman thrown out of Fishbone's: 'I couldn't believe it'
Detroit Free Press
By Katrease Stafford
June 23, 2015

When Cortney Bogorad heard a Fishbone's Rhythm Kitchen Cafe security guard shout repeatedly into the women's restroom for the man inside to come out, she wondered what the commotion was about.

Bogorad, who described the incident to the Free Press last week, said she was floored when she realized the guard's demands were aimed at her.

"It was absolutely insane to me," Bogorad said. "I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe they wouldn't believe me when I said I was a girl or that they wouldn't look at my ID."

Bogorad said the situation quickly escalated after the guard rebuffed her numerous attempts to show ID to prove she was indeed a woman.

She claims the man slammed her into the restroom wall, grabbed her by her hooded sweater and bra, carried her through the restaurant and threw her on the ground outside.

This is not the first time the bathroom police got it wrong. The Anchorage Press in 2006 had an article where security guards at the Thursday Night at The Fights rushed into the women’s bathroom to find the “man” in the bathroom only to embarrass the woman when they escorted her out saying “’It's alright,’ she said, to others outside the doors, ‘there's no man.’"

And then there was the case in New York, the Caliente Cab Company in 2007 where they prevented a grup of lesbians from going the bathroom.

What the bathroom police are really doing is enforcing the gender norms; they only question those who fall outside of what they think a woman should look like those who do not match their idea of a “real woman” are singled out.

We Are Everywhere!

I am surprised that more and more CEOs and other business executives are coming out trans, the latest is…

Becoming Christine: Transgender CEO Hallquist Prepares to Go to Work As a Woman
By Terri Hallenbeck
November 04, 2015

Dave Hallquist was dressed in a maroon button-down shirt and black trousers during a tour of the Vermont Electric Cooperative headquarters last month in Johnson. The former engineer wore comfortable shoes and a black leather men's watch while showing off a state-of-the-art control room, noting how technology has helped to shorten the length of power outages in the 74 towns VEC serves. Hallquist has brought the state's second-largest utility back from bankruptcy, and, after a decade as its chief executive officer, has become a knowledgeable ambassador for the 107-employee co-op.

The next day, Hallquist was back on the job, this time staffing a VEC booth at Renewable Energy Vermont's conference at the Sheraton hotel in South Burlington. But the CEO looked different in pumps and a stylish black-and-white blazer. A delicate pearl bracelet had replaced the watch. Shoulder-length auburn locks topped off the new look of VEC's leader. Affixed to her lapel, the name tag read: Christine Hallquist.

In an interview for WCAX a couple of months ago she said,

Hallquist is known for striking deals, a smart businessman at the forefront of innovative energy projects. He's a respected leader, pitching in when the lights go out. He's also the town moderator in Hyde Park. And now he wants to be known as someone else.

"Christine Hallquist is who I really am," he said.

Dave Hallquist is transgender-- basically born with a male body and a female mind.

"I would never want to go to my grave knowing I didn't tell the world about this," he said.

Dave says the need to finally live the truth stems from a dark place, a place of suffering. He was bullied and beaten as a child by classmates and by nuns, who he says demanded an exorcism on the eighth-grader because he was different from the other boys.

And she had to come out to her family, her wife knew since around the time they were married but the kids didn’t.

"At first there's obvious personal shock," son Derek said.

"This is a person we've been around for 30 years of my life... who is completely changing into a different person and that's hard, and recognizing it's hard. But we keep coming back to the fact that we really love each other," daughter Kiersten said.

The family stuck together. And Derek is documenting his father's transformation. But they all admit it's been tough and still is, especially now that Dave's transition is further along. He's taking estrogen and testosterone blockers. He's changing and going public with his new identity.
[…]
In fact, I prefer being out and hanging with Christine now. Because I can tell she's happy," Derek said.

But their hearts go out to their mom, Pat, back at home, who's struggling with the public revelation.

"We all agreed we are super worried about mom," Derek said.

The whole family is in group therapy. The marriage, though, is in question.

"We are very lucky in that we have had each other in this," Kiersten said.

Reporter Darren Perron: What's your biggest fear in coming out publicly?

Christine Hallquist: My biggest fear now is for my wife and family and how they adjust... When you've loved and lived with someone for 35 plus years, forgive me, I'm going to cry... I love my wife dearly. Of course this is a struggle for transgender folks.

I hope that they can work it out. It is not easy many families are torn apart but there are many families that get through it.

Confused Child!

That is latest that we are hearing from two staff members down in Texas about a transgender 5-year old and they creating a firestorm from the far right Christians.

Workers fired for raising concerns about transgender student
Fox 26
By: Damali Keith
POSTED: November 03, 2015

KATY, Texas (FOX 26) - Two school staff members say they were fired for voicing concern after being told to begin calling a 6-year-old girl by a new name and referring to her as a boy.

“It caused confusion,” says one employee. At Children’s Lighthouse Learning Center on Clay Road in Katy, Madeline Kirksey says last week she and her staff were told a six-year-old student is transgender. According to Kirksey, the child's parents cut the girl's hair short and Children’s Lighthouse Learning Center workers were instructed to start calling the girl a boy and by a boy's name.
[…]
After insisting on notifying parents regarding the transgender 6-year-old student at Children’s Lighthouse Learning Center, Kirksey says she was fired. The termination letter includes claims that she failed to tell a worker to leave a game room and "When requested by parent and management to call a transgender child by the child's new name, Madeline does not follow instructions."

On Breitbart.com they wrote,

CHRISTIAN DAYCARE WORKERS FIRED FOR REFUSING TO CALL A LITTLE GIRL A BOY

HOUSTON, Texas — Two daycare workers have been fired for refusing to go along with the center’s transgender agenda. Madeline Kirksey, one of the workers who is an author of a Christian book, says her religious liberty rights have been violated. The two were fired after refusing to call a little girl a boy.

And now we are starting to get to the heart of the incident…

The two male parents of a six-year-old little girl told employees at the school to refer to their daughter as a boy, and to call her by a new masculine name. The little girl’s hair had also been cut like a boy’s.

So now there are gay parents involved, the article goes on to say,

Kirksey told Breitbart Texas in an interview, that the problem was not so much with the transgender issue as it was with telling young children that the little girl was a boy when she was not, and with calling her “John” (not the name given) when that was not her name.

Ah yes, we have to protect the other children! It doesn’t matter that the other children probably didn’t care until the adults started fighting. But that is not the end of it; she had to get the state involved.

The fired worker notified Child Protective Services that the little girl was being told that she is now a little boy. She believes that it is up to professionals to determine if the little girl is just confused, or if the new gender is being forced upon the little girl.

Kirksey says sometimes the little girl refers to herself as a little boy, and sometimes she tells the other children to not call her a boy or to refer to her by her masculine name.

So the child is gender fluid and is exploring her gender, big deal! Well it is now because CPS is on the case.

Politicians Use Us For Votes…

…By demonizing us. When politicians lie, when school officials look the other way, when the media supports the lies, when police officers look the other way it all leads to violence directed at trans people.

New York Times Blames Texas Lt. Gov. for Next Trans Suicide
In a scathing message from the editorial board of The New York Times, the gray lady slams the state's top officials for peddling provably false transphobic myths in the controversy over HERO.
The Advocate
By Sunnivie Brtdum
November 5, 2015

As LGBT leaders pontificate on the "how" and "why" of Tuesday's overwhelming electoral defeat of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, the editorial board of The New York Times is pointing its finger squarely at the Texas State Capitol in Austin.

"Sometime in the near future, a transgender teenager in Texas will attempt suicide — and maybe succeed — because vilifying people for their gender identity remains politically acceptable in America," opens the editorial, published one day after Houston voters soundly rejected the broad nondiscrimination protections HERO sought to provide.

In the New York Times article it said that,

The hateful rhetoric of leaders like Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is the latest, ugliest example. Mr. Patrick was ebullient on Tuesday night after it became clear that Houston voters had decidedly rejected a broad equal rights ordinance that opponents maliciously and misleadingly characterized as a boon for cross-dressing sex offenders.

“It was about protecting our grandmoms and our mothers and our wives and our sisters and our daughters and our granddaughters,” Mr. Patrick said as he thanked a crowd of joyful supporters who nodded and cried “Amen!”
[…]
Opponents of the law, led by Jared Woodfill, a Houston lawyer and a Texas Republican Party leader, started a well-funded campaign that equated supporting it with allowing men to use women’s public restrooms for deviant purposes. Their fearmongering, blasted on yard signs, bellowed from church pulpits and dramatized in a television ad, suggested that sexual deviants were waiting for the ordinance to kick in to sneak up on unsuspecting women in bathroom stalls.

Many of the media outlets ate it up, they repeated the lies and called the ordinance “The Bathroom Bill” they didn’t care about the facts, it sold ads, and it increased readership and ratings. It was good for their bottom line so what if it villainized a marginalized community, they are a minority and can’t complain that much.

As a result of the vote there is backlash from “GAY INC.” as one of the comments shows,
As a married gay man, I support the rights of everyone to live their lives in peace HOWEVER I am increasingly unhappy with the constant linking of my particular issues as a gay male with those of the transgender community - our specific issues are DIFFERENT.
And in the Change.org petition,

We are a group of gay/bisexual men and women who have come to the conclusion that the transgender community needs to be disassociated from the larger LGB community; in essence, we ask that organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, Lambda Legal and media outlets such as The Advocate, Out, Huff Post Gay Voices, etc., stop representing the transgender community as we feel their ideology is not only completely different from that promoted by the LGB community (LGB is about sexual orientation, trans is about gender identity), but is ultimately regressive and actually hostile to the goals of women and gay men.

There are several areas in which the ideology of the trans community is at odds with or actively hostile to that of women and gay men; among the most important are:

Translated: We want ours, screw you!

Suicides, It Is What Society Does To Us

When you hear over and over again that you’re sick, perverted, when you’re constantly harassed, when you’re shunned by your family it is bound to take a toll on you.

The sports writer who became a woman
I didn't understand how hard it was going to be for her
Houston Chronicle
By Randy Harvey
November 5, 2015

He called to make an appointment to meet in my office. I asked him the reason. He said he needed to discuss something in person, not over the phone.

When he arrived at the appointed time, he sat across from my desk and told me almost before I had a chance to greet him that he had been living outside work as a she.

He — suddenly, she — paused to see if I had a reaction. A thousand thoughts raced through my mind. Not one involved which restrooms she should use. I didn't have any idea it would become an issue.

It was a different time, a different place: April 2007, Los Angeles. But I was painfully reminded of it this week in Houston, as anti-HERO advocates overwhelmingly prevailed at the polls by making restrooms for transgenders the issue in their campaign.

But not too different of time and place as this week’s vote showed. Society still wants us to be pushed back into those little boxes. If you can integrate into society you have no problem, but if you can’t society can make your life a living hell.

When we walked into the restaurant, the greeter said, "Hello, gentlemen."

She didn't hear him. Or she acted like she didn't hear him.

That's when I knew she hadn't chosen an easy path. Or that an easy path hadn't chosen her.

Some in the community say that she wasn’t trans because she detransitioned, that if she was really trans she would have stuck it out. But I say she was just as trans as any of us, it was just that she couldn’t stand the pressure society forces on us. That this is why it is called Gender Dysphoria.

Saturday 9: All Random

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: All Random

Every Saturday I take time off from written on serious topics to have some fun…

This week's Saturday 9 is refreshingly theme free, featuring questions submitted by regular Saturday 9ers.

Crazy Sam really appreciates all the help she received with this week's meme, and is jealously protecting all your unused questions. Expect to see them sprinkled throughout Saturday 9s in the future.

1) Do you prefer your pickle sliced thin, sliced thick, or in a spear?
It depends; some sandwiches go good with pickles on them while others don’t you wouldn’t want sliced pickles on a Ruben… yuck! So a nice half sour on the side would be excellent. While a combo sub (grinder, hoagie, or whatever you call you sandwich) would be nice with sliced pickles on it.

2) What kind of eggs do you like best for breakfast?
This morning I made an omelet with chopped peppers, onions, tomato, ham and cheese.

3) If you got 2 pennies for change, would you pocket them or leave them on the counter for the next person?
This also depends, if say I was buying coffee and the clerk hands me the coffee first, then I would probably drive off without the change. But if the clerk handed me the change first I would probably take it.

4) You’re now in charge of the manners for the planet. Tell us the new rules for cellphone etiquette.
The first rule that I’ll pass is that if you have a hands free cell phone in your car and you do not have a passenger you must have a dummy in the passenger seat. That is because when other driver pass you it doesn’t look like you’re crazy talking to yourself and making wild gestures.

5) You’re about to write a novel. What genre will it be (sci fi, chick lit, historical fiction, comic …)?
Oh, absolutely no question about this one, sifi of course.

6) Is it a bad thing to lie to save a friend’s feelings?
No, unless they find out.

7) Is your big toe your longest toe?
Yes.

8) Hot stone massage: yea or nay?
Na, I am just not into any massages. I had a massage once and the next day I felt horrible with all muscle aches and pains.

9) Do you check the mirror before going out?
Of course, I even have a hair brush by the garage entrance.

Thanks again, Everyone!

All Religions Are Not Created The Same

We cannot lump all religions into one box because many of them are affirming to LGBT people.

US Reform Jews adopt sweeping transgender rights policy
The proposal features some of the most far-reaching policies for transgendered men and women seen among any of the nation's mainstream religious organizations.
The Jerusalem Post
By Reuters
November 5, 2015

Temples and synagogues affiliated with the nation's largest Jewish movement should take specific steps to embrace transgender people, a US conference of Reform Jews urged on Thursday in approving a groundbreaking resolution.

In a resounding voice vote, Reform Judaism embraced some of the most far-reaching policies for transgendered men and women seen among any of the nation's mainstream religious organizations, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) right advocates said.

The resolution calls for congregations to offer cultural training for religious school staff, sermons on transgender issues and gender-neutral restrooms where feasible.
[…]
Although many of the 900 affiliated Reform congregations already are welcoming to transgendered persons, others will now address the issue for the first time, Weinstein said.

I remember one time at a Transgender Day of Remembrance when Rabbi Bremen brought the “Window of Hope” which is a window made up of shattered glass to symbolize Krystal Nacht, the night that the Holocaust began, the night they came for the Jews.

She talked so elegantly about the bigotry, hate and violence of that night and how they still exists today. How we must all fight that hatred as one and we must always be vigilant in our fight against the hatred and violence.

She went on to tell how the “Window of Hope” was made of glass from a Krystal Nacht service many years ago. Everyone had a piece of glass that they dropped on the floor to shatter in order to symbolize the broking glass of that night 70 years ago. It was from those pieces, that they made the “Window of Hope.” Last year when they were bringing the window to the Transgender Day of Remembrance some of the panes cracked and they debated long and hard on whether or not they should replace the shattered panes. They decided to leave it as is, to symbolize the continuing struggle against bigotry and hate and violence that we both face.

Gee, Is Anyone Really Surprised

I don’t even know if I would want to go on Fox network program.

Fox News Fail! Report Says Not 1 Transgender Guest in 9 Months of Trans Coverage
The Advocate
By Dawn Ennis
September 15, 2015

An independent review of Fox News over nine months reveals the number one rated cable news network did not invite a single openly transgender person to appear as a guest to discuss transgender issues.

The report was compiled by the nonprofit news watchdog Media Matters. The organization's website makes no bones about its mission, declaring it is "dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media."

Fox News Channel aired 44 news alerts and 27 segments focusing on transgender issues between September 1, 2014, and June 1, 2015, according to the Media Matters report. But in all that coverage on Rupert Murdoch's crown jewel, the researchers could find only two news alerts that included commentary from a person openly identified as transgender.

Local affiliates lucky do not follow the networks lead and they have had numerous trans people on their shows including me. But this about the national network comes as no surprise when you consider they have people on like Dr. Paul McHugh and the so called family organizations on their shows. I will take a strong trans person to go into the lion’s den.

Will Insurance Help?

We all know that transitioning is expensive and now that we have insurance it may put surgery in the price range that more can afford but for many others it is still out of sight for them.

High Costs of Transgender Transition Can Have Dark Financial Legacy
NBC News
By Reuters
November 1, 2015

NEW YORK — When Sara Davis Buechner began her transition from man to woman, she knew there were going to be emotional hurdles, like dealing with her family.

But there were financial costs, too. And she knew they were going to be forbidding.

Medical procedures like facial electrolysis cost $20,000. There was a year of therapy, required at the time to make sure Buechner, a renowned pianist, was a suitable candidate for transition - at $80 a session.

Since American options were just too pricey, Buechner opted for surgery in Thailand. The tab? $10,000, including flights.

But since Buechner transitioned insurance is now covering many medical procedures that we need,

Meanwhile, corporations have been slow to help. According to the 2015 Employee Benefits Survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, just 5 percent of employers offer gender reassignment health care coverage to their staff. That is up since 2011, when only 2 percent of companies did so. But progress has only been incremental.

Among larger companies, the numbers are more encouraging. One-third of Fortune 500 firms now offer health care coverage, including transgender surgery and related medical costs, according to the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index report.

In addition, the provisions of Obamacare - as well as state-specific laws in places like California, New York and Oregon - have been pushing plans towards transgender-inclusive health coverage, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.

It has gotten easier for some of us but it is still way too costly many of us.

I Am Not A Fan, But…

I know that for many people they like drag shows and I realize that just because I don’t like something it doesn’t mean that it is wrong. I don’t like opera but I don’t think it should be banned.

This article was recommended on Facebook when I was reading an article about drag.

Trans Women Are Not Drag Queens
Everyday Feminism
By Maddie McClouskey
April 14, 2014

After fielding the same questions from people in different facets of my life, it dawned on me: Many people do not know the difference between trans women and drag queens!

There seems to be an assumption that all people assigned male at birth who grow up to wear clothing from the women’s section identify the same way.

And that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Even the most well-meaning, modern people can be ignorant of the nuances of gender and performance. Everyone learns about this stuff differently. It’s okay.

And the media sometimes does not go out of its way to make the distinction, we see this all the time. When I talk to groups I sometimes get the impression that they expected me to come in with a big bouffant hairdo, a skimpy dress, and 6 inch spiked stilettos and are surprised that I am wear jeans and sneakers. They are even more surprised when I say that I’m attached romantically to women.

The article ends with,

3. Make the Distinction
If a trans woman comes out to you, don’t immediately gush to her about RuPaul. Don’t look to drag queens to speak for trans women.

As I’ve said way too many times in this piece, they are absolutely not the same at all.

The stories of drag performers and trans women are entirely different from one another and need to be treated as such.

The media is morphing the word transgender from being an umbrella term to mean all those who want to transition and have Gender Confirming Surgery.

I Bet We Didn’t Know.

That we get discriminated against with employment?

Report: Transgender Job Applicants In D.C. Face Staggering Discrimination Rates
DCist
By Rachel Kurzius
November 3, 2015

A first-of-its-kind study of discrimination in hiring practices finds that nearly half of D.C. employers prefer a less-qualified applicant they perceive as cisgender to a more-qualified candidate they perceive as transgender.

Five employers will face director's inquiries from the Office of Human Rights for their results—two in the restaurant industry, two in the administrative sector, and one university. These investigations will determine whether the actions were discriminatory and could become public documents.
The Office of Human Rights conducted the first government-run test in the nation to figure out how being perceived as transgender affects a job applicant, submitting resumes to openings in various sectors from February to July 2015.

What the researchers did was,

To conduct the study, OHR signaled gender identity in four different ways. Two involved referring to an applicant's current or former legal name (one example from the report: a resume would state: "Worked under my former legal name, Clara Scott."). The other applications used work or volunteer history in the transgender community, emphasizing a personal stake in the cause, to demonstrate gender identity.

All of the transgender resumes demonstrated one or two years more work experience, or .1 to .3 higher GPAs than their cisgender counterparts.

Because existing resume testing already demonstrates discrimination based on a number of characteristics like race, age, gaps in employment, and more, the study isolates gender identity. All of the applicants had Anglo-American-sounding names, attended college, were around the same age, had no gaps in employment, and lived in Petworth.

You can read the full OHR report here.

# # # # #

Right now I am down in Norwalk doing training with CT Coalition to End Homelessness, CT Fair Housing Center, AIDS Connecticut, and HUD for homeless shelter staff and 211 operators.

Fear And Bigotry Win!

Human Rights took a right turn yesterday in Huston when fear, hatred, and bigotry won. When you look at civil rights you will see that there have been very few wins, women suffrage, integration, gay rights, and now trans have lost at the ballot boxes. The oppression of the few by the many is what happens when you put human rights to a referendum. It took the courts or legislation to open up the ballot to women and blacks. It took the Supreme Court to overturn state constitutions the legalized discrimination against lesbians and gays.

The lies won out. An article in the Huffington Politics said,

This factually dishonest message proved to be incredibly effective: Many Houston voters seemed to think the measure was solely about access to restrooms and were unaware of the broader nondiscrimination protections in the measure.
[…]
Lance Berkman, who used to play for the Houston Astros, cut an ad with the same message, saying he was concerned about the safety of his female family members if HERO passed.

"My wife and I have four daughters," he said in the spot. "Proposition 1 would allow troubled men who claim to be women to enter women's bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms. It's better to prevent this danger by closing women's restrooms to men, rather than waiting for a crime to happen."

And of course we know that sports stars always tell the truth and walk on water.

So what was the final vote?

Texas Tribune reported that,

With 95 percent of votes counted, 61 percent of voters opposed the measure. The embattled ordinance, better known as HERO, would have made it illegal to discriminate against someone based on 15 different “protected characteristics,” including sex, race, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity.

When you connect with a pure emotion of joy, anger, anxiety, pensiveness, grief, fear, or fright it is hard to change to a person’s views and the “bathroom” ads connected with two of them anxiety and fear.

Huffington Post looks at the strategy to counter the fear and hate that right wing bigots use against us.

The Trans Movement Needs a New, Science Based Strategy
By Brynn Tannehill
Posted: 11/03/2015

Tuesday's defeat of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) highlights several conclusions that the LGBT movement needs to take to heart for the next decade or so. Foremost is that we will not win transgender issues directly at the ballot box, or in the gerrymandered republican legislatures which dominate the political landscape.
[…]
When opponents frame legal protections for transgender people as a choice between a group strangers (who are suspected of being perverts anyway) and the safety your wives and daughters, transgender people will lose every time. So far, anti-LGBT forces have been far more successful at pushing their narrative.

I don't foresee this changing anytime soon.

And neither do I, we can’t win through referendums but ballot initiatives also most never give away the oppression by the majority. The article goes on to say,

Time and time again over the past seven years we have seen gains for transgender people have come from convincing individuals in positions of authority to make simple policy based changes. Passports, Medicare coverage of transgender health, driver's license gender marker changes without surgery, inclusion of gender identity protections and health care in the private sector: all of these were accomplished with smart and surgical approaches.

Similarly, when we win in court, it is because we have made better arguments in front of someone who is supposed to be a neutral arbiter. Judges are not supposed to be swayed by emotion, fear, or religious beliefs. [That is why I feel judges should not be elected because they are thinking about what will get them elected again, not the law.] Their job is to interpret the law, and the law is often decided based on scientific evidence.
[…]
There are four ways to change the legal framework that transgender people live under: legislation, ballots, case law, and policy changes. The sooner we stop wasting our time tilting at legislative and ballot windmills, the better. Doing the latter requires building the strongest scientific consensus possible.

I don’t quite agree with this, it all depends on the legislative climate. If the legislature is moderate and can be persuaded to do right thing we should try going the legislative route.

However, bigotry and fear of people who are different won out yesterday in Huston.

Twisting Words

Those who oppose our human rights like to twist research papers to support their beliefs, they love a 2011 Swedish study. They take snippets to highlight their position.

Fact check: study shows transition makes trans people suicidal
A 2011 Swedish study proves that trans people are more suicidal due to transition, are likely rapists and that trans women exhibit male socialization. Or does it?
TransAdvocate
By Cristan Williams
November 2, 2015

I’ve only scratched the surface of the amount of anti-trans hyperbole that cites the 2011 study titled, Long-Term Follow-Up of Transsexual Persons Undergoing Sex Reassignment Surgery: Cohort Study in Sweden by Dr. Cecilia Dhejne, et al. I contacted Dhejne after I witnessed her work used to support the claim that trans women are rapists and she agreed to the following interview:
Cristan Williams: How did you first hear about trans people and when was it that you first met a trans person?
Cecilia Dhejne: I don’t recall when I first heard about someone being transgender, though I think I first became aware of the existence of trans people as a teenager. In 1985 I took classes in sexology and around that time I also participated in a Nordic Association for Clinical Sexology meeting where I heard Dr. Friedeman Pfäflin speak about his work with trans people in Germany. Additionally, at the same conference I was able to hear Dr. Espen Esther Pirelli Benestad talk about hir experience. I began working with trans people clinically in 1999 and from there, I started up the gender team in Stockholm.
[…]
Williams: Before I contacted you for this interview, were you aware of the way your work was being misrepresented?
Dhejne: Yes! It’s very frustrating! I’ve even seen professors use my work to support ridiculous claims. I’ve often had to respond myself by commenting on articles, speaking with journalists, and talking about this problem at conferences. The Huffington Post wrote an article about the way my research is misrepresented. At the same time, I know of instances where ethical researchers and clinicians have used this study to expand and improve access to trans health care and impact systems of anti-trans oppression.
Of course trans medical and psychological care is efficacious. A 2010 meta-analysis confirmed by studies thereafter show that medical gender confirming interventions reduces gender dysphoria.

Ms. Williams sums up the article by writing,

There you have it. To be clear:

• No, the study does not show that medical transition results in suicide or suicidal ideation. The study explicitly states that such is not the case and those using this study to make that claim are using fallacious logic. 
• No, the study does not prove that trans women are rapists or likely to be rapists. The “male pattern of criminality” found in the 1973 to 1988 cohort group was not a euphemism for rape. 
• No, the  study does not prove that trans women exhibit male socialization. The “male pattern of criminality” found in the 1973 to 1988 cohort group was not a claim that trans women were convicted of the same types of crime as cis men.

Isn’t Science Wonderful

Mother Nature just likes to experiment, she doesn’t like cookie cutters. When I read comments that our gender is determined by our chromosomes my eyes roll up; if Mother Nature was that uncomplicated.

WHY ARE SO MANY BOYS IN THIS SMALL TOWN RAISED AS GIRLS? THE INTERSEX CHILDREN OF SALINAS.Second Nexus
By Haley Pollock
October 29, 2015

A small and ethnically homogenized corner of the Caribbean is home to an interestingly large population of children bearing the same medical anomaly. In the Dominican Republic city of Salinas, approximately one in every ninety children have this mutation, and are born with exterior genitalia that either appear female or non-specific and ambiguous at birth. They are generally assigned a female gender, given girl’s names and raised as daughters… but when puberty sets in, something fascinating happens.

Known as Guevedoces, which is a Spanish idiom meaning “testes at 12,” these children are born with a genetic mutation that delays the development of external male sex organs. When X and Y chromosomes combine during conception and pregnancy, males usually produce the enzyme that converts testosterone into DHT, an androgen that produces the penis and testes. In these children, that enzyme doesn’t get produced until puberty. It’s a little more complex than that… but that is the basic overview.
[…]
Scientists have been studying the Guevedoces for years, following them throughout their lives as they develop from babies into adults. It was the study of this mutation that led to the development of the drug Propecia, used now to treat both male pattern baldness and benign enlarged prostates, by blocking the 5-Alpha Reductase enzyme. Studying the development of these children also illuminates many ideas about gender, identity, nature vs. nurture and makes cracks in the foundation of the gender binary.

It is just amazing to me the diversity that Mother Nature has, we as a society want to fit everything into nice little boxes but that is not possible.

Noting that many people do not fit the long-held concept of the gender binary, some point out that there is far more to gender identity than the presence of reproductive organs. While others argue that transgender or intersex people are simply confused, or suffer from a dysmorphic disorder, when an infant with no discernible genitals is female via social assignment, then becomes a male based on late onset genetic processes, gender definitions grow complicated. This exploration into the concept of gender propels new medical and psychiatric discussions, not to mention civil rights, into the future.

There are still many people who cling to the quant 1950 notion of gender and sex. They don’t want their little binary world upset with reality.

A Story Of Two Women

When I was reading this morning’s trans news looking for something to write about today these two article popped out to me; they both are stories about trans woman but are different as night to day.

At the end of his rope, Kevin Swartz was reborn as AshleyTwo decades before there was Caitlyn Jenner, a Nebraska farmer made a similar journeyBy Erin Grace / World-Herald staff writer
Sunday, November 1, 2015

MALMO, Neb. — The farmer slides open the big green metal doors of this machine shed on a farm 50 miles west of Omaha.

Here is a 1957 John Deere tractor, the oldest the farmer ever bought.

Here is a 2014 John Deere combine that costs 10 times as much as a new car.

And here is the spot, right here, where the farmer once sized up the rafters and a bleak future. Here is where the farmer planned to end it all: a life straddling two irreconcilable selves — male in a physical sense, female in every other way.

This lifelong struggle had felt hopeless. The farmer’s wife had left and taken the kids. The farmer was more alone than ever.

So the farmer had searched for a rope.

Improbably, in this cavernous, tool-stocked shed, the farmer couldn’t find one.

And this bought enough time for doubt — for the farmer to reconsider the impact of a suicide on two young children.

At that moment, the farmer had stopped looking for an end.

And started looking for a beginning.

As you can guess, she is trans and it was at that point in her life that she chose to transition. She lives in a small town and she took a big chance,

For starters, it’s unlikely any of Malmo’s 100 residents then would have flown the rainbow flag. No one could have imagined gay marriage or said those words with a straight face. And the idea of being transgender was even less accepted.

Just two years earlier, in another Nebraska town, a young woman named Teena Brandon who presented herself as a man had been raped and murdered.

Sometimes it was dangerous to be transgender. More often, it was a joke.

Popular culture at the time played being transgender for laughs.

But she did transition and it hasn’t been a bed of roses, it did have its ups and downs but she survived and she still runs the farm.

While on the east coast,

Meet Dr. Levine, Pennsylvania's top docThe highest-ranking transgender person in state history continues a distinguished career in health careBy Michael A. Fuoco / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
November 1, 2015

HARRISBURG — By any measure, Rachel Levine had a whirlwind week in January — one that was as life-changing for her as it was historic for Pennsylvania.

There was no grand plan, no lifelong dream at work. The process was organic.

It began when Dr. Levine agreed to co-chair then-Gov.-elect Tom Wolf’s transition committee for state physician general, a Health Department position created in 1996. She made it clear she wasn’t a candidate because she was happy and fulfilled as a physician at the Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital-Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
[…]
On Friday, Jan. 16, Dr. Levine was offered and accepted the position; on Saturday the appointment was announced; on Monday she saw patients until 6 p.m.; on Tuesday Gov. Wolf was inaugurated; and on Wednesday morning she began her new role as the state’s top doctor.

In becoming Pennsylvania’s fourth physician general — and being appointed to Gov. Wolf’s cabinet — she became the highest-ranking openly transgender person in state government history, joining only a handful of other transgender women serving in government office nationally.

Her nomination and unanimous 49-0 confirmation by the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania Senate in June were hailed in the transgender community across the nation and have made her a role model.

Two different stories but one theme, the world doesn’t end when we transition.

# # # # #

Right now I am up in northwestern Connecticut doing training for the staff and administration at a elementary school.

I Never Did

I never crossdressed on Halloween, I think I was afraid that someone would think that I enjoyed it a little too much so I avoided dressing up for Halloween. Instead I took the safe route, a pirate, Davey Crockett, a solider, etc.

Why Trans Women Have Complicated Relationships With Halloween“I wasn’t dressing up as a celebrity or a historical figure, but rather as an everyday girl. I was presenting as myself.”Posted on Oct. 31, 2015
By Meredith Talusan, BuzzFeed LGBT Staff Writer

“You look so good as a girl,” my friend Lucy said after I borrowed one of her skin-tight black mini-dresses for Halloween. “I hate you.” I looked in her full-length mirror as she pointed out how thin my legs were, and how I had delicate features that only got prettier as she helped me apply lipstick and mascara.

That was the first night I dressed in drag — or, what I thought was drag at the time — for our annual Halloween Drag Night at Adams House, my undergrad dorm at Harvard. Drag was never something I particularly craved, especially since I incorporated feminine clothes into my wardrobe on a regular basis, but more in the vein of colorful tops and scarves rather than dresses.
[…]
It wasn’t until I began to transition, six years later, that I came to understand what those early experiences meant to me. I kept coming back to that moment when Lucy told me I looked amazing in her dress, when other friends told me I occupied womanhood so well, those three different times in college when I borrowed dresses for Halloween. This sense of affirmation carried me through the toughest times – when I lost friends and was discriminated against because I’m trans.

The article then goes on to talk with other trans people about Halloween.

Jasmine Rodriquez, writer and actress
On Halloween 2004, ten days shy of my eighteenth birthday, I dressed in drag — really bad Wal-Mart last minute costume drag. Then I met up with two girls from work just to hang out in the park. This was in Tampa, and ignorant of the dangers awaiting a lonely boy in drag in that particular neck of the woods, I walked home. As I neared the entrance to the subdivision where I lived, a red pickup sped past, a beer bottle whizzing past my head and landing in the grass. I stayed as calm as I could, walked all the way home, and didn’t say a word about it.
[…]
K.
I transitioned in my teens and am not public about being trans, or “stealth” as people call it. I feel a little weird that I’ve never cross-dressed on Halloween, either before or after transition. It was one of those trans woman checkboxes I never went through. I was constantly worried about people seeing a man in drag or just a guy in a guy’s costume.

Halloween is the patron holiday of drag queens already, so even though young trans women also use it as a time to dress up, I feel like going out in highly-gendered costume is putting yourself on blast. Think of when cisgender people wear cross-gendered costumes: it’s the exact opposite of passing. It’s parody. Short of being read as trans while being out on a date and dressed up, nothing else sucks more.

This one came the closest to the way I feel. I worried about being outed and I didn’t feel it would be right to crossdress because I saw it as a parody of the way I felt, I was a woman therefore dressing up on Halloween was mocking the way I felt.

Now if I did dress up for Halloween it would be as a nun or a gypsy.

Our Stories Are The Same

In the news media when we tell our stories there are minor variations from person to person. When the news reports about a child who transitions the details may be slightly different but the basic narratives are the same. At a very early age we know we are somehow not the gender they assigned to us at birth, but this story is slight different because she was a twin.

Becoming Nicole
They were born identical twin boys, but one always felt he was a girl
The Washington Post
Story by Amy Ellis Nutt
Published on October 19, 2015

They were identical twin boys, Wyatt and Jonas Maines, adopted at birth in 1997 by middle-class, conservative parents. Healthy and happy, they were physically indistinguishable from each other, but even as infants their personalities seemed to diverge.

By the age of 2, when the boys were just learning to speak, Wyatt asked his mother, “When do I get to be a girl?” and “When will my penis fall off?” It was the beginning of a journey through questions of gender that would challenge a mother to find ways to help her child, even as the father pushed back. The father would learn the truest meaning of family only after his wife felt forced to file a lawsuit against the twins’ elementary school, and when Jonas told him, at age 9, “Face it, Dad, you have a son and a daughter.”

Nicole and Jonas, who grew up primarily in Maine, just turned 18. In “Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family,” published this week by Random House and excerpted below, Washington Post science writer Amy Ellis Nutt explores the remarkable story of an ordinary family navigating its way through extraordinary times.

This story is told over and over again by trans children what is different now than when I grew up is society is now more aware to trans children, parents are learning what to do if their child says that they should be a boy or girl instead of what the doctor said when they wacked them on their behinds.

What I like about the article is that it goes on to say,

There is no shortage of only slightly more sophisticated theories today. But what we know for sure is that we all begin life essentially genderless, at least in terms of sexual anatomy. The last of our 23 pairs of chromosomes makes us either genetic males (XY) or genetic females (XX). But there are at least 50 genes that play a part in sexual identity development and are expressed at different levels early on.

Sexual anatomy, however, is determined in large part by hormones. All of us begin, in utero, with an opening next to the anus and a kind of genital “bud.’’ The addition of testosterone drives the fetus in the male direction. An inhibiting hormone prevents males from developing internal female reproductive organs. Without testosterone, the embryo develops in the female direction.

Sexual differentiation of the genitals happens at about six weeks, but the sexual differentiation of the brain, including gender identity and the setting of our gender behavior, is, at least partly, a distinct process. Again, hormones play the crucial role, with surges of testosterone indirectly “masculinizing” the brains of some fetuses, causing subtle but distinct differences in brain structure and functional activity.
[…]
In some ways, the brain and the body are two very different aspects of what it means to be human, especially when it comes to sex and gender. Who we are, male or female, is a brain process, but what we look like at birth, what we develop into at puberty, who we are attracted to and how we act — male, female or something in between — are all embedded in different groups of brain cells with different patterns of growth and activity. Ultimately gender identity is the result of biological processes and is a function of the interplay between sex hormones and the developing brain, and because it is a process that takes place over time, in utero, it can be influenced by any number of environmental effects.

We also know that twins in the uterus do not develop the same, on the website about pregnancy it has this to say about twins growth rates.

During a pregnancy with twins or higher order levels of multiples, it's normal for the babies to be slightly different sizes. If the difference in size gets too large, your provider might start to get concerned.

Once the size difference reaches 15 to 25 percent, the babies are said to have "discordant fetal growth." The growth difference can have a number of causes including genetic, intra-uterine growth syndrome and twin-to-twin-transfusion. Your doctor will watch the babies closely and could suggest an early induction or cesarean.

So even though they are identical twins there are many factors that affect their development and that is why one twin can be trans and the other twin is cis.

It Should Never Put To A Referendum.

Human rights shouldn’t be voted on. It should not be put to a referendum. However, in Huston they are doing that.

HAT THE ANTI-HERO BACKLASH HAS DONE TO TRANSGENDER HOUSTONIANS
Huston Press
By Meagan Flynn
October 30, 2015

All Celeste could do was roll her eyes when the woman she had just seen in the bathroom stood at the podium before City Council and described her as a sexual predator. Earlier, she had waited as long as she could to get up and pee, waiting until she was certain no one protesting the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, or HERO as it's commonly known, would be policing the bathroom door like a high school hall monitor. But when Celeste got out of the stall to wash her hands, one of those protesters looked at her horrified, saying, “You shouldn’t be in here.”

A half hour later, that woman was telling City Council she feared for her safety, as if Celeste, a transgender woman just washing her hands at a bathroom sink, was somehow a threatening presence. Celeste (who, fearing backlash from anti-HERO protestors, asked that the Houston Press not use her real name) thought, Are you kidding me?
[…]
By July 2015, a legal challenge by HERO opponents, including a number of religious leaders, had landed at the Texas Supreme Court, which ordered Houston to repeal the law or put it to the voters this November. All the while, the opposition somehow turned an equal rights ordinance into an argument about whether HERO would open the door for male predators, dressed as women, to enter women’s restrooms and sexually assault young girls. One woman said in the first anti-HERO radio ad that she might have to move away from Houston if she wanted to have a baby girl here, fearing the child could one day be assaulted in a bathroom.

They call themselves Christians, but they lie and bear false witness to create fear.

What it will boil down to this Tuesday is who can rally their supporters to get out in vote; human rights should not be a victim of apathy. In an off year election voter turnout is notoriously low; even though polls give a slight edge in favor of the ordinance winning is not assured. KHOU reported that,

The fight over Houston’s controversial equal rights ordinance seems close, but its supporters have the edge in the latest poll conducted for KHOU 11 News and News 88-7.

The survey indicates 43 percent of likely voters plan to vote for the ordinance nicknamed HERO and 37 percent plan to vote against it, with 18 percent still undecided.  When you factor in the 4.1 percent margin of error, it seems either side could win.

The Bill of Rights was created because the framers of the Constitution knew that the majority can and will oppress the rights of the minority. That the bigotry and hatred of the many has to be stopped and they created the Bill of Rights and overtime legislatures have expanded protection to other marginalized peoples.

Saturday 9: Thriller

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: Thriller (1983)

Every Saturday I take time off from written on serious topics to have some fun…

I’m back home again from my vacation on Cape Cod, the NH cottage is all closed up for the season and I’m getting over a cod that I had since Monday.

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

1) In this video, Michael Jackson is transformed into a "werecat," with fangs, claws, yellow eyes and whiskers. What  monster or ghoul frightened you the most?
I’m not really frightened of any make believe monsters.

2) Michael sings that evil things that will be lurking "close to midnight." Where will you be at midnight tonight?
In my bed sleeping.

3) Horror movie icon Vincent Price does the voice over on "Thriller." What's your favorite scary movie? 
I was never a big fan of horror movie, the all seemed so camp. I got a good laugh from the “Blob.”

4) Mr. Price's House of Wax, made in 1953, was one of the first 3D movies. What's the most recent 3D movie you saw?
I've never seen a 3D movie.

5) Horror fans might be surprised to know that, despite his sinister image, Mr. Price enjoyed very genteel and relaxing hobbies, like cooking, gardening and painting. What would we be surprised to learn about you?
Well I think by now most of you know my little secrets but maybe not this one, I won a science fair project in junior high school when we launched a mouse on a model rocket.

6) A Halloween tradition is the jack-o-lantern. Did you carve a pumpkin this year?
Nope, I haven’t carved a pumpkin probably in over fifty years.

7) According to Yahoo!, the most popular costume of Halloween 2014 was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Will you be in costume this Halloween? If not, who or what would you most like to dress up as?
Nope, I will be in hibernation. Maybe a nun if I was going to dress up..

8) When you went trick or treating as a kid, did you usually wear a store-bought costume, or was it DIY?
Homemade costumes like Davy Crockett or a pirate.

9) When trick-or-treaters show up at your door, what candy will they get?
A cold shoulder. Bah Humbug or whatever the Halloween equivalent is.
But actually our neighborhood has grown old and all the kids are now parents of their own.

Trans Students

The skirmishes continues as school districts around the country thumb their noses at Title IX.

The latest battleground in transgender rights: the school changing room
The Economist
By V.V.B
Oct 30th 2015

A DISAGREEMENT about the treatment of transgender students is pitting the largest high-school district in Illinois against federal authorities. The bone of contention is the access to changing rooms for a transgender high-school student in one of the five high schools and two alternative schools of Township High School District 211 in Palatine, a suburb of Chicago. The student, who was born male but identifies as female, lived for several years as a girl and plays on the girls' sports team, demands that she is given full access to the girls' locker room.

Daniel Cates, the superintendent of district 211, denies her full access to that and instead offers her a separate room or the male locker room to change in. He argues that he has to balance the privacy rights of 12,500 students and the rights of a group with particular needs. In his view, the privacy of that vast majority of students is infringed if transgender students are allowed to change in the same locker room as the students of the gender they identify with.
[…]
Meanwhile, hundreds of school districts are following the Department of Education’s rules without it causing them much trouble. A few objected to the rules and ran into trouble. On October 28th the Obama administration filed a legal brief in a federal appeals court backing a transgender student’s challenge of his school’s policy banning him from using the bathroom that corresponds with the gender he identifies with. Gavin Grimm, who was born female but identifies as male, sued his school in rural Virginia over a policy requiring him to use the girls’ restroom or a single-stall unisex bathroom. Some of his class mates and their parents reportedly argued that his presence in the boys’ bathroom would be disruptive and violate the male students’ privacy.

Segregation is never right, we learned long time ago that “separate but equal” is wrong, forcing a trans student to use a special bathroom stigmatizes the student and causes bullying and harassment; it marks them “different.”

And as the article points out hundreds of school districts around the have integrated their school districts without trouble proving the fear moguls wrong.

Trans People In The Movies

In the past I have said that there are a lot of talented trans actresses and actors out there that need a chance to audition for parts in movies and on TV shows, well there is an article about a campaign for trans actresses and actors to get an Oscar.

First Oscar Campaign for Transgender Actresses Launches
Variety
By Ramin Setoodeh
October 6, 2015

Tangerine, Sean Baker’s Sundance Film Festival darling about two transgender prostitutes on a Christmas Eve jaunt through Los Angeles, might not seem like your typical Oscar movie. But against the backdrop of the Emmys recognizing Laverne Cox’s performance in Orange is the New Black in 2014, Magnolia Pictures and the Duplass brothers, who produced Tangerine, are launching an Oscar campaign for the indie, Variety has learned. It’s the first time a movie distributor has ever backed an awards season push for a transgender actress in Hollywood history.

The scrappy campaign — which is forgoing traditional “For Your Consideration” advertising — will officially kick off on Tuesday night, during an Academy conversation with the Duplass brothers, where Jay and Mark will show a clip from the film. Magnolia plans on sending Tangerine screeners to the actors branch of the Academy, as well as cinematographers (the movie was shot on an iPhone 5s) and screenwriters, in a bid to gain heat for the script, which Baker developed with his actresses.

There are a lot of talented trans actresses and actors who should be given a chance to audition. Hopefully, this will be the ice breaker and producers will start to audition trans actresses and actors not only for trans characters but also for non-trans character parts.

A Friend In Our Court

No other administration has fought for trans rights more than the Obama administration.

Obama Administration Supports Transgender Student In Federal Appeals CourtOn Wednesday night, the Justice Department filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting a transgender student barred by his school from using the restroom that corresponds with his gender identity.
BuzzFeed
By Chris Geidner
Originally posted on Oct. 28, 2015

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration filed a groundbreaking legal brief in a federal appeals court on Wednesday evening, supporting a transgender student’s challenge to his school’s policy banning him from using the restroom that corresponds with his gender identity.

The move at the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Gavin Grimm’s case is the strongest step yet from the Obama administration to advance its position supporting the right of transgender people to seek legal protections under current civil rights laws.
[…]
Wednesday night’s filing, however, is the first time the administration has weighed in on the issue in an appeals court. That is an important distinction because a decision in the case would apply to all federal cases filed within the circuit — not just to this student’s case.

Both parties dicker over the budget, and taxes. One party believes that big business should be helped while the other party believes that there should be a safety net for the less fortunate. However, for me what is important is human rights. I will not support a party that wants to criminalize my existence. I will not vote for a party that wants to prevent my access to a bathroom. I will not vote for a party that demonizes me. I will not vote for a party that will deny my right to a job because of who I am or to housing and public accommodation.

Ticky Tacky Little Boxes

Trying to force kids into boxes is wrong, it is much better to let kids explore their gender than to force them into gender roles.

Transgender children: 'I first realised Jackie was different when she was 18 months old'
daynurseries.co.uk
29-Oct-15
Article By: Angeline Albert, News Editor

With more and more children seeking medical treatment for gender identity issues on the NHS, can a child be too young to know who they really are and what can nurseries do to help?

Figures from Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, the only UK clinic to provide medical treatment to transgender children, reveals the number of referrals have risen steadily over the past five years and are up five-fold from 139 in 2010/11 to 697 in 2014/15.

In 2014/15, seven five-year-olds were referred to the clinic and five four-year-olds.
[…]
“We have to support people to manage uncertainty and their understandable distress” she says. Even if society may put girls and boys in different boxes from birth: pink for a girl, blue for a boy, nurseries are expected to be more forward-thinking. “Nurseries should acknowledge that a binary culture does not fit everyone. In early years, if there was less reinforcement of the binary, there would be less of an issue if a child felt they didn’t fit.

"Boys and girls outfits, lining up according to gender, books depicting genders in a stereotypical way.

But she says it is also “unhelpful to create a third box and say male, female, trans. Trans is an umbrella term covering a range of experiences of gender, including for example, non-binary. “We need to break down assumptions that certain ways of dressing and behaving go along with set genders.”

Taking gender out of the equation in early years means children have more space to express themselves.

This could even be as simple as splitting children into two groups according to a specific animal or cartoon character. Dr Carmichael says it is important that “nursery staff don’t jump to conclusions”. “We don’t want to assume that children are trans or have a different sexuality. Children are developing and their understanding of themselves and what feels right for them can change over time.”

How refreshing to hear this… let the children sort it out for themselves. If children grow up in a non-threatening environment they will have less preconceived notions of gender binaries.

# # # # #

Since coming home from Fantasia Fair I found a clogged kitchen sink that I need to call the plumber for (I tried a snake but that didn't work so now I have to call in a professional), I closed up the New Hampshire cottage with my brother, and I have a cold. Not a god week.

Free Speech

Many people do not know that the First Amendment only protects individuals speaking in public. It doesn’t cover business preventing employees talking about the business while they are on the job. It doesn’t prevent newspapers from prohibiting dissenting opinions but it does allow newspapers from printing their views.

So when I block a comment I am not infringing on your First Amendment rights because it is my blog and I can decide what to print and what comments to allow. But that power comes at a price.

Free speech is the natural ally of transgender rights
The Spectator
By Dan Hitchens
October 27, 2015


Enter the student censors, this time in Cardiff, who have decided that because of her crude remarks about trans women, Germaine Greer should be banned from speaking, even on a different subject. To his credit, Cardiff’s vice-chancellor Colin Riordan came out in support of the event going ahead, but Greer seems to have chosen not to turn up. It’s another bleak moment for free speech – and it may not be a particularly great moment for transgender rights, either.

For one thing, it makes the activists look as if they don’t trust their own arguments. It also allows Greer to seem a fearless speaker of truth to power, which may be more than she deserves. Her offensive – and increasingly foul-mouthed – remarks about trans people suggest that she finds this subject an awkward one. It’s not entirely clear why that is – though it’s interesting that The Female Eunuch attacks the belief in a distinction between male and female psychology, and that trans people’s inner lives sometimes seem to revolve around just such a distinction; but the point is that she doesn’t sound like somebody winning a debate. Banning Greer allows her an easy victory: it stops people asking why she might find this issue so problematic.

Bingo! By banning her it makes us look like the villain. We should welcome the debate, we should have been out in front of the auditorium handing out flyers telling our side of the story and why she is wrong. It would be different if it was hate speech using derogatory or hurtful words

Helen Boyd wrote on her blog en|gender,

Germaine Greer is wrong. And her speech, whether she admits to it or not, carries a greater resonance – and a greater burden – because we expect such remarkable feminism and knowledge from her. She is not dismissable nor stupid, but she is still wrong. Because everything I know as a feminist is built on inclusion; ‘woman’ is an alliance, not an identity you choose; it is the sum of all of the parts of what it is to live in a patriarchy and to feel no power and a tremendous threat of violence if you don’t follow the rules. And if there is anyone in the world who is experiencing those things right now, it is trans women. She is not just upsetting people by saying what she says. She is giving those who hate trans women permission to make their lives more miserable. And there is nothing, NOTHING, feminist about asserting the rights of the oppressors over the dignity and value of the oppressed.

She didn’t attack Ms. Geer but stated her reasons why she felt Ms. Geer was wrong.

We should avoid ad hominem attacks in the comments and instead state the reasons why we disagree with a person. We should not use derogatory words or call the other person names in our comments.

Ms Geer should have been allowed the right to speak at Cardiff, the college administration should not have had to step in to allow her to speak. College is about the intercourse of ideas and not just one sided discussions.

Bias In The Court

Can you imagine going before a judge that said you have a mental disorder and not recognizing you true gender?

Attorneys for Transgender Student Ask for New Judge
ABC News
By Larry O'Dell, AP
October 21, 2015

A judge who repeatedly referred to a transgender student's "mental disorder" should be removed from presiding over the teenager's lawsuit challenging a policy that bars him from using the boys' restrooms at his high school, his attorneys said in court papers Wednesday.

Attorneys for 16-year-old Gavin Grimm also said U.S. District Judge Robert Doumar of Norfolk has made statements indicating he may be suspicious of modern medical science regarding gender identity and that he objected to lawyers publicizing their client's transgender status.

Doumar did not immediately respond to a telephone message from the The Associated Press.

Grimm's lawyers asked for a new judge in a 58-page brief asking the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse two key rulings in the case. Doumar refused to grant a preliminary injunction that would have allowed Grimm to use the boys' bathrooms when the new school year started in September, and he threw out a claim that the policy violates federal sex discrimination law. He has not yet ruled on Grimm's claim that the policy violates the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause.

It was President Reagan who nominated Doumar to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He was a friend of President Reagan and shared Regan’s conservative beliefs.

The Buzz Feed had this to say about the case,

But Doumar announced midway through Monday’s hearing that he was throwing out that argument. “Your case in Title IX is gone, by the way,” he told ACLU staff attorney Joshua Block, who argued on Grimm’s behalf. “I have chosen to dismiss Title IX. I decided that before we started.”

The announcement was unexpected not only because it diverges from the recent legal trend on the question of whether sex discrimination bans include anti-transgender discrimination, but also because a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice who had come to argue in Grimm’s favor on the Title IX question had not yet been given a chance to speak.
[…]
But Doumar pointed out that Title IX allows segregating single-sex facilities in general, like restrooms and locker rooms, for male and female students. And as such, he appeared to argue, transgender students can be segregated as well based on their birth sex. He suggested birth sex is solely at issue in Title IX, not a person’s chosen gender.

The article also pointed out that this is not an isolated case.

The school board’s arguments leaned heavily on a Pennsylvania case, in which a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit in March filed by a transgender college student who raised similar arguments to those in Grimm’s case. Because it is acceptable to separate male and female restrooms generally, Judge Kim R. Gibson found that a transgender student may be barred from a restroom based on his or her sex at birth.

House Emergency

When I got home from Fantasia Fair I found a house emergency.

Fantasia Fair Day 7 – The Party’s Over

Yesterday was the last day of FanFair, everyone is packing up and heading home.

I had breakfast with three other friends at the Gifford House Inn. It was one of three places that had lobster on their breakfast menu, two of them had lobster Benedict and one of them had lobster hash and one of my friends wanted to try the Gifford House so we went there. When I ordered lobster Benedict the waiter said that they were all out of lobster because it was the end of the tourist season… Agg!

A couple of hours later I went to lunch (it is included in the price of the conference) but I wasn’t hungry so I had the Ruben without the bread and skipped desert. I walked down to the Crown & Anchor for the keynote speech by Jillian Weiss a trans lawyer who has taken part in many notable cases.

On the way to the Crown & Anchor I went through the Whaler Wharf mall to the beach where I took a whole slew of photos of an old pier.

After the keynote I went back to the room to catch a few Zs before the banquet. I just fell asleep when my cell phone rang… whatchadoin? I was sleeping. So much for taking a nap before the banquet.

The Gala Awards banquet is where they give out the awards for Alison Laing Congeniality, Brenda Viola Most Helpful awards, the food was very good and it was nice to socialize before dinner. For many attendees the banquet gives them a chance to dress to the “nines” for me it is just another banquet.

I like going to the fair for two reasons, first I like to meet old friends and second I like to take photos. I see people here from all over the country and it is a great networking place.

Now I am heading off to breakfast at Bayside Betsy’s… until next year!

Saturday 9: It Don't Come Easy

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: It Don't Come Easy (1971)

Every Saturday I take time off from written on serious topics to have some fun…
I am up at a conference in P'town until tomorrow so I don't know when I can post comments on the other blogs.

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

1) This was Ringo's first big hit as a solo artist. Who is your favorite member of his old, very famous group, The Beatles?
John Lennon, I saw him as the rebel.

2) In this song, Ringo sings that you have to pay your dues. Do you belong to any organizations that require you to pay dues?
Yes, I belong to two professional organizations, NASW and WPATH.

3) He also sings, "you don't have to shout." When did you last raise your voice?
When I was a guest lecturer for a college class.

4) Ringo has two piercings on each ear and one tattoo on each arm. Do you have more piercings or body art?
Earrings, not body art.

5) Ringo gave his first wife, Maureen, a one-of-a-kind birthday gift. Frank Sinatra made a recording of "The Lady Is a Tramp" personalized to her. Tell us about one of your most memorable birthday celebrations.
My first birthday as Diana and I received gifts that I always dreamed of getting.

6) Ringo appeared as Mr. Conductor on Thomas the Tank Engine. He recorded the narration for the entire first season in just a week. Tell us what you did last week. 
Oh, where to begin? I taught a class, was on a panel for the movie Gen Silent, I was a guest lecturer for a student organization at Quinnipiac University School of Medicine, went to a house concert on Friday, and went out to lunch with my cousins on Saturday.
This week I was up at a conference all week in Provincetown MA on Cape Cod

7) Ringo also did the narration for Ladybird children's books. Do you like audiobooks?
I never really listened to any so I can’t say, but my latest thing is listening to old time radio programs.

8) As a boy in Liverpool, Ringo loved watching American westerns. His passion for the genre is reflected in the outfit he's wearing on the sleeve for "It Don't Come Easy." Do you like cowboy movies/shows?
Yes, they are OK. The old westerns are pretty camp, I like how they shot from the hip and hit someone a 100 yards away.

9) You know what else don't come easy? Nine questions every week. Crazy Sam has heard it all: this meme asks too many movie questions, too many questions about sports, too many questions that sound familiar ...  OK, now it's your turn. Help a tired meme mistress out. Contribute a random question that is not about movies or sports (pro or collegiate) and has never been asked before on this meme. Sam will compile these for an all-random Saturday 9 in November. That way she'll get a much-appreciated week off. Thanks for your help!
Have you ever swum in an ocean? As I sit here listening to the waves crashing on the beach.

The view from my motel  room.

That was taken Sunday afternoon with passing snow showers.

Fantasia Fair Day 6 – The Dunes

Yesterday’s I was up at 6:30 AM and went for a walk at 7 with a couple of friends over to Hatches Harbor trial, it is a little one mile out to the dunes but I stopped short of them to take photos. I took a total of 53 photos and I tried a couple of things with the camera. The first is what is called HDR (High-dynamic-range), I took multiple photographs of the same thing but varied the EV (exposure value) by several f stops and then combining the photos to bring out details in the photograph that wouldn’t have been in the photo normally. I also tried stitching together photographs to form a panorama photograph.

I then joined some friend for lunch at the Post Office after which I gave my workshop which was a repeat of the one I gave on Tuesday morning so I didn’t expect a large turn out and I was right. There was just one person who attended.

At night I joined some other friends and went to dinner at the Mayflower Café which was followed by the Follies at the Crown & Anchor.

I called the quits after the first act, I was just too beat from all the walking that you do at the FanFair and on top of that I had the morning walk.

Fantasia Fair Day 5 – Do Nothing Day

Yesterday I didn't do anything. I just went to the keynote address by Marisa Richmond an activist from Tennessee. She talked about the state of Tennessee trans politics, the speech was titled “The Lost Speech” because of a mix up back in 2002 she never got to give the speech so she did yesterday. The only other thing that I did was to have a group photo taken at the Pilgrim memorial.

It is nice to goof off because there is a lot of walking at FanFair. Walking from the motel (the Boatslip) to where I picked to have lunch, yesterday it was the Crown & Anchor and at least yesterday it was the same place where they have the keynote (which is open to the general public) and then back to the motel. The workshops are also at the Boatslip and so is registration, since that is where I am staying it makes it nice with no walking.

Last night, tonight, and tomorrow night we have to get our own meals, the other nights the meals are included in the price of the conference. Lunches are also included in the price of the fair at either Bayside Betsy’s, the Post Office, or at the Crown & Anchor.

So last night I had supper with some friends at Bayside Betsy’s and while we were walking down there we met someone just arriving for the fair and it was her first time so we invited her to dinner with us. It turns out that she was checking out FanFair for her company a trans travel agency which I wrote about back in August 2014, Transgender Vacations when they were having a 10 day boat trip up the Elbe River.

So what is on the agenda for today? I photo shoot of Race Point Lighthouse which will be a two mile walk (I have to think I’m a little crazy to be doing it), I am giving my workshop again in the afternoon and then a night the Follies.