Push-Back

I have done a lot of diversity training and I have had some that didn’t want to be there, the worst time was when I was called to do training for a college’s athletic department. As the guys sat there with legs apart and arms folded and the never asked a question, you could just see it in their body language.

Can I refuse to attend my company’s diversity training? Ask HR
USA Today
By Johnny C. Taylor Jr.
December 18, 2020


Taylor: I’m glad to hear your company is providing diversity training. In a year full of difficult conversations, it’s more important than ever for employers and employees to come together to create more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces.

You’re also right about your other point – 2020 has been a contentious year. In fact, 44% of HR professionals report intensified political volatility at work in 2020 compared to previous years.

I understand your hesitancy to participate in a program you fear could be politically charged. For us in HR, your response isn’t surprising. After all, we’ve actually been socialized not to talk about politics, religion, or race at work. But in today’s changing landscape, diversity, equity, and inclusion training is one important step to bridging this divide. If the training is done well, these conversations create productive workplace cultures of inclusivity – not incivility.

Whether you opt out of diversity training depends on your company and its requirements– but I strongly encourage your attendance. I’m of the firm belief that change requires us to learn from one another and grow in order to create progress in our workplaces –and in the world around us.

Then we had Trump's edict.

Trump diversity training ban challenged by Elizabeth Warren; Democrats call executive order a 'political stunt'

USA Today

By Jessica Guynn

December 17, 2020

Democrats called on the federal government to back off President Donald Trump's executive order restricting federal agencies and government contractors from offering diversity training programs.

Bob Menendez, D-N.J.; Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; and 18 other senators sent a letter Thursday opposing the implementation of the executive order, saying it stifles "much-needed efforts in our states to reduce racial and sex-based discrimination."

"There is widespread uncertainty regarding the scope of the Executive Order, and some entities have cancelled their diversity and inclusion trainings altogether out of fear of losing federal funding,” they wrote to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought. “Given that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has exposed our nation’s stark racial inequities and other health disparities, the Administration should focus on reducing racial and sex-based discrimination rather than engaging in ill-informed political stunts."

And his reason for it…

The executive order's stated goal is "to combat offensive and anti-American race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating." According to the Labor Department, eliminating such "stereotyping" in employment is "a key civil rights priority of the Trump Administration."

[…]

Asked about his executive order during his first presidential debate with Biden on Sept. 29, Trump said, "They were teaching people that our country is a horrible place, it’s a racist place. And they were teaching people to hate our country. And I’m not gonna allow that to happen."

Biden responded: “Nobody’s doing that.”

“The fact is that there is racial insensitivity," he told Trump.

When I get asked “Why are we here?” “Why do I need this training? I don’t discriminate.”

My answer is that it is all about etiquette, personal behavior in polite society, and respect. In knowing what to do or say and what not to do or say.

At one of the trainings for staff at homeless shelters we had one shelter manger get into a shouting match with us, well not really he was doing all the shouting. He actually wrote his senators and congressperson (this was before Trump) and they just replied, “Obey the law.”

One time in grad school we were talking about diversity and my answer was “Diversity is what makes us great.” Think about it. In Europe for centuries you married a person in your town or someone from probably within ten miles of your village, but in America people came from all over Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

My father’s parents came from a small town in Italy and on my mother’s side she is part English, German, and Austrian. Our gene pool is vast compared to Europe.

I think that is what gives us an edge over other countries.

Saturday 9: Happy Holidays!

Sam’s Saturday 9: Happy Holidays! (from the archives)

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

1. As you can see, Sam loved giving her annual wish list to Santa. Yet some children are reluctant to climb into Jolly Old St. Nick's lap. Did you enjoy the tradition or were you shy? Or did you by pass it altogether -- either because you wrote him a letter or because your family didn't celebrate Christmas?

We went down to Macy’s in New York City to visit Santa and I remember all the toys there, it was like heaven on earth. Every type of toy for boys or girls.

But I don’t remember sitting on Santa's lap, but my father was Santa for the Kiwanis at their annual Christmas tree lot.

2. Are you currently on the Naughty or Nice list? How did you get there?
Naughty… How did I get there? It is a lot easier than being nice.

3. Did you ship any gifts to friends and family this year? If so, which one traveled the farthest?
No, just Christmas cards which went out today.

4. Did you buy yourself a gift this year?
Yes, an ice cream maker.

5. What's your favorite holiday-themed movie? Have you seen it yet this year?
I don’t really have a favorite Christmas movie.
But I did attend a talk at college by talk show host, humorist, and author Jean Shepherd who wrote Christmas Story. He had us rolling in laughter.

Update 9:45 AM: I usually go to Theater Works to see the play Christmas on the Rock and this year it is being done virtually.

6. Thinking of movies, Christmas is lucrative for Hollywood. Have you ever gone to a movie theater on Christmas Day?
Yes. My grandnephew want to see a movie and have Chinese.

7. Have you ever suffered an embarrassing moment at the company Christmas party?
Nope, but I watched a lot of the employees make a fool of themselves.

The Polish guys at work used to bring bottles of 150 proof Polish Vodka, let a maraschino cherry sink to the bottom and then start doing shots.

At another place where I worked there was an assembly line on a conveyor belt and there were about 20 women who worked on the line. They assembled electronic components as they went by on the belt, well for Christmas there used to be bottles of booze that went down the belt and by the time the bottles reached the end they were empty. They ended that Christmas tradition when one of the ladies drove in to a tree on the way home.

8. What's your favorite beverage in cold weather?
Now? Hot chocolate.

9. Share a memory from last Christmas.
Nothing spectacular. I think that I fell asleep, I drove to New Jersey and back the same day so I took a nap while everyone watched football games.

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

Danger, Will Robinson

I am always leery when I see LGBTQ friendly places to visit because I wonder if they also mean trans people.

The Most LGBTQ-Friendly Places to Retire Overseas
By Kathleen Peddicord
December 17, 2020


LGBT-friendly countries

LGBTQ people have retired overseas all around the globe. Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities have created new homes in some of the world's most exciting and diverse cities. Here are the most LGBTQ-friendly overseas retirement destinations that are safe, welcoming and legally tolerant, with vibrant and active LGBTQ scenes.

Then in a series of different webpages they report on the different cities.

Paris

Paris is one of the world's most LGBTQ-friendly cities. It's a place where you can live the fullest expression of who you are without fear of persecution or discrimination. The Marais in the 4th arrondissement is a fashionable district bedecked in rainbows from chimney to pavement. Even the pedestrian crossing stripes are rainbow-themed. Whether you're looking for a neighborhood to settle in or just a place to go clubbing on Saturday, this is the ultimate quartier for queer inclusion. The annual Paris Gay Pride Parade is one of the world's biggest, but there's also the Techno Parade and the newer Drag Parade. Same-sex marriage has been legal since 2013, and LGBTQ people enjoy full adoption rights in this country.

They list…

• Tel Aviv, Israel
• Montevideo, Uruguay
• Taipei, Taiwan
• Madrid
• Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Lisbon, Portugal
• Bangkok

Of the cities list I would be the most doubtful I would say the South American countries and Bangkok; I think because every Transgender Day of Remembrance the place where we have the most murdered trans people is from South America. I think Bangkok because I hear rumors from those who go there for surgery say outside of the city it is bad.


I am doubtful because I don’t think those who do these articles ever talked to a trans person especially those who can’t assimilate in to society and are easily identified as trans. I remember I wrote a blog on a LGBTQ cruise on Carnival and they wrote a letter that said…

Arrangements have been made for drag performances in the main theater featuring stars from LOGO TV. These functions will be private and only the performers are permitted to dress in drag while in the theater. Guests are not allowed to dress in drag for the performances or in public areas at any time during the cruise.

Now this was booked as a LGBTQ cruise and was supposed to be very friendly to our community but they still were opposed to trans people. 

So every time I see LGBTQ friendly I think… really?

Puberty Blockers

Twisting words, the first time I stood before news cameras was in Washington DC when I went down there to lobby for ENDA in 2007. I was interviewed for a couple of minutes and the only thing they used was “I don’t think it will pass this year, I think we are in it for the long haul.” and the reporter called me a season activist.

This Christian news source had this to say about puberty blockers.

Transgender Activist Makes Argument for All Kids Taking Puberty Blockers Until They Can Confirm Their Gender Identity
ChristianHeadlines
By Milton Quintanilla
December 15, 2020


Lauren McNamara, a well-known transgender activist known by followers as “Zinnia Jones,” made the argument that all children should be given puberty blockers until they are old enough to confirm their chosen gender identity.

According to the Washington Examiner, Jones argued her case earlier this month in a series of posts on Twitter.

“If children can't consent to puberty blockers which pause any permanent changes even with the relevant professional evaluation, how can they consent to the permanent and irreversible changes that come with their own puberty with no professional evaluation whatsoever?” Jones asked.

“This is literally a position that permanent changes are fine as long as you're not trans,” the trans activist continued. “An inability to offer informed consent or understand the long-term consequences is actually an argument for putting every single cis and trans person on puberty blockers until they acquire that ability.”

Notice how the Christian press latched onto her comment all children should be on puberty blockers, I am sure she didn’t mean it that way but they twisted it to mean what they wanted.

---

Meanwhile out in Oregon the Supreme Court let stand the transgender students to use restrooms, locker rooms, and showers matching their gender identity.

High Court Declines Challenge to District Policy Protecting Transgender Students
Education Week
By Mark Walsh
December 15, 2020


[…]
The challengers sued over the policy of the 3,000-student Dallas, Ore., school district, which adopted its student safety plan after a student at Dallas High School who was born biologically female began identifying as male in 2015. The plan allowed the student to use facilities matching his gender identity and included training for staff and lessons for students against bullying and harassment.
[…]
“We ... hold that a policy that treats all students equally does not discriminate based on sex in violation of Title IX, and that the normal use of privacy facilities does not constitute actionable sexual harassment under Title IX just because a person is transgender,” the 9th Circuit panel ruled in February. “We hold further that the Fourteenth Amendment does not provide a fundamental parental right to determine the bathroom policies of the public schools to which parents may send their children.”

This is big!

This is big for several reasons first is obvious reason that the Supreme Court let stand the lower court rulings in that it says Title IX covers. The second is that the law applies to bathrooms and locker rooms and the last is that this is suppose to be a conservative court, they have ruled in favor of LGBTQ issues; they ruled in our favor in Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga, R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. EEOC, and the Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda cases this spring.

The article went on to say…

The challengers “are not using Title IX to ensure that they have equal access to bathrooms and locker rooms as compared to members outside their protected class. Rather, they are trying to use Title IX to take away something which the school district granted the transgender boy to ensure that he was not denied equal access to bathrooms or locker rooms just because his gender did not match the gender typically associated with his sex at birth.”

---

In Texas a gay student is being harassed by the school system for wearing nail polish.

Openly gay Clyde CISD student protesting his in-school suspension for wearing nail polish
KTXS Ch 12 ABC
By Jamie Burch & John Rupolo
December 3rd 2020


ABILENE, Texas — An openly gay Clyde CISD student is protesting his in-school suspension for wearing nail polish.

Trevor Wilkinson, a senior at Clyde High School, was sent to ISS on Monday.
[…]
Wilkinson told KTXS he thinks the policy is unjust and he's taking a stand to get it changed.

On Thursday, the school have him three choices, according to Wilkinson:

• Remain in ISS
• Remove the nails
• Go to virtual learning

Wilkinson said he's not removing the nails and he chose to stay in ISS.

And it doesn’t look like they are going to change the policy…

Clyde CISD not yet changing policy that led to suspension of gay male for nail polish

KTXS Ch 12 ABC

By Jamie Burch & John RupoloTuesday, 

December 15th 2020

CLYDE, Texas — Clyde CISD is not yet changing the policy that led to the suspension of a gay male over nail polish.

Trevor Wilkinson was placed on in-school suspension Nov. 30.

Afterwards, he started an online petition that has been signed by more than 321,000 people.

Wilkinson's story went viral and he appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Monday night, Wilkinson addressed the school board for a second time asking them to change the dress code.

My guess that the Board is going to have an awaking when president-elect Biden’s Secretary of Education gets in and I think that the Supreme Court will back them up.

This Doesn’t Make Sense.

Warped logic, I just can’t see it. It is like they are just trying to do as little as possible, not pushing the envelope but rather sealing the envelope.

Michigan court rules that businesses can refuse gay & bi people, but not trans people
The court ruled that discrimination because of sex legally includes discrimination against transgender people, but not discrimination based on sexual orientation.
LGBTQ Nation
By Alex Bollinger
December 11, 2020


A Michigan court has ruled that it’s legal for businesses to refuse to serve gay and bisexual people but not transgender people.

The state’s civil rights law includes neither sexual orientation nor gender identity, but the Michigan Civil Rights Commission voted in 2018 to interpret the state’s ban on discrimination on the basis of sex to include discrimination against LGBTQ people, an interpretation that federal courts have agreed with and that was later used by the Supreme Court in Bostock v. Clayton County this past year to rule that federal law already bans job discrimination against LGBTQ people.

State Court of Claims Judge Christopher M. Murray issued a summary judgement in two discrimination cases, one based on anti-gay discrimination and the other on anti-trans discrimination. One case involved Rouch World, a wedding venue that refused to host weddings for same-sex couples, and the other involved Uprooted Electolysis, a hair removal service that refused to serve a transgender client. The lawsuits were combined into one.

Murray referenced a state supreme court decision in Barbour v Department of Social Services, where the court ruled that the state’s ban on discrimination because of sex does not ban discrimination against gay and bisexual people.

That is where I don’t follow the judge’s reasoning.

The U.S. Supreme Court said according to Fox News…

The court justified their inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity under Title VII by focusing on the law’s language, which prohibits discrimination “because of” sex, stating that as long as sex is a factor the discrimination, that is enough to trigger Title VII.

The majority goes on to use a hypothetical where an employer has two workers who are attracted to men, but one is a man and the other is a woman, stating that firing the man for being gay would be discriminating against him because of his sex because he has the same preference as the female employee. The court similarly discussed a potential situation where two workers identified as female but one was identified as male at birth and the other female.

So I don’t follow the Michigan court’s findings. According to the Supreme Court, that sexual orientation and gender identity are components of "sex" discriminations. 

---

Down in New Jersey there is a new non-profit that seems to have a great idea.

An alliance aimed at making life better for transgender people launches in N.J. Tuesday

NJ.com

By Tennyson Donyéa 

December 15, 2020

The new Trans Affirming Alliance is set to begin operating in New Jersey on Tuesday when it hosts a Zoom webinar about the legal process of changing one’s name and gender markers.

Operating as a nonprofit corporation, the alliance will partner with existing LGBTQ centers in New Jersey to provide legal services, mental health counseling, career guidance, support groups, and targeted health and wellness services for the transgender community, such as vocal coaching, the organization announced in a release.

“The overarching goal is to improve the lives of our transgender siblings by bringing resources to community members through community partners, training of subject matter experts on the specific needs of transgender people, and broad-based education on the needs of the transgender community,” said Celeste Fiore, Trans Affirming Alliance Chairperson.

I say “seems like” because it seems like to me that these “umbrella” organizations seem to overshadow the other non-profits.

So You Want A Tesla?

We his tweet transphobic?

Elon Musk blasted for posting ‘transphobic’ meme mocking people who share their pronouns
Elon Musk, the billionaire head of Tesla and SpaceX, has been accused of transphobia after posting a meme mocking pronouns.
Pink News
By Josh Milton
December 14, 2020


In an unwanted sequel to his claim that “pronouns suck”, Musk – known for his union-busting practices – shared a meme deriding Twitter users who put their pronouns in their bios.

Musk tweeted a meme of a British Redcoat who “love to oppress” fighting during the American Revolutionary War, rubbing his blood-covered hands on his face, captioned: “When you put he/him in ur bio.”

The tweet immediately stirred up controversy, with countless users accusing Musk of thinly-veiled transphobia.
[…]
In April, he was called out by his own partner, the musician Grimes, for tweeting that “pronouns suck”.
[...]
“I cannot support this hate. Please stop this. I know this is not your heart.”

Is the transphobia in his heart? Did he realize that his tweets hurt us?

I think he did. Once was possible ignorance but twice was deliberate especially sine he was warned by his partner.

Who Knew?

I didn’t, I never knew that there were trans saints did you?

Well it turns out that there might have been some trans saints that have been canonized by the Catholic Church and I bet they don’t want it to get out.

The Little Known History of Transgender Saints
Gender non-conformity is far from new.
The Advocate
BY Roland Betacourt
December 12 2020


[…]
As an historian of the first millennium and a half of Christianity, I wish to pull back the curtain on the neglected history of transgender stories and literatures in early Christianity, like that of Saint Hilarion and Emperor Elagabalus, demonstrating how these figures were praised throughout the first millennium. In raising awareness of these stories, my goal is to provide a deeper literary canon for those who are now turning to other, older stories to comprehend their place in the world as trans and gender nonconforming individuals.

From the fifth to the ninth century, a number of saints’ lives composed across the Greek-speaking Mediterranean detail the lives of individuals assigned female at birth who for a host of different reasons chose to live out their adult lives as men in monasteries. The popularity of these stories across the Christian Mediterranean is palpably evident as they were translated into Coptic, Syriac, Ethiopic, Armenian, Arabic, Latin, and other European dialects.

For example, the night before her execution, the early-third century Christian martyr Perpetua had a dream about her impending death. There, Perpetua looks down upon her naked body, and exclaims: “My clothes were stripped off, and suddenly I was a man.” Similarly, in the early second century Gospel of Thomas, Jesus rebukes Simon Peter for suggesting Mary Magdalene is unworthy of their company, stating that He “will make her male” and that every woman who “makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Hmm… it is hard to ascribe them as trans or gender non-conforming from the past because we don’t know how they thought of themselves. Many women disguised as males because of the roles assigned to women back then… but it makes you have to stop and think.

“After nine years, they saw that the young girl was beardless and they called her ‘Hilarion the Eunuch’ since there were many such [eunuchs] wearing the habit. For her breasts, too, they were not as those of all women. Above all, she was shrunken with ascetic practices and even her menstrual period had stopped because of the deprivation… The blessed Hilaria, when she saw her lay sister, knew her: but the lay sister knew not her sister, the monk. How should she know her since her flesh had withered through mortification and the beauty of her body had altered, and her appearance, she being naught but skin and bone? Besides all this she was wearing a man’s garb.”

It is also complicated because of the habit back then of castrating males to make them eunuchs or they may have been intersexed.

Now, more than ever, we need trans affirming literatures that promote and champion the rich and complex history of gender variance in our world. Not only looking to modern authors, but looking deep into our ancient and medieval pasts to think about the place that trans figures have played in history.

I avoid labeling people from the past as being trans since language is constantly changing and historical accounts can’t be trusted. But it does make you wonder.

In an article about Elagabalus a Roman emperor, the author claims that the Caesar was trans.

A Brief Biography of Elagabalus: the transgender ruler of Rome
OutHistory
By Alexis Mijatovic


Elagabalus’ name is not quite as notorious as that of Nero and Caligula, or even Commodus, recently featured as the villain in Russell Crowe’s Gladiator. Like the three emperors mentioned above, Elagabalus has consistently been ranked among the worst and most depraved holders of the Imperial honor. Her reported atrocities and crimes however almost entirely fall under the categories of upsetting the gender, cultural and religious norms of Roman society. In this biography I will briefly narrate her life and evaluate what her contemporaries found so shocking about her. I will also show how examining her life and career can teach us much about the intersections of cultural conflict in ancient times and the lavish amount of attention transgender phenomenon have received since at least as long as history was recorded.
[…]
Transgender behavior existed in Rome before and after Elagabalus. Transgender practice was tolerated and even sometimes respected by the Roman populace when it was practiced by the male-born priestesses of Cybele, known as the Gallae. These women would celebrate a taurobolium which (originally meant to be the castration of a bull) was a castration ceremony where someone formally defined as male would lose their genitalia, bleed like in menstruation or childbirth, and then subsequently wear women’s clothing and go by female names. Like other cultural practices this was a highly ritualistic and mystical understanding of gender identity. Rome was a vast empire and culturally diverse empire and in some respects it can be said a marketplace of religions existed. A male-born person with strong cross gender identification could potentially seek out the local Gallae temple to Cybele and have herself castrated, both to please her goddess and also perhaps to fix a deep inadequate feeling toward her own anatomy.

We will never know.

As I mentioned before many woman masqueraded as man to breakout of the roles assigned to them by society.

Not A Leg To Stand On

The conservatives are at it again! They are suing a lesbian bakery for making a cake for them that they didn’t pick up.

A Christian troll wants to sue a lesbian baker after she made an antigay cake he ordered
The troll claims he faced "anti-Catholic discrimination" when she baked his cake and then had to throw it out when he didn't pick it up.
NBC News
By Alex Bollinger
August 13, 2020*


A rightwing troll ordered a cake with an anti-LGBTQ message from a lesbian baker, apparently hoping that she’d refuse to make it so he could cry anti-Christian bigotry.

She made it, though. He refused to pick it up for days. She eventually had to throw it away, and then the troll threatened to take her to court.

April Anderson runs the Good Cakes and Bakes bakery in Detroit with her wife Michelle. She has made a name for herself and has baked for Oprah Winfrey and appeared on the Today show.

But she’s not a stranger to bias.

“We are so used to being Black lesbian women,” Anderson told the Detroit Free Press. “You are used to people discriminating against you and saying mean things to you.”

On July 19, Good Cakes and Bakes got an order for a red velvet cake. The customer had already paid for it online and requested a message for the cake: “Homosexual acts are gravely evil. (Catholic Catechism 2357)”

“I am ordering this cake to celebrate and have PRIDE in true Christian marriage,” the customer wrote in with the order.

The couple did a little research about the person ordering the cake and they found that he is the... 

“Copyeditor @ Church Militant. Lawyer, theology MA, author, sportsman, family man.” Church Militant is a far-right Christian website

They made the cake but didn’t put the message on it because the store policy is that you have to tell them the message in person or on the phone which the person didn’t do and they made the cake.
Gordon was scheduled to pick up the cake on July 25. On July 24, he called the bakery and Anderson said the cake would be ready for the next day. She wrote a letter to go with it “just explaining what our bakery stands for, who we are,” she told Pride Source.

“We don’t stand for hate, we’re all about peace and justice and inclusion.”

The next day, Gordon didn’t even pick up the cake.

After waiting a number of days and he didn’t pick up the cake they threw out the cake. Then he called again and they told him that they threw out the cake.

Got them!

That was it until Pride Source published a story about the incident on August 6, including the part where she didn’t write the message on the cake. Which apparently made him want the cake again.

On August 7, he tweeted: “Good Cakes and Bakes is discriminating against me for requesting a cake virtually quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church sec. 2357. No more anti-Catholic discrimination. See you in court.”

“I was denied the services I requested at a place of public accommodation on the basis of the content of my beliefs,” he later told the Detroit Free-Press in an August 13 article.

The Advocate had this to say about the attempt to “catch” the bakers.

Extremist Catholic Orders Antigay Cake From Black Lesbian-Owned Bakery
By Daniel Reyolds
August 14, 2020


Church Militant was disavowed by the Archdiocese of Detroit and is not authorized to identify as a Catholic organization. Its founder, Michael Voris, said Gordon acted independently of the group.
[…]
However, American Civil Liberties Union attorney Jay Kaplan told the paper that Anderson was within her rights. "She wasn't turning the customer away," Kaplan said. "We provide cakes, but we are not going to put that kind of message on the cake. Especially if it's offensive."

It doesn’t look like that they sued the bakery and if they do I hope that the cake shop will be awarded their legal fees and I would sue the the guy for slander and libel.


*Yes I know that the articles are from August. I just saw the NBC article on Facebook.

Saturday 9 Santa Baby

Sam’s Saturday 9: Santa Baby (1987)

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

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

1) In this song, Madonna refers to Santa as "baby," "honey" and "cutie." What's the most recent endearment someone called you?

Well I have been hibernating all year so I don’t remember the last time someone used an endearment.

2) At the top of her list are a fur coat, a new convertible and a yacht. If you could receive any of those luxury items, which would you choose?

A yacht, actually I would rather have a sailboat instead of a yacht. You don’t have to pump couple of hundred of dollars of gas in it and you don’t have to smell all those gas fumes.

3) She would like to decorate her tree with ornaments from Tiffany's. Do you have a favorite holiday ornament or decoration?

I have a couple of boxes of Christmas ornaments from my great grandmother.

4) "Santa Baby" was written in 1953, before electronic payments. While her wish list includes blank checks, a 2017 survey revealed that 51% of consumers felt check writing was "a pain." Who received the last check your wrote? Who most recently gave you a check?

A reverend.

He bought one of my photographs to give as a Christmas present.

5) Madonna has been a successful singer for decades, and 1985's "Into the Groove" is her top-seller. What's your favorite Madonna song?

I am not a fan of Madonna and I don’t have favorite song.

My mother didn’t like Madonna because of the way she dressed but one time I was watching “A League of Their Own.” She was very surprised and liked her performance in the movie.

6) Madonna was born in Bay City, MI, and traveled to New York City to find fame and fortune. When she first arrived, she supported herself by working at Dunkin' Donuts. What's your standard DD order?

It is officially Dunkin now, they dropped Donuts.

In the summer Decaf Ice Coffee black, in the winter it is hot Decaf coffee black.

One time I was at a Dunkin on the Cape and I ordered my coffee black, and the kid behind the counter looked up and said, “Wow somebody who likes real coffee!”

7) The only Christmas card Sam has received so far this year is from her dentist. Have you received many cards this year?

0, but it is still early. I still have to do mine but I am trying to write my Christmas letter. What do you write about in the year of the plague?

So far I wrote,

Wow, what a year! Or 2020 the year that wasn’t!

The plague made this year’s Christmas letter short…

January, February, and March – Hibernated at home

April, May, June, July, August, and September – Hibernated at the cottage

October, November, and December – Hibernated at home

And I can’t think of anything else to write about.

8) Will you wrap many presents? Or do you prefer to use gift bags?

I don’t think we are going to be doing our Yankee Swap this year, we probably have another Zoom holiday.

9) Madonna recorded "Santa Baby" to benefit The Special Olympics. Here's your chance to plug a cause or organization that's near and dear to you.

My annual recommendation is True Colors

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

---

On the first question from last week. I thought of a famous bridge near me and many of you have seen it!

It is an old railroad bridge across the Connecticut River and is about 12 miles away from me.

Billy Joel - The River of Dreams 

If you take a cruise down the Connecticut River you will see many of the locations where it was filmed and also it was filmed on the tobacco farms around the state. Here is the bridge that the steam train went over in the video…

And here is the engine…

The bridge that they are singing on is the railroad bridge in Middletown, the steam train is Essex 

Steam Train and the ferry is the Chester-Hadlyme Ferry one of the oldest continuous operating ferries in the nation (Since 1769) and I crossed the on it many times.

We Know But They Don’t

We know the Standard of Care and what puberty blockers do but the general public doesn’t have a clue and because of their ignorance we are being persecuted and sadly I feel that stopping trans children from taking puberty blockers.

Puberty blockers linked to lower suicide risk for transgender people
The finding suggests that a major — and politically controversial — aspect of trans health care for minors could help reduce the community’s disproportionate suicide risk.
NBC News
By Tim Fitzsimons
January 24, 2020


Transgender individuals who received puberty blockers during adolescence have a lower risk of suicidal thoughts as adults than those who wanted the medication but could not access them, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Pediatrics.

“These results align with past literature, suggesting that pubertal suppression for transgender adolescents who want this treatment is associated with favorable mental health outcomes,” the study states.

The finding suggests that a major — and politically controversial — aspect of transgender health care for minors could help reduce the trans community’s disproportionate risk of suicide.

“Puberty blockers” are a type of reversible medication injection or implant that pause puberty. These drugs are prescribed to children who experience early onset puberty and for transgender youth experiencing gender dysphoria. Natural puberty resumes when the injection wears off or the implant is remove.

That message is not being spread cisgender people think that they are reversible and they have no idea the Standard of Care requires hormones to be held off until they are old enough to make an informed consent.

What we need is education.

What you should know about puberty blockers, a standard treatment for trans youth
Insider
By Canela López
December 10, 2020


[...]
On December 3, the UK's High Court ruled that children under 16 are not old enough to consent to medical treatments such as hormone blockers – a common gender-affirming treatment for trans youth.

The landmark ruling came after Keira Bell, a 23-year-old patient, was prescribed hormone blockers for her gender dysphoria, and later changed her mind.
[…]
What are puberty blockers?
Puberty blockers are a medical procedure used to delay puberty traditionally prescribed to pre-teens at ages 10 to 11, per the Mayo Clinic.

While everyone is born with primary sex characteristics like sexual organs, secondary sex characteristics including body hair, breasts, and a deeper voice all develop after puberty.

Transgender kids who do not want to go through the "wrong puberty," but are too young to start hormone replacement therapy* (HRT) to change their primary sex hormone, are typically prescribed puberty blockers.

Notice, “but are too young to start hormone replacement therapy,” why are they to young to start hormones therapy? It is because they are too young to give an informed consent.

Puberty blockers do not cause permanent changes to an adolescent's body
Puberty blockers, unlike HRT, do not cause permanent changes. They instead give a child, guardians, and their medical provider time to come up with a plan of action for their treatment.

Essentially, these blockers press a pause button on puberty, a transition period which can be a traumatic experience for trans youth to go through.

We need to educate the public the difference between hormones and puberty blockers, so I charge you to educate the public every chance you can. I know for many of us we hide in the shadows and rightly so avoid coming out but if we really care for the new generation of trans children we will speak up for them… their lives depend upon us.

I urge you to contact your legislators if a bill is introduced in your state legislature, write letters-to-the-editor, and speak up when you hear mean.

*Okay this is another one of my pet peeves.
There is a very big difference between Hormone Replacement Therapy and Hormone Therapy or Cross-gender Hormone Therapy.

Suppose you are rushed to an emergency room with very painful leg pain and you say that you are on Hormone Replacement Therapy, well the healthcare providers are thinking micrograms (0.0001 grams) verse milligrams (0.001 grams) or a thousand times less than the doses that we are taking.

So they would not be thinking deep vein thrombosis (DVT) right off and part of the clot could break off and kill you.

If you read any medical journals or research papers you will see that they either use hormone therapy or cross-sex hormone therapy and there is a reason for that, to avoid confusion.

I know a lot of us don’t like admitting that we are trans but we have to be truthful to our healthcare providers.

Our “Lifestyle” Is Under Attack

A commercial that shows a family that is accepting of all is being attacked by a far right for “promoting a LGBTQ lifestyle.” What did the commercial show? Horrors of horrors, a trans person and a gay couple sitting down for a “holiday” dinner.

Ritz takes a bite out of holiday ad space with LGBTQ-inclusive commercial
As part of its "Where There's Love, There's Family" campaign, Ritz's parent company is donating to the It Gets Better Project, which supports queer youth.
NBC News
By Dan Avery
November 12, 2020


A new holiday-themed commercial from Ritz crackers features a gay couple as part of a message about the beauty of chosen families.

Released this week, "Where There's Love, There's Family" opens with a series of vignettes of people yearning for connection — a young gay man texting his mother to ask “Can we talk?," a child staying in a homeless shelter over Christmas, and a grandmother unable to celebrate the holidays with her family.

As the ad continues, a person with a beard applies lipstick before welcoming the young gay man from the opening vignette into a festive gathering with other LGBTQ partygoers. The grandmother puts out a tray of hors d'oeuvres at her retirement home, and the girl in the homeless shelter shares a Ritz cracker with a man across the table from her.

“The holidays are about spending time with family,” a voice-over says. “Whether it’s the one you’re born into, or the one you make.”

The Advocate had this to add…

Naturally, the AFA took offense at the image of a "man putting on lipstick like a woman and effeminately clinging to another man."

"RITZ Crackers is attempting to normalize the transgender lifestyle by airing a commercial that has absolutely nothing to do with selling crackers," the petition read, adding, "The company's goal is to redefine family as something other than God's biblical design for gender and sexuality."

AFA also took issue with the campaign's partnership with the It Gets Better Project, an organization it described as an "LGBTQ+ program directed at promoting homosexuality and transgenderism to youth."

The far-right Christians are in a tizzy over this,

As of the time of this article's publishing, the AFA's petition against Ritz has accrued over 35,000 signatures. Online petitions are a common tactic of the organization, which is also the parent group of One Million Moms, a frequent boycotter of pro-LGBTQ+ brands.

Another Mom’s group had this

RITZ Crackers Commercial Invites Us To Make A More Welcoming World
RITZ Crackers invites all families to value each other. We are all in a different situation, but all facing struggles. Let's spread acceptance.
Moms
By Lilee Williams
November 14, 2020


Families have one thing in common: they are tied to each by love. After that, there are a lot of different characteristics and traditions that can go into a family, but as long as there is love, that's what really matters.

That's the theme of the latest holiday cracker commercial that has moms running to get their tissues. RITZ is challenging people to expand their definition of family, not just in the ideas of adoptions and gay marriage but even further than that.

The Advocate wrote this about the company that owns the Ritz brand...

Mondelēz, Ritz’s parent company, said in a statement that the commercial “sets out to remind consumers that there is strength and love in togetherness, and a blood relation isn't the only way to define family.”

"At a time when our families may be strained as a result of social distancing, political tensions or personal orientations and identities, the Ritz brand's campaign is intended to encourage Americans to help build a more accepting world and welcome in those that may be feeling disconnected or alone," Patty Gonzalez, the company’s senior director of marketing, said in the statement.

I know that I am going to buy a box of Ritz crackers just to twist AFA’s shorts.

Oh and the horrible ad that tweaked them...

Did The Supreme Court Make This Moot?

All around the country Republicans have been trying to block our use of bathrooms and locker rooms, and out in Oregon parents sued the state over our use of locker rooms. On Monday the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal letting stand the lower courts ruling in our favor without comment.

Meanwhile down in North Carolina there is a debate over our use of… you guested it… bathrooms and locker rooms.

LGBTQ rights fight reignited 4 years after N.C.'s 'bathroom bill' controversy
The expiration of a compromise deal reached amid North Carolina's 2016 House Bill 2 debacle has left the state's gay and trans communities right back where they started.
NBC News
By Dan Avery
December 8, 2020


North Carolina was thrust into the national spotlight in March 2016 over House Bill 2, which prevented transgender people in the state from using bathrooms that aligned with their gender identity.

The so-called bathroom bill sparked a nationwide backlash that wreaked havoc on the state, causing far-reaching political and economic damage. A controversial compromise bill was enacted a year later, but part of that legislation expired last week, leaving LGBTQ advocates and their opponents right back where they started four years ago.
[…]
That year alone, at least 16 states had considered laws limiting transgender access to sex-segregated facilities. But North Carolina was the only state to pass one. The General Assembly, which had Republican supermajorities in both chambers, had called special sessions to vote on the bill. (All 11 Democrats in the state Senate walked out in protest without voting.) Less than 12 hours after HB 2 was introduced, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, signed it into law.

But they felt the heat over the law.

A massive nationwide backlash ensued, with Adidas, PayPal, Deutsche Bank and other corporations scuttling plans for expansion in North Carolina, and TV and movie studios reconsidering shooting in the state. More than a dozen other states announced bans on travel to North Carolina

Why the battle for our rights continues and what is motivating our allies in the effort to repeal HB 2 and HB 142?

“The conversation wasn’t, ‘How can we protect queer and trans people?’ It was, ‘How can we bring back basketball?’” she [Jillian Johnson, mayor pro tempore of Durham, North Carolina] said.

“The vast majority of people exerting pressure on the Assembly were not concerned about me and the people in my community, they were concerned about losing money.”

It’s disheartening, she confessed.

Now with the Supreme Court letting us use the bathrooms of our gender identity in Oregon I have to wonder how it will affect other state laws banning us from using bathrooms and locker rooms. My guess that it will not force other states to rescind their bathroom laws. Why do I think that?

I think that this Supreme Court is big on state rights and that is why they refused to hear the lawsuit in Oregon, the court didn’t wanted to infringe on the “State Rights.”

The Good And The Bad.

First the bad news because you probably already heard the good news.

When you move to your dream location and it turns out to be hell, that’s when you find out who your friends are.

'Your kind is not welcome': Homophobic confrontation sparks debate in Wyoming
A bigoted incident in the rural northwest part of the state has prompted others in the community to stand up and say, “Enough.”
NBC News
By The Associated Press
December 7, 2020


WAPITI, Wyo. — When she heard a knock on the door, Colin Monahan figured it had to be about the new garage.

Monahan and her wife, Shannon Lastowski Monahan, had just finished dinner. Their guests had all departed, leaving the couple alone at their log home well off the main road in the rural community of Wapiti, a village of a few hundred in northwest Wyoming. Colin had just finished installing a new, prefabricated garage on their property, painted in a shade of brown to complement the waving grasses of the surrounding valley.

Donning their masks and opening the door, the couple were greeted by five people standing on their porch, there to discuss a “neighborhood issue” — presumably, Colin thought, the garage.

But it wasn’t a garage problem…

Looking over the group, the Monahans — a same-sex couple originally from the Chicago area — recognized a familiar face, a man who the couple said had previously harassed them on social media. Both Colin and Shannon, residents of the subdivision four years now, quickly came to realize that the conversation was never about a garage, and was never intended to be.

It was about Colin, who dresses masculine but, in her own words, could be seen as either male or female. She goes by “Colleen” as often as she does “Colin.”

“One of the women said to us, ‘Your kind is not welcome here. You are not welcome in Cody Country and you need to leave,’” Shannon recalled in an interview shortly after the October incident. “She told Colin, ‘You pretend to be a man, and you need to leave.’”

What would you do when a bunch of neighbors tell you to leave, you’re not welcome here.

My neighbors were indifferent when I came out, the same for the old New Hampshire cottage, and the Cape Cod cottage… well what do you expect? It’s twenty minutes from P’town. But Wyoming? That is heart of Trump country.

However even there, there is support for us.

Some businesses made clear their support for the LGBTQ community. Sunlight Sports, a sporting goods store on Cody’s main strip, declared on its social media pages that bigots were not welcome inside.

The owners, Wes and Melissa Allen, stressed that they believed that 99 percent of county residents are good people. But they had an unblinking message for the rest.

“If you hate your neighbors so much for who they are — who they love, the color of their skin, where they were born, where they worship, or any of the other things that make up that person — that you need to treat them differently or harass them or make them feel unsafe in their own home, don’t come into our business,” they wrote.

Other businesses began stocking merchandise in solidarity with the couple, producing stickers and buttons with rainbow flags and slogans supportive of the LGBTQ community. But that, in turn, touched off a wave of bigotry on social media, directed at the couple as well as others who publicly supported them. On one local Facebook group, a man described the couple as “liberal socialist democratic homosexual transvestites from Chicago” who “hate this country.” Suggestions of the need for a hate crime bill were described in a letter to the local newspaper as “dangerous” and “Orwellian,” while others cast doubt that the incident happened at all.

However when comes to us, there is a deep divide between the haters who hate anyone who is different from themselves and our supporters.

Isolated among a few individuals or not, that response was seen by some as a symptom of a rage brewing among a vocal minority of Park County during a time of dramatic change. But that bigotry also prompted others in the community to stand up and say, “Enough.”

And it turns out that the old timers are accepting but the new comers are bring their hate with them when they are moving to Wyoming, they see the state as a “Red Neck” haven.

Cody Mayor Matt Hall said the first tinges of such a change were felt with the arrival of rapper Kanye West last year. That feeling, the Cody native says, has been amplified by conservative-leaning newcomers in the last few years who believed they would find a city of like-minded people waiting for them upon their arrival. New businesses in town are attracting new residents as well, changing the fabric of the community.

I also think that this is one of the problems…

Colin Monahan and Shannon Lastowski Monahan shared their story, and the community stood up to respond. They just hope that the risk they took was not made in vain, and that their experience — a couple singled out for who they love — underscores the need for a greater level of protection for people like them.

---

You all probably have seen this in the news,

Supreme Court hands victory to transgender students in locker room case
The court declined to take up a case brought by a group of parents who didn't want their kids using the same facilities as trans kids.
LGBTQ Nation
By Bil Browning
December 7, 2020


The Supreme Court has declined to take up a case brought by Oregon parents who want to exclude transgender students from school locker rooms and restrooms. The parents demanded that trans students only use facilities that correspond with their sex at birth and not the gender with which they identify.

The court did not give a reason for turning away the appeal, but similar lawsuits have been dismissed by lower courts across the country. The decision to decline the case is a big win for transgender students.

No other details were giving by the Supreme Court as to why or who want to refuse to hear the case are available.

So what did the lower court rule last February?

To answer that question I googled the case.

SCOTUS Refuses to Overturn Ruling That Allowed Students to Use the Bathroom Aligned with Gender Identity
Law & Crime
By Jerry Lambe
December 7th, 2020


[…]
The case, Parents for Privacy v. William P. Barr, stems from a 2017 lawsuit filed after the Dallas School District No. 2 put in place the anti-discrimination bathroom and locker room policies. Portland-based U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez dismissed the action in 2018, leading the parents to file an appeal with the Ninth Circuit.

A three-judge panel on the circuit court affirmed Hernandez’s ruling in February, concluding that the Fourteenth Amendment did not provide viable privacy claims for either parents or students to challenge the policy.

“We agree with the district court and hold that there is no Fourteenth Amendment fundamental privacy right to avoid all risk of intimate exposure to or by a transgender person who was assigned the opposite biological sex at birth,” Judge A. Wallace Tashima wrote in a 55-page opinion that SCOTUS chose not to review.

“We also hold that a policy that treats all students equally does not discriminate based on sex in violation of Title IX, and that the normal use of privacy facilities does not constitute actionable sexual harassment under Title IX just because a person is transgender. We hold further that the Fourteenth Amendment does not provide a fundamental parental right to determine the bathroom policies of the public schools to which parents may send their children, either independent of the parental right to direct the upbringing and education of their children or encompassed by it. Finally, we hold that the school district’s policy is rationally related to a legitimate state purpose, and does not infringe Plaintiffs’ First Amendment free exercise rights because it does not target religious conduct.”

So this leads to the Fourteenth Amendment, very interesting! If you remember marriage equality was based on the Fourteenth Amendment and it also indicates that the Supreme Court justices are still thinking along those lines.

While the justices have not yet agreed to hear a case directly related to transgender bathroom policies, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit earlier this year cited to Justice Neil Gorsuch’s landmark opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County in holding that that public schools cannot prohibit transgender students from using the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity.


In Bostock, the court stated that it was “impossible” to discriminate against a transgender individual without taking that person’s sex into account, a rationale that was mirrored by the appellate court’s August ruling.

So maybe there is hope for us in the Supreme Court, just maybe the court will look at discrimination cases as Fourteenth Amendment cases.

When We Read The Names…

At the Transgender Day of Remembrance we read the names of those murdered but there are many more who survived the attacks on them like what happened to Laverne Cox last week.

Two Charged in Connection to Brutal Attack of Transgender Woman in MacArthur Park
The charges include allegations of a hate crime, use of a knife as a deadly and dangerous weapon, great bodily injury and committing the crimes in association with a criminal street gang.
NBC Los Angeles
By City News Service
December 3, 2020


A second man has been charged in connection with the stabbing of a transgender woman at MacArthur Park nearly two months ago, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced Thursday.

Javier Trimin-Rodrigez, 22, of Los Angeles, pleaded not guilty to one felony count each of attempted murder and extortion in connection with the Oct. 4 attack, according to the District Attorney's Office.

The charges include allegations of a hate crime, use of a knife as a deadly and dangerous weapon, great bodily injury and committing the crimes in association with a criminal street gang.

Co-defendant Margarita Valencia, 23, of Castaic, is charged with a felony count of extortion involving another transgender woman on or between June and August, as well as an allegation that the crime was committed in association with a criminal street gang. She also pleaded not guilty.

Donoban Fonseca, 24, whose city of residence was not released, was charged Oct. 16 for his alleged involvement in the attack, along with a separate stabbing of a transgender woman at the park on two different occasions -- Aug. 21 and Sept. 1.

The The Santa Clarita Valley Signal wrote that,

Valencia filed a not-guilty plea in court Thursday, according to Deputy District Attorney Richard Ceballos of the Hate Crimes Section, one of two prosecutors working on the case.
She faces a felony count of extortion in the second attack, as do two co-defendants: Javier Trimin-Rodriguez, aka “Golden,” 22, of Los Angeles; and Donoban Fonseca, 24.

Trimin-Rodriguez is accused of attempted murder and extortion, and additionally faces a hate crime allegation and allegations of using a knife as a deadly and dangerous weapon, as well as causing great bodily injury.

The three of them could get up to life in prison… good!

No She Wasn’t…

There is an article behind a Telegraph firewall that I have been trying to read about the nurse who stopped trans children from getting puberty blockers.

Why I was right to blow the whistle on the Tavistock Clinic over puberty blockers
Seeing distressed youngsters pushed towards transitioning drove Susan Evans to the High Court – its ruling is her vindication

All I could read was…

Thirteen years ago, Susan Evans – then a clinical nurse with the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust in London – walked out.

So I googled her. Nursing Times had this article from last January.

Nurse seeks to raise consent age for transgender medication to 18
A mental health nurse is bringing a legal case against her previous NHS employer over concerns about its approach to gender transition treatment for children.
By Rebecca Gliroy
10 January, 2020


Susan Evans is pursuing High Court action against NHS England and Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the UK’s only gender identity development service (GIDS).

Ms Evans used to work at the GIDS and claims children as young as nine were being given “experiential and potentially harmful” hormone medication without thorough assessment.

She is working with an anonymous mother – referred to as Mother A – whose 15-year-old child with autism is on the GIDS waiting list.

The pair are planning to lodge legal papers this week in the High Court to begin a judicial review.

Their lawyers argue that providing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for children is illegal, because they cannot give valid consent.

As a nurse she should have realized that there is a difference between puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Puberty blockers as the name implies stops puberty and is totally reversible. While cross-sex hormones causes irreversible changes.

Ms Evans, who has launched a crowdfunding page to cover her legal fees, has spoken to Nursing Times about her motivation for taking the case to court.

She said she had previously raised concerns with the trust directly, but that she did not feel properly listened to.
[...]
But she claimed she saw patients at the trust were being assessed and then “after four or five sessions” being referred to the endocrinology clinic. “That’s when I started to be horrified,” she told Nursing Times.
[…]
“They start the blockers and then they go on the cross-sex hormones. [The trust’s] own research shows that virtually 100% of children they started on the blockers go on to the cross-sex hormones.”

According to Ms Evans, the trust described using puberty blockers as a “pause” so that patients had time to consider their options, but during this time they were not routinely given psychotherapy.

By what I read the court stopped those under 18 from taking puberty blockers.

Having bad therapist is one thing but an across the board banning puberty blockers is wrong. Yes, they are under 18 the age of consent in Britain but not taking them is going to cause irreversible harm to the children!

For trans girls it will cause everlasting harm of going through puberty and having their voice deepen and their beard to grow, while trans boys will start to menstruate and develop breast.
Barriers such as those Ms Evans was proposing would make access to treatment even more difficult for vulnerable young people, said the spokeswoman.

She continued: “Puberty blockers can be an important step in some young trans people's medical transition, and one which is taken only with the full understanding of the gravity behind any decision.

“To compound a young person's distress by denying them time to decide what the best course of action is for them – which is the purpose puberty blockers/delayers serve – would not just be unethical but unnecessarily cruel.”

I wonder if the judge really knew what she was doing? If she realized that the effects of puberty blockers are reversible?

The BBC wrote…

In a ruling, Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lord Justice Lewis and Mrs Justice Lieven, said: "It is highly unlikely that a child aged 13 or under would be competent to give consent to the administration of puberty blockers.

"It is doubtful that a child aged 14 or 15 could understand and weigh the long-term risks and consequences of the administration of puberty blockers."
From what she said it does sound like that she didn’t have a clue what they do.

I wonder how many suicides will this court ruling cause? How many youth will live a life of misery because they went through puberty?

There was a letter-to-the-editor in the Guardian about this...

There is already a suitable competency test in medical law for children under the age of 16, writes Steven Walker, while the mother of a transgender child fears the impact the court decision will have on her daughter

The high court ruling that those under the age of 16 are unlikely to be able to give informed consent to undergo treatment for gender dysphoria will cause much harm (Puberty blockers: under-16s ‘unlikely to be able to give informed consent’, 1 December). The Gillick competence test is used in medical law to decide whether a child under the age of 16 is able to consent to their own treatment, without the need for parental permission or knowledge.

In the area of child and adolescent mental health, there is an increasing demand for help from very disturbed, anxious, and unhappy children feeling trapped inside the “wrong” body. Clinicians do not make hasty judgments and they bend over backwards to keep open communication with parents and engage children in long, comprehensive tests and counselling sessions before embarking on treatments. Sixteen is an arbitrary age because children mature at different rates. Each case should be decided on its separate merits. The danger is that this new ruling will be used unilaterally and set an unhelpful precedent, and end up doing more harm than good.

Sam’s Saturday 9

Sam’s Saturday 9

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


Saturday 9: The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) 1966

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

1) The bridge that inspired this song is The Queensboro Bridge in New York City. Are you near a bridge right now as you answer these 9 questions?
Well it depends upon what size bridge you are talking about. I have a bridge two houses down, it crosses a four foot wide brook.

2) Paul Simon says he "loathes" this song and only performs it because fans want to hear it. What's your favorite Paul Simon song?
The Sound of Silence

3) "Groovy" is such a 1960s word. What common word/phrase from 2020 do you predict will sound just as silly and quaint some day?
Pod
I hear it all the time now, about staying in your own pod.

4) Paul is a lifelong Yankees fan and was thrilled to meet his all-time idol, Joe DiMaggio. Mr. DiMaggio was, at first, less than thrilled to meet Paul because he thought the song "Mrs. Robinson" made fun of him. Once Simon convinced him it was an homage, the men got along fine. Do you have a celebrity encounter to tell us about?
Not really…
Well now that I thought about it for a while I meet Laverne Cox when she gave a talk at the University of Connecticut. I got to meet her for a photograph together.

5) Art Garfunkle was the other half of Simon and Garfunkle. Art and Paul met in sixth grade, when were both in a school production of Alice in Wonderland. Tell us about one of your school theatrical appearances.
Hard to tell you about that because it never happened.


6) "Artie" used to love needling Paul about his height -- or lack thereof. He maintained he was trying to be funny, but Paul thought is was mean and says the constant digs hurt. Is there anyone in your life who similarly enjoys teasing?
Yes.

7) Paul told NPR that his impulse to write new music has always come "in bursts." He'll go years without composing, and then he'll write every day for months. Do you often feel creative?
Oh yes, you can visit my photos of Cape Cod here.

8) In 1966, when this song was popular, First Daughter Luci Johnson married Patrick Nugent. Their reception was held at the East Room of the White House. The couple had an 8 ft. tall wedding cake and when the bride threw her bouquet, it was caught by her sister, Lynda. Sure enough, Lynda married a year later. Tell us about a wedding you attended (or your own).
The last one that I attended was my cousin down in Asheville and I went down with my cousin and her car broke-down and I had a meeting that I had to attend back home so I rented a car and drove home.

9) Random question: Which do you regret more -- the times you were cautious or the times your were reckless?
Well since I haven’t been reckless since my teenage years and I made it through them there isn’t much to write about. My brother says that I inherited our mother’s worry genes.

Why I Am Against The Death Penalty.

The Trump administration is ramping up murders in our name, they are killing off the backlog of prisoners executions. They even want to bring back the firing squad. Meanwhile down in Texas the federal prison is getting ready to execute a black man who admits to an armed robbery but was not involved in the killings of two youth pastors, his execution is schedule for the 10^th.

During the trail the medical examiner said the woman was still alive when the car was set on fire but other medical examiners said she was brain dead.

Federal judge denies stay of execution for Killeen man on death row
Killeen Daily Herald
By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula
December 2, 2020


A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request to stop the execution of a Killeen man who is set to be executed next week for his role in the murder of two youth pastors more than 21 years ago on Fort Hood property.

During the hourlong remote hearing, one of the attorneys for Brandon Bernard, set to be executed on Dec. 10, argued for the judge to rule to halt the execution until new evidence could be presented and reviewed.

After listening to arguments by attorneys, U.S. District Judge Alan Albright denied the defense team’s request because he said he did not have the jurisdiction.

“My role is to call balls and strikes and it gives me no joy to make this ruling,” Albright said. “I feel the appropriate place to take up the issue is the Texas Supreme Court.”

The call for an appeal is because…

Bernard’s attorneys argued that the U.S. did not disclose the entirety of its evidence to the defense, a violation of the Brady Rule, which requires prosecutors to disclose evidence to the defense. The evidence could have led to Bernard being sentenced to life in prison instead of the death penalty, his attorneys said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Frazier did not address the new evidence discussed by the defense attorney during the hearing.

He argued that Bernard’s case has not met the legal standards for a stay of execution.

And that gets to the heart of my objections to the death penalty. We are the only “civilized” country that still has the death penalty. According to the Innocence Project.

To date, 375 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 21 who served time on death row.

Our justice system is not perfect, there are corrupt or incompetent law officers and prosecutors, there are prosecutors who want to make a name for themselves, and the system just make mistakes. When you execute someone there is no do-over to correct the errors.

My other objection is the question why execute someone? For what purpose do we execute someone?

To stop them from committing another crime? Well life in prison without parole does the same thing.

To prevent others from killing? Well research has shown that it doesn’t deter crime, let’s face it criminals just don’t think they are going to be caught.

Violent crimes has been decreasing in all the states, since the 1990s

The homicide rate for 2018 for Connecticut was 2.3 per 100,000 and for Texas was 4.6 per 100,000. Connecticut has no death penalty while Texas does have a death penalty. If you look at the data for the other states there is the same difference, states without a death penalty have lower murder rates. So having a death penalty does not deter murders.

I think that the only reason we have the death penalty is for politicians can say they are tough on crime.

Do You Remember…

This spring’s Supreme Court ruling on Aimee Stephens’ discrimination case against the Michigan funeral home?

Well they just reached a settlement.

Judge signs off on settlement in Michigan transgender bias case
The Detroit News
By Melissa Nann Burke
November 30, 2020


A federal judge has signed off on a settlement between the estate of Aimee Stephens and the Metro Detroit funeral home that fired her in 2013 after she came out to her boss as transgender.

U.S. District Judge Sean Cox on Monday approved the terms of the settlement between the estate of Stephens, who died in May, and her former employer, R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, which going forward is prohibited from firing employees on the basis of transgender status.

Under the terms of the agreement, Harris Homes is to pay $130,000 to Stephens' estate, including $63,724 in back pay with interest and $66,276 in damages.

The consent decree also says Harris Homes, which operates three funeral homes in southeast Michigan, must pay another $120,000 to the ACLU Foundation for costs and plaintiff attorney fees.

Business Insurance reported that,

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County Georgia upheld a ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit in Cincinnati in favor of the late Aimee Stephens, a transgender worker who was fired when she told her funeral home employer she was undergoing a gender transition from male to female.
[...]
EEOC trial attorney Dale Price said in a statement, “The law is now clear that discrimination against an employee because of his or her transgender status is sex discrimination.

Since the ruling the composition of the court has changed, it is very unlikely we will get a friendly ruling again. I believe that justice Barrett will follow Supreme Court precedent and will ignore the 14th Amendment which the earlier court ruling was based on.

Kowtow To The Judge

Now we not only have to follow the SOC but in England they now need a judges permission.

Children will need court order before they can legally take puberty blockers, NHS confirms
The Telegraph
By Gabriella Swerling
December 1, 2020


Children suffering with gender dysphoria will now need a court order before they are legally allowed to take puberty blockers, the NHS has confirmed.

The new guidelines were announced following a landmark High Court ruling on Tuesday in which judges said trans children should not receive the controversial drugs unless they understand the "long-term risks and consequences" of them, amid warnings it is "highly unlikely" that most teenagers could consent to this process.

On Tuesday night, the NHS updated its guidance to reflect the judgment, meaning "no-one under the age of 16 can now be referred for puberty blockers unless a court rules it is in the child's best interests".

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs the UK's only gender identity development service for children, immediately suspended new referrals for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for the under-16s.

The ruling prompted lawyers to warn that the "floodgates could be opened" on retrospective claims of clinical negligence and hundreds of transgender children could sue, arguing that they were unable to consent to the transitioning process when they began taking puberty blockers.

The landmark case was brought against the Trust by Keira Bell, a 23-year-old woman who began taking puberty blockers before "de-transitioning". She said the clinic should have challenged her more over her decision to transition to a male when she was 16.

BBC reported that,

In a ruling, Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lord Justice Lewis and Mrs Justice Lieven, said: "It is highly unlikely that a child aged 13 or under would be competent to give consent to the administration of puberty blockers.

"It is doubtful that a child aged 14 or 15 could understand and weigh the long-term risks and consequences of the administration of puberty blockers."

In England the climate is like it is here under conservative leadership, there is strong opposition to trans people that is lead by TERFs. At one time England was leading in human rights for trans people but with Prime Minster Boris Johnson they taking away our rights.

Blockers are totally reversible. GenderGP writes…

Medically speaking, Puberty Blockers are a medication in the group GnRHa (Gonadotrophin Releasing Hormone Agonists). They stop the hormone signals that go from the brain to the gonads (ovaries and testicles) that tell them to produce the hormones of puberty. When you give the blocker (by injection or nasal spray) the medication stops the signals. When the injection or spray wears off, the signals will restart and the hormones will be produced again. No medication lasts forever, when you stop taking it it wears off and stops working.
[…]
If any of these patient groups stop the puberty blocker, then it wears off and is no longer effective. This is obviously important for children with precocious puberty as they need need to, and must, go through puberty when the time is right. People with prostate cancer should stay on this medication for life. People with endometriosis can stop them to see how and if their symptoms re-develop, and start them again if they do. Transgender adolescents can stop them and allow their natural puberty to resume, if that is what they want.

So not only will trans children have to have a doctor’s okay to start hormone blockers but also will now need a judges permission. I wonder how many trans children will die because of this.

We Are Not Lost Sheep!

We have been marginalized by many religions including by the Catholic Church the Pope has condemned us.

An article in the National Catholic Reporter compares us to sheep.

The Catholic Church must listen to transgender and intersex people
Male/female binary leads to discrimination and bullying
By Michael G. Lawler, Todd A. Salzman
December 1, 2020


When Pharisees complained that Jesus received sinners and ate with them, he responded with a parable. "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing" (Luke 15:3-6).

We argue — contra former St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson's letter "Compassion and Challenge" and a February 2019 document from the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education, "Male and Female He Created Them," both of which address "gender ideology" — that transgender and intersex persons are not sinners, but they are lost sheep in the Catholic wilderness.
[…]
Intersex people, those born with ambiguous genitalia, often struggle with similar questions about gender identity as transgender people do. Transgender and intersex people differ in their anatomical structures at birth, and most intersex people self-identify as either female or male, but they often suffer the same pain from family rejection, bullying, and discrimination in both society and church.

That discrimination is mostly based on the unquestioned acceptance of the female-male sexual binary and the abhorrence, even hatred, of any sexual or gender arrangement that challenges it. The harrowing outcome of that bullying and discrimination was reported in a 2019 study from the American Academy of Pediatrics: Thirty-five percent of transgender teens reported that they had attempted suicide in the past year — more than triple the number of cisgender teens.
[…]
The letter teaches that Catholics should be compassionate toward people who are transgender (and surely also toward people who are intersex), but that "there are limits to how we should manipulate our bodies." The instruction to be compassionate is a decidedly Catholic instruction, the but less so.

I don’t know about you but I am not a lost sheep. I am somebody! I am a person not a sheep. God made me the way I am, I did not choose to be trans.

One of the things that the article got right, “That discrimination is mostly based on the unquestioned acceptance of the female-male sexual binary and the abhorrence, even hatred, of any sexual or gender arrangement that challenges it.” In yesterday’s blog I wrote about the attack on Ms. Cox that attack was because of the hatred of the perpetrator’s being challenged in his belief of the binary.

The church is propagating hate by it teachings, by it opposition to anti-discrimination LGBTQ+ legislation and it endorsement of legislation that is punitive to the LGBTQ+ community. The church continues to sicks to the Nineteenth century of biology of chromosomes and totally ignores the reality of intersex people because they challenge the church’s female-male sexual binary.

There are many religions that are affirming of us including the Episcopal church. It was an Episcopal bishop that spoke up for us when we were trying to pass a non-discrimination legislation here in Connecticut, the Catholic church was silent.