1%

What would you pay for something that will save your life?

We are about to find out as hedge funds get into pharmaceutical companies.

Drug Goes From $13.50 a Tablet to $750, OvernightNew York Times
By Andrew Pollack
September 20, 2015

Specialists in infectious disease are protesting a gigantic overnight increase in the price of a 62-year-old drug that is the standard of care for treating a life-threatening parasitic infection.

The drug, called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“What is it that they are doing differently that has led to this dramatic increase?” said Dr. Judith Aberg, the chief of the division of infectious diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She said the price increase could force hospitals to use “alternative therapies that may not have the same efficacy.”

Although some price increases have been caused by shortages, others have resulted from a business strategy of buying old neglected drugs and turning them into high-priced “specialty drugs.”

The One Percenters have found and endless source of money… drugs, but this time it is legal drugs.


Charge whatever the market will bear, put those who are the most needed in the squeeze means big bucks for the money lenders. Daraprim is the only drug that the One Percenters have corral,

Cycloserine, a drug used to treat dangerous multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, was just increased in price to $10,800 for 30 pills from $500 after its acquisition by Rodelis Therapeutics. Scott Spencer, general manager of Rodelis, said the company needed to invest to make sure the supply of the drug remained reliable. He said the company provided the drug free to certain needy patients.

In August, two members of Congress investigating generic drug price increases wrote to Valeant Pharmaceuticals after that company acquired two heart drugs, Isuprel and Nitropress, from Marathon Pharmaceuticals and promptly raised their prices by 525 percent and 212 percent respectively. Marathon had acquired the drugs from another company in 2013 and had quintupled their prices, according to the lawmakers, Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, and Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland.

Doxycycline, an antibiotic, went from $20 a bottle in October 2013 to $1,849 by April 2014, according to the two lawmakers.

Is this the new trend, squeezing the sick for their blood? How far will unleashed Capitalism go? At one time government was the fulcrum that kept Capitalism in check but not anymore. The rest of the world has reined in on the pharmaceutical companies but here in the U.S. pharmaceutical companies can charge whatever the market will bear.

It is time for a change!

Obama Does It Again

Amanda Simpson who was originally hired by President Obama in 2009 as a Senior Technical Advisor to the Department of Commerce has now been appointed as the deputy assistant secretary of defense (DAS) for Operational Energy.

Amanda Simpson becomes the highest ranking openly transgender official in the Obama administration
LGBT Weekly
Posted by Steve Lee, Editor
Friday, September 18th, 2015

WASHINGTON – Amanda Simpson, the highest ranking transgender appointee of any administration in history was today sworn in as the deputy assistant secretary of defense (DAS) for Operational Energy.
[…]
 “With her extraordinary experience and talent, there is no doubt that Deputy Assistant Secretary Simpson will excel in this important position of leadership within the Department of Defense,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “As an openly transgender American, her visibility and leadership is also incredibly important, especially as the Department moves to update the outdated regulations that continue to prevent transgender service members from serving openly and honestly. We congratulate her as she takes on this important role serving our great nation.”

When you stop and think all the LGBT stuff that President Obama has done, it is amazing!

• Dylan Orr – Special assistant for the Labor Department’s Office of Disability Employment Policy 
• Amanda Simpson – Executive Director of the U.S. Army Office of Energy Initiatives (OEI) 
• Trans attorney Shannon Minter to the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships 
• Raffi Freedman-Gurspan – White Staff
• First time transgender was mentioned is a State of the Union Address
• Health insurance: ACA & Medicare
• Recognized protections: EEOC, OSHA, DoJ, & DoEd

CAN

CAN means Coordinated Access Network; when you call 211 looking for emergency housing here in Connecticut you are accessing CAN. They oversee the emergency shelters and they know which of the area shelters that still have openings, but more important they are the gatekeepers. So they take your information to enter you in to the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS)…

…is a local information technology system used to collect client-level data and data on the provision of housing and services to homeless individuals and families and persons at risk of homelessness.

So what does this mean?

When a trans person calls 211 and is looking for a homeless shelter it is the CAN operator that finds a shelter for them. So it is important that the CAN operator knows the law and that a trans person should be assigned a shelter of their gender identity.

Trans people were being placed in the wrong shelters and were being assaulted in shelters. We realized that the shelters were not following the law and HUD guidelines, that the shelters needed training to help them understand what needs to be done to obey the law. And that is what I am doing this morning, training the managers and staff. I am with a coalition of non-profits and government agencies that are going around the state training the homeless shelters on how to integrate their shelters and networks.

The group is made up of people from AIDS Connecticut (ACT), , the CT Coalition to End Homelessness, the CT Fair Housing Center, the CT TransAdvocacy Coalition, and HUD.

Our Neighbors To The North

Massachusetts had their lobby day for the public accommodation bill on Thursday and it looks like they had a good turnout for the event.

Transgender community pushes for equal access to public areas
A similar bill failed in the legislature last year
WWLP
Tiffany Chan, 22News State House Correspondent
Published: September 17, 2015

BOSTON (WWLP) – A new bill would allow transgender individuals equal access to public areas. Some state lawmakers have concerns when it comes to public restrooms.
Transgender people lobbied State House lawmakers on Thursday, pressing for equal rights in public places. Deja Nicole Greenlaw of Unity of the Pioneer Valley said, “We’re not scary at all; we’re not going to harm anyone.”
The proposed legislation would allow transgender individuals to access public spaces that match their gender identity; that includes sidewalks, buses and hospitals.
[…]
Springfield’s Danica Ali told 22News her experience with discrimination. Ali said, “I have had people follow me into the restrooms in Massachusetts and that is wrong.”

But they are going to have a hard time passing the bill,

Supporters have a long way to go before this becomes law. Republican Governor Charlie Baker has said in the past that he supports the law the way it’s written now. Some state lawmakers hope to expand transgender rights with or without the Governor’s support.

State Rep. Ellen Story, (D) Amherst, said, “If the Governor feels the need to veto it, I hope that we will have the votes to override his veto.”

I hope that they do pass the bill with a veto proof margin.

On Vacation!

On vacation!

I will be back on Monday!

# # # # #

Update September 21 @ 8:00AM:

I am back from the cottage...

Saturday's night dinner with my friends. 

Summer Camp

There is a summer camp for trans kids, but other summer camps are opening their doors to trans children and some may surprise you.

This Jewish summer camp welcomed a 12-year-old transgender camper
Religious News Service
By Eliel Cruz
September 14, 2015

There were not any hurdles at home. The Gendler family was prepared to be a support system for Hannah as she transitioned socially to a girl. They wrote a letter to Hannah’s school, the synagogue, and Hannah’s summer camp – camp Eisner – to inform them about the transition.

“The synagogue switched her from the bar mitzvah list to the bat mitzvah with no problems,” Gendler said. The school did not have any issues with her transition either. The family’s worries were with Camp Eisner. It’s at camp that Hannah would have to stay overnight with other kids. Hannah had been going to Massachusetts, from her home state of Connecticut, to attend Camp Eisner since 2nd grade. However, that was as Jonah and the Gendler family was not sure if their child would be welcomed back for the summer of 2014 as Hannah.

So what did the camp do? They did research to learn the best way to help trans children and then sent out letters to the other parents with a list of resources for the parents to better understand the transition. A small percentage asked for more information, but

Not a single family had anything negative to say and not a single person pulled their child out of camp. 

What does the do they say about their success?

Hannah is just like other girls her age and Camp Eisner recognized that. The brouhaha over trans people, especially trans kids, comes out of ignorance. Those who educate themselves about the trans community, as the board at Camp Eisner did, are able to welcome trans persons with open arms.

And the camp was all set for when they received the next transgender child this year.

Win One/Lose One

A couple of months ago I wrote about a federal court case in Virginia that we lost, this morning I am writing about a case that we won.

U.S. DISTRICT COURT RULES FIRED TRANSGENDER WOMAN CAN SUE FORMER EMPLOYER FOR SEX DISCRIMINATION
ACLU
September 16, 2015

NEW YORK—A U.S. district court judge ruled yesterday that a transgender woman fired because of her gender transition may sue her former employer for sex discrimination under federal law.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas denied H&H Electric’s motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Patricia Dawson, a transgender woman and licensed electrician in Arkansas, who was fired by the company after she transitioned from male to female. Dawson’s gender transition was part of her treatment for gender dysphoria.

Dawson’s claim asserts that H&H Electric violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by firing her because of her sex and because she was perceived to fail to conform to sex stereotypes.

That is the problem with courts; some are conservative and takes a narrow view of the law while others see the broader view.  The Virginia federal court judge, Robert Doumar is a Reagan appointee.

I can see the Virginia case going all the way to the Supreme Court, the case is about bathrooms and how the U.S. Department of Education interprets Title IX.

Traveling While Trans

I am always a little leery about traveling when you are trans, saying that it is “Gay” tour does really mean much to me.

Courting Transgender Tourists
New York Times
By DIANE DANIEL
September 16, 2015

Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has been courting gay and lesbian travelers for nearly two decades, an effort that most recently included a marriage-equality wedding promotion.

This year the city became one of the country’s first destinations to market to transgender travelers, with a new tourism campaign, and for the first time will host the Southern Comfort Conference, the largest transgender conference in the country, with about 1,000 attendees. (The 25th gathering begins Sept. 29.)

Yes, but what will happen when you leave your hotel? And just what does “Gay Friendly” mean?

Q. How has marketing to gay travelers changed since Fort Lauderdale started its outreach efforts in 1996?
A. At first, it was too risky to use the word “gay,” so we used “rainbow.” We started with a budget of $35,000, which has grown to over $1 million. We now welcome 1.3 million L.G.B.T. travelers who spend approximately $1.5 billion in the area.

How did you decide to reach out specifically to the transgender market?
It was during a run less than two years ago that I really started to think about the T in L.G.B.T. It’s really the forgotten T. I realized I knew nothing about transgender travelers, and, as a gay man, I knew nothing about the transgender community. I researched and saw they had this conference that had been in Atlanta for 24 years, and I contacted their president, Lexi Dee. No one had ever courted them or paid them any attention before. They liked our commitment of raising the bar for trans inclusion. Around the same time, I organized a round-table discussion with some national leaders and also met with the research firm Community Marketing & Insights to put a transgender travel study together, because there had never been one.

What did you learn from the survey?
We found that 62 percent of transgender people travel alone, many because they’re “stealth” — often they have a partner who has no idea they’re transgender. The Southern Comfort Conference is mostly male to female and that’s what we’ve looked at. Female to male blend easier; male to female often don’t. By far their biggest concerns were physical and verbal violence and a lack of gender-neutral restrooms. Unlike the gay market, trans travelers are more in line with budget travelers, without a lot of disposable income.

Are they prepared for a six foot six trans woman, or are they more prepared for a Laverne Cox or a Caitlyn Jenner? I agree that “their biggest concerns were physical and verbal violence,” I believe that visual non-conformity is a risk factor in causing anti-trans bias and I don’t believe that the travel industry understands that.

What are your recourse if you’re harassed while traveling? Well just by chance I received a travel brochure and in fine print in the back of the catalog it says,

ARBITRATION I agree that any dispute concerning, relating, or referring to this contract, the brochure, or any literature, concerning to my trip, or the trip itself, shall be resolved exclusively by binding arbitration…  The arbitrator and not any federal, state, or local court, or agency shall have exclusive authority to resolve any dispute relating to…

You got that? You will not be protected by any anti-discrimination laws, you surrender your rights to sue in court.

So how comfortable are you to traveling while trans?

Busy This Morning.

Something came up yesterday and I have to go to a nursing home to talk to them on trans issues. So there will be no morning posting.

This Should Be Fun!

The Pope is going to stop by the White House on his visit to the United States and the guest list is interesting.

Gays, Transgenders, 'Nun on the Bus' Invited to White House Pope Francis Reception
CNSNews
By Mark Judge
September 15, 2015

Guests at the White House reception for Pope Francis on September 23 will include several gay and transgender persons, a controversial nun, a radical preacher and a gay Episcopal bishop.

Several of the invitations to the event, which is part of the pope's three-city tour of America September 22-27, were offered by Vivian Taylor. Taylor, 30, considers himself transgender, which means he identifies as a sex different from his biology. Taylor has male anatomy but dresses and presents himself as female. Until March of this year he was the Executive Director of Integrity USA, a homosexual and transgender activist wing of the Episcopal Church. Taylor lives in Boston and is now freelance writing.

I sure would like to be a fly on the wall there.

According to CNS News in another article the Pope said,

While Bruce Jenner’s pretend transformation into a woman is dominating the news this week and being applauded by liberals, it merits noting that Pope Francis has condemned the idea of “gender theory” on several occasions, calling it “an error of the human mind” and a notion that “does not recognize the order of creation.”

So it is going to be a quite interesting White House reception.

Our Founding Fathers

Did you know that one of our Founding Fathers was involved with a case about a trans person?

The notorious case of Gray vs. Pitts.

It seems like Mr. Gray fancied himself in a dress and Mr. Pitts was smitten by her and when Mr. Pitts found out she was trans he rapped Mr. Gray on the head with a cane.

Mr. Molineux. I saw him dressed in Womens Cloaths. He had the outward Appearance of a Woman, a Gown and Womens Cloaths. I saw a Couple of young Gentlemen gallanting him. Pitts was one. I was very sensible they were taken in. Plaisted was the other. They appeared to be very loving—she rather Coy. I called out to Pitts at New Boston. He turnd a deaf Ear. He came back and said he had a very clever Girl, and went to her again.

It is a little hard to follow but witnesses testified that,

J. Whitworth. Pitt said in the forenoon, that Gray had used him very ill, and he would beat him whenever he met him. About 1 1/2 Hour before, he did [ . . . ] Very ill in Speaking Reports of him.
Mr. Hutchinson. Pitts told me he had sent a Lad to the Custom house to call Gray out to demand Satisfaction of him. And I saw em at it, and the Blood dropping from G's Head. Stick knotty, 1/2 Inch Diameter.
Tim. Odin. Pitts went into the Barbers shop, and asked Gray if he would ask his Pardon. No, you wooly headed Rascall, I wont. D—n you you shall, running his Fist up says Pitts. I could not hear the rest of the Conversation till Pitts struck him. The stick did not seem to be struck hard. But Gray said, Ile set this down to your everlasting Account.
Melvill. Gray had no stick nor Hatt. Gray and Pitts were coming from Dehones shop, to Carpenters. Pitts in a Passion. Pitts shoved him off first with his Hand, and then a stroke with a stick. Saw the Blood.
Isaac Pierce. Heard a Blow at the Town House steps. About 3. Rods.
Dr. Roberts. Wounds, one about 3/4 of an Inch, the other between 1/3 and 1/2 on the scalp, Top of the Head. Both done at one blow. About 12 or 14 days. Every other day. Bill a Guinea. No more than a flesh Wound.
J. Quincy. If he had a Mind to discover his Manhood as much as he had at other Times he would have taken another Weapon.
Knows Gentlemen who have a Talent of diminishing or exagerating just as they please.
Pain, of Body, Expences, Ignominy.
Of great Importance that Juries should be uniform and steady in their Decisions, and that Capriciousness and Humour should not prevail.
Atrocious, inhuman, Injury &c.

What I like is this footnote,

Act of 19 June 1696, c. 2, §7, 1 A&R 208, 210: “[I]f any man shall wear women's apparel, or if any woman shall wear man's apparel, and be thereof duly convicted, they shall be corporally punished or fined, at the discretion of the quarter sessions not exceeding five pounds, to the use of the county where the offence is committed, towards the defraying of the county charges.”

So we are lucky that we live in modern times otherwise we would be in the “stocks” to receive our lashes.

What Is A Trans Person’s Life Worth?

Not much if you live in Texas.

No Justice for Janette? Dallas Man Sentenced to Probation in Fatal Assault of Trans Woman
Texas Observer
By John Wright
September 14, 2015

A man responsible for the 2012 beating of a Dallas transgender woman who died from her injuries is set to receive probation and no jail sentence.

A spokesperson for the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office has confirmed to the Observer that Jonathan Stuart Kenney, 29, is expected to plead guilty Tuesday to first-degree felony aggravated assault. Under a plea bargain, Kenney will be sentenced to 10 years probation for the death of his then-partner, Janette Tovar.

Kenney was originally charged with murder in the death of the popular 43-year-old bar promoter after he assaulted her in October 2012. Kenney was arraigned on murder charges three days later, then officially indicted on those same charges in December 2012.

It was a case of domestic violence,

Kenney and Tovar had been together for more than a year at the time of her death and had recently moved in together. But this was not the first time he physically abused her, Anguiano said.

The manager of the couple’s apartment, who lived directly below them, told police they were “always fighting” and did so between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. on the day of Tovar’s death, when he heard Tovar yell, “Get off me.”

Life is cheap if you happen to be trans.

# # # # # #

Right now I am at UConn School of Medicine talking to second year med students about trans health care issues.

I Don’t Need A Study

I could have told you why trans people join the military without having a study.

Why do transgender people join the military in such high numbers?
LA Times
By Alan Zarembo
September 4, 2015

Estimates at the time were that for every 100,000 biological males in the general population, no more than three were transgender.

Brown figured the rate had to be even lower in the all-volunteer military. It made little sense to him that a transgender person would choose to join an institution that by its nature had no tolerance for deviance.

Yet over the next three years, Brown saw 10 more transgender patients — all of them seeking hormone therapy and male-to-female gender reassignment surgery. He began to suspect that the military, despite its ban on allowing transgender people to serve, was somehow attracting them at a disproportionately high rate.
[…]
The findings have pumped new life into a theory that Brown developed to explain what he had witnessed. In a 1988 paper, he coined it "flight into hypermasculinity."

His transgender patients told him that they had signed up for service when they were still in denial about their true selves and were trying to prove they were "real men."

Yup. We do not need a study to tell you that, we are also truck drivers, motorcyclists, or engineers, or any other hypermasculinity job.

When we had lunch with Kristin Beck she said that she didn’t care if she lived or died she just ran into a building filled Taliban with guns a blazing, and she received a Silver Star for valor.

Let Your Voice Be Heard!

Massachusetts is having a lobby day this Thursday and if you live in Massachusetts I urge to contact your state legislators and ask them to vote for the bill and if you can go to Boston to lobby in person for the bill.

Transgender rights bill gains ground on Beacon Hill
More businesses back measure 
The Boston Globe
By Laura Krantz
September 14, 2015

A growing number of businesses as well as the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce are throwing support behind a bill aimed at protecting transgender people from discrimination in parks, shops, restaurants, on the subway, and in other public places.

Although the measure lacks support from Governor Charlie Baker, momentum is accelerating on Beacon Hill, and proponents last week added more than 50 businesses to the list of backers, advocates said.

This bill will fill in the gaps that the 2011 law didn’t cover; public accommodation. But the opposition to the bill is strong,

Governor Baker, in a statement from a spokesman Sunday, said he “prefers the current law regarding public accommodations.” Baker during his unsuccessful 2010 gubernatorial bid referred to a similar bill as the “bathroom bill” and said he would veto it if elected.
[…]
Andrew Beckwith, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, a conservative public policy organization, said the bill raises privacy concerns for nontransgender people if, for example, transgender women (assigned the male gender at birth) are allowed to enter female bathrooms or locker rooms.

“The rights and feelings of particularly women, and young women, girls, will be ignored in order to facilitate the sort of transgender agenda,” Beckwith said.

They are going to need all the support they can find to veto proof the bill. The two bills are Senate Bill #735 (An Act Relative to Transgender Anti-Discrimination) and the House Bill #1577 (An Act Relative to Gender Identity and Non-Discrimination) and for more information on Thursday September 17^th Lobby Day visit GLAD website.

WHAM!

An Alabama nursing home just had a ton of bricks fall on them.

Boss Who Asked Transgender Woman 'What Are You?' Agrees To Significant Settlement
"They saw the writing on the wall."
The Huffington Post
By Lila Shapiro Senior Staff Reporter
Posted: 09/10/2015

Last November, Jessi Dye showed up at Summerford Nursing Home for what would turn out to be both her first and last day of work.

The morning started well. Dye attended a series of training sessions, completed paperwork, received vaccinations. She was excited about the new job; it seemed like there was a real future with the company, and they'd offered to pay for her training to become a certified nurse's assistant.

But then over lunch, she was asked to go speak with Robert Summerford, the manager of the company, about her paperwork.

"What are you?" he asked her, as soon as she'd entered his office.
[…]
After Dye answered Summerford’s question, explaining that she was born male and was in the process of transitioning to female, he asked her, “What am I supposed to do with you?” and then instructed her to get her things and leave the premises.

Most of the time employers are smart enough not to be so outright in firing a trans employee, this guy was so brazing he basically handed her the discrimination case on a gold plate.

In March, Dye, with the support of lawyers from the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center, filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. On Thursday, the Southern Poverty Law Center announced that Summerford had reached a settlement with Dye. Rather than face a possible fight over Dye’s accusation in federal court, the company agreed to implement a policy that prohibits discrimination against job applicants and employees on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and to conduct sensitivity training concerning LGBT people. (The amount of money paid to Dye in the settlement has not been disclosed.)

I wish that we didn’t need to resort to legal action because whenever Ms. Dye applies for a job and they do a search on her name they will know that she is transgender and that she has sued other employers. I wish employers just did the right thing.

My Worst Fears.

The stuff nightmares are made of… as a trans women being put into a men’s prison. We have all the non-discrimination laws that say our gender identity is our legal gender. Our driver license, Social Security, Medicare, passports, and shortly our birth certificates all will have our true gender, but is we are stopped and arrested we will be put in the prison on our birth gender. It doesn’t how many years ago you have transitioned, or how feminine or masculine you look you will be housed contrary to the law in a prison of you birth gender.

According to the survey “Injustice At Every Turn”
Physical and sexual assault in jail/prison is a serious problem: 16% of respondents who had been to jail or prison reported being physically assaulted and 15% reported being sexually assaulted.
It is a real fear that we have, so what is being done to protect us?

San Francisco jails to house transgender inmates based on gender preference
LA Times
By James Queally
September 10, 2015

By the end of the year, San Francisco's county jails will be among the first in the nation to house transgender inmates by their gender preference, Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi said Thursday.

Currently, San Francisco County puts transgender inmates in an isolated wing of its downtown jail facility. But under the policy announced Thursday, Mirkarimi said, he hopes to have transgender inmates living with their preferred population before 2016.

But transgender inmates who choose to remain in segregated housing or to continue living with other inmates who share the gender they were assigned at birth can do so, according to Kenya Briggs, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office.

 “I carry the perspective forward that the transgender population is marginalized on the streets of America," Mirkarimi said. "Consider how magnified that treatment is inside prisons and jails.”

According to the article California has a transgender prison population of 385 trans inmates.

This is a huge step forward that I hope other states will follow.

Catch 22!

What it is to be trans in another country. We for the most part enjoy a safe existence here in Connecticut, if you are white middle class and if you are aware of your surroundings life can be pretty good. But if you live say in Moscow you have to be prepared for just about anything.

When I wear high heels, my soul soars': meet Moscow's shunned transgender community
Forced to keep a low profile by an increasingly intolerant society, The Moscow Times meets the city’s residents struggling to find acceptanceThe Guardian
Elizaveta Vereykina for The Moscow Times, part of the New East network
Thursday 10 September 2015

HurdlesTo officially change legal identification documents, including the internal passports that are the primary IDs for all Russians over the age of 14, transgender people must go through several steps, including being diagnosed by a state psychiatric commission with “transsexualism”.

Tatyana Glushkova, a lawyer with the Transgender Legal Defence Project, which offers free legal help to transgender people, says that hurdles remain even after those requirements are met.

“According to the law, one must submit a certificate of gender change. However, there is no approved form for such a certificate,” Glushkova said. She explained that state registry offices often use the lack of a proper form as an excuse to refuse to amend birth certificates.

Glushkova also noted that while there is no law stating that gender reassignment surgery is necessary to change a person’s gender on official documents, courts often refuse to do so without the surgery, creating another – expensive – hurdle for transgender Russians.

And on top of the legal barriers the Russia society is becoming increasingly homophobic and transphoblic.

“In the opinion of the public, transvestites, transgender people and gays are all the same,” Vika said. “That’s actually what makes me the most sad.”

Gerasimova echoed her complaint. “I feel sorry for Russia when on state TV channels they basically equate transgender people with paeodophiles and call us sodomites. There are transgender people who have never even had sex!” she said.

Russian legislation hasn’t made it any easier to educate the public, according to Demedetsky.

“Russian authorities constantly want to outlaw things instead of dealing with them and bringing them into the legal field,” he said. “Now, under the law that protects children from gay propaganda, we cannot help teenagers who are struggling with gender identification.”

Life is very different for LGBT around the world, Russia is devolving back to its old ways and is LGBT people as it scapegoat.

So the next time you are at Pride and you look around just remember that in places like Moscow this could never happen.

Staycation Over Labor Day Weekend

Over the Labor Day weekend I went up to my brother's and sister-in-laws in southern Maine and on Saturday we decided to go on the Casco Bay ferry. But first we stopped and had lunch at the Black Point Inn in Scarborough it is a 175 year old sitting on the Western Cove across from Old Orchard Beach. After lunch we walked over in back of the inn to the other side of the peninsula.

There we found the old ocean pump house for the inn, it was built in 1919.

We then went up to Portland to take the Casco Bay ferry out to the islands. It is a beautiful trip and it was only $15 for the round trip to Little Diamond, Big Diamond and Long Islands and it was about a three hour tour. The day was perfect, in the low 70s, a light wind and very few clouds.

On the way out we passed Bug Light Park and a group of people were flying this monster of a kit. It had to be over thirty or forty feet long.

On the way to Little Diamond Island I snapped this photo Highland Head Lighthouse about 9 miles way.

The weather was perfect for sailboats! I would hate to have a powerboat going through all those sailboats since the sailboats have the right-away.

I always want to take a cruise on one of those charter schooners but after see this one packed to the gunwales I don't think I want to take a cruise on them.

Another charter schooner coming out from behind an island

As the ferry left the dock on Little Diamond Island, the captain gunned the engines churning up the sea in the ships wake and the kids all on the dock jumped in.

I took this picture of the Navy Blue Angles that were at the Brunswick Air Show some twenty miles away. I took the picture handhold my 500 mm lens!

On Sunday we went down to the Kennebunk town beach on the last day of summer to relax and read by the ocean. It was a little chilly in the shad of the umbrella but after 20 - 30 minutes in the sun I got back in the shade and repeated the cycle when I got cold.

And on Labor Day I drove home because I had a meeting to go on Tuesday.

Saturday 9: That's All

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: That's All (1983)

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

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

1) In the lyrics, Phil Collins sings of a time he was wrong when he thought he was right. Tell us about a recent time when you got it wrong.
I try to forget those times, but when I do get it wrong I admit it.

2) The song is addressed to a lover that Phil clearly feels is contrary. When he says, "day," she says, "night." Is there anyone in your life who seems to disagree with you all or most of the time?
Yes, my brother when he talks politics/

3) This was Genesis' first Top 10 hit in the US. Can you name another Phil Collins or Genesis song? 
I had to dust off the Trespass album "Looking for Someone."

4) Phil Collins is a model train enthusiast. Is there anything special that you collect?
Yes, cameras and lens.

5) Collins was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music in Boston. At the ceremony, he delivered the commencement address. When did you last give a presentation or deliver a speech? 
Thursday, up at the University of Connecticut and I actually got paid to do it. I gave a lecture as part of the “Out to Lunch” lecture series where each week a different person gives a lecture on a LGBT topic.

6) One of Phil Collins' early solo albums was called, Hello, I Must Be Going. He took the title from a song in the 1930 Marx Bros. movie, Animal Crackers. What's the last black and white movie or TV show that you watched?
Roy Rogers, it’s on the TV as I type this… Happy Trails to You.

7) In 1983, when this song was popular, the Lotus 1-2-3 program made it easier for PC users to build spreadsheets. Are you answering these questions on a PC or a Mac? Laptop or desktop? Tablet or phone?
Laptop, a brand new laptop, my old one died a couple of weeks ago when I was doing my PowerPoint for the lecture. Panic! I had to have the old hard drive copied to the new machine.

8) 1983 is also the year when McDonald's introduced McNuggets. What's your favorite chicken recipe (assuming it's not McNuggets)?
Saltimbocca

9) In 1983, President Reagan signed the bill making Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday a holiday. What's your favorite holiday?
I really don’t have a favorite holiday, but if I had to I would pick the Fourth of July because I love fireworks.

Birth Certificate Bill

A couple of weeks ago I had the honor of attending the signing of the Birth Certificate legislation at the Governor's office.

And after the governor signed the bill he gave me the signed bill*.



For those who want to learn more about changing your birth certificate GLAD is having a webinar on September 24 the webinar are for people in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont.

*I intend to donate the signed bill to the library at CCSU for their LGBT collection.