A Tale Of Two Stories

There is a story in the news about the 16 year old trans-girl Jane Doe who is in DCF custody and was sent to an adult women’s prison in solitary confinement without being charged with a crime.

DCF issued a press release saying she was in a fight and has been sent to a juvenile correctional facility for boys. The Hartford Courant covered the press release,

The transgender youth who was imprisoned without charges because of her history of assaulting staff members in juvenile facilities has been accused of assaulting a worker and another youth at a juvenile treatment program in Middletown on Saturday night, child protection officials said Sunday.

State police are investigating the allegations, said Gary Kleeblatt, spokesman for the Department of Children and Families. The youth was moved Saturday night to a single room at the secure Connecticut Juvenile Training School.
[…]
A brief statement from DCF said only that the youth, known in court filings as Jane Doe, "assaulted another youth and a staff member at the girls Pueblo Unit and also destroyed state property."

WNPR had this to say about the incident,

 The teen's public defender, James Connolly, said fights happen often in juvenile facilities. He said the weekend incident involved at least four girls, but that his client is the one being singled out. "For the first time," he said, "I’ve seen DCF issue a press release regarding one of these incidents specifically identifying Jane Doe. What was the purpose? The department is trying to show their original effort to move her into York was justified. I think it’s very unfortunate to see a child welfare agency act this way in regards to a child that is committed to them."

Notice “the weekend incident involved at least four girls,” I think her lawyer made two important points, the first that the three other girls did not receive the same punishment and two, DCF didn't include in the press release about the fight. It just sounded like her attack on the staff was an isolated incident.

I think DCF is floundering and has no policy in place for transgender children in their custody.

The Ick Factor In Insurance (Part 2)

Yesterday I wrote about how progress for insurance coverage is slowly moving forward, but the article, "Momentum grows for sex reassignment surgery coverage" also was about how healthcare coverage is spotted. Some procedures are covered by some insurance companies and not covered by other insurance companies.

The decisions on health plans are rarely comprehensive. The Office of Personnel Management, for example, is allowing but not requiring insurers to add coverage through their Federal Employee Health Benefit plans. Patchwork state systems mean regulators’ decisions may apply to a limited number of plans. Only three states and the District of Columbia have added the range of gender dysphoria treatments to Medicaid benefits.

Even for plans that offer coverage, the line between procedures that are “medically necessary” versus cosmetic can blur.
[…]
Insurance companies say they are committed to nondiscrimination and ready to offer plans covering surgery when payers request it or regulators require it. Even when a policy includes coverage, however, issues arise over what’s elective versus essential.

In their coverage descriptions, major insurers like Aetna and UnitedHealthcare will pay for changes to private body parts, like vaginoplasty and testicular prosthesis. Mastectomies for female-to-male patients and breast implants for male-to-female patients are usually covered, too. Procedures such as facial feminization or voice modification surgery are generally excluded as cosmetic.

While advocates say that insurance for facial feminization or voice modification surgery should also cover the surgery because they are necessary for trans-people to integrate in to society and in special circumstances they are covered. For cancer patients the insurance companies cover the surgery and the same thing is true for facial surgery. Just because it is called is facial feminization is the same as facial reconstruction surgery.

“It’s important that a person undergoing gender-confirming surgery is brought into the wide range of appearance variation for people of the desired gender,” said Patrick Johnston, head of the California Association of Health Plans. But, he continued, “it remains important in controlling health care costs to continue the distinction between medically necessary services and services designed to improve appearance generally, no matter who the person is.”

Hopefully it will not take more court cases for us to get the insurance coverage that we need.

The Ick Factor In Insurance (Part 1)

That is what former Congressman Barney Frank said of us when he was talking about ENDA; is there an ick factor in healthcare?

Momentum grows for sex reassignment surgery coverage
Politico
By Sarah Wheaton
7/13/14

Advocates welcome the latest shifts but don’t expect a sudden domino effect nationwide. As they press for broader public acceptance, they still have to contend with what one activist called the “ick factor” in discussing sex organs with insurance regulators, private companies and federal agencies.

Even the imprimatur of Medicare is unlikely to change that overnight.

“Sometimes inevitability takes awhile,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. She added wryly, “Marriage equality is still illegal in a handful of states, and the Washington football team is still called the Redskins.”
[…]
“It’s really intense and icky for people, including policymakers, to think about people changing their genitals,” acknowledged Danielle Askini, a founder of the Gender Justice League in Washington state.

Is the lag in coverage the result that no one wants to talk about surgery “down there?” that it creeps them out?

Do We Have To Do Trans 101?

Do we have a responsibility to train people about being trans? Do we have to always be doing outreach?

My answer is no. We are under no obligation to help others understand what it means to be transgender. Many of us like doing outreach while others don't and that is okay but no one should be forced or looked down upon if they do not.. An article in Slate is about that,

Transgender People Are Not Responsible for Educating You
By Parker Marie Molloy
July 10, 2014

Last month, Andrew Sullivan wrote a piece titled “Engaging the T,” in which he lamented how difficult it is to write about or discuss transgender topics. The article, which focuses on actress Laverne Cox’s disinterest in discussing which surgical procedures she’s had done, refers to trans people as “furious,” “touchy,” and “neurotic.” He includes lines like, “Sorry, Laverne. But if you’re out there explaining yourself, you’ve gotta explain all of it.” By “all of it,” Sullivan is referring to the intimate details of Cox’s body.

“Most people are just completely ignorant, and have never met or engaged a trans person, and so their misconceptions and misunderstandings are inevitable and not self-evidently a matter of bigotry or prejudice,” Sullivan rightly notes. “I think we should be understanding of this, as open as we can be, and answer the kinds of questions some might feel inappropriate or offensive. That’s the basis for dialogue, empathy, and progress.” There’s a problem with that second half, about how trans people should open up and answer the inappropriate questions: It completely ignores the fact that there’s already a wealth of information on trans people and their experiences available out there, information you’d already know about if you’d bothered to look.

A classroom is different than a television studio or a checkout line, as the saying goes there is a time and place for everything. But even in a classroom satisfyingly curiosity is not teaching, whether or not you had surgery is not important to understanding what it is like being trans. While the process or the requirements for surgery and what the surgery involves is important. I have done hundreds of outreaches for the for a LGBT speakers organization and I have answered the question if I have had surgery but I am always weighing whether I want to answer the question directly or sidestep the question and answer instead why people cannot or don’t want surgery. Most times I do both, answer the question and tell them why many people cannot have surgery or don’t want surgery.

The article goes on to say,

The genital inquisition is just one of the reasons we need to stop allowing people to use "I'm just trying to be educated" and "How will I learn if you won't teach me?" as cover for prurient curiosity. If you are serious about your trans education, get online or open a book. What's the difference between a gender-fluid individual and a bi-gender individual? What does "dysphoria" mean? Why do some trans individuals get reconstructive genital surgeries while others don't? What does "cisgender" mean? All of these questions can be answered in a matter of seconds. If you truly want to be an ally to trans people, you’ve got to start by doing your homework.

Whether or not you had surgery does not define you and I think that is the point we have to make.

We Are All Protected

When the gender inclusive non-discrimination bill was being heard here in Connecticut we heard from the opposition about “specials rights” for trans-people and we always said that the bill protects everyone not just trans-people. It protects people who other people thought were trans.
An article on KIROTV website titled “Women charged in transgender hate crime” proves what we said all along,

Seattle police have arrested Artega Jackson and have a warrant to arrest Marjorie Marple for allegedly attacking a woman they thought was transgender.

All it took was the perpetrator “thought was transgender” and she was arrested for a hate crime. The article goes on to say,

"It's a bias crime, it's an aggravator, it makes a regular crime even more stricter. And it gets a little more attention from us," said Whitcomb [Sgt. Sean Whitcomb of the Seattle Police Department].

You don’t have to be trans, lesbian, gay or bi to be a victim of a hate crime they just have to think you are and the same goes for all the other protected classes.

The Modern Underground Railroad

In this case helping lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and trans-people flee Uganda and is run by the same people who helped slaves to freedom in the north. In Uganda like many other countries it is a crime being LGBT and carries stiff penalties if you are caught so the Quakers are helping LGBT people flee Uganda.

American Quakers Have Created An "Underground Railroad" In Uganda
But human rights activists in the region aren’t cheering.
Buzzfeed
Posted on July 10, 2014
By J. Lester Feder

A group of American Quakers say they are offering a way out for some desperate Ugandans fleeing the country’s new Anti-Homosexuality Act.

This group, based in Olympia, Wash., calls its project the Friends New Underground Railroad (FNUR) because it sees itself as following in the footsteps of the Quakers who helped bring slaves out of the American South before the Civil War. Working with fewer than 10 Ugandan “conductors,” they report having funded passage out of the country for 107 people with grants ranging from $52-$185. The refugees mostly travel in small groups on back roads and make their way to safe houses in neighboring countries. FNUR says they know of at least 12 people who have gone on to third countries like South Africa and Sweden, and they have received unconfirmed reports that around 30 have reached Europe.

The pushback comes from organized human rights groups,

“This is not the kind of stuff that well-meaning amateurs can do, and the money’s basically going to be wasted,” said Scott Long, the former director of Human Rights Watch’s LGBT program. “I fully appreciate the good intentions here, but … the organizers [should] be persuaded to subordinate their efforts to a recognized refugee NGO [Non-Government Organizations] or to the security committee” of the coalition of Ugandan organizations opposing the anti-LGBT law.
[…]
Independent actors make the alliance of Ugandan organizations leading the charge against the anti-LGBT law very nervous. The group, known as the Civil Society Coalition On Human Rights And Constitutional Law, has established a formal security committee tasked with helping people in crisis situations and would like outsiders to channel their efforts through them. Pop-up groups can make mistakes that put already vulnerable people in even worse danger, they worry, or if they get defrauded it could discourage donors from contributing to responsible groups. Even if they’re well run, they may be diverting resources from the people and organizations that actually need it most.

There is always a danger of people who are more interested in taking your money than getting you safely out of the country but the Quakers are not a fly-by-night organization, they have a long history of humanitarian work.

Saturday Six #535

Patrick’s Place Saturday Six #535

1. How old were you when you got your driver’s license?
Seventeen.

2. What was the year, make and model of your first car?
Okay, I’m going to side step the question since it is a common security question.
It was a white convertible with red interior that was my mother’s car and then my brother’s cars and finally it was my first car. Between my brother and me, I think we had a total of seven accidents with it.

3. What color was your first car and what color do you wish it had been?
I am not particular fond of any color; I usually take the color on the lot with the options that I want. My current car is light blue and I joke that I picked that color to match the state license plate, but in reality that was the only one they had on the lot.

4. Did you buy your first car yourself or was it a family hand-me-down?
They were all hand me downs. My second car was a red  I think 1966 Olds Cutlass Supreme that was passed down from my mother. Then my parents got me a red Opel Kadett Rallye because they didn’t want me driving a “fast” car so they bought me a little 4-cylinder. Little did they know that it wasn’t horsepower but rather horsepower to weight ratio, that car moved! I had it up to a hundred and ten once. Then I had a Vega… big mistake! Then I bought my first car when I graduated from college a green 1974 Toyota Celica GT.

5. Other than family, who was the first person you remember driving somewhere in your car?
I don’t think I ever let anyone else who wasn't family drive my cars.

6. How long did you keep the car?
When I was working I kept a car for about 2-3 years and then sold it, but when I retired I kept my car for 127 thousand miles… a record for me. Most of the time they only had 40 or 50 thousand miles on it; the original set of tires were just wearing out.

Saturday 9: Already Gone

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: Already Gone
(recommended by Diana)

If you're not familiar with today's song, you can hear it here.

1) Eagles lead singer Glenn Frey proclaims that he's "feeling strong." How would you describe yourself this fine Saturday?
Relaxed. Sitting on the deck next to the lake playing this meme.

2) The song begins with a rumor: "I heard some people talking just the other other day ..." Have you heard anything juicy/interesting lately? Please share!
We are on baby watch; my nephew and his wife are expecting their second child this week.

3) When "Already Gone" was popular, the news was dominated by Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal. What do you consider today's top news story?
All of the wars around the world, Iraq, Syria, Israeli, and the Ukraine. It seems like the terrorist are getting bolder. 

4) In the 1970s, Eagles Glenn Frey and Don Henley were at the center of a social circle of very creative people, including singer Linda Ronstadt, singer-songwriter Jackson Browne and actor-comedian Steve Martin. How do you express your creativity?
With the camera.

5) Even though they broke up in 1980, the Eagles are currently on a reunion tour, and after knowing each other more than 40 years, Frey and Henley still consider each other friends. What quality to do you value most in a friendship?
Caring about each other.

6) Are there any mirrors in the room you're in right now?
Nope. I don’t see any hanging in any of the trees around here.

7) What's the last beverage you drank with ice?
Ice coffee.

8) Whole, skim, 2%, half-and-half, almond or soy ... what kind of milk is in your refrigerator right now?
Light cream for coffee.

9) Sam likes to mix sliced almonds into her salad. What do you think makes a good salad?
Goat cheese, cranberries, and walnuts with a raspberry vinaigrette.

Our Medical Records

Have you noticed a change when you now go to the doctor’s?

Instead of scribbling away on a paper they are typing on a computer, your medical records are now online. I see it as both a blessing and a curse, the blessing is wherever you are your medical records are available to the doctors. If you are on vacation and need medical attention the doctor can pull up your records. The curse is that they can be hacked.

But that is not what I want to write about this afternoon, what I want to write about is how we as trans-people are handled by the Electronic Medical Records (EMR). WPATH members of the Transgender Health EMR Working Group published a report in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association titled “Electronic medical records and the transgender patient: recommendations from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health EMR Working Group.” In the article they write about the problems that are unique to the trans-community with using EMR, in the old days (before electronic records) the doctor just stuck a note to your records saying that you are trans and it was not a part of your office medical record. But now everything is part of your electronic record.

Transgender patients have particular needs with respect to demographic information and health records; specifically, transgender patients may have a chosen name and gender identity that differs from their current legally designated name and sex. Additionally, sex-specific health information, for example, a man with a cervix or a woman with a prostate, requires special attention in electronic health record (EHR) systems…

And that is the problem I ran into a couple of weeks ago, my insurance didn’t want to pay for my PSA test.

Some of the recommendations that they made are;

• Preferred name, gender identity, and pronoun preference, as identified by patients, should be included as demographic variables (such as with ethnicity).
• Provide a means to maintain an inventory of a patient's medical transition history and current anatomy.
• The system should allow a smooth transition from one listed name, anatomical inventory, and/or sex to another, without affecting the integrity of the remainder of the patient's record.
• A system should exist to notify providers and clinic staff of a patient's preferred name and/or pronoun (if either or both of these differ from the current legal documented name/sex).

As more trans-people become covered by insurance having some way to document our changes while still respecting our right to privacy become a tightrope walk. Another challenge for doctors and insurance carriers is how to assure our right to medically necessary treatments.

The Jane Does In This World

There has been a lot in the news recently about the 16 year old Jane Doe who was held in an adult women’s prison, but she is just the tip of the iceberg.

Children stuck in crisis
Connecticut's psychiatric emergency gets worse
CT Mirror
By Arielle Levin Becker

"The mental health system in Connecticut is just a series of ER visits and hospitalizations, but there’s no continuity. ... I hate to say this, but I really feel like they just expect kids like my son to end up in jail." 

—Kathleen Harding-Wheeler, mother of a child with mental health needs and developmental disorder

And that is the truth! If it wasn’t for all the protests and all the people working for her on the inside and her lawyer, Jane Doe would still be in the women’s prison until she turned 18 and then she would have been tossed out on the street.

“The mental health system in Connecticut is just a series of ER visits and hospitalizations, but there’s no continuity,” Harding-Wheeler said.

Some people have advised her to take more drastic action to get Peter the mental health care he needs.

“People have said to us, ‘Bring him to the ER and don’t go back, don’t answer their calls, don’t do anything,'" Harding-Wheeler said. They've told her the Department of Children and Families would file neglect charges against her and her husband, and would find Peter a place in residential treatment while investigating.

But she can’t bring herself to do it. Making her son feel abandoned doesn’t seem like the right way to help him.

The article goes on to say that Peter is not alone, at sometimes there are twenty children like Peter waiting in the ER for a place to stay or to be evaluated. Some link the problem to the DCF,

And some clinicians, including Namerow, see a link to the push in recent years by the state Department of Children and Families to have more children and adolescents living in family settings, rather than in residential treatment or group homes and other types of congregate care. Clinicians and other mental health providers say they agree with the goal, but that without adequate services to support those young people in the community, the shift can produce problems for the kids, with ripple effects for the rest of the system. Department officials caution against drawing a connection.

Critics want to cut the DCF budget even more but what they don’t say is the number of children in DCF care while have decreased the complexity of the cases have increased. The CT Mirror reported last October,

The state agency responsible for caring for thousands of abused and neglected children would finally be on the right path to ending 20 years of federal court oversight if not for its "inadequate" staffing levels, the court monitor overseeing the agency reports. Because there are too few social workers and every case they receive now is complex, "the system is stressed," the monitor reports.

The Department of Children and Families has 398 fewer caseload-carrying social workers today than in January 2011 –- a 29 percent reduction. Agencywide, the department has 326 fewer staff members (which includes social workers and other positions) since fiscal 2011 -- a 9 percent drop.

“Social workers reluctantly note on a fairly regular basis that they are forced to make difficult decisions on how to allocate their case management efforts. They describe their inability to effectively meet all of the daily demands to assist their clients,” Raymond Mancuso, the federal court monitor, reported last week.
[…]
But there's a rub: The court monitor and other child advocates worry that the agency’s efforts to divert less-severe cases to nonprofit providers have left workers with caseloads of 100 percent difficult and demanding cases.

“Staffing levels are inadequate given the complexity of cases that now make up the pool of investigations and ongoing service cases that social workers have on their caseloads,” Mancuso reports.

The understaffing has taken a toll on Jane Doe and Peter and all the other children “in the system” and it is only going to get worst.

Meanwhile,

Let’s Continue to Improve Justice for LGBT Youth
National Council for Behavioral Health
Spark Action
By Adam D. Swanson
June 23, 2014

As Congress considers reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), there is an opportunity to substantially improve the way our justice system deals with youth delinquency and its prevention. Through this process, it is important that vulnerable LGBT youth — years away from feeling the effect of strides like Windsor v. U.S. — are not left behind. LGBT Americans under the age of 18 experience higher rates of violence; are four times more likely to attempt suicide; are disproportionately homeless; and are more likely to be involved in the juvenile justice system when compared to their heterosexual peers.

Young LGBT individuals are exposed to several risk factors that increase their chances of interacting with the justice system. Chief among these are frequently hostile school environments. Research indicates a majority of LGB children begin to identify their same-sex attractions as early as age 10. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the more than 7,000 LGBT students surveyed in 2009 between the ages of 13 and 21, eight in every ten students had been verbally harassed, 40 percent had been physically harassed, and one in every five had been the victim of a physical assault at school within the past year.

For 2014 budget the White House has proposed $70 million for the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) Title II State Formula Grants Program and the House budgeted only $20 million. For the Juvenile Accountability Block Grant (JABG) Program, White House proposed $30 million and the House proposed $0 and for the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act Title V Delinquency Prevention Program, White House proposed $65 million and the House $0.

At a time when kids are at their most vulnerable and at time where they can be helped to become productive adults the rug is going to be pulled out from them. When ERs are back upped with kids needing mental health care, when kids like Jane Doe are thrown in adult prison instead of therapy, the Republicans have not just cut the budget but have written it out of the budget altogether.

When You Sign A Contract…

…You do not get to pick what parts of the contract you will honor, you have to go by the terms and conditions of the whole contract.

One of the immediate results of the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court ruling was Gordon College requested to be exempt from President Obama’s Executive Order banning discrimination against gender identity and sexual orientation. The Washington Post reported that,

A small Christian college in Massachusetts has come under fire for petitioning President Obama to be exempted from an order that prohibits federal contractors from discriminating based on a person’s sexual orientation.

Gordon College, which has about 2,100 students, was the lone institution of higher learning to join a slew of religious organizations and charities in signing a letter to Obama that asked for an exemption.

The fallout from the letter was swift and leads us to signing contracts…

On Wednesday, the mayor of Salem, Mass. dropped the city’s contract with Gordon College to manage its Old Town Hall facility, citing a non-discrimination ordinance.

“While I respect your right to embed religious values on a private college campus, religious freedom does not afford you the right to impose those beliefs upon others and cannot be extended into a publicly owned facility or any management contract for a public owned facility, like Old Town Hall,” wrote Mayor Kim Driscoll.

It seems like the college does not think it has to follow the contract they signed. When the spotlight fell on them, the fact that their student handbook forbids homosexual practice and extra-marital sex was pointed out. Salem’s non-discrimination ordinance prohibit discrimination on sexual orientation and marital status.

The Boston Globe quoted the mayor as saying,

Mayor Kimberley Driscoll, who also cited the college’s longstanding policies prohibiting gay activities among students, said Gordon’s policies violate a city ordinance prohibiting Salem from contracting with entities that discriminate.

But she said it would be “even more troubling” to have the city do business with “an institution that enables, and now advocates for, discrimination against the [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] community.”

“As mayor, I most certainly cannot let that stand,” Driscoll wrote in a letter to D. Michael Lindsay, president of Gordon, located in nearby Wenham.
[…]
In her letter, Driscoll wrote that Salem has had “a long and positive relationship with Gordon College over the years” and she was saddened to cut ties with the school.

But she told Lindsay, “I hope you realize how hurtful and offensive these ‘behavioral standards’ are to members of the greater Salem LGBT community, some of whom are Gordon alumni, staff and/or students.”

I expect that there will be an out-crying from the religious right claiming that their religious freedom to discriminate is being stepped upon.

I Was Talking To A Friend The Other Day

How should I put it… we are both elders… naw, we are both old timers.

The conversation turned to phone books and we both commented that they are going the way of the dinosaur; who uses a phonebook anymore when you have every phone number at your fingertips. You just look it up on the internet.

Need to look up a word, just go to the online dictionary. Wonder what a store looks like, looking it up on Google Street View or for that matter why even go to the store when you can buy it online. Finish a book in the middle of the night, shop online, and download a new book at 3AM.

When I was growing up you were tied to a landline if you wanted to talk on the phone, if no one was home there were no answering machine or voice mail. If you wanted to research a topic you went to a library and looked it up in a card file. Now look at my blog and all the hyperlinks, no longer do you have to go to a brick and mortar building to look something up, you just click on the link.

In my grandmother’s life they went from getting around in a horse and buggy to walking on the moon. She told me once that they used to go on picnics in Greenfield Hill from the center of Fairfield a distance of about five miles and it took them over an hour to get there. Now I go up to New Hampshire for a day trip.

The first computer that I learned to program on was an IBM 1620 and it took punch cards. My first computer was an AIM 65 and the memory size was 4K; that is Kilo, not Meg, not Gig.

My grandmother never in her wildest dreams would have thought the man would be walking on the moon. I never dreamed of the internet or smartphones. Where will the kids of today be in fifty years?

ENDA Is Unacceptable

Back in June I wrote how I could no long support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that the Senate passed. The religious exemption is too board and it exceeds what is allowed in Tile VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Today a number of LGBT and civil rights organizations also pulled their support of the bill. GLAD (Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defender) issued this press release today…

July 8, 2014
Joint Statement on Withdrawal of Support for ENDAand Call for Equal Workplace Protections for LGBT People

The following national organizations have signed onto the below statement:
American Civil Liberties Union; Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders; Lambda Legal;
National Center for Lesbian Rights; and Transgender Law Center.

The provision in the current version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that allows religious organizations to discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity has long been a source of significant concern to us.  Given the types of workplace discrimination we see increasingly against LGBT people, together with the calls for greater permission to discriminate on religious grounds that followed immediately upon the Supreme Court’s decision last week in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, it has become clear that the inclusion of this provision is no longer tenable.  It would prevent ENDA from providing protections that LGBT people desperately need and would make very bad law with potential further negative effects.  Therefore, we are announcing our withdrawal of support for the current version of ENDA.
[…]
Our ask is a simple one:  Do not give religiously affiliated employers a license to discriminate against LGBT people when they have no such right to discriminate based on race, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information.  Religiously affiliated organizations are allowed to make hiring decisions based on their religion, but nothing in federal law authorizes discrimination by those organizations based on any other protected characteristic, and the rule should be the same for sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.  Religious organizations are free to choose their ministers or faith leaders, and adding protections for sexual orientation and gender identity or expression will not change that.

Meanwhile the New Civil Rights Movement reported that the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) still supports ENDA,

Today, after the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), the Transgender Law Center, and the AFL-CIO's Pride at Work all announced they are dropping support of ENDA after the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling, HRC again stood firm.

“HRC supports ENDA because it will provide essential workplace protections to millions of LGBT people,” Sainz [HRC vice president] said again today.

We, the trans-community have won a number of court cases that have ruled that we are covered by Title VII and also a number of federal agencies have also ruled that we are covered the Civil Rights Act. Agencies such as the EEOC, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Education all have said that it is against the law to discriminate based on gender identity.

There is a court case where a gay man is suing his former employer for firing him because he is gay. He claims that Title VII also protects him because “sexual stereotypes” which the Supreme Court said was prohibited in the Price Waterhouse case. If he wins it will also mean that sexual orientation is covered under Title VII.

Therefore, ENDA would weaken the protection that we have under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A transgender nurse would be protected if she was working in a religious owned hospital, but ENDA with strip that protection. When it comes to human rights we cannot allow any more Three-Fifths Compromises

The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) has been silent, will they also join the organizations that have pulled their support of ENDA?

Update 7/9/14 6:00PM
I just found this on the NCTE website about their ENDA Lobby Day...

NCTE, in partnership with six local and national LGBT organizations, is excited to announce the 2014 Transgender Lobby Day taking place in Washington D.C., July 14-15, 2014. All are invited to help enact explicit federal job protections for transgender people. With transgender people leading the effort, we can educate members of Congress about transgender issues and move a modified version of ENDA forward (one without the overly broad religious exemption). We will also be pressing for the Student Non-Discrimination Act. 

So evidently they also do not support the current ENDA.

Will This Case Make It To The Supreme Court?

There is another Hobby Lobby case that is making its way through the legal system, this case is about a trans-woman who works for Hobby Lobby. She was denied the use of the women’s restroom and she filed a claim with Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) alleging discrimination in employment and public accommodation.

The Transgender Rights Case Against Hobby Lobby
Newsweek
By Zach Schonfeld
Filed: 7/8/14

Sommerville, a frame shop manager, joined Hobby Lobby in 1998, when she was still living as a man. She wasn’t fired when she transitioned in 2009 or when she legally changed her name the following year. Instead, she was written up for using the women’s bathroom.

“Since then they still have denied me use of the women's restroom, even though my state ID [and] even the health benefits of my own company recognize me as female,” Sommerville told Newsweek. She also retroactively changed the gender listed on her birth certificate. “I'm just looking to be treated equally with every other female in the company—not just in the store, but in the company. If they recognize me as female for certain things, why can't they recognize me as female for everything?”

Anyone want to place some bets that this case goes all the way to the Supreme Court?

A Transgender Forum Without The “T”… What Else Is New.

This is so old that it is no long news, whether it LGBT history, a forum, a planning committee it seems like if we are invited it is just an afterthought.

In Louisville they are discussing trans-issues without a trans-person on the panel…

Louisville Forum on Transgender Issues Doesn't Include Any Transgender Panelists
WFPL
June 30, 2014

The Louisville Forum's July discussion will tackle the issue of growing up transgender in Louisville—though none of the four panelists are transgender.

The move has prompted criticism from some LGBTQ and transgender activists and writers.

Dale Josey, co-chair for the programs and issues committee for the Forum, a nonpartisan public issues group, said organizers asked Karen Berg, the mother of a trans student, to take part in the panel and represent the human side of the issue.

Close, but no cigar.

Why not have both? A parent and a trans-person, after all it is about trans-people shouldn’t they be the most panelists?

But Louisville is not alone, last year in Connecticut the Connecticut Forum had a forum on "cultural attitudes surrounding LGBT issues," but at least it was tilted “Bring Gay” but all the ads pushed a “LGBT” panel. In reality it was just gays and a lesbian from “Gay Inc.” The panel was Martina Navratilova, Dan Savage, and Bishop Gene Robinson, now tell me that this panel had a lot in common most gays and lesbians struggle in life.

Fort Terry

Training exercise Ft. H.G. Wright pre-WW II

Or as most people know it, Plum Island.

During World War II the islands off of the end of Long Island and off of New London protected the New London submarine base from Germany U-Boats which were very active in the area. To counter the U-Boat threat the army built a series of coastal defense fortification at the end of Long Island Sound. They were Ft. H. G. Wright on Fishers Island, Fort Michie on Great Gull Island, Camp Hero at the end of Montauk Point, and Fort Terry on Plum Island.

My father during the early part of WW II when the U-Boat threat was the highest was stationed at Fort H. G. Wright and traveled to all of the forts under his unit command (242^nd Coastal Artillery).

After the war the bases were deactivated and abandoned. Fishers Island became a playground for the rich and they basically made it into their own private island. Fort Michie became a bird sanctuary and Fort Terry became an animal disease research center.

Now they are moving the research center to Kansas and selling the island. If the sale goes through it will probably become another private island playground for the rich. The Connecticut congressional delegation is trying to block the sale.

Legislators Call On Congress To Reverse Plum Island Mandate
By Matthew Q. Clarida
The Hartford Courant
July 2, 2014

A group of Connecticut and New York lawmakers is calling on Congress to reverse a mandate requiring the sale of the federally controlled Plum Island in Long Island Sound.

The island, which rests to the east of Long Island's Orient Point within the New York state boundary, is home to a federal animal disease research facility. But most of it is undeveloped or vacant—a military base on the island was deserted years ago—and hosts a variety of migratory birds and unobstructed plant life.
[…]
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a press release that the unique habitat on Plum Island should be protected.

"Plum Island is a priceless natural habitat that must be preserved and protected from development. Congress must repeal its short-sighted decision to sell this environmental treasure to the highest bidder," he said.

I agree, the island should be protected. It can become a park like the coastal defense fortification that defended Portland Maine. They took their fort and made it into a beautiful historic park. This is a tremendous opportunity to save a bit of our history and at the same time preserve the wildlife on the island.

He Gets It…

Many times we hear about how much better LGBT people have it today, many times we hear how life is a bed of flowers, and everyone is singing Kumbaya together, but life for trans-people is not always like that.

No Big Deal?
By Jesse Monteagudo
Gay Today
July 3, 2014

I am old enough to remember when being gay was a Big Deal. When I came out (in 1973) to be gay was to rebel against the universe. To paraphrase the gay writer and film director John Waters, to be gay back then meant you did not get married, have children, or serve in the military. Nowadays, of course, all that lesbians and gay men want to do is to get married, have children, or serve in the military. I am not surprised. Like most other people, most lesbians, gay men and bisexuals are conservative, and if society treats them fairly their natural instincts would come forth. Besides, there is nothing our society values more than marriage, parentage and military service. Lesbian, gay and bisexual people become more acceptable when we incorporate those values, not as pretend straights but as openly lesbian, gay or bisexual people.

You notice that I left out transgender people from the previous paragraph. This is because being transgender is still a Big Deal. Today trans* people are in the same fix, minus AIDS, that LGB people were twenty years ago. It is still illegal for Ts to serve in the military. Legislation that bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation often ignores discrimination on the basis of gender identity. Trans* people, especially transgender women of color, are often victims of violence, more so than those of us who are lesbian, gay or bi. Transphobic prejudice is more prevalent than homophobia, even among members of our LGBT community.

And another headline that I saw this week comes to mind… “Apparent transgender attack in L5P caught on video” where “It is the second apparent attack on a transgender woman in Atlanta caught on video in the last six weeks.”

No, it is not better for those trans-women or gay men who cannot integrate into society.

Wishful Thinking Or BS?

The list is almost endless of Republicans trying to block anything LGBT from marriage to equal rights to adoption to rounding us up and putting us in to concentration camps.

So it was with much amazement that I read that a trans-woman is a Republican and it is even more amazing what she had to say about her party…

Transgender and Republican: Lauren Scott could make history in November
Las Vegas Sun
By Kyle Roerink
Sunday, July 6, 2014

Lauren Scott isn’t running a typical Republican campaign.

She is a transgender, renewable energy consultant running for Assembly District 30 in Washoe County.
[…]
You worked on John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign in Florida as an LGBT campaign chair. Why did you switch to the Republican Party?

I believe in competition and business development. I want a job. I know people want to work.

By working in the Legislature, I see how the Democrats exploit minorities to pass other policies. The Democrats have passed a lot of LGBT initiatives, but look at history: the Democrats and Jim Crow. Bill Clinton signed “don’t ask, don’t tell.” It was Log Cabin Republicans who got that repealed. A lot of my platform is good economic policy and fiscal development and that I happen to be transgender.
[…]
I think I am one of many faces. Log Cabin Republicans are growing leaps and bounds. Log Cabins have been active in Las Vegas and are starting in Reno. Though the party and Fox News won’t tell you this: There are more Latinos and transgender people joining the party.

At a local level Republicans are willing to listen and talk to you. They’re not looking for someone who’s radical.

“It was Log Cabin Republicans who got that repealed” really? It is nice to live in a dream world where you look through rose colors glasses. The Log Cabin Republicans were kicked out of the Texas GOP convention. The Houston Chronicle reported,

AUSTIN – The Texas Republican Party has denied a request by the Log Cabin Republicans, a national group representing gay conservatives, to man a booth at the state party’s annual convention in Fort Worth next week, a move the group says threatens to give fodder to Democrats seeking to turn Texas blue.

The refusal is just one small part of the LCR’s concerns with the state party and the platform it’s espousing. The Texas GOP denied the request based on language in the 2012 party platform that states, “the practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society and contributes to the breakdown of the family unit.” But Gregory T. Angelo, LCR National executive director, said he was not interested in an offer from the Texas Democratic Party to attend its convention.

“Thanks. But no thanks,” Angel said in response to the offer. “We’re loyal Republicans.” Angelo said his group is determined to show the Texas state party it is out of step with national trends, adding there is pressure from the state party’s “anti-gay fringe” to add language to the platform that supports programs attempting to convince gay youth they can be “converted” straight.

They also received the snub at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the Huffington Post wrote,

WASHINGTON -- Though the Republican Party's stance on same-sex marriage faced criticism from within its own ranks following the 2012 election, this year's session of the top conservative gabfest will not include the two leading conservative gay rights groups.

GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans will not be participating in the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, top executives from both groups confirmed on Wednesday.

"We were kicked out last year and nothing has changed and we wont be at CPAC," GOProud's Jimmy LaSalvia said in an interview. "The last communication I've had from them is that we were kicked out. Nothing has changed."

Dream a little dream Ms. Scott…

And as for “There are more Latinos and transgender people joining the party.” I suppose that is true, you joined and the number of trans-Republicans in Nevada increased by a 100%. How many transgender delegates were are the Republican 2012 National Convention, zero. How many at the Democratic National Convention, 13 and the Democrats had a total of 486 LGBT delegates at their convention. I searched and searched the web to find out the total LGBT delegates at the Republican National Convention and all I could find was this in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette…

On Sunday, he attended a convention welcome party sponsored by the Log Cabin Republicans, a group that advocates equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Americans.

Log Cabin Republicans sponsored the hors d'oeuvres reception. Gay rights groups are hosting other events this week to coincide with the Republican National Convention in Tampa, too. There's a brunch to honor gay delegates, an "Out to Win" party to support gay candidates in down-ticket races, and GOProud's "Homocon," which organizers promise will be a party, not "one of those boring GOP cocktail receptions."

And nowhere did it say how many attended the party, judging from the video I would say less than fifty. Meanwhile at the other party…

They cheered when Texas Senate candidate Ted Cruz said marriage should be between one man and one woman, and they clapped when coalition founder Ralph Reed slammed President Barack Obama for supporting gay marriage.

Yes Ms. Scott can dream your dream but in reality there are Republican leaders who want you put in a concentration camp.

Update 7/9/14
Not only do they want to put us in concentration camps but they want to stone us, according to MSNBC...

Scott Esk, a Republican candidate for the Oklahoma state house, endorsed stoning gay people to death last year in a comment thread on Facebook.

In published screenshots from TheMooreDaily.com, a local news site in Oklahoma, Esk was discussing a story about the Pope in July of 2013 when he left a comment quoting Leviticus 20:13 from the New American Standard Bible which reads:

    If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them.

In the back and forth comments that followed, Esk was asked by another Facebook user, “So, just to be clear, you think we should execute homosexuals (presumably by stoning)?”

“I think we would be totally in the right to do it,“ Scott Esk replies. “That goes against some parts of libertarianism, I realize, and I’m largely libertarian, but ignoring as a nation things that are worthy of death is very remiss.”

The Fourth Of July…

...Was washed out from Hurricane Arthur at the cottage in New Hampshire so we went to where the rain wasn’t, Vermont.

We went to Billings Farm and Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Park in Woodstock for a day trip. I never knew that there were any national parks in New England other than Acadia National Park in Maine; the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Park is a new federal park that opened in 1992. The National Park website says this about the park,

Nestled among the rolling hills and pastures of eastern-central Vermont, the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park is the only national park to tell the story of conservation history and the evolving nature of land stewardship in America. The boyhood home of George Perkins Marsh, one of America's first conservationists, and later the home of Frederick Billings, the property was given to the American people by its most recent owners, Laurance S. and Mary F. Rockefeller. The park was created by an Act of Congress and signed into law by President George Bush on August 26, 1992. Under law, the purposes of the park are as follows:

•     To interpret the history and evolution of conservation stewardship in America;
•     To recognize and interpret the contributions and birthplace of George Perkins Marsh, pioneering environmentalist, author of Man and Nature, statesman, lawyer, and linguist;
•     To recognize and interpret the contributions of Frederick Billings, conservationist, pioneer in reforestation and scientific farm management, lawyer, philanthropist, and railroad builder, who extended the principles of land management introduced by Marsh;
•     To preserve the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller mansion and its surrounding lands; and
•     To recognize the significant contributions of Julia Billings, Mary Billings French, Mary French Rockefeller, and Laurance Spelman Rockefeller in perpetuating the Marsh-Billings heritage.

[…]
The park seeks to put the idea of conservation stewardship into a modern context, interpreting the idea of place and the ways in which humans can balance natural resource conservation with the requirements of our twenty-first century world. The Conservation Study Institute, established by the National Park Service to enhance leadership in conservation and facilitate stewardship partnerships in local communities, is also located at the park.

The park is across the street from the Billings Farm (Yes, it is the same Billings that Billings Montana is named after), it a working farm from 1890s complete with livestock. Their website says…

Get to know our Jerseys, sheep, horses, oxen, and chickens through interactive programs and activities. Explore the barns and calf nursery and watch the afternoon milking of the herd. Visitors will experience a first-hand sampling of actual farm work, animals, and agricultural processes. The authentically restored 1890 Farm House, the center of the farm and forestry operation a century ago – features the farm manager's office, family living quarters – and creamery, where butter was produced for market. Interactive programs in the farmhouse for visitors and students interpret 19th century agricultural improvement, butter production, and domestic life. Engaging exhibits housed in 19th century barns depict the annual cycle of rural life and work, as well as the cultural values of Vermont farm families a century ago.

But I didn’t care about the livestock since when I was growing up we had farms all around us and in addition, we only had time for visiting the farmhouse before the tour of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller mansion began.

This is the barn yard and fields where you can take a wagon tour around them…

We then toured the farmhouse where they made butter in the basement, the Farmcollector website described the process…

In the late 1800s, butter was the Billings farm's principal commodity. The farm produced about 5,000 pounds of it in peak years. Located in the walkout lower level of the farm manager's house, the creamery consists of two fairly small rooms. The first room, closest to the barn, is where milk was delivered and transferred into special separator cans that were then immersed in ice water-laden Cooley creamers. Once sufficient time had passed for the cream to rise, the cans were raised out of the ice water, and the skim milk was drained into a galvanized metal gutter that delivered it to the slop bucket.

The tanks against the right wall and along the back wall are the Cooley creamers. And the tank to the left is,

The cream was then transferred into a water-jacketed Vermont Machine Co. 50-gallon tempering vat, brought to a temperature of about 60 degrees and held for several hours. That caused a slight souring response that imparted a then-desirable tang to the butter. Once enough warm and partially sour cream had been collected (about 50 gallons) it was transferred to a Vermont Machine Co. No. 8 Davis swing butter churn suspended by wrought hooks from the ceiling. The churn was powered with a pitman connected through a line shaft eccentric to a small water engine driven by water piped from the farm's pond up on the hill.

The churn…

The water turbine…

We then went upstairs to the pallor; the farmhouse was one of the first houses in Woodstock to have gas thanks to Mr. Billings. Notice the hose coming off the overhead gas lamps and going to a gas lamp on the table, which was the equivalent of today’s table lamps.

This is the guest room where the grandmother stayed, notice the bootjack in the lower left next to the pair of women’s shoes.

We then walked over to the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller mansion carriage house where the tour of the mansion begins after about a ten minute discourse on the national park we headed out to the mansion. This is the front of the mansion…

Overlooking the farm and mountain across the river…

Pictures are not allowed inside the mansion. Once inside the walls are covered with “Hudson River School” paintings and it is one of the largest private collections of the Hudson River School. I am a big fan of the Hudson River style of painting and the Wadsworth Atheneum and the New Britain Museum of American Art have some of the largest public collections of the Hudson River School in the world. So I was stunned to find another collection of that style of painting. A complete description of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park grounds can be found here.

After we left the house we walked over to see the gardens…

 

One of the things that they mentioned throughout the tour of the mansion was the book by George Perkins Marsh the first owner of the mansion titled “Man and Nature: Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action.” It was a book ahead of its time, Marsh writes about how man is effecting nature and altering the climate. In an 1847 speech he said,

Man cannot at his pleasure command the rain and the sunshine, the wind and frost and snow, yet it is certain that climate itself has in many instances been gradually changed and ameliorated or deteriorated by human action. 

He recognized back then what we now call global warming, he saw that what we were doing to the land causes climate change. I got his book for free in Kindle format from Amazon.

Saturday Six #534

Patrick’s Place Saturday Six #534

1. Z is for ZEPPOLE: When buying a dozen doughnuts, do you prefer them hot, cold or room temperature?
Unfortunately as a diabetic I can no longer eat donuts.

2. Z is for ZITI: What is your favorite Italian dish?
I’m a simple girl with simple tastes… spaghetti and meatballs. But I can have only one and a half ounces of pasta or about 30 grams of carbohydrates so I add a lots of peppers and onions.

3. Z is for ZOO: Which animal do you most enjoy watching at a zoo?
I haven’t been to a zoo in probably 50 years and I'm not a big fan of watching caged up animals.

4. Z is for ZOOLOGIST: Which animal would you most fear trying to take care of if you worked at a zoo?
Poisonous snakes.

5. Z is for ZUPPA: What is your favorite flavor of soup?
Lobster Bisque but I have to watch the carbs.

6. Z is for ZYMURGY: If you could brew your own beer, what style of beer would you most likely want to produce?
Another no-no… again too many carbs.