Two Wins Are Better Than One

We had two big wins that other day, both of them were about birth certificates. The first was in Indiana, in a press release Transgender Law Center said,

December 5, 2014 – Transgender Law Center celebrated the decision issued yesterday by the Indiana Court of Appeals recognizing the legal change of gender of a transgender man. The decision reversed a lower court ruling that had denied the request because no Indiana statute addresses courts’ authority to issue such orders. Transgender Law Center represented the man, known in court filings only as “John Doe,” along with the pro bono assistance of the law firm of Faegre Baker Daniels.
[…]
The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed. The decision issued today by a unanimous three-judge panel noted that “the vast majority of states, including Indiana” have long allowed legal gender changes. While Indiana does not have a specific statute permitting changes of gender on birth certificates, the court held that under the Indiana statute that provides “general authority for the amendment of birth certificates,” as well as the “inherent equity power” of courts, the trial court did have authority to grant the order.

The appeals court further noted that a trial court’s “ultimate focus” in considering such an order “should be on whether the petition is made in good faith and not for a fraudulent or unlawful purpose”—not on whether the person has had any particular type of medical treatment, such as surgery. The Court of Appeals instructed the trial court to issue an order directing the state health department to amend Doe’s birth certificate “to reflect his male gender.”

Meanwhile New York City’s City Council passed a bill that allow birth certificate to be changed without surgery bring the city in-line with the state policy.

New York's Transgender Residents Will Now Be Able To Change Birth Certificate Sex Designation Without Surgery
The Huffington Post
By Curtis M. Wong
Posted: 12/08/2014

Members of New York's transgender community and advocates are praising the city council's vote to pass legislation making it easier for residents to correct the sex designation on their birth certificates.

The bill, which passed passed [sic] 39-4 with three abstentions, will allow transgender New Yorkers to change the birth certificate designation without proof they have had gender confirmation surgery, officials from the Empire State Pride Agenda confirmed to The Huffington Post in an email statement.

Even though it looks like the bill had by-partisan support, the council only have three Republicans on it.

A Photos Tells A Thousand Stories

The first time I went to Fantasia Fair there was a woman there who was photographing many of the attendees (only those who wanted to be photographed) and you could arrange to have your portrait by her. It turned out that she was the world known photographer Mariette Pathy Allen, with works shown all over the world, including Brooklyn Museum of Art, Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts, and France’s Bibliotheque Natoinale.

She was interviewed by the National Endowments for the Arts last July

Art Talk with Mariette Pathy Allen 
July 9, 2014
By Paulette Beete

In some ways Mariette Pathy Allen’s career in the arts has been a series of fortuitous—and life-changing—accidents. An encounter with a work by Matisse during a childhood visit to New York’s Museum of Modern Art revealed Allen’s innate fluency with visual language. Later, a chance opportunity to attend an off-campus photography workshop while she was studying painting at the University of Pennsylvania changed the direction of her art practice. And a casual invitation to join a group of costumed revelers for breakfast during a New Orleans vacation introduced Allen to the subject matter that’s been the primary focus of her work ever since.

Since Allen’s first book—Transformations: Crossdressers and Those Who Love Them which revealed the hidden world of male-to-female crossdressers--she has explored the transgender community in its many iterations. Allen’s sensitive portraits are neither about voyeurism nor judgment. Rather, as she explained in our interview, she wants her subjects to have a positive reflection of who they are. “What I realized pretty early on is that these people—crossdressers in particular—were totally misunderstood and maligned by the general public,” Allen said. “And there was nothing for them to look at so that they could identify who they were.”

I have an autographed copies of her first book and her second book, The Gender Frontier and while she was up at Fantasia Fair this year she showed photographs from her newest book, TransCuba.

The interviewer goes on to ask…

NEA: That community has been your subject now for a number of decades. What do you think it is as an artist that brings you back to the same subject? What are the questions that you’re investigating artistically via the community?  
ALLEN: “Questions” is a good way of putting it. I feel like I’m always questioning what is gender? What makes us men and women other than actual anatomy? Why do we decide that certain characteristics are masculine or feminine? What is appearance? All of those kinds of issues of essence and who one is--identity. When I was in high school the course I was most excited about was anthropology because when I studied that I was confirmed in my feelings that any culture can create its own way of looking at things in the world. And that just because we in the West see things in a certain way or made certain assumptions, that doesn’t mean that’s true all over the world. So I guess there’s a part of me that is an anthropologist in that way. I loved the idea of living in this sort of hidden community, which is what it was then, not so much now. And being part of it and being able to step in it so deeply and participating [in it]. And then as an artist, of course, I find it absolutely fascinating.

 What I realized pretty early on is that these people--cross dressers in particular--were totally misunderstood and maligned by the general public. And there was nothing for them to look at so that they could identify who they were. If they went to a library all they could find would be statistical manuals and nothing that could make them feel good about themselves. You know, it was always presented as some kind of illness. And the only other place they could find anything about people in any way like themselves were at porn shops. And for most of the people I knew neither of these directions helped them in any way to understand their own identity. People I met at conventions told me they had grown up thinking they were insane or that they were terribly evil. I mean most churches would not have accepted them--and some churches probably still don’t…. There was so much self-hate and shame and fear and sense of humiliation and everything. And I should say that I was mostly only involved with men at the time, male-to-female cross dressers for the first decade or so.

She goes on to describe how she began photographing us and what message she is trying to communicate with her photographs.

Out Art & Books website has a photo exhibit of her new book TransCuba

Medically Necessary, What Does It Mean?

We have been working to have our medical expenses covered because the medical community has found that by having proper medical treatment it improves the quality of our lives. Withhold that treatment is inhumane and sometimes it is controversial.
There is an article in the Guardian about a letter that Private Chelsea Manning wrote to them about the military not allowing trans-people to serve in the military and about being denied medical treatment that is deemed to be medically necessary. In the article it says that,

Separately, she is suing the US military over its denial to her of gender dysphoria treatment, despite defense secretary Chuck Hagel having approved the process in July.
[…]
Last week, in a case heralded by the American Civil Liberties Union, the US army “fully recognised” the new names of two transgender veterans from New Jersey. The decision cleared a path for the two, who were named only as Jennifer and Nicolas, to receive veterans’ benefits.
[…]
Manning adds: “A doctor, a judge or a piece of paper shouldn’t have the power to tell someone who he or she is. We should all have the absolute and inalienable right to define ourselves, in our own terms and in our own languages, and to be able to express our identity and perspectives without fear of consequences and retribution.

Many people, including trans-people feel that prisoners should not have treatment for gender dysphoria while in jail, but when you ask them if prisoners who have cancer or a heart condition should have treatment for their medical problems while in jail they say yes. To pick and choose what medical treatment that you will give inmates is both ethically and legally wrong. The courts have ruled that denying transgender inmates medically necessary treatment for gender dysphoria violate the Eighth Amendment, “nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” In the case of Smith v. Fields the state of Wisconsin banned any treatment for gender dysphoria and three inmates sued the state. They won in federal court which ruled that it was a violation of the Eighth Amendment, the state appealed and the inmates won the appeal and the Supreme Court refused to hear the case letting the judgment of the Appeals court stand.

Whether you like it or not, Private Chelsea Manning and all other trans-prisoners should have all the treatment that is medically necessary.

Religious Freedom At The Expense Of Others

There are those who say that religious freedom is being abridged because the law says you cannot discriminate against certain classes of people.

Religious freedom bill passes out of Michigan House
By Kathleen Gray
Detroit Free Press
December 4, 2014

LANSING — A bill providing protections for people with sincerely held religious beliefs was put on a fast track Thursday, passing out of the House Judiciary committee and the full House of Representatives on straight party line votes Thursday.

Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, who sponsored the bill, said the measure will do none of the horrible things opponents will claim but merely protect people and their beliefs and practice of religion.

He cited several examples of protections, from the baker who doesn't want to provide a wedding cake to same-sex marriage couple to the Jewish mother who doesn't want an autopsy on her son who died in a car crash. Both cited religious beliefs as reasons in their cases.

The First Amendment says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” the problem is that anti-discrimination laws say that you cannot discriminate against certain protected classes such as, sex, religion, race, nationality, and in some states marital status, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression.

Many of those protected classes run contrary to religious beliefs; some religions prevent in the mixing of sexes, while some are against unmarried couples from living together, and some religions prevent contact with members of another religion. And as the article points out this is not just about non-discrimination laws, it is about just every facet of society and the law will create a nightmare. Can you imagine a store owner refusing to allow a woman to enter the store claiming that allowing women in the store is against their religion. Or a store owner could under this law refuse to sell to a black person. A landlord could refuse to rent to an unmarried couple. Or what if an employee refused to hire non-Muslims, what an outcry that would make.

Up until now, non-discrimination laws exempted clergy and other religious offices along with other religious institution from the laws. It did not exempt schools or hospital or other institutions that were not directly involved in their religion, such as beach pavilion that is open to the public. The current laws do not include exemptions for individuals the laws just cover places involved directly with practicing their religion, a person in public has to obey the non-discrimination laws (except maybe clergy)

# # # # #

Meanwhile according to the St. Cloud Times, the only person on the Minnesota State High School League board to vote against the gender identity athletic policy said,

Emmett Keenan is a high-school league board member and activities director at Cathedral High School. He cast the lone vote against the policy, with 18 other board members voting in favor and one abstaining, according to the Star Tribune.

The policy notes exemptions for religious schools that already exist in state law. But Keenan says it should have gone farther to define what constitutes a religious school.

Once against the conservatives are pushing the envelope to get a broader religious exemption that goes beyond what is granted in the First Amendment.

You Never Know…

…When you walk out the door. You could be hit by a truck, robbed, a tree fall on you, or a host of endless other disasters befall you; we all share these risks equally but for LGBT people and people who do not fit the gender norms there are additional risks when we step out the door,

Transgender woman says man hurled slurs, assaulted her
ABC Ch. 10 News
By Michael Chen
Posted Dec 4, 2014

Around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dominguez went to a liquor store on College Avenue in Oak Park to buy a beer. Outside, she said a man started yelling at her, using an urban slang term for gay.

"I asked him, 'Why do you have to hate on people?'"

Dominguez said moments later there was a flurry of punches in the face from the man and his friend, before the man emptied a can of pepper spray in her direction.

When we say something back we get blamed, if we defend ourselves then we are the attacker. According to the video the attacker is claiming that she’s a lair.

Saturday 9: Lucky Star

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: Lucky Star (1983)

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

1. Have you ever wished upon a star?
Not since I was a kid.

2. In the 1980s, Madonna considered her wrist bangles one of her fashion trademarks. What's one of your fashion trademarks?
I am definitely not fashionista, I like jeans and tees.

3. Though she got good grades, Madonna could be disruptive at school, known for turning cartwheels in the halls between classes. Can you do a cartwheel?
Ha! Only if I want to end up in a hospital.

4. Her high grade point average earned her a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan, home of the Wolverines. Do you follow college football?
Nope, nor do I follow basketball, soccer, hockey, or any other sport. Boring!

5. Madonna co-starred in the movie version of Dick Tracy. Do you enjoy comics?
When I was younger, it seems like the older you get the more the comics repeat themselves.

6. She played Argentinian First Lady Eva Peron in the biopic, Evita and directed a movie about Wallis Simpson. What famous 20th century woman do you wish you could meet/could have met?
Hmm… I have to think about that.

7. Madonna authored a children's book called The English Roses. Tell us about a book that had a big impact on you when you were a kid.
I wasn’t much of a reader when I was young; I thought all books were like Wuthering Heights. It wasn’t until my roommate in college turned me on to science fiction and Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein that started reading books that were not homework.

8. One of Madonna's "vocal idols" is Ella Fitzgerald. Who is your all-time favorite female singer? 
Linda Ronstadt


9. Madonna once did a Pepsi commercial. What beverages are in your refrigerator right now?
Would you believe nothing? I am mainly a coffee or tea drinker, I can’t have any sugary drinks and I hate the taste of artificial sweetener. 

They Did It!

The Minnesota’s High School Sports League approved the guidelines to let trans-students play on the team of their gender identity. There was strong opposition from the right that spent thousands of dollars on fear advertising and rallied people to the hearings, but the league’s committee did the right thing and approved the policy.

MSHSL Votes To Approve Policy For Transgender Athletes
CBS Minnesota
December 4, 2014

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota’s high schoolsports league passed a set of guidelines for transgender student-athletes on Thursday, bringing months of fevered debate to a close.
[…]
The policy, which will take effect next school year, allows transgender athletes to pick the team that fits with their gender identity and provides an appeal process for students whose schools turn down their request.

Minnesota joins 32 other states that have some guidelines for transgender students participating in high school sports, according to the MSHSL.
[…]
The policy sparked an avalanche of public input, delaying a vote scheduled for October and spawning full-page ads from opposing groups that proclaimed the guidelines would mean “the end of girls’ sports.”

Opponents again urged the board Thursday to delay or scrap those guidelines, citing concerns about giving transgender athletes an unfair advantage on girls’ teams and worries over transgender students in locker rooms. Several Republican lawmakers asked the board to let the Legislature handle the issue.

The ruling came out after this week’s U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights letter on single-sex elementary and secondary classes and extracurricular activities supporting trans-students (the full letter can be found here).

Dear Colleague:
Today, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released guidance for K-12 schools that offer or want to offer single-sex classes. In response to numerous inquiries about the legality of single-sex classes, OCR issued guidance that charts a path for schools on how they can provide boys-only or girls-only instruction while remaining in compliance with civil rights laws.
To offer single-sex classes or extracurricular activities, schools must:

•     Identify an important objective that they seek to achieve by offering a single-sex class (such as improving academic achievement);

•     Demonstrate that the single-sex nature of the class is substantially related to achieving that objective;

•     Ensure that enrollment in the single-sex class is completely voluntary (through an opt-in, rather than an opt-out, process);

•     Offer a substantially equal coed class in the same subject; 

•     Offer single-sex classes evenhandedly to male and female students;

•     Conduct periodic evaluations at least every two years to ensure that the classes continue to comply with Title IX;

•     Avoid relying on gender stereotypes;

•     Provide equitable access to single-sex classes to students with disabilities and English language learners; and,

•     Avoid discriminating against faculty members based on gender when assigning educators to single-sex classrooms.

The guidance document is presented in a question-and-answer format, offering common scenarios aimed at assisting schools and educators in designing single-sex programs that comply with Title IX.
For more information about OCR, please click here.
Thank you,
The Office for Civil Rights
U.S. Department of Education

So the next question is, will the Minnesota legislature step in to trump the league’s decision? The House is controlled by the Republicans party, the Senate is controlled by the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party and the governor is from the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party.

Here is the video about the vote…

Our We A Block Vote?

There is an interesting article in yesterday’s Hartford Courant on how LGBT voters might made the difference in the election of governor Malloy.

Did gay, lesbian and bisexual voters push Gov. Dannel P. Malloy over the finish line?

A new study suggests the gay vote may have played a role in helping Malloy, a Democrat who has long been a strong supporter of gay rights, beat Republican Tom Foley in last month's gubernatorial election.
[…]
"In Connecticut, Democratic incumbent Gov.Dan Malloy won the election over Republican challenger Tom Foley by a thin, 2.8 percent margin,'' the study said. "Without the LGB vote, analysis suggests that the margin of victory for the Democratic incumbent would have narrowed to just .3 percent."

Malloy has been a steadfast supporter of gay rights, even when the cause was far outside the mainstream. "Not many mayors were driving an hour and half to support a gay marriage bill at the Capitol 10 years ago or more,'' said state Sen. Beth Bye, a Democrat from West Hartford. "Both him and [Lt. Gov.] Nancy [Wyman] have been so good on our issues and everybody knows that."

I have been to a number of LGBT fundraisers for the governor and I know he has been a staunch of trans-rights. I have known the governor for almost ten years; I first met him at a fundraiser for GenderPAC at the home of an IBM Vice President down in Westport. He was then mayor of Stamford and he said back then that he was committed to working to pass a gender inclusive non-discrimination law.

Did we make a difference in the elections, I think so.

What Relationships? Or Getting Hit By Lighting

Every time I get asked either in an outreach or by a healthcare provider about sexual relationships I get a chuckle and answer what relationships. Relationships in the trans-community is like getting hit by lighten, it happens but it is not that common and this article Bilerico hits the nail on the head,

What It's Really Like Dating as a Transgender Woman
Filed By Brynn Tannehill
December 03, 2014

Almost everyone interviewed about the topic was younger and lives in large metropolitan areas with significant queer communities (Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago). The reality of trying to date while transgender is far more difficult and complicated, however.

She goes on to list eleven common themes that she found…

1.) Marriages that do survive are irrevocably changed.
The episode quotes a statistic that only 7% of marriages survive transition. While I cannot find the origin of this statistic, I do believe it is accurate. However, even if a marriage doesn't end, the statistic doesn't tell the whole story.

I know of a couple of marriages that did survive and they have greatly changed. One couple that I know I believe that their marriage is more platonic from the fragments of conversation that I hear and another couple that I know the wife comments that it is hard now that they are identified as a lesbian couple and conversely a former lesbian couple that I know the partner says it is hard to be identified as a straight couple. A third couple that I know divorced but still are friends.

The author goes on to next theme, “2.) Queer culture is an urban phenomenon” and she has three comments from people she interviewed…

"On OKC [OkCupid] some days I get upward of 30 messages. And some men just do not take no for an answer." - E, a 40-year-old queer transgender woman in NYC.

"I've had a fully filled out OKC profile for 18 months, and updated it regularly. I've listed myself as both bi and lesbian, but don't hide the fact that I'm trans. I haven't had a single unsolicited message in that time regardless." - J, a 38-year-old queer trans woman in rural Ohio.

"I turned to online dating (OKC), but in over a year now I've never actually gone on a date with anyone from the site. Overall, I don't get messages. Occasionally, I get a few responses when I contact someone, and then they disappear. It's a huge source of frustration." - N, a 31-year-old queer transgender woman in rural Wisconsin.

I found that I am accepted most by women in their 20s and 30s but I’m not attracted to them, I’m looking for someone closer to my age.

She goes on to her next themes, “3.) Dating in conservative areas is almost not worth it ” and “4.) Dating men has unique (icky) challenges.” I know a couple of trans-women who date men and they had different results but what the author said I think has a ring of truth.

Transgender women are often fetishized by straight men, resulting in a very skeezy-feeling experience.

"I find a lot of men fetishize trans women in a way that they don't other women. I often hear statements that no man would ever say to a ciswoman. For example: "I've always been curious about sex with a transsexual. Can you tell me what your penis is like?"" - E, a 40-year-old queer transgender woman in NYC.

"After reassignment surgery, it seems that the chaser pool dried up and I haven't had much luck with dating. The one time where I almost had a date post-surgery, after disclosing to him he of course had an existential crisis and cancelled." - J, a 30-year-old straight transgender woman in East Lansing, Michigan.

I have been it hit-up by a couple of men and I think they had some type fetishisms and it did make me want to run away as fast as I could… ick!

She goes on to write,

5.) Dating women has its own challenges as well.Transgender women often have trouble finding safe spaces or acceptance in both gay and lesbian circles.

I found this to be very true. Sometimes I felt “tolerated” and other times I felt fully accepted especially once they got to know me. I was more accepted in “gay” space than “lesbian” but I not interested in “gay” space. When we went to go into a lesbian bar up in Ogunquit the woman at the door at first she said we couldn’t enter but after a stare down she relented, however, there was a space that formed around our table until our lesbian friends arrived and it was like a signal… “oh, they’re cool” and the tables around us filled back in.

When you go out with a woman she also has a hard time fitting into trans-space. It is also a struggle for her when she is with you and a number of your trans-friends.

And in themes 7 and 8, “Transgender people often end up dating other transgender people” and “Dating other transgender people also poses significant challenges” is so true. In #7 she quotes one trans-woman,

"Thankfully, the love of my life is a transman with who I would trust with my life." - Anonymous

I know a number of couples of trans-men and trans-women and also trans-women couples. But as she says in #8,

"It takes a strength that on many days can be too great for us. Days when we've been mispronouned, misgendered, harassed, ridiculed for our appearance, it can be hard to come home and see those same things in your partner. Some days though, coming home to someone who knows what it is like to go through those things can be a source of strength.

I can imagine that this is so true.

In number ten she talks about the BSDM community and finding acceptance there, I know of a couple that this true for them and in the last theme, #11 she sums it all up comments from two people that she interviewed,

"So, really if you are older than 30 let's say, and your current relationship fails when you come out as trans your prospects are dim at best. You also seem to have diminishing returns the older you get. A life of dysphoria, then rejection, then loneliness ... great." - A, a 39-year-old lesbian transgender woman in Southwick, MA.

"At this rate, I do not hold out much hope for finding my love. I've tried all the dating sites with not much success. I do actually feel at this point that it is highly likely I will live out my remaining days alone despite being 'amazing' as my friends describe me. What I feel is amazingly lonely." - M, a 43-year-old lesbian transgender woman in Florida.

But people do get hit by lighting every day, so don’t give up hope and the more people that you meet the getter the chance of getting hit by lighting.

World Watch

We are very, very lucky to be here in the U.S. when we talk about the discrimination that LGBT people face here we do not even come close to what the LGBT community faces around the world. It could cost us our life if we come out.

Love in exile
In 2010, Tiwonge Chimbalanga, a transgender woman, was imprisoned in Malawi for getting engaged to a man. Pardoned and freed, she now lives in exile in South Africa. Mark Gevisser reports on an uneasy triumph for the global LGBT rights movement
The Guardian
By Mark Gevisser
Thursday 27 November 2014

“Gays Engage!”
This was the headline on the front page of Malawi’s Nation newspaper, on 28 December 2009, beneath a photograph of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Stephen Monjeza, bleary and uncomfortable in matching his-and-hers outfits cut from the same waxprint: “Gay lovebirds Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza on Saturday made history when they spiced their festive season with an engagement ceremony (chinkhoswe), the first recorded public activity for homosexuals in the country.”

But the worst was yet to come,

Four months later, when Chimbalanga said she and Monjeza wished to hold a chinkhoswe, Kamphale offered her lodge as a venue, and a loan to pay for the festivities. The pastor of a local Pentecostal church, in which Chimbalanga was a chorister, agreed to preside. Two days later, the couple were arrested and charged with “carnal knowledge against the order of nature” — a hangover from the British colonial penal code — which had never been used against two consenting adults in Malawi. They were given 14 years’ hard labour. It was, the judge said, “a scaring sentence”: there was to be no more of such nonsense.

During the trial, both Kamphale and the pastor would testify that Chimbalanga had deceived them: she had explained away her male features by saying she had been born a girl but had been bewitched as a child. Expedient though this explanation might have been, it is close to how she actually felt, given that she has always understood herself to be female.

They were exiled after serving five months in jail,

“I am a woman,” she told me, firmly, five years later, as we sat in her neat, well-equipped two-roomed shack in Tambo Village, outside Cape Town. She has been in exile in South Africa since 2010. Amnesty International had declared her and Monjeza “prisoners of conscience”, and brought Chimbalanga to South Africa after they were eventually pardoned by Bingu wa Mutharika, who was then Malawi’s president, after five months in jail.

All around the world gays, lesbians, and trans-people face execution and persecutions for being themselves.

Guts! Or Sometimes We Win.

Despite overwhelming vocal opposition from the conservative clamor of their hate message of doom and gloom the Miami-Dade County Commission passed an ordinance banning discrimination based on gender identity for employment, housing, and public accommodation.

Miami-Dade County votes in favor of banning transgender discrimination
Ordinance to expand county's law on discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodation
Local10.com (WPLG)
Author: Glenna Milberg, Reporter
Published On: Dec 02 2014

After a four-hour public hearing Tuesday and months of debate, the Miami-Dade County Commission voted 8-3 to add protections for transgender people to its four-decade old human rights ordinance. The move extends legal protections prohibit discrimination in housing, public accommodations and employment based on gender identity or gender expression.
[…]
"If I feel like I'm a female right now, I can go into the women's restroom?" asked Joe Davila, the pastor who came to the hearing to speak in opposition.

Opposition groups, mostly from the religious right, launched a campaign to squash the ordinance that included scare-tactic fliers and accusations that Communists supported the amendment.

He calls himself a “pastor”, which means according to Google “a minister in charge of a Christian church or congregation” however he has no qualms in telling lies or spreading hate, this doesn’t sound like a Christian to me, to me it sounds like someone who is using religion to hide his bigotry.

I applaud the commissioners for standing up to this onslaught of hate for over three hours and then doing the right thing.

Another Victory!

This one was a court ruling… a California prisoner is suing for her surgery and name change and the judge did not throw out the case.

Initial Victory in Trans Prisoner Case

Transgender Law Center, in conjunction with pro bono co-counsel from the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, won an important victory in the case of Norsworthy v. Beard this week. We are representing Michelle Norsworthy, a transgender woman held in a California men’s prison. Michelle was denied gender-affirming surgery, even though her treating psychologist had repeatedly concluded that it was medically necessary to treat her gender dysphoria. She was also denied a legal name change because the name she would like to use is a traditionally feminine name. We are arguing that the prison system’s discriminatory actions violate fundamental constitutional guarantees, including the Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment and the Equal Protection Clause.

Many people think it is wrong for prisoners to be able to get hormones and surgery while in prison. But what if it was cancer and the state withheld cancer treatment? Just because it is for gender dysphoria it should not be denied, we should have the same rights as every other person when it comes to medically necessary healthcare.

She Won!

A trans-girl who was discriminated against in Maine and whose case went all the way to the Maine Supreme Judaical Court was awarded $75,000.

Transgender girl awarded $75,000 in lawsuit over school bathroom access
Nicole Maines, now 17, was in the fifth grade at the Asa Adams School in Orono in 2007 when school officials barred her from using the communal girls' bathroom.
Portland Press Herald
By Scott Dolan
December 2, 2014

A transgender girl who won a precedent-setting state Supreme Judicial Court decision in January after school administrators in Orono made her use a staff bathroom was awarded $75,000 in a lower court settlement last week with the school district.

Although the high court’s ruling in Nicole Maines’ favor largely settled her dispute with the Orono school district, the decision left the two sides to settle the remaining details in Penobscot County Superior Court.
[…]
The order specifies that the school district must pay $75,000 to GLAD and Berman Simmons, a Portland law firm that also represented Maines, to cover legal expenses and related costs.

“A significant portion of that amount is going to the Maines family,” Cunningham said, though she declined to say exactly how the $75,000 would be divided.

Maines, now a 17-year-old high school senior in Portland, was a fifth-grader at Asa Adams School in Orono in 2007 when the guardian of another student objected to her use of a communal girls’ bathroom. Administrators intervened, telling Nicole to use a separate, unisex faculty bathroom.

I hope that it comes out of the Board of Education’s salaries and the town doesn't have to pay for the boards bigotry.

I Don’t Know If I Like This…

Parents announce their son’s transition with a birth announcement,

'He informs us that we were mistaken': Proud parents announce son's sex change with a tongue-in-cheek 'birth' notice
Daily Mail Australia
By Louise Cheer
2 December 2014

The supportive parents of a transgender man who was born Elizabeth Anne Bogert have placed a 'birth' notice in a newspaper to announce his sex change.

Yolanda Bogert and Guy Kershaw put the notice in the December 2 edition of Queensland's The Courier Mail to correct their 'mistake'.

The 19-year-old, from Brisbane, now identifies as a man and goes by the name of Kai Bogert.

The announcement read…

A Retraction – Bogert
In 1995 we announced the arrival of our sprogget, Elizabeth Anne, as a daughter. He informs us that we were mistaken. Oops! Our bad.
We would now like to present our wonderful son – Kai Bogert.
And to bring a tear to a stone, the parents signed off with a personal message to their son.
Loving you is the easiest thing in the world. Tidy your room.

I don’t know if I like the idea of running an ad in the local newspaper,  it was a nice thought but a little too put. What are your thoughts?

polls

A Play I’ll Like To See.

I came across this article posted on Facebook and three guessed what attracted my attention?

Antoinette Thornes Is a Trans Actress Who Rocks
The Thornes singer chats about her role as a woman with a secret in the family drama On a Stool at the End of the Bar.
The Advocate
By Brandon Voss
November 30, 2014

How honest should a trans person be with his or her partner? That’s one question raised in Robert Callely’s world-premiere drama On a Stool at the End of the Bar, which runs through December 14 at off-Broadway’s 59E59 Theatres. Antoinette Thornes stars as Chris, a woman raising three teenagers in New Jersey with her blue-collar boyfriend of 10 years — a happy suburban family ripped apart by the discovery that Chris is transgender. Thornes, a New York rock singer, discusses the high price of passing.
[…]
What made you want to do On a Stool at the End of the Bar?
I used to act years ago. I met the director, Michael Parva, through some actor friends, and I told him I was transgender. He knew the writer, Bob, who’d written a play about a transgender woman. Five years ago, he encouraged me to audition for it. I met with everyone, it was looking good, but for some reason, the play didn’t happen. It was a milestone for me, because it was the closest I’d come to something that I considered worthwhile. So I was like, Screw this. I’m not acting anymore. I’m just gonna go back to doing what I love: writing and performing music. And for the past five years, that’s what I’ve been doing — until a few months ago, when Mike approached me again and said Bob was ready to do the play. I said, “Are you kidding? Don’t mess with me!” So I auditioned again. Judy Henderson, the casting director, pulled me aside and told me I was very talented, which was very nice, because she doesn’t have to say that. The rest is history. I dove in headfirst and haven’t looked back.

When you can fully integrate into society it creates a number of problems many times violence against us is the result of being outed. A man ogles you in a bar and then finds out your history results all to often in attacks to us. For many of us deciding when and to who to come to is a very difficult decision and a very personal decision. There is no right or wrong answer. We each have to decide for ourselves and we cannot criticize others for their decision. And that is addresses in the play,

The play’s conflict stems from the fact that Chris didn’t disclose her trans identity to her boyfriend, Tony, from the start. At one point, Chris says, “I’m not even sure I think I was right, but there’s no changing it now.” Do you defend her decision?
I really understand both sides of it. It’s a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. Once you get to a certain point, it’s hard to open up and be honest. And if you are honest at the very beginning, there’s a good chance of violence — you can get punished for telling the truth. Personally, I feel that you can’t have a real relationship with anybody unless they know everything. But I also see the other side. Chris has gone through so much, she finally found the person she wants to be with, she’s already had the surgery, she feels she’s now a woman, so she doesn’t feel like she needs to tell him anything.

Chris and Tony’s violent confrontation is hard to watch. What’s it like to play?
Like any actress would, I try my hardest to become the character for the two hours, but it is heart-wrenching. Right after that carnage, when I break down, it’s real. I feel stripped down and humiliated. But all the stuff I’ve gone through, it’s been just as bad if not worse for a lot of other people, so I can’t complain.

As many of you who read my blog regularly I am a strong supporter of trans-people playing the part of a trans-person.

I wouldn’t have been shocked to see the role of Chris played by a non-trans actor. Does the casting of a trans actress feel like progress?
Definitely. Ever since Laverne Cox on Orange Is the New Black, more people are talking about transgender issues, so I think it’s probably a matter of striking while the iron’s hot. These things go in phases, just like with the gay community: First it’s hated, then it’s a joke, and then it becomes the norm, but it takes a while to go through those cycles. At this point, I still think transgender people are a punch line in a lot of jokes. But I’m not some kind of activist trying to make any statement here. I’m just a girl trying to get by.

There are many trans-actors and actresses out there that deserve a chance. That is all I’m asking for, let them audition. Also trans-actors/actresses should not just play trans-part they should be cast for cis-gender parts.



For tickets and more information, visit 59E59.org.

Prius

Okay so what does a Prius have to do with trans-stuff?

Well it was eleven years ago this month when I bought my first Prius, it was when Generation II just came out and I owned one of the first ones in the state. I pre-ordered it sight unseen in October 2003 and I was the first name on the dealers list that was first on the list to get them in the state so when the first one came in December I had the right of refusal but I took it.

This was before I transitioned so I was still in the closet and I was paranoid when I drove it as “Diana” since it was bright red and my license plate is very distinctive. So if you saw a red Prius there was an excellent chance that it was mine.

Also since it was the Motor Trend’s 2004 car of the year and there was so much press coverage about the Gen II Prius I was stopped in the parking lots and asked how I liked the car. Here I was still a very nervous and shy trans-woman with all these strangers coming up to me, I remember one guy who got so completely flabbergasted when he saw that I was trans that he was tongue tied and it took him a couple of tries to get out the questions. Or when three college women one of whom had just bought a Gen II, they thought it was so cool that a trans-woman also had one, we stood around talking about the car for about twenty minutes.

So now I am on my third Prius and this model is a plug-in and the only way I will sell it is to get the next generation of a Prius. The only problem any of the three Prii was a problem with the multi-function display in the Gen II but it was covered by the warrantee. My second Prius I drove for 127,000 miles and had zero problems.

The Hate Mongers – Part 2

This time they are attacking President Obama’s EEOC general counsel David Lopez who is up for reconfirmation in the Senate and he has the right wing conservatives in a tizzy over the Macy’s Decision which resulted in gender identity being covered under Title VII and also the EEOC lawsuit against two companies for violating to transgender employee’s rights under title VII.

Right-Wing Group Targets Trans-Friendly Federal NomineeDavid Lopez, the current EEOC general counsel awaiting Senate confirmation for his second term, has built a career fighting for the rights of LGBT and disabled workers. Now the Family Research Council wants him to pay for it.
Advocate
BY Sunnivie Brydum
November 25, 2014

It was only a matter of time before the anti-LGBT forces in Washington set their sights on the trans-inclusive record of an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission leader nominated for another term with the federal agency.

And in a Tuesday fundraising pitch, that's exactly what the right-wing Family Research Council, certified as an anti-LGBT hate group, did — employing discredited, transphobic scare tactics in an effort to drum up opposition to the reconfirmation of the EEOC's general counsel, an attorney who helped file landmark federal lawsuits challenging antitrans discrimination.

The head of the “family” organization that is in a lather over the EEOC lawsuit is Tony Perkins, he called Obama’s reappointment of David Lopez a "a dagger aimed at freedom of religion."

But to hear FRC explain it, the lawsuits are a surreptitious effort to pass the long-languishing Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which has stalled in Congress since the Senate passed it with a bipartisan majority last November. The legislation, introduced in every Congress except one since 1996, would make it illegal to fire, refuse to hire, or decline to promote someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. As the bill was passed in November, it included a "religious exemption" that would allow faith-based employers to disregard the federal law. That exemption has been critiqued as overly broad, prompting several major LGBT organizations to withdraw support for the legislation in its current form.
[…]
That simply isn't true. Perkins's rhetoric is characteristically reactionary, calling ENDA "one of the most dangerous proposed laws ever." If ENDA were to pass, Perkins contends that "'free exercise of religion' will become a meaningless phrase" and Christian employees will be required "to affirm same-sex propaganda at work — and thus deny important aspects of their faith to keep their jobs."

These right wing conservatives want to expand the religious exemptions that anybody would be able to say they are not obey the non-discrimination laws because it is against their religion and they will not even have to prove that it is against their religion.

The Hate Mongers - Part 1

You all probably have seen the articles about how the military is starting to soften its stance of trans-people in the military,

A change to a Pentagon personnel policy three months ago loosens the rules barring transgender troops from serving in the U.S. military, giving the individual services leeway to retain these personnel.

But that softening of the transgender exclusion has brought out the hate mongers; under the headline “Oh, boy! Pentagon cozies up totransgender troops” the

WND has reported how one of Obama’s major goals as president seems to have been to open the U.S. military to alternative sexual lifestyles of all sorts, and how that has created a lashing out against military members who support a traditional heterosexual lifestyle.

For example, a legal case has developed over an officer’s decision to stop two subordinate officers from engaging in a French-kissing “make-out” in public.

Because the subordinates are lesbian, the military is in the processing of removing that officer from the service.

The details are in a federal lawsuit filed against the service, charging violations of the officer’s constitutional rights. He claims the decision to dismiss him was influenced by the military’s desire for a highly visible mark of its success integrating homosexual behavior in the ranks.

If you have figured it out yet, we are lumped in with the “alternative sexual lifestyles” and of course they are complaining that allowing gays, lesbians, and transgender servicemembers in the military will affect military readiness because the soldiers will be making out in the foxholes,

Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, which also opposed allowing open homosexuality among the military ranks, has argued the military’s goal is to defend the country, not serve as a giant social experiment.

“This is putting an extra burden on men and women in the military that they certainly don’t need and they don’t deserve,” she told CBS.

We are also lumped in with “homosexuals” because to the far right wing conservatives being transgender is just another form of being gay or lesbian.

Saturday Six #555

Patrick’s Place Saturday Six #555

A sad passing, this is Patrick’s last Saturday Six, I have been playing the meme every Saturday since Episode #125 on September 03, 2006.

1. What epitaph would you like to have engraved on your tombstone?
Not an epitaph but dates…
*Male Name* Born Oct 9, … June 30, 2007
Diana June 30, 2007, Died ****

2. If you could be certain that there is an afterlife, what would you want heaven to be like?
I do not think there is an afterlife, when you are dead, you’re dead.

3. If you could bring back a deceased relative you knew in your childhood back today to have a conversation with, whom would you choose and why?
My maternal grandmother and talk about our family history.

4. Do you consider death to be more of an ending or more of a beginning?
An ending, see question #2.

5. Do you ever feel as if you “hear” from people you know who have died, as if by hearing “their voice” or sensing an insight that you don’t think you would have gained on your own?
No I haven’t but even after all these year I sometimes think I should ask my mother and then I remember that she passed away ten years ago next month and shed a tear (Like I'm doing now).

6. Aside from your epitaph, how do you hope those who have been closest to you in your life will truly remember you?
Not that I was brave but that I made a life better for others.

Saturday 9: Paint It Black

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: Paint It Black (1966)
Not familiar with this week's song? Hear it here.


1) This song was chosen because yesterday was Black Friday, the traditional day of sales. Have you begun your Christmas shopping?
HA! I wait until December 24, that way you don’t go around wonder what to buy everyone you just get what’s left on the selves. It makes Christmas shopping a snap and takes all the stress out of shopping (Just be sure to give them a return slip and that way they can get what they really want to get.).

2) Are there any Thanksgiving leftovers in your refrigerator right now?
Nope, I was at my nephew’s this and they have all the leftovers.

3) AAA says Thanksgiving is a big travel weekend. Did you venture far from home for your holiday dinner?
Yes, see above. It was a lovely drive to their house, it snowed the night before, and all the trees were coated with snow. The trees were plastered with snow clinging to their limbs and trunks; it was a landscape of black and white, when I came to a top of a hill as far as you could see it was all white.

4) Keith Richards likes France but, alas, the French authorities haven't always been fond of him and his criminal record. Have you ever been to France?
Nope and I don’t care to go there.

5) Mick Jagger jokes that, to be polite to fellow hotel guests, he always finishes trashing his room by 10:00 PM. What kind of hotel/motel guest are you? Are you rockstar rambunctious, or are you quiet? Are you neat? Have you stolen any towels, bathrobes, etc.?
I am a very neat and quiet guest and the only thing I have ever taken from a motel room are the shower caps and shampoo.

6) Mick Jagger got his financial savvy as a student at the London School of Economics. Are you good with money?
Yes.

7) In the early 1990s, a then little-known actress named Angelina Jolie appeared in a Rolling Stones video ("Anybody Seen My Baby?"). Name an Angelina Jolie movie.
I didn’t know who she was so I had to google her. Yes I seen her "Lara Croft" movies.

8) In the early 1960s, the Stones nearly avoided tragedy when their tour bus skidded off a bridge. Tell us about a near miss you're thankful for.
I had a number of near misses but I don’t but I don’t think I’m was thankful for any of them. one time on a very icy room I did a series of 360^o and missed all the other cars on the road, so I guest I thankful that I didn’t hit any.

9) In 1966, when this week's song was popular, CBS telecast How the Grinch Stole Christmas for the first time. What's your favorite Dr. Seuss story?
I’m at a disadvantage here, I didn’t have any kids so I have to remember back sixty years and the only one that I remember is “The Cat In The Hat” and that probably because I saw it on television.