Twisting The First Amendment

By the far right wing Christians they are twisting the First Amendment to cover bigotry. Somehow, they believe that they can use their religious beliefs to justify discrimination.

Parents angry over transgender student's bathroom choice
WOWK-TV
Posted: Sep 09, 2015
By Chase Numbers


Prents freaked out over a transgender student using the girls’ bathroom at an Ohio elementary school.

Outraged parents protested Tuesday night at the board meeting of the Northwest Local School District, reported WOWK-TV.

“If you have a child who has boy anatomy, let him go to the boys’ restroom,” said parent Karen Jones. “If you have a child who has girls anatomy let them go to the girls’ restroom. It’s simple.”

It’s actually not that simple.

Title IX of the Federal Education Amendments of 1972 protects a student’s right to use the bathroom that corresponds with his or her gender identity, and school officials are not allowed to force students to use unisex bathrooms available at the school.

The superintendent said he had recently refreshed his knowledge of Title IX requirements after the school year opened with a transgender girl at Northwest Elementary School in McDermott.

“Our job is to educate every child regardless of gender, and we want to make sure every child is safe,” said Superintendent Todd Jenkins.

And somehow this has become a religious issue…

“I despise it,” said parent Patty Crabtree. “We’re Christians, we don’t believe in this all these different types of males and females — you know, what we have now. We have slowly watched all of our rights, our Christian rights, are being taken from us. We are tired of it.”

Governor George Wallace of Alabama in his Inaugural Address of 1963 that is known as the “Segregation Now, Segregation Forever” speech said,

We invite the negro citizens of Alabama to work with us from his separate racial station . . as we will work with him . . to develop, to grow in individual freedom and enrichment. We want jobs and a good future for BOTH races . . the tubercular and the infirm. This is the basic heritage of my religion, if which I make full practice . . . . for we are all the handiwork of God.

Religious beliefs have been used many time for the right to not obey the law and the Supreme Court has ruled many times over that the 1^st Amendment does not grant the right to disobey laws. One of the most famous cases was United States v. Lee,

United States v. Lee involved an Amish farmer’s contention that his religious beliefs precluded him from paying social security taxes or withholding them from the paychecks of his employees. The farmer sued in federal court for a refund of the taxes he paid. In its decision, the Supreme Court emphasized that not all burdens the government places on religion are unconstitutional. The government can justify a burden on religion so long as it is essential to achieving an overriding government interest. In this case, the Court found that maintenance of the social security system was an overriding interest, and allowing individual exemptions to social security taxes based on religion was impractical. The Court noted that the tax system simply could not function if it was susceptible to challenges on the grounds that certain expenditures were inconsistent with a particular individual’s religious beliefs. Thus, the requirement that employers withhold and pay social security taxes from their employees does not violate the Free Exercise Clause.

In another Supreme Court case “Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith” where an employee was fired for eating peyote which he claimed to take because of a religious ceremony,

Respondents Smith and Black were fired by a private drug rehabilitation organization because they ingested peyote, a hallucinogenic drug, for sacramental purposes at a ceremony of their Native American Church. Their applications for unemployment compensation were denied by the State of Oregon under a state law disqualifying employees discharged for work-related "misconduct." Holding that the denials violated respondents' First Amendment free exercise rights, the State Court of Appeals reversed. The State Supreme Court affirmed, but this Court vacated the judgment and remanded for a determination whether sacramental peyote use is proscribed by the State's controlled substance law, which makes it a felony to knowingly or intentionally possess the drug. Pending that determination, the Court refused to decide whether such use is protected by the Constitution. On remand, the State Supreme Court held that sacramental peyote use violated, and was not excepted from, the state law prohibition, but concluded that that prohibition was invalid under the Free Exercise Clause.

He appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court,

Because respondents' ingestion of peyote was prohibited under Oregon law, and because that prohibition is constitutional, Oregon may, consistent with the Free Exercise Clause, deny respondents unemployment compensation when their dismissal results from use of the drug. The decision of the Oregon Supreme Court is accordingly reversed.

In other words the court found that the ingestion of peyote for religious purposes was not protected by the 1^st Amendment

So the far right wing Christians claim that their “right” to discriminate under the First Amendment to being protected is wrong, just like Kim Davis was wrong to deny marriage license for same-sex couple was wrong.

WOWK 13 Charleston, Huntington WV News, Weather, Sports

Storrs

I am up at the main campus of the University of Connecticut this afternoon giving a talk on trans history. The class is called “Out to Lunch” and it is a series of guest lectures that is held at the Rainbow Center in the Student Union.

Then this evening I am taken some "Me Time" and I am going to dinner and a play with some friends, we are going to eat at La Vita and see La Cage aux Folles at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam.

Same Old Story

It is a story that we hear over and over, trans people experiences at their state motor vehicle department. In so many states we are told to remove our make-up or they insist to mis-gender us.

Transgender female turned away at Baton Rouge OMV for not looking like a man
WAFB
By Kevin Frey
Posted: Sep 09, 2015

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -
A self-identified transgender woman was denied a driver's license at the Baton Rouge Office of Motor Vehicles on Friday after being told she did not suitably look like a man.

"It's such discrimination that you just feel powerless," Alexandra Glover said.

Born a boy named Dylan, Glover's birth certificate says she is a male. While at the OMV to replace a lost ID card, Glover wore makeup and a dress, which was a red flag for the clerk.

"If you have makeup on or anything like that, you're supposed to take all that off, because you are actually man," the clerk told Glover.

"Our employees cannot take a photograph of someone who is portraying themselves to be somebody they are not," said Stephen Campbell, the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles for Louisiana.

This is just public officials enforcing their own brand of bigotry on us. When the commissioner says “Our employees cannot take a photograph of someone who is portraying themselves to be somebody they are not” he is denying medical research and healthcare associations like the AMA. APA, NASW, and WPATH.

A Slap On The Wrist?

We had a small victory the other day; Fayetteville Arkansas passes the Uniform Civil Rights Protection Ordinance 5781 with a vote of 53 percent to 47 percent.

Fayetteville, Arkansas Voters Approve LGBT Protections
The Advocate
By Bil Browning
September 8, 2015

Once again, the residents of Fayetteville, Arkansas put civil rights protections for LGBT people to a vote. But unlike last December, supporters of nondiscrimination policies were victorious, according to the final tally.

“Today the people of Fayetteville voted for acceptance over fear and showed that cities can ensure religious freedom while protecting the rights of each and every citizen,"  the Northwest Arkansas Center for Equality said in a statement. "People from all walks of life chose to lead Fayetteville and Arkansas toward a more inclusive future. History will remember this as a proud moment when businesses, religious leaders and everyday citizens worked together to unite our community, grow our economy and finally move Fayetteville forward.

According to the final but unoffical results from the Washington County Election Commission, the result was 7,666 in favor, and 6,860 against, or 53 percent to 47 percent. The total vote was almost identical to the December vote, but with almost a 1,300-vote swing in preference. Turnout was also almost identical at 29 percent.

What does the ordinance cover? It covers employment, housing, and public accommodation discrimination. However according to the Arkansas Blog,

The ordinance was toned down, with more religious exceptions and a mediation process for complaints that would lead, at most, to small fines for an offense not even considered a misdemeanor. The Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, a leading opponent of the first ordinance, got on board this time.

What is the maximum fine they can levy? It is only a hundred dollars. Not much of a deterrent for discrimination and furthermore it may not even be legal, the Arkansas Attorney General is reported on Channel 5 News as saying the ordnance is illegal,

Arkansas AG Opinion: Civil Rights Ordinances Not EnforceableBy Zuzanna Sitek and Dillon Thomas,
September 1, 2015

LITTLE ROCK (KFSM) -- Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge issued an opinion Tuesday (Sept. 1) stating civil rights ordinances passed by any county, municipality or other political subdivision in the state are not enforceable under the Intrastate Commerce Act, known as Act 137.

Rutledge issued the opinion in response to a request from Rep. Bob Ballinger, R-District 97, as to the meaning and application of the Intrastate Commerce Act in respect to ordinances that were either passed or are up for a vote in Little Rock, Fayetteville, Hot Springs, Eureka Springs and Pulaski County.
[…]
The Intrastate Commerce Act "renders unenforceable any ordinance that prohibits discrimination on a basis not already contained in state law. Because current state law does not prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, it is my opinion that Act 137 renders the five ordinances unenforceable in this respect."

Passing this ordinance shows that Fayetteville does not approve of discrimination and is an important victory even through it is watered downed because it shows that people do care about equality.

Out From The Shadows

Those of you who follow my blog know my stance on trans actors/actresses. I believe at the very least they should be given a chance to audition for trans characters.

After Years of Hiding in Hollywood, Trans Actress Trace Lysette Is Finally 'Living Out Loud'
The Transparent star tells her inspiring story of going from the closet to 'living out loud' in her two new roles as feisty trans women on upcoming TV shows.The Advocate
By Mitch Kellaway
April 15, 2015

And now, she reveals to The Advocate, Lysette has been cast in recurring roles in two upcoming TV comedies: "brash head waitress" Gloria Del Rey on NBC's new drama The Curse of the Fuentes Women and Gisele in quirky Starz comedy Blunt Talk, which has found her shooting alongside childhood idol Patrick Stewart.
[…]
"I never disclosed I was trans to anyone in the casting process for fear of being discriminated against. I wasn't living out loud yet," she reflects. "I hadn't seen another trans woman in a nontrans role on TV before. ... It was uncharted territory for me and I remember being a nervous wreck on-set, hoping that no one would 'clock' me [as trans]."
[…]
"It was a huge wake-up call for me," Lysette says of seeing Cox be so open about her trans identity. When Cox took Lysette to Brad Calcaterra's LGBT acting class shortly thereafter, Lysette says she learned to become "free." "I'd never been 'out' in an acting class before."

"Around that same time, [trans woman] Islan Nettles was catcalled and then beaten to death in Harlem, where I lived," Lysette continues. "She died a block from my apartment at Harlem Hospital, and I thought to myself, I'm not doing my trans sisters and brothers any justice by living a semicloseted existence. I need to live out loud and live visibly to help get the respect and the rights we deserve."

Lysette says she soon began auditioning for trans roles as an openly trans actress. Today, her joy is palpable as she remembers the days before the "long process" that coming out in Hollywood has been for her.

There are many talented trans actresses and actors out there who should be given a chance to audition for all roles and not just trans characters. Hopefully, the times they are a changing for the better.

It Is A Nightmare!

Healthcare for me isn’t that bad, I haven’t faced any discrimination, just normal every day harassment from the insurance company. But for many trans people it can make the difference of life or death.

Health Insurance Companies Are Even More Horrible If You're Trans
Here's how the Obama administration is trying to fix that.
Mother Jones
By Molly Redden
Sep. 8, 2015

Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services proposed new rules to crack down on pervasive healthcare discrimination against transgender men and women. The draft rules address forms of discrimination that were banned years ago on paper but remain a constant feature in many transgender individuals' real-life dealings with doctors and insurance companies—from being refused basic services such as blood tests to not being reimbursed for health care screening such as Pap smears or prostate exams.

If approved, the rules would force many health care providers and insurers across the country to provide trans patients with the same medical treatments and level of care they provide to non-transgender people—parity that most insurers never even approach.

I have been getting all my healthcare needs met, healthcare professionals have treated me as any other patient. I have been getting the testing and the prescriptions that I need.

My problem is with the insurance company, because the dosage of my hormones is greater than those allow I have to get a wavier each year. But I also get hassled each time I get a refill, they deny payment and the pharmacy has to do a song and dance to get it covered. Also my annual PSA test gets denied and it takes months to straighten it out.

But for some it is a nightmare,

Thirty-seven-year-old Seth Marlow's medical history reads like a catalog of such abuses. Marlow works in healthcare IT and is well-connected in trans advocacy circles. But even he has struggled to get basic medical care. At one point, Marlow says, he was unable to have routine blood work done because a doctor he visited said his Christian faith prevented him from treating Marlow. His previous insurance company refused to pay for a fertility clinic to extract and freeze his eggs—which was one of the insurer's covered benefits—seemingly because he identified as a man.

The other problem that I see is insurance companies behaving like insurance companies, their favorite answer is “NO!” they reject everything and we have to learn to advocate for ourselves. I was talking to a trans man who was denied insurance coverage for his top surgery, when I asked him if he appealed the decision he said no.

Part of his problems stem from the fact that until this year, the Obama administration did not define what discrimination specifically means. That definition was originally left up to the states, and only a handful have applied the protections in the Affordable Care Act to trans people.

The same thing has happened here, the insurance commissioner issued a bulletin saying that insurance companies cannot discriminate against trans people, that if you offer a treatment for non-trans people you have to offer it to trans people.

The insurance companies say that breast reductions are cosmetic surgery and deny it to trans men. But they actually do cover breast reductions if they are medically necessary. So we have to fight back to make sure the doctor uses the proper insurance codes and we have to advocate for ourselves to make sure that the insurance companies do not try to label it cosmetic surgery. Here are some of the codes that can be used for trans people and for people who have Medicare you can find information here.

Still The Same, “Walking While Trans”

Let’s appoint a commission or let’s study it some more!

It seems like whenever politicians have to do something they don’t like they pass it off to be studied some more or to a commission. Police harassment of trans people followed that path and the commission came up with a policy change.

Activists Say Police Abuse of Transgender People Persists Despite Reforms
By Noah Remmick
September 6, 2015

Although the New York Police Department amended its patrol guide in 2012 to require respectful treatment of transgender people, Ms. Diamond, who is a transgender woman, said she was subjected to a strip search by a male officer. Two other officers watched from a few feet away, gawking as she spread her legs. Officers then placed Ms. Diamond in a cell for men, she said, where she cowered in the corner as other inmates heckled her and used the exposed toilet in her presence. When she expressed her discomfort to an officer, he replied, “You know you like it in there with all the men.”

Officers snickered at Ms. Diamond throughout the process, she said, calling her a “he-she,” “tranny” and “it.”

“I felt totally voiceless,” Ms. Diamond, who is 37 and now divorced, said recently through tears. “Like I wasn’t even human. Like my safety didn’t even matter.”

When the patrol guide reforms were issued, advocates for transgender people lauded the changes as groundbreaking, if overdue. Officers now were required, among other provisions, to refer to people by their preferred names and gender pronouns, to allow people to be searched by an officer of their requested gender, and to refrain from “discourteous or disrespectful remarks” regarding sexual orientation or gender identity.

It is one thing to have policies in place and another thing to enforce those polices. Lots of times there is a wink and a nod from the top brass and when activists called for an audit of the policies they are hemming and hawing to stall any audits,

“It’s one thing to make a reform on paper, but it takes a greater commitment of resources to make the necessary cultural changes,” said Councilman Ritchie Torres, a Bronx Democrat who is formally requesting an audit.

“The N.Y.P.D. is a deeply intransigent, conservative institution,” Mr. Torres added. “It’s going to take extensive retraining for officers to fully live up to the spirit and letter of the 2012 changes.”

Until we see top down accountability we will not see any changes.

I meet with the LGBT community outreach officer for the Hartford police department and she is all gun hoe and says she has the support the top brass… time will tell. I hpe she does have the support she needs.

No Excuses.

There is no excuse for not allowing her to go to nursing school.

Transgender woman fights to get into nursing school
Ellen DeGeneres assists Blossom Brown with $20K
WAPT News
By Allie Ware
Sep 06, 2015

JACKSON, Miss. —A transgender Jackson native is fighting to get into nursing school.

Blossom Brown said she's been unfairly rejected six times.
[…]
"People always say, 'You're going to confuse the patients,' or, 'We don't want your kind here,'" Brown said.
[…]
Six rejections haven't stopped Brown from pursuing her dream to be a nurse and make a difference in her community.

However, since her story has been on Ellen DeGeneres and “I Am Cait” she has received offers from nursing schools around the country.

In The Movies

I have always been critical of movies about trans people that do not use trans actors, well the director of the new trans movie Danish Girl had something to say about it.

Danish Girl director Tom Hooper: film industry has 'problem' with transgender actors
Director of film starring Eddie Redmayne, about Danish transgender pioneer Lili Elbe, says that ‘access to roles’ is key to progress
The Guardian
By Andrew Pulver
Saturday 5 September 2015

The film industry has a “problem” with transgender actors, with many unable to secure roles despite a “huge pool of talent”, according to film director Tom Hooper, whose latest film The Danish Girl – starring Eddie Redmayne as a pioneering recipient of gender-reassignment surgery – receives its world premiere at the Venice film festival.

Hooper said: “Access for trans actors to both trans and cisgender roles is utterly key. In the industry at the moment there is a problem: there is a huge pool of talent of trans actors, and access to parts is limited. I would champion any shift where the industry embraces trans actors. and celebrates trans film-makers.” Without explicitly acknowledging the controversy surrounding the casting of Redmayne, a non-trans actor, in the lead role of Einar Wegener – the real-life Danish painter who underwent a series of operations in the early 1930s to become Lili Elbe – Hooper said: “There’s something in Eddie that is drawn to the feminine; he’s played women before, most notably Viola in Twelfth Night. In our film, Lili is presented as a man for two-thirds of the movie, and her transition happens quite late on, so that played a part in coming to a decision.” Hooper also said that the production had reached out to the trans acting communities in the cities where they shot – London, Brussels and Copenhagen – and ended up casting “40 or 50 trans supporting artists”. He said: “I’m pleased we achieved what we did, but I’m sure there’s more to do.”

It is good that reached out to trans community but did they look for a trans actor for the leading character? Or was it just assumed no one would be able to play the lead? Saying that a trans actress wouldn’t be willing to play the lead because 2/3s of the role was as a male is also wrong because they never asked if a trans actor would be willing to play the role.

Saying he wanted to “clarify the difference between sexuality and gender”, Redmayne explained that he had embarked on a series of meetings with numerous trans people to better understand the nature of the character he was to play. “I met many people from the trans community, both men and women; I particularly wanted to meet people from different generations, as the film was set at a time when there was no precursor.” He cited a couple from Los Angeles, Cadence Valentine and Trista Hidalgo, as being especially helpful. “The way in which they allowed me to ask them anything, galvanised me. There were two things that stayed with me: Cadence said she would give anything and everything to live a life authentic; and the other was that, while she was transitioning, the question was: how deep was her partner’s pool of empathy.”

It is good that he studied for the part by talking to trans people, but we will never know if a trans person could have done just as good as Redmayne because they never asked a trans person.

Why We Need To Pass Law

Even though we have won many victory in the courts all it takes is for one judge to overturn all the victories.

Federal judge rules against transgender Va. student 
Washington Blade
By Michael K. Lavers
September 4, 2015

A federal judge on Friday ruled against a transgender teenager who continues to challenge his Virginia school district’s policy requiring students to use restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their “biological gender.” U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar rejected Gavin Grimm’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have allowed him to use the boys restroom at Gloucester County High School during the upcoming academic year as his case proceeds.
[…]
Doumar in late July said the policy does not violate Title IX. He has yet to rule on whether he will allow Grimm’s case to proceed based on his claim under the 14th Amendment

Judge Dumar was appointed by President Reagan and is known for his conservative views and it is my guess that the school will appeal the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

It is so important that we get legislation passed that expands the Civil Rights Act to include us because all it takes is a conservative judge to overturn all that we have won and going to the Supreme Court is always a crap shoot.

Saturday 9: Working My Way Back to You (

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: Working My Way Back to You (1966)

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

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

1) We're celebrating the last holiday of summer with The Four Seasons. Which season is your favorite?
Fall, I like the change in season, the colors, and the smell of the air.

2) Before they settled on The Four Seasons, they called themselves The Four Lovers, The Romans and The Village Voices. If you were/are in a band, please share the name. Or just make up a cool name for your pretend band.
The Inharmonious Singers

3) Lead singer Frankie Valli has occasionally fudged the year of his birth. Have you ever lied about your age?
Yes, on Facebook I say that I was born in 1910.

4) Frankie Valli, Frank Sinatra, Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen ... New Jersey has given us many music superstars. What is your state known for?
Fake nutmeg: from Mental Floss,

Over time, Yankee peddlers developed a reputation for selling fake nutmegs made of carved wood.

But the reputation might have been unjustly earned,

Later, it was suggested that it was the confused Southerners to blame for these mix-ups. In a 1980 issue of Connecticut Magazine, Elizabeth Abbe suggested that Southern customers were unaware that nutmeg had to be grated, and instead wrongly thought that the Yankee merchants were trying to scam them.

She writes, "unknowing buyers may have failed to grate nutmegs, thinking they had to be cracked like a walnut. Nutmegs are wood, and bounce when struck. If southern customers did not grate them, they may very well have accused the Yankees of selling useless ‘wooden’ nutmegs, unaware that they wear down to a pungent powder to season pies and breads.”  

5) In 1965, Frankie was arrested in Columbus, Ohio. But it wasn't his fault! The bandmate he trusted to pay the group's hotel bill neglected to do so. Tell us about a time when your trusting nature got you in trouble. 
We went on a fishing trip up to Vermont and one of the guys we were with said we can camp by the river and in the morning we had a visit by the police.

6) Clint Eastwood directed the movie version of the Four Seasons biography, Jersey Boys. What's your favorite Clint Eastwood movie? 
I would pick the television show Rawhide and for the movie “The Bridges of Madison County”

Since Labor Day is the holiday established to celebrate the American worker …

7) According to the U.S. Census, more and more Americans are working from home. Are you one of them?
Nope, I’m retired.

8) Of those of us who work outside the home, 75% travel to work alone. 15% take public transportation and the remaining 10% carpool. How do you get to your job?
When I worked my job was only four miles away and I drove to work.

9) Do you have any big plans for this holiday weekend?
I am up at my brother’s and sister-in-law’s condo in southern Maine this weekend and today we are going on the mail boat to the islands in Casco Bay.

We Are Everywhere!

Is that good or bad? Are we generating backlash like what happened down in Hillsboro High School in Jefferson County Missouri?

We can't let increased transgender visibility lead to more vulnerabilityTrans women are now more likely to be positively represented in the media. This visibility should help push for greater respect and freedom from violenceThe Guardian
By Harmony Rodriguez
21 August 2015

It’s an unprecedented time in society. Trans women are appearing in the media as Hollywood actresses, writers, innovators and advocates. Increased positive representation of trans people is one of the greatest things that could have happened to trans women as a group. But, in this moment of celebration, we need to ensure that more visibility doesn’t lead to more vulnerability.
[…]
This hypervisibility puts marginalized groups at risk. In terms of transgender people, this often means transgender women of color. With the conversation around equality for trans people reaching its fever pitch, those who do not want us to become equal and have equal rights are becoming increasingly more violent towards us. This year alone, 18 trans women - many of them of color - have been killed, including Mya Hall who was shot near Baltimore after she took a wrong turn. This breaks last year’s record. It should be noted that a large majority of anti-LGBT hate crimes are directed at people of color.

She goes on to talk about trans people “passing” and how being able to integrate into society does mean that there will be no violence. I think that there is a danger of violence if they are found out to be trans because the perpetrator feels “deceived.”

The author goes on to end the article with,

There is no panacea for transphobia. Having famous trans women in the media is great, but it isn’t enough. We need to start reconsidering the value we place on gender in our lives, and in others’ lives. We need to start considering, as a society, that all people are worthy of respect and of life regardless of how we feel about gender, gender identity and gender expression.

And we as a trans community have to think about our safety, something that a lot of trans women never had to worry about before they transitioned.

Goody, Goody Two Shoes

I remember reading a comment about a trans woman about a trans woman using a bathroom and the person said that trans woman couldn’t be transgender because she wore jeans, a tee shirt, sneakers, and didn’t wear makeup. That if she really was transgender then she would be wearing a dress and heels and have makeup on.

I’m a Trans Woman – And I’m Not Interested in Being One of the ‘Good Ones’
Everyday Feminism
By Vivian Taylor
May 29, 2015

A month or two after I started living full time out as woman, one of my friends suggested I talk to an acquaintance of his, an older trans woman who had been out for years.
[…]
What actually happened was that she showed up and asked why I wasn’t dressed like a woman. I was wearing skinny jeans, a studded belt, and an ironic t-shirt. I liked how I looked. I looked, in my opinion, like a queer woman in her mid-twenties on her day off, which, shockingly, I was.
[…]
There was a woman I met soon after moving back up to Boston in 2011. She had transitioned in her teens, and most folks wouldn’t know she was trans unless she wanted to tell them. She had a real heart for women who were just starting transition, but she had expectations for those people.

She couldn’t stand “bricks.” She explained that bricks were women who looked “like a man in a dress.” A cinderblock was even worse. A trans guy who was too femme was feathery.

Sometimes the trans community is most critical of how we look, some of us have a dated imagine of how we should present ourselves. The trans police want to enforce their view of how a trans person should look.

But the thing is women come in all shapes and sizes, some are very feminine while others look quite masculine and trans people come in all difference shapes and sizes and some of us are very feminine while others look quite masculine.

But you know what’s worse than being somebody’s idea of a bad tr*nny? Being somebody’s idea of a good tr*nny, an acceptable tr*nny.
[…]
“All the other trans people I’ve known are always so stressed out and unhappy, and are just so difficult. You do an amazing job of making people comfortable.”

And by then I was ready to leap on him to get him to be quiet. The only other trans person he knew, as far as I was aware, was standing a few yards away. I don’t know if she heard that or not, but I really hope not.

And then there is the left handed compliment,

Here’s the thing: People fucking despise trans women. Often the nicest thing they can thing of to say to trans woman is “Gosh, you are so little like a trans woman!” Being trans is something to avoid, to exclude, to escape, at worst to nobly bare up under.

I once was on a panel for the movie Gen Silent and part of the discussion was about trans etiquette and after the discussion I was making my rounds talking to the attendees, then one woman came up and told me that she never knew I was a man.

Agh! I wanted to head slap her and ask her weren’t you listening for the last half hour.

Breaking News…

Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk Kim Davis is going to jail!

Kentucky clerk gets jail time for failing to issue same-sex marriage licensesCNN
By Eliott C. McLaughlin, Sonia Moghe and Catherine E. Shoiche
September 3, 2015

Ashland, Kentucky (CNN)A federal judge Thursday ordered Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk Kim Davis to jail for refusing heed a U.S. Supreme Court order legalizing same-sex marriage, and she will stay there until she complies with the ruling.

During the hearing, one witness told the court that Davis had denied her a marriage license three times, and when Davis took the stand, the clerk explained that she could not issue the licenses because of her religious beliefs.
[…]
U.S. District Judge David Bunning, however, apparently felt she deserved jail time, but he also told Davis she could end her incarceration by complying with the Supreme Court order and telling her deputy clerks to do the same.

They wanted a martyr, now they have one to rally around the flag. The Christian far right wanted someone to rally around and now they have.

Many are claiming that her religious rights are being violated; she is being force to issue same-sex marriage licenses against her religious beliefs. There are a number of politicians who are saying that the rights of one group should not diminish the rights of another. I have a question for those politicians who are saying that, would it be alright then for a clerk to refuse a marriage license for an interracial couple? Would it be alright for a clerk to refuse to file divorce papers?

The U.S. District Attorney said “Government officials are free to disagree with the law, but not disobey it.” Another point, she swore on a Bible to uphold the U.S. Constitution, not to uphold Bible.

I also wonder how much she if being driving into her position.

Is Kentucky’s Infamous Anti-Gay Clerk Getting Taken for a Ride by Her Lawyers? Slate
By Mark Joseph Stern
August 31, 2015

Davis’ application to the Supreme Court is less an application for a preliminary injunction than a sententious protest against Obergefell. It accuses the Obergefell majority of “redefining” marriage—a staple of right-wing argot—three times. It sneers that the ruling was decided by a bare “5-4 majority.” It quotes, extensively and approvingly, the Obergefell dissenters’ ominous warnings about the apocalyptic clash between marriage equality and religious freedom. And, in case you didn’t get the point, it actually refers to “same-sex ‘marriage’ ”—complete with contemptuous scare quotes around “marriage.”

It would be easy to write a story mocking the application’s histrionics and thinly veiled animus. But quite frankly, I’m growing a bit concerned about Davis’ lawyers. Davis is being represented by the Liberty Counsel, a far-right fringe group that specializes in anti-gay litigation. (Naturally, it is also a Christian ministry and a tax-exempt nonprofit.) Founder and Chairman Mathew D. Staver has used Davis’ case to raise money and boost publicity for his group, going so far as to hold a rally for Davis. In his spare time, Staver has continued to participate in the Faith and Freedom radio show; in recent weeks, he has described the newly gay-tolerant Boy Scouts as “a playground for pedophiles” and compared acceptance of Obergefell to turning over a Jew to the Nazis.

Law firms regularly use sexy cases to increase their own profiles, and it’s perfectly fine to bandy about your client to further a constitutional cause. (Gay rights litigators do it all the time.) But Staver is taking things too far. The first sign of trouble arose early in the case: When a federal judge ordered Davis to issue licenses or be held in contempt of court, the Liberty Counsel advised her to disobey the ruling. Good lawyers don’t usually tell their clients to defy lawful court orders, especially when jail time is a real possibility. Yet the Liberty Counsel didn’t mind putting their client at risk—perhaps because the idea of a middle-aged woman being hauled off to jail for purportedly following her conscience would send thousands of anti-gay Americans reaching for their pitchforks (and checkbooks).

I also wonder if this could be the reason behind her stand, did they find a willing person to make a stand as a rallying focal point? And now she is in jail.

Update 9:00PM

Candidates repossess to the jailing of Kim Davis the New York Times reports that,

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said on Thursday that Ms. Davis jailing was an act of “judicial tyranny,” and in a statement he called on “every Believer, every Constitutionalist, every lover of liberty to stand with Kim Davis.”

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky told CNN, “I think it’s absurd to put someone in jail for exercising their religious liberty.”

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas said on Twitter that he would go to Kentucky on Tuesday to support Ms. Davis. “We must end the criminalization of Christianity!” he wrote.

But not all the candidates thought that way,

At least three candidates, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Carly Fiorina, the former Silicon Valley executive, said that as a government employee Ms. Davis was obligated to carry out the law, despite personal religious objections.

In a radio interview on Tuesday, Ms. Fiorina, who has been forceful about the rule of law, said, “Is she prepared to continue to work for the government, be paid for by the government, in which case she needs to execute the government’s will, or does she feel so strongly about this that she wants to sever her employment with the government and go seek employment elsewhere where her religious liberties would be paramount over her duties as a government employee?”

Learn About The New Law Going Into Effect…

On October 1^st we will be able to change our birth certificates without surgery with a letter from our doctors. CTAC is proud to co-sponsor a webinar with GLAD and other trans organizations around New England.

The Judge Did The Right Thing.

In telling the parents that they had no right to tell their adult daughter could not have Gender Confirming Surgery.

Judge tells transgender woman she CAN have reassignment surgery despite parents' last-ditch attempt to stop it

• Christine Kitzler, 48, identifies as a woman but is still biologically male

• Was due to have surgery yesterday before her parents blocked it

• Klaus and Ingird Kitzler argued Christine was unfit to make the decision

• However tonight a judge has ruled that she understands the risks

• Kitzler previously said she would rather die than go on living as a man

Daily Mail
By Associate Press and Chris Pleasance
PUBLISHED: 2 September 2015

A transgender woman has been told she can have gender reassignment surgery after her parents' made a last-gasp legal challenge in an attempt to stop it.

Christine Kitzler, 48, who identifies as a woman but is still biologically a man, was scheduled to have the operation yesterday, but it was halted after parents Klaus and Ingrid Kitzler protested that she is mentally unfit to make the decision.

They said a childhood learning disability and bouts of depression indicated Kitzer was mentally unsound and asked for a temporary guardian to be assigned.

However, a judge has now ruled that the operation may go ahead, saying despite Kitzler's past mental issues, she had shown an ability to understand the decision she faces. The surgery may now take place as soon as tonight.

Not only that but during the hearing the judge stepped up to…

During his testimony, Klaus repeatedly referred to Kitzler as 'he' or 'my son', using the male pronoun 38 times in 45 minutes of testimony.

He was eventually asked by the judge to swap to a female, or gender neutral pronoun, after which he began using 'that person' instead.

Bravo!

What were the parents’ wishes? “I would love to have a son back who goes to church with us on Sunday mornings.” You know what, I doubt that she would want to attend the church that they go to.

Blood Wars

Someone once told that they went to donate blood and they filled out all the forms and the tech was getting ready to put in her IV when the blood bank supervisor came out on the collection floor and in a loud voice said “We don’t allow transsexuals to give blood!”

Puget Sound blood bank sued by transgender womanKOMO News
By Donna Gordon Blankinship, Associated Press
Published: Sep 1, 2015

SEATTLE (AP) - A transgender woman has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against a Seattle-based blood bank, saying she was fired after changing her donor profile to female to match her reissued birth certificate.
[…]
A long-time donor to the organization formerly known as the Puget Sound Blood Center before her transition and before becoming an employee, Binschus was accused of falsifying her donor record after the organization changed its policy on gender identification, according to her attorney, Jillian T. Weiss.
"I think It's important for employers to understand that a transgender woman is a woman. Whatever they may have been thinking about who she is, according to the state of Washington, she is a female," Weiss said. "To be fired because she says so is a violation."

After she was fired,

She was told to remove books and pamphlets related to gender identity from the office because a co-worker considered them controversial. She was accused of letting her advocacy interfere with her work. And she was referred to as "his/her" in an email from a superior, according to the lawsuit.

I can’t help but wonder if her treatment was related to the FDA discriminating policy of banning trans people, and gay men from giving blood. Did the policy embolden the workers there to harass and discriminate against her?

To The FDA, Everyone Transgender Is a Gay Man
There's a secret in the federal blood donation policy: it treats all transgender people — male or female — like they're gay or bisexual men.
The Advocate
By Dawn Ennis
February  02, 2015


The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced in December that it would soon reevaluate policies to allow more gay and bisexual men to donate blood, but health and civil rights advocates say the administration still enforces a “heterosexist bias” against transgender donors.

The policy in place since 1983 indefinitely banned men who have had sex with men from donating blood, but after years of lobbying from medical organizations, activists, and politicians, the FDA said the policy would be reevaluated. Later this year, the FDA is expected to officially lift the lifetime ban, and instead enforce a one-year ban following the last time a man had sex with another man, and remained HIV-negative.
[…]
But what has not been reported is that in addition to turning away all MSM, the FDA has a policy on the books that disregards the authentic gender expressions of transgender men and women which also prevents them from giving blood.

Are they going to argue that being trans also prevents trans people from working in blood banks?

Jobs!

Anyone who is trans and looking for a job knows how hard it is to find one when you’re trans. There are thousands of excuses why they didn’t hire you and none of them are because you are trans even though they gun hoe to hire you until they find out you are trans then you can just hear the ice forming, but that might be changing.

TransTech Helps Transgender People Get Jobs In Tech And, Soon, The White HouseTech Crunch News
By Megan Rose Dickey
September 1, 2015

Transgender and gender non-conforming people are at risk of facing injustice and discrimination wherever they are: in their childhood homes, schools, the workplace and even in line at the grocery store.


This discrimination can lead to missed education and professional development opportunities, which is where TransTech comes in. TransTech’s goal is to develop pipelines to employment and ultimately, independence, for trans people throughout the world.

TransTech Founder and CEO Angelica Ross (pictured above) knows first-hand how difficult it can be to get a job as a transgender person. When Ross began her transition to living as a woman, her employer fired her, her family alienated her and she was introduced to sex work and the adult industry. Ross eventually decided to teach herself how to build websites, and later worked with nonprofit organizations that were looking to serve transgender communities around employment. She soon realized that those types of services could be a lot more effective.
[…]
“I always have believed in the value of the diversity and resilience, and just really the different skill sets that our community has,” Ross said. “But we’ve never been able to find the right platform and find the right environment for us as a community —  for us as a professional community. So that’s what I am doing with TransTech — creating that professional environment.”

That is what I believe, that diversity is good for business.

I remember IBM when you could spot an IBM employee a mile away, they looked like they were made from a cookie cutter. A blue suit with a thin blue tie and a white shirt with a 1960 flat top haircut. So when two hippies came with an idea with an idea for computers it was rejected… big is beautiful, small is bad. Personal computers no way! That idea is just a passing fad; mainframes are the way to go.

We all have different thought patterns that was formed by our race, ethnicity, sex, socioeconomic status, our sexual orientation, and gender identity and that diversity is what can make a business succeed.

Bigots?

I thought about the title, was it too harsh? Was it the right word to describe them? Were they just misguided or was what they did bigotry?

Hillsboro High students walk out over transgender dispute
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Doug Moore
September 1, 2015

Her decision [to be treated like other female students] spread quickly through the small Jefferson County school district and, on Monday morning, students at Hillsboro High School walked out in protest. During the walkout, Lila was locked in the principal’s office. She said she and administrators worried about her safety.

The student walkout came on the heels of a School Board meeting Thursday that drew a large crowd — parents concerned that Lila is getting special rights at the expense of other students. Most of the students at Monday’s protest were opposed to accommodations for her. A smaller group gathered in support.

“The girls have rights, and they shouldn’t have to share a bathroom with a boy,” said Tammy Sorden, who has a son at Hillsboro High. It is fine to be different, she said, but it is not right to give Lila special treatment “while the girls just have to suck it up.”

Students and parents interviewed after the walkout were overwhelmingly in support of keeping Lila, 17, out of the school facilities for girls.

So it is not just a vocal minority that is against her, they fear those who are different.

FoxNews 2 wrote,

"It wasn`t too long ago white people were saying I don`t feel comfortable sharing a bathroom with a black person and history repeats itself." said Lila Perry.

This is what I said this morning, we have seen this argument made before as Ms. Perry said “It wasn`t too long ago white people were saying I don`t feel comfortable sharing a bathroom with a black person and history repeats itself." and they said the same thing about gays and lesbians sharing bathrooms.

It always goes back to bathroom whether it is Governor Wallace, or Anita Bryant’s "Save Our Children" campaign, or Ted Cruz, they all used bathrooms to justify their bigotry.

In the Post-Dispatch article this sums it up perfectly,

…I’m not comfortable with it,” said Britney Heimos, a 2008 Hillsboro graduate who was at the school to pick up her brother. “There is nothing wrong with being different. But when you are different, there are sacrifices.

I think that should be the mantra of bigots everywhere.

The Supreme Court Says Do It!

The Supreme Court has refused to hear the case of the court clerk religious discrimination case.

BREAKING: Supreme Court: Kentucky Clerk Must Issue Marriage Licenses
The court today turned down Kim Davis's appeal, meaning she must issue licenses to all eligible couples beginning Tuesday or face penalties.
The Advocate
By Trudy Ring
August 31 2015

The U.S. Supreme Court today denied Rowan County, Ky., Clerk Kim Davis’s request for a stay of a federal judge’s order for her to issue marriage licenses to all eligible couples, meaning she and her staff must comply beginning Tuesday or face fines and possible jail time, the Associated Press reports.
[…]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit last week turned down her request for a stay of his order, meaning that she would be required to start granting licenses today. Her lawyers, with the right-wing group Liberty Counsel, filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court Friday. Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees appeals from the Sixth Circuit, referred the appeal to the full court, which turned it down without comment, according to the AP.

I remember another case where religion was used to justify discrimination; Governor Wallace stood in front of the school door and used the a Bible to justify segregation.

George Wallace Stood in a Doorway at the University of Alabama 50 Years Ago Today
The Alabama governor famously protested the integration of the state university by two black students.
US News
By Debra Bell
June 11, 2013

In January of 1963, following his election as Governor of Alabama, George Wallace famously stated in his inaugural address: "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

The staunch conservative demonstrated his loyalty to the cause on June 11, 1963, when black students Vivian Malone and James A. Hood showed up at the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa to attend class. In what historians often refer to as the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door," the governor literally stood in the doorway as federal authorities tried to allow the students to enter.

It was wrong then and it is wrong now.

The latest news is that she is ignoring the court order's and refusing to issue any marriage licenses. According to the Washington Post this morning,

MOREHEAD, Ky. — The office of Kim Davis, the elected clerk of Kentucky’s Rowan County, rejected requests for marriage licences from the first two same-sex couples to enter the courthouse Tuesday — just hours after the Supreme Court ruled against a request from Davis to be excused from issuing such licenses.

Davis did not make an appearance at the counter as the courthouse opened, leaving employees to deny couples on her behalf. A woman at counter said Davis was “doing reports.”

When Davis emerged, she declared that she was not issuing any licences.

“Under whose authority?” she was asked.

“Under God’s authority,” she said.