How Do You Fight Employment Discrimination?

It is one thing when you are fired from a job when you transition, that is much easier fight in court, it is much harder to prove discrimination in hiring.

Transgender jobseekers face barriers to employment
HRM Canada
By Nicola Middlemiss
19 Jul 2016

Ontario-based advocates are calling on employers to bolster opportunities for transgender people after research revealed discrimination is rife, particularly in the recruitment process.

"It's much harder to get a job than to keep a job," said local activist Cole Gately. "It's very, very easy to hire someone who isn't going to make people feel uncomfortable or isn't going to challenge anyone."

In a recent survey of 433 transgender people, almost a third (32 per cent) suspected they had been turned down from a job because of their gender while 18 per cent said they were absolutely certain of the same.

They can use a million excuses why they didn’t hire you; over qualified, under qualified, other candidates were more qualified, and a whole host of other excuses. Unless they are dumb enough to state it out right or they tell you the position is filled and they keep interviewing for the position it is almost impossible for you to prove otherwise.

Even if the company has a 100% rating from the HRC or a bold non-discrimination policy that includes us it is still hard to get your foot in the door because if a boss doesn’t like LGBT people he can makeup reasons why he didn’t hire you to HR.

It is very different if you had a perfect employment history with the company and when you transitions all of sudden they find problems with your work it is a lot easier to prove your case than if you have no history with the company. That is why I consul trans people if at all possible hold off your transition until after you get a job and have an employment record with the company. I know that sucks and we shouldn’t have to do that but that is reality.

Another Case Of "I Knew That"

Religions come in all different flavors, some hate us, some are lukewarm and others embrace us with open arms.

Poll: Evangelicals differ from most Americans on transgender morality
Religious News Service
By Emily McFarlan Miller
July 14, 2016

(RNS) A survey of 1,000 Americans by Nashville-based evangelical research firm LifeWay Research finds 6 in 10 Americans don’t believe it is morally wrong for people to identify with a gender different from the sex they were assigned at birth.

And more than half don’t think it’s morally wrong to change one’s body to match his or her gender identity by taking hormones or having surgery.

“A majority of Americans reject the view of a creator giving them a gender that shouldn’t be changed,” LifeWay Executive Director Scott McConnell said in a written statement.

Some of the findings are,

“It is morally wrong for an individual to identity with a gender different than the sex they were born with?” Those who disagree or said that it was a moral issue was 45% and 14% respectively. That means 59% do not believe I won’t say wrong but rather not a problem.

We did a little worst with the next question, “It is morally wrong to change the gender you were born with through either surgery or taking hormones?” Those that said disagree or not an issue were 43% and 11%, so 42% think we should suffer because it is against their beliefs.

Another interesting fact that the article points out…

Among the 27 percent of all Americans who say they know someone who is transgender, 25 percent say identifying with a different gender is wrong and 28 percent say transitioning is. Those numbers are higher among those who have no transgender acquaintances: 39 percent say it is wrong to identify with another gender, and 48 percent say it is wrong to transition.

So looking at it another way of the 27 percent that know someone trans, 75% don’t think it is wrong, 72% don’t think transitioning is wrong. It also shows that if people know a trans person they are more likely to be accepting.

I Can Tell You The Reason

As I do every morning I check Google News for trans topics to write about, this morning I came across an article about the way British and American’s are handling trans issues.

First Transgender Barrister: Transgender Issue Less A Political Football Than In US
Lexology
By FisherBroyles
July 18, 2016

Earlier this week I wrote about “a strange juxtaposition in employment discrimination law today:  The EEOC has just sued to, effectively, expand the rights of transgender people, while 23 states have just sued to, effectively, limit those rights. A unified country this is not; cracks and fissures have become the norm.

These contrasting lawsuits perfectly parallel the divide — the polarization – in the country today.  As always, the workplace is the perfect battleground, the perfect microcosm for society’s political and cultural battles.  The workplace always sits on society’s many fault lines.”

A number of readers commented, but one comment in particular caught my eye.

“I was just reading your piece about the way transgender law is pulling in different directions in the US.

I was the first barrister in the UK to transition from male to female in practice at the UK discrimination bar, and regularly act for employers in such matters in the UK, which are becoming increasingly common.

We have recently had a report written by a committee of the House of Commons in the UK which is likely to be adopted and which will strengthen and widen protection for gender non typical individuals in the UK.  I think it is much less of a political football here than in the US.  We have fairly recently adopted same-sex marriage rights and that had very wide support.

I can tell you the reason in one word why the two counties are so different in their approach to us; it is “Politics.”

The Republicans cater to the far right conservative Christians and they are using us to gain votes. They see us as a wedge issue that can get them votes, they don’t care about what they are doing to us all they care about is votes.

The New Trans Military

There is an interesting article in Newsweek about the military now allowing trans people to serve.

QUORA: DROPPING TRANSGENDER MILITARY BAN A 'BIG WIN FOR EQUALITY'
By Quora Contributor
7/17/16

The Pentagon's decision to lift the ban on transgender service members is very significant. The U.S. federal government under President Obama has in eight short years erased decades of institutionalized discrimination against LGBTQ Americans. The president has done more for LGBTQ rights than any other president. There simply is no second place.

I have to agree with that, what President Obama has done to advance LGBT civil rights is amazing!

No back to the article,

In removing these barriers to service, America will be joining other countries such as Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom which have already allowed transgender persons to serve in their militaries. The fact that so many countries do have effective fighting forces and that the inclusion of transgender persons has not negatively impacted their armed services shows that there really is no good excuse to deny military service.

Transgender people are no less able to protect, serve, fight and if need be die for their country than anyone else. America has had many very respected soldiers that later transitioned after leaving the service or were forced to leave due to their transition. Some of these included Navy Seals like Kristin Beck, American Revolutionary war soldiers such as Albert Cashier, Marines such as Janae Kroc, Army lieutenant colonel and billionaire Jennifer Pritzker, Army Colonel Sheri Swokowski and naval officers such as Mary Elizabeth Clark and Autumn Sandeen among many others. It is estimated that as many as 15,000 current military soldiers may be serving with untreated gender dysphoria.

I believe that anyone who is physically and mentally capable of should be allowed to serve; if you can do the job should be the only requirement.

---

I am going to go off topic now and talk about the draft.

Everyone should have to register for the draft; men, women, gays, lesbians, bi, and trans people should have to register when they turn 18 including those with physical or mental disabilities. There must be some jobs in the military that allow people with disabilities can do, especially disable veterans if they want to continue their service to their country.

I also believe that everyone should have to serve in the military, once you complete your education you should have to do two years in the military. I believe the reason why so many people were against the Vietnam war was that it could very well be your child who was called up to serve.

Now with the all-volunteer military people don’t care as much if we go to war… well they volunteered. But with mandatory military service parents will think twice about possibly sending their child to war.

And it shouldn’t be a draft but mandatory service; there were just too many ways for children of privilege to get out of the draft. For me it was college and when the university asked me to take a semester off I got a job at a defense plant making Navy helicopters (LAMPS SH2D Seasprite).

It Has Started...

The Republicans are not waiting to try to pass their draconian laws. As Congress adjourns they leave with a hearing on “First Amendment Defense Act” on the calendar.

First Amendment Defense Act Gets House Hearing
National Religious Broadcasters
By Aaron Mercer
July 15, 2016

Last year, as the U.S. Supreme Court was hearing oral arguments in the Obergefell v. Hodges case that would lead to a judicial fiat re-defining marriage in the United States, one particularly shocking statement came from U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, who told the Justices that tax treatment of religious organizations upholding biblical marriage is "certainly going to be an issue." This week, in an attempt to ensure that the federal government does not discriminate against citizens who sincerely believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee held a hearing on a legislative remedy, the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA). This bill, sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho), is written to be a shield against attempts by federal government agents to use tax treatment, licensing, grants, and the like to coerce or discriminate against individuals or organizations that merely wish to live in light of their religious convictions on marriage and sexuality.

The hearing witness whose story clearly exemplified the need for such a bill was former Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran. Despite a long and stellar record, he was fired from his post by the City of Atlanta after government officials found out that he had written in favor of biblical marriage and sexuality in a private devotional book. In his testimony, Chief Cochran said:

The actions by the City of Atlanta do not reflect American values. The real test of liberty is what happens when citizens disagree on important issues. By terminating me because of my beliefs, the City failed to reflect the true tolerance and diversity that has always set America apart. Instead, the City labeled as outcasts the many diverse people - from Christians to Jews to Muslims - who express their faith's longstanding teachings on marriage.

I agree, he should have never been fired, what he did on his own time is his business as long as it didn’t carry over to his job. It he treated everyone equally and didn’t discriminate against LGBT or anyone else because of his religious beliefs.

However, the “First Amendment Defense Act” is wrong! It gives special rights to a special group of people to disobey the law. This bill does what the religious right accuses the LGBT community of doing when we fight for civil rights, to be treated the same as straight people. This bill allows someone or an organization to discriminate just by saying that it is their religious beliefs to discriminate against  people, there can be no tests to prove or disprove their beliefs

Not only that but also the bill doesn’t let them discriminate against other people only LGBT people, so it might be against their beliefs for an adoption agency to consider an unmarried woman for adoption but they would have to do it. However, if a gay couple came in they could refuse to let them adopt.

The law would just apply to companies and organizations that receive federal funds. The Daily Signal wrote that,

Conservatives say that after the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, the religious liberty conflicts have escalated. During questioning for that case, Justice Samuel Alito asked U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, who was arguing in support of same-sex marriage, whether a religious school could lose its tax-exempt status for opposing same-sex marriage. In response, Verrilli said, ‘‘It’s certainly going to be an issue.’’

Now, more than a year later, conservatives believe legislation is needed to safeguard those with traditional beliefs about marriage and sexuality from being denied federal grants, losing their tax-exempt status, or being otherwise punished by the federal government.

The First Amendment Defense Act would protect a religious school, for example, from losing its tax-exempt status, and prevent a federal employee from being fired for holding traditional views about marriage.
[…]
The legislation would not generally apply to private businesses, such as the bakery run by Aaron and Melissa Klein who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding. However, it could affect private businesses that are recipients of federal contracts or grants, licenses, or tax benefits, for example, by preventing the government from taking adverse actions against them for holding traditional views about marriage.

The Republicans bill will make a mockery out of non-discrimination laws, it will allow every bigot to discriminate just by saying these magic words... "It is against my religious beliefs."

---

They also passed in the House the Conscience Protection Act a bill that allow individuals and companies to deny women access to healthcare.

U.S. House members in bipartisan vote pass Conscience Protection Act
By Catholic News Service
July 14, 2016

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In a bipartisan 245-182 vote, House members July 13 passed the Conscience Protection Act, which would provide legal protection to doctors, nurses, hospitals and all health care providers who choose not to provide abortions as part of their health care practice.

"We're grateful to House Speaker Paul Ryan for bringing the Conscience Protection Act to a vote, to all the co-sponsors for their leadership, and to those members of both parties who support the civil right of conscience," said Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore in a statement.

The cardinal is chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities and the archbishop heads their Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty.

"Even those who disagree on the life issue should be able to respect the conscience rights of those who wish not to be involved in supporting abortion," they said.

The measure, also known as H.R. 4828, also provides "much-needed protection for religious employers," they said. "In light of disturbing recent developments, even churches and religious organizations are being required to cover abortions in violation of their beliefs."

Well first off I would call only having ten Democrats out of a 192 as having bipartisan support. This bill is the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court on steroids. The ACLU has this to say about the bill,

The very next day, the House passed — without so much as a committee hearing to consider it — the Conscience Protection Act. Like FADA, the bill purports to protect religious liberty but in fact empowers discrimination — in this case against women seeking reproductive health care. The bill would dangerously expand the Weldon Amendment, a provision attached to spending bills over the last decade which bars critical federal health and education dollars from any state, local, or federal government body that doesn't allow a health care entity to refuse to provide, pay for, cover, or refer for an abortion. The Weldon Amendment is a barrier to women’s reproductive health that needs to be eliminated — but instead, the House just voted to expand and make it permanent.

The result? The Conscience Protection Act would give employers, health insurance companies, and others even more ways to stand between a woman and the health care she needs. A woman’s boss could deny her comprehensive health insurance that covers abortion services and allows her to make her own personal medical decisions without interference. A Catholic hospital governed by religious directives could refuse to “facilitate” or “make arrangements for” an abortion needed to preserve a woman’s health — something that unfortunately already happens all too often. The problem would only become worse if this bill were to become law. In short, the bill would further undermine women’s access to constitutionally-protected health care.

The ACLU summed it up nicely about both of these bills

Religious liberty is a core American value. It guarantees everyone the freedom to believe what they choose and to act on those beliefs, but it does not allow anyone to discriminate against or harm others in the name of religion. Unfortunately, as the House’s actions this week make clear, not everyone in Congress has gotten the message.

The Republicans are twisting the meaning of the First Amendment and in doing so they are granting special privileges to a select group of people to discriminate in the name of their god.

Saturday 9: Sara Smile

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: Sara Smile (1976)

On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun...
This Saturday I’m home for the first time in about a month, so I can reply to your posts.

... Because Kwizgiver suggested Hall & Oates. Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) This was Hall & Oates' first #1 hit. Can you name another of their popular songs? 
The other song that I liked was "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'"



2) Darryl Hall and Sara Allen were a couple for 30 years, and he wrote this at the beginning of their long relationship. That makes this a very public love letter. Are you good at writing love letters? Would you rather tell the person how you feel, face to face? Or do you let your actions speak louder than your words?
I am a face to face type of person; I want to be looking into her eyes.

3) In the song, Darryl and Sara are waiting for the sunrise. Did you see the sunrise this morning? Or did you sleep in? 
Well… since I couldn’t get to sleep until after one AM and took a sleeping pill, I sleep to a little bit after eight.

4) Both Hall & Oates hail from the Philadelphia area. Hall is a native of suburban Pottstown, which was a stop on the Reading/Philadelphia rail line made famous in Monopoly. Do you like playing board games?
I like Backgammon and I also like Monopoly board game because you can cheat. With the board game if they didn’t notice that you landed on one of their properties you can get away without paying rent.
Also I have been attending game night on the first Tuesday at Real Art Ways in Hartford, I play with a group of women.

5) John Oates grew up a few miles away from Pottstown in North Wales. Decades ago, North Wales' biggest employer was a cigar factory. Do you like the smell of a cigar?
UGH! No way… cigars stink for days afterwards. I can usually tell when my brother smoked a cigar while working down stairs at the cottage.

6) Daryl Hall now hosts a music show, Live from Daryl's House, that you catch free online. Do you typically watch shows from your computer, pad, phone or TV set?
Yes. I watch shows on all of them except the phone because I have a flip phone.

7) Hall & Oates are currently on tour. Are you seeing/have you seen a concert this summer?
No, I might attend a free concert in one of the town parks in the area.

8) Daryl and John have been friends for 50 years, even living together at the beginning of their careers when money was tight. Another successful duo of the rock era, Simon & Garfunkle, also met as teens but they forever seem to be feuding. What do you think makes for a lasting friendship/partnership?
The willingness to listen and sharing common interests.

9) Random question:  Are you quick to try new things?
If something catches my fancy I have been known to buy it.

Your Story

…Is “Her Story.” Have you seen the web series “Her Story,” it is six ten minute videos on YouTube and I think it is THE BEST video with trans videos and it looks like others think the same thing.

Trans-Themed Web Series “Her Story” Nabs An Emmy Nomination
The six-episode web series is the only independently produced project nominated for Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series, a new category this year.
BuzzFeed
By Meredith Talusan and Sarah Karlan
July 14, 2016

Her Story, a fictional web series directed by Sydney Freeland that depicts the romantic lives of trans and queer women, scored a 2016 Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series on Thursday.

The Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series category was newly added to the competition this year.

“We had hope, certainly, because we’ve seen incredible momentum and support to date,” series star Laura Zak told BuzzFeed News in a phone interview on Thursday. “Still, we all thought [a nomination] was pretty unlikely. If you see the other projects that were nominated, you can see the source of our caution.”
The Daily Dot had this to say…

Creators of crowdfunded transgender webseries 'Her Story' say Emmy nod is total shock

Wait, what?!

That's the feeling expressed by the two co-creators of a little-known streaming webseries on Thursday after discovering that the show had received an Emmy nomination.

Her Story, the YouTube webseries about transgender women that features a rare trans-lesbian relationship, received its first nomination. The Emmy nod in the short-form category was a victory on multiple levels: for streaming content, for the first show with a nearly an all-trans cast and crew, and for a show that aired on YouTube without any studio or corporate backing whatsoever.

Series co-creator Jen Richards, who also stars in the show, told the Daily Dot on Thursday that she got the news just before dazedly heading to a casting.

"I felt kind of stunned more than anything else," said Richards by phone. "It's just unreal, and it's enhanced by the fact that we're such an outlier in the category. I was like...how?"

Her Story hasn't just broken barriers due to the makeup of its cast and crew—largely queer and transgender women—but also because its low-budget, basically volunteer-run production. The series was crowdfunded on Indiegogo, where it raised $37,875 in September—a tiny budget millions of dollars less than most Emmy-nominated network television shows.
LA Times had this to say,

When a Web series released exclusively on YouTube nabs an Emmy nomination, as “Her Story” did on Thursday, the rise of digital and streaming platforms cannot be ignored.
If you haven’t seen Her Story do so now, they are short 10 minute videos so you can easily watch them over a cup of coffee at work.

Here is the trailer to wet your appetite,

You Didn’t See This All Over The News Headline?

One out of a million gets plastered all over the headline, the case of trans person who was arrested for voyeurism, but you don’t see a word about Deeniquia Dodds except in local media outlet.

Transgender Woman, Deeniquia Dodds, Dies After Being Shot in DC
NBC Washington
By Kristin Wright and Andrea Swalec
July 14, 2016

A transgender woman has died after she was shot in Washington, D.C. on the Fourth of July, and police are investigating her death as a homicide.

Deeniquia Dodds, 22, was attacked on July 4 just a few blocks from home, on the 200 block of Division Avenue NE, police said Thursday morning.

'She Was Just Amazing': Transgender Woman Killed in Md.

The woman known to loved ones as Dee Dee was "brutally shot in the neck and left to die," LGBT rights activist Earline Budd said in a statement.

"Her murder reminds us all of how often the transgender community is targeted for violence in our society," Budd said, identifying herself as a representative for Dodds' family.
[…]
Transgender people face an increased rate of violence, and more transgender people were killed in 2015 -- 21 people -- than in any other year on record, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy organization.

But what does the media pounce all over one trans person who commits a crime, a crime that thousands of straight people commit every year. The violence against us gets underreported… “Oh well it is just another tranny prostitute” she is a person doing what she need to survive.

Did you read anything about this in the national news?

Transgender woman attacked by 3 men outside bar in Aurora
Bar employee wants justice for the crimes
7NEWS Denver
Marc Stewart
July 14, 2016

AURORA, Colo. -- A transgender woman is dealing with cuts and stitches after an attack outside of a bar in Aurora.  The incident occurred at 1:45 Sunday morning at Shepes’s at 1725 Peoria Street.

Employee Kassandra Meajivar is dealing with physical and emotional scars after she said three men attacked her in the parking lot.

"On the way to her car, someone called her, so she went to see what it was and she saw this person was behind the car. They approached her and hit her in the face," said Meajivar, speaking through a translator.

"From what she understands, she was hit by a beer, it was full beer bottle in her face."

Remember the purpose now of the news media is to get people to read about something so the news outlet can sell more ads.

---

And then you have this nonsense at FOX

Fox News hosts debate whether the Statue of Liberty is transgender
LGBTQ Nation
By Charline Jao
July 5, 2016

Fox & Friends were recently confronted with a theory that the Statue of Liberty, the icon of American freedom, could possibly be a man. A new Discovery Family program titled, “Secrets of America’s Favorite Places” suggests that French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi used his brother as a template for the famous statue.
[…]
When asked if Lady Liberty transcends femininity or masculinity, the scholar [Edward Berenson, a professor of history and director of the Institute of French Studies at New York University] said, “There’s no question she’s a tough lady. She’s a lady.”

She’s a lady everyone! Now you and Fox & Friends can rest easy knowing that the 93 meters and 450,000 pounds of copper and iron we’ve had to greet immigrants since 1886 is a lady hunk of metal and not a male one.

What can I say?

Is It In Our Genes?

There may be many reasons why we are trans and it might not just be one thing, it could be a whole combination of things.

Scientists are still trying to find answer to why some people are transgender
How do you think biological influences shape the felt sense of gender identity? 
Gay Star News
By Nigel Tan
12 July 2016

Why are girls born as girls, and boys as boys? What about an individual who is biologically female but feels or sees oneself as male, or the other way around?

Dr. Qazi Rahman who is a lead investigator into LGBT mental health at King’s College London revealed that science still can’t give a complete answer to those questions.

‘This is the key question at the moment,’ the scientist told The Guardian. ‘We know much more about how nature shapes sexual orientation, and my view of the science is that nurture does very little, if any, shaping of sexual orientation. We know next to nothing about how people come to feel transgender.’

Last year, a group of scientists had reportedly come up with a genetic test that’s able to predict for homosexuality up to a 67% accuracy rate.

What about the other third? What makes them gay?

For trans people it is different,

‘How do prenatal sex hormones shape the developing brain circuitry which controls your sense of gender identity? Where is that network?’ he continued. ‘How does it work to make this happen and how does it map out over time, from early childhood to middle childhood through to adolescence and young adulthood? And how does that become different in some people to the sex they were assigned at birth?’

On the other hand, there is also the ‘nurture’ part. Past research have shown that social conditioning can affect gender identity.

They sum it up nicely in that there could be an intersection of multiple factors,
A person’s sexual identity can also be viewed as the sum of four related aspects: 1. one’s biological sex; 2. one’s sexual orientation; 3. the gender one relates to; and 4. the gender that dominates one’s behavior.

I don’t believe that they will find “a cause” but rather a complex interaction of all four things.

Another thing to consider is the ethical question; if they do find a gene or a test to determine if a fetus will grow up to be trans or gay, will parents abort the fetus because they don’t want their child growing up trans or gay?

A Crap Shoot

Not the elections but rather the one that will be going on in the Supreme Court, twenty-three states are suing the Department of Education over Title IX.

Virginia School Board Asks Supreme Court to Block Order on Transgender Bathroom Use
Gloucester County board wants to halt April ruling that said its bathroom policy violated federal law
The Wall Street Journal
By Jess Bravin
July 13, 2016

WASHINGTON—A Virginia school board asked the Supreme Court Wednesday to block a lower court order allowing a transgender student who identifies as male to use the boys’ restroom.

The case is the first over transgender restroom use to reach the high court. It could provide the justices an opportunity to decide whether prohibitions of sex discrimination extend to gender identity—a position taken by some Obama administration agencies, but disputed by more than a dozen Republican-leaning states.

“For decades, our nation’s schools have structured their facilities and programs around the sensible idea that in certain intimate settings men and women may be separated ‘to afford members of each sex privacy from the other sex,’” the Gloucester County School Board said in its petition.

The board wants to temporarily halt implementation of an April decision by a three-judge panel of the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., which ruled in favor of high-school junior Gavin Grimm that the policy violated federal law barring discrimination based on sex.
[…]
The Gloucester board addressed its application to Chief Justice John Roberts, who apart from presiding over the Supreme Court oversees the Fourth Circuit. He can act on the request himself or refer it to the full court for action. No decision is expected before additional briefing by both sides in the case.

So it looks like between the Virginia case and the 23 states lawsuit we are going to the Supreme Court. In an article in May the LA Times wrote this about the administration’s legal interpretation of Title IX.

To bolster their argument, attorneys for the Obama administration argue that the ban on sex discrimination has evolved since the 1960s, when it was seen chiefly as forbidding employers from denying women the right to get jobs that had been reserved for men. By the 1970s, the law had been expanded to forbid sexual harassment of women in the workplace.

By 1989, the Supreme Court, in Price Waterhouse vs. Hopkins, upheld a sex discrimination claim brought by a woman who was denied partnership at an accounting firm because some male colleagues thought she was gruff and aggressive, not “feminine,” in her attire.

Nearly a decade later, Justice Scalia spoke for a unanimous court in reviving a sex discrimination suit brought by a man who had worked on an oil rig off Louisiana and complained he was harassed, bullied and threatened with rape by the other men in showers. Scalia said this was clearly discrimination based on sex, even though it involved only men.

“Male-on-male sexual harassment was assuredly not the principal evil Congress was concerned with when it enacted” the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Scalia wrote in Oncale vs. Sundowner Offshore Services. “But statutory prohibitions often go beyond the principal evil to cover reasonably comparable evils,” and the words of the law can be easily read to forbid “sexual harassment of any kind,” he said.
[…]
“The courts have interpreted the ban on sex discrimination very broadly. I’m reasonably confident the 4th Circuit will strike down HB 2 because it reflects hostility to transgender people,” he said.

On the EEOC webpage they list the court cases that they based their ruling that sex discrimination also covers trans people, the page list the two Supreme Court cases as their basis for their ruling, Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services [the case mentioned above in the LA Times article in which justice Scalia said Title VII covers same sex discrimination], and the Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins. They go on to list other court cases for their bases,

Glenn v. Brumby, 663 F.3d 1312 (11th Cir. 2011).  The plaintiff, a transgender female, brought a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging unlawful discrimination based on sex in violation of the Equal Protection Clause when she was terminated from her position with the Georgia General Assembly.  Relying on Price Waterhouse and other Title VII precedent, the court concluded that the defendant discriminated against the plaintiff based on her sex by terminating her because she was transitioning from male to female.  The court stated that a person is considered transgender "precisely because of the perception that his or her behavior transgresses gender stereotypes."  As a result, there is "congruence" between discriminating against transgender individuals and discrimination on the basis of "gender-based behavioral norms."  Because everyone is protected against discrimination based on sex stereotypes, such protections cannot be denied to transgender individuals.  "The nature of the discrimination is the same; it may differ in degree but not in kind."  The court further concluded that discrimination based on sex stereotypes is subject to heightened scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause, and government termination of a transgender person for his or her gender nonconformity is unconstitutional sex discrimination.  Although in this case the defendant asserted that it fired the plaintiff because of potential lawsuits if she used the women's restroom, the record showed that the plaintiff's office had only single-use unisex restrooms, and therefore there was no evidence that the defendant was actually motivated by litigation concerns about restroom use.  The defendant provided no other justification for its action, and therefore, the plaintiff was entitled to summary judgment.

Also,

Smith v. City of Salem, 378 F.3d 566 (6th Cir. 2004).  The plaintiff alleged that he was suspended based on sex after he began to express a more feminine appearance and notified his employer that he would eventually undergo a complete physical transformation from male to female.  The court held that Title VII prohibits discrimination against transgender individuals based on gender stereotyping.  The court determined that discrimination against an individual for gender-nonconforming behavior violates Title VII irrespective of the cause of the behavior.  The court reasoned that the "narrow view" of the term "sex" in prior case law denying Title VII protection to transgender employees was "eviscerated" by Price Waterhouse, in which the Supreme Court held that Title VII protected a woman who failed to conform to social expectations about how women should look and behave.

Other cases were,

Rosa v. Parks W. Bank & Trust Co., 214 F.3d 213 (1st Cir. 2000).  Citing Title VII case law, the court concluded that a transgender plaintiff, who was biologically male, stated a claim of sex discrimination under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by alleging that he was denied a loan application because he was dressed in traditionally female attire.

Creed v. Family Express Corp., 101 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 609, 2007 WL 2265630 (N.D. Ind. Aug. 3, 2007).  The plaintiff, a transgender female, alleged facts permitting an inference that she was terminated because of gender stereotypes; specifically, that she was perceived by her employer to be a man while employed as a sales associate and was fired for refusing to present herself in a masculine way.

Lopez v. River Oaks Imaging & Diagnostic Group, Inc., 542 F. Supp. 2d 653 (S.D. Tex. 2008).  The plaintiff alleged that she was subjected to sex discrimination when the employer rescinded its job offer after learning that she was transgender.  Denying the employer's motion for summary judgment, the court concluded that the plaintiff's claim was actionable as sex discrimination under Title VII on the theory that she failed to comport with the employer's notions of how a male should look.  A finder of fact might reasonably conclude that the employer's statement that the job offer was rescinded because she had "misrepresented" herself as female reflected animus against individuals who do not conform to gender stereotypes.

Over a dozen other cases were cited by the EEOC in determining their ruling that gender identity and expression is covered under Title VII and the same cases apply to Title IX.

The case that I like was Brumby which was a unanimous opinion, in the decision the judge wrote was the judge’s analogy that if a person changes their religion, suppose that changed their religion from being a Christian to being a Jew, it is still religious discrimination.

But even with all these cases it will still be a crap shoot when it gets to the Supreme Court, we have become a political football in this election season.

It Is Bathrooms Again

It seems like everything revolves around bathrooms, no matter how much we say that bathrooms are not a problem that trans people have been using bathroom forever and ever the bigots keep bring it up to instill fear against us.

The Attempt to Keep Transgender People Out of Bathrooms Is Working
More than half of trans people surveyed have avoided public restrooms over the past year.
Mother Jones
By Samantha Michaels
July 12, 2016

This year, states across the country have struggled with the question of whether transgender people should be allowed to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity rather than the sex listed on their birth certificate. In March, North Carolina enacted a law blocking trans people from public bathrooms of their choice, and lawmakers in many other states have considered similar legislation. Proponents of these bathroom bills say they want to protect women and girls from male sexual predators; opponents say the legislation discriminates against a vulnerable minority.

Some new statistics out Monday from the National Center for Transgender Equality show how bathroom access—or lack of access—can affect the health and safety of transgender adults. In the largest-ever survey of transgender people in the United States, the NCTE, an advocacy group, heard from more than 27,000 transgender adults in August and September 2015.

The survey they are talking about is posted here, it is preliminary data from the U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS) and some of the findings are…

• 59% have avoided bathrooms in the last year because they feared confrontations in public restrooms at work, at school, or in other places.
• 12% report that they have been harassed, attacked, or sexually assaulted in a bathroom in the last year.
• 31% have avoided drinking or eating so that they did not need to use the restroom in the last year.
• 24% report that someone told them they were using the wrong restroom or questioned their presence in the restroom in the last year.
• 9% report being denied access to the appropriate restroom in the last year.
• 8% report having a kidney or urinary tract infection, or another kidney-related medical issue, from avoiding restrooms in the last year.

And it is becoming a lot worst as the Republicans continue their drive to all things LGBT back into the closet.

I avoid using public bathrooms mainly because they are yucky. One time I was driving home on I-81 in Virginia and UGH! The bathroom was horrible with pee and under toilet paper on the floor, if it wasn’t for the fact that I had another 400 miles to drive I would have kept my legs crossed.

The nicest bathroom that I was in was a tossup between Yale with their heated toilet seats or Smith College with their murals in the bathrooms in the art museum.

Summer Camp

I wish they had a summer camp like this when I was a kid.

Camps for transgender teenagers: 'It was almost magical'
Huge demand for summer trips in Essex that give young people the chance to have fun and build support networks
The Guardian
By Kate Lyons
July 13, 2016

A year ago, Nick was leaving his house only once a week – to go to Sunday lunch at his grandmother’s house. The 20-year-old from Manchester had dropped out of education because of his anxiety about how people would react to him as a trans man.

A friend he’d met online told him about a summer camping trip run by trans support organisation Gendered Intelligence (GI) and, despite his anxieties, Nick signed up.

“I arrived at the GI camp with no friends, I hadn’t left the house in a year and a half aside from visiting family, and I left full of hope, acceptance, confidence and several extremely strong friendships,” said Nick, who re-enrolled in college shortly after returning from the trip last year.
[…]
As well as participating in traditional camp activities such as canoeing, kayaking, archery and climbing, the group books the swimming pool at the campsite for two afternoons, so they can use it exclusively. For some campers, it is the first time they have been swimming in years.

Over on this side of the pond we also have trans camps, one of the first ones was Camp Aranu’tiq that is located at one time in the Berkshire’s of Massachusetts. A 2014 article in the Huffington Post by Mary J. Moss who writes about the camp,

Camp Aranu’tiq: A Safe Haven for Transgender Kids
The smell of campfires in the night air and the sound of Cicadas outside my window reminded me it was summer in Upstate NY. I haven’t ever liked summer. It’s not just because I am always warm. You’ll never see me wear a coat even on the coldest winter day. That wasn’t the real reason I disliked summer, my childhood was the reason. I loved school as a kid and I didn’t want it to end. I knew that ending of the school year meant loneliness. The other kids looked forward to a summer of playing hopscotch and marco polo in the pool. To most it meant a summer of overnight camps with ghost stories and s’mores to look forward to. I longed for an overnight camp but that wasn’t in the cards for me. Most of my childhood was in a wheelchair which wasn’t conducive to me playing hopscotch or marco polo. School days or rainy days meant the other kids were inside and would keep me company. But hot summer days meant all of the kids were outside and I was alone. I wished for a summer full of rainy days but I knew that wasn’t realistic.
[…]
My son attended his first year at Camp Aranu’tiq in 2011. I remember the drive with my parents and my son, Chris, to their New England location. My son was so overjoyed he could barely contain himself. We arrived in the beautiful woodsy location to see many parents and kids with that same anticipation. Nick greeted us as did his mom and dad who both work at Camp Aranu’tiq. He gave Chris a t-shirt and name badge where he put his first name and the pronoun he preferred to be called. He proudly wore his badge with Chris and “he” on it and he ran off to find his bunk mates. My parents and I walked the beautiful trail to find his bunk. It overlooked the water and was quite rustic. Each bunk house had several cots in bunk bed style. A camp counselor was assigned to sleep with the campers in every bunk. It smelled of pine trees and had dirt floors that reminded you of real camping. It was perfect.

Now there are other camps around the country,

Camp Aranu’tiq has grown from one New England camp and about 60 campers in 2010 to the addition of a West Coast camp, a family camp and a leadership camp with 400 campers in 2014. My son attended Camp Aranu’tiq 3 years in a row. He made lifelong friends and wonderful memories. My son spoke of his love of Camp Aranu’tiq when we taped the Katie Couric TV show in 2013. (see video [the video is embed in the Huffington Post article is you want to watch it, it is 34 minutes long]) As he proudly says to Katie, “Camp Aranu’tiq is like any other camp the kids just happen to be transgender.”

This is great for many of the children they are not “out” at home and also many times the schools that these children attend are not conducive to trans students so this gives them time to be themselves in a non-judgmental setting.

Not A Platform To Stand On

The Republican National Committee has just finished their platform and if you are LGBT this is not good news, they want to roll back all the civil rights gains that we have made.

Full GOP Platform Committee Approves Amendment Defining Marriage as 'Union of One Man and One Woman'
Republican National Committee Take Giant Step Backwards on LGBT Civil Rights
The New Civil Rights Movement
By David Badash
July 11, 2016

The full 2016 Republican Platform Committee has just passed an amendment redefining marriage as only the union of a man and a woman. The RNC platform committee is meeting this week in Cleveland, and earlier Monday a subcommittee expected to vote to make marriage a states' rights issue opted instead to keep its longstanding call for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Just now, the full platform committee voted to include a platform making marriage the union of one man and one woman, only.

And that wasn’t the only thing that they are against,

Earlier Monday morning subcommittees voted for amendments that call for to the Bible being taught in schools, for transgender people to use the restroom of the gender they were assigned at birth, voted to keep a call for a ban on same-sex marriage in their 2016 national platform, and voted to support anti-LGBT conversion therapy.

Let’s throw out the First Amendment and have a state sponsored religion not just of any old religion but of the extreme conservative Christians. Let’s throw out years court rulings that has established gender identity and expression is cover under Title VII and Title IX and the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause hey we are just going to ignore that pesky old thing, heck what does the Supreme Court know about the Constitution. And what do 64,000 therapists know? The 200 member American College of Pediatricians says conversion therapy works, a little electroconvulsive therapy goes a long way to make a person straight, one zap and they will agree to anything.

So who is behind this anti-LGBT Republican platform? Why it is none other than Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council an organization that has been classified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Tony Perkins Wants The GOP To Endorse Ex-Gay Conversion Therapy
Right Wing Watch
Submitted by Brian Tashman
7/11/201

Earlier today, the platform committee of the Republican National Convention considered a number of anti-LGBT resolutions.

Tony Perkins of the far-right Family Research Council, who is serving as an RNC delegate from Louisiana, reportedly proposed an amendment calling for the endorsement of ex-gay “conversion therapy.” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus met with him about the amendment and, according to Time’s Zeke Miller, told him that he missed the deadline but “can bring it up on the floor”…

 I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he had a hand in the other anti-LGBT planks.

---

While we are on Republican politics…

Caitlyn Jenner Takes Half-Step Toward RNC Appearance
The Advocate
By Neal Broverman
July 9, 2016

Caitlyn Jenner isn't wavering in her support for Republicans; she just booked an appearance in Cleveland, the site of the Republican National Convention, two days after the confab begins on July 18.

Jenner will appear at a "Big Tent Brunch" hosted by groups like Equality Ohio and socially-liberal conservatives, including the American Unity Fund and the Log Cabin Republicans, the latter being an LGBT GOP organization. Former talk show host Montell Williams, a Republican LGBT rights supporter, will introduce Jenner at the event, which will call for the party to embrace queer rights in its new platform.

Jenner, once an avid supporter of antigay, anti-trans Texas senator/failed Republican presidential nominee Ted Cruz, recently expressed admiration for presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. Jenner said she believes Trump is "very much for women" — something that Rosie O'Donnell and even Fox News journalist Megyn Kelly may find laughable — and an opponent of North Carolina's House Bill 2, which struck down gay rights laws in the state and mandated which public restrooms transgender people can use; Trump recently defended HB2.

Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn?

---

And on the other side…

Dem platform hailed as ‘most LGBTQ-inclusive’ in history
The Washington Blade
By Chris Johnson
July 6, 2016


Advocates are hailing the draft 2016 Democratic Party platform as the most LGBT-inclusive in history for its unprecedented support for LGBT rights.

Although the draft document calls for passage of federal comprehensive LGBT rights legislation, it does not explicitly endorse the Equality Act.

An entire section devoted to LGBT rights is included in the proposed platform, which was unveiled late last week and no fewer than 35 times invokes the name of Donald Trump to denounce him as a bigot who’d be disastrous in the White House. At no time is Hillary Clinton named.

The section on LGBT rights applauds last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of same-sex marriage, saying it “recognized LGBT people — like every other American — have the right to marry the person they love.” (In 2012, Democrats for the first-time endorsed marriage equality in the platform largely as a result of a campaign spearheaded by the now-closed LGBT group Freedom to Marry.)

But the plank says more is needed after the marriage decision, including passage of federal comprehensive LGBT rights legislation. In the 2012 platform, reference was made only to a trans-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act to prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination in employment.
[…]
On military service, the platform references “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal and the end of the transgender military ban, saying, “Our military is strongest when people of all races, religions, sexual orientations, and gender identities are honored for their service to our country.” On civil rights, the platform says, “Democrats will always fight to end discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.”

Hmm… which platform recognizes the human rights of all people?

A Frat See The Light

While the frat that I was a member of back as an undergrad didn’t even reply when I sent them a copy of my probate order name change and they still send me stuff under my old name.

Transgender men will now be accepted into one of America's oldest fraternities
Mic
By Mathew Rodriguez
July 10, 2016

Transgender men looking to join a fraternity may now join any chapter of Chi Phi, one of America's oldest fraternities. The body declared that anyone who is legally recognized as male is eligible for membership, regardless of gender at birth.

"We felt this amendment to Chi Phi's Constitution would change the conversation surrounding transgender men and their ability to join the Fraternity," Sam Borchart, undergraduate chairman of the Committee of Membership, said in a press release.

He added, "One change is never a stopping point, and we hope this opens the door to further discussion about inclusivity, particularly for transgender men who want to join us in brotherhood."
[…]
Of course, introducing trans youth into fraternity culture may prove difficult, given the realities of racism and rape culture that are inherent to many aspects of Greek life. Hopefully Chi Phi can not only include trans members, but keep them safe, as well.

Amen to that, all those dunking nights could very easily spell disaster for the fraternity and their trans members.

This Is Something That We Knew

And now research is bearing it out, gender is a spectrum and is not binary.

Even through this is an article from last year it is worth repeating,

Nature and sex redefined – we have never been binary
A recent article in Nature suggests that biologists ‘now think’ the idea of two sexes is inaccurate; in fact, says Vanessa Heggie, for decades biologists have been at the forefront of campaigns against this simplistic understanding of sex
The Guardian
By Vanessa Heggie
February 19, 2015

 A recent article in Nature claims that biologists ‘now think’ that sex is not a binary feature for human beings – rather than being simply male or female, there are various kinds of sex, such as chromosomal sex or hormonal sex, and all of us exist across several spectrums of sexual identity.

Two sex; five sex; nine sex models
The claim that we are non-binary is well evidenced, but the claim that this is what biologists ‘now think’ seems to ignore much of the history of sex and gender research. This is made clear by the very first comment on the article, signed ‘Anne Fausto-Sterling’. Fausto-Sterling is a pioneering researcher into sex and gender identities, and published controversial work in the early 1990s suggesting that there were at least five different ways of measuring sex – a publication which is not mentioned at all in the Nature article.

The scientific scepticism of ‘binary’ sex – that is the idea that there are men and women and they can be clearly distinguished – started even earlier. In 1968 the Journal of the American Medical Association carried an article by biologist Keith L Moore, listing nine different components of someone’s sexual identity: external genital appearance, internal reproductive organs, structure of the gonads, endocrinologic sex, genetic sex, nuclear sex, chromosomal sex, psychological sex and social sex.
[…]
(Barr) Bodies of Evidence
Moore wrote his article in 1968 specifically to criticise one form of sex testing: the tests that were being used in international sport to decide whether athletes were eligible to compete as women. Sport is often an arena that absolutely insists that human beings come in only two forms, male or female, and has spent around 80 years trying to find an objective scientific test that will prove that this is the case. So far it has failed.

This failure came as no surprise to many of the scientists working in genetics, or endocrinology, or other areas of the study of sex and gender. At least as early as the 1930s it was scientifically understood that some aspects of biological sex and gender identity might not match in individuals, and surgery and hormonal treatments were used to help people create stable identities. There were several high-profile cases of transgendered athletes in the 1930s and ‘40s, so the idea that sexual and gender identity might be fluid rather than fixed was discussed in the popular press as well as in scientific journals. These stories were part of the reason international sports organisations began to introduce stricter eligibility rules for women’s sports in the 1940s.

So when you see those comments about chromosomes determine sex, they are showing their ignorance, gender is much, much more than chromosomes.

In another 2015 article this time in the Huffington Post the author writes about brain sex.

Neuroscience Proves What We’ve Known All Along: Gender Exists on a Spectrum
By Amanda Koehn in Ravishly.com
January 20, 2015

Ever wonder about the brain’s white matter microstructure diffusivity? Don’t know what the hell we’re talking about? Well, start paying attention . . . because it may be important in determining our gender identity.

Earlier this month, the Medical University of Vienna issued a press release announcing that “the very personal gender identity of every human being is reflected and verifiable in the cross-links between brain regions,” with distinctions specifically in what’s known as brain “white matter.”
Translation: We now have some proof of a neurological distinction between gender identity and biological sex. Says the report:

“While the biological gender is usually manifested in the physical appearance, the individual gender identity is not immediately discernible and primarily established in the psyche of a human being.”

Led by Georg S. Kanz of the University Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, the study was composed of 23 trans men, 21 trans women, 23 cis women and 22 cis men. Researchers used a type of MRI (“diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging” is the proper term, should you ever want to sound impressive during a dinner party) to measure diffusion of particles across brain matter. Cis women had the highest diffusivity — which means (bear with me here) that particle movement in white matter brain regions was greatest for this group, followed by trans men. Trans women had lower movement than the former, with cis men having the least.

We are different, we didn’t just wake up one morning and decide “Gee, I think I want to be transgender!” but there is something deep within us that points to our gender… this is who I am.

Nature is very complex and mysterious we will never know all the interworking’s of mind and body, this might be only one vector to why we are trans and it might not be one thing that makes us trans but a whole combination of things that make us feel like we do. But one thing is true for all of us, we just want to live our life in peace.

One Morning I Woke Up…

And thought I want to be discriminated against and fired from my job, thrown out of my apartment, and spit upon. It is not a choice, just like you don’t make a choice in your gender I never made a choice in my gender.

Transgender stories: 'People think we wake up and decide to be trans'
From a teenager whose mum joins him at Pride parades, to a 70-year-old who was sacked five times for being trans, five people tell of their experiences
The Guardian
As told to Kate Lyons
Sunday 10 July 2016

Nikki Hayden, 26, psychology student, London
Until I was about four or five I didn’t know I wasn’t a girl, to be honest with you. One of my earliest memories, about five years old, was being yelled at by a teacher for going to the toilet with the girls. About the same age I realised I was different to these other boys. At the age of nine I refused to have my hair cut. I didn’t have it cut until I was 16, because having it cut was such a torment to me.
[…]
Keith Reynolds, 18, student, Surrey

Transgender clinic services under strain as referral rates soar

A lot of people have it in their head that we wake up and decide to be trans. I want people to know that it’s not a choice. Nothing has happened in my life to make me trans. I was born trans.

I told my mum when I was about 13. She was shocked and didn’t really understand. Then six months later she told my dad and he was so angry. I love my dad but he was a very traditional person. There was a lot of tension. I couldn’t wear men’s clothing, or I couldn’t wear men’s deodorant – it would cause an argument.
[…]
Jenny-Anne Bishop OBE, 70, retired sales manager, scientific instrumentation, Rhyl, Wales

I knew I was trans from about three or four years old. From a very early age I thought one day I’ll wake up and my body will be like my sisters’ and my parents would say: “Oh, we had a girl, not a boy as we thought.”

We don’t get to choose, it chooses us. If we deny who we are it causes great pain and emotional distress and when we do live our lives in our true gender all that stress goes away.

Believe me when I say that the society treats use no one would choose to be trans, it is not fun being an outcast.

---

This morning’s Ask Amy column had a question by a gay couple on when to “out” a trans friend.

Ask Amy: Couple wonders about outing trans friend
By Amy Dickinson
July 11, 2016

Dear Amy: My boyfriend and I are a gay couple. We live on a very friendly working-class suburban street and get along well with all the neighbors, all of whom know that we are a couple.

We have a good friend whom I’ll call “Susan.” Susan is in her late 60s and is transgender. It’s not immediately obvious that she was not born female. (Most people probably attribute her low voice to the fact that she smokes like a chimney.) She often comes over to our house and sits with us on the terrace or works with us in the garden.

Our next-door neighbor is a 70-something widower, “Harold.”

I’m sure you can see where this is going. Harold has developed quite a crush on Susan. He flirts with her, gives her flowers, etc. We have no idea if he has even the slightest suspicion that she’s transgender.

Harold is a terribly nice guy, and I would hate to see him get more and more interested, only at some point to perhaps feel that he’s been made a fool of when he finds out the truth.

Do you think we should say anything to him before things go any further?

The fact that Susan is transgender may not really matter at all, because she says she’s not remotely interested in having a romantic relationship with anyone. But then she’s said that before about men, only to get involved with them.

Any advice?

Neighborly

Dear Neighborly: I understand your intentions, and I assume they are 100 percent golden, but your friend “Susan’s” gender identity is her business, and your neighbor’s romantic intentions are his business.

If you want to spare him embarrassment, then why would you embarrass him by outing both of them, thus highlighting your own interest and speculation about his romantic choices?

The most you should do is to urge “Susan” to make her status clear to him. If she is not interested in pursuing any kind of romantic relationship with him, then she should let him know.

If she is interested in a romantic relationship, she should disclose her trans status at some point, but she gets to decide when that would be. If she has had relationships with men in the past, then she has dealt with this before.

Her answer is right on, it is none of your business whether she tells him nor when she tells him.

No Heart Or Soul

The Republicans have introduced a bill that can cause havoc not only to LGBT but to every citizen; they want to give special rights to people who will be able to legally disobey laws just by saying some magic words.

'Enough is Enough': House GOP Leaders Set to Piss on Graves of Orlando Victims
Hearing on Anti-Gay Bill Set for 1-Month Anniversary of Pulse Nightclub Attack
The New Civil Rights
by JOHN WRIGHT
July 9, 2016

House GOP leaders are set to debate a horrific anti-gay bill on the one-month anniversary of the Orlando terror attack, despite a plea from more than 70 groups to cancel the hearing.

Last month, we told you how Utah Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, had scheduled a hearing on the so-called First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) for July 12.

As of Saturday afternoon, the hearing remained on the committee's schedule for 10 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday, and Chaffetz had not responded to the letter from the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign and dozens of otters local, state and national groups.

“It’s outrageous that Congress would hold a hearing on legislation that would make it legal to discriminate against LGBT people with taxpayer dollars one month after the mass shooting that killed 49 people and injured 53 others at a gay club in Orlando,” said James Esseks, director of the ACLU’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & HIV Project. “Congress should instead focus its efforts on protecting people against violence or discrimination, regardless of who they are or whom they love.”
[…]
"The misleadingly named First Amendment Defense Act has nothing to do with the First Amendment and everything to do with sanctioning taxpayer-funded discrimination against LGBTQ people," said David Stacy, HRC's government affairs director. "Enough is enough. It’s far past time to stop the legislative attacks on LGBTQ people and their families.”

The Republican bill will…

First Amendment Defense Act

Prohibits the federal government from taking discriminatory action against a person on the basis that such person believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that: (1) marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or (2) sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.

Defines "discriminatory action" as any federal government action to discriminate against a person with such beliefs or convictions, including a federal government action to:

• alter the federal tax treatment of, cause any tax, penalty, or payment to be assessed against, or deny, delay, or revoke certain tax exemptions of any such person;

• disallow a deduction of any charitable contribution made to or by such person;

• withhold, reduce, exclude, terminate, or otherwise deny any federal grant, contract, subcontract, cooperative agreement, loan, license, certification, accreditation, employment, or similar position or status from or to such person; or

• withhold, reduce, exclude, terminate, or otherwise deny any benefit under a federal benefit program.

Requires the federal government to consider to be accredited, licensed, or certified for purposes of federal law any person who would be accredited, licensed, or certified for such purposes but for a determination that the person believes or acts in accordance with such a religious belief or moral conviction.

Permits a person to assert an actual or threatened violation of this Act as a claim or defense in a judicial or administrative proceeding and to obtain compensatory damages or other appropriate relief against the federal government.

Authorizes the Attorney General to bring an action to enforce this Act against the Government Accountability Office or an establishment in the executive branch, other than the U.S. Postal Service or the Postal Regulatory Commission, that is not an executive department, military department, or government corporation.

Defines "person" as any person regardless of religious affiliation, including corporations and other entities regardless of for-profit or nonprofit status.

This bill is not a “defense of the First Amendment” but in reality an attack on the First Amendment, it will give special rights to not even all religions but to only a few religious sects to be  able to discriminate against a select group of people which in its self is against the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. To discriminate against someone all they would have to say is "It is against my religion." and they can discriminate anyone who they "think" if LGBT, but on the flip side we could discriminate against any straight person just by saying those words (I bet they didn't think of that, it is a two way street.).

The Republicans say they want government out of everyone lives but this bill does the exact opposite, it sanctions discrimination.

Saturday 9: Hotel California

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: Hotel California (1977)

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

... Because Country Dew suggested it. Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) Composer Don Henley says this song is about the "journey from innocence to experience." Where do find yourself on that journey? Are you more innocent, or experienced? 
It all depends on what you are talking about. There are somethings in life that I am very experienced and somethings that I am innocent.
Just last week I visited a homeless shelter to train their staff and in a couple of weeks I am training the prison staff. I am a little nervous about that, I watch too much “Orange Is The New Black”

2) The lyrics refers to the "warm smell of colitas." Do you know what it is that the Eagles noticed in the air?
I assume that it is some type of flower.

3) The girl in the song had her head turned by luxury, including jewelry from Tiffany's and Mercedes Benz autos. Do you consider yourself materialistic?
I like my toys but I shop for price.

4) This recording has been lauded by music publications for for its long guitar solo. Are you good on the guitar?
Never even strummed one.

5) There's an error in the lyrics and Don Henley can get a bit testy when interviewers bring it to his attention. Here's the lyric: "So I called up the captain and said, 'Please bring me your wine.' He said, 'We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.'" Do you know what's wrong with it?
Now that you pointed it out, yes. Wine is not spirit; spirits is hard alcohol like vodka and whiskey. 

6) Known as the Eagles' drummer, Henley now spends less time at his drum kit. Sitting at that angle for an extended period of time hurts his back. Sam believes this proves all those warnings she heard from her parents about good posture are true. Do you pay attention to your posture? 
No, and I am paying for it now.

7) Joe Walsh is considered the wild man of the Eagles. Think of your circle of friends. Who is the most unpredictable?
Yes, there is a person like that; however my friends read my blog and you are not going to get me into trouble.

8) In 1977, Star Wars premiered. How many Star Wars movies have you seen?
Only the first three.

9) Random question: "Nosocomephobia" is the fear of hospitals. Are you  nosocomephobic?
No, I don’t mind hospitals as long I am not the one there.

I am going to an picnic in Vermont this weekend so I would be able to reply to your comments and the same thing happened last weekend we were working around the cottage all the long weekend.

Stories To Give You Nightmares

As the executive director of a transgender non-profit and a social worker I hear stories of discrimination that we as a community face every day. I hear stories from trans people and from therapists, some of the stories, some of the stories will just make you want to sit down and cry.

There was a trans woman who was put in a men’s shelter even though it is against the law where she was verbally and physically attacked and thrown out of the shelter. The story of a trans woman who had to go a rehab center where they questioned her about her surgical status, she showed them her birth certificate, passport, and driver license all which listed her as female. But they refused to admit her until she told them her status and when she did they then said that didn’t have a room for her. Or the case of a trans woman who was in the hospital and the staff harassed her and when her therapist complained their answer was “whatever.”

In Ami B. Kaplan blog she writes about the mental health issues that we face.

The Psychology of Stigma against Transgender Women by Men.
By Ami B. Kaplan, LCSW
July 7, 2016

There’s a particular and profound type of stigma and derision in society aimed at femininity in men (or those who are perceived to be men).  This stigma (it could also be called hate, aversion, distaste, repugnance) is very deep and very old in our consciousness, particularly among men.  A man in a dress has historically been fodder for humor and entertainment in movies and in male-bonding rituals.  There’s both an uncomfortable feeling and a forbidden fascination among men with seeing men outwardly showing their feminine side.  Why is this so?

Let’s delve into the male psyche a little to find some answers.  At some point in early development (around ages 2 to 4), the young (cis-gendered) boy must make a developmental leap in order to identify with his Father or as ‘male’. Psychologically (and unconsciously) the thinking goes like this: “I’m like you (the father), I am not like you (the mother)”.  Hence there is a sort of rejection of the mother and specifically with her femininity in the nascent psyche of the young male. (Jessica Benjamin writes about this – see ‘The Bonds of Love’, 1998).  And because this rejection happens in so young a psyche, it is correspondingly harsh and rigid and with little grey area.  Femininity must be rejected in all its forms and additionally is seen as less than and dangerous.  This is a perplexing and scary phenomenon for one so young.  And as Yoda once said: “…fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate…”  One could extrapolate from this that in some cases – this kind of dilemma in one with a weak ego or mental illness could lead to violence such as gay bashing or violence against transgender women. This, I believe is the root of pervasive stigma against men showing femininity and it could be argued that it is the root of homophobia, transphobia, internalized homophobia and internalized transphobia.

I also think that it has to do with the fear of being labeled “gay,” that if he doesn’t make fun of a trans woman he fears that his other male friend will think he might be gay so he over reacts towards the trans woman.

In another article that looks at the suicide rate of trans people and draws conclusions that shows the author’s lack of any knowledge about trans people was published in the Federalist,

The Transgender Suicide Rate Isn’t Due To Discrimination
July 7, 2016
By Daniel Payne

Chelsea Manning—who became a male-to-female transgender after going to prison as Bradley Manning for giving reams of classified information to WikiLeaks—allegedly attempted suicide earlier this week. Manning was taken to a prison hospital after an apparent attempted hanging.

This is not a surprise: “transgender” individuals have an alarmingly high suicide rate, somewhere north of 40 percent by some reliable estimates. A variety of explanations are often given for this astronomical figure, chief among them that transgender people are driven to kill themselves in such large numbers because they suffer from discrimination, bigotry and hatred.

And then the author goes on to equate the trans suicide rate to that of people of color,

There are two problems with this theory. The first is that it utterly ignores the most salient feature of transgender individuals: that they are mentally ill and need serious treatment. This is not a moral or ethical judgment. It is, rather, a fact. Individuals who believe they are a different sex than that of their biology are psychologically ill—self-evidently so—and one would quite reasonably expect a higher suicide rate from a portion of the population that suffers from so significant a mental illness (particularly a mental illness it is fashionable to indulge rather than treat).

The second problem is that the discrimination theory of suicide does not hold up when compared to other minority groups who suffer disproportionate real and perceived amounts of bigotry and negative discrimination. The Centers for Disease Control’s numbers on suicide indicate that the highest rates of suicide over the past 15 years or so belong to…white people. In contrast, in most of the years surveyed black people had the lowest suicide rate among all ethnicities. White suicide actually rose in the period 2000-2014.

He is comparing apple to oranges, discrimination comes in all forms being discriminated because of race is a lot different than being discriminated because gender identity. We do share some forms of discrimination together but there are other more virulent that the trans community faces such as being disowned by our families and having no support network. Research has shown that just by having the support of our families the rate of suicidal thoughts drops down to the level of the general population.

The author goes on to lay the blame on…

Why? Because discrimination is almost certainly a nondeterminate factor in general suicide rates. Mental illness, on the other hand, is very clearly a motivating factor in a great many suicides: the rate of successful suicide is extremely correlative with conditions of mental illness. Since transgenderism is a deleterious psychological affliction, it is wholly unsurprising to find higher rates of suicide among that class of people.

Is the author a therapist? Is he a doctor or a healthcare provider? He is a writer and writes on his blog that he is,

His spare time is spent building compost piles and reading Midatlantic colonial history.

It Is On His Desk

Yesterday the Massachusetts legislature passed the trans public accommodation bill and it is now heading to the governor’s deck and he has indicated that he will sign it.

The Gay-Rights State That Took Years to Protect Transgender Citizens
A new Massachusetts law makes gender-identity discrimination fully illegal. Even in a liberal state, the effort took a long time.
The Atlantic
By Emma Green
July 7, 2016


Massachusetts was the first state in America to issue wedding licenses to same-sex couples. Gay marriage has been legal there for more than 12 years—much longer than in most other places. In 1989, it became the second state, after Wisconsin, to pass discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, and bisexual citizens.

And yet, until this week, Massachusetts law did not fully prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. The state’s House and Senate approved a new law on Thursday, which Governor Charlie Baker has said he’ll sign, that creates public-accommodations protections for transgender people. Although legislation passed in 2011 protected transgender people against discrimination in housing, education, and employment, the new law extends those protections to cover everything from making a purchase at a store to using a bathroom at a public park. When they go about their daily lives, transgender people are now shielded from discrimination and allowed to use facilities in a way that’s consistent with their identity.

In some ways, Massachusetts’s new law is not remarkable. Twenty-eight states don’t have any kind of discrimination protections for LGBT people, and four others exclude transgender people from some or all of their protection measures. But it’s also surprising that a liberal state with strong Democratic majorities in both houses of its legislature has taken this long to pass these kinds of protections for transgender people, particularly because of its history on gay rights.  

What I don’t understand is why they didn’t do this back in 2011 when the non-discrimination bill was passed. Why did they accept a bill that was less than the protection that they had though the courts? They just showed that they could pass the public accommodation coverage even with a Republican governor.

Back before the passage of the 2011 law the courts had ruled that trans people were covered under sex discrimination and because the legislature hadn’t said otherwise gender identity was covered under sex discrimination. But all that changed when the legislature did act and pass a bill that didn’t include public accommodation.

Back then I talked to a number of lawyers who are active in LGBT human rights and they all agree that with the passage of the 2011 law coverage for public accommodation was now up in the air. They said that since the court cases were based on the fact the legislature never saying otherwise we were covered under sex discrimination but now the legislature said that they didn’t want us to be covered in public accommodations all the court precedent was no longer valid.

Well in the end it all worked out in our favor.

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Update 4:15 PM

Massachusetts Gov. Signs Transgender Public Accommodations Bill
Gov. Charlie Baker signed the bill into law today, assuring that residents can use the public facilities aligned with their gender identity.
The Advocate
By Mari Brighe
July 8, 2016

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker today signed landmark legislation allowing transgender people to use bathrooms and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity and banning discrimination in public accommodations based on gender identity.

The House and Senate worked out differences between each chamber's versions of the legislation this week, with both approving a final version Thursday, and sent it to Baker for his signature. Over the past several months, Baker, a moderate Republican, had been cagey about whether he would sign such a bill, but he eventually indicated he would approve it.
[…]
Praise also came from Jennifer Levi, transgender rights project director at Boston-based legal group GLBTQ Advocates and Defenders. “So many people have worked hard and acted courageously to bring us to this moment,” Levi said in a prepared statement. “We owe a debt of gratitude to the legislators who have stood up for equality, and to the transgender people and their families who have told their stories.”