Be Very Careful Out There

There are people out there who are just looking for people to attack out of either hatred or sport and a lot of time we end up in their crosshairs.

Alleged transgender hate crime caught on camera
4WWL
By Lauren Bale,
January 19, 2017

NEW ORLEANS -- Police are investigating a possible hate crime after suspects videotaped an attack and uploaded it to YouTube Tuesday.

The victim is a transgender woman.

The incident happened along North Claiborne Avenue in the 7th Ward.

The suspects videotaped themselves driving along this road yelling at a transgender woman. The video later shows the woman being physically attacked. The local transgender community said this video shows their biggest fears coming to life.

An LGBT advocate, who wanted to remain anonymous, has been in contact with the victim.

“She’s in shock,” the advocate said. “She’s traumatized by the event. It disrupted her way of living. This individual, from my understanding, was minding their own business."

What gets me is that they say “alleged” hate crime, if you listen to the actual YouTube video there is no doubt that this is a hate crime just by what they are saying, they use transphobic slurs throughout the video.

The advocate gives some good advice,

"They should be more cautious and more aware of their surroundings,” the advocate said. “And just really be careful."

We can’t live in fear, but we can be aware of our surroundings.

This Is Where I Am This Afternoon! Where Are You?

This afternoon I am up at the state capitol taking part in the “Connecticut Women’s March On Washington” event here.

In solidarity with the 200,000+ expected in Washington, D.C., let us meet on the North steps of the Capitol Building in Hartford for a rally, providing a local option for those who cannot travel to D.C. that day. Like many cities and states around the world, we will join in calling for honoring EVERY voice that upholds dignity, justice, unity, and equality for all. Share your views and show support for the ideals and principles behind the Women's March. If you are interested, please learn more about the values we are trying to express at https://www.womensmarch.com/mission/. ALL are welcome! Specific information about parking in the post pinned below.

The Women’s March On Washington has released their “Guiding Vision and Definition of Principles” and among those principles are,

• We believe that Women’s Rights are Human Rights and Human Rights are Women’s Rights.This is the basic and original tenet from which all our values stem.
• We believe Gender Justice is Racial Justice is Economic Justice. We must create a society in which women, in particular women—in particular Black women, Native women, poor women, immigrant women, Muslim women, and queer and trans women—are free and able to care for and nurture their families, however they are formed, in safe and healthy environments free from structural impediments.

[…]

• We firmly declare that LGBTQIA Rights are Human Rights and that it is our obligation to uplift, expand and protect the rights of our gay, lesbian, bi, queer, trans or gender non-conforming brothers, sisters and siblings. This includes access to non-judgmental, comprehensive healthcare with no exceptions or limitations; access to name and gender changes on identity documents; full antidiscrimination protections; access to education, employment, housing and benefits; and an end to police and state violence.

I am there because I want to show President and Congress that their views on healthcare, women rights, Social Security, and LGBT rights are the minority view and do not reflect the majority of the people of the United States.

If you can't make it to a rally near where you live then send an email to your elected officials and let them know that you support the Women's March on Washington.

Saturday 9: A Summer Place

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: A Summer Place (1960)


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

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

1) This song highlights the soundtrack from the movie A Summer Place, which is about two teenage lovers named Molly and Johnny. Did you ever have a youthful summer romance? If so, what was his/her name?
Yes, it was way back in high school.

2) The "summer place" of the song/movie is a resort along the Maine coast. What "summer place" are you day dreaming about this winter morning?
The cottage in New Hampshire, I was wondering how deep the snow and thick the ice is up there. Here Connecticut the ponds are barely frozen over.

3) In the movie, Johnny was played by Troy Donahue, who is remembered as nice looking but not terribly talented. Can you think of one of today's actors who you could describe as "nice looking but not terribly talented?"
Naw, I don’t even know the names of the actors/actresses now.

4) Molly is played by Sandra Dee, a perky blonde who was one of 1960's bankable movie stars. Two other blondes -- Doris Day and Debbie Reynolds -- joined Sandra Dee in the Top 10. The only brunette to sell a lot of movie tickets that year was Elizabeth Taylor. Do you believe men find blondes more attractive than brunettes or redheads?
Okay, speaking from my unique perspective; guys think blondes are loose.

5) "A Summer Place" was by far the best-selling record of 1960. Also in 1960, two brothers in Ypsilanti, Michigan, opened a pizza place called Dominck's. That was the beginning of a chain now known as Domino's. What's the last food you had delivered to your front door?
Wow! It was probably ten years ago that I ordered a pizza for a study group when I was in grad school.

6) In 1965, one of the brothers sold his share of the business to his brother for cash so he could buy a VW Beetle. Tell us about a time you had buyer's remorse.
I anguish over buying something so much that I rarely have remorse, it is usually the other way around. i have remorse for not buying it.

7) In 1960, novelist Ernest Hemingway returned to the United States from Spain and settled in Ketchum, Idaho. Tell us about the last book you read. Was it a novel or non-fiction?
Sceince Fiction: Shadow of Victory (Honor Harrington - Saganami Island Book 4)

8) In December, 1960, John F. Kennedy, Jr. was baptized in the Georgetown University Chapel. His godparents were Charles and Martha Bartlett, the couple who originally introduced young John's famous parents. Do you have godparents?
Yes, but they have been dead a very long time, they were m yaunt and uncle on my mother’s side.

9) Random question: You're at dinner with a married couple who begins to fight. Would you intercede and try to make peace? Or would you just sit back stay out of it?
I would crawl under the table.

When Will President Trump Get Impeached?

When do you think President Trump will be impeached?

Before the end of the month? Next month? Sometime during the summer? Next year?

Take the poll!

feedback surveys

There has been some talk that the Republicans saw that Trump was going to win that as a fallback plan they would impeached president Trump and make Vice President Pence

Legacy

With the changing of the presidents the LGBTQ Nation had an article about President Obama’s LGBT legacy.

LGBTQ activists reflect on Barack Obama’s legacy of support
By David Crary, AP National Writer
January 8, 2017

It was a new look for the White House, bathed in rainbow colors to celebrate the Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriage nationwide.

President Barack Obama, who was inside, felt the glow on that June night in 2015.

“To see people gathered in the evening outside on a beautiful summer night, and to feel whole and to feel accepted, and to feel that they had a right to love — that was pretty cool,” he said a few days later.

“Pretty cool.”

That might be a fair description of how Obama himself is viewed by legions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans who consider him — among all U.S. presidents — the greatest champion of their rights and well-being.

The relationship was slow in developing.

Obama took office in 2009 as a self-described “fierce advocate” for gay rights. Yet for much of his first term, he drew flak from impatient, skeptical activists who viewed him as too cautious, too politically expedient. They were frustrated he wouldn’t endorse same-sex marriage — Obama cagily said he was “evolving” — and wanted him to move faster on several other issues.

The article goes on to talk about the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the Supreme Court decision, his trip to visit Orlando to meet with the victims and their family of the horrible Pulse Nightclub massacre and,

According to a tally by the Human Rights Campaign, Obama’s administration has made more than 125 changes to regulations and policies to expand LGBTQ rights, and Obama appointed more than 250 openly LGBT people to federal positions, including 15 judicial appointments and nine high-level diplomatic posts.

And his making Stonewall the nation first national monument honoring LGBTQ rights, his awarding Ellen DeGeneres the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“The policies and protections that our community gained under his administration changed our daily lives and included us in the national conversation,” she [Cari Searcy of Mobile, Alabama] said. “We have come so far under his leadership, and for that, I will forever be grateful.”

Okay now that we got basically the LG part of his legacy I want to talk about his “T” legacy which I think out shines his work for the “LG” community.

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

I think that this outshines his lesbian and gay legacy, there have been out gays and lesbians on the White House staff and in administrative positions before but there has never been an out trans person before in those positions before.

---

As I was watching President Obama’s farewell speech Wednesday night the thing that struck me was when the camera shows the audience there is something that jumped out at me...

There are blacks, Latinos, and Asians in audience and it is not a sea of all white like Trumps audiences.

And who would have ever thought that we would get mentioned in a president's Farewell address, but we did!

For blacks and other minorities, it means tying our own struggles for justice to the challenges that a lot of people in this country face – the refugee, the immigrant, the rural poor, the transgender American, and also the middle-aged white man who from the outside may seem like he’s got all the advantages, but who’s seen his world upended by economic, cultural, and technological change.
[...]
...That’s why we cannot withdraw from global fights – to expand democracy, and human rights, women’s rights, and LGBT rights – no matter how imperfect our efforts, no matter how expedient ignoring such values may seem... 

Transgender Americans, not transgender but "transgender American" which is an important distinction, that we are Americans.

Also as those bubbles of thumb-ups, hearts, and sad emoticons drifted by there were very few of the angry emoticons that drifted by.

My final comment is…

I am proud to have lived during President Obama’s administration. He was the president of the people and he will go down in history as one of the best presidents of the United States.

---

Tomorrow I will be at the state capitol for the Women's March on Hartford, CT. This is going to be an historic event, over a thousand people have signed up saying that they are going tomorrow.

When I went to rallies for marriage equality there were probably only a couple of hundred people there, tomorrow there will be three or four times that number of people there.

I know of so many people who are going to the rallies around the country many of them for the first time in their lives they are attending a rally. Mothers are bringing their daughters and their grandmothers are once again picking up the banner that they held in the sixties and seventies for women rights.

Getting To Know Us

Many LGB people do not know anything about us. Some don’t want to learn, some don’t care to learn about us, some know about us and some want to learn more about us.

I know of many lesbian and gays do want to learn more about us and they support us, case in point…
What I learned writing my transgender book

An Irish social worker’s journey of understanding and the testimony of a trans man: ‘The hardest bit at first was saying it out loud’
What I learned writing my transgender book in Irish social worker’s journey of understanding and the testimony of a trans man: ‘The hardest bit at first was saying it out loud’
Irish Times
By Declan Henry
January 19, 2017

As a gay man, I became interested in transgender issues for two reasons. The first was that before I started researching the subject I did not know any trans person and the second was that I wanted to discover the real reasons why people are dissatisfied with their gender and seek to change it. I wanted to speak with people who were transgender and hear their stories. I wanted to demystify the wrongful image that the media have portrayed of people having “sex change” operations on a whim.

Writing this book took me on an extraordinary journey. I contacted LGBT support groups who put me in touch with trans people and organisations before I travelled all over Britain and Ireland interviewing trans people and listening to their life experiences first-hand. I utilised my social worker skills to help me find out why there were women and men who felt uncomfortable with their gender and sought to change it. I discovered the prevailing reason prompting trans people to change is because of incongruence between their brain and physical body. After deciding to transition they often discarded years of emotional agony and unhappiness.
[…]
There is no doubt about it, transgender people are becoming more visible in society because more and more people are coming out and transitioning earlier in life than in previous decades. It is estimated that in10 years’ time, most people will know a transgender person, just like everyone currently knows somebody who is gay, lesbian or bisexual. By that time, much of the current curiosity and fascination surrounding trans people will have waned because it will have become the norm for people to say they have trans relatives, friends, neighbours and work colleagues.

I take great pride in knowing that I have written a book that will help bring about greater understanding of trans people and clear up senseless misconceptions and discrimination – for those connected to the LGBT community and those who are not.

I remember being asked to take part in a discussion with lesbians who wanted to be allies with the trans community and I thought “Wow! This is going to be a good step forward.” It was a good discussion and then the host had to burst the bubble. She said all the positive things about struggling for our rights together and working for inclusion of the trans community into the LGBT community, then she said…

“But I don’t think that I could ever love a trans woman.”

When I asked her why she said because trans women are not women.

And I thought,  just another women who doesn’t get it.

A Recurring Theme

Unfortunately this is becoming a recurring theme with one state trying to outdo other states.

LEGISLATURE INTRODUCES THE WYOMING GOVERNMENT DISCRIMINATION ACT
ACLU
By Sabrina King, Policy Director
January 17, 2017

Late last week, a bill popped up on the legislature’s 2017 bill list with the title, “Government Nondiscrimination Act”. With a title like that, interested citizens might understandably believe the bill would be solidifying Wyoming’s stance against discrimination in the Equality State. But they would be wrong.

More aptly titled The Wyoming Government Discrimination Act, HB 135 would legalize discrimination against same-sex couples and transgender people, and would make it impossible for any branch or part of the government to enact or enforce local non-discrimination ordinances and federal protections for the LGBT community.

The Government Discrimination Act, at its core, says anyone with certain religious beliefs or moral convictions about marriage and gender identity can act on those beliefs and convictions to discriminate against LGBT people and same-sex couples. The Act then goes on to forbid any branch of government, state or local, or any board, agency, department, or institution, from doing anything about it.

The Government Discrimination Act’s effects would be significant and immediate. Laramie’s Non-Discrimination Ordinance would be unenforceable, and potentially even illegal. No other city would be allowed to enact non-discrimination protections. County clerks would be allowed to deny same-sex couples a marriage license, and would be able to do so without consequence. A doctor would be able to decline care for the child of a same-sex couple, and could keep her or his license. State contractors or grantees which provide essential social services, such as a homeless shelter or counseling agency, could turn away LGBT people and keep their state funding.

Not to be out done Texas has a bill to keep us from going to the bathroom at all.

Texas Lawmaker Unveils Anti-Transgender ‘Bathroom Bill’
NBC Out
By Reuters
January 6, 2017
AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas Republican state senator introduced legislation on Thursday to limit public restroom access for transgender people, despite warnings from a business group that the measure would hurt the Texas economy because it was discriminatory.

The "Texas Privacy Act" has been marked as a top legislative priority for Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, a Republican and conservative Christian who guides the legislative agenda in the Republican-controlled state Senate. He said the measure protected the privacy and safety of Texans.

"It is the right thing to do," Patrick told a news conference along with its sponsor, Lois Kolkhorst. The event was punctuated by the howls of protesters nearby in the Capitol building chanting: "Shame, shame, shame."

But not everyone is happy with the bill…

A major industry group, the Texas Association of Business, said a study it helped conduct showed such legislation in Texas could result in economic losses ranging from $964 million to $8.5 billion for the state.

And the San Antonio Express-News reported,

AUSTIN — Citing the huge sums that San Antonio has put into attracting events like the NCAA Final Four, House Speaker Joe Straus raised a fresh warning Wednesday about the potential economic impact of a proposal to restrict which bathrooms transgender people can use.

“Many people where I come from get concerned about anything that could slow down our overall job-creating machine,” said Straus, R-San Antonio. “They’re also watching what happened in North Carolina, and they are not enthusiastic about getting that type of attention. So I think we should be very careful about doing something that could make Texas less competitive for investments, jobs and the highly skilled workforce needed to compete.”

Newsweek also reported that other states have also introduced anti-trans bills,

The National Conference on State Legislators said on Thursday that legislation has been introduced recently in eight states, including Texas, to restrict the use of spaces such as bathrooms, changing facilities, shower rooms and locker rooms by requiring that they be used according to a person's biological sex.

All but the Virginia bill have been introduced by Republican legislators.

The Battle Is Not Over

Way back in 2002 there was a bill in the New York state legislature called Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA) included gender identity and expression, but with backroom deals we were pulled from SONDA bill and we were promised that they will come back for us. Fast forward to 2016, after still not passing the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) bill they claim victory with the governor signing a regulation banning gender identity/expression discrimination.

Advocates push Cuomo for transgender protections
News 12 Long Island
January 17, 2017

WOODBURY - Advocates are urging Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to take new actions to protect transgender New Yorkers in 2017.

Dozens of national and state organizations delivered a letter to Cuomo, a Democrat, pushing for the passage of the controversial Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, or GENDA.

Juli Grey-Owens, head of the Long Island Transgender Advocacy Coalition, says while the group is thankful for Cuomo's 2015 executive action granting protections for transgender citizens, the human rights law on the books in New York has no mention of gender identity, gender expression or transgender protections.

She adds that current state law leaves tens of of [sic] thousands of people without basic protections when it comes to housing, employment and public accommodations.

Don’t hold your breath; no one wants to support our rights! The New York Empire Pride declared victory and wants to move on to other Gay and Lesbian issues. You won’t see any GENDA legislation being introduced. They wiped their hands of us.

For them the battle is over and the wounded can fight for themselves.

Two Steps Backwards

One of the big gaps in healthcare for us are trans people who have their insurance coverage through their employer whose insurance plans fall under ERISA (Employee Retirement Insurance Savings Act) because they do not fall under ACA (Obamacare) or state laws.

Aetna Dodges ERISA Bias Claim by L-3 Transgender Worker
Bloomberg
By Carmen Castro-Pagan
January 18, 2017
Aetna Life Insurance Co. dodged a claim by a transgender L-3 Communications Integrated Systems LP worker who alleged the insurer’s denial of her disability benefits was gender-identity discrimination in violation of ERISA ( Baker v. Aetna Life Ins. Co. , 2017 BL 11575, N.D. Tex., No. 3:15-cv-03679-D, 1/13/17 ).

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act doesn’t recognize such a bias claim, Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas held Jan. 13. “It is for the Congress, not this court, to decide whether to create in ERISA a protection that the statute does not already provide,” Fitzwater said. However, the judge said the participant could move forward with her ERISA claim to recover benefits against the insurer giant.

Transgender issues involving employer-sponsored plans have been finding their way to court lately. In May 2016, a federal judge in Minnesota dismissed claims of discrimination under the Affordable Care Act by a nurse seeking coverage for her teenage son’s gender reassignment. The case is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. A month later, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against Dignity Health on behalf of a nurse who was denied coverage for gender reassignment treatment.

Fitzwater’s ruling is noteworthy for being one of the first decisions addressing the scope of ERISA when a transgender employee alleges being denied disability benefits for post-surgery recovery based on a discriminatory act.

Bad news for all the employees who have insurance through their employers,

The ACA doesn’t recognize a claim for discrimination based on gender identity, the court said in dismissing the claims against L-3 and Aetna.

In dismissing Baker’s ERISA discrimination claim, the court further said that it appeared that she based her claim on protections she alleged were found in Section 1557 of the ACA. Because Section 1557 doesn’t provide a cause of action for discrimination based on gender identity, Baker can’t rely on that section to support conferring such a right of action under ERISA, the court said.

I don’t understand the judges comment about Section 1557, here is what the rules says,

Section 1557 is the nondiscrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability in certain health programs or activities. Section 1557 builds on long-standing and familiar Federal civil rights laws: Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975. Section 1557 extends nondiscrimination protections to individuals participating in:

• Any health program or activity any part of which received funding from HHS
• Any health program or activity that HHS itself administers
• Health Insurance Marketplaces and all plans offered by issuers that participate in those Marketplaces.

Section 1557 has been in effect since its enactment in 2010 and the HHS Office for Civil Rights has been enforcing the provision since it was enacted.

On December 31, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued an opinion in Franciscan Alliance, Inc. et al v. Burwell, enjoining the Section 1557 regulation’s prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and termination of pregnancy on a nationwide basis. Accordingly, HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (HHS OCR) may not enforce these two provisions of the regulation implementing these same provisions, while the injunction remains in place. Consistent with the court’s order, HHS OCR will continue to enforce important protections against discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, or disability, as well as other sex discrimination provisions that are not impacted by the court’s order. Areas of sex discrimination that HHS OCR may continue to enforce include: harassment based on sex and allegations related to sex stereotyping that do not involve gender identity claims, as well as other forms of discrimination based on sex other than gender identity or termination of pregnancy.

So it seems to me that the judges are not following the Health and Human Services interpretation of the law based on other court rulings, including the 1989 Supreme Court ruling in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins.

Politics As Usual

The Republicans are at it again, this time one of them wants to castrate us!

Republican County Leader Suggests Castrating Transgender People Who Use Women’s Bathroom
Huffington Post
By Jason Salzman
January 16, 2017

Saguache County, Colorado, Republican Chair Richard Drake apparently shared a Facebook meme last week depicting a castration device with the statement, “Make’em think twice  before entering the ladies room. Share if you know what these are used for.”

The instrument wraps a rubber band above the testicles, cutting off circulation to them.

Drake, who’s the elected leader of Republicans in the southern Colorado county, did not respond to a phone call and email seeking to find out why he shared the meme, if it was he who did so on his Facebook page.

Nothing like an elected official inciting violence against us.

And then we have a Republican that wants us to pee in our pants.

Lawmaker flat-out tells trans man he can't use the bathroom in Virginia State Capitol
The Daily Dot
By Nico Lang
January 13, 2017

Del. Robert G. Marshall doesn’t want transgender people to use the bathroom in Virginia—at all.

The Republican legislator held a press conference on Thursday about House Bill 1612, a recently introduced piece of legislation he has proposed that would force trans individuals to use the restroom that corresponds to their “original birth certificate” in schools, government buildings, and highway rest stops, as well as other places. The bill has been compared to HB 2, a North Carolina law passed in 2016 that led to a massive backlash against the state. The Williams Institute, a pro-LGBT think tank at UCLA, has estimated that HB2 will cost North Carolina $5 billion each year in lost revenue.

Theodore Kahn, a 32-year-old transgender man, voiced his concern about the bill at Thursday’s press conference, asking Marshall where he should do his business should HB 1612 also become law. Marshall’s response? “Not here.”
[…]
It’s nausea-inducing to hear something like that from someone in a position of power. People like Bob Marshall and Ted Cruz aren’t happy unless they’re putting someone else down unless they feel bigger.”

I will tell you who should be banned from bathrooms…

Cops: Greenwich Republican Insulted Town Worker, Then Pinched Her Groin
Greenwich Daily Voice
By Frank MacEachern
January 12, 2017

GREENWICH, Conn. — A well-known Greenwich Republican called a town worker "nothing but a bloodsucking lazy union employee" and later reached in from behind to place his hand between her legs and pinch her in the groin area, according to the police arrest warrant.

Christopher von Keyserling, 71, of 402 Post Road E., was arrested in Greenwich Town Hall on Wednesday afternoon and charged with fourth-degree sexual assault, police said. He posted $2,500 bond and was released to appear in court on Jan. 25.
[...]
He allegedly replied: "I love this new world, I no longer have to be politically correct," according to the warrant.

An Interesting Conversation

The other day I was sitting around a table with women my age and the topic of the Stonewall Riots came and one the of the women said it was the beginning of the Gay revolution (I could have commented on several areas of that statement like it wasn’t a “riot” it was an “uprising” or that there were many other demonstrations around the country before Stonewall) and said that I didn’t like to label Stonewall as “Gay” but rather LGBT. A couple of the questioned why, they say nothing wrong with using “Gay” as in LGBT and my reply was it writes out of history all the lesbians and trans people who took part in the uprising.

After a discussion about it I think I brought them around to seeing why I prefer LGBT to “Gay.”

What do you think?

find bike trails

Sadly She Has It Wrong

There are reasons why the medical community backs children transitioning, it is because there is strong medical research that shows it reduces negative outcomes. There is research that shows it reduces suicidal idealizations, self-harm, and drug and alcohol abuse.

Transgender kids: Who decides?
By Margaret Wente
The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017

Whenever I write about transgender issues, I get dismayed e-mails from grandparents, other relatives or family friends. They tell me that a child or teenager in the family has declared that he or she identifies as transgender. The parents are determined to do what’s right. Now Pete is transitioning to Sue, or vice versa, and the relatives don’t know what to do. Something feels terribly wrong to them about all this. But enlightened opinion is all on the other side. The media are on the other side. The experts are on the other side. Not only that, they’re told that trans kids are at extremely high risk of suicide, and that if they don’t transition they might die.

Now there’s help. A new BBC documentary, Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best?, offers a thoughtful and nuanced view of the “gender-affirmative” approach that has swept society. Its focus is on Canada, regarded as one of the most progressive nations in the world for trans rights. Canada is where Ken Zucker, one of the world’s leading experts on child and adolescent dysphoria, was fired for not being progressive enough.

The activists believe that children’s expressions of gender identity should automatically be taken at face value. Simply put, the children know best. This is now the mainstream view, celebrated in the media, endorsed by progressive politicians, vigorously embraced by our school systems and robustly promoted by a growing number of medical practitioners who do not hesitate to prescribe powerful, life-altering drugs to adolescents and teenagers. Countless parents who would never feed their kid a peanut have now been persuaded to make drastic social and biomedical decisions that will irrevocably alter their child’s life.

That might be true if it was that simple, but there is extensive therapy that the child and the parents go through before the child transitions. WPATH Standard of Care v7 has a whole section on treatment for children and adolescents. They first discuss the requirements for the therapists and assessment of the child,

Competency of Mental Health Professionals Working with Children or Adolescents with Gender Dysphoria
The following are recommended minimum credentials for mental health professionals who assess, refer, and offer therapy to children and adolescents presenting with gender dysphoria:

1. Meet the competency requirements for mental health professionals working with adults, as outlined in section VII;
2. Trained in childhood and adolescent developmental psychopathology;
3. Competent in diagnosing and treating the ordinary problems of children and adolescents.

Psychological Assessment of Children and Adolescents
When assessing children and adolescents who present with gender dysphoria, mental health professionals should broadly conform to the following guidelines:

1. Mental health professionals should not dismiss or express a negative attitude towards nonconforming gender identities or indications of gender dysphoria. Rather, they should acknowledge the presenting concerns of children, adolescents, and their families; offer a thorough assessment for gender dysphoria and any coexisting mental health concerns; and educate clients and their families about therapeutic options, if needed. Acceptance, and alleviation of secrecy, can bring considerable relief to gender dysphoric children/adolescents and their families.
2. Assessment of gender dysphoria and mental health should explore the nature and characteristics of a child’s or adolescent’s gender identity. A psychodiagnostic and psychiatric assessment—covering the areas of emotional functioning, peer and other social relationships, and intellectual functioning/school achievement—should be performed. Assessment should include an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of family functioning. Emotional and behavioral problems are relatively common, and unresolved issues in a child’s or youth’s environment may be present (de Vries, Doreleijers, Steensma, & Cohen-Kettenis, 2011; Di Ceglie & Thümmel, 2006; Wallien et al., 2007).
3. For adolescents, the assessment phase should also be used to inform youth and their families about the possibilities and limitations of different treatments. This is necessary for informed consent, but also important for assessment. The way that adolescents respond to information about the reality of sex reassignment can be diagnostically informative. Correct information may alter a youth’s desire for certain treatment, if the desire was based on unrealistic expectations of its possibilities.

The SOC then goes into great detail how a child should transition, including social transition where there is no drug or any other permanent treatment intervention.

The article goes on to say,

What’s shocking about the push to transition kids is that most of the time, the kids grow out of it. By adolescence, the majority – studies average around 80 per cent, according to the documentary – reconcile with their birth gender. Many turn out to be gay. In one follow-up study of 139 boys treated at Dr. Zucker’s clinic, 88 per cent eventually “desisted.” Not surprisingly, these statistics make trans activists profoundly uncomfortable.

But that study has been found to be lacking. Among the comments about the study is that Dr. Zucker included children who didn’t meet diagnostic criterial for gender dysphoria in children so of course he found a high number of desistance in his study.

I Didn’t Know

And I go there for my hormones and endo care. So I was surprised when I was googling something and it came up in the search…

Transgender Services
Middlesex Hospital
PRIMARY CARE
It’s a fact that a high percentage of LBGTQ individuals do not have a primary care physician and do not seek to establish this very important medical relationship.  The reasons for this are varied, but at Middlesex Hospital, through its network of primary care physicians, we want to change this statistic.   Our providers welcome the opportunity to work with you on your well-being, if you become ill.  Our primary care offices provide a safe, welcoming environment and the physician’s relationship with you is individualized to meet your specific needs.

HORMONE THERAPY
Prescribing gender-affirming hormones is well within the scope of practice of primary care physicians, endocrinologists, advanced practice nurses, and physician assistants. At Middlesex Hospital, we are pleased to have Kathryn Tierney, M.S.N, A.P.R.N.-B.C., lead our gender-affirming hormone therapy program, in collaboration her colleagues in endocrinology and within our network of primary care physicians.

GENDER TRANSITION SURGERY
Our surgical specialists in gynecology, urology, and plastic surgery bring expertise, experience and compassion to a host of feminizing and masculinizing surgical procedures for our transgender patients.


INFECTIOUS DISEASE TESTING AND TREATMENT
Our Infectious Disease specialists (part of the Middlesex Multispecialty Group) can provide special insight and expertise regarding the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of infections of all types including: HIV and chronic Hepatitis B and C.

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES
Gender non-conforming/transgender individuals can feel a strong conflict between their gender (inner sense of who they are) and their physical sex characteristics. This conflict can sometimes manifest itself in depression, isolation and destructive behaviors. Middlesex Hospital’s psychiatrists and behavioral health clinicians are available and trained to help individual, couples and families work through the issues, to lead emotionally healthy lives.

I knew Yale/New Haven hospital was forming a gender clinic including a surgeon who is doing Gender Confirming Surgery but I hadn’t heard a word about Middlesex Hospital.

I did take part in a panel discussion there but I didn’t know that it was to lay the ground work for the clinic.

I Got A Brain

You don’t know what privilege is until you gain or lose it.

A number of my trans men friends say once they transitioned it is almost like they got a brain. One friend said that it is amazing anything he said people listen to him, all of sudden he is an expert in everything.

Trans Men Open Up About Their Experiences With Male Privilege
“Walking down the street is so glorious — I can actually think!”
Huffington Post Queer Voices
By JamesMichael Nichols
August 19, 2016

Trans men occupy a unique space in their identity: many (thought not all) people who live as trans men have experienced the privileges of being read as both male and female at different points of their lives.

In this new video from MTV, a group of trans men open up about male privilege and the unique perspective they have on the topic, having experienced the world and in a multitude of different ways throughout the course of their lives.

“A man can just walk down the street and no one is going to bother him,” Tiq Milan says in the video. “No one is going to ask him to smile, no one is going to ask him where he’s going, no one’s going to ask him if he’s married, no one’s going to ask him if they can walk with him. But this is something that I know women experience every day.”

It becomes very obvious when you gain or lose privilege. When you’re a project manager and you are asked to get the coffee. When you are looking for an electrical part at Home Depot and you get a lecture on how to install. When you go to an auto parts store and the clerk asks if you are getting the part for your boyfriend. These all happened to trans women friends. The first person has a BSEE and a MBA, the next trans woman is a master electrician and the last trans woman has worked on cars all her life. It is like that we got lobotomies.

It is the change to makes it stand out; all of sudden there is the change in privilege that sticks out and it is not only our expertise but it is the things that we took for granted like walking back to the car at night. As a man we never thought about that but as a woman we should be aware of the dangers  but many times we are not.

I tell the story of one late night I had to walk back to my car and I had to go right by a sports bar, I had to walk right by the patio were the men were sitting. I hesitated in the door of the event I was leaving and four lesbians coming out of the event asked me what was wrong, one of them saw where I was looking. She took my arm and cradled it in hers and the five of us walked arm in arm by the men. I would never have even giving it a second thought about walking by a bunch of drunken men but as a woman..

I Hate Lists

Lists are never right. You always get flack about those people who you did not included or about those that you did include, it is a lose, lose situation.

LGBTQ Nation has a list of 50 successful trans people.

When building a list of transgender people with great careers, there were five basic criterion:

• They are American.
• They are currently living.
• They’ve had successful careers after transition.
• Their careers should have little to nothing to do with being transgender (i.e, trans people can be something other than professional advocates).
• They are publicly out as transgender.

This list is not comprehensive, and there are literally hundreds more we did not list. The careers represented are deliberately eclectic, as are their genders, ages, races, and are intended to show the diversity of the community. 

“This list is not comprehensive, and there are literally hundreds more we did not list” is a good start.

So who some on the list that I agree with…

• Lynn Conway
• Amanda Simpson
• Wendy Carlos
• Martine Rothblatt
• Judge Phyllis Frye (I met her at Fantasia Fair once)
• Jennifer Finney Boylan (Our paths have crossed many times)
• Lana and Lilly Wachowski
• Allyson Robinson (I met her when I was an intern and it was my job to escort her around town while she was here and make sure she got to the hearing for the gender inclusive nondiscrimination bill on time.)
• Dylan Orr (He attended my workshop on trans history at the True Colors conference once. He came up to me, said he said his name and that he like my workshop. It was only latter when I found out who he was.)
• Namoli Brennet (I am a big fan of her)

And who are those that I never heard of that are on the list…

• Dr. Ben Barres
• Rachel See
• Robyn McCutcheon
• Angelica Ross
• Sergeant Ken Ochoa
• Nicole Shounder

The list goes on and on but one thing that I noticed about the list was most those who are on the list is that they all have passing privilege.

I Have To Comment On This

One of those rare times that a Republican legislature have block a anti-trans bill, maybe they realized that the bill went too far or maybe it was that Pence wasn’t there to egg them on.

Republican lawmaker blocks anti-transgender bill in Indiana
LGBTQ Nation
By Erin Rook
January 14, 2017

Late Friday, a Republican lawmaker blocked an anti-transgender bill from advancing in Indiana.

The proposed legislation, HB 1361, was introduced just one day prior and would have prohibited transgender Hoosiers from updating their birth certificates.

“The intent of this bill is to strip transgender people of the most basic and fundamental dignity,” Freedom Indiana said in a statement following the bill’s introduction on Thursday. “HB 1361 seeks to deny the very existence of transgender people—with the cruel mandate that a transgender person’s birth certificate can never match the identity they live as and the person they have always known themselves to be.”

Rep. Cindy Kirchhofer, the Republican chair of the Indiana’s Public Health Committee, confirmed in a statement that she is declining to hear the bill in committee, effectively halting its progress for 2017. She said she will instead focus on the pressing public health issue of opioid and heroin addiction.

So why was the bill introduced?

The bill’s author, Republican and Elvis impersonator Rep. Bruce Borders, said the proposal wasn’t meant as a political statement.

“This was not a philosophically driven thing,” he told the Indy Star. “I just respect accuracy in all legal records.”

I am surprise about this, I wonder why the chair of the committee did squash the legislation, I hope it was because she realized that the bill went too far and was punitive.

Back in the early sixties there were ten states that passed laws allowing trans people to change the gender on their birth certificates and many of those states realized that by being able to change our birth certificates it made it easier for us to get jobs or for us to get married so that our husbands could support us.

A birth certificate is not a historic document; it is a proof of U.S. citizenship the only times you need to show it is when you go for a job or for a passport. Having a birth certificate with a name and gender that is different  from your true gender creates hardships for the person who is just trying to become a productive citizen.

Saturday 9: Wake Me Up Before You Go Go

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (1984)

On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…
Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) This song was inspired by a note WHAM! partner Andrew Ridgeley left for his parents. He accidentally wrote "go" twice. What was the last handwritten note you left for someone?
I think it was at the health collective where I volunteer two days a week/

2) Born Georgios Panayiotou, George Michael was the son of the Greek restauranteur in East London. When you think of Greek cuisine, what comes to mind?
Stuffed grape leaves.
Hey! You asked and that was the first thing that popped up in my mind.

3) He was a terrible driver and admitted his license was suspended a number of times. Have you ever lost your license?
If you mean from speeding or DUI, nope.
But I did lose my purse and I had to cancel all my credit cards and get a new driver license, what a hassle! I originally thought someone stole it out of my pocketbook but then a number of months later I found my purse under my car seat. It must have slid out of my pocketbook and down between the sat and the console.

4) WHAM! partner Andrew Ridgeley, on the other hand, is a talented driver who got to live his fantasy by racing Formula Three in Monaco. There are companies that sell racetrack driving experiences that allow you to spin around the track at dizzying speeds. Is this something you like to try? 
Yup. At the track at Limerock Park they have that and also have race car diving training.

5) In 1990, Frank Sinatra famously gave George Michael advice. Ol' Blue Eyes told the younger man to enjoy his fame, to remember all those lean nights traveling from gig to gig by bus and, now that he's successful, "loosen up and swing, man." Who last gave you advice? Did you take it?
The waitress, she suggested that I try the pot roast and it was good.

6) Mr.  Michael's neighbors have reported since his passing that he seemed to live rather quietly, and that they usually saw him when he was out walking his three dogs. Tell us about the last time you spoke to one of your neighbors.
I have to really think back on that one. Do you mean a conversation or just a simple “Hi?”
I said “Hi” to my neighbor the other day when we both went to our mailbox.

7) Fansites tell us that George Michael's favorite cereal was cornflakes. What breakfast cereals are currently in your kitchen?
Generic Cheerios

8) In 1984, when "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" was popular, Murder, She Wrote premiered on CBS. Today it's still seen in reruns all over the world. Are you a fan?
Oh yes, I watch most afternoons

9) RANDOM QUESTION: What's your secret to a good night's sleep?
Sh… don’t tell anyone! I smoke a bowl of pot before bed.

Pushback

As we make headway with trans rights we get pushback from the conservatives, here and overseas.

BBC has a show that questioned how best to treat children with gender dysphoria and guess who’s name kept popping up?

BBC film on child transgender issues worries activists
Criticism over featured expert’s approach to gender dysphoria
The Guardian
By Hannah Ellis-Petersen
Wednesday 11 January 2017

The transgender community is “very scared and very worried” by a BBC documentary on how to approach gender dysphoria in children, organisations and activists are claiming.

The film – Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best? – prominently features Kenneth Zucker, a Canadian psychologist whose controversial approach with transgender children led to his being sacked in 2015 from a Toronto gender identity clinic.

Zucker disagrees with the now widely favoured “gender affirmative” approach to young people who feel they were born with the wrong gender. The approach encourages parents to allow their children with gender dysphoria to live as their chosen sex.

Instead, Zucker’s approach was likened to reparative therapy, which had the intended goal of “curing” children of transgender status. He also advocated more exploration into underlying psychological and mental health issues that might lead children to believe they were born the wrong gender.

As expected the medical and trans communities objects to the BBC documentary going against the census of medical research.

Zucker’s comment in the documentary, where he says, “a four-year-old might say that he’s a dog – do you go out and buy dog food?” was a particular concern for the Mermaids Foundation, which represents transgender issues.

“That quote in itself is incredibly inflammatory for parents of trans children,” said Susie Green, chief executive officer of Mermaids.

“We’ve had real concern that this is going to cause them to be targeted, because it supports this idea of trans children being mentally disturbed or that they can be cured. Parents are very afraid.”

Dr. Zucker has been discredited in his country and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has closed it gender clinic.

How the Fight Over Transgender Kids Got a Leading Sex Researcher Fired
New York Magazine
By Jesse Singal
February 7, 2016

On paper, Dr. Kenneth Zucker isn’t the sort of person who gets suddenly and unceremoniously fired. For decades, the 65-year-old psychologist had led the Child Youth and Family Gender Identity Clinic (GIC), in Toronto, one of the most well-known clinics in the world for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria — that is, the feeling that the body they were born with doesn’t fit their true gender identity. Zucker had built up quite a CV during his time leading the clinic: In addition to being one of the most frequently cited names in the research literature on gender dysphoria and gender-identity development, and the editor of the prestigious journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, he took a leading role helping devise diagnostic and treatment guidelines for gender dysphoric and transgender individuals. He headed the group which developed the DSM-5’s criteria for its “gender dysphoria” entry, for example, and also helped write the most recent “standards of care” guidelines for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health  —  one of the bibles for clinicians who treat transgender and gender-dysphoric patients.
[…]
The GIC, which operates out of CAMH, pronounced “Cam-H,” had been standing firm against a changing tide in the world of psychological treatment for children with gender dysphoria. The “gender-affirmative” approach, which focuses on identifying young transgender children and helping them socially transition — that is, express their gender to others through their everyday clothes, name changes, or other means — has been on the rise in recent years, and has become the favored protocol of many activists and clinicians. GIC clinicians, who saw clients between ages 3 and 18, had a much more cautious stance on social transitioning for their younger clients — they believed that in many cases, it was preferable to first “help children feel comfortable in their own bodies,” as they often put it, since in the GIC’s view gender is quite malleable at a young age and gender dysphoria will likely resolve itself with time.

Many activists see this approach as a rejection of young children’s transgender identities, and Zucker as its regressive standard-bearer. As a result, the GIC had been tarred for years as a “conversion” or “reparative” therapy clinic — terms which conjure images of outfits operated out of backwoods shacks in the Bible Belt. Responding to what felt like a surge in this line of criticism from activists, CAMH had agreed in February of 2015 to commission an External Review that would evaluate the clinic’s operations, and possibly, Zucker and his staffers knew, determine its future. CAMH had already taken actions suggesting that that future might be dim: In June of 2014, the hospital closed the GIC’s approximately 80-family waitlist (for being too long, administrators said), and about two months before Zucker’s vacation was interrupted, the clinic’s only other full-time staffer, the psychologist Dr. Hayley Wood, was laid off on her first day back from maternity leave. (Wood declined to comment for this article.)

And now BBC used him in their documentary on trans children and is drawing a lot of fire for it.

Transgender activists concerned about film featuring former CAMH psychologist Ken Zucker
Thousands sign petition for expert review of documentary featuring former director of Gender Identity Centre
CBC News
By Michelle Cheung,
Posted: Jan 12, 2017
A documentary scheduled to air on British television Thursday is raising concerns among transgender activists in this city, partly because it features a Toronto psychologist widely accused of trying to prevent transgender children from getting sex reassignment treatment.

As of this writing, almost 11,000 people have signed an online petition demanding that the BBC2 documentary Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best? be independently reviewed by an expert before it airs.

"Ultimately, this TV show could spark a trail of prejudice; belittling transgender children, leading them to not being socially accepted by society," wrote Lucas Johnston, on his change.org petition.

Johnston's concerns stem from the documentary's interview with Dr. Kenneth Zucker, the former director of the Child Youth and Family Gender Identity Clinic at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. In December 2015, CAMH announced it was "winding down" the clinic and Zucker was no longer employed there.
[…]
Some transgender activists have suggested the Gender Identity Clinic for youth Zucker ran was practising "conversion" or "reparative therapy," which counsels queer youth to accept their biological sex, an accusation clinic staff denied.

Conversion or reparative therapy is being banned in more and more states here in the U.S.

I hope the documentary fades away but I have a feeling that the show will be used by the opposition against us.

Connecticut Leads The Way

Connecticut is leading the states in ending chronic homelessness; there are articles in the news media on how Connecticut has ended homelessness for veterans and now for the chronic homeless.

State Says It's Lined Up Housing For Chronically Homeless
Hartford Courant
By Jordan Otero Sisson
January 12, 2017

Connecticut is the first state in the country to have provided housing to all confirmed chronically homeless people in the state, officials announced Thursday.

Speaking at an affordable housing complex in downtown Meriden, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said the state had reached the milestone of matching every verified chronically homeless individual in Connecticut with permanent supportive housing.

That group of homeless is a small percentage of the total number of homeless people defined as those who have been homeless repeatedly or for long periods of time and are living with a "severe disabling condition."

In January 2016, agencies that deal with the homeless identified 1,200 chronically homeless people who would need housing by the end of the year. By May 16, the figure had dropped to 529. On Nov. 2, it was 110; on Nov. 28, it was 27. On Dec. 8, the number hit zero.

In November of 2015 Connecticut officials announced that they ended homelessness for all veterans who wanted to find housing and now they announces that all those who want housing have found it.

The state collaborates with a network of nonprofit service providers to identify chronically homeless people. Whenever a new episode of chronic homelessness occurs, it is logged via the state's 2-1-1 system and that person is connected with services. The person is matched to supportive housing within 90 days.

I have as part of coalition giving training to the 211 operators and for the last two years we have gone around the state training shelter staff and administrators how to treat trans homeless people. The coalition is made up of AIDS CT, CT Coalition to End Homelessness, CT Fair Housing Center, CT TransAdvocacy Coalition, HUD, and Triangle Community Center.

We have had some pushback but in general our training has been very accepted by shelter staff.

Why is Connecticut doing this, it is simple…

Malloy said despite the current budget shortfalls, the state would continue to commit to combating homelessness because it brings cost savings to places like shelters and emergency rooms.

"Every time we keep somebody out of one of those places, we're saving money. That's the reality," he said. "And I say that in spite of the fact that we're in the middle of ... an opiod explosion that we have to deal with. This is an investment. I don't think every dollar that government spends is an investment, but I think every dollar that we spend here is an investment."

Let’s hope that Connecticut continues to lead the way.

History Repeats Itself

The battle over bathrooms is nothing new. It has been around for generations.

Back in the fifties and sixties the rallying cry of the conservatives was “Save Our Children!” and it was about trans people and bathrooms but blacks and bathrooms.

The Anti-Trans Bathroom Nightmare Has Its Roots in Racial Segregation
Slate
By Gillian Frank
November 10, 2015

The conservative idea that civil rights protections sexually endanger women and children in public bathrooms is not new. In fact, conservative sexual thought has been in the toilet since the 1940s. During the World War II era, conservatives began employing the idea that social equality for African-Americans would lead to sexual danger for white women in bathrooms. In the decades since, conservatives used this trope to negate the civil rights claims of women and sexual minorities. Placing Houston’s rejection of HERO within the history of discrimination against racial minorities, sexual minorities, and women reveals a broader pattern: When previously marginalized groups demanded access to public accommodations, conservatives responded with toilet talk to stall these groups’ aspirations for social equality.

An article in Politico said,

At the same time, public fears about a “homosexual menace” overtaking the nation stoked alarm that young boys faced sexual danger in public restrooms. A police crackdown on same-sex sexual activity in men’s restrooms in the 1950s and 1960s — this at the time when many Americans equated homosexuality with pedophilia — deepened these worries.

Public officials distributed pamphlets warning about “child attackers” who hid out in public restrooms to capture their prey. “Never wait or play around toilets. Always leave immediately,” a popular 1954 pamphlet used across the nation instructed. The 1961 public service film, “Boys Beware,” broadcasted those ideas to an even larger audience. “Public restrooms can often be a hangout for the homosexual,” a narrator ominously explained. “Bobby and his friends hadn’t noticed the man who had been in the restroom when they changed.” Bobby and his friends had erred in treating their restroom as a safe space — the very mistake predators relied on to carry out their crimes. School children understood the message: Boys had to be on guard when they entered public restrooms, vigilant against the violent, sexual dangers that lurked there.

And now it is our turn, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case of Gloucester County School Board v. G.G. later this month. The case is about,

Issues: (1) Whether courts should extend deference to an unpublished agency letter that, among other things, does not carry the force of law and was adopted in the context of the very dispute in which deference is sought; and (2) whether, with or without deference to the agency, the Department of Education's specific interpretation of Title IX and 34 C.F.R. § 106.33, which provides that a funding recipient providing sex-separated facilities must “generally treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity,” should be given effect.

And they are being flooded with “Friends of the Court” briefs and one of them is…

Restrooms unite conservative Family Policy Alliance and feminist activistsColorado Politics
By Joey Bunch,
January 10, 2017

Here’s a partnership you don’t see every day: The Colorado Springs-based Family Policy Alliance and the liberal activist group the Women’s Liberation Front, known as WoLF, over the restroom choice of transgender people.

The unlikely partners filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court over the request of a Virginia transgender student to use the boys’ restroom at school in Gloucester School Board v. G.G.
[…]
The Family Policy Alliance/WoLF brief argues that “allowing males who self-identify as women access to female-only spaces threatens the safety of women and girls and results in the effective erasure of women under Title IX – a civil rights law enacted specifically to benefit women, who have been excluded from and discriminated against in the educational arena for centuries,” the Family Policy Alliance said in a statement.

Then there is one filed by members of Congress,

INTEREST OF AMICI CURIAE
Amici Curiae are 114 Members of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives.

The Appendix to this Brief sets forth a complete list of amici curiae.

As Members of Congress, amici have a compelling interest in the proper resolution of this case. Under our tripartite system, Congress is tasked with writing the laws and the Executive has the responsibility to enforce them. This case arises from yet another instance of the Obama Administration effectively rewriting a federal law through an informal agency directive. In so doing, the Department of Education (“Department”) seized power that Article I vests in Congress and undermined the rule of law. In short, amici have a strong interest in ensuring that the Executive faithfully interprets and enforces the laws of the United States as written.

The case will be heard after the president–elect Trump takes office and the big question is will we have nine justices again or will there be only eight?