Saturday 9 Mama Can't Buy You Love

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9 Mama Can't Buy You Love (1979)



On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…
I'm up at the cottage in New Hampshire for a work weekend getting the cottage ready to sell. ;(

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

1) This week's artist, Elton John, was made an Office of Arts and Letters -- one of France's highest honors for people who have contributed significantly to the arts. What's the most recent compliment you received?
On my nail polish

2) In 2013, Elton had to cancel an international concert tour because he had an appendectomy. Do you still have your appendix?
Appendix… doesn’t that come at the end of a term paper?

JK, yes I still have my appendix while I had a close call with diverticulitis that they first thought it was appendicitis.

3) In 1979, Elton John was the first Western rock star to tour the Soviet Union. Would you like to visit Russia?
NO! They will lock me up and beat the daylights out of me then throw me in a concentration camp. They don't like LGBT people there.

4) Elton and his mother hadn't spoken in years but he reached out to her and healed their beach in honor of her 90th birthday in 2015. Who is the oldest person you know?
I take it that you mean that I know personally… that would be my cousin Bob.

5) Flowers and plants are popular on Mother's Day. How is your yard or garden? Is it green and/or blooming?
It is very green it has been raining heavily all spring.

6) Mother's Day is a big holiday for card shops. So are birthdays, weddings, and St. Patrick's Day. Hallmark sells greetings for everything from "Congratulations on Your New Job" to "Happy Retirement." Who received the most recent card you bought?
No one. Since I didn’t send out Christmas cards this year because I didn’t realize Christmas was so close.

7) Sam's mother is very careful when she unwraps presents because she likes to save money by to reusing wrapping paper and gift bags. Tell us one way that you economize.
I don’t buy gifts… no gifts means no wrapping paper and bows.

8) Mother Winters used to scold Crazy Sam for leaving her dirty dishes in the sink. Sam admits it: as a grown up, she still leaves dirty dishes in the sink. How about you? Is your sink or dishwasher empty?
Full. Living alone I run the dish once a week and let the dish back up in the sink but they are stacked nicely in the sink and they are all rinsed off.

9) RANDOM QUESTION: What size mattress do you sleep on -- twin, full, queen or king?
None of the above, mine is even bigger! It is a California King which is a little long than a regular king by about four inches.

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Last week I mentioned I was trying to find a solution to an Excel problem, well I found it...

A Very Timely Article

On Wednesday the Senate passed and the governor signed into law a bill banning conversion therapy on those under 18.

How Conversion Therapy Bans Will Trap Transgender Children
A bill to ban ‘conversion therapy’ nationwide would bar American children unhappy with their bodies from access to therapy other than drastic bodily alteration.
The Federalist
By Marcus Gregory
May 11, 2017
On April 25, Democratic lawmaker Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wyoming) reintroduced a bill to ban therapy in the United States that seeks to change “sexual orientation or gender identity.”

While attempts to make gays straight may have little value, that little “or gender identity” nonchalantly added to the end is a live grenade. In disguised language, it ensures no American child unhappy with his or her natural sexed body will have access to therapy other than drastically changing the body.

Wrong! This was brought up at the Senate debate on the a bill banning conversion therapy, the bill does not ban therapist from allowing a questioning child to explore their feeling but it only prohibits a therapist from trying to make the child straight.

Transitioning may involve changing clothing and pronouns for young children; putting children on the drug Lupron to suspend puberty; lifelong doses of hormones to change their appearance; and surgery to remove breasts and genitals. This is not just for girls who say they’re boys, but for kids who say they’re “non-binary,” too. Common sense asks why we’re so anxious to label children at all, let alone give them treatment that will change their adult sexual identity. What does a boy know about being a man, or a woman, or whatever non-binary might be?

Wong again! The child will have to go through extensive therapy first before they transition, it is not just on a whim.

As for “whatever non-binary might be?” well open your eye and ears to what the children have to say, instead sticking with your 1950s notion of sex and gender.

The article goes on to talk about the increase in the number of children coming as being trans or gender non-conforming… Did you ever think that because of the children now knowing what their feeling are, that it is not hide from them anymore and now more parents know what to look for in their child that they are coming out more and seeking professional help because of that?

They also mention that there is no research to back up the harmfulness of forcing them straight and they are wrong again. There is 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, and a quick search of Google Scholar found,

"Transgender youth and life‐threatening behaviors."
"Development, risk, and resilience of transgender youth."
"A longitudinal study of predictors of suicide attempts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth."
“Does it get better? A longitudinal analysis of psychological distress and victimization in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth”

You know if you don’t research the topic you will not know what is out there and you can bury your head in the sand and say “I see nothing!.”

When A Hate Crime Isn’t A Hate Crime

It is when the state Supreme Courts says it’s not.

West Virginia Supreme Court Rules Anti-Gay Assaults Are Not Hate Crimes
Slate
By Mark Joseph Stern
May 10, 2017

On Tuesday, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that the state’s hate crime law does not cover anti-gay assaults or any crime committed on the basis of sexual orientation. Its 3–2 decision marks a setback for civil rights advocates’ efforts to persuade courts that laws prohibiting violence and discrimination on the basis of sex also protect LGBTQ people. The loss, however, is a narrow one—and the poorly reasoned majority opinion is unlikely to affect the growing consensus in the federal judiciary that anti-LGBTQ discrimination is always “because of sex.”

Tuesday’s decision in West Virginia v. Butler emerged from a disturbing case of anti-gay bias. In 2015, Steward Butler, a college football player, allegedly attacked two men for kissing in public after shouting homophobic slurs. Prosecutors charged Butler not only with battery but also with a hate crime. West Virginia’s hate crime statute does not explicitly include sexual orientation, but it does bar violence “because of sex.” Prosecutors argued that Butler’s alleged attack fell under this prohibition because it was motivated by sex stereotyping, and because sex lay at the root of the brutality: Butler allegedly beat each man for intimately associating with a person of the same sex, and if either were different sex, he would not have assailed them.

This is 180 degree thinking from the U.S. Supreme Court which in the Price Waterhouse case ruled that sex discrimination also includes “sex stereotyping.”

One judge had this to say,

In a forceful dissent, Justice Margaret L. Workman, joined by Justice Robin Jean Davis, criticized Loughry for giving “the shortest shrift to real critical thinking.” The majority decision, Workman wrote, “is overly simplistic and constricted,” because “the absence of … those two magic words”—sexual orientation—“does not definitely resolve the question presented by this case.” In reality, Workman explained, “certain individuals are targeted for violence because they are perceived to violate socially-established protocols for gender and sex roles. The perpetrators in such instances have drawn conclusions that the victim has contravened certain unspoken rules” regarding men and women. When he acts on those conclusions, “the bias-motivated crime” is committed, quite literally, “because of sex.” Workman elaborated:

If a man stands on a corner kissing a man and is beaten because he is kissing a man, has he been assaulted because of his sex? Yes, but not simply because he possesses male anatomical parts; rather, the crime occurred because he was perceived to be acting outside the social expectations of how a man should behave with a man. But for his sex, he would not have been attacked.

In an elegant analogy, Workman compared this sex stereotyping to race stereotyping, which is already acknowledged to be form of race discrimination:

If a Caucasian man is fired because he is married to an African-American woman, has he been discriminated against because of his race? Yes, but not simply because of the hue of his skin; rather, the act was committed because he was perceived to be behaving outside the social expectation of how a Caucasian man should behave with an African American woman. But for his race, he would not have been fired.

So what are the options for the target of the hate and violence?

Well there is the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act that makes it a federal crime for crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

So this clearly falls under the act, but somehow I don’t think that the U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is going to investigate the attacks.

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Today I am at the Newington’s Senior and Disabled Center for the Moveable Senior Center forwarded by a meeting of the LGBT Aging Advocacy Coalition. So it is going to be a long day.

One Of The Side Effects Of Oppression

One of the side effects of oppression and stress of any marginalized community is substance abuse and self-harm and the trans community is no exception.

The CDC reports that,

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Persons and Tobacco Use

People who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) include all races and ethnicities, ages, and socioeconomic groups, and come from all parts of the U.S. It is estimated that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) persons make up approximately 3% of the total U.S. population.

Cigarette smoking among LGB individuals in the U.S. is higher than among heterosexual/straight individuals. Nearly 1 in 4 LGB adults smoke cigarettes compared with about 1 in 6 heterosexual/straight adults.
[…]
Transgender Individuals
Limited information exists on cigarette smoking prevalence among transgender people; however, cigarette smoking prevalence among transgender adults is reported to be higher than among the general population of adults.

The transgender population is considered especially vulnerable because of high rates of substance abuse, depression, HIV infection, and social and employment discrimination, all of which are associated with higher smoking prevalence.

In another CDC report,

Know the Facts
If you are part of the LGBT communities, you likely have seen tobacco ads in magazines, newspapers, and Web sites directed at you. Tobacco companies are targeting your communities.

Smoking among lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults in the United States is much higher than among heterosexual/straight adults. About 1 in 5 (20.6%) lesbian, gay, or bisexual adults smokes cigarettes compared with roughly about 1 in 7 (14.9%) heterosexual/straight adults.

Cigarette smoking is also higher among transgender adults (35.5%), than among adults whose gender identity corresponds with their birth sex (cisgender).

What makes it harder for smokers and are trying to stop is that the stressors in their life are still there. The harassment, the microaggressions, the discrimination, and threat of violence do not go away.

HB 6695 AAC The Protection of Youth From Conversion Therapy

All afternoon while I was volunteering at the Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective I had CT-N on my computer playing in the background, they just had music playing while the Senate wasn’t in session. Then around three thirty I hear them call the senators to chamber to begin the session, after the opening pray and the Pledge of Allegiance the Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman who is also President of the Senate announced the first bill would be HB 6695 AAC The Protection of Youth From Conversion Therapy… Whoa! That’s our bill! I told the Executive Director that it is being heard now and she came and watched it with me.

The first senator to question the bill sponsor in the senate, Senator Beth Bye was Senator Suzio (R Meriden, Middletown, Cheshire, and Middlefield) and he started to pepper Senator Bye with questions for what seemed like forever but it was only an hour! Next up was Senator Kissel (R. Enfield, Suffield, Windsor Locks, East Granby, Somers and parts of Granby and Windsor)… Hey! He said he was for the bill why was he asking all these questions from the bishop of Archdiocese of Hartford? It turned out he just wanted the answers read into the record of the Senate.

There was a few more senators who spoke for and against the bill and the vote was called, as we sat around the computer screen watching the votes get posted… green, green, green, green and the green lights keep coming and there were no red lights lit? Then the Lieutenant Governor announces the vote… Yeas 36, Nays 0, Not voting 0!

It was unanimous!

The rules were suspended and the bill went to the governor immediately where he signed it in to law.

Screen Shot from ctEQUALITY Facebook page

But our work is not done yet!

Please email you state Senator and Representative and thank them for voting for the bill, this is a very important step to let them know that it was important to you that they voted for the bill. You can find their contact information here.

So ends eight months of work, the first planning meeting that I attended for the bill was back in October and we have been meeting about once a month after that.

Organizations that worked on the bill...
ACLU-CT
AIDS CT
CT Coalition Against Domestic Violence
CT TransAdvocacy Coalition
CT Women’s Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF)
GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD)
GLSEN Connecticut
Hartford Gay & Lesbian Health Collective
National Association of Social Workers, CT Chapter
New Haven Pride Center
OutCT
Planned Parenthood of Southern New England
Triangle Community Center
True Colors

Allies In High Places

This time an ally stepped forward from the entrainment sector, Whoopi Goldberg.

Whoopi Goldberg Speaks Out for Transgender Rights
NBC Out
By Brooke Sopelsa
May 8, 2017

Surrounded by the transgender stars of Oxygen reality show "Strut," Executive Producer Whoopi Goldberg on Saturday accepted the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Reality Program. But the actress and TV host didn't do so without speaking up for transgender rights and against those trying to roll them back.

While Out Magazine reported,

“Transgender people have been with us forever,” says Whoopi Goldberg. “Not just recently. Not just on television. But in real life.”
[…]
“It’s not about superficiality,” says Goldberg. “This is about how to deal with your mom or your dad, who may not get it. People say, ‘Honey, God doesn’t make mistakes.’ No, God doesn’t make mistakes, but Mother Nature will fuck with you. So if someone says, ‘I don’t think I’m in the right body,’ you have to listen.”

She adds, “No matter where you live, you know someone or you’ve met someone who is transgender. So relax. They’re just trying to find their place in the world.”

All we want is to live our lives in peace, to have a roof over our heads, a job, and come home to loved ones.

In Common

One time at Fantasia Fair in Provincetown MA on Cape Cod at the B&B we were staying at there was a group of lesbians staying there for the last weekend of Women’s Week. In the late afternoon we were in the common room where the wine and cheese was out, one side were the lesbians guests and on the other side of the room were the trans guests, we had nothing in common… or did we?

Somehow the conversions turned to coming of stories and all of sudden we had something in common and friendships started to develop.

BARRY MANILOW GETS EMOTIONAL TALKING FAN SUPPORT SINCE COMING OUT
qnews.au
By Jordan Hirst
April 22, 2017

Barry Manilow has said that the outpouring of love and support he’s gotten from fans since coming out as gay has been “thrilling”.

The entertainer publicly acknowledged his sexuality for the first time earlier this month, and he got choked up when talking about his fans in an interview on US talk show Today.

“You should walk down the street with me one day. These strangers say the most beautiful things to me,” Barry said.

“They thank me for helping them through their lives. The impact I’ve had on people… I’m sorry, I’m going to cry. It’s thrilling.”

And Mr. Manilow isn’t the only celebrity to come out,

Fox News’ Shepard Smith On Coming Out: “I Didn’t Think I Was In”
“I go home to the man I’m in love with,” the Fox News anchor says.
New Next Now
By Dan Avery
May 7, 2017

Shepard Smith opened up a bit about his sexuality in a recent talk at the University of Mississippi’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media. Smith, an Ole Miss alum, was attending “It Starts With MEek,” a conference promoting diversity and inclusivity at the school.

Though he left before graduating, Smith credits UM with teaching him important lessons about journalism. But, he confessed, he threw himself into his work to avoid dealing with his private life—rarely spending a night at home for a year at a time.

He goes on to share what is common to all of us who thought about coming out,

“A. You’re going to hell for it,” he said, listing why he avoided acknowledging his sexuality. “B. You’ll never have any friends again. C. What are you going to tell your family?”

I think we all thought this when we were contemplating coming out. Many of us had vision of losing our family, friends, and losing our jobs. And he also had the fact that he worked at Fox.

“And by the way, you’re on television on the craziest conservative network on Earth,” he joked. “That will probably put you in front of a brick wall. Of course none of that was true, but that’s how it felt.”

Whether you are lesbian, gay, bi, queer, or trans we have to come out and with it we share a common fear of the unknown.

For us we have to come out if we are going to transition, family and friends tend to notice little things like showing up at a summer event in a sun dress. While lesbians, gays, bi, and queers don’t have to come, they just a friend with them.

Very Interesting!

It is so nice to live in a state that “Gets It!” we have a lot of faults here in Connecticut and there are still a lot of people who don’t get it but in general we are better off than most states.

Becoming Myself: A Transgender Perspective on Behavioral Health *Advisory*

“Becoming Myself:  A Transgender Perspective on Behavioral Health” tells the stories of four transgender residents and the behavioral health challenges they faced as transgender individuals. People who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) face greater health threats than their heterosexual peers, partly because of differences in sexual behavior and partly because of social and structural inequities, such as stigma and discrimination. This includes not only threats to their physical health, but to their mental health as well.

While the federal government is taking LGBT stuff down from their websites Connecticut is posting what services are available for us.

For more information about mental health programs and services available for members of the LGBT community, go to www.ct.gov/dmhas/lgbt.

Following that link to…

Programs and Services for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
People with Mental Health and/or Substance Abuse Issues    

Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) have begun in DMHAS state-operated facilities. GSAs support people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and their allies by creating safe environments in mental health and substance abuse facilities to support each other.

Recovery is a challenging process. So is the process of coming out as being lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. We have found that having a safe space for people to be supported within our treatment facilities is very helpful.

GSAs are not just for LGBT people. Allies of LGBT people are welcomed and an important part of the mission of GSAs. Partnership with allies provides mutual support to LGBT people and our allies.

Our hope is one day GSAs will exist throughout the DMHAS system. 

How great is that!

Let’s see if Texas or Tennessee or Kentucky will support GSAs.

One word of caution that link for the video doesn’t play the video but downloads it and it is a very large file (1.7 GB).

Not All Republicans Are Bad

Some speak up against those who want to take away our Human Rights, but those who remain silent are just as bad as those who attack us.

John McCain: Why We Must Support Human Rights
By John McCain
May 8, 2017

Washington, D.C. — SOME years ago, I heard Natan Sharansky, the human rights icon, recount how he and his fellow refuseniks in the Soviet Union took renewed courage from statements made on their behalf by President Ronald Reagan. Word had reached the gulag that the leader of the most powerful nation on earth had spoken in defense of their right to self-determination. America, personified by its president, gave them hope, and hope is a powerful defense against oppression.

As I listened to Mr. Sharansky, I was reminded how much it had meant to my fellow P.O.W.s and me when we heard from new additions to our ranks that Mr. Reagan, then the governor of California, had often defended our cause, demanded our humane treatment and encouraged Americans not to forget us.

In their continuous efforts to infect us with despair and dissolve our attachment to our country, our North Vietnamese captors insisted the American government and people had forgotten us. We were on our own, they taunted, and at their mercy. We clung to evidence to the contrary, and let it nourish our hope that we would go home one day with our honor intact.

But now…

In a recent address to State Department employees, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said conditioning our foreign policy too heavily on values creates obstacles to advance our national interests. With those words, Secretary Tillerson sent a message to oppressed people everywhere: Don’t look to the United States for hope. Our values make us sympathetic to your plight, and, when it’s convenient, we might officially express that sympathy. But we make policy to serve our interests, which are not related to our values. So, if you happen to be in the way of our forging relationships with your oppressors that could serve our security and economic interests, good luck to you. You’re on your own.

There are those who will credit Mr. Tillerson’s point of view as a straightforward if graceless elucidation of a foreign policy based on realism. If by realism they mean policy that is rooted in the world as it is, not as we wish it to be, they couldn’t be more wrong.

We must always stand on the side of Human Rights and not throw a people under the bus to get other concessions.

We are a country with a conscience. We have long believed moral concerns must be an essential part of our foreign policy, not a departure from it. We are the chief architect and defender of an international order governed by rules derived from our political and economic values. We have grown vastly wealthier and more powerful under those rules. More of humanity than ever before lives in freedom and out of poverty because of those rules.

Our values are our strength and greatest treasure. We are distinguished from other countries because we are not made from a land or tribe or particular race or creed, but from an ideal that liberty is the inalienable right of mankind and in accord with nature and nature’s Creator.

But we are losing our way.

We are becoming a nation of “Haves and Have Nots” we are become a nation that is separated by race, we are become a nation that does not care for our fellow human being.

The definition of Fascism according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary is,

1. often capitalized :  a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2. :  a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control early instances of army fascism and brutality — J. W. Aldridge

We are headed in that directions. we have a president who said he is looking to change the First Amendment to silence the New York Times and the Washington Post in favor of Fox News. When we have a president who wants to allow bigotry and discrimination to hide behind religion we should stop and think about our values and that of our country.

A Long Shot.

There is a trans candidate running for office on Long Island and I think her candidacy is going to be hard, I think there are still many people out there who will not vote a trans candidate. She might be the best candidate but there still are a lot of bigots out there.

TeenVogue reported,

This Is the FIRST Transgender Woman Running for Office on A Major Ticket in New York
Kristen Browde lives in Chappaqua, hometown of Hillary Clinton.
By Leora Yashari
May 8, 2017

In the days following the election of Donald Trump as president in November 2016, Kristen Browde sat in a crowded church in Larchmont, New York. Clusters of county officials debated the future of their towns and the tension was palpable. The questions were all the same: “What now?”

Browde, a 66-year-old lawyer and former television news reporter, lives in Chappaqua. It's the hometown of her preferred candidate, Hillary Clinton, who she campaigned for door-to-door. But in the church Browde came to listen. As she heard unresolved concerns among her district constituents she instinctively jumped in. Later, she was asked if she would consider running for town supervisor.

Aside from participating on various town government committees, Browde had no interest in becoming an elected official—she runs a successful law practice and has a three-decade newscasting career behind her. But last month, she announced that she would accept the Democratic party’s nomination, making her the first-ever transgender woman nominated to run for office in the state of New York on a major party ticket. If elected, Browde would become part of a small group of openly transgender elected officials, according to the LGBTQ Representation & Rights Research Initiative at the University of North Carolina.

I wish her luck. Hopefully in Chappaqua they vote on who is the best candidate and not vote on their biases.

Before Stonewall, Before…

Before Compton’s, before Dewey’s, before L.A.’s Black Cat there was Cooper's.

Stonewall wasn’t the first uprising, it wasn’t even the second, but as far as we know now it was the fifth uprising but I guess Stonewall got the press coverage.

This showed up on my news feed, even though it is 2 years old it bears repeating.

Ladies In The Streets: Before Stonewall, Transgender Uprising Changed Lives
NPR
By Nicole Pasulka
May 5, 2015

It was after the bars had closed and well into the pre-dawn hours of an August morning in 1966 when San Francisco cops were in Gene Compton's cafeteria again. They were arresting drag queens, trans women and gay hustlers who had been sitting for hours, eating and gossiping and coming down from their highs with the help of 60-cent cups of coffee.

The 24-hour eatery was a local favorite. It was centrally located — adjacent to the hair salon, the corner bar and the bathhouse — and provided a well-lit and comfortable haven for trans women performing in clubs or walking the streets in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood.
[…]
Compton's management didn't want the cafeteria to be a popular late-night hangout for drag queens, trans women and hustlers. Workers would often call the police at night to clear the place out. The Tenderloin, where sex work, gambling, and drug use were commonplace, was one of only a few neighborhoods where trans women and drag queens could live openly. Yet they were still regularly subject to police harassment and arrested for the crime of "female impersonation."

And when a policeman in Compton's grabbed a drag queen, she threw a cup of coffee in his face. The cafeteria "erupted," according to Susan Stryker, a historian who directed Screaming Queens. People flipped tables and threw cutlery. Sugar shakers crashed through the restaurant's windows and doors. Drag queens swung their heavy purses at officers. Outside on the street, dozens of people fought back as police forced them into paddy wagons. The crowd trashed a cop car and set a newsstand on fire.

Moral to the story, don’t aggravate a trans woman with a coffee in her hand. I say that because back in 1959 another uprising started the same way,

10 Years Before Stonewall, There Was the Cooper's Donuts Riot
The first gay uprising in the United States occurred ten years before Stonewall, on the opposite side of the country.
Out
By Evan Moffitt
May 31, 2015

In May of 1959, a group of drag queens and hustlers fought cops in a donut shop in downtown Los Angeles, furious that LAPD officers were arresting their friends purely for legally congregating in Cooper’s Donuts, a popular gay meeting place.
[…]
Rechy was in fact one of three people the police tried to arrest that night in May of 1959, when the patrons of Cooper’s had had enough. A large group of transgendered women and others pelted the officers with donuts, coffee, and paper plates until they were forced to retreat and return with larger numbers. Rechy managed to escape, but when the police returned a riot ensued that shut down Main Street for an entire day.

That night is widely considered to be the first gay uprising in modern history, seven years before the Black Cat Riot* in L.A.’s Silverlake neighborhood, and ten years before the Stonewall Rebellion.

There is that coffee cups again!

These uprising have been distorted over time into a “Gay” uprising which negates the history of trans people and lesbians. We have seen this effort by some white Gay men to make the world revolve around them when in reality there were gender queer, trans people, lesbians and racial minorities were involved. Most of the time the police went after gender queer and trans people checking that they were wearing at least three pieces of birth gender clothing. It was also the trans people who were working the streets in order to survive that the police attacked.

Back in 2008 Metroline was called out because they said,

As we enter the Pride month I for one hope the community takes a moment to reflect back on all the effort put forth by gay men and women in the past to secure the freedom and acceptance we currently enjoy today. Fighting during a period in time where it was hazardous to one’s physical health to be on the forefront. Stonewall was not simply an activist protest where they went home afterwards and partied. They were beaten and dragged away to jail by the police. It was a time when fag bashing was an accepted method of controlling homos and keeping them out of the neighborhood. There were no drag queens there at all. It was gay human beings simply standing up for being who they were. [My emphasis] Making a stand even though they fully knew the dangers of doing so. That’s true courage no different than that on a battlefield.

You can read about the exchange here and here.

We cannot let trans people be written out of our history!

*L.A.’s Black Cat, Where the Fight for Gay Rights Got Its Start
Jun 05, 2014   By Whoville Staff

February 11, 1967 is not a date that’s widely heralded as significant in the fight for LGBT civil rights. In the popular consciousness, it doesn’t rival June 28, 1969, the day of the famous Stonewall riot in New York City, which is widely regarded as the beginning of the modern LGBT rights movement. But in truth the 1967 Black Cat protest is the older sister — the Jan Brady to Stonewall’s “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia” — of Stonewall. And in Southern California, its claws ran deep and left their own indelible mark.

It was the first time that LGBT people in the United States organized a protest against police persecution. The raid and the arrests that accompanied it inspired the first legal argument that gay people were entitled to equal protection under the law.

Notice how this article say LGBT rights and people, not “Gay.”

A Tale Of Two Countries

Two countries, ninety miles apart look at us through two different lenses, one distorted and the other clear.

Cuba holds first ever transgender Mass
LGBTQ Nation
By Erin Rook
Sunday, May 7, 2017

Three transgender clergy presided over a special mass Friday in Cuba, a first for that country.

Reuters reports that pastors from Brazil, Canada and the United States wore stoles in the trans pride colors — light blue, pink and white — and delivered their sermons against a backdrop of rainbow flags.

It was a sign of the times in a country where people of faith and gender and sexual minorities alike were historical persecuted.

“Tonight has been a night of celebration of equality between all people, marking a new era for Cuba,” said Brazilian pastor Alexya Salvador. “God’s love is radically inclusive.”

The Mass was part of a conference on transsexuality and theology, organized by the Cuban branch of the LGBTQ-affirming Metropolitan Community Church.

“This is not only a first of its kind event for Cuba, but certainly one of the very first ever to be held anywhere in the world,” said Allyson Robinson, a Baptist who previously served as the executive director of OutServe. She and Salvador were joined by Canadian Pastor Cindy Bourgeois from Canada.

Then up in Tennessee…

Activists protest Tennessee's new 'natural and ordinary meaning' law
Times Free Press
By Tyler Jett
May 7th, 2017

Protesting a state law they believe attacks LGBTQ rights, a group of about 20 people gathered in the rain at Ross's Landing on Saturday.

The day before, Gov. Bill Haslam signed HB 1111, a bill that applies "natural and ordinary meaning" to any undefined words in every state law. The bill itself does not explain what constitutes an "undefined word." But the Tennessee Equality Project, an advocacy group, called it a "sneaky LGBT Erasure Bill."

"I find the idea of 'natural and unstrained definition of words' profoundly obnoxious," Meredith Stroud, a local activist, told the small Chattanooga crowd at the gathering Saturday. "None of us are speaking Old English right now. Beowulf wouldn't understand us. Second of all, it presupposes the idea that LGBT people are a recent phenomenon. And we are not."

In its entirety, HB 1111 reads: "Undefined words shall be given their natural and ordinary meaning, without forced or subtle construction that would limit or extend the meaning of their language, except when a contrary intention is clearly manifest."

So what does all this gobbledygook mean?

The Jurist explains,

[JURIST] Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam [official website] on Friday signed [press release] SB 1085 [text, PDF] into law which mandates that undefined laws be given their natural and ordinary meaning. Dubbed the "natural and ordinary meaning" law, it requires that "undefined words be given their natural and ordinary meaning, without forced or subtle construction that would limit or extend the meaning of the language, except when a contrary intention is clearly manifest." Some rights groups, such as the Human Rights Campaign [advocacy website] have raised concerns [HRC report] that this new law could create conflicts with LGBT protections and gay marriage provisions. In response to these concerns, Haslam stated:

Using a word's ordinary meaning is a well-established principle of statutory construction. While I understand the concerns raised about this bill, the Obergefell decision is the law of the land, and this legislation does not change a principle relied upon by the courts for more than a century, mitigating the substantive impact of this legislation. Because of that I have signed HB 1111/SB 1085 into law.

In other words, from what I understand, it means marriage means what it meant back in 1776 and gender means what it meant back in the 1950s.

Breaking The Medical Model (Part 2)

Part of the old medical model was you have to integrate into society, if you couldn’t blend into society you couldn’t transition. The gatekeeper were inflexible, it anyone could identify you are trans you couldn’t transition, the gender binary was absolute!

 Laverne Cox: Trans People Shouldn't Have to Blend In
"If you can tell I'm trans, that's not only okay—that's beautiful."
Ellie
By Antonia Blyth
April 28, 2017

Thanks to the work of activists like Laverne Cox, public perception of what it means to be trans has been slowly evolving in recent years. The Orange is the New Black actress has frequently spoken out about her experience, and at the WE Day event in Los Angeles on Thursday, she talked about transitioning at a time when that ideally meant "blending in."

"Back when I started transitioning," Cox said, "way back in the day, the goal of transitioning was to blend in, to never let anybody know that you were transgender. And I never blended in. Could you imagine?" Unfortunately, trans people still often need to hide, she said, and it's something that needs to change.

That is one reason why we have such a hard time with finding our past because we went from one closet to another closet.

Cox says it's important to acknowledge the challenges trans people face, and not expect them to hide who they are. "I believe it's important to publicly claim all these components of who I am with pride because I've not always been able to do so," Cox said. "Growing up in Mobile, Alabama, I think I can safely say there was nobody else like me. Now, sure, I have a twin brother, but in many ways our similarities were superficial, because the way that I saw myself and the way that world saw me were two very different things. Although I was assigned male at birth, I always knew that I was a girl. But I was bullied and shamed for how feminine I was. My gender was constantly policed by the other kids at school, by my teachers, by folks in church, and by my mother, and it kept me from really claiming my girlhood."

But at the same being “out” has created a backlash. What was hidden is now out in the open.

Lesbians and gay went through the same period, back in the late sixties and early seventies they didn’t want any “Flaming Gays” or “Butch Dikes” they only want lesbians and gays who could assimilate into society, they wanted to be able to say “See we are just like you” and that was the goal of our gatekeepers… “See trans woman are just like you.”

But that attitude didn’t get us our rights; it just got us another closet.

Breaking The Trans Model (Part 1)

If you look back twenty years ago you will see the start of breaking up the classic trans model. I remember reading about the requirements for transitioning back in the 90s and thinking I can’t be trans because I am not attracted to men.

If you read early trans standards you had to be attracted to men, able to integrate in to society as a woman, cutoff your past, and you had to have Gender Confirming Surgery. As for trans men, well they didn’t exist.

With the changing standards we see that for many trans women and men they are not getting bottom surgery.

Most trans patients don't undergo gender-affirming
The study looked at 99 transgender patients who were undergoing hormone therapy at BMC, the majority transwomen.
DNA
7 May 2017

Turns out, transgender patients don?t opt for gender-affirming surgeries as much as many believe.

The researchers from Boston Medical Center (BMC) conducted the first study in the U.S. to determine the prevalence of gender-affirming surgeries among a defined group of transgender patients and found that most patients did not elect to have surgery.

The study looked at 99 transgender patients who were undergoing hormone therapy at BMC, the majority transwomen. Data was collected from years prior to 2015, before Massachusetts required all insurers to cover medically necessary care related to gender transition, like gender affirming surgeries.

Only 35 percent of patients chose to undergo any form of gender affirming surgery, with only 15 percent undergoing genital surgery. Transmen were twice as likely to have surgery as transwomen, with more than half of transmen choosing to have chest surgery and far fewer choosing genital surgery. Transwomen were equally or less likely to undergo genital surgery than facial feminization or chest surgery.

Well when you consider that it is major surgery and the outcome is not guaranteed and even with insurance it is expensive. While some trans people have medical condition that increases the risks of having GCS and can make it life threatening. The article also points out that there is a long wait to have surgery up to six months.

Also the gender dysphoria medical model now also looks at the quality of life and if surgery does not improves the quality of life for some trans people why force them to have surgery.

---

Breaking the gender binary.

Another area where we are blazing new ground is the gender binary.

This Non-Binary Writer Is Sick Of Those "Girl Became A Boy!" Stories
So they wrote their own.
Buzzfeed
By Lane Sainty
Posted on May 6, 2017

It's inspired by a slightly unlikely person: pop star Pink, who has a similar tattoo. Zisin is a huge fan, but the button is not meant to be an homage to Pink herself. It's about the way she inspired Zisin to be their own hero.

"The 'help' button is in my handwriting because I don't need her or anyone else to help me, I need to help myself," Zisin told BuzzFeed News over a coffee in Sydney.

"I have to be my own saviour, my own hero, and my own role model... Whenever I'm having a bit of an anxiety attack, I can press that button, remember that, catch my breath."

Right now, Zisin is riding high – if a little tired. The 21-year-old Melburnian, who is non-binary and uses the gender neutral pronoun "they", is in the midst of a whirlwind book tour for their memoir, Finding Nevo.
[…]
"I was interviewed so many times where people manipulated my story, to something that was not the way it was. So much 'Girl became a boy!' sensationalised media. And I thought, screw this, I've got a story to tell, I've got my own words, I'm going to write it."

We as a society is just starting to realize that nature doesn’t  do anything binary that natural is always experimenting .

"You do such a disservice to yourself to say I'm a woman, or I'm a man. What does that mean? The way you identify with your gender is going to be so different to everyone else in the world. There are seven and a half billion genders, and I want to know what makes your gender yours," they said.

Being outside of the gender binary leaves Zisin feeling great on some days, but on others, awful.
Society pushes back and anything other than the “normal” people just don’t or want to understand anything complicated, they just want things simple black and white, or in this case the gender binary. 

As a result it places strong pressure on us to conform.

"I've struggled with depression all my life, but that really flung me into a pit, because I was like, I am fighting everyone. No one is on my side. The government's not on my side, the public aren't on my side, no one is on my side," they said.

"It was everywhere. I couldn't escape it. And I didn't want to talk about it, I didn't want to read about it, I didn't want to go to rallies. I just wanted to lie in bed and cry and never get up again."

I think anyone who crosses the gender boundaries know strongly about.

Saturday 9: The Tide Is High

Crazy Sam’s Saturday 9: The Tide Is High (1980)



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 originally performed in 1966 by a Jamaican band called The Paragons. Jamaica is the most popular vacation destination in the Caribbean. What's your ideal vacation? (Relaxing on the beach, sightseeing in a new city, skiing the slopes, spending time with family, etc.)
Relaxing next to a lake.

2) In this song, Debbie Harry sings that she's not the kind of girl who gives up easily. How about you? Do you hang on stubbornly? Or do you know when to say "when?"
It depends on what I’m doing and how agitated I get, there are just some jobs that get to you where you feel you have to do it. The latest is Excel, does anyone know how to make the X-axis a date scale? I want  to have a series of dates as the X-axis and the Y-axis the tasks.

3) Blondie is a group that took it's name from the lead singer's most identifiable characteristic, her hair. If your band was named after your hair, what would it be called?
Baldy.

4) Before her career as a singer took off, Debbie supported herself as a waitress. She even served drinks while wearing bunny ears and tail at The Playboy Club. Have you ever worked in food service?
No, unless you count the work scholarship I had in college and I worked washing dishes in the café.

5) Debbie points to David Bowie as a major influence on her music and career. What's your favorite Bowie song?
Major Tom and I like this version the best even through it was sung by David Bowie

6) In 1980, when this song was popular, the best selling issue of Rolling Stone featured Robert Redford on the cover. Who is your all-time favorite actor?
Here we go again with who’s your all-time _______
I have no idea; there are so many great actors and actresses that it is almost impossible to pick one. In one movie or another or in a different film era makes picking one almost impossible.
Henry Fonda in “On Golden Pond”
Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca”
Sidney Poitier in “To Sir with Love”
Buster Keaton in “The General”
Or any of these actresses, Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Sally Field, Meryl Streep, or Lauren Bacall
How can you pick just one?


7) In 1980, Ted Turner revolutionized how we watch TV when he introduced CNN. Do you have any subscriptions services in addition to cable -- like Hulu, Amazon Prime or Netflix?
Yes, I have Amazon Prime and Netflix

8) John Lennon was murdered in 1980. Today there's a specially landscaped section of Central Park called Strawberry Fields in his honor. If you had a day to spend in New York, what would you want to see?
I am not a big fan of big cities, I’m a country type of girl. The last time I was in the city was when I was with my cousins and we went to see the Broadway play “Beautiful: The Carol King Story.” One cousin works in NYC so he knew a good restaurant right off of Broadway just down from the theater.

9) We're going shopping! Which do you need to add to your wardrobe: underwear, shoes or a swimsuit?
Probably all three, I haven’t done my spring shopping yet and I desperately need new sandals and a bathing suit.

---

I'm off to the Northampton MA for their Pride Festival there.

Our Brains Are Different

A couple of years ago a workshop presenter at the Health & Law conference said that male and females brains are the same and the workshop attendees let her have it! She never submitted a workshop again.

As trans people we do our research and stay up to date on all the latest research about us, this is from 2011 but it is worth repeating.

White matter microstructure in female to male transsexuals before cross-sex hormonal treatment. A diffusion tensor imaging study
Journal of Psychiatric Research , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , 199 - 204
By Rametti, Giuseppina et al.


AbstractBackground
Some gray and white matter regions of the brain are sexually dimorphic. The best MRI technique for identifying subtle differences in white matter is diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether white matter patterns in female to male (FtM) transsexuals before commencing cross-sex hormone treatment are more similar to that of their biological sex or to that of their gender identity.
[…]
ResultsIn controls, males have significantly higher FA values than females in the medial and posterior parts of the right superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), the forceps minor, and the corticospinal tract. Compared to control females, FtM showed higher FA values in posterior part of the right SLF, the forceps minor and corticospinal tract. Compared to control males, FtM showed only lower FA values in the corticospinal tract.

ConclusionsOur results show that the white matter microstructure pattern in untreated FtM transsexuals is closer to the pattern of subjects who share their gender identity (males) than those who share their biological sex (females). Our results provide evidence for an inherent difference in the brain structure of FtM transsexuals.

Other research has found similar results, in a 2005 study “A Sex Difference in the Human Brain and its Relation to Transsexuality” found,

Results
In summary, our observations suggest that the small size of the BSTc in male-to-female transsexuals cannot be explained by differences in adult sex hormone levels, but is established during development by an organizing action of sex hormones, an idea supported by the fact that neonatal gonadectomy of male rats and androgenization of the female rats indeed induced significant changes in the number of neurons of the BST and suppressed its sexual dimorphism [17,18].

Considered together with information from animals, then our study supports the hypothesis that gender identity alterations may develop as a result of an altered interaction between the development of the brain and sex hormones [5,6]. The direct action of genetic factors should also be considered on the basis of animal experiments [24].

Or the 2016 Scientific America article,

Is There Something Unique about the Transgender Brain?
Imaging studies and other research suggest that there is a biological basis for transgender identity
By Francine Russo
January 1, 2016

Some children insist, from the moment they can speak, that they are not the gender indicated by their biological sex. So where does this knowledge reside? And is it possible to discern a genetic or anatomical basis for transgender identity? Exploration of these questions is relatively new, but there is a bit of evidence for a genetic basis. Identical twins are somewhat more likely than fraternal twins to both be trans.
[…]
Overall the weight of these studies and others points strongly toward a biological basis for gender dysphoria. But given the variety of transgender people and the variation in the brains of men and women generally, it will be a long time, if ever, before a doctor can do a brain scan on a child and say, “Yes, this child is trans.”

However, we cannot fall in to the trap that this might be the only vector to cause gender dysphoria there maybe many other causes or a combination of causes that make us trans.

Bad News For Would Be LGBT Parents

The attacks continue this time for those LGBT parents that want to adopt children, Louisiana just passed a law allowing organizations to discriminate against us.

Alabama signs law allowing adoption agencies to refuse gay couples
MIC
By Tom McKay
May 3, 2017

Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill allowing adoption agencies throughout the state to reject gay couples looking to adopt a child, and, more generally, reject any applying parents who conflict with their stated religious beliefs, AL.com reported Wednesday.

The law disallows the state from "refusing to license or renew the license" of any adoption agencies which cite religious beliefs when refusing child placements. While it does not actually prevent gay couples or other LGBTQ individuals from adopting a child in the state, it does protect faith-based groups from retaliation for discriminating against them when choosing prospecting parents.

Once again the Republicans try to hide their bigotry behind “religious freedom.”

"I ultimately signed House Bill 24 because it ensures hundreds of children can continue to find 'forever homes' through religiously-affiliated adoption agencies," she added. "This bill is not about discrimination, but instead protects the ability of religious agencies to place vulnerable children in a permanent home."

If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn you might want to buy.

If an agency receives public funding it should be for everyone, not just for a select few.

So You Think An Executive Order Can Protect Us?

A couple of years ago the New York LGBT organization Empire State Pride Agenda claimed victory when the governor signed an EO giving us protection, well the EO is being challenged.

Transgender student fights for restroom access at Tonawanda High School
WIVB Ch 4
By Marissa Perlman
Published: May 3, 2017

TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WIVB) – A 17-year-old who identifies as female is being told she’s no longer allowed to use the women’s restroom at school.

Junior year will be one to remember for Arianna Adamo. It is her first full year walking the halls of Tonawanda High School as a woman. She’s been transitioning for years now, but she says her fight is just beginning. The Tonawanda High School Junior says she’s never felt more like herself.
[…]
Now, she’s fighting for answers now that she’s not allowed to use the ladies restroom at her school. She said, “I identify as a woman, I’d like to use the women’s bathroom.”
[…]
Right now, they’re following the State Education Department’s guidance document which in part says, “alternative accommodations, such as a single “unisex” bathroom or private changing space, should be made available to students who request them, but should never be forced upon students, nor presented as the only option.

You got that? The state still allows schools to segregate us with impunity, so much for the governor’s Executive Order and so much for the Empire State Pride Agenda proclamation of victory.

Back in 2002 when we were tossed under the bus when the Empire State Pride Agenda and dropped Gender Identity and Expression from the LGBT non-discrimination bill in a backroom negotiation and renaming Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONA) promised to help us pass GENDA (Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act). Well we are still waiting some fifteen years later we are still waiting!

Not Good News

There has been a lot of talk lately about a “religious freedom” executive order by “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”

How Would Trump's Religious Liberty Order Affect Transgender Kids? It's Seriously Bad News
Romper
By Andrea Frazier
May 3, 2017

For President Donald Trump and his administration, nothing says "National Day of Prayer" quite like stripping broad swaths of Americans of basic rights and protections. At least, that's the impression one might get from the president's reported plan to sign a "religious freedom" executive order on Thursday, an occasion meant to unite the nation. It's no secret that, in the United States right now, terms like "religious freedom" and "religious liberty" used in a political sense are basically synonymous with pursuing a license to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals. We also know that Trump's religious liberty order would affect transgender kids perhaps particularly harshly.

A unnamed senior administration official told CNN Wednesday that it's "definitely possible" that the president will take pen to paper to communicate to a huge and diverse population how little they matter to him. And if the draft of the order that was leaked to The Nation in February is any indication, it's clear that it would prioritize "any organization, including closely held for-profit corporations" over actual citizens' best interests.

So what will the possible EO contain?

And, really, the language that the February version of the executive order (which Trump never signed), tells you all you need to know about how seriously the Trump admin take trans rights. Here's what it said about the definition of gender:

... Male and female and their equivalents refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy, physiology, or genetics at or before birth....

Talk about totally disregarding someone's identity. And similar to the famous example that the original version of Pence's Religious Freedom Restoration Act would have entitled — a wedding cake baker and their ability to refuse to concoct a confection for a same-sex wedding — the religious liberty order could have consequences for trans youth.

Consider when President Obama issued the EO requiring all recipients federal funding cannot discriminate against LGBT people and allow same-sex couples to have visitation rights in healthcare facilities could do the same thing in reverse. That the EO could require all recipients of federal funding grant “religious freedom” to employees and businesses and could negating state non-discrimination laws.

In other words the bill could override state law!

Businesses would have to grant employees to discriminate against and there can be no test that it really is a religious belief and not bigotry. All they have to say that “it is against my religious tenets” and they can then legally discriminate against us. Pharmacists could refuse our meds, EMT could refuse to treat us if we were in a car accident or in the emergency room, or a court clerk could refuse wait on us.

It Makes Sense

When you think about how our brains are more alike to our true gender than our birth gender it makes sense that maybe for gender non-conforming or non-binary people that they may have a different brain structure.

Almond panel discusses gender beyond the binary
Los Altos Town Crier
Written by Jane Ridgeway
Published: 03 May 2017

Local families, along with Los Altos School District faculty and staff, attended a panel at Almond School last week addressing how adults can support transgender and gender nonconforming youth.

Much of the discussion centered on transgender children, who identify with a gender different from the sex they were assigned at birth. But Almond’s school psychologist Kristi Clouser also emphasized that creating a safe, supportive environment benefits a wide range of kids – from the boy who wants to grow his hair out to the girl who prefers sports gear to pink frills.

“This is about all children, all parents,” Clouser said.

When panelist and Egan Junior High School seventh-grader Cade Maw came out as transgender while a sixth-grader at Almond, his school community performed a dance to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” – a song that incorporates themes of acceptance of minorities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Yes, we are born this way and it is not out of the range of possibility that gender non-conforming children that they are born that way. Nature has infinity possibilities and it is always trying different combinations so we have to stop our black and white thinking and think in a beautiful combinations of the colors of the spectrum.

“We spend far more time forcing our kids to be cis(gender) and straight,” Johnston [Maureen Johnston, a marriage and family therapist who works with gender nonconforming kids and adults] said. “That tremendous amount of pressure is not going to be alleviated by bringing up new terms. It’s just not going to happen.”

According to Clouser, social support is one of the most powerful nonmedical interventions for helping create good outcomes for transgender kids.

So stop trying to force trans people into boxes!