So You Want To Join The Military But…

Trump’s Executive Order banned you from joining well relief is on its way.

Biden Plans These 5 Executive Orders
Forbes
By Zack Friedman
November 8, 2020


President-elect Joe Biden plans to sign these five executive orders when he becomes president.

Here’s what you need to know—and it how it could impact you.

Executive Orders
On January 20, 2021, Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. As soon as his first day in office, Biden plans to sign at least five executive orders that could reverse several of President Donald Trump’s policies. He’ll also focus on addressing the Covid-19 pandemic, improving the economy and providing financial stimulus. These executive orders may include:
[…]
5. Military Ban
Biden plans to repeal the transgender military ban.
While Trump banned the practice through executive order in 2017, Biden would undo Trump’s policy.
Specifically, Biden, as commander in chief, would allow a transgender individual to serve openly in the U.S. military.

If the Senate stays in Republican control they will not be able to block the EOs because the Democrats still control the House.

Aspiring U.S. trans soldiers call on Biden to end military ban
Thomson Reuters Foundation
By Hugo Greenhalgh
8 November 2020


As Joe Biden began his first full day as U.S. president-elect, a group of transgender military aspirants and campaign groups insisted that one of his first priorities must be to overturn a ban on new transgender personnel serving in the U.S. military.
[…]
Nic Talbott, a plaintiff in one of four lawsuits filed in federal courts challenging the ban, said he was hopeful that Biden's victory could transform his life.

As a trans man, he has been banned from joining the U.S. military, a dream he has held since childhood. He had been in the process of joining the Air Force National Guard but ended up working in a local Walmart in the midwestern state of Ohio.

"I was incredibly emotional when I first heard the news of Mr Biden's victory," Talbott, 27, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by email on Sunday.
[…]
In April, John Roberts, a trans man who wants to join the National Guard, a reserve branch of the military, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the ban was "probably the most frustrating thing I've had to deal with in my entire life".

"I'm ready, I'm here, I'm willing, I'm qualified. I want to get out there. And I want to help," he said.

One thing that Trump taught us… the power of the Executive Orders. I think you will see President-elect Biden use them a lot more if he can’t get passed the Republican controlled Senate.

---

However, with the Republicans controlling the Senate the Equality Act seems dead until the Democrats take control of both of the chambers and the presidency.

Equality Act hangs in the balance as Democrats falter in Senate races
USA Today
By Kate Sosin
November 12, 2020


On May 14, 1974, Rep. Bella Abzug, a feminist icon in the women’s rights movement, introduced one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation ever ignored. It had just one co-sponsor.

The 10-page bill never moved out of committee. Had it passed, it would have amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. It was called the Equality Act.

The bill’s modern iteration moved closer to passage with Joe Biden’s projected win on Nov. 7. But maybe not close enough.

Jasmine Smith marches in Philadelphia's Pride parade in 2019. LGBTQ rights activists are watching to see if President-elect Joe Biden will deliver on his promise to pass the Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, in the first 100 days of his term.

Biden has vowed to pass the Equality Act within his first 100 days in office, an unexpected commitment as the country battles the coronavirus pandemic. To do that, however, he will need the backing of a sharply partisan Senate. The bill easily cleared the Democrat-dominated House last year. Its chances of surviving the Senate, where it looks like Republicans will maintain control, is questionable.

The act hangs in Limbo until January 5 when Georgia has the election runoff.

The future of LGBT+ rights in the US won’t be certain until next year – and could hinge on these two Georgia Democrats
Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump is being hailed as a cause for celebration by LGBT+ groups, but campaigners fear real progress could hinge on the outcome of two Senate races in Georgia that won’t be held until January.
Pink News
By Nick Duffy
November 10, 2020


As the [sic] prepare to take office on January 20, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have vowed to work quickly to unpick the raft of executive actions taken by the Trump administration to undermine LGBT+ equality – with the ban on transgender people in the military as well as hostile ‘freedom to discriminate’ rules likely destined for the chopping block.
[...]
The final make-up of the chamber will not be known until January, when the state of Georgia will hold an unusual double run-off election for the two remaining vacancies.

While election day is usually decisive in the majority of states, Georgia’s unusual election laws require a run-off vote in cases where no candidate wins more than 50 per cent of the vote.

Which I support. I believe that if an election has three or more candidates and none of them gets 50 percent of the votes then the top two should have a runoff election.

Ossoff and Warnock are both LGBT+ rights supporters and have both committed to co-sponsor and vote in favour of the Equality Act, should they be elected.

By contrast, Perdue opposes the Equality Act and has voted for bills to undermine LGBT+ discrimination protections, and Loeffler has previously put forward bills seeking to legally erase transgender children.

You know that the Republicans will not pass anything with the word “equality” in the bill. They think that it is their God giving right to discriminate and to hide their discrimination behind God.

30,000 Dollars Is Nice, But…

I rather that it didn’t happen in the first place.

Lawsuit challenging arrest of NYC transgender woman settled
WTEM
The Associated Press and Tom Hays
November 10, 2020


NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Police Department will have to give its force more training on protecting the rights of transgender people as part of a deal announced Tuesday that settles a civil rights lawsuit accusing officers of mocking a transgender woman by putting her in pink handcuffs.

The settlement also requires the city to pay Linda Dominguez $30,000 over allegations that the officers wrongly accused her of misrepresenting her identity while arresting her in the Bronx in 2018, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union.

“I never want anyone to go through the abuse I experienced from people sworn to protect me,” Dominguez said in a statement. “As an advocate for my community, I couldn’t let this go.”

I second that, “I never want anyone to go through the abuse…”

The NYPD sees the steps as a way to “reaffirm the department’s ongoing commitment to improving relations between the police and communities officers serve,” city Law Department spokesman Nick Paolucci said in a written statement.

All the training in the world will not help as long as the police maintain the “Blue Line.”

As a social worker I was a mandatory reporter because in my internship I worked with children and if I saw anything that might be illegal I had to report it or be arrested, the same standard should be applied to law enforcement officers. If they see another officer breaking the law they should be required to report it. End the “Thin Blue Line!”

The officers placed Dominguez in a cell, handcuffed to a bar or pipe using pink handcuffs, and left her in the handcuffs all night, according to her lawsuit. The officers referred to Dominguez by her masculine first name throughout her detention, laughed at her and referred to her as “he” and “him,” she said.

Dominguez was arraigned the next day on charges of trespassing for being in the park after hours, as well as false impersonation. The charges were dismissed a few months later.

Did any officers report the abuse of her?

Did any officers speak-up when this was happening?

In Connecticut the legislature passed the “An Act Concerning Police Accountability Act” which was a first step in the right direction.

5 things to know about CT police accountability law
CT Post
By Peter Yankowski
Oct. 1, 2020


Several key provisions of Connecticut's sweeping police accountability law, signed in the wake of national protests against racial injustice and police brutality over the summer, go into effect Thursday.

Among the new rules that take effect are tighter restrictions on police searches, a duty to intervene if police witness another officer use excessive force and penalties for civilians who call in an incident based on race.

Other changes to policing brought by the law, including adjustments to qualified immunity that protect police from lawsuits over their conduct and further restrictions on the use of deadly force, go into effect next year.

Some of the changes listed in the article…

• Cops can no longer ask to search a car during traffic stops
• Duty to intervene if police witness excessive force
• False reporting based on race – Bumped up from a class-A misdemeanor to a felony
• No security guard licenses for de-certified cops
• Independent review of deadly force

I think the “Duty to intervene if police witness excessive force” should also include any illegal act such as planting “evidence.”

What We Need

Connecticut has a number of LGBTQ centers down in the southern part of the state but none in the capitol region. It does have a LGBTQ health collective but no community center like it used to have until mismanagement ended it.

What got me on this subject is a trans art show that is being held in Hartford.

New LGBTQ art gallery in Hartford showing work by transgender artists
Hartford Courant |
By Susan Dunne
November 9, 2020


A new gallery in Hartford that will be devoted to artworks reflecting the LGBTQ experience is being inaugurated this month with “Trans-cending Art,” a show of work by transgender Connecticut artists.

The gallery is inside Chez Est, the gay bar-restaurant at 458 Wethersfield Ave. The exhibit will run until Nov. 30. The dates coincide with Trangender Awareness Week, which is Nov. 13 to 19. Events will be held in conjunction with that observance, starting with an in-person and virtual fundraiser for a transgender hotline on Nov. 8.

Patrick Dunn, executive director of New Haven Pride Center, curated the show, which has works by Tia Lynn “Bubblicious” Waters, Daniel Mena, Tony Ferraiolo, Elliott Grinnell, Jules Larson and Reed Miller.
[…]
The Trans Lifeline Benefit will be held Nov. 8 from 3 to 9:30 p.m. at Chez Est. Dunn called the emergency phone number “the only hotline in existence specifically for trans people.”

There used to be a Pride center in the same building as the health collective where they had a stage, kitchen and a couple of meeting rooms, the MCC Church also meet there along with several support groups including the Twenty Club. But all that ended suddenly rumor has it that it was mismanagement.

What I think Hartford needs is a drop-in place for the community. Someplace where you can stop by for a coffee and meet friends. Chez Est is the last LGBTQ bar in Hartford and many people don’t like to hang out in bars, myself for one. I rather hang out at a coffee shop with live acoustical music where you can put your feet up have a coffee and listen to a guitar player. Or have a board game night.

But in the mean time go to the trans art show and donate to Trans Lifeline

The Score Card.

It broke records!

What broke records?

The number of trans candidates that were elected to office broke all records including the second trans candidate to be elected to a state legislature following Danica Roem election to the Virginia House of Delegates.

Diverse Gay, Transgender Candidates Win State, Federal Offices
Bloomberg Law
Nov. 6, 2020


Gay, lesbian, and transgender candidates reaped record successes in the 2020 election, increasing their representation and racial diversity in Congress and winning spots in more state legislatures.

At least 38 LGBTQ politicians were poised to be freshman state legislators, including three transgender candidates. LGBTQ candidates won state legislative seats for the first time in Tennessee and Delaware, where political activist Sarah McBride became the first transgender candidate to win a state Senate seat anywhere in the nation.

New York Democrats Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres became the first openly gay Black men elected to Congress, where there will be a record of nine openly gay or lesbian House members.
[…]
This year, there were 150 openly LGBTQ state legislators, according to the Victory Fund. All but a handful are Democrats.

As for us…

Transgender representation to nearly double in state legislatures
Voters handed at least eight transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming state candidates wins on Election Day.
NBC News
By Sydney Bauer
November 6, 2020


Voters in six states handed eight transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming candidates victories in state legislatures this week.

These candidates were on the ballot in at least 13 state House and Senate elections Tuesday. Three of the country’s four current transgender state legislators — Brianna Titone of Colorado and Gerri Cannon and Lisa Bunker of New Hampshire — all won re-election. The fourth, Virginia Delegate Danica Roem, who in 2017 became the first openly transgender person elected to a state legislature, is up for re-election next year.

At least five others, including an incumbent who was not previously out as gender-nonconforming, won Tuesday, bringing the total number to at least nine once they all take office.
[…]
Mauree Turner, who is nonbinary, Black and Muslim, won a seat in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, becoming the first nonbinary person elected to any state’s legislature.

Harper Bazaar had this to say,

Transgender Candidates Make Election History

Sarah McBride, Taylor Small, Stephanie Byers, and more earned victories Tuesday night.

By Gwen Avikes

November 4, 2020

While many races have yet to be decided, including the much-anticipated presidential election results, at least five transgender candidates have already decisively made political history.

According to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, an organization that endeavors to increase the number of openly LGBTQ elected officials in the U.S., the number of transgender people currently serving in state legislatures is in the single digits, making Tuesday’s wins all the more extraordinary. There could be even more gains in LGBTQ political representation to come, however, as a handful of other transgender candidates are running for office this election season, including Madeline Eden of Texas and Gerri Cannon of New Hampshire. As results trickle in, the number of out transgender state legislators could more than double, per the the LGBTQ Victory Fund. Here’s a look at some of the groundbreaking wins from the 2020 elections.

[…]

According to the Victory Fund, there are currently 39 elected transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming elected public officials across the country.

Some of those other trans candidate who were elected,

Taylor Small:
Twenty-six-year-old Taylor Small became the first openly transgender person to be elected to the Vermont legislature last night. Small, who ran as both a Democrat and Progressive, will represent the Chittenden 6-7 district along with Democrat Hal Colston.

Stephanie Byers:
Stephanie Byers, a former public school teacher and a member of the Chickasaw Nation, emerged victorious against her Republican opponent, Cyndi Howerton, becoming Kansas's first elected transgender official.

Brianna Titone:
Representative Brianna Titone, Colorado's first transgender legislator, is projected to win reelection to the state's House of Representatives.

Trans candidates are running for office and winning in record number. There have been trans candidates running for office here in Connecticut and they also have been winning.

---

In another first…

Biden name-checks gay and transgender Americans in victory speech
Washington Blade
By Chris Johnson
November 7, 2020


President-elect Joe Biden name-checked gay and transgender American in his victory speech Saturday night, which made a call for unity after a tumultuous presidential election and four years of President Trump.

“I am proud of the coalition we put together, the broadest and most diverse in history,” Biden said, “Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Progressives, moderates and conservatives. Young and old. Urban, suburban and rural. Gay, straight, transgender. White. Latino. Asian. Native American.”
[…]
Biden’s explicit reference to transgender people marked the first time in U.S. history a president-elect referenced them in a victory speech.

Many expect one of the first things that President-elect Joe Biden will tackle is…

Biden could take swift action on transgender ban, nuclear weapons
It would take only an executive order to reverse Trump's 2017 ban on most transgender Americans from joining the military
Politico
By Bryan Bender
November 7, 2020


President-elect Joe Biden could get some quick wins by using executive orders to roll back several of President Donald Trump’s Pentagon policies.

For example, very little will stand in the way of Biden’s pledge to allow transgender service members to serve openly in the military. It would take only an executive order to reverse Trump's 2017 ban on most transgender Americans from joining the military.

This is because "there will be no need to redevelop guidance, restudy options, redraft regulatory language, or retrain anybody," concluded the paper published by the Palm Center, a think tank at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "Everything needed already exists in current military guidance and remains a part of current military practice."

Before you go out and celebrate remember Trump has packed the Supreme Court with anti-LGBTQ justices.

Taking Today And Tomorrow Off

I will not be posting anything today and tomorrow.  I'm taking a break from blogging this weekend and I will be back on Monday.

Two Sets Of Laws?

That is what it might boil down to, one set of laws for the non-believers and one for the true-believers. Sounds like something from the middle-east but not something from here in the U.S.

At Supreme Court, Justices Consider Religion, LGBTQ Rights
NPR
By Nina Totenberg
November 4, 2020


The U.S. Supreme Court may be poised to side with Catholic Social Services in a battle that pits religious freedom against anti-discrimination laws in Philadelphia and across the country.

At issue in a case argued on Wednesday is the Catholic charity's refusal to screen same-sex couples as foster care parents.
[...]
Wednesday's case, however, involved government contracting — an area of the law in which the court in the past has said that government is at the apex of its power to impose conditions. On one side is the city of Philadelphia, which has custody of about 5,000 abused and neglected children, and contracts with 30 private agencies to provide foster care in group homes and for the certification, placement, and care of children in individual private foster care homes.

The city's contracts ban discrimination against LGBTQ couples in the screening of foster parents, and Catholic Social Services, citing religious grounds, refuses to consider and certify same-sex married couples. Because of that, the city ended its contract with CSS for those services in the future. CSS sued, and two lower courts upheld the city's decision.

Okay what des this mean?

An agency signed a contract that they will obey the city and state non-discrimination laws, now Catholic Social Services is saying that they are not going to obey the laws that they agreed to follow. They are saying that it violates their religious beliefs. To me it seems like they should have sued before they signed a contract not after, by bring it afterwards they lied that they were going to follow the law. Um… isn’t lying a sin?

Justice Kavanaugh pursued another line of questioning. "It seems like Philadelphia ... was looking for a fight, and has brought that serious, controversial fight all the way to the Supreme Court, even though no same-sex couple had gone to CSS," he said.

Katyal replied that it was not the city, but CSS, that appealed this case all the way to the Supreme Court. One same-sex couple was, in fact, rejected by another religiously affiliated agency, he explained, and that agency then changed its policy. If CSS can refuse to certify same-sex couples, Katyal argued, agencies could refuse to allow Buddhists or Baptists too. And foster care agencies would be "balkanized."

Or what will happen if they refused an unmarried couple? Would that fall under “religious freedom?” Or would “religious freedom” just apply to us and wouldn’t that in it self be discrimination?
Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor brought up that question.

The court's three liberals — Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, both Jewish, and Sonia Sotomayor, who is Catholic — by contrast, stressed the city's ban on contracting with groups that discriminate based on race, ethnicity, religion and gender. What if an agency wanted to discriminate against an interracial couple, they asked.

So what did the newest member ask during the hearing?

Justice Barrett, for her part, asked more neutral questions, but seemed to draw a line between discrimination based on race, which she said "nobody on this court" would endorse, and discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, or other characteristics.

So she thinks it is okay to discriminate against us but not other protected classes.

In an article on Yahoo News said…

The Supreme Court is not accountable to public opinion. But to give you a sense of how out of step this conservative-packed, minority party-packed, and religious extremist-packed institution really is, consider this week’s major case, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, about whether taxpayer-funded adoption and foster care agencies should be able to discriminate against would-be parents.

A poll released last week says 70 percent of Americans say no. Of course, taxpayer money shouldn’t be given to organizations that discriminate, regardless of those organizations’ religious affiliations. If you take government money, you should play by the same rules as everyone else.

---

What does all this mean?

In the past before the court was packed with anti-LGBTQ, and anti-abortion has upheld the “Religious 
Neutrality” of the laws. There is something called the Lemon Test (which has nothing to do with lemons but rather the case was brought by Alton J. Lemon in 1971.

U.S. Legal defines the Lemon Test as…

The court in Lemon v. Kurtzman ruled three requirements for government concerning religion, they are:

1.The government's action must have a secular legislative purpose;
2.The government's action must not have the primary effect of either advancing or inhibiting religion; and
3.The government's action must not result in an "excessive government entanglement" with religion.

Lemon test states that if any of the requirements are violated by government, the action is deemed to be unconstitutional under the Establishment clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. constitution.

So if you look at the requirements for the Philadelphia non-discrimination ordinance.

Does the ordinance have a secular purpose… yes. The law is against discrimination in certain protected classes.

Does the ordinance advance any particulate religions… no. 

Does the ordinance create an undo burden… no. This is a hotly contested requirement because “What is excessive government entanglement?

The Colorado Masterpiece Cakeshop Supreme Court case found that Colorado Civil Rights Commission used religion in their ruling.

So the question is, will the Supreme Court throw out the Lemon Test.

If they do throw out the test, will “religious freedom” only apply to LGBTQ non-discrimination laws or will it apply to all protected classes? If it only applies to us does that violate the 14th Amendment for the “equal protection of the laws” because it will not apply to all protected classes.

If they do toss out the Lemon Test then they have created two sets of laws and for the first time in the United States we will not be under one set of laws.

Money Before Human Rights.

That is the only reason that I can think of why someone would vote against their own rights, can you think of another reason?

Wow, 28% of LGBTQ Voters Really Cast Their Ballots for Donald Trump
We have so many questions.
NewNowNext
By Christopher Rudolph
November 3, 2020


Honey. Sweetie, put down the vodka soda. We need to talk… about who you voted for in the presidential election.

The New York Times has published preliminary estimates from exit polls conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool after the 2020 general election this Tuesday, November 3. In total, 15,590 American voters were interviewed, either by phone or in person outside their polling place.

One of the questions asked in the poll was, “Are you gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender?”, to which 7% of the total survey pool said yes. While Democratic nominee Joe Biden was the favorite among 61% of the voters who identified as LGBTQ, President Donald Trump received an estimated 28% of queer vote. We would looove to know who those LGBTQ Trump voters are. (Maybe they counted Eric Trump in the poll?)

Pink News reported that…

The exit poll comes after survey-taskers in September found around 45 per cent of queer men were vying to vote Trump.
[…]
Indeed, the LGBT+ voting bloc has long been reliably Democratic. The poll conducted by queer dating app Hornet found that, overall among its users, around 66 per cent prefer Biden while 34 per cent support Trump.

Just some thoughts…

It seems to me that it is the LGBTQ people who own their own business vote Republican. While LGBTQ+ people who care about others tend to vote Democrat.

A House Divided

The sad news is that half of the citizens of our country is fine with racism, xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia.

But first the good news… Sarah McBride, Stephanie Byers, and Taylor Small all were elected and join Danica Roem and others trans persons elected to office. Congratulation!

The nation had a record turn out, the percentage of voters who voted set a record. The largest turn-out in a century.

I think that this election boiled down to “I’m against them.”

Those who voted for Trump put aside the racism, put aside the xenophobia, put aside misogyny, and put aside the anti-LGBTQ+ hatred and voted for Trump because he is not a Democrat.

Why did Sen. Mitch McConnell win? I think it was because the voters cared about what he brought to the state… “what’s in it for me” and he is not a Democrat.

I think that Trump campaign strategy of division worked, fear of the other worked. Whether he wins or not is still being decided but his strategy divided the country.

Are You Better Off Than You Were 4 Years Ago?

That is the question that President Reagan asked in 1980 when he was running for office and it needs to be asked again.

Today election day I am asking the question that President Reagan asked are you better off now or four years ago?

This administration has...

• Stripped healthcare for trans people.
• Has barred us from housing.
• Has barred us from employment and they ignored the Supreme Court ruling giving us employment protection.
• Has barred us from military service.

This administration has…

• Politicized the Department of Justice making it his own personal attack dog.
• Politicized the FBI.
• Politicized the CDC and the COVID-19 virus.
• Politicized FEMA.
• Politicized the Supreme Court and the courts system with anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion judges.

This administration has…

• Ignored environmental laws.
• Ignored eminent domain laws and seized property for his border wall.
• Fired Inspector Generals when they were investigating him.
• Pardon convicted friends.

This administration has…

• Has supported murders and white supremacist.
• Has used federal police as a political weapon against Democratic mayors.
• Has denied needed medical equipment to Democratic governors.
• Has denied disaster relief to Democratic states and territories.

This administration has…

• Has mocked the disabled.
• Has called fallen military personnel "losers." 
• Has mocked Black Lives Matter.
• Has mocked women’s rights.
• Has mocked LGBTQ+ rights.

Trump has…

• Lied,
• And lied,
• And lied,
• And hidden vital COVID-19 information from the people

Is America better off than four years ago?

---

When you vote for Trump you are saying that you approve of all his lies and everything that he has done. And when you vote for Trump you are condoning my oppression and the other LGBTQ+ people's oppression. 

They Have Changed

They used to ban us and gays, then it changed slowly over time to where they now have trans scouts.

Local trans woman Eagle Scout receives medal, reflects on path to achievement
KXAN
By Todd Bailey
October 22, 2020


AUSTIN (KXAN) — Beatrix Jackman was nearly speechless.

“I don’t even know what to say.”

Her mask fell off because she was smiling so much over her gift — one she rightfully earned.

“Thank you to everybody who has helped me along this path.”

Jackman, 19, is officially an Eagle Scout as a member of Scouts BSA Troop 2019. She received her Eagle award Thursday morning outside her home in north central Austin. Capitol Area Council’s Director of Marketing and Public Relations Charles Mead surprised her and her mom Julie Ziegelman with the medal and certificate.
[…]
“Their response was that I could either keep presenting as male there, I could do lone Scouting, or I could quit,” she said.

She chose the latter, leaving Scouting for a while but decided to return when news of transgender boys being allowed in circulated. However, she had to wait until transgender girls were allowed in 2019.

“Why come back? It was important for me to finish. It was important for me to blaze this path so others could follow,” Jackman said.

That is what I was wondering, why any girl would want join the Boy Scouts. But they do allow girls to join now because of the dwindling number of boys who are going into scouting and that is their choice to make and if they want to join the Boy Scouts so be it.

Jackman is in the process of the City of Austin honoring her for being one of the first trans women to earn Eagle Scout as a part of the Capitol Area Council’s and nation’s inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts.

PFLAG’s Austin chapter will also honor her. According to the group’s website, PFLAG is the first and largest organization for LGBTQ+, including their family members and allies. It sports more than 400 chapters and 200,000 members across the country.

An article in Upworthy said,

In a press release to Upworthy, Anna Nguyen, the president of PFLAG Austin, said: "We are very proud to have been a part of Ms. Jackman's journey and we are happy to have assisted her in her challenge of becoming one of the first female Eagle Scouts… 

At one time the Boy Scouts wanted nothing to do with trans scouts but the times they’re a changing.

There Is No Reason For This.

Trump issued an Executive Order banning diversity training making up really weird reasons to ban them.

Agencies, Contractors Suspend Diversity Training To Avoid Violating Trump Order
NPR
By Melissa Block
October 30, 2020


Three civil rights groups filed a federal class-action lawsuit Thursday challenging the Trump administration's recent crackdown on diversity training.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, National Urban League and National Fair Housing Alliance call President Trump's Sept. 22 executive order "chillingly punitive" censorship that violates guarantees of free speech, equal protection and due process.

Trump's executive order prohibits certain diversity training that the administration says amounts to "divisive, anti-American propaganda."
[…]
The order applies broadly to federal agencies and the military as well as government contractors and recipients of federal grants, including universities and nonprofits.

I do diversity training. I am going to be doing a Zoom classroom discussion… I suppose that it could fall under Trump’s ban.

Not only did he ban the training but he also set up a hotline to report the training.

Trump explanation is even scarier.

Asked to explain the reasoning behind the order at the Sept. 29 presidential debate, Trump said, "They were teaching people that our country is a horrible place. It's a racist place. And they were teaching people to hate our country. And I'm not going to allow that to happen."

Why did he do this?

I can only think of one reason… he does want people to realize that he is a racist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, and misogynistic.

What diversity teaches…

• What discrimination is,
• What the results of discrimination are,
• How to recognize it,
• How to correct that behavior.

“And they were teaching people to hate our country.” that is not what diversity training does… it teaches what behavior is that are racist, a xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, and misogynistic.

The Trump administration's order, Kim believes, is founded on a gross misunderstanding of diversity training: the mistaken belief that it's all about blaming and vilifying white people. (The word "scapegoating" appears seven times in the executive order.)

That misconception is not just wrong, Kim [co-founder and CEO of the company Awaken, based in Oakland, Calif.] says, but it's also dangerous. "Somehow we've gotten to a place where we believe fighting against racism is anti-patriotic," she says. "That's where we are as a society. And that's a really scary place to be."

Bring about the change that we need to return to sanity... vote Blue.

I’m Worry About Them

Young trans people, I worry about them being “out,” my concerns about crazies who might want to do harm to them is happening now.

A mother told Biden about her transgender 8-year-old child. Then came the attacks.
Washington Post
By Samantha Schmidt
October 29, 2020


In Joe Biden’s town hall earlier this month, one of the questions came from a woman named Mieke Haeck, a 42-year-old physical therapist from State College, Pa.

“I’m the proud mom of two girls, 8 and 10,” Haeck said at the televised event in Philadelphia, while her husband and children watched from their living room. “My youngest daughter is transgender.”
Then the haters attacked spewing their threats of violence.
But by the next day, Biden’s answer — and Haeck’s family — had become the subject of political attacks from conservative commentators and social media trolls.
[…]
Fox News’s Tucker Carlson described parents like her as “crazed” ideologues who “would tell the rest of us that an 8-year-old is entitled to hormone therapy on demand and permanent, life-altering surgery,” even though Haeck’s daughter had gone through no such medical interventions. When she woke up in her hotel room in Philadelphia the morning after the town hall, the first message Haeck saw on Facebook threatened to kill her and her husband and take away their children.
[…]
Schilling [the executive director of the American Principles Project] defended the claims in an interview with The Post, saying Biden’s comment about “zero discrimination” implied that “children should have a right to live as the gender they identify with, even if opposite from their biological sex, and have access to any medical treatments that will facilitate this.”

Then the Log Cabin Republicans jumped in with their transphobia comments…

But whatever comfort Haeck took in Biden’s comments has since been replaced by anxiety. Having been swept up in a disinformation campaign, she is fearful of how her exchange with Biden is being used by some to advocate against transgender children like her daughter. “They really are trying to provoke strong emotions in people around this lie for their own political gains,” she said. “It has nothing to do with concerns for kids.”

The Republicans and conservatives say they are pro-life but they don’t care if they hurt the children as they spread their ideology of hating us and those who are different from them.

Well I’ll Have To See

The next time I call them when I have a problem with my credit card. In the past when I called my credit card company when I say that I’m Diana the next words out of the operators mouth… “You don’t sound like Diana, let me transfer you to security.”

Citi Launches New Program for Transgender and Non-binary Cardholders
Cards can now show your preferred first name
Investopedia
By Ben Luthi
October 26, 2020


In 2019, Mastercard announced its True Name initiative to make it possible for members of the LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender and non-binary people, to use their preferred first name on their credit, debit, and prepaid cards. A little more than a year later, Citi has become the first bank to provide that option with some of its U.S. credit cards.
[...]
How This New Program Works
If you’re a Citi credit card holder and identify as trans or non-binary, you may have the option to add your preferred first name to your card.

The service is available only for existing cardholders, which means you can’t request to add your True Name when opening an account—but you can do so after the account is established.
[…]
If you have multiple Citi credit cards that are eligible, you’ll need to call customer service to make your request. Once you complete the process, you should receive a replacement card within four to seven business days.

I don’t know how many times that I called Citi Card and even though I answer all their security questions correctly I get transferred to security. I am not annoyed after all they are protecting my money it is still frustrating.

Members of the trans and non-binary communities frequently experience discrimination. For example, "deadnaming" a trans or non-binary person—referring to them by their birth or former name without consent—is often used to dismiss their true gender identity.

In a report by the National Center for Transgender Equality, 32% of survey respondents who have shown an ID with a name or gender marker that didn’t match their gender presentation said they experienced verbal harassment, were denied benefits or service, asked to leave an establishment, or assaulted.

One of the 32% was me.

This is a good idea and it will help a lot of trans people who maybe just starting their journey and might have not changed their documents yet or they might be crossdressers and don’t like giving their credit cards with their male name.

It Is Going To Be A Long Cold Winter

And I don’t mean the season or the weather but justice.

With the politically packed Supreme Court with anti-LGBTQ justices we are going to be facing a lot of draconian rulings against is.

As the future of Obamacare heads to the supreme court, so do trans rights
Trans people could lose healthcare as Republican state attorneys general seek to have the entire landmark Affordable Care Act law tossed out
The Guardian
By Katelyn Burns
27 Oct 2020


[…]
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is scheduled to be argued before the supreme court on 4 November. The lawsuit – which has been widely panned by legal experts – was brought by 19 Republican state attorneys general and seeks to have the entire landmark healthcare law tossed out. The future of the ACA was a common theme during hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the high court – now that she has been confirmed, she will soon be hearing California v Texas, a case challenging the landmark healthcare law.

“Life for trans people in terms of access to healthcare before and after the ACA is like night and day,” said Shannon Minter, an expert in transgender law and an attorney at the National Center for Lesbian Rights. But many Americans don’t have a grasp on the important role the ACA has played for LGBTQ people, especially those who are transgender, potentially making this fall’s supreme court arguments the most critical transgender rights case ever heard at the court.

“If you were just going to point to a major case currently before the court that has the potential to have the greatest impact on transgender people it’s unquestionably the ACA,” said Minter, “I’m amazed that more people don’t understand this, that this hasn’t gotten more attention.”

Here in Connecticut we have some strong laws to guarantee insurance coverage which was strengthened by a ruling last fall by the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunity but still we are in a precarious situation with the US Supreme Court, our laws could be overturned by them. Or they could rule that the laws can be overriding by “religious freedom” where a person just has to state that it is against my firmly held beliefs.

The Human Rights Campaign: Amy Coney Barrett’s Confirmation is a Sham, Threatens LGBTQ Equality
Human Rights Campaign
By Nick Morrow
October 26, 2020


The Human Rights Campaign released the following statement following the final Senate vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court of the United States.

“Despite Amy Coney Barrett’s troubling anti-LGBTQ record and rhetoric, Senate Republicans rushed through the fastest Supreme Court confirmation process in modern history. This was a power grab, plain and simple, and voters must hold these Senators – and Donald Trump – accountable at the polls,” said Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “The process was a sham, the hearings were fast-tracked, and once again, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump have chosen power over people. We must reject this bald power grab and elect officials – especially in the White House and the U.S. Senate – who will ensure our judicial branch lives up to its potential. Voters should hold Sens. Daines, Ernst, Gardner, Graham, McSally, Sullivan and Tillis accountable at the ballot box. Our democracy and our lives depend on it.”

It is going to be a long cold winter until we find a way to neutralize the packed the politicized Supreme Court.

---

This has created fear in the LGBTQ+ community.

For transgender advocates, election stokes hopes and fears
"President Trump intends to use the full power of the presidency and the executive branch to inflict maximum damage" on trans people, one activist said.
NBC News
By The Associated Press
October 26, 2020


Among transgender-rights activists, there’s a powerful mix of hope and fear heading toward the Nov. 3 election. They’re yearning for President Donald Trump’s defeat but dreading the possibility that his administration might win four more years and continue targeting them with hostile policies.

“The stakes are extremely high,” said Shannon Minter, a transgender attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “It seems clear that President Trump intends to use the full power of the presidency and the executive branch to inflict maximum damage on the transgender community.”

Among the administration's moves that have been decried by activists:

— A near-total ban on military service by transgender people.
— Support from administration attorneys for efforts to prevent transgender girls from competing in Idaho K-12 girls' sports and university women sports and from doing so in Connecticut high school girls' sports.
— A move to end health-care protections for trans people provided by Affordable Care Act.
— Moves to eliminate anti-discrimination protections for trans people in homeless shelters and for trans students in schools.

[…]
“Every day it feels like there are new horrors to confront about the future, and the types of attacks we will encounter,” said Chase Strangio, who leads transgender-justice initiatives for the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT and HIV Project.

Even as he worries about what might lie ahead under a second term for Trump, Strangio is encouraged by the 6-3 Supreme Court ruling in June affirming that gays, lesbians and transgender people are protected from discrimination in employment under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Well I am not encouraged by the vote because of the death of Justice Ginsberg.

Overall, Strangio is concerned that Trump’s appointments of more than 200 federal judges - and the likely addition of conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court - is creating a federal judiciary that may not defend transgender rights.

It is going to be a long cold winter.

---

And the hate for us has spread around the world and is taking hold in the sports world.

World Rugby's transgender ban a 'dangerous precedent,' critics say
The sport’s international governing body issued new guidelines barring trans women from playing women’s contact rugby due to “player welfare risks.”
NBC News
By Alex Berg
October 27, 2020


[...]
The updated regulations are among the most exclusionary policies for transgender athletes instituted by an international federation to date. They are a departure from major governing bodies’ policies on trans inclusion, including the International Olympic Committee’s rules that permit trans women to compete in the Olympics provided they maintain a certain testosterone level for 12 months prior to competition.

World Rugby’s new policy comes on the heels of other efforts to restrict trans women from playing women’s sports. In September, a group of Republican senators introduced a bill that would make it a federal civil rights violation for transgender girls to compete in women’s athletics. At the state level, the Department of Education threatened to withdraw funding from Connecticut school districts that permit trans girls to compete with cisgender (nontransgender) girls, and Idaho attempted to enact legislation over the summer banning trans women and girls from playing women’s sports. A number of high-profile female athletes, including the runner Paula Radcliffe and the tennis star Martina Navratilova, have also recently condemned the inclusion of trans women in women’s competitions.

We first fought this battle back in 1976 with Renee Richards… and won.

We will be fighting these battles for a long time coming and it is going to be a long cold winter for us.

VOTE!

Vote like your life depends on it because it does. 

Why I Will Never Vote Republican

They think that we are idiots! Trump is on stage saying that he has stopped the plague.
In real life the plague is skyrocketing and spreading all over, in New Mexico the infection rate has filled the hospitals. Here in the southeast of Connecticut the virus has increased to June levels.

And this guy has the audacity to say that!

As one person CBS evening news said… He lies like a rug.

I listened to a part of his town hall meeting and it was one lie after another and the last debate.

Is he presidential material?

Poynter wrote this about the last debate…

The final presidential debate between former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump may have had fewer interruptions, but it wasn’t any more truthful. It was similar to the first debate, in that Trump’s comments needed more fact-checking than Biden’s.

The president of the United States is one of the most powerful person in the world and when the president says sound it has to be believed. When Trump said he wouldn’t sign a COVID-19 relief bill the stack market dropped hundred of point then the next day he said that he would sign the bill and the market bounced back that is no way for a president behave.

During the early days of COVID-19 they made personal protective masks and incubators into political weapons. When Connecticut found a supply of ventilator for the hospitals and they were snatched up by the feds.

Gov. Jared Polis: FEMA took our ventilators out from under us
Colorado Politics
By Marianne Goodland,
April 4, 2020


"It was nice when we were competing against the states," but competing against the federal government for personal protective equipment and ventilators is a whole other matter, Gov. Jared Polis said Friday night.

Polis, a guest on CNN Friday night, told anchor Don Lemon that the state had "a lead" on a manufacturer of ventilators that would come in at a good price, and then the Federal Emergency Management Administration came in and swept them up "and we're not getting them." The order was for 500 ventilators, which would have been a substantial addition to the state's stockpile.

You had to bow down and beg to Trump for medical supplies.

How Trump turned ventilators into a form of patronage
It isn’t supposed to work like this.
VOX
By Aaron Rupar
April 10, 2020


A seemingly innocuous tweet President Donald Trump posted about Colorado receiving ventilators from the government actually raises troubling questions about the extent to which the president is using lifesaving medical equipment as a form of political patronage.

On Wednesday Trump announced that he was sending 100 ventilators to Colorado — a development he credited to a request from a Republican senator facing an uphill reelection campaign this year, Cory Gardner.

Trump was playing politics with people lives.

Then there are the Republican priorities…

The stock markets has been dropping over 1000 points since Friday, why?

The Washington Post said,

Dow plunges 650 points as coronavirus cases flare up, stimulus hopes fade
Rising infections and dimming stimulus optimism compound uncertainty in the run-up to the election.
By Taylor Telford and Hamza Shaban
October 26, 2020


U.S. markets slumped Monday as investors grappled with uncertainty about economic stimulus negotiations and soaring coronavirus cases across the country.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 650 points, or 2.3 percent, to 27,686. The S&P 500-stock index tumbled nearly 1.9 percent, to 3,401, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index dropped 1.6 percent, to 11,359. The sell-off erased all of the blue-chip index’s gains for October.

The United States hit a record high in new coronavirus cases Friday, with more than 83,700 reported, according to data from Johns Hopkins. The resurgence is compounding volatility in the countdown to the presidential election, said Craig Erlam, an analyst with OANDA.

Senate Majority Leader McConnell pushed aside everything including COVID stimulus package to approve Trump’s nominee. Businesses are closing, renters are being evicted, people are going hungry, and people don’t know how they are going to survive but that wasn’t important what was important was packing the Supreme Court with justices that their zealous religious anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ justices, anti-environmental, pro-business judges.

Under Trump, everything has been politicized. He got rid of all the inspector generals who were investigating him and his cronies. He stripped environmental protection, he opened up hunting to allow killing bears in their winter dens, he opened up oil and mineral mining in national protected areas and wildlife sanctuaries. He appointed “temporary” department heads and cabinet secretaries to get around them being vetted by the Senate. He pardoned his cronies when they were convicted or pleaded guilty.

Trump administration has probably surpassed the administrations of Buchanan, Grant, and Andrew Johnson for corruption.

The Battle Finally Won

Sometimes it takes a while for a wrong to be righted.

After 36 years and a troubled life, California transgender veteran finally wins honorable discharge
Mercury News
By Scott Schwebke
October 26, 2020


Kelly Katherine Roser couldn’t shake the shame, self-loathing and persistent thoughts of suicide.

It was the fall of 1983 — a full decade before the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and nearly 30 years before she would transition to a transgender woman — and Roser was at war within herself. As a recently promoted Air Force staff sergeant, she struggled with proudly wearing the stripes of her new rank and living in her own skin.

One afternoon, at the height of her internal battle while awaiting a less-than-honorable discharge, Roser entered a parts room at Edwards Air Force Base. There, she slung a long, heavy electrical cord over an exposed beam and fashioned it into a noose around her neck.
[…]
In August, the Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records upgraded Roser’s 1984 discharge from general to honorable.
[…]
Roser, who transitioned to a woman in 2012, has long been ashamed of the general discharge and is pleased it has been changed.

Wrong can be righted.

Under The Microscope

There has been many studies into what makes us tick but one thing to remember with all the research is if they find a “cause” for being trans all they found is one possible cause, there could be many, many reasons why we are trans.

The Disturbing History of Research into Transgender Identity
Research into the determinants of gender identity may do more harm than good
Scientific America
By Jack Turban
October 23, 2020


In 1975 psychiatrist Robert Stoller of the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote something bizarre in his textbook on sex and gender. He asserted that people who were assumed to be boys when they were born but whose gender identity or expression did not match that assumption “often have pretty faces, with fine hair, lovely complexions, graceful movements, and—especially—big, piercing, liquid eyes.” Based on this observation, he suggested a theoretical model in which transgender girls become transgender because they are especially cute. Society treats them more like girls, he reasoned, and because of this experience, they start to identify as female.

As a physician-scientist, I’m generally of the opinion that knowledge leads to progress. But studies focused on this particular question—those asking what determines someone’s gender identity—have led us down some strange and dangerous paths. Researchers in this area appear to be in search of some objective truth, but the science is rooted in a subjective assumption: that we need to know what makes someone transgender so that they can be “fixed.” As a result, scientists have relentlessly pursued such questions, launching studies that promoted ideas that could hurt transgender children and their families.

And researchers like Kenneth Zucker PhD and Ray Blanchard PhD liked these studies and came out with their own research.

One of the things you should do when you read about a “study” is how did they pick their subjects. One such theory that has been debunked is autogynephilia by Blanchard in his book The Man Who Would Be Queen but by his own words the research was flawed. His survey was never validated to see if it was really measuring what he was testing, he picked his subjects from gay bars not randomly, he didn’t have a “control” group, and I think most tell of all he never tested cisgender women to see if they exhibit the same traits.

Another study that was debunked was the Brown University study that coined the phrase “Rapid Onset of Gender Dysphoria” (ROGD)…

Similar research into the psychological causes of transgender identity continues even today. A physician at Brown University recently conducted an anonymous survey of respondents recruited via Web sites for parents who believe peer pressure and online influences have made their children transgender. The survey essentially asked the parents if they thought the Internet made their children trans, and the parents, not surprisingly, given that they were visiting Web sites about this idea, answered yes. Conservative media latched onto the study, suggesting that transgender children are really just confused kids tricked into being transgender after reading something on Reddit. The implication is that we need to take these kids away from supportive online LGBTQ communities so that they can be made cisgender again. Reading through this literature, we need to ask ourselves some questions: What is the reason for this research? What does it hope to accomplish? The tireless search reveals a thinly veiled dogma: that being transgender is a pathology to be fixed. This belief not only harms transgender people but also undermines good science.

This study as I see it had two major flaws, first was in the way the researcher selected her subjects from anti-trans conservative websites and second the researcher was questioning parents and not their trans child about the trans identity formation.

Picking test subjects is the most important things in doing a survey or research study. Suppose you are doing a study the is looking at the cause of crime. So you survey a prison and you find 70 percent of the inmates smoked cigarettes you could jump to the conclusion that cigarettes causes criminal behavior. But if you look at the general population only a small fraction of the smokers are criminals and that would shoot down your hypothesis that cigarettes causes criminal behavior.

Surveying a marginalized population is very hard. First many of the members of the target population do not want to come out, and second it is very hard to survey everyone in the target population over the whole social-economic spectrum. Take for example the 2015 US Transgender Survey, it was done online and this has built error… only people who have access to a computer could do the survey and as a result many of the more marginalized members of the community never took the survey.

When I was working to develop a survey that was funded by Yale University we used a modified “snowball” recruitment procedure. The term “snowball” mean you recruit me (a seed) and I recruit three other people and they each recruit three more people each. What become very important are the seed people that you recruit, you want them to be as diverse as the population you’re surveying.

Also what are you surveying? Is it a general needs assessment or are you trying to prove or disprove hypothesis? So for the 2015 US Transgender Survey it isn’t necessarily bad that they used an online survey because it is really a needs assessment survey and they are not trying to prove or disprove anything they just want to see what are the needs of the community. But for research in to autogynephilia picking your subject from gay bars is a problem, I think you can see how picking your test subjects from a gay bar distorts the results. If they went to a trans conference how would it have effected the results?

So there are many factors you need to look at when you read about a research project or a survey.

---

That all being said, I am working on a LGBTQ+ needs assessment survey for the Connecticut Department of Public Health and the Legislative LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network. It is a needs assessment survey so that means it is going to be a convenience survey like the 2015 US Transgender Survey.

What we hope is to get every LGBTQ+ person in Connecticut to take the survey. We are looking at healthcare, housing, employment, and quality of life here in Connecticut. We also ask how the current epidemic is affecting you.

There Is A Difference

Do you think Trump would ever do this?

Joe Biden makes a pledge to trans people: “I believe that Trans Lives Matter”
The death of Sara Blackwood, in part, spurred former Vice President Joe Biden to speak on the "unacceptable" epidemic of violence facing transgender & gender non-conforming people.
LGBTQ Nation
Commentary by Joe Biden
October 18, 2020


Violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people, particularly Black and Brown transgender women, is an epidemic that needs national leadership.

So far this year, the Human Rights Campaign has tracked 33 transgender or gender non-conforming people who have been violently killed, including the tragic shooting of Sara Blackwood earlier this week in Indiana. This is the highest number on record with more than two months left in the year, and the vast majority are Black and Brown transgender women. It’s unacceptable.

These deaths don’t exist within a vacuum. Dehumanizing government actions and rhetoric as well as a failure to address risk factors like domestic and intimate partner violence, underemployment and unemployment and poverty, housing insecurity and health disparities, put this community at risk.
[…]
As President, I will put forward comprehensive solutions to help empower the transgender and gender non-conforming community and prioritize the prosecution of anti-transgender violence. My administration will enact the Equality Act to end legal discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, expand economic opportunities for LGBTQ+ people, reform our treatment of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals in our criminal justice system, ensure access to accurate identification documents, and improve government data collection to better track violence against the transgender community.

I believe that Trans Lives Matter and, as president, I will fight on behalf of every vulnerable person in this country.

Trump has said this also when he was on the campaign but once he was elected his true colors came out and judging Biden on when he was Vice President he supported Obama’s LGBTQ+ policies.


Our very life and well being depends on the outcome of this election. VOTE!

Saturday 9: Lights (2011)

Saturday 9: Lights (2011)

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 young Ellie Goulding's fear of the dark. What scared you when you were a kid?
The unexpected.

2) She thinks back to the room where her brother and sister slept and she felt safe. Did you share a room when you were growing up?
Yes, with my sibling.

3) Ellie Goulding grew up in public housing and worked her way through the University of Kent in Canterbury. Back in those days, her favorite job was theater usher because it offered her the perk of seeing plays for free. What's the most recent "freebie" you scored? (This includes a buy one/get one deal, extra points on your credit card, etc.)
Well it isn’t exactly a freebie but it was forty cents off on gas. The local supermarket gives you points for how much you spend and I had 400 points so I got 40 cents off a gallon of gas. One of the advantages of having a plug-in I that you build up a lot of points.

4) Even though today she is an international music star, Ellie still lives modestly. She describes herself as "still in university mode," and limits herself to $10/day for lunch. Where do you economize?
I buy store generic brands

5) Ellie has proclaimed herself "a cat lady" and often posts pictures of her cats to her Instagram account. What's the most recent photo you took?
Oh, gee… I take so many pictures!

Here is the latest photo.

6) Ellie appeared on Sesame Street. She, Elmo and Abby thanked clouds for raindrops, lakes, and the water we drink. Would you be thankful for a little rain this weekend?
Most definitely!
We are in the middle of severe drought.

7) In 2011, the year "Lights" was a hit, Prince William married Kate Middleton. Ellie not only attended the wedding, she sang Elton John's "Your Song" for the couple's first dance. Tell us a song that reminds you of a romance in your life.

The Four Tops - Baby I Need Your Loving

8) Also in 2011, AT&T abandoned their attempt to buy T-Mobile. Which company is your cell phone carrier? Are you happy with them?
Consumer Cellar, most definitely.

9) Random question: What recent experience made you feel old?
My grandniece voted for the first time.

Thanks so much for joining us again at Saturday: 9. As always, feel free to come back, see who has participated and comment on their posts. In fact sometimes, if you want to read & comment on everyone's responses, you might want to check back again tomorrow. But it is not a rule. We haven’t any rules here. Join us on next Saturday for another version of Saturday: 9, "Just A Silly Meme on a Saturday!" Enjoy your weekend!

It A Climate Where Hate Is Condoned

In the last couple of weeks 3 more trans people have been killed shattering the record set last year. Yesterday when I wrote about the Marine serving only five years for the cold blooded murder of a trans woman in the Philippines, now this morning I come across this article...

Six Transgender Women Have Been Killed Within the Last Month
Sara Blackwood and Brooklyn DeShauna Smith are the latest reported victims of the trans homicide epidemic in America.
Them
By James Factora
October 19, 2020


The past two weeks saw two additional murders of trans people during what is already the deadliest year for the community on record: Brooklyn DeShauna Smith in Shreveport, Louisiana and Sara Blackwood in Indianapolis, Indiana. Smith and Blackwood are the 32nd and 33rd reported trans homicide victims of this year.

Smith was found dead in her apartment in Shreveport, Louisiana on October 7, with police reporting at least one gunshot injury. It is unclear as of yet whether the tragic killing was a hate crime, as local authorities have scheduled an autopsy in order “to determine if gender identification was a factor in her death,” according to Shreveport news station KSLA.

According to the LGBTQ+ website Gay Times, Smith had recently celebrated her 20th birthday and was studying cosmetology at a local community college. Smith is the fourth known Black trans woman to be killed in Louisiana since July, following the deaths of Shaki Peters, Queasha D. Hardy, and Kee Sam.
[…]
Days after Smith’s death, Blackwood was critically wounded in a shooting in Indianapolis. She died in the hospital as a result of her injuries on Sunday, as the local news affiliate WTTV reports.

Hate is running rampant in this country thanks to the leadership (or lack of leadership). The white supremacists and haters have been given a green light to attack those who are different from them.

Last year, the American Medical Association declared violence against Black trans women to be an epidemic.

And Trump is egging on violence.

---

With the rise in armed white supremacist militias tensions grow.

With militias on the rise, states boost vigilance
Christian Science Monitor
By Patrik Jonsson Staff and Noah Robertson
October 15,2020


Around the time that Sylvia Santana watched armed men pile into the Michigan Capitol in Lansing to protest pandemic restrictions in April, a plot to attack politicians involving at least one of those men, the FBI says, had begun to hatch.

Tempers were stretched. A seemingly fringe idea transformed into an operation.
[…]
Americans, in fact, are watching the rule of law put to severe new tests by the rise of armed and politically engaged civilians on America’s streets in a year of protests, pandemic, and an already divisive election campaign.

Some, like those arrested in the Michigan plot, are members of privately organized militia groups. Others are not. Either way, many experts see a slippery slope along the line from constitutionally protected rights such as gun ownership to political violence that could threaten the nation’s democratic framework.

In Michigan a sheriff with ties to white supremacists organization has refused to obey a lawful order.

Michigan sheriffs and police refuse to enforce state government ban on guns at polling places
World Socialist Web Site
By Eric London
October 19, 2020


[…]
On October 16, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson announced a new guideline prohibiting open carry of assault rifles, long guns and handguns within 100 feet of polling places. The guidance makes clear the state government believes the threat posed by militias for election day violence remains ongoing:

“The presence of firearms at the polling place, clerk’s office(s), or absent voter counting board may cause disruption, fear or intimidation for voters, election workers and others present.”

On Monday afternoon, the head of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police denounced the guidance and said police officers would not follow it.

It is getting scary out there with all the right-wing people coming to the polling places armed.

Very few liberals resort to the armed tactics, it is the conservatives who are showing up with assault rifles and I fear what will happen if they lose the election. I fear what will happen if Justice Barrett is confirmed, Connecticut gun laws has survived a Supreme Court challenge once will it be struck down by Justice Barrett?