Where Has Civility Gone?

Through you Mister Speaker…

When I first went to listen to the debate on the non-discrimination bill in the Connecticut House I was intrigued by the way the debate was handled, none of the representatives addressed each other directly but addressed the Speaker of the House.

It would go something like this…

A housemember would say: Through you Mr. Speaker I would like to ask the good member from Hartford why...

And the Speaker would repeat the question to the representative.

I thought this as being rather peculiar but then someone told me that they do that to keep the debates civil. It is kind of hard to get into a shouting match if you have go through an intermediary.

When I started to give testimony at hearings for bills I realized that support for the bill was split right down party lines I was a little nervous having to field questions from the Republicans but their questions were not mean but rather inquisitive they asked intelligent questions and always addressed me as Miss.

Now compare that to what happened down in Texas when trans people testified.

TX Special Session – Anti-trans sports bill advanced out of committee
Planet Transgender
By Kelli Busey
July 13, 2021


Austin TX: Republican Senators took advantage of the Democrat’s absence Monday and bullied, lied to, misgendered, and insulted every transgender person in Texas before calling the first gender-expansive witness to testify.
[…]
It is always the worst day of the year to testify at the Texas legislature, but Monday was the worse by far. The transgender people in the Senate gallery, waiting to testify, were subjected to an extremely hostile environment, the likes this citizen/reporter has never seen. If this had taken place in a workplace or on the corner in front of a seven-eleven someone would have been sued or it would have been called a hate crime.

That is so totally wrong and unprofessional. It is more like the Republicans are in a bar and not on the floor of the most prestigious building in Texas, they showed that they have no respect to for the citizens  who took time off from work to do their civic duty nor the institution that they were elected to by the people.

When I was in the Legislative Office Building both in hearing rooms and in the building I was treated with respect and dignity something that the Texas Republicans don’t seem to have. They have become not but a bunch of thugs.

---

Hate has become the new “Normal.” Before hate was kept out of sight, societal pressures kept them quite but now thanks to Trump hate was given the green light, the hater crawled out of the swamp into the light of day.

You can see it all the from the Texas legislature to a library in Wyoming.

Transgender woman cancels Wyoming magic shows after threats
AP
July 14, 2021


GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) — A magician and comic has canceled performances at libraries in northeastern Wyoming because of online and phoned in threats over a social media post about her being a transgender woman, she said.

The Campbell County Library posted on its Facebook page that Mikayla Oz, 24, was cancelling shows planned for Wednesday and Thursday in Gillette and Wright out of safety concerns for herself, library staff and patrons, the Gillette News Record reported.
[…]
She was initially willing to do her show despite some complaints, but then she started receiving violent and frightening threats online and by telephone, she said.

The haters won.

How do you think that we can get the haters to crawl back into the swamp. There has always been haters but the hate was covert but now it is overt and violent, how do we change that?

I am serious, how do you think we can end this rash of hate crimes? I am on a council that is supposed to advise the governor on how to end hate crimes and I would like to hear your ideas.

Trans Friendly States

The HRC* tracks how friendly states are to their LGBTQ+ residents and Connecticut is up near the top of the list. I think that we all know the least friendly states are but what about the most friendly states?

Is your home state LGBTQ friendly? See how your state measures up.
A lot of people may assume their state is friendly, but in reality, 25 states — half of the 50 United States — are rated in the lowest category.
LGBTQ Nation
By Juwan J. Holmes
February 9, 2021


Do you believe your hometown or locale is a friendly place for LGBTQ people? What about your state or territory?

For the seventh year in a row, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has released its State Equality Index, which comprehensively details how each state affects LGBTQ people and their families, based on laws and policies that either harm or improve the quality of life. A lot of people may assume their state is friendly, but in reality, 25 states — half of the 50 United States — are rated in the lowest category, meaning they are in “High Priority to Achieve Basic Equality,” HRC said.
[…]
The HRC specifies that, despite the court ruling [U.S. Supreme Court decision Bostock v. Clayton County], there are still 27 states where “LGBTQ people remain at risk of facing discrimination due to the lack of statutory protections.”

When Virginia flipped from Republican to Democrat so did it policies on LGBTQ+ issues,

“For example, the landmark Virginia Values Act passed and signed into law, making Virginia the first state in the South to adopt non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people,” David noted.

At the top of the list are a bunch of states that are vying for first place;

The 19 states were California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington state.

Then comes a bunch of states that show improvement,

Two states, Virginia and Iowa, were deemed to be “Solidifying Equality,” second to the “Innovative” rating.

Four states were ranked as “Building Equality” by HRC: Kansas, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Wisconsin.

In Connecticut we have just about every protection there is and then some. I think Connecticut has the only legislative committee on LGBTQ+ issues to advise the legislature and also the governor created a council to advise him on hate crimes and the council includes LGBTQ+ members.

I think that here in Connecticut we now have to focus our efforts on education and enforcement of the laws we have. And we need to focus on improving the quality of life here not just for us but also other minorities and also how to end hate crimes and force the haters back in the closet.

An article in the Hartford Courant Cultural divisions cast shadow on carnival in Unionville; activists call for Connecticut fairs to ban ‘symbols of hate’  says,

The bitter political divisions that have gripped the United States in recent years made for an unpleasant experience for several fairgoers who left complaining about Trump flags, the lack of masks even among food handlers, and alleged harassment of a young man carrying a Pride banner.
[…]
Prescott said it’s time for fairs, carnivals and festivals to ensure everyone feels welcome.

“People of color and the LGBTQ community should be able to go to family friendly events and have a good time. But time and time again it is clear that we aren’t safe anywhere,” she wrote.

The LGBTQ Nation article ends with...

The HRC rating, however, may further motivate Lone Star state lawmakers to take action, Outsmart notes. The recently formed Texas House LGBTQ Caucus made clear to the publication that “the fight for equality in Texas is far from over.”

Yeah right, and I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I want to sell you.

*HRC's 2020 State Equality Index

In Time Of Turmoil.

With age comes wisdom and one of the things that I have notice is that in times of turmoil authoritarian/dictatorial governments thrives. We are in a time of socioeconomic stresses… more people are facing food insecurity, are just barely making ends meet, and have stagnated wages and they are looking for scapegoats.

The politicians are eager to throw them a bone to the proletarians and who do they focus on? People who are different; immigrants, Muslims, Jews, Blacks, Asians, and LGBTQ+ people.

And the working class are ready to eat it up.

In the Week Noah Millman writes an opinion article...

Europe is becoming a right-wing continent
The overall political climate in Europe has been trending rightward for some time


For a certain kind of American liberal, it's almost a reflexive gesture to wish the United States were more like Europe. There, health care is provided on a more egalitarian basis and a university education is much cheaper, if not free; sexual mores are more relaxed and gun ownership is rare; religion is vestigial and militant nationalism is strictly taboo. Widespread European distress over the presidencies of George W. Bush and Donald Trump only confirmed what American liberals knew: that the Old Country was also the dreamland of their imagined liberal American future.

I wonder how it will feel when Europe becomes distinctly more right-wing than the United States.

It's not an inconceivable prospect. The United Kingdom has a Tory government right now, and based on current polling their position looks increasingly secure. France's centrist president Emmanuel Macron would likely be re-elected if the election were held today, but Marine Le Pen's right-wing National Rally party polls considerably higher today in a one-on-one contest with Macron than it did in 2017. Italy's fragile coalition could be followed by a right-wing coalition of Matteo Salvini's Lega and the neofascist-derived Fratelli D'Italia.

Even in Germany, where the Christian Democrat Angela Merkel's 16-year rule is coming to a close, the next government may once again be a coalition led by the CDU/CSU, if not with the center-left SDP, then in a "Jamaica coalition" with a reinvigorated center-right FDP joining the Greens by their side.

And in Poland and Hungery are the right-wing politicians are eager to throw a bone to the proletarians, this time it is us and not the Jews.

EU considers legal action against Poland over "LGBT-free" zones – sources
Reuters
By Gabriela Baczynska, and Joanna Plucinska; editing by John Stonestreet
June 30, 2021


BRUSSELS, June 30 (Reuters) - The European Union's executive is considering legal action against Poland over "LGBT-free" zones set up by some local authorities there, two officials told Reuters.

The EU says LGBT rights must be respected in all member states, but Poland's ruling nationalist party has made anti-gay policies part of its governing platform.

In March it explicitly banned same-sex couples from adopting children, while more than 100 towns and areas have declared themselves "LGBT-free".

"We are checking if there is a violation of EU treaties" in the creation of those zones, said one EU official, adding the process has not yet been completed. A second official confirmed the Brussels-based executive is looking into the issue.

And then in Hungry,

Hungary rejects EU demand to ditch 'shameful' anti-LGBT law
Reuters
By Gabriela Baczynska and Robin Emmott
July 7, 2021


BRUSSELS, July 7 (Reuters) - Hungary on Wednesday rejected a demand from the European Commission and many EU lawmakers to repeal new legislation banning schools from using materials deemed to promote homosexuality.

Last month, EU leaders lambasted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban over the legislation in a tense discussion behind closed doors, with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte telling Budapest to respect EU values of tolerance or leave the bloc.

"Homosexuality is equated with pornography. This legislation uses the protection of children as an excuse to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation," Ursula von der Leyen, head of the EU's executive Commission told the European Parliament. "It is a disgrace."

Why are we targeted?

For one thing Eastern Europe is heavily Catholic, another is because Evangelical Christians went had a talk to the nationalist party leaders… Hey look, they are the low hanging fruit.

In Europe today, the most viable traditional parties are often mainstream right-wing parties that have sought to coopt the nationalist right's issues — most notably Boris Johnson's Tory Party, which eclipsed UKIP by adopting Brexit for itself — or parties self-consciously constituted around the technocratic center so as to unite the mainstream against the far right. True left-wing parties like Jean-Luc Mélenchon's in France or Jeremy Corbyn's Labour have largely fizzled. Meanwhile, the far right continues to produce new phenomena, most recently France's Eric Zemmour, who has outflanked Le Pen on the right by being even more nationalist than she is.

So why do I think that we are facing a time of Fascism* across the globe?

Simply because of the oligarchs.

The One Percenters, or more specially the Quarter of a Percent Percenters.

Wages have been stagnated for a generation while the One Percenters skimmed the top off and left us the dross.

As the middle class start to feel the pinch of stagnate wages and inflation they are ripe for a revolution… But the upper class is prepared for that not with guns but with Trump. Ha. Ha… Trump yeah right. You are kidding right?

Stop and think, it is not so much Trump per se, but look who his base is. White supremacist, QAnon, Proud Boys, etc, etc. A name for them in the thirties were Hitlers’ Brown Shirts, and Mussolini's Black Shirts.

It is rising again, I hope that I am wrong, but I see a rise in Fascism.

~~~~~~

What I think needs to be done right now is increase the top tax brackets, bring back the estate tax to break up the fiefdoms, and raise the minimum wage. 

I also see Poland and Hungary breaking off from the EU to form Fascists' governments 

Bring back the middle class.

*Fascism: when I say that I mean...

Definition of fascism

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

What Do Anti-Trans Laws And Critical Race Theory Have In Common?

We actually have a lot in common (Hint: Look at the title of the article), take a look at why the Republicans are attacking CRT…

The engineered conservative panic over critical race theory, explained
CNN
By Brandon Tensley
July 08, 2021


Spare a thought for critical race theory. It wasn't always a conservative bogeyman.

Especially over the past several months, Republican leaders have distorted CRT -- an academic frame that scholars such as Kimberlé Crenshaw have been using in graduate-level courses for decades to interrogate how the legal system entrenches racism -- into a catchall to describe things they don't like.

In this bastardized telling, CRT is whatever Republicans want it to be; it comes in many guises. "Black Lives Matter" is one name for CRT. "Social justice" is another. "Identity," yet another. "Reparations." "Ally-ship." "Diversity."

But to linger on what CRT is, or isn't, is to miss the more pressing concern: Why have Republicans latched onto a decades-old academic term?

Here are a couple of hints: “Republican leaders have distorted...” and “In this bastardized telling...” does those phrases ring a bell?

Because so many Americans don't know what CRT is, it's the perfect tool for scaring White conservative voters with made-up problems -- for mobilizing them against the racial awakening of the past year. Here's how we got here:

That was a big hint! “Because so many Americans don't know what…”

The backlash to CRT echoes the 1960s
The panic over CRT is hardly the first time that the US has seen such ethnonationalist fearmongering.

In a recent Twitter thread, Pomona College politics professor Omar Wasow argued that one way to understand the anxiety over CRT is as "a reactionary counter-mobilization."
[…]
In the year since the murder of George Floyd and the renewed demands for racial justice, Republicans have once again detected a need to reposition themselves, to turn a cultural shift into a sense of crisis that they can use to their advantage. (Republicans are doing something similar in their war against transgender students, as The Atlantic's Adam Serwer keenly pointed out.)

What the Republicans are doing is trying to redefine, refocus the national discussion on race and on us, to make us and CRT the bogymen. Because not many people understand CRT or us they can easily distort the message and tell their lies.

The article in the Atlantic that they cite is…

The Republican Party Finds a New Group to Demonize
The recent wave of anti-trans legislation follows a decades-long pattern of the GOP targeting those they think lack the numbers or votes to properly fight back.
By Adam Serwer
April 13, 2021


[…]
The interview represented a shift in conservative politics, as the Republican Party moved from demonizing one group of Americans to another. The time for blaming the nation’s problems on gay people was over; now was the time to come together as a country and blame our problems on Muslims. For the past 30 years, the GOP has pursued a consistent strategy: Find a misunderstood or marginalized group, convince voters that the members of that group pose an existential threat to society, and then ride to victory on the promise of using state power to crush them.

Then after the gays they turned their hate mill on immigration,

Also during this period, Republicans pursued a series of draconian anti-immigration laws modeled after Arizona’s S.B. 1070, criticized by immigrant advocates as the “show me your papers” law, because it allowed police to stop anyone they suspected of being undocumented, effectively requiring noncitizens—or anyone who might be mistaken for one—to carry proof of status at all times. Such proposals were a clear license for racial profiling. As with the anti-Sharia legislation, Republican elected officials across the country fell all over one another in an effort to display their animosity toward immigrants by passing or proposing similar legislation. The Supreme Court struck down much of the Arizona bill in 2012 on the grounds that it conflicted with federal law, which takes precedence on issues of immigration.
[…]
Again and again, Republicans have targeted groups they believe too small or too powerless to spark a costly political backlash. By attacking them, the GOP seeks to place Democrats in a political bind. If they decline to bow to demagoguery, Democrats risk looking either too culturally avant-garde for the comfort of more conservative voters—whose support they need to remain viable—or too preoccupied with defending the rights of a beleaguered minority to pay attention to bread-and-butter issues that matter to the majority. This strategy has worked in the past—President Bill Clinton, who signed the federal statute outlawing same-sex marriage in 1996, was no Republican. Many people across the political spectrum accept the premise that defending a marginalized group’s civil rights is “identity politics,” while choosing to strip away those rights is not.

So now it is our turn and CRT’s turn.

It is designed to drive a wedge by creating a false flag to divert attention from them. Where else have we seen misdirection by the Republican party? Ooh, ooh, I know!!! Voter fraud.

All The World Is A Stage, Including LA Spa

We have seen it before where the evangelical Christians in the past have fabricated incidents and it is beginning to look like they didn’t it again.

Alleged Trans incident at upscale LA Spa may have been staged
The video quickly made the rounds in far right, and Trans-Exclusionary Feminist (TERF) sites and Anti-trans “feminist” websites.
LA Blade
By Robert Lansing
July 7, 2021


On June 24th, Instagram user “cubaangel” posted a video of herself angrily confronting a staff member at the Wi Spa in Los Angeles, accusing them of letting a disrobed transgender person into the women’s section of the business.

There is increasing doubt among law enforcement and staff at the Wi Spa whether there was ever was a transgender person there to begin with. Anonymous sources within the LAPD tell the Blade they have been unable to find any corroborating evidence that there was a transgender person present on that day.

Similarly, a source at the Spa told the Blade there’s no record of any of its usual transgender clients on its appointments guest list on the day in question. Treatment at the Spa is by appointment only, and most of its transgender clients are well known to the staff.

Several other factors cast doubt on the veracity of the claims in the video. Cubaangel’s Instagram account is almost exclusively Christian memes, which begs the question why she chose to go to a high-end spa well known for being LGBTQ friendly. During Cubaangel’s video, no transgender person can be seen, and no other witnesses have come forward to confirm the allegations made. It’s also not the first time Wi Spa has been targeted for catering to transgender people. After the alleged, unconfirmed incident, Wi Spa was deluged with 1-star Yelp! and Trip Advisor reviews.
[...]
All of this fits into an emerging pattern of the alt-right, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists, violent far right groups like the Proud Boys, the religious right, and anti-trans “feminists” collaborating and coordinating as they share the same media streams. Rhetoric against transgender people in popular right-wing media like Fox News has grown both more frequent, and more extreme. In April, Tucker Carlson (who serves as a gateway to the far right) declared that transgender people are a threat to the “perpetuation of the species.”

This would not be the first time that the Christian right has pulled that stunt and made other false claims, they make splashy headlines and when the truth comes out it is buried inside. The damage has been done.

In 2015 I wrote about in 2008 Rio Sport and Health about how it was a set-up to rally support against a gender inclusive non-discrimination bill.

Saturday 9: Mairzy Doats

Sam’s Saturday 9: Mairzy Doats (1944)

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

Unfamiliar with this song? Hear it here.

1) While today this is considered a children's song, "Mairzy Doats" was a #1 hit and a staple on radio stations in 1944. Do you know any of today's most popular songs? (Here's this week's Hot 100.)
Nope, not a one.

2) One of the song's writers recalled that the song was inspired by an old English nursery rhyme. Tell us a rhyme you remember from childhood.
Hickory Dickory Dock

3) This week's group, The Merry Macs, was formed by three brothers -- Judd, Joe and Ted McMichael -- who learned to harmonize at home. Did you grow up in a musical household?
Nope, we were a tone deaf family.

4) When the McMichaels decided their new group needed a woman's voice, they asked Cheri McKay to join them. Realizing all their names began with Mc, they began calling themselves The Merry Macs. Have you ever performed with a singing group? (Yes, that garage band you played in after school counts.) If yes, what was your band called?
Nope… boy this Sat 9 is going fast.

5) The Merry Macs' first gigs were playing high school dances. Do you have any memories of school dances you'd like to share this morning?
Um… not really the only dance I went to was the senior prom and that was over 50 years ago!

Hold it, hold it, hold it! I just remembered, it is not for high school but grad school I have some good memories... the good memories was making it to graduation with my classmates.

6) Once their recording career took off, The Merry Macs went to Hollywood. They appeared in a film with the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. Who last made you laugh?
I thought, and I thought and I came up with nothing.

7) In 1944, when "Mairzy Doats" topped the charts, sunscreen was invented. It was first developed to protect soldiers during WWII, and that original formula was sold to Coppertone. Do you regularly use sunscreen?
Yes and I should have used it when I went to P’town the other day the top of my head was a little sensitive.

8) Also in 1944, a board game called Murder! was introduced in England. In 1949 it made its way to the United States and was renamed Clue. It's still popular today. Can you name any of the original 6 "characters" in the Clue game? (Extra credit: One was replaced in 2016; who was it?)
Never played it.

9) Random question: The new house you just bought comes with a big mirror on the ceiling of the master bedroom. Would you take it down or leave it there?
No ifs, ands, or buts, take it down

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!

From 2013: My Story Part 154 – Your Slip Is Showing

Before I transitioned I lived in two worlds and some of the time those worlds came close to crashing together and that made my life interesting.

One of the most memorable was when I almost introduced myself to the Vice President of Engineering where I worked as Diana. To set the stage…

It was back in 2006 when I was Diana all but for 40 hours a week. Except for work I was living my life as Diana. So if it was a social setting I was Diana, in other words if I was at a restaurant or a bar, I was Diana. So…

One day I was summoned along with the project engineer to go to our corporate headquarters in Pittsburg (I was the supervisor of testing of testing). We were to go to a vendor meeting the next day, but that night we were to meet the VP and his wife for dinner. On the way to the restaurant we got a call from him saying that he was a meeting and it was running over and for us to wait for him in the bar. So we waited for almost an hour and I had a couple of rum and cokes. When they showed up I was nice and mellow, when I went to shake his wife’s hand I started to say “Hi, I’m Diana.” When I realized what I was about to say and I coughed. What came out was “Hi I’m Di… cough”

The second most memorable collision was on the same business trip. When we had to go down to corporate we always tried to get a seat on the corporate jet first instead of a commercial flight. The seating on the jet was based on RHIP (Rank Has It Privilege), the big wigs got the first pick of seats and the peons got what was left. But that day there were two seats left so we got to fly (You haven’t lived until you fly on a corporate jet that is the way to travel! You can read about it here.). On the way back it was snowing at Bradley, when one of the VP made a comment about 5 inches of snow there I said something like “shit.” One of the VPs asked what was wrong and I could say that I was going out to the Polo Club to watch a drag show so I made up a little white lie.

Also at work one time I was making copies and I heard Diana can you make these copies for me (This was the first day back from a week at Fantasia Fair where I was Diana for the entire time). I was just starting to reply when I heard someone say yes. I looked behind me and Diane the executive assistant to the general manager was there waiting to use the copier.

Which brings me to the time at Fantasia Fair when I was having dinner with some friends at Nappi’s and as we were eating I heard from the table nearby, “It looks like the winds will be favorable for flying.” I looked around and there was a table of friends that I knew from town that I used to hang glide with. And in order to leave the restaurant we had to walk right past them. Yikes! It turned out that the same week of Fantasia Fair there is also a hang glider meet in North Truro. Later when I came out to them I mentioned also most bumping into them at Nappi’s and they hadn’t even noticed us. As usual my fears were for nothing.

And you wonder why I was getting panic attacks before I transitioned; living a double life is very stressful.

My Story is a weekly series of blog posts about my transition and observation of life as a trans-person.

~~~~~~~~~

I wrote this Thursday before Elsa just in case lose power.

Wimps!

That is what we are, nothing but wimps.

If I remember correctly Rush Limbaugh called us wimps because it was only a tropical storm that hit us in 2011 when Irene dumped on us.

Well tonight and tomorrow morning we are supposed to get hit by Tropical Storm Elsa tonight and tomorrow, we here on the Cape should be on the windy side of the tropical storm with the rain going inland (As I write Thursday the storm track has the eye moving over the Cape Cod Canal) while the rain is centered over the I-84 corridor and the Mass Pike. While back home in Connecticut my house should get heavy rains, a couple of inches.

For New Englander’s they know that it is the rain that does all the damage not so much the wind.

And there two important facts to keep in mind.

1. We have hills and that means that we have valleys
2. Water flows down hill.

Which results in massive flooding in the valleys. I remember the 1955 wham-bang punches of Hurricane Connie followed by Hurricane Diane leaving behind 15” to 30” of rain! You want to guess where the areas that got hit the hardest were? Then in 2011 it was Vermont’s turn, they got hammered with Tropical Storm Irene. The storm wiped out the valleys isolating whole towns for weeks, in some parts of Vermont they got up to 11 inches of rain in 24 hours period.

Meanwhile Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives were down playing storm intensity…

Political rhetoric may impact your hurricane preparedness
Conservative commentary could lead people to downplay the urgency of storm warnings.
By Ula Chrobak
September 11, 2020


In many ways, it feels like Americans increasingly live in two different realities. Now, it seems like this is true even in a situation as immediately consequential as a hurricane. People of different political affiliations living in the same city appear to be disagreeing on what was once non-partisan: storm severity.

That’s according to a new study published in Science Advances. Researchers found that conservative commentators downplaying the threat of Hurricane Irma in 2017 appear to have had a direct effect on Trump voters’ likelihood of evacuating.In early September 2017, Rush Limbaugh told the listeners of his popular radio show that hurricanes are “never as strong as they’re reported,” and that tropical storm warnings were part of advancing the “climate change agenda.” This statement was followed by echoes from other commentators, including Ann Coulter, and eventually reported by mainstream media by outlets such as The Washington Post and CNN (albeit with a critical eye).

So I am…

• Filling the bathtub with water since I am on a well
• Check my flashlights
• Charge everything, (phone, table, laptop, my car, etc.) I have a cigarette lighter plug-in device that converts 12Vdc to 120Vac so I can charge any device.

What I need up here is another propane camp-stove and lantern.

You Got To Be Carefully Taught.

Who knows where that line came from?

Hint it is from a well know musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

In the musical South Pacific there is a song that I like and I use it is in some of my trainings it is…

And the lyrics to "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught" are,

Cable - You've got to be taught
To hate
And fear
You've got to be taught
From year
To year
Its got to
Be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to
Be carefully
Taught
You've got to be taught
To be
Afraid
Of people
Who's eyes are oddly made
And people who's skin is a different shade
You've got to
Be carefuly
Taught
You've got to be taught
Before it's too late
Before you are six
Or seven
Or eight
To hate all the people
Your relatives hate
You've got to
Be carefully taught
You've got to
Be carefully taught
Emile De Beque -
This is just the kind of ugliness I was running away from
It has followed my all this way
All these years
And now it has found me
I was cheated before
And i'm cheated again
By a mean little world
Full of mean little men
And the one chance for me
Is this life I know best
To be here on an island
And to hell with
The rest
I'll cling
To this island
Like a tree or a stone
I'll cling to this island and be free
And
Alone

You have to remember that the play was written in 1949 and what was going on here in the US?

The History Channel said…

The Red Scare was hysteria over the perceived threat posed by Communists in the U.S. during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, which intensified in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

And OutHistroy said…

The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government
Most America’s know the story of Senator Joseph McCarthy and how he set off a “red scare” when he famously charged in 1950 that the US State Department and other government agencies had been infiltrated by communist agents. But few Americans know that McCarthy also charged that the government had been infiltrated by homosexuals, and that they posed a threat equally as grave to national security. This fear that gay men and lesbians could be blackmailed into revealing state secrets resulted in a systematic campaign to identify and remove all government employees suspected of homosexuality. In this book, David Johnson argues that a parallel “lavender scare” permeated American cold war culture. But it also helped launch a new civil rights struggle.

But that was not all that was happening in the late forties and early fifties, once again the History Channel…

The civil rights movement was a struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for Black Americans to gain equal rights under the law in the United States.

And into that conservative brouhaha came this song in a musical...

I was talking about the play to a friend and discussing hate when I played this song for her, she started looking up Songfacts but nothing came up but what did come up in the Songfact search was Wikipedia…

South Pacific received scrutiny for its commentary regarding relationships between different races and ethnic groups. In particular, "You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught" was subject to widespread criticism, judged by some to be too controversial or downright inappropriate for the musical stage. Sung by the character Lieutenant Cable, the song is preceded by a line saying racism is "not born in you! It happens after you’re born..."

Rodgers and Hammerstein risked the entire South Pacific venture in light of legislative challenges to its decency or supposed Communist agenda. While the show was on a tour of the Southern United States, lawmakers in Georgia introduced a bill outlawing entertainment containing "an underlying philosophy inspired by Moscow." One legislator said that "a song justifying interracial marriage was implicitly a threat to the American way of life." Rodgers and Hammerstein defended their work strongly. James Michener, upon whose stories South Pacific was based, recalled, "The authors replied stubbornly that this number represented why they had wanted to do this play, and that even if it meant the failure of the production, it was going to stay in."

We tend to think that the attacks by conservatives on Blacks, LGBTQ+ people, and immigrants is something new but it has been going on for decades, it is a tried and true method for Republicans to get votes… stir up hate.

Into this mix comes a song from a musical that won Tonys in… Best Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical , Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical, est Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Producer, Best Director, Best Libretto, Best Original Score, and Best Scenic Design.

James Taylor on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show played You've Got to Be Carefully Taught…

Iconic singer-songwriter James Taylor served as the musical guest on Tuesday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The appearance came on the same day Taylor’s 2020 standards album, American Standard, was announced as a nominee for “Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album” at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2021.

For his appearance on Kimmel, James Taylor opted for “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught”, the Rodgers and Hammerstein number from the 1949 musical, South Pacific. A timely selection for this strangest of years, “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” examines the process by which people are taught to be intolerant.

Though the song itself plays like a lovely ballad, rendered beautifully by Taylor (vocals/acoustic guitar) and some tasteful string accompaniment, the lyrics serve as a stinging, tongue-in-cheek reminder that hate and prejudice get passed down through generations (You’ve got to be taught / Before it’s too late / Before you are six / Or seven, or eight / To hate all the people / Your relatives hate/ You’ve got to be carefully taught).

And it is still being taught.

Nature Is Amazing!

We are so diversity, there is no one average person we are all unique in someway or other and when you try to put people in boxes it fails horribly.

‘This is Systemic Racism’: Two Olympic Contenders Disqualified from Women’s 400 Meters Race After Test Results Reveal ‘Naturally’ High Testosterone Levels
Atlanta Black Star
By Angelina Velasquez
July 5, 2021


Uproar continues to cloud the start of the Tokyo Olympics as more Black athletes find themselves disqualified from races. The latest are two Namibian runners, Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, who were barred from the 400 meters race due to test results indicating each having naturally high levels of testosterone.

Mboma set a new record for females under the age of 20 when she ran the race in 48.54 seconds on June 30. Her time was the seventh-fastest in women’s 400 meters history and the fastest in the world this year. Masilingi ran the race in 49.53 during a meet in Zambia three months ago. Her time is the third-fastest of the year. The impressive race times prompted the World Athletics body to run medical assessments.

“The results from the testing center indicated that both athletes have a naturally high testosterone level. According to the rule of World Athletics, this means that they are not eligible to participate in events from 400m to 1600m,” said the national Olympic committee in a statement released July 2. Both women also declined to take birth control drugs to lower their testosterone levels.

This is so much more than being racist… this is anti-human!

Every kind of girl
There was long ones, tall ones, short ones, brown ones
Black ones, round ones, big ones
Crazy ones*

We are so diverse, it is impossible to say who is male and who is female and it is not only testosterone that gives an athlete and advantage. What about tall women, they have the advantage in track and basketball. Some people are naturally overweight, some people are naturally thin.

“This means we need to be clear about the competition criteria for these two categories. Our evidence and data show that testosterone, either naturally produced or artificially inserted into the body, provides significant performance advantages in female athletes. The revised rules are not about cheating, no athlete with a DSD [Difference of Sexual Development] has cheated, they are about levelling the playing field to ensure fair and meaningful competition in the sport of athletics where success is determined by talent, dedication and hard work rather than other contributing factors.”

So if you are born intersex does this mean that you cannot take part in sports? What about women with PCOS, they produce too much testosterone in their ovaries will they be banned?

What about women who look masculine will they forever be challenged to prove that they are a woman for sports?

Putting people in boxes does not work.

There is a yellow one that won't accept the black one
That won't accept the red one, that won't accept the white one
Different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo-bee**

* Spill the Wine by War
** Everyday People by Sly and the Family Stone

On Vacation

I have company at the cottage so I might not be able to post. We will probably be hanging out at the Herring Cove beach if it doesn't fill up too fast.
 

Another Hatchet Job… The Harm Is Done

Another anti-trans book has come out, that as expected the conservatives praise and we say the book is biased, They say that we can’t stand to hear the true and around and around it goes.

In an excellent review in Science Based Medicine of the book by Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Dr Eckert, they list the failings of the book.

Irreversible Damage to the Trans Community: A Critical Review of Abigail Shrier’s book Irreversible Damage (Part One)

Irreversible Damage, a controversial 2020 book by Abigail Shrier, has enjoyed renewed attention in the last several weeks. Shrier appeals to her audience’s emotions by voicing their deepest fears to create uproar against an already marginalized community. The claims presented do not meet scientific rigor, yet have been praised and upheld by many, effectively pushing back against equal rights for gender minorities, and, more specifically, denying equitable healthcare for trans youth. This two-part review is based in a framework of evidence-based research and healthcare best practices to address, analyze, and dismantle Shrier’s arguments. It seeks to elucidate the historical and current medicalization of trans identities, present the nidus of widely-accepted yet debunked beliefs, and give context to the research and sources Shrier builds upon for her book.

In their review of the book  Dr Eckert referrers to J. Michael Bailey, the 2003 book, The Man Who Would Be Queen and the 2018 research by Lisa Littman of what she called “rapid onset gender dysphoria” (ROGD) both of them have been discredited by the scientific community but the problem is that the conservative don’t care what we say because they say “of course we wouldn’t like it we are biased.” and around and around it goes.

We know it trash and I think that they really know it is trash but the thing is the general public doesn’t. The harm is done and it is almost irreversible; I read this book that said... 

~~~~~~~~

Note: Dr. Eckert is on the Board of Directors of CT TransAdvocacy Coalition (CTAC) of which I am the executive director.

Our Arch-Nemesis

There is one legal non-profit organization that is the main culprit in spreading the hate against us, it is a Christian legal firm that specializes in key anti-LGBTQ+ cases that go to the Supreme Court, they are the Alliance Defending Freedom.

They lead the legislative attack against trans athletes, the only thing is they have a habit of twisting the truth.

Conservatives want to ban transgender athletes from girls sports. Their evidence is shaky.
USA Today
By Rachel Axon and Brent Schrotenboer
June 30, 2021


As the Arizona Legislature considered barring transgender students from girls and women’s sports last year, the bill’s sponsor zeroed in on the testimony of one high school softball player.

Grace Waggoner told lawmakers in February 2020 that her team had lost the first state tournament game it had played in decades to an opponent with a transgender player.

She blamed an “unfair” Arizona Interscholastic Association policy that allows students to join teams consistent with their gender identity after going through a review. Waggoner offered few details on the athlete’s impact on the game, but bill sponsor Rep. Nancy Barto accepted it as evidence of a problem in her state.

“I had read stories about this happening in other states,” Waggoner told lawmakers, “but I never expected it would happen at my school.”

Only, it hadn’t.

The game Waggoner referenced in her testimony turned out to be a state tournament play-in game in 2019 that Scottsdale Christian Academy lost to Heritage Academy, 16-6. Heritage Academy coach Steve LaDrigue said his team did not have a transgender player.

What Waggoner didn’t say is that she’s the daughter of Kristen Waggoner, general counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom – a conservative, legal nonprofit that has pushed transgender sports bans in states across the nation.

When pressed for details about the game, an ADF spokesperson said in an email, “The widespread understanding on the team – including the coach, parents, and players – was that the athlete was male.”

LaDrigue guesses the suspicion fell on the team’s catcher, his daughter, because she has short hair.

That’s how they do it, with innuendo… not facts. It is designed to stir up hate.

Across the nation, state lawmakers supporting transgender athlete bans have painted a picture that girls sports teams will be overrun by athletes with insurmountable physical advantages. But a USA TODAY investigation of the lobbying effort shows that narrative has been built on vague examples that have been overstated or are untrue, and lawmakers have accepted them as fact with little effort to verify their accuracy.

The more than 70 bills lawmakers have offered in at least 36 states would suggest a bigger problem facing girls sports, but that didn’t check out either. Instead, USA TODAY could find few transgender athletes participating and even fewer complaints about them.

Fear and hate that is what this Christian law firm wants to do and as Christians they let their hate blind them. They don’t care who they hurt when they wave their flaming Christian sword of vengeance against the evil transgender sinners.

In South Dakota, the sponsor of a bill said a transgender girl who played basketball was “consistently scoring 25 points above females” in high school and that the Sioux Falls district alone had three transgender athletes competing in 2019. But the state association responsible for approving participation of transgender athletes says only one transgender girl has competed since 2013, and she was an average athlete who didn’t live in Sioux Falls.

In Connecticut, the cases of two transgender runners who won 15 state titles has been the primary, and often sole, example cited by lawmakers around the country. But legislators leave out context that those athletes did not win all their races and are not competing in college, counter to the claims that the runners took recruiting opportunities from other athletes.
[…]
One of the plaintiffs, Chelsea Mitchell, went on to beat Miller three times after the lawsuit was filed. Indeed, each of the three original plaintiffs beat either Miller or Yearwood – or, in Mitchell’s case, both – in state championship races.

Mitchell, who herself won 10 individual state titles, and another plaintiff, Selina Soule, have since graduated. Soule opted out of her college’s track and field season, and Mitchell is competing in college. Miller and Yearwood, who the lawsuit claimed took away recruiting opportunities from the plaintiffs, are not.

Lies… Lies… and more lies.

In Connecticut Republicans have jumped on the anti-trans bandwagon and introduced three anti-trans bill this last session, two of them targeted trans athletes.

Arizona’s bill is part of a push by conservative political groups to exclude transgender girls and women from participation in sports teams consistent with their gender identity. Alliance Defending Freedom has spearheaded the effort, filing lawsuits, writing model legislation and providing hearing testimony.
[...]
But in states around the country, ADF pushed the bills.

For a Christian legal fund they twist the truth and omit the facts an awful lot.

And the Republicans are working hand in hand with them and are introducing the bills… they see it as building their base and a way to distract the voters from the violent anti-government that they stirred up.

The Republicans use us as a smokescreen to block their voter disenfranchisement, gerrymandering of voter districts, and their false accusations of voter fraud.

Saturday 9: The National Anthem

Sam’s Saturday 9: The National Anthem (2016)
... because it's 4th of July

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

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

1) An early handwritten manuscript of "The Star Spangled Banner" (complete with scratch outs) is preserved at the Maryland Historical Society. Today, much of what we write is preserved in The Cloud. Do you often write down your thoughts with pen or pencil? Or do you do everything on your laptop, pad or phone?
No, I do it in my diary which is a word doc.
But… You know by now that I always have a “But.” I have started donating all my memorabilia to a local university, over the years I have attended many conference and I donate the conference guides to their library along with my correspondence as executive director of a non-profit such as the minutes to the coalition that passed the non-discrimination law.
And also donated the pièce de résistance, the actual bill that the governor signed in law. He gave me the signed copy and one of the pens.

2) It's well-known that the lyrics were written by Francis Scott Key. Not so well known is John Stafford Smith, the British composer who gave us the music. He is buried in England's Gloucester Cathedral, under both the US and UK flags. Where is the nearest United States flag waving near you right now?

The post office, just down the street.
Now that the sun is up, I can see the flag at the rental cottages just down the street.

3) This week's video features Lady Gaga singing The National Anthem before the 2016 Super Bowl. She also performed it at President Biden's Inauguration last January. When is the last time you sang it?
Probably back in 1962 when the music director told me to just mouth the words.

4) Our second and third Presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both died on July 4, 1826. OK, it's your turn. Share a Presidential fact.
John Adams defended a crossdresser in 1771 in the case of Gray vs. Pitts. Assault and Battery.

5) John Hancock said his signature on the Declaration of Independence was intentionally large so King George could see it without his glasses. Do you need glasses to read?
Yes and no. I had cataract surgery in one eye so I can read with that eye without glasses but the other eye I need glasses.

6) The Revolutionary War still raged during that summer of 1777. General George Washington allowed his soldiers to celebrate with a double ration of run on July 4. Will you be toasting the United States with an adult beverage this weekend?
Well… a glass of Strawberry Daiquiri and maybe a puff or two on a legal substance now legal in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

7) Since this year, July 4th falls on a Sunday, banks and post offices will be closed will be closed on Monday. Thanks to email and ATMs, Sam doesn't find this a hardship. How about you? Do you find it inconvenient to go an extra day without regular USPS delivery or access to a teller at the bank?
Naw. I don’t even think that we should get special delivery on Sundays and Amazon shouldn’t have deliveries on Sunday.

Update 8:50... I must confess when I was the boss we did work 7/24 but we paid double time on Sundays and if they worked over 8 hours they got double time and a half.

8) Celebrity chef Rachael Ray says she considers mini-hamburgers, or "sliders," the All-American food. What will you be eating this 4th of July?
Steak and potatoes with a salad. With cheesecake for dessert.

9) The 4th of July is a highlight of the summer season. Have you yet suffered the traditional warm weather maladies: sunburn or bug bites?
HA… Ha… mosquitoes just love my sweet diabetic blood! I could be standing and have a half a dozen mosquitoes buzzing around me while the person right next to me have none.
Sunburn… I learned a long time ago that sunburn is no fun. So when I am on the beach I am under a sun blocking umbrella and I take a bath in suntan lotion.

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.

News Flash! Beep… Beep… Beep… Supreme Court Lets Stand Ruling In LGBTQ+ Case

Supreme Court Turns Down Appeal in Clash Between Florist and Gay Couple
The justices let stand a gay couple’s victory against a florist who said her religious beliefs did not allow her to create floral arrangements for same-sex weddings.
New York Times
By Adam Liptak
July 2, 2021


The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it would not hear an appeal from a florist in Washington State who said she had a constitutional right to refuse to create a floral arrangement for a same-sex wedding. The move left open a question the court last considered in 2018, when a similar dispute between a Colorado baker and a gay couple failed to yield a definitive ruling.

As is its custom, the court did not give reasons for declining to hear the case, which social conservatives had hoped the justices would use to make a clearer statement favoring religious beliefs over gay rights. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch said they would have granted the florist’s petition seeking Supreme Court review.

The owners of businesses challenging those laws have argued that the government should not force them to choose between the requirements of their faiths and their livelihoods, citing constitutional protections for free speech and religious liberty.

The case concerning the florist, Arlene’s Flowers v. Washington, No. 19-333, started in 2013, when Barronelle Stutzman turned down a request from a longtime customer, Robert Ingersoll, to provide flowers for his wedding to another man, Curt Freed. Ms. Stutzman said her religious principles did not allow her to do so.

This is BIG! Really big! Humongous Big!

The big worry was that the court would say the people have a right to discriminate if it was against their religion. But the Supreme Court stepped back and said… nothing. Just nope we don’t want to hear it, we are stratified in the lower court’s ruling.

Ria Tabacco Mar, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the couple, welcomed Friday’s development but said there was more work to be done.

“No one should walk into a store and have to wonder whether they will be turned away because of who they are,” she said. “Preventing that kind of humiliation and hurt is exactly why we have nondiscrimination laws. Yet 60 percent of states still don’t have express protections for L.G.B.T.Q. people like the kind in Washington State.”

Meanwhile the opposition legal team the Alliance Defending Freedom (You should remember them, they are the ones that brought the case of the Connecticut trans athlete and they are behind all the anti-trans bills by the Republicans.) said...

Kristen K. Waggoner, a lawyer with Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Ms. Stutzman, also said there was more work to do. “Although the outcome of this case is tragic,” she said, “the critical work of protecting the First Amendment freedoms of all Americans must continue. No one should be forced to express a message or celebrate an event they disagree with.”

The Georgia Voice said,

By refusing to hear Arlene’s Flowers, the Supreme Court is avoiding that issue for now and leaving intact a decision of the Washington State Supreme Court, which ruled against the florist twice—once before and once after the Masterpiece decision.
[…]
On the downside, the Supreme Court Friday agreed to hear a case where, once again, religious entities are trying to find workarounds to laws and policies separating church and state. The court granted review to Carson v. Makin, which is not an LGBTQ-related case but is yet another case in which religious entities are seeking special dispensation under ordinary law. It’s also a case that echoes the arguments religious entities have been making to avoid complying with non-discrimination laws: that the religious person isn’t discriminating against a gay person but discriminating against a person because his or her partner is of the same sex.

And so the battle continues...

Writer's Block

I have been looking for articles to write about but none look interesting.

I am up at the Cape this week and it is always an adventure that I don’t like coming up here. There was a bad accident in Rhode Island going the other way on I-95 which caused a backup of several miles and I was thinking that I was glad I am not going the other way. Then when I get to Providence it was my turn to wait in traffic.

I had an accident last fall at the Bourne Rotary South, I know it is call that because that was where the police said report said it happened. So now I have a longcut to avoid going through any rotaries to get on to the Cape.

The Cape and me have a long history… it goes back to when I was knee high to a grasshopper. It goes back to when I was ten or twelve (late 50s or early 60s), my parents used to rent a cottage in Truro right on the bay. They rented it for a week and our neighbor’s rented it for a second week, us kids thought it was great we got to be at the Cape for two weeks. When I became an adult I realized what they were doing… The parents had a week’s vacation from us!

When we went into Provincetown my father used to call it bohemians and now as an adult and trans I realize that it was “code” for gays. I loved it! Everywhere you looked there was an artist doing portraits or caricatures and I thought that it was so neat, now there are none, inflation drove them out. 

Jump forward by fifty years… now I had to hide the fact that I was going to Provincetown from my parents so I generated my own code for going to Fantasia Fair and First Event; a Computer Conference. But how to hide my B&B phone number? The area code for the Cape is different from the Boston area!

A friend had a cell phone so I gave out her number and told my folks that the hotel charged and outrageous price for phone calls. When I got home I got a flip phone.

Now I have a place on the Cape.

~~~~~~

A lesson that I have learned up here.

There still are bigots up here.

When I was looking for someone to mow my lawn, my neighbor suggested the guy who does their lawn and he came over to give me an estimate. Well when he saw me it was like he was eating a lemon, his face puckered up and I never heard back from him. The guy that I now have and who is also landscaping my yard is a Jamaican and so is his whole crew and I have no problem with them.

The plumber when I talked to him on the phone the first thing that he said when I said that I was “Diana” was “you don’t sound like a woman” hmm… I keep it now to texts and emails I don’t want to lose him because he has been working on the condo since it was built in the 70s.

The tourist are fun to watch when they spot the “tranny” they start to poke their partner in the ribs there are a lot bruised ribs from being poked in their ribs by an elbows.

Some of the deepest digs come from gays and lesbians but at the same time there are many who are very friendly to us. One rainy night we were with the First Selectman of Provincetown and we went for drinks at a bar that shall remain nameless but they were named after the fires of hell. We were the only ones in there, we didn’t get served and they also said that our party was blocking the aisle. 

But as usual 99.999 percent of the people don’t care and sometimes it is downright hilarious, one Fantasia Fair I was walking down Commercial Street a couple was coming out of a store and the husband said to his wife, “There are an awful lot of tall women in town, I wonder if there is a women basketball game tonight?”

My Story Part 173 – Is This Yours Or Is It Some Strange Seaweed?

Ever get rolled around in the surf?

Rolled up on to a the beach and deposited like some “flotsam” from a shipwreck?

Well I have on Fire Island in New York.

The day began bright and early at a couples house on Long Island, we had a long day ahead of us and I didn’t know the adventure that I had ahead of me that day. We were going to a picnic out on Fire Island in the town of Fair Harbor and here is My Story Part 127 from 2012…

---

But first, I had great time out on the island and I think I fell in love with Fair Harbor.

On Friday morning I drove down to a friend's place down in New London to leave my car with her and she drove me to the Orient Point ferry terminal. I had a nice trip across the sound over to Long Island on board the New London; the trip took an hour and twenty minutes to cross the sound. On the way we went by the Plum Island (Plum Gut) lighthouse and the Orient Point (Coffee Pot) Lighthouse. (click on image for a full size picture)

It was a very humid day where the ocean and the sky kind of blended together and you couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. At the ferry slip at Orient Point, there was the car ferry and the high speed ferry that were heading back to New London.

When we docked, I was met by the wife of a couple that I know who live on Long Island and she drove me back to their house.

Saturday we drove out to the ferry to Fair Harbor on Fire Island, we were going to party at the island’s doctor's house. The house is used for a visiting doctor, the island residents invite a doctor to come out for two weeks free in return he is the on call doctor for the town (As I understand it). The couple that I was visiting, the wife sings with a group of people who sing traditional music on Long Island and the doctor’s wife is a member of the group. This is the ferry that we came over to Fair Harbor on… And the ferry slip. What surprised me was the speed that the ferry traveled, my inexperienced guess was 25 knots (compared to the Orient Point/New London ferry which I would guess traveled at 10 knots), we were passing out pleasure boats like they were standing still. I sat on the top deck with my friends and I was sheltered from the wind by the wheelhouse.

On the island there are no cars so the only way to get around is by walking or bicycling. The center of Fair Harbor is a the doctor’s office, the fire station, a general type store and a restaurant, all within about a hundred yards Around the corner is the food store and the walkway to the ocean (that is the ocean in the distance, about a quarter mile) and as you can see, bicycles are the main form a transportation. All the “street” are only four or five feet wide and all along the streets are summer cottages on lots that are around 90’ by 100’, some of them are nicely landscapes will others are hidden away behind hedges.

                          








The streets are crowded with foot and bicycle traffic and if you have to carry something, you can always use a wagon. The doctor's wife met us at the ferry with a wagon and we piled the bags that we were carrying on it. They even had a place by the ferry to store your wagons...

In the afternoon I headed over to the ocean side to cool off in the ocean and the water temperature was just right, I could have stayed in it all day.

I was out in the water up to my waist, out pass where the waves were breaking and when a wave came in it usually rose up to my chest and when a big wave came in I jumped up to let it pass. I was enjoying myself with the group when… I looked up and there was a wave about two feet taller than me and it was starting to break… right on top of ME!

When I stopped being tumbled in the surf, I felt to the top of my head and my wig was gone!!!!! I frantically looked around for it, but I didn’t have my glasses on and I couldn’t see it anywhere. PANIC! Panic, panic… what do I do? How can I go back to the party? How can I go back on the ferry? PANIC!

What seemed like a life time went by (in reality it was only 4 or 5 minutes), this woman came up to me and said, “Is this yours or is it some type of seaweed?” Whew! Thank you, thank you, thank you! She was holding my wig down in the water. I was so embarrassed, I was it total panic mode. I don’t know what I would have done if she didn’t find it or if someone found it.

So the rest of the day was uneventful. We took the 9:30 ferry back to the main island after watching a beautiful sunset.










On Sunday it was another extremely humid day, we drove over to the north shore to Northport and walked along the walkway in the park. The bay was a forest of masts from all the sail boats.

Afterwards, we drove around the north shore and down a number of winding roads, past big estates nestled along the shore to we got to Huntington Harbor Lighthouse.

Today I came home on the 8:00AM ferry to New London, my friend came picked me up and brought me to my car. I was home by 10:30. It was a beautiful weekend and I enjoyed it immensely. As usual all my worrying before hand was for nothing. I survived the temporary lose of my wig and quickly got over it. 

---

To this day she thinks that I was a cancer patient who had chemo.

Lesson learned:

#1 Bring a spare wig!
#2 Keep a spare set glasses in the car.
#3 When you thinks everything is going your way natural throws you a giant wave to knock you over.
#4 Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best
And
Always look on the bright side of life
Always look on the light side of life

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
Monty Python

LGBT Tours… Are They?

How many times have you seen ads for LGBTQ tours and you wonder are they really trans friendly or are they just LGB friendly?

Sadly I think many of them are only lesbian and gay friendly.

Visibility mixes with vulnerability for many transgender travelers
The travel industry has embraced Pride Month, but for some transgender and non binary people leaving home triggers anxiety.
National Geographic
By Kam Burns
June 29, 2021


[…]
Karen DeJarnette is familiar with that feeling.As an out trans woman and an SEO manager for a major travel agency, DeJarnette has a lot of experience traveling as a trans person and all the challenges that come with it.

For trans people, and especially trans women,“we feel vulnerable, we feel extremely visible, and traveling to someplace new amplifies that, beyond measure.”
[…]
(Does travel mean going into the closet? LGBTQ tourists face tough choices.)
The Washington Post recently reported on the trauma of travel for trans people, noting that“the discrimination trans travelers have experienced at the hands of the TSA…[has]become so widespread that there is a hashtag—#TravelingWhileTrans—that travelers have used to share encounters with TSA.”

But DeJarnette says it’s important to remember that most people won’t notice orc are, because they’re preoccupied with their own lives. But for trans people who have to travel for work or other reasons out of their control, she recommends traveling with someone else and being aware of the cultures and customs, especially in more conservative places.

“The whole goal is to fit in, is to just be one among the crowds,” DeJarnette says. “Because that way, you’re less exposed, less vulnerable.”

Traveling with someone is not possible for many trans people and I also don’t that that solves the problems that we face when traveling, what it may do for us as we sit in jail is have someone on the outside getting legal aid for us.

When traveling for leisure, DeJarnette recommends doing research before going somewhere new, as there are plenty of LGBTQ friendly countries, cities, and neighborhoods. San Francisco even designated south eastern Tenderloin as a transgender cultural district in 2017.
[…]
“Stay in a place that welcomes you,” DeJarnettesays. “There are cities and locations and neighborhoods that will be happy to have your business.”

Unfortunately that might not be possible if A. You are on a group tour, and B. You don’t know where the safe places are.

Do you remember the movie Under the Tuscan Sun? Where a lesbian couple breaks up and they were scheduled to go on a LGBT tour of Italy so one of the lesbians invites a straight friend who just had a divorce, along on the tour.

How do you think a trans woman as the only trans woman on the tour would do on a tour of Italy? On a tour to Aruba? Wikipedia says this about Aruba…

Aruba is frequently referred to as one of the Caribbean's most LGBT-friendly islands,[10] with various venues, hotels and restaurants catering to LGBT clientele or otherwise advertising as "LGBT-friendly".

But they say nothing about trans friendly and when you google “transgender friendly” all the results say “gay” and “lesbian” friendly and nothing about trans friendly. One hit on the searc

‘Pose’ star and trans actress claims she was attacked in Aruba resort

Dominique Jackson, the trans actress who plays the villainous Elektra on Ryan Murphy’s Pose, has claimed to be attacked in – and then thrown out of – an Aruba resort during a disturbing incident.

The thing is you would never know if someone is lesbian or gay just by looking at them, while many trans people you can tell right way that they are trans and therefore face more discrimination and violence.

West Point Cadet Chapel 

In all fairness I must say that I went with a friend on a “gay” tour but it was 1. with gay men some of them I knew, 2. it was only a day trip, and 3. it was to the Culinary Institute of America and West Point.

My advice to you if you are planning on going on a LGBTQ+ tour to a foreign country is do your homework. Ask questions of the tour operator about if they had any trans tourists on the tours.

My Story Part 172 - Thoughts Of Passing On My 14th Anniversary!

Well first off I hate that word, I use instead integrated or blended. Passing sound like we are putting something over on people, the same goes for stealth, it has the same connotation.

On this anniversary of my transition I have discovered that being able not to be identified as trans is not what I thought it was back in 2000. Back then it was the magical Brass Ring that everyone hoped for, being able to walk around and no one identifying you as trans.

Since then I have realized that the most important thing was being left alone.

I think except for my family and few friends no one knows me from before I transitioned those are my real friends. Those who accept me for who I am.

For 59 years I lived a lie… I don’t want to live a lie anymore.

That is why I don’t take voice lessons… it is just another lie.

That is why I didn’t have FFS.

I have learned that my true friends don’t care.

There were a lot of myths that I learned after I transitioned.

I have learned that 99.999 percent of the people really don’t care and that 1 in a thousand are assholes and I don’t care about them.

I have learned that businesses only really care about if your credit card goes trough or what is the color your money.

What I have also learned most women do not wear a dress, high heels, and makeup, oh some do but most of them do so because of work.

I have heard my crossdressing friends say… “I feel so womanly when I put on my bra!” let me tell you that after fourteen years that I have leaned that the best feeling is taking off your bra and letting the girls free!

~~~~~~~

When I am asked when I am on a panel what was the greatest cultural shock I had since I transition and I reply… “My god they talk in the bathroom!”

I also found that the comradeship between women is much deeper then between men, to me it seems like men are always on the defensive to protect their manhood.

I will end this with a story.

It was closing night for the Out Film Festival and the closing party was at the Science Center and as I was leaving I saw that I had to walk by a sports bar’s outside patio and it was all men outside on the patio. I stopped in the doorway of the Science Center as four lesbians walked by, one saw me there starring at the bar. She stopped and came back to me and asked what was wrong. I said that I wasn’t looking forward to walking by them. She took her arm in mine and said come on.

The five of us walked by the bar and sure enough the cat calls started and then some realized that we were lesbians and then the calls began of making them “real women.” The woman who took my arm stopped after we passed by the bar and asked if I was alright now. When I said said yes, she hugged me and walked off. I never knew who my guardian angels were

1984 Double Speak

Legal action against Tennessee hateful laws.

ACLU sues Tennessee over new restroom 'warning sign' law targeting transgender-friendly businesses' policies
Chattanooga Times Free Press
By Andy Sher
June 25, 2021


The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee and the national ACLU sued in federal court Friday to block a first-of-its-kind state law requiring warning signs at businesses that allow transgender people to use the restroom of their choice.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two business owners, one in Chattanooga and one in Nashville, who say they object to being forced by the government to post "stigmatizing signs."

The plaintiffs say the new "bathroom bill" law, signed by Gov. Bill Lee on May 17 and slated to take effect July 1, violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by compelling speech. They ask the court for a preliminary injunction to halt enforcement while the lawsuit proceeds.
[...]
"Forcing businesses to display a stigmatizing message for political expedience is unconstitutional," said Hedy Weinberg, ACLU of Tennessee executive director, in a statement. "Furthermore, by targeting the transgender community, these government-mandated signs marginalize and endanger transgender individuals. Tennessee should be embracing and protecting all Tennesseans, not passing unconstitutional discriminatory laws."

I would have expected that the Fourteenth Amendment would play in to the legal case because they single out us and the 14^th Amendment is about equal treatment.

Of course the Republicans hates the ACLU…

In a statement to the Times Free Press on Friday, Sen. Paul Rose, R-Covington, the legislation's Senate sponsor, wrote "these days it seems the ACLU is more concerned about advancing the left's woke agenda than defending anyone's civil liberties. This law protects the rights of all people using restrooms in Tennessee.

"There was nothing discriminatory about this bill, either in intent or in execution. Period," Rose added.

Typical Republican double speak, “defending anyone's civil liberties” so they think that forcing us into segregated bathrooms is okay. These people are living in George Orwell 1984!