News and views for Wednesday, October 29th …

• [NY, USA] “Despite state laws banning discrimination based on sex, gender, race and religion, there are no such protections for transgender New Yorkers. A Binghamton councilman is looking to change that for residents of his city … Stallman applauded Massey’s effort to change Binghamton’s law, saying it could be a step toward statewide protections. According to the Empire State Pride Agenda, SONDA was passed by the state legislature only after numerous municipalities passed similar laws outlawing anti-gay discrimination, starting with the tiny Village of Alfred in 1974.” — City councilman proposes panel on human rights
• [NY, USA] Earlier this year it was “Brownskirts” in Maryland, now it’s “Transgender Gestapo” in New York. — Transgender Gestapo Coming to City of Binghamton
• [PA, USA] The Philadelphia Daily News has an update today on Pennsylvania’s amended hate crime law, which was struck down by the courts back in July. — Hate-law amendment repeal leaves ‘most vulnerable’ unprotected
• [WA, USA] ” Stop the hate. Stop the hate.” — Students rally against hate
• [CO, USA] Allen Andrade, charged with murder in the brutal beating death last July of trans woman, Angie Zapata, is facing new charges. — Man charged in beating death of transgender woman involved in a prison riot
• [USA] Dr. Phil, with help from Focus on the Family, will be talking on his television show today about trans kids. — Gender Confused Kids
• [USA] Coming in November, glbtq.com “will highlight articles on thirteen women whose cross-dressing accomplished a variety of purposes. Some, like the seventeenth-century Spanish soldier Catalina de Erauso, Roman Catholic Saint Joan of Arc and French artist Rosa Bonheur cross-dressed in order to pursue traditionally male occupations while others, like early-twentieth century vaudevillian Annie Hindle and actress Greta Garbo exploited cross-dressing for its entertainment potential. Still others have cross-dressed in order to express a political point of view that challenges the constraints imposed by traditional gender expectations.” — GLBTQ Encyclopedia To Spotlight Historic Cross-Dressers
• [USA] “Given their high degree of education, you would think that doctors, and healthcare givers in general, would be quite forward thinking and accepting of the transgendered. I have not always found that to be the case.” — Doctors, Healthcare Givers and Transsexuals: Discrimination Happens Part One
• [USA] ‘“If someone asks me why I used to be a boy and now I’m a girl, I would say that I have a girl brain and a boy body. I think like a girl, but I just have a boy body and it’s different than you.” The American Psychiatric Association might learn a lot from this young girl. ‘ — Disordered Identities, Disaffirmed Childhood
• [USA] At Bilerico, Donna Rose expands a bit on what she earlier wrote on her own blog. — Transsexual “gene”?
• [USA] Also at Bilerico, on the same subject, guest blogger and Harry Benjamin Syndrome proponent, Catherine Platine offers her singular view. (Personally, I share Autumn’s view expressed here.) — New study links genetics to transsexuality
• [MO, USA] Midge Potts is running (”Recycle Government“) for the U.S. House of Representatives in Missouri’s 7th C.D. as a write-in candidate: “We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the write-in campaign of Midge Potts, the transgender local activist (Midge nee Mitchell is a man living as a woman) who could very well be Springfield’s only current resident to be spoofed, at least indirectly, on The Daily Show/Colbert Report. (Midge has been arrested at least once for protesting during Congressional hearings.) Her campaign is grass-roots, as you’d imagine.” — GO Election Primer, Day 2