It’s (outrageous) enough that some folks would compare Norman Spack to Josef Mengele, but I truly hope that talk of “execution” like this does not incite an Eric Rudolph or a James Kopp to ever try to effect “the desired result” on Dr. Spack …

Well, Catholic League President Bill Donohue is satisfied about Rev. John Hagee’s apology to the Catholic Church.

I had no idea that Bill Donohue spoke for all Catholics, but apparently he believes his pronouncement is good enough close the case for all Catholics.

The apology sent via Bill Donahue came with a kind of caveat. Rev. Hagee’s apparent calling of the Catholic Church “the apostate church” and the “great whore” weren’t specific to the Catholic Church — the Catholic Church and all other Christian Churches apparently will become “the apostate church” and the “great whore” after the rapture, during the tribulation …

And, this explanation came with a weakly worded, if I have offended you kind of apology…

Apparently, it doesn’t take much of an apology to satisfy Catholics, if one is to judge by Mr. Donohue’s acceptance of Rev. Hagee’s apology.

John McCain wooed Rev. Hagee for his endorsement for a year — should Sen. John McCain breath easier now that Rev. Hagee has sort of apologized to Catholics?

Well, Rev. Hagee has some other issues. His quote on NPR regarding Hurricane Katrina should still be problematic:

(For the record, Rev. Hagee first retracted his comments on what caused Hurricane Katrina, then un-retracted his retraction.)

A quote of his regarding Islam could also be considered problematic:

[Rev. Hagee comments on Islam and Jewish people after the fold]
Read the rest of this entry »

Eep!

Events …

• The National Day of Silence was observed April 25th.

Law and legislation …

• In Montgomery County, Maryland, lawyers “involved in a challenge to the referendum on overturning the county’s new protections for transgender people were in court last week to talk about the scope and timing of the case.”
• Also in Montgomery County, Dan Furmansky of Equality Maryland “said a review of signatures collected to overturn the Montgomery County law has been hastened so it can be completed by month’s end.”
• In Massachusetts, a state legislator filed legislation to block payment for a prisoner’s sex-change operation.
• On the Isle of Mann the government has introduced draft legislation entitled The Gender Recognition Bill 2008. “The main points of the Bill include allowing a transsexual person who has been issued with a full gender recognition certificate to be legally regarded as being of their acquired gender, and that a transsexual will be able to marry a person of the opposite gender to their acquired gender.”
• In Detroit, Michigan, the City Council passed a “gender identity discrimination ordinance.”
• In Florida, “the Pinellas County Commission expanded its human rights ordinance to protect gays, lesbians and bisexuals. Included in the vote was a promise to explore expanding the ordinance to bar discrimination against the transgendered.”
• In Ventura County, California, the attorney representing the teenager accused of murdering Larry King sought to have his client tried as a juvenile. The attorney also broached the possibility of employing a “gay-panic-esque defense“, saying “he believes school administrators supported one student expressing himself and his sexuality — King — and ignored how it affected other kids, despite complaints. Cross-dressing isn’t a normal thing in adult environments, he said, yet 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds were expected to just accept it and go on.”
• In California, a transsexual former inmate settled an abuse case against the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. “The inmate suffered severe bleeding and lost more than 25 pounds after deputies didn’t give him prescribed testosterone shots in October 2004. Instead, jailers harassed the inmate, such as snapping his mug shot, taping it to a glass on which deputies had written “FEMALE” on it, according to court records.”

Employment and education …

• In Texas, a “Houston business has settled a lawsuit filed by a transgender woman who said a job offer was rescinded because the company learned she was born a man.”
• Also in Texas, Gerald Jeanmard “is suing a company he says fired him. The Port Arthur man claims he was removed from his position with KT Maintenance at the Motiva Refinery after KT found out he was becoming a woman.”
• In New York, there was a meeting in Manhattan to discuss the proposed Gender Employment Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA). Regardless of Empire State Pride Agenda “polling data showing that 78 percent of New Yorkers support the legislation,” the prospects of advancing the legislation in the state legislature this year do not seem promising.
• The Human Rights Campaign released its Transgender Inclusion in the Workplace, 2nd Edition. Prof. Jillian Weiss commented on this report in her blog.
• In the UK, The Independent published “Lonely road: Why school is hell for transgender pupils.”

Religion …

• In Texas, United Methodists met to discuss trans people.

Science …

• A research report released last week showed some evidence that how “much a mother eats at the time of conception may influence whether she gives birth to a boy or a girl … ” “The reason food intake may influence the development of one sex of infant rather than another isn’t fully understood. However, in vitro fertilization studies show that high levels of glucose encourage the growth of male embryos while inhibiting female embryos.”

People …

• In California, Victoria Kolakowski is “running for Alameda County Superior Court Judge.”
• The Gateway published a feature on University of Nebraska professor Meridith Bacon, who is the chair of the board of directors for the National Center for Transgender Equality.
• The National Center for Transgender Equality’s Mara Keisling spoke in Ohio. According to the Gay People’s Chronicle, Keisling spoke at length about (non-transgender-inclusive) ENDA and “said members of Congress should be told to reject any attempts to take transgender protection out of ENDA.”
• Between The Lines wrote about Aaron Watkins and Crystal Proxmire (“FTM? Fine by me“).
• Zagria wrote about Virginia Prince at her Gender Variant Biography blog.
• In Arizona, a “ceremony honoring the memory of Amancio Corrales will be observed with a demonstration of unity and support on May 6, the third anniversary of his murder.”
• In television news, Ugly Betty‘s Rebecca Romijn and her transsexual character, Alexis Meade, will be fading out.
• In Canada, the Ottawa Sun published “A coming out party” — “In the coming months, you’re going to hear more from Ottawa’s transgendered community as it makes an effort to gain understanding and acceptance” — and accompanying articles, “Coming out the hardest part for cross-dresser,” “Escaping from the ‘fear’,” “The times, they are a changing” and “Ottawa’s one-man health care sector.”
• The New York Times published a feature on Fran and Denise Brunner from New Jersey (“Through Sickness, Health and Sex Change“).

~~~~~

All these news items are archived at Transgender News, which you may find here or here.

The Los Angeles Times has two articles up of note on bullying this past week. The first is entitled Meaner bullying is leading schools to find new tactics. I’m not going to quote from it, but it’s well worth the read.

The second is entitled A deadly clash of emotions before Oxnard shooting. That article is a particularly hard read — it turned my stomach. So if get-wrenching stories upset you, this is your warning to stop reading here. From the article:

For teens living in a shelter for abused and neglected children, school can provide a daily dose of normalcy, a place to fit in, a chance to be just another kid.

It didn’t turn out that way for Lawrence King.

According to the few students who befriended him, Larry, 15 years old and openly gay, found no refuge from his tormentors at E.O. Green Junior High School.

Not in the classroom, the quad, the cafeteria. Not from the day he enrolled at the Oxnard school until the moment he was shot to death in a computer lab, just after Larry’s usual morning van ride from the shelter a town away.

…The anti-gay taunts and slurs that Larry endured from his male peers apparently had been constant, as routine for him as math lessons and recess bells. The stinging words were isolating. As grieving friend Melissa Reza, 15, put it, Larry lived much of his life “toward the side. . . . He was always toward the side.”

She and others recall that the name-calling began long before he told his small circle of confidants that he was gay, before problems at home made him a ward of the court, and before he summoned the courage to further assert his sexual orientation by wearing makeup and girl’s boots with his school uniform.

His friends say the verbal cruelty persisted for months, and grew worse after the slightly built Larry pushed back by “flirting” with some of his mockers. One of them was Brandon, who seethed over it, the friends say.

Brandon has been charged as an adult with premeditated murder and a hate crime, and he is being held in juvenile hall.

[More on Lawrence's life after the fold]

Read the rest of this entry »

Every now and again, folk like Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, Focus On The Family (FOTF) and the Concerned Women For America (CWA) call out LGBT organizations to take stands on issues, or to work with religious right organizations to work against some perceived scourge. Well, I have a similar call for Peter LaBarbera, Matt Barber, Janice Crouse, and Wendy Wright: it’s time for religious right organizations to condemn Rev. Lou Sheldon, his daughter Andrea Lafferty, and the Traditional Values Coalition for their repeated use of the anti-LGBT/anti-transgender pejorative “she-male.”

And, Matt Barber needs to be one of the particular voices condemning the use of this anti-LGBT/anti-transgender pejorative, as he’s used the pejorative she-male in a relatively recent piece.

I assume religious right organizations will continue to condemn use of the terms faggot — they should feel the same way about the term “she-male,” and they should be condemning their peer Rev. Sheldon, his daughter Andrea Lafferty, and the Traditional Values Coalition for their repeated use of the term.

In fact, I’m calling out these organizations to do just that.

It might be tough for the CWA to condemn it though — they’ve posted the term she-male on their website too, and Matt Barber was extremely disrespectful of Dana Beyer’s gender on Friday, February 29th.

The TVC has taken down their latest article using the term — entitled Hillary Clinton She-Male Advisor Harasses Maryland Signature Gatherers — but not before its text was archived at transgendernews. The TVC repeated the same ol’ factoid:

Maryland Citizens for Responsible Government believes that a clear reading of this bill means that a she/male, drag queen, transsexual or cross-dresser could demand access to opposite sex restrooms and shower facilities!

Here’s what Andrea Lafferty had to say about Dana Beyer:

Dana Beyer’s appearance and hostile behavior is a perfect picture of how confused these individuals are – and why no government agency or legislature should protect what is clearly a Gender Identity Disorder (GID),” said TVC Executive Director Andrea Lafferty. “Do parents really want someone like Dana Beyer entering a girl’s shower or restroom? I think not. The legalization and protection of a serious mental disorder cannot be permitted to stand.”

It’s not enough that the article has been taken down. The TVC needs to be condemned for its repeated use of the pejorative she-male by other conservative Christian organizations, and the term needs to be erased from the TVC and other conservative Christian organization websites — like the CWA’s website. She-male is a term that’s at least as offensive as the term faggot — all these conservative Christian organizations need to condemn their peer conservative Christian pejorative users.

By the way, Rev. Lou Sheldon has endorsed Sen. John McCain for president. Does anyone think Sen. McCain will “reject and denounce” Rev. Sheldon’s endorsement for president in the same way Sen. Obama has rejected and denounced Louis Farrakhan’s endorsement for president?

So while I’m calling on conservative Christian organizations to denounce Rev. Sheldon, Andrea Lafferty, and the Traditional Values Coalition for their repeated use of the anti-LGBT/anti-transgender pejorative she-male, I’m also calling on Sen. McCain to reject and denounce Rev. Sheldon’s support of his candidacy for president due to his frequent use of anti-transgender terms, as well as his and the TVC’s derogagtory use of other LGBT terms, such as drag queen.

~~~~~

And speaking of transgender civil rights laws and factoids….

“A hotel or convention site will not be allowed to turn down a transgender/cross-dresser or BDSM (whips & chains, sadomasochism) convention. A restaurant will not be able to turn away a special party for she-male prostitutes and their clients, or cross-dressers. A museum or library will not be allowed to turn away a GLBT activist seminar promoting BDSM, public nudity, public sex, or legalized prostitution. A function facility will not be allowed to refuse a seminar on breast removal and hormone treatments for women ’transitioning’ to men. A Catholic church could even be forced to hold a forum on homosexual or transsexual ’marriage’ or polygamy. These behaviors and activities could all be considered ’gender expression’ and these venues are could all be considered ’public accommodations.’”
–Amy Contrada, The Coming Nightmare of a “Transsexual Rights and Hate Crimes” Law in Massachusetts: Why Bill H1722 Must Be Defeated; PART 3: Public Accommodations

I’ve grown tired over the past few weeks of Theresa Rickman’s mischaracterizations of the transgender civil rights legislation in Montgomery County, Maryland; now I’m just as tired of Amy Contrada’s 75 pages of mischaracterizations and exaggerations of the effects of Massachusetts’ H1722. Bay Windows‘ take on Amy Contrada’s 75 page diatribe: Contrada warns of trans apocalypse.

There are 13 states and dozens of municipalities with transgender inclusive civil rights legislation in place — the bathroom factoid is just that — a factoid. The bathroom fueled apocalypse hasn’t come yet to any state or municipality — it’s not going to come to Massachusetts either.

Amy Contrada is MassResistance’s main blogger, and she’s a piece of work. You may remember her from for using her own daughter’s coming out to foment homophobia, as well as claiming that Biblethumper Diane Steele was set up when Steele slapped “homosexual rights supporter Jack Kirschenbaun” in the face.

I’m transgender woman, but I don’t make shit up whole cloth about conservative Christians — Amy Contrada and the Traditional Values Coalition do make shit up whole cloth about transgender people like me.

~~~~~
Further reading/Further listening:
* Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition’s H1722 Talking Points
* Concerned Women For America (MP3): Not My Shower! (Opposition piece: Interview of Theresa Richman by Matt Barber — discusses Dana Beyer at length by name. Matt Barber calls Dr. Beyer a “gentleman,” and refers to Dr. Beyer by male pronouns.)

~~~~~
Related:
* From Your Friendly Neighborhood Montgomery County “Christians.”
* TVC Calls Maryland Activist “Shemale”
* Convincing sales pitch of the year, from Traditional Values Coalition
* Just Feel The Love From The TVC
* The TVC’s Latest Assaults On The Federal Employment Protections Act
* Daughter of MassResistance’s Amy Contrada comes out
* MassResistance: the lowest of the low
* MassResistance goes silent after Amy Contrada’s treatment of daughter

How to make church relevant? Sex! (Obviously, Rev. Wirth had something else on his mind and was not paying much attention to Doris et al. in Shrek 2 and Shrek 3, by the way … ) …

A Florida church leader is challenging married members of his congregation to have sex every day for a month.

The challenge for single parishioners is slightly different, though – to abstain from sex for 30 days, reports Sky News.

Paul Wirth, head pastor of the Relevant Church in Ybor City, said the marathon undertaking could help cut high divorce rates.

He said: “Couples across America are struggling in their relationships, both married and single people.

“For married people it seems like the sex is great up front but then for some reason life happens.

“But when you’re single it’s like you’re always thinking about it and you’re like, man I’d like to have it as much as possible.

“And sometimes that prevents them from having a great really healthy relationship later on when you do get married.”

The Relevant Church describes itself as “a casual, contemporary Christian church” and says its services are designed “specifically for urban professionals and young families”.

Mr Wirth’s previous sermons have included using hit film Shrek The Third to explain “what happens when we trust God”.

Pastor tells flock to have sex – every day

Or, as the Minneapolis City Pages headlined it, Bang your spouse for Jesus!

Let me add to Stephanie’s post on the transgender agenda…

And the Hitlers keep on coming. Yes, Adolf Hitler, one of the worst mass-murders in all of history, has become the go-to metaphor and comparison for anyone you have a minor disagreement with.

…Here’s my point. When you compare people to Hitler, enh, you loseWeight Exercise a little credibility.

…[P]lease stop calling people Hitler when you disagree with them. It demeans you, it demeans your opponent, and to be honest, it demeans Hitler. That guy worked too many years, too hard, to be that evil to have any Tom, Dick and Harry come along and say “Hey, you’re being Hitler.” No–You know who was Hitler? HITLER!
–Jon Stewart, Someone disagrees with you? Compare ‘em to a Nazi. Works like a charm. A Hitler charm

The screaming rhetoric just keeps coming out of Montgomery County, Maryland. From a piece entitled THE BROWSKIRTS ARE COMING! comes a comparison between transgender people and Nazi’s:

Seeing the enormous turnout of the public against this controversial bill and since the dishonesty campaign of the council failed, the gay and transgender community went into action. The gays and transgenders went to the petition collection sites and attacked the citizens involved. These attacks are said to be verbal and physical. Members of the Citizens for Responsible Government (CRG) http://www.notmyshower.com/ are looking into a lawsuit to stop these Nazi brownshirt tactics.

These are same tactics Hitler used to gain power in 1930s Germany. Hopefully the MoCo citizens will not accept such intimidation tactics and vote out the ridiculous bill that violates several parts of the constitution.

The bill in question, of course, is the civil rights ordinance Theresa Rickman of Citizens for Responsible Government and Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum is fighting, based on the idea that this will allow co-ed locker and dressing rooms. Rickman’s the one who apparently was deeply involved in the fake transgender person’s Rio Sport and Health Club locker room invasion. (Rickman’s talking up the petition to repeal the ordinance in a Christian Broadcasting Network video here.)

Geez, and I don’t even own a brown skirt!

[Christianity Today takes on transgender people after the fold]

Read the rest of this entry »

I guess I’m just being one of those “homosexual activists [who] have seized on [the] Lawrence King case,” but the California Catholic Daily‘s really picking on a scab as far as I’m concerned.

The CCD published a story today (about which they were “scooped on” by the WorldNetDaily, which reported about it on Feb. 12, before the murder of Lawrence King) called “No escape from sexual indoctrination”, which refers to remarks that Randy Thomasson of the Campaign for Children and Families made in Los Angeles on Feb. 11 …

One of the laws, SB 777, prohibits public school instruction and activities from “promoting a discriminatory bias” against transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality for all grade levels, including kindergarten. There is no “opt out” clause for parents who do not want this for their children.

The other law, AB 394, requires that schools provide publications, wall posters, web curricula, and handouts on anti-discrimination and anti-harassment training. Thomasson believes these are, in effect, indoctrination to promote various sexual lifestyles — especially since AB 394 fails to define the term, “harassment.”

(It seems to me that Thomasson might be comfortable with a definition that says, in essence, “no lives lost, no harassment.”)

Now, I was just taking a look at the home page (Daily News) of the CCD, with the news they’ve reported on since Feb. 12.

I see one item, “To promote respect and acceptance”. I see another, Five lives spared on Wednesday (from Family Planning Associates in San Diego).

I don’t see anything about Larry, a youngster who had “no escape” and no “opt out clause.”

Last week I posted on the “smelliness” of a story entitled Controversial Law on Gender Identity Tested by an ABC affiliate in Maryland — well, Teach The Facts and Equality Loudoun have updates: By golly, it smelled like a publicity stunt because there’s even more facts that really seem to say it was one. It appears that what the ABC affiliate (WJLA) left out of their story was extremely significant.

Here are some tidbits from the Teach The Facts piece that have come out since the original WJLA story broke:

…a trustworthy friend of [Teach The Facts] had a discussion with a manager at the [Rio Sport and Health Club] — we will not use their name since it wasn’t an official interview — who said that there was “an activist” in the lobby of the gym at the time that this “man in a dress” went in….

According to this manager, the person in a dress signed in with a crowd of other guests so it is not clear who it was or if it was a man or a woman; they then proceeded directly to the ladies locker room, went into it and to the back of the room, and then came out and left the building. When this person came in, the employee at the door thought something strange was going on and called for an attendant to go check the ladies room, but the person left before they got there. Rio staff say they do not know who the person was.

The manager at [Rio Sport and Health Club] said she did not know who called the media, but she said the activist in the lobby was filmed in an interview after the event. The only “activist” interviewed by Channel 7 (the only media outlet indiscriminate enough to send a reporter to the scene) was Theresa Rickman of the CRW [Citizens for a Responsible Government], who has written in our comments section that she goes to the Bethesda Sport and Health gym, not the one in Rio — so why would she have been there? In its newscast, Channel 7 failed to mention Ms. Rickman’s connection to the anti-gay, anti-transgender group, quoting her as if she were an ordinary citizen on the scene.

The manager at Rio told our friend, quote: “I think it was a publicity stunt.”

Equality Loudoun added some commentary:

The spokesperson for the group claiming that the new law prohibiting discrimination against transgender people will permit “men” to use the ladies’ room was present in the lobby of the health club – not her own health club – at the very time that this unidentified “man in a skirt” person signed in, quickly paraded through the ladies’ locker room, and then promptly disappeared. How interesting.

Also interesting: The woman in the locker room who reported this suspicious person to management was identified as Mary Ann Ondray – which seems to be a hasty phonetic spelling of her actual name, Andree. In one of the Anti-Gay Industry propaganda mills that was fed this story by CRW, they spell her name Andree. What would prompt them to change the spelling? There is no indication that they contacted her; the content of their story is basically a cut-and-paste from the Channel 7 story, with the addition of some commentary by another CRW spokesperson, Michelle Turner. It appears that Turner may have corrected the spelling of Andree’s name. But why would Turner have that information? Is Andree one of the 3000 or so names on CRW’s petition? We may yet find out.

This is looking more and more like what many of us have suspected it is — the locker room invasion by a-man-in-a-skirt was a mockery of actual transgender people like me by hypocritical Christian conservatives, orchestrated by the Theresa Rickman of Citizens for a Responsible Government. This was hypocritical specifically because they themselves apparently dressed the man-in-a-skirt in direct contradiction to their own interpretation of Deuteronomy 22:5 and Genesis 1:27.

This is particularly offensive to me because Theresa Rickman and company apparently felt a need to simulate behavior of transgender women in a way that no transgender woman I’ve ever known would behave. And, leave to WorldNetDaily to pick up on the story without bothering to check out if the story was a publicity stunt.

The news division at WJLA and WorldNetDaily need to apologize to the transgender people for falling for what looks more and more only to be a deceptively conceived publicity stunt. And, even more distain should be heaped on WorldNetDaily to smear transgender people because of a hypocritically executed stunt. If the man-in-a-skirt were a conservative Christian recruited by the Citizens for a Responsible Government, his motivations to deceive the public would be “sinful,” and the act of his dressing up in a skirt should be considered just as “sinful” as they consider transgender people’s dressing in clothing not associated with their natal sex. In other words, if they consider me a “sinner” for allegedly “cross-dressing” as an out-of-the-closet transsexual, then the Citizens for a Responsible Government‘s apparent plant would be just as “sinful” as I am for his cross-dressing stunt.

I can’t imagine that this kind of apparent deception would be something the Jesus they believe in would do, or even tacitly approve of.

Theresa Rickman, if you’re reading this, you and your man-in-a-skirt owe my transgender peers and me an apology — or an explanation. It sure looks like you and your organization bore false witness against us by having a man pretend to be transgender, and act in provocative in a way my peers just don’t. To me, it looks like you couldn’t find a case where an out transgender women had engaged in the kind of activities that you keep saying we would engage, so it’s becoming clear you created an incident to make the story.

If true, that would be you bearing false witness angainst your transgender neighbors — it makes you and your man-in-a-skirt liars.

I’ll be waiting to read your apology, or your explanation of how you knew to be at the gym to be interviewed before the provocative incident occured. And, I would expect you to name who the man-in-a-skirt was if this was pure publicity stunt, and he should be publicly apologizing to my transgender peers and me also — and probably to your Christian peers as well for behaving in direct contradiction to your own interpretation of Deuteronomy 22:5 and Genesis 1:27 to make your inane point.

I won’t hold my breath.

~~~~~
H/t: David at Equality Loudoun

Call me a frustrated, amateur librarian. Even knowing from the New Hampshire Primary that polls can lie, I have to admit I’m always attracted on polls measuring the social issues views of a population.

With that in mind, the U.K.’s Pink News has an article out today (entitled US evangelicals rate gays as top election issue) on one recent study by the Bama Group. It’s a “social climate” poll that addresses where certain constituencies stand as a population on certain issues. Some key results that speak to Evangelicals and LGBT civil rights issues:

A survey has revealed that for evangelical Christians in the United States homosexuality is one of the key issues in the 2008 election.

The Barna Group’s research found that in this important group of voters, whose strong support propelled George W Bush into the White House, abortion was the most pressing problem their country faces for 94%.

For 75% of evangelicals “homosexual lifestyles” or the “political efforts of homosexual activists” were a concern. Among the general population only 35% agreed.

“Out of more than sixty different subgroups reviewed, there were no differences of opinion on these two survey questions, suggesting that the two issues may be linked in Americans’ minds,” the report states.

…Apart from abortion and gays, the key issues for evangelicals are personal debt of Americans (81%) and TV and film content (79%).

They were less worried about AIDS than any other sector of the population and just a third of them cited global warming as a concern.

To a lesser extent, the America’s general population has concerns of about conservative Christians too:

However, 23% of voters said the “political efforts of conservative Christians” are a major problem facing the country.

I’m keeping it in mind that courting the Evangelical constituency is going to be tough for Democratic candidates. Conservative Christians, of which apparently 75% of them being predisposed against LGBT civil rights issues — such as marriage equality and employment protections — are for the most paret against me and my civil rights, on a very personal level. Yet, apparently at the same time, 25% of that constituency’s population is either neutral to, or on some level supportive of LGBT civil rights.

So how does a Democratic Party candidate reach out for that possible 25% constituency without looking he or she is reaching for the other 75% that do? — and that’s making the big assumption that a candidate’s position on LGBT civil rights is a core belief, vice a position vice a position taken solely for getting as many LGBT voters to cast for him or her as possible.

I vote in California’s Democratic Primary in about two weeks. I still don’t know who I’m going vote for. Looking at how strongly Evangelical, conservative Christians feel about my civil rights makes it difficult for me not to vote Democratic this year. It’s just trying to figure out which of the Democratic candidates is going to screw me over the least should he or she get into office…which one of them is triangulating the least for my vote, and is actually supporting the ideals of equality for all Americans — including equality and civil rights for a transwoman like me.

(And I say that, of course, without the least discourtesy.)

Sorry, it may be a cliche, but I couldn’t help but think of one of Dan Akyroyd’s signature lines on SNL (“Jane, you ignorant, misguided slut!”) when I read this from crusader Christopher Zehnder in the California Catholic Daily writing about transwoman Charlene Hastings’ suit against Seton Medical Center …

I am often a little amused, and more often bemused, by some of the comments California Catholic Daily receives on its stories. Having engaged in Internet discourse on a few sites, I have long come to expect little from it; for it mostly seems a screaming match across an abyss. It’s not that Internet discussions are vehement (I do not object to vehemence), or that they are uncivil or downright rude, but that they are so cliché. One feels, at times, that he is being assailed by hurled bumper-sticker slogans. And then there are the inapt responses, made without regard to the obvious opinions of the other party in the discussion.

We received one such response to an article we published about a man who claims he is a woman, has received treatments to become a woman, and is suing a Catholic hospital because it wouldn’t accommodate him in his continuing transformation. (See “God made you a man,” Jan. 8, 2008.) In response to the article’s insistence on using male pronouns when referring to the “transsexual” Charlene Hastings, one commentator wrote the following: “Regardless of your religious beliefs, Ms. Hastings deserves the simple courtesy of referring to her as the woman she is, legally, emotionally and psychologically, not as ‘he’ and ‘him.’ I am appalled at such blatant disrespect by this supposedly Christian publication.”

I fully understand why the commentator might be offended by what she deems our discourtesy. I fail to understand, however, why she would think it discourtesy – at least, why she would think that we intended any discourtesy by referring to the putative female Hastings as a he. It would certainly be discourteous if we thought that Hastings had a claim to a female identity and refused to grant it to him. But the fact is, we don’t think Hastings can justly make that claim. What’s more, we think calling Hastings a she would be tantamount to a lie; and no one should expect someone to speak what he thinks is a lie.

In fact, it would be disrespectful for us to refer to Hastings as if he were a woman. In doing so, we would – by our own lights – be degrading Hastings by playing along with his self-delusion. If a sexually abused woman, for instance, insisted on calling herself (because she was abused) a slut, it would be highly disrespectful of us to agree with her. Moreover, it would immoral of us to do so, for we would be aiding and encouraging her in holding on to a destructive self-appraisal.

The rest of “Not peace, but a sword” can be read here.

I was also reminded of the rest of Aykroyd’s line — “Once again, you missed the point entirely.” From a story in Pink News …

While state law in the USA does allow religious hospitals to refuse to perform abortions, there are no specific exemptions for elective transgender surgery.

Kristina Wertz, legal director of the Transgender Law Centre in San Francisco, told the paper this is not the only such incident. “Seton and other hospitals in the area have put up significant barriers to care for transgender people.

“There’s simply no religious exemption in the Unruh Act,” Wertz said about California’s law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

“We’re talking about a type of care that’s OK for one class but not another.”

Hastings’s lawyer, Christopher Dolan, said the is case not just about the hospital’s religious procedures but also about civil rights.

“It is about transgender people being able to use businesses and other facilities on an equal basis as other people. If you took out ‘transgender’ in the lawsuit and replaced it with ‘African-American,’ this would be a no-brainer,” he said.

The hospital does allow female patients who are not transgender the right to breast-enlargement surgeries.

In the last week or so there has been some interesting commentary coming from the religious right, as well as an editorial in this morning’s Los Angeles Times, regarding transgender folk. There’s been a few interesting stories too. So, instead of writing up a bevy of individual posts on a variety of transgender stories, here’s a “This And That” post to catch y’all up on the news and commentary relating to gender identity and expression.

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○ The Phoenix Arizona LGBT publication Echo Magazine picked their woman of the year: Regina Gazelle.

Almira Enos had used meth since she was 13 years old. To get drugs, she would often prostitute herself. She was born a man, but always knew she was supposed to be a woman. Her own mother told her so. Her confused gender state fueled the chronic drug use. She often felt lost and suicidal. Enter Regina Gazelle, Echo’s Woman of the Year.

In April, Enos met Gazelle, who helped the now 26-year-old clean up and learn how to live in her own skin. Enos enrolled in Gazelle’s halfway house for transgender girls, “This Is H.O.W. (Honesty, Openmindedness, Willingness),” and today is sober and even has a job.

She credits Gazelle with her remarkable transformation.

Editor Patrick Roland wrote in his commentary on the article:

So it is with great pride I announce Echo’s first transgender woman of the year, the fabulous Regina Gazelle.

We know there may be some controversy in making this decision. We thought about having “people of the year” because Regina’s accomplishments were so amazing we knew she had to get the much-needed recognition she’s earned.

But at the end of the day, Regina is a woman, period. And she’s been through a hell of a lot more and created so much with what little she had to work with, she’s made our community a far better place for having her in it.

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○ And, the first thing you should know is you should be afraid of me and my kind because we are a bunch of bullies — so says the Catholic Online in their editorial Beware of the ‘Gender Identity’ Bullies. The article begins by framing San Francisco’s plan to begin issuing some municipal identification cards without gender markers for undocumented workers and transgender people. Some choice excerpts from the piece:

● Rather than seeing our gender as a gift and a given, this movement is a part of a growing effort to place some perceived power over sexual identity in the hands of individuals so that they can make their own decision as to whether they are men or women; or to change their mind regularly.

These new municipal identification cards will contain birthdates and photos. However, they will not indicate whether the holder is male or female. Why? Because the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco have determined that to do so is somehow “discriminatory’.

So called “transgender” activists added this provision to the ordinance.

● In the USA TODAY article, Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council was quoted as the only voice which even questioned the ordinance. He told the paper that he was concerned that the use of such cards would encourage the idea that gender identity is flexible. “It gives support to the philosophy that says gender is a social construct,” Sprigg said “I think that philosophy is harmful to society at large.”

● No longer content to keep their lifestyle choices private, these activists have decided that the police power of the State must now enforce their vision of a brave new world on everyone else. They have also decided that anyone who sees things differently is “intolerant” or bigoted, and must be stopped.

Oh, I know some may consider that my even commenting on this issue is somehow “insensitive”. Well, when a group goes beyond the pale by forcing a change in the law to accommodate their own lifestyle choice, and, in so doing, risks the safety of others, I will not remain silent.

They are the ‘Gender Identity Bullies’ and they may be coming to a City or town near you.

So apparently, since San Francisco is going to issue ID’s without gender markers, the terrorists win. I probably should tell the Department of Defense that, since my Military Retiree ID card is sans a gender marker.

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○ Keeping with the Catholic Church, a Catholic hospital has denied a post-operative, transsexual woman breast enlargement surgery because was born male. (The California Catholic Daily has a piece up on the story too in their piece God made you a man.) Quoting from the PinkNews‘ article on the story:

A trans woman is suing a Catholic hospital, claiming medical officials blocked her from getting breast enlargement surgery there because she had a sex-change operation.

Charlene Hastings, 57, told The [San Jose] Mercury News that when she called Seton Medical Centre, a Catholic hospital in Daly City, California, to inquire about breast enlargement surgery, an official told her it wasn’t “God’s will” for her to have such a treatment, because “God made you a man.”

The Catholic League’s Bill Donahue has commented on this story:

…Significantly, the IRS ruled in 2005 that a woman’s transsexual sex reassignment surgery is not allowed as a deductible medical expense. Moreover, consider what Johns Hopkins professor of psychiatry Paul McHugh has concluded: ‘I have witnessed a great deal of damage from sex-reassignment.’ In other words, the government sees the requested surgery as elective in nature and experts like McHugh see it as destructive. Why, then, should Catholic hospitals be forced to cooperate with this objectionable venture?

○ One of my hero’s, Monica Roberts, has a piece up (from November) entitled Why Is The Catholic Church Hatin’ On Transpeople? It’s a pretty good summary piece on the history of the Catholic Church with transsexuals.

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[Articles not related to Catholics on Gender Identity And Expression after the fold]
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How quickly the lessons regarding how the Democratic Congressional Leadership managed to publicly divide the LGBT community over ENDA — how much energy and resources were wasted by LGBT civil rights and other LGBT non-profit organizations battling over the “real or perceived gender” language that was first in, then out of ENDA — have been apparently lost on Sen. Kennedy.

The Washington Blade reported this morning in their article Kennedy favors ’08 Senate vote on ENDA; Leaked HRC memo suggests putting measure on hold until next year:

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) is expected to push for a Senate vote in 2008 on the same gay-only version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that the House of Representatives passed in 2007, a Kennedy spokesperson said this week.

Kennedy stated on the Senate floor on Nov. 8, one day after the House passed ENDA by a vote of 235 to 184, that he hoped the Senate would follow suit by passing the employment protection bill in the current Congress, which lasts through 2008.

But until this week, Kennedy’s office had not stated publicly where Kennedy stood on the demands by many gay and transgender organizations that Congress should withhold any action on ENDA unless it includes protection for transgender persons.

“Although Sen. Kennedy strongly supports protections against job discrimination for transgender workers, inaction won’t advance justice for anyone, and will just make it harder to pass any version of ENDA in 2009,” said Kennedy spokesperson Melissa Wagoner.

“We will most likely work to move the House-passed bill, rather than introducing a separate Senate bill,” Wagoner told the Blade by e-mail. “Because the same legislation must pass both the House and Senate, now that the House has acted, the only realistic way to get a bill to the president’s desk this Congress is to have the Senate pass the House bill.”

Further into the Blade piece, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he’s in favor of an ENDA vote in 2008 — he’s looking for a bipartisan “super majority” to protect the gay-only ENDA from a filibuster.

Speaker Pelosi, Rep. Frank, and Rep. Miller were surprised by how grassroots LGBT activists organized and fought against the sexual orientation only version of ENDA. Senators Kennedy and Reid should be under no such illusion — what Sen. Kennedy and Sen. Reid are contemplating is a prescription for dividing the LGBT base for a second time in the same presidential election cycle. A sexual orientation-only Senate ENDA bill will also likely expose Democratic Senators to preexisting backlash on this controversial issue; it will expose Senators Obama and Clinton in particular to either voting for a civil rights bill that intentionally leaves parts of the LGBT community behind, or vote against a bill that would increase the protections of most LGB people — a no win vote. Secondly, presenting a gay-only ENDA for will provide a fairly significant distraction for LGBT activists at a time when the community is trying to focus on the 2008 presidential election.

[More on Senate sexual orientation-only ENDA, and the Gov. Huckabee/Evangelical/Social Conservative Christian factor]

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Gov. Mike Huckabee was on Meet The Press this past Sunday. He appears to be using some obfuscating language to explain his beliefs about LGB people, and not explain how his beliefs would translated into policy within a Huckabee administration.

Tim Russert asked Huckabee about a statement in Huckabee’s 1998 book, where Huckabee wrote:

It is now difficult to keep track of the vast array of publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations–from homosexuality and pedophilia to sadomasochism and necrophilia.

Russert wanted to know what he meant — Huckabee claimed that he really wasn’t equating “homosexuality” with “pedophilia” and “sadomasochism,” he was just pointing out that these all were sin.

When Huckabee later commented on marital infidelity, he stated:

The perfection of God is seen in a marriage in which one man, one woman live together as a couple committed to each other as life partners. Now, even married couples don’t do that perfectly, so sin is not some act of equating people with being murderers or rapists…

So, I’m not sure what Huckabee is stating. Is he arguing James 2:10,11 …

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

…Or is Huckabee arguing that some “sins” are worse than others? (He seems to be arguing that in his answers to Russert questions about whether he equates homosexuality to pedophilia and sadomasochism.)

Frankly, I can’t figure out what Huckabee is stating. It seems to me that he’s trying to confuse non-Evangelicals as to what a Huckabee administration’s policies would be towards LGBT people.

Take a read the Meet The Press transcript of Huckabee’s comments on “homosexuality” below the fold, and you can decide for yourself what voters were supposed to take away from his comments on the show.

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