British actor Paul Scofield, renowned for his stage and screen portrayal of Sir Thomas More in “A Man for All Seasons,” died yesterday. Mr. Scofield, the New York Times noted …

… made his debut as Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet” on the school stage. “I had to wear an embarrassing blond wig,” he said. “But it was a turning point, because thenceforward there was nothing else I wanted to do.”

The Thomas More Law Center was also in the news yesterday. The TMLC has frequently been at odds with trans people, including …

• Opposing transsexual marriage in Kansas
• Opposing legislation against discrimination based on gender identity in Michigan
• Opposing trans-inclusive sex education in Maryland

Would Jesus approve of baring false witness against transgender people? Is that what conservative Christians now support — baring false witness to make “Christian” points?

Well, if you’re Theresa Rickman of the Citizens For A Responsible Government, it’s apparently okay to bare false witness against transgender people. If you’re a professional Christian like Matt Barber or Martha Kleder — both with the Concerned Women For America (CWA) — it’s apparently okay to use pejoratives like “she-male” (Matt: here; Martha: below) — and suborn baring false witness by not pointing out that your podcast guest created a media stunt, specifically to slander transgender people with false allegations of bad behavior in bathrooms and locker rooms.

In the breathless words of Martha Kleder: “Oh my goodness!”

Here’s a partial transcript of the recent CWA Podcast, surrounded by some commentary by JimK of TeachTheFacts.org’s Vigilance Blog:

But here’s the interesting part. A while back, a man in a dress went into a gym at Rio. He signed in, went to the ladies locker-room, and came out again. Channel Seven responded immediately with a breathless account. We found out later that Theresa Rickman was actually in the lobby of the gym when this happened, but the Citizens for Whatever have consistently denied that the event was staged.

Until now.

MARTHA KLEDER: Well Theresa, I also heard that someone tried to test this. Was there some event where a transgender or a shemale or someone tried to use the opposite sex bathroom?

THERESA RICKMAN: Yes, at Rio Sport and Health up in Germantown. A guy dressed as a girl went into the ladies bathroom. And, ah you know, essentially what uh, that was meant to get some media attention, you know, and the guy left immediately apparently, I mean but there was, this is the Rio Sport and Health Club, you know and Sport and Health has steam rooms, and there are ladies changing in those locker rooms, people in various stages of undress [laughing] all the time, so there’s lots a guy can see.

Yes, that is just what we were saying: this was meant to get some media attention. Greta Kreuz from Channel Seven sent an email saying she was “offended by suggestions that this incident was fabricated by this group and that Channel 7 got sucked into reporting it as part of an ‘agenda.’” We don’t know if she was fooled by it, or if she was part of the plan in the first place, but Channel Seven was the only outlet to tell their public about this “test of the new law.”

Well well well. Wasn’t that some seriously Christian behavior on Theresa’s, Martha’s, and Matt’s part now, eh?

I would call again for organizations like the American Family Association, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, or Focus On The Family/CitizenLink to renounce the CWA for their use of the “she-male” pejorative, as well as now for the CWA suborning the false witness baring of Theresa Rickman, but I won’t bother. Frankly, I doubt any religious right organization will look past their hate of LGBT people to condemn the bad public behavior by one of their peer “Christian” organizations.

~~~~~
Further Reading:
* Good As You: Audio: But what about your bath? Is that off-limits also?

~~~~~
Related:
* When It Comes To Transgender People & Civil Rights, It Really Is Always About The Bathroom
* The TVC & CWA Dump On Dana Beyer; Amy Contrada Warns Of The Transgender Apocalypse
* Apparently, Transgender People Are Many Bad Things
* Tired
* It Looked Like Sh*t, It Smelled Like Sh*t, And By Golly It Apparently Was Sh*t
* This Story Smells A Little Foul
* Group seeks to repeal Maryland county gender identity and expression protections

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

[Update and clarification from Dr. Dana Beyer on the fight against this referendum at the end of the post.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

fac•toid - something fictitious or unsubstantiated that is presented as fact, devised especially to gain publicity, and accepted because of constant repetition.

Theresa Rickman and her Citizens for a Responsible Government have won a victory in their efforts to repeal Montgomery County BILL 23-07. They’ve gathered the necessary signatures for a referendum on the bill — the transgender civil rights ordinance which otherwise would have taken effect today.

Equality Maryland has a press release out on the news:

Citizens for a Responsible Government, the group that paid for thousands of computerized calls to county households to further the petition drive, says the measure infringes on the privacy of most citizens while protecting just a few.

“Our primary objection is the impact this has on every other citizen in Montgomery County,” said Michelle Turner, a spokeswoman for the group. “This legislation affects or was written for less than 1 percent of the population, with total disrespect for the safety, well-being and rights of everyone else.” Public restrooms, for example, will no longer offer real privacy for each gender, the group says.

But officials say the new law, which the County Council passed unanimously and County Executive Isiah Leggett signed, does not force changes at public restrooms. Furthermore, they say the bathroom issue is an old scare tactic that unfairly takes attention away from the measure’s point: to protect people whose internal sense of gender and biological gender at birth do not match.

“Have you ever heard of this being a problem anywhere? No, because transgender people are going to use the bathroom where they’re going to be the safest and where they’re going to blend in the most. They’re used to being subjected to discrimination and violence. And they have no interest in making other people uncomfortable,” said Dan Furmansky, director of Equality Maryland. “It’s a common-sense bill about helping people live their lives.”

The factoid that Rickman and her Citizens for a Responsible Government keep repeating is that this law is a Montgomery County ordinance would allow men to invade women’s locker rooms and engage in peeping. She and her organization apparently manufactured a locker room incident to create such an incident, because per the transgendernews archive, there hasn’t been a case in the last five years of a man invading a locker room to peep at the other women.

Again, per the press release:

In 2002, when O’Malley was Baltimore’s mayor, the City Council unanimously passed its own version of a transgender anti-bias law. About a dozen people have filed complaints with the Baltimore Community Relations Commission since then, according to commission director Alvin O. Gillard, but the bathroom problems that Montgomery County critics have forecasted have not come to pass.”If you’re committed to fairness and equality, you can find a way to accommodate everyone and protect their privacy,” Gillard said. “It’s disappointing to know that you’re refighting battles that you thought that you’d already won.”

…The Montgomery County Council removed more explicit wording addressing the [bathroom and locker room] issue.

The law now reads that the requirements do “not apply to accommodations that are distinctly private or personal.”

Turner says the language addressing access to restrooms or locker rooms is too vague, but Patrick Lacefield, a Leggett spokesman, disagreed. In the county’s view, the bill provides an adequate exemption that would allow businesses or other entities to restrict the use of facilities, he said.

Editor Brian Karem of the local paper The Sentinel wrote an editorial that commented on the misinformation campaign, stating in part:

[More on the factoid that BILL 23-07 is about locker rooms being filled with male predators after the fold]

Read the rest of this entry »

Some of the recent transgender-related legal and legislative actions and happenings affecting trans people …

* In Florida, Miami-Dade County voters passed a bill of rights …

The bill of rights, which received little attention, contains a clause that bans the city, directly or indirectly, from discriminating based on race, sexual orientation or gender identity and expression. City employees who violate the code could lose their jobs, and other residents could file civil lawsuits.

* Also in Florida, Gainesville City Commissioners voted to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance for transgendered people …

Commissioners voted four to three.

The ordinance is mostly addressing housing and employment discrimination, but the part of the ordinance that created much controversy; allowing transgender people to use whichever restroom they wanted in public settings.

* Again in Florida, mirroring what happened at the Federal level, there are competing versions of a proposed statewide anti-discrimination bill …

Gay political organizations are clashing over the best way to pass GLBT-friendly anti-discrimination bills through the Florida Legislature. The head butting is taking on strategic tones similar to those that emerged last year in the fight over the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in the U.S. Congress.

Gay rights organizations are taking different stances on whether to support a two-pronged effort that sends separate anti-discrimination bills through the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate. If passed, House Bill 47 sponsored by Kelly Skidmore (D-Boca Raton) would ban employment and housing discrimination based on sexual orientation as well as gender identity and gender expression. Senate Bill 572, introduced by Ted Deutch (D-Delray Beach), bans discrimination based on sexual orientation only. Both bills are expected to go before the Florida Legislature during the spring session, which begins March 4.

* In Utah, a statewide GLBT anti-discrimination bill apparently has been put on hold …

A bill prohibiting employers from discriminating against gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans-gendered people hit a wall today. While the bill is still officially active, it is not clear when - or if - it will be re-considered this session. The bill’s sponsor, Representative Christine Johnson, says the bill is intended to protect everyone in Utah from discrimination.

* In Massachusetts, the mayor of Boston is supporting …

… H.B. 1722, which would expand the state’s non-discrimination and hate crimes statutes to include protections based on gender identity and expression. In letters sent to both O’Flaherty and Creedon, Menino notes that he signed similar legislation for the City of Boston in 2002. “All citizens of the Commonwealth deserve equal protection against discrimination,” Menino wrote, “and I hope that you will help spread that message with passage of this legislation.” The bill, filed by state Reps. Carl Sciortino and Byron Rushing, is awaiting action by the judiciary committee.

* Finally, in Maryland, Montgomery County school’s new sex education curriculum withstood a challenge …

A state court judge has ruled in favor of new sex education lessons in Montgomery County middle and high schools, dismissing a legal challenge from religious conservatives who said the county school board violated state law by teaching that sexual orientation is innate.

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

Porn is so yesterday — today, it’s pork. Forget Montgomery County, it’s time for CRC to take a stand on a meatier issue …

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese middle school has ordered children to feed pigs three times a day, angering parents who complained it was denying their children a proper education, state media said Monday amid worries over soaring pork prices.

Chunchang Nanlu Middle School on the southern holiday resort island of Hainan had used 10,000 yuan ($1,400) in poverty alleviation funds to buy 36 piglets, the Beijing News said.

“Besides raising pigs, the students must also grow vegetables as part of a compulsory class,” the newspaper said.

Some parents were angry because the class was taking time from other studies and had taken their grievances to local media.

“Each pig can be sold for 1,600 yuan ($220) with each class splitting the profit of 1,000 yuan ($130), so of course it is advantageous for the school to continue raising pigs,” the newspaper quoted a parent as saying.

The school maintained that the class was good for students’ education.

China’s pork prices have been ballooning on the back of high feed costs and an outbreak of blue ear disease that killed as many as a million pigs last year.

Worries about rising prices reached new heights in a southwestern town where a man has been raising three squealing pigs in his apartment, local media reported earlier.

Su Yanshan, a livestock slaughterer, kept the animals on the enclosed balcony of his second-floor home in Chongqing.

Su’s wife told the Chongqing Evening News they planned to sell the 100 kg pigs for the Lunar New Year holiday in early February, when pork is in peak demand for dumplings, sausage and other traditional dishes.

Parents snort as school enforces pig rearing