(Oops, this didn’t post last night … )

The road to somewhere is paved with good intentions … It doesn’t look, at the moment, like there’ll be a (certainly not a) timely posting of a last week’s “transgender news in review,” which I just started last week and hope to do regularly.

Primary voting day tomorrow in North Carolina … first time that I can recall a primary here having (any Presidential) significance. Am I happy with my choices? No. But, I’ll be voting for HC, for what it’s worth. I’m hoping to get my father, who’s in his ’90’s now, out to vote. He hasn’t missed getting to the polls ever that I remember, but … this time might be the first … he’s been a bit worse for the wear recently. Bummer.

Maybe it’s just me, but I thought there were some positives in the news story about the transgender youngster in the Philadelphia Inquirer today (about which Autumn commented earlier today) — parent Valerie Huff’s comment that “The kids don’t make any big deal about it at all” and that of Mary Beth Lauer, the school district’s director of community relations, that the “students seem to be accepting their classmate’s change” — for example. On the flip side, aside from the issues that Autumn addressed, using bete noire Paul McHugh for the oppositional viewpoint, was a mighty big turnoff to me.

I was much distressed by Eight Belles’ breakdown in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, but PETA doesn’t seem to me to have much of a clue about horse racing, frankly, and its criticisms (”euthanized in the dirt where she lay,” “Eight Belles’ jockey whipped her mercilessly,” etc.) of that day’s events are more than a bit out of touch and way over the top.

Good question: “If it’s so great to be smart, why have most animals remained dumb?”

Because it works: “Watching Bush speak you realize he’s a really dumb person who thinks everyone in the room is even dumber than he is.” (Don’t tell me it took anyone over seven years to realize that.)

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.

Hills in the hometown, a Guy on dresses and … whatever …

We have hills in Asheville.

I was out running today. Most days I run. I’m no spring chicken anymore though. Weather’s getting warmer, I got out later in the day today, pushed the mileage. The motor’s still working. I’m not complaining. But …

We have Hills in Asheville …

I have enough years on the odometer that, as I commented here not long ago, I’m not particularly keen on any of the Presidential candidates remaining in this contest. But, Hills was here the other day, wooing and maybe wowing some folks in what has been a generally conservative CD (and first-term Democrat, Rep. Heath Shuler is a Republican in Dem drag, for what it’s worth) …

Sen. Hillary Clinton told a raucous and inspired Asheville crowd Thursday that as commander in chief she would end the war in Iraq while enacting universal health care and reviving a faltering economy.

This is not a comment about isolationism, global disengagement or any of that serious stuff, but, apropos of the setting (Thomas Wolfe Auditorium), America needs an Angel (whatever gender) to Look Homeward now.

Not leaving Hillary entirely behind as you’ll see, but off to the subject of fashion (There used to be, some years back, by the way, a group of local women from Asheville performing musically as “Crimes of Fashion.”) … where I’ll leave it to you, dear readers, to make your own political and fashion sense out of this …

Borrowing from the male wardrobe is hardly new …

the prevalence of mannish jackets represents a real shift from the girly dresses dominating runways in recent seasons - and may be a sartorial signal of something more. Judging from fashion history, masculine styles often signal a moment when women are looking for clothes that assert authority.

Designer Peter Som says he was thinking of Hillary Clinton …

The ‘boyfriend jacket’ comes on strong

… and …

Just look, Hil. All those pants.

It’s not exactly a state secret — the U.S. senator and presidential hopeful is pro-trouser. And why not? She looks good in them. (Better than those drab dresses …

Who’s wearing the pants here?

… and from a Guy’s perspective …

“The eye is looking for something new, and so is the psyche,” Anne Slowey, the fashion news director of Elle magazine, said last week from the set of “Fashionista,” a new fashion reality show in which she will play herself, a fashion editor, only meaner. “The dress has been done to death,” Ms. Slowey added, “not to sound really cliché.”

…

This prediction will come as a surprise, perhaps, to retail analysts like the folks at NPD Group, who not long ago termed 2007 the year of the dress, pointing to sales of more than $5 billion in the 12 months that ended last April, and a rate of growth in dress sales fully 30 percent higher than the year before.

“The first hint of chill in the air, and the full-legged, pleated high- and low-waisted legions will be out in the urban jungle,” said Ms. Slowey, already so adapted to her new television role that she speaks in thought bubbles. The expiration date for the dress, she claimed, “is end of August.”

This prediction will come as a surprise, perhaps, to retail analysts like the folks at NPD Group, who not long ago termed 2007 the year of the dress, pointing to sales of more than $5 billion in the 12 months that ended last April, and a rate of growth in dress sales fully 30 percent higher than the year before.

It may also come as unwelcome news to the female members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose wildly anachronistic Laura Ingalls Wilder frocks, Skechers and wave-pool hairdos have become as much an obsession in certain Manhattan circles as their polygamist habits and 416 children.

It is also, for what it’s worth, unwelcome news to me.

That is because, unlike Ms. Slowey, I am not eager for women to become “a little more hard-core, a little more androgynous, a little more butch.” Yes, gender play is fun, and trousers are a useful wardrobe default for the woman in business. But unless you are Thomas McGuane and find nothing sexier than a woman with crow’s feet, tight Wranglers and suede chaps, you will have to concede that, for flattering a woman’s body, nothing is quite like a dress.

Irwin Shaw covered all this is in his classic story “The Girls in Their Summer Dresses,” the tale that secured him a permanent place in anthologies if not exactly a perch on literary Olympus. And for all the creakiness of this warhorse about the fragile dynamics of love and desire, there remains in Shaw’s descriptions of the women on the streets of Manhattan, in their ripe young multitudes, something unexpectedly fresh and also recognizable.

Shaw wrote the story decades ago, in the era that directly preceded the feminist one that first killed off the dress, a time when women wore them all the time and not with irony …

Long Live the Dress (for Now)

… and then this comment on Guy’s piece …

Might as well throw some heterosexism in there too. And women wearing pants is “gender play”? I didn’t realize trousers were still a “man’s” piece of clothing.

…

The sad thing about this piece is that it won’t do anything but discourage women from wearing dresses this summer, despite some women’s love to wear them. (Ahem.) I guess they didn’t get the message that women wear their clothes for comfort and fashion, not someone else’s fancy.

NYT makes me never want to wear a dress again

(Before Vanessa’s time this. And though we probably should Goethe off this subject, there’s more … )

… and …

In today’s “Styles” section, Guy Trebay devotes a whole article to proving why Elle’s fashion-news director, Anne Slowey, could be wrong about the dress going out of style come September. Wishful thinking, he says, gathering quotes from trend forecasters, the fashion director of Barneys, and random dress-clad women on the street to make his case for the dress. And we must say he did so as compellingly as one can when covering such a topic, though it was kind of unfair he didn’t quote anyone who agreed with Slowey. Anyway, it felt like the perfect opportunity for the Cut’s first-ever point-counterpoint debate!

…

Is Anne Slowey Right About the Fate of Dresses?

And, not to neglect the guys, there’s this …

A few weeks ago, we told you about “Booty Pop Panties,” the padded underwear that makes your ass look bigger. Well, Kelly Ripa went nuts over them on Live With Regis and Kelly the other day so, not to be out-assed, Regis found a version of the undergarment for men called “Bottoms Up” and bandied them about on air today. Unlike the Booty Pop Panties, these appear to come with a padded back and a padded front. Here’s a product description:

• A defining centre back seam separates our butt pads creating an anatomically correct bottom for a more natural look.
• Our contoured front pouch, allows for comfort, style and support from the double layer of fabric…
• For first time optimum effect we suggest you put your jeans or pants on BEFORE you look in the mirror.
• The weight and fit of your pants compresses the pads — the most natural look is achieved with you pants on.

You can even purchase extra pads in “Quarterback,” “Halfback,” and “Fullback” sizes. Is this supposed to appeal to women? Because we think a nice cologne is a better route than sub-pant bulges.

Men Can Pad Their Nether Regions, Too

Moving on … from the Washington Blade today …

Equality Maryland is intensifying its efforts to protect a transgender rights law that may be in jeopardy.

Dan Furmansky, the organization’s executive director, said a review of signatures collected to overturn the Montgomery County law has been hastened so it can be completed by month’s end.

…

Legal battle over trans law intensifies in Montgomery Co.

… and, finally, from the Southern Voice …

On Friday, students at 6,000 schools around the country, including 130 here in Georgia, took part in the National Day of Silence — keeping quiet for all or part of the school day to protest the silence forced on gay people every day. One of those schools was my alma mater, Columbus High School.

Not too long ago, whenever someone asked me where my hometown of Columbus, Ga., is located, I would answer that it is “about 100 miles and 100 years south of Atlanta.”

It’s exciting to know that through the efforts of brave young people like those who joined in the Day of Silence, even towns like Columbus are changing for the better. And it’s amazing to think that some of the Columbus High students participating in the protest today were not even born in 1991, the year I graduated.

…

Would you have joined the Day of Silence?

We’ve posted a number of stories at Transgender News in recent years about Jin Xing (such as Der Spiegel’s “The Odyssey of Jin Xing” and “A new beginning in Europe” back in 2006). Her story is (as Der Spiegel aptly referred to it then) …

… a one-of-a-kind biography: born as a boy, he advanced to the rank of colonel in the Chinese army. Then came the sex change and the staggering career as a world-class prima ballerina.

Jin Xing will be performing (her dance company’s only U.S. appearance) and participating in various events at Stanford University on April 26 and April 27. This is from the Stanford media release …

Stanford Lively Arts concludes its 2007-08 season with the U.S. debut of China’s Jin Xing Dance Theatre, presented in partnership with the Stanford Pan-Asian Music Festival, on Saturday, April 26 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, April 27 at 2:30 p.m. at Memorial Auditorium.

With a thrilling and sensual dance vocabulary, Jin Xing leads her company’s only appearance in this country with a lavish, pageant-like presentation of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, featuring the Stanford Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jindong Cai and the Stanford Symphonic Chorus under the direction of Stephen M. Sano.

The path of Jin Xing is one of struggle, discovery, and metamorphosis. A former colonel in the
People’s Liberation army, who after a sex change was the first transwoman officially recognized by the Chinese government, Jin Xing is China’s most admired contemporary choreographer and has been hailed by Die Zeit as “probably the world’s best dancer.” She established her Shanghai-based 18-member company in 1999 and has performed to sold-out houses and critical acclaim throughout Europe and Asia.

Here’s a brief promo clip from the UK’s Dance Umbrella for Jin’s appearance there last winter …

All of which brought to mind Jackson Brown’s “For A Dancer” …

Let your prayers go drifting into space
You never know what will be coming down
Perhaps a better world is drawing near
And just as easily it could all disappear
Along with whatever meaning you might have found
Dont let the uncertainty turn you around
Go on and make a joyful sound
Into a dancer you have grown

But there are some really neat inventions (such as the self-making bed … so no one will ever be able to say to you, “You made your own bed, now sleep in it.”) presented at the International Exhibition of Inventions in Switzerland, including …

A wacky invention is also an e-mail analyzer to determine whether the person you meet in the chat room is not a man pretending to be a woman or the other way around.

The computer program developed by a Malaysian university professor analyzes e-mails according to the number of words, exclamation marks, emotions and compliments to determine if the sender is male or female.

Women tend to be more expressive than men, said Dianne Cheong Lee Mei, but she refused to go into detail about how the program unveils the gender of the unseen Internet partner.

I wonder how this compares with the Gender Genie?

While only about fifty protesters showed up outside the HRC’s New York Dinner, the bigger story was that their was the complete “absence of every lesbian, gay, and bisexual elected official from New York City” at the annual fundraising event. Per the Gay City News:

Joe Solmonese, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, used his keynote address at the group’s annual Midtown Manhattan dinner to answer critics who fault it for going along with a version of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that does not include protections for transgendered Americans.

The Gay City News said this of Joe Solmonese’s speech:

“I understand and I hear every day that some members of our community are feeling forgotten or left behind. It is easy to understand why,” Solmonese told a crowd approaching 1,000 in the ballroom of the Hilton on February 23. But he also said, “We have to overlook our differences and we have got to see instead of our individual wants and immediate desires… a vision for the America that we all want to live in.”

…In his toughest volley against some in the LGBT community who argue that HRC has lost its right to lead the battle on ENDA, Solmonese suggested it is others who have left the field.

“I have to ask myself: When did we all become so impatient? When did we say to ourselves, okay that civil rights thing, I’ll give it a year, maybe two, then I’m done,” he said. “Let me be very clear: No, we are not done. We are in the grueling, blinding middle of this fight and the middle of this fight is the hardest part.”

Having stated HRC’s commitment to delivering hate crimes and job protections — as well as marriage rights — for all members of the LGBT community, Solmonese said, “Some of us may want to stand back or check out, but there is no standing back. There is no checking out. Because sometimes — and I know this is frustrating — the fight for our rights feels like hell, but as Winston Churchill so aptly put it, ‘When you are going through hell the most important thing is to keep going.’”

It seems there were a lot of “scheduling conflicts” …

[Which politicians didn’t show after the fold.]

Read the rest of this entry »

This is Part 2 of my chronology of some of the trans-related news archived (well over 6,000 items) during 2007 at Transgender News and TNUKdigest (see Part 1 here) …

MARCH (Continued)

In Spain, a transsexual geriatric care worker is taking her former company to court, alleging sexual discrimination. It will be the first court case in Spain where transsexuality is given as the reason for employment discrimination, and it comes just two weeks after Congress approved a new law which allows transsexuals to change their registered name
and sex without a sex-change operation.

In Vermont, a bill that would prohibit discrimination against people based on their gender identity or expression wins preliminary approval in the state Senate and the governor says he will likely sign it if it reaches him.

In Maryland, opponents of the new sex education curriculum being tested in Montgomery County schools will ask state officials this summer to quash the gay-inclusive lessons. As part of that curriculum students in eighth grade are taught to recognize health relationships and how to define sexuality, gender identity and other terms. Students in 10th grade receive a more thorough curriculum, including an examination of topics such as coming out and transgender discrimination.

In Georgia, a gay- and transgender-inclusive hate crimes bill passes its first test in a long, uphill battle to become law, by gaining broad bipartisan support during a state Senate Judiciary Committee meeting March 13.

Largo City Manager Steve Stanton files a written response to the city commission’s decision to begin the process of firing him because he is changing his sex. The document represents Stanton’s rationale as to why he should not be let go from a post he has held for 14 years. The gist of it reiterates what Stanton, 48, has said publicly: namely, that he should be judged on his job performance and not his plans to become a woman.

In Oregon, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people would gain protection from discrimination in employment, housing, access to public places and other areas, under legislation approved by the state Senate.

In Washington, DC, the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Hate Crimes Prevention Act is introduced in the U.S. House.

In Wisconsin, despite the state’s same-sex marriage ban, Barbara Lynn Terry and Nicole Winstanley carried purses into a judge’s office Friday and emerged as Mrs. and Mrs. Terry. But first, a doctor had to confirm the male anatomy of Barbara Lynn Terry, who was born a man, lives as a woman and has been undergoing hormone therapy for years. The judge performed the wedding after learning that gender-reassignment surgery hadn’t been performed on the person who used to be Ronald Francis Terry.

In Indiana, a state lawmaker decides not to call the hate crimes bill he’d sponsored after changes to it made it unpalatable to him. The proposed bill would have allowed judges imposing sentences to consider it an aggravating factor if the criminal selected the victim of the crime because of “color, creed, disability, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex.” A critic of the proposal objected to giving “cross-dressers … special legal treatment.”

Largo, Florida’s city commission votes 5-2 to uphold its Feb. 27 decision to fire its city manager. City manager Steve Stanton said he was fired because he revealed his plans to become a transgendered woman named Susan. [More here.]

Radio personality Michael Savage blames sexual reassignment surgery for the Columbine massacre. [More here and here.]

In Iowa, the Iowa Senate approves legislation prohibiting discriminatory practices in employment, public accommodation,
housing, education and credit based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Debate on the legislation now shifts to the House, where the outcome is uncertain.

Maryland legislators vote down an effort to bar discrimination against the state’s transgender residents and workers.
By a 6-5 vote, the Senate judicial proceedings committee rejected a measure that sought to outlaw discrimination in the areas of employment, housing, credit and public accommodations. [More here.]

In South Korea, a group of transgendered people will file a suit in April to seek the legal right to change their genders in
their family registries, a civic group said.

In Washington, DC, any thoughts that a transgender protection clause in the recently introduced federal hate crimes bill would slip through Congress without controversy were put to rest as social conservative groups blasted the legislation as a pro-homosexual measure that would promote “cross-dressing” and “transsexualism.”

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been raining in San Diego this weekend(!), so time to search the web for the “California-related” stories and perspectives! Here we go:

~~~~~

* Some in Congress learned of waterboarding in ‘02; CIA gave leaders private briefings about techniques. (San Francisco Chronicle)

In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included future-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, was given a virtual tour of the CIA’s overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make prisoners talk.

Among the techniques, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.

~~~~~

* Human Rights Watch Report: Poor care is given to detainees. Subheader: The study’s author said the most egregious case was of a 23-year-old transgender inmate held at the San Pedro facility. Man, who had AIDS, was denied treatment and became gravely ill, finally dying on July 20. (Associated Press/Daily Breeze, California)

~~~~~

* Remember those nine U.S. attorneys? (Los Angeles Times) A year ago, a Justice Department scandal forced them into new careers. Despite some bitterness, they’ve landed on their feet.

~~~~~

[After the break: Republicans salivating over Clinton’s association with S.F. Mayor; California diocese leaves Episcopal Church in rift over gays, theology; SDSU Student attacked on SDSU campus just hours after rally against hate; Hollywood “fade to black” begins; and more.]

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s this weekend’s This And That:

~~~~~

Oops! Costume flap imperils immigration post:

Just when it appeared Julie Myers had cleared every hurdle in her quest to officially become the nation’s top immigration official, a dreadlocked wig and a prisoner’s outfit could cost her the job.

Myers, director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE], ran into trouble earlier this month after she and two other agency managers gave the “most original” costume award to a white employee who came to the agency’s Halloween party dressed as an escaped prisoner with dreadlocks and darkened skin.

The incident drew complaints of racial insensitivity and an apology from Myers. It also cast doubt on whether she’ll get a confirmation vote before the end of the year, when her original appointment expires.

And ICE was doing so well with managing stuff like healthcare at those darn detention facilities before that darn costume contest!

~~~~~

The HRC and transgender people/transgender people’s allies don’t look to be getting along too well this coming week, and much of it has to do with symbolism involving Tuesday’s Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR). Everything from the the HRC and protestors due to clash at the Stonewall Inn in part because the HRC scheduled a networking meeting in New York on the TDoR, to the HRC quietly cancelling their scheduled Day of Remembrance event at the HRC Headquarters (cache from November 11th’s webpage and today’s webpage, and not related to TDoR — the ENDA debate spicing up Dallas’s Black Tie event (former trans HRC boardmember Donna Rose calls on HRC president Joe Solmonese to apologize — both will be in attendance at tonight’s Black Tie).

There’s no joy in this at all — this ongoing rift between the HRC and transgender people/transgender people’s allies can’t be good, long term, for LGBT community, nor can it be good for LGBT civil rights issues.

~~~~~

Coffee is never far from our minds, here at The Blend. That’s why it’s a shocker that Starbucks has lowered its profit and sales forecasts following a first-ever decline in U.S. customer visits.

The world’s dominant coffee retailer launched a national television advertising campaign Friday called “Pass the Cheer.”

Some Starbucks watchers said it would have been better to go with “Lower the Prices.”

The Seattle-based company began the campaign one day after revealing that customer visits to U.S. outlets fell — something that had never happened before — in the quarter ended Sept. 30. Starbucks said there was no connection.

Reasons cited for the decline in U.S. customer visits?

Coming four months after Starbucks raised its prices by an average of 9 cents a drink, the ad campaign coincides with a credit crunch that has crimped some spending styles — at a time when the company’s stock has been depressed. Shares of Starbucks, which fell 90 cents Friday to $23.20 , have dropped 41% in the last year.

Many Americans are cutting back on affordable luxuries such as fancy coffee beverages, said Howard Penney, an analyst with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. And as customers curtail their visits, Penney and others said, Starbucks should be offering promotions.

A touchy-feely ad with a winter theme won’t lure people back, they said, because it doesn’t offer any incentive.

“People are becoming very price-conscious,” said Alan Siegel, chairman and chief executive of branding strategy firm Siegel & Gale. “Without making any kind of an offer, I’m not sure Starbucks is addressing the problem.”

Yeah, if it’s between buying food that costs 5.5% more last year, heating the house that looks like it’s going to cost 9% more than last winter if a home uses natural gas, and 147% more than last winter if a home uses heating oil, filling up the car at 87¢ more a gallon than last year, or buying a cup of Starbucks Coffee that averages 9¢ more a cup … well, it’s an easy choice.

~~~~~

As if the Catholic Church doesn’t have enough image problems, a nun who taught at St. Patrick’s Elementary School in Wisconsin plead no contest to sexually abusing schoolboys in 1960s.

Not only can you not make this stuff up, no one in their right mind would want to make this stuff up.

~~~~~

I ruminate over getting a story horribly wrong early this week over at The View From (Ab)Normal Heights.

*sigh*

For Sunday, a non-ENDA inclusive edition where we catch up with some of the other recent news …

#1 - Some legislation-related news from around the country, starting in Maryland …

Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, which has led opposition to the sex education curriculum in Montgomery County’s schools, has a new target. In a recent e-mail, the group highlighted legislation before the County Council that would prohibit discrimination against residents based on gender identity.

Gender Bill Targeted

… in Oregon …

A group seeking to overturn amendments to Oregon’s anti-discrimination law that provides protections for the state’s LGBT community has failed to collect enough signatures to have the issue placed on the ballot.

Second Oregon Anti-Gay Vote Measure Fails

… in Arizona …

A Scottsdale initiative to outlaw discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people is moving forward and could reach the City Council as soon as November.

Panel may weigh gay-rights issue soon

… and in Florida …

Two Democratic state legislators from Palm Beach County have filed bills that would prohibit discrimination in Florida based on sexual orientation in employment, housing and public accommodations.

The measures, which the sponsors say will face strong opposition in the Republican-led Legislature, would expand state law that provides legal recourse for people maligned based on their age, color, disability, marital status, national origin, race and religion.

State Sen. Ted Deutch and Rep. Kelly Skidmore, both of Boca Raton, are sponsoring the bills, which they hope to be heard in the spring 2008 regular legislative session. The bills are similar, though Skidmore’s also addresses discrimination based on “gender identity or expression.” …

In explaining the need for the language dealing with gender identity and expression, Skidmore cited a case in which a woman was refused service at a restaurant merely because her hair was short.

“We’d all love to believe that discrimination is not occurring among us on a regular basis, but it is,” Skidmore said. “There really is just no place for it.”

Two legislators seek to expand anti-discrimination law

#2 - Vancouver is hosting the International Drag King Extravaganza (IDKE 9) this week …

In Peterson’s view, the increasing presence of drag kings is its own form of education, creating awareness about the fluidity of gender boundaries in a variety of contexts.

“What drag king-ing does is it provokes thought. It sets the wheels turning inside the head that, ‘Oh, maybe gender isn’t black and white. This is a woman impersonating a man; or maybe it’s not, maybe it’s an FTM. Maybe there are shades of grey I never thought of,’” Peterson muses. “Maybe they’ll look within themselves too and find there’s a shade of grey in some way, shape or form.”

Krieger couldn’t agree more.

As she looks about the contemporary drag scene, she feels she’s witnessing a sea change in the trends that inform drag king personae and performance.

For one thing, it’s more than just hitting the stage in costume, or appearing as a guy. Today, she says, drag kings are expressing, even personifying, different aspects of gender.

“You see such a diversity of gender, and drag kings are at the forefront of that, showing people that there are all of these different ways of being, different ways of relating, different ways of looking,” she observes.

Pushing the gender boundaries

#3 - Deborah Grabowski is the Dallas Police Dept.’s first known transgender officer …

Nineteen years ago, Mike Smith attended police academy alongside Joe Grabowski.

Today, as a sergeant for the Dallas Police Department, Smith supervises Officer Deborah Grabowski.

But Joe and Deborah aren’t husband and wife, brother and sister, or father and daughter.

Deborah Grabowski, 42, is the department’s first known transgender officer, having undergone sexual reassignment surgery in May.

But Smith said that for him and others who work with Grabowski out of a substation at Love Field, little has changed.

“To me, she’s the same person as she was 19 years ago,” Smith said. “We get along the same way. I treat her just like any other police officer. “

Grabowski said she’s thankful for that.

Smooth transition

#4 - This is not your “usual” beauty contest …

This picture shows an attractive model applying some essential last-minute make-up backstage before competing in an international beauty pageant, right?

Well, not quite.

You see, this pretty in pink model is a contestant with a difference – one of the entrants in the Amazing Philippines Beauties contest… open exclusively to transvestites and transsexuals.

The beauty queens with rather surprising a-genders

#5 - October is LGBT History Month …

Historian Susan Stryker made the amazing discovery the way that many of her peers do: by pure accident.

She wasn’t looking for it, but she found evidence of a forgotten chapter in the history of LGBT community in America.

In 1995, Stryker a transgendered historian, and co-author Jim Van Buskirk were working on Gay by the Bay, their soon-to-be published, best seller capsule history of the San Francisco LGBT movement, when they came across an interesting item in the program for the 1972 Gay Pride march.

The article described an August 1966 riot at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria in the Tenderloin, a poor and working-class area of the city where many transgenders lived, and still do. The incident started after a rowdy queen refused to leave the popular hangout and management called the police.

Stonewall wasn’t the first LGBT riot

Dear John Joe,

I’m filing for a divorce.

Way back in 2004, *you* told *me” (your transgender partner) — via Cheryl:

In early August, HRC’s Board of Directors took the historic step of adopting a policy that HRC would not support a version of ENDA that doesn’t include gender identity or expression.

Then, *you* said to *me* on September 14 (at the Southern Comfort Conference):

We try to walk a thin line in terms of keeping everything in play, and making sure that we move forward but always being clear that we absolutely do not support and in fact oppose any legislation that is not absolutely inclusive, and we have sent that message loud and clear to the Hill.

See, here’s the video of *you* saying that:

But that’s not what *you* said today. *You* said instead:

Last night, the Human Rights Campaign’s Board of Directors voted to reaffirm the 2004 policy supporting a fully inclusive version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Therefore, HRC will not support the newly introduced sexual orientation only bill. The board’s position articulates a process for continued dialogue with House leaders about strategies that have been put forth to, in the end, achieve passage of a fully inclusive ENDA.

“We are now faced with definitive Congressional action to move forward a version of the bill stripping gender identity. Though we support a fully inclusive ENDA, we acknowledge the legislative strategy put forth by Congressman Frank and the Democratic leadership to obtain a clear path towards an inclusive bill in the future,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “We look forward to working with them to accomplish the goal all of us share – ending workplace discrimination against the entire GLBT community.”

“Since 2004, HRC has had in place a policy that supports only a fully inclusive version of ENDA and the Board of Directors voted to reaffirm that position,” Solmonese continued. “Therefore, we are not able to support, nor will we encourage Members of Congress to vote against, the newly introduced sexual orientation only bill. And will continue working with our allies in Congress to support a comprehensive, legislative strategy to achieve passage of a fully inclusive ENDA as quickly as possible.”

That’s right, you aren’t opposing the plan to treat *me* like last night’s garbage — you’re just tacitly supporting this plan for inequality.

I guess to *you*, what George Orwell said in Animal Farm is true:

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

As your supposed transgender partner, *you* keep jilting me. *You* keep lying to me. *You* have an equal sign for your logo, you list me on your website as your *transgender partner,* but instead you treat me like a convenient mistress.

I want a divorce. Take the “transgender” and “T” off your website. Stop giving *me* reports and such that look like you care about *me* when — when it really, really counts — *you* bail on *me*. There are just so many fish in the sea that have shown they care much more about *me* more than *you* ever have.

Bitterly yours,

Autumn Sandeen
Jilted Transgender Activist

P.S. Expect to see *me* — and my true friends — at all your events soon, talking about being jilted and “unequal” in your eyes.