Story 1: Back in late spring of this year, the story of a Methodist transitioning, female-to-male pastor was in the news. Bishop John R. Schol announced then the continued appointment of Rev. Drew Phoenix as pastor of Baltimore’s St. John’s United Methodist Church.

As the local CBS affiliate reported:

The Methodist church bans sexually active gay clergy but does not have any rules about transgender pastors.

————————

Transgender Pastor’s Reappointment Under Review
————————-

Story 2: Pam picked up on the story of the Surgeon General nominee Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr. in Homophobic Surgeon General nominee’s writings picked up by MSM and other posts. From that main stream media/ABC News story:

President Bush’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., wrote a paper in 1991 that purported to make the medical argument that homosexuality is unnatural and unhealthy. Doctors who reviewed the paper derided it as prioritizing political ideology over science, and Democratic aides on Capitol Hill say the paper will make his confirmation hearings problematic, if not downright bruising.

Holsinger, 68, presented “The Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality” in January 1991 to a United Methodist Church’s committee to study homosexuality. (Read the paper here.) The church was then considering changing its view that homosexuality violates Christian teaching, though it ultimately did not do so. Relying on footnotes from mainstream medical publications, Holsinger argued that homosexuality isn’t natural or healthy.

The two stories collide: The United Methodist Church is the denomination for Baltimore’s St. John’s United Methodist Church, where Rev. Drew Phoenix is a minister. Per the Los Angeles Times:

The denomination’s highest authority, the Judicial Council, will take up the case next month, deciding whether the church should accept transgender pastors. The decision will determine Phoenix’s future; it could also have political implications.

Presiding over the Judicial Council is Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., President Bush’s nominee for surgeon general and a longtime lay leader of the United Methodist church. Democrats have objected to Holsinger in large part because of work he has done for his church over the years.

…The Senate has not yet scheduled a vote on Holsinger [for confirmation for Surgeon General], though his confirmation hearing was two months ago. He has been asked to answer further questions in writing. In the meantime, Holsinger will handle several Judicial Council cases dealing with sexuality. Most prominent is the question of Phoenix’s right to remain in ministry.

If the United Methodist Judicial Council rules on Rev. Phoenix’s case before the Senate confirmation vote, we’ll have a fresh idea of where Dr. Holsinger stands on LGBT issues. Will he advocate for or against Rev. Phoenix, and what will be his reasoning for his position for or against?

It’ll be interesting. As the Los Angeles Times story went on to say:

The United Methodist Book of Discipline, which sets out rules for the denomination, does not address the issue of gender identity. But since it bans discrimination on the basis of gender — a point intended to ensure the equality of male and female clergy — Phoenix argues in a legal brief: “There is no basis for prohibiting my appointment . . . based on my identification as male.”

It doesn’t hurt every now and then to remember what the New Testament says about love and kindness:

Love is patient, love is kind.
–1 Corinthians 13:4a

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
–Luke 6:35

Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.
–1 Thessalonians 5:15

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
–Matthew 7:12

Take a look at the Traditional Values Coalition cartoon to the right side (click graphic to enlarge pictures and text).

Can anyone honestly believe, after looking at that graphic and in light of scriptures on love and kindness, that the TVC is a loving and kind Christian organization?

I just wish the Traditional Values Coalition didn’t advertize themselves as Christian and state:

Traditional Values Coalition is an inter-denominational public policy organization speaking on behalf of over 43,000 churches.

It appears to me that the TVC speaks for over 43,000 churches whose leaders don’t have a clue what Christian love and kindness might actually look like.

~~~~~

More TVC insanity from TVC Staffers Attend ENDA Hearing.

* More TVC “love” expressed with the pejorative “she-male”:

“If Americans saw what these gender confused individuals looked like – and what impact they will have on business practices, they’d be outraged,” said [Andrea] Lafferty. “Imagine being forced to hire or retain a person who goes through half of a so-called sex change operation? Should a business really have to deal with she-male demands? Or, to hire or retain a person who just “thinks” he’s the opposite sex, but doesn’t “transition” into another sex. The legal problems for employers will be insurmountable.”

* Our “homosexual agenda” lobby has apparently changed names again. The TVC used to claim the neme was the Homosexual/Drag Queen Lobby and the Homosexual/Transgender Lobby, now we apparenly have the Homosexual/Transgender/She-male Activist Movement.

Memo to the lobbyists for the Homosexual Agenda: Please stop changing the name of our organization — I’m having a hard time finding our website with all those gosh darn name changes.

* By the way, when did ENDA become primarily a transgender civil rights bill instead of an LGBT civil rights bill? Looking at the two TVC articles profiled in this post, you would think by the emphasis and the pictures that the TVC believes the bills are practically all about transfolk.

The Anglican Bishop of Uyo, Rt. Rev. Isaac Orama, has condemned the activities of homosexuals and lesbians, and described those engaged in them as “insane people”. “It is scaring that any one should be involved in a thing like that and I want to say that they will not escape the wrath of God,” he said. Orama told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) today in Uyo, that the practice, which has worsened over the years, was “unbiblical and against God’s purpose for creating man”. Homosexuals – 2 “Homosexuality and lesbianism are inhuman. Those who practice them are insane, satanic and are not fit to live because they are rebels to God’s purpose for man,” the Bishop said.

So United Press International is reporting.

However, from The Living Church Foundation:

A spokesman for the Church of Nigeria, Archdeacon Akintunde Popoola, told The Living Church the quote attributed to the bishop was false.

The Bishop of Uyo “denied making such a statement,” Canon Popoola said. While the bishop’s address to his diocesan synod did speak to the issue of human sexuality dividing the Communion, and the Church of Nigeria’s position on these issues, “he did not say that [gays and lesbians] are to be hated, nor that they are insane or unfit to live.”

The News Agency of Nigeria reporter has “apologized for the misrepresentation and promised a retraction,” Archdeacon Popoola told TLC.

I guess we’ll have to see if a retraction by the reporter is really in the works in the next day or two.

If the “insane or unfit to live” statement isn’t retracted by the reporter, the statement will turn out to be a pretty horrific thing for a Bishop of a Christian denomination to be quoted saying.  There would be no excuse for it.

—————
H/t Pam’s House Blend.

Almost Sunday edition, where we catch up with some news items from the past few days.

#1 – Once again, it’s the bathroom …

A washroom revolution is happening at the University of B.C. [Canada]

It will benefit nursing moms in need of a private space to care for their babies, practising Muslims who require a special washing facility to perform religious rituals, and transgendered individuals looking for a space that reaches beyond the traditional “male” and “female” division.

Preparations are underway to overhaul up to 391 single-stall bathroom facilities on campus in an effort to meet the access and diversity needs of the school’s varied student body. Existing multi-stall men’s and women’s washrooms will remain.

“I hope it says that we want to create an inclusive and welcoming environment for all students,” said Janet Mee, who, as UBC director of access and diversity, heads up the planned washroom renovations.

Upcoming changes range from the construction of new facilities, to replacing gender-specific signs on doors with gender-neutral ones. Mee said no budget has yet been set for the project, and would not comment on possible costs.

Bathroom needs became an issue last year after members of the university’s Pride association, representing gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered students, raised safety concerns with Mee’s department.

She said transgendered students have reported feeling harassed or embarrassed when forced to use traditionally segregated bathrooms on campus.

The university has now come up with its own gender-neutral design for the one-stall washrooms. Yet to be formally unveiled, the new symbol — a silhouette of a toilet — will identify the facility, rather than the people who use it, Mee said.

“It’s an issue of safety, but also one of dignity,” she said.

…

A revo-loo-tion on the UBC campus

#2 – In Philadelphia, “The Death of Venus” lives …

A transgender- themed mural under threat of destruction by city officials for the last six years has been given a new lease on life, thanks to this week’s unanimous decision by a city appeals board.

In a 4-0 ruling, the Licenses and Inspections Review Board stated that transgender artist Dee Chhin’s mural, “The Death of Venus,” may remain on the exterior wall of a Center City apartment building.

“I’m so relieved and happy,” said Chhin, 36. “It’s been a nightmare for these past six years — all they put me through. It’s my baby and they wanted to kill it. But at last I can see an end to the trauma.”

In 2001, Chhin painted the mural — inspired by her transgender experience and her life as a Cambodian émigré — on the north wall of a building at 410 S. 15th St.

But the following year, the city’s Historical Commission became involved in the matter when it granted a temporary permit for the mural. When the permit expired in January 2007, the commission, in a split vote, declined to extend the permit.

Randal Baron, a preservation officer for the city’s Historical Commission, testified at the Aug. 14 hearing that the mural didn’t conform to the historical nature of the building, nor the neighborhood.

He said the exterior wall should retain the character of the 1800s, but supporters of the mural said the wall was stuccoed in the 1950s and shouldn’t necessarily represent the Victorian period.

After the hearing, Leonard Reuter, a city attorney, said he couldn’t rule out the possibility that the city Historical Commission would appeal the L&I review board’s decision in Common Pleas Court.

But sources in City Hall told PGN an appeal would be unlikely.

…

Transgender activist Kathy Padilla, 50, of Mt. Airy, also attended the hearing.

“I do believe there was anti-trans motivation fueling the dispute,” Padilla said. “This is the first and only transgender-themed mural in the country. That in itself makes it a piece of history. I’m appalled that some members of the Historical Commission didn’t recognize that.”

Michael A. Sher, who commissioned the mural, said he was “pleasantly surprised” by the ruling. “Dee made history by painting the mural,” Sher noted after the hearing.

L&I review board: Mural may stay

#3 -  The Union for Reform Judaism announced new blessings for those undergoing sex changes …

In an effort to remain inclusive to the faithful of all persuasions, the Jewish Reform sect has created blessings for the sanctification of gender reassignment.

According to a story posted today by jta.org, the Union for Reform Judaism published a new, second edition of its 500-page Kulanu (named after the Hebrew word for “all of us”), a resource dedicated to addressing the needs of the GLBT portion of Judaism.

Two new blessings, written by Rabbi Elliot Kukla, are provided for those undergoing sex changes.

Kukla–whom the article said had formerly been known as Eliza–had written the blessings for a friend, but thought they would be appropriate at different “moments of medical transitions” in the reassignment process.

In many branches of Judaism, GLBT persons are accepted as readily as heterosexuals, as rabbis, cantors, or members of the faith seeking the blessing of their union to a partner of the same sex.

Even so, blessings for sexual reassignment are something new.

“There was a conversation about what we should include and what we shouldn’t include,” Rabbi Richard Address, who serves as an editor of Kulanu, said.

Added Address, who is also the director of the Reform Union’s Department of Family concerns, “This was going to be a little bit out there.”

The blessings are in Hebrew, with one of them calling upon God as “the transforming one to those who cross over” from one gender to the other.

The other blessing–meant for recitation at the completion of the process–refers to God as the one “who has made me in his image.”

A third blessing is the a traditional one, the Shehechiyanu, which is typically said on important benchmark occasions in life.

Kukla wrote an introduction to the blessings to explain that, “The midrash, classical Jewish exegesis, adds that the adam harishon, the first human being formed in God’s likeness, was an androgynos, an intersex person.”

Continues Kukla’s notation, “Hence our tradition teaches that all bodies and genders are created in God’s image whether we identify as men, women, intersex, or something else.”

…

New Blessings Sanctify Jewish Transsexuals

#4 – There’s a new DVD featuring five Katharine Hepburn films …

…

The recently issued DVD set The Katharine Hepburn Collection features five films, none good, but all showing her forceful personality. In Morning Glory (33), she’s Eva Lovelace, an aspiring actress from Vermont just arrived in Manhattan and passionate about “The Theatre.” Her character resembles the one she played with more asperity in Stage Door (37). Hepburn acts with burning conviction, even reciting famous snippets from Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet en route to acclaim. Refreshingly, Eva realizes that personal happiness and stardom are difficult to reconcile, and prefers the latter. Hepburn was much better as Jo March in Cukor’s Little Women that year, but this extravagantly mannered performance was showier and earned her a Best Actress Oscar. With Adolphe Menjou, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and C. Aubrey Smith.

Along with Suddenly Last Summer (59), Sylvia Scarlett (35), the second film in this collection, was Hepburn’s most controversial movie and, unlike the former, a colossal critical and box-office failure. Both dealt with actual or implicit homosexuality. Sylvia and her recently widowed father (Edmund Gwen) flee France for England when his embezzlement is discovered. To fool authorities, she cuts off her hair, dresses like a boy, and calls herself Sylvester. They hook up with cockney grifter Cary Grant and a handsome artist (Brian Aherne). Based on Compton MacKenzie’s novel and directed by Cukor, this picaresque tale lurches unsteadily, mixing cross-dressing romance, melodrama, and low comedy. Aherne, confused by his sexual attraction to Sylvester, says, “There’s something’s very queer here!”

The film’s a fascinating mess, but Hepburn makes a most appealing youth. When her bisexual contemporary Marlene Dietrich donned tuxedos or an Admiral’s uniform, she seemed more feminine than ever. Greta Garbo, another bisexual, in male drag for Queen Christina (33), looked like a goddess. Hepburn, with short hair and a scrubbed face, is butch, far more relaxed in men’s clothes than in dresses. Her performance is extremely revealing, given biographer William Mann’s assertion that today she would be considered transgendered. The openly gay Cukor admitted that the movie’s hostile reception made him cautious for the rest of his career.

…

Tenacious star

#5 – The Associated Press reported Friday that Brazil’s public health system will begin providing free sex-change operations in compliance with a court order …

[Health Ministry] Ministry spokesman Edmilson Oliveira da Silva said the government would not appeal Wednesday’s ruling by a panel of federal judges giving the government 30 days to offer the procedure or face fines of $5,000 a day.

“The health minister was prompted by the judges’ decision,” Silva said. “But we already had a technical group studying the procedure with the idea of including it among the procedures that are covered.”

Federal prosecutors from Rio Grande do Sul state had argued that sexual reassignment surgery is covered under a constitutional clause guaranteeing medical care as a basic right.

On Wednesday the 4th Regional Federal Court agreed, saying in its ruling that “from the biomedical perspective, transsexuality can be described as a sexual identity disturbance where individuals need to change their sexual designation or face serious consequences in their lives, including intense suffering, mutilation and suicide.”

The Health Ministry said it would be up to local health officials to decide who qualifies for the surgery and what priority it will be given compared with other operations within the public health system.

Patients must be at least 21 years old and diagnosed as transsexuals with no other personality disorders and must undergo psychological evaluation for at least two years, the ministry said.

Gay activists applauded the decision.

“Transsexuals represent about 0.001 percent of the Brazilian population, but for this minority, sexual reassignment surgery is a question of life and death,” said Luiz Mott, founder of the Bahia Gay Group. “It is unjust and cruel to argue that the health system should concern itself with other priorities.”

So far the measure has not prompted any opposition.

Brazil’s public health system offers free care to all Brazilians, including a variety of surgeries and free AIDS medication. But long lines and poorly equipped facilities mean that those who can afford it usually choose to pay for private hospitals and clinics.

The health ministry said that since 2000, about 250 sexual reassignment surgeries considered experimental have been performed at three university hospitals.

Brazil is generally more tolerant of homosexuality than other Latin American countries, with transvestites featured prominently in celebrations like carnival, but discrimination still exists.

WESH-TV, FL,USA: Police: Deceased Man Found In Miniskirt
Excerpt: A DeLand man is in jail for fatally shooting another man dressed as a woman outside a Daytona Beach restaurant on North Nova Road.

Related: 365Gay.com: Daytona Killing Not Being Investigated As A Hate Crime
Excerpt: Daytona Beach Police Monday said that the weekend killing of a man in women’s clothing is not being investigated as a hate crime.

Advertiser Adelaide, Australia: Men disguised as women attack checkpoint
Excerpt: INSURGENTS dressed as women have killed at least three soldiers in an attack on an Iraqi army checkpoint west of the northern oil hub of Kirkuk today, security officials said.

Anchorage Daily News: Co-worker’s sex change is upsetting (Workplace advice column)
Excerpt: Two months ago, the situation changed from odd to surreal. We were told Frank was undergoing surgery to change into a woman. We all left the meeting shaking our heads. I consider this sort of behavior immoral, and I decided I would interact with Frank only when I absolutely had to. … Two weeks ago, Frank returned from surgery. Management informed us by e-mail we were to call him “Frances.” Last week, things got worse. Frances and I got assigned to the same business process improvement committee, and so I have to work with him daily. Yesterday, I was en route to the restroom when I noticed Frank behind me in the hallway. I stopped just short of the restroom door and then he went in. This makes me nauseous.

Pam’s House Blend: My Special Reality
Excerpt: I was not fired because of real or perceived sexual orientation but I was fired specifically based on my gender expression. The Human Resource department was very careful in being explicit as to why I was being fired. My story of anti-transgender discrimination isn’t unique, there are hundreds just like it. So I ask you, where do we go to demand these rights? Where exactly was I supposed to go to demand justice for losing a job where I had spent years working holidays and weekends, sacrificing time that could have been spent with my family?

Trans Group Blog: Trans Partner Advocacy
Excerpt: But to miss the old, worse job, or thinking fondly about the time when you were single or childfree, doesn’t mean you don’t want the new change in your life. You do. But you can’t just tell your mind not to think about how it once was, either. … & Sometimes I think that’s what’s expected of partners, that we never have a time to say, “I did love him as a man.” We can’t admit that we liked the cocky or shy guy we first fell in love with, & the partners of FTMs aren’t supposed to mourn the loss of breasts and smooth cheeks that they loved to touch.

The Salt Lake Tribune: LDS Church pamphlet advises on same-sex attraction
Excerpt: The LDS Church has posted the contents of a new pamphlet about same-sex attraction on its Web site. … The piece, titled “God Loveth His Children,” reiterates the church’s long-held distinction between same-sex attractions and actions, suggesting that only the latter are immoral. According to LDS doctrine, sexuality is only appropriate within heterosexual marriage. Everyone else is expected to be chaste.

The Christian Post: The Church, the APA and Homosexuality; Outsourcing God’s Work? (Opposition piece)
Excerpt: The Corinthian church had something most current churches apparently do not have—a “hands-on/no outsourcing” attitude to sin. If we attempt to rationalize “that was then, this is now” we make ourselves to be cessasionists on this issue and in so doing, imply “once a homosexual – always a homosexual.”

Friday edition …

#1 – Jacob Anderson-Minshall does his customary wonderful job in profiling Debra Davis …

Retired high school librarian Debra Davis has done it a thousand times.

Over the last two decades, the trans woman has done it in hospitals, police stations, non-profit organizations, religious institutions, business meetings, and on campuses across the county.  She’s even done it on television and in front of elementary students! She’s proud of what she’s doing and has no plans to stop.  Davis is the executive director of the Gender Education Center—a Minnesota organization dedicated to support, advocacy and education for differently gendered people—and she travels the country speaking on transgender issues.  Earlier this year she reached the thousand-presentation milestone.”

One Thousand Times & Counting

#2 – Liz Kay of The Baltimore Sun writes on Drew Phoenix …

 The pastor of St. John’s United Methodist Church wasn’t worried about the congregation’s reaction to his transition from Ann Gordon to Drew Phoenix.

A banner reading “Praising God, Seeking Justice,” hangs outside the Charles Village church. Rainbow cloth is draped from poles inside the Sunday room where members worship. And decades ago, the congregation became an early advocate for full participation of people within the church regardless of sexual or gender identity.

Now Phoenix, who chose the reference to the mythological beast for his last name as a symbol of his rebirth as a man last year, is helping St. John’s rise from its own ashes.

St. John’s and its pastor are reborn
Church advocates acceptance, love — starting with its transgender leader

#3 – The June 27th issue of the Independent Weekly in North Carolina devoted a lot of space to trans people.  From the cover story …

Diana Anderson, a transwoman, is a biomedical engineer. She still plays the guitar. Still rides motorcycles. And she’s still married to her wife of 15 years, just not as a husband anymore. Despite male genitalia, she was never male, not in her soul, though it wasn’t until late in her adolescence that she understood what she was feeling. She was then and is now—following hormone treatments—female. She’s an active member of SAGE, the Southern Association for Gender Education.

Raja, a transman, is a banker. He was raised a girl in a Muslim household in Pakistan, played golf on the Rutgers University women’s team. His earliest memories are of living in the wrong body. “I knew I was a boy, male, masculine, from the first words I could speak,” he remembers. “And my first understanding was, OK, I’m a boy. I just don’t get to live my life like one.”

Now bearded and muscular, the result of testosterone treatments, Raja is what he yearned to be, a male who is married to a loving woman. He’s also active in SAGE, but because his banking colleagues have no idea about his trans history, he asked that his last name not be used in this article. Ruefully, he describes his life as “still very much in stealth,” adding, “You go from one closet to another.”

Trans. Transgender. They’re umbrella terms, says the Rev. Erin Swenson, for a wide range of people who “dissent from gender categories” and who may or may not be transsexual. (For some definitions, see “Transgender salad.”)

Ordinary people
Transgender folks are a lot of things—including normal

#4 -  Michael Silverman of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) is representing Khadijah Farmer …

[Silverman] argued that the incident is a clear violation of a 2002 amendment to the city’s Human Rights Law which bars discrimination based on gender identity and expression. TLDEF charges that the bouncer acted in discriminatory fashion in ejecting Farmer because of the way she expresses her gender.

“Discrimination against transgender people, or gay men and lesbians who do not conform to gender norms, has no place in New York City,” Silverman said.

Not So Hot On Caliente

#5 – The drafting of Thailand’s newest constitution is moving along …

The draft also contains some articles that make it more liberal than its predecessor, the 1997 charter, which was deemed Thailand’s most liberal to date.

For instance, Article 30 in the draft grants equality before the law for gays and transsexuals, stating, “Females and males as well as those with other gender identities shall enjoy equal rights.”

In a show of appreciation, about 100 people of the “third sex” had planned to present the assembly with a bouquet of flowers Friday morning, but they cancelled the presentation because of anti-charter protests surrounding the Parliament building.

“We are gay, so we don’t like violence,” said Natee Theerrojnapong, leader of the Bangkok Rainbow Organisation. He praised the draft charter for providing transsexuals with equal rights in Thailand for the first time.

“Hereafter, if we are discriminated against, we can take the case to court,” Natee said.

Draft charter ready for vote

Saturday edition …

#1 – Truth is stranger than fiction …

“How many persons are in the God head?” Cindy Tuten asked.

Micah tapped three times.

“How many God’s are there?” The dog tapped once.

Math mutt inspires faith
Terrier knows square roots and the Bible, too

#2 – Truth triumphs over fiction …

A Manhattan jury – refusing to buy the sob story of a writer who created a shocking, sham alter ego that hoodwinked Hollywood heavyweights and literary critics alike – ordered her to fork over $116,500 yesterday.

Laura Albert, 41, tried to convince the court that she created the best-selling boy scribe “JT LeRoy,” the gifted son of a truck- stop-trolling hooker, as a way to cope with her having been an overweight, sexually abused child teased for being like the cartoon character Fat Albert.

…

“Laura Albert is a complicated person,” [Judge Jed] Rakoff said, “but I think no one would suggest that she and the truth are anything but occasional bedfellows.”

Books Thrown At ‘Leroy’
Fraud Author Must Pay

#3 – And truth is, it does seem that it’s always the bathroom …

Conspicuous “Men” and “Women” signs on public bathrooms aren’t simply convenient labels for transgender people.

In some cases, the words signal danger of harassment or, at the least, a reminder of the culture’s insistence on two exclusive genders, say advocates for transgender people.

“That is the sticking point whenever people talk about trying to integrate trans people into the mainstream of the society,” said Nancy-Jo Morris, a transgender woman who lives in Colorado Springs. “The main sticking point where people fall out and say, ‘Oh no, not here,’ is when you get to the bathroom.”

…

“Those gender-neutral bathrooms are very comforting for transgender people who are just starting out, because they are totally nervous about going into any other bathrooms but those kind,” she said. “You have no idea how nervous a newly budded transgender person is. I mean they look this way and that way before they cross the parking lot, and not because they’re worried about cars.”

Finding a friendly restroom tougher than it might seem

#4 – “Clear and unequivocal”? Well, it’s sorta like truth …

In the Democratic presidential field, our community’s pet candidate is Hillary. The junior senator from New York schmoozes our donors and rakes in our money. In the first quarter, Hillary got 53 percent of individual contributions to the top three democratic candidates in heavily gay Los Angeles zip codes. Obama got 34 percent and Edwards 13 percent. That’s according to Frontier’s magazine. Donor patterns in gay zip codes across the country are broadly similar.

She’s our girl. But what are we to her?

When she talks to gay donors, she tells us what we want to hear. A month ago, she gave the keynote speech at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner. (Note: The Human Rights Campaign is the country’s wealthiest and most prestigious if not necessarily most effective LGBT political lobbying organization, beloved by gay men in the heartland—a major source of Clinton campaign money.) Clinton said she opposes the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy her husband had instituted. “This policy doesn’t just hurt gays and lesbians, it hurts all our troops, and this to me is a matter of national a and we’re going to fix it,” Clinton said to rousing applause from the wealthy attendees.

Brave words, speaking to the ghetto. But who heard them, except her gay donor pool? Exactly nobody. The speech was not announced and remains unpublished, though a video was posted on the group’s web site.

When Clinton talks outside the gay ghetto, she sounds quite different.

…

Why is she so bland when she speaks to the larger America? Of course, it’s tempting to blame her, to talk about hypocrisy.

But I blame mostly us. We are the ones who fail to ask “our” candidates to take publicly clear stands on our issues. We are the ones who write checks and give our votes without attaching clear demands. Look at the Jewish community. No candidate will get a cent of Jewish money who does not clearly articulate his or her support for the security of Israel. We must take a lesson from their book. We need to demand from our candidates an equally clear and unequivocal statement about the security of our lives and the advancement of our rights.

Hillary’s ’Moments
We must demand clear statements from candidates about LGBT civil rights

#5 – If you’ve never seen any of these, it’s worth taking a look at the collection of videos at the San Francisco Sentinel …

San Francisco Transgender Pride 2007 – Let Us Be

How does one communicate about HIV/AIDS prevention and transmission to transgender people? How does one get the attention of transpeople to even get messages about HIV/AIDS prevention and transmission to get the messages to them? These are real questions the Center for Disease Control has to grapple with.

Whatever methodology the CDC uses, there are always going to be a percentage of voters, activists, and legislators who think sending any messages to transpeople, except perhaps “go to conversion therapy and get healed of your sexual confusion,” would be a tax dollars poorly spent.

So with that in mind, it should come as no surprise that the American Family Association’s Donald E. Wildmon sent out an Action Alert to their e-mail list today regarding HIV/AIDS messaging to transgender people (even though his comments on transpeople went no further than the headline and first paragraph of the Action Alert).

In the spirit of Mr. Wildmon’s statement at the beginning of his email which states Please help us get this information into the hands of as many people as possible by forwarding it to your entire email list of family and friends, I’m forwarding the text of the letter to my blogosphere friends:

(e-letter from Donald E. Wildmon after the flip)

Read the rest of this entry »

Los Angeles Times: New ground in debate on ‘curing’ gays
Christian ministries who see homosexuality as a treatable disorder are starting to think that choice may not be a factor.

Shakesville: More On Irish Transsexuals…
Excerpt: I suspect the news will spread slowly at work, and that some people will treat me differently. Although for the most part, I expect the differences to be subtle. For which I’m eternally grateful.

Washington Post: The War Inside
Troops Are Returning From the Battlefield With Psychological Wounds, But the Mental-Health System That Serves Them Makes Healing Difficult
(As a disabled veteran myself, this was a really painful read. ~~A~~)

What’s Left In The Church: The Church and The Transgendered
Excerpt: As to the question of the place of transgendered in the Church and ministry, all I can say is that, unlike sexual orientation, we have here a horse of a whole different color. Tooley throws in all sorts of non-sequiturs – dwindling numbers (he should come to our church, which is growing by leaps and bounds), the lack of debate, etc. – and he never comes out and argues that Rev. Phoenix should not have been appointed. The reason, it seems, is clear – there is no precedent, no reason in law to deny him appointment.

Queerty: Trans Injustice in Philly
Friends Seek Erika Keels’ Killer

The Nation – Thailand: Transsexual beauty queen buys buffaloes to help poor
Excerpt: [Sararat "Arf" Klinthai] said she spent her prize money – and donations from fellow transvestite contestants – to save 50 buffaloes and cows bound for the slaughterhouse and gave 30 of them to the locals and let them sell the calves.

With all of the changes this year in how various forms of media — including the entertainment media – with how transgender people and issues are covered, I’m going to start documenting how transgender is becoming the new gay.  I mean that in the sense that the transgender civil rights movement is following a similar path to the one the gay civil rights movement has taken over the past 40-years.

Today’s example story is in how transfolk keep coming out younger and more publicly (just like coming out gay age has now dipped to the early to mid-teens from the middle-age coming out age averages of just post-Stonewall) and are fighting for the right to be themselves in hostile environments.

From the Dallas Morning News’s Transgender teen free to be herself:

FORT WORTH – When Rochelle Evans chooses what she’s going to wear to Eastern Hills High School each day, her choices aren’t solely fashion statements. To Rochelle, her flats, makeup and women’s jeans represent a hard-fought right to express herself.

And a subtle declaration about transgender teens everywhere.

The 15-year-old transgender sophomore, who started high school as Rodney Evans, recently fought a public battle against school administrators over wearing women’s clothes and her reaction when confronted by school officials. As part of the deal, Rochelle is addressed as a female and gets to use the nurse’s bathroom to avoid any awkward scenes in the boys’ or girls’ restroom.

“I just felt more comfortable being a girl,” she said. “I’m not asking for any special treatment.”

And in a parallel course of events, there is Religious Right backlash.  The National Association For Research And Therapy Of Homosexuality (NARTH) released the story entitled Gender Confused Teenage Boy Wins Right To Wear Girl’s Clothing To School (subtitled: The mainstream media is apparently conspiring with transgender confused persons by labelling [sic] them ‘girls’ when they’re genetically boys):

Rodney Evans is a 15-year-old boy who attends Eastern Hills High School in Fort Worth, Texas. He has recently won the right to wear girl’s clothing to school and to require others to call him “Rochelle” instead of Rodney…

…The reporter [of the , Debra Dennis, referred to this boy as “she” throughout the article, even though he is genetically a male and has not undergone any sort of hormone or surgical procedure yet.

His attorney is Phyllis Randolph Frye who has been involved in transgender political activities for years. Frye underwent male-to-female sex surgery years ago and is a well-known activist among gay and transgender groups.

NARTH President Joseph Nicolosi, Ph.D., notes: “No matter how much this boy wants to be a girl–and dresses in a more ‘girly” style than do biological females–he cannot possibly be one, and for the media to conspire with his fantasy is absurd. All his DNA reflects the fact that he is male, and nothing can change that. It’s ironic, though, that the same mainstream media that brackets the term ‘ex-gay’ in scare quotes is willing to call a boy who wears high heels a ‘she.’”

Rochelle is going to have to be strong to be transgender in a hostile school and cultural religious right context.  It looks like Rochelle is up to it, and is going to be powerful example for other transyouth coming out in their schools.

———
Note: Dr. Nicolosi apparently doesn’t know what the Associated Book Stylebook says about transgender people and terms:

transgender : Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

It would be easy to feel sympathy for San Diego City Council canditdate James Hartline, based on this Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) video piece, if one wasn’t aware of the vitriol that often passes from Mr. Hartline’s keyboard to his blog.

Well, it wasn’t an attack, but it was ”something.” 

I guess Sylvia Bertolini finally got around to Googling herself today, and read the post I wrote about Peeing In Peace and Alan Chambers: Transgender Issues Subject Matters Expert? last December.  She responded today:

I happened upon this post with my name and that of Alan Chambers in it. Though I am flattered that A.C.’s arguments back mine, I also want to add (for other future readers of this post), that in the ex-gay movement (or among people who have converted from the sin of homosexuality, trans genderism, pedophilia and/or others are concerned) I am a very “small potatoe”. One cannot really compare me with Alan Chambers, who is the President of Exodus and has changed so much from when he was a homosexual, in regards to his life (personal change), family life, work, etc. I feel very small in this regard, since it is like comparing a small clerk of a company to the CEO of the same company. I nonetheless thank God for His grace of conversion in my life and in the lives of all those He has brought to Himself and will bring to Himself. Amen.

Sylvia Bertolini
(quoted above as being totally off in regards to transgender issues and knowing absolutely nothing)

And…

I also wanted to add, to avoid any future misunderstandings, that the “company” I refer to above, is not an “earthly” company, and should not be thought of as “Exodus International” but as God’s “company,” where many work towards their salvation and that of others, even though, they may have never even met (as per myself and Alan Chambers who really cannot be compared).

Nice, lumping in my trans peers and me to pedophiles.

Of course, as a rule transpeople don’t screw children.  And, it’s impossible to find a New Testament scripture that condemns transgenderism.  But hey, why let any reality confuse the condemnation of transfolk as a matter of faith — I guess I should mention that Sylvia Bertolini’s email address ended with a Catholic.org.

Again, there’s a reason I don’t identify as a “big C” christian — Sylvia Bertolini’s comments comparing LGBT people and pedophiliacs within the blog comments of this blog are an example as to why.

Cheers to the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing which I see recently issued an Open Letter to Religious Leaders on Sexual and Gender Diversity.

The Open Letter forcefully states that “sexual and gender oppression can no longer be portrayed as virtuous and morally defensible” and that “using the Bible to exclude or attack people violates the very spirit of our traditions and is morally unconscionable.”

The Open Letter closes with …

Loving, just communities embrace everyone; they are strengthened when all people are able to live fully and express their gender and sexuality with holiness and integrity. We celebrate sexual and gender diversity as a blessing that enriches all.

Box Turtle Bulletin: Sticks and Stones; The man they call “Porno Pete” is a little chafed
Excerpt: Peter LaBarbera doesn’t like his nickname. … For several years now, it’s been reported that Peter LaBarbera has made it his quest to attend various leather and S&M events, report on what he sees, and claim that it somehow is representative — or even relevant — to the gay community at large. Whenever he goes to events like these, he takes several salacious photos and posts them on his website. Then he exhorts his readers to “take action” of some sort (which usually involves harassing the hosting venues) and demands that everyone in the gay community condemn the event.

Gay & Lesbian Times: Ex-gay announces run for District 3 City Council seat
Excerpt: Ex-gay James Hartline announced recently that he will be entering the race for the District 3 City Council seat currently occupied by lesbian Councilmember Toni Atkins, who terms out in 2008. Fasten your seat belts; this should be one helluva ride.

San Francisco Chronicle: Felony charges to be filed in DVC cheating case
Excerpt: The Contra Costa County district attorney plans to file felony charges in July against as many as 67 people suspected of taking part in a grade-changing scandal at Diablo Valley College.

Concerned Women For America: Queerly Beloved – “Gay” Activists Sue eHarmony
Excerpt: So, eHarmony becomes the latest casualty of the lefty-lavender-bully-brigade as they seek to rid the world of contrived and twisted notions of “heterosexism” and “homophobia.” The plan is underway. The intent is to fill the vacuum with government mandated celebration of deviant, mutable and disordered homosexual behaviors. (The terms “homophobia” and “heterosexism” are made up word weapons used by the left against anyone who agrees with the traditional values model of human sexuality or who doesn’t unconditionally accept homosexual behavior.) (Opposition piece.)

New York Times: Sam Brownback: What I Think About Evolution
Excerpt: The question of evolution goes to the heart of this issue. If belief in evolution means simply assenting to microevolution, small changes over time within a species, I am happy to say, as I have in the past, that I believe it to be true. If, on the other hand, it means assenting to an exclusively materialistic, deterministic vision of the world that holds no place for a guiding intelligence, then I reject it. (Subscription Required)

The Guardian (UK): Starbucks reputation on line in court case; Coffee giant accused of union-busting in New York
Excerpt: …Starbucks remains a favourite with mutual funds that invest in socially responsible companies. Ellen Kennedy, an analyst at Calvert, a pioneer in socially responsible investments, said Starbucks is a holding in its Social Index Fund and it remains a labour relations leader in the quick-service restaurant industry, particularly with its exemplary health and safety record and support of gay, lesbian and transgender workers. She said that while she was concerned about the NLRB allegations she feels the company will respond positively as it needs its social responsibility reputation intact as it continues to expand.