… that I’m disappointed again that the “deception” “discovery” defense has credibility with anyone. Levi Gunderson? Did he punt this case? “Yah, you betcha.”

Levi’s got way less (nevermind “fewer”) balls than Marge … not that, speaking personally, I think there’s anything wrong with that … but just don’t not have them in the judicial sense.

Do we have any math majors here? Can 85% of 8 3/4 years really only be not much more than seven years for this … ?

The alleged murderer in the 2005 slaying of a gay man pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempted manslaughter in agreement with prosecutors.

Ruben Solorio Valenzuela faces a prison sentence of 8-3/4 years if the agreement is accepted by Yuma County Superior Court Judge Andrew Gould.

Although Gould was not able to attend Tuesday, the plea agreement was presided over by Superior Court Judge Mark Wayne Reeves.

Reeves also said the suspect will be required to serve 85 percent of his sentence before being eligible for release.

Prosecutor Levi Gunderson acknowledged that Solorio Valenzuela did not plan the alleged murder but acted suddenly, in the heat of passion resulting from the rage and humiliation he felt when he discovered Corrales was actually a man.

Corrales, a 23-year-old gay man, was a cosmetologist who also performed as a female impersonator known as Dalila, impersonating celebrity singers.

Corrales was dressed as a woman the night he and Solorio Valenzuela met. After several attempts to fondle Corrales, Solorio Valenzuela realized his mistake and then allegedly stabbed Corrales.

Corrales’ body was discovered on May 6, 2005, floating 500 feet west of Paradise Cove, just west of Joe Henry Park, with multiple stab wounds. He died from what authorities called “violent trauma.”

Yuma County sheriff’s deputies arrested Valenzuela on May 23, 2007, at Express Lube, 1900 S. 4th Ave., where he had been working. An anonymous written tip led to his arrest.

Subsequent investigation disclosed Solorio Valenzuela had confessed to family members soon after the murder. The day of the killing, he fled to Guadalajara, Mexico, for three months, according to court records.

Maribel Corrales, the victim’s mother, briefly addressed the court Tuesday while trying to hold back sobs. Speaking through an interpreter, she said, “He didn’t kill a person but a whole family. I don’t agree (with the plea). It is not fair.”

Solorio Valenzuela had been booked into Yuma County Jail on one count of second-degree murder, but a grand jury later indicted him on a charges of manslaughter and abandoning a body.

In exchange for the plea, the state suspends the original count. Solorio Valenzuela could be ordered to pay restitution of $150,000 as well as an additional 80 percent of that amount at his sentencing, Gunderson said.

Like Marge, I’m not amused.

This stinks.

My heart goes out to Maribel Corrales, who got it right …

“[This] is not fair.”

When it comes to gay owned and/or operated brick and mortar businesses discriminating against transgender people, one just has to look at gay bars as having examples of the worst offenders.

Take Colorado’s Denver Wrangler. They are so brazen in their discrimination against transgender people that they’ve posted their discriminatory policy on their website:

- Gender matching I.D. required.
- I.D. must be state issued photo identification or driver license, military I.D., US passport or visa.
- I.D. must be current (not expired).

Which class of people do you imagine has identification cards where the sex marker doesn’t match the gender presentation? If you guessed transgender people — the same transgender people who are protected against public accommodation discrimination in Colorado’s new public accommodation anti-discrimination law — you guessed correctly.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if the Wrangler’s policies were challenged by a complaint to the Denver Anti-Discrimination Office by even one potential transgender patron, the city’s ARTICLE IV (that covers public accommodation) indicates the bar is blatantly violating the law with an unlawful policy — I’m sure one potential transgender patron’s complaint would result in the city suing Wrangler’s. (And geez, that’s not even basing a complaint on the new state public accommodation law, of which Wrangler’s is also in violation of!)

Although…I guess I could ask my rocket scientist friend Zoe Brain to get a her opinion on whether or not unlawful discrimination is occurring. I’m not sure a rocket scientist’s opinion would add anything to the discussion, but I guess it couldn’t hurt to know what a rocket scientist thinks about this.

Wrapping this diary up, let me point out that Pam’s House Blend is going to Denver in late August for the Democratic National Convention. Whatever shall I do should the bar’s discriminatory policy be still in place when PHB makes the trip to the Mile High City? I’m sure my rocket scientist friend could provide y’all with some good guesses about some lawful behaviors I may engage in at the Denver Wrangler‘s location.

~~~~~
Related:
* Q Of The Day: When Is It Okay For Gay Owned Businesses To Discriminate Against Transgender People?
* Pam’s House Blend tag for employment – housing – public accommodation
* I’m Going To Colorado In August With PHB; I’m Going To Make Use Of Public Accommodations
* If Dr. Dobson Were King, We’d All Be Wearing Depends
* When It Comes To Transgender People & Civil Rights, It Really Is Always About The Bathroom

A portent perhaps foreshadowing what’s likely to befall Republicans come November?

Whatever it may or may not be, I completely and unremorsefully agree with the blogger who said “I am not sad.” At least (I don’t think), he did not have the additional misfortune to be represented by Sen. Helms for over 25 years, as I was.

From the New York Times …

Jesse Helms, the former North Carolina Senator whose courtly manner and mossy drawl barely masked a hard-edged conservatism that opposed civil rights, gay rights, foreign aid and modern art, died early Friday. He was 86.

…

David A. Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, said recently that Mr. Helms’s contribution to the conservative movement was “incredibly important.”

For one thing, he said, Mr. Helms was alert to technological change, especially the importance of direct mail, and readily signed fund-raising letters that helped conservative organizations get started.

Mr. Helms was also instrumental in keeping Mr. Reagan’s presidential campaign alive in 1976 when it was broke and limping after a series of defeats in the Republican primaries.

…

In campaigns and in the Senate, Mr. Helms stood out in both his words and his tactics.

He fought bitterly against Federal aid for AIDS research and treatment, saying the disease resulted from “unnatural” and “disgusting” homosexual behavior.

“Nothing positive happened to Sodom and Gomorrah,” he said, “and nothing positive is likely to happen to America if our people succumb to the drumbeats of support for the homosexual lifestyle.”

In his last year in the Senate, he decided to support AIDS measures in Africa, where heterosexual transmission of the disease is most common.

Trailing in a tough re-election fight in 1990 against a black opponent, Harvey Gantt, the former mayor of Charlotte, Mr. Helms unveiled a nakedly racial campaign ad in which a pair of hands belonging to a white job-seeker crumpled a rejection slip as an announcer explained that the job had been given to an unqualified member of a minority. Mr. Helms went on to victory.

In 1994, angered at President Clinton, Mr. Helms suggested in print that if Mr. Clinton was to visit North Carolina, “He’d better bring a bodyguard.” He later said the remark had been “a mistake.”

His bruising style and right-wing politics won him many friends in his home state and across the nation, but he also created a legion of enemies. Millions of dollars were raised outside North Carolina both from those who flocked to his ideological banner and from those who ached to see him defeated. He never won more than 55 percent of the vote in five campaigns for the Senate.

The rest of “Jesse Helms, Conservative Force in the Senate, Dies at 86″ may be read here.

Since we tend to focus on transgender-related issues here a bit, I’ll end with this brief excerpt from a 1994 San Francisco Human Rights Commission report authored by Jamison Green that popped out of the “wayback machine” …

Gender dysphoria was once classified as a
medical condition, and Federal funds were available for diagnosed people who did not
have insurance coverage, who may have been on the verge of suicide because they
could not function in the social role prescribed by their external genitalia. But the Nixon
administration removed this safety net, and that cleared the way for insurance
companies to decide that they didn’t have to pay for any treatment deemed cosmetic,
elective, or experimental in nature. And in 1992, Senator Jesse Helms was successful in
removing protection for transgendered people from the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Gender dysphoria is now classified as a psycho-sexual disorder. Thus, Federal funding
is no longer available for gender confirmation surgery, but it is still readily available for
electroshock and other barbaric treatments, if deemed psychiatrically necessary.

I would say it’s a safe bet to make that OneNewsNow avoids posting the term gay in the Associated Press articles they feed to their site by the use of an automatic search-and-replace program. It looks this way because of their embarrassing post of an article that changed the name of Beijing Olympics hopeful Tyson Gay to “Tyson Homosexual” (emphasis added).

Homosexual eases into 100 final at Olympic trials

Tyson Homosexual easily won his semifinal for the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials and seemed to save something for the final later Sunday.

His wind-aided 9.85 seconds was a fairly cut-and-dry performance compared to what happened a day earlier. On Saturday, Homosexual misjudged the finish in his opening heat and had to scramble to finish fourth, then in his quarterfinal a couple of hours later, ran 9.77 to break the American record that had stood since 1999…

They fixed the auto-replace gaff for their AP article feed here, in the retitled article Gay eases into 100 final at Olympic trials.

My guess would be that they consciously use homosexual as a term to throwback to when homosexual was listed as a mental health condition in DSM-II. Activist conservative Christians often tend to believe that it’s a Myth That Psychiatry Has Proven That Homosexual Behavior Is Normal, and because they believe that homosexuality should be relisted as a mental disorder because they believe homosexuality is marked by deviant and sinful behavior that’s tied to an identity.

~~
H/t: The Slog

Don’t give me any of this “environmentally friendly” crap, I think somebody, maybe Pink News, needs to address the negative connotations of this …

Volunteers are painting dog poo bright pink in a bid to shame pet owners into cleaning it up.

The scheme at a beauty spot in Mansfield is being staged to coincide with National Poop Scoop Week, reports K9 magazine.

Volunteers are working with council officials at the Oak Tree Heath nature reserve, a site of special scientific interest.

The council is providing them with bright pink dye to highlight the problem and encourage dog owners to use the bins placed around the site.

The dye used is environmentally friendly because it biodegrades over time.

John Wood, a Sherwood Forest community ranger who came up with the idea, said he was confident it would lead to a reduction in dog fouling.

And Coun Eddie Smith added: “Although dog owners face a £50 fine for not picking up their animal’s waste, we would much rather the environment was kept clear in the first place and if this scheme helps to combat the problem, it is appropriate that we should support it.”

Protesters paint poo pink

… o Pete. Yes, he is at it again, not that he knows anything about pandering, of course.

This is from OneNewsNow today (“Homosexuality takes Congress by storm“) on Mr. Leather‘s latest comments, which seem just so ironically and sadly hilariously over-the-top on so many levels to this reader …

The two openly homosexual members of the U.S. House of Representatives have recruited 50 of their colleagues to officially join them in promoting the homosexual agenda in Congress.

Democrats Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin are the only open homosexuals serving in Congress. They have joined with Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Christopher Shays of Connecticut, and 50 other Democrats to create the House Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Caucus. Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, says it is a sad day when Congress enshrines official promotion of sexual immorality.

“How interesting that we now have a homosexuality, transsexual caucus – I guess you could call it – at the congressional level. It’s just unbelievable that there are this many congressmen who are promoting homosexuality and transsexual perversion,” LaBarbera laments.

While LaBarbera criticized the two Republicans for lending the appearance of bipartisanship to the group, he reserved his primary wrath for the Democrats.

“I think what this shows is that the hard-core Democratic Left is extremely pro-homosexual,” he states. “Big city populations have many homosexual activists, and they’re disproportionately powerful compared to the rest of the people in the district. Do I think that the average person in the district knows that these members are promoting homosexuality in this way? No way! But there are probably powerful homosexual constituencies in each one of these districts,” LaBarbera explains.

Christians, according to LaBarbera, could learn something from the success of homosexual activists. With very small numbers, they have managed to create the perception of a much larger constituency and, thereby, have many of their political demands met.

“The gays are all about political power. They know how to vote. They’re very committed. They’re not apathetic like many Christians,” says the activist. “And they’ve ‘earned’ this extraordinary total: 52 congressmen coming right out and saying, ‘We are going to vote for homosexuality and transsexuality in Congress,” LaBarbera contends.

…

Homosexuality takes Congress by storm

Strength in small numbers … sounds like something Jesus might appreciate … not that Barney and the 53 apostles (sorry, we have a problem with inflation) are in that league, of course.

Although the times are changing, for the better, I’m not expecting a Hollywood “update” of the 1947 classic film anytime soon … but, thankfully, at least you can’t say anymore about news such as this (see photo) …

The first openly gay Episcopal bishop and his partner of 20 years have been united in a private civil union.

The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson was legally joined to Mark Andrew, his partner of 20 years, in a civil ceremony Saturday, the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire announced.

Civil unions became legal in New Hampshire this year.

The union was performed five years to the day after New Hampshire Episcopalians elected him as their bishop.

The civil and a following religious service of thanksgiving were both held at St. Paul’s Church in Concord.

…

NH gay bishop, partner joined in civil union

I couple of trans-related items in the news today caught my attention …

This may or may not be as egregious as calling someone an “it” (see Autumn’s post from Friday about the Tanya White incident), but I would have preferred that the writer or an editor at the Telegraph could have chosen the more appropriate pronoun in the headline at least …

After a life of travel, Jan Morris is back where he started

Some of us might have different opinions about how to handle pronoun use in the article, but which pronoun to use in the headline seems pretty clear to me (see the AP Stylebook on transgender).

Another article from the Telegraph (“Waste watch“) also caught my eye, specifically this line …

Homosexual, bisexual and “transgender” people are being offered £20 vouchers by their council to take part in a survey about their housing needs.

I wonder what the reason is for the use of quotation marks around the word, transgender?

There’s an interesting article in Saturday’s Guelph Mercury about words and language (“If the word fits . . .“) Again, it’s an instance of differing views on how to properly handle a matter of language …

The changing nature of language surfaces in my work world as well. It did days ago when we published a story about the flag-raising to open Pride Week in Guelph. Its lead sentence asserted: “The queer community can look skyward for a sign of city hall’s support and celebration of Pride Week.”

“Queer” jumped off the page for some readers. Some were appalled by it and challenged the paper’s use of the term suggesting it was offensive and an injustice to deploy it.

We responded to this feedback and encouraged those offering it to share it in a letter to the editor for publication. None has taken us up on the invitation.

But the use of queer spurred a rich newsroom discussion.

We abide by The Canadian Press Style Guide in terms of language use. It offered no opinion on whether queer was appropriate to use in any circumstance. We employed it to be inclusive, to identify a wide community — not only gays and lesbians, but others such as bisexual people, transgendered ones and transsexual individuals.

As I’ve done facing previous language flaps and grey areas, I contacted The Canadian Press Style Guide’s editor for clarification.

That editor, Patti Tasko, e-mailed advising: “the controversy over queer” is unresolved in the world of media language police.

“Gay spokesmen have told me in the past it is acceptable and used widely in the community. At the time I told them I felt queasy about recommending it as it is just a little too out there for the general community, who assume it has derogatory connotations (since it is often used as a slur in the straight world),” she stated.

Her next guide will recommend “that the word queer is likely best avoided, except in quotations, as the straight and gay communities use the term differently,” she continued.

Her guess is that advice will hold for a spell and then require revision just as “gay” overtook “homosexual” in a previous style guide.

…

We’ll abide by Tasko’s counsel. But there won’t be an apology from the paper for using queer — as has been demanded.

The majority view of our journalists is that “queer” has been rehabilitated and stands as the right term for the context where we deployed it.

It’s in press releases we receive and in the titles of popular mainstream television programs. If it hasn’t arrived, queer seems to be en route.

News and views relevant to (not just) trans people …

#1 – Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter signed Senate Bill 08-200 (“Concerning The Expansion Of Prohibitions Against Discrimination”) into law Thursday. The bill essentially (defines and) adds “sexual orientation” to the state’s existing anti-discrimination statutes, where …

“Sexual orienation” means a person’s orientation toward heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, or transgender status oe another person’s perception thereof.

… and (I am shocked) Focus on the Family’s James Dobson is trying to whip up some hysteria (“Dr. Dobson Decries Ritter’s Signing of SB200“) …

“Who would have believed that the Colorado state Legislature and its governor would have made it fully legal for men to enter and use women’s restrooms and locker-room facilities without notice or explanation?

“Henceforth, every woman and little girl will have to fear that a predator, bisexual, cross-dresser or even a homosexual or heterosexual male might walk in and relieve himself in their presence. The legislation lists every conceivable type of organization to which this law applies, including restaurants, bathhouses, massage parlors, mortuaries, theaters and ‘public facilities of any kind.’ Those who would attempt to protect females from this intrusion are subject to a fine of up to $5,000 and up to one year behind bars.

“This is your government in action. It represents a payback to Tim Gill and two other billionaires who have essentially ‘bought’ the state Legislature with enormous campaign contributions. Coloradans deserve better!

“And by the way, because of the way this bill is written, it is not subject to the initiative process. There is no recourse.”

Please, when you get down to it, this is about much more bathrooms. It’s really about issues like finding employment or housing, or even about getting someone to cut your grass, and some folks’ perceived, god-given right to say trannies or gays “need not apply.” Every restroom or bathroom in the state of Colorado could be magically transformed today into one’s own little, unassailable fortress, and these folks would be no happier tomorrow. They want their own little “land of the free and home of the brave” all to themselves. That’s it.

Read the rest of this entry »

… and on the lookout around public restrooms for the individual pictured here …

The View intuits from a higher authority that said individual could be “a predator, bisexual, cross-dresser.”

~~~~~

Related …

Ritter signs controversial anti-discrimination bill

~~~~~

Hecuba: Alas! Alas! Alas! Ilium is ablaze; the fire consumes the citadel, the roofs of our city, the tops of the walls!
Chorus: Like smoke blown to heaven on the wings of the wind, our country, our conquered country, perishes. Its palaces are overrun by the fierce flames and the murderous spear.
Hecuba: O land that reared my children!

The Trojan Women

Some news and views, trans and otherwise, catching my attention today …

#1 – Sophia Siedlberg from the Organisation Intersex International commented on a Bay Area Reporter feature today (“DSM controversy could overshadow opportunities“) on Kenneth Zucker, Jack Drescher and DSM-V …

If the APA feel that some of the very real anger expressed about how certain people are appointed and the actions of those people, then the APA should consider the possibility that the Clarke Northwestern academics they have elected have, in the past been known to provoke an acrimonious response from those they “discuss” and then deliberately ignore any invitations for polite debate, while crying foul when people get angry out of sheer frustration. That is a well known and documented tactic on the part of the Clarke-Northwestern. And one that renders their objections to being called everything from “Quacks” to “Nazis” utterly meaningless, as they have deliberately taken an invidious approach to debate, in order to cry foul when the predictable response happens. We have to ask why do the Clarke-Northwestern do this? Most logical people would conclude that there may be some truth in the more slanderous accusations levelled at the Clark Northwestern as they persistently fail to engage in open debate, in a way that appears deliberate.

On the The Bay Area Reporter

#2 – Barack Obama supporter and Transadvocate blogger, Marti Abernathey, is the subject of a Bay Windows feature today (“Trans parent, gay son: pride across the generations“) …

Abernathey fights through her involvement with various national and state transgender and LGBT organizations. She runs the Transadvocate group blog (transadvocate.com) and is contributing editor for another, the Bilerico Project (bilerico.com). She also fights simply by being open about who she is. “A lot of the reasons why there are fewer obstacles now for gay and lesbian parents is because there are gay and lesbian parents,” she explains. “There’s exposure to the straight community, so it’s not an abstraction, it’s real. When trans people are open and honest about who they are, then people will start to see we’re just parents. We’re not trans parents, we’re parents. I think that’s what gays and lesbians want, and what trans people want.”

And, speaking of Obama, he has a fan in Rupert Murdoch (“Rupert Murdoch Says Obama Will Win“) …

“He is a rock star. It’s fantastic”

#3 – Actor and comedian Harvey Korman passed away today (“Comic powerhouse Harvey Korman dies at 81“) …

Harvey Korman, the tall, versatile comedian who won four Emmys for his outrageously funny contributions to “The Carol Burnett Show” and played a conniving politician to hilarious effect in “Blazing Saddles,” died Thursday. He was 81.

…

His most memorable film role was as the outlandish Hedley Lamarr (who was endlessly exasperated when people called him Hedy) in Mel Brooks‘ 1974 Western satire, “Blazing Saddles.”

…

After 10 successful seasons, Korman left Burnett’s show in 1977 for his own series. Dick Van Dyke took his place, but the chemistry was lacking and the Burnett show was canceled two years later. “The Harvey Korman Show” also failed, as did other series starring the actor.

“It takes a certain type of person to be a television star,” he said in that 2005 interview. “I didn’t have whatever that is. I come across as kind of snobbish and maybe a little too bright. … Give me something bizarre to play or put me in a dress and I’m fine.”

#4 – Where would some folks be without us … ? (“A better way to morality“) …

Cross-dressing to my mind is the single most important factor in spreading the homosexual lifestyle.

#5 – One way to get rid of some carbon footprints (“Environmentally Friendly Bombs Planned“) …

New explosives could be more powerful and safer to handle than TNT and other conventional explosives and would also be more environmentally friendly.

…

To make safer, more environmentally friendly explosives, scientists in Germany turned to a recently explored class of materials called tetrazoles. These derive most of their explosive energy from nitrogen instead of carbon as TNT and others do.

…

These compounds have great potential, “especially for large caliber naval and tank guns,” Klapötke added

This is an absolute hoot, in so many ways …

Residents of the Greek island of Lesbos have launched a legal action to demand the exclusive right to call themselves Lesbians.

The inhabitants of the island are attempting to ban the Greek Gay and Lesbian Union from bearing the name “lesbian”.

Residents of Lesbos now suffer “psychological and moral rape” from the “seizure” of their island’s name by gays, according to the complaint by Dimitris Lambrou, a local activist.

He has set out his argument in “The Misfortune of Being Lesbian”, published on his website, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Mr Lambrou, who has the support of a member of a nationalist pagan association, said that the case was likely to come before a court in Athens in June.

But Evangelia Vlam, a spokesman for Olke, dismissed the claim.

“This affair is totally ridiculous,” she said. “But if we are summoned by the courts, we will be heard.”

Lesbos is synonymous with the love verses of the poet Sappho, who expressed her love of other women in poetry written in the early sixth century BC.

Islanders are ‘only true Lesbians’

And, by the way, Sappho was not gay anyway, according to Lambrou.

What I’m referring to here is the tendency of the mainstream media to focus on and give extensive coverage to a certain kind of trans or gender-related news. Generally, it seems these stories invariably involve celebrities (think back many years to Eddie Murphy and the “transvestite prostitute” story, for instance) or “oddities.” Last month, there was the “pregnant man” story. Vying for that media attention this month, there appear to be actually two news stories …

RONALDO, ONE OF the world’s best soccer players, is up to his knee-socks in scandal today after his run-in with a pair of transvestite prostitutes wound up on YouTube.

The Brazilian superstar told cops he had no idea the “ladies” he picked up were men until he brought them to a hot sheets hotel early Monday.

Footage of Ronaldo recoiling from them was taken by the spurned hookers, one of whom is under investigation for trying to extort $30,000 from the superstar, Brazilian media reported.

Andre Albertini, who goes by the name Andrea, denied he tried to blackmail Ronaldo and insisted the soccer star tried to buy his silence.

…

She-male kick in head for Ronaldo

(To say that headline writers often have a bit of fun with these stories is stating the obvious. The Times, on Ronaldo, “Three Ronaldo girls all had men’s tackle,” or The Standard’s “What a balls-up” are examples.)

… and …

Dude looked like a lady.

That’s what has puzzled researchers for years about Akhenaten, the famed pharaoh who introduced radical monotheism to ancient Egypt. While he fathered at least at least a half-dozen children, his body form was distinctly feminine.

Now Dr. Irwin Braverman, a Yale University physician who analyzed images of Akhenaten, has a new theory on why. He was due to present his findings yesterday at an annual conference at the University of Maryland School of Medicine on the ailments and deaths of historic figures.

The female form was due to a genetic mutation that caused the pharaoh’s body to convert more male hormones to female hormones, Braverman said. The pharaoh had “an androgynous appearance. He had a female physique with wide hips and breasts, but he was male and he was fertile and he had six daughters. But nevertheless, he looked like he had a female physique.”

…

Egypt’s pharaoh was king of queens

It was not all that long ago, by the way, that another Egyptian “gender-bender,” Hatshepsut, was in the news.

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“).

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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 Lose Weight Exercise 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?