… 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.”

But … they’re just the grubby, dirty (18%) pot calling the scorched, nuked kettle black.

I may be an ol’ yellow dog (from New York City), but I sure as heck don’t feel comfortable voting for them come this November.

(Though I probably will end up doing so. I’m no McCain fan … for starters, I remember this business.)

Forget single issues (trans rights, for instance, especially when folks don’t deliver) — I don’t see these ass clowns doing anything to address and fix my concerns about where my life, or likely where your life and those of most fellow citizens are going.

Obama, please, I expect we’ll see more improvement in his golf game like his buddy, Franklin Raines (shame, shame) …

He has shaved eight points off his golf handicap, taken a corner office in Steve Case’s D.C. conglomeration of finance, entertainment and health-care companies and more recently, taken calls from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters.

… than anything substantive. Steve Case? Dot-com bubble. Harold Raines? Housing-bubble. Barack Obama? Name that bubble.

Here we go: What I’ve been reading online today, paired with an open thread to discuss these articles, or stuff you find interesting.

- Marriage rights celebration, ‘D-List’ celeb among celebration’s highlights. Excerpt:

After 34 years of celebrating diversity and rights for the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community in San Diego, the local organization Pride San Diego is reaping the rewards of activism and education.

Comment: I’m volunteering at the Transgender/TASC booth on Saturday, and the Scouting For All booth on Sunday.

The Scouting For All booth is extremely important to me. I have an Eagle Scout son, and I two other sons in scouting. If it were known that my two sons who are still in the Boy Scouts had a transgender parent, in accordance with how the Boy Scouts Of America’s national policy is applied, my sons would be kicked out of scouting. For me, protesting against the Boy Scouts has a lot to do with them discriminating against youth because of how their parents identify their sexuality or gender identity.

- DiversityInc: Jena 6 Aftermath: Nooses Punishable By Prison. Excerpt:

Nine months after the nation began witnessing an uptick in the number of reported noose sightings following the furor over the Jena 6 incident in Louisiana, lawmakers there, as well as in Connecticut and New York, have made hanging a noose a crime punishable by imprisonment. And more states are likely to follow.

Since September of last year, the number of reported noose incidents nationally jumped to nearly 80, according to the DiversityInc Noose Watch, the first and only tracker of national reported noose sightings.

- San Francisco Chronicle: 24% of state high-schoolers likely to drop out. Excerpt:

Nearly 1 in 4 California students will drop out during high school, state educators said Wednesday, basing their prediction on what they said is the most accurate information about student attendance they’ve ever collected.

Using a new student-tracking system, state educators found that 127,292 high school students in ninth through 12th grade quit school during the 2006-07 school year. That means 24 percent of incoming freshmen won’t stay in school long enough to graduate, researchers said, assuming that pace remains steady.

…The new dropout rate is far higher than the 13 percent educators had earlier estimated using less-sophisticated counting methods they had relied on for years.

Comment: I wonder what the graduation and dropout rates are for LGBT youth — I did a quick look this morning, and couldn’t find any statistics on the subject. I’m sure they’re out there, but I’m not sure where to look for the stats.

- MSNBC: Gore pitches 10-year shift to clean energy; Former VP praises Obama, McCain on climate issue, sees huge opportunity. Excerpt:

Just as John F. Kennedy set his sights on the moon, Al Gore is challenging the nation to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun and other climate-friendly energy sources within 10 years, an audacious goal he hopes the next president will embrace.

- Bay Windows: A novel defense: Convict’s bid for retrial hinges on alleged anti-trans discrimination against potential juror. Excerpt:

At first glance the murder trial of Roxbury gang member Sam Smith, known as “Fat Sam” according to press reports, seems to have little to do with transgender civil rights. In June 2001 a jury convicted Smith of first-degree murder for shooting and killing a member of a rival gang in Roxbury’s Ramsey Park in 1991. But Smith and his attorney, David Mirsky, are hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court will force the state to grant Smith a retrial on the grounds that one of the prosecutors in the case allegedly dismissed a juror because the juror appeared to be transgender.

- Los Angeles Times: Blue Shield sued for allegedly lying about its coverage; L.A. city attorney’s suit contends Blue Shield of California has illegally rescinded the coverage of more than 850 policyholders since 2002.

Comment: * sigh *

- The Lesbian & Gay Foundation (UK): Open meeting held for gay community and local police. Excerpt:

On Monday July 28, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community will have an opportunity to meet representatives from Merseyside Police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to discuss homophobia and hate crime.

The meeting, organised by the Police, the CPS, Terrence Higgins Trust, Wirral LGBT forum and Trans Wirral will be held from 6.30 -8.30pm at The Lauries Centre in Birkenhead.

The open meeting, ‘Merseyside Police and Hate Crime response’ allows members of the LGBT community to meet directly with representatives of Merseyside Police and the CPS to address concerns around homophobic and transphobic incidents and other safety concerns. Homophobic incidents and attacks are often under reported and this meeting will provide a forum for open and honest dialogue.

Comment: I hope this clears some air, but my guess is that bad feelings from the incident that precipitated this meeting are going to linger for awhile.

This story may not be specifically trans-related, but this quote …

Now, said Daniel G. Fish, a noted elder law attorney, “‘She looked so young’ is no defense.’’

… did remind me a bit of some of the absurd and indecent “deception” arguments trotted out in “trans panic” defenses over the years.

As someone who cares for a parent who’s not many years younger than Rose Morat (and as someone who grew up and spent almost half their life in NYC), I’m pleased that Gov. Paterson and the New York State legislature did the decent thing passing this legislation.

(And maybe sometime soon the New York State Senate will do another decent act … and pass the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act.)

… I wouldn’t doubt, to headline the same story — about “transgender poster parent” Thomas Beatie — by syndicated Boston Globe columnist, Ellen Goodman …

1. Pregnant man proves that anatomy does not determine gender
2. A mom named Thomas
3. Medical technology can create confusing relationships
4. The mother (or is it the father?) of all childbirth stories
5. A case to show anatomy is no longer destiny
6. Baby Beatie: Two mommies and two daddies?
7. Child-bearing father bends gender lines
8. Thomas Beatie’s Bizarre Mother/Fatherhood
9. Talk about a gender bender
10. Bearded man gives birth to a baby girl, for real
11. And baby makes …
12. When daddy is also mommy
13. The true tale of a mom named Thomas
14. He’s mother and father
15. ‘Man’s’ pregnancy latest evidence that gender is malleable
16. Pregnant man bends all the rules
17. Social, ethical questions of gender-bending birth
18. A baby-making project as basic as a turkey baster
19. One man’s baby, well sort of
20. Pregnant Man Puts the Trans in Gender
21. The growing divide between anatomy and destiny

… but that’s enough counting for me.

Last month the City Council and mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan voted to expand that city’s antidiscrimination protections to include discrimination based on one’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.

When such protections have been enacted in other places in the country, such as Montgomery County, Maryland, it’s much too often the case that opponents are firm and unyielding in their opposition.

But, not in Hamtramck, where Ypsilanti resident Jay McNally has displayed such a generous grasp of the meaning and spirit of compromise to the locals , according to today’s Detroit Free Press [emphasis added] …

To Randy Groseclose, an antidiscrimination ordinance passed last month by the Hamtramck City Council sets a dangerous precedent.

“There’s concern about what impact an ordinance like this would have on traditional family values,” the 31-year-old married resident said, noting, “I definitely don’t support any kind of discrimination.”

To others, including Mayor Karen Majewski, the ordinance is a sign of compassionate governance. “The intention … is simply to recognize and ensure basic human rights, basic equality of treatment under the law for every resident of Hamtramck.”

The ordinance prohibits discrimination in housing, employment and city contracting against a wide range of groups, but its inclusion of protections covering sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression has put the city at the center of an ideological battle.

In addition to local interest, outside groups such as the American Family Association of Michigan and the Triangle Foundation have taken a strong interest in the debate.

Groseclose was one of several people who collected signatures for a petition that could allow residents to vote on the ordinance. The group needed 417 signatures from registered voters and collected close to 600. City Clerk Ed Norris said he expects to finish the certification process by Monday. If the group collected enough valid signatures, the City Council would be able to repeal the ordinance or put it on a ballot.

Sean Kosofsky, spokesman for Triangle Foundation in Detroit, said the fight in Hamtramck is the latest skirmish between those who support gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights and those who oppose them. He cited fights over similar ordinances in Ann Arbor, Ferndale, Ypsilanti and other Michigan cities.

He said opponents’ claims that the ordinance would target groups such as the Boy Scouts, Salvation Army and others because of their stances on gay rights are lies. “They’re going to try to pit neighbor against neighbor,” he said.

But Jay McNally, a former Michigan Catholic editor from Ypsilanti, disagreed.

McNally, who considers himself a member of the American Family Association, said council members likely did not understand “the disastrous implications of what the Triangle Foundation has in mind.”

Still, he offered what he considered to be a compromise: McNally said he could support the ordinance without references to sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, points Majewski said were “nonnegotiable.”

Rights ordinance stirs debate

He says it’s a boycott.

The San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting that ex-gay/former homosexual/alleged mouthpiece of God James Hartline is planning to organize his thousands of followers into not tip employees of the Manchester Grand Hyatt.

We have to back up a little, so here’s the story. Doug Manchester is a large shareholder of the Manchester Grand Hyatt, which is named for his family. He contributed $125,000 to Proposition 8 — also known as the California Marriage Protection Act — which is the ballot measure that would undo the California Supreme Courts’ marriage equality ruling.

LGBT civil rights activists and union leaders have organized a boycott of the Manchester Grand Hyatt because of the $125,000 donation. The Unite Here Local 30 is supporting the boycott; Unite Here Local 30 turns out to be the local that represents workers at the Manchester Grand Hyatt.

Fred Karger, Public Relations Chair and founding President of Californians Against Hate organized a news conference about the LGBT boycott of the hotel. From a Union-Tribune article entitled Gay-rights supporters to boycott Manchester Grand Hyatt:

Fred Karger, who is helping to organize the boycott and is running an organization opposed to Proposition 8, said he is also urging the public to boycott Manchester’s other hotel, the Grand Del Mar.

“This is someone who is giving an exorbitant amount of money to write discrimination into the constitution for the very first time,” he said.

Karger said he hopes the boycott will send a message to other potential contributors to the Proposition 8 campaign.

“Our goal is to create a business loss for people who contribute,” he said. “We want to make it a little uncomfortable.”

From the Californians Against Hate website:

[More after the fold]

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This morning’s Raleigh News & Observer has a feature on blogger Pam Spaulding who will be covering (along with Autumn) the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August for Pam’s House Blend …

Spaulding, a Durham native, is a bit of a local celebrity these days, recognized in supermarkets and airports by her dirty-blond dreadlocks. And it’s all because of her blog, Pam’s House Blend, which turns four years old this month. The progressive, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issue-centered blog is also one of the first to acquire press credentials to this year’s Democratic National Convention, which is granting access to bloggers for the first time.

It’s a responsibility Spaulding takes seriously — even if some politicians and mainstream media don’t think a blogger deserves to have it.

“Sometimes, yes, it’s profane, sometimes it’s rude, sometimes it’s not grammatically correct, but the medium is different. It’s fast and loose,” she says. “But that does not mean that the ideas are bankrupt, that the criticism isn’t legitimate.”

Pam’s House Blend has won a number of awards, including the Distinguished Achievement Award from The Monette-Horwitz Trust, for making strides toward the eradication of homophobia; Best LGBT Blog in the 2005 and 2006 Weblog Awards; and accolades from the likes of gay activist Mandy Carter and former Democratic Senate candidate Jim Neal.

…

The rest of “Blogger gets respect” may be found here.

It looks like this sort of thing is spreading (more on that here) … and though we’re on the subject of cracks, I’m going to resist making one about the “flinty” police chief’s last name …

Police chief says no to crack

A US town’s new police chief has banned low hung trousers that expose wearers’ bums.

Police Chief David R Dicks, of Flint, Michigan, says his officers will arrest people who wear their pants too low.

“This immoral self expression goes beyond free speech,” he said in a statement. “It rises to the crime of indecent exposure.”

Some Flint residents are backing Police Chief Dicks, reports the Flint Journal newspaper.

“It’s overdue,” said Sam Berry, 73, of Flint. And Gwendolyn Allen, 72, agreed: “It’s so disgusting… It’s disgraceful.”

But others disagree. Claude Carter, 49, said wearing pants low was a fad - not a crime.

“I see young and old wearing their pants that way,” said Mr Carter. “It doesn’t annoy me.”

Greg Gibbs, a local attorney, says how people wear their clothing is a form of expression - but warns that not all of those forms are protected by the constitution.

“The issue is: Does it violate the First Amendment?” said Gibbs, adding that he plans to research the issue further.

I guess the Coppertone Girl won’t be welcome in Flint either.

By the way, it’s worth recalling that the Delcambre (La.) ordinance stated “It shall be unlawful for any person in any public place or in view of the public to be found … in dress not becoming to his or her sex … ” Just remember to use good fashion sense (we don’t need no “tranny messes” around here) so as to not offend fashionistas like Mayor Carol Broussard …

The clause about “dress not becoming to his or her sex” doesn’t forbid cross-dressing, Broussard said. “A dress, I wouldn’t find that obscene. As long as he covers himself and it’s not too short.”

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.

A photo of Autumn at the recent Congresssional hearing on “An Examination of Discrimination Against Transgender Americans in the Workplace”…

… which appeared on HRC Back Story blog (”A round-up of transgender reactions to the first congressional hearing on gender identity“) yesterday.

Autumn, at the the left in the picture, is seen chatting with HRC Business Council members Diego Sanchez and Meghan Stabler. Hearing witness Sabrina Marcus Taraboletti and NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling are in the background.

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

Two interesting features worth a look in tomorrow’s New York Times Sunday Magazine (6.29.2008) …

Genes, money, drive … if you have’em, you might have a chance of looking and performing like Dara Torres at 41 years of age …

NEAR THE WARM-UP POOL AT THE Missouri Grand Prix swim meet, in Columbia, a crop of Olympic hopefuls lolled around in practice suits and towels on a Saturday morning in February. Fully clothed among them stood some relics of Olympics past: Scott Goldblatt, who won a gold medal in the 2004 Games, wore an aqua sport coat and a striped tie and was doing on-air commentary for Swimnetwork.com; Mel Stewart, who won two golds and a bronze in 1992, wore the same goofy get-up, working as Goldblatt’s sidekick. Meanwhile, Dara Torres, who won the first of her nine Olympic medals in 1984, a year before Michael Phelps was born, stripped off her baggy T-shirt and sweat pants, revealing a breathtaking body in a magenta Speedo. She pulled on a cap marked with her initials and prepared to swim. Torres is now 41 and the mother of a 2-year-old daughter, Tessa Grace. She broke her first of three world records in 1982, at 14, and she has retired from swimming and come back three times, her latest effort built on an obsessive attention to her aging body.

Torres’s retinue includes a head coach, a sprint coach, a strength coach, two stretchers, two masseuses, a chiropractor and a nanny, at the cost of at least $100,000 per year. At the Olympic trials, this week, in Omaha, Neb., she’s expected to swim fast enough to make her fifth Olympic team. If she does, she’ll be the first American swimmer to compete in five Olympics (despite sitting out 1996 and 2004). She’ll also be oldest female swimmer in the history of the Olympic games.

…

The rest of “A Swimmer of a Certain Age” may be read here.

And Times fashion writer Guy Trebay has a feature on filmmaker and “fashionista” Daphne Guinness …

Because the archetypal women in Daphne Guinness’s short film, ‘‘The Phenomenology of Body,’’ revolve on turntables, it is somehow easier to think of her as a D.J. than as a director. Because the chic images she assembled appear in some sense random, it seems appropriate to think of her as more a sampler than any kind of auteur. And because the story depicting women through the ages is, as its creator points out, not exactly linear and only accidentally feminist, it is easy to see in it hints of autobiography, the personal history of a slightly anachronistic sort of being, less actor than spectator, a woman upon whom the events of life impress themselves.

While few outside the style world are likely to have heard of Guinness, she exercises considerable fascination in fashionable circles and the tabloid press. The daughter of the Guinness brewery heir Jonathan Guinness, formally known as Lord Moyne, Guinness is also the step-granddaughter of Sir Oswald Mosley, the British fascist; the ex-wife of Spyros Niarchos, of Greek shipping fame (she married him at 19; he settled a reputed $40 million dollars on her when they divorced in 1999); and lately the subject of tabloid rumors related to her friendship with Bernard-Henri Lévy, the wealthy, and married, French writer whose intellect is almost as celebrated as his luxuriant head of hair.

…

The rest of “Her Feminine Mystique” may be read here, and her film’s below …

One of the things I noticed about the An Examination of Discrimination Against Transgender Americans in the Workplace hearing is that minus the Alliance Defense Fund, there weren’t any conservative Christian organizations speaking at the hearing; minus the Traditional Values Coalition any conservative Christian organizations leaving press materials at the hearing; and minus the ranking minority member of the subcommittee (Rep. John Kline, R-MN) there were no Republicans there to ask questions of the witnesses at the hearing.

So what’s happening now there’s a conservative Christian community characterization of the hearing as if there was serious wave of opposition speaking to trans employment issues — but they didn’t actually have much presense there opposing any future gender idenity and expression inclusive legislation in person.

Some examples of online, conservative Christian commentary:

- PFOX: Congressional Hearing To Push Gender Confusion Upon All Americans

Democrat leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have scheduled a hearing this Thursday on discrimination against “transgendered” individuals in the workplace.

“Homosexuals and their transgender activist allies hope to use this hearing as a way of forcing the imposition of gender confusion upon all Americans,” said Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) Executive Director Regina Griggs today. “Instead of treating transsexualism and cross-dressing behaviors as Gender Identity Disorders (GID) as defined by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Democrats seem determined to make these behaviors into federally-protected minorities.”

“Why should Congress force Americans to provide workplace accommodations for people who are confused about whether they’re male or female? How can Congress force us to make believe that a man is really a woman or a woman is really a man?”

“If Democrats were truly concerned about these gender confused individuals, they’d push for expanded mental health services for GID. A person can’t change his or her sex – and many of these individuals think they’re a woman one day and a man the next day. Why is Congress catering to such insanity?”

[OneNewsNow/American Family Association, Peter LaBarbera, Focus On The Family/CitizenLink, Concerned Women For America, and Traditional Values Coalition commentaries below the fold.]
Read the rest of this entry »

Transgender people were thrown out of the Gay Liberation Movement in part because newly out transwomen aren’t photogenic — transwomen are often perceived to photograph as “freaks” — Is the desire to appear mainstream becoming more key in the LGBT push for marriage equality than it already has been? Could the “mainstreaming” approach to LGBT issues again negatively impact basic civil rights and protections for transgender people?

When I look at myself in the mirror, I see that my only two piercings are centered in my two earlobes; my hair is dyed a dirty blond (close to my old, natural color) to cover my gray; I get manicures and pedicures that are finished with “work-friendly” nail polish shades; my clothing is usually age appropriate; and my written opinions at Pam’s House Blend are usually made with a soft touch…with my opinions being pretty much within the norms of progressive politics. My therapist reminded me last week, as she has frequently, that I appear to be pretty mainstream.

What isn’t mainstream about me? Maybe the one, large tattoo on my back isn’t that mainstream, but frankly tattoos have pretty much entered mainstream society. The only other thing is I’m a very out transsexual — who very much for political reasons identifies as transgender. But even with that, I’m not an angry transwoman who often whines about my fate, or frequently and militantly rails against perceived societal injustices towards transgender people. Apparently, I’m about as close to mainstream in appearance and attitude as an out transwoman can be — so I imagine it’s safe to identify me as mainstream transgender.

So if I’m so mainstream, why am so I chafing at the Los Angeles Times‘ story Gay couples are emphasizing low-key weddings? I’m concerned about the “unsolicited advice” to same sex couples is don’t be flamboyant even if you are flamboyant (emphasis added):

The gay and lesbian couples who packed a Hollywood auditorium last week had come seeking information about California’s new marriage policies. But they also got some unsolicited advice.

Be aware.

Images from gay weddings, said Lorri L. Jean, chief executive of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, could be used by opponents in a campaign designed to persuade California voters that gays and lesbians should not have the right to marry. Those getting married, she cautioned, should never lose sight of what they might be supplying to the other side.

Sitting close to his husband-to-be in the audience, hairstylist Kendall Hamilton nodded and said he knew just what she meant. No “guys showing up in gowns,” he said.

“It’s a weird subject,” added Hamilton, 39, who plans to wed his partner of five years, Ray Paolantonio. “We want everybody to be free, but the image does matter. . . . They are going to try to make us look like freaks.”

[After the fold, transgender inclusion in LGBT civil rights legislation tied to how transgender women are often less than photogenic.]

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