More from Melissa on some of her transition experience. Thanks, Melissa!
I should point out just how nice Melbourne and Sydney are socially.
When I transitioned, I was working in Sydney on a three month contract to KPMG (a “big 5″ accounting firm). I transitioned in December, 6 weeks into the contract, and not only did they have no problem at all, they actually offered me a contract extension at the end.
I was also dancing actively in the ballroom dancing community in Melbourne and Sydney, and had done competition. Some of my competitive coaches trained me to dance as a woman, and after a break of about 3 months, I resumed dancing socially in my new role.
Out of hundreds of people in many dance studios in both cities, only a handful of people complained that I was there, and none to my face. The ones who had a problem were basically told to take their problem and get out. I now dance competitively as a girl, and won in competition two weeks ago – with adjudicators who knew me from before.
I was always involved in Melbourne’s Orthodox Jewish community and have relatives who are religious to a fundamentalist level. This is a community that believe the world is less than 6,000 years old, was literally created in 6 days, and that homosexuality is prohibited (for Jews at least) by God. Needless to say, I do not believe as they do, but family ties are long-lasting friendships not easy to break.
Fearing the worst, I avoided the community after transition for about two years, until by chance I read an article written by an Orthodox Jewish trans-woman (Beth Orens) who made a case under Jewish religious law for recognition. Curious as to what would happen, I approach an Orthodox Rabbi I used to be close to in Melbourne and asked his opinion. He studied the text for about a month, consulted with several other Rabbis and made a ruling that I was now a woman. And the rest of the Jewish religious world fell into line, including my aunt and uncle who welcomed me back into their home. Everyone decided to conveniently ignore the fact that I am lesbian, even though I lived with a female partner at the time and we would walk around in front of everyone holding hands and cuddling each other.
And so I lived, comfortably, until being offered a very highly paid contract in Perth. There, for the first time, I encountered sexism, racism, homophobia (as a lesbian) and transphobia. All within a few weeks. Only maybe 5% of people were bigots, but it showed me that where I had lived was something of a utopia. And then, looking for a better lesbian dating scene and more of a connection with my heritage, I moved to Israel last year. I moved back 6 months later, shocked by the extent of hatred and intolerance I found. People didn’t just have intellectual issues as to whether or not I was female – many were angry that I was alive and walking on the surface of the planet at all.
I should point out that many people have had more negative experiences than me. I transitioned young, am extremely “passable” and outgoing, and socialise almost entirely amongst left-wing geeks, and creative people of a high intellectual level. People with different backgrounds have done far worse.
Nevertheless, my travels suggest to me that Australia is one of the most trans-friendly places in the world, and the legal situation now (with same sex de-facto relationshps fully recognised in every Australian state and under federal law) is one of the best outside of Canada in the world.
News and views for Thursday, December 4th and Friday, December 5th …
[FL, USA] “On March 24, registered voters in the city of Gainesville will decide whether the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance should be the same as Florida state anti-discrimination statute. If local law were altered to mirror the state statute, the change would eliminate the words “sexual preference” and “gender identity” from the classes of people in Gainesville who are granted equal access to housing, employment, public accommodation and credit. Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan emphasized Thursday that without the city’s added protections, it is perfectly legal for a business owner to refuse to serve a gay person or for a landlord to deny housing to a transgender individual. She said the city has chosen to protect these people from discrimination. “If you take away your community’s right to do that and cede that right to the state, then you defacto say, that, ‘OK, we are willing to allow those discriminations.’ “” — Commissioners OK amendment wording
[NY, USA] “Rejecting a trial judge’s objection that a gendered name-change would cause “confusion,” a unanimous panel of the New York Appellate Division in Albany ruled on November 26 that the person formerly known as Earl William Golden III should be allowed to take the name Elizabeth Whitney Golden. However, the appellate court also ruled that Justice Jeffrey A Tait, the Broome County trial judge who had denied the name-change petition, should include in his order a statement that the name change could not be used as proof of a change of sex.” — Trans Name Change Win
[OH, USA] In Cleveland, the “City Council is well on its way to including transgender people in the city’s non-discrimination code and creating Ohio’s third domestic partner registry. Ordinances to do both were been approved on December 1 by council’s Legislative Committee and will likely be passed by the full council at their December 8 meeting. Mayor Frank Jackson is expected to sign both the registry and the measure to add gender identity to the city’s equal rights ordinances, said his spokesperson Maureen Harper. The equality ordinances have included “sexual orientation” since 1994 … The bill’s sponsor, [Council member] Joe Santiago, asked if there was a need to add the phrase “and expression” after “gender identity” in the bill’s wording. [ACLU staff attorney Carrie] Davis said adding “expression” would be a broader definition and more inclusive. After discussion, however, Santiago and the members agreed that the measure’s definition of “gender identity” essentially includes “expression.”” — Partner registry and TG rights bills approved
[OH, USA] And, in Columbus, “Ohio’s capital city is considering changes to its human rights ordinances to add protection based on gender identity or expression. The proposed ordinance will be introduced December 8 by councilor Priscilla Tyson, who chairs the administration committee. Tyson was appointed to city council in 2007 to fill the seat vacated by openly lesbian Mary Jo Hudson, who resigned to become the Ohio insurance commissioner. The ordinance updates sections of city code covering employment non-discrimination, fair housing, public accommodations and ethnic intimidation.” — Columbus prepares to add gender identity protections
[USA] From today’s Washington Blade editorial: “In the fight for ENDA last year, many members of Congress who agreed to vote for an ENDA bill that protected gays and lesbians wouldn’t vote for the bill if transgender people were included. No demand by the House leadership was going to get their votes for two reasons: First, many didn’t really understand the meaning of transgender; second, some felt that even if they understood they couldn’t justify that vote to their constituents who didn’t in the next election. In the future, if we can harness the energy displayed by members of our community and our straight allies after the defeat of Prop 8, we have a chance to change this outcome.” — Now what?
[USA] Michael Gross is not the only person who’s angry. From a cynical and angry Vanessa Edwards Foster, “However, the trans community’s movement – simply the essential desire of being able to survive and earn a living – is currently being overwritten, completely occluded from public sight and vanishing before our very eyes. ‘[W]e are angry, probably not least at ourselves for our own complacency and cowardice, for not working as hard as we could, for not giving as much as we could, and for letting so much slip from our grasp.‘ Nearly forty years after the late Marsha P. Johnson, former NTAC member Sylvia Rivera and others created this current popular movement’s flashpoint at Stonewall, the trans community anger will not be quelled, nor will we be sated. Will we simply allow ourselves to disappear? Those of us who’ve had virtually nothing to begin with will not relinquish our grasp on what little we do have. There are far too many of us that remember, far too many of us that are still left out. We will not go quietly into that dark night. Enter the Retributive Era.” — Trans Rights Movement Is Disappearing Before Our Eyes
[Australia] “The Federal Government’s human rights arm plans to invent a new official status called “intersex” adding it to male and female as a legally recognised gender. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission wants people to be able to change their gender on their passports and driving licences even if they do not undergo surgery. And transgender lobby groups say that even this does not go far enough and are demanding a fourth legal gender called “other” for people who feel like their gender is indefinable or changes from day to day. The extraordinary proposals are contained in a discussion paper quietly issued to transgender and transexual advocates by the commission, a statutory body that advises the Government on such matters. The paper, entitled Sex Files – The legal recognition of sex: Proposed reform, says the introduction of the new “intersex” gender is a “key feature of the reform proposal being developed by the commission”. “Recognition of intersex: Persons who cannot or do not identify as either male or female would be able to choose to be identified on their birth certificate and passport as intersex,” it says. “A person who cannot or chooses not to undergo surgery would not be automatically ineligible to request a change in their legal sex.”" — Government human rights arm pushes for third gender
[Canada] “Transgendered porn star Buck Angel —who bills himself as “the man with a pussy” —makes a lucrative living selling and starring in adult DVDs (Buckback Mountain, Buck Off) and streaming videos. The demographics of his audience offer some surprising insight regarding gay and lesbian desires. “Eighty percent of my customer base is gay men. Twenty percent is female —bisexual, straight and gay,” explains Angel. “I get a lot of gay men writing me letters about how they are so turned on by me and they can’t believe it and what does that make them, are they now straight? My vagina freaks people out, especially gay men,” he says. “They are attracted to me as a person but because I have a vagina, it just totally throws them for a loop, they can’t wrap their head around it.” Angel says he has seen and heard many horror stories about the treatment of trans folks by gays and lesbians. “Twenty years ago, I identified as a dyke. When I started transitioning, the dyke community ostracized me; every single one of my friends wanted nothing to do with me. There was no knowledge about what was going on then. “Funnily enough, a lot of people have called me since then, asking me how they go about transitioning now.”" — The evolution of desire: How trans people are challenging our understanding of same-sex attraction
[UK] “The applause was heartfelt, but few of the hundreds of immaculately dressed ladies celebrating at the NatWest Everywoman Awards at the Dorchester yesterday were aware that entrepreneur Kate Craig-Wood, who won one of the main prizes, started life as a man. She certainly doesn’t feel she got the award under false pretences, telling me: ‘I officially became a woman two years ago.’” — A woman’s winning touch
[UK] The Endocrine Society has published its draft guidelines for the endocrine treatment of transsexual persons. The conclusions set forth in the guidelines were as follows: “Transsexual persons seeking to develop the physical characteristics of the appropriate gender require a safe and effective hormone regimen that will 1) suppress endogenous hormone secretion determined by the person’s genetic/biologic sex and 2) maintain sex hormone levels within the normal range for the person’s gender. A mental health professional (MHP) must recommend endocrine treatment and participate in the ongoing care throughout the endocrine transition. The endocrinologist must confirm the diagnostic criteria the MHP used to make this recommendation and collaborate with the MHP in making the recommendation for surgical sex reassignment. We recommend treating transsexual adolescents (Tanner stage 2) with suppression of puberty with GnRH analogues until age 16 years old, only after which time cross-sex hormones may be given. We suggest suppression of endogenous sex hormones, maintaining physiologic levels of gender-appropriate sex hormones and surveillance for known risks and complications in adult transsexual persons.” — Endocrine Treatment of Transsexual Persons: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline (PDF)
[UK] The New Scientist‘s write-up on the Endocrine Society guidelines: “Young teenagers with extreme gender identity disorder should be given drugs to block puberty so that they don’t have to experience distressing changes to their bodies which they perceive to be out of line with their true gender. So say draft international guidelines (pdf format) issued by the Endocrine Society this week – the first to offer advice to doctors on this controversial issue. The hope is that by delaying puberty, young teens will be given valuable thinking time in which they can decide if they are sure they want to begin gender reassignment using cross-sex hormones at the age of 16. Ultimately, this strategy would also make it easier for them to live in their chosen gender. For example, potential male-to-female transsexuals will not have developed the deep voice, facial changes and body hair associated with adult masculinity. Gender-reassignment surgery should be avoided until the age of 18, the guidelines say.” — Delaying puberty could help gender-confused teens
[UK] A question that perhaps you’ll never see on the U.S. Census: “Members of the public are to be questioned about their sexual orientation in a range of surveys by Government statisticians which will create the first accurate estimate of the size of Britain’s homosexual population … Future studies could also ask Britons if they have had sex swaps or are “undergoing the process of gender reassignment”. The Office for National Statistics, the organisation that collates data for use by Government, says the new questions are essential to meet equality laws and to find out if people from minority groups are discriminated against. The answers received will also create the first comprehensive picture of how many homosexuals live in Britain, in which areas, and how old they are.” — Office for National Statistics to calculate size of Britain’s homosexual population
[UK] From a review of a new biography, “Moreschi: the Angel of Rome”: “The castrato craze was one of the most bizarre phenomena of the European Baroque period. In the middle years of the 16th century eunuchs began to be prized in the courts of Italy for their peculiar vocal power and brilliance. By 1600, Pope Clement VIII could solemnly declare that “the creation of castrati for Church choirs is to be held to the honour of God”. A century later the gelded male, whether soprano or alto, dominated the Italian operatic scene. Stars such as Senesino, Caffarelli and Carestini earned huge salaries in the course of glittering international careers, while the legendary Farinelli, by singing the same five arias nightly for 23 years to two schizophrenic kings of Spain, became their éminence grise and, as some believed, unofficial ruler of the Spanish empire. “Long live the knife!” bawled Italian theatre audiences, and for many an impoverished family the operation seemed like a passport to financial security.” — The last castrato
[MD, USA] ” If all humans are created equal, then why do only two Maryland jurisdictions have laws to protect a group that includes hundreds of Marylanders? It’s a statewide conflict over transgender discrimination. Sally Thorner reports people close to the issue say it’s time for a change.” — Top Model Talks About Being Transgender
[TN, USA] “The videotaped beating of a transgender woman in police custody in Memphis last February led to charges against two officers and national condemnation from gay rights groups. The officers were fired, and the Police Department overhauled some of its procedures and began sensitivity training for the entire force. But a week ago, the woman, Duanna Johnson, 43, was found fatally shot near downtown. Ms. Johnson’s death has revived scrutiny of the case as the department is under pressure to find the killer. “Duanna Johnson’s case was tragic before, and now it’s an almost unimaginable loss,” said Jared Feuer, the Southern regional director of Amnesty International. “Her treatment demonstrates a culture of violence against transgender people that must be addressed.” — Murder of Transgender Woman Revives Scrutiny
[MN, USA] “On the November 14 edition of his Minneapolis radio show, Chris Baker repeatedly referred to Thomas Beatie, a pregnant transgender man, as a “mutilated lesbian.” He also referred to Beatie as a “freak.” Baker also stated: “If a lesbian gets pregnant, I’m fine with it. I’m OK. Just stop alternating reality and trying to force me to buy into your psychosis.” Baker made the comments while discussing Barbara Walters’ interview of Beatie and his wife, Nancy Beatie. Guest co-host Nicole Remini said of Walters’ interview, “[S]o Barbara goes, ‘Are you pregnant again?’ Like, bluh. Sorry, I just threw up in my mouth on the radio.” Remini added: “It’s disgusting. I really have a problem with it.”" — Radio host Baker referred to Thomas Beatie as a “mutilated lesbian”
[NH, USA] Virginia Prescott of New Hampshire Public Radio interviewed journalist Hanna Rosin, whose article about a transgender child, “A Boy’s Life,” appeared in the November 2008 issue of Atlantic Monthly. — Transgender Children
[CA, USA] “A transsexual former California state prison inmate, who claimed to have suffered repeated sexual assaults and beatings at the hands of two cellmates, should be allowed to pursue a negligence damage claim against prison officials, an appeals court ruled on November 14, but she was not entitled to pursue damages under the “cruel and unusual punishment” provision of the state constitution. The plaintiff’s demand for injunctive relief was properly denied, ruled the court, because by the time of her trial, she had been released on parole … As a result of the ruling, Alexis Giraldo, who was sent to Folsom State Prison on January 4, 2006, while serving time for a parole violation, will be given a trial of her charge that prison officials were negligent in failing to protect her from attacks by her cellmates … Since Giraldo was released on parole before the trial, the state might take the prudential step of offering Giraldo a monetary settlement of her claim rather than have to go through a trial at which each of the named defendants would have to testify, especially considering the specific allegations of callous disregard on the part of some of them recited by the court.” — California Appeals Court Revives Transsexual Inmate’s Negligence Suit Against Prison Officials, but Rejects State Constitutional Claim
[WI, USA] From Jillian Barfield, ” … I’ve concluded that the overwhelming majority of corporations that have been contacted by The Transgender Job Bank who are on the CEI 100% inclusive list are NOT inclusive and that I believe that the Human Rights Campaign organization is deceiving the public by representing that the problem of transgender workplace discrimination is not as prevalent as it truly is. At the same time The Human Rights Campaign accepts substantial financial support from these same organizations to promote their rich, white, gay, male agenda. The Human Rights Campaign has used their political ’scorecard’ system as a political weapon to disenfranchise the transgender community in Congress. I call upon the Human Rights Campaign to cease these practices immediately and to remove references to the transgender community from their public agenda.” — The Human Rights Campaign – Rich, White, Male, Agenda
[MD, USA] “Martine Rothblatt envisions you uploading a digital version of yourself that could live forever online. It’s not her first far-out idea … it’s a tough sell, that is, until you consider the other seeming impossibilities Rothblatt – who has a doctorate, a master’s degree in business administration and a law degree – has already achieved. When she was young, she dreamed of tiny satellite antennas that could fit on the tops of cars; she later launched Sirius Satellite Radio and won recognition as one of the inventors of the medium. She was born male, but felt female, and in the early 1990s underwent a sex change operation and became an advocate for transgender rights. With no drug development background, she started a biotech company to find a treatment for her daughter Jenesis’ primary pulmonary hypertension, a rare, life-threatening disease that elevates the pressure on blood vessels in the lungs. Today, Silver Spring-based United Therapeutics has a stock market value of about $2.6 billion and gave Rothblatt a compensation package worth $25 million in 2007.” — Virtual immortality
[Spain] “The Spanish monarchy is upset that the cranky things their Queen says to them all day managed to get written down and have said that she was quoted “inexactly” and apologized if Grandma’s nutty rants upset any of the local homosexual peasantry. The Spanish Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexual accepted the apology, failing to mention that come Madrid Pride, you can bet half the gays will be dressed up as sexy, glittery Sofía’s.” — Spanish Queen Doesn’t Understand Parading Queens
[South Korea] “Transsexuals should be allowed to change their legal gender without undergoing a sex-change operation, South Korea’s rights watchdog said Monday, suggesting the Supreme Court amend its transgender guidelines. The top court’s guidelines stipulate that transsexual people have to have sex reassignment surgery in order to officially change their gender. The guidelines were made in 2006 to maintain judicial consistency amid concerns that rulings had varied according to judges’ social leanings since the first case for a male-to-female transsexual person was approved in 2002. The National Human Rights Commission of Korea said such court guidelines, however, overlook the expenses and health risks transsexual people have to bear for surgery. “A sex reassignment surgery is very expensive, and its results sometimes can have fatal effects on one’s health. Considering those concerns, it is too excessive a demand for the judiciary to require surgery, while there can be other medical methods for sexual transition, like hormone therapy,” Yoon Seol-ah, the commission spokesperson, said. A 2006 survey by the rights commission suggests many transsexual people live in poverty due to prejudice and discrimination. Their monthly income averaged 700,000 won (US$497), it found, while a sex-change operation costs up to 100 million won. No official data exist, but the commission assumes there are about 4,500 people in South Korea who identify with a physical gender different from the one with which they were born. Those who have had gender reassignment surgery number 300 to 400. The watchdog also said other guidelines, such as requiring applicants to be 20 or older and unmarried, or to have finished the military service or be exempt from it, violate their human rights and should be abolished. “Their lives will be better off if their gender gets changed early and their identity forms early,” Yoon said. The watchdog also said judges should rule over transsexual cases with legislation rather than the top court guidelines and suggested that the National Assembly speaker establish a special law on the issue. — Transsexuals should be allowed to change legal gender without surgery: watchdog
[Nepal] A real Shangri-La? “Close on the heels of an international furore over the state of California’s decision to ban same-sex marriages, the apex court of nascent Himalayan republic Nepal has given its nod to such unions. “My eyes were filled with tears when I read the Supreme Court decision,” said Sunil Babu Pant, Nepal’s first publicly gay lawmaker and a gay rights icon in South Asia … Also striking a blow for transgenders, who were the butt of abuse for crossdressing, the court has ruled that crossdressing is not perversion but an individual’s freedom of expression.” — Same-sex marriage gets court nod in Nepal
[VT, USA] “They started out loving me. They thought I was the greatest thing since Grandma’s apple pie,” he recalls. But Tony says things changed once town officials learned he was transgender. “It was like day and night. I went to work one day and no one talked to me,” he says. Tony says he was ostracized, harassed, and officers didn’t respond to calls for backup. On some occasions, he felt his life was put in danger. He was being forced out. “I was a victim,” Tony says. “I know I will never forget it and I will do everything in my power to prevent anyone else from going through it.” – Transgender Discrimination
[CA, USA] In Palm Springs, a restaurant has changed its dress code: “The revised policy no longer forbids male patrons dressed in drag … The owners’ policy change comes more than a month after Dink’s opened and three weeks after Palm Springs entertainer Tommi Rose was turned away from the restaurant because of his attire. Rose, who frequently performs in drag, visited Dink’s on Oct. 18. He had attended the Equality Awards earlier that night and was wearing an evening gown. The doorman told Rose that his “kind” wasn’t allowed there, Rose said. When he asked the doorman what he meant, he was told “‘men dressed in drag,’” Rose said.” — Men in drag now welcome at Dink’s
[OR, USA] From columnist Carol McAlice Currie writing in Friday’s Statesman Journal (alternate link here or here), “Hampton would have been within his rights to pull his son from the child care program. Instead, he took his grievance to the airwaves via the Lars Larson talk show. Larson declared that sexual orientations such as this employee’s are “illegal, disgusting, grotesque and perverse.” Hampton urged the conservative talk-radio fans to call the Y and make sure that other children weren’t “left in jeopardy” … Protect them from what, I asked? A person different from themselves? A person who has enough to deal with as she struggles to reject a gender assigned by genitals, but not borne out by feelings? … Seeking to shame or embarrass the Y and this individual is wrong, and so is the message the other children now are getting: that people who are different are to be despised.” — Father should teach tolerance
[GA, USA] “Is ‘butch’ an outdated word? Maybe. But there are still butch women — of course it’s there.” With the rise of transgender men, however, sometimes there is a blurring of the old-school butch/femme roles that became popular in the 1950s among working class lesbians. “Now we have tranny boys who date gay men, who date femmes, who date other transmen — the rainbow spectrum has really changed in the past four to five years,” Holder said … “A femme is about being a lady, beauty. I like to dress up, smell good, look good. I have always been a girly-girl,” she said. “A femme is the essence of being a lady. I hold myself to a certain standard.” Watson has dated both femmes and studs. She explained that “butch” is the word that tends to be used by white women while “stud” tends to be an African-American term … The hardest part of being a lovely femme is going to clubs and other women telling her she’s not a lesbian. “They think I’m straight because of the way I look. I always ask, ‘Well, what does a lesbian look like?’ I’m very comfortable with who I am.”” — Butch/femme dynamic thrives in Atlanta women
[CT, USA] “The weathered bronze statue strikes the classic Venus de Milo pose — a graceful female figure with rounded breasts and belly, standing in coy contrapposto, covering her genitalia with a casual hand. But the Grecian symbol of womanhood takes a new twist in this photo, sporting a pink tie and short blond wig, with playful orange balloons floating at its feet. Instead of the quintessential feminine image, viewers now face a wacky, whimsical, sexually ambiguous human figure. All of the art on display at the Afro-American Cultural Center gallery’s exhibit of Trans/Genderqueer art and photography seeks to similarly confuse the viewer’s preconceptions of biological, sexual and cultural boundaries.” — Full breasts exposed
[MI, USA] “In a late night session Thursday, the Michigan House passed a package of two bills to expand the state’s ethnic intimidation act. Under the bills, bias motivated crimes would be subject to more severe punishments, including extended prison time and upgrading of misdemeanor criminal acts to felonies … The set of bills expands the current definition of bias crimes to include sexual orientation, disability, and gender identity and/or expression. It also makes it a crime for targeting a person because they are perceived to be a member of a protected class.” — Michigan House passes hate crime package, sends it to Senate
[USA] Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality asked about ENDA (Will Congress be able to pass a trans-inclusive ENDA?), “Absolutely. We were so close last fall. Now, there are a lot of people doing a lot of work around ENDA and I am confident that if we all get the grassroots and DC work done that has to be done, we will have sufficient votes to pass ENDA and even overcome any possible parliamentary maneuver from our opponents. That being said, most of us do not expect ENDA to come up right away in this Congress though I wouldn’t want to venture a guess more specific than that.” — We Won, We Lost. What’s Next for 2009?
[USA] Rea Carey of The Task Force asked about her organizations’ legislative priorities, “The Task Force Action Fund has a number of legislative priorities, including expanding and strengthening existing federal hate crimes law and the repeal of ”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), but our top legislative priority will continue to be passage of an inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Leadership will likely move other legislation first, such as the hate crimes bill, and we look forward to working with them on those efforts as well. However, a key focus of our energy and expertise will be on creating federal employment protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.” — We Won, We Lost. What’s Next for 2009?
[USA] “These past few years we have seen a number of serious researchers complain that anti-gay and “ex-gay” ideologues are distorting and cherry-picking lines from scientific publications. The cure for this, and the prevention for a repeat of the past eight abysmal years of American history, is, it seems to me, education. People need to learn to read critically, everyone should have a solid background in scientific methods, some statistical literacy would be a nice thing. Listen carefully when you hear them talk about education, about home-schooling and charter schools, and when they complain about our public schools. Some groups benefit when Americans are poorly educated.” — NARTH Misinterprets the Science
[USA] “I keep wondering just how much the many different configurations of body, gender, presentation and behavior (words from the Trans 101: Terms and Concepts workshop yesterday) that fit under the big umbrella of “transgender” are asked to fit there because of the rigidity of the binary gender packages of “male” and “female”, “men” and “women.” As presenter Beth Harrison-Prado noted at the outset, “transgender” is above all a word — albeit freighted with meaning in our culture — and a word required by people’s growing recognition that gender in real life, rather than in the movies, magazines, and the conventional popular cultural imagination, is complex and immensely variable.” — Gender Complexity
[USA] From ABC News, “Thomas Beatie, the transgender man who bore a daughter four months ago, has become the public face of an issue for many other transgender people: having their roles as parents legally recognized. In an exclusive interview airing tonight on “20/20,” Beatie told Barbara Walters that he is pregnant with his second child … As the biological parent, Thomas Beatie has legally secure rights. His wife, on the other hand, is not biologically related to their baby but is granted parental rights by virtue of her marriage to Thomas Beatie. So if the validity of their marriage were challenged, experts say, Nancy Beatie’s parental rights could be in jeopardy. “There is litigation in other states over whether their marriage would be recognized,” said Nancy Polikoff, a law professor at American University in Washington, D.C. Polikoff envisioned a scenario in which the Beaties moved to a state that refuses to recognize Thomas Beatie’s legal sex change in Hawaii. If that happens, his marriage would be revoked as an illegal same-sex marriage and Nancy Beatie’s parental status could be questioned. That would be a nightmare for the Beaties. “Oh, I think we’re very worried,” Nancy Beatie said. “We’re both very worried.” Said Thomas Beatie: “If something were to happen to me, I want to make sure that Nancy has custody over her daughter” … In order to secure Nancy Beatie’s parental rights, lawyers advise the Beaties to do what many same-sex couples with children do — have Nancy Beatie, as the nonbiological parent, adopt their baby. “When there is a slight question whether the marriage will be upheld by a court if it’s challenged, the nonbiological parent will take the step of adopting the child, not because it’s always necessary but just to make absolutely sure that the parent-child relationship is legally protected,” Columbia’s Goldberg said. Polikoff of American University said, “Adoption will guarantee recognition in all states.” The Beaties agree that adoption would protect them, but they don’t want to do that as a matter of principle. They see themselves as a legally married heterosexual couple. They note that they file taxes jointly as husband and wife. “We shouldn’t have to adopt our own daughter,” Thomas Beatie said. The Beaties are seeking legal representation to pursue a change in the birth certificate. “I feel that it’s a flawed document,” he said. “We’d like to see this process remedied for the next child, for the next pregnant man.” — Pregnant Man, Other Transgender Parents Face Legal Questions
[USA] A related article, also from ABC News, “No longer living on the fringes of society, transgender families are quietly raising their children in towns and neighborhoods across the country. Take the case of Andey and Leaf Nunes, and their son Antonio. Even in San Francisco, where the two men live, their relationship raises eyebrows and the questions of, “What is a woman? What is a man?” “We’re a gay male couple that got to have a child the old-fashioned way,” said Andey, a transgender man. “I am Antonio’s biological mother on his birth certificate.”" — Transgender Couples: Changing the Face of Family
[UK] “An Audience with April Ashley takes place in the Small Concert Room at St George’s Hall tomorrow at 7.30pm. Miss Ashley was born in Liverpool in 1935 and lived in Norris Green for all of her childhood. In 1960 she was one of the first transsexual people to undergo gender confirmation surgery in Morocco. She went on to develop a successful career as a model, appearing in Vogue amongst other magazines. She was “outed” as a transsexual by the Sunday People in 1961 and her marriage and subsequent divorce removed the ability of trans people to acquire full legal status. This was not satisfactorily resolved until the passing of the Gender Recognition Act of 2004.” — Out and About
[India/Nepal] ““Sexual minorities should be treated as fairly as other citizens. If a member of our community breaks the law by all means book him but please don’t round up every hijra or transsexual you can find, the activists who support them and brutalise them,” said Manohar of Sangama. ”Also, please stop spreading false and outlandish stories about people being kidnapped and castrated just to sensationalise issues and create more fear and mistrust among the public,” he added appealing to the press and the authorities.” — Reality bites
[OR, USA] “This election marked the first African-American President. The first time in 40 years an Oregon Senate candidate beat an incumbent Senator. And in tiny Silverton, Oregon, residents have elected the man who’s believed to be the first ever openly transgender mayor in the United States.” — Transgender Man Elected Mayor of Silverton
[OR, USA] From Radical Russ at Pam’s House Blend, “Now things get tricky, because Rasmussen was born male but looks female but identifies male, while other transgendered people I know were born male but look female but identify as female. I’m all for everybody being themselves, but it sure makes communications with gender-specific pronouns a little difficult.” — Silverton, Oregon, elects nation’s first openly-transgender mayor
[GA, USA] “Doraville became the third metro-area city to include gender identification in its nondiscrimination statement with a unanimous vote on Nov. 3. The city not only expanded its nondiscrimination policies to cover transgender workers, but also approved a set of policies that detail how a city employee seeking to transition genders should proceed.” — Doraville approves transgender protections
[MI, USA] “Glenn [of the American Family Association of Michigan] believes the victory is something political candidates can latch onto in the future. “The results in Hamtramck, Michigan, ought to be a wake-up call to Republicans who are now going to be casting about for issues that are consistent with the party’s platform but also appeal to minorities and Democrats,” Glenn concludes.” — Michigan town turns back ‘gay rights’ ordinance
[USA] “Discrimination against transgender workers, of course, doesn’t end with this [Schroer] ruling, no matter how groundbreaking it is. Trans-related employment discrimination cases have been on the rise, a “side effect of visibility as more and more transgender people come out,” Thaler says. “The upside is judges are finally starting to understand this discrimination is very real — and with this case and others, we now have a good legal argument to stop it.”” — Sex. Gender. Employment Discrimination
[USA] “If Jesse Ream has her way, terms like “men’s sports” and “women’s hoops” will one day seem as archaic as leather football helmets and basketball bloomers do now. Everyone who plays sports is an athlete, Ream says; separating them arbitrarily by gender is unfair and close-minded … Ream now identifies as transgender or genderqueer. Though female-bodied, she usually passes as a man. Since age 3, Ream has been called Jesse, not Jessica. She wore her brother’s clothes and played with his friends, and no one cared. Ream has no pronoun preference, advising people to use whichever words feel most comfortable to them.” — Putting the “T” into athletics
[USA] “One thing we can learn from the history of DSD treatment is that “common-sense” assumptions don’t always apply in these unique cases. Currently, practitioners who recommend elective surgery for children with DSDs rely on the belief that parental consent is sufficient authorization. However, given the medical, legal and ethical complexity of the decisions involved, it may be time to reconsider the entire decision-making process, beginning with who should be at the table.” — Medical decision-making and the child with a DSD
[Canada] “Though being white and heterosexual are commonly understood to carry privilege, most people wouldn’t consider transsexuality to be all that sweet a deal. The most accurate summation I’ve heard for the transsexual experience is that “it sucks.” But it sucks only insofar as there continues to be no space for transsexuality within a system that only recognizes two genders. In itself, though, transsexuality is a gift, recognized in some cultures as an evolved state of being — housing both a female and a male spirit, and having the ability to see the world from two perspectives at once. This is privilege.” — Tapping into trans-feminism
[UK] “The decision to nominate Guardian journalist Julie Bindel for a Stonewall Award has angered some in the trans community, and a picket of tonight’s ceremony has been widely trailed on the internet as a wider protest against “LGB transphobia.” London Transfeminist Group said they are expecting a large crowd of protesters. They assert that Ms Bindel’s articles are transphobic.” — Trans protest at Stonewall Awards faces feminist counter-demo
[UK] From Sophia Siedlberg of OII, “If there is one thing I have learned recently from the Bindel-Stonewall controversy, it is that there are generation gaps when it comes to activism. I think it was when Christine Burns of Press for Change did her “Just Plain Sense” podcast with Julie Bindel that I became aware of this. It seems to have transpired that it is most probable that Christine Burns and Stephen Whittle had a lot to do with Julie Bindel’s nomination for the “Journalist of the year” award. It is public knowledge that they were very supportive of Julie Bindel. I just don’t know if they actually had any part in actually nominating her.” — Observation of a “Press to avoid Stagnation”
[India] “The transsexuals in India lead a miserable life. The society shuns and looks down upon them. They are often made fun of and are also sexually harassed. However, the government has hardly taken any steps to remedy the problem.” — Their cup of woe overflows
[India] “Human rights activists held a demonstration here Friday to protest the harassment of eunuchs by Bangalore police last month.The activists submitted a memorandum to the Karnataka Resident Commissioner here, demanding action against policemen who arrested five eunuchs from a traffic signal on Oct 20 without levelling any charge and later harassed them.” — Rights activists protest harassment of eunuchs by police
[Turkey] “In a cramped makeshift theatre in Istanbul, a Kurd in a purple dress titillates the audience with the story of how he was born a man but found he was a woman. During his act, Esmeray wields a sharp tongue to expose the systematic violence faced by fellow transvestites. “I am a Kurd, a transvestite and a feminist, so I am screwed all round,” he says.” — Gender-benders: Transvestites test the limits of Turkey’s tolerance
This is a clear violation of the fundamental rights of individuals to live and practice their faith.
–Attorney Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, in OneNewsNow
The “gay” movement is in the vanguard of destroying religious freedom in this nation — even as “queer” activists (and their attorneys) continue to play the victim card. Homosexual “Rights” vs. Religious Freedom is a zero-sum game: when “gay” lawyers win, as in this case, look for freedom to loseWeight Exercise. What further proof do we need that “rights” based on sexual perversion are themselves a perversion of genuine civil rights?
Some, like Don Wildmon of the American Family Association (AFA), are linking the Benitez v. North Coast Women’s Care Medical Group ruling to Proposition 8:
The California Supreme Court has ruled that doctors in a private clinic, based on their religious beliefs, cannot withhold unnecessary medical care to homosexuals and lesbians. A San Diego area lesbian claimed that a private fertility clinic refused to inseminate her because of her sexual orientation. The Court’s decision means that California’s civil rights law barring sexual orientation discrimination trumps religious freedom laws.
Here is another reason to vote YES on Proposition 8 and work to get others to do the same. Little by little our religious freedom laws are being lost because of activist courts and anti-Christian individuals.
Fundamental freedoms. These do include freedom of speech and freedom of religion. But, fundamental freedoms also include the fundamental freedom to marry:
Do the rights of religious freedom and free speech, as guaranteed in both the federal and the California Constitutions, exempt a medical clinic’s physicians from complying with the California Unruh Civil Rights Act’s prohibition against discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation? Our answer is no.
In a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court today reversed an appeals court’s that allowed an improper affirmative defense. And, that improper defense was …
…[an] affirmative defense…stating that defendants’ “alleged misconduct, if any” was protected by the rights of free speech and freedom of religion set forth in the federal and state Constitutions.
This means that a “first amendment” defense against compliance with California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act’s prohibitions against discrimination isn’t an acceptable reason to discriminate in the public marketplace.
The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that doctors can’t use their religious beliefs as a reason to refuse treatment to patients because doing so violates the state’s anti-discrimination law.
The unanimous decision came in the case of an Oceanside lesbian couple who are suing two doctors at a North County clinic. They claim the doctors would not perform a certain artificial insemination procedure because their strong Christian beliefs prevented them from impregnating a lesbian couple.
The closely watched case pitted religious freedom rights guaranteed in the constitution against California’s strong anti-discrimination laws, which bar businesses from discriminating against customers and clients based on certain characteristics such as race, gender, age and sexual orientation.
In a unanimous decision, the state high court said a state antidiscrimination law trumps the religious freedom rights of doctors in such cases.
If doctors do not want to help lesbians have children, they must refuse to perform the procedures for all patients, the court said.
The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit by a San Diego woman who contended that Christian doctors at a clinic told her they could not help her become pregnant because their religion condemned having children outside of opposite-sex marriages.
“Radio stations that are playing this song over and over again are really encouraging people to violate one of the commandments against adultery and infidelity.”
–Wendy Wright, Concerned Women For America, as quoted in OneNewsNow
Top 40 rock stations are playing a song by an upcoming star that has lesbian undertones.
The song, performed by Katy Perry, is called I Kissed a Girl. The lyrics speak of kissing a girl “just to try it,” adding that the “experimental game” is “just human nature.” In addition, the singer is hopeful that her boyfriend does not mind she is experimenting with a lesbian relationship.
Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America takes issue with the song luring girls into sexual experimentation. “… [E]ven if they have a boyfriend and consider themselves heterosexual, [the singer entices them] to just try a lesbian experience,” she maintains. “It’s really intended to mess girls up.”
Wendy Wright goes on to outline how Proverbs 20:17 applies to girls experimenting with lesbian sexual experience…
Stolen bread tastes sweet,
but it turns to gravel in the mouth.
–Proverbs 20:17, New Living Translation
It’s a stretched analogy, but Wright says it applies in she interprets the scripture to mean…
…that what is forbidden may be enticing, but with it comes serious negative consequences.
The “serious consequences” I take to mean is mostly the discrimination that’s heaped on lesbians — especially in employment, housing, healthcare, and public accommodation — that’s encouraged by conservative Christians like her and her organization, the Concerned Women For America.
As we enter the Pride month I for one hope the community takes a moment to reflect back on all the effort put forth by gay men and women in the past to secure the freedom and acceptance we currently enjoy today. Fighting during a period in time where it was hazardous to one’s physical health to be on the forefront. Stonewall was not simply an activist protest where they went home afterwards and partied. They were beaten and dragged away to jail by the police. It was a time when fag bashing was an accepted method of controlling homos and keeping them out of the neighborhood. There were no drag queens there at all. It was gay human beings simply standing up for being who they were. Making a stand even though they fully knew the dangers of doing so. That’s true courage no different than that on a battlefield.
–Joseph DaBrow, Metroline (Late May, 2008)
Some of the “broad us” at Stonewall were drag queens; some of the “broad us” at Stonewall were transgender and/or transsexual people (even if those words weren’t terms used to describe gender variant people at the time); and some of the “broad us” at Stonewall didn’t publicly identify as gay women, but as lesbians. It’s been well documented that the “broad us” of Stonewall protestors included a broad swath of LGBT people.
Joseph DaBrow’s commentary on Pride Month is an objectionable to those of us who are proud that it wasn’t only gay human beings simply standing up for being who they were, but instead know it was LGBT people standing up for who they were and who we are. As a term, gay isn’t always seen as inclusive of us all, and in this case gay isn’t an adequate description of who was there at Stonewall.
So in this case, my peers and I are also making a stand: we will not stand by to be quietly homogenized away from the civil rights and social justice implications of Stonewall; we don’t accept being hidden behind a non-inclusive use of the term gay.
Frankly, it’s not in the best interest of those of us whose civil rights depend on the language of gender identity and expression being included in civil rights legislation to accept it when our members’ contributions to our broad community’s history are being in any way minimized or erased.
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.
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.
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.”
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 …
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 …
“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 …
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.
(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!
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.
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.
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.
Gov. Mike Huckabee was on Meet The Press this past Sunday. He appears to be using some obfuscating language to explain his beliefs about LGB people, and not explain how his beliefs would translated into policy within a Huckabee administration.
It is now difficult to keep track of the vast array of publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations–from homosexuality and pedophilia to sadomasochism and necrophilia.
Russert wanted to know what he meant — Huckabee claimed that he really wasn’t equating “homosexuality” with “pedophilia” and “sadomasochism,” he was just pointing out that these all were sin.
When Huckabee later commented on marital infidelity, he stated:
The perfection of God is seen in a marriage in which one man, one woman live together as a couple committed to each other as life partners. Now, even married couples don’t do that perfectly, so sin is not some act of equating people with being murderers or rapists…
So, I’m not sure what Huckabee is stating. Is he arguing James 2:10,11 …
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
…Or is Huckabee arguing that some “sins” are worse than others? (He seems to be arguing that in his answers to Russert questions about whether he equates homosexuality to pedophilia and sadomasochism.)
Frankly, I can’t figure out what Huckabee is stating. It seems to me that he’s trying to confuse non-Evangelicals as to what a Huckabee administration’s policies would be towards LGBT people.
Take a read the Meet The Press transcript of Huckabee’s comments on “homosexuality” below the fold, and you can decide for yourself what voters were supposed to take away from his comments on the show.
In a new survey released by Hunter College, Hillary Clinton leads all Democratic candidates in support among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) Americans. According to the poll, Hillary leads with 63 percent, 41 points ahead of the next candidate.
“I’m honored to have the support of so many in the LGB community,” said Clinton. “Together, we can end the divisiveness of the past seven years and change the direction of this country so that we embrace the full diversity of our nation.”
The poll also found that 72 percent of LGB likely voters consider Senator Clinton a supporter of gay rights. As President, Hillary will also work to end discrimination in adoption laws, sign hate crimes legislation and ENDA into law, and put an end to the failed policy of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. She will work to make sure that gay and lesbian couples in committed relationships have the same rights and responsibilities as all Americans.
I’m posting this specifically show that the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign left out the “T” when referring to the “LGB Community.” The first two paragraphs of the press release might not have mentioned T’s because they didn’t find enough T’s to be statistically significant for their poll, but I would think that in the last paragraph — where she mentions what she would do as president — she certaintly could have added that she was for LGBT civil rights/equality.
As it is, it looks like she’s just for LGB civil rights/equality.
Given the recent mess with ENDA, I find it noteworthy that her campaign’s messaging about the “alphabet soup” of communities was one that left off the T. Whether or not leaving off the T out this media release was intentional or not, to me it sure seems to be pretty poor form.
[Canada] “Transgendered porn star Buck Angel —who bills himself as “the man with a pussy” —makes a lucrative living selling and starring in adult DVDs (Buckback Mountain, Buck Off) and streaming videos. The demographics of his audience offer some surprising insight regarding gay and lesbian desires. “Eighty percent of my customer base is gay men. Twenty percent is female —bisexual, straight and gay,” explains Angel. “I get a lot of gay men writing me letters about how they are so turned on by me and they can’t believe it and what does that make them, are they now straight? My vagina freaks people out, especially gay men,” he says. “They are attracted to me as a person but because I have a vagina, it just totally throws them for a loop, they can’t wrap their head around it.” Angel says he has seen and heard many horror stories about the treatment of trans folks by gays and lesbians. “Twenty years ago, I identified as a dyke. When I started transitioning, the dyke community ostracized me; every single one of my friends wanted nothing to do with me. There was no knowledge about what was going on then. “Funnily enough, a lot of people have called me since then, asking me how they go about transitioning now.”" — 
[UK] “The applause was heartfelt, but few of the hundreds of immaculately dressed ladies celebrating at the NatWest Everywoman Awards at the Dorchester yesterday were aware that entrepreneur Kate Craig-Wood, who won one of the main prizes, started life as a man. She certainly doesn’t feel she got the award under false pretences, telling me: ‘I officially became a woman two years ago.’” — 
Some of the “broad us” at Stonewall were drag queens; some of the “broad us” at Stonewall were transgender and/or transsexual people (even if those words weren’t terms used to describe gender variant people at the time); and some of the “broad us” at Stonewall didn’t publicly identify as gay women, but as lesbians. 
As a term, gay isn’t always seen as inclusive of us all, and in this case gay isn’t an adequate description of who was there at Stonewall.
