Well, we should be seeing quite a bit more “bathroom news” shortly.
Coming up on March 24th, voters in Gainesville, Florida will decide whether “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression” remain protected in the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance.
A while back, as a means to convince (flimflam) the citizens of Gainesville that they should strip gay and transgender citizens of their civil rights, Citizens for Good Public Policy chose to turn this into a “Keep Men out of Women’s Restrooms” fight and aired their now infamous television commercial, “The Pervert.”
“The Pervert” is longer available on YouTube (you can see that if you try to play it here). The other day though a reader of Transgender News pointed out to me a “commercial” (by Ed) that isavailable on YouTube, one which seems timely and topical …
As many of us already suspected was true, ethnic minorities who also indentify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender experienced increased discrimination and safety issues. Key findings from the report, as reported in the media release for the report:
• Across all groups, sexual orientation and gender expression were the most common reasons LGBT students of color reported feeling unsafe in school. More than four out of five students, within each racial/ethnic group, reported verbal harassment in school because of sexual orientation and about two-thirds because of gender expression. At least a third of each group reported physical violence in school because of sexual orientation.
• More than half of African American/Black, Latino/a, Asian/Pacific Islander, and multiracial students also reported verbal harassment in school based on their race or ethnicity. Native American students (43%) were less likely than other students to report experiencing racially motivated verbal harassment.
• About a quarter of African American/Black and Asian/Pacific Islander students had missed class or days of school in the past month because they felt unsafe. Latino/a, Native American, and multiracial students were even more likely to be absent for safety reasons – about a third or more skipped class at least once or missed at least one day of school in the past month for safety reasons.
• Native American students experienced particularly high levels of victimization because of their religion, with more than half reporting the highest levels of verbal harassment (54%), and a quarter experiencing physical violence (26%).
• Less than half of students of color who had been harassed or assaulted in school in the past year said that they ever reported the incident to school staff. Furthermore, for those students who did report incidents to school staff, less than half believed that staff’s resulting response was effective.
• Native American (57%) and multiracial (50%) students were more likely than other students of color in our survey to report incidents to a family member.
• Performance at school also suffered when students experienced high levels of victimization. Students’ overall GPA dropped when they reported high severities of harassment based on sexual orientation and/or race/ethnicity. Students experiencing high severities of harassment also reported missing school more often.
• The report also looks at differing experiences based on the racial/ethnic make-up of students’ schools. For all groups, LGBT students of color who were minorities in their school were much more likely to feel unsafe and experience harassment because of their race or ethnicity than those who were in the racial/ethnic majority.
The media release spoke to why they released the report now:
GLSEN is releasing the report in conjunction with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Organizing Weekend, which takes place January 16-19. Dr. MLK Jr. Organizing Weekend provides an opportunity for students and Gay-Straight Alliances to honor the coalition-building work of Dr. King and other civil rights leaders, such as Bayard Rustin, by reaching out to others committed to working toward safe schools for all students.
For those youth who want to be activists for civil rights in their schools, Bayard Rustin has a poignant quote on the protesting, dignity, and humanity:
When an individual is protesting society’s refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.
[Below the fold: Looking at the demographics of this report - especially the trans-related demographics.]
I personally believe some of the quiet mistakes of LGBT civil rights movement make are in not knowing our enemy what our enemy believes out of our collective earshot, and not thinking clearly about how to counter what they say/what they do.
Well, below is some text and a link to some readily available reading from the Concerned Women for America…They talk about the perceived evils of the upcoming Obama Administration.
The bad news about an Obama Administration far outweighs the good news. We can count on it: Obama may wait awhile, but he will do the things that will assure his second term, and he is definitely a Marxist “true believer” who will not deviate from his socialist goals, even when the current financial or political climate means their implementation has to be delayed. He chose Rahm Emanuel, a member in good standing of the down-and-dirty Chicago political scene, for the White House Chief of Staff position—which means the president can count on strong-arm tactics for any opponents who have to be “persuaded” to come into alignment with the president’s goals.
Even before his inauguration, Mr. Obama has revealed plans for an enormous domestic spending package–the largest public construction program since the 1950s, including roads, bridges, schools and technological development. It is also essential for his reelection that he establish national health care, a Democratic priority, by 2012; he will do so by implementing its various aspects incrementally–an “under the radar” scheme that will achieve his goal without raising public objections. He will likely try the same strategy with abortion, the feminists’ top priority. He has promised to sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), a measure that would turn back all prolife gains and remove all regulations and restrictions on abortion. He probably won’t use all his political chits to fulfill that promise immediately, as he said he would, but ultimately he will give the feminists that victory and he will give the homosexual activists their two priorities, federalizing same-sex “marriage” and revoking the current “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bans open homosexuality in the U.S. military services. Though he campaigned as a candidate opposed to same-sex “marriage,” he fully intends to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)–legislation that has been enacted in 44 states to protect husband-wife, traditional marriage at the state level.
Obama will support the so-called Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and indicates his support for expanding the bill to cover “gender identity.” Further, he favors adoption rights for same-sex couples as well as condom distribution throughout the world as an AIDS prevention measure. He has also said that he will strengthen and expand dangerous federal “hate crimes” legislation…
The CWA goes on to state that “the greatest threat” of the upcoming Obama Administration (their words: “of the Obama agenda”) will be his left-leaning judicial appointments.
(Frankly, I’m more worried that all Obama will lean too far to the center with his appointments. I want civil rights protected; I want to see judges who consider how the fundamental rights of minority individuals and groups need to be protected from governmental or corporate abuse.)
As we all can see, the Concerned Women For America (CWA) is thinking about the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in relationship to America’s current Democratic Congress and America’s soon Democratic President.
And hey, the CWA — their founder and chairman in particular — has a lot to say about a woman’s right to choose too. Mainly, they don’t want women to have a right to choose, and they’re motivated to push back against that fundamental right.
Know your enemy. We don’t always know enough about what they believe considering how well they have been mobilized in the past. When you think about it, it usually takes identifying clear enemies to get people motivated enough to create a movement — think about what the removal of fundamental civil rights of LGBT Californians has done recently for the LGBT civil rights movement. We have identifiable enemies that did wonders to mobilize the broader, LGBT community when they took away LGBT Californian’s fundamental right to marry.
The CWA trying to manufacture an enemy in President-elect Obama to mobilize their concerned women troops. They haven’t succeeded as yet, but you can bet the Concerned Women For America going to keep trying. We need to be ready if they and their peer “Christian” organizations again succeed in mobilizing their troops against the fundamental civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans.
Besides having our own, positive, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender messages about civil rights and equality, we need to be ready to counter their arguments…their movement to crush equality, liberty, and justice for all.
I get angry reading about the same tactics over and over again against LGBT civil rights legislation – You just can’t sell me that this isn’t about hate when were seeing these same, hateful “Christian” mistruths and fear tactics used over and over again. When do we develop some good answers to his and his “Christian” peers’ lies and fear tactics?
KALAMAZOO-Less than one month after the City of Kalamazoo Commission voted 7-0 to adopt an expanded human rights ordinance that makes it illegal to use sexual orientation to discriminate in housing, public accommodations and employment, petitions were filed Dec. 31 to repeal it.
City Clerk Scott Borling said that the circulators of the petition had filed over 1,600 signatures. If at least 1,273 of them are valid city registered voters, it will cause the new ordinance to be suspended immediately.
The city charter states that valid referendum petitions require the commissioners to take up the challenge at the next regular meeting which will be held on Jan. 26. They will either repeal the ordinance or place it on a ballot for city voters to decide. The certification process began Friday and the outcome should be known sometime this week.
The American Family Association of Michigan, led by Gary Glenn and Kalamazoo County Treasurer Mary Balkema, a former City Commissioner, submitted the petitions. Glenn has been quoted in local press claiming that the new ordinance would force some people to base decisions that run counter to their religious convictions, as well as possibly violate the privacy of women and children.
Glenn has led every challenge across the state in the past decade to defeat city ordinances that include sexual orientation and gender identity. A circulated flyer of talking points stated, “This ordinance violates the First Amendment rights of religion and free speech of those who oppose cross-dressing and homosexual behavior.”
Glenn has used scare tactics in other ballot initiatives. For example, the title of one of the petition circulator scripts reads, “IS THERE A MAN IN YOUR DAUGHTER’S BATHROOM?” …
First I rant about a lack of an effective counter argument to the same, tired arguments of the conservative “Christians,” and then I sigh. *Sigh.*
The 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals has mad a ruling regarding in the past week regarding Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts of America. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune:
The state Supreme Court, after a nearly two-year delay, will be asked to determine whether city of San Diego leases of Balboa Park land violate the state constitution’s ban on government preference for religious groups.
The move Wednesday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is hearing a lawsuit challenging the leases, is the latest turn in the long-running case.
…The case focuses on a 2003 ruling by U.S. District Judge Napoleon Jones in San Diego. Jones struck down two leases that the city had with the Scouts for 16 acres in Balboa Park and on Fiesta Island. Jones concluded the Boy Scouts, which bars openly gay leaders and requires members to take an oath to God, is a religious organization and the leases amounted to government assistance to religion.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by a lesbian couple and an agnostic couple. The Scouts appealed, and in December 2006, the federal appeals court said it wanted the state Supreme Court first to weigh in on three questions of state law: Do the leases amount to aid to religion; if so, does that aid support a sectarian purpose; and do the leases violate the state constitution’s “no preference” ban on government favoring a religious group.
Federal courts on occasion will ask state high courts to issue opinions on unique questions of state law that arise in cases before federal judges.
Back in December of 2006, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts of America, according to a December, 2006 San Francisco Chronicle article, that:
[Below the fold, some history of Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts of America.]
In the piece Commission to investigate suspension of transgender student, I made a reasonable assumption that a transgender student was harassed for using a female restroom based on operative status. Apparently, she was discriminated against relating to whether or not she had genital reconstruction surgery (GRS), but it apparently was for being post-operative, and not pre-operative. From the New York Daily Record:
Jamie Nicole Anderson says she just wants to be treated like everyone else. The York woman is a 42-year-old ex-Marine who takes her 11-year-old son to school and never misses his football, baseball or hockey games.
…In May, she got a sex change operation, from male to female, and, she says, that’s when the trouble started.
…Anderson said she was banned from using a women’s rest room and was repeatedly referred to as “he” and “his” by her [Harrisburg Area Community College (HAAC)] clinical instructors.
Further:
Anderson said she was suspended for three days Oct. 2 by HACC for “insubordination,” using the women’s rest room after being told not to because some operating room employees said they were “uncomfortable” with her being there.
Anderson said she was dismissed from her program Oct. 30 for her violation of a dress code that forbids more than two earrings in an ear.
“I forgot to take (one) out that day,” she said.
Anderson said she filed the complaint because she wants the situation corrected for her and other transgendered people like her.
If one is born with a penis, I tend to believe the arguments against fully inclusive anti-discrimination language will always revolve around the bathroom, whether or not a trans person/a person of trans history currently has a penis or not. Some transsexuals (and people of trans history) see a difference between pre-operative and post-operative folk where anti-discrimination rules should only be applied to the post-operative folk. In the real world where discrimination is often based on fear and/or hate, discrimination is often based on what the genitals looked like at birth, not what one’s genitals look like now, or not what gender one is between the ears. It’s based on societal gender norms associated with natal genitalia shape — just as it is for effeminate gay and straight men, and masculine lesbian and straight women.
Anti-discrimination laws that give legal recourse for sexual orientation and gender identity and expression based discrimination are what keeps businesses and government from behaving badly against those perceived to be gender variant people.
Jamie is never going to be perceived as a woman by those who discriminated against her. I’m with Jamie — to correct the situation for her and other transgender people like her, sometimes one has to fight against unacceptable behavior.
How to run an effective divide-and-conquer strategy is something that the leadership in the LGBT civil rights organizations showed the opposition how to do in the 2007/2008 ENDA battle. As many recall, LGBT community leadership splayed out for “Christian” right organizations the divide over gender identity and expression language and the civil rights trans people.
Well, I look at the recent piece from Bay Windows / EdgeBoston entitled Mass Family Institute is down, but is it out?, and realize we’re looking ahead again at yet another divide-and-conquer the LGBT community over trans people campaign; at another fear-based campaign that’s going to focus on the idea of predator men-in-dresses using public bathrooms. From the article (emphasis added):
By most visible measures the Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI), which just two years ago was well positioned to place a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage on this year’s ballot, is at a low point in its influence on Bay State politics. Its amendment campaign failed in 2007, and last summer it stood powerless as the House and Senate pushed through a repeal of the 1913 law, clearing the way for out-of-state same-sex couples to marry in Massachusetts. And despite MFI’s efforts to elect social conservatives to the legislature this fall, groups like MassEquality were able to increase the number of same-sex marriage supporters in the 200-member legislature from 151 to 158. National allies on the religious right, such as MFI’s parent organization Focus on the Family and its spin-off, Family Research Council, spent thousands of dollars in prior years to fund MFI’s marriage amendment campaign, but they appear to have largely withdrawn from their involvement in Massachusetts in 2008.
Yet MFI President Kris Mineau said the future looks bright for his organization and the social conservative movement in Massachusetts.
“I believe the outlook for MFI is very positive, because as we say in the fighter pilot business, this is a target-rich environment,” said Mineau, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.
He said MFI is open to pushing for another marriage amendment in the future if it becomes viable. In the meantime the organization will press forward lobbying on a range of issues including opposition to abortion, casino gambling, pornography and comprehensive sex education. MFI’s top priority in the upcoming session is defeating a bill to amend the state’s hate crimes and non-discrimination laws to add gender identity and expression protections. The bill was first filed in the current session and died in committee.
So now we see a predictable LGBT target, and from previous bathroom predator campaigns from the opposition in the past couple of years we know what their ads are going to sound like:
In this time where resources are much scarcer, and LGBT people have been dissatisfied to how the No On Prop 8 Campaign was run by LGBT civil rights organizations, how much in the way of resources are LGBT civil rights organizations going to devote to basic civil rights issues over other LGBT issues, such as marriage equality? And assuming a civil rights organization is willing to devote precious resources to a transgender civil rights effort, how much money will LGBT people donate to any LGBT causes when many of these folk 1) have limited resources themselves, and 2) no longer trust the LGBT leadership to run effective political campaigns?
And perhaps most importantly, is the LGBT community again going to be divided-and-conquered over civil rights related to the phrase gender identity and expression? — over bathrooms? Not just in Massachusetts regarding state law, but nationally regarding ENDA?
I believe that now is the time to prepare for the predictable future. It would be a shame to see the LGBT community caught flatfooted yet again over predictable arguments that we can expect to see from our opposition.
[Below the fold: A comment, apparently made by a gay man, regarding transphobia that goes to the point on how gender identity and expression is a dividing point for LGBT community. Warning: lots of profanity and insults to trans people.]
“[T]he job of the gay community is not to deal with extremists who would castigate us or put us on an island and drop an H-bomb on us. The fact of the matter is that there is a small percentage of people in America who understand the true nature of the homosexual community. There is another small percentage who will never understand us. Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Nor was our aim in the civil rights movement to get prejudiced white people to love us. Our aim was to try to create the kind of America, legislatively, morally, and psychologically, such that even though some whites continued to hate us, they could not openly manifest that hate. That’s our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay sentiment.” –Bayard Rustin; From Montgomery to Stonewall (1986)
Apparently, Pat Boone doesn’t appreciate being called “homophobic.” Check out his final paragraph his latest column in WingNutDaily:
Me, homophobic? Ridiculous. I love my homosexual friends, but I detest these irresponsible street tactics that can and do lead to violence. Violence breeds more violence. But love – and respect, even through disagreement – can accomplish miracles.
Are you unaware of the raging demonstrations in our streets, in front of our churches and synagogues, even spilling into these places of worship, and many of these riots turning defamatory and violent? Have you not seen the angry distorted faces of the rioters, seen their derogatory and threatening placards and signs, heard their vows to overturn the democratically expressed views of voters, no matter what it costs, no matter what was expressed at the polls? Twice?
I refer to California’s Proposition 8. You haven’t heard about the well-oiled campaign to find out the names of every voter and business that contributed as much as $1,000, or even much less, in support of Prop 8? You haven’t heard about the announced plans to boycott, demonstrate, intimidate and threaten each one – because they dared to vote to retain marriage as between one man and one woman? You haven’t seen, on the evening news, prominent entertainers and even California Gov. Schwarzenegger, urging the demonstrators on, telling them they should “never give up” until they get their way?
Assuming you have become aware of all this, let me ask you: Have you not seen the awful similarity between what happened in Mumbai and what’s happening right now in our cities?
Pat was worried, in the robo-call, about giving “special rights” to “even transgender individuals,” and asked Kentuckians if they’d “like Kentucky to be another San Francisco.” Apparently loving LGBT “individuals” doesn’t mean letting LGBT people enjoy freedom from discrimination in all aspects of their lives.
Pat Boone doesn’t like the term homophobic applied to him. Well, in my opinion, the term fits him like a glove — he’s been expressing his anti-LGBT sentiment for quite awhile now.
News and views for Monday, December 1st and Tuesday, December 2nd …
[USA] Yesterday’s this day in history: “It’s front-page news when George Jorgensen Jr. is reborn as Christine Jorgensen, gaining international celebrity and notoriety as the first widely known person to undergo a successful sex-change operation … Jorgensen’s sex change, which may have been leaked to the press by Jorgensen herself, hit the headlines Dec. 1, creating an international sensation. “Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty” screamed the banner of Jorgensen’s hometown New York Daily News … But Christine Jorgensen’s world was not an enlightened one, particularly when it came to transgenderism. She paid the cost for this lack of sophistication. A first announced engagement fell through, and a second one failed as well, when the state of New York refused to issue the couple a marriage license. Her intended husband also lost his job when the marriage plans became known. She later traveled the lecture circuit, talking about her experiences and advocating for the nascent transgender cause. Jorgensen died of cancer in 1989, a few weeks short of age 63.” — Dec. 1, 1952: ‘Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty’
[USA] While some people change, others don’t ever seem to change their tune. Not quite yesterday in history, but this was Matt Barber of the Concerned Women for America railing last December against “homosexual activism”: “Still, the real trouble begins when our government seeks — by force of law — to make all of us share in that delusion by enacting thought crimes edicts such as “hate crimes” legislation and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). As I’ve said before, it’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes” meets George Orwell. Homosexual activist legislation forces everyone to entertain the delusions of a very small percentage of the population who define themselves based upon aberrant and mutable sexual behaviors. These laws lend official government recognition to conduct that every major world religion, thousands of years of history and uncompromising human biology have deemed both immoral and unnatural.”
And, this is Matt Barber, now with Liberty Counsel, yesterday: “With Brazil’s government caving in to homosexual activism, many fear America is not far behind. Brazilian activists have launched several lawsuits to silence Christian opposition of homosexuality, and a Christian author has been both censored and fined over comments in his book. Mat Barber, with Liberty Counsel, believes America will likely follow suit. “It’s really chilling, and people need to be aware that this is not a threat that is isolated to Brazil or Europe or Canada,” he contends. “It’s coming to our shores (America) as well.” Barber explains he has witnessed homosexuals seeking to legally silence Christians and notes similar governmental legislation will be reviewed in Washington in January. “Hate crimes legislation, the Employment Non-discrimination act — legislation that under a President Barack Obama and with liberals in control of the House and the Senate, we can expect to see passed,” he says. Barber cites Colorado as an example that some states already have similar laws in place. “Governor Ritter signed into law a bill that says it is essentially illegal to write anything that’s homophobic,” he adds. “So based on that law in Colorado now, to actually publish the Bible would be considered a violation of the law.”" — Will homosexuals silence America’s Christians?
[USA] Meanwhile, unlike Mr. Barber, the “homosexual activists” are looking forward to change: “Officials with the Human Rights Campaign and National Gay & Lesbian Task Force are hopeful that Barack Obama’s administration and Democratic leaders in Congress will help orchestrate the passage next year of two gay rights bills that enjoy widespread support. The Matthew Shepard Act, which would authorize federal authorities to prosecute anti-gay hate crimes, and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban job discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, are considered high priorities among gay-supportive lawmakers, officials with the two groups said … [HRC's David] Stacy and Rea Carey, the Task Force’s executive director, said they believe the consensus among nearly all gay rights advocacy groups is to insist that Congress move forward with a version of ENDA that includes protections for transgender persons. Gay and transgender activists became divided in 2007 when Democrats in the House of Representatives, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), decided to vote on a version of the bill that excluded transgender protections. The two lawmakers said they determined that there weren’t enough votes to pass a trans-inclusive bill and that keeping trans protections in the bill would result in its defeat. The House passed a gay-only version of the bill that year, but the Senate never took up the measure. Capitol Hill observers have speculated that Senate leaders did not believe a trans-inclusive bill could clear the Senate and agreed to requests by gay and transgender activists to put the measure on hold until 2009. Frank told the Blade last month that a coalition of gay and transgender rights groups have made “good progress” in building support for a trans-inclusive ENDA in the year since the House passed the gay-only version of the bill, and he’s hopeful that enough support could be lined up to pass a trans-inclusive version of the bill next year. Obama said during his run for the White House that he, too, supports a trans-inclusive version of the bill. “It’s exciting that we will have a president who not only won’t threaten to veto the bill but who embraces it,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality.” — Hate crimes, ENDA seen as top legislative priorities
[NY, USA] “Miller Hoffman knows what it’s like to be hassled for being a transgender person. “Discrimination against transgender people is part of our daily lives,” she told Binghamton city council on Monday night.The Binghamton resident was one of 11 people who spoke in favor of a local law that would make it illegal to discriminate against transgender individuals. The proposed law would also protect against discrimination because of height and/or Lose Weight Exercise as well as age, race, religion, national origin and sexual orientation. The proposed law would apply to employment, housing and public accommodations. Council members may vote on the proposal on Dec. 15.” — Advocates urge council to pass anti-discrimination law
[MI, USA] “The city of Kalamazoo has stepped beyond existing state and federal laws, making it illegal to use sexual orientation to discriminate in housing, public accommodations and employment. The Kalamazoo City Commission voted 7-0 Monday night to adopt an expanded anti-discrimination ordinance that makes it a municipal civil infraction to discriminate against gays, lesbians and transgender citizens.” — Kalamazoo City Commission unanimously approves gay-rights ordinance
[HI, USA] “Cross-dressers, queer concubines, and the Sin of Onan — the Hawaii of pre-European contact had it all. Most LGBT travelers to Hawaii think of the islands as a languid society, a “hang loose” place of tolerant politics where cultural differences are easily celebrated. But few tourists realize just how queer Hawaii actually was before the Europeans showed up … Another notable queer aspect of old Hawaiian culture that is still strong today is the concept of the mahu. Transvestitism is common in parts of Polynesia, where men choose to don women’s apparel, grow up as a girl, and even become a wife of another man, sometimes even cutting his/her thighs to “menstruate.” Some traditions dictate that a male, usually a younger brother, is compelled to take on the feminine role of family caretaker when a suitable daughter is lacking. Whether or not that connotes homosexuality is not important. Mahu hold a necessary role in the communal family and are usually not outcasts in Polynesian society. Now that modern media and politics have flooded Hawaiian culture, the word mahu is often used in a derogatory way to describe an effeminate man, or a gay man in general. But the mahu tradition refuses to go away: An annual transvestite beauty pageant, The Universal Show Queen, packs in crowds in mainstream Waikiki hotels. And Kim Coco Iwamoto, who is transgender, holds a seat on the state’s board of education — the highest office ever for an elected transgender person in United States. So there is hope that history will repeat itself, and the 50th state can draw on its ancient traditions to become a trailblazer of tolerance in the 21st century.” — Hawaii’s Polysexual Past
[Canada] “There are many things I don’t miss about university life. Foremost among them is the idiotic debate — which seems to be ongoing on most liberal-arts campuses — about bathrooms. I don’t mean the actual physical amenities inside the bathrooms. I mean the eye-glazing arguments about who gets to use what bathroom, unisex versus sex-specific, and — most commonly — the accommodation of pre-op, post-op, mid-op, non-op, quasi-op and paleo-op transgendered individuals, who represent about 0.1% of the student population, yet seem to dominate an enormous share of student-council deliberations. (Please bear in mind that the target of my ire is not the transgendered community itself, most of which is no doubt exasperated by the endless obsession over its bathroom needs, and has legitimate concerns about bathroom harassment besides — but rather the earnest campus activists who, starved for any sort of discrimination to fight in this hypertolerant age, have adopted the toilet as their equivalent to Rosa Parks’ bus seat.)” — Jonathan Kay on the idiocy of university bathroom identity politics: Why not just dig a big hole in the ground and make everybody use it?
[Italy] “What do Silvio Berlusconi and a communist transvestite have in common? That may sound like the set-up to a bad joke, but the search for a serious answer could just bring some focus to the bizarre spectacle of Italian public life. On Nov. 24, millions of Italians tuned into the ever-popular local version of Celebrity Survivor, or Isola dei Famosi (“Island of the Famous”). The show was wrapping up its sixth season with the coronation of the latest champion, Vladimir Luxuria, a former cabaret performer and Refounded Communist party member. In 2006, the unlikely politician became the first transvestite to be elected to Italy’s parliament. Luxuria’s participation had already ensured record high ratings for the 10-week-long show. Interest centered not only on how a communist politician would interact with two-bit stars and showgirls, but curiosity about what Luxuria would look like without her makeup.” — Italy’s Communist Tranvestite TV Star
[India] “Sitting cross-legged on the uneven floor of their bedroom in Dhobi Gali of old Sabzi Mandi in north Delhi is a coy, newly-wed couple. She is chopping vegetables while he carefully covers her face with a dupatta. The marriage, sanctified on November 30 at a nearby Shiv mandir, is unique because the groom, Deepak (name changed), was born a girl and has undergone three operations for a complete sex change, only to marry his childhood sweetheart, Savita (name changed).” — And she became he to marry her
The Los Angeles Times has a piece up this morning entitled Broader medical refusal rule may go far beyond abortion. The subheader for the piece is The Bush administration plans a new ‘right of conscience’ rule that would allow more workers to refuse more procedures. Critics say it could apply to artificial insemination and birth control. From the piece:
The outgoing Bush administration is planning to announce a broad new ‘right of conscience’ rule permitting medical facilities, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers to refuse to participate in any procedure they find morally objectionable, including abortion and possibly even artificial insemination and birth control.
It also seeks to cover more employees. For example, in addition to a surgeon and a nurse in an operating room, the rule would extend to “an employee whose task it is to clean the instruments,” the draft rule said.
…Health and Human Services Department officials said the rule would apply to “any entity” that receives federal funds. It estimated 584,000 entities could be covered, including 4,800 hospitals, 234,000 doctor’s offices and 58,000 pharmacies.
Not mentioned is that transsexuals like me might have difficulties receiving hormone prescriptions, or filling hormone prescriptions because of the religious convictions of providers.
The August press release on the new rules is here; the proposed rules are here.
“I have always held the belief that all people, no matter race, religion or sexual orientation, are entitled to equal rights. As many know, I consider myself a devout and faithful Mormon. I prefer to keep the details around my contribution through my church a private matter. But I am profoundly sorry for the negative attention that my actions have drawn to Film Independent and for the hurt and pain that is being experienced in the GLBT [gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender] community.”
–L.A. Film Festival director Richard Raddon
Richard Raddon, the director of the Los Angeles Film Festival who has been at the center of controversy ever since it was revealed almost two weeks ago that he had contributed $1,500 to the campaign to ban gay marriage in California, resigned from his post over the weekend.
The nonprofit arts organization Film Independent sponsors both the Los Angeles Film Festival, held in May, and the popular Independent Spirit awards. Raddon is a member of the Mormon Church, which actively called on its congregants to work for the passage of Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between a man and a woman.
…After Raddon’s contribution was made public online, Film Independent was swamped with criticism from “No on 8″ supporters both inside and outside the organization. Within days, Raddon offered to step down as festival director, but the board, which includes Don Cheadle, Forest Whitaker, Lionsgate President Tom Ortenberg and Fox Searchlight President Peter Rice, gave him a unanimous vote of confidence.
Yet, the anti-Raddon bile continued to bubble in the blogosphere, and according to one Film Independent board member, “No on 8″ supporters also berated Raddon personally via phone calls and e-mails. The recriminations ultimately proved too much, and when Raddon offered to resign again, this time the board accepted.
That $1,500.00 donation to the Yes On Prop 8 campaign has essentially cost him his career; it’s has cost him his ability to make a living in his chosen field.
…How much lobbying are transgendered people doing on behalf of gay men and lesbians?
(And no, trans board members on state and national non-profits don’t count. I mean private citizens.)
How many trans folks are lobbying to end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell??
How many trans folks are lobbying to end a relic of the Anita Bryant era– Florida’s complete ban on gay men and lesbians to adopt children??
The truth is very few, if any. That’s because it’s not their issue. They can’t have it both ways.
So, while fresh with same-gender marriage/marriage equality being in the spotlight, I’d like to hightlight that trans people have been involved working on marriage equality here in San Diego. Specifically how trans people were involved in San Diego’s Join The Impact event on Saturday, November 15th, if only just to highlight one example of involement as a representative example.
So although one of the reasons why I’m doing a little documentation is to accentuate the positive about working for change, what JJ in Chicago wrote last July reminds me that sometimes it’s also about stemming off negative perceptions that aren’t necessarily reality based; sometimes it’s about pointing out where people we don’t necessarily expect to be working on broad LGBT issues are working on broad issues.
There were trans people marching, and there were trans people in the planning process. At the Marriage Equality/Join The Impact march in San Diego a week ago Saturday, there were at least 20,000 participants. There were trans people marching, and there were trans people in the planning process.
Let me cite just one who was in the planning process as an example of the many.
In San Diego, the “Face Behind FaceBook” for the march was Kelly Moyer. Never heard of Kelly? Well, like so many of the new grassroots leadership, she’s been somewhat quietly working for LGBT and trans-specific issues — she’s a volunteer at the Hillcrest Youth Center an San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Center facilitating trans discussion groups. She’s also very active in San Diego’s lesbian community, working on event planning (such as for Dyke March) and is a member of a key community standing committee. She’s also on Sun Microsystems’ Gays, Lesbians and Friends (GLAF) employee resource group, working with Sun to increase the company’s diversity. Basically, she’s been “behind the scenes” — yet in plain view — for awhile.
After the Join the Impact in San Diego, she gave a speech on staying on a positive message with regards to marriage equality. I don’t have to agree with everything she says to understand that her message is important.
Below the fold is the last few paragraphs from her November 15th speech.
Leaders of the campaign against Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California, raised nearly $40 million and ran a careful, disciplined campaign with messages tested by focus groups and with only a few people authorized to speak to the media.
They lost.
In the week since, California has seen an outpouring of demonstrations ranging from quiet vigils to noisy street protests against Proposition 8, including rallies outside churches and the Mormon temple in Westwood as well as boycotts of some businesses that contributed to the Yes on 8 campaign.
Many of those activities have been organized not by political professionals and established leaders in the gay community, but by young activists working independently on Facebook and MySpace.
The grass-roots activism is a tribute to political organizing in the digital age, in which it is possible to mobilize thousands of people with a few clicks of a mouse. It has generated national attention — and set up a series of Saturday demonstrations that organizers hope will attract tens of thousands of people to city halls throughout California…
I really recommend this entire article.
We’ve forgetten, apparenlty, that Stonewall began as mob justice in response to systematic, government injustice. The aftermath of the Prop 8 vote in California looks like its more a series of Stonewall style uprisings than a top-down, micro-managed/micro-messaged, LGBT Civil Rights organization led response.
Frankly, these marches and protest seem to be a further example of how the HRC doesn’t know or speak for the grassroots of the LGBT community; but it’s apparent now that other LGBT civil rights organizations — such as Equality California, The Gay and Lesbian Center of Los Angeles, the San Diego LGBT Center, NCLR, and the Gay and Lesbian Task Force to name a few — who were leaders in the No On Prop 8 Campaign didn’t and don’t speak particularly well for the grassroots of the LGBT community either.
If there ever is a time for the organizational reflection by LGBT civil rights organizations, I think winter of 2007 (remember ENDA?) is when it should have began, and it’s definitely way over due now. LGBT Civil Rights organizations are far behind the times on what the attitudes towards LGBT issues are, and their focus groups and marketing approach to messaging don’t speak at all to what the “mob” thinks about civil rights.
Here’s an example of the real cost born by individuals for their financial support of Proposition 8. From the Sacramento Bee:
Scott Eckern, the California Musical Theater official embroiled in controversy following revelations of his donation to the Proposition 8 campaign, issued a statement Tuesday expressing shock over the backlash, saying “I had no idea this would be the reaction.”
Revelations over the weekend that Eckern, the company’s artistic director, had given $1,000 to the voter-approved ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage had drawn calls of an artistic and audience boycott Monday of the Sacramento theater company that produces the Music Circus and presents Broadway Sacramento.
I understand that my choice of supporting Proposition 8 has been the cause of many hurt feelings maybe even betrayal. It was not my intent. I honestly had no idea that this would be the reaction. I chose to act upon my belief that the traditional definition of marriage should be preserved. I support each individual to have rights and access and I understood that in California domestic partnerships come with the same rights that come with marriage.
I definitely do not support any message or treatment of others that is hateful or instills fear. This is a highly emotional issue. I have now had many conversations with friends and colleagues and I now have a better idea of what the discrimination issues are, how deeply felt these issues are and I am deeply saddened that my acting upon my religious convictions has been devastating to those I love and admire… I am deeply sorry for any harm or injury I have caused.
Basically, it’s pretty much a Not good enough! moment for supporters of the theater who were against Prop 8. One example of a significant voice:
Gay and lesbian artists called Monday for an artistic and audience boycott of California Musical Theatre after learning that its artistic director donated $1,000 to a campaign that backed banning gay marriage in California.
…California Musical Theatre is the capital’s oldest professional performing arts organization and California’s largest nonprofit musical theater company. It has 32 full-time employees and its budget for 2007 was $16.5 million.
…”Hairspray” composer Marc Shaiman called Eckern Thursday to discuss his donation. “Hairspray” closed this summer’s Music Circus season.
In a post on one Web site, Shaiman relayed what he told Eckern: “The idea that your donation came from a salary that for a short amount of time was drawn from profits from a show I wrote upsets me terribly and I would never allow anything I write to play there and will encourage my colleagues to consider doing the same.”
Want to see another example of individual awakening to the economic cost to supporting the Yes On Proposition 8 campaign? There’s an example of a Los Angeles restaurant owner’s surprise at the economic backlash for supporting Prop 8 here.
As many of you may know I’m a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some might conclude given my family’s membership in the Mormon Church that our company supported the recent ballot initiative to ban same sex marriage in California. This is simply untrue. Marriott International is a public company headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and is not controlled by any one individual or family. Neither I, nor the company, contributed to the campaign to pass Proposition 8.
The Bible that I love teaches me about honesty, integrity and unconditional love for all people. But beyond that, I am very careful about separating my personal faith and beliefs from how we run our business…
(Chino Blanco has a PHB diary on this Marriot statement here.)
If Prop 8 were put to a vote again in a year or two, I think the ProtectMarriage.com would have a lot of problems finding business owners and business executives who would donate to the campaign. There is a learning curve going on right now — these businesspeople are discovering that there is a real economic cost to their businesses if they don’t establish and publicize progressive policies towards LGBT people. And, their gods help their businesses if business owners and executives are perceived as being against progressive policies towards LGBT people to the point of supporting the withdrawal of fundamental civil rights of LGBT people.
As I looked at the Americans For Truth About Homosexuality website this morning, I’m struck by how it’s Veterans Day — I’m struck by how unlikely it is that Peter LaBarbera would thank me for my 20-year service to country, or thank any other LGBT veteran for their service to country.
What has me thinking this way is that Mr. LaBarbera posted a short comment on “big-boned men in dresses,” attached to the news of the Application for non-career federal jobs in an Obama Administration — the application process for which the Obama Administration has stated (emphasis added):
The Obama-Biden Transition Project does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or any other basis of discrimination prohibited by law.
Will big-boned men in dresses and high heels like this fellow be allowed to use women’s restrooms in federal buildings under the Obama Administration? That’s what Obama’s plan to create “rights” based on gender confusion might bring. Obama’s pro-transsexual agenda — he favors federal rights based on “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” — was never discussed or debated seriously in the election campaign.
Should I ever meet Col. Dianne Schroer (Ret.) again, I’ll have to remember to tell my big-boned man in a dress aquaintence that her honorable service to country doesn’t matter; she shouldn’t consider herself human or professional enough to work for the federal government. That’s because “Christian” Peter LaBarbera believes a decorated military veteran with 25 years of service, who served as an Army Ranger, who happens to be transgender would show up at work wearing nothing but lingerie like the trans woman on the cover of a magazine that Mr. LaBarbera know doubt bought at his local porn shop — the porn shop where Mr. LaBarbera apparently gets all his ideas about how all gay and trans people behave.
And, I’ll have to remember to tell Col. Schroer that “Christian” Peter LaBarbara implies she and all other potential trans emplyees would rape the cisgender women in federal buildings’ restrooms specifically because they are transgender — that’s another reason the federal goverment shouldn’t hire trans people like her.
First I rant about a lack of an effective counter argument to the same, tired arguments of the conservative “Christians,” and then I sigh. *Sigh.*
[USA] Yesterday’s this day in history: “It’s front-page news when George Jorgensen Jr. is reborn as Christine Jorgensen, gaining international celebrity and notoriety as the first widely known person to undergo a successful sex-change operation … Jorgensen’s sex change, which may have been leaked to the press by Jorgensen herself, hit the headlines Dec. 1, creating an international sensation. “
[Italy] “What do Silvio Berlusconi and a communist transvestite have in common? That may sound like the set-up to a bad joke, but the search for a serious answer could just bring some focus to the bizarre spectacle of Italian public life. On Nov. 24, millions of Italians tuned into the ever-popular local version of Celebrity Survivor, or Isola dei Famosi (“Island of the Famous”). The show was wrapping up its sixth season with the coronation of the latest champion, Vladimir Luxuria, a former cabaret performer and Refounded Communist party member. In 2006, the unlikely politician became the first transvestite to be elected to Italy’s parliament. Luxuria’s participation had already ensured record high ratings for the 10-week-long show. Interest centered not only on how a communist politician would interact with two-bit stars and showgirls, but curiosity about what Luxuria would look like without her makeup.” — 
