Well, not exactly, but I can’t help but believe that one of “the usual suspects” will put some of that spin on this news story …
COEUR D’ALENE – Police in the Lake City are investigating a reported rape on North Idaho College’s campus involving a cross-dressing man who attacked a student in a bathroom.
Coeur d’Alene police are not commenting on their investigation at this point only to say they do not feel students are not in danger because the victim said she knew her attacker.
NIC student Janea Kelso heard about the alleged rape from a friend who got an emergency alert on her phone.
“It’s scary considering this is a small school,” Kelso said.
The text message said a man dressed as a woman was hiding in the first floor bathroom of the Meyer Health and Science Building and raped a woman last Friday. Kelso says teachers warned female students to be careful.
“They just said be careful when leaving class go in buddy system,” she said.
The victim told police she knows the rapist, who is described as being white with brown hair and is clean shaven. The attacker is 48-years-old and is not an NIC student. Police are not releasing the man’s name and no one has been arrested
NIC administrators notified students of the attack and said security officers are watching for suspicious people but they are not adding additional patrols.
“We have no indication since this was according to police someone known to her, we don’t believe nor does our security or police that is someone looking for targets at this time but still urging everyone to be vigilant,” NIC vice president John Martin said.
Police have declined comment on the case but did say that a rapist is not roaming the streets.
I’m referring here to the news coverage of the City of Gainesville, Florida’s anti-discrimination ordinance, which City Commissioners passed just about one year ago.
With the economy going down the toilet, I don’t find it very surprising that many of the folks who cheerleaded for those who brought it on — are ramping up diversionary societal acrimony.
It’s been going on in Montgomery County (Maryland) too, among other places, and I expect it will become (even more so) staple fare for the LaBarberas, the Barbers, the Sheldons and the like.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A blond girl heads from a playground into a women’s restroom. A scruffy man, lurking outside, darts in behind her. ”Your City Commission Made This Legal,” the words on the TV screen read.
The dark ad came from opponents of a gender identity provision added last year to the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance, which now allows the city’s roughly 100 transgender residents to use whichever restroom they’re most comfortable using.
Foes want to repeal the new protection with a March 24 ballot measure that has divided Gainesville, a generally gay-friendly university city surrounded by staunchly conservative north Florida.
Those who support the transgender protections say their opponents are really unleashing a broader attack on the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender individuals in general.
The city commission approved the restroom provision by a 4-3 vote a year ago. Before the ink could dry, Bible-quoting opponents angrily began working for its repeal.
”You are trying to operate in a realm you do not have the authority to operate in,” one pastor, George Brantley, told the commissioners.
The debate is expected to become noisier as the ballot nears with opponents resorting to more TV ads and campaigns pegged to such slogans as ”Keep Men out of Women’s Restrooms and vice versa.”
Organizations defending transgender rights are mustering their own campaign.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force notes 108 cities and counties nationwide have similar transgender protections. An attempt to repeal an ordinance in Montgomery County, Md., failed when a court ruled opponents did not collect enough signatures to place it on the ballot.
Citizens for Good Public Policy, the group behind the commercial that aired last summer in Gainesville, collected more than 6,000 signatures last summer to win a referendum. If approved, the repeal measure would also prevent the commission from adding protections beyond what the state requires: race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability and marital status.
Cain Davis, chairman of Citizens for Good Public Policy, said the issue is about regulating a ”government gone wild” and ensuring public safety, charging that sexual predators could now simply enter a women’s restroom claiming to be a transgender individual.
”We know when men go into women’s restrooms, bad things can happen,” Davis said.
City Commissioner Craig Lowe, leader of a group called Equality is Gainesville’s Business, called the ads from Davis’ group a grossly distorted attempt to whip up fears.
Lowe’s group believes anti-discrimination protections for people who change their sexual orientation are good for business and foster diversity. He noted that 433 of the Fortune 500 companies have policies covering sexual orientation and 153 cover gender identity.
Since the ordinance took effect, police have reported no problems in public restrooms stemming from the law.
Retired postal worker Donna Lee, who became a female with surgery in 2001, moved to Gainesville from Ocala last March after hearing about the anti-discrimination ordinance. The 60-year-old is working to save the protections.
”We just want to live our lives with the basic civil rights that everyone else has,” Lee said.
But some are taking no chances.
Computer programmer Clare Holman, who was born male but now lives as a female, said she simply stays away from public toilets.
”I don’t want to run afoul of the law by using the wrong restroom,” Holman said.
[TN, USA] “The nation’s largest gay civil rights organization is calling for a thorough investigation of the murder of a transgender woman who was preparing to sue Memphis police … The Human Rights Campaign issued a statement Wednesday, saying the Memphis Police Department needs to renew its “commitment to treating transgender people with respect and fairness.” Police say the shooting is under investigation and no arrests have been made.” — Group Wants Probe of Transgender Woman’s Death
[TN, USA] “When the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act passed through Congress in 2007, President George W. Bush vetoed the bill. President-Elect Barack Obama has pledged to support the bill. The transgender community, however, would still be left in the cold should it pass. The Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition is pushing a Hate Crimes Enhancement bill that would add gender identity and expression to the definition. We remain cautiously optimistic about what effect, if any, hate crime legislation would have on the actual act itself, but if something like this could pass in Tennessee, well, who knows?” — Transgendered in Tennessee–Dangerous Enough For New Legislation?
[KS, USA] “Debra Davis is a hugger. She describes herself as a parent, grandmother, good friend and good neighbor. She’s also a transgender person. Davis will be relating her experiences in her presentation “Transgender: The New Face on Campus” tonight at 7 at the Courtside Room in the Burge Union. The presentation, of which Davis has given more than 1,000, has taken her to campuses across the Midwest, including previous visits to the University. Davis said she enjoyed speaking at each school because of the experiences she had at each one … Davis said the point of her presentation was to explain how people become transgender individuals. She said the issue was not clear-cut. “I don’t know if I even understand the whole thing,” Davis said.” — Speaker sheds light on transgender life
[VT, USA] ” A professional makeover: A gift Michele Todd desperately wanted to give herself for decades, but didn’t. Not because she couldn’t afford a visit to the salon. She had the money. Michele feared a new look would devastate her family and friends and get her fired from her job, because the makeover she wanted would be drastic. Michele lived most of her life as Michael. “I want to work and breathe and live 24-7 as Michele,” she explains. Earlier this year, she legally changed her name, started wearing women’s clothes in public, and now walks solely in Michele’s shoes. The 51-year-old is transgender. She was born with male genitalia but identifies as female.” — Understanding Transgender
[USA] “Is the baby a boy or girl? Few things are harder for new parents than hearing their doctor say, “I don’t know.” “It is shocking,” said Katrina Karkazis, PhD, the author of a new book, Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority and Lived Experience, which will be released by Duke University Press on Nov. 14. Shame and confusion may overwhelm parents whose infant’s anatomy doesn’t match typical male or female patterns, Karkazis said. “It’s not something you find in most books that prepare you for having a baby.”” — Stanford author explores struggles of intersex individuals, their families and doctors
Katrina Karkazis discusses the struggles that face intersex people with the school’s executive director of communications, Paul Costello. Length: 17 mins. — Interview with Katrina Karkazis
[USA] “When Dr. H. walked into the examination room, he didn’t say hello. He didn’t shake my hand. He just started the examination. Then I noticed he was wearing latex gloves. (He never wore latex gloves for routine examinations.) He didn’t want to be in the same room with me. He didn’t want to touch me. Normally he would take my pulse by touching either my wrist or my neck. He did neither. When he listened to my heart he normally rested the stethoscope on the bare skin of my upper chest just inside the collar of my shirt. He didn’t do that. (He rested it right on the fabric of my shirt.) When he was finished he wrote the prescription, handed it to me and said: “we’re finished and I’m outta here.” He left the room and that was the last time I saw him. Interesting, he detests the Transgendered, but he’s not above billing a Transgendered person’s health insurance. (That is so morally bankrupt.) Don’t put money into these doctor’s pockets.” — Doctors, Healthcare Givers and Transsexuals: Discrimination Happens Part Two
[USA] “Yep, those are the two main strains of opinions bellowed across the web when news of Kidman’s casting broke. Either shock and fawning or pure meat-head mentality. What you didn’t hear was many people calling bullshit on the casting. Well, bullshit, bullshit and bullshit … when it comes to material featuring transgendered individuals, there’s no doubt Hollywood locks itself in the safe room … even though it’s an indie, the casting of Kidman as a guy-gone-girl transsexual is a symptom of shrewd, safety-first Hollywood studio mentality. You can almost hear the financiers. She’s a star! She’ll boost box-office! She’ll create instant publicity in a role like this! So it’s not brave or novel casting, but a rather ball-less decision obsessed with the bottom line.” — Hollywood’s Ball-less Decision: Kidman as a Transsexual Male
[USA] “A change is coming to America, and it is a scary one. What will the White House look like under an Obama administration? Well, it may look similar to that of San Francisco during the annual Sodomite parade … Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, says Obama’s new non-discrimination policy will be an “open door” for gender-confused and cross-dressing federal employees …All of this is an attempt to further the so called civil-rights protections of Sodomites, and eventually lead to legislation that specifically protects homosexuals, and prohibits discrimination based on being a homosexual or “gender confused.” Unfortantely, millions of whites voted for Barack Obama without realizing that the change they voted for is not going to be in the best interest of our dearly beloved America, or their children. A change is coming, and perhaps it’s Obama wearing a dress. Until then.” — Cross-dressers in White House with Obama?
[USA] “The religious right are scared over an Obama presidency and the positive possibilities it may have for the lgbt community. So expect them to batten down all of the hatches and pull out all of their lies about hate crimes legislation, gays serving openly in the military, ENDA, and non-discrimination ordinances in general. With non-discrimination ordinances, they are going to try and exploit ignorance and fear about our transgender brothers and sisters. I see from an item on LaBarbera’s Americans for Truth (in name only) web page and the One News Now webpage, they aren’t wasting any time … ” — And it begins – One News Now and Peter LaBarbera attacks the transgender community
[Australia] “Sometimes it seems an awfully big mountain, and an awfully small teaspoon to be moving it with. I need the occasional story like this to recharge my batteries, and restore my faith in Humankind. ‘When Bishop Gayle Harris asked if we were ready to vote, she didn’t have time to specify that those in favor of the resolution should signify a yes by raising their yellow cards. Yellow cards just started rising, beginning with the left side of the hall. “Hey, what if I had started with the nos?!” she said. But the avalanche was unstoppable: a sea of yellow cards filled the room. When Bishop Harris asked those against the resolution to raise their red cards, I saw no more than 10, again, in a room of about 800 people. I imagine there were some quiet abstentions, but based on that sea of yellow cards, there can’t have been many. So the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts has now gone on record in support of transgender civil rights here in Massachusetts as well as at the federal level, and it has asked the General Convention next summer to augment its non-discrimination canon to include transgender people as part of the ministry of all the baptized.‘ Excelsior.” — A Sea of Yellow Cards Filled the Room
[TN, USA] “The shooting death of a transgendered woman won’t stop a planned lawsuit over her February beating at the hands of police, one of her attorneys said Monday. Duanna Johnson, 43, was shot in the head at Hollywood and Staten in North Memphis late Sunday. She died at the scene. Although the Memphis Police Department identified the victim as Dwayne Johnson, attorney Murray Wells said the victim was the person he knew as Duanna.” — Transgendered abuse victim found dead
[Australia] “At the Grauniad, where noted Transphobe Julie Bindel was nominated for an award as “Journalist of the Year” by UK GLB(but not T) group STONEWALL. Named after a riot against police oppression of trans* and gays started by a Transgendered woman, to add a touch of Irony … So why does all this matter? Surely it’s just more silly sophomoric political games, people shouting at each other in the battle of the -isms, with no-one but they interested in the outcome? It matters because of this – the events I wrote about in Nothing Unusual … It matters because just as the beating of Duanna Johnson was not widely publicised in MSM, her murder will go unremarked either, even if a ballistics exam shows (purely by coincidence) a police-issue weapon was involved. It matters because if the Julie Bindels of the world are allowed to preach their poisonous Xenophobia without being called on it, then consequences such as this are inescapable.” — Today’s Battle
[USA] “New reality series Sex Change Hospital (WE tv Tuesdays, 11 pm/ET) follows patients — from retired grandfathers to construction workers, businessman and office managers — as they undergo surgery to transition from one gender to another. We caught up with Dr. Marci Bowers (formerly Mark Bowers), who has performed over 550 male-to-female sexual reassignment surgeries, to find out more about the life-changing operations at her clinic in Trinidad, Colo., the compelling docudrama and the social stigmas involved with transgender patients.” — Transgender Doctor Talks Sex Change Hospital
[USA] (Too bad certain Americans for Truth never focused on WMDs as they have on MWDs.) The latest from “Porno Pete” LaBarbera: “What will a President Obama do to protect the right to privacy of female federal workers who don’t want men wearing dresses – with male genitalia – sharing their women’s restroom?” LaBarbera said. “Will a President Obama request funds from Congress to embark on an ambitious ‘Transgender Restroom Construction Project’ to build special “trans” bathrooms in government buildings – so as not to subject female employees to sexual harassment and violations of their privacy?” — Will Federal Female Employees Be Safe from Cross-Dressing Men Using Ladies’ Restrooms in the Obama Administration?
[MD, USA] “So — a foreign guy went into the ladies fitting room with his wife and baby. That’s the story.
The letter writer, Bunny Galladora, hints that this is supposed to have something to do with our county’s new nondiscrimination law. The guy wasn’t dressed as a woman or claiming to be transgender, he was speaking a foreign language and maybe comes from a less puritanical country than ours, where men help their wives pick out clothes and watch the kid. As long as he isn’t leering at the women, exposing himself, or molesting anyone, there is no law — and never has been a law — against him being there … The WCTU lady says she was uneasy saying something to the store employee “with the new law having been passed.” Was she afraid somehow that she was going to accidentally discriminate against someone on the basis of gender identity? If there was something unusual about the man’s gender identity you would think she’d mention it. Let’s see how quickly Channel Seven gets this “challenge to the new law” on the air. And to think, they don’t like it when we call them “nuts.”" — WCTU Leader Outraged by Foreigner at Kohls, Blames New Law
[USA] “We need to start rebuilding for a fully inclusive ENDA. Start making strong alliances, start reaching out, start laying the bare strategic groundwork for the next battle a year or so from now. Let the lawyers continue to fight to overturn Prop 8, it was in some respects a red herring primarily designed to build and test a religion-based political machine, but it did serve (hopefully) as a fertile source of lessons learned and an insight as to how we need to fight the upcoming fight for our rights.” — Forward Thinking
[USA] “This statement and its supporting literature, that hypothesize sexual deviance as a cause of transsexualism, have sparked dissent among clinicians and researchers and outrage within the transgender and transsexual community [4-8] While theories around “autogynephilia” seem exceptionally impervious to contrary evidence, the controversy has raised questions about tolerance and bias in American Psychiatry– at what point do bad stereotypes preclude good science? The term “autogynephilia,” meaning “love of oneself as a woman,” was first introduced by Dr. Raymond Blanchard of the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, now known as the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. He is currently chairman of the Paraphilias Subcommittee for the upcoming DSM-V. Blanchard stated that, “All gender dysphoric males who are not sexually oriented toward men are instead sexually oriented toward the thought or image of themselves as women.” [9] The absolutism in this statement, in the words “all and “instead,” seems astonishing. [10] It reduces a broad continuum of sexuality among transwomen to two narrow maligning stereotypes: either “homosexual males” in denial of a “homosexual” identity or pathological narcissistic “males” sexually attracted to themselves.” — Autogynephilia: The Infallible Derogatory Hypothesis, Part 1
[USA] “The gender alternative to ENDA would still be far from perfect.Even the most inclusive version of ENDA proposed so far was startling in its embrace of stark gender binarism, protecting transgender employees only to the extent they clearly declared themselves to be one sex or the other.The political process may continue to demand caveats on affirmative action and disparate impact claims.Judicial treatment of the new law could go in several directions.Judicial enthusiasm for the PDA, for example, has been mixed.Courts have sliced and diced sex, pregnancy, sex-plus, and sex stereotyping claims in defiance of Congress’s view that all are of a piece.There is no guarantee that their enforcement of a gender amendment would be more enthusiastic.A gender amendment would, however, create at least a chance for some progress, and a chance to avoid creating new problems for intersectional and other non-archetypal plaintiffs.” –Instead of ENDA, A Course Correction for Title VII
[Indonesia] “Heavyset and wearing the pink Islamic headscarf and matching flowing clothes of a pious Indonesian housewife, 48-year-old Maryani says her penis is a gift from God. Born as a boy and raised as a Catholic, Maryani spent years of drinking and selling sex on the streets as part of this city’s transgendered community before discovering Islam. Now, with her eight-year-old adopted daughter Rizky Aryani scrambling across her sturdy thighs, Maryani says her job is to bring Islam to her fellow “waria,” as transgendered people are known here. Tucked into a small alley in Yogyakarta, Maryani’s house has been turned into Indonesia’s first Islamic school set up specifically for waria.” –Indonesian transgendered find refuge in Islamic school
[Finland] “A local Imatra vicar’s announcement that he plans to undergo gender reassignment surgery is forcing the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church to take a stance on sex change. The minister, Olli Aalto, who is taking a temporary leave of absence, intends to begin hormone treatments. After this, he will undergo surgery and physically become a woman. Voitto Huotari, the bishop of the local Mikkeli diocese, says Aalto can no longer continue in his job. Aalto considers this view to be blatantly discriminatory. Aalto says he has been encouraged to leave the Church. However, firing him would break equality law. Aalto says he’s considering taking the Church to court if he is expelled from his job. “Pressuring me to leave is already discrimination,” says Aalto.” — Imatra Vicar Plans Gender Reassignment Surgery
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.
I think many people online confuse articulating conflicting views with hurling personal attacks and verbal or digital Molotov cocktails behind the safety of a keyboard and monitor. People say things on a blog or bulletin board they would never say offline to someone face-to-face.
–Pam Spaulding
My friend Brenda Watson cried a great deal recently related to the Concerned Women For America‘s coverage of San Diego Pride. It appears that Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality and Martha Kleder of the Concerned Women For America (CWA) posted on the CWA’s July 24th podcast.
Specifically, Brenda staffed the Scouting For All booth during San Diego Pride. On the CWA’s July 24th podcast, CWA Policy Analyst Martha Kleder called Brenda a “homely man” and a “deviant” — and then she compared Brenda unfavorably to the Addams Family, with Peter LaBarbera chiming in and agreeing. The excerpt:
Well, when Brenda’s tears dried, she did some online research and found Peter LaBarbera’s Americans For Truth About Homosexuality telephone number. So, she called him up to let him know she heard the podcast, and that he and Martha Kleder weren’t exactly being very Christian in how they hurled their insults. And, of course, it was easy for Peter and Martha to attack Brenda. To them, Brenda was an anonymous less-than-human-being — they said things on a podcast they would never say offline to Brenda face-to-face.
As if to confirm that assumption, Brenda told me that in her phone call, Peter said that he couldn’t remember exactly what he said in the podcast — he actually said “Sometimes I get carried away.” Well, that’s what “Christians” do, right?
To me, this really is a case of supposed “Christians” not treating others with the decency by which they would like to be treated; it really is supposed “Christians” behaving like Pharisees.
If leaving the “homosexual lifestyle” meant entering the “‘Christian’ lifestyle” molded after the likes of “Christians” Peter LaBarbera or Martha Kleder — well, one can only wonder who would want to mold their lives after either of them? Who would want to convert to their version of “Christianity”?
A 53-year-old man has filed a complaint with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission after the City of Cleveland refused to allow him to use the women’s locker rooms and restrooms at a local public swimming pool.
The man, who will only identify himself as “Karen Deamons,” claims to be a woman even though he has been married to women twice and is the father of three children. The city has tried to accommodate the man by allowing him to use private toilet stalls as a dressing room.
“But it’s still not good enough,” says Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality. “He’s demanding his so-called ‘rights’ — ‘rights’ which are literally being created out of thin air by activist judges and activist law based on this absurd notion that a man can be ‘a woman’ because that’s how he feels he is,” he criticizes.
LaBarbera says he is genuinely saddened by the efforts of gender-confused people such as Deamons to pretend to be someone they are not. “The last thing he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer was, ‘I want the city to let me go through the ladies restroom as a normal woman. That’s who I am and what I am.’ And, obviously, if this man were really a ‘normal woman,’ there would not be any controversy,” he points out.
According to LaBarbera, trans-sexuals are shaking their fist in God’s face and demanding to be treated as they want to be rather than as they were created. He warns that thousands of similar complaints and lawsuits can be expected as transsexual activists become emboldened by support from activist judges and legislators.
I am genuinely sad for Pete. It’s not just the “existential emptiness this poor man has” that Wayne Besen referred to — it’s the obvious “financial emptiness” of his … which leads him to “prostitute” himself like this to make ends meet. And, I don’t know, but — speaking of the world’s oldest occupation — it seems to me that the “sex trade” would at least be a more honest form of prostitution for him to pursue.
Matt Barber and Peter LaBarbera put on a Chicago press conference to announce to the world that they’re boycotting McDonalds, and Chicago’s “secular media” (their words for the main stream media, not mine) pretty much ignored their media “event.”
Of course, Mr. LaBarbera whined about it:
Dave Diersen, an Illinois Republican activist, has provided a summary of the coverage of our press conference in front of McDonald’s’ world headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois. Predictably, I suppose, we were completely blacked out by Chicago’s and Illinois’ major media — which had no excuse since they were inundated with press releases about the event by four pro-family organizations taking part: Americans For Truth, American Family Association, Illinois Family Institute and Liberty Counsel. It appears that the Fox News item below came from AP.
So once again the major media are doing the work of the homosexual lobby. Many in the media have decided that the “gay” issue is settled, and the homosexual activists have won. (Remember when Big Media thought the abortion issue was pretty much over?) Yesterday’s non-coverage was appalling journalism, even by corrupt Chicago standards. Clearly, the boycott story is compelling — even from a pure business perspective: already, nearly 200,000 people have signed AFA’s boycott petition (www.boycottmcdonalds.com).
They threw a party, and jeepers — the cool kids didn’t come.
One of the reasons, I’m sure, has something to do with how bowling ball sharp Mr. LaBarbera appears to be. For example, in the American For Truth About Homosexuality piece Chicago Media Black Out McDonald’s Boycott Press Conference, Mr. LaBarbera again shows us his hebetudinous streak by not doing his homework on McDonalds’ business policies. Specifically, He didn’t do research to back this line regarding how “pro-transsexuality” McDonalds allegedly is:
McDonald’s was given a high 85% rating by a homosexual lobby group for its pro-homosexuality and pro-transsexuality policies.
If one actually look at the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index page for McDonalds, one would find that the reason McDonalds has an 85% instead of a 100% score is that McDonalds doesn’t have a “…written non-discrimination policy covering gender identity in its employee handbook or manual”.
McDonalds isn’t very “pro-transsexuality” in their business policies, in other words, as they don’t have a specific non-discrimination policy for their trans employees.
If one is going to make claims regarding how “pro-transsexuality” a business is, one needs to do one’s homework to verify the claim. Peter, it appears, didn’t do his homework, so he didn’t get his story straight on McDonalds’ non-discrimination policies. I believe we need to mark that man’s homeschool report card with an unsatisfactory for Work Habits.
I really get tired of going over the same crap over and over again regarding gender. The mental hebetude of conservative Christians discussing transsexual youth and adults is beyond incredible. These dullards have no personal qualifications that indicate expertise in gender issues, and even in their supposed area of expertise — Biblical scriptures — they cherry pick scriptures on sex and gender to make points on gender when other scriptures counter the evangelical message.
Chuck Colson, in a Breakpoint article entitled It’s a Sick, Sick World takes another stab at transgender people and issues — some of his previous stabs includehere, here, here, and Coming to a School Near You. In It’s a Sick, Sick World, he gets around to attacking Dr. Norman Spack, who treats transyouth with puberty delaying medications — in large part to keep these not-gender-confused children from committing suicide.
So here’s what the former Watergate conspirator and hebetudinous writer said in his most recent piece about Dr. Spack and transyouth (links added for reference; emphasis added):
He has been called “demonic,” “barbaric,” and has been compared to Nazi doctors. And when you read about his work, it is easy to see why Americans are so outraged. Dr. Norman Spack is a pediatric endocrinologist at Boston Children’s Hospital. Not long ago, he opened a clinic for what he terms “transgendered” children. Incredibly, he is giving kids as young as seven drugs that delay the onset of puberty–the first step in sex-change surgery when they are older.
…When these kids hit their teen years, they are given the option of taking cross-hormones for a few years—which will allow them to develop the characteristics of the opposite sex. Tragically, the treatment will condemn these teenagers to lifelong infertility.
…So why are doctors like Spack altering young bodies instead of treating confused minds?
The answer is that many doctors have embraced the modern teaching that sexual identity, rather than being biologically determined, is a preference or a choice. According to this, people should be allowed to choose whatever sex they want to be.
But both science and the Bible teach otherwise: God created us male and female in His image. Shots and surgeries and politically correct teachings cannot alter this fundamental truth.
Tragically, some parents are now buying into this false teaching–and allowing their children to undergo destructive treatments.
You and I need to be spreading the word that legitimate treatment is available for people suffering from gender confusion—and it is a treatment that does not sacrifice the well-being of children to the political agendas of adults.
By the way, science doesn’t teach us what the thick-witted Colson believes it does — Please see The Scientific Problem With Sex Dichotomies and BiGender and the Brain to see what science study has so far revealed.
And, the Bible doesn’t teach us what the dullard Colson — and many other thick-witted conservative Christian commentators — believes it does in Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 5:1-2. Specifically, Matthew 19:12, Galatians 3:28 and Isaiah 56:4-8 challenge Colson and his peers scriptural understanding of a very, very binary gender dichotomy.
Exactly what, in Chuck Colson’s personal life history and education (biographies here and here) indicate an expertise in gender issues or theology? His “authority” appears to be false authority based on his personal personal, spiritual conversion. Nothing in his personal story, education, or current job of running a prison ministry indicate any reason why he should be considered a knowledgeable expert on tragic transgender youth.
[Below the fold, fellow hebetudinous, conservative Christian commentator Peter LaBarbera jumps in to the fray -- pimping Chuck Colson's piece]
One of the things I noticed about the An Examination of Discrimination Against Transgender Americans in the Workplace hearing is that minus the Alliance Defense Fund, there weren’t any conservative Christian organizations speaking at the hearing; minus the Traditional Values Coalition any conservative Christian organizations leaving press materials at the hearing; and minus the ranking minority member of the subcommittee (Rep. John Kline, R-MN) there were no Republicans there to ask questions of the witnesses at the hearing.
So what’s happening now there’s a conservative Christian community characterization of the hearing as if there was serious wave of opposition speaking to trans employment issues — but they didn’t actually have much presense there opposing any future gender idenity and expression inclusive legislation in person.
Some examples of online, conservative Christian commentary:
- PFOX: Congressional Hearing To Push Gender Confusion Upon All Americans
Democrat leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have scheduled a hearing this Thursday on discrimination against “transgendered” individuals in the workplace.
“Homosexuals and their transgender activist allies hope to use this hearing as a way of forcing the imposition of gender confusion upon all Americans,” said Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) Executive Director Regina Griggs today. “Instead of treating transsexualism and cross-dressing behaviors as Gender Identity Disorders (GID) as defined by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Democrats seem determined to make these behaviors into federally-protected minorities.”
“Why should Congress force Americans to provide workplace accommodations for people who are confused about whether they’re male or female? How can Congress force us to make believe that a man is really a woman or a woman is really a man?”
“If Democrats were truly concerned about these gender confused individuals, they’d push for expanded mental health services for GID. A person can’t change his or her sex – and many of these individuals think they’re a woman one day and a man the next day. Why is Congress catering to such insanity?”
[OneNewsNow/American Family Association, Peter LaBarbera, Focus On The Family/CitizenLink, Concerned Women For America, and Traditional Values Coalition commentaries below the fold.] Read the rest of this entry »
… o Pete. Yes, he is at it again, not that he knows anything about pandering, of course.
This is from OneNewsNow today (“Homosexuality takes Congress by storm“) on Mr. Leather‘s latest comments, which seem just so ironically and sadly hilariously over-the-top on so many levels to this reader …
The two openly homosexual members of the U.S. House of Representatives have recruited 50 of their colleagues to officially join them in promoting the homosexual agenda in Congress.
Democrats Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin are the only open homosexuals serving in Congress. They have joined with Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Christopher Shays of Connecticut, and 50 other Democrats to create the House Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Caucus. Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, says it is a sad day when Congress enshrines official promotion of sexual immorality.
“How interesting that we now have a homosexuality, transsexual caucus – I guess you could call it – at the congressional level. It’s just unbelievable that there are this many congressmen who are promoting homosexuality and transsexual perversion,” LaBarbera laments.
While LaBarbera criticized the two Republicans for lending the appearance of bipartisanship to the group, he reserved his primary wrath for the Democrats.
“I think what this shows is that the hard-core Democratic Left is extremely pro-homosexual,” he states. “Big city populations have many homosexual activists, and they’re disproportionately powerful compared to the rest of the people in the district. Do I think that the average person in the district knows that these members are promoting homosexuality in this way? No way! But there are probably powerful homosexual constituencies in each one of these districts,” LaBarbera explains.
Christians, according to LaBarbera, could learn something from the success of homosexual activists. With very small numbers, they have managed to create the perception of a much larger constituency and, thereby, have many of their political demands met.
“The gays are all about political power. They know how to vote. They’re very committed. They’re not apathetic like many Christians,” says the activist. “And they’ve ‘earned’ this extraordinary total: 52 congressmen coming right out and saying, ‘We are going to vote for homosexuality and transsexuality in Congress,” LaBarbera contends.
Strength in small numbers … sounds like something Jesus might appreciate … not that Barney and the 53 apostles (sorry, we have a problem with inflation) are in that league, of course.
This is a post I wrote for the folk at Pam’s House Blend (PHB), where I’m a contributor. So, this is cross-posted from this PHB diary.
~~Autumn~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some Blenders have no doubt done the math and realized that, since I’m going to Democratic National Convention in Denver with the rest of the PHB bloggers this coming August, I’m going to be peeing within the state lines of Colorado. So with Colorado’s Public Accommodation law changing to add sexual orientation and gender identity and expression to the list of protected classes…
Well, I’m not exactly sure of the date as yet when the Colorado public accommodation legislation officially becomes state law, but the law as passed apparently directly impacts which set of restrooms transgender people/people of transsexual history are legally authorized to use within Colorado. (I guess I need to ask my attorney friend Kat about what the law actually states, and when the law becomes effective.)
But, let’s assume for the moment that the law is as the Denver Postand Focus On The Family/CitizenLink imply it is, and that one of the major impacts of this law is that people like me will be able to legally share public restrooms with natal women.
One of the consequences of this change in Colorado law will be unwarranted fear-mongering — well, at least what I would consider to be unwarranted fear-mongering. For example, Focus On The Family/CitizenLink puts it in terms of predatory behavior by crossdressed men in women’s facilities:
SFX: [screen door closing book bag dropping on table]
ANNCR: If the Colorado Legislature has its way
GIRL 1: Mom! A man in a dress came into the girl’s bathroom at school today!
ANNCR: We could all be dealing with a new type of predator
WOMAN: [ambient sound under of woman getting out of car, door beep and close] Honey, there was a man using the women’s showers today at the fitness center I asked the management why?!…They said it was Colorado law!
ANNCR: And instead of our kids worrying about finals and the prom they’ll have to worry about who’s in the bathroom with them at school.
GIRL 2: [SFX: ambient hall noise, lockers close] No way I’m going in there I’d rather wait all day than go in there if he’s in there, too…
And, Peter LaBarbera has framed this in personal terms. He doesn’t ask what I actually do in public restrooms, but instead he asks:
Should this very confused man, “transgender” activist Autumn Sandeen, be allowed to use the female restroom?
In the way Mr. LaBarbera frames his question, the clear implication is that given the opportunity, he believes I’d do — or already do — sickening and despicable things to natal women and girls within public restrooms marked “Women.”
[After the fold, FOTF speaks; I'm planning have a photo shot of me by a bathroom door at the Democratic National Convention] Read the rest of this entry »
We don’t think that demonic is too strong a word to describe this. It brings us thoughts of the Nazi doctors who thought they were doing good things.
–Unsigned MassResistance editorial (April 19, 2008), and quoted in WorldNetDaily
I occasionally get asked why I spend so much time and energy repeating the message that the Bible mentions gender variant people in Matthew 19:12, Galatians 3:28 and Isaiah 56:4-8.
Well, it’s because conservative Christian’s often site Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 5:1-2 to mean that there are only those born female, and those born male, and there is no gray area between male and female.
Against science and reality, they believe in a sex (“what’s between the legs”) and gender (“what’s between the ears”) dichotomy, where gender is either male or female, and one’s gender is always aligned to, and always determined determined by the shape of one’s genitalia at birth. They strongly believe that when asking the question Can One Be A Transgender Christian?, they usually answer “No.” The Traditional Values Coalition quotes Jerry Leach in proclaiming Transgenders Need Spiritual Help:
Gender confused individuals need psychological help but they also need spiritual assistance to deal with their mental problems.
Jerry Leach, a former closeted cross-dresser, heads Reality Resources, a ministry to men and women who have gender identity problems. Leach, writing in his paper, “Homo-sexuality & Transsexuality Compared,” says that a transgendered person is not only gender confused, but he gradually rejects his God-given gender role. “Deep-seated psychological splitting or disassociation from the masculine is the most serious in the life of the transgender person. … An underlying principle that bears repeating is the reality that compulsions do not remain static. They are progressive. A man can begin with experimentation, only to discover much later that his repeated habit finally betrays him by leading him into bondage.” Leach’s web site, www.realityresources.com, has more information on how sexually confused individuals can find healing and wholeness.
Peter LaBarbera recently more than inferred that the idea that there may be transgender and transsexual youth as “tranny insanity.” Now his pals at MassResistance have gone further in their description of the treatment of transyouth, using the term demonic (the emphasis is theirs):
We don’t think that demonic is too strong a word to describe this. It brings us thoughts of the Nazi doctors who thought they were doing good things.
As MassResistance has reported in the past, this is going on at the world-renowned Children’s Hospital in Boston – not some backwater clinic. This is the elite of the medical profession. And the Boston Globe treats this with clinical nonchalance. This article is so disturbing that it’s difficult to say more.
MassResistance then cites an article in the Boston Globe, entitled Q&A with Norman Spack; A doctor helps children change their gender. Where MassResistance is upset enough to directly add a comment to the article’s quoted text is where Dr. Spack indicates that he believes transgender people are also formed — as transgender — in the image of God:
I don’t think you can watch this movement without just having such pity on these poor men and women who are so gender-confused. It just makes my heart grieve. I think Christians everywhere need to reach out to these people and tell them that the body that God gave them is what God intended to give them.
–Americans for Truth About Homosexuality Executive Director Peter “The Peter” LaBarbera, in OneNewsNow
I remember reciting the pledge of allegiance as an elementary school student, and especially remember the ending phrase:
…And liberty and justice for all.
I also remember what Christ was reported to say about genitalia in Matthew 19:12:
For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it.
Yet, The Peter doesn’t see transsexuals getting bottom surgery as possibly doing it possibly “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven,” but instead appears to see transgender people like me as being super-homosexuals, and as such fall within The Peter‘s hate of the “homosexual agenda.” Not exactly a Galatians 3:28-ish way of looking at sex and gender, but hey — it’s The Peter‘s way of blessing God and cursing his fellow humans, and for not supporting liberty and justice for his neighbors.
Would Jesus approve of baring false witness against transgender people? Is that what conservative Christians now support — baring false witness to make “Christian” points?
Well, if you’re Theresa Rickman of the Citizens For A Responsible Government, it’s apparently okay to bare false witness against transgender people. If you’re a professional Christian like Matt Barber or Martha Kleder — both with the Concerned Women For America (CWA) — it’s apparently okay to use pejoratives like “she-male” (Matt: here; Martha: below) — and suborn baring false witness by not pointing out that your podcast guest created a media stunt, specifically to slander transgender people with false allegations of bad behavior in bathrooms and locker rooms.
In the breathless words of Martha Kleder: “Oh my goodness!”
But here’s the interesting part. A while back, a man in a dress went into a gym at Rio. He signed in, went to the ladies locker-room, and came out again. Channel Seven responded immediately with a breathless account. We found out later that Theresa Rickman was actually in the lobby of the gym when this happened, but the Citizens for Whatever have consistently denied that the event was staged.
Until now.
MARTHA KLEDER: Well Theresa, I also heard that someone tried to test this. Was there some event where a transgender or a shemale or someone tried to use the opposite sex bathroom?
THERESA RICKMAN: Yes, at Rio Sport and Health up in Germantown. A guy dressed as a girl went into the ladies bathroom. And, ah you know, essentially what uh, that was meant to get some media attention, you know, and the guy left immediately apparently, I mean but there was, this is the Rio Sport and Health Club, you know and Sport and Health has steam rooms, and there are ladies changing in those locker rooms, people in various stages of undress [laughing] all the time, so there’s lots a guy can see.
Yes, that is just what we were saying: this was meant to get some media attention. Greta Kreuz from Channel Seven sent an email saying she was “offended by suggestions that this incident was fabricated by this group and that Channel 7 got sucked into reporting it as part of an ‘agenda.’” We don’t know if she was fooled by it, or if she was part of the plan in the first place, but Channel Seven was the only outlet to tell their public about this “test of the new law.”
Well well well. Wasn’t that some seriously Christian behavior on Theresa’s, Martha’s, and Matt’s part now, eh?
I would call again for organizations like the American Family Association, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, or Focus On The Family/CitizenLink to renounce the CWA for their use of the “she-male” pejorative, as well as now for the CWA suborning the false witness baring of Theresa Rickman, but I won’t bother. Frankly, I doubt any religious right organization will look past their hate of LGBT people to condemn the bad public behavior by one of their peer “Christian” organizations.
Dave Diersen, an Illinois Republican activist, has provided a summary of the coverage of our press conference in front of McDonald’s’ world headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois. Predictably, I suppose, we were completely blacked out by Chicago’s and Illinois’ major media — which had no excuse since they were inundated with press releases about the event by four pro-family organizations taking part: Americans For Truth, 
Chuck Colson, in a Breakpoint article entitled 
