Mine are, at least, today — probably a few in Ireland too, I’d imagine — and I can hear an angel sing. (Who knew Irish Equality Authority chief Niall Crowley had such an angelic voice?)

Transsexual wins landmark identity case

The Rev. Erin Swenson, who will preach in Chapel Hill, NC on June 10th, concluded a recent opinion piece in The Chapel Hill News with this thought …

“Religion and transgender experience — can the twain meet? Transgender people of faith have a valuable perspective on our national obsession with gender distinctions. They have struggled with the unreasonable demands for conformity inherent in our collective life, yet have been able to discover a place of personal integrity. They have come to understand the balance between divine creation and the ongoing responsibility that each of us has for our own self-creation. In a world where we seem to have lost the capacity to understand and affirm each other, the thread of transgender experience offers a valuable resource for transcending our differences, gendered and otherwise. Can the twain meet? Let’s hope they do. “

The full story can be found here.

This list of interesting stories already was so long I moved this up a day from the usual Friday Recommended Reading to today — Thursday.
~~A~~

FindLaw Writ: Alleged Death by Veganism: Why a False Story Has Legs
Excerpt: Earlier this month, a jury found Lamont Thomas and Jade Sanders guilty of murder and assorted other offenses in connection with the starvation death of their child, Crown Shakur. A judge sentenced both parents to life imprisonment. The baby was six weeks old when he died, yet he weighed only three-and-a-half pounds at the time, a weight that is dangerously low even at birth. … A child’s death is always tragic, particularly when it is protracted, painful and as unnecessary as Crown Shakur’s was. But what made his death especially newsworthy was not the fact that it was tragic; it was the unusual defense that his parents mounted: They said their son died because they had fed him a vegan diet.

Acron Beacon-Journal: Kidney patients to battle on reality television
Kidney transplant is prize on Dutch television – critics are aghast.

Jacksonville Times-Union: Veteran Navy Dog receives full military honors at funeral
Excerpt: The master at arms, Petty Officer 1st Class Steven Miller, who heads up the K-9 unit at Mayport, said the ceremony included posting colors - carrying of the American flag, the Navy flag and the Florida flag - a salute and a bugler playing taps in Ben’s honor. Command Master Chief Deborah Davidson spoke at the 30-minute ceremony, as did Miller and his staff.

Los Angeles Times: Her embryos or his?
AFTER two years of infertility treatments — from temperature monitoring and artificial inseminations to hormone injections and laparoscopic surgery — Augusta Roman felt her last, best hope for bearing a child was only hours away. Her doctor had retrieved 13 eggs from her ovaries, and six had been fertilized with the sperm of her husband, Randy Roman.

Scientific American: When a Person Is Neither XX nor XY: A Q&A with Geneticist Eric Vilain
Eric Vilain discusses the biology and politics of mixed-sex individuals, arguing that terms such as “hermaphrodite” and “intersex” are vague and hurtful.

Gentilly Girl’s Closet: Why I’m Not Living “Stealth”…
Excerpt: Sorry girls, this life is MINE. I’m not ashamed of what Nature made me. I have no regrets, outside of not Transitioning 20 years ago when I had the means to do so. In my way of seeing things, I’m just part of the diversity that Nature revels in, and in advertising that fact, I’m helping to nail the coffin shut of the “Binary gender” crap that most folks subscribe to. I”M HELPING THE ONES TO COME.

Shakesville: Hey, Guess What? Torture Doesn’t Work!

Arcata Eye - Arcata, CA, USA: Anti-homosexuality letter roils Arcata High
Excerpt: A letter to the editor published in the May 14 edition of school newspaper, the Pepperbox, led to a small student walkout the next day, followed by continuing discussion of press freedom and homophobia issues.

Outside Online has reported a Female Shark’s Virgin Birth:

A female hammerhead shark born in a Nebraska aquarium in 2001 has been identified as the first known shark to reproduce through parthenogenesis — a form of asexual reproduction that has been found in other vertebrate species like some snakes and lizards.

The bonnethead, a small hammerhead species, was held in captivity with two other female sharks for three years at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. At first, many scientists assumed she had either mated with another species or utilized sperm she had stored years ago.

But Mahmood S. Shivji, director of the Guy Harvey Research Institute, published a paper this week in the journal Biology Letters proving that “the female shark’s genetic material combined during the cell division of reproduction without the aid of male DNA.

I think it was a very interesting discovery and it fills in a gap in the types of animals that we know who can do this,” said Robert E. Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida. “[Previously,] we knew asexual reproduction was possible in all vertebrate animals except for animals and sharks. This shows that it didn’t jump over the sharks as it went to amphibians.”

Hallelujah?

The things I stumble upon …

I happened to notice that Sarasota, Florida apparently has “sister city” relationships with burgs in Canada, France, Israel, Russia, Scotland, Italy and China.

Will the small town of Geldo in Spain be getting some of Sarasota’s sisterly affection any time soon?

Naah, don’t think so …

Spain local election sees first transsexual woman as councillor

What the heck is it with the mainstream media being so concerned about what transsexuals wear in public?  This is from the first paragraph of Phil Davis’s Associated Press account of Susan Stanton not being hired as the Sarasota City Manager:

Steve Stanton was fired as city manager in Largo two months ago after announcing his plans to become Susan Stanton. On Wednesday, Stanton, wearing a white skirt, pumps and makeup, applied for the top job in this cosmopolitan tourist town, and was turned down.

My male-to-female transsexual peers and I are more than just phr3qs wearing appropriate skirts, pumps, and make-up.

Hey Phil, Ms. Stanton was a city manager for 14-years — why would you think defining any other woman in the sexist terms of her skirt as good journalism? Would you think it appropriate journalism to describe exactly how a natal female applicants were dressed for a city job interview without describing in equal detail how the natal male applicants were dressed?

With all respects to Geico, Phil “sweetie,” are you a caveman?

 I’m e-mailing my GLAAD rep today or tomorrow — Hope it does some good.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

While Susan Stanton is feeling some hurt and rejection today, I saw that Christine Daniels got some good luvin’ (Christine, I bet, remembers the Young Rascals) last week from the Association for Women in Sports Media …

“My AWSM membership packet arrived in the mail the other day. That’s AWSM as in the Association for Women in Sports Media, a congregation of some of the most talented journalists and smartest sportswriters I know. I am very happy to have been welcomed into the group.”

So, congratulations to Christine, and kudos to the AWSM for doing a good thing.

And, Susan, like Christine says …

” Life isn’t fair … “

… but then, I’m sure you’ve known that all along.

MyFox Tampa Bay announced that Sarasota took a pass on Susan Stanton. Apparently she was the third choise for the position of Sarasota City Manager.

Ms. Stanton’s comment on this:

“Apparently, it’s too soon for a transgender city manager.”

Sadly, she may be right. I’m keeping my thoughts with her as she continues her job hunt.

———
Related: Decision Day In Sarasota

As she waits to see if she will become Sarasota’s new city manager, Susan Stanton expressed confidence that the “transgender issue” would not be a public concern.

I hope Susan is right about that.

But, however many times I see them, and though they may not be representive of the views and feelings of the majority of Sarasota’s citizens, I still find comments such as these quite irksome …

“Please vote for anyone except Susan Stanton.”

“Stanton will not be a good fit for the city, do you have unisex bathrooms or would you enjoy sharing with him?”

“I am very opposed to our lovely city becoming a beacon of sorts for transvestites such as Steve/Susan Stanton.”

———Update———
- Susan Stanton Doesn’t Get The Sarasota Job

Related information:
- Steve Stanton
- Susan Stanton
- Steve Stanton On The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

From the Los Angeles Times’ Bratton issues report on melee I read that Police Cheif Bratton essentially blamed police use of force at the May 1 rally on ‘command and control breakdown.’ Sounds sorta reasonable I guess — unless of course I think about the actual victims of the police’s use of the unexpectedly high level of excessive force at that rally. From the article:

The Police Department’s preliminary investigation into the May Day MacArthur Park melee confirms that a “breakdown” in police command and control took place and offers explicit new detail on the roles of two top officers who were quickly reassigned by Chief William J. Bratton.

The report, presented to the city’s Police Commission on Tuesday, was immediately criticized as being incomplete. Some City Council members and community activists complained that it fell far short of the detailed accounting Bratton had promised after 42 people were injured in an incident that threatens to again sully the reputation of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Members of the civilian Police Commission responded by calling on the department to consider more training and possible term limits for officers assigned to the elite Metropolitan Division, which has been characterized as insular and aggressive.

The unit provided crowd control at the May 1 immigrant rights rally but ended up clashing with civilians after some in the park began throwing rocks and bottles at officers.

When I hear free speech rights are eroding, I think of this relatively peaceful rally being dispursed is such an jackbooted, forceful way.

Yea! for American freedoms? As a Southern Californian, why aren’t I feeling as free?

Hello all from the “heights” of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Asheville, North Carolina, which is home for me.

But, “abnormal?” Well, I’ll leave that to y’all to decide … as time goes by.

My sincere thanks to Autumn for having me here, god bless her trusting soul.

And , please note that, although I might have “crabby genes” like Lucy …

… I’m usually very sweet and agreeable … just so long as you remember …

From Diversity News of Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK: Cambridge votes in first transgender mayor:

The city of Cambridge has become the first place in the UK to have a transgender mayor.

Jenny Bailey, 45, who has had a sex swap operation, has been sworn is as the civic leader of Cambridge city council in a ceremony.

The Liberal Democrat councillor underwent sex change surgery in her 30s and has two children, aged 20 and 18, from a marriage.

Ms Bailey, who has stated that she is honoured to have been selected for the office by her fellow councillors, has decided that her partner will be the Cambridge city mayoress.

Former councillor Jennifer Liddle, 49, met Ms Bailey while they were both undergoing hormone replacement therapy in preparation for a sex change.

“I entered local politics because I believe in public service and because I wanted to make a contribution to the wonderful city we live in,” Ms Bailey stated. “I am honoured that my fellow councillors have now chosen me to be mayor.”

Too bad this wasn’t in Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; or even Cambridge, MA.

But congratulations nevertheless, Mayor Jenny Bailey!

Transgendernews and TNUK Digest News Archivist Stephanie Stevens will soon be joining The View From (Ab)Normal Heights as a co-blogger. I’ll let her introduce herself to y’all when her sign-up on the backend of this blog is complete.

However, let me begin by saying I’m really looking forward to her input here. We’ve communicated a lot over the last two years, and I know she’ll have some interesting viewpoints to add to the marketplace of ideas.

And, just so y’all know, I won’t always agree with her, and she won’t always agree with me. That will make the conversation interesting when that happens, I believe.

So Welcome Aboard Stephanie!

Can I say offended and really, really, mean it?

WARNING: Don’t select the link below unless you want to be connected to some she/male porn.  Not work friendly at all.

I went looking for blog links this morning an found this one above about my interview with Dan Gonzales of the Box Turtle Bulletin.   Only this link is a sham link — the link in the box above doesn’t evaluate the story, instead it’s a link to pure she/male porn.  Nice.

It just figures that when I comment on the use of the term she/male by the Traditional Values Coalition and NARTH that the porn industry links the term she/male and some she/male porn to me.

 All I can really say to all this is GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

From Yahoo! News:

HONOLULU-Astronomers have discovered 28 new planets outside of our solar system, increasing to 236 the number of known exoplanets, revealing that planets can exist around a broad spectrum of stellar types-from tiny, dim stars to giants.

“We added 12 percent to the total in the last year, and we’re very proud of that,” said one of the study team members Jason Wright of the University of California at Berkeley. “This provides new planetary systems so that we can study their properties as an ensemble.” …

… One of the exoplanets, a red M dwarf just 30 light-years from Earth, was discovered two years ago, but recent observations have allowed astronomers to pin down its mass, radius and density. The ice-giant planet circles the star Gliese 436 (GJ 436) and has a radius and density that are surprisingly similar to that of Neptune.

Weighing in at 22.4 Earth-masses, the exoplanet is the first Neptune-sized planet observed to transit a star. The previous record holder, dubbed HD 140926b, weighed in at 100 Earth masses, and Jupiter is 320 Earth masses.

“[Gliese 436b] must be 50 percent rock and about 50 percent water, with perhaps small amounts of hydrogen and helium,” said head of the planet-search team Geoffrey Marcy, also of UC Berkeley. “So this planet has the interior structure of a hybrid super-Earth/Neptune, with a rocky core surrounded by a significant amount of water compressed into solid form at high pressures and temperatures.”

Its 2.6-day orbit around GJ 436 means the hybrid planet circles very close to its star, just 3 percent of the Sun-Earth distance, and making it a hot Neptune. Unlike most giant planets found with such close ties to their stars, this planet has an eccentric orbit. The elongated orbit suggests the parent star could have another planetary companion with a more distant orbit.

“I’m sure people will immediately follow up and try to measure the atmospheric composition of this planet,” Wright said.

GJ 436 is an M star and 70 percent of all stars are considered M-type stars, so finding that these dim stars can support planets could mean a boon for planet hunters.