Autumn and I (along with our colleague, Meryl) are what she calls “news archivists,” so I felt I should present here over the next week or so (better later than never, I hope) a chronology of some of the news we’ve archived (well over 6,000 items) this past year at Transgender News and TNUKdigest …

JANUARY

A Japanese court refuses to amend the birth records of a transsexual because prior to sex reassignment surgery she had
fathered a child.

On Pakistani television, Ali Saleem, 28, portrays Begum Nawazish Ali, a flirty, teasing widow, to achieve both political and
personal goals.

The author of a new book about transgender teenagers in Los Angeles talks straight about hormone smuggling, life on the street, and the rise of America’s first trans-rapper. [More here.]

An American transsexual woman who says she was forced out of a job at Hitachi Data Systems in London has lost the biggest discrimination case brought by a transgendered person under Britain’s anti-bias law. [More here.]

New Jersey extends statutory rights and protections to civil union partners and prohibits discrimination on the basis of
gender identity or expression.

In Washington, DC, news surfaces about the Jan. 3 murder of Grafton Lee Person, a 42-year-old transgender woman known in the community as Diamond Lee Person, whose death has reverberated through the local transgender community. [More here.]

A Mexican transsexual wins a new hearing on claims both for asylum and, alternately, for protection in the U.S. under the international Convention Against Torture, or CAT.

Mordechai used to be known in his Toronto Orthodox community as Nord, short for Nord the Barbarian, which referred to his girth and hairiness. He now wishes to be called Nicole, and has chosen Neshama, or Soul, as a Hebrew name. [More here.]

With the Democrats in control of Congress for the first time in 12 years, gay rights advocates are optimistic about a vote in the House and Senate later this year on the long-stalled Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA.

A Taiwanese teacher’s involved in sex-change drama.

A former San Antonio, Texas police officer is sentenced to 24 years and four months in prison for the rape and
beating of a transsexual woman.

The Division of Corrections in Maryland wonders “Where To Place Transsexual Convict.”

In Ohio, cross dressers, transsexuals, gays, lesbians and bisexuals may be protected from job discrimination in the attorney general and secretary of state’s offices under soon-to-be expanded employment policies.

A conservative Christian minister began work on a referendum to overturn Washington state’s inclusion of gays
and lesbians in its human rights law.

A groundbreaking conference in California gathers transgender Christian advocates.

California’s first transgender administrative law judge is sworn in.

A Mexican congressman says he will submit a bill to Congress in March that would amend the country’s constitution to guarantee the rights of transsexuals and change civil laws to ensure they can legally change their name and gender. [More here.]

Gay Sports publishes a feature on 1932 Olympic gold medal sprinter, Stella Walsh –”The Story of Stella Walsh.”

Artnet Magazine publishes a feature on transgender artist, Greer Lankton.

In Austria, a boy of 12 is believed to have become the world’s youngest sex change patient after convincing doctors that he wanted to live the rest of his life as a female. [More here and here.]

More U.S. employers are covering sex transition surgery. [More here.]

Read the rest of this entry »

Gov. Mike Huckabee was on Meet The Press this past Sunday. He appears to be using some obfuscating language to explain his beliefs about LGB people, and not explain how his beliefs would translated into policy within a Huckabee administration.

Tim Russert asked Huckabee about a statement in Huckabee’s 1998 book, where Huckabee wrote:

It is now difficult to keep track of the vast array of publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations–from homosexuality and pedophilia to sadomasochism and necrophilia.

Russert wanted to know what he meant — Huckabee claimed that he really wasn’t equating “homosexuality” with “pedophilia” and “sadomasochism,” he was just pointing out that these all were sin.

When Huckabee later commented on marital infidelity, he stated:

The perfection of God is seen in a marriage in which one man, one woman live together as a couple committed to each other as life partners. Now, even married couples don’t do that perfectly, so sin is not some act of equating people with being murderers or rapists…

So, I’m not sure what Huckabee is stating. Is he arguing James 2:10,11 …

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

…Or is Huckabee arguing that some “sins” are worse than others? (He seems to be arguing that in his answers to Russert questions about whether he equates homosexuality to pedophilia and sadomasochism.)

Frankly, I can’t figure out what Huckabee is stating. It seems to me that he’s trying to confuse non-Evangelicals as to what a Huckabee administration’s policies would be towards LGBT people.

Take a read the Meet The Press transcript of Huckabee’s comments on “homosexuality” below the fold, and you can decide for yourself what voters were supposed to take away from his comments on the show.

Read the rest of this entry »

For Sunday …

#1 - No surprise (Franco is dead!), I guess, that the reparative therapy business is international …

Two Spanish clerics, one Protestant, the other Catholic are under fire by gay rights organisations for their homophobic views.

Protestant minister Marcos Zapata is to face an investigation by the Galicia regional government into the organisation he runs that claims to helps troubled youth. It is claimed that he recently hosted a seminar called “How to Raise Heterosexual Children”.

According to media at the seminar, Senor Zapata likened homosexuality to alcoholism and claimed it was an illness that could be healed through family therapy. He advised the audience to “hug your sons as much as you can, because if you don’t, perhaps another man will”.

The regional government has said it is firmly against “any type of proselytising or homophobic attitudes.”

“After so many legal victories in this country, and for the first time people are talking openly about homosexuality in schools, we have to deal with fundamentalist groups which take us back to the Franco dictatorship,”Toni Poveda, the president of the National Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals told The Guardian. “And of course we are going to try to stop this from happening. Sexual orientation is innate and there’s no way to change it.”

Meanwhile, the Catholic bishop of the Canary island of Tenerife claimed in an interview that “homosexuality harms society, and we will pay for it.” He also compared homosexuality to paedophilia and drug addiction.

Spanish clerics to face investigation over gay “cure” speech

#2 - In Canada, a she said, he said …

A Quebec City trans activist and lawyer says the NDP dumped her from her candidacy in a federal Quebec City riding because of her gender identity.

“I was a very attractive candidate when I was chosen to run for the NDP but now, nine months later, it seems I have lost all of my sex appeal,” Micheline Anne Montreuil told Xtra.

Montreuil, who has been involved with the NDP on and off since the late 1970s, says Raymond Guardia, cochair of the party’s Quebec electoral planning committee, contacted her with a list of reasons for dumping her that included a desire by potential candidates in other ridings to not have their names associated with hers. She says the suggestion that she doesn’t work well with others couldn’t be further from the truth.

…

An NDP spokesperson says Montreuil’s gender identity is not the reason she was given the boot.

“She can say whatever she likes but she knows our reasons and she knows that her gender identity is not one of them,” says Matthew McLauchlin, copresident of the NDP Quebec section’s LGBTT commission. “Essentially the reason we couldn’t retain her candidacy is because of her behaviour toward other NDP activists.”

…

McLauchlin says there are no hard feelings toward Montreuil.

“I don’t want to diminish her victories as a trans activist,” he says. “That’s what attracted the NDP to her as a candidate in the first place. I hope her work for trans rights continues, as ours will.”

Montreuil’s victories include a decision last year by The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal that the Canadian Forces discriminated against her because of her sexuality when it passed her up for a job. She won a similar case against the National Bank in 2004.

Turfed trans candidate speaks out

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a few stories that have interested me recently, but I haven’t wrote up as individual posts. The items are in no particular order.

- LAPD enlists feral cats for rat patrol. Okay, how do you not love a story with that headline? Hey, I live near a freeway with a large embankment covered with iceplant — plenty of rodents live there. I’m sure my two cats are keeping my apartment free of rodents.

- Greater Boston PFLAG President: Hillary Clinton Fails Gay Families. Interesting piece on why a local PFLAG president finds Clinton’s statements on teaching about LGBT parents in the classroom to be troublesome. Apparently, Clinton’s view on Heather Has Two Mommies is less progressive than many of us would have expected.

- Karen Bachman found this article, noting it in a comment: Smith’s Pick Stirs Gay-Rights Controversy. Apparently, the judge who made the Oregon domestic partnership decision on Friday (H/t: Mad Professah) had confirmation difficulties over LGBT issues. Here’s a thought — should LGBT folk be calling this judge a “judicial activist?” The ruling seems to going against the concept of federalism…

- Inmate Says He Needs Thor’s Hammer, Drum. An inmate is suing the Utah Department of Corrections for denying him his right to practice an ancient Nordic religion while behind bars. Groovy!

- The Candidates On Bhutto; Candidates React To Bhutto’s Assassination; 2008 U.S. hopefuls react to Bhutto death. And, a few thousand more articles — and I do mean a few thousand articles. The candidates speak, and everyone-and-their-dog-Spot has a take on how Benazir Bhutto’s assassination is going to effect the “horse race” in Iowa and New Hampshire.

[Genital reassignment surgery the same as amputating a leg? ; Who counts in the LGBT community? ; Doc took a cell-phone pic of penis tattoo and shared it - the patient isn't happy about that ; and more This and That after the break]

Read the rest of this entry »

The Oregonian is reporting that Judge blocks law allowing civil unions.

A federal judge Friday blocked Oregon’s new domestic partnership law for gays and lesbians from taking effect next week, allowing opponents to continue their efforts to try to get voters to overturn the law.

The surprise ruling comes four days before the law would allow gay couples to gain most of the same legal benefits of marriage. Couples across Oregon were planning to show up at county offices Wednesday to register as partners.

But U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman ruled that they will have to wait. He set a Feb. 1 hearing to decide a lawsuit challenging the state’s methods for verifying signatures on a November 2008 referendum.

Mosman said attorneys for opponents showed that the rights of voters may have been violated if their signatures were wrongly rejected. Setting the next hearing in a month reduces the harm to people who would be affected by the new law, he said.

Supporters of the new law were stunned at the judge’s decision.

Per the article, this ruling won’t affect the Oregon Equality Act from going into effect next week — that’s the act which prohibits discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

(There’s more in the article here.)

There’s more in the Willamette Week’s More Details On The Temporary Injunction to Domestic Partnership:

The Alliance successfully sought a temporary injunction against the implementation startng Jan. 2 of House Bill 2007, a law providing over 500 rights and benefits through state-sanctioned domestic partnerships to same-sex couples in Oregon (see Been There, Done That in this week’s paper).

[More details after the break]

“I think this case stands or falls on whether I view this activity [the signing of a petition or referendum] as a fundamental right,” Judge Mosman stated early in the hearing. “The right to vote has been held up as a fundamental right, but no where have I seen this applied to petitions or referendums.”

To that, the Alliance Defense Fund — which fell just short earlier this year in its effort to gather enough signatures to put a repeal of domestic partnership on the 2008 state ballot — produced a 9th Circuit case from Idaho.

In that case, a federal judge equated a voter’s rights with those who sign a referendum/ballot measure. After a brief recess, Mosman asked pointed questions as to the approval process for petition signatures, and what opportunity signers have for defending themselves when signatures are deemed invalid or false.

“The state action being challenged is the one that says a state agent can make a unilateral decision that those signatures don’t match,” Mosman said.

———–
Related:
* Oregon DP Law Prevented From Going Into Effect January 1 By Federal Judge
* Oregon anti-gays lose another round - fail to block domestic partnerships
* Oregon Senate Sends LGBT Rights Bill to Gov. for Promised Signature
* Oregon House passes anti-discrimination, domestic partnership bills

OneNewsNow and The Advocate are reporting that Peter LaBarbera, in his roll as the website founder of RepublicansForFamilyValues.org, is urging conservative Romney backers to withdraw their support. Apparently:

Governor Romney recently remarked on NBC’s Meet the Press that it “makes sense” at the state level to adopt the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Conservative and Christian groups have ardently opposed such legislation because it grants special protections to employees based on their “actual or perceived sexual orientation.”

…On Meet the Press, Romney told host Tim Russert that although he originally said he would sponsor ENDA at the federal level, he changed his stance because the “policy makes more sense to be evaluated or to be implemented at the state level.”

This, of course, runs afoul of the Religious Right Agenda. Peter LaBarbera said in response to Romney’s Meet the Press comments:

[Romney]’s now openly promoting the homosexual agenda at the state level. I don’t think he can be trusted at the federal level if he’s [promoting gay rights] at the state level … You know, our leaders don’t support candidates who are pro-abortion; why should they support leaders who are pro-homosexual agenda?

And…

If pro-family leaders look the other way while a guy like Mitt Romney [actively and publicly] supports … the homosexual agenda at the state level, it’s only going to erode the respect for pro-family voices within the Republican Party.

And…

Romney may have had a late conversion on abortion, but it appears his ninth-inning flip-flop on homosexuality is falling short due to his strong commitment to ‘gay rights.’

This reminds me a lot of when James Hartline torched Crazy Lou Sheldon for betraying Christianity in 2006 California Governor’s Race.

Seriously though, does any LGBT person in America believe Gov. Romney is “promoting the homosexual agenda” like LaBarbera says Romney is?

———–
Related:
* Peter LaBarbera/OneNewsNow: One Note Song Is Playing Again
* Get to know your AmTaliban: Peter LaBarbera
* LaBarbera: social networking sites are tools of The Homosexual Agenda
* Could it be…SATAN heading for the White House?
* Mitt version 2.0: Protecting Traditional Marriage

MSNBC has a few quotes up as Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee, reacting to former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s death. His comments seems to highlight his lack of foreign policy sagacity, and that he’s going to continue the politics of fear-mongering.

In light of what happened in Pakistan yesterday it’s interesting that there were more Pakistanis who illegally crossed the border than of any other nationality except for those immediately south of our border — 660 last year.

And…

My point once again is to highlight that the lack of security on our borders poses a potential threat to us. I’m making the observation that we have more Pakistani illegals coming across our border than all other nationalities except those immediately south of the border. And in light of what’s happening in Pakistan it ought to give us pause as to why are so many illegals coming across these borders.

He didn’t get the facts right though. The Washington Post pointed out:

[T]he ex-governor blundered a bit in both the number of undocumented people caught by U.S. officials and its ranking among countries. Huckabee, citing a Denver Post article, said 660 people had been caught crossing the border illegally from Pakistan “last year,” but the article actually noted 660 came from Pakistan from 2002 to 2005. He said more Pakistanis “than any other nationality except for those immediately south of the border” had been caught here illegally, but the Department of Homeland Security said in the last year both the Philippines and China had more people who were caught here illegally than Pakistan.

In an International Herald-Tribune piece, we read this quote with the publication’s comment:

“We have seen what happens in the Musharraf government,” Huckabee said on MSNBC. “He has told us he does not have enough control of those eastern borders near Afghanistan to be able go after the terrorists. But on the other hand, he did not want us going in, so what do we do?”

Those borders are actually on the west, not the east.

And, quoting a New York Times piece entitled Huckabee Sees Pakistan as Reason for Border Fence, Huckabee on Thursday night told reporters in Orlando, Florida said:

We ought to have an immediate, very clear monitoring of our borders and particularly to make sure if there’s any unusual activity of Pakistanis coming into the country.

The Times went on to say:

Asked how a border fence would help keep out Pakistani immigrants, Mr. Huckabee argued that airplane security was already strong, but that security at the southern United States border was dangerously weak.

“The fact is that the immigration issue is not so much about people coming to pick lettuce or make beds, it’s about someone coming with a shoulder-fired missile,” he said.

That Huckabee pivoted from Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s death to U.S. immigration says to me that with Huckabee presidency, we’d get someone who doesn’t really think in terms of foreign policy when international events occur (he doesn’t know the geography; he doesn’t have the facts straight), but pretty much only in terms of how international events impact domestic issues. And, Huckabee’s tack on Bhutto’s assassination tell me a Huckabee presidency would be one of four more years of the national politics of fear. We do not need four more years of simple-minded foreign policies and four more years of fear-mongering.

———–
Related:
* Perspectives: Top 10 Moments in Mike Huckabee’s Extremism
* Just couldn’t stop at 10: more moments of Mike Huckabee Extremism
* The Huckster is too “liberal” for Ann Coulter

The American Family Association (AFA) has a new action alert out today. The alert aludes to Ford Motor Company paying for “sex change operations” for transsexuals as part of their employee medical benefits package.

The headline for their action alert is Ford Motor Company offers sex change benefits — When I read the headline, I thought the AFA was objecting to Ford paying for genital reassignment surgery.

But, the alert’s paragraph describing the benefits states:

Ford offers medical benefits to help pay expenses of those who choose to undergo sex change operations. Ford pays for mental health counseling, hormone therapy, medical visits, and short-term disability after surgical procedures for employees who desire to change their sex.

So basically, if one reads the action alert closely, Ford doesn’t pay for sex change operations, they pay for psychological counseling, trips to medical professionals, prescription medication, and time off for recovery after genital reassignment surgery — if a transsexual were to pay for their own surgery out of pocket.

What Ford is paying for with regards to their transsexual employees is in no way new either. The AFA created a deceitful headline for an article “action alert” that just restates Ford’s current policy in an apparent attempt to deceptively keep their ongoing boycott “fresh.”

Clearly, one doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that this kind of disingenuously worded “advertising” wouldn’t pass the “WWJD” smell test. Perhaps instead, AFA President Donald E. Wildmon is taking his lessons on advertising copy from the father of lies.

Due to shopping and travel during the holidays, I hadn’t been keeping up on religious right organizations’ press as much as I usually have. I missed this mess from last week (although jackalope caught the first part of this story here). The Christian Civic League (CCL) of Maine had apparently publicized that an elementary school had a pre-teen transyouth regularly using the first a girls’ restroom, and then a teacher’s restroom, and praised a grandfather for telling his grandchild (who was in the same class as the transgender student) to mimic/mock the transgender classmate. Specifically:

The [transgender youth]’s plight is now public, thanks to the grandfather of a fellow student. The man directed his grandson to mimic — and essentially mock — the transgendered boy’s use of a girls bathroom, and later, a faculty bathroom. For this, the league called the man “courageous.”

…In a formal statement on the matter, league Executive Director Michael Heath praised the grandfather and claimed the man’s grandson was facing discrimination.

Hey, ya’ gotta check back with the original sources on this where these are readily available, so I went back to the CCL’s website to see what they actually wrote. From Grandfather visited by police:

After 13 years in the military Paul Melanson never backs down from a fight. When he found out that his grandson’s elementary school was allowing a ten year old (We said he was 12 yesterday) boy to use the girl’s restroom he decided to fight. Realizing that talking with school officials in our politically correct age is likely to only waste time Melanson chose a creative tactic. He told his grandson to go into the girl’s bathroom whenever he saw the other boy doing it.

His grandson did it. He followed the ten year old boy into the girl’s bathroom and got called into the office, along with his grandfather. Melanson told the Principal not to discriminate against his grandson. The former soldier reasoned that since it is wrong to discriminate against the transvestite ten year old, it is wrong to discriminate against his normal grandson.

According to League attorney Steve Whiting, Melanson has a point. Whiting says that his reading of the so-called “gay” rights law that was passed in 2005 indicates that Melanson’s grandson should be able to use the girl’s bathroom if the school is going to allow the transvestite child to use it.

Melanson was visited by the police this afternoon. The police urged him not to use his grandson as a pawn in this fight. Melanson said that he would go into the girl’s bathroom himself, but he’d be arrested as a pervert. The feisty grandfather reports that his grandson can make these decisions for himself when he comes of age, but until then he’ll be pleased to help him along.

From Grandfather’s Transgendered Schoolchildren Questions Unanswered:

Christian Civic League of Maine Executive Director Michael S. Heath released public remarks about the story just prior to the meeting occurring. Heath commended Melanson for his courage and urged Melanson to continue in his effort to hold the school officials’ accountable.

The remarks read, in part: “Paul Melanson has reason to be concerned. His grandson attends an elementary school where a ten-year-old boy is using the girls’ bathroom. He has taken action. … We commend him for both his concern, and the creative deeds of both himself, and his grandson. Support for the privacy of the student and the family is leading public officials, including the police, to make some profound errors.

“Profound matters that concern all Maine people rest at the root of this controversy. For example, does God and nature determine gender, or do individuals decide that? … Should little girls be going to the bathroom next to little boys in elementary school?

“Is there any difference at all between girls and boys? Should adults be allowed to decide the gender of biological males who are in their care?

“We thank God for one courageous grandfather. Thank you, Paul Melanson, for taking a stand for common sense.”

From Bangor Daily News is Obsessed with Sex:

Allow me to reassure you, dear Christian reader, the League IS being responsible.

All sex is not good sex simply because it is consensual. That, along with the idea that parents should be allowed to define whether their male child is a male or not, is the big idea underlying today’s editorial. In classic Marxist fashion they attack the messenger, and fail (on purpose) to address anything that I wrote in my statement. They make me the enemy of the good.

…The newspaper makes us sound like something lower than a peeping tom for caring enough to raise important issues, and support the only man in town with the guts to say anything. Where are this child’s parents? The newspaper gives the kid a diagnosis when what he needs are adults with a modicum of common sense.

I want to be absolutely clear here. Ten year old boys should not even be thinking about whether they are a boy or girl. This entire issue is totally absurd. If the medical profession can’t figure this out then the medical profession needs it’s head examined.

Lastly, the editorial praises the school for protecting the privacy of the confused boy, and the parents. What about the privacy of every other little girl in that elementary school during an act that is one of the most private in which we all engage, namely, going to the bathroom? Isn’t that the issue here?

Two things should be private — sex and what happens in the bathroom. Look where the “gay” movement has brought a once great newspaper, the Bangor Daily News. I’m not feeling very gay about it. Are you?

I promise you this, the League is a friend to common sense. Most Maine people agree with us about sexual morality. They choose, however, to keep their heads down because the head is a precious thing. I’m glad the League chooses not to keep it’s head down. Like John the Baptist everyday we come to work and speak truth to power. Some choose to repent and change course while others (King Herod) take another path.

It wasn’t that long ago that NARTH’s Scientific Advisory Committee member Joseph Berger got into trouble for advocating the bullying gender variant children. Specifically:

NARTH Scientific Advisory Committee member Joseph Berger said on a blog in reaction to a San Francisco Chronicle article on gender identity issues, “I suggest, indeed, letting children who wish go to school in clothes of the opposite sex - but not counseling other children to not tease them or hurt their feelings.

“On the contrary, don’t interfere, and let the other children ridicule the child who has lost that clear boundary between play-acting at home and the reality needs of the outside world.

“Maybe, in this way, the child will re-establish that necessary boundary.”

Here CCL’s Michael Heath and Mike Hein, with grandfather Paul Melanson, we went a step further from Dr. Berger’s “…not counseling other children to not tease [gender variant children] or hurt their feelings” by actually instructing a classmate of the transgender student how to mimic/mock the transgender student.

When I look at “Christian” organizations whose leadership don’t understand the concept of Matthew 7:12…

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

…The Christian Civic League is on the top of that list. The leadership even seems to believe parents and grandparents teaching their kids to mimic and mock other elementary age children is Christian and “courageous.” Incredible.

Back in April of 2007, Cyd Zeigler Jr. of Outsports wrote:

There was certainly a time I shunned transgender issues and belittled transgender people. But, for the last several years, I have dove into transgender issues, and specifically their role in sports, as best I can. I feel blessed to have met Molly Lenore, an incredible woman who joined the New York Gay Football League two years ago. She has been a staple of New York gay sports for years. She’s got a fantastic attitude, is warm and caring, and is a hell of a football player. In college, she was a man, and no one would have guessed Molly was deep inside him waiting to get out. But she did, and the people in her life are better for it. The people in [Christine Daniels]’s life will be better for it, too.

I know I’m better for having met Christine Daniels since she came out; she’s just pretty much a all around wonderful person.

Currently, Outsports is asking folks to vote for Outsports’ 2007 sportsperson of the year. Christine Daniels is up for the honor against John Amaechi, Tom Brady, Anthony Castro, Roger Federer, and Out College Athletes.

I voted for Christine. She’s definitely my sports hero — and a personal hero — for 2007.

Just before Christmas a year ago, Carmen’s Place, a shelter for homeless LGBT youth in New York City, appeared to be on the verge of becoming “homeless” itself (”Church haven for transgenders may lose home“) on January 1st.

But thanks to contributions large and small from near and far away the shelter found a new home (”Displaced Shelter Finds New Astoria Digs“), but still faced challenges …

The $40,000 the shelter has raised will cover rent for the year, Braxton estimates, but not much else. “We don’t have money for food or equipment or beds or dressers or any of the things we needed before,” he conceded.

A more steady funding stream may be in teh shelter’s future, however. Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s office has offered to help Braxton seek discretionary funding in the next budget cycle, should he decide he wants it.

For Braxton, who served as the pastor at St. Andrew’s for the last eight years, another challenge remains.

He is now without a parish or a home, and his newly bestowed position as chaplain of Carmen’s Place, doesn’t actually carry a salary.

Braxton is nonplussed by this problem, seemingly bolstered in his beliefs by the events of the last month. “Right now I’m a man of faith and I’m seeing and learning and believing,” he said.

The New York Times published a feature story (”After Working the Streets, Bunk Beds and a Mass” and an accompanying video, “A Place for Transgender Youth“) on Carmen’s Place last May; and the Queens Chronicle wrote a follow-up story (”Astoria Youth Shelter Carmen’s Place Settling Into New Home“) in July, which presented a hopeful picture and Braxton’s vision of the shelter’s future …

It’s been just seven months since the Rev. Louis Braxton moved his homeless shelter for gay and transgendered teens from a church basement to a modest apartment in Astoria.

… once the news became public, the donations started coming in. In about a month, the group raised $40,000 through word-of-mouth and publicity over the Internet. The donations initially provided enough money to sign a year-long lease. Since the group moved into the apartment on Jan. 1, they’ve raised nearly $100,000 …

Although Braxton said the shelter has enough money to shelter, feed and clothe its residents for at least the next two years, there are still things on his wish list. Linens are always needed, as are food items, cleaning supplies, towels, and other clothing items.

With the influx of donations to keep the shelter open, there came more inquiries from individuals and groups looking for a safehaven. Braxton said he’d like to find a place to house an expanded version of the shelter — one that could accommodate youth in the transitional phase for a couple of months, as well as include an emergency drop-in shelter for kids looking for a place to sleep for a night or two. As it is now, the shelter has limited space. Although at times there are more people living there, Braxton said it’s ideally suited for six. Still, it’s hard to turn away others seeking shelter.

“I was naive about what it means to be transgendered before I started the shelter,” said Braxton. Now, he’s more aware of the need for places like his to house troubled youths …

While he waits hopefully for his request for discretionary funding to come through, Braxton is also mapping out the future of the shelter. In the fall, a New York City schoolteacher on maternity leave will start teaching classes to residents. Braxton also wants to set up a medical clinic and psychiatric services for the kids — but he needs more money and professionals who are willing to regularly commit their time to the shelter.

The latest on Carmen’s Place comes from this story (”A shelter in search of a home“) last week in the Flushing Times Ledger, which makes it appear quite possible that the shelter will have to find a new home again …

In the next room Carolina stirs the dinner and more kids pour inside. It is difficult to imagine that many of these young residents have only known each other for a few weeks or even a few days. But what’s more difficult is the familiar feeling that they all might be put back out in the cold when the shelter’s lease expires Jan. 1 since Braxton still has no housing prospects in sight.

“I’m a priest of the altar. I didn’t go out and look for anybody. They just came. Suddenly we had six people sleeping in the church basement,” says Braxton, who had been the priest at St. Andrews Church in Astoria from 1999 right up until it was closed down last year. Instead of abandoning Carmen’s Place, which was operating out of the church basement, Braxton found the residents a new home. “We have no resources. This city is not helping us,” he says.

The shelter signed a lease on a small apartment in Astoria with funding received through private donations a year ago. When Braxton talked to the landlord about renewing the lease, the landlord wanted Braxton to take in only four people at a time. The shelter currently houses 10.

“So we’re up against a wall now. We’re looking for a house,” Braxton says. “We’re moving on faith. The space is just too small. The office is in the kitchen. The plumbing is inadequate. There’s no room to counsel someone privately without everyone in the shelter knowing, because many of these kids have serious problems. But the real reason is, I turn away so many kids.”

Here’s hoping this Christmas story has a happy ending.

~~~~~

“The joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others’ burdens, easing other’s loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas.” — W.C. Jones

Every now and then I get a wild hair up my ass and send a letter to an editor off. I sent this one off today to the Providence Journal (Rhode Island), regarding David Carlin’s Bathrooms for the transgendered. Summing up the article, he stated that providing gender-neutal restrooms that would benefit transgender students is a “lethal cocktail of compassion-plus-stupidity,” and:

…Let me get back to the compassionate New England colleges. They have solved the bathroom problem by doing away with men’s rooms and women’s rooms. Now everybody will use a gender-neutral bathroom. That is to say, men, women and transgender people will all use the same restrooms.

What a splendid institutional improvement! They have improved the bathroom lot of a small (and mentally ill) fraction of the student population, and they have inflicted embarrassment and discomfort on everybody else. Well, not quite everybody else. The politically correct administrators who run many of our colleges will feel a glow of moral superiority every time they relieve themselves in a gender-neutral rest-room.

The French philosopher Jacques Maritain felt that we should be both compassionate and intelligent. One without the other would not do. He summed this up in a memorable phrase that we should all remember: “We must have tough minds and tender hearts.”

America today suffers from what may eventually prove to be a lethal cocktail of compassion-plus-stupidity. We solve little problems that tug at our heartstrings by creating immense future problems. Hard cases make bad law.

Anywho, below is my letter to the editor. It’s probably too long for them to actually post in their hard copy publication, so I thought I’d share it here.

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Dear editor,

David Carlin doesn’t seem to comprehend that the “difficulty [transgender] students face when choosing a bathroom” isn’t superfluous, it’s serious mistreatment and violence. The Transgender Law Center published the document Peeing In Peace, which stated:

For many transgender people, finding a safe place to use the bathroom is a daily struggle. Even in cities or towns that are generally considered good places to be transgender (like San Francisco or Los Angeles), many transgender people are harassed, beaten, and questioned by authorities in both women’s and men’s rooms. In a 2002 survey conducted by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, nearly 50% of respondents reported having been harassed or assaulted in a public bathroom. Because of this, many transgender people avoid public bathrooms altogether and can develop health problems as a result. This not only affects people who think of themselves as transgender, but also many others who express their gender in a non-stereotypical way but who may not identify as transgender (for instance, a masculine women or an effeminate man).

[More of the letter to the editor after the break]

Read the rest of this entry »

Potty mouth’s okay in PA …

A US woman who was facing jail for swearing at her toilet has been acquitted.

Dawn Herb, 31, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, was charged after an off duty police officer overheard her swear at an overflowing toilet.

Officer Patrick Gilman told the hearing he heard someone yell: “Are you f***ing retarded? Get me the f***ing mop.”

Patrolman Gilman said he then yelled, “Watch your mouth”, to which the person replied: “F*** off.”

He then called Patrolman Gerald Tallo, who was on duty at the time, who charged Ms Herb after she admitted cursing at her toilet.

But District Judge Terrence Gallagher has now ruled she did nothing wrong, reports the Scranton Times-Tribune.

He dismissed the disorderly conduct charge which could have led to up to 90 days in jail and a £150 fine.

The language she used “may be considered by some to be offensive, vulgar and imprudent” but she was entitled to use it under the First Amendment, the judge ruled.

Attorney Barry Dyller, who was asked to represent Ms Herb by the American Civil Liberties Union, said Judge Gallagher made the right decision.

“He’s exactly right in his reasoning,” Mr. Dyller said. “And it’s important that the public understands this. There are cases like this each year.”

Woman escapes jail for swearing at toilet

… and, jeez looise , in Taipei too.

In her December 19th blog post, former HRC board member Donna Rose had some commentary on the December 17th XM Radio broadcast of The Agenda. HRC Executive Director Joe Solmonese was interviewing Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), and Frank was transcribed as stating on the show (emphasis added):

At this point three important pieces of legislation to vindicate our rights, or – there have been three votes: two in the House and on in the Senate saying, “No. It’s wrong to mistreat people because of their sexual orientation and with regard to hate crimes on their gender identity.” That doesn’t yet become