Awhile ago I mentioned that I donated to the Obama Campaign as part of a trans bundling of donations. I donated specifically because I wanted to send a message to candidate Obama that trans people have supported his campaign — it would be something to point to when ENDA and the Matthew Sheppard Act come up again in the next Congress.

As a group, trans people are pretty impoverished. When we did a needs assessment in San Diego, we found that the unemployment rate for trans people was ten times higher here than the unemployment rate for the general population, and we found that 57% of respondents were trying to live on less than $20,000.00 a year. Frankly, most of my subcommunity of the LGBT community doesn’t have a lot of resources to put to political campaigns. Passing a fully inclusive ENDA — one with gender identity and expression included in the bill’s text — is a real need for all gender-variant people who need jobs.

I’m on a fixed income. I’ve donated to political campaigns (No On Prop 8 and a few candidates) this year, including to the Obama campaign. I donated through the page the Stonewall Democrats/Act Blue set up to collect money from trans people and their SOFFAs (that’s Significant Others, Friends, Families, and Allies). The point isn’t that we get a bunch of folk donate the maximum of $2,300.00 to the campaign — a bunch of folk donating as little as $5.00 each to the Obama Campaign sends a message that trans people and their SOFFAs are thinking about what Obama has said previously about trans people and trans issues when they’re donating.

Well, it’s the end of the campaign finance quarter, and the Stonewall Democrats and I are encouraging those who are planning to donate this month to the Obama Campaign, consider doing it in a through this Act Blue campaign tool that sends the message to the Obama Campaign that you support the T in LGBT. And, if you weren’t considering donating in a way that says you support trans people before, please take a moment and consider it now — it’s important.

If you decide to donate, please let us know in the comments.

~~~~~UPDATE~~~~~
I should have mentioned earlier that this is a post for the Trans Blog Day For Obama. The further reading section includes some of the other trans bloggers posting for this coordinated blog event.

~~~~~
Further reading:
* Andrea James: Shared Experiences: Trans for Obama Day
* Caprice’s Glob: Trans-blog day for Obama
* A Dahl’s House: Trans for Obama Day
* En|Gender: Trans for Obama Day
* Gardens In Bloom: Trans-Blog Day for Obama
* Kate Bornstein’s Blog for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws: Gender Outlaws for Obama
* RiftGirl: Do It To Me, Obama (and her hilarious video on Gov. Palin here)
* Stonewall Oregon: Trans Bloggers Can’t See Russia From Their Front Porch, But………
* Transgender Workplace Diversity: Trans For Obama

Somalia again …

I grew up on Decatur Avenue way back when (there are quite a few “navy” streets in the old neighborhood … Perry, Bainbridge, Hull, etc.) …

… the world needs a Decatur now.

Not quite …

… I’ll still complain.

We’ve already heard from Focus On The Family Action/CitizenLink on the a federal circuit court ruling in Diane Schroer’s favor regarding whether or not the Library Of Congress discriminated unlawful employment discrimination against her. Now the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) and the Liberty Counsel (via the American Family Association’s online “news” publication OneNewsNow.

First, from the TVC’s She-Male Wins Lawsuit Against Library Of Congress:

Schroer’s Political Agenda

Judge Robertson’s claim that the Library of Congress violated Title VII of the 1964 civil rights act by not hiring Schroer is incorrect – and judicial activism. Title VII only addresses the issue of males and females – not confused individuals who think they’re the opposite sex. Robertson’s use of this section is illegitimate and should be appealed to a higher court.

A person who thinks he’s the opposite sex is medically diagnosed as having Gender Dysphoria, which is still listed as a mental disorder in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). A person who wears opposite sex clothing has a mental illness described as transvestic fetishism in the DSM.

There is currently no federal law in effect that provides cross-dressers, transsexuals, drag queens, or she-males federally protected class status. However, efforts have been underway in Congress for years to pass legislation doing this. The brief filed by the Library of Congress in this case points out that Title VII does not protect transgendered persons from discrimination.

One of those laws is the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which has been blocked from passage by the aggressive work of TVC. ENDA originally contained protections for “gender identity” but was stripped from the bill by homosexual Barney Frank in order to get it passed.

Using a phrase I heard often while serving in the US Navy, l feel like I’m “beating a dead horse” when I point out how offensive Andrea Lafferty’s and Lou Sheldon’s language usually is regarding transgender people. They frequently refer to trans people by the incredibly offensive pejorative “she-male”.

The TVC also cites the how the American Psychiatric Association (APA) lists transgender conditions in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) — apparently as a reason why transgender people should experience employment discrimination, which by extension…

[More below the fold.]

Read the rest of this entry »

On the 24th of September, 1980, I entered the U.S. Navy’s boot camp as a seaman recruit. The nation was in the midst of having incredibly high interest rates, stagflation, and high unemployment rates. I joined the Navy in large part because while living in Portland, Oregon — a city and state I’d only moved to a year earlier — I lost my job as a shipping and receiving clerk due to the bad economy and I just couldn’t find another job.

Twenty years and six days later (September 30th, 2000), I retired from the military as a Fire Controlman First Class.

I feel odd in thinking about this today; odd in the sense that the Navy was never a really good fit for me. I knew in the back of my mind from before I joined the Navy that I was gender-variant, although in the late seventies I had gone through some reparative therapy and believed God had healed me from being trans. I also tend to function from the perspective of cooperation, and military services tend to reward best the servicemembers who function from the perspective of competitiveness.

But beyond those personal issues, I was always was concerned about our nation going to war. I trusted that our leaders, especially after the political mess of the Vietnam War, wouldn’t send us to battle without exceptionally good reasons, a clear and limited set of objectives, and without some sort of an exit strategy. I was wrong of course. I feel fortunate that I got out of the Navy prior to September 11th, 2001, and that I was spared being sent to war in either Afghanistan or Iraq.

The Iraq War news I saw on the Rachel Maddow Show last night (September 23rd, 2008) causes me to feel incredibly fortunate that I’m not currently on active duty; I feel incredibly fortunate that by having a Veterans Administration (VA) disability rating of 100% and by being transgender there is a 0% chance I’ll be recalled to active service. And, it causes me some great concern about the military servicesmembers that are called, and will be called in the future, to serve in Iraq:

I would hope the time and the lives of servicemembers are more valuable to the American public that their time and lives appear to be to President George W. Bush and his administration. In my humble opinion as a former servicemember, we need to bring the troops home from Iraq as soon a possible — our servicemembers shouldn’t be separated from their friends and families or placed in physical danger for “political circumstances related to the domestic situation [in the U.S.].”

In two days we’re scheduled to have a presidential debate on foreign policy. If this subject isn’t broached — this subject of keeping military servicemembers in Iraq for 12 or 15 months at a time for reasons relating to “political circumstances related to the domestic situation [in the U.S.]” — then I believe the debate moderator will have seriously failed the American people.

~~~~~
Further Reading:
* Military: Your Stories: Autumn Sandeen
* Gay & Lesbain Times: Transgender Veterans: Beyond ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ transgender vets face different discriminations in the armed services (Story features my story as a transgender veteran)

This past weekend, Latter Day Saints (Mormons) were supposed get out and plant a million Yes On 8 yard signs in support of California’s Proposition 8. Well, I live in San Diego, and both the Yes On 8 and the No On Prop 8 are aware that San Diego County is very likely to be the key county that could very well decide whether or not Prop 8 passes or fails — I expected to see a lot of Yes On 8 signs throughout the county.

And yet, I’ve seen none of these yard signs. Having been an active Mormon myself for a year-and-a-half in the early eighties, I know as a group these are not a lazy folk.

So, I know I’ve been pretty curious as to why I haven’t seen any Yes On 8 yard signs. Well, leave it to Julia Rosen at Calitics to explain what happened:

This past weekend the Yes on 8 campaign had talked up passing out ONE MILLION lawn signs. It was going to be their big splash event, something big and bold to get a bunch of earned media.

To counter that push, the No on 8, Equality for All campaign organized a bunch of visibility events for the media and to raise the public face/profile of the campaign. Then shuttled the the volunteers back inside to do the work that will bring this election home: calling undecided voters.

But a funny thing happened…. There were no lawn signs, no big events from the Yes side.

I started hearing rumors that they had trouble with their vendor. It turns out they were stuck in China. Yes, China. Here is an email from a one Gena Downey, producer of the cult hit Mormon film (I’m joking about the cult and hit thing) God’s Army.

The YES on Prop 8 yard signs have been delayed in route from China. We expect to distribute them within the next two weeks. I will email you as soon as they arrive so we can make sure you have one immediately. In the interim, please continue to take note of any friends or family who would like one as well.

So, the Yes campaign, rather than purchasing some good old fashioned union made in America lawn signs, they went to some cut rate producer in China who blew the delivery date by at least three weeks. What, they couldn’t afford traditional American signs?

Heavens to Kolob — divine intervention, maybe?

Seriously, that’s a lucky break for the No On Prop 8 campaign; a lucky break for those of us who believe in the freedom to marry for California’s gay and lesbian couples. Every day the Yes On 8 campaign doesn’t have their yard signs up is a day they forever lose to influence any California voters with those yard signs — and we all have less than six weeks to go until the November election.

~~~~~
Related:
* The Unexpected Message The Yes On 8 Campaign Sends To Jews, Mormons, And Other Non-Evangelicals
* California’s Prop 8: Polling Showing Voters Moving To Defeat Measure
* PROP 8 ballot wording rewritten: to ELIMINATE RIGHT of Same-Sex Couples to Marry
* The Fundamental Freedom To Marry
* Pam’s House Blend tags: Proposition 8; Prop 8; Marriage Equality

We all get spam. Nobody, myself included, wants it or deserves it. And, thankfully, most of it gets filtered out. But, I do get a chuckle out of some of it — when I occasionally check out what’s (mostly) going in the spam bin. My favorites are the two “enhancement” ones (think “boners” and Nigeria, as in enhance someone else’s bank account) as I call them … the greater “tool” and greater “fool” ones. But, what happens when you combine the two? You get something like this (via The Big Picture) …

SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

DEAR AMERICAN:

I NEED TO ASK YOU TO SUPPORT AN URGENT SECRET BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH A TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF GREAT MAGNITUDE.

I AM MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AMERICA. MY COUNTRY HAS HAD CRISIS THAT HAS CAUSED THE NEED FOR LARGE TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF 800 BILLION DOLLARS US. IF YOU WOULD ASSIST ME IN THIS TRANSFER, IT WOULD BE MOST PROFITABLE TO YOU.

I AM WORKING WITH MR. PHIL GRAM, LOBBYIST FOR UBS, WHO WILL BE MY REPLACEMENT AS MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY IN JANUARY. AS A SENATOR, YOU MAY KNOW HIM AS THE LEADER OF THE AMERICAN BANKING DEREGULATION MOVEMENT IN THE 1990S. THIS TRANSACTIN IS 100% SAFE.

THIS IS A MATTER OF GREAT URGENCY. WE NEED A BLANK CHECK. WE NEED THE FUNDS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. WE CANNOT DIRECTLY TRANSFER THESE FUNDS IN THE NAMES OF OUR CLOSE FRIENDS BECAUSE WE ARE CONSTANTLY UNDER SURVEILLANCE. MY FAMILY LAWYER ADVISED ME THAT I SHOULD LOOK FOR A RELIABLE AND TRUSTWORTHY PERSON WHO WILL ACT AS A NEXT OF KIN SO THE FUNDS CAN BE TRANSFERRED.

PLEASE REPLY WITH ALL OF YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, IRA AND COLLEGE FUND ACCOUNT NUMBERS AND THOSE OF YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN TO WALLSTREETBAILOUT@TREASURY.GOV SO THAT WE MAY TRANSFER YOUR COMMISSION FOR THIS TRANSACTION. AFTER I RECEIVE THAT INFORMATION, I WILL RESPOND WITH DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT SAFEGUARDS THAT WILL BE USED TO PROTECT THE FUNDS.

YOURS FAITHFULLY MINISTER OF TREASURY PAULSON

Over at the Times so far today, this …

Another Way to Look at It, 12:27 p.m. “If it works the way it should work, this is not an expenditure, it’s an investment.” — Secretary Paulson

Reacting to Paulson’s Line, 12:30 p.m. Inside the hearing room, snide laughter greeted Mr. Paulson’s line, “This is all about the American taxpayer.” What was your reaction?

and it may be time to move to Venezuela … but, I’d rather go to Rio.

But I had no idea it would come to this …

Economists Warn Anti-Bush Merchandise Market Close To Collapse

From Tom Toles …

David Byrne’s in Asheville tonight at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium … and, yes, you may ask yourself …

… who’s burning down the house.

Earlier this week Donna Rose touched upon the “melt down” in her blog.

To paraphrase what Donna said — you may have been prudent, have a few bucks in the bank, have a bit of credit, but when that cascade comes down, you’ll be right in its path — and you may not get two tickets on The Ark.

I think that that “fire” or “melt down” is symptomatic of a systemic failure and corruption of government in which both political parties are complicit.

So, for me — I just don’t see BO — or JM — as the solution, they are part of the problem. (Anyone have any updates on this?) The solution? Ask a pundit, not me … I’m busy getting my creaky rowboat ready.

A few of the weekend scribblings …

From Alan Abelson (”Going for Broke“) in Barron’s this week …

BABY, IT’S COLD OUT THERE. So let’s toss another billion on the fire.

What’s that make it? Well, let’s see: $29 billion for Bear Stearns, somewhere between $1 billion and $100 billion each for Fannie and Freddie (a nice narrow range), $85 billion for AIG, a couple of hundred billion to keep stray banks, brokers and their errant kin from asphyxiating themselves by swallowing toxic paper. And then there’s the proposed reincarnation of the Resolution Trust Corp., which all by itself may mean shelling out $800 billion, perhaps even as much as $1 trillion.

While we’re at it, we might as well include the $400 billion with which the Paulson-Bernanke grand plan envisages endowing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. so it can insure money-market funds.

But, please, understand those mind-boggling sums in no way, shape or form are to be construed as designed to aid and abet a bailout. Instead, they are merely the essential ingredients of an “intervention,” or, if you prefer, a “rescue” — just about anything, in other words, that’s semantically sweeter than bailout, with its ugly connotation of a sinking ship.

Besides, we have it on the best authority that none of this largess will cost the taxpayer a cent over the long run, which, if nothing else, speaks volumes about what constitutes the best authority these days.

Some other news and views (just a few) …

• Your Money at Work, Fixing Others’ Mistakes
• Why You Should Hate the Treasury Bailout Proposal
• Will a Crisis Create a Scandal?
• Bipartisan Support for Wall St. Rescue Plan Emerges
• Short Selling Ban Spreads Around the World

Dodd, Schumer, Frank … Tinker, Evers, Chance … “Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble.”

Maybe, we’ll have better luck than the Cubs since those words were penned by FPA. (Don’t bet on it.)

And, it’s the last night for the original Yankee Stadium — a big part of my growing up in the Bronx back in the 50s and early 60s — lots of memories. A few tears too — watching the pre-game ceremonies on ESPN. And a Stevens threw out the first ball, no less.

Don’t bite on the change-up, folks, in baseball … or politics. For what it’s worth, frankly, I think you may as well stay in the dugout. I don’t see a field of dreams beckoning. “The players” here are in a league of their own and I don’t think you or me are going to crack the lineup.

For those who don’t remember, Diane Schroer was told she was going to be hired by the U.S. Library Of Congress, and saw the decision to employ her rescinded after she told her hiring agent she was going to transition from male-to-female in the workplace.

From the ruling:

After hearing the evidence presented at trial, I conclude that Schroer was discriminated against because of sex in violation of Title VII. The reasons for that conclusion are set forth below, in two parts. First, I explain why, as a factual matter, several of the Library’s stated reasons for refusing to hire Schroer were not its “true reasons, but were pretext[s] for discrimination,” Tex. Dep’t of Cmty. Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 253 (1981). Second, I explain why the Library’s conduct, whether viewed as sex stereotyping or as discrimination literally “because of . . . sex,” violated Title VII.

…None of the five assertedly legitimate reasons that the Library has given for refusing to hire Schroer withstands scrutiny.

And…

Conclusion

In refusing to hire Diane Schroer because her appearance and background did not comport with the decisionmaker’s sex stereotypes about how men and women should act and appear, and in response to Schroer’s decision to transition, legally, culturally, and physically, from male to female, the Library of Congress violated Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination.

The Clerk is directed to set a conference to discuss and schedule the remedial phase of this case.

What a wonderful decision.

Great work by the ACLU on this case so far — I hope this civil rights ruling holds if there should be an appeal of the decision.

~~~~~
Related:
* Pam’s House Blend tag: Diane Schroer

According to Colorado’s KDRO-TV, alleged murderer Allen Ray Andrade was arraigned by Weld District Court Judge Marcelo Kopcow:

A Weld County district judge ruled Thursday that there is enough evidence against a man charged with killing a transgender woman to proceed with a trial.

Thirty-one-year-old Allen Ray Andrade is charged with first-degree murder after deliberation, felony motor vehicle theft, felony identity theft and bias-motivated crime in the death of Angie Zapata on July 17.

For those who don’t remember, Angie Zapata was killed last July. Andrade allegedly beat Angie to death with a fire extinguisher after discovering she had male genitalia, and when he confessed to the crime to police, he never referred to his alleged victim as a she or he — just “it.”

Beyond KDRO-TV’s Thursday’ story regarding Andrade’s arraignment, the Denver Post added what we know in their article Charge stands against transgender-murder suspect:

[Below the fold: Andrade told his girlfriend from a jailhouse phone that "gay things need to die," and Judge Kopcow stated that "There was a period of time when reason and humanity could have been heard."]

Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t always connect dots in the ways others do, so it’s usually interesting to me when someone connects dots in a way I never thought about — especially when it’s a particularly interesting character who makes the connections.

On September 8th, a Jewish, conservative Republican — David Benkof — wrote a piece entitled Right-wing nonsense, where he questioned the Yes On 8 - Protect Marriage Campaign’s hiring of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) as their legal defense team:

I believe marriage is between a man and a woman, so I supported the man-woman marriage Proposition 8 in California - until I discovered the Proposition 8 campaign tolerates discrimination against Jews. ProtectMarriage.com’s legal counsel, the Alliance Defense Fund, has in effect a “No Jews Need Apply” policy for legal and even secretarial positions. They say they’re not a law firm, they’re a “ministry” and thus have a right to discriminate against Jews and other non-Christians. But even if that’s true, Proposition 8 had hundreds of law firms to choose from. The fact they chose one that refuses to hire a Jew like me is very disturbing. Interestingly, Jesus himself was a Jew, so when a group has a policy that would lead them to refuse to hire their own Messiah, you know something’s seriously wrong.

I wanted to check to see if the employment policies of the ADF were as Benkof described these policies, and he’s correct on that facts, in that the ADF doesn’t hire anyone but those who ascribe to the ADF’s vision of Christianity:

[Below the fold: The employment policies of the ADF, and the interesting personal history of David Benkof]

Read the rest of this entry »

Forget Sarah Palin (who, rightly so, is going to be and should be “burnt toast” rather sooner than later … good take here on that today) … who’s not been in national government yet … or ever … I hope.

But, how some folks can so embrace some folks who have been in Washington — who’ve been part(y) and parcel to a big, bipartisan mess — and deny most responsibility for such — and take on greater patriotic airs, too … is beyond my simple comprehension.

Sorry, for me, it doesn’t work.

I don’t have any kind of secure position or entitlements.

Whatever I’ve scrapped and saved for, however prudent I’ve been, over the past decade … doesn’t mean shit to a tree … or pig …

… to the $66M man or to the poor old guy …

It’s going to be a “new” “Morning again in America” …

for them, anyway, either way it goes.

Party on …

… but they’ll be our piggies, one way or another.

Feeling grumpy, once again, America …

The court’s ruling today is a loss for democracy, a loss for Montgomery County, and a loss for common sense. The average citizen wants to protect a woman’s right to privacy and safety. To that end, voters would have defeated this bill. The MCRG is considering a legal challenge to ensure that voters have the chance to be heard on this issue.
–Ruth Jacobs, M.D., president of the Maryland Citizens For Responsible Government

Yes, the world ended. No doubt the world ended in a horrible mess o’ violence against the white women and children because we gosh darn predatory, public bathroom using trans people ushered Satan’s rule here on earth.

“We’re very disappointed with this court’s ruling, which suggests that, in America, every citizen does not have a voice. Today’s court decision sends a clear message that groups with narrow, extreme political agendas can disenfranchise the voters of an entire county. We will work closely with MCRG toward the goal of putting this issue back into the hands of the voters.”
–Amy Smith, Alliance Defense Fund attorney (the Focus On The Family bankrolled legal alliance that represented the interests of the Maryland Citizens For Responsible Government)

Theresa Rickman sent out a letter to mobilize her troops this weekend. She and the Maryland Citizens For Responsible Government warning their troops about the possibility of their free speech being restricted in the email, linked to in the long jpeg on the right side of this piece:

Be careful what you say!

Washington DC’s gender identity law punishes users of the “wrong pronoun” with a fine - if you refer to man in women’s clothing as a he, DC’s Human Rights Commission can levy a substantial fine. Montgomery County’s gender identity law goes further.

Ugh.. Is this a real argument, or is this a ludicrous example of hyperbole-ridden spin? Well, of course it’s over-exaggeration. They scale back their concern of everyone having to watch what pronouns they use to just employers in the very next paragraph of the email:

[More below the fold.]

Read the rest of this entry »

From cartoonist Steve Breen … as we brace for Hurricane Lehman this evening …