Levi’s got way less (nevermind “fewer”) balls than Marge … not that, speaking personally, I think there’s anything wrong with that … but just don’t not have them in the judicial sense.

Do we have any math majors here? Can 85% of 8 3/4 years really only be not much more than seven years for this … ?

The alleged murderer in the 2005 slaying of a gay man pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempted manslaughter in agreement with prosecutors.

Ruben Solorio Valenzuela faces a prison sentence of 8-3/4 years if the agreement is accepted by Yuma County Superior Court Judge Andrew Gould.

Although Gould was not able to attend Tuesday, the plea agreement was presided over by Superior Court Judge Mark Wayne Reeves.

Reeves also said the suspect will be required to serve 85 percent of his sentence before being eligible for release.

Prosecutor Levi Gunderson acknowledged that Solorio Valenzuela did not plan the alleged murder but acted suddenly, in the heat of passion resulting from the rage and humiliation he felt when he discovered Corrales was actually a man.

Corrales, a 23-year-old gay man, was a cosmetologist who also performed as a female impersonator known as Dalila, impersonating celebrity singers.

Corrales was dressed as a woman the night he and Solorio Valenzuela met. After several attempts to fondle Corrales, Solorio Valenzuela realized his mistake and then allegedly stabbed Corrales.

Corrales’ body was discovered on May 6, 2005, floating 500 feet west of Paradise Cove, just west of Joe Henry Park, with multiple stab wounds. He died from what authorities called “violent trauma.”

Yuma County sheriff’s deputies arrested Valenzuela on May 23, 2007, at Express Lube, 1900 S. 4th Ave., where he had been working. An anonymous written tip led to his arrest.

Subsequent investigation disclosed Solorio Valenzuela had confessed to family members soon after the murder. The day of the killing, he fled to Guadalajara, Mexico, for three months, according to court records.

Maribel Corrales, the victim’s mother, briefly addressed the court Tuesday while trying to hold back sobs. Speaking through an interpreter, she said, “He didn’t kill a person but a whole family. I don’t agree (with the plea). It is not fair.”

Solorio Valenzuela had been booked into Yuma County Jail on one count of second-degree murder, but a grand jury later indicted him on a charges of manslaughter and abandoning a body.

In exchange for the plea, the state suspends the original count. Solorio Valenzuela could be ordered to pay restitution of $150,000 as well as an additional 80 percent of that amount at his sentencing, Gunderson said.

Like Marge, I’m not amused.

This stinks.

My heart goes out to Maribel Corrales, who got it right …

“[This] is not fair.”

Mr. Solmonese has morphed into a true lightning rod of a public figure due to last year's ENDA debacle. Wherever he goes now, he's a reminder that the HRC flip-flopped horribly on basic civil rights legislation for all of their stated gender variant constituencies — constituencies which include transgender people.

But he's not going away — He's staying very visible. In fact, the San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Community Center sent out an email indicating he's coming here to my hometown of San Diego on Thursday evening to talk about marriage equality — but oddly, when I checked online on Wednesday afternoon, the event wasn't listed on The Center's community calendar.

Due to his public statements on ENDA over the past year, I'm one who believes that if there ever is an HRC operative that has zero credibility on equality issues, it's Joe Solmonese.

Frankly, with the possible exception of David Smith, I believe pretty much any other HRC operative could come to San Diego from the Washington DC office to talk about marriage equality and speak with some credibility. But Joe…Joe…to me, he really is a special case because he was the mouthpiece of the HRC's flip-flopping on only supporting a fully inclusive ENDA.

With perhaps some true irony, on Monday I received an email from the San Diego Democratic Club (SDDC) with a subject line of A Transgender Inclusive Democratic Platform - Make It Happen! The email announced a meeting that will discuss the adding of a plank to the Democratic Party Platform in support of transgender civil rights. This event is scheduled for the same day as Joe Solmonese's talk on ENDA.

I talked to people at both the SDDC and The Center, and apparently neither was aware of the other's event. Fortunately, the meetings are scheduled at different times during the day Thursday, so at least I don't have to choose whether basic civil rights for transgender people or marriage equality is the more important issue to me — frankly, both issues are extremely important to me.

But I did learn something about myself when I was thought I was going to have to choose between which of these events I was going to attend. And, what that was: I found I may have mixed feelings about the HRC and their mixed record with their gender variant constituencies, but I have no mixed feelings at all about Joe Solmonese. I would have attended the SDDC meeting not because I felt it was the more important of the two meetings, but it's because I really, really dislike like Joe Solmonese on a very, very personal level.

There. I said it. I'm not proud of myself for saying it; I'm not happy to realize how much I don't like Joe and how much that impacts my objectivity regarding the HRC. But it is what it is.

It isn't up to me, but if it were — well, I honestly wish Joe Solmonese would just go away. As a public voice of the LGBT activist community, he’s just become too much of a controversial, lightning rod of a public figure within the LGBT community to be a truly effective voice for LGBT people within and without the LGBT community. Plus, after all of his ENDA flip-flopping last year, I don’t believe a word that passes through his lips — he has absolutely zero credibility with me.

I'm not proud of saying that either.

A lot of people think I’m crazy. This is important to me - I just want to be comfortable. I just want the option.
–Letter carrier Dean Peterson

The Boston Globe is reporting, in an article entitled Mailman seeks comfort in kilt, about one letter carrier’s effort to make a kilt option available for male letter carriers:

As some 10,000 letter carriers gather in Boston this week for the 66th biennial convention of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Peterson is on a one-man mission to persuade his colleagues to approve a change in their strictly regulated uniforms. He has proposed a resolution to allow mailmen to wear kilts, which he calls a Male Unbifurcated Garment, or MUG.

Over the past few weeks, he says he has spent the $1,800 he received as part of the federal government’s stimulus package to send about 1,000 letters and photographs of a mockup of the new uniform to postal union branches in every state, as well as Guam and Puerto Rico.

“MUGs are worn all over the world, and have been for thousands of years because they are comfortable,” he wrote to fellow mailmen. “Unbifurcated Garments are far more comfortable and suitable to male anatomy than trousers or shorts, because they don’t confine the legs or cramp the male genitals the way that trousers or shorts do.”

So when creating uniforms for it’s uniformed jobs and uniformed services, is it a function of government to only allow women to wear unbifurcated garments? And even beyond allowing men to wear MUGs, should biological males be allowed wear government uniforms designed for females, and vice-a-versa, should biological females be allowed to wear government uniforms designed for males?

When thinking through your answer, remember that the military services are uniformed services too.

The HRC changed their position on ENDA last fall regarding how inclusive an ENDA bill needed to be to receive their support. The organization hasn’t since changed it back to requiring parity for sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.

Hiring a transgender woman without a corresponding change in the HRC’s political policies regarding full inclusion for all legislation the organization supports…Well, I think this hiring is going to be perceived by most transgender people as the HRC engaging in tokenism. If the HRC isn’t going to treat gender identity and expression as having the same level of legislative priority with sexual orientation, then how is a transgender employee at the HRC going to be perceived externally as an equal to the gay and lesbian employees at the HRC?

I personally don’t see how.

Marti characterized my quote as follows:

But some have not been as positive about the hiring. Blogger and activist, Autumn Sandeen said…

Well first of all, after getting home from Sunday night I looked on the web, but didn’t find any official media releases announcing the hire. I personally don’t have any inside information regarding Allyson Robinson’s possible hiring by the HRC. That said, Marti likely didn’t report the hire in a vacuum — I’m going make the assumption that Marti verified the Usenet story with at least one other source.

[Below the fold, how I'd characterize my quote.]

Secondly, I wouldn’t characterize my quote in Marti’s post as either positive or negative of the HRC, despite Marti characterizing it as a negative comment. I’d characterize my quote as more of an observational comment.

Don’t get me wrong — I would like the HRC to change their strategy regarding employment protections for the entire LGBT community; I would like to see a strategy towards passing one fully inclusive ENDA, vice passing a sexual orientation only ENDA in the relatively near future, and passing an ENDA for gender identity and expression in some future legislative year. However, my observation on their recent hire of a transgender woman new Associate Director of Diversity is independent of my feelings regarding the HRC’s political strategy.

Basically, I was observing that the HRC’s very first hire of a transgender woman to their staff, had it been done in summertime of last year, and had the HRC not changed their position on ENDA in autumn of last year, would have signaled the HRC’s real embracing of the T of LGBT.

The timing of Allyson Robinson’s hiring doesn’t send that same message now. Instead, assuming the news of her hiring is accurate, this new hire now sends a “damage control “message that Marti alludes to in her piece. The hire also is likely to be perceived by many members of the trans community as an exercise in transgender tokenism.

Allyson Robinson has a hard row to hoe. Again assuming the news of her hiring is accurate, her credibility with the trans community was compromised on the day she accepted the job with the HRC. This is specifically because how the HRC’s long history with the trans community is perceived, and because of the HRC’s relatively recent history regarding their position changing on ENDA.

I hope Allyson has some thick skin — my educated guess is that she’ll likely experience a great deal of criticism from our transgender peers during her tenure at the HRC.

The photo to the left is our transgender booth at the festival, and the photo on the right is our vehicle in the parade. I wish I had a pic of our contingent in the parade, but I was marching in the contingent. I have a friend who took some pics who hopefully will be getting me a few of her pics for posting.

Lot of fun, lot of work — I’m tired. Hope to have more up on San Diego Pride tomorrow or Tuesday.

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 may be an ol’ yellow dog (from New York City), but I sure as heck don’t feel comfortable voting for them come this November.

(Though I probably will end up doing so. I’m no McCain fan … for starters, I remember this business.)

Forget single issues (trans rights, for instance, especially when folks don’t deliver) — I don’t see these ass clowns doing anything to address and fix my concerns about where my life, or likely where your life and those of most fellow citizens are going.

Obama, please, I expect we’ll see more improvement in his golf game like his buddy, Franklin Raines (shame, shame) …

He has shaved eight points off his golf handicap, taken a corner office in Steve Case’s D.C. conglomeration of finance, entertainment and health-care companies and more recently, taken calls from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters.

… than anything substantive. Steve Case? Dot-com bubble. Harold Raines? Housing-bubble. Barack Obama? Name that bubble.

- Marriage rights celebration, ‘D-List’ celeb among celebration’s highlights. Excerpt:

After 34 years of celebrating diversity and rights for the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community in San Diego, the local organization Pride San Diego is reaping the rewards of activism and education.

Comment: I’m volunteering at the Transgender/TASC booth on Saturday, and the Scouting For All booth on Sunday.

The Scouting For All booth is extremely important to me. I have an Eagle Scout son, and I two other sons in scouting. If it were known that my two sons who are still in the Boy Scouts had a transgender parent, in accordance with how the Boy Scouts Of America’s national policy is applied, my sons would be kicked out of scouting. For me, protesting against the Boy Scouts has a lot to do with them discriminating against youth because of how their parents identify their sexuality or gender identity.

- DiversityInc: Jena 6 Aftermath: Nooses Punishable By Prison. Excerpt:

Nine months after the nation began witnessing an uptick in the number of reported noose sightings following the furor over the Jena 6 incident in Louisiana, lawmakers there, as well as in Connecticut and New York, have made hanging a noose a crime punishable by imprisonment. And more states are likely to follow.

Since September of last year, the number of reported noose incidents nationally jumped to nearly 80, according to the DiversityInc Noose Watch, the first and only tracker of national reported noose sightings.

- San Francisco Chronicle: 24% of state high-schoolers likely to drop out. Excerpt:

Nearly 1 in 4 California students will drop out during high school, state educators said Wednesday, basing their prediction on what they said is the most accurate information about student attendance they’ve ever collected.

Using a new student-tracking system, state educators found that 127,292 high school students in ninth through 12th grade quit school during the 2006-07 school year. That means 24 percent of incoming freshmen won’t stay in school long enough to graduate, researchers said, assuming that pace remains steady.

…The new dropout rate is far higher than the 13 percent educators had earlier estimated using less-sophisticated counting methods they had relied on for years.

Comment: I wonder what the graduation and dropout rates are for LGBT youth — I did a quick look this morning, and couldn’t find any statistics on the subject. I’m sure they’re out there, but I’m not sure where to look for the stats.

- MSNBC: Gore pitches 10-year shift to clean energy; Former VP praises Obama, McCain on climate issue, sees huge opportunity. Excerpt:

Just as John F. Kennedy set his sights on the moon, Al Gore is challenging the nation to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun and other climate-friendly energy sources within 10 years, an audacious goal he hopes the next president will embrace.

- Bay Windows: A novel defense: Convict’s bid for retrial hinges on alleged anti-trans discrimination against potential juror. Excerpt:

At first glance the murder trial of Roxbury gang member Sam Smith, known as “Fat Sam” according to press reports, seems to have little to do with transgender civil rights. In June 2001 a jury convicted Smith of first-degree murder for shooting and killing a member of a rival gang in Roxbury’s Ramsey Park in 1991. But Smith and his attorney, David Mirsky, are hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court will force the state to grant Smith a retrial on the grounds that one of the prosecutors in the case allegedly dismissed a juror because the juror appeared to be transgender.

- Los Angeles Times: Blue Shield sued for allegedly lying about its coverage; L.A. city attorney’s suit contends Blue Shield of California has illegally rescinded the coverage of more than 850 policyholders since 2002.

Comment: * sigh *

- The Lesbian & Gay Foundation (UK): Open meeting held for gay community and local police. Excerpt:

On Monday July 28, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community will have an opportunity to meet representatives from Merseyside Police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to discuss homophobia and hate crime.

The meeting, organised by the Police, the CPS, Terrence Higgins Trust, Wirral LGBT forum and Trans Wirral will be held from 6.30 -8.30pm at The Lauries Centre in Birkenhead.

The open meeting, ‘Merseyside Police and Hate Crime response’ allows members of the LGBT community to meet directly with representatives of Merseyside Police and the CPS to address concerns around homophobic and transphobic incidents and other safety concerns. Homophobic incidents and attacks are often under reported and this meeting will provide a forum for open and honest dialogue.

Comment: I hope this clears some air, but my guess is that bad feelings from the incident that precipitated this meeting are going to linger for awhile.

Now, said Daniel G. Fish, a noted elder law attorney, “‘She looked so young’ is no defense.’’

… did remind me a bit of some of the absurd and indecent “deception” arguments trotted out in “trans panic” defenses over the years.

As someone who cares for a parent who’s not many years younger than Rose Morat (and as someone who grew up and spent almost half their life in NYC), I’m pleased that Gov. Paterson and the New York State legislature did the decent thing passing this legislation.

(And maybe sometime soon the New York State Senate will do another decent act … and pass the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act.)

“The image isn’t too far from the dangerous truth about the Obama family”

…to the poll question Sound off on the New Yorker’s cover with turban-wearing Obama, gun-toting wife. Another 12% answered with the selection…

“Funny, because there’s some truth in it”

I expect to see t-shirts with this New Yorker cover on the front peddled by religious right conservatives sometime in the near future — which is why they’ll no doubt live up to the moniker Republicans and sinners.

Yank. At dinner and the between play’s two acts, I was discussing the 2009 California Transgender Leadership Summit with her — very preliminary discussions about attempting to get a Winslow Fund grant for putting the summit in San Diego next March.

Oh. I’m on the team planning for the summit in San Diego — probably will end up being in the executive committee for this conference. I guess it was recently decided that California’s Transgender Leadership Summit will be at San Diego, with the goal of having the summit at San Diego State University’s Aztec Center in late March of 2009.

For the 2008 summit, we had approximately 400 trans and ally activists show for the 2008/third annual summit in Berkley — so I believe that makes this annual summit the second largest transgender conference in the United States (only following Southern Comfort in size), and the largest conference geared entirely towards individual and organizational development for transgender activism.

Obviously, I’ll be writing more about this summit in months to come — more details about California’s fourth annual Transgender Leadership Summit as details develop.

Oh — back to Yank for a moment — this musical is wonderful. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a theater production in years as much as I enjoyed this one.

At an after party, I commented to the actor playing the play’s focal character Stu — the actor’s name is Tom Zohar — that he really captured that feeling I had of feeling off in boot camp. If you look above to the picture of me in my navy blue crackerjack uniform (that was taken on my boot camp liberty weekend back in 1980), perhaps you notice how feminine I appeared to be back then even when presenting as male. There was a feminity of posture, movement, and speech that was there throughout pretty much my entire Navy career. That feminity — that feminity many of my peers in the Navy took as effeminacy — resulted in me being perceived as gay, for which I was sexually harassed in 1999/2000. Anywho, I though Tom, the rest of the cast, and the production folk did a incredible job.

I hear Yank’s next stop after San Diego is Off-Off-Broadway. I obviously recommend seeing the play at some point, if you have the opportunity too.

1. Pregnant man proves that anatomy does not determine gender
2. A mom named Thomas
3. Medical technology can create confusing relationships
4. The mother (or is it the father?) of all childbirth stories
5. A case to show anatomy is no longer destiny
6. Baby Beatie: Two mommies and two daddies?
7. Child-bearing father bends gender lines
8. Thomas Beatie’s Bizarre Mother/Fatherhood
9. Talk about a gender bender
10. Bearded man gives birth to a baby girl, for real
11. And baby makes …
12. When daddy is also mommy
13. The true tale of a mom named Thomas
14. He’s mother and father
15. ‘Man’s’ pregnancy latest evidence that gender is malleable
16. Pregnant man bends all the rules
17. Social, ethical questions of gender-bending birth
18. A baby-making project as basic as a turkey baster
19. One man’s baby, well sort of
20. Pregnant Man Puts the Trans in Gender
21. The growing divide between anatomy and destiny

… but that’s enough counting for me.

If we lose California, if they defeat the marriage amendment, I’m afraid that the culture war is over and Christians have lost. I’ve never said that publicly until now — but that’s just the reality of the fact.

If the homosexuals are able to defeat the marriage amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, then the culture war is over and we’ve lost — and gradually, secularism will replace Christianity as the foundation of our society.

–Don Wildmon, President of the American Family Association, quoted on OneNewsNow

I’m sure he’s using hyperbole to make his point, but still — I think that his statement says a lot. It would be very wonderful to defeat Prop 8 — seeing it as a win for the LGBT community and marriage equality.

I hate to say though that if Prop 8 fails to pass, I will probably be just as happy to know that conservative Christians will consider this a Culture War movement defining loss for them.

Go Equality For All! Go California!

~~~~~
Related:
* Pam’s House Blend: Equality For All
* Pam’s House Blend tag: Marriage Equality