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getting officially pinned at the phoenix pink pistols, for passing my ccw permit.

Original post by nexy

Well, it’s a coffee story with San Diego conservative Christian batsh*ttery in it — NOT involving San Diego’s usual source of coffee-related conservative Christian batsh*ttery — how do we not mention this story?

San Diego’s own The Resistance — not to be confused with MassResistance — has a character in the organization’s lead that’s balking at the new Starbucks logo. From Mark Dice, in The Resistance’s press release:

(San Diego, CA) Starbucks has recently introduced a new version of their logo which features a topless mermaid with her legs spread, which has caused outrage from a nation wide Christian media watchdog organization. The Resistance, with has over 3000 members nationwide, is boycotting Starbucks across the country saying their new logo is inappropriate.

“The Starbucks logo has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute,” explains Mark Dice, founder of the group. “Need I say more? It’s extremely poor taste, and the company might as well call themselves…

[The actual word Mike Dice/The Resistance uses without any asterisks — probably not a workplace friendly word.]

…Slutbucks.”

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune picked up on the story. Here’s Starbucks side:

The image is a less-revealing version of what the chain used for many years, starting when it first opened in Seattle in 1971. That original logo was resurrected in its Northwest outlets for a time in 2006 to mark the chain’s 35th anniversary.

…The explanation for that initial logo is explained in the book “Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time,” written by company founder Howard Schultz:

“[Creative partner Terry Heckler] poured [sic] over old marine books until he came up with a logo based on an old 16 Century Norse woodcut: a two-tailed mermaid, or siren, encircled by the store’s original name, Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice. That early siren, bare-breasted and Rubenesque, was supposed to be as seductive as coffee itself.”

By the way, Mike Dice calls Barbara Walters a slut on The Resistance’s website too.

Seriously, isn’t James Hartline enough of a source for coffee-related, conservative Christian batsh*ttery for San Diego county to bare? Sheesh.

Original post by Autumn Sandeen

From In re Marriage Cases 5/15/08 :

We therefore conclude that in view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship, the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples.

Original post by Autumn Sandeen

I asked Pam’s permission to post this on the front page. This isn’t a piece that reflects Pam’s opinion — I’m taking full ownership of this piece as my personal opinion. Frankly, I’m just borrowing Pam’s front page to vent.

So, this is my opinion piece, and isn’t a necessarily a reflection of the opinions of anyone else who posts at Pam’s House Blend. Take it for the angry rant it is.
~~Autumn~~

---

Sometimes, I just want to be a good little tranny and just shut up. I’ve learned through experience that good trannies aren’t supposed to talk about LGB behavior perceived as anti-transgender — Think HRC and ENDA, version 2007. If we keep pointing out bad behavior, we’re seen as engaging in gay-bashing…HRC bashing.

Specifically, to be a good member of the broader LGBT community, a good tranny can rail against oppression of transgender people by non-LGBT people, but that same good tranny needs to leave their LGB counterparts that engage in “bad,” anti-transgender behavior alone. That’s because other transgender activists (“trannies”) will have to work these folk later to pass fully inclusive (as in sexual orientation and gender identity and expression inclusive) civil rights legislation, so good trannies can’t anger LGB people who engage in “bad.” anti-transgender behavior.

Well, today I’m going to be a bad tranny, and not stay in my quiet place. I’m really pissed off that Rep. Barney Frank is apparently ready to rewrite his part in what happened with ENDA in 2007, and I’m not going to buy into the bullsh*t rewrite of my community’s history with this gay congressman. Nor am I going to let his bullsh*t attempt to rewrite his part in ENDA 2007 history pass by unnoticed. I’m calling foul.

In the May 2nd issue of Just Out, Representative Barney Frank made some comments about transinclusion in ENDA (among a few other subjects). The Just Out article is tellingly sub-headed U.S. Rep. Barney Frank to trans community: Get your own train. One of his “stir the pot” comments in the Q&A, interview piece was:

Part of the problem, I have to say, is this: I’ve never seen a worse job of lobbying done by the transgender community. They seem to think that all they had to do was to get the gay and lesbian community to say “OK.” I think they thought that this was a train, and that they were a car on the train. I said to them, “You’ve got to work this, you’ve got to lobby people.” They did a terrible job of lobbying, and so we didn’t have the votes.

I’ve talked to my transgender peers and other activists over the past year, and no activist has ever reported that Rep. Frank gave any such warning — the only ones I’m aware of who sounded any alarm to the transgender community regarding ENDA/hate crimes legislation was the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC). They heard that rumors had been floating around the Beltway since April, 2007 that gender identity and expression was going to be dropped from the main ENDA/hate crimes legislation bills during the NTAC Transgender Lobby Days of May, 2007. NTAC in turn mentioned that possibility to some transgender community e-groups that same month.

But that was it for even for a semi-public comment.

And, my trans friends in NTAC have told me that their source wasn’t Rep. Frank, or anyone in his office — their sources were in other congressional/senatorial offices. The line allegedly delivered to (a) transgender activsist(s) of “You’ve got to work this, you’ve got to lobby people.” apparently was never delivered to any transgender activist(s) by Rep. Frank.

And, this wasn’t the only stir the pot comment in Just Out piece that rewrote history.

[Rep. Frank: “The overwhelming majority of opinion in the gay and lesbian community was supportive of what we did.” after the fold.]

A few other “history rewrites”:

No. I understand the problem of having [transgender protections] put in the bill and taking it out. It would have been better not to have put it in the bill in the first place and to have two separate bills in the beginning…. Unfortunately, people in the trans community and their allies didn’t want to accept reality.

Checking the record, one can see Rep. Frank was the primary sponsor for HR 2015 — the fully inclusive ENDA. Apparently Rep. Frank also didn’t want to “accept reality” either

Was it a mistake not to push for gay rights in the ’50s and ’60s? No, it just hadn’t occurred to people. Movements take time. There was not a lot of self-awareness of people being transgender in the ’80s and ’90s. You can’t artificially create these things; they come up. The transgender community organized and came forward, but it’s only been less than 10 years.

Transgender people have organized independently, and they were there in the gay liberation movement. Perhaps we should note that transgender people were in large part thrown out of the gay liberation movement in the early seventies — by people of Rep. Frank’s age:

1973 was a watershed year. Sentiments against transgender people participating in gay and feminist work reached a fever pitch. Sylvia Rivera was physically prevented from speaking at the Stonewall commemoration in New York. Beth Elliot, a lesbian transsexual woman who had once been vice president of the San Francisco chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis lesbian organization in San Francisco was ejected from the West Coast Lesbian Conference in Los Angeles, by vehemently anti-transgender feminist Robin Morgan, who divided the crowd on the transgender issue in much the same way that the issue is threatening to divide the LGBT community today. With the war in Viet Nam winding down for the United States, the androgynous hippy style of the “Freakin’ Fag Revolution” was replaced with the new macho of the “clone look.” With the successful removal of homosexuality as a psychopathology list in the psychiatric bible, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, gender-normative gay and lesbian people could say that they were healthy and transgender people were sick. And repression continued from the outside, too. Police planted narcotics in the office of the National Transsexual Counseling Unit, framed them, and sent some of them to jail. It was a perfect storm, in which many progressive-minded people, self-righteously thinking they were being so advanced in their condemnation of transgender people, unwittingly marched in lock step with truly reactionary social forces.

Thirty years of advancing gay and feminist causes through solidarity with conservative definitions of gender and by trashing transgender people is what produces the seeming paradox of the right-wing Christian hate groups like Americans For Truth About Homosexuality actually quoting Barney Frank’s phobic attitudes about transgender people on the front page of their website.

And that quote, by the way, is:

“There are workplace situations — communal showers, for example — when the demands of the transgender community fly in the face of conventional norms and therefore would not pass in any Congress. I’ve talked with transgender activists and what they want — and what we will be forced to defend — is for people with penises who identify as women to be able to shower with other women.”
– Homosexual Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), back when he opposed including “transgenders” in the Employment NonDiscrimination Act (ENDA). Frank later relented but since has signed on to a watered-down version of ENDA (H.R. 3685) that dropped the “trans” language.

Lastly, this is one more questionable statement by Rep. Frank:

[Stephen Marc Beaudoin]: You took a lot of heat for your work on ENDA.

[Barney Frank]: Not much. The overwhelming majority of opinion in the gay and lesbian community was supportive of what we did.

Even before October of 2007 when ENDA turned into a community debacle, this wasn’t true. This is what Cheryl Jacques — then the executive director of the HRC — wrote in 2004 for the Washington Blade:

There is broad agreement on the goal: passage of ENDA that includes sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. The question has always been about how we get there as quickly as possible and there is understandably some concern that adding gender identity or expression could delay passage of the bill.

She also made two other statements in that Washington Blade piece that I believe are worthy of note:

Congress moves very slowly on legislation and we need to make sure the bill our allies introduce in January is as fresh and inclusive upon enactment as it was at introduction.

PASSING ENDA WITHOUT gender identity and expression is like passing a copyright law that covers books and television shows but doesn’t cover digital music or videos.

And…

At a time when President Bush is trying to divide Americans over gay marriage, we know that unity is one of our greatest strengths.

Rep. Frank is a powerful man, and is someone the transgender community will need as an ally if we’re ever to pass a fully inclusive version of ENDA within the next four years. A good little tranny would probably leave his misstatements of fact alone — not pointing out on his less than accurate statements. But hell, Rep. Frank is denigrating transgender activists like me in an attempt to rewrite history in a light that flatters him. I don’t want Rep. Frank’s version of history to be the one that is accepted as truth in 20 years — My transgender peers and I owe future generations of transgender people better than believing their past activists were nothing but thoughtless harlequins.

In my opinion, Rep. Frank is actively working against the unity that Cheryl Jacques called one of the LGBT community’s greatest strengths by continuously working to the LGBT community over the T community.

So, whenever I refer to Rep. Frank in the future, I will refer to him as a gay congressman. At this point I don’t even want to make the mistake of referring to him as LGBT when he obviously only thinks of himself only as a member of the gay and lesbian community.

H/t: Susan

~~~~~
Further reading:
* Transgender Activism After Falls City
* If Its Barney, Its Bullsh*t

~~~~~
Related:
* Pam’s House Blend on ENDA
* Pam’s House Blend on Barney Frank

Original post by Autumn Sandeen

 

“they”: the best weapon is one you never have to fire.
tony stark: the best weapon is one you only have to fire once.
nexy: the best weapon is one you get to fire over and over again.

 

 

Original post by nexy

The shop that’s fixing my car tells me that it’ll be Friday before they even get the parts, so I guess that’s the end of my idea of a trip to Philly, for this week at least.

I guess it’s really not such a bad thing, to have some real downtime imposed on me, whether I like it or not. I’m finally getting back into the swing of writing a lot, and that’s of course a good thing. Of course, most of what I’m writing about at the moment is personal stuff, but that’s ok I guess. It has to come out sooner or later.

It keeps getting weirder and weirder…Writing, for me at least, contains a very strong grounding in terms of being considered productive, that is, in certain ways you can look at a page of print and see exactly how much you have accomplished, but success on other levels in writing can only be measured by absorbing the meaning of the words and judging their worth. An 800-word essay will always be 800 words, but the essay itself can be brilliant or it can be crap, and one measure has absolutely nothing to do with the other.

And so, I write, not so much to fill the time as to document my thoughts, to say things I think are worth saying, or at least, worth thinking about.

I try to do the same thing on my radio show. The way I figure it, if I’m lucky enough that at least a few people are regularly tuning in to hear what I have to say, then it’s incumbent upon me to try to present the most thought-provoking and interesting show I can. To that end, I’ve been making a special point to invite not only guests who’s positions I and probably most my listeners fully agree with, but also those who hold views in opposition or at least not directly in concert with popular community opinion. When I was finally able to get Hilary Rosen scheduled (and the Barney Frank interview hadn’t been denied yet), I decided that it was a great opportunity to try add a bit of balance to the show. Dana Beyer, and even to an extent Donna Rose, both take less antagonistic stances toward HRC than most of us do, even though both have problems with their advocacy of ENDA and of transgender rights in general. They’re far from the only transpeople who have done so publicly however, and there are some who take an even more conciliatory view.

One such well-known transperson is Nancy Nangeroni. Nancy and I have gone toe-to-toe on HRC and ENDA both publicly and privately in the past, most recently in the comments section of one of my articles published at the Bilerico Project. She’s someone I respect greatly for the many years of work she’s given our community, as well as being a groundbreaker in transgender-relevant media, someone who in many ways blazed the path I walk today in terms of my media work, yet she’s also someone I’ve had cause to disagree with on many occasions on issues like this. Simply put, Nancy and I have very different ideas of what is the right way to advocate our issues in the public arena, and I think we reflect the twin poles of thinking around this right now.

I, of course, reflect the “Let’s take it to them!” position: Let’s get out there with our protest signs, letters and visits to Congress, media, etc. Let’s show them exactly who we are and that we can no longer be ignored or pushed aside. I also advocate doing something about the Human Rights Campaign. We can’t trust them to play fair, so they define themselves not as an ally but rather as an obstacle, and they must be dealt in that light. In other words, while our agendas may coincide from time to time, they are clearly not the same. There has to be an alternative, one that doesn’t carry the kind of baggage in this community and in Congress HRC does.

I also advocate being proactive in our media, calling out those who deserve it clearly and regularly, for good and for ill. That may not be too popular with the politicians, but if there’s anything we’ve learned it’s that staying silent doesn’t help our cause at all, it only provides cover for others who seek to gain rights for those like themselves at our expense. I believe these issues need to be discussed in the media regularly because it’s only by making sure people know what’s going on that we can hope something will change for the better.

Nancy takes a somewhat different, less aggressive view than my own. I’m not going to try to go into a detailed analysis of her position because she’s really the only person qualified to do that. Suffice it to say that she apparently places more weight on the negative impact of some public writings (like my own) on the politicians than the positive impact they may have on our own community, and she seems to advocate a lighter touch in dealing with HRC and the politicians in general than I do.

I’ve invited Nancy on the show to get into these issues with us, and I’m pleased to announce that she’s accepted my offer. She’ll be on the May 29th episode. This is another show I’ll be looking forward to. Be sure not to miss it…I have feeling these next few weeks on the show are gonna be kinda interesting!

Original post by admin

Khadijah Farmer, a lesbian woman who describes herself as “not the most feminine,” won a settlement from New York’s West Village restaurant Caliente Cab Company. For those who don’t remember, Farmer sued the Caliente Cab Company for allegedly kicking her out of the women’s restroom:

The woman, Khadijah Farmer, a 28-year-old who lives in Hell’s Kitchen, says she was at the Caliente Cab restaurant in the West Village after the Gay Pride Parade on June 24, (2007), when she left the table to go to the women’s room. While she was in there, the male bouncer burst into the bathroom.

“He began pounding on the stall door saying someone had complained that there was a man inside the women’s bathroom, that I had to leave the bathroom and the restaurant,” Ms. Farmer said. “Inside the stall door, I could see him. That horrified me, and it made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I said to him, ‘I’m a female, and I’m supposed to be in here.’ After I came out of the bathroom stall, I attempted to show him my ID to show him that I was in the right place, and he just refused to look at my identification. His exact words were, ‘Your ID is neither here nor there,’ which means that my ID didn’t matter to him.”

The last Friday settlement was announced on Tuesday. Farmer will be paid $35K, the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (her legal team) will be paid $15K, and the Caliente Cab Company agreed to change its workplace practices:

Among the workplace practices that Caliente Cab agreed to adopt in the settlement was to add gender identity and expression to its corporate nondiscrimination policy; to adopt a gender-neutral dress code for its employees; and to amend its employee handbook to state “persons patronizing or employed at Caliente have the right to use the bathroom facilities consistent with their gender identity and expression.”

Can we all say “Hooray”?

Original post by Autumn Sandeen

Well, Catholic League President Bill Donohue is satisfied about Rev. John Hagee’s apology to the Catholic Church.

“The tone of Hagee’s letter is sincere. He wants reconciliation and he has achieved it. Indeed, the Catholic League welcomes his apology. What Hagee has done takes courage and quite frankly I never expected him to demonstrate such sensitivity to our concerns. But he has done just that. Now Catholics, along with Jews, can work with Pastor Hagee in making interfaith relations stronger than ever. Whatever problems we had before are now history. This case is closed.”

Apparently, the Catholic Church (and the rest of the Christian Church) only becomes the great whore after the rapture, during the tribulation:

John McCain wooed Rev. Hagee for his endorsement for a year — should Sen. John McCain breath easier now that Rev. Hagee sort of apologized to Catholics?

Well, Rev. Hagee has some other issues. He’s claimed that Jews, as a people, are Christ-killers:

Where that leaves them is that during the tribulation, the book of Revelation says in the 14th chapter that God is going to send angels who will preach the everlasting gospel across the face of the earth so that everyone will have the opportunity of knowing who Jesus Christ is. Now, when it comes to the Jewish people, Zechariah very clearly says that they are not going to believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah until they see him. Zechariah says in the 14th chapter ‘and when they, the Jewish people, see him whom they have pierced’–and the word pierced there actually refers to his rib and side–’when they see him whom they have pierced, they will weep as one weeps for his only son for a period of one week. They’re simply not going to believe he is the Messiah until they actually see him, and that’s at the Second Coming. Then, at that point in time, there is the judgment of the nations in which all nations are judged for the way in which they have treated the nation of Israel and the Jewish people, and the Jewish people are front and center in the kingdom of God that will be an eternal kingdom.

…and regarding Islam he’s said:

[Rev. Hagee comments on Islam and LGBT people after the fold.]

Terry Gross: If you use the Bible as the basis for policy, is there any room for compromise? And if you use the bible as the basis for policy, should Muslims use the Koran as the basis for their policy, and then again, what possible basis is there for compromise at that point?

John Hagee: There is really no room for compromise between radical Islam —

TG: I’m not talking about radical Islam. I’m just talking about Islam in general.

JH: Well Islam in general — those who live by the Koran have a scriptural mandate to kill Christians and Jews.

And, his quote on NPR on gay and lesbian people regarding Hurricane Katrina should still be problematic:

All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they are — were recipients of the judgment of God for that. The newspaper carried the story in our local area that was not carried nationally that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other Gay Pride parades. So I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing. I know that there are people who demur from that, but I believe that the Bible teaches that when you violate the law of God, that God brings punishment sometimes before the day of judgment. And I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.

(For the record, Rev. Hagee first retracted his comments on what caused Hurricane Katrina, then un-retracted his retraction.)

As to whether John McCain is still comfortable with Rev. Hagee’s endorsement, McCain has stated “I’ve accepted his endorsement.” And, so we’re clear that we know Rev. Hagee isn’t McCain’s pastor, but this is more than just a random endorsement we shouldn’t treat as anything but a guilt by association thing:

McCain didn’t just “accept” Hagee’s endorsement; he actively sought it. In fact, he “personally wooed Hagee for more than a year.” Hagee recently told the New York Times Magazine that “it’s true that McCain’s campaign sought my endorsement.”

~~~~~
Related:
John Hagee and his gay friends

Original post by Autumn Sandeen

Not that it really matters or anything, but for the first time in a while, I’m using Semagic to compose my blog posts. I tried using Wordpress for a while but Semagic just seems easier for me. It also means that I have reorganize how I publish my blog posts.

I haven’t posted the last few on Bilerico because, frankly, they just didn’t fit the format. I go through phases as a writer when I just seem to focus on personal stuff which is far better suited to my personal blogs then for an LGBT cultural and political blog. Anything political gets published everywhere, but at least some of the personal stuff just doesn’t seem to qualify as posting at Bilerico. Self-censorship, when fairly and honestly applied, can be a wonderful thing.

So, here I am, still looking at three fun-filled days off. No news on the car as yet, but if they can getting this thing driving like it should be I’ll be so happy I’ll hand-wash it. It’ll the difference between a car that gets me to work and back and one I can take on a roadtrip without fear that it’s just not going to make it. My hope: that they finish this thing in time for me to have at least one day to just get the hell out of town. At this point, I still have not the slightest idea where I might go on this fabled roadtrip, but I might as well take advantage while I can. It’s not like I can’t afford a couple of tanks of gas these days…and it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than a real vacation.

Maybe…Philadelphia? I am overdue for a visit…hmmm…

Original post by admin

…and the truth is that I didn’t know how much I needed it until I had it.

This weekend, the front end of my car, specifically the air shocks and the frame supporting them, finally went. I missed work on Saturday, and then this morning I dropped my car off at the shop and had my mother drive me to work. I knew I’d be at least a few minutes late so I called the store to let them know.

My first clue something was wrong was a message in the voice of one of our store managers, instead of the normal, pleasant-sounding robo-answer call voice, saying the store was closed today and to contact our other local stores. As we passed the mall on the opposite side of the highway, I could see a fire truck parked in front of the store and I knew something was up.

We made the jughandle and drove up to the front of the store. Several of the supervisors were huddled in the vestibule of the store and I found out that there had been a fire in our store the night before. At that point, the place was a wreck and there was really nothing for me to do other just than go home.

Later on I was here, playing Second Life, when I got a call from my own supervisor, Lena. Seems we’re all getting a week’s paid vacation, followed by a meeting this Saturday at the main district office where we’ll all get our new store assignments. Apparently, our own store isn’t coming back so fast.

It’s hard to really say whether this is good or bad in the long term. Sure, it’s a great thing that I get the rest of the week off with pay. But it sucks that our store is gone, at least for a while. We had a good team there, good people. Who’s to say it’ll still be the same by the time it’s back…for that matter, who’s to say the store will even be in the same place place?

On the other hand this could also be a very good thing. There’s really no way to know at this point. However, it might even prove to be another opportunity to move up.

Really, it just feels weird. I was finally starting to hit my stride with this job and this was totally unexpected. Of course, I’m mainly just going to relax and enjoy the time off, but I can’t help feeling like I’m missing something, like I’m supposed to be somewhere that I’m not. It really is kind of bizarre when you think about it, considering how long I was unemployed and went day after day in an endless (though unpaid) vacation. This is very different in that I know I’ll be making the same money as I normally would have for the week but now I can catch up on any number of things over the next few days.

So now, I’ve got four more paid days off from work, but no car for at least the next two. What the hell will I do with myself?

Original post by admin

Eep!

Original post by Autumn Sandeen

he is thinking that we should love each other as we love him. what are you thinking?

Original post by nexy

Happily, in these cases of “deception,” wasps don’t “panic” and orchidphobic violence is not a result …

Orchids that mimic female wasps may not only waste the time of the male wasps they lure into spreading their pollen — they also seduce them into wasting valuable sperm, Australian researchers reported on Wednesday.

And the flowers benefit twice — getting help in their own reproduction, and perhaps indirectly producing more male pollinators in the process.

Some of the most exotic orchids are known to have evolved their convoluted shapes to attract insects, who unwittingly collect and transfer pollen as they try to mate with the flowers.

“The effect of deception on pollinators has been considered negligible, but we show that pollinators may suffer considerable costs,” Anne Gaskett of Macquarie University in Sydney and colleagues reported.

“Insects pollinating Australian tongue orchids (Cryptostylis species) frequently ejaculate and waste copious sperm,” they wrote in a report in The American Naturalist.

It is not harmless to the wasps, who may suffer more than an inconvenience. “Male pollinators can prefer orchids to real females, prematurely end a copulation with a real female to visit an orchid, or be unable to find real female mates among false orchid signals,” the researchers wrote.

“Unquestionably, producing sperm, ejaculate, or seminal fluids is costly for many animals. The energetic demands of sperm production can result in reduced body mass, a shortened life span, or limited lifetime sperm production,” they added.

But this arms race of sexual trickery works in more than one way for the flower. “We also show that orchid species provoking such extreme pollinator behavior have the highest pollination success,” they added.

“How can deception persist, given the costs to pollinators?”

They found that the wasps who frequent these flowers are haplodiploid species. Like bees, ants and similar species, offspring produced by sexual unions are female, while females can also produce males asexually.

“Therefore, female insects deprived of matings by orchid deception could still produce male offspring, which may even enhance orchid pollination,” the researchers wrote.

Gaskett’s team examined flowers after wasps visited them and found the hoodwinked males did eventually learn their lesson.

“With experience, male Lissopimpla excelsa wasps become less likely to copulate with and pollinate sexually deceptive Cryptostylis orchids,” they wrote.

Sexy orchids do more than embarrass wasps?

The orchid, by the way, gets its name from the Greek όρχις orchis, meaning “testicle.”

Original post by Stephanie Stevens

On the Bushs and the Clintons … the tide’s outward rush from these fair shores (speaking broadly and metaphorically) will continue unchecked and unabated by the presumptive, next King Canute.

Original post by Stephanie Stevens

To the surprise of probably no one, Sen. Obama has pulled ahead of Sen. Clinton in the number of superdelegates.

Senator Barack Obama has passed his opponent, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, in the count of superdelegates, the first time since the outset of the race that Mrs. Clinton has lost the lead in one of her few remaining trump cards.

Mr. Obama picked up endorsements on Friday from four more superdelegates, the Democratic Party insiders who are granted autonomy to support whomever they wish at the convention in August. One, a New Jersey congressman, switched his allegiance away from Mrs. Clinton, allowing the Illinois senator to pull ahead of his rival, according to the latest New York Times count.

The Times’s tally shows Mr. Obama with 264 superdelegates against 263 for Mrs. Clinton, based on telephone polls conducted with CBS News as well as public endorsements. A separate count by The Associated Press shows Mr. Obama still trailing by fewer than four votes. And a measure by ABC News shows the Illinois senator already ahead, 267 to 265.

The tide turns in yet one more election metric — in Sen. Obama’s favor.

Original post by Autumn Sandeen

 

 

via newsreleasewire.com, a terrifying transgender transformation is an ebook and will soon be available as a streaming audio release. synopsis:

Janice Lawrence marries, Bierce Baldwin Blackwood, the man of her dreams, a rising star on the stock car circuit known as B3 and destined for NASCAR. But her dream becomes a nightmare, when she realizes that yes, she too is the woman of his dreams, the woman he wants to become at all costs, and that in the end, he does not intend for there to be two of them.

there you have it, another “trans as a nightmare” scenario.

Original post by nexy

 

 

i received my official smith & wesson club 1852 membership card today. apparently, i am eligible for special offers and promotions, s&w club 1852 merchandise, and s&w club 1852 events in my area. there’s also periodic newsletters.

i always knew i was special

Original post by nexy

Tonight, we’ll talk with Justin Tanis, the National Center for Transgender Equality’s Program Director and co-author of the new publication “Opening the Door to the Inclusion of  Transgender People”, which offers advice to organizations seeking to become more transgender-inclusive. We’ll talk to Justin about “Opening the Door…”, trans-politics, and more!

The Rebecca Juro Show
The LGBT Internet Radio Talk Show That Puts The “T” First!
Streaming Live Thursdays, 7-10pm Eastern, 4-7pm Pacific And Rebroadcast Throughout The Week
On QMO
http://www.queermusiconline.com
And Live Every Week
On WKJCE TLGB Radio
http://www.wkjce.org
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Original post by admin

From the Bay Area Reporter:

A shareholder proposal to amend Verizon Communications Inc.’s written equal employment policy to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on gender identity was voted down May 1, but backers of the plan say they were encouraged by the amount of support it got, and the group that proposed the resolution will bring it back next year.

Preliminary results showed that the resolution, which was opposed by the company’s board of directors, won 17 percent of shareholder approval. It takes 3 percent for a proposal to come back, which it achieved. According to Alberto Canal, of Verizon media relations, more than 2 billion votes were cast. Canal said the company has 340 employees in the Bay Area.

I believe the most disheartening piece of news from the Bay Area Reporter piece was the position of the LGBT employee group at Verizon — they apparently supported the board position (emphasis added):

When asked about the board’s stance on the resolution, Verizon’s Canal reiterated the company’s “zero tolerance” policy. He also said that GLOBE, the company’s LGBT employee resource group, supported the position.

As a customer that identifies as transgender and transsexual, next month I’ll be cancelling my service with Verizon — no matter what the financial cost. I won’t do business with a company where even its LGBT group won’t support a written policy of employment equality for its transgender employees.

~~~~~
Related:
* DiversityInc’s No. 1 Employer Is Against Gender Identity/Expression In Non-Discrimination Policy
* Verizon’s GLOBE President Responds

Original post by Autumn Sandeen

 

 

…at the smith and wesson store. my favorite is the “yeah, i shoot like a girl” tank top. though the extra magazines will come in handy. special thanks to my hubby for letting me go shopping.

 

 

and speaking of guns, i got this lovely pin from the pink pistols for getting my ccw permit. i also picked up some new ammo for my smith and wesson 637 revolver.

 

 

interestingly enough, finding .38 jacketed hollowpoints for a .38 is harder than it may seem. and they are a bit expensive, at $13.99 for a box of 25. i’ll have to do some searching on the net for better pricing.

Original post by nexy

In 1973, Homosexuality was was removed as a disorder from the American Psychological Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Second Edition (DSM-II). It was the step that recognized that individuals whose sexual interests are directed primarily toward people of the same sex weren’t afflicted with a psychiatric disorder.

When we flash forward to 2008, we find Gender Identity Disorder — the diagnosis for transsexuals and gender-variant children — is found in DSM-IV TR. When the DSM is revised in a couple of years for DSM-V, Gender Identity Disorder will likely still be there. And, with the Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis for children will further the American Psychological Association’s (APA’s) approval of conversion therapy for children, used in an attempt to gender norm gender-variant/LGBT children (Think Zach).

The reason for concern is found some of the names in the work group committee — the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group. The press release identifies Kenneth Zucker and Ray Blanchard as members of the group.

Kenneth J. Zucker, Ph.D., is a name that every gay man and lesbian woman should know, especially if they were treated to become “straight” at a camp or a ex-gay affirming psychologist’s office. Sadly, almost no one in the LGBT community knows about the papers on gender identity by Zucker and Bradley, and the broader impact of these papers on LGBT community — especially on LGBT youth.

For those who aren’t aware, Gender Identity Disorder of Children is considered a pre-homosexual condition.

Without reinventing the wheel on the problems with Dr. Kenneth Zucker’s participation in the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group, let me recommend reading Donna Rose’s blog entry Zucker revisited: The lunatics rule the asylum.

In her piece, Donna refers to National Public Radio’s Two Families Grapple with Sons’ Gender Preferences; Psychologists Take Radically Different Approaches in Therapy. One of the two stories in the article and podcast is about a child having conversion therapy — at the recommendation of Dr. Zucker.

Another of the key players identified in the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group is Ray Blanchard, famous for his transsexual diagnosis of autogynephilia. As Madeline Wyndzen, Ph.D., writes,

Blanchard’s model categorizes transsexuals into two types based on sexual orientation: “homosexual” (those attracted to their biological sex) and “non-homosexual.” A mis-directed sex drive causes transsexuality. The mis-directed sex-drive among “non-homosexual” transsexuals is called “autogynephilia.”

In other words, Blanchard believes it’s the mis-directed sexual orientation of men that causes transsexuality…

Several researchers and therapists have been surprised when I mention that Blanchard makes a causal argument: a mis-directed sex-drive (e.g., autogynephilia) causes gender dysphoria. His causal claims are what allows him to form categories of transsexuals based on sexual orientation. This is also the basis of his ability to explain cross-dressing and transsexuality within the same theory even in cases where transsexuals have no history of cross-dressing. That is a very impressive feat. Blanchard’s theory would not be able to account for this if, for example, he meant autogynephilia as a type of fantasy many non-homosexual transsexuals have to compensate for not being able to be their target sex (i.e. a reverse of the causal direction). The following quotations illustrate Blanchard’s causal claims as well as showing how this causal claim is an organizing principle for his entire theory.

For a other takes on the make-up of the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group and what’s at state from an transgender/intersexual perspective, I’d recommend Donna Rose’s GID, DSM, HRC, and more: A cornucopia of TLA’s, and Zoe Brain’s Transsexual Causation, the American Psychiatric Association, and Interpol.

Needless to say, gender-variant LGBT and straight youth, as well as transsexual adults, will likely have to deal with another decade plus of being considered seriously disordered — with its conversion therapy implication for children. Reform models for, or different takes on Gender Identity Disorder in DSM-V aren’t likely to be seriously considered with Zucker and Blanchard on the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group.

Original post by Autumn Sandeen

This is a list (which I posted at Transgender News) of gender, transgender and intersex-related books slated for release from now until the end of the year. (The list of publishers and titles is culled from Publisher’s Weekly’s “Lesbian and Gay Titles May-December 2008: Complete Listings.”) …

ARSENAL PULP PRESS

queersexlife: Autobiographical Notes on Sexuality, Gender & Identity
(May, $19.95) by Terry Goldie is the York University English
professor’s frank and intimate collection of responses to theories of
queer sexuality and identity.

–

CITY LIGHTS

So Many Ways to Sleep Badly (Sept., $16 paper) by Mattilda Bernstein
Sycamore is set San Francisco, where a young gay man struggles to find
hope in the ruins of the everyday. Bernstein Sycamore is the
gender-bending author of the highly praised novel, Pulling Taffy, and
the editor of four nonfiction anthologies.

–

CLEIS PRESS

The Transgender Child (June, $16.95 paper) by Stephanie Brill and
Rachel Pepper is a comprehensive guidebook for parents and
professionals exploring the challenges of raising a transgender child.
Brill is founder of Gender Spectrum Education and Training and Pepper
is coordinator of LGBT Studies at Yale University.

–

DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience (Oct.,
$23.95 hardcover) by Katrina A. Karkazis examines contemporary
controversies over the medical management of intersexuality in the
U.S. from the perspectives of patients, parents and clinicians.

–

FEMINIST PRESS AT CUNY

Trans (Dec., $22 hardcover) edited by Susan Stryker, Lisa-Jean Moore &
Paisley Currah explores the meaning of “trans” as it relates to
nationality, culture, race, and gender. Currah teaches at Brooklyn
College; Moore teaches at Purchase College; and Stryker won an Emmy
for her documentary Screaming Queens.

–

FIREBRAND BOOKS

Read My Lips: Second Edition (Nov., $14.95 paper) by Riki Wilchins
weaves theory and personal experience into a story of self-discovery
for lesbians, feminists, queer academics, activists and transpeople.
Wilchins is cofounder of the Transexual Menace and Executive Director
of GenderPAC.

–

HYPERION

Smile as They Bow (Sept., $24.95 hardcover) by Nu Nu Yi was
shortlisted for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize. It’s the
mesmerizing, lush story of a gay transvestite, his young assistant,
and a beautiful beggar girl, set among the gay spirit mediums of
Burma. One of Burma’s leading writers, Nu Nu Yi is the author of more
than 15 novels and 100 short stories.

–

ST. MARTIN’S/GRIFFIN

Dandelion: Memoir of a Free Spirit (Sept. $14.95 paper) by Catherine
James is the former Wilhemina model’s memoir of how, after she had
escaped her miserable childhood, her father revealed himself to be not
just a cross-dresser but a transsexual, and her mother came back into
her life just in time to die, but not to change her attitude toward
her only daughter.

–

SUSPECT THOUGHTS PRESS (dist. by Small Press Distribution)

Dying for a Change (Aug., $17 paper) by Sean Reynolds is set in summer
1965, when Miss Dive, a famous drag queen from Chicago’s North Side,
is murdered, sending fierce drag queen Henrietta Wild Child and sexy
black butch Chan Parker on a mad romp, from low life bars to mob dens,
to find the killer.

–

UNIV. OF WISCONSIN PRESS

The Gendering of Men, 1600–1750: Volume 2, Queer Articulations (July,
$65 hardcover) by Brandeis Univ. Professor Thomas A. Kin looks at the
emergence of male homosexuals in early modern England analyzes the
perception of masculinity and effeminacy in the 18th century.

–

HENRY HOLT

Debbie Harry Sings in French (May, $16.95) by Meagan Brothers. A
troubled teenage boy finds strength in the music of Blondie and in
dressing like the band’s lead singer. (14-up)

–

LITTLE, BROWN

Luna (Sept., $7.99 paper) by Julie Anne Peters is a paperback reprint
of Peters’s 2004 novel about a transgender teen’s transition from girl
to boy. (12-up)

–

PENGUIN/SPEAK

Freak Show (Oct., $8.99 paper) by James St. James. The author’s 2007
novel about a teenage drag queen’s new life in Florida returns in this
paperback reprint. (14-up)

–

RANDOM HOUSE

Cycler (Aug., $17.99 hardcover) by Lauren McLaughlin. For four days
each month, high school student Jill turns into a boy. (14-up)

Original post by Stephanie Stevens

I’m sure many of you weren’t aware that now homosexuality is widely accepted — you know, because only about half the states have employment and/or housing protections for LGB folk — but apparently all y’all gay activists have succeeded beyond your wildest dreams. In fact, you’ve been so successful that now you are turning [your] attention to normalizing transgenderism by gaining legal status for what [you] call gender identity or expression.

See, Focus On The Family/CitizenLink guy Caleb H. Price says that right here:

[N]ow that homosexuality is widely accepted, activists are turning their attention to normalizing transgenderism by gaining legal status for what they call gender identity or expression.

Specifically, they’re demanding that “transgender” people be added to hate-crimes and nondiscrimination laws. And although “transgenders” number less than a fraction of 1 percent of the population, the goal is to radically deconstruct the biblical and biological understanding of “sex” and teach that gender is “fluid” and changeable. We’re being called to toss aside biological sex in favor of a person’s feelings or self-identification about their gender — whether or not these perceptions conform to biological reality!

Ironically, the same activists who tell us that sexual orientation can’t be changed want us now to believe that somehow gender can be changed!

So how should we — as Christians — respond?

Umm…Do to others as you would have others do to you? Perhaps some love your neighbor as yourself?

Naaaaaw…

[What Focus On The Family/CitizenLink says is the Christian way to respond after the fold.]

The Bible teaches that humans are made in God’s image as male and female — mysteriously reflecting who God is and uniquely bringing forth new life. So it’s clear that gender and sexuality matter to God. And while God’s intent for sexuality and gender is being turned upside down, we should also understand that those who struggle with their gender identity have lived lives of great pain, confusion and rejection.

Just as Jesus went out of His way to reach the outcasts of society, we’re called to humbly share His love embodied in the Gospel, to lift them up in prayer, and to allow the Holy Spirit to bring about conviction, healing and transformation

Yeah, the pain’s over since I’ve transitioned. I tried praying and conversion therapy-ing away the trans earlier in my life, and frankly, praying and conversion therapy didn’t work. Accepting that the gender between my ears didn’t match my natal sex — what I was born with between my legs — was how I stopped feeling confused.

And, of course, most of the rejection I face these days is from the Christian, self-sanctimonious folk — y’know, like Mr. Price and his ilk. If they create the rejection, is it really that fair of them to identify it as what I feel? I feel the love…

…of Caleb essentially calling me an outcast. But I do feel so warm and cuddly inside whenever a Christian conservative calls me an outcast — could it be because I haven’t forgotten that in Isaiah it’s reported that Caleb’s God said he will gather outcast gender-variant people to him?

So do intersexed people fail to exist due to Mr. Price theologically believes in a strict male/female sex dichotomy? Heck, speaking of other problems with Caleb’s theology — Why is it that Christ is attributed as saying that some change the shape of their genitalia for the kingdom of heaven’s sake? Or that in Isaiah God will give these genitalia-variant folk a name better [and more enduring] than sons and daughters?

Oh never mind. Science and the Bible don’t support the “Christian” take on gender variance that Caleb H. Price and his ilk profess, but pointing that out hasn’t stopped Price & Company from making their ludicrous statements on how God only created males and females, and transgender people are outcasts.

Still, for a little historic, Catholic Church perspective on intersexuals, John Boswell’s Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (Appendix Two) has a translation of Peter Cantor’s De vitio sodomitico — or On Sodomy (d. 1192 AD). Here’s the excerpt on hermaphrodites (or as we’d call them now, intersexuals), as quoted at the Ex-Gay Watch:

The Lord formed man from the slime of the earth on the plan of Damascus, later fashioning woman from his rib in Eden. Thus in considering the formation of woman, lest any should believe they would be hermaphrodites, he stated, “Male and female created he them,” as if to say, “There will not be intercourse of men with men or women with women, but only of men with women and vice versa.” For this reason the church allows a hermaphrodite — that is, someone with the organs of both sexes, capable of either active or passive functions — to use the organ by which (s)he is most aroused or the one which (s)he is more susceptible.

If (s)he is more active [literally, “lustful], (s)he may wed as a man, but if (s)he is more passive, (s)he may marry as a woman. If; however, (s)he should fail with one organ, the use of the other can never be permitted, but (s)he must be perpetually celibate to avoid any similarity to the role inversion of sodomy, which is detested by God.

It just strikes me, when I read Peter Cantor’s take on intersexuality, that interpretation of scripture can be so arbitrary, and so reflective of one’s own biases. Caleb H. Prince seems to be viewing transsexuals through his own biases against gays and lesbians, while ignoring scriptures that imply that gender variance is something his God accepted as appropriate and natural.

Frankly, the Bible doesn’t mention transsexuals directly — one can only find indirect references to gender-variant people in the term eunuch. For Caleb H. Prince to imply that there is a scriptural basis for opposing civil rights for transsexual, transgender, and all other people whose sex and/or gender don’t conform to societal norms is just…well, it’s not treating others as he himself would like to be treated, and it doesn’t take into account words attributed to Christ about gender variant people. In his comments about transgender people/transsexuals, Caleb H. Prince believes he speaks with Godly, Biblical authority regarding a class of people that aren’t identified directly in the Bible.

It seems pretty clear to me — Caleb H. Prince speaks with nothing but pure hubris.

Original post by Autumn Sandeen

(Oops, this didn’t post last night … )

The road to somewhere is paved with good intentions … It doesn’t look, at the moment, like there’ll be a (certainly not a) timely posting of a last week’s “transgender news in review,” which I just started last week and hope to do regularly.

Primary voting day tomorrow in North Carolina … first time that I can recall a primary here having (any Presidential) significance. Am I happy with my choices? No. But, I’ll be voting for HC, for what it’s worth. I’m hoping to get my father, who’s in his ’90’s now, out to vote. He hasn’t missed getting to the polls ever that I remember, but … this time might be the first … he’s been a bit worse for the wear recently. Bummer.

Maybe it’s just me, but I thought there were some positives in the news story about the transgender youngster in the Philadelphia Inquirer today (about which Autumn commented earlier today) — parent Valerie Huff’s comment that “The kids don’t make any big deal about it at all” and that of Mary Beth Lauer, the school district’s director of community relations, that the “students seem to be accepting their classmate’s change” — for example. On the flip side, aside from the issues that Autumn addressed, using bete noire Paul McHugh for the oppositional viewpoint, was a mighty big turnoff to me.

I was much distressed by Eight Belles’ breakdown in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, but PETA doesn’t seem to me to have much of a clue about horse racing, frankly, and its criticisms (”euthanized in the dirt where she lay,” “Eight Belles’ jockey whipped her mercilessly,” etc.) of that day’s events are more than a bit out of touch and way over the top.

Good question: “If it’s so great to be smart, why have most animals remained dumb?”

Because it works: “Watching Bush speak you realize he’s a really dumb person who thinks everyone in the room is even dumber than he is.” (Don’t tell me it took anyone over seven years to realize that.)

Original post by Stephanie Stevens

 

 

this is probably the best marvel comic movie so far. i can see why it enjoyed the 10th-best three-day opening ever for a movie introduction. robert downey jr is a perfect fit for tony stark, the arrogant, rich, genius engineer, with just enough humor to keep the movie in perspective as a comic book story. the effects are great, yet don’t detract from the story line, and i was on the edge of my seat through out. even the music was flawlessly chosen and placed. two thumbs up.

Original post by nexy