no, not the international glbt gun rights group whose motto is “pick on someone your own caliber”. but actual pink pistols. talk about your halloween costumes.

apparently, it’s a custom model that teresa lavenue bought at a northern virginia friends of the nra banquet auction for a mere $810.00.
(more…)

via progressive bloggers, scientists discover the oldest living animal, a 405 year old clam, and promptly kill it.

let’s hope they don’t discover trans people.

according to this article, “almost 10 percent of transgender people will be murdered, compared to 0.0055 percent of the general population. in addition, 60 percent of all transgender people become victims of hate crimes.”

that doesn’t quite align with my experience. then again, i belong to a rather privileged group within the trans community, being white and able to move through the world with few people clocking me as trans. the statistics are said to have come from gender evolve, though after a quick look through the site, i didn’t come across either the stats, nor any sources for trans population stats.

i’d imagine that gathering trans stats would prove extremely difficult at best. many of us live outside the grid or in stealth. and many who are not transparent, belong to privileged groups.

we all know the saying. they know the saying, and its underlying truth. and they use it well, against us. they use it, and its power, to their own agenda. they know they can gather themselves around their hate, and rise up against us. they will continue to allow us to survive, so we will always be there to use for their end, as a symbol of their hate, to keep themselves together. because that’s all they have - their hate, and their love and worship of their power; their only true god.

they divide us any way they can, and they use enda, just like they use all their other tools. because if we are fighting among ourselves, we cannot fight against them. they never had any intention of giving us any rights (pdf), instead, only to keep us from coming together. to divide us. to make us weak.

marti says it well:

But really, isn’t worrying about the Presidential veto is a bit premature? For the life of me, I can’t see how this would ever pass in the Senate. The Matthew Shepard Act passed by ONE VOTE, how could anyone in their right mind think that this bill has a snowball’s chance in hell of passage?

they know it will never get past the senate. and even if the snowball’s chance hits the lottery, it will never get past the presidential veto. it has and will continue to keep us divided though, just as they intended.

they don’t care about anything their bible says, unless they can use it to increase their power. adultery, false witness, murder - none of these commandments from their god have any meaning or use for them, and they ignore them at will. loving their god, and loving their neighbors, their god’s two most important commandments, have no meaning for them, and they ignore those too. but the few references to homosexuality are their commandments, for those are the only ones they can use to worship their gods. hatred and power. and so long as we are divided, they will reign.

julia serano, of whipping girl fame, is calling for transsexual narratives on her site, and on the trans group blog, in an effort to “challenge[s] psychologist Ray Blanchard’s causal theory of ‘autogynephilia’ “. further details are available on either linked site.

she plans on submitting her research to a peer-reviewed psychology journal. i believe this to be a worthy effort. no name or contact information of the people who submit their narratives will be shared or published.

according to the washington post, it seems that scientists are still mystified by “transgenderism”.

The American Psychiatric Association labels transgenderism a “disorder” but notes that “many transgender people do not experience their transgender feelings and traits to be distressing or disabling, which implies that being transgender does not constitute a mental disorder per se.”

Moreover, it says, “there is no generally accepted explanation for why some people are transgender,” listing genetics, prenatal hormones and early-life experiences as possible influences.

The absence of a concrete explanation for transgenderism, as well as the cultural norms it upsets, can alarm those accustomed to dealing with fixed gender categories.

perhaps these so called scientists ought to examine their misguided assumptions, that all people can be divided into two mutually exclusive categories they call “male” and “female”, and start observing what actually happens in reality. specifically, that not all people can be divided into two mutually exclusive categories called “male” and “female”.

and that if one happens to fall outside these false binary classifications, one is not necessarily “disordered”, but instead, the classifications these scientists created are disordered. perhaps they ought to start thinking outside the box.

an expanded article covering the same issue is published by usa today.

yesterday, i attended the phoenix pink pistol’s “wild wednesday plink ‘n drink” midweek shoot at shooter’s world, the monthly shoot for those of us who are schedule challenged. i seem to be obtaining some level of proficiency, at least with my .22 target pistol. at first, i thought i was the only one attending - i arrived a few minutes late, and didn’t see anyone waiting in the usual meeting place. so i went inside and started shooting.

a little while later, one of the other patrons asked if i was with the pink pistols, and it turns out there were maybe 5 or 6 other people there. safety in numbers i suppose

anyway, i opted to abstain from the “drink” part of the “plink ‘n drink” part, as i had a bunch of errands and chores to do. so i went home, cleaned my pistol, and got on with my other chores.

the amazing thing is that i seem to be able to put the darn thing back together. cleaning my pistol is actually the least pleasant part of the shoot. getting that spring back in and setting the retaining clip is the hardest part. i really would like to get a revolver - they’re so much easier to clean.

i got an email this morning from joe solmonese of the hrc that says, in part:

Dear Nexy,

I need your help.

Over the past two weeks, HRC has stayed at the table and fought for an inclusive version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act…

it struck me that this conflicts with this press release which says, in part:

“Therefore, we are not able to support, nor will we encourage Members of Congress to vote against, the newly introduced sexual orientation only bill.

so if you’re not encouraging members of congress to vote against the sexual orientation only bill, how are you staying at the table fighting for an inclusive version of the bill?

dear joe,
i need your help.

ack. sorry if your comments get tied up in moderation, and that i don’t get to them right away. the system is supposed to email me to let me know there are comments waiting, but it doesn’t always do that. i’ll try to check manually every day, until i figure out why my notification isn’t working quite right.

i came across this article that covers a relationship between a trans woman and her female partner, in the context of national coming out day. it wasn’t the article itself that caught my eye, but rather the first three comments.

Posted by stevevs on October 12, 2007 at 10:06 a.m.
So did that one person go from being a guy to a lesbian woman?

Posted by olokun on October 12, 2007 at 10:52 a.m.
That’s what it sounds like, stevevs. I wonder how frequent that is. I also wonder how often the violence against “trans women” my [sic] straight men was precipitated by pre-op trans women secuding [sic] straight men then popping a surprise on them. I don’t condone violence, but that seems like serious provocation to me.

Posted by JustSayin on October 12, 2007 at 11:36 a.m.
“She described feeling “ripped apart” while still a biological male. “I had a desire for women, but I couldn’t really express it, and I didn’t know why.”"

So you have yourself surgically mutilated so you can become a lesbian? No ‘hate’ coming from me here, just absolute amazement.

olokun - there is no provocation worth violence - ya just gotta walk away.

this covers several issues - loaded language with “surgically mutilated”; “provocation” in being unfortunate enough to being attractive to some male, and failing to engage in the “big reveal” of ones medical history before he takes off your clothes, causing “popping a surprise”; among others.

i wonder about the reverse. imagine a scenario in which i am “provoked” to violence toward a man who failed to “reveal” he’d been “surgically mutilated” by circumcision, thereby “popping a surprise” on me. perhaps we ought to require everyone to carry “disclaimers”, clearly outlining any “mutilations” or other medical or social conditions, with a place for signatures by the “disclaimee”.

or, if one is offended by anyone or any body part that doesn’t exactly fit into ones idea of what a man or a woman is, you know, just ask, before you get into bed.