Today's Messages (OFF)
| Unanswered Messages (ON)
| Forum: Trans Political Issues |
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| Topic: Washington State Senate passes |
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| Washington State Senate passes [message #156876] |
Wed, 01 February 2012 22:34 |
 CarolynnL 
Messages: 1737
Registered: October 2007
Location: Central Time Zone |
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http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/01/10294578-washin gton-state-senate-approves-same-sex-marriage-bill
With the passage of the same sex marriage bill in the Washington State Senate, the measure moves on to the house where passage is pretty much assured. The Washington State governor has stated that she will sign it into law if it comes to her desk. Opponents claim they will bring up a referendum on the November Ballot. They have until the summer to obtain over 120,000 signatures to bring that about. Washington State also has a DOMA law, and the new bill includes language to protect the poor little religious groups who fear a law that would force them to recognized gays as human beings deserving of the rights of other people. Well, the latter is my own cynical, reactionary interpretation of their position, and yes, I know there are some religious groups who recognize LGBs as human beings, and a few even recognize those who are trans and embrace them........ and their are others who are sure they can pray gays straight.....
To each their own, I guess. <shrug>.
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| | Topic: Tell Amazon to change their settings for "transgender" search in books!! |
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| | Topic: Washington State anti-gay marriage strategy meeting |
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| Washington State anti-gay marriage strategy meeting [message #153867] |
Sun, 11 December 2011 09:58 |
CarolynnL
Messages: 1737
Registered: October 2007
Location: Central Time Zone |
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Anti-Gay-Marriage Activists Hold Training Meeting at Bellevue City Hall, Call Security Guards to Remove Nonbelievers from the Room
http://tinyurl. com/7rhnzrp
http://slog. thestranger. com/slog/ archives/ 2011/12/10/ inside-the- anti-gay- marriage- training- camp-where- they-try- to-make-security -remove-reporter s
Posted by Dominic Holden on Sat, Dec 10, 2011 at 6:32 PM
The meeting on Friday night, held in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, was billed as one of 13 activist training nights this month aimed at preventing Washington from becoming the seventh
state to legalize same-sex marriage.
Promoted by virulently anti-gay Focus on the Family, the agenda promised to cover the difficult-to-articulate "potential impact" of same-sex marriage, how state lawmakers intend to push a marriage bill come January, and a strategy to stop them. So I went. My presence, at first, seemed fine.
Wearing a red knit blazer with a fat American flag broach, gun-rights activist Elizabeth Scott flew into the room at Bellevue City Hall 25 minutes late with an accordion-style manila case stuffed with talking points and the names of senators to target. But before we would cover a strategy for mobilizing Christian congregations to lobby Olympia (I'll get to that part down
below), Scott impressed upon the 14 of us who'd been waiting just how dire the stakes are.
"I received death threats for my stand for 'one man, one woman' marriage," Scott explained. For nearly an hour, Scott riddled us with a central theme using as many factually blemished examples as she could recollect: Legalizing same-sex marriage would not simply entitle gay people to special rights, but rather gay marriage laws would expose Christians to an onslaught of lawsuits, boycotts, and arrests. "The government
becomes an advocacy organization" for a gay lifestyle and will impose harsh penalties on dissenters, she warned.
It wasn't far off from the group's sentiment. As we sat around a
massive triangular table used by the Bellueve City Council, one man from Antioch Bible Church said he feared "the American Dream, the white picket fence, and the 2.5 kids will become illegal."
A woman with banana-colored hair was worried for children raised by two parents of the same gender: "Kids living in that environment, it must be horrible," she said. "It's not normal. We have to stop it." And an elderly veteran lamented that "don't ask, don't tell" was the policy when he served in the US military during the Korean War (in fact,
Congress didn't approve DADT for another 40 years).
Facts weren't the important thing here--it was the
specter that anyone practicing Christian values would be punished. We were told that county clerks who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in New York were being fired, even though the highest-profile cases involve two clerks who quit on their own and one clerk who retained her job.
We were told of a printer in Tacoma being sued for refusing to print a flyer for a "gay wild party," but, while The Stranger broke the story, I can't find any record of a lawsuit. Even Scott's claim that she had a "death threat because Referendum
71," an effort she supported to repeal domestic-partnership rights, didn't hold water.
"I ran against a gay opponent and I received death threats," Scott said about her run for state representative last year in the 21st legislative district again Marko Liias. She explain that after she stumped to repeal domestic partnerships, one person allegedly phoned her 13-year-old child to threaten the family's lives, and someone else allegedly made a threat related to an online video. But Scott acknowledged that "nothing happened" and "we can't prove" that alleged threats were related to politics. (Her complaint was part of the famous Supreme Court Doe v. Reed case, which failed to prove threats.) As a quick aside, replacing the word "gay" in Scott's examples of
supposedly persecuted photographers, printers, and churches with the words "African American" and "lunch counter" showcase the extent to which we're talking about basic forms of discrimination. Of course you can't pick and choose customers based on bigotry.
Now that were fully educated on the ostensible gravity of the
situation, we moved on to the "strategy" session. It was at this point that Scott scanned the room, reviewed the sign-in sheet (that I didn't sign), clarified who went to church, and sought to weed-out any secular onlookers.
"If you are not sure that you are willing to be a point person in a church, I would ask that you leave," Scott announced, staring at me. I explained that I was just there to observe and I planned to stay.
"If it feels like I'm twisting your arm, it's best to call it a day and go home," she pressed.
Briefly, the conversation veered to the subject of targeting
senators--as I remained mostly silent next to intrepid news intern Marley Zeno--but then Scott locked my eyes.
"I am concerned about you," she said. "I don't believe that you are here to defend traditional marriage, so I am asking you to leave."
"I intend to stay because I'm a reporter," I said. "This is a public meeting in a public building--Bellevue City Hall--so I believe it's my right to remain." Indeed, the meeting was also posted online by the Washington Family Policy Institute (the Focus on the Family state affiliate), and we were in a public building where all the doors were open. Scott threatened to call security three times. I didn't want to disrupt, I said, so they could continue, or she could call the guards. But if I was to report on the event accurately, I needed to see the entire meeting. She called security on her cell phone and walked out of
the room for several minutes.
"Okay, you can stay," said Scott, walking back into the room and
slapping down her phone. Whoever she spoke to seemed content with the presence of nonbelievers. I told her not to worry--I was raised a nice Catholic boy. "Whatever," she spat.
I'll get to the strategy portion in a second, but the incident made something seem clear: The bar for participating in their movement is apparently being a church member (staying in the meeting required being a "point person in a church" and registering for the event online included a required field listing your church name). This reveals an implicit admission on their part: This is strictly a holy war. They present no logical, policy-based nor scientific rational to oppose same-sex marriage. Only though a pastor's interpretation of scripture
can you justify this crusade. Also, these people just howled for an hour about being discriminated against, silenced, or otherwise bullied for their own political beliefs. Yet Scott, taking a play from the Christian victimhood handbook, was trying to do the same thing to anyone else in the room who didn't devotedly embrace their agenda.
It turns out, Marley and I weren't the only watchdogs present.
Karen Gold and two members with PFLAG were embedded among us, I found out when Gold emailed me this afternoon. She and a man left before the
strategy session. "As a Bellevue resident, I was horrified that the city allowed this group to use public space for their meeting," Gold said. Reached by phone, she added, "They are totally using scare tactics. They were factually incorrect on most things that they said."
But they do have a political strategy, and here is how it works: Stop the measure in the state senate. They will target 13 senators, including members from both sides of the
aisle, who they believe are on the fence by sending a constituent from his or her district to lobby every single day of the session.
The senators are: Cheryl Pflug (R-5), Mary Margaret Haugen (D-10), Curtis King (R-14), Brian Hatfield (D-19), Paull Shinn (D-21), Jim Kastama (D-25), Derek Kilmer (D-26), Tracey Eide (D-30), Steve Litzow (R-41), Steve Hobbs (D-44), Andy Hill (R-45), Joe Fain (R-47), and Rodney Tom (D-48).
"The goal is not to change minds," Scott told us,
"but to say that you have thousands of constituents who will not vote for you if you vote the wrong way on this."
She circulated talking points to use when addressing these lawmakers: "If marriage is redefined:
(1) public schools will teach that there is no difference between heterosexual and homosexual relationships,
(2) the idea that kids don't need a mother and a father will be reinforced, and
(3) conscience rights will be lost as those who do not support same-sex 'marriage' will be at odds with state law."
The group then spent 30 minutes reviewing a list of churches in the 45th Legislative District and identifying people to contact members of their congregation. The intend to persuade members of the flock to approach their pastor with an appeal to "encourage their congregants to take action" on a "biblical issue," according to an instruction sheet. The sheet stresses that "this is totally legal" because they are not asking pastors to join a rally or a political action committee.
Meanwhile, the marriage equality movement is one step ahead.
Washington United for Marriage, a coalition of 60 groups, already held more than a dozen meetings in the same districts last month to pass a marriage bill this winter.
"Gay activists are already doing it, so it's time to step up our
game," Scott concluded. Despite her gusto, some seem resigned to a potential loss. A man named Phil admitted, "It's possible that this is a losing battle, but we fight because it's the right thing to do."
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| | Topic: TDOR, Nov. 20, 2011. |
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| | Topic: California student expelled for being tg, more or less |
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| California student expelled for being tg, more or less [message #151552] |
Mon, 31 October 2011 14:47 |
CarolynnL
Messages: 1737
Registered: October 2007
Location: Central Time Zone |
Senior Member
Comedy Club Manager |
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/30/domaine-javier-cali fornia-baptist-university-student-_n_1066166.html
Domaine Javier, California Baptist University student expelled after revealing she is transgender on MTV program. I was sorta angry that a university would do such a thing, then found out it was a Baptist university, and private school. Naturally, that changed everything.
I dunno, what could she expect after enrolling surreptitiously at a Religiously Righteous institution that are known (as a group) for their bigotry toward GLBT? Of course, if she had stayed stealth, maybe they could have kicked her out after they had her tuition money for more than just a semester, and before she had her nursing degree, so she would have wasted more of her life. No, she was stupid to take the chance. If she was smart, she would have stayed stealth and hoped for the best.
And if she had applied openly, they would likely not have bothered to admit her either. She was stupid to expect anything more from them, and at the same time they were right that she tried to circumvent their admission rules by making false statements, in their view.
It is also an argument against the theory that religous right institutions are becoming more accepting. And since they are private, they can ignore California law in California.
We have a Baptist University in OKC that is just as ignorant.
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| | Topic: New York, New York......... |
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| New York, New York......... [message #149968] |
Sun, 09 October 2011 11:25 |
CarolynnL
Messages: 1737
Registered: October 2007
Location: Central Time Zone |
Senior Member
Comedy Club Manager |
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http://comptonscafe.com/node/5
New York considers adding SRS to Medicaid. The link takes you to the short article. Likely will not happen, but who knows......
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| | Topic: Tolerance Wave? |
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| Tolerance Wave? [message #147776] |
Mon, 29 August 2011 05:52 |
CarolynnL
Messages: 1737
Registered: October 2007
Location: Central Time Zone |
Senior Member
Comedy Club Manager |
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Juxtaposed against the post about the gay man beaten to death, this is kinda weird. Such a large percentage accept GLBT, yet the hate crimes not only continue but are rarely prosecuted? But then again, this is an HRC thing, and I trust them about as far as I could throw the lot of them.
Tolerance Wave? Multiple Polls In Red and Purple States Show Support For Gay Rights
As gay rights advocates have made gains over the last few years, the public seems to be moving in the same direction. Friday saw the release of a new poll sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Citizens for Equal Protection showing citizens deep in the middle of conservative America - in Nebraska - are solidly for non-discrimination protections for members of the gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, even if the current state laws are not. 73 percent of Nebraskans surveyed support protecting LGBT people from discrimination in employment, protections which currently don't exist there.
The survey comes as Public Policy Polling (D) has been polling a
diversity of states on the question of gay marriage and civil unions. Those polls have shown that some version of recognition for same sex couples is popular: even in the most Republican state in the union, Utah, 60 percent supported either gay marriage or civil unions, a trend also reflected in a separate HRC polling of the state.
The Nebraska poll is significant because it shows that even in a
solidly conservative state that is against gay marriage (registering a 51 - 42 break in opposition) there is strong support for non-discrimination protections for LGBT people. The question asked was straightforward: "Do you support the following? Protecting gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people from discrimination in employment, housing, and
public accommodation. " 73 percent did, with 20 percent against.
Other majorities supported the ability of LGBT people to adopt children (56 - 40) and anti-bullying measures in schools (73 - 22).
"On the whole range of GLBT issues, the whole country is becoming more accepting," said HRC Press Secretary Michael Cole-Schwartz. "What's usually true is that government is a lagging indicator. The politicians are usually the last ones to get on board."
Talking Points Memo on Facebook
Consequently, much of strategy for gay rights advocates in deeply red states is to affect change from the ground up. Cole-Schwartz says the HRC and other groups work to pass non-discrimination ordinances in cities and work with businesses to implement similar policies in the workplace, helping to create support for equal rights outside the political sphere.
"There are just some states that passing a GLBT
non-discrimination law is just a non-starter. ..You make progress by changing the non-governmental institutions. When faced with seesawing control of congress and legislatures, you can make changes where people work, where they go to church, where they seek health care." Still, says Cole-Schwartz, there's a ways to go. "Most people don't even know you can be fired in 29 states for being gay."
In the PPP surveys, majorities support either full marriage rights for LGBT people or civil unions in many swing states going into the 2012 election. Virginia voters supported one of the two options by a 65 percent margin, Florida by 67 percent, and Colorado by 71.
Additionally, a recent PPP survey of Vermont showed that a majority of even self-described conservatives admitted
that the state's 2009 legalization of gay marriage had no effect on their own lives, directly after New York became the 6th state in the union to allow same sex couples to marry.
The Nebraska poll utilized telephone interviews with 616 adults, with an oversample of Omaha (305 residents), and has a sampling error of plus or minus four percent.
http://tinyurl.com/3p3g4b5
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmem o.com/2011/08/tolerance-wave-multiple-polls-in-red-and-purpl e-states-show-support-for-gay-rights.php
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| | Topic: Violence against GLB&T up |
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| Violence against GLB&T up [message #145525] |
Thu, 14 July 2011 10:38 |
CarolynnL
Messages: 1737
Registered: October 2007
Location: Central Time Zone |
Senior Member
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Hate crimes against gay, transgender people rise, report says
By Lee Romney, Los Angeles Times
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs report says violent crimes against
people in the LGBT community rose 13% in 2010, and that
minorities and transgender women were more likely to be targeted.
Brandon McInerney, was 14 when he shot gay classmate Larry King. Now 17, he's standing trial
on first-degree murder and hate-crime charges.
July 13, 2011 An 18-year-old gay man from Texas allegedly slain by a
classmate who feared a sexual advance. A 31-year-old transgender woman
from Pennsylvania found dead with a pillowcase around her head. A
24-year-old lesbian from Florida purportedly killed by her girlfriend's
father, who disapproved of the relationship.
The homicides are a sampling of 2010 crimes against lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender people compiled by a national coalition of
anti-hate organizations.
The report, released Tuesday, showed a 13% increase over 2009 in violent
crimes committed against people because of their perceived or actual
sexual orientation, gender identity or status as HIV positive, according
to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs.
Last year's homicide count reached 27, up from 22 in 2009, and was the
second-highest total since the coalition began tracking such crimes in
1996. Of those killed, 70% were minorities and 44% were transgender
women.
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| | Topic: Icons, Betty Ford |
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| Icons, Betty Ford [message #145142] |
Sat, 09 July 2011 09:27 |
Wendy C
Messages: 4340
Registered: October 2007
Location: Gateway to the West |
Senior Member
BL3D |
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Former first Lady Betty Ford dies at 93
http://news.yahoo.com/former-first-lady-betty-ford-dies-93-0 12148379.html
Why post this here you might wonder? From my prospective Betty Ford was an icon or idol to me, someone I could look up to and know that she experienced the best and worst of what life had to offer and still gave freely of herself to help others in like circumstances. I always felt she was a kindred spirit and although she in all probability never experienced GID, she would have most likely tried to understand it. She was a great Woman in my eyes.
Rest in peace Betty.
[Updated on: Sat, 09 July 2011 09:28]
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| | Topic: CT gov. signs Trans non discrimination legislation |
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| CT gov. signs Trans non discrimination legislation [message #145029] |
Thu, 07 July 2011 17:38 |
CarolynnL
Messages: 1737
Registered: October 2007
Location: Central Time Zone |
Senior Member
Comedy Club Manager |
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CT. Governor Malloy Signs Gender Identity Protections
It's a good day for equality in Connecticut, where Governor Dannel
Malloy today signed legislation adding gender identity to the state's
non-discrimination law.
Via RawStory:
The new law adds the phrase "gender identity or expression" to all
existing state sex discrimination laws, making Connecticut the 15th
state to specifically protect transgender people.
>Anything under authority of the state's Commission on Human Rights
and Opportunities is subject to the new rules, including employment,
housing, public accommodations and credit.
>...
>[Said NGLTF] executive director Rea Carey said in a statement,
"Connecticut responded appropriately to this crisis. We thank Gov. Dan
Malloy and lawmakers for ensuring that the people of Connecticut,
regardless of gender identity or expression, are protected from such
discrimination. "
>
>
Now, if only we could get the rest of the nation on board.
Read more: http://www.towleroa d.com/2011/ 07/ct-governor- malloy-signs- gender-identity- protections. html#ixzz1ROn6lK Kx
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| | Topic: Gay? Straight? Sexual Orientation Not A Choice, But Set At Birth |
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| Gay? Straight? Sexual Orientation Not A Choice, But Set At Birth [message #142559] |
Sat, 11 June 2011 12:32 |
Katie
Messages: 13509
Registered: October 2007
Location: La La Land |
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Administrator
Bitch Queen of Palolo
BL3D
Frequent Flyer |
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Sexual orientation is neurobiological and is set at birth, according to a report delivered by Jerome Goldstein, M.D., a board-certified medical neurologist and Director of the San Francisco Clinical Research Center. "Sexual orientation is not a matter of choice, it is primarily neurobiological at birth," Goldstein told the 21st Meeting of the European Neurological Society (ENS), in Lisbon, Portugal, adding, "Clearly the basis of sexual orientation is in the brain and differences in brain structure and function and the province of neurology."
We now have even more evidence that being gay or bisexual is not a choice, despite the fact that 42% of Americans still believe being homosexual is "due to factors such as upbringing and environment." Only 40% of Americans currently believe that people are born gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.
"There are undeniable links. We want to make them visible to the eye," Goldstein, who is President of the Headache and Facial Pain Section of the American Academy of Neurology, told ENS members, showing how brains of people of different sexual orientations -- gay, straight, and bisexual -- work in different ways.
"Using volumetric studies, there have been findings of significant cerebral amygdala size differences between homosexual and heterosexual subjects. Sex dimorphic connections were found among homosexual participants in these studies," Dr. Goldstein noted, according to a report in Medical News Today, which adds that Goldstein, "provided current data regarding homosexuality showing differences and/or similarities, between the brains of homosexuals and heterosexuals."
Today, however, anti-gay organizations, like the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), and anti-gay hate groups, like the American Family Association, continue to push the false narrative that homosexuality is a choice, and support the work of discredited anti-gay "ex-gay" ministries. Increasingly, we see NOM moving toward the so-called religious side of the argument, where they had previously attempted -- or so it seemed -- to be perceived as secular. Also, this false "choice" concept has been exported to extremely homophobic countries like Uganda, thanks in large part to American Evangelicals.
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/gay-straight-sexual-ori entation-not-a-choice-set-at-birth-report/news/2011/06/02/21 264
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| | Topic: Transsexuals' rights in ECtHR case law |
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| | Topic: Transgender Girl Lobbies Maine Lawmakers to Maintain Civil Rights Protection |
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| Transgender Girl Lobbies Maine Lawmakers to Maintain Civil Rights Protection [message #142248] |
Tue, 07 June 2011 01:04 |
Katie
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| Quote: | Transgender Girl Lobbies Maine Lawmakers to Maintain Civil Rights Protection
This week the Maine Legislature is expected to vote on a controversial bill that would repeal civil rights protections for transgender people. LD 1046 would say that unless otherwise specified, rest rooms, showers and locker rooms designated for one biological sex are restricted to that biological sex. Transgender people denied access to such facilities would no longer be able to claim discrimination under the Maine Human Rights Act. Among those closely watching the outcome of the legislation is a 13-year-old transgender girl and her family.
They call it going "stealth" and for the past two years that's what 13-year-old Nicole, her brother and her parents have been doing. For their personal safety they asked that their last names and their hometown not be identified.
Susan Sharon: "Tell me about 'stealth.' What does that mean?"
Jonas: "It really means just not telling people. I wouldn't call it exactly lying. I would just call it not telling them."
Thirteen-year-old Jonas is Nicole's twin brother. Both were born as boys. But from the time she was very young, Nicole says she has thought of herself as a girl. She identified with girl characters in books and movies, played with dolls, dressed like a girl, grew her hair past her shoulders--and when she was in the 5th grade legally changed her name to Nicole.
She also used the girls' rest room. But after getting repeatedly harassed and bullied at school and fearing for her personal safety, her parents filed suit against the school district and moved away to another school district where no one knows Nicole is transgender. Their lawsuit is still pending.
"It's not on a need-to-know basis," Jonas says. "You don't need to know. We describe it as 'stealth' and we just kind of keep it on the DL--the down low."
Susan Sharon: "What's your biggest fear?"
Jonas: "That something tragic might happen to my sister, you know. I always fear extremists. And so I always fear the worst, which I'm sure I don't need to name it. It would be too hard to name it. But I always fear the worst might happen."
Susan Sharon: "Do you talk about that with her?"
Jonas: "No, I don't."
Nicole is an outgoing, attractive, petite young woman with long dark hair and features. She looks and talks and acts like a teenage girl whose interests include art and acting. But there is one role she says she's just not comfortable playing.
"I don't think I ever thought of myself as a boy," Nicole says. "The thought of me being a boy just kind of makes me cringe. I can't--I couldn't do it. That's how I rolled. I was like--yeah, I'm a girl. I don't think I could be a boy."
Nicole and her parents have been seeing a specialist at a gender clinic in Boston for several years. Nicole is taking all the necessary steps for pre-gender reassignment surgery.
But despite all her progress with the emotional and physical challenges of being transgender, Nicole has recently taken on another role: privately lobbying against a bill that would require her and other transgender people to use rest rooms, showers and locker rooms assigned to their biological sex.
Nicole has met with members of the Judiciary committee, the bill's sponsor and other lawmakers to ask them to defeat the measure.
"I think that what I want lawmakers to know is that bill, first of all, makes absolutely no sense," Nicole says. "It's pointless, I think, because you're not going to know if a person's trans, unless they tell you. So it needs to be stopped where it is before anything like gets out of hand."
Two months ago, a transgender woman was brutally beaten by two teens as she entered the women's rest room at a Maryland McDonalds. The attack happened less than a week after the Maryland Senate rejected a transgender non-discrimination bill that had previously been passed in the House.
The Maine Human Rights Act has protected transgender peoples' right to access public accommodations for the past five years. But Republican Rep. Ken Fredette of Newport says it's not an absolute right. An attorney, Fredette is the sponsor of LD 1096.
"I sat on the commission, the Maine Human Rights Commission, and I saw two cases come before the commission, and both cases involved issues of transgenders wanting to use rest rooms," Fredette says. "They have found discrimination. They then get to take that finding with them to Superior Court."
One of the cases is Nicole's. But even as both proceed in the courts, Rep. Fredette says more guidance is needed on the issue, even though he acknowledges that transgender people make up about one percent of the population. That's about 10,000 thousand people.
"The real issue is there's no guidelines," he says. "The way the law stands right now is the transgender has the right to go into a bathroom or a locker room or a shower room that they choose to, and if they're not allowed to they get to sue the other party in court--and probably win."
Fredette says the law allows a single individual to dictate where he or she can use facilities, even if other people in schools or businesses are uncomfortable with that use. In her current school, Nicole says no one has ever complained about her use of the girls' rest room.
And Zach Heiden of the Maine Civil Liberties Union says one of the things Nicole has done in the hallways of the State House is to get lawmakers to consider what changing her practice could mean for her.
"She is so obviously a girl when you speak to her, when you look at her, and I think legislators when they confront that and they realize, wow, if this bill passes this girl is going to be told she has to go use the men's bathroom, and to contemplate what sort of harm that might place her in," Heiden says. "That's a serious thing to confront."
For her part, Nicole says if the bill passes, she'll be in the difficult and uncomfortable position of having to break the law.
"I don't think they're going to kill me 'cause I look like a girl--I think I can easily pass so that's not a problem," Nicole says. "But of course just knowing that you're not following the law is troubling to me, but I do think I'm going to be in more danger if I do follow the law on this one."
Susan Sharon: "And go into the boys' bathroom?"
Nicole: "Yeah, 'cause then they will know that I'm trans. I'm not going to start dressing and looking like a boy just to go to the bathroom."
Rep. Fredette has also met Nicole, but he says he's looking beyond one individual to the bigger picture.
"You know these cases are going to be coming up more and more, and my attempt is to try to get some guidelines around this," he says. "It's not to be discriminatory and it's not to be mean-spirited. It's to try to have a serious discussion about a complex issue."
As a compromise, Fredette says he plans to amend his bill so that it only applies to locker rooms and showers. But Zach Heiden of the Maine Civil Liberties Union points out that in the past five years there has not been a single complaint involving a transgender person using a shower or locker room in Maine.
And while debate over the legislation would seem to reinforce Nicole's habit of going 'stealth,' she and her brother say that will change next year when they go to a new, more accepting private school.
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http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3478/Item Id/16666/Default.aspx
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| | Topic: And God Made Me Gay |
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| | Topic: Trans Rights in British Columbia |
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| Trans Rights in British Columbia [message #141315] |
Thu, 26 May 2011 12:04 |
Isolde 
Messages: 1354
Registered: April 2010
Location: Canada |
Senior Member
Sacrificial Virgin To The Canadian Pharma Hellmouth
Standard Petulant and Pedantic Personage |
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http://www.xtra.ca/public/Vancouver/Chandra_Herbert_to_intro duce_trans_bill_in_BC-10213.aspx
Now that we have majority government with the Conservative Party, it doesn't seem reasonable to expect a bill like C-389 to be passed for at least 4 years. Instead, it seems more plausible to get change legislature on a provincial basis.
In 2002 the Northwest Territories explicitly included Gender Identity and Gender Expression in the non-discrimination acts at the provincial/territory level. The MP from Vancouver West is aiming to do exactly that in British Columbia. It does seem more likely to occur.
Just thought I'd keep people informed. ^_^
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| | Topic: Bill Seeking to Expand Transgender Rights Could Be Harmful to the State |
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| Bill Seeking to Expand Transgender Rights Could Be Harmful to the State [message #141186] |
Tue, 24 May 2011 22:03 |
Katie
Messages: 13509
Registered: October 2007
Location: La La Land |
Senior Member
Administrator
Bitch Queen of Palolo
BL3D
Frequent Flyer |
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While the state grappled with a multibillion-dollar budget crisis, some state legislators, including Sen. Beth Bye of West Harford, Reps. Holder-Winfield of New Haven and Geoff Luxenberg of Manchester want to allow men to use women's restrooms. Their bill, intends to extend the current protections for housing, workplace and other facets of life to those who are confused on whether they are male or female. The bill is misguided and I think most legislators are just as confused as the public is on this topic.
Transgendered people suffer from Sexual Identity Disorder, a problem recognized by the American Psychological Association and listed in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. The DSM-IV (4th Edition) is the medical authority on brain and behavior disorders. The manual lists the symptoms and suggested treatment for problems ranging from sleep walking, ADD, Alzheimer's and bulimia to severe depression, PTSD, and schizophrenia. Twenty-two sexual disorders alone are listed, however, only one is targeted for the treatment by legislators in Connecticut. Having some of these sexual disorders would disqualify one from obtaining a job involving children or in public safety, such as a prison guard. This begs the question, why prohibit 'discrimination' against only this one classification and not other people with mental health problems?
Sufferers of Sexual Identity Disorder are described as 'having discontent with the biological sex they were born with.' A person who is transgendered actively wishes to be accepted as and live as a member of the opposite sex. It should be made clear that the definition is not given to someone with questionable or mixed biological anatomy. Hence, it is strictly a disorder of the mental state of the brain.
First of all, the General Assembly should avoid considering this bill because it is a medical condition. Transgendered people go through great lengths to 'correct' the biology they were born with so it conforms to their mental state. This means hormonal therapy and often surgery and years of psychological counseling. When something is wrong with your body, you don't declare it 'normal'. And you don't seek surgery for something that is normal either. So then why do elected leaders like Mrs. Luxenberg, Holder-Winfield and Ms. Bye want to pass this bill to normalize these abnormal behaviors?
If passed, the ramifications would be felt throughout society. In a compassionate way, the General Assembly needs to reject this law. If we normalized the abnormal psychology of transgendered people, there is no incentive for them to get help. Advocates for the law who spoke at a March public hearing say that sexual identity disorder begins around age 10 or 12. If the law were passed, we would need to accommodate them from high school onward. Let's say you are the parent of a female field hockey player. Would you accept the fact that a 16-year-old adolescent boy wants to join the team AND insist on changing and showering with your daughter because he believes he is a girl?
Or if you are in a public place and see a man from walking into a female restroom at a mall. Today, a security officer would be expected to stop and investigate the man and his motivation for walking into the restroom. If this bill passes, however the security guard and mall could be sued for discrimination. Police would have disincentives to investigate such a complaint. Transgendered prison workers with this problem could not be weeded out even if they were helping other sexual offenders. Speaking of prisons, would a transgendered person go to a male or female prison? Does this all sound backwards?
Schizophrenics often feel most 'normal' when they don't take their medications. Yet, they realize they should when their behavior becomes anti-social. People with other disorders are often provided with help when necessary. Yet, if this bill were passed essentially normalizing sexual disorders as race or religion there would be no incentive for them to get help. This puts society at risk, and diminishes the need for sufferers to seek treatment, ultimately harming the sufferers themselves.
Peter Wolfgang of the Family Institute of CT was one of only three people to oppose this bill at a daytime public hearing in Hartford because almost no one knew about it. While dozens of trans-gendered people testified about how adolescent behavior should be accommodated instead of corrected, Peter Wolfgang saw the harm to our state: "This would be a direct assault on the right to privacy," he told the Judiciary Committee. I would add that it would harm those who most need help. Sometimes the best way to love someone is to say no. Contact your legislator and urge them to vote "no" on HB 6599.
http://stamford.patch.com/articles/bill-seeking-to-expand-tr ansgender-rights-could-be-harmful-to-the-state
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| | Topic: Redwood Heights gender lesson engenders dissent |
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| Redwood Heights gender lesson engenders dissent [message #141185] |
Tue, 24 May 2011 22:00 |
Katie
Messages: 13509
Registered: October 2007
Location: La La Land |
Senior Member
Administrator
Bitch Queen of Palolo
BL3D
Frequent Flyer |
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A one-hour elementary school lesson on gender diversity featuring all-girl geckos and transgender clownfish caused a stir in Oakland on Monday, with conservative legal defense organizations questioning the legitimacy of the topic and providing legal counsel to parents who opposed the instruction.
On Monday and today, Redwood Heights Elementary School students at every grade level were being introduced to the topic of gender diversity, with lesson plans tailored to each age group.
The lesson on gender differences was one small part of a much larger effort to offer what parents last year said they wanted at the school: a warm, welcoming, safe and caring environment for all children, said Principal Sara Stone.
The school also teaches students about the variety of families at the school and takes on the issue of bullying.
"If we don't have a safe, nurturing class environment, it's going to be hard to learn," she said. "Really, the message behind this curriculum is there are different ways to be boys. There are different ways to be girls."
So, fourth- and fifth-grade students learned about the crazy world of gender within the animal kingdom with lessons about single-sex Hawaiian geckos, fish that switch genders and boy snakes that act "girly."
"That's a lot of variation in nature," Gender Spectrum trainer, Joel Baum, told the students. "Evolution comes up with some pretty funny ways for animals to reproduce."
Animals and people
And that same kind of diversity applies to people too, said Baum, the education director for the San Leandro nonprofit. For example, some boys can act like girls; some girls can have boy body parts; and some biological boys feel like a girl inside their hearts, he said.
"It turns out that there are not just two options," he said.
And that, said representatives from the conservative Pacific Justice Institute, was the problem.
These Oakland children will be told there are more than two genders, the organization advised the media in a press release last week.
"This instruction does not represent the values of the majority of families in Oakland," said attorney Kevin Snider in a statement.
Calls to the Pacific Justice Institute on Monday were not returned.
Stone said she was "very surprised" at how the gender diversity instruction drew national media attention. Fox News and USA Today were among the media to cover the event, district officials said.
Parents were advised of the lesson plan weeks ago, but the curriculum was not something their children could opt out of as they can with sex and AIDS education, district officials said.
Only a few parents said they planned to keep their children home for the program, district officials said.
The $1,500 cost of the training was covered by a California Teachers Association grant.
A requirement
All state schools are required to have a specific plan to address safety and other issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity.
"Gender harassment can start at very young ages, often before kindergarten, and it is not uncommon for children who step outside of narrow gender expectations, whether in their clothing, hair, toys or styles of play, to become the targets of mistreatment by other children," said district spokesman Troy Flint in an e-mail.
So on Monday, Redwood Heights fourth-graders listened intently to descriptions of biological gender, gender expression and identity.
Gender isn't something that's cut and dry, Baum said.
"Earrings used to be something only girls and pirates wore," Baum said to fourth-grade giggles.
And what's on the outside doesn't necessarily reflect what's on the inside, he said.
"People can feel like girls," he said. "They can feel like boys. They can feel like both, and they can feel like neither."
At the end of the lesson, fourth-grader Desmond Pare thought that was no big deal.
"I think it's about how it doesn't matter who you are," he said. "If you're a girl who likes girl stuff, or a boy who like boy stuff, it just matters if you're human."
This article has been corrected since it appeared in print editions.
E-mail Jill Tucker at jtucker@sfchronicle.com.
http://forum.beginninglifeforums.com/index.php/r/frm_id/15/a ce539ea441fe33d998614016de2e0fb/
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| | Topic: Minnesota to vote on constitutional amendment to make |
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| Minnesota to vote on constitutional amendment to make [message #141125] |
Mon, 23 May 2011 14:52 |
CarolynnL
Messages: 1737
Registered: October 2007
Location: Central Time Zone |
Senior Member
Comedy Club Manager |
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Minnesota voters to decide on gay marriage ban
The next state for the Mormons and others to pour money into for advertising to prevent gay marriage. And this time they want to make it a constitutional ban. Leaders in Minnesota passed a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, which means voters will decide the issue in 2012. Gay marriage is already banned in the state, but supporters of the amendment say putting it in the constitution will ensure future lawmakers and judges can't change it. I really do not know what the federal position is on state constitution ammendments. How conservative is Minnesota, anyone know?
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| | Topic: Don't say Gay in Tennessee Schools |
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| Don't say Gay in Tennessee Schools [message #140933] |
Sat, 21 May 2011 02:46 |
CarolynnL
Messages: 1737
Registered: October 2007
Location: Central Time Zone |
Senior Member
Comedy Club Manager |
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There's just gotta be something in the water in Tennessee, or their politicians are chewing funny weeds. Yet another bill about gays has been passed by their legislature. A bill, preventing teachers from saying anything about any sexual orientation other than heterosexual in Tennessee elementary and middle schools, has passed their state senate. The reason? Gay people don't reproduce.
Have you heard of the concept of burying ones head in the sand hoping that no one will see it? These folks practice it.
At least some of the youth in Tennessee see it for what it is and have been demonstrating against it.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43115864/us_news-life
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| | Topic: How to embrace Allies |
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| | Topic: Procedures for changing identity documents |
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| Procedures for changing identity documents [message #140446] |
Fri, 13 May 2011 11:00 |
CarolynnL
Messages: 1737
Registered: October 2007
Location: Central Time Zone |
Senior Member
Comedy Club Manager |
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(Sorry, this is very long but contains LOTS of information that my be used as argument to obtain legal identification documents and provides access to procedures used in states that try to make the process easier.)
LGBTQ Policy Journal at the Harvard Kennedy School: 2011 Edition
Fair and Accurate Identification for Transgender People
by Harper Jean Tobin
(Harper Jean Tobin is policy counsel of the National Center for Transgender
Equality in Washington, DC. From 2007 to 2009, Ms. Tobin was the staff attorney
for the Federal Rights Project, National Senior Citizens Law Center. Ms. Tobin
received a J.D., M.S.S.A. from Case Western Reserve University in 2007 and a
B.A. from Oberlin College in 2003.)
____________ _________ _________ __
Identification documents are a ubiquitous and essential currency of contemporary
life. Yet for transgender people, these quotidian documents are also among the
most serious barriers to employment, housing, essential services, and even
personal safety. Most government agencies still adhere to an outmoded paradigm
that requires proof of surgery to change gender on personal documents. But an
increasing number are placing discretion regarding document changes in the hands
of transgender people and health care providers rather than bureaucrats and
judges. This approach is fair, medically supported, and has proven workable.
This article recommends that such an approach be adopted by all state and
federal agencies.
Identification documents such as driver's licenses, birth certificates, and
passports are a ubiquitous and essential currency of contemporary life. These
documents are used in everyday official and commercial transactions to establish
a person's identity, age, citizenship, and residency. We commonly need to
present such documents whenever we start a new job, apply for an apartment or a
loan, enter a government building, purchase alcohol, board an airplane, apply
for public benefits, including everything from a library card to food stamps,
and, in many jurisdictions, vote. Most of us seldom give any thought to these
documents other than to lament the quality of our photographs; for the vast
majority of Americans, the information on such documents is a combination of the
essentially impersonal (e.g., date of birth) and the fairly obvious (e.g., eye
color).
But imagine that these everyday documents contained information about you that
was not only of a private and personal nature but also could easily lead to
discrimination and harassment from which you might lack any legal protection or
recourse. For transgender people, identification documents and other official
records frequently function as something akin to a scarlet letter, with the "F"
or "M" designation contradicting the holder's appearance and social identity and
outing him or her as transgender. State and federal policies in the United
States today make it impossible for many transgender people to update these
documents to reflect their lived gender. These restrictive policies create not
only an enormous indignity but a significant barrier to economic and other
opportunities and at times even compromise personal safety.
Recently, however, there has been a major shift toward reform of policies
regarding gender documentation. This shift, taking place across the country,
reflects a contemporary understanding of what it means to be transgender and of
the role of medical treatment in gender transition. A wave of policy reform has
produced best practices that are fair, medically supported, and administratively
workable. Chief among these best practices is placing discretion regarding the
point in an individual's social and medical transition where document change is
appropriate in the hands of transgender people and their health care providers
rather than inexpert officials. Additionally, the best policies standardize and
strictly limit the collection of private medical information and also eliminate
procedural hurdles such as obtaining a court order or having already changed
another document. This article recommends adoption of these best practices by
all state and federal agencies that issue personal identification documents or
maintain databases of personal information that include a person's gender.
Barriers to document changes also create difficulties for some people born with
intersex conditions (also known as differences of sex development or DSD), in
which the chromosomes, gonads, internal reproductive system, and/or genitalia
develop in an atypical pattern. When a person is born with an intersex
condition, standard medical practice is to assign a sex based on multiple
factors, including genital configuration and likely reproductive capacity and
gender identity (Greenberg 1999). However, current standards of care recognize
that doctors or birth attendants sometimes erroneously assign sex where there is
an intersex condition and recommend correcting the sex designation in such cases
if the patient desires the change (Consortium on the Management of Disorders of
Sex Differentiation 2006; Tamar-Mattis 2009). While this article focuses on
transgender people, the policy challenges presented are applicable to many
people with intersex conditions as well, and the recommended solutions should
also address the needs of this population.
Identification as a Barrier for Transgender People
Gender identity is a deep-seated, inherent aspect of human identity. When a
person's innate gender identity differs from the gender assigned at birth, the
individual typically seeks to transition to living in accord with his or her
gender identity (American Psychological Association 2006). Gender transition
typically includes psychological and medical treatments, but there is not one
uniform treatment protocol for gender transition. Internationally accepted
clinical standards establish a range of safe and effective treatment options as
well as a framework for treatment, which may include psychotherapy, hormone
therapy, and a variety of other treatments, sometimes including one or more of a
variety of accepted surgical treatments (WPATH 2001). According to the World
Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which promulgates these
standards, "not every patient will have a medical need for identical procedures;
clinically appropriate treatments must be determined on an individualized basis
with the patient's physician" (2008).
Some form of surgical treatment is deemed medically necessary for many, but not
all, transgender people. Surgical procedures are costly, invasive, and often
contraindicated by other medical conditions. Data from a national survey of
transgender people reveals that while a large majority of transgender people
undergo hormone therapy as part of gender transition, only a minority undergo
any form of gender reassignment surgery. Genital reconstructive surgeries are
especially rare, with fewer than one in five transgender women and fewer than
one in twenty transgender men having undergone them (Grant et al. 2010).
Most state and federal agencies today rely on outdated policies that require
proof of surgical treatment to update identification and other documents, which
means that most transgender people are unable to update key documents to reflect
their lived gender. Many have various identity documents with different gender
designations. Nationally, the percentage of transgender people who are unable to
update identification and official records to reflect their lived gender varies
from 41 percent for driver's licenses and 51 percent for Social Security records
to 74 percent for birth certificates. Prior to a change in federal policy in
June 2010, 75 percent of transgender people were unable to obtain a passport
that reflected their lived gender, and 79 percent were unable to update all
their identification and records (National Center for Transgender Equality and
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force forthcoming) .
Identity documentation that reflects a person's birth-assigned gender rather
than the individual's lived gender puts the person at risk of discrimination,
harassment, and violence in nearly every aspect of daily life. Uncorrected
documents have the potential to "out" a person as transgender every time he or
she begins a new job, applies for housing, credit, or public benefits, goes to a
bar or club, is subject to a routine traffic stop, or boards an airplane.
Computer programs administered by the Social Security Administration can also
disclose gender designations to employers and other third parties (National
Center for Transgender Equality 2008).
WPATH states that:
National survey data indicate that transgender people who are unable to obtain
identity documents reflecting their lived gender are less likely to be employed
and more likely to face discrimination in employment and housing. Transgender
people also commonly report experiencing harassment (40%) and being asked to
leave a place of business (15%) as a result of showing identification that does
not match their lived gender, and significant numbers have also experienced
physical violence as a result (3%). Transgender people of color experience these
adverse outcomes at substantially higher rates.
Lack of access to accurate identification, the lack of explicit protection from
discrimination in most of the United States, as well as other factors all
contribute to an overall picture of marked economic and social disparities for
transgender people. Transgender people experience unemployment and poverty at
twice the rate of the U.S. population as whole and also face serious health
disparities and startling rates of violent victimization in everyday settings
(National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force forthcoming).
More than one in four transgender people has lost a job due
to being transgender, and one in five has been turned away by health care
providers (National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force forthcoming). Eliminating these disparities will require, among other
things, making it possible for all transgender people to obtain identification
that reflects their lived gender.
Evolution of Gender Documentation Policies
Public policies concerning gender documentation have evolved to reflect popular
beliefs about gender transition. Before about forty years ago, it was impossible
for transgender people to correct identity documents to reflect their lived
gender. Prior to the media sensation surrounding the story of a transgender
woman named Christine Jorgensen in 1952, the idea of gender change was virtually
unknown in the United States (McQuiston 1989). The first state law specifically
authorizing corrected documentation for transgender people was enacted in
Illinois in 1961. Reflecting the ascendant medical paradigm of the day, the
Illinois law permitted amendment of a birth certificate on the basis of the
following: "an affidavit by a physician that . . . by reason of [an] operation
the sex designation on such person's birth record should be changed" (410 ILCS
535/17(e)).
This approach--document change based on either a physician's statement or
judicial finding that a person had undergone a surgical sex reassignment
procedure--was incorporated into the Model State Vital Statistics Act in 1977
(National Center for Health Statistics 1977) and, by the early 1990s, had been
adopted by most state and federal agencies, including in policies for birth
certificates, driver's licenses, and Social Security records (National Center
for Transgender Equality 2007; Lambda Legal n.d.; GLAD 2010).
In 1992, the U.S. State Department formalized a policy for U.S. passports requiring documentation
of surgery and providing a limited one-year updated passport for those traveling
abroad for surgery (U.S. Department of State 1992). These policies reflected a
prevailing public understanding of gender transition as defined by a single,
presumably standard, surgical procedure. Officials, it was believed, simply had
to ask for documentation of this procedure. Any transgender person applying for
updated documentation without a surgeon's letter was understood to be doing so
prematurely or else trying to game the system.
By the late 1990s, however, it became clear that this surgery-centered paradigm
was at odds with contemporary medical practice and the realities of transgender
people's lives. Some state motor vehicle agencies began to revise their policies
to permit updated gender designations based on documentation of medical
treatment short of surgery. Some, such as Maryland's, still required details of
medical treatment and left broad discretion to the agency to determine the
sufficiency of treatment (Spade 2008). Increasingly, however, policy makers have
adopted the view that an individual's health care provider--typically either a
primary care physician or a therapist--is best positioned to determine the point
at which it is appropriate to update gender on official documents. Instead of
requiring government officials (who may lack knowledge or expertise regarding
gender transition) to determine the adequacy of an application based on details
of specific treatments, newer policies more commonly require a statement from
the applicant's physician or therapist confirming the individual's gender
identity (Spade 2008, 827).
As this changing medical paradigm began to be reflected in policy, other
shortcomings in many long-standing policies on gender documentation were also
reevaluated, including often burdensome procedural requirements. Procedural
hurdles for transgender people have frequently included obtaining a court order
recognizing an individual's gender transition, obtaining an amended birth
certificate as a prerequisite to amending other documents, or both (Spade 2008,
822-832). Filing a court action presents a financial barrier for low-income
people, who are also among those most adversely impacted by identification that
fails to reflect their lived gender. It also presents special difficulties for
those who no longer live in their place of birth and seek to amend their birth
records. Filing an action in one's place of birth presents logistical and
financial hurdles if that place is thousands of miles away, and at the same
time, many states have no mechanism for residents born elsewhere to obtain a
court order to amend birth records. Moreover, requiring a court order serves no
purpose since administrative agencies can and regularly do evaluate the same
evidence themselves and are far better able to standardize procedures than local
courts.
Another set of burdens was imposed by policies requiring correction of a
birth certificate as a condition for updating other documents. Instead of a
single agency standard, such a prerequisite makes the issuance of updated
documentation dependent on the varying vital records policies of all fifty
states. Today, no federal agency and few very state agencies make an amended
birth certificate a prerequisite for updating gender on other documentation.
However, many state agencies still require court orders before amending gender
on documents.
Finally, as state and federal governments have moved toward greater
systematization of record and identification systems, it has also become clear
that broadly phrased laws and policies have placed substantial and almost
completely unguided discretion in the hands of administrators and, in some
cases, local judges to determine whether a particular type of surgical procedure
or other course of treatment qualifies a person for document change. Perhaps out
of embarrassment about the subject matter, until recently very few agencies made
their policies on gender change publicly available, online or otherwise. The
result has been wide-ranging inconsistency in the application of agency
policies, at both state and federal levels. The fact that these policies have
rarely been set by statute or regulation has contributed to their obscurity and
inconsistent application but has also given agencies more freedom to adapt and
improve their policies. Recent federal regulations pursuant to the REAL ID Act
of 2005 impose numerous mandates on motor vehicle agencies but expressly leave
them free to determine their own policies on gender change (U.S. Department of
Homeland Security 2008).
Best Practices for Gender Documentation
In the last decade there has been a dramatic shift in state and federal policies
on official gender designations. These trends have been seen across the country
and in motor vehicle, vital records, and federal agencies. By 2006, when the
District of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicles (DC DMV) adopted a new policy,
more than a dozen motor vehicle agencies permitted gender change without proof
of surgery, a court order, or a birth certificate change (Spade 2008). Many
other public and private institutions, most notably universities, have also
eliminated barriers to updating gender in student, personnel, and other records
(Beemyn n.d.; New York University n.d.). From these policy reforms have emerged
key best practices that should guide other agencies and institutions.
One example of these best practices is the policy adopted by the DC DMV. With
input from local and national experts, this agency sought to develop a clear and
readily administrable policy that could be a model for other states. Its policy
is based on a simple form that transgender people can fill out and have signed
by a medical or social service professional when they have reached the point in
their gender transition where having an updated form of identification is
appropriate. Rather than attesting to specific treatments, the form simply
verifies the applicant's gender identity (DC DMV 2006). To ensure authenticity,
the provider must list a professional license number and certify under penalty
of law the accuracy of the form's information. To protect applicants, the
content of the form is designated as private medical information, and
instructions prohibit asking additional medical questions. The DC model proved
successful and influential and contributed to an acceleration of change in
licensing policies.
In the four years since the DC DMV policy was issued, motor
vehicle agencies in Massachusetts (Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles
2009), Nevada (Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles 2010), New Mexico (New Mexico
MVD 2010), New Jersey (New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission n.d.), Ohio (Ohio
Bureau of Motor Vehicles n.d.), Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania Department of
Transportation n.d.), and Washington State (Washington State Department of
Licensing n.d.) have all issued new policies and forms based on the DC model.
These policies now represent a well-established model that can be readily
adapted by other jurisdictions and for other forms of identifying documents.
In the area of vital records, best practices are reflected by a policy
formalized by the Washington State Department of Health in 2008. The policy
simply requires a letter from the applicant's physician "stating that the
requestor has had the appropriate clinical treatment" (Washington State
Department of Health 2008). As with the DC DMV approach, the agency does not
request specifics of medical care but instead defers to the professional
judgment of the certifying provider. Washington is not the first state to permit
updated vital records without specific proof of surgery, but it is the first to
do so through a formalized, statewide policy.
Washington State had a similar,
but less clearly articulated, policy for gender change on vital records in place
for nearly two decades, and department officials report that the policy is easy
to administer and has never led to any problems or complaints (Freeman and
Lovinger 2009). Legislation recently introduced in the District of Columbia
would establish a similar policy for DC-issued birth certificates.
In June 2010, the U.S. State Department announced a new policy for updating
gender designations on both U.S. passports and Consular Reports of Birth Abroad.
Similar to the Washington State birth certificate policy, it requires a letter
from the applicant's physician stating that the applicant "has had appropriate
clinical treatment for gender transition." Similar to the DC DMV policy, it
makes clear that "[o]ther medical records are not to be requested," and that
"[s]exual reassignment surgery is not a prerequisite for passport issuance." To
provide clarity and uniformity, the department included in the policy a model
letter and posted the full policy on its Web site (U.S. Department of State
2010). The State Department's new policy states it is "based on standards and
recommendations of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health
(WPATH)."
The same month, WPATH issued a policy statement strongly supporting
this trend, stating that:
No person should have to undergo surgery or accept sterilization as a condition
of identity recognition. If a sex marker is required on an identity document,
that marker could recognize the person's lived gender, regardless of
reproductive capacity. The WPATH Board of Directors urges governments and other
authoritative bodies to move to eliminate requirements for identity recognition
that require surgical procedures. (WPATH 2010)
By abandoning the surgery-focused standard followed by other federal agencies
and explicitly basing its action on contemporary medical standards, the State
Department has set a standard the other federal agencies, such as the Social
Security Administration, should logically follow.
Each of these policies shares several key features. First and foremost, the
policies do not require proof of specific medical treatments and instead require
a statement reflecting the judgment of the applicant and his or her health care
provider that the applicant has reached a point in gender transition at which
document change is appropriate. Second, these policies standardize and strictly
limit the collection of private medical information, typically through a simple
form or model letter. And third, they create ordinary administrative processes
for changing documents that do not require court action or prior changes to
other documents. Policies that follow these best practices are easy to
understand and administer, ensure consistency in application, and most
importantly, eliminate needless and harmful barriers for transgender people. Identification that reflects an individual's lived gender will also make it
easier for law enforcement, customs, and other officials to quickly and
accurately identify individuals in the course of their daily business.
Conclusion
There is simply no serious public policy justification for retaining policies
that forbid gender change or condition it upon proof of surgery. Correction of
gender designations would do no more to assist identity theft or fraud than
updating names, especially when a licensed professional is required to sign off.
In fact, identification that fails to reflect an individual's lived gender
actually makes it harder to verify the individual's identity. Nor is the concern
that certain records, such as birth records, are historical in nature and should
not be changed persuasive, since such documents are regularly amended to reflect
name changes, adoptions, and other events. Restrictive policies on gender
documentation change represent a serious government intrusion into the most
personal aspects of an individual's life and create economic barriers and
hazards for transgender people in their everyday lives (Tobin 2007).
Accurate identification will not eliminate the discrimination and disparities
that transgender people experience. Far more needs to be done to achieve that
goal. Updating identification policies will, however, enable individuals to
choose when and how to disclose their transgender status and medical history--the
sort of deeply personal matters about which Americans generally expect a right
to privacy.
Accurate identification will eliminate one barrier to economic
success and one risk factor for bias-motivated violence. And critically, it will
enable many transgender people to go about their daily lives without constant
anxiety and fear. State and federal agencies should act swiftly to revise
outdated policies and advance these worthy goals.
References
410 ILCS 535/17(e). Vital Records Act. Illinois Compiled Statutes.
American Psychological Association. 2006. Answers to your questions about
transgender individuals and gender identity. Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association, Office of Public and Member Communications
(http://www.apa.org/topics/sexuality/transgender.pdf).
Beemyn, Brett-Genny Janiczek. n.d. Ways that U.S. colleges and universities meet
the day-to-day needs of transgender students. Transgender Law & Policy
Institute(http://www.transgenderlaw.org/college/guidelines.htm).
Consortium on the Management of Disorders of Sex Differentiation. 2006. Clinical
guidelines for the management of disorders of sex differentiation in childhood.
Intersex Society of North America (http://dsdguideline s.org/files/clinical.pdf).
DC DMV. 2006. Gender designation on a license or identification card. District
of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicles
(http://dmv.dc.gov/pdf/Gender_Change_Policies.pdf).
Dubois-Need, Leslie, and Amber Kingery. 2009. Transgendered in Alaska:
Navigating the changing legal landscape for change of gender petitions. Alaska
Law Review 26(2).
Freeman, Phil, and Pamela Lovinger. 2009. Interviews with Phil Freeman and
Pamela Lovinger, Washington State Department of Health, August 26.
GLAD. 2010. Transgender legal issues: New England. Gay & Lesbian Advocates &
Defenders ( http://www.glad.org/uploads/docs/publications/trans-legal-is sues.pdf).
Grant, Jamie M. et. al. 2010. National transgender discrimination survey: Report
on health and health care. National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
(http://transequality.org/PDFs/NTDSReportonHealth_final.pdf).
Greenberg, Julie. 1999. Defining male and female: Intersexuality and the
collision between law and biology. Arizona Law Review 41: 265.
Lambda Legal. n.d. Sources of authority to amend sex designation on birth
certificates
(www.lambdalegal.org/our-work/issues/rights-of-transgender-p eople/sources-of-authority-to-amend.html).
Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. 2009. Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Driver's Manual.
McQuiston, John T. 1989. Christine Jorgensen, 62, is dead; Was first to have a
sex change. New York Times, May 4.
National Center for Health Statistics. 1977. Model State Vital Statistics Act
21(e). U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE). 2007. Driver's license policies
by state. Washington, DC: National Center for Transgender Equality
(http://transequality.org/Resources/DL/DL_policies.html).
------. 2008. Social Security gender no-match letters and transgender employees.
------, and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Forthcoming. National transgender
discrimination survey.
Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles. 2010. Medical certification and
authorization (gender change), DLD-136 (http://www.dmvstat.com/pdfforms/dld136.pdf).
New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission. n.d. Declaration of gender designation
change for New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) driver license or
identification card (htp://www.state.nj.us/mvc/pdf/Licenses/ genderchange.pdf).
New Mexico MVD. 2010. Gender designation change request, MVD-10237. New Mexico
Taxation & Revenue Department (http://www.tgrcnm.org/assets/pdfs/Mvd10237.pdf).
New York University. n.d. Process for changing biological or legal gender to
gender based on identity or expression. New York University, University of
Registrar (http://www.nyu.edu/registrar/forms-procedures/name-change_ b.html).
Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles. n.d. Declaration of gender change. Ohio
Department of Public Safety
( http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/News/US/OhioBMVGen derChangeForm2009.pdf).
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. n.d. Request for gender change on
driver's license/identification card, DL-32
http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/pdotforms/dl_forms/DL-32.pdf.
Spade, Dean. 2008. Documenting gender. Hastings Law Journal 59: 731-835.
Tamar-Mattis, Anne. 2009. What is a person's 'legal sex'? Endocrine Today, May
1.
Tobin, Harper Jean. 2007. Against the surgical standard for change of legal sex.
Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 38:393-435.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 2008. Minimum standards for driver's
licenses and identification cards acceptable by federal agencies for official
purposes, 73 Fed. Reg. 5272, 5301.
U.S. Department of State. 1992. Bulletin No. 92-22 from Carmen A. DiPlacido,
Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Passport Services, to All Regional Directors,
All Office Directors, and All Passport Services Staff.
------. 2010. 7 FAM 1300 Appendix M, Gender Change. U.S. Department of State
Foreign Affairs Manual (http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/143160.pdf).
Washington State Department of Health. 2008. Changing gender on birth
certificates, CHS-B5, July 1.
Washington State Department of Licensing. n.d. Driver license or ID card change
of gender designation request (http://www.dol.wa.gov/forms/520043.pdf).
World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). 2001. The Harry
Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association's standards of care for
gender identity disorders, sixth version
(http://wpath.org/Documents2/socv6.pdf).
------. 2008. WPATH clarification on medical necessity of treatment, sex
reassignment, and insurance coverage in the U.S.A.
( http://www.wpath.org/documents/Med%20Nec%20on%202008%20Lette rhead.pdf).
------. 2010. Identity recognition statement
( http://www.wpath.org/documents/Identity%20Recognition%20Stat ement%206-6-10%20on%20letterhead.pdf).
Endnotes
For the purposes of this article, transgender women are those assigned the male
gender at birth who identify and live as women and transgender men are those
assigned the female gender at birth who identify and live as men.
This report, scheduled to be published in early 2011, is based on a survey that
asked a wide range of questions of nearly 6,500 transgender and gender
nonconforming adults throughout the United States.
At present, thirteen states, the District of Columbia, and many municipalities
expressly prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression.
See, for example, Anonymous v. Weiner, 270 N.Y.S.2d 319 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1966).
One early example, adopted by Oregon's motor vehicle agency in 1998, requires a
letter from a therapist stating the applicant is living full-time as the desired
gender as per the gender reassignment therapy.
See Dubois-Need and Kingery (2009), which discusses the authority of judges, in
jurisdictions lacking statutory surgery requirements, to consider other factors
in approving vital records changes; see also Grant et al. (2010), indicating 6
percent of individuals who had had no surgery had changed gender on birth
certificate.
Legislation is expected to be introduced in early 2011.
http://tinyurl.com/5rqogv5
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k78405& pageid=icb. page414493
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| | Topic: Transgender employment Discrimination in Mass. |
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| Transgender employment Discrimination in Mass. [message #140404] |
Thu, 12 May 2011 06:51 |
CarolynnL
Messages: 1737
Registered: October 2007
Location: Central Time Zone |
Senior Member
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The Cost of Employment Discrimination Against Transgender Residents of Massachusets.
Transgender residents of Massachusetts have reported xperiencing discrimination in employment. The National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS) found that 76 percent of respondents from Massachusetts experienced harassment, mistreatment, or discrimination in employment.(1)
NTDS respondents reported that due to anti-transgender bias, 20 percent had lost a job, 39 percent were not hired for positions they applied for, and 17 percent were denied promotions.(2)
The costs include unimployment insurance, lost tax revenue, etc.
The study report detailing the costs may be found at:
http://www3.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/pdf/MAtransEmpDiscrim FINAL.pdf
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| | Topic: Chaz Bono |
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| Chaz Bono [message #137418] |
Sat, 09 April 2011 09:03 |
| Anonymous |
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Good morning...
I just want to pass this on, the interview is mentioned in this months issue of Oprah. Also if you goggle it there is info.
Have a nice weekend.
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| | Topic: Thai military: Type 1, 2, and 3 men for conscription |
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| Thai military: Type 1, 2, and 3 men for conscription [message #135409] |
Mon, 21 March 2011 07:46 |
CarolynnL
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Looks like the Thai military hasn't caught up with the "Third Sex" pronouncement of the government, well not entirely. For purposes of conscription, they are still considered men, since women are exempt. Though they are still segregated for purposes of draft, they can no longer be considered psychologically abnormal. All you have to do to stop that is just give those you consider unfit a type number everyone knows about. I'm not sure how that really makes a difference in how gender atypical "feel" about being still considered men, just different types as opposed to psychologically abnormal. Or is that A.B. Normal. Typical military mind set, Asian style. Of course they won't be drafted other than in desperate times, just like before. And they can still be exempted after three years (which I think most would consider a good thing). They just can't be considered women....
Thailand - Defence Ministry renames transgender conscripts...
[2011-03-20 Bangkok Post]
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/227594/army-renames-tr ansgender-conscripts
20/03/2011 at 12:00 AM
Transgender army recruits won't have their feelings hurt in the coming conscription season. Well, hopefully not that much, anyway.
Instead of their sexuality being called a "psychological abnormality" or a "gender identity disorder", they will simply be referred to as "Type 2" or "Type 3".
The army has coined the terms to avoid offending transgender people.
Type 2 refers to men who have undergone breast augmentation, while Type 3 comprises people who have had a full sex change.
The army had proposed replacing the term "psychological abnormality" with "gender identity disorder" but had a rethink after fierce criticisms from human rights groups, who were opposed to any term that suggests abnormality.
The Defence Ministry is amending the Conscription Act of 1954, said Thaksin Chiamthong, director of the academic resources division of the Army Reserve Command.
He said the main purpose of the amendment is to correct the part of the law that states transgender people are exempt from conscription because they are considered psychologically abnormal.
"Normally only Type 1 [men whose appearances are typical of men] are required to draw a conscription ballot," said Col Thaksin.
"But if the number of Type 1 is insufficient, Type 2 will be conscripted as well, despite their female-like breasts."
Types 2 and 3 will be required to report for annual conscription for three years before being exempted permanently, he said.
Conscription is scheduled to be conducted from April 1-11.
The armed forces and Defence Ministry need to conscript 97,280 men aged 21 _ an increase of 9,828 from last year.
The army alone needs 73,503 new soldiers for the 15th Infantry Division in Pattani and divisions based in Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen. The navy needs 16,000 conscripts, while the air force wants 6,463, the Supreme Command 833 and the Defence Ministry's permanent secretary's office 481.
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| | Topic: Roundtable on Strategic Litigation of Transgender Rights in Europe |
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| | Topic: Was trans females killing a hate crime |
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| Was trans females killing a hate crime [message #134713] |
Fri, 11 March 2011 19:19 |
CarolynnL
Messages: 1737
Registered: October 2007
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http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/10/was-transgender-females-sl aying-a-hate-crime/
This links to a news article about a murdered trans woman who was shot in the head and dragged by a car. The sheriff of the place is not interested in pursuing it as a possible hate crime, has no suspects, etc. The FBI is apparently going to become involved.
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| | Topic: James Bond in drag for Int'ntl' womens day |
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| James Bond in drag for Int'ntl' womens day [message #134297] |
Tue, 08 March 2011 12:12 |
CarolynnL
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Video of Daniel Craig (James Bond) crossdressed to promote International Women's Day.
He looks good in a frock.
https://www.youtube.com/user/WeAreEquals
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| | Topic: Civil Union bill awaiting Gov. signature in Hawaii |
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| Civil Union bill awaiting Gov. signature in Hawaii [message #131870] |
Thu, 17 February 2011 00:13 |
CarolynnL
Messages: 1737
Registered: October 2007
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Civil unions passed by Hawaii Legislature, bill sent to governor for final approval
02-16-2011 03:06 PM PST |By MARK NIESSE, Associated Press
HONOLULU (Associated Press) --
The Hawaii Legislature approved a bill on Wednesday allowing civil unions for same-sex couples, sending the measure to the governor, who has said he will sign it into law.
Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie's office said he intends to sign the bill within 10 days, and civil unions would begin Jan. 1, 2012.
"I have always believed that civil unions respect our diversity, protect people's privacy, and reinforce our core values of equality and aloha," Abercrombie said in a statement released minutes after Wednesday's vote. "For me, this bill represents equal rights for all the people of Hawai'i."
The Senate's 18-5 vote came after years of thousands-strong rallies, election battles and passionate public testimony on an issue that has divided the Rainbow State for nearly two decades.
The measure grants gay and lesbian couples the same rights and benefits the state provides to married couples.
Hawaii would become the seventh state to grant essentially the same rights of marriage to same-sex couples without authorizing marriage itself.
Five states and the District of Columbia permit same-sex marriage.
The anxiously awaited civil unions vote came immediately after the Senate confirmed the state's first openly gay Supreme Court justice, Sabrina McKenna.
Gay rights advocates praised the vote as a victory for equal rights in a state known for its diversity and tolerance.
Opponents of the measure, many of them Christians, said civil unions erode the concept of the traditional family and could lead to same-sex marriage.
The Hawaii Legislature also passed a similar civil unions bill last year, but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican. She was term-limited from running for election again in November.
Abercrombie said Wednesday that the Legislature's approval marked an end to an "emotional process" for the state, which has been a battleground in the gay rights movement since a 1993 state Supreme Court decision that nearly legalized gay marriage.
The ruling would have made Hawaii the first state to allow same-sex couples to wed, but it didn't take effect while voters were given a chance to decide.
They responded five years later by overwhelmingly passing the nation's first "defense of marriage" constitutional amendment, approved by 69 percent of voters who gave the Legislature the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples.
The amendment resulted in a law banning gay marriage in Hawaii but left the door open for civil unions.
Since then, 29 other states also have enacted defense of marriage amendments.
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| | Topic: Amid setbacks and widespread bias, transgender-rights |
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| Amid setbacks and widespread bias, transgender-rights [message #130174] |
Thu, 03 February 2011 22:06 |
CarolynnL
Messages: 1737
Registered: October 2007
Location: Central Time Zone |
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Amid setbacks and widespread bias, transgender-rights activists seek new strategies
02-03-2011 09:20 PM PST |By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer
NEW YORK (Associated Press) --
Many transgender Americans face intolerance in almost every aspect of their lives, contributing to high levels of homelessness, unemployment and despair, according to a comprehensive survey being released Friday.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality say their survey of 6,450 transgender people is the largest of its kind. It details discrimination encountered "at every turn" _ in childhood homes, in schools and workplaces, at stores and hotels, at the hands of doctors, judges, landlords and police.
"Their lives are just a crapshoot," said Rea Carey, executive director of the task force. "They don't know from one interaction to the next whether they will be treated with respect and dignity. It's not the way people should be living their day-to-day life."
The report comes at a sobering time for transgender community.
While their gay-rights allies celebrated the recent Senate vote that will enable gays to serve openly in the military, transgender people were left out of the debate and remain barred from service.
Efforts to pass a federal law barring workplace discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation failed in the previous Democratic-controlled Congress _ gender identity was a key stumbling block _ and the new Republican-led House is considered more hostile.
Uncertain of prospects for progress at the federal level, activists hope to make headway through lawsuits, corporate diversity programs, local anti-bias ordinances, and public education efforts. They hope the survey will buttress those efforts; some of the data had been released in preliminary reports, but the final version contains new details and is prefaced by an emotional plea for Americans to rethink their attitudes.
"It is part of social and legal convention in the United States to discriminate against, ridicule, and abuse transgender and gender non-conforming people," the survey says. "Nearly every system and institution in the United States, both large and small, from local to national, is implicated."
According to the survey, 41 percent of respondents reported attempting suicide, 26 percent said they had lost a job due to being transgender, and 19 percent reported being denied a home or apartment. Almost one-fifth said they'd been homelessness at some point.
The survey found that complaints of discrimination were particularly pronounced among blacks.
In an e-mail, Ja'briel Walthour of Hinesville, Ga., detailed the difficulties of growing up in the 1980s and `90s as an African-American boy in the South who began to identify as a female. Neither her church nor rural community offered acceptance, she said.
"I felt there was not an ounce of compassion or empathy for individuals who may be displaying atypical gender roles," and by 17 she was contemplating suicide, she wrote.
"I got into a place where I wanted to just not be here anymore," she said.
Walthour, now 34, eventually became a school bus driver while deciding to transition to female and pursue a degree in social work.
Transgender activists say future progress for their cause may depend on more people like Walthour choosing to speak out.
"We need more trans people telling their stories," said Diego Sanchez, a transgender aide to U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., at a forum last weekend. "We need to represent ourselves, and not let others represent us."
The forum was convened to address the frustrations of some transgender people who feel marginalized within the broader gay-rights movement. The movement has for years adopted the initials LGBT _ lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender _ but transgender activists at the forum wondered if the "T" instead meant "token."
"We've become second fiddle, maybe third fiddle to LGB rights," said Meghan Stabler, a transsexual businesswoman. "We're a minority inside of a minority ... Right now, we're a small `t'."
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said the LGBT movement _ by sheer force of numbers and financial support _ was inevitably going to focus on the agenda of gays and lesbians rather than transgender people.
"But the relationship has helped out," she said. "We have a shared history, shared friends and enemies."
Looking long term, Keisling expressed optimism.
"The people who just plain hate us _ they're dying out," she said. "There is not a reasonable person left in United States who doesn't understand that transgender people exist, that it's a legitimate aspect of the diversity of nature."
___
Online:
National Center for Transgender Equality: http://transequality.org/
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force: http://www.thetaskforce.org/
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| | Topic: Televangelist says he cheated on wife |
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| Televangelist says he cheated on wife [message #124608] |
Fri, 17 December 2010 18:00 |
Katie
Messages: 13509
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Televangelist says he cheated on wife
A televangelist admitted in front of a television audience that he cheated on his wife, an announcement he made to thwart people he said were trying to extort millions of dollars from him.
The Rev. Marcus Lamb made the confession Tuesday night on his show "Celebration" with his wife Joni Lamb by his side.
The couple also displayed a special message about the incident on the website of Daystar Television Network, the couple's television network.
"At the top of the program, the Lambs shared a compelling, transparent account of a personal challenge in their marriage that occurred several years ago, involving an inappropriate relationship between Marcus and another woman," the message said.
The couple explained that there were three people who said they would expose the affair if the couple's ministry did not pay them $7.5 million.
Daystar Television Network is based in Texas and airs some of the most popular evangelists in the nation, including T.D. Jakes, Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland and Joyce Meyer.
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/01/televangelist-says- he-cheated-on-wife-2/?iref=obnetwork
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| | Topic: Pastor says student's suicide was tipping point for his coming out |
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| Pastor says student's suicide was tipping point for his coming out [message #124607] |
Fri, 17 December 2010 17:58 |
Katie
Messages: 13509
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Pastor says student's suicide was tipping point for his coming out
The founder and pastor of a Georgia megachurch said Saturday that the September suicide of a Rutgers University student was the tipping point for his decision to come out of the closet to his congregation.
"For some reason, his situation was kind of the tipping point with me," said Jim Swilley, who calls himself a bishop. "There comes a point in your life where you say - how much time do we have left in our lives? Are we going to be authentic or not?"
Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, 18, jumped off a bridge after a secretly-taped sexual encounter between him and another man was posted on the internet.
Swilley, 52, said that he has known he is gay since childhood, but that he never thought he would live openly. He came out recently after more than 20 years of marriage to his former wife, who continues to work at their church.
"At a certain point, you are who you are," said Swilley, who has four children from two marriages.
He ministers at the Church in the Now, an inter-donominational Christian church in Conyers, Georgia, about 25 miles east of Atlanta.
"What I told my church is that I was given two things in my life that I didn't ask for... one is the call of God in my life and the other is my orientation. I didn't ever think that those two things could be compatible," Swilley said.
On the whole, he said his congregation has been supportive of his coming out, though some people have cut ties with him over the decision.
Homosexuality is a hotly contested issue by many faith traditions.
Earlier this month, Gene Robinson - the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church - said that death threats and the continued controversy around his selection contributed to his decision to announce his retirement.
Speaking specifically about evangelicals, Swilley said gay people are sometimes seen as trying to build a movement, or "recruiting" - views he took serious issue with.
"My position is not about gaying up the church," he said. "It's about people being who they are."
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/13/pastor-says-student s-suicide-was-tipping-point-for-his-coming-out/?iref=obinsit e
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| | Topic: Study Confirms That Fox News Makes You Stupid |
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| Study Confirms That Fox News Makes You Stupid [message #124529] |
Thu, 16 December 2010 10:59 |
Katie
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News Corpse / By Mark Howard
Study Confirms That Fox News Makes You Stupid
A new survey of American voters shows that Fox News viewers are significantly more misinformed than consumers of news from other sources.
December 15, 2010 |
Yet another study has been released proving that watching Fox News is detrimental to your intelligence. World Public Opinion, a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, conducted a survey of American voters that shows that Fox News viewers are significantly more misinformed than consumers of news from other sources. What's more, the study shows that greater exposure to Fox News increases misinformation.
So the more you watch, the less you know. Or to be precise, the more you think you know that is actually false. This study corroborates a previous PIPA study that focused on the Iraq war with similar results. And there was an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that demonstrated the break with reality on the part of Fox viewers with regard to health care. The body of evidence that Fox News is nothing but a propaganda machine dedicated to lies is growing by the day.
In eight of the nine questions below, Fox News placed first in the percentage of those who were misinformed (they placed second in the question on TARP). That's a pretty high batting average for journalistic fraud. Here is a list of what Fox News viewers believe that just aint so:
* 91 percent believe the stimulus legislation lost jobs
* 72 percent believe the health reform law will increase the deficit
* 72 percent believe the economy is getting worse
* 60 percent believe climate change is not occurring
* 49 percent believe income taxes have gone up
* 63 percent believe the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts
* 56 percent believe Obama initiated the GM/Chrysler bailout
* 38 percent believe that most Republicans opposed TARP
* 63 percent believe Obama was not born in the U.S. (or that it is unclear)
The conclusion is inescapable. Fox News is deliberately misinforming its viewers and it is doing so for a reason. Every issue above is one in which the Republican Party had a vested interest. The GOP benefited from the ignorance that Fox News helped to proliferate. The results were apparent in the election last month as voters based their decisions on demonstrably false information fed to them by Fox News.
By the way, the rest of the media was not blameless. CNN and the broadcast network news operations fared only slightly better in many cases. Even MSNBC, which had the best record of accurately informing viewers, has a ways to go before it can brag about it.
The conclusions in this study need to be disseminated as broadly as possible. Fox's competitors need to report these results and produce ad campaigns featuring them. Newspapers and magazines need to publish the study across the country. This is big news and it is critical that the nation be advised that a major news enterprise is poisoning their minds.
This is not an isolated review of Fox's performance. It has been corroborated time and time again. The fact that Fox News is so blatantly dishonest, and the effects of that dishonesty have become ingrained in an electorate that has been been purposefully deceived, needs to be made known to every American. Our democracy cannot function if voters are making choices based on lies. We have the evidence that Fox is tilting the scales and we must now make certain its corporate owners do not get away with it.
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| | Topic: 'The Force' is with you, Katie |
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| 'The Force' is with you, Katie [message #123763] |
Thu, 09 December 2010 12:27 |
Katie
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/12/09/katie.starwars.geek/ind ex.html?hpt=C2
'The Force' is with you, Katie
(CNN) -- Katie Goldman's universe extends from her home to her first-grade classroom. She is a big sister to Annie Rose and Cleo, a piano player, a Spanish student, a wearer of glasses. She loathes the patch she has to wear for one lazy eye. She loves magic and princesses and "Star Wars," an obsession she picked up from her dad.
The 7-year-old carried a "Star Wars" water bottle to school in Evanston, Illinois, every day, at least until a few weeks ago, when Katie suddenly asked to take an old pink one instead. The request surprised Katie's mom, Carrie Goldman. It didn't make any sense. Why would her little sci-fi fan make such a quick turn?
Goldman kept pressing for an answer. She wasn't expecting Katie's tears.
Kids at school insisted that "Star Wars" was only for boys, her daughter wailed. She was different enough already -- the only one who was adopted, who's Jewish, who wears glasses, who needs a patch. If sacrificing Yoda for the color pink would make her fit in again, so be it.
Goldman's heart sank.
These weren't nameless, faceless bullies who taunted her daughter. They were good kids Katie ran around with on the playground. They were getting older, though, and starting to see what made people the same -- and different.
Now, it was about "Star Wars," but Goldman wondered what lunchroom teasing would progress to in middle school, high school or college.
"Is this how it starts?" Goldman wrote in her blog, Portrait of an Adoption. "Do kids find someone who does something differently and start to beat it out of her, first with words and sneers? Must my daughter conform to be accepted?"
'I need your help'
A few days later, in Orlando, Jen Yates clicked on a link that led to Goldman's blog. Yates couldn't shake Katie's image when it flashed across the screen -- a little girl with long blonde hair, no front teeth, square-rimmed glasses.
"When you hear about bullying, it's like an abstract concept," Yates said. "When you put a face on it, an adorable little girl's face, with glasses, it brings it home."
We've all had those kinds of experiences, if you call yourself a geek. It was about Katie, but it was about every girl out there, every geek out there.
--Jen Yates, Epbot.com
Yates remembered the isolation of being the weird kid at her high school. She was the teen who hit "Star Trek" conventions on weekends and got snide comments about it the rest of the week. She was the lone geek girl among her friends, mostly geeky boys.
Bullying tragedies dominated headlines this year after a spate of suicides. Studies revealed how deeply the bullies at school, home or online can traumatize kids. The federal government laid out new anti-bullying guidelines for educators trying to combat the issue.
It's tough to lay out anti-bullying rules for kids so young, but tougher still to know how to protect the bully's perennial target: geeks, nerds and anybody whose interests stray from the norm. Whole genres of pop culture are devoted to ridiculing them and Yates knew that Katie's story was how it starts.
"We've all had those kinds of experiences, if you call yourself a geek," Yates said. "It was about Katie, but it was about every girl out there, every geek out there. It transcended gender, it transcended age.
"I know a Katie. I was Katie."
So Yates did what any geek would -- she went back to her computer.
"My fellow geeks," she wrote on her blog, Epbot.com, "I need your help."
'You are not alone'
Later that day, in yet another time zone, Catherine Taber clicked Yates' post about a little girl and her "Star Wars" water bottle -- Katie.
Taber grew up on science fiction and fantasy, from Stephen King to "Star Wars," but she wasn't bullied. She was an Army brat, always the new kid at school. With each new place, her parents reminded her to be whatever she wanted, and be proud to share it with the world.
Catherine Taber, who voices Padme Amidala, saw Katie's story, and shared it with her castmates.
Catherine Taber, who voices Padme Amidala, saw Katie's story, and shared it with her castmates.
"I immediately had to say something," Taber said. "The whole theme of the 'Star Wars' universe is an anti-bullying theme. It's good versus evil, standing side by side with your friends, doing what's right. One of the most important things to stopping bullies in their tracks is to empower kids to stand up for themselves."
Taber found Katie's mom's blog, sent it to everyone she knew, and left a comment she hoped would help.
"I am [the] actress who has the great honor of being Padme Amidala on 'Star Wars: the Clone Wars!' I just wanted to tell Katie that she is in VERY good company being a female Star Wars fans," Taber wrote. "I know that Padme would tell you to be proud of who YOU are and know that you are not ALONE!
"THE FORCE is with you Katie!"
'Part of a very tight community'
Back in Evanston, Carrie Goldman was feeling good. Since she had written about the water bottle incident, other parents at Katie's school had talked to their kids. School leaders were supportive, and working on an anti-bullying program.
Something else was happening, too: Traffic on Goldman's blog was exploding.
Some 1,200 people had left messages there for Katie. Readers were coming from Yates' blog, where more than 3,000 more comments stacked up. There were links from "Star Wars" message boards, parenting blogs, tech sites. A Twitter hashtag, #maytheforcebewithkatie, streaked across social media.
Guys and gals of all ages wrote about how they'd been bullied, and how life had gotten so much better since then. They shared that they loved "Star Wars," that they wore glasses, that they were adopted -- just like Luke, just like Leia, just like Katie.
ThinkGeek, a nerdy online retailer, sent Katie a lightsaber. Artist Scott Zirkel sent a cartoon of Katie as a Jedi, glasses and all. A first-grade class in California sent letters to Katie as a show of support.
Taber and the rest of the cast of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," sent "Star Wars" merch. Ashley Eckstein, who voices the female Jedi Ahsoka Tano, sent Her Universe clothes tailored for girls. Tom Kane, who voices Yoda, escorted the Goldmans to a screening near their home.
Ashley Eckstein, center, the voice of Ahsoka on "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," sent Katie some girl-friendly gear.
Ashley Eckstein, center, the voice of Ahsoka on "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," sent Katie some girl-friendly gear.
The thousands of comments left online will be bound into a book for Katie to read whenever she needs it. To keep a sense of normality at home, the family reads just a few every night.
Katie, and her parents, have learned that the universe is so much bigger than the first grade.
"You realize how, if you want someone who has something in common, all you have to do is reach out," Goldman said. "It feels really, really good. What we want is for it to feel good for other people."
Katie is donating many of the books and toys to other kids.
A fan created a Facebook event suggesting that people wear "Star Wars" gear on December 10 to support Katie. The Goldmans also asked participants to donate Star Wars toys to charities for the holidays. About 20,000 people have signed up.
"What strikes me is how these individuals who were once so isolated are now part of a very tight community," Goldman wrote on her blog this month. "They have found each other; they are plugged into each other, and they have each other's backs. Now they have Katie's back, too."
Katie isn't doing any more interviews. There are scales to practice, Spanish words to memorize, baby sisters to play with. She still has to wear the dreaded eye patch, and eat lunch with the kids in her class. She is very busy being 7.
But on December 10, her school will host Proud To Be Me Day. Kids will be encouraged to wear something that shows what they're interested in, whether it's princesses, sports, animals and anime.
Katie will have the force of thousands behind her, and a "Star Wars" water bottle.
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| | Topic: Conservative views |
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| Conservative views [message #123156] |
Mon, 06 December 2010 08:32 |
Wendy C
Messages: 4340
Registered: October 2007
Location: Gateway to the West |
Senior Member
BL3D |
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Southern Poverty Law Center: Social conservative organizations are hate groups
Daily Caller
John Rossomando - The Daily Caller John Rossomando - The Daily Caller Mon Dec 6, 1:50 am ET
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) says it will not back down from its decision to label the Family Research Council and other socially conservative groups as hate groups, on par with the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations, for their views about homosexuality.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins recently asked SPLC to retract the hate group designation, but SPLC Intelligence Project Director Mark Potok told The Daily Caller that will never happen.
SPLC's Winter 2010 edition of its "Intelligence Report" magazine lists the Family Research Council as a hate group alongside the American Family Association, the Traditional Values Coalition, and 11 other social conservative groups. The report, titled "18 Anti-Gay Groups and Their Propaganda," also lists five other organizations as being anti-gay such as Concerned Women for America and the National Organization for Marriage -- but refrains from classifying them as hate groups.
According to SPLC, the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America and the other similar groups spread "known falsehoods -- claims about LGBT people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities -- and repeated, groundless name-calling."
"Labeling people and groups as hate groups is laying the groundwork to then charge them with hate crimes using the full force of government to oppress people for their beliefs," said Concerned Women America President Wendy Wright.
Potok told MSNBC's Chris Matthews SPLC chose to add the FRC to its list of hate groups due to its claims that gay men molest children at higher rates than straight men, its insistence gay activists want to eliminate age of consent laws, and due to comments FRC Senior Research Fellow Peter Sprigg made suggesting homosexual behavior should be recriminalized.
Perkins disavowed Sprigg's statement calling for the recriminalization of homosexual behavior during his joint appearance with Potok on MSNBC and said it did not represent the Family Research Council's official stance.
"The group [SPLC] has marginal credibility," Perkins said. "They actually used to be a pretty good group that did a lot of good working against racism, but that's been pretty much worked out.
"So they have to find a new gig, and so apparently they have picked up the banner of the homosexuals ... [and have made] claim of [us being] a hate group as if it is a trump card and it's over."
Perkins told TheDC that the SPLC cherry-picked the scientific evidence it chose to cite against the Family Research Council and other similar groups in its related report, titled "10 Anti-Gay Myths Debunked", and ignored contrary evidence.
"We actually went through the studies they cited in their report and have seen the flaws in them, and we pointed to other peer-reviewed research," Perkins said. "We're not saying every homosexual has a proclivity to abuse children or that most of them do, but we are saying there is a link that is out there in the research.
"That's open there for debate, and we need to debate that. To say this is beyond debate or shouldn't be debated is just wrong."
The Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America say the studies SPLC cites in its reports suffer from serious methodological errors and politically motivated biases.
"Liberal groups claim all of the science is on their side, and that's simply not true," Wright said. "They refer to studies that often were conducted by homosexual activists or people associated with the homosexual movement.
"Unbiased studies back up the fact that engaging in homosexual behavior carries detrimental consequences; oftentimes these studies were sponsored or paid for by homosexual advocacy groups."
The social conservative groups take particular aim at SPLC's claim that the minority status of gays and lesbians accounts for the "higher rates of anxiety, depression and depression-related illnesses, and behaviors like alcohol and drug abuse than the general population."
Perkins points to peer-reviewed studies done in the Netherlands and elsewhere, where homosexuality is tolerated to a greater degree than in the U.S., that show gays and lesbians still suffer from these same maladies, including elevated rates of suicide, even in the absence of widespread anti-gay prejudice.
"None of that is beyond debate," Perkins said. "All of this should be on the table for debate. The facts are not on their side, so all they want to do is to claim people with different positions are anti-gay and are hate organizations."
Perkins called the recent spate of well-publicized, bullying-related suicides by gay youths "unfortunate" and declined to discount the role prejudice played in their deaths, but said they should not be used as a political weapon to silence dissent.
Wright charged that many of the leading mental-health research organizations have been taken over by gay activists and produce politically motivated statements rather than neutral, unbiased science.
Perkins vows to keep up the fight against the gay-rights movement despite SPLC's effort to brand the Family Research Council as a hate group.
"We are not backing up, and we are not shutting up," he said. "As long as they are pushing their radical social agenda, they are going to be waiting a long time before they are seeing a white flag from this building."
Potok declined to explain what why SPLC didn't define Concerned Women for America as a hate group despite including it alongside the Family Research Council and others it defined as hate groups in its literature.
"SPLC's designations are distinction with no difference," Wright said. "Their list differentiates between so-called hate groups and extremists by using an asterisk, and it all serves the same purpose.
"And that is to intimidate people from expressing their well-founded beliefs."
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| | Topic: Truth |
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| Truth [message #122731] |
Thu, 02 December 2010 07:20 |
| Anonymous |
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A great sorrow in fact.
Children are born, they are raised believing in fairy tales, believing in a candy coated pack of lies; when in truth the very harsh realities of the world at large are toxic. No Santa Claus, no Tooth Fairy, no Easter Bunny. There are lots of violent parents, lots of drunk parents, lots of drugged parents, lots of pedophile parents and neighbors and priests. A wealth of predators to feed upon you.
If only the challenge was as simple as being a T-girl.
So many are damaged beyond repair, damaged beyond hope.
And then when you discover that there is no god; apathy and despair consumes you.
A real god, a benign loving god would not be able to endure such horrors perpetrated against its children.
I would love to believe otherwise, but I am far to old and experienced in the realities of life to pretend any longer.
Not everything in life can be fixed, some destruction is eternal.
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| | Topic: It Gets Better |
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| It Gets Better [message #122513] |
Tue, 30 November 2010 11:54 |
Diana
Messages: 1089
Registered: October 2007
Location: Colorado |
Senior Member
BL3D
BLF Moderator |
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A few of my colleagues that I'm working with to help create change are shown here as change continues to happen. You would never have seen a video like this two years ago! Being apart of it all, I can assure you, progress is still moving forward behind the scenes. This was filmed about a week ago.
Everyone deserves to be respected for who they are. We pledge to spread this message to our friends, family and neighbors. We'll speak up against hate and intolerance whenever I see it, at school and at work. We'll provide hope for lesbian, gay, bi, trans and other bullied teens by letting them know that "It Gets Better."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW8rRHmDx3Q
[Updated on: Tue, 30 November 2010 11:56]
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| | Topic: George Takei Slams Elected Official's Anti-Gay Rant |
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| George Takei Slams Elected Official's Anti-Gay Rant [message #120741] |
Thu, 18 November 2010 14:17 |
Teresa
Messages: 8152
Registered: September 2007
Location: Salem, Oregon |
Senior Member
Beginning Life Founder
BL3D |
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George Takei Slams Elected Official's Anti-Gay Rant
Thu, Nov 18 2010
George Takei responds to homophobic remarks by Clint McCance, former Arkansas school board member, in a
video for the Trevor Project.
"Star Trek" and "Heroes" actor George Takei, who in recent years has become an outspoken advocate for gay rights, has posted a video in response to Clint McCance, who recently resigned from the board of the Midland School District in northern Arkansas after his anti-gay remarks on Facebook were made public.
Commenting on the fact that several gay teens have committed suicide because they were bullied, McCance wrote, "Seriously, they want me to wear purple because five queers killed themselves. The only way I'm wearin' it for them is if they all commit suicide. I can't believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid. We are honoring the fact that they sinned and killed thereselves because of their sin. REALLY, PEOPLE."
When he resigned, McCance stated, "I'm sorry I've hurt people with my comments. I'm sorry I made those ignorant comments and hurt people on a broad spectrum."
In response, Takei in a video for the Trevor Project, a national suicide prevention organization, called McCance a "douchebag."
"No person, let alone an elected school official, whatever their personal or religious beliefs, should ever wish death upon another human being. You apologized for your 'poor choice in words,' but you are always going to be a total douchebag," said Takei
To victims of anti-gay bullying, Takei said, "It does get better and there is help out there. Call the Trevor Project lifeline at 866 4-U TREVOR and don't listen to the douchebags of the world."
The Trevor Project is the leading national organization focused on crisis and suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth.
George Takei's video for the Trevor Project from YouTube
http://rafu.com/news/2010/11/george-takei-slams-anti-gay-ran t/
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| | Topic: Pastor denounces transgender bill |
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| Pastor denounces transgender bill [message #120430] |
Mon, 15 November 2010 15:56 |
Teresa
Messages: 8152
Registered: September 2007
Location: Salem, Oregon |
Senior Member
Beginning Life Founder
BL3D |
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Pastor denounces transgender bill
By Brian Lilley, Parliamentary Bureau
Last Updated: November 15, 2010 3:30pm
OTTAWA - A self-described culture warrior claims the Conservative government has cut a deal with the NDP to pass a bill that would make it an offence to discriminate based on gender identity and gender expression.
"Any man could self-identify as a woman and enter any female-specific space such as a bathroom, change rooms and even showers at the local pool," said Charles McVety, president of Canada Christian College in Toronto.
The proposed bill C-389 is sponsored by NDP MP Bill Siksay.
"The bill is about explicitly ensuring full human rights protection in areas of federal jurisdiction for transgender and transsexual Canadians," Siksay told the Commons as he introduced the bill.
While the Conservatives voted against the bill at second reading, McVety claims that the government cut a deal to pass the bill quickly. He expects a vote on third reading to come quicker than the scheduled date in early December.
"I have a 13-year-old daughter. I don't want her going in and showering with a grown man at the local pool, regardless of the man's inner feelings," McVety said. "I think most Canadians share that position. Would the prime minister want men showering with his daughter? I don't think so."
New Democrat Megan Leslie, who supports the bill, told the Commons that adding gender identity and gender expression to the Criminal Code and Human
Rights Act will expand human rights in Canada.
"Imagine the indignity of having to have a letter in one's purse or wallet explaining that the use of the washroom is allowed," Leslie said.
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/11/15/16153821.ht ml#/news/canada/2010/11/15/pf-16153821.html
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| | Topic: Gay Rights as Human Rights - part 1 |
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| Gay Rights as Human Rights - part 1 [message #120427] |
Mon, 15 November 2010 15:33 |
Teresa
Messages: 8152
Registered: September 2007
Location: Salem, Oregon |
Senior Member
Beginning Life Founder
BL3D |
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Gay Rights as Human Rights
Hayley Gorenberg
Deputy Legal Director of Lambda Legal
Posted: October 26, 2010 01:33 AM
This is the first of a three-part series on the consequences of invisibility and the power of visibility. The author delivered these remarks at a forum hosted by the University College London Jurisprudence Review.
Have you seen old maps? Beyond the edges of explored territory, the maps bore a legend warning, "Here there be monsters!" Whatever was unknown was dangerous, monstrous.
And what do we think of unknown people? The monsters emerge: Myths of gay men as sexual predators, transgender people as inherently deceptive and dangerous. The city commissioners in my hometown dared to pass an ordinance barring discrimination based on gender identity. Extremists put the ordinance up for majority vote. To promote their campaign they papered people's parked cars with cartoons showing men lurking in women's bathrooms to attack young girls. They added racism into the attack by broadcasting staged video scenes of dark men sneaking into playground restrooms following blonde little girls.
Never mind that transgender people are overwhelmingly the targets of violence, not its perpetrators. Never mind that gender identity nondiscrimination ordinances have existed since the 1970s without triggering violence. Never mind that the town sheriff opposed overturning the nondiscrimination ordinance. Lambda Legal joined the local LGBT-rights campaign, and in the end, my hometown voted to keep the ordinance, but that ballot-box success story is unusual. Putting minority rights to majority vote is frequently a recipe for disaster. A primary reason: it's easy to conjure demons when real people are invisible.
Scholar Jane Schacter coined the term "coerced invisibility." She wrote, "Coerced invisibility is a principal form of anti-gay discrimination. Far from being a benign safety net, the closet reflects the particular way... gay men and lesbians are coerced to... participate in maintaining the circumstances that sustain their own inequality."
And scholars William Adams Jr. and Bill Eskridge have noted that government silencing of gays in the 1950s created a severe political handicap because it prevented lesbians and gays from publicly -- that is, visibly -- refuting inaccurate stereotypes or engaging in political activism to fight discrimination.
They were writing about the United States government in the 1950s, but six decades later, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" -- our national policy of anti-gay discrimination -- has governmentally imposed gay invisibility in our military. Not only has it ended distinguished careers, but it's also invaded all other areas of gay military members' lives. For example, it has held back divorcing service members from making the strongest arguments they could for custody or visitation with their children. They were understandably concerned that if evidence of their sexual orientation came up in papers filed in their divorce case, that might be considered "telling" their sexual orientation, breaking the invisibility law -- and they'd lose their jobs and their ability to support their children as the perverse consequence of trying to maintain contact with them.
The federal government cannot rightly embrace or expect a culture of inclusion while it forces gay and lesbian service members into the closet. The contrary messages it sends to LGBT people across the country are insupportably damaging.
The American LGBT civil rights movement paid the price for coerced invisibility with seventeen additional years of discrimination leading up to our Lawrence vs. Texas case. In Lawrence, Lambda Legal won a Supreme Court ruling declaring laws that criminalized private, consensual, noncommercial, adult sodomy laws unconstitutional. We won Lawrence in 2003. But 17 years earlier, the case of Bowers vs. Hardwick had raised the same issue to the Court, and our side had lost. And here's the invisibility point: a justice who could have swung the Bowers decision retired soon afterward, and publicly admitted he should have voted for us. And he said, "But I didn't know any gay people." But that was not true. One of his clerks at the time was gay. But he was not out to the justice. And so gay people were invisible to the crucial deciding vote.
None of us should be asked or forced to live our lives invisibly. Schools, employers and governments that impose invisibility continue to feed the fear of the unknown -- and the well-documented and often tragic consequences that follow.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hayley-gorenberg/gay-rights-as -human-right_b_773641.html
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| | Topic: The Perils of 'Passing' as a Goal - part 2 |
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| The Perils of 'Passing' as a Goal - part 2 [message #120426] |
Mon, 15 November 2010 15:31 |
Teresa
Messages: 8152
Registered: September 2007
Location: Salem, Oregon |
Senior Member
Beginning Life Founder
BL3D |
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The Perils of 'Passing' as a Goal
Hayley Gorenberg
Deputy Legal Director of Lambda Legal
Posted: November 2, 2010 01:09 AM
This is the second of a three-part series on the consequences of invisibility and the power of visibility. Read part one here.
A safe haven of invisibility rarely if ever exists for LGBT people. Prizing invisibility causes damage in and of itself, and subsequent incomplete or "failed" invisibility becomes a frank invitation for oppression.
An illustrative example: In 1996, Lambda Legal won the first case in the nation holding that the U.S. Constitution requires school officials to give gay students protection equal to what they give heterosexual students. Our client in that case, Jamie Nabozny, had been mock-raped in the classroom, urinated upon by his peers, and had made multiple suicide attempts. Rather than intervene, school officials told him he brought it on himself because others could tell he was gay. He didn't "pass." He failed the invisibility test, and was blamed for failing.
When I spoke of school harassment and teen suicides at a Lambda Legal event a few weeks ago, an older gentleman came to speak to me afterward. He thanked me for our work, and told me how he had survived as a youth in school. He said, "I just made myself invisible." He was quiet, withdrawn, wallpaper. Was he to be considered our success story?
I found myself thinking about my goals for my young children, the leadership opportunities I want them to have, the relationships I hope they will build, and their ability to develop and express their full potential. And I looked at this man who survived by trying to turn himself invisible, who had focused his energies on erasing himself -- that was his strategy for sheer self-protection and survival. And so I asked him (as I would ask anyone who suggests our young people should suppress their identities), "At what cost?"
Lambda Legal represented asylum-seeker, Jorge Soto Vega, who was fleeing antigay police brutality in his home country of Mexico. Although the immigration judge found credible evidence that Soto Vega was persecuted because of his sexual orientation, he denied asylum because he thought Soto Vega didn't "appear gay" and could keep his sexual orientation hidden if he chose. We succeeded in reversing the original result. The analysis of risk of persecution cannot turn on the assumption that gay people have the choice to obliterate their identities.
In many of our cases, we fight a so-called heckler's veto, authorities who don't address harassers, and instead punish the LGBT person who became visible or who failed to "pass" and became a target of bigotry at school or at work. Lambda Legal fights resulting misapplications of justice, such as discharging targeted students from school rather than addressing bullies, or firing transgender people from work because a coworker complains about who uses which bathroom.
Passing is unsustainable for an individual, and it is unsustainable for either a civil rights movement or for the health of society. Constitutional equality law scholar, Kenneth L. Karst has written about paying the price for attempting invisibility: "Much of your demoralization owes to your sense of isolation. You lack the support of others who share your feelings -- not because those people do not exist, but because they, too, have been unwilling to bear the costs of open identification of their true selves." When society values the closet and prizes passing, we throttle the awareness and understanding that will ultimately quell bigotry and win equality.
The author delivered these remarks at a forum hosted by the University College London Jurisprudence Review.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hayley-gorenberg/the-perils-of -passing-as-_b_776913.html
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