The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend: "a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."
He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior."
(CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)
Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).
"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:
A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist." (Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)
"A nutty lesbian blogger." (MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)
Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush
who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
When I woke up after the November 2008 election, I woke up with the reality that about half the people I saw on the street in my hometown of San Diego did not want to see my lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community have equal marriage rights under the law. Moderating the CoverItLive (CIL) live-blogging/chat room thread, I saw some LGBT folk in the Northeast realize, like I did last November, that just over half of their families, friends, neighbors, and people they see in the street voted against their equality, with regards to marry, under the law.
I put out the poll early on in our live blogging coverage about which election result our blenders were following closest:
I'm one of the 2% who said the election result I was following closest was the basic civil rights election in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I cared about that most because I believe it was the one that spoke to the basic civil rights issues of trans people and community most directly, and because the opposition fought that piece of legislation with the Bathroom Meme -- the Bathroom Meme that states crossdressed men and trans people are going to invade public restrooms to prey on women and children.
And, as I pointed out in the Godly Perverts And The Bathroom Meme, one has much more to fear from Godly Perverts in women's public restrooms than one has to fear from crossdressed men and trans women.
That this is the second municipality in a row (the first being Gainesville, Florida) where voters rejected those who used the Bathroom Meme in an attempt to and deny basic civil rights to LGBT people...well, I think this says something positive about America regarding America's views on housing, employment, and public accommodation for LGBT people.
Still, I'm with Pam and many other baristas and blenders in this though: Civil rights aren't things that should be subject to mob rule. As happy as I am in winning in Kalamazoo, I'm not happy at all that there was a referendum on a basic civil rights ordinance for LGBT people.
The city council is expected to vote Thursday on a proposal to expand Tampa's anti-discrimination laws to include transgender individuals.
The proposed ordinance, if approved, would extend laws prohibiting discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations based on sexual orientation, sex, race and religion to include "gender identity or expression" as a protected class...
Let's hope that if this passes we don't end up with another "mob rule" referendum on the ballot.
We keep hearing about the potential danger of crossdressed and/or trans women predators in public restrooms, and yet the folks who purport that anti-trans Bathroom Meme can't point to any examples of trans people
But we can point to bad apples on their side of the house.
A clerk at a Christian bookstore in Simi Valley was arrested on suspicion of peeping after Simi Valley police found a video camera hidden in a bathroom at the store, authorities said today.
Officers were called to the Family Christian Book Store in the 2900 block of Cochran Street on Sunday afternoon after a 40-year-old woman and her husband reported finding the video camera, said Simi Valley Police Sgt. Dwight Thompson.
After examining the video, investigators determined that 28-year-old Joseph Moreaux had gone to the restroom just before the victim to hide the camera and record her while she was inside...
The CVS Pharmacy manager who allegedly admitted Friday to filming women in his store's bathroom was an active participant in the 2008 charter amendment to "keep men out of women's restrooms."
Jonathan Matheny, 27, was charged with one count of video voyeurism after a customer told police she had discovered a cell phone equipped with a camera under a pile of tissues in the CVS bathroom at 125 S.W. 34th St.
And you want to talk about predatory behavior towards children, the same Focus On The Family that posted this radio ad...
Here's the TV commercial created by Citizens for Good Public Policy, encouraging Gainesville, Fla. voters to vote "yes" on Charter Amendment 1 on March 24.
Hate for transgender people, and by extension lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, fighting for basic civil rights for LGBT people now includes off-the-shelf lies in opposition television ads about how trans people behave in public restrooms.
Emphazsizing the bathroom (whch we call the Bathroom Meme and the Bathroom Predator Meme) is the new tact for denying the entire LGBT community civil rights -- as this bill is not just about trans people. We, as a community, are going to have to come up with a effective LGBT argument to counter this kind of anti-LGBT ad, or we're going to see this tact used against the entire LGBT community civil rights for a long time to come.
Rosa Frias was working the evening shift at Bimbo Bakeries in South San Francisco when she reached into her bread-making machine to remove a hunk of dried dough.
She screamed as her left hand, and then her lower arm, were sucked into the gears of the Winkler stringline proofer. That night, the limb had to be amputated above the elbow.
The incident drew a $21,750 fine from the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health. But Bimbo paid nothing. It appealed to the Cal-OSHA Appeals Board, which dismissed the case on a technicality...
..."That is mind-boggling," said Linda Delp, director of UCLA's Labor Occupational Safety and Health program.
It is not, however, unusual for companies to fare well on appeals. A Times review found that the board has repeatedly reduced or dismissed penalties levied by Cal-OSHA over the last few years, even in situations in which workers have died or been seriously injured. The board's actions have done more than save companies money. They have undermined Cal-OSHA's efforts to prevent future accidents, according to labor advocates, inspectors and state documents...
Government of the corporate interests, for the corporations, and by the corporate interests. This attitude needs to change, but I have little faith that it actually will.
Gutter politics rides again. We're two weeks out from Election Day in Kalamazoo, and the Anti-Gay Boogeymen are resorting to the oldest, most disgusting trick in the book, the Transgender Bathroom Panic. They've released a new flyer featuring pictures of some famous (and not-so-famous) transgendered folks, accompanied by OMGSCARY blurbs about their alleged transgendered transgressions...stuff like wanting to go to the bathroom. The insinuation, of course, is that if there's a transgendered person using a restroom, that person must be on the prowl looking for helpless pretty young women to rape.
Before we go any further, it's worth noting that the Kalamazoo nondiscrimination ordinance doesn't mention restroom access even once. It's aimed at stopping employers from firing employees because of their sexual orientation and ensuring fair and equitable access to city employment and services...but I digress.
I'm not transgendered and I wouldn't dare dream of speaking for the transgendered community in most cases, but in this case I think it's pretty fair to assume that if a transgendered person is fighting for access to a bathroom, all they want to do is pee...
On that point, writer PerfectStormer has my personal permission to speak for me.
On Oct. 8, the House approved its version of the Matthew Shepard Act, and it awaits Senate approval. The Matthew Shepard Act will broaden the targets of hate crimes to crimes motivated by gender, gender identity, and disability.
In California, such categories of victims are covered but in other states, such as Wyoming, they are not. The federal law would lend consistency across states. There is no logical reason why a gay person could be a victim of a hate crime in one state and not in another.
...I have had personal experience with hate crimes that went unpunished. A gay person close to me was threatened and hurt in a hate crime, enough to go to the hospital, and yet the police who were called to the scene did not arrest the perpetrators. After that, I kept a gun under my bed for several months until I reconsidered the consequences of using it.
I took another gay man to the hospital after he was attacked on the streets of Riverside. For many years, I did not know this friend had been raped as well as brutalized in other ways. His suffering was beyond description.
Hate crimes have more serious effects on the victim than other crimes...
...As well as on people in the same identity community as a hate crime's victim.
DULUTH, Minn. - A northern Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to driving his motorized lounge chair while drunk.
A criminal complaint says 62-year-old Dennis LeRoy Anderson told police he left the Keyboard Lounge in Proctor on his customized La-Z-Boy after drinking eight or nine beers.
Prosecutors say Anderson's blood alcohol content was 0.29, more than three times the legal limit, when he crashed the lounge chair into a parked vehicle in August 2008.
So the lesson for me here is...Well, since I don't own a motorized La-Z-Boy, I don't think there is a lesson for me here!
• A special salute to California's disabled veteran small businesspeople in our Wiener Story Of The Day. From the Los Angeles Times' Carpinteria hot dog vendor relishes his sales-tax victory; After 16 years, the owner of the Surf Dog stand, a disabled veteran, has won an exemption for peddlers such as himself. On Thursday, the dogs are on him...
As light on his feet as the prizefighter he once was, Bill Connell moves quickly around his Carpinteria hot dog stand, jabbing hot sausages, whipping Monster Dogs into buns, and boasting about the recent knockout he scored against state tax officials.
"They told me the law didn't mean what it said in plain language, and I told them: 'Are you kidding me? I was educated in Catholic schools! I know what the law says!' "
For 16 years, Connell sparred with the state Board of Equalization over the interpretation of an 1872 statute exempting street peddlers who are disabled veterans from paying various taxes. This morning, he'll celebrate his victory by giving away hot dogs and carving up sheet cakes decorated with the Stars and Stripes. Politicians who supported Connell's cause will speechify on a platform set up at his Surf Dog stand, a cart commanding an ocean view that would be the envy of any five-star hotel.
...[California state Sen. Jeff Denham (R-Atwater)] sponsored a bill, inspired by Connell, allowing veterans with service-related disabilities not to pay sales taxes when peddling things such as T-shirts, tacos and incense on the street. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed it into law earlier this month.
At the heart of the new law is the notion of the state giving a boost to self-employed veterans. Connell, a former toxic-waste disposal specialist who knows his way around a law book, contended that's exactly what the state wanted to do when it passed laws to that effect in the 1800s. State attorneys disagreed, pointing out that state sales-tax laws weren't imposed until 1933, didn't mention veterans and superseded rules from the previous century.
Horary for this disabled veteran! Good to know too that If I, as a disabled veteran, opened up a hot dog or taco cart anywhere here in my home state, I won't have to charge sales taxes to my customers!
Of course, I'm not thinking about selling hot dogs or tacos from a cart anytime soon...
So anywho...It's an open thread! What are you thinking about today, or what books or articles have you been reading the past few days? Wanna share?
And again, please feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread because...it's an open thread! Woo-hoo!
It's a bit hypocritical when that group was allegedly putting the petition on the ballot to protect women in bathrooms and then the manager of the store who was allowing the petition gathering was in fact preying on women in bathrooms.
~Terry Fleming, spokesman for Equality in Gainesville's Businesses (the political action committee created to oppose the charter amendment that failed at the ballot box)
The CVS Pharmacy manager who allegedly admitted Friday to filming women in his store's bathroom was an active participant in the 2008 charter amendment to "keep men out of women's restrooms."
Jonathan Matheny, 27, was charged with one count of video voyeurism after a customer told police she had discovered a cell phone equipped with a camera under a pile of tissues in the CVS bathroom at 125 S.W. 34th St.
Police are looking for other victims.
The petition drive in the summer of 2008 was aimed at a city ordinance that provided rights, including equal access to public accommodation, for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals.
Matheny signed the petition, according to records with the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections Office, and opponents of the charter amendment say they received reports that Matheny allowed the petitions to be distributed and signed at his store. Those behind the drive said the amendment was essential to prevent men from using the public-accommodation portion of the law to enter women's restrooms and film, rape or otherwise prey on the opposite sex...
There is no case that the conservative "Christians" opponents can point to where a crossdressed or trans individual has engaged in predatory behavior against women or children in public restrooms, yet now we have a case where a supporter of one of these bathroom bills has engaged in predatory behavior -- voyeurism -- against women in a public women's restroom.
I hope our LGBT civil rights organizations note this story about a supporter of an anti-LGBT piece of legislation labeled a "bathroom bill." I believe we need to point to this voyeurism story as relentlessly as "Christian" conservatives would be pointing out a story of a trans or crossdressed individual preying on women or children in a public restroom -- They can't find such a story to point to.
However, now we find a bathroom voyeur in the ranks of the bathroom bill supporters. A campaign conservative "Christian" organizations financially supported.
Sickening.
F***ing Hypocrites.
By the way, CVS has just lost all business from me until they donate significantly to a campaign batting ordiances and legislation for a bill labled by conservative "Christians" as a "bathrom bill." CVS needs to donate significantly to an organization that lesbian, gay, bisexual AND transgender civil rights, and they need to donate significantly to an organization that provides direct services to needy, unemployed transgender people.
CVS needs to own the story of this CVS manager/bathroom predator who worked against trans people -- trans people like me. CVS needs to own this story by doing significant work for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and expecially transgender people their Manager sought to deny civil rights to in a business under the banner of their corporate CVS logo.
With the marriage equality battles going on in Maine and Washington State, and the federal legislation involving hate crimes and employment non-discrimination (ENDA), as well as repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) and the Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA), it's hard to ask lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, along with their friends, family, and allies, to care about a local ordinance regarding LGBT people in city of roughly a hundred-thousand people.
And yet, I'm here to say that the collective you, dear blenders, should care about the battle that's right now going on in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
What One-Kalamazoo is fighting a battle on basic LGBT civil rights protections in their city. The Kalamazoo City Council passed an anti-discrimination ordinance for their city's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) population, and religious right opposition gathered enough signatures to put the new civil rights ordinance up for a referendum. In other words, basic civil rights are again in the ballot in another locality.
This has been a terrible week for conservative gay-haters. First President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize precisely because he refuses to engage in the sort of vehement and rabid hatred that is directed toward him by American conservatives. The award was as much (or more) a slap in the face of the Right as is was a recognition of what Obama has accomplished so far.
The single most significant thing the president has accomplished that no other American has ever done was to end the 43-term white male monopoly of the presidency, and without bloodshed or a military coup. For that alone he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, and that's what makes the prize so offensive to the color-aroused American Obama-haters.
And now, to further upset the Republicans (but mostly just to assure the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals,
Tens of thousands of gay rights activists marched past the White House to the Capitol yesterday, demanding the right to marry and serve openly in the U.S. Military. Washington Post
In music videos, television news casts, and at school, my two step-daughters perceive that virtually every Black woman they see and/or know has chemically or mechanically straightened her hair. So, it ought not surprise me that my sixteen year-old step daughter, graduating from high school in three months, has taken advantage of her new decision-making authority not to choose a university or search for scholarships that suit her interests, but rather to pass an electric iron through her naturally long and wavy hair.
The desire and basic ability to maintain one's personal appearance is a sign of healthy self-esteem and a threshold indication of basic mental health. However, the compulsion to look like someone in a music video or to look just like white people is a psychological illness and a physical health risk and health hazard, as Michael Jackson clearly demonstrated.
Like too many teenagers, she doesn't value what makes her unique, but wishes she could be "just like everybody else." My wife and I have expressed our opinions to her since before she was an adolescent - that the pressure for Black women to straighten their hair is part of a determined effort by whites - in the media and even in job interviews - to assert that their hair, like everything else about them, is inherently better than Blacks' natural superficial physical characteristics.
(I know that many Black women and men were born with naturally straight hair and I am not talking about them, so let's not distract ourselves with questions that are irrelevant to this particular discussion.)
I'm talking about the tremendous pressure Black women feel to straighten their hair - at any cost - in order, effectively, to look more like white girls. (Some Black women, like my step-daughters, are born looking more like white girls because they have DNA from white people in their family genetic heritages.) However, long and wavy hair has not been enough for them. They want their hair to be perfectly straight.
This issue is not merely one of aesthetics. Here in Brazil, women use a process called "permanent progressive" wherein formaldehyde (a known carcinogen) is placed in the hair and then washed out. If two much formaldehyde is used or it is not washed out soon enough, Black women can literally die for straight hair. I reported such a case at the American Journal of Color Arousal (AMJCA) on August 14, 2009:
The television news report in this YouTube video says that 150 children per year die in Brazil while styling their hair, with 49% dying as the result of electrical shocks. “Parents should not allow their children to use these electrical mechanisms because of the risk of electrical shocks” says one professional interviewed on the news.
One of Brasil's top media outlets reported:
Women never stop efforts to become more beautiful. For centuries, they have been squeezing into corsets to keep their waists thin. In China and Japan, women bandaged their feet to make them smaller. Now the madness has gone beyond hair removal. Many women are putting their health (and their lives) in danger to keep the hair smooth and voluminous.
The death of a 33 year-old housewife in Missouri, this week raised the controversy over the new hair straightening techniques. Maria Ení da Silva died after undergoing a escova progressiva (permanent straigtening). According to her family, she applied a mixture of cream and formaldehyde at a hairdressing salon on Saturday, March 17, and was directed not to wash her hair for three days. During this period, she complained of headaches, shortness of breath and itching. On Tuesday, March 20, she fell ill, was taken to two hospitals and died. Globo.Com
This story is particularly maddening for my wife and me. Last year, disobeying my wife’s firm and repeated decision, our youngest daughter went to a local store and bought an electrical hair straightener, because virtually all of the girls at her school electrically or chemically straighten their hair. The social pressure she feels to straighten hair is intense. When girls straighten their hair, their peers, boys, parents and community suddenly begin to say, “You look beautiful. You look so pretty with your hair straight.”
Sometimes I get so mired in the negatives attached to reporting stories about trans people and issues I "lose" the good stories. Not today: I'm not losing this wonderful story out of Nashville, Tennessee. Quoting from the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (TTPC) press release:
[September 16th], the Council of Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County adopted a fully inclusive Non-Discrimination Ordinance, which bans discrimination against Metro employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The vote was 24 to 15. In the process, Nashville joins a growing list of communities all across the country to provide an explicit ban on discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, and the first city in Tennessee to do so.
The Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition appreciates the work of all who made this possible...
...There was also a second non-discrimination ordinance, BL2009-526, which was offered by opponents of equality for LGBT people, which initially did not have an explicit ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Language banning discrimination against LGBT workers was added to the bill by amendment. Sadly, the amendment to add "gender identity" prompted cynical and offensive comments by several Councilmembers about transgender people and bathrooms. Fortunately, this desperate attack was rejected and the Transgender Amendment was adopted 22 to 17...
...This alternate ordinance, which is now fully inclusive of the entire LGBT community, will have its Third and Final Reading on Tuesday, October 6.
We thank everyone who worked on these two ordinances for your support. Please be sure to add your own voice of thanks to all the councilmembers who voted to ban discrimination in Nashville.
One of the things I constantly battle as a African descended person trying to tell my stories or speak my mind about issues is vanilla flavored privilege filled folks deploying an array of silencing techniques.
They attempt to shut down or divert the conversation from whatever points I was attempting to make.
Just because what I or any other POC has to say makes you uncomfortable or does not neatly line up with your worldview doesn't make it wrong.
It also doesn't give you the right to attempt to shout it down...
You go, Monica! My gawd, no one is going to be successful shutting you up!
Very seriously, there is a reason why I read Monica Roberts' blog on a regular basis...she has a finger on the pulse on the intersection of race, gender, and transness -- among other intersections. She's a particularly good writer to boot.
The first National Punctuation Day® Baking Contest will highlight the celebration of the 6th National Punctuation Day (NPD) on September 24, 2009.
NPD is celebrated in schools and businesses throughout the world with activities, games, programs, and contests. It has inspired people to pay attention not only to their p's and q's, but also their commas, semicolons, and ellipses. NPD reminds us of the importance of proper punctuation for communicating clearly at home, school, or at work.
NPD has received worldwide media attention since former newspaperman Jeff Rubin founded the holiday in 2004, with newspaper coverage from Manila to London and from Seoul to Seattle, in addition to broad radio and TV coverage in the United States-including a short segment on Regis and Kelly in 2008...
There have five of these National Punctuation Day®s before and this is the first I've heard of it?!?!?! And, are we to understand that baking is an appropriate way to celebrate the day? Exclamation point!
Several months ago the Kalamazoo City Commission approved an anti-discrimination statute that protects gay, lesbian and transgender individuals from discrimination. Opponents of the ordinance gathered a few thousand petition signatures against the law, however, and by law the City had to either repeal the law or put it on the November ballot. So now the law is on the November ballot.
Just glancing at the "Vote No to Discrimination" language I assumed this was from one of the groups seeking to keep the law. It quickly became clear, however, that instead this was from the various anti-gay groups trying to overturn the law. Here's a scan of the bizarre flier...
I'd call it lying about trans people and public restrooms -- it's the Bathroom Meme. I guarantee you that the people behind this flier can't point to a single case of a crossdressed individual preying women or children in a public restroom, but they prey on fear because they likely consider my peers and me to be sinners who don't deserve civil rights protections under the law.
Of course, the "Show us one case of this happening" argument doesn't resonate as a response. And, as Transmissions columnist Gwen Smith has pointed out, we really need a response to this Bathroom Meme that actually resonates. Frankly, the "protect the womminsfolk" argument resonates with many folk conservative "Christian" -- and some other folk in the general population -- as a "it could ZOMG happen!" what-a-garble. It's works as an othering argument regarding trans women; we're often seen as strange, alien, and not-human "it" creatures.
• Los Angeles Times' For the Amish, newspapers are in no danger; With online competitors posing no threat, the Budget holds steady, linking communities with news about new silos, tomato blight and neighbors who've been kicked by a horse:
The latest edition of the Budget had just hit newsstands and Amish family mailboxes, and already fresh updates were pouring in.
"Canning is coming to a close," read one report from Salem, Mo. "The weather is very humid to hot today," said another from Grabill, Ind.
The big news from Cottage Grove, Tenn.: "Thomas Hostetler hurt his ankle while loading grain onto the truck from the grain cart."
The Budget is not your typical newspaper. Since 1890, it has served as the primary communication link among Amish settlements across the country...
Great article -- a something I've never thought about before reading this piece. Articles like that one are why I surf the web for news, most days.
Last night, ORDINANCE NO. BL2009-502, which would ban discrimination in the Metro Government based on sexual orientation or gender identity, was passed on Second Reading by the Metro Council before a full chamber of supporters and opponents. The vote was 23 to 16.
If your Councilmember voted YES last night, please send them a personal letter thanking them for standing up against discrimination and in favor of equal rights and fair treatment of Metro employees. We still them to vote YES on the Third and Final Reading in September.
If your Councilmember voted NO last night, please send them a personal letter letting them know where you stand, and that it is not too late to join the fight against discrimination. Feel free to share this story from the Nashville City Paper about their colleague, Buddy Baker.
You can find the contact information of Council members by clicking here. You can also use this special Feedback page to send an-email.
If you do not know the name of your District Councilmember, then click here to Find Where You Vote and the District in which you live.
Obama has promised the sky to homosexual activists and the abortion lobby and has moved quickly toward that end. On July 16, the Senate voted for a "hate crimes" bill that will lay the foundation for crushing freedom of speech, religion and association with regard to sexual morality. The health care scheme is rife with opportunities for exotic entitlements like tax-funded abortion and even sex-change operations. A homosexual activist, Kevin Jennings, whose group promotes books to kids that contain graphic accounts of adults seducing teens, has been appointed head of the Department of Education's "safe schools" program, which is like naming Ozzy Osbourne to be drug czar. And Obama says he wants to lift the military ban on open homosexuality and overturn the Defense of Marriage Act.
Again with the myths of tax-funded abortions and sex change operations. Want more Knight? Well, you get more anyway...
...ENDA adds not only "sexual orientation" but "gender identity" to federal workplace anti-discrimination law. Thus, it takes an ax to the idea that sexual behavior has a natural normalcy or any relation to morality. It falsely equates a changeable condition (sexual desire) with race and ethnicity. Worse, it turns traditional values into a form of bigotry punishable under the law.
Just as current federal law falsely equates another changeable condition -- religious creed and affiliation -- with race and ethnicity! Egads!
Mr. Knight's conclusion:
...Our very survival is at stake, not just our economic well-being. When a spirited crowd rightly puts the screws to our rulers over their financial profligacy, someone needs to ask them as well why they're serving as crew members on cultural bombers piloted by Pelosi, Obama and Kennedy.
There's still time for these "leaders" to repent, or at least grab a parachute before the coming crash.
Spankings, sackcloth, and ashes for every Democrat!
Salt Lake City resident Candice Metzler wanted to let her work colleagues see the transition she already had begun in her personal life. Known to them as a man, Metzler wore mascara, eyeliner and white-tipped acrylic nails to a company barbecue.
Three months later, Metzler, was unemployed and homeless. Although her boss had supported her coming out as transgender, clients began shunning the small, home-inspection enterprise after the picnic. The struggling business let Metzler go.
She felt the sting of discrimination more sharply, she said, as she applied to job after job in the construction industry but was turned down. She lost her home and lived on the streets for nearly a year. She finally found a job as a receptionist.
..."We can get past the issue of who's going to use a bathroom," she said. "As individuals, we know who we are. We don't have to have someone tell us who we are. Fairness [is] giving people that respect." ...
We need a fully inclusive ENDA. What are you personally doing to make sure, dear blenders, that we get a fully inclusive ENDA? Called -- or even emailed -- your senator about the ENDA bill lately? If you haven't, go to Bilerico and check out the ENDA Targeted Legislator of the Day section to get an idea who needs to be contacted, and how to relatively easily do it.
In a burger battle royal, a rival to McDonald's Corp. came out swinging Wednesday, taking on the venerable Big Mac and talking smack about the Golden Arches' new Angus burger.
Carl's Jr. launched the Big Carl, a double burger with cheese and a Thousand Island-style sauce. The burger is being launched with an ad campaign aimed at belittling the Big Mac.
Carpinteria, Calif.-based CKE Restaurants Inc., which earlier this decade pioneered the Angus burger concept, at least among fast-food chains, owns Carl's Jr., along with Hardee's...
But how does it taste? It's like the biggest point for me -- taste -- is not really part of the ad blitz.
• Wiener story of the day: Dallas Morning News' Texas Fishing Report (emphasis added):
Here is the weekly fishing report as compiled for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for Aug. 19. (Report also available on Web as http://www.txfishing.com.)
CENTRAL
...BELTON: Water clear; 89 degrees; 7.31' low. Black bass are fair on Rat-L-Traps and spinnerbaits around structure. Hybrid striper are slow. White bass are slow. Crappie are fair on minnows in 30 feet. Channel and blue catfish are good onhot dogs, Spam, and summer sausage. Yellow catfish are slow...
So anywho...It's an open thread! What are you thinking about today, or what books or articles have you been reading the past few days? Please feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread because...it's an open thread! Woo-hoo!
Martha Lynn Craver, Associate Editor of The Kiplinger Letter, posted a piece yesterday entitled A Ban on Discrimination Against Gay Employees Is Likely. The subheader to the story isBut whether to include protections for transgendered persons will be a sticking point. Their take:
Odds are good that Congress will pass a bill to ban job discrimination based on sexual orientation. It will expand current federal employment law, which bars bias on the basis of a worker's race, religion, gender, national origin, age or disability.
Less certain is whether the final legislation will also include a ban on discrimination of transgendered persons, which is more controversial. The antidiscrimination bill, introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), does include such gender identity protections, but employer groups are concerned about that provision. For example, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) says that while it will support sexual orientation discrimination protection, it will not support gender identity protections.
Q8: Why does the SHRM statement not cover "gender identity"?
A: While most SHRM members who participated in the development of our sexual orientation statement believed people should not be discriminated against based on their gender identity, there was universal concern expressed over the process to accommodate individuals in transgender situations. Since these accommodation challenges raised so many concerns among supporters and opponents alike, "gender identity" was not included in the SHRM statement.
So according to Kiplinger's report, a fully inclusive ENDA is in trouble.
And on top of that, I found out that SHRM still isn't onboard with gender identity or expression inclusion in ENDA because they are worried about accommodating people like me. I'm guessing their apparent fretting about the "challenges" that businesses could have trying to "accommodate" gender variant/trans people is code for saying that they're worrying about gender variant/trans people using workplace restrooms -- why give direct voice to their biased prejudgments and illiberality when one can use code words and phrases instead?
Just swell on all counts.
Well, I need to call my two California Senator's offices this coming week to thank them for voting favorably on the Matthew Shepard Act last week...So while on the phone thanking them via their phone answering staff members, I'll also need to remind their office staff members during those phone calls -- as well as calling and reminding the office phone answering staff member of my congressmember Susan Davis (D-CA) -- about how important a fully inclusive ENDA is to this particular voter as well.
Senate Democrats said on Monday that they would seek to broaden the federal hate crimes law to protect victims of attacks based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disabilities.
To lift the chances of passage, Democrats said the legislation, known as the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, would be attached as an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill - a must-pass measure.
The proposal is named for Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was tied to a fence, beaten and left to die in 1998.
The Senate approved the legislation last year, also as part of the military authorization bill, but it was never reconciled with a similar House-passed bill.
Didn't we try this last session (2007/2008)? The House Democrats wanted a stand alone bill, while the Senate Democrats connected the bill to the Defense Appropriation Act. Nothing ever made it to President Bush's desk.
If the same scenario plays out in the 2009/2010 version of the Matthew Shepard Act, how does the Democratic Party believe the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community would respond to not getting federal hate crimes legislation to President Obama's desk? -- A president who would sign such a bill?
To quote the musical The Music Man:
"Ya' got trouble,
my friend,
right here,
I say,
Trouble right here
in River City."
Even with the District's comprehensive Human Rights Act, which includes protections for gender identity or expression, trans and gender non-conforming people continue to experience verbal and physical harassment ranging from being attacked and thrown out to even being arrested for simply trying to use the bathroom in the District. In fact, according to a recent citywide survey for transgender and gender non-conforming people, 70 percent of respondents indicated that they had experienced problems accessing or using gender segregated bathrooms.
"Since its founding in 2005, the DCTC has organized community members to fight for the human rights of and equal access for trans and gender non-conforming people living in the District of Columbia. The Bathroom Access and Safety Campaign carries on this commitment, ensuring that the District's laws are appropriately enforced, making certain that trans and gender non-conforming residents have equal access and appropriate safety when using restroom facilities along with other public accommodations," said Sadie Baker, a member of the DCTC.
Regulations accompanying the Human Rights Act clarify that all residents have the right to use a bathroom consistent with their gender identity or expression, regardless of real or perceived assigned sex or gender expression. The regulations also specify that all single occupancy restrooms (i.e., any restroom intended for use by one person at a time) in any public or commercial space, like a restaurant, should use gender neutral signage only. For example, signs reading "Men" and "Women" must be replaced with signs that read "Restroom," or another non-gendered label.
"Despite these regulations, many businesses all over DC are not in compliance with the law, which is why we created this campaign. We are developing a list of all non-compliant businesses throughout DC so that we can inform the Office of Human Rights. OHR Director Velasquez has agreed to help by sending all the businesses we identify a letter informing them of the Human Rights Act and what they need to do in order to be compliant. The businesses will then have 30 days to change their signs, at which point we will check back. It is our hope that all business will comply with OHR's request. If they do not, we will report them to city officials who will initiate a discrimination complaint," said Jody Herman, a member of the DCTC.
Basically, The District of Colombia's Trans Coalition (DCTC) and the District of Colombia's Office Of Human Rights (OHR) have asked that community members help by identifying restaurants, cafes or any other public or commercial spaces that are not in compliance with the law -- If you live in DC, please take a read at the Presser and consider helping in this undertaking.
FindLaw columnist and human rights attorney Joanne Mariner comments upon Newsweek's recent report that Attorney General Holder is considering appointing a prosecutor to look into Bush Administration interrogation abuses. Mariner argues that Holder should make the appointment, which she says would send the strongest possible message to the world that the U.S. does not employ, endorse, or condone torture. However, she also expresses concern about the reported scope of the potential prosecutorial task, which is said to be limited to investigating only interrogation tactics that went beyond those authorized by lawyers. Mariner contends that opting for such a narrow scope would validate the erroneous legal opinions of attorneys who were simply Bush Administration ideologues providing easy rubber-stamps; and would mischaracterize the facts, styling Bush Administration torture as the work of a few rogues, not the officially-validated policy it actually was. Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Is David Tennant coming to Comic-Con International to say goodbye ... or to announce the start of something big? The time traveler is on the clock when it comes to his signature role - the announced plan is that he will leave the character behind after a series of specials that will air on the BBC next year - but there has been speculation across the Atlantic that he is coming to San Diego to announce a Doctor Who feature film. Could it be true? It seems unlikely to me, but (ahem) time will tell...
This is Dr. Who -- Stranger things have happened in that franchise's plot lines.
Imagine a conservative "Christian" organization using the other f-word to describe gay men. No "reputable" religious right organization would use that term to describe gay men these days -- they know the focus they would receive on using that kind of expressed hate speech would be blistering, and define their particular organization as pariah organization among the civil, political classes.
The most recent example of this organization -- the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) -- using the pejorative she-maleon their webpages comes their June 22nd piece by their Executive Director Andrea Lafferty, entitled It's Baaackkk: ENDA!. In her piece, Lafferty states the following about a fully inclusive ENDA -- calling Rep. Barney Frank's legislative aide Diego Sanchez by the pejorative (emphasis added):
What made the ENDA debate almost enjoyable during the last Congress was the major "drama-rama" over which version of ENDA to bring to the floor for a vote.
For months gays and transgender activists fought among themselves over whether or not to include "gender identity" in the bill. The drag queens and transsexuals wanted "gender identity," but Frank finally agreed to remove "gender identity" from the legislation in order to try to get it passed.
However, this is a new Congress and a new President who is a big supporter of all things LGBT. This new bill will include "gender identity," because Frank knows that Obama is cozy with the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) crowd and can be counted on to push the LGBT agenda.
Frank's senior policy advisor on ENDA is Diego Sanchez, who is described as a "transgender." Sanchez is a woman who either went through a sex change operation; or is living as a man, but hasn't had any surgery, or is a she-male who went through half of the operation. If this is the case, Diego had his breasts surgically removed, but still maintains female characteristics below the waist.
The article goes on to talk about bathroom use for folk like Mr. Sanchez.
So why aren't our lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organizations in Washington calling out the TVC for their use of pejoratives -- while pointing out that the Republican's in Congress got their sexual orientations talking point for the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act from an organization that uses the dehumanizing, anti-transgender pejorative she-male on a regular basis? A term that transgender people consider at least as offensive as the other f-word?
I don't know. One of our DC based LGBT new or legacy media sources should be asking our LGBT civil rights organizations that.
~~~~~
Further reading:
* Traditional Values Coalition keyword search: she-male * Jenn Q. Public: Conservatives, Meet Google (Article on the conservative "Christian" and Republican use of "30 Sexual Orientations" meme)
GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, is proud to join the National Safe Schools Partnership in supporting the Safe Schools Improvement Act, a federal anti-bullying bill introduced today in the House of Representatives by Calif. Rep. Linda Sánchez. Sánchez was joined by lead cosponsors Fla. Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and N.Y. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy among the total of 40 bipartisan cosponsors.
The bill requires schools that receive Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act funding to implement a comprehensive anti-bullying policy that enumerates categories often targeted by bullies, including race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression and others. It also requires states to include bullying and harassment data in their state-wide needs assessments reporting.
Current federal law provides important federal support to promote school safety but does not comprehensively and expressly focus on issues of bullying or harassment.
"GLSEN would like to thank Congresswoman Sánchez and the Safe Schools Improvement Act's bipartisan cosponsors for their leadership in trying to make schools safer for all students," GLSEN Executive Director Eliza Byard said. "Bullying is a serious public health crisis that affects countless young people every day in America's schools. The recent suicides by two young boys who experienced constant bullying at school are a tragic reminder that more needs to be done to address the problem.
"This bill will go a long way toward laying a foundation of support for students across the country by calling for the kind of policies that matter. We urge Congress to pass this crucially important bill for the well being of America's youth."
This is important; this bill includes anti-bullying protections for the future generations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students, as well as for other minority groups. Just as we need federal hate crime legislation to deal with the terrorism that hate crimes inflict on broader communities, we need anti-bullying legislation to protect LGBT and other minority youth from terrorism in their schools.
And, trust me, somehow this legislation will be defined by conservative "Christian" organizations as another "bathroom bill," so it's important for us to remember this is about protecting our LGBT youth from harassment and violence in the school environment, and even suicide by minority youth because of intolerable conditions in the schools they attend. This really is about protecting vulnerable youth.
Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute, says the [San Francisco Unified School District] is excluding parents on this issue.
"What about parents? Can parents opt [their child] out?" she asks. "And the explanation that they give is that, no, they can't opt out. [They say they] are under no obligation to even let them know because this is not sex education -- and that's all the law requires [them] to do."
England says children as young as kindergarten in the Golden State are exposed to the LGBTQ agenda through the website. "And that [includes] transgender policy that allows boys, as young as kindergarten, to go into girls' restrooms [or to] play on girls' sports teams if they perceive themselves to be girls," she explains.
"And [it includes] curriculum -- that is as young as kindergarten -- that explains homophobia, explains the word 'gay,'" England adds. The vocabulary link at the website also defines terms such as "bisexual," "gender identity" ("Everyone has a gender identity," it says), and "transgender."
Ah yes. We don't exclude training on heterosexual parentage from the curriculum because it's traditional marriage embraced by conservative "Christians."
Should we apply the same rules for discussing the non-sexual aspects of conservative "Christian," heterosexual parents and children too, to include bathroom use? Should I, as an LGBT taxpayer in California, be able to demand the same standards that Karen England wishes to impose on one minority population who uses the public school system on all populations who use the public school system?
Talk about wanting "special rights" ... That sure sounds to me what Karen England wants for conservative "Christians" -- she wants conservative "Christians" to have the special right of deciding what is acceptable and not acceptable in the school system for all students.
When conservative "Christian" Jesus is your co-pilot, I guess you can feel that as a parent you should have "special rights" over other parents and other students who aren't in your group -- right Karen?
As you can see by this partial rundown, we're hard at work safeguarding the family - and that's thanks to your faithful prayers and financial support. Most of these issues are fast-breaking, so I encourage you to take advantage of the many resources Focus Action produces to educate, motivate and activate like-minded Americans to engage in our government "of the people, by the people and for the people."
I thank you for your prayers for our nation, and I certainly appreciate your prayers for Focus Action, too. If you haven't supported Focus Action financially in a while, this would be a great time to help us deal with a mountain of challenges and opportunities. And if you're a regular contributor, God bless you for making what we do possible.
Focus On The Family Action™ is again asking for donations, and of course they're doing it on the backs of marriage equality and, to quote them, "bathroom bills." From the text of their email on their "accomplishments" they want you to continue to support with your financial donations:
Playing defense--and offense--all over the country
But our nation's capital is not the only source of concern for the welfare of the family. Our staff (and budget) has been put to the test this year with a nonstop barrage of anti-family legislation in state after state. I couldn't be prouder of how our team has risen to the challenge of addressing each situation. And I'm so thankful for friends like you who have prayed for us or who have given to support our work on behalf of the family.
• Homosexual activists are pushing their agenda in state after state.
º Same-sex marriage: Four states (New York, New Hampshire, Maine and Minnesota) are facing full-fledged same-sex "marriage" bills, and an attempt is expected in New Jersey before the end of the year. Vermont recently legalized gay marriage by a vote of its Legislature. And Iowa started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples this week following a state Supreme Court ruling earlier this month that created gay marriage.
º Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships: Bills in Hawaii and New Mexico were defeated this spring, thanks to citizen involvement. Unfortunately, a bill to extend all rights and benefits of marriage to domestic partners in Washington state is expected to be signed into law; and a bill to grant benefits for the same-sex partners of Colorado state employees is heading to the governor's desk.
º "Bathroom Bills": We're thrilled to report that "bathroom bills" - which would allow men to use women's restrooms in the name of preventing discrimination against transgendered individuals - failed in North Dakota, New York and New Hampshire. These victories are due to the diligent work of state-based, pro-family groups, as well as resources we were able to deliver because of your support.
I would feel sorry for Tom Minnery and his peers at Focus On The Family -- in how they don't get Christ's messages on love -- but it's hard to feel sorry for Minnery and his peers when they raise money in God's name to accomplish bigotry and harm real people...real human beings.
A trial to determine the constitutionality of a California law that provides special status based on "gender identity" is set to begin April 14 in Sacramento.
You would think from the headline and first paragraph that this is a law that specifically and only deals with gender identity or expression, trans people, or crossdressed/transgender predators using the bathrooms/locker rooms. Oh no, it certainly isn't. From the next paragraph of the article:
SB 777, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2008, prohibits teaching or any activity that "reflects adversely upon" or "promotes a discriminatory bias" because of sexual orientation or gender.
To cast this bill as a gender identity bill is to intentionally change the focus of the bill. Here's what SB 777, per Equality California, was written to do. Pay close attention to the Why Is This Bill Important? section :
PURPOSE OF THE PROPOSED LAW
Under existing law, Education Code Section 220, students are protected from discrimination in all publicly-funded educational institutions based on actual or perceived disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or association with a person who has any of these characteristics. However, other nondiscrimination provisions in the Education Code, which govern programs and activities that are also covered by Section 220, vary in the types of protections they explicitly provide. Senate Bill 777 would correct such inconsistencies by referencing a single, comprehensive nondiscrimination standard throughout these various laws.
BACKGROUND
AB 537 (Kuehl), the Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000, created an expansive law banning discrimination in schools against individuals who are members of specified categories known as "protected classes." This law applies to all publicly-funded educational programs and activities and includes a prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and association with another person who is protected under these categories.
Despite the broad protections created by AB 537, there are several additional nondiscrimination statutes in the Education Code that vary in the lists of protected classes they cover. For example, a provision relating to charter schools prohibits "racial, sex or ethnic discrimination." Another statute prohibits the adoption of instructional materials that contain matter reflecting adversely on persons because of their "race, sex, color, creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, handicap or occupation." Such inconsistencies lead to deficiencies in protection for students and confusion for teachers and school personnel who are responsible for implementing and complying with the law.
WHY IS THIS BILL IMPORTANT?
Students in California report significant harassment because of actual or perceived sexual orientation. Data from the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS, 2000-2001), the largest study of students in California schools, shows that every year over 200,000 students are harassed because they are gay or lesbian or someone thought they were. This harassment is linked to higher levels of academic, health and safety risk.
This law went into effect on January 1, 2008. This is what Focus On Teh Family is telling their flock is the negative effect of the law:
The effects of the legislation are playing out in schools across the state. In one Northern California school, a boy was forced to change clothes in a boys' locker room where a girl was dressing.
"Of course, that would have a significant impact on kids, particularly kids going through puberty," said Robert Tyler, founder of Advocates for Faith and Freedom. "It's a perfect example of how ridiculous this law is."
So, take note of this: Focus On The Family is using gender identity as their new anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights and protections talking point. I believe this is a trend for future culture war battles -- the battles will be cast in terms of gender identity, transgender, and of course the crossdressed/transgender bathroom meme. Focus On Teh Family used the terminology of gender identity this time to argue against a bill that is a LGBT civil rights bill...
...Much as the crossdressed/transgender bathroom meme was unsuccessfully used in Gainesville a few weeks ago in an attempt to erase the rights of the entire lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.
In the wrong kind of way, trans is the new gay in the culture war's battle against basic civil rights and protections for the whole of LGBT people.
The House will re-fight at least one social issue from the culture wars of last month: The transgender-rights bill or the bathroom bill, whatever you prefer to call it, will be re-fought on the House floor first thing Wednesday morning. Democratic Rep. Kathleen Taylor of Franconia filed for reconsideration.
Sponsor Ed Butler sounded hopeful last week that the second vote may be different than the first, which followed the House's votes on gay marriage, medicinal marijuana and the death penalty.
"The vote came at the end of three long days of discussion and deliberation and voting, and
a lot of people could not stay at the end of Thursday's debates, so there were a few votes made with many representatives not present," said Butler, a Democrat from Hart's Location.
He doubts that a lot of debate will be needed. "I think people will have thought about the issue and decided whether or not they're going to change their vote," he said. He added: "The real issue is that people weren't there."
My hope is that this bill passes on try number two. Frankly, it would be too heartbreaking to see this same bill fail twice in the same New Hampshire House session.
On Tuesday morning -- on the International Day Of Transgender Visibility -- I went in for "routine" medical care that for a trans person like me perhaps isn't so routine: I went in for my annual mammogram.
My primary healthcare provider is the Veterans Administration, but the Veterans Administration's San Diego medical facility doesn't currently have the capability to do mammograms. So Tuesday, I went to my "outsourced" mammogram appointment at the Navy Medical Center, San Diego.
At what age did you have your first period?
Parking was atrocious -- it literally took me close to an hour to find a parking spot. Of course I was late for my appointment, but they smiled and took me anyway.
Is there a possibility that you may be pregnant?
I had to go to the restroom, so after checking in, I went to go pee. As I prefer, and since one was available in the clinic, I peed in a single stall restroom. I know I'm always thinking about my trans peers and me every time I need to go to use a public restroom, especially since the religious right has started pressing the crossdressed/transgender bathroom predator meme.
When I came out of the restroom, the very nice man at the front counter handed me two forms to fill out. They offered me a pen with a plastic flower taped to it, but I said I'd use my ergonomic pen instead. I do have a "bad" wrist from a 1995 trip and fall accident -- I broke a bone in my wrist in the fall.
The very first question, after asking for my name, was this:
Sex: Male Female
I noticed that on the sticker stuck to the top of my two forms -- the stickers with the Navy Medical Center stored data base about me --stated my sex was MALE. (Why did they ask my name and sex again if it's already on the sticker?)
Well, I decided to be transgressive and check the box for Female.
With President Bush's conscience rule withdrawn, I have no fear of telling medical providers that this veteran is a transsexual. So, near the bottom of the first form, there was another box with three blank lines going across it. Above those three blank lines, the form asked me if there was anything related to the mammogram that I needed to let the health care providers know. I boldly wrote:
I am a male-to-female transsexual.
My mammogram went just fine, thank you. Even though I'm a kind and smile-filed person, I'm always prepared to deal with inappropriate comments or behavior from the government employed healthcare providers -- always ready to ask why their bigotry is getting in the way of treating a veteran with respect to their service. Yet, I've never had even one treat me with anything but the purest of professionalism -- I've never had to challenge anyone on their bigoted speech or behavior because I just haven't experienced it.
That I've never had to fight against those who serve active duty service members and veterans -- in fact never had anything but positive comments about them -- actually makes me a bit proud of those VA and of those Navy Medical Center, San Diego employees. Here in my city, these wonderful folk serve all active duty servicemembers and retired veterans with honor, respect, and professionalism.
But, I'm not afraid, and I'm not trying to hide my trans history, or my trans status. Imagine if you didn't want to disclose that you were born male -- asking you when you had your last period, or asking how many children have you given birth to -- these questions could bring moments of pain and sadness to a trans patient. And, if you go to a medical provider who asks those questions of you, and when you give them honest answers indicating your trans history, and then the staff treats you in a bigoted way -- would you disclose the next time? Would you even go a next time?
I'm transgressive -- I'm public and proud of being trans, and frankly I don't take sh** -- every day for me is a Transgender Day Of Visibility. Yet, if I weren't so transgressive, answering those questions on those forms could have left me in an absolutely horrible state.
And, horrible experiences in medical settings are common for trans people. So for those of us who are out and proud as transgender, being visible in medical settings is incredibly important -- a better future world for gender variant youth and adult transgender people depends a great deal on what out and proud transgender people do "today."
I believe I owe today's and tomorrow's transyouth hope, as well as a world full of gender identity and expression related civil rights and protections for them. So, I stay visible "today" -- such as I was at the Navy Medical Center, San Diego yesterday.
This attitude needs to change, but I have little faith that it actually will.
On that point, writer PerfectStormer has my personal permission to speak for me.
to California's disabled veteran small businesspeople in our Wiener Story Of The Day. From the Los Angeles Times' 
For 16 years, Connell sparred with the state Board of Equalization over the interpretation of an 1872 statute exempting street peddlers who are disabled veterans from paying various taxes. This morning, he'll celebrate his victory by giving away hot dogs and carving up sheet cakes decorated with the Stars and Stripes. Politicians who supported Connell's cause will speechify on a platform set up at his Surf Dog stand, a cart commanding an ocean view that would be the envy of any five-star hotel.
Good to know too that If I, as a disabled veteran, opened up a hot dog or taco cart anywhere here in my home state, I won't have to charge sales taxes to my customers!
My gawd, no one is going to be successful shutting you up! 
There have five of these National Punctuation Day®s before and this is the first I've heard of it?!?!?! 
And, are we to understand that baking is an appropriate way to celebrate the day? Exclamation point!
Robert Knight, for the Concerned Women For America, entitled 
Just as current federal law falsely equates another changeable condition -- religious creed and affiliation -- with race and ethnicity! Egads!
So Tuesday, I went to my "outsourced" mammogram appointment at the 
They offered me a pen with a plastic flower taped to it, but I said I'd use my ergonomic pen instead. I do have a "bad" wrist from a 1995 trip and fall accident -- I broke a bone in my wrist in the fall.
Female 
always ready to ask why their bigotry is getting in the way of treating a veteran with respect to their service. Yet, I've never had even one treat me with anything but the purest of professionalism -- I've never had to challenge anyone on their bigoted speech or behavior because I just haven't experienced it.
