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.
I just knew I was not going to like the take on trans people when I had an article entitled My Boyfriend Turned Out To Be A Girl. The piece was forwarded to me by teen lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community activist Ariel Bustamante.
In quick summary, in the Seventeen magazine issue for November, a young adult named Sheri, in an "as told to Jessica Press" article, talks about dating someone who the article describes as a liar -- a female-to-male young trans man who the article proclaimed as really being a "she." The bolded and enlarged segment of the article text, put into a text box in the center of the piece, stated "It felt like my whole first love was a lie."
The thrust of the article, from the article headline to the bolded and highlighted text, seemed to be that female-to-male transsexuals are really females who are deceiving others. This isn't supported by "Sheri"/Jessica Press's use of proper pronouns throughout the piece, but it is accomplished in the headline chosen for the piece, and the highlighted and bolded call-out boxes for the piece.
The gist of the article, from the article headline to the bolded and highlighted text, seemed to be that female-to-male transsexuals are really females who are deceiving others.
Facebook webpage group organizer Ariel Bustamante said this about the article:
Rather than use this opportunity to educate readers about transgender issues, it never once even uses any terminology (well, unless you consider the slur "he-she") but instead furthers the common transphobic assumption that someone who's gender does not match their sex assigned at birth is a deceptive liar and even compares them (at the bottom) to perverts, drug addicts, and older dad's trying to get someone young w/o disclosing their parental/age status.
Please read the article (follow the 1st link) done in poor taste with a terrible accusatory tone from the get-go and write a letter to the editor (mail@seventeen.com) expressing your opinion about the article, the implications it has, and ask them to put an apology in one of their next 2 issues.
If you do had sent such an e-letter to Seventeen, Ariel sent me the boiler plate response that the letter writers have received back from them to this point:
Hey [Insert Name Here]!
Thank you so much for writing us! We apologize if the article "My Boyfriend Turned Out to Be a Girl" upset or troubled you in any way. Please know that we understand LGBT issues are very sensitive and certainly did not intend to spread misinformation or prejudice. We will definitely take your comments into account and be more careful in the future.
Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.
[Below the fold: What GLAAD and the Associated Press recommend about reporting on trans people, and the Harsh Realities that many trans youth experience that Seventeen didn't note.]
It's an open thread! Pleeeeease feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread...
I was feeling ill on Thursday, so below is what my cartoon sockpuppet Bookworm Bob & I have been looking at from the week into the weekend.
• The episode is entitled Removing Excuses From the Bedroom (Part 1 of 2): I swear, I am not making this text up from the Focus On The Family email for this particular Focus on the Family Daily Broadcast:
Ladies, have you ever feigned a headache to avoid your husband's sexual advances? Today's guest says it's time to stop making excuses!
When men are surveyed about ways their marriage could improve, 80 percent of them say they want more sex. They also want their wives to demonstrate a greater interest in sex, and to initiate it more often. Why are many wives reluctant to fulfill their husband's physical needs? With humor and candor, Dr. Julianna Slattery talks today about the four "headaches" - or excuses - wives commonly employ when putting off their husband's advances. Listen in as Dr. Slattery - a family psychologist and adjunct professor at the Focus Leadership Institute - explains why sex is so important to men and why wives should make it a higher priority. Don't miss the helpful insights Dr. Slattery offers from her book No More Headaches: Enjoying Sex and Intimacy in Marriage.
"Our husbands did not ask to struggle in this way. It's the way God wired them, and they happen to be in a culture that makes it a gazillion times worse. Instead of coming at it with this judgmental moral higher ground, [we need to have] an attitude of, 'This is who God made my husband, and I accept that. ... I'm not wired the way he is.' "
- Dr. Julianna Slattery
Biography for Dr. Slattery:
Julianna Slattery is a psychologist who earned her Doctor of Psychology and Master of Science in Clinical Psychology degrees at Florida Institute of Technology. She is also a public speaker and the author of several books including Finding the Hero in Your Husband and Guilt-Free Motherhood. Dr. Slattery currently serves as Family Psychologist at Focus on the Family and as an adjunct professor with the Focus Leadership Institute. She and her husband, Mike, have three sons.
No audio yet: Part 1 airs on September 21st.
Well, Eep! This no doubt will be some interesting listening!
...The holy grail is finding an indisputable dividing line between male and female. It probably doesn't exist. It is not the body, as intersex children make clear.
One in 2000 babies are born with mixed sexual anatomy - often external genitalia that are ambiguous such as a phallus that looks somewhere between a penis and a clitoris, or a divided scrotum that looks more like labia.
Then there are those whose chromosomes don't match the usual XX or XY pattern.
Research by American intersex expert Dr Milton Diamond suggests that those who have some biological variance from the standard male or female may be as high as one in 100...
And going off on a tangent, herein lies one significant problem with laws and constitutional amendments that limit marriage to one man and one woman. If the biological dividing line between male and female is less of a bright line than laws and constitutions imply that line is, how do we rigidly apply laws and constitutional amendments to those of us -- like transsexuals and intersexuals -- who don't align with the XX-female and XY-male sex and gender dichotomy?
At this point, transsexuals and intersexuals have the Loving v. Virginia problem of having marriages between one self-identified man and one self-identified woman dissolve at state lines -- This is because different states have different criteria for determining who is male and who is female.
The nation's oldest and largest organization of endocrinologists has recommended that physicians treating children with gender identity disorder intervene to delay puberty at its first signs and wait until a child is at least 16 before offering hormonal therapy that would begin his or her gender transition.
In a new clinical practice guideline unveiled today, the Endocrine Society tackled some of the most ethically sensitive decisions endocrinologists face in the treatment of those who are born of one gender, but identify themselves strongly with the opposite gender. Indeed, the society urges that its physicians rely on a mental health professional to render a diagnosis of transsexualism, which is termed gender identity disorder in the psychiatric profession's current diagnostic manual.
The new practice guidelines also recommend that no action be taken to intervene in the hormonal balance of a young child who identifies as the opposite gender of his or her birth. "A diagnosis of transsexualism in a child who has not gone through puberty cannot be made with certainty," the group concluded.
At the first signs of puberty, however, the new guidelines recommend that physicians use hormone therapy strictly for the purpose of suppressing pubertal changes until an adolescent has reached the age of 16. At that point, the group concluded, "cross-sex hormones may be given." ...
Why do I just know that a number of conservative "Christian" organizations will have significant problems with this?
Police said a dispute over manure led to a man firing his shotgun near his neighbors and police later using a Taser to subdue him. The Saginaw News reported the man approached his neighbors in Huron County's Huron Township, about 110 miles north of Detroit, Saturday as they spread lime and manure on their farm.
Police said the 45-year-old fired his shotgun and then aimed the gun at the couple as they approached the fence in their tractor. Authorities said the disagreement over the placement of the manure had been ongoing...
Well, poop!
• Wiener story of the day: from Eric Sharfstein, Assistant Director of Communications, Media for Workers United -- An SEIU Affiliate -- entitled Is Ballpark Concessionaire Aramark bad for Baseball teams?, to BaseballReflections.com:
New York - As playoff races heat up across Major League Baseball, superstitious fans and statisticians may want to include one more factor when trying to guess which team will come out on top: What concessionaire is selling hot dogs at the ballpark? According to a look at the numbers by Workers United, baseball teams with home stadiums that use Aramark to sell beer, hotdogs and other ballpark snacks, get caught stealing bases more, hit fewer home runs and have worse "luck".
"I've always heard that Wade Boggs used to eat chicken before each game for good luck," said Brian Callaci, researcher with Workers United. "Perhaps luck-obsessed players today should look into which company is selling chicken to fans at their ballpark."
The experts at www.baseball-reference.com track a statistic called Pythagorean Win-Loss, the expected win-loss record based on the number of runs scored and allowed by the team. They also track Pythagorean Luck, the difference between the actual win-loss and the Pythagorean win-loss. A lucky team is a team with a Pythagorean Luck score higher than 0. That means the team wins more games than it should based on the number of runs it scores and gives up. An unlucky team is a team with a Pythagorean Luck score lower than 0. That, of course, means that the team wins fewer games than it should based on the number of runs it scores and gives up.
In a comparison between teams with home stadiums that use Aramark and teams with home stadiums that do not, Workers United found that non-Aramark teams' average luck is .40 and Aramark teams' average luck is -1.93...
Mr. Sharfstein's commentary is sort of relating to a bad karma effect relating to Aramark, adding:
At baseball stadiums and other job sites across North America, Aramark is violating the law and disregarding workers' rights...
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!
This is a piece I originally posted at the Ex-Gay Watch on February 11, 2007. Given the recent media attention on Caster Semenya, I thought reposting this piece here at Pam's House Blend would create some space for good discussion.
The
Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) has disbanded since I originally wrote this piece, so I updated the links to archives of their previous pages. Same with a few other articles that now are not longer at the URLs I originally used for this piece -- just wanted to make sure the current links to the original information were active, and the original information found in the original links was still available for view.
And too, because I wrote this piece for the
Ex-Gay Watch as a response to conservative "Christian" commentary, this piece speaks a lot to intersex and trans issues in terms of Christian faith.
Some of the information in this piece below may not be as up to date as it would be if I write this piece from scratch now (again, I originally wrote this piece in February of 2007), but if anything there is more fresh data to support the conclusions -- the conclusion that there is a scientific problem with the concept of a rigid sex and gender dichotomy.
Perhaps an update to this piece is a diary for another day.
~~Autumn~~
P.S. My views on sex and gender constructs has changed, somewhat. I now believe in a rainbow of sex and gender experience, just as there is a rainbow sexual orientation and sexuality experience. Believing in genderqueer and other sex and gender contructs doesn't tear down any male or female contructs, but I've instead embraced the diversity concept that all of these are just part of a sex and gender rainbow of human experience.
...I can see how in a different circumstance (different city, family, influences) I might have gone down the road of transgenderism. A lot of people have backgrounds similar to mine, but didn't end up struggling with same-sex attractions like I have. We're all different and broken in different ways--but we can still understand one another.
Furthermore, transgenderism represents to me one of the biggest loopholes in the new sexual ethic of our society. We're told gays can't and/or shouldn't change because people are supposedly born gay, but then the T segment of the LGBT community is encouraged to do everything--therapy, drugs, surgery--to change the way they truly were born.
Anywho; I could get into the whole why-I-believe-in-male-and-female thing, but that's a whole new post.
The piece as a whole is an outpouring of how he believes he could of ended up transgender -- it reads as anotherArgument from Spurious Similarity. But beyond that, he seems to indicate a belief in sex dichotomy determined by biological forces.
Dalton makes a statement in her short commentary that appears to verify what appears to be her conservative Christian model -- there is only one way to be female and one way to be male:
"Real women" have two X chromosomes, and they do not have a male sex organ.
My personal goals don't include tearing down male and female social constructs. Being a transsexual, I put faith in the differences of gender -- I buy into the female construct because I identify as female.
However, I can believe -- and should believe based on the evidence -- that there more ways to be biologically sexed than XY - male and XX - female. Eric Vilain, (Ph.D., chief of medical genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA) seems to agree in a piece he wrote for the Los Angeles Times:
Sex should be easily definable, but it's not. Our gender identity our profound sense of being male or female is independent from our anatomy.
During Equality California's (EQCA's) Los Angeles Awards Dinner, I had an opportunity to listen to award winner Representative Judy Chu (D-CA) speak, and had a brief opportunity to sit down with her. When I arrived at the dinner, her name was very familiar, but I just couldn't place it. But when she was introduced, and then spoke, I was a bit taken aback with awe.
I don't get taken aback with awe very much in my life anymore, so it's a big deal to me when I do. Tears actually welled up in my eyes when I realized who she was, and why her name was familiar to me. So let me tell you why I knew her name.
The Foster Youth Anti-Discrimination Act was reintroduced in 2003 as AB 458. Transgender youth were included, and Gov. Davis signed that bill, in what folk like me perceived to be because he was pandering to the LGBT community -- due to the then pending recall against him.
The point I took away from that fight, back then, was that our Democratic Assembly -- especially Assemblymember Judy Chu -- would not leave anyone behind. And, the people she would not leave behind were lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth who likely would never have an opportunity to vote to reelect her to the State Assembly. As a trans woman, I was sure -- am sure -- she wouldn't leave anyone behind.
Now, as of July 16th, she is a California Congresswoman, representing the 32nd District. She is the first Chinese-American Woman ever to serve in Congress, winning a special election for the seat.
Kenny Chiu was a 17 year old Taiwanese American who was stabbed to death 26 times in the driveway of his own home by his neo-nazi neighbor just for being Asian American. Matthew Shepherd was only 21 years old when he was dragged from a bar, beaten, tied to a split-rail fence like a scarecrow and left to die in the cold of the night--- just for being gay.
I cannot fight for the civil rights of one group without fighting for the civil rights of the other. Things will not change until people stand up and say strongly and unflinchingly that we will not tolerate making anybody in this state a second class citizen.
It was moving.
This is where I get to talk about what a horrible interviewer I was that night. I had a chance to interview her after she received the award, and frankly I spent my time that I had to interview her to fawn over her...to tell her how much I appreciated her work for transgender people and transgender youth when she was an Assemblymember.
In my one serious question for Rep. Chu, I asked what message she would want to share with the Pam's House Blend audience. She told me two things. One was that she that didn't have a federal hate crime law (Matthew Sheppard Act) and an employment non-discrimination law (ENDA) that included lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans people to be "ridiculous" to her, and that she planned to continue to fight for the rights of all people.
I don't doubt it for a minute.
Honestly, I can't thank Equality California enough for honoring California's newest congresswoman. Congresswoman Chu is a politician of whom I can say -- with genuine heartfelt feeling -- so deserved the recognition she received this past weekend.
Photographs of Congresswoman Judy Chu and Autumn Sandeen by Karen Ocamb of In/Frontiers Magazine.
In her guest diary below, she describes her path to becoming a transgender youth advocate, and why she sees herself as belonging to the broader lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.
She also, from a diversity perspective, explains why she believes we those of us who are connected to the LGBT community should see ourselves as belonging to one broad, LGBT community. I believe this piece conveys a most wonderful message of hope.
~~Autumn~~
Why Do I Do What I Do?
By Kim Pearson
I have never really written a 'note' to share personal thoughts with 'the public' before, but then I have never experienced 'the public' sharing their personal thoughts with me in such a personal way before either.
I am referring to the responses I am getting from my recently published article in 'Diversity Rules.' I don't know what it is that I said or how I may have said things differently than so many other times, but the response is clearly different.
This is a portion of what the mother of a transgender child said to her husband while reading the article which she then shared with me:
"How could she have done such a marvelous job in this interview, shedding such insight into the lives of a transgender child when she isn't one?! I'm so, so, so impressed with her work." And "How is she going to know how profoundly moved I am..."
Another note I received simply stated:
"You are inspiring"
The one that caused me to cry the most was the one from a gay man who saw glimpses of himself and his life in the article:
"I saw myself in many of your answers...I didn't realize it then, but I knew as a child I was different, felt different, but couldn't give that difference a name...because I had an attraction to men. An attraction that I had to forever keep locked up deep inside of me. It was a very confusing time riddled with guilt and shame, because if I had an attraction to men, and that was sinful I had been told. But such an attraction meant then I must be female, because only women are attracted to men, but here I was in a little boy's body."
So back to the title of this note, "Why I do, What I do?" When I was asked this question earlier this week I responded: "Because I have a transgender child."
I now realize that there has been a fundamental shift within me and that my child and those like him are no longer the sole focus of the work I'm doing. The work and I have evolved.
I have always known GLBT folks and had friends in the community. I must admit that not until my child brought me in as a member of this community did I fully understand its diversity. What I have also came to understand is that much of the community seems to be at odds with others in the community. Many times I experience a sense of the LGB feeling separate and very different from the T which honestly puzzles me. When I hear the stories from the LGB of their childhood experiences, many of them are interchangeable with the childhood experiences of the T. The stories revolve around words like different, ashamed, sad, guilty, lonely, isolated, ridiculed, and bullied...the list is endless really. The point is, if you feel that any or all of those words apply to your childhood experience then you have firsthand knowledge of what it is to be transgender. That is the bond that the LGB has with the T, shared experience.
So my answer today to "Why I do What I do?" is simply this:
To create understanding, to build bridges, to shine light on the fact that we, the inhabitants of this planet and this community, are much more alike than we are different.
E.E. Cummings:
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
Kim Pearson:
Summon your courage and surround yourself with courageous allies and walk with your head held high. We are all amazing...let the light of who you are shine brightly for all to see and from that, compassion and understanding will grow.
I'm here late in hotel room in NorCal's Santa Clara, so far from my SoCal's San Diego home.
I was planning this trip long before I planned to go to Sacramento -- It's a special day for the young, tran woman I've mentored for a number of years. April* offically becomes April today -- today she legally changes her name to reflect her female identity.
I've known April for three years. Frankly, I'm excited for her, and I'm glad I get to share this wonderful day with her. It truly is a very special day in her life that she'll remember forever; I'll remember it forever as her "trans=Mom." :)
So, dear blenders, think some warm thoughts for April today, and I'll let her know you're thinking of her. :)
~~~~~
* I'm not using April's real first name to protect her privacy.
I received a tip from a GLAADblog follower about a statement posted by KRXQ radio host Rob Williams who owns the "Rob, Arnie and Dawn in the Morning" show. At 11:50am PST, Williams issued a statement about their May 28 segment where Rob and Arnie made offensive remarks against transgender children. They refused to apologize on a follow-up show.
The statement comes after a week of turmoil for the radio station. On June 1, GLAAD issued a Call to Action that mobilized hundreds of people to contact the radio station and voice their concerns. You can read more about that here and here.
Huffington Post blogger Michael Rowe and Pam's House Blend contributor Autumn Sandeen were key reporters regularly following the issue. Their crucial coverage and GLAAD's Call to Action resulted in a flurry of media pick-up. Concerned community members also began to contact companies and urge them to pull their advertising contracts from KRXQ. I then ended up fielding emails and calls from companies who wanted GLAAD to post and distribute their statements to either pull or not renew advertising on the radio station due to the offensive broadcast. You can read more about that here...
WE HAVE FAILED YOU. AS A SHOW, AS PEOPLE, AS BROADCASTERS, WE HAVE SIMPLY FAILED ON ALMOST EVERY LEVEL.
WE PRESENTED OUR OPINIONS ON A VERY SENSITIVE SUBJECT IN A HATEFUL, CHILDISH AND CRUDE FASHION; AND THEN, GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO RETRACT THOSE REMARKS, WE DEFENDED THEM.
SINCE THEN, YOU, OUR LOYAL LISTENERS, HAVE MADE IT CLEAR TO US THAT WE WENT TOO FAR. THE RESPONSE HAS BEEN OVERWHELMING. NONE OF YOU SAID THAT WE COULDN'T HAVE OPINIONS, YET SO MANY OF YOU SAID THAT THE WAY WE GAVE THEM CROSSED THE LINE. FURTHER, YOU SAID THAT OUR ATTEMPT TO MASK OUR COMMENTS AS "JOKES THAT WOULD BE UNDERSTOOD BY OUR AUDIENCE," WAS UNACCEPTABLE. I WOULD SAY NOW THAT IT WAS WORSE THAN THAT, IT WAS COWARDLY. YOU HAVE MADE THAT CLEAR...
Folks, thank you. The advertiser blitz worked. The LGBT and progressive communities have controlled anti-gay and anti-transgender sentiment directed at our transgender youth. I believe it was you, the grass roots activists who took action by contacting the KRXQ advertisers, that made all the difference.
To again quote Bayard Rustin:
"[T]he job of the gay community is not to deal with extremists who would castigate us or put us on an island and drop an H-bomb on us. The fact of the matter is that there is a small percentage of people in America who understand the true nature of the homosexual community. There is another small percentage who will never understand us. Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Nor was our aim in the civil rights movement to get prejudiced white people to love us. Our aim was to try to create the kind of America, legislatively, morally, and psychologically, such that even though some whites continued to hate us, they could not openly manifest that hate. That's our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay sentiment."
And, Caesar Chavez:
"We are confident. We have ourselves. We know how to sacrifice. We know how to work. We know how to combat the forces that oppose us. But even more than that, we are true believers in the whole idea of justice. Justice is so much on our side, that that is going to see us through."
And, it has.
Again, thank you grass roots activists for the work you've done to have this happen. Contacting the advertisers made a big difference.
By the way, I've talked to Andy Marra (of GLAAD); I've talked to Kim Pearson (the TransYouth Family Allies executive director); and I've talked to Dawn of the Rob, Arnie, and Dawn In The Morning show.
Trust me, this story isn't over by a very long shot. But that said, this apology was the first, very necessary step.
Update: It's now up to eight, the number of businesses that have dropped advertizing on KRXQ. Details from GLAAD and The Advocate below the fold.
Update 2: Add AT&T and McDonnalds To The List -- details below the fold.
Full list of advertisers no longer advertising on KRXW:
• Chipotle
• Snapple
• Sonic
• Bank of America
• Verizon
• Carl's Jr (CKE Restaurants)
• Wells Fargo
• Nissan North America
• AT&T
• McDonalds
Update 3: Huffington Post writer Michael Rowe has new piece up entitled KRXQ Radio Hosts Have History of Obscenity Involving Children, Says FCC Report. (Note from Autumn: Just fixed the link to the Huff Post story -- the link now directs you to the correct story. Sorry for the incorrect link that was up before!) It's a "must read" piece for those following this story.
Btw, do you blenders know that we broke the original story here at The Blend with our piece On Transitioning Transgender Youth II - The Other Side Of The Coin? We were the first media outlet of any sort with a story up about the Rob, Arnie, and Dawn In The Morning's May 28th segment on TransYouth. I'm pretty proud of that.
Mila Pavlin has been FCC licensing courses under her belt, and she helped me understand a bit of the rules. So a wonderfully warm "h/t" and "thank you" to Mila for her help, but I get the blame for putting this piece together and recommending this course of action. :P
~~Autumn~~
When discussing civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, I'm more than occasionally found referencing Bayard Rustin's take on what "our job" is as LGBT people and civil rights activists -- what that job entails:
"[T]he job of the gay community is not to deal with extremists who would castigate us or put us on an island and drop an H-bomb on us. The fact of the matter is that there is a small percentage of people in America who understand the true nature of the homosexual community. There is another small percentage who will never understand us. Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Nor was our aim in the civil rights movement to get prejudiced white people to love us. Our aim was to try to create the kind of America, legislatively, morally, and psychologically, such that even though some whites continued to hate us, they could not openly manifest that hate. That's our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay sentiment."
I've modified Rustin's highlighted words in my own mind. What I believe Bayard Rustin would say now is something more to the effect of:
That's our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest anti-gay and anti-transgender sentiment.
So, when Rob Williams and Arnie States, in the May 28th broadcast on transyouth, stated over the public airwaves of both Sacramento's KRXQ and Reno's KDOT (four excerpts from the broadcast in the clip)...
• "And, it's more of the political correct bull crap -- that you don't want to tell a kid he's a freak'cause it might hurt his feelings. If my son -- God forbid -- if my son put on a pair of high heels, I would probably hit him with one of my shoes. I would throw a shoe at him because y'know what? Boys don't wear high heels."
• "...And, that's what happened in your example is that [the parents] didn't throw the shoe at [the children] when they had the opportunity."
• "The point is you don't allow the behavior -- you cure the cause."
• (citing supposed history of transgender people): "They told them snap out of it or you'll put a spear through your head -- and guess what did? They snapped out of it. Or, they joined the army. "
...the two shock jocks expressed anti-transgender sentiment that we need to control, much in the same way society controls racist, sexist, and anti-gay sentiments.
And, we need to do this not by stopping people from engaging in free speech, but in showing that free speech doesn't mean that one gets a free pass on everything one says -- one can, and one sometimes should, experience consequences from free speech.
Free speech means the government doesn't engage in censorship -- especially prior censorship -- but it means too that one may experience the economic or legal consequences for one's free speech. As the pulling out of advertisers from KRXQ because of the broadcast, speech can, and should, have consequences in broader society.
And by the way, Arnie and Rob (if you're reading this), I spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy, and it didn't cure me of being transgender. Joining the U.S. Army wouldn't have been effective either, I can tell you without self doubt at all.
Programming Inciting "Imminent Lawless Action." The Supreme Court has held that the government may curtail speech if it is both: (1) intended to incite or produce "imminent lawless action;" and (2) likely to "incite or produce such action."
And under licensing rules, the broadcast wasn't in the "public interest":
§ 73.24 Broadcast facilities; showing required. (j) That the public interest, convenience, and necessity will be served through the operation under the proposed assignment.
Nothing in [47 U.S.C. 326] shall be understood or construed to give the Commission the power of censorship over the radio communications or signals transmitted by any radio station, and no regulation or condition shall be promulgated or fixed by the Commission which shall interfere with the right of free speech by means of radio communication.
"Programming Inciting "Imminent Lawless Action." The Supreme Court has held that the government may curtail speech if it is both: (1) intended to incite or produce "imminent lawless action;" and (2) likely to "incite or produce such action."
..."including language so grossly offensive to members of the public who actually hear it as to amount to a nuisance."
So, I believe we're in a gray area. Although the speech wasn't laced with profanity, I honestly believe it was deeply profane; although I believe Rob and Arnie were advocating violence against transyouth, I'm not sure whether or not it would meet the FCC's requirement that this constitutes an imminent threat. However, forwarding complaints to the FCC would give the FCC the opportunity to decide if the speech was an incitement to violence.
The hosts of the radio show -- Rob Williams and Arnie States -- aren't apologizing; however, for their statements against transyouth. This leads me to believe they were inciting violence against transyouth, and are not apologetic about their violent language. These two keep throwing fuel on the fire, so I believe we must use all the tools we have to send Bayard Rustin's message about anti-gay (and anti-transgender) sentiment to these and all other broadcasters.
So since I believe that their broadcast on Friday, May 28th was least as potentially damaging to real transgender children -- children who in California are members of the protected class (under the legal definition of gender used in the California Civil Codes) -- as the religious right community believes obscene, indecent, or profane programming is potentially damaging to all children, I know I personally needed to file two complaints with the FCC.
So just as many of us first began writing advertisers to stop advertising on KRXQ because of the May 28th broadcast -- now a second response by our community to the May 28 broadcast by many of us will no doubt be complaints to the FCC. The complaints would be regarding how the May 28th broadcast incited violence against children because of gender -- specifically against gender variant children who's gender expression doesn't match their birth genitalia.
Below the fold, I walk you through the process of filing complaints with the FCC online.
In the wake of KRXQ radio hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States not apologizing for their offensive comments against transgender children, individuals continue to take action and share their concerns with the station.
You can listen to last week's segment here (Note from Autumn: Oh no you can't! They took all but the first 17 seconds of the audio down!) and their follow-up to the controversy here.
On June 2, GLAAD issued a Call to Action and today renewed its call for supporters to let KRXQ know that Rob and Arnie should apologize for their remarks. We have also been blogging about this story (here and here).
Business leaders have also become alarmed by last week's defamatory radio segment and are distancing themselves from the shock jocks and their dehumanizing remarks. Individuals are utilizing social networking tools like Facebook to voice their concerns and alert companies of the harmful diatribe.
At 1:33pm, I received an email from the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. The company is responsible for well, Dr. Pepper and Snapple along with 40+ brands including 7UP, Country Time, Crush, Hawaiian Punch, Mott's, Orangina, Welch's and Yoo-hoo.
Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Inc gave us the following statement to share with our supporters:
We found the segment to be offensive and as a result, we are pulling our Snapple advertising from the station.
Thanks again for bringing this to our attention.
As far as we know, the beverage company now becomes the second business to pull its advertising from KRXQ as a result of last week's defamatory and dehumanizing comments against transgender children made by radio hosts Rob and Arnie.
The popular restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill was the first to announce pulling their advertising contract from the station.
Please continue to check back for updates on this developing story.
-----
UPDATE:
At 4:00pm EST, GLAAD spoke with SONIC Corp, the largest chain of drive-in restaurants in the country. SONIC confirmed they pulled all of their advertising from KRXQ as a result of the offensive comments made on the "Rob, Arnie and Dawn in the Morning" show during their May 28 radio segment.
SONIC provided GLAAD with the following statement at 4:45pm EST:
Sonic wants to assure you that the views of this station are in no way related to the views of Sonic. Sonic was alerted to the May 28th segment only yesterday and immediately began researching the segment, show and Sonic's planned advertising on the station. SONIC in no way condones violence toward children and does not wish to be associated with media content that condones or promotes such activity in any way. We have decided to immediately withdraw advertising from this station and have notified the station of our decision.
SONIC now joins Snapple and Chipotle in their removal of advertising on KRXQ.
Please check back with us for more developments on this story.
Have an update to share with GLAAD? Send us a tweet on our Twitter account @glaad.
We're going to keep it up with advertizers. I'm also working on a diary to explain to y'all how to complain to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Non-violence is very weak in the theoretical sense; it cannot defend itself. But it is most powerful in the action situation where people are using non-violence because they want desperately to bring about some change. Non-violence in action is a very potent force and it can't be stopped. The people who are struggling have the complete say-so. No man-made law, no human ruler, no army can destroy this. There is no way it can be destroyed... And so, if we have the capacity to endure, if we have the patience, things will change.
Sometimes I grow weary of the coarseness of discussion in this country.
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
GLAAD put out a TAKE ACTION alert over the violent language the hosts of the Rob, Arnie, and Dawn In The Morning™ show, heard on Sacramento broadcast radio station KRXQ. The last line of the GLAAD action alert reads:
When contacting KRXQ, please ensure that your emails and phone calls are civil and respectful and do not engage in the kind of name-calling or abusive behavior.
Many of us stayed within the lines of reasonable behavior. We responded with thought and force of conscience to those who would deride our community.
However, my friends, many others in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community didn't heed that GLAAD call for restraint. On air this morning on KRXQ, Rob, Arnie, and Dawn all spoke of the hate mail -- including death threats -- from some of our community members regarding the hate talk of Rob and Arnie against our transgender youth. These responses of verbal violence against those who were verbally violent to us didn't help us at all; they hurt our cause of making the case against anti-gay and anti-transgender speech.
I've seen too much hate to want to hate, myself, and every time I see it, I say to myself, hate is too great a burden to bear. Somehow we must be able to stand up against our most bitter opponents and say: "We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you.... But be assured that we'll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory."
Stop. Our LGBT civil rights movement is often compared to the civil rights movement of the 1960's. But, in one way we have not embraced the messages of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin, and Cesar Chavez. Many of us still are thinking in terms of the philosophy of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth instead of living the message of Mahatma Gandhi:
You must be the change you want to see in the world.
I want a better world for LGBT youth...for transyouth. I want for them what Mahatma Gandhi wanted for himself and his country:
I want freedom for the full expression of my personality.
We don't need to speak violently to those who use verbal violence to describe us. We don't need to harm our movement by speaking the words of hate that we want quieted -- to be self edited -- in others.
You want something to do regarding the verbal violence of the recent Rob, Arnie, and Dawn In The Morning™ broadcasts? My next diary will be about reasonable action you can take to hold Rob and Arnie accountable for their verbal violence directed against our transgender youth.
TAKE ACTION: Demand that KRXQ Radio Hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States Apologize for Encouraging Violence Against Transgender Children
Contact:
Cindi Creager
Director of National News
(646) 871-8019
creager@glaad.org
Richard Ferraro
Director of Public Relations
(646) 871-8011
ferraro@glaad.org
June 2, 2009 - In a lengthy May 28 tirade on the Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning radio show heard in Sacramento, California on KRXQ 98.5 FM and Reno, Nevada on KDOT 104.5 FM, hosts Rob Williams and Arnie States verbally attacked transgender children. While discussing a recent story about a transgender child in Omaha, Nebraska and her parents' decision to support her transition, the two hosts spent more than 30 minutes explicitly promoting child abuse of and making cruel, dehumanizing and defamatory comments toward transgender children.
ROB WILLIAMS [11:12]: This is a weird person who is demanding attention. And when it's a child, all it takes is a hug, maybe some tough love or anything in between. When your little boy said, 'Mommy, I want to walk around in a dress.' You tell them no cause that's not what boys do. But that's not what we're doing in this culture.
ARNIE STATES [13:27]: If my son, God forbid, if my son put on a pair of high heels, I would probably hit him with one of my shoes. I would throw a shoe at him. Because you know what? Boys don't wear high heels. And in my house, they definitely don't wear high heels.
ROB WILLIAMS [17:45]: Dawn, they are freaks. They are abnormal. Not because they're girls trapped in boys bodies but because they have a mental disorder that needs to be somehow gotten out of them. That's where therapy could help them.
ROB WILLIAMS [18:15]: Or because they were molested. You know a lot of times these transgenders were molested. And you need to work with them on that. The point is you don't allow the behavior. You cure the cause!
And, it's more of the political correct bull crap -- that you don't want to tell a kid he's a freak[*with lisp*] 'cause it might hurt his feelings.[*end lisp*] If my son -- God forbid -- if my son put on a pair of high heels, I would probably hit him with one of my shoes. I would throw a shoe at him because y'know what? Boys don't wear high heels.
I suggest, indeed, letting children who wish go to school in clothes of the opposite sex - but not counseling other children to not tease them or hurt their feelings.
On the contrary, don't interfere, and let the other children ridicule the child who has lost that clear boundary between play-acting at home and the reality needs of the outside world. Maybe, in this way, the child will re-establish that necessary boundary.
It is a mistake for various interfering, ignorant, and biased busybodies to try to "counsel" the other children into accepting the abnormal. It is very healthy to be able to draw the line between what is healthy and what is sick.
In a whole segment that's devoted to transgender youth, Rob Williams begins by going off on "gay marriage", berating peanut allergies, to repeatedly calling transgender adults "freaks" and "drama queens", to calling transyouth "freaks" and "losers", to calling all trans people (including trans youth) "liars" -- and then suggesting violence against any male child who expresses gender variance from the male norms. To say the least, It's an pretty interesting segment to listen to. The whole segment is here:
Here's a second excerpt to the 36-minute segment (the first excerpt is the one at the top of this Pam's House Blend diary):
Sometimes you need to tell people that you're wrong, you're evil, you're a drama queen, and you need to get over life. What you describe Dawn is every person all the time throughout their life "I need attention. I need to be loved for who I am." You know who you are? You're a dude 'cause you got the plumbing. And, that's what most of us see, and that's why we call them freaks and weirdoes.
And, on the issue of research, some things you don't research to look at and go 'This is a bridge too far. This is a weird person who is demanding attention.' And, when it's a child, all it takes is a hug -- maybe some tough love -- or anything in between, when your little boy said [*with whining, sarcastic voice*] "Mommy, I wanna walk around in a dress," [*end whining/sarcasm*] ya' tell 'em no, because that's not what boys do. But, that's not what we're doing in this culture.
Again, this is a segment that Williams is making these comments on is on transyouth.
[Below the fold, comparing what TransYouth Family Advocate's Kim Pearson says to what Rob Williams says, and how to contact the radio stations Rob Williams is broadcast upon.]
If you have an hour to listen to this in the background, this is worth your time. Kim Pearson talks about having a transgender child who transitioned before age 18, and about TransYouth Family Allies (TYFA).
Listen up as Emmy Award winning host Donna Rossi talks with Kim Pearson of Trans Youth Family Allies (TYFA) about their work in advocating for the rights and welfare of transgender youth.
A quote from Kim Pearson, the president of TYFA, on transitioning 5-year-olds (from about halfway through the audio piece):
The biggest concern people have -- and even some of the "experts" ... -- but the experts will say that there are risks involved in letting a child that young transition. And, my answer to that is that there are equal risks involved in not letting a child that young transition.
I've always raised my kids under the guideline of "What's the worst case scenario? What's the worst thing that could happen?" The worst thing that could happen with transitioning a 5-year-old -- a miserable, suicidal 5-year-old -- transitioning them, and the question is "What if they change their minds?"
And my answer is "What if they do?"
You haven't really changed anything except their hairstyle and their clothes and the name that you call them and the pronouns. So, if they change their mind, you change it back. It'll be uncomfortable; it'll be embarrassing -- but you know what? That's more about you -- the parent -- than about the child. And, what have you done for that child except send tell them -- you've sent a very strong message -- I love you NO MATTER WHAT.
We at [TransYouth Family Allies] are very grateful for this new publication exclusively outlining the struggles faced by transgender youth in America's schools. The results are sadly sobering, yet empowering. TYFA is empowered and inspired to take these results into schools and have better documentation to support our claims for the need of acceptance for all youth regardless of their gender identity or gender expression and the need for education for staff, students and administrators at all schools.
This publication will be an extremely powerful tool in making positive changes. Please take the time to read it and share it with others. Knowledge + Education= Power.
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) has released a new report today, entitled Harsh Realities: The Experiences of Transgender Youth in Our Nation's Schools. The opening paragraphs to the media release for the report are sobering (emphasis added); to me, the paragraphs offer both sadness (italicized) and hope (bolded) (italicized and bolded emphasis added).
Transgender youth face extremely high levels of victimization in school, even more so than their non-transgender lesbian, gay and bisexual peers. But they are also more likely to speak out about LGBT issues in the classroom, according to Harsh Realities: The Experiences of Transgender Youth in Our Nation's Schools, the first comprehensive study on transgender students, released today by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
Nearly nine out of 10 transgender students experienced verbal harassment at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation and gender expression, more than half experienced physical harassment because of their sexual orientation and gender expression and more than a quarter experienced physical assault because of their sexual orientation and gender expression. These levels of victimization were higher than those faced by the non-transgender lesbian, gay and bisexual students who participated in the 2007 National School Climate Survey, GLSEN's biennial survey of LGBT students.
Here are some findings from the report:
Biased language:
• 90% of transgender students heard derogatory remarks, such as "dyke" or "faggot," sometimes, often or frequently in school in the past year.
• 90% of transgender students heard negative remarks about someone's gender expression sometimes, often or frequently in school in the past year.
• Less than a fifth of transgender students said that school staff intervened most of the time or always when hearing homophobic remarks (16%) or negative remarks about someone's gender expression (11%).
• School staff also contributed to the harassment. A third of transgender students heard school staff make homophobic remarks (32%), sexist remarks (39%) and negative comments about someone's gender expression (39%) sometimes, often or frequently in the past year.
School Safety and Experiences of Harassment and Assault
• Two-thirds of transgender students felt unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation (69%) and how they expressed their gender (65%).
• Almost all transgender students had been verbally harassed (e.g., called names or threatened) in the past year at school because of their sexual orientation (89%) and gender expression (87%).
• More than half of all transgender students had been physically harassed (e.g., pushed or shoved) in school in the past year because of their sexual orientation (55%) and gender expression (53%).
• More than a quarter of transgender students had been physically assaulted (e.g., punched, kicked or injured with a weapon) in school in the past year because of their sexual orientation (28%) and gender expression (26%).
• Most transgender students (54%) who were victimized in school did not report the events to school authorities. Among those who did report incidents to school personnel, few students (33%) believed that staff addressed the situation effectively.
Impact of Victimization on Educational Outcomes
• Almost half of all transgender students reported skipping a class at least once in the past month (47%) and missing at least one day of school in the past month (46%) because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable.
• Transgender students experiencing high levels of harassment were more likely than other transgender students to miss school for safety reasons (verbal harassment based on sexual orientation: 64% vs. 25%, gender expression: 56% vs. 32%, gender: 68% vs. 38%).
• Transgender students who experienced high levels of harassment had significantly lower GPAs than those who experienced lower levels of harassment (verbal harassment based on sexual orientation: 2.2. vs. 3.0, gender expression: 2.3 vs. 2.8, gender: 2.2 vs. 2.7).
Engagement with the School Community
• Transgender students who were out to most or all other students and school staff reported a greater sense of belonging to their school community than those who were not out or only out to a few other students or staff.
• The majority (66%) of transgender students were out to most or all of their peers, yet less than half (45%) were out to most or all of the school staff.
• Most transgender students had talked with a teacher (66%) or a school-based mental health professional (51%) at least once in the past year about LGBT-related issues. Transgender students were also more likely than non-transgender lesbian, gay and bisexual students to talk with school staff about these issues.
In-School Resources and Supports
• Although transgender students were not more likely to report having a GSA in their school, they did report attending GSA meetings more frequently than non-transgender LGB students.
• Although most transgender students (83%) could identify at least one supportive educator, only a third (36%) could identify many (six or more) supportive staff.
• Only half (54%) of transgender students reported that their school had an anti-harassment policy, and only 24% said that the school policy included specific protections based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
I find a lot of hope in the reality that even though trans students are more likely to be harassed for being perceived as being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, they don't just speak out on harassment, bullying, or other issues relating only to transgender students, but work for the entire community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students.
Society has a duty to protect its young, not subject them to scientific experiments, says Eilis O'Hanlon
I read an article from the Irish Independent today, and just had a s short series of tangential thoughts on the piece. So, humor me for quoting a large section of an article I read on the web, and then not writing much about what I quoted. Enh, it happens.
There are times when the world ceases to make sense, and tips over into such a state of craziness that it might as well have been rewritten as a lost chapter from Alice in Wonderland. So it was last week, when Europe's leading human rights organisation condemned the Czech Republic for carrying out the surgical castration of sex offenders on the grounds that it "removes a person's ability to procreate".
Sorry, but since when did it become a tragedy for a child abuser not to be able to have children?
The Council of Europe didn't object to the surgical castration of sex offenders merely on the dubious grounds of procreation rights. The organisation also said it had "serious physical and mental consequences", and I'm sure it does. Whether the consequences are as serious for the offenders as the victims is another matter altogether. But there lies a testament to the startling oddity of public debate right now: castrating sick individuals in order to protect vulnerable children is considered a terrible and inhumane thing to do, but chopping off parts of the bodies of perfectly healthy children is regarded as a great medical advance.
That's what also happened last week when a 16-year-old German boy became the youngest person ever to undergo a sex-change operation. Kim, formerly Tim, Petras had wanted to be a girl since the age of two. Now he is. Or rather, she is. It's the culmination of a process which began at the age of 12, when Kim persuaded doctors that she was really a girl, and was allowed to begin hormone replacement therapy...
The writer of the article quotes a specific clinic as acknowledging that "80 per cent of [children diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) in Children] do not go on to become transsexuals." So, it sounds really, really bad to accomplish genital reconstruction surgery (GRS) on children diagnosed with GID (Child).
However, I don't believe this is a problem of being able to identify which children have strongly expressed gender identities that don't align with their natal genitalia, nor one of children who express regret for affirming gender identities that don't align with their natal genitalia after psychological and medical treatment, but instead is a problem of having a diagnostic tool that labels almost all gender variant behavior in youth as Gender Identity Disorder in Children [GID (Child)].
Specifically, what the writer of the article didn't point out is that diagnostic criteria for GID in Children are nebulous, and cast a very wide net -- see the GID Reform Activists' (gidreform.org's) page on how broadly written the DSM-IV TR diagnostic criteria actually are.
Trans civil rights activists like me are concerned about how GID in Children is applied not only to ego-dystonic children are diagnosed, but...
High functioning children may be presumed to meet criteria A and B on the basis of cultural nonconformity alone, if they exhibit 4 of the 5 characteristics of criterion A and any of those listed for criterion B. Thus, a child may be diagnosed with gender identity disorder without ever having stated any desire to be the other sex. Most puzzling, the DSM-IV-TR admits that:
Only a very small number of children with Gender Identity Disorder with continue to have symptoms that meet criteria for Gender Identity Disorder in adolescence or adulthood (p. 579).
This calls into question the therapeutic purpose of GID of Children. Overbroad diagnosis contributes to the stigma and undeserved shame that gender nonconforming youth must endure. Parents accepting of their gender nonconforming children live in fear of persecution by courts, school officials and government agencies who infer a broad interpretation of GID of Children and seek punitive treatment remedies.
As Dr. Zucker -- a psychiatrist on the committee supervising the upcoming DSM-V -- and Dr. Bradley have quoted Richard Green in their book Gender Identity Disorder and Psychosexual Problems in Children and Adolescents:
The rights of parents to oversee the development of children is a long-established principle. Who is to dictate that parents may not try to raise their children in a manner that maximizes the possibility of a heterosexual outcome? If that prerogative is denied, should parents also be denied the right to raise their children as atheists? Or as priests?"
I guess my point is that there is an assumption that we, as western society, are experimenting on the bodies of gender variant youth by seeing genital reconstruction surgery (GRS) accomplished with a male-to-female, 16-year-old. My point isn't whether or not it's a good thing to accomplish GRS on people who are not yet 18-years-of-age, but instead pointing out that one of the arguments against performing the surgery -- the one based on the how 80% of those diagnosed with GID (Child) aren't transsexuals -- is a problem of an overinclusive diagnostic standard for the condition that includes the children who's natal sex doesn't match their gender identity.
I know I believe that part of the reason why the diagnosis of GID in Children is written so broadly is a veiled attempt to prevent homosexuality in adults. You can't blame gender variant youth for the less than adequate diagnostic tool.
And, what that has to do with punishing child molesters? Absolutely nothing -- This is a subject I believe is unfairly linked to youth diagnosed with GID (Child).
Note from Autumn: This last Tuesday, Dr. Phil did another show on transgender youth. Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's (GLAAD's) Director of National News, Cindi Creager, reviewed the show, and gave it mixed review. We're crossposting the review with permission.
I've added some links to some other reviews of the show below Cindi Creager's excellent review.
By Cindi Creager
Crossposted from the GLAADBlog January 15, 2008
Dr. Phil McGraw once again tried to tackle the subject of transgender children on his January 13 broadcast. The segment, titled, Little Boy Lost, explored a mother's journey to understanding her transgender child's path to living as her true self.
In what could have been a solid examination of transgender children through the eyes of a concerned mom seeking answers from qualified experts, Dr. Phil instead chose to add fireworks and manufacture controversy by inviting two unqualified anti-LGBT activists to "debate" two qualified professionals, UCLA child psychiatrist Dr. Dan Siegel and psychotherapist Dr. Michele Angello, both of whom specialize in transgender issues. That plan backfired as the featured mom, named Toni, spent much of the airtime defending her 11-year-old transgender daughter and angrily confronting Glenn Stanton from the anti-gay organization Focus on the Family and Joseph Nicolosi, an "ex-gay" activist from the discredited fringe organization, NARTH, the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (you can read about so-called "ex-gay" activists here). Stanton and Nicolosi's baseless assertion is that that children develop transgender identities when their parents fail to enforce gender roles.
It is important to remember that the political and pseudoscientific groups like NARTH do not rely on - and have long been discredited by - credible social science research. There are no modern peer-reviewed studies that support so-called "ex-gay" groups or lend credibility to their outdated and long-abandoned theories about the nature of sexual orientation or gender identity.
GLAAD criticized the Dr. Phil Show last year for offering the anti-LGBT Stanton as a professional counterpart to UCLA's Siegel. To their credit, Dr. Phil producers called GLAAD for resources as they planned this follow-up show, and they took our advice, inviting psychologist Dr. Michele Angello onto the program to join Siegel in the credible part of the dialogue.
If you are a member of an LGBT family with young children, or the friend or the ally of an LGBT family with young children, or your an friend, family member, or ally who wants to expose your children to what the broad, LGBT community looks like, you need to expose yourself and these children to the picture book 10,000 Dresses. This is the first picture book aimed at 5 to 7-year-olds I'm aware of with a transyouth as the main character.
And, 10,000 Dresses is an absolutely beautifully written and illustrated book (written by Marcus Ewert; illustrations by Rex Ray). Frankly, I was expecting a mediocre children's book when I received a copy to review, and was extremely surprised at the quality of the book -- my eyes welled with tears the first three times I read it. From this artsy, trans woman's perspective: yes, the book is that good. This children's book is no doubt as important a work as Heather Has Two Mommies, and it certainly is as well done.
In fact, Lesléa Newman, the author of Heather Has Two Mommies, gives a back cover comment for 10,000 Dresses:
Three cheers for Bailey, whose creativity and artistic vision will inspire readers of all ages to celebrate exactly who they are.
The transyouth at the heart of the 10,000 Dresses is a child named Bailey. She's a child that is being told she's a boy when she really knows she's a girl. Each night she dreams of one of 10,000 magical dresses, and each day she tries to figure out a way to have significant people in her life help her obtain a magical dress. Many days she discovers she's not ever going to have that special dress she imagined in her dreams that night before. The story has a very happy ending -- I won't spoil it by describing it.
10,000 Dresses by Marcus Ewert is a charming tale of a "boy" named Bailey who dreams of wearing dresses. His parents and brother tell him that boys don't wear dresses and Bailey is sad because she doesn't feel like a boy. Bailey finally meets a friend that understands the desire to wear dresses and helps her achieve that goal. It is a story with beautiful illustrations by Rex Ray that uses just enough words to say what is needed. I highly recommend it for children of all ages (adults too), although it is definitely a book that would be enjoyed by the under 10 crowd. 10,000 Dresses helps us understand the workings of the gender variant child's mind from their point of view and it is very nicely done.
10,000 Dresses is a very important book. If you're involved with LGBT families at all, don't skip this book. If you have a local bookstore nearby you -- especially a local LGBT bookstore -- ask them for a copy of the book. If they don't have a copy, ask them to order you a copy. Hey, you won't be sorry, and neither will the bookstore.
Last Wednesday afternoon, the Atlantic Monthly posted a story online by reporter Hanna Rosin entitledA Boy's Life. The article horribly presents transyouth and their families -- everything from the headline getting the child they focused on wrong (which is in conflict with the Associated Press Stylebook -- the "Bible" of journalism standards) to how Kim Pearson the Executive Director of TransYouth Family Allies (TYFA) believes that the Atlantic betrayed the trust of the families that talked to their reporter. When I asked for a comment from Kim about the article, she told me:
[Hanna Rosin] focused on the most vulnerable family she could have focused on, creating the illusion that this family was representative of all of the families -- and that's just not true. We trusted her, and we felt betrayed.
Kim also told me that Rosin has made it at least twice as hard as before for TYFA to connect families of transyouth to members of the mainstream media (MSM). TYFA's goal in connecting families of transyouth to MSM reporters is so that readers will be educated about transyouth, and in this case with the Atlantic reporter misrepresented what kind of article she was going to write. Instead of educating people about transyouth, Kim and most of her TYFA parents felt betrayed; they felt the Rosin not only didn't paint an accurate picture of TYFA families, but that Rosin exploited a vulnerable family and a transyouth.
And now, a few months after the family talked to this reporter, the child profiled in the story is living full time as a girl and is doing very well at both home and at school. So, it was especially frustrating to Kim that the article gives a wrong impression how the child is actually doing; the child in question's full time public expression of her affirmed, female gender actually resolved the conflict the child was feeling about being a girl. The impression Rosin left was that the child was presenting as gender confused, and that's just not the case -- The child has known who she is, and is comfortable about being a girl; it was the rest of her world not allowing her to affirm her gender which was previously this youth's challenge.
I see the reasons for making these transyouth and their families available to the MSM, but I really appreciate TYFA's dilemma of making transyouth and their families for articles that later turn out to seem exploitive. How many times does TYFA make transyouth and their families available to reporters when so many reporters apparently want to exploit the transyouth? I don't know. Not every reporter does as well as Barbara Walters did with the story of transyouth, that's for sure.
I really get tired of going over the same crap over and over again regarding gender. The mental hebetude of conservative Christians discussing transsexual youth and adults is beyond incredible. These dullards have no personal qualifications that indicate expertise in gender issues, and even in their supposed area of expertise -- Biblical scriptures -- they cherry pick scriptures on sex and gender to make conservative Christian points on gender when other scriptures counter their supposed evangelical message.
Chuck Colson, in a Breakpoint article entitled It's a Sick, Sick World takes another stab at transgender people and issues -- some of his previous stabs include here, here, here, and here. In It's a Sick, Sick World, he gets around to attacking Dr. Norman Spack, who treats transyouth with puberty delaying medications -- in large part to keep these not-gender-confused children from committing suicide.
So here's what the former Watergate conspirator and hebetudinous writer said in his most recent piece about Dr. Spack and transyouth (links added for reference; emphasis added):
He has been called "demonic," "barbaric," and has been compared to Nazi doctors. And when you read about his work, it is easy to see why Americans are so outraged. Dr. Norman Spack is a pediatric endocrinologist at Boston Children's Hospital. Not long ago, he opened a clinic for what he terms "transgendered" children. Incredibly, he is giving kids as young as seven drugs that delay the onset of puberty--the first step in sex-change surgery when they are older.
...When these kids hit their teen years, they are given the option of taking cross-hormones for a few years-which will allow them to develop the characteristics of the opposite sex. Tragically, the treatment will condemn these teenagers to lifelong infertility.
...So why are doctors like Spack altering young bodies instead of treating confused minds?
The answer is that many doctors have embraced the modern teaching that sexual identity, rather than being biologically determined, is a preference or a choice. According to this, people should be allowed to choose whatever sex they want to be.
But both science and the Bible teach otherwise: God created us male and female in His image. Shots and surgeries and politically correct teachings cannot alter this fundamental truth.
Tragically, some parents are now buying into this false teaching--and allowing their children to undergo destructive treatments.
You and I need to be spreading the word that legitimate treatment is available for people suffering from gender confusion-and it is a treatment that does not sacrifice the well-being of children to the political agendas of adults.
By the way, science doesn't teach us what the thick-witted Colson believes it does -- Please see The Scientific Problem With Sex Dichotomies and BiGender and the Brain to see what scientific study has so far indicated.
And, by the way, the Bible doesn't state just what the thick-witted Colson -- and many other thick-witted conservative Christian commentators -- believes it does in Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 5:1-2. Specifically, Matthew 19:12, Galatians 3:28 and Isaiah 56:3-8 challenge Colson and his peers' scriptural understanding of a very, very binary gender dichotomy.
Exactly what, in Chuck Colson's personal life history and education (biographies here and here) indicate an expertise in gender issues or theology? His "authority" appears to be false authority based on his personal personal, spiritual conversion. Nothing in his personal story, education, or current job of running a prison ministry indicate any reason why he should be considered a knowledgeable expert on tragic transgender youth.
[Below the fold, fellow hebetudinous, conservative Christian commentator Peter LaBarbera jumps in to the fray -- pimping Chuck Colson's piece]
In 1973, Homosexuality was was removed as a disorder from the American Psychological Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Second Edition (DSM-II). It was the step that recognized that individuals whose sexual interests are directed primarily toward people of the same sex weren't afflicted with a psychiatric disorder.
When we flash forward to 2008, we find Gender Identity Disorder -- the diagnosis for transsexuals and gender-variant children -- is found in DSM-IV TR. When the DSM is revised in a couple of years for DSM-V, Gender Identity Disorder will likely still be there. And, with the Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis for children will further the American Psychological Association's (APA's) approval of conversion therapy for children, used in an attempt to gender norm gender-variant/LGBT children (Think Zach).
The reason for concern is found some of the names in the work group committee -- the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group. The press release identifies Kenneth Zucker and Ray Blanchard as members of the group.
Kenneth J. Zucker, Ph.D., is a name that every gay man and lesbian woman should know, especially if they were treated to become "straight" at a camp or a ex-gay affirming psychologist's office. Sadly, almost no one in the LGBT community knows about the papers on gender identity by Zucker and Bradley, and the broader impact of these papers on LGBT community -- especially on LGBT youth.
For those who aren't aware, Gender Identity Disorder of Childrenis considered a pre-homosexual condition.
Without reinventing the wheel on the problems with Dr. Kenneth Zucker's participation in the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group, let me recommend reading Donna Rose's blog entry Zucker revisited: The lunatics rule the asylum.
In her piece, Donna refers to National Public Radio's Two Families Grapple with Sons' Gender Preferences; Psychologists Take Radically Different Approaches in Therapy. One of the two stories in the article and podcast is about a child having conversion therapy -- at the recommendation of Dr. Zucker.
Another of the key players identified in the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group is Ray Blanchard, famous for his transsexual diagnosis of autogynephilia. As Madeline Wyndzen, Ph.D., writes,
Blanchard's model categorizes transsexuals into two types based on sexual orientation: "homosexual" (those attracted to their biological sex) and "non-homosexual." A mis-directed sex drive causes transsexuality. The mis-directed sex-drive among "non-homosexual" transsexuals is called "autogynephilia."
In other words, Blanchard believes it's the mis-directed sexual orientation of men that causes transsexuality...
Well, Eep! This no doubt will be some interesting listening! 
What NARTH's Dr. Joseph Berger wrote about gender variant youth
Chuck Colson, in a Breakpoint article entitled 
The reason for concern is found some of the names in the work group committee -- the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group. The 
