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.]
A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.
'My main concern is for the children,' said Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.
...Bardwell told the Daily Star of Hammond that he was not a racist.
"I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house," Bardwell said. "My main concern is for the children." ...
E-f*cking-gads! Has this justice of the peace never heard of Loving V. Virginia?
The House of Representatives on Thursday voted to allow the Obama administration to bring foreign terrorism suspects from the Guantanamo Bay prison to the United States to face trial.
The 307 to 114 vote removes one of many roadblocks the administration faces as it tries to empty the internationally condemned prison by January...
Well. That's actually surprising, given how nobody seems to want to bring the Gitmo prisoners in to prisons in their districts.
Sexual identity development is a complex, multidimensional, and often fluid process. One must consider cognitive, social, emotional, cultural, and familial complexities among other aspects of the individual's experience to contextualize a narrative concerning sexual identity development.
Sexual minority youth is a term used to describe adolescents who are not exclusively heterosexual. Definitions and labels ascribed to sexual minority youth may not describe their sexual attractions, relationships, fantasies, or behaviors. It is important to understand an individual's personal experience as well as his or her self-identification without making assumptions.
The Internet, public discourse about "gay rights," Gay-Straight Alliances in the schools, and a growing visibility of gay and lesbian role models in the media have helped challenge mainstream notions of what is considered "normal" sexual development. The fluidity of adolescent sexual identity development is as complicated as any aspect of identity development. Adolescents in the 21st century are, in many parts of the world, growing up in a culture that embraces diversity in sexual expression in a manner foreign to their parents' generation. Despite the fact that sexual minority youth have greater access to resources that provide support than did previous generations, there continue to be schools, communities, and homes in which adolescents still experience rejection, bullying, ostracism, and violence because of their differences from mainstream society...
This is my recommended reading pick for this This & That diary.
Many students take the ability to use the bathroom for granted, but for some it is a daily battle.
The University of Minnesota Transgender Commission is attempting to raise awareness about restroom access on campus, not only for members of the transgender community, but for the disabled, chronically ill and anyone who is made uncomfortable by gender-specific public restrooms.
"There are so many reasons someone might just want to have a private space to use the restroom, and I don't think that's limited to trans-identified folks or gender-nonconforming folks, but really is a right that is for all of us," said Remy Corso, University of Minnesota Transgender Commission co-coordinator and transgender student.
The group has consulted disabled people who work with opposite sex caregivers, the chronically ill and diabetics who need to inject insulin that would prefer single-stall, gender-neutral restrooms.
...Shawyn Lee, the assistant director of the University of Minnesota GLBTA Programs Office, prefers gender-neutral restrooms...
Further in the article, Shawyn Lee indicates ze identifies as genderqueer.
Can I just say here I love my diverse community, and the work many folk like Shawyn Lee is doing?
Forgive our tactless pun, but it's time to think outside the box. Check one, male or female. While easy for some, it's painful for others - when the choice between one extreme and the other doesn't fit a person's personal identity, or their body.
Some folks are born with the dilemma of indistinctness. Intersexuality is a medical reference applied to people who cannot be narrowly, biologically classified as male or female because they contain atypical combinations of physical features that relate to both male and female traits. Classifications of intersexuality include analysis of chromosomal differences, gonadal anomalies, genital ambiguity and more. These characteristics are congenital.
The most recent publicized case of defining an individual as more male or female when both traits are present is with the young South African championship runner, Caster Semenya. She may be a hermaphrodite, despite being raised as a woman and competing as a woman. Her case may cause the International Association of Athletics Federations to devise a definition of what determines male or female for the sake of classifying whether an athlete competes as male or female.
Classifications are no easy feat, within the United States, even our local and federal governments cannot agree. To date, there is no uniform, legal definition of what makes a person female or male, or more one than the other...
Some doctors tell their patients not to eat cheese when they're pregnant, and women want to know why. It's because of the danger of contracting listeriosis, that's found in some cheeses.
Listeriosis is caused by a bacteria called "listeria monocytogenes." Most people don't even know they've contracted diarrhea from something they ate, but can't recall what it might be. It could be the cheese. The problem is when you're pregnant your immune system is really compromised. It's just one more way your body prepares you not to fight off the foreign invader, your embryo -- you your baby can develop to full term.
When you're immune system is low, you can easily catch the flu when pregnant. That's one reason why pregnant women are first in line to get the novel flu vaccination. But another nasty symptom for pregnant women is a listeria infection. You don't want the runs because the contractions from your colon can stimulate your uterus to go into labor. That's why in the 1960s, most women arriving in a hospital to give birth not yet in labor were given enemas not only to clean them out before they get on the delivery table, but to induce labor contractions. So you don't want to contract listeria.
When you're pregnant, you're 20 times more likely to catch a bacteria or virus infection...
Okay then!
• On a twitter related note, today was #thridpersonthurs, so many of us were having fun sounding like Bob Dole and James Harline today. Twitter can be a fun distraction some days, for sure.
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 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!
...Now, after this summer of bad political behavior -- full of hecklers, birthers, truthers, death panels and guns -- I think it's time to take up the cause against poorly behaved politicians and citizen activists alike. Do it for the children!
It wouldn't be so bad if politics weren't viewed as the be-all and end-all of American culture. I mean, I'd be happy if someone like, say, South Carolina GOP Rep. Joe "You lie!" Wilson had the courage of basketball star Charles Barkley to stand up and say, "Hey, I'm not a role model just because I got elected to Congress."
But you know that won't happen, because despite all the evidence to the contrary, we like to delude ourselves into thinking that politics is an honorable profession guided by only the most moral and high-minded of individuals and intentions...
In the middle of the piece, commentator Gregory Rodriguez makes a serious comment about Nazi politics (that for once isn't an exercise in violating Goodwin's Law):
Otto von Bismarck, the 19th century German chancellor, is famously said to have remarked that "laws are like sausage. It is better not to see them made." As much as I agree with his assessment, I also recognize the dangers of looking away from the sausage machine. Indeed, one of contemporary Germany's foremost intellectuals, Wolf Lepenies, argued a few years ago that the German elite's disdain for the lowly practice of politics (and preference for high culture) essentially allowed the Nazis to emerge unchecked. So dismayed were they by the everyday horse-trading, the elite left politics to others.
But if none of us can afford to turn away, what can we do to make political discourse and behavior more palatable?
Of course, the writer answers his rhetorical question with his ideas on how to create space for civil political discourse.
But, of course, let's "unrhetoricalize" the question, and make it a question for all of us. What do each of us who are politically engaged on some level or another to make political discourse and behavior more palatable?
But let's not frame our answers in tems of "this is what I think the other guy should do," but instead from the perspective of "what do I think I could and should do?" So, how would you answer Gregory Rodriguez's question of "what can we do to make political discourse and behavior more palatable?" if you applied the question to yourself and your own behavior during political dialog?
And I know, the question as I've interpreted it takes on my perspective that civil political dialog is the preferred kind of political dialog. So for those who don't agree with mine or Mr. Rodriguez's perspective that civil political dialog is preferred, you can instead answer of how you think you should engage in political dialog in the current reality that political dialog is currently pretty uncivil.
So what are your thoughts?
~~~~~
Since this is a discussion about political civility, here's a special excerpt related to Godwin's Law that I like to quote occaionally:
And the Hitlers keep on coming. Yes, Adolf Hitler, one of the worst mass-murders in all of history, has become the go-to metaphor and comparison for anyone you have a minor disagreement with.
...Here's my point. When you compare people to Hitler, enh, you lose a little credibility.
...[P]lease stop calling people Hitler when you disagree with them. It demeans you, it demeans your opponent, and to be honest, it demeans Hitler. That guy worked too many years, too hard, to be that evil to have any Tom, Dick and Harry come along and say "Hey, you're being Hitler." No--You know who was Hitler? HITLER!
The Jon Stewart video on that linked site to the quote is a particularly poignant and funny take on calling an opponent a Hitler or a Nazi. Higly recommend its vieing.
(A media release from GLSEN of note. - promoted by Autumn Sandeen)
For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Daryl Presgraves
646-388-6577
dpresgraves@glsen.org
Groundbreaking Research on Demographic and Ecological Factors Contributing to Hostile School Climate for Gay Youth Published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence
NEW YORK, August 31, 2009 - Groundbreaking research, conducted by GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), examining how regional, community-level and school-district level variables relate to hostile school climates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth has been published in the August issue of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence. The article reveals that youth in rural and impoverished areas face increased levels of bullying and harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. GLSEN Research Director Joseph Kosciw, PhD, also serves as a guest editor for the issue, co-authoring a special introduction that explores new research on LGBT youth.
Using data from GLSEN's 2007 National School Climate Survey, a national survey of 6,209 LGBT secondary school students, the article demonstrates that LGBT youth in rural communities, communities with higher poverty and communities with lower adult educational attainment may face particularly hostile school climates.
"Although LGBT youth as a whole face hostile school environments, findings from this study demonstrate that LGBT youth are not a monolithic group-their experiences differ depending upon their individual characteristics, their location, and the characteristics of their community," said Dr. Kosciw. "These findings highlight the importance of considering the multiple contexts that LGBT youth inhabit, particularly as they pertain to educational experiences."
Major Findings:
• Although there were high incidences of victimization of LGBT youth irrespective of region or locale, for LGBT youth, schools in rural communities were the more unsafe than schools in urban or suburban areas.
• LGBT youth in higher poverty communities reported more victimization in school because of sexual orientation and gender expression than those in more affluent communities. Yet, they were less likely to hear homophobic remarks-both homophobic epithets and remarks using ''gay'' in a derogatory manner.
• LGBT youth in communities with a higher proportion of college graduates were less likely to hear homophobic remarks or experience victimization based on sexual orientation.
• Regional differences in tolerance and acceptance levels appear to be related to other community-level factors, such as educational attainment and income.
GLSEN research experts have been interviewed for numerous media outlets in almost every region of the country. They make the case that anti-LGBT bullying and harassment is a pervasive problem in America's schools and offer evidence-based solutions that can help improve school climate for all students.
Joseph G. Kosciw is the Director of Research at GLSEN. He has a PhD in Community Psychology from New York University, a BA in Psychology and an MSEd in School Counseling from the University of Pennsylvania. He trained as a family therapist and has worked as a school counselor and psychoeducational consultant in elementary and secondary schools. His research has focused on evaluation and program development of community-based initiatives for LGBT adolescents and adults regarding health and well-being, community effects on family processes and the family-school connection.
Emily A. Greytak is a Senior Research Associate at GLSEN. She has an MSEd in Education Policy from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Psychology from Haverford College. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Education Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Pennsylvania. Other areas of inquiry include evaluation of training programs and the readiness of school personnel to foster safe school environments.
Elizabeth M. Diaz is a Research Associate at GLSEN. She has a BA in Sociology and Chicano Studies from the University of Minnesota, and is working toward a Master's degree in Sociology from George Washington University. Her research interests include the educational experiences of LGBTQ youth of color and the effects of abstinence-only sex education on school climate.
Methodology GLSEN located survey participants through community-based groups serving LGBT youth and via the Internet. The sample consisted of a total of 6,209 LGBT K-12 stu¬dents, from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, between the ages of 13 and 21. For the purposes of the current study, participants were also excluded if they had not provided school district information, resulting in a sample of 5,420 youth.
About GLSEN GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. Established in 1990, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. GLSEN seeks to develop school climates where difference is valued for the positive contribution it makes to creating a more vibrant and diverse community.
GLSEN research focuses on understanding the school experiences of all students, specifically as they are related to issues regarding sexual orientation and gender identity/expression, the school experiences of LGBT parents, perceptions of educators and school administrators regarding school climate, and the utility of school- and community-based efforts regarding bullying and harassment.
It's an open thread! Pleeeeease feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread...
My sockpuppet Bookworm Bob is pleased to announce his recent gastric bypass surgery, and Lasik eye surgery. So, he finally released a new photo of himself so y'all would know about his recent weight loss, and know he's proud of his new, improved, less creepy looking appearance.
Sockpuppet Bookworm Bob's new look is care of Louise's daughter "M."
So here's what the new-and-improved sockpuppet Bookworm Bob & I have been looking at into this weekend...
A well-chosen baby name, at least for future legal beagles, can pay higher dividends than mere immunity from playground jeers, according to two new economic studies.
University researchers report that "females with masculine names fare far better in legal careers than females with feminine names," with data showing gender-bending monikers increase the amount of money the woman commands per hour as well as her odds of being appointed a judge.
Though the annals of Canadian justice seem to contradict this - our highest court has seen such femininely named judges as Marie, Beverley, Rosalie and Bertha - the study authors report "robust support" for the effects, which they predict have implications for other traditionally male-dominated fields as well.
"When we see a masculine name, something in our subconscious is cued," says Bentley Coffey, an economist at Clemson University in South Carolina. "There seems to be a subtle sexist notion, even if it's not gender discrimination per se." ...
So be a man, grrls! To quote my friend Jayna in her tweet on this article: Want to tap male privilege? Masculinize your name!
BOSTON, Mass. - Research indicates that the social stigma that surrounds LGBT teens leads to a variety of health risks such as substance use, risky sexual behaviors, eating disorders, suicidal ideation and victimization. An editorial in the September issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health calls on clinicians and health researchers to lead the charge in improving the health and well-being of LGBT teens.
Clinicians can start by providing LGBT teens with high-quality, preventive care in a regular, private, and confidential environment. Health researchers can start by including information on sexual orientation and gender identity in health surveys and assessments.
"As clinicians, we should recognize how negative societal reactions related to sexual orientation and gender identity can affect our patients' health," says senior author Mark Schuster, MD, PhD, chief of General Pediatrics at Children's Hospital Boston...
*Sigh.*
• Los Angeles Times' Managing the health of the seas; 'We need to be able to use [the sea]. Just not use it up,' says one member of the White House's interagency group, which is working to coordinate policies for sustainable use of threatened waters.:
Reporting from Anchorage - With the world's oceans facing mounting threats from pollution, climate change and overfishing, the Obama administration on Friday held the first of several public hearings intended to help it draft a coordinated policy for managing the health of the seas.
During their stop in Alaska, members of the White House's Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force said they expected to have a list of priorities for improving ocean stewardship in place by mid-September. By December, officials said, they planned to set out a broad strategy for sustainably allocating natural resources among interests such as fishing, oil and gas development, shipping, wind and tidal energy, boating and wildlife preservation.
"In every . . . ocean around the world, over-exploitation has led to widespread depletion and disruption, often despite good intentions," said Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is part of the task force.
"This is not to say we can't use the ocean," she said. "We need to be able to use it. Just not use it up." ...
With worrying about the economy and healthcare, somehow I don't think this environmental story is going to rise to the top of the news cycle.
Tampa has seen a couple of cupcake bakeries pop up in the last couple of years, so I set out to compare their products; specifically, the simplest of all these sweets: a vanilla cupcake.
In Westchase, there are now two places that offer cupcakes. When Swirls on Race Track Road first opened, they had multiple cupcake flavors as well as several other baked goods. Currently, they seem to be concentrating more on gelato, coffees and a few lunch items. Good thing, because the cupcakes were awful. The cake was dry and oddly solid, as if previously frozen, and the frosting was greasy and flavorless. Thankfully, their gourmet gelato, including unique flavors like Guinness and avocado, are worth the visit.
*Sigh.* My sockpuppet Bookworm Bob and I are upset that in our quest for a more healthy way of living, we really can't indulge in cupcakes (except very occasionally) anymore. Curse you gastric bypasses that have made us look really super-cute, but left us craving delicious chocolate cupcakes!
Pack up the potted-meat lovers and head for Shady Cove today -- the SPAM Festival is back.
The festival and parade went on hiatus last year while event organizers scrambled to find a way to hold the annual event without breaking the bank.
This year's $2,500 shoestring budget means there will be no state highway-closing SPAM parade, nor will there be a SPAM queen. But there still will be plenty of fun, says Christie Eggleston, the event's chairwoman...
Well, I believe we can live without a highway closing parade...but no Spam Queen? The horrors!
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!
School will soon start again, and countless LGBT youth will return to classrooms all over the country. Some will return to schools where they find support and protection from harassment - where administrators and teachers work together to ensure a safe learning environment to all students.
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 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!
A conservative activist says the appointment of the founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network to head the U.S. Education Department's Office of Safe Schools is the equivalent of putting O.J. Simpson in charge of women's safety.
In the OneNewsNow piece, Mission America's founder Linda Harvey laments the hire of former GLSEN founder Kevin Jennings as the Department of Education Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools' deputy secretary -- she unfavorably compares his hiring to an African American's alleged killing of a white woman.
Do I really need to draw the parallel between Dr. George Tiller being killed after anti-abortion activists repeatedly referring to him as a "child murderer" (and "Tiller The Baby Killer") and his death to Linda Harvey's using a racially charged murder case to make a point about the Kevin Jennings' hiring at the department of Education?
Linda Harvey's speech seems to be hate speech to me, but it's protected free speech -- and it definitely should remain federally protected free speech. Yet, if Linda Harvey is attempting to use hyperbole to make her points, then her use of the form seems a bit too over the top in application. In other words, that she can freely state her ideas, but it doesn't mean that those of us who object to her particular language can't freely condemn her speech, as well as freely condemn her penchant to make statements that seem to folk like me to encourage violence.
Attempts at "speech codes" by universities are a related idea, but have produced a mountain of litigation, mostly over slurs or insults. These laws have been struck down as unconstitutional by courts throughout the country. Hate crimes laws and in schools, "anti-harassment" and anti-bullying policies based on sexual orientation, are just a back-door attempt to get the same goal accomplished: to use the force of law to elevate certain groups and individuals over others, to squash ideas and debate some find "offensive," and to thereby legitimize questionable social behavior.
I don't want to squash Harvey's speech or idea's, but expose her ideas -- especially this recent one regarding the hire of Kevin Jennings at the Department of Education -- to the light of day. It seems poignant on the day after Dr. George Tillman's murder to point out the imagery of Lind Harvey's comments; I believe comments like Linda Harvey's equating a government hire to a murder tell us where a good number of conservative "Christians" are coming from.
And, that place that these comments are coming from isn't a place of love, but instead it's pretty obvious these are coming from a place of hate.
There is terrorism in our midst. Even as we battle it in faraway lands, let's conduct counter-terrorism operations here on American soil as well. At stake is the integrity of nothing less than the human race itself.
And to me, it reads like she's using her free speech to advocate for anti-gay and anti-transgender violence.
We're all the same people, it's just that we think differently or we were born differently, and these people should be treated the same way as you would treat somebody else.
For the most part, I hate it when youth are used as props in rallies to make the points for adults. But wow, how compelling it is when a pre-teen youth actually steps up of their own volition to take action on a issue the youth cares about.
Denver - It's a big project on an even bigger issue, and it was created by one little boy. His name is Ethan, and the Denver third-grader is wading into the equal marriage rights debate.
Ethan wanted to do something after learning one of the children in his neighborhood had two moms who are unable to be married in Colorado. He called local officials, worked on the permits to hold a rally, created a lineup of speakers and hung fliers around town. Ethan's rally is Saturday at noon on the West steps of the Capitol, and he says the message is simple.
"People should be treated the same and they should have equal marriage rights and equal protection." ...
Take a read of the whole piece, or listen to the audio for the article -- audio where Ethan speaks in his own voice in well reasoned statements on human equality. It's pretty damn powerful.
Ethan gives me lots of hope for America's future generations of citizens; at eight, Ethan apparently already gets the concept that civil rights are human rights.
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.
Social workers feed in data on suspected abuse and neglect, and a decision pops out. Officials say the system eliminates the previous scattershot approach. Critics say the human element is slighted.
There's no time to wash away the smell of sour milk from the baby's skin, so the mother wipes the dozing infant's face with the filthy bib hanging from his neck. "WIC cares about me," it reads, a reference to the free food program for poor women and children.
Social worker Ladore Winzer has just told the mother she will detain the 11-month-old boy and process him this night into foster care.
It's after dusk and the slim, efficient social worker is late returning home to her own family, stuck for now in the middle of this ghetto vista. Cars swerve around a lampshade; a graffiti tribute to a dead man runs across a cinder block wall; a hunched homeless man pushes his cart across the grass-tufted sidewalk.
"If I'm good, can I get my baby back in three months?" the mother asks, conjuring a weak smile in an attempt to seal the proposal.
Chances are Winzer will not be making the decision.
A computer will. ...
The article goes on to state that while people can overrule the computer, the people follow the computer's lead on 91% of decisions to open an investigation, ..."92% of recommendations on removing a child from a home, and 99% of decisions on whether to return a child."
The point of the programing is to standardize procedures among social workers -- it appears that how social workers appied procedures previously were somewhat scattershot:
There is evidence that favoring math over emotion works. Studies show that actuarial statistics used by SDM predict the likelihood that a child will be abused or neglected with a precision never obtained when humans made decisions on their own.
Having a computer program decide best action feels inhuman, although I imagine that statistics based programing that takes into the account behavior patterns of real human beings probably is a better system of placing logic over falible emotion.
I like knowing though, that humans can overrule the computer programing, and actually do in a notable percentage of cases. I would be very concerned if a computer's interpretation of the data entry and the procedures became more important than the reasons the procedures were created in the first place -- best outcome for the children who might fall under the concerns of Los Angeles County's Department of Children and Family Services.
As many of us already suspected was true, ethnic minorities who also indentify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender experienced increased discrimination and safety issues. Key findings from the report, as reported in the media release for the report:
• Across all groups, sexual orientation and gender expression were the most common reasons LGBT students of color reported feeling unsafe in school. More than four out of five students, within each racial/ethnic group, reported verbal harassment in school because of sexual orientation and about two-thirds because of gender expression. At least a third of each group reported physical violence in school because of sexual orientation.
• More than half of African American/Black, Latino/a, Asian/Pacific Islander, and multiracial students also reported verbal harassment in school based on their race or ethnicity. Native American students (43%) were less likely than other students to report experiencing racially motivated verbal harassment.
• About a quarter of African American/Black and Asian/Pacific Islander students had missed class or days of school in the past month because they felt unsafe. Latino/a, Native American, and multiracial students were even more likely to be absent for safety reasons - about a third or more skipped class at least once or missed at least one day of school in the past month for safety reasons.
• Native American students experienced particularly high levels of victimization because of their religion, with more than half reporting the highest levels of verbal harassment (54%), and a quarter experiencing physical violence (26%).
• Less than half of students of color who had been harassed or assaulted in school in the past year said that they ever reported the incident to school staff. Furthermore, for those students who did report incidents to school staff, less than half believed that staff's resulting response was effective.
• Native American (57%) and multiracial (50%) students were more likely than other students of color in our survey to report incidents to a family member.
• Performance at school also suffered when students experienced high levels of victimization. Students' overall GPA dropped when they reported high severities of harassment based on sexual orientation and/or race/ethnicity. Students experiencing high severities of harassment also reported missing school more often.
• The report also looks at differing experiences based on the racial/ethnic make-up of students' schools. For all groups, LGBT students of color who were minorities in their school were much more likely to feel unsafe and experience harassment because of their race or ethnicity than those who were in the racial/ethnic majority.
The media release spoke to why GLSEN released the report now:
GLSEN is releasing the report in conjunction with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Organizing Weekend, which takes place January 16-19. Dr. MLK Jr. Organizing Weekend provides an opportunity for students and Gay-Straight Alliances to honor the coalition-building work of Dr. King and other civil rights leaders, such as Bayard Rustin, by reaching out to others committed to working toward safe schools for all students.
For those youth who want to be activists for civil rights in their schools, Bayard Rustin has a poignant quote on the protesting, dignity, and humanity:
When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.
[Below the fold: Looking at the demographics of this report - especially the trans-related demographics.]
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.
E-f*cking-gads! Has this justice of the peace never heard of 
Well, Eep! This no doubt will be some interesting listening! 
Higly recommend its vieing. 
So be a man, grrls! To quote my friend Jayna in her 
An editorial in the September issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health calls on clinicians and health researchers to lead the charge in improving the health and well-being of LGBT teens.
Well, I believe we can live without a highway closing parade...but no Spam Queen? The horrors!
