Back to Business as Usual

From Queer Channel Media:

“The signals we are getting is that [a ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal] will be and can be passed in 2010,” Nix said.

Progress on ENDA, DP benefits expected

Action on other pro-LGBT legislation seems more imminent. Frank said Congress could advance the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and a bill providing partner benefits to LGBT federal employees in the near future.

And the prospects for passing the Domestic Partnership Benefits & Obligations Act, he said, are the most promising.

“That one I’m the most confident is going to become law because I think you have Senate support for it — enough to get to the 60” votes needed to overcome a filibuster, Frank said.

Ah yes…

Let the hedging begin – and let the gay marriage-ish stuff continue to supplant the basic economic necessities of working-class LGB(and particularly)T people.  Its good enough for New York, no?  The gays there

are protected by law from being thrown out of their apartment, fired from their jobs or being denied service in a hotel or restaurant because of who they are.  They have ignored the gender varaint people in NY for years with no real consequence.  There’s no reason for them to fight for the inclusion of gender identity/expression in the law.  They are cissexual and cisgender.  They don’t have to worry about it, they have privilege.I’m beginning to think that gender variant people in NY had better get used to the idea that they will never get state level inclusion into non discrimination law.  Once the GLB organizations achieve marriage equality there will never be enough resources devoted to the cause of inclusion.  Look at how little is being spent now, on our behalf.  Why should the trans community support these people?  The reasons to do so are dwindling fast.

So…

Don’t expect anything on GENDA.

And as for ENDA?  Here’s Jill Weiss’s take:

We are missing 4 votes in the Senate, but the House is considered by insiders to have a solid grip on ENDA.If hints of rumors that I’m getting are good indicators, however, then their grip may be slipping, just a tiny bit. I have heard from D.C. insiders that some of the more conservative House Democrats are beginning to raise concerns about ENDA. The right-ward shift indicated by the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races and the Maine vote makes them nervous, and they don’t want to be forced to vote on controversial legislation. This crisis of confidence is not unexpected, of course, as the same thing happened in 2007. ENDA was considered to have very good chances of passage in 2007, but when crunch time came, first-term Democrats in conservative districts came forward to express their concerns. The device used to mollify them was the removal of gender identity protections from the bill, and the bill then sailed through the House.

Could the same thing happen again? Fortunately not. It would be impossible because Representatives Frank, Baldwin and Polis have emphatically stated that they would not permit that to happen.

Wait….just kidding….these are politicians we’re talking about. Of course it could happen again, and from what I’m hearing, we’re not moving in a good direction.

Of course, thanks to the feckless, corporatist, nothingspine, Stupak-appeasing DINOs in Congress and among Obama’s (mal)advisers, we’re not headed simply back to 2007, we’re headed back to 1994 – to a false reality in which Republicans are allowed to get away with claiming that they’re not the ones responsible for the disasters that they created while they were in charge and, in turn, are not equally responsible for the painful aspects of what the Democrats are now having to do to cure the crabs of 21st Century pseudo-Republicanism.

And, just as the feckless, corporatist, nothingspine, Nunn-appeasing DINOs in Congress and among Bill Clinton’s (mal)advisers allowed Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay to get away with it in 1994, Numb Emmanuel is going to let The Boner, The Cantor, The Bachh and The Dreck get away with it in 2010…

ensuring that we can all forget about anything more substantive than the hate crimes law until at least 2025.

The Dredge Is At It Again

Yes, Alice Dreger - J. Michael Bailey’s one-woman, Guggenheim-funded Greek chorus of anti-transsexual hatred – is at it again.

This time its in the October newsletter of the – get your gag reflex ready – History of Science Society.

And The Dredge is now not simply misappropriating scholarly victimhood, she’s shooting her wad, going for broke, yadda yadda yadda…

In the Service of Galileo’s Ghost: A Short Guide to History, Assault, and Ideology 

 Sorry Alice, but you long ago stopped being curiouser or even merely a curiousity.  You’re light-years beyond Wonderland on the wackadoo scale.

Exhibit 487,302,216 – an attempt to rehabilitate (actually, habilitate might be the better word, since I’m not sure there was ever any credibility to fall down from in the first instance) the pathetic ringer-wannabe who was in the audience at the Bailey Brouhaha panel at the 2008 National Women’s Studies Association Conference:

Rosa stood up and said:

 

“Rosa Lee Klaneski, Trinity College. I cite Alice Dreger’s academically-rigorous work all the time in my own work.”

Here is a piece of her “work”:

And here’s just one of the reviews of it at Amazon:

In this book, Rosa Lee tries to argue that gender is not a social construction (an interesting thesis that seems highly relevant to modern feminism) through transgender theory and—here is where it all breaks down—quantum physics. Somehow Lee got the idea that quantum mechanics (she makes frequent analogies to physics she clearly doesn’t understand) could be used to explain away the more grievous logical errors in her ultimate conclusion: “society is a contruction of gender.”

Lee writes: “The patriarcy deliberately planted the philosophical seeds of post-structuralist feminism to distract feminists from reality’s true nature[...].” Her entire understanding of her opposition is limited to this sort of absurd conspiracy-theory.

Which, of course, makes her the perfect compatriot for The Dredge.

Now, back to what said Dredge was attempting to ‘prove’ in the History of Science newsletter – continuing her quote of Lee’s attempt to be witty in 2008:

“She doesn’t know who I am but I know who she is. And I am just wondering[...]– and I’m a transgender person myself – what gives any transgender person the right to abrogate someone else’s first amendment right to freedom of speech just because they hold an unpopular minority view? In my opinion [regarding] the person that you are arguing against [i.e., scientist Michael Bailey, my historical subject], I completely agree with you. Bunk. Ridiculous science. And should be classified as such. I got that. What gives us the right to censor [Dreger’s or Bailey’s work] just because we don’t like it?”

Now here is where The Chicanery of The Dredge really kicks into high gear.  Remember what Rosa Lee has, at this point alleged: Those of us private-citizen transsexuals who are rightly pointing out all that is wrong with J. Michael Bailey are violating his First Amendment rights.

I do want to thank The Dredge for transcribing Lee’s words; they (and the other audience comments) weren’t as audible as I would have liked on my audio recording (though I think they’re a bit moreso on the video.)  However…

The objection raised in return was that the panel didn’t constitute censorship. Technically this was true

Uh…no.  There was nothing technical about it.

Not only are those who have disproven – and continue to disprove – Bailey not government actors (at least not while doing so), but there is not nor has there ever been an absolute right to free speech! Waving your pathetic Ph.D. does not immunize you (or Bailey, or Blanchard, etc.) from the consequences of speech. 

but anyone with any background on this knew – as Rosa and I did – the intimidation tactics used to try to silence Bailey, me, and others.

You mean like illegimately procuring scientific gloss for fraudulent trans-exterminationist fairy tales (that NARTH-oids likely frighten their children to sleep with), claiming victimhood when you and your chorusmasters are called on its fraudulence (and the implicit collective defamation inherent in the false legitimizing of it), actually intimidating your critics (up to and including not-so-veiled threats to pre-sabotage the careers of trans women who dare to attempt to acquire credentials to compete against yours), and further silencing your critics by smothering all real discussion with Guggenheim-gilded new ‘work’ of your own which further falsely fertilizes your otherwise fallow field of victimhood.

You mean like that?

Yeh – I didn’t think so.

Translations: The John And The ESPA Are Fine With It As Well

But you could have guessed that, no?  Gov. Paterson wants gays to be able to get married as well as to be able to discriminate against trans people.  So, of course…

why should any New York gay or New York lesbian have to wait for what they want? 

But – trans people can continue to wait for what they need: a remedy against discrimination, particularly when it is inflicted by gays and lesbians who think that sheltering six- and seven-figure estates from the taxman is more important than trans people having even  minimal access to the economy that lets certain gays and lesbians manufacture those six- and seven-figure estates.

 

Translation: I’m Fine With Gays Being Able to Discriminate Against Trans People

From Queer Channel Media:

Advocates for same-sex marriage are hitting New York’s state capital hard, trying to sway the few votes needed for final legislative approval of the bill in a special session Tuesday.

This comes a week after a Maine referendum soundly repealed that state’s new same-sex marriage law.

What appears to be a likely vote in New York is being forced by Gov. David Paterson who put it on the agenda of the extraordinary session he’s calling for Tuesday.

Although he can require the Legislature consider the bill, Paterson can’t compel lawmakers to vote. This makes for a rare moment in Albany when the outcome of the floor votes isn’t clear well before the formal action.

But it makes for a not-so-rare moment in which those afflicted with Marriage Derangement Syndrome have their wants addressed prior to the needs of trans people.

Sen. Franken

 

I was actually in D.C. for something else (no, not the teabagging festival, but I will have a post about that later as it was all but impossible to move around in D.C. today without encountering them), but I did have the morning free – so I made it a point to attend the Senate hearing on ENDA…

meaning, of course, that I finally got the chance to see Senator Al Franken in action in person.

As with the teabaggers, a more extensive post about the ENDA hearing itself will be coming soon.  Live blogging it won’t be – but do stay tuned.

Meanwhile, if it isn’t the Al Franken decade, perhaps it should be.

The Weblog Awards Are Coming

And now, for those of you who don’t like sport, we have a shameless plea for votes:

Nominations Update – We’re A Go For Tonight

After a full day of doing battle with Javascript, JQuery, and Apache, we’ve finally got things straightened out. For a large period of the day the site wouldn’t accept comments from Firefox or Google Chrome (but worked with IE8), which obviously wasn’t acceptable for our famous open nomination process. We’ve solved that issue, and the + ratings issue. Big thanks to Mark Carey and Bryne Reese for the help.

All this means we will open nominations later this evening.

There’s still some minor housekeeping we’re working on (such as the content of the site ads, the Technorati Authority boundaries, etc.), but as soon as that’s finished nominations will open.

Yes, the Weblog Awards.

Vote early…

Vote often…

Vote for ENDABlog.

For the Last Time: Its NOT Trans Women That People Need to be Afraid of

Its those who want you to think that its trans women that you should be afraid of.  Double h/t to Autumn Sandeen at Pam’s on these.

First there was:

The CVS Pharmacy manager who allegedly admitted Friday to filming women in his store’s bathroom was an active participant in the 2008 charter amendment to “keep men out of women’s restrooms.”Jonathan Matheny, 27, was charged with one count of video voyeurism after a customer told police she had discovered a cell phone equipped with a camera under a pile of tissues in the CVS bathroom at 125 S.W. 34th St.

Police are looking for other victims.

And now we have:

A clerk at a Christian bookstore in Simi Valley was arrested on suspicion of peeping after Simi Valley police found a video camera hidden in a bathroom at the store, authorities said today.

Officers were called to the Family Christian Book Store in the 2900 block of Cochran Street on Sunday afternoon after a 40-year-old woman and her husband reported finding the video camera, said Simi Valley Police Sgt. Dwight Thompson.

Okay…

For accuracy’s sake, I haven’ t seen a direct connection between the latter and any of the efforts to repeal trans-inclusive anti-discrimination ordinances by demonizing trans women…

But you get the idea: He was NOT a transsexual woman.

Now Call it The ‘Defense of Rape Act’

From Crooks and Liars:

This is infuriating. If there was any doubt in your mind as to whose side the political establishment is on, this should settle it:

An amendment that would prevent the government from working with contractors who denied victims of assault the right to bring their case to court is in danger of being watered down or stripped entirely from a larger defense appropriations bill.

Multiple sources have told the Huffington Post that Sen. Dan Inouye, a longtime Democrat from Hawaii, is considering removing or altering the provision, which was offered by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and passed by the Senate several weeks ago.

Why should we not call the stripped down bill the ‘Defense of Rape Act’ or DORA?

Dumb Dora is soooooo dumb………

Meet The Rachel

Brian Donovan at True Slant:

Let’s be honest, “Meet The Press” has been lost since Tim Russert’s passing.

…

[N]othing personal against [David] Gregory, he does a respectable job. But Tim Russert’s shoes were ridiculously hard to fill, and most anyone would’ve been a let down. Which is why it’s time for MTP to make another change. It’s not about the guy who replaces the legend, it’s about the guy who replaces the guy who replaces the legend. He (or she) is the one that really has a shot. A chance to step out of the shadow, to be their own host, to make the show in their image, not as a reflection of the great one who came before them. And that person is Rachel Maddow.

…

Maddow does something there that almost no other television personality is able to pull-off convincingly nowadays: standing up for what’s right. I’m sure that “Meet The Press” producers would be wary of her because she clearly has a liberal bent. She’s not impartial, she doesn’t toe the line of unbiased political evaluation. But, just like Russert, Maddow is ruthless when it comes to the truth. She goes after anyone – liberal or conservative – when they try to deceive the public.

The Proof?

Any journalist should be willing to scrutinize a walking pile of slime like Tim Phillips – but they don’t.  The fact that Rachel tosses in her very personal opinion at him is irrelevant; she exposed this cancer on the body of the American psyche – and the fact that ‘real’ journalists won’t is the only reason she was in the position of being face-to-face with him to give voice to the frustration that Americans feel about corporate manipulators.

Hurt her?

Hell – that only enhances her cred.

And Speaking of Insanity

CNN currently has a poll about the Louisiana JP who thinks that his personal views about how healthy interracial families are for children:

Any guesses as to who the vast majority (or even all) of that 21% voted for in the presidential election last year?

And any guesses as to whether or not that same vast majority has a pavlovian reaction to the phrase “judicial activism” any time that any christianist politician utters it?

Yes, they would just be guesses – but…………………………………