Depressing

This is one of the more depressing developments I’ve run across of late.

Former sex-worker, and the world’s first transsexual member of parliament, New Zealand’s Georgina Beyer says she plans to make a new life for herself in Australia.

Disillusioned with the complete lack of career opportunities since leaving New Zealand parliament in February 2007, Beyer says she will move to Australia to find work in December.

“It seems that I am not valued for my experience in either local or central government, so I guess I wasted 14 years of my life in publicly elected service and ended up unemployable,” says Beyer. “I have all this accumulated knowledge and experience and no one wants to employ it, and I’m not sure why.”

I don’t have very many heroes in the trans community - but Georgina Beyer (definitely not to be confused with Dana) is at the top of my list.  The fact that, even with the success she has had, she’s still being shit on like this, is beyond disheartening.

Too bad she’s not in the US, then maybe HRC would hire her…

Oh…

What was I thinking?

Actually Georgina, maybe you should stick with your plans for Australia.  Perhaps there, a purple-n-yellow equal sign isn’t self-contained fraud.

The Vietchurian Candidate?

Maybe I just haven’t been wanting to think about this possibility, but a commenter to an item over at Queerty asks a scary question regarding McBush:

I wonder if he was a victim of psy-ops mind control and it’s his destiny to destroy the United States!

Not to go too conspiratorial, but, now that I think about it, Cindy McCain gives me the creeps in the same way that Raymond Shaw’s mother did in the (good version of) The Manchurian Candidate.

Oh well…

Off to my garden club meeting.

Tentacles

[UPDATED - 8/19/08]

The following is a link to a press release from the APA about gender identity stuff.  For purposes of this post, the specifics aren’t important.

APA resolves to play leading role in improving treatment for gender-variant people

Now look at the header info:

Contact: Kim I. Mills
kmills@apa.org
202-336-6048
American Psychological Association

Last year, the APA named Mills associate executive director of public and member communications.

Before joining APA, Mills spent two years as director of communications and public affairs at Whitman-Walker Clinic, the largest HIV/AIDS service provider in the D.C. metro area. In that post, she helped steer the clinic through a financial crisis that led to the launch of a new business strategy. Before that, Mills was the first education director for the Human Rights Campaign, the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy organization. During eight years at HRC, Mills was a key spokesperson for the organization and oversaw HRC’s highly successful workplace advocacy program, its award-winning web site, magazine, the National Coming Out Project and the family project, among other responsibilities.

Earlier in her career, Mills spent 14 years as a reporter and supervisor at The Associated Press….

Now, lets look at the opening line of an article that Mills authored in 1994 (specifically, as it appeared in the Feb. 14, 1994, edition of the Wisconsin State Journal) whilst working for the Associated Press:

The gay community has long allowed other sexual outcasts to ride its coattails, from transvestites and transsexuals to bisexuals and leather fetishists. But it is now trying to distance itself from pedophiles.

That’s the attitudinal inclination that the Rhode Island Avenue Cesspool of Transphobia thought was proper for an ‘education director.’ 

See why I constantly question not simply the amount and type of ‘education’ that the Scampaign claims to have done regarding trans issues over the last decade-plus, but whether any ‘education’ actually took place at all?

And that’s the alumna-cum-tentacle that the Scampaign has in the APA right now as it determines what the next edition of the DSM has to say about us.

Sleep well.

[UPDATE]

As is noted in the comments, I was linking the DSM to the wrong APA.  The DSM is the American Psychiatric Association’s thing, not the American Psychological Association’s.

Mea screw-up-a.

Of course, as the commenter notes, there is significant cross-pollenation between the two.  And, look at the list of life forms that constitutes the ‘Task Force’ that HRC-alumna Mills is plugging:

Task force members:
Chair: Margaret Schneider, PhD, University of Toronto, Canada;
Walter O. Bockting, PhD, University of Minnesota Medical School;
Randall D. Ehrbar, PsyD; New Leaf Services Our Community, San Francisco;
Anne A. Lawrence, MD, PhD, Seattle; Katherine Rachlin, PhD, New York;
Kenneth J. Zucker, PhD, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada

Remember: Mills was a mouthpiece for the Scampaign during its period of particularly virulent political transphobia, often masked by fluffy aspirations of “ending discrimination based on gender identity,” just like this ‘Task Force’ implores psychological professionals to do.

This APA could send a signal that its serious by getting rid of those in its employ (and ‘force’) who are known and recognized as harmful influences to transsexuals and all trans people.

Okay…Continued Opportunism

From Vanessa Edwards-Foster:

You’ve gotta hand it to HRC: they’re veritable bloodhounds when it comes to sniffing out opportunities to bolster their PR or their bottom line. What’s astonishing is how remarkably shameless they are about it.

They do indeed.

The Continued Arrogance of the Human Right Scampaign

From an e-mail I received a few days ago from the Rhode Island Avenue Cesspool of Transphobia:

Subject:	No regrets
Date:	8/10/2008 10:37:35 A.M. Central Daylight Time
From:	hrc@hrc.org

Dear Katrina,

“I don’t want to wake up on November 5th and think ‘I could have done more.’” That’s what gets HRC staffer Allison Herwitt up and out the door every morning.

If everyone felt that same urgency, I know we’d win the election. We’d then be able to pass the pro-equality federal laws we’ve fought so hard for. It’s simple cause and effect.

Katrina, we’re still waiting for you to join us in 2008, the watershed election year for GLBT equality.

Become an HRC member with a gift of $25 or more – that’s a $10 discount off our normal membership! Join before Thursday and we’ll also send you a free magnetic picture frame.

Who is the “we” in “we’ve”?

What can your money do? Check out this video about the woman who can – and will – convert your gift into groundbreaking victories.

Two years ago, Allison came to me and said: “Joe, this is the most important civil rights struggle of our generation. I want to be on the front lines.” So after 11 years of leadership in the pro-choice movement, she joined HRC as our Legislative Director.

Allison and her husband have two young children.

So…

This is a reminder of the Scampaign’s propensity for hiring non-trans straight women while not hiring trans women of any orientation (until, of course, the token preacherette of 2008)?

She often tells me she works for HRC because she wants her kids to grow up in a world where they’ll be accepted for who they are, no matter who they love.

Do you often tell her that she works at at an organization where transsexuals are not accepted for who they are?  Do you ever tell her? 

And in her time on Capitol Hill, she’s seen some downright nasty attacks from the radical right – like the full-page ad in USA Today saying hate crimes laws “muzzle” clergy, or the infamous “ENDA protects mental disorders” campaign.

Allison’s story shows why everyone – GLBT, straight, married, single – has a stake in this fight. She’s one of the many faces of HRC that represents GLBT issues on Capitol Hill and across the country. But we all know the real face of HRC is YOU.

Check out the video, join HRC with a special discounted gift of $25 or more, and give Allison what she needs to defeat anti-GLBT bigotry on Capitol Hill.

What she won’t tell you in the video, because she’s too modest, is that her relentlessness and passion have led to huge breakthroughs:

• The historic passage, by both houses of Congress, of the Matthew Shepard Act. If we had a pro-equality president, it would be the law of the land today.
• The first-ever Congressional hearings on the discrimination facing transgender Americans.
• A repeal of the draconian ban on HIV-positive visitors or immigrants entering the United States.
• The first hearings in 15 years on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

 

 

That’s what she’s done with a hostile White House and without an unwavering pro-equality majority in Congress. Just imagine what she can do with an increased number of pro-equality lawmakers in the House and Senate.

Did she have a hand in writing your speech to Southern Comfort last year, Pee Wee?

Next January, we can make sure that when Allison walks into the offices of new lawmakers, they’ll say: “Allison, I’m with you.” Hate crimes? I’m with you. Inclusive ENDA? I’m with you. Ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”? Domestic Partner benefits? With you on those, too.

But those lawmakers will only stand with Allison if you stand with us to help elect them.

So don’t waste a minute. Watch Allison’s story and join us at HRC, as we build a lasting pro-equality majority that will protect GLBT rights.

This year, we can build a lasting majority that will protect GLBT rights for generations to come.

Protect?

If you and the rich transphobic elitists who pull your pee pee strings have their way, there will continue to be no such rights at the federal level - and those elsewhere will cease to exist.

Warmly,

 

Joe Solmonese
President

Warmly…

like a bucket of recycled beer.

Transsexuals to Bring a Ghost Town Back to Life?

I’m not sure what to make of this - but it sounds interesting.  From Laura’s Playground:

Rising from the ashes of an old ghost town could be a new one in the State of Texas. The former town now known as BRYANT STATION, TEXAS was recently purchased by two transsexuals on staff here at Laura’s Playground named Sharleah and Karen who are both Vice Presidents here. They plan to establish a Transgender Support Community there providing housing, medical care and job training for transgendered people. There are plans to re-name the town NoJudgement Texas.

It appaears to be within a hundred miles or so of Austin, so it is relatively near the only remaining civilization in Texas.  So…….who knows?

When is a Pro-Trans Article Potentially Dangerous to Trans People?

When it is wrong - overoptimistically wrong.

Christine Wicker over at HuffPo has an otherwise good piece about the anti-trans histrionics of Focus on the Fraud regarding the new trans-inclusive Colorado public accommodations law.

How does a transvestite go to the toilet?

No joke. Can anybody tell me?

I don’t mean anatomically. I mean location-ly, publicly. When a transvestite is out and about, and feels the call of nature, where does he/she go?

I never thought about it until James Dobson’s Focus on the Family brought the issue up in a national campaign against Colorado’s new anti-discrimination bill. Colorado’s Gov. Bill Ritter received thousands of calls, emails and letters asking him to veto the bill. So I thought the governor’s spokesman, Evan Dreyer, might know.

He didn’t. And he didn’t seem interested in speculating. I was.

Perhaps transvestites have been in women’s restrooms all along. I never noticed. I never saw them going into men’s restrooms either. So where do they go?

So far, so good.

Dreyer didn’t know of anyone, anywhere ever being arrested for using a restroom meant for the opposite gender. Because, he said, it’s not against the law. Anybody can use any restroom. Unlawful behavior inside a restroom is against the law, just as it is outside a restroom, he said. So relax, all you hussies who’ve sneaked yourself into the men’s room after waiting too long in the women’s line. You’re safe.

Any?

Now, I’m not saying that it shouldn’t be that way.  I’m just saying that Wicker (and, more importantly, Dreyer) should do some checking to make sure that is accurate. 

Perhaps it actually is accurate in Colorado already; I haven’t checked to see if any city or county there retains a sex-specifying potty ordinance.  I suspect, though, that at least one or two still exist there.  Even where anti-crossdressing ordinances have long since died, often the potty ordinance persists.  For example, Houston, Texas ordinance Sec. 28-20:

It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly and intentionally enter any public restroom designated for the exclusive use of the sex opposite to such person’s sex without the permission of the owner, tenant, manager, lessee or other person in charge of the premises, in a manner calculated to cause a disturbance.

That last clause, of course, is the type of language that Dreyer was referring to.

Still, do you want to have to try to prove that you were not calculating to cause a disturbance?

Yes, that last clause is an element of the crime that the state (or city) bears the burden of proving in order to convict (and I do know of at least one pre-op MTF who was able to get a Houston jury focus on that element in securing a not guilty verdict on a charge resulting from doing nothing more than using a women’s restroom for its intended purpose.)  But, as some cops are honest enough to admit regarding the law in general, you may beat the rap, but you can’t beat the ride.

Meaning?

Even if you manage to convince a jury or judge to find you not guilty (or to throw out the charge), thanks to the psychotic Atwater v. City of Lago Vista, a cop can still arrest you even if a conviction on the charge in question could not result in any jail time (as is the case with the Houston ordinance.)

And we all know what an arrest usually means for a transsexual woman.

So, I hate criticizing an otherwise good article about trans issues - but being overoptimistic can lead those who are just transitioning to believe that things are better than they actually are, which can be deadly.

I’d Rather Be a Trans Flake Than a Trans Fake - Episode 69

I’d Rather Be a Trans Flake Than a Trans Fake - Episode 69

Episode 69 – Recorded Jan. 29, 2007

 

- Transvestite or Dominatrix?

- Music: Friday on My Mind

- Interview (recorded on Jan. 27, and as of the posting of this on ENDABlog, its still the only interview I’ve done on the show; what can I say? Ethan’s special) with Ethan St. Pierre about a brand new NON-inclusive hate crimes bill

I’d Rather Be a Trans Flake Than a Trans Fake - Episode 69

I’d Rather Be a Trans Flake Than a Trans Fake - Episode 68

I’d Rather Be a Trans Flake Than a Trans Fake - Episode 68

Episode 68 – Recorded Jan. 29, 2007

 

- Dressing up like Donna Summer?

- The cold, clear clarity of reality for ‘conservatives’

- Music: God

- Music: God, Part 2

- An Ohio cross-dresser

- Music: Ball and Chain

- The dissemination of lies to Iowa

- Music: Moonlight on Vermont

- Music: Gone

I’d Rather Be a Trans Flake Than a Trans Fake - Episode 68

I’d Rather Be a Trans Flake Than a Trans Fake - Episode 67

I’d Rather Be a Trans Flake Than a Trans Fake - Episode 67

Episode 67 – Recorded Jan. 27, 2007

 

- Who are these homosexual groups?

- Fatcats

- Reality according to Queer Channel Media

- Music: New Frontier

- Music: Wide Wide River

- Minimum wage?

- Music: Boys Wanna Be Her

I’d Rather Be a Trans Flake Than a Trans Fake - Episode 67