The Record Says Nothing…

And I don’t mean an LP featuring the ghost of Nipsey Russell reciting the coke-snorting, draft-dodging rich brat’s mental abilities.

I mean Crawford v. Marion County Election Board:

The record says virtually nothing about the difficulties faced by either indigent voters or voters with religiousobjections to being photographed. While one elderly man stated that he did not have the money to pay for a birthcertificate, when asked if he did not have the money or did not wish to spend it, he replied, “both.” App. 211–212.From this limited evidence we do not know the magnitudeof the impact SEA 483 will have on indigent voters in Indiana. The record does contain the affidavit of one homeless woman who has a copy of her birth certificate, but was denied a photo identification card because she did not have an address. Id., at 67. But that single affidavit gives no indication of how common the problem is.

In sum, on the basis of the record that has been made in this litigation, we cannot conclude that the statute imposes “excessively burdensome requirements” on any class of voters.

Not familiar with this opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court?

Not even familiar with mandatory voter photo-ID laws?

Well, this litigation didn’t appear to be familiar with transsexuals.

But, I’d suggest that you get familiar with Crawford and any law in your state that Republicans have enacted to ensure that people who tend not to vote Republican aren’t able to vote.

Because, come November, those who will be enforcing such laws at polling places will be familiar with transsexuals.

And they will challenge your ID.

And they will indeed make voting “excessively burdensome” for you.

And your vote will never count.

As I stated over at Pam’s House Blend, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board will be

Why the Republicans Just Won the 2008 Presidential Election

And it was decided whilst the Democrats (read: HRC’s HRC) fiddled.

Best?

From Queer Channel Media, gushing over an impending subscription video blog entitled, wait for it…

Daily Drag Queen Affirmations

Oh, but it gets better.  According to Rebecca Armendariz, the J-note sub fee will be the

Best $20 you’ll ever spend

Here’s a thought.

Donate it to NTAC instead.

Yet Another Reason to Barf at the Sight of the Scampaign’s Purple-n-Yellow Lie, err…, Equal Sign

And it has nothing to do with ENDA!!!

In the gay political universe HRC doesn’t only stand for the candidate working with John McCain to tear down the Democrat McCain will face in November. It also stands for something far more loathsome and treacherous than Hillary, the Human Rights Campaign. HRC is an Inside the Beltway kiss ass advocacy group for gay people.

…

When it comes to electoral politics, you can almost always expect the worst from HRC.

This past February their in house magazine prominently featured Republican rubber stamp and fake moderate Susan Collins (R-ME), including a 2 page spread giving the false impression that Collins is not the enemy of gay people.

…

Today HRC announced its endorsements for Senate races around the country. They are asking the gay community to donate money to 10 cash-rich incumbents and four Democratic challengers, Jeanne Shaheen (DLC-NH), Mark Udall (D-CO), Tom Udall (D-NM), and Al Franken (D-MN). Among the incumbents is Collins, of course, who is running against a Democratic congressman, Tom Allen, who’s voting record on gay issues is excellent and who is a true friend of the gay community and someone who, again, unlike Collins, will never ever, vote to confirm rabid homophobic judges.

Did the Scampaign learn nothing from endorsing Al D’Amato ten years ago?

Oh…

Silly me…

What have they ever learned about anything other than how to line their pockets with money that could be going to affect real change?

GLB…….What?

Pee Wee Solmonese is scribbling over at the Huffington Post:

At the Human Rights Campaign, we are acutely aware of just how much hangs in the balance for the GLBT community.

And you know how to make it hang out of balance too.

You can’t polish a turd, Joe.

I suggest you stop trying.

Why the Currently-Voiceless Among Us Need to be in Charge

Another story about the ‘pregnant man,’ another several quotes from people presented as being representative of the trans community but who are not.

Case in point: an item in the current issue of the Shamvocate asking “Has Thomas Beatie’s public exposure hurt the transgender movement?”

Funny…

I don’t seem to recall the Shamvocate worrying about how the trans community would be hurt when it ran Norah Vincent’s extermination manifesto back in 2000.

And, lets not forget that the Shamvocate actually got the media ball rolling with the story of Thomas Beatie, when it ran an online item by him back in March.

But, right now, its the Shamvocate in high ‘journalism’ mode, excreting shit and passing it off as legitimacy.

Now, the current item on Beatie does have a salient observation about Beatie from Jamison Green:

“I wish he didn’t turn himself over to the media.”

But look where the article eventually goes: Shamvocate-proclaimed trans legal expertise from self-professed specialist in trans rights.

“I don’t imagine there will be negative legal consequences for [the Beaties] personally,” says Dean Spade, a lawyer who specializes in transgender rights. After all, the couple is legally married and therefore has all the parental rights a marriage provides. “The idea of someone challenging this doesn’t make sense. The biological tie is generally respected in court.” Spade adds that Beatie’s legal gender can’t be questioned, and because this is a marriage between a legal man and woman, he doesn’t see how the story could have any impact on heterosexual marriage laws in Oregon.

No negative legal consequences?

Legal gender can’t be questioned?

Doesn’t see how the story could have any impact?

Now…

Should there be consequnces?  Should Beatie’s gender be questioned?  Should it have any legal impact?

Those are different questions.

But, if Spade really believes there are no possible legal consequences (does he really think some enterprisng political opportunist – even in Oregon or, perhaps, with the feds – won’t try?), and if Spade really believes that Beatie’s legal gender can’t be questioned (it won’t even take an opportunist to arrange some venue in which Beatie’s post-transition-to-male pregnancy will yield a de novo examination of not just Beatie himself but of all statements, documents, etc., that went into getting his gender legally changed in the first instance). and if Spade really believes the story will have no legal impact on heterosexual marriage (as in whether or not an FTM can marry a woman, and whether or not an MTF can marry a man) in Oregon (yeh – I can see all that gay money and energy  to fight against legislative action ‘clarifying’ that marriages such as the Beaties’ are invalid same-sex relationships flowing into Oregon right now…NOT), then Spade has abdicated any and all right that he may have ever had to speak for anyone on trans issues – in court or anywhere else.

Queer Channel Media: All Marriage, All the Time

Yes, marriage is the measuring cock – the standard by which a state is to be judged as being either progressive or backward. 

As po’ pi’ful Kevin Naff laments:

Maryland, my backward Maryland

Of course, you’ll find nothing in his snifflefest about the fact that Maryland still is a state that gives people such as himself the special – backward – right to discriminate against trans people.

AFTER LAST YEAR’S high court ruling upholding straight-only marriage in Maryland, many residents of the state — including me — had high hopes for the 2008 legislative session.

Surely, many of us thought, the state’s Democratic lawmakers would right the judicial wrong inflicted by the slimmest of majorities, 4-3. But instead of courageous leadership on a pressing civil rights issue, the state’s politicians quickly reverted to type, abandoning progress and embracing the safe confines of the status quo.

No marriage. No civil unions. Not even domestic partnerships for gays living in a so-called “blue state” where Democrats enjoy monopolistic control of both houses in the legislature and the governor’s mansion.

So, you can work in Maryland without fear – even without the fear of ever having to endure the indignity of accepting the notion that a transsexual woman is equal to you.

T’aint good ’nuff, eh?

So, certainly, if Maryland had taken away your special right to discriminate against trans people, that would not change your view of Maryland as “backward”? 

Ya gotta hand it to Queer Channel Media.  Its consistent.

Of course, there is one new wrinkle in their ‘all gay marriage, all the time’ programming: a slight doff of the hat to the notion of ‘incremental progress’ on the issue of gay marriage.

Of course, it comes from a dubious source.

Given all the Democratic opposition to marriage, why didn’t Equality Maryland pursue more realistic goals, like civil unions?

That question was posed by Stephen Clark, a professor at Albany Law School who is gay and tracks civil rights issues. The answer to that question is that Equality Maryland’s board members and donors wanted to pursue an all-or-nothing strategy — and they got just about nothing. Civil unions are an imperfect solution, as evidenced by the legal mess they’ve created in New Jersey, but they’re a start.

Ah yes…Stephen Clark.

You remember him, I hope.  He’s the spinmeister who Queer Channel Media allowed to put forth the patently inaccurate ‘theory’ (some will say ‘theory’; I say ‘lie’) that most trans-inclusive state civil rights laws have only come into being because the trans aspect has benefitted from “concealment.”  His analysis was so far off the mark that, were it part of a representation of a person or entity, said person or entity would have a good case for a legal malpractice claim (and was also, in my view, actually unethical – probably to the point that it would have put his law license in jeopardy.)  Recall that I conclusively ripped his ‘theory’ to shreds back in November.

To be fair to Clark, I can say one quasi-positive thing: He does appear to be one of the few incrementalism addicts who is wiling to apply ‘incremental progress’ to the issue of gay marriage.

At the end of the day, that doesn’t make him – or Queer Channel Media – any more accurate, honest,  ethical, or even sane, of course. 

For what all of this boils down to for Kavin Naff is: If Iowa, to take an example from middle America, says no to gay marriage, even though it has recognized transsexual existence for 32 years and even though it enacted a trans-inclusive civil rights law last year, it would still be “backward.”

 Trans-Jim Crow-ery is still bigotry. 

Shilling is still shilling. 

And bullshit is still bullshit.

To them, trans people are still nothing.

And to them, our legal victories are just as non-existent as a pile of Munchkin shit.

No Uncertainty Needed (or Warranted)

Over at Bilerico, Becky Juro has a rather salient – and, IMHO, rather calm – post about the Scampaign.  Here is a highlight:

[H]ow is it that after all these years of claiming to represent gender-variant Americans and our interests in Washington, this organization still needs to hold trainings to educate its own membership on transgender and gender-variant issues? How is it possible, or even rational, that such an organization, which is clearly incapable of even getting its own membership up to speed on these issues, could be relied upon to advocate these issues to the United States Congress? The obvious answer is that they can’t, not by any reasonable stretch, and anyone who tries to claim otherwise is either lying or or clueless.

Who could seriously argue with that?

Unfortunately, Nancy Nangeroni decided to in the comments to the piece.

I fail to see how this attack does anything to further dialogue or progress. It’s all too easy to attack a person or group for their failings; actually doing something constructive to move us forward is more challenging.

And, as if to prove to the world just how much kool-aid she’s downed, she tacked on this doozy:

HRC has made tremendous progress since my first experience with them, when Shannon Minter and I did a presentation on trans-inclusion for a combined board meeting over 10 years ago.

Such as?

Completely abandoning all fear about the degree to which they can lie to our faces and get away with it?

Maybe using some suped-up, newfangled MIT engineerin’ calculatin’ thingamajig you can work out that calculus to equal ‘progress,’ but this simple ol’ lawyer gal who lives in the real world (and doesn’t use scientific notation or the Heisenberg Principle except when trying to figure out how I’ll pay back my student loans) sees it as exactly the opposite.

Oh…

And for anyone who thinks I’m being harsh to Nancy, take a gander at what Monica Roberts had to say about it:

HRC has shown as much improvement in terms of transgender inclusion as the LA Clippers have in becoming a consistent NBA playoff team and title contender.

Now that’s harsh.

And earned.

More Believable Than The Notion That HRC Can Change

A story from the Liverpool Echo.

Check it out.

I think you’ll agree with the title of this posting.

 

HRC: The All Spin Zone (Part Two)

First, a subsequent comment over at Queerty, elucidating as to the degree to which the “HRC Staffer” who played the “conspiracy theiry” card is full of shit:

HRC needs to learn that the trans community cannot and will not judge them by their words, because, let us all recall, Joe Solmonese has not a whit of shame about telling baldfaced lies in front of 1000 transpeople in a ballroom in Atlanta. Like Solmonese’ words in Atlanta, the T community doesn’t believe this anonymous staffer – they work for HRC, it’s all we need to know.

Calling the police BEFORE a demonstration IS intimidation and a not-well-veiled threat – and HRC knows that T people cannot chance an encounter with the Harris county lockup. Jails don’t deal with transpeople well, anywhere.

If any HRC-oid ever professes ignorance about this – about why any threat to set wheels in motion that could result in transsexuals ending up in one of the most notorious county jails in the nation (in Texas, probably the only one worse is Galveston County’s) – then please, irrrespective of venue, rise to your feat and yell BULLSHIT at the top of your lungs.  These transphobic cesspool dwellers know exactly what they’re doing – when it comes to protecting their cashflow (as for actually accomplishing anything positive for anyone outside of DC? Ummmm…not so much.)

Now, a nice pre-protest backgrounder from Vanessa Edwards Foster:

My second HRC Banquet protest ever will be this evening (I’ll write more on that point in a later post). And again – like my first one in Washington DC – they’ve decided they need police protection from us. It’s a little unsettling as I know the Houston PD’s reputation – it’ll be a different environment than DC. Like in DC, I’m sure they’ll have someone point me out to HPD to give me the “special” attention to my every move. I plan on being dogged tonight.

This time, national activist emeritus Phyllis Frye is coordinating, so she got a taste of what we (especially the NTAC crowd) have known all along. Phyllis far from clueless about HRC, though. Once upon a time (pre-Mara) she was arguably their most vocal and consistent detractor. For her to ease back into the anti-HRC outsider set isn’t difficult at all. It’s a role she’s known well for over 15 years.

On the flipside of that, the Human Rights Campaign has worked diligently over the years to wedge and divide Houston – long known in the past for it’s unswayable trans community, and general GLBT community antipathy towards HRC. Most especially, since 2003-2004 when the NTAC star was being supplanted by NTCE, the local trans community began listening to the alternative voices: “we need to be collegial,” “we need to work collaboratively,” “they aren’t our enemy – they’re our friends,” “they’re our champion … heroes.”

Simultaneously, I backed off. Yes, I could’ve provided counter-argument (many would argue I should’ve). But I would also run the risk of beating the dead horse. Being repetitive as a broken record never appealed to me, and I’ve learned that forcing people to listen or to believe only meets resistance. So I backed off knowing that in time, considering HRC’s behavior patterns, they would reveal their true selves to all.

This week some of our local-level trans leaders decided to approach two of HRC’s board members and ask for a table to do an educational initiative on the inside.

They were rebuffed.

The excuse given was that HRC felt if they provided a table for a transgender group’s educational initiative, then they’d have to do it for all. Pretty slick, huh? They do know how to spin to cover their tracks pretty well. It’s also like the excuse they gave when it became public that HRC national called the cops on us beforehand.

The Human Right Scampaign’s new motto should be: HRC! If it ain’t transphobia, its spin!

 Or both.

More pre-protest analysis, this time from Phyllis Frye, from an e-mail which followed the response from “HRC Staffer”:

I was quickly contacted by local HRC which had called national HRC about my Phyllabuster. 

 

    I was told by local that national HRC said, “We were misunderstood by the Houston Police.”

 

    IMHO, that is a load of grade A, prime crap that HRC is becoming famously consistent is issuing.

 

    Especially so since last fall where, at the TG Southern Comfort Convention in Atlanta, the HRC President told the TG community that HRC promised to keep TG folks in the ENDA bill. 

 

    Now the HRC President denies saying that even though it was videotaped and is somewhere on u-tube or such.

 

    I do not believe the HRC spin.

Now, a point where I slightly disagree with Phyllis:

The Houston Police did NOT try to stop our protest.

     The story in my report (below) is this: WHY DID HRC EVEN BOTHER TO CALL THE HOUSTON POLICE? 

 

    As other folks reported to me about HRC calling their city’s police, IT WAS A NAKED ATTEMPT BY HRC TO INTIMIDATE!

 

    HRC was using a political trick designed to reduce our crowd size and to minimize our effect on what HRC likes to do more that sell out its TG allies. 

 

    What HRC likes to do most is to raise $$$$$$$.

 

    HRC got caught.

 

    By catching and exposing this political trickery, it is obvious that “The protests are hurting HRC financially!”

 

    HRC could not have given the TG community (AND ITS GLB AND STRAIGHT ALLIES) a higher compliment.  In effect HRC is saying, “You people are making us pay for our stupidity of last fall over dropping the gender-identity-or-expression language in ENDA, thereby abandoning all TG folks and about 1/2 of GLBs who are not gender conforming.”

 

    And so, blogger friends, let us keep to the facts please.  Exposing HRC in its political trickery of calling the police to intimidate the trannies and gender-queers does not need to be stretched.  The story is big enough as it is!

Assuming that Phyllis is refering to Monica’s Bilerico post, I don’t think it was a stretch to say “HRC Calls Police to Stop Houston Dinner Protest.”

No, HPD didn’t try to stop the protest by summoning the spirit of Herman Short and bashing heads in the lobby of  the George Brown Convention Center, but HRC did call HPD to stop the protest…BY INTIMIDATION!  It used HPD as a tool, little differently than it used the image of Gwen Araujo when talking about a non-inclusive hate crimes bill a few years back.

The goal was inded to stop the protest, though doubtfully the calculus was that total prevention of it was unlikely.

Congratulations, HPD.

You’ve been played.

Just like everyone else who has ever thought that the Rhode Island Avenue Cesspool of Transphobia was capable of telling the truth about anything.

Reports on the protest itself will be coming here shortly.  So far I’ve received one e-mail from Phyllis on it; I’m guessing some other blog posts will pop up over the course of the day.

HRC: The All Spin Zone

This is an update to the item I linked to yesterday by Monica Roberts – about HRC’s gestapo-cum-Homeland Security tactics regarding pre-sicing the cops on those trans folks who have announced that they will have the temerity to protest the Homosexual Reich Campaign’s Houston dinner.

Queerty received a “note” from an “HRC staffer” about the post/situation:

Houston is not a unique situation. In fact, the same protests have happened in NY, DC and Philly. And at all three, the police were present to keep the order – and did not shut any protest down. So, why is Houston all of a sudden a hot bed of conspiracy theory about HRC calling in the swat teams? 

The fact is that the standard procedure is when we are notified of a protest, then it is our obligation to notify the hotel/venue. The hotel/venue then takes the necessary precautions to make sure their guests are safe and that any protests happening outside of their property is also done so in a safe manner. One of those precautionary steps that the hotel/venue takes is to notify the local police department. This was done in DC, NYC, and Philadelphia previously without any problems, complaints, or conspiracy theories.

So, with all that being said we are looking forward to a great Houston dinner which will be attended by the Mayor of Houston. And was the case at previous dinners, those who want to wear their stickers and stand in protest will be more than welcome to do so.

Queerty’s summation was “And there you have it…”

As if to say: “Stupid trannies.  Rights are for gays.  Stop trying to stop us from keeping you third-class citizens while we make 7-figure salaries and hobnob.”

Huh?

All it did was prove that some “HRC staffer” knows how to use e-mail.

Now, take a look at this piece of butyric-acid-scented, psychosis-addled histrionic nonsense that was posted in response to Queerty’s convenient revelation.

One isn’t surprised to find the truth far different than that apparently purposely misrepresented by one of Bilerico’s most advanced cases of Mad Tranny Disease. There are some great contributors there but they are vastly outnumbered [out-screamed] by the Tranninazis.

Contrary to the propaganda and cooked numbers of ENDA INSANE, there are many of us who both hate HRC generally for what it’s become AND are repulsed by the histrionic hissy fits of the lunatic fringe like the scribbler of the sourced article in the original thread.

If the latter and her fellow Tranny thugs had their way, Pennsylvania Avenue, Castro Street, and Greenwich Village would be lined with crosses bearing those who have been crucified upside down for having dared disagree with their political suicide position. Barney Frank’s would also, no doubt, be set on fire.

Now, as a few commenters have pointed out, Monica was incorrect about one thing – rent.  The Rhode Island Avenue Cespool of Transphobia does own its own digs (which, apparently, is what donors’ money has paid for instead of meaningful education about trans issues.)

So, that aside, lets see what Monica actually said:

But it seems as though HRC has a problem with the Houston transgender community exercising their First Amendment rights. The National HRC office called the Houston Police Department in an attempt to shut down the protest.

The Scampaign can spin it any way they want – but don’t tell me that they aren’t hoping that news of advance calls to police departments won’t intimidate at least some trans protesters at some of their fraudfests.  Its possible that Monica’s take was incorrect – but, even taking into account the response from “HRC staffer”, she still could be more accurate than not.

Moreover: Monica’s post was spurred by an e-mail alert sent around by Phyllis Frye.

I just finished a very pleasant meeting, in my law office  with the Houston Police Department about the scheduled protest of the HRC event in Houston this Saturday from 4:30 to 7:30 pm, downtown at Polk and Avenue of the Americas (DETAILS PASTED BELOW).

 

    It seems that in response to my national Phyllabuster about our protest, ……  GET THIS ……  the National HRC called the Houston Police. 

 

   HPD and I had a very nice meeting.  I do not foresee any problems.  HPD was so courteous that I was given a “Demonstration Guide” that they published in 2003 to assist citizens in expressing their 1st Amendment rights will not violating any laws.  I told HPD that I would scan it and attach to my list.   It is attached herein as good general information.

 

    During the chat with HPD, I was also  informed that HRC has also instructed the hotel security to ask us to leave if we attempt to pass out any written information or ask folks to wear our stickers.    

 

    I always thought that HRC was big on education and discussion.

 

    Well, we will be there (read reposting below). 

        and we will be peaceful,

            and we will be within the law,

                and we will be protected by HPD,

                     and we will attempt to hand out our lapel stickers.

Sorry, “HRC staffer,” but, assuming that e-mail is an accurate portrayal of events, it advantage Monica (and trans folks.)

Monica also wrote:

The series of HRC dinner protests initiated by the transgender community not long after our ENDA betrayal in October 2007 has been conservatively estimated to have cost HRC $1 million dollars in lost donation revenue.

So I understand why they wanted to sic HPD on the trannies.

It is hard to prove exactly how much money the Scampaign has lost or not lost.  But a commenter at Bilerico proclaimed Monica’s innaccurateness by citing a statement made by HRC folks at an HRC meeting.

HRC has been proven to be incapable of telling the truth.

Why should that – or the response to Monica by any “HRC staffer” or even Pee Wee Solmonese himself – be believed?

(And I won’t even mention Dana Beyer’s ridiculous offhand defense of the Scampaign that one can find amongst the comments to Monica’s piece.)

Appletini!