What one woman in Buffalo did is talk among women about the temporary taking over a bar to meet, have some drinks, dance and generally have fun while maintaining a respectful nature to the staff and other customers. The organizer opened a Facebook page to advertise this event and I guess the word spread from there. The first event had something like 100 participants and subsequent ones had over 200. It has become so popular that business owners have been offering their location for this event. Again, I say “Wow!”

The question I have is how welcome women who were born transsex would be. I get the impression from the website that we’d be welcome by the group but I’m sure some would complain or then maybe not. I’d like to visit and find out.

Teresa

We have to remember that there are those who suffer with this treatment frequently, sometimes on a daily basis. For some it reaches a point where it is too much and suicide seems to be the only option as they can’t find an alternative. I picked the title Let’s “Get Rid of Spirit Day” not that is isn’t needed but because the reason for it’s existence should never be.

It angers me to read stories like the recent suicide of the fifteen year old Jadin Bell. He had to endure extreme bullying by his classmates. It was so bad that the boy, apparently, had asked his parents to home school him because the bullying was so bad. My question is “Who’s at fault here?”

In the summer of 2010 there were a rash of suicides by gay youth and one young Canadian woman thought they should be remembered. Her name is Brittany McMillan. She got on Tumblr and suggested that everyone wear purple on the twentieth of October to remember these deaths and the bullying behind it. The day became Spirit Day and I remember purchasing a purple blouse to wear because I didn’t have anything purple in my wardrobe.

So who IS at fault here? Sex advice columnist Dan Savage, in the article Spirit Day to honor recent homosexual suicide victims, is quoted as saying:

“There are accomplices out there: uncaring teachers, criminally negligent school administrators, classmates who bullied and harassed Tyler,” said Savage. “ ‘Christian’ churches and hate groups that warp some young minds and torment others, politicians on the right and left who exploit and perpetuate anti-gay prejudice, perhaps even Tyler’s own family.”

In my opinion it’s the uncaring teachers, the negligent school administrators, the parents and every single adult who came in contact on a regular basis with this child. All of them should have seen there was a problem and taken steps to correct or alleviate it. There needs to be training on what the education system can do to combat bullying for any reason. There should be no reason for Spirit Day or any day like it. There should be no reason for family to have to bury a child for this reason.

On more point on the title I gave this blog – while bullying of LGBT children takes place we need Spirit Day to draw attention to the needless deaths of those bullied to commit suicide. I, at first, wanted to name it Do Not Hinder Them – Part 5 but that wouldn’t be totally correct. I do want to hinder those children who would bully another. I do want to hinder those who are bullied from taking their own life. This has to stop!

Teresa

Matthew 19:14 (NIV): Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

I know, this series might be getting old but I like writing about LGBT children. Children are our future and this applies to these kids as much as any others. I just hope that we today can make this world better for all children. This story is about a 15 year old girl who came out to her parents via a cake. It’s priceless. She baked the cake and, in icing, put “I’M GAY” on the top. Beside the cake was a letter written in large letters saying the following:

Good morning parents,

I’m gay. I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time. I thought doing it this way would be a piece of cake. I hope you still love me. I mean, it’s hard not to love someone who baked you a cake.

All my friends know and still love me. Your acceptance would be the icing on the cake.

I hope you, much like this cake, are not in tiers.

I hope we can look back on this and say “boy, this one really takes the cake”

It gets batter.

Love Laurel (sorry for so many puns)

I’m guessing Laurel was pretty confident that her parents loved her and would accept her as the person she was. Sadly that is not the case for all children. Some parents are so brainwashed by the Christian church that they would rather turn out a LGBT child than love and accept them. I think this is so wrong and I hope you do too.

Teresa

Other coming out stories to read:

• High School Student Comes Out in English Class Assignment
• WATCH: High School Senior Comes Out to Standing Ovation

Matthew 19:14 (NIV): Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

What can I say, lately we’ve been exposed to a number of news articles that deal with children in some way. The first one was a great story, the second was not so nice and this one has the potential to be fantastic – if it comes true. So, I’m onto part 3.

The Boy Scouts of America have been under a cloud of nasty publicity lately and it’s their shooting themselves in the foot. First there was the dismissal of a dedicated Cub Scout leader because she was lesbian. Her pack was outraged but that didn’t result in much. Then there was the story of a youth who had earned his Eagle Scout award but it was denied because he had come out as gay. Not that didn’t sound fair now did it? He earned it! This resulted in some Eagle Scouts returning their medals and badges in protest and one sent his to the Scout who had been denied. The outrage was growing. Then a Troop in Maryland had to remove a part of their nondiscrimination policy to toe the line with the BSA’s anti-gay discrimination or lose their charter. Isn’t this another form of bullying? The outrage grows more.

One thing you have to understand is that the majority supporter of the BSA is the LDS (Mormon) church. Apparently 70% of their funding comes from there. So you can guess who the BSA is listening to. The Girls Scouts on the otherhand, who accept both gay and transsexual girls, receive most of their money from corporate sponsors and little from churches. So who loses out? The answer is all the children who miss out on good leaders who just happen to be gay or lesbain and good kids who don’t deserve to be ostracized.

So the good news I was talking about is that the BSA is reconsidering this ban again and will “leave it up to individual troops to admit out scouts and leaders.” This will allow the Troop to reinstate it’s nondiscrimination policy and some troops to give gay kids their Eagle Scout award and a Cub Pack to get their den mother back. Yay team! But this won’t be true of a majority of these packs and troops because they will be controlled by religious groups like the Mormons so this story isn’t finished yet. Can I hope that the BSA will become completely gay inclusive in this lifetime? I won’t hold my breath.

Teresa

Matthew 19:14 (NIV): Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Here we go again only this time it’s not a happy story. In the news story Catholic Adoption Agency Threatens to Leave Colorado If Civil Unions Passes it seems that the Roman Catholic Church is up to its usual tricks and I’m getting tired of them. Here’s a church that claims to be Christian but does the most un-Christian things. You’d think the adoption agency would have one concern and one concern only and that is to look after the children. Not that the RC Church as a great reputation when it comes to children as recent history has shown. I know that’s a cheap shot but I fully feel they’ve earned it.

I found an article that said that the RC Church has done this in other states and it listed Illinois, District of Columbia and Massachusetts although I’m sure they’ve pulled adoption services out of all the states that recognize civil unions or marriage equality.

So what’s the problem? The problem is that these children are not being placed in homes that would be good for them. It’s not like same sex couples are at the bottom of the list, although that’s discrimination too, they are not on the list at all. It’s the children who are losing out.

They claim that children do better in a home where there is a mother and a father. Is this true or a bold face lie? I’ll let you judge for yourself. I Googled for these words “study same sex parents well adjusted children” and, among others, got the sites I’m going to quote below.

• Refuting the Myths About Gay Parents
• Gay Parents Have Well-Adjusted Kids
• Study: Same-Sex Parents Raise Well-Adjusted Kids

I could quote a lot more sites but you get the idea. There is one study that shows gay parents are not the greatest but then it’s not widely credited as valid except by anti-gay groups. See what the APA thinks of it: APA Blasts Allegedly Biased Report on Gay Parents

My post “Lies, Lies and More Lies” stated that, in Illinois where the RC Church pulled this same stunt, there were a number of private adoption agencies who were willing to pick up the slack AND follow the law.

More and more Roman Catholics disagree with the Church on marriage equality. I’m told there are 15 credible studies on the subject of the parenting abilities on same-sex couples and they all came back favourably. There are indications that lesbians couples are significantly better than heterosexual ones. As such the statement that two opposite sex parents – a man and a woman – are better for children is a total and complete lie and I’m sure many Roman Catholics understand this and are losing faith in the church that they’ve followed all their lives.

It’s supposed to be about the Children and it seems the Roman Catholic Church have forgotten this. As Jesus said, Do not hinder them.

Teresa

Matthew 19:14 (NIV): Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Even as wisdom often comes from the mouths of babes, so does it often come from the mouths of old people. The golden rule is to test everything in the light of reason and experience, no matter from where it comes. – Mahatma Gandhi

I’m proud of her.  Until I read this article I hadn’t heard of her but I’m impressed now.  Sadie, an 11 year old girl, wrote an essay in response to the president’s inauguration speech.  This essay identifies that he missed the transgender people and their rights.  Okay, she said transgender individuals but there were some things in the article where I suspect she meant transsexual.  I found a copy of the president’s speech and she’s right – there’s no mention of trans, transgender or transsexual people or their rights anywhere.

She starts the essay saying “The world would be a better place if everyone had the right to be themselves” and I’m sure few would disagree with that.  She then goes on to tell him that transsexual kids have problems making friends because prospects are told by their parents not to, have difficulty finding a school or a doctors and how adults have problems finding a job.  She ended her letter saying “It really isn’t hard to like transgender people because we are like everyone else.”

I have a problem with parents who try to make the lives of some children miserable.  Christ has give us the command “do not hinder them” but it seems this is lost on some Christians in the US.  Sadie amazes me as she has risen above this and I’m certainly impressed.

The article goes on to say that she introduces herself like this: “Hi, I’m Sadie, my favorite color is pink, I’m vegan, and I’m transgender. Who are you?”  I’m thinking this girl would be a fantastic trans-advocate when she grows up.  I hope to hear more about Sadie as she’s off to a great start.  Please read the article and tell me what you think.

Teresa

Let’s just say that when I hear this term my spider senses get tingling. One problem with the term is that it mixes identity with orientation which any Trans activist would tell you do not go hand in hand. Also, it could be a dangerous term as there are some lesbians, namely RadFems, who don’t like women born transsex already. Let’s not give them any more ammunition as I’d much rather they make their own.

I’m kinda confused with orientation to begin with. I had known that in the general population something like 5% of the population were gay/lesbian and had thought that this would crossover to those who are transsex. There was the Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. In this survey roughly a quarter of the respondents were each lesbian/gay, straight, queer, and bi. There were a handful of asexual and some ‘other’ but the roughly 25% in each category had surprised me. I don’t know how accurate this survey is but it does seem to me that there might be some crossover with the factors that would make one person gay and another transsex. Still, tacking the prefix trans on the word lesbian just makes things confusing.

I know that I did think of myself as transsexual when I was transitioning but I certainly don’t anymore. The prefix ‘trans’, according to Merriam-Webster means “on or to the other side of : across : beyond.” One thing about the transitioning process is that I’m now on the other side of which means the trans- part is now past tense. Well, I always was a woman, except when I was a girl, with the wrong parts. I knew this but none of my friends, family, co-workers, etc so my transitioning was more for them than it was for me. My operation was more to complete the process than to change me from one sex to the other. Even with SRS the process isn’t complete. This year I hope to get breast augmentation which should help resolve any lingering gender dysphoria. Wish me luck.

Teresa

They want something sensational to attract the public which is why a building going up in flames will be covered over a firefighter saving a kitten which was stuck in a tree. The first Apollo mission to land on the moon was interesting and, to a lesser degree, so was the second. The excitement of the potential disaster that was Apollo 13 drew the news in droves but its liftoff was barely covered.

Lately there was a bit of an outcry in the UK over doctors who were ignorant of the policies of the NHS in regards to the treatment of transsexual patients. Apparently many patients were not given the correct treatments or were subjected to wait times that were way beyond the norm. But this barely made the news.

Along comes the Suzanne Moore and Julie Burchill story (you can read Ms Burchill’s article here – it was pulled by the newspaper The Observer) and it’s all over the place. One story is about the plight of transsexual patients and the other an attack on transsexual women. I guess picking on the underdog is more entertaining. You can’t tell me the editors of the paper in question weren’t thinking of this when they approved the article for publication.

Let’s face it, transsexual women are among the most discriminated against groups anywhere. Some are subjected to verbal and physical violence daily for just being who they are. I guess a further attack on this group must sell more papers. The LGBT have always been a good target for this kind of filth but laws and public opinion have shifted for the LGB part of the group. Oh, they are still attacked by religious groups but they are not listened to as much as they used to be. However, it seems the T part of LGBT is still thought to be up for grabs.

As one writer put it: “We do live in a society that should welcome vibrant discourse on a variety of subjects. But when it comes to affirming the human dignity of an individual, there is no room for compromise. It’s not up for discussion.”

In the UK I think the media there are learning that it’s not so wise to kick this underdog because it will bite or, at least, bark.  The publisher of Julie Burchill’ piece has learned this and pulled the article from it’s online site.  Toby Young posted a copy of it on his blog shortly after The Observer pulled it calling it censorship.  No, censorship should have been done by the editors before it was posted in the first place.  I think he needs to hear the bark of the underdog too.

Teresa

God said in the last days that man and wom[a]n would be lover of self, more [than] the lover of God.

That man and woman would have unnatural [affection] for one another. Then, the coming of the Son of Man, who is Jesus. So please, look at your life. See how it hurt[s] everyone around you. And ask the Lord to open your eye[s] before it [is] to[o] late.

The Love of Christ

P.S. my daughter also was gay. It destroy[ed] her life and my grandson.

My reply would be thank you but I’m Christian and I know Jesus loves me He and tells me God loves me too.  Christ cured the lover of a Centurion of his sickness without saying a word and this is a loving example that I worship not the garbage you just handed me.

Please think about this for a moment – God created a universe of extreme complexity.   This complexity can be seen here on Earth where no two snowflakes or no two fingerprints are alike.  Why would God only create people with the same sexual orientation when he doesn’t in the animal world where it’s said that over 1500 species have examples of same-sex attraction?  It’s just another reflection of His love.

The postscript of the letter was meaningless.  How did her being gay destroy her?  Did he help his daughter and her son with love and support when they needed it or did he shun her because she was gay?  Given his attitude to the lesbian couple I suspect the latter.

Jesus made it perfectly clear – love your neighbour as yourself.  Not only is this line simple enough for all of us to understand he enforces it by saying that it’s one of the two most important commandments.  Are you listening?

Teresa

I’ve been reading a number of articles in the aftermath of the bilge published in The Observer by Julie Burchill in her article Transsexuals should cut it out.  I’ve read calls to make reports to the Press Complaints Commissionl and I’m sure some have.  There were a number of complaints to the Observer’s readers’ editor and now the article is the subject of an inquiry by them.  There are even demands that she and her editor be fired.  I doubt it will go that far but I wonder how that will turn out.

One of the articles I’ve read was rather interesting in the direction it took.  It took the direction that there is something wrong with how some in the feminist community view transsexual women.  The writer, Louise McCudden, tells us in her article To Julie Burchill, Suzanne Moore and all feminists: The absence of trans people in the media is as important as the absence of women in the media that Suzanne Moore, Julie Bindel, and Julie Burchill have all made comments that have made their own supporters uncomfortable.  That fits with the comments I’ve read to Burchill’s article.  Many of them were made by cis-women and some identified themselves as feminists.

This paragraph is something that we all know to be true:

Enough is enough. Trans women have been excluded from female spaces, portrayed as predatory, called traitors and perpetuators of patriarchy, accused of having male privilege, had their surgery compared with gay cure therapy, and, of course, constantly been on the receiving end of that boring old chesnut hurled, at some point, at pretty much anyone who ever speaks out about anything, ever: accusations of “distracting” from the “real” issues.

Here is the big truth:

Yet surely we ought to be natural allies. Not only does transphobia shine bright lights on sexist assumptions about us all and help so often to show them up as inaccurate nonsense, but trans people live through a reality of gender-based oppression that most cis women can barely imagine. We should be on their side. Far from its victims being part of the problem, the culture that facilitates transphobia is so very often the same culture that perpetuates sexism.

It’s true, feminists really don’t have a lot to complain about when compared to the huge “gender-based oppression” that trans people, particularly transsexual women, experience.  I saw a poster on the Facebook page Wipe Out Transphobia that said “Transphobic Feminism: Judging folk by what is or was between their legs, just how the patriarchy has been doing for centuries.”  I think feminists like Julie Burchill damage everything they work for when they put down transsexual women.

We already know that many LGBT are the victims of violence.  In the recent American study Injustice at Every Turn, as much as 50% of all the reported incidents to LGBT people are inflicted on transgender women.  20 November 2012 was the 14th International Transgender Day of Remembrance.  On the 14^th of November the Transgender Europe’s Trans Murder Monitoring project revealed that there were 265 transgender people killed for just being for what they are.  126 or approximately half of those where in Brazil which makes the reaction to Suzanne Moore’s statement that women were angry about “not having the ideal body shape – that of a Brazilian transsexual” completely understandable.  I’m very sure that no woman, transgender/transsexual or otherwise, want a body shape that included knife wounds, bullet holes, decapitation, etc.  Maybe these are the special privileges Julie Burchill was referring to in her article.

Women make up approximately 52% of the population and when you discriminate against them or any specific portion you are a bigot.  It doesn’t matter if you do on the basis of religion, race, orientation or gender identity.  When I see the garbage Julie Burchill wrote I can’t help to be heartened to read Louise McCudden’s response.  Thank you.

Teresa