Connecticut to Pass Transgender Rights Bill?

It's not only Massachusetts that's succumbing to transgender madness. Connecticut activists are now working to pass a transgender rights bill. Here in New England, Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont already have done so. GLAD senior attorney for transgender issues, Jennifer Levi (who helped draft Bill H1722 here), is now working with the Connecticut activists.

Thirteen states plus D.C. already have "transgender-inclusive nondiscrimination laws." (See list.) As far as we know, none of those states' laws really define that phrase! Our humble opinion is that the really big lawsuits which will surely flor from these new laws won't be seen until more states have such laws in place -- especially the biggies that haven't yet fallen, like Massachusetts, New York and Florida.

"Connecticut legislature to discuss adding gender identity or expression to state non-discrimination law" (InNews Weekly, 2-21-08)
Jerimarie Liesegang [see Liesegang's blog & photo], executive director of the Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition and board member at Love Makes a Family, was joined by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders senior attorney Jennifer Levi and activist Rachel Goldberg on Wednesday, February 20 at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford to discuss the chances of passage for a bill that would add gender identity and expression to the state's non-discrimination statutes.
Connecticut has no explicit law protecting individuals from discrimination based on gender identity or expression in employment, housing, public accommodations, lending or education. An Act Concerning Discrimination would add the phrase "gender identity or expression" to Connecticut's existing non-discrimination law, prohibiting this discrimination.
Should this bill pass, Connecticut will join 13 other states and Washington, D.C. in protecting its residents from this kind of discrimination....
In 2007, Connecticut legislators in four committees and the state Senate cast 80 votes to pass this bill and only nine to reject it. The House of Representatives did not vote on the bill so it died in the 2007 General Assembly.
In 2008, said Liesegang, "we have hope for a more successful outcome."

Will Massachusetts Make Cross-Dressing & Sex-Changes a "Civil Right"?

House Bill 1722 has lots of hidden dangers, such as enshrining "gender identity or expression" as a civil right. If H1722 is passed, Mass. public accommodations law would add that phrase as a new category of people against whom no discrimination (including public verbal opposition) is permitted. The law declares:

“All persons shall have the right to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges of any place of public accommodation, resort or amusement subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law and applicable to all persons. This right is recognized and declared to be a civil right.”

So, as we've already noted, "public accommodations" as defined in Mass. law can mean almost any place outside of private homes. Hospitals are specifically named and therefore will have to perform sex-change surgeries, because they will be a civil right! Adoption agencies will have to place children with transsexual parents, because that will be a civil right. Men who think they're women will be able to use the women's restroom or locker room, because that will be a civil right. Transsexual porn writers will be able to hold conferences at any hotel they choose, because it will be their civil right. And since the phrase "gender identity or expression" is not really defined in the bill, who knows what else could be argued to be a civil right?

Transgender Restroom Etiquette

With the "Transgender Rights and Hate Crimes Bill" (H1722) waiting in the wings at the Mass. State House, we should all prepare for the upcoming revolution in our public restrooms. So we bring you these excerpts from "Peeing in Peace" -- a transgender guide to bathroom activism, published by the Transgender Law Center. Don't miss the "DJ Knows Dick Pissin’ Passin’ Packer" -- a "stand-to-pee" device for women who want to use the men's room, but don't want anyone to notice they're sitting to pee inside their stall.

How weird is this getting? Will Massachusetts really enact a law to encourage this? Soon "stand-to-pee devices" may be covered by your company's medical benefits! From "Peeing in Peace":

Strategy #1: Learn the Gender Code
Gender stereotypes are heightened in the bathroom. Therefore, sometimes the easiest way to use the bathroom is to understand these gender stereotypes, even if you find them uncomfortable or problematic. Here is some information that might help you get by until we can create safer restrooms. (Please keep inmind that this information is necessarily stereotypical and that we are including it here not because it is the way things should be, but because it is the way things currently are.):

The women’s room:
The women’s bathroom is a social space. People tend to have conversations between stalls, at the sinks, and while in line. People in the women’s room often bring in children of all genders in order to help them. It is generally a friendly place (for those who “belong”) where people are not afraid to look at each other and smile or chat. In this bathroom, folks tend to wait in line along the walls of the bathroom, away from the stalls. Often people will spend time at the sink or mirror.

The men’s room:
This is not a social space. Nobody talks or makes eye contact with anyone else. People don’t stand next to each other at urinals unless they are all filled. Usually folks in the men’s room stand in line in the middle of the bathroom. If you need a stall and there are none, pretend you just came in to wash your hands. Don’t feel out of place for using a stall. People who use the men’s room sit down sometimes too and will use a stall whether or not the urinals are full. If you need to sit down to pee and are worried that someone will notice, try using a can lid or medicine spoon to stand. You can also try one of the various stand-to-pee devices, such as the Mango product or the DJ Knows Dick Pissin’ Passin’ Packer, available at stores and online.

Strategy #2: Confidence
Using gender segregated bathrooms may be nerve-wracking at times but it is important that you realize you have a right to be there, no matter how other people react to you. You belong in the bathroom thatmakes you feel most comfortable as much as anyone else does. Being confident lets other people knowmthat as well. If you are feeling nervous when entering a bathroom, take a deep breath and remind yourself that there’s nothing wrong with you and that you have the right to be there as much as anyone else does. If necessary, keep taking deep breaths and repeat the phrase, “I belong here” in your mind while you are in the bathroom.

Transgender Rights Bill H1722 Would Force Catholic Hospitals to Perform "Sex-Change" Surgeries

In California, a man who wants to be a woman is suing a Catholic hospital for refusing to allow his “breast augmentation” surgery there. (photo left)

Get ready: If the Mass. Transgender Rights Bill H1722 is passed, it would make it illegal for any hospital here, including a religious hospital, to refuse such “sex-change” surgeries. Freedom of religion would go out the window, since hospitals are named in Massachusetts law as “public accommodations.” (Ch. 272, Sec. 92A) Bill H1722 would ban discrimination on the basis of “gender identity or expression” in all public accommodations, including hospitals. There is no exemption in the bill for religiously-affiliated hospitals, businesses, or organizations.

In the past few years, we saw former Governor Romney allow homosexual demands to overtake our supposed freedom of religion: First, Catholic Charities’ ban on adoptions by same-sex couples was disallowed (though there was not even a law requiring this, just administrative regulations!). Then, Romney’s Dept. of Public Health forced Catholic hospitals to dispense morning-after pills. In both of those cases, even former Governor Dukakis said there were no laws requiring those policies. So, given that hospitals are specifically named in the existing public accommodations law, this new situation would be even more cut and dried.

Existing Mass. law, Section 98 of chapter 272 (here including the proposed new phrase, "gender identity or expression"), seems to imply that even speaking publicly against the non-discrimination law could result in fines &/or imprisonment:

“Whoever makes any distinction, discrimination or restriction on account of race, color, religious creed, national origin, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, which shall not include persons whose sexual orientation involves minor children as the sex object, deafness, blindness or any physical or mental disability or ancestry relative to the admission of any person to, or his treatment in any place of public accommodation, resort or amusement, as defined in section ninety-twoA, or whoever aids or incites such distinction, discrimination or restriction shall be punished by a fine of not more than twenty-five hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, and shall be liable to any person aggrieved thereby for such damages …” [emphasis added]

From the Fox News story (1-18-08):

... Hastings, who already has had one major sex-change surgery, claims that Seton Medical Center in Daly City, Calif., would not allow her plastic surgeon to operate on a transgender person.
"I honestly believe that God has plans for me to have this surgery," Hastings told FOXNews.com.
"I felt simply less than equal," she said. "Here I am, a woman. I had the reassignment surgery, and not to allow me this right, I felt violated."...

The Catholic hospital does not allow transgender surgery, [the hospital's] statement says.
"Seton Medical Center, a Catholic hospital and a member of the Daughters of Charity Health System, provides services to all individuals. However, the hospital does not perform surgical procedures contrary to Catholic teaching; for example, abortion, direct euthanasia, transgender surgery or any of its related components."
Shannon Minter, legal director for the Center for Lesbian Rights and an expert on transgender rights, said California law protects Hastings.
"It's against California law, and it's wrong," Minter said. "They should be ashamed of themselves for turning away anybody because of their identity."
Minter said the Unruh Civil Rights Act protects Hastings against discrimination based on gender identity, adding that there is no exception for religious-affiliated businesses. [emphasis added]

AP Stylebook and Trans Madness

Have you wondered why all the big media stories on transgenders or transsexuals refer to men as "she" and women as "he"? The heavyweight GLBT activists took control of the AP Stylebook some years back. The AP Stylebook sets usage standards by reporters and editors throughout the country. Since the late 1990s, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and GenderPAC have met with the AP Stylebook editors -- and have had their way. The New York Times and Washington Post have also bent over.

Since 1997, pronoun confusion was enabled by the AP Stylebook in its usage guidelines for the term sex change. At first, physical changes (through surgery, etc.) were considered a requirement for such usage (a he referred to as she). Then from 2000 on -- as transgender activists wanted to downplay surgeries in favor of the individual’s self-identification as the opposite sex – the AP played along. By 2005, the word transgender first appeared in the AP Stylebook. And by 2006, the terms sex change and transsexual were essentially disabled and rolled into the new concept transgender – thereby including a much larger population for the biased media to use in its propaganda war on biological reality.

See GLAAD’s history of AP Stylebook compliance with their most radical demands:

The 2006 edition also relocates the sex changes entry under the more accurate and inclusive term transgender. The transsexuals entry, which used to direct readers to the entry for sex changes, now also points to transgender:

• transgender Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.
  
• If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.
  

So now the individual gets to choose what “gender” he or she is, whether or not he or she has undergone physical alterations, and the media plays along. An 8-year-old boy in Colorado decides (with full parental and school administration support) to return to school dressed as a girl … and the biased media refer to the boy as she. Just following the AP Stylebook!

And the Massachusetts Legislature is asked to play this game, too, in the Transgender Rights Bill H1722.

Inside a Transsexual’s Head

What will “transgender rights” laws foster? What will government be protecting and promoting? What will employer benefits and health insurance have to cover? The writings by transsexuals themselves give us a pretty good idea what will be let loose if Bill H1722 is passed here in Massachusetts.

Matt Kailey (above), a female-to-male transsexual, speaks all over the country about her experience “transitioning.” Her book is a must read: Just Add Hormones: An Insider's Guide to the Transsexual Experience (Beacon Press, 2005). She recently led workshops at the PFLAG/Transcending Boundaries Conference (Worcester 2006) on “Redefining Masculinity: How and Why Transmen are Changing the Definitions of Manhood” and “Exploring Trans Sexuality: How Transition Affects Sexual Identity for Trans People and Their Partners.”

Just to get you started, here are two excerpts from her book, Just Add Hormones:

1. From Chapter "Flat busted":
Chest reconstruction is often the second major step in a female-to-male transition and it's a welcome subtraction to the household. One of the problems with transition, as in furnishing a home, is that you think you'll be satisfied once you get that male haircut/choose a new name/change your driver's license/start hormones, but each progression only leaves you longing for more. ... Chest, or "top," surgery is one of the most fulfilling accomplishments of transition. You can finally abandon painful and artery-constructing binders. You can wear the flimsiest of T-shirts with no telltale binder or bra lines. You can even take your shirt off in public....Breasts are a significant identifier of females in our culture and, therefore, something that transmen usually want to get rid of as soon as possible....

2. From Chapter "Dickless in Denver":
Penises are a very big deal (or very little deal, depending on how you look at it) in the transmale community. Testosterone makes the clitoris grow, but usually only enough to be visible to the naked eye. Some guys have better luck than others, depending on genetics ... The competition among transmen is fierce. Bragging about two inches, unheard of in nontransmale society, is often standard fare at nouveau transman get-togethers. And those lucky enough to be able to afford phalloplastic surgery are definitely at the top of the food chain. For those of us whose goals (and incomes) are more modest, there exists an array of prosthetics that can give the impression of a living organ inside tight jeans.... I could have invested $300 or so for a realistically shaped and molded penis and balls, one fashioned with veins and a carefully shaped head, all in a shade to match my own skin tone. This penis glued on with special medical glue and stayed on for several days ... Was this what it meant to be a man? ...

Research Project Underway

Don't worry, fans.

We're just taking a little research/writing break.

Back soon.

Real Man, Pretend Man, and the Democratic National Committee

This is a man.

This is a not a man.

The Boston Herald and the Democrat Party are doing what they can to push for the latest lunatic concept, "transgender rights." The Dems have just added their first "transgender" member to their national platform committee, thanks to its head, Gov. Howard Dean.

The "female-to-male" transsexual appointee, Diego Sanchez, works for the radical AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, and used to be a co-chair of the Mass. Transgender Political Coalition.

Sanchez is a really woman who has undergone medical procedures we'd rather not go into here. Yet the Boston Herald refers to Sanchez as "he" (as instructed in the AP stylebook).

Here's a video of Jim Braude (New England Cable News) interviewing Sanchez and another transsexual, Joanne Herman (who's on the board of GLAD, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders) in March 2007.

Transgendered delegate makes DNC history

Boston Herald (1-27-08)

When Diego Sanchez attends the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August, he’ll be making history.

Sanchez, the director of public relations and external affairs for AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, is the first transgender person to be named to a convention committee.

...“Gov. Dean’s appointment of a record seven LGBT members to the convention committees, including the first transgender member, is an important recognition of the Democratic Party’s diversity and our commitment to equality,” said DNC spokesman Damien LaVera.

Sanchez, of Lawrence, said he first told his parents that he believed he was in the wrong body when he was 5 years old. It took him 20 years to make the medical and legal transition into life as a man.

154 Mass. Companies Supporting Transgender Employees

Yesterday we posted the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) list of perfect-scoring companies in Massachusetts, those that support every facet of their radical GLBT agenda in the corporate world. At a recent legislative briefing session at the State House, the Mass. Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) issued a list of 154 Massachusetts employers with "non-discrimination policies covering gender identity." (Apparently, there are many companies that support this concept, while not on HRC's 100% list.)

If we believe the MTPC handout, it seems to demonstrate that there's not so much anti-transgender discrimination going on out there as they want us to believe. If this many companies openly jump on the bandwagon, what's the problem? Oh, yeah -- MTPC wants everyone to be forced to think the same way, and allow no leeway to employers on whether or not they believe in the natural reality of only two sexes, MALE and FEMALE.

This long list of 154 wacky companies does not yet appear on MTPC web site. But they do post this shorter version, slightly expanding the HRC list:
Bain and Company
Bank of America
Best Buy
Borders Group
Brandeis University
Bridgespan Group
Bright Horizons Family Solutions
Foley Hoag LLP
Giant Food
Gap
Global Hyatt Corp
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
Harvard University
Hilton Hotels Corp
HSBC USA
John Hancock Financial Services
Mass. Mutual Life Insurance
Merck
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo LLP
MIT
Novartis
Prudential Financial
Raytheon
Staples
State Street Corp.
Toys R Us
Trillium Asset Management
Tufts University
United States Postal Service
Wainwright Bank and Trust
Walgreens

Some of the others on the list handed out at the State House (not complete):
Amherst
BJ's Wholesale Club
Beth Israel Medical Center
Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Mass.
Bose Corp.
Boston Globe
Boston Medical Center/Hospital
Boston Scientific
Cabot Corp.
Central Massachusetts Health
Children's Hospital Boston
Clark University
College of the Holy Cross
Cumberland Farms
Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Digital Equipment Inc.
EMC Corp.
Emerson College
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Friendly Ice Cream Corp.
Greater Boston Hotel Employees #26
Hanover Insurance Group
Hill & Barlow
Houghton Mifflin C.
John Hancock Financial Services
Liberty Mutual Group
Millipore Corp.
Mount Holyoke College
New England Medical Center
New England Mutual Life Insurance
Northeastern University
Partners Healthcare
Ropes & Gray
Simmons College
Smith College
Sonesta International Hotels
Stop & Shop Supermarket Co.
Suffolk University
Sun Life Financial Inc.
Talbots
Tufts Health Plan
TJX Companies, Inc.
University of Massachusetts System
Wellesley College
Wheaton College
Williams College
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester Telegram

Mass. Corporations Supporting Transgender Madness

In order to earn a 100% rating on the Human Rights Campaign's "Corporate Equality Index 2008," a company needs to support the craziest recent inventions of the GLBT movement: "transgender" or "transsexual" rights and benefits. The company would have to allow employees to "transition" from one "gender" to another, including medical costs, sick leave, etc. -- on the company ticket. (Most companies' benefits include mental health coverage -- and this should take care of the problem. But sadly today, there are all too many mental health practitioners who buy into trans madness, and are only too happy to prescribe hormones and mutilating surgery for their confused patients.)

Read the HRC ratings criteria. Here are the HRC recommended sources for companies to use for "transitioning" employees.

Troubled employees are not changing their sex (that's biologically impossible). Just their "gender." We think... Then again, they do call it "sex reassignment surgery." (But what the troubled employee thinks is all that really matters.) If they want hormone injections, body mutilating surgeries, and cosmetic treatments (that can add up to $100K or more) that let them pretend they're the opposite sex (or is it gender?), any company willing to play along gets a 100% rating from HRC! Here's what the company will have to do: HRC Workplace Gender Transition Guidelines.

Here's the list of companies nationwide that agree to these guidelines. (See Appendix X.) And here are the companies and law firms in Massachusetts that have bought into this insanity. (If House Bill #1722 passes, every company and government entitity -- including public schools -- in Massachusetts will have to support this!)

Massachusetts Companies & Law Firms supporting transgender/transsexual benefits (2008):
Raytheon
State Street Corp.
Bain & Co.
Boston Consulting Group
McKinsey & Co.
Bright Horizons Family Solutions [day care!]
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care [health care!]
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
Bingham McCutchen
Foley Hoag
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo

GLSEN Founder Kevin Jennings Leaving Organization

We wonder why? A while back, we remember reading that Jennings was not well. Read the press release from GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network).

What a lot of harm this man's done. While a teacher at Concord Academy in Massachusetts, he founded the first "gay/straight alliance" which served as a model for activists around the country. His GLSEN-Boston conferences distributed the Little Black Book to kids in 2005, and promoted fisting to teens in 2000.

Under Jennings' leadership, GLSEN cleverly devised ways of getting at all the kids in our schools: the Day of Silence (April), Ally Week (October), No Name-Calling Week (next week, Jan. 21-25, in many schools), and now even the "Transgender Day of Remembrance"!

GLSEN has a formidable list of national corporate sponsors. Have the sponsors seen the Little Black Book? Do they know about the"Fistgate" incident? Are they aware of the recent transgender/transsexual push?

Thanks, Kevin, for drawing our children into your twisted and unhealthy world. Wish you'd retired sooner.

Mass. Commission on Gay & Lesbian Youth Designing "Safe Schools" Programs

Here are two prominent "transsexual/transgender" members of the Mass. Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth. You can learn more about their vision for our children at the Commission's next public meeting coming up Monday, Dec. 17, 7-9 p.m. at the Brockton Holiday Inn.


Grace Sterling Stowell, Vice Chairman of the Commmission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, and Executive Director of BAGLY (Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth), which puts on the annual Queer/Trans prom at Boston City Hall, ending the Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth's Pride Day celebration every May. Until we brought attention to it, Stowell directed youth to a "male-to-female" surgery web site on the BAGLY resource page.

Gunner Scott, founder of GenderCrash and trans activist about town, is pushing hard for the "Transgender Rights and Hate Crimes" Bill H1722 now filed in the Mass. Legislature. Here's Scott, profiled in Bay Windows: Scott believes that there is a whole group of people who are trans amorous (even if those individuals don’t comprise an identifiable community) and these “transam” folks also face transphobia. Scott, who now identifies as a genderqueer female-to-masculine person, speaks from experience on both sides of that romantic situation. “Before I came out as trans I was partnered with a transwoman. I was lesbian-identified and I lost more [queer] friends being with her than I did when I first came out [as trans].” Scott hopes that his trans activism will help create a world in which all people feel free to live in the identity that they most relate to....

Now, the Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth is looking for new members. Their plan is to increase the number of youth members and "transgender" commissioners. The new transgender members will probably be in addition to the four openly trans members already on the Commission.

We're not sure if the Commission has re-defined "youth" yet, as Scott proposed at a meeting last March, to include ALL public school students, grades K-12. But possibly we'll soon be seeing a kindergartner or 1st-grader on the Commission! We're sure his contributions will be on a par with the current members' thoughtful ideas for inclusive, diverse, and safe schools.

Here's a list of current Commission members.

[From Bay Windows:] Mass. Youth Commission to meet in Brockton (12-12-07)

The Massachusetts Commission on GLBT Youth will meet Dec. 17 at the Holiday Inn in Brockton , the latest in a series of meetings held in different regions of the state to conduct commission business and meet with local youth and advocates to assess the situation of LGBT youth in Massachusetts. Thus far the commission has held meetings in Boston, Hyannis and Worcester, and in March the commission will hold a meeting in Springfield.

Jason Smith, chair of the commission, said a group of local youth will address the commission at the Brockton meeting and talk about the issues facing LGBT youth in their city. Prior to the public meeting the commission will also hold a private discussion forum with local LGBT and allied youth to hear firsthand about their experiences at schools, in their families and in their neighborhoods. The commission held a similar event at the Worcester meeting in October that brought out about 20 young people involved in local gay/straight alliances....

The meeting will include discussion of LGBT youth funding in the fiscal year 2009 budget and the state of the Department of Education’s Safe Schools program. Commissioners will also vote on a slate of new candidates to fill the slots of commissioners who have resigned. Smith said he was unsure how many prospective commissioners were on the slate, but many of them help the commission achieve its goal of increasing representation of various communities, including LGBT youth themselves.

"Most of the commissioners that have applied and that we’re looking at are youth or potential commissioners who are transgender, and there’s also a lot of people representing Western Mass," said Smith, who added that there are commissioners from southern Mass. and Cape Ann as well. "We’re definitely looking to regionalize." [emphasis added]

The Commission's next meeting (open to the public) is taking place at the Holiday Inn in Brockton next Monday, Dec. 17, from 7-9 p.m.