So the What Would You Do TV team, hit up a NJ Prom Dress Shop with a “transgender” teen, hir supportive mom and hir angry dad. What do the customers do…it’s mostly uplifiting. Love the one mom giving fashion advice with everything else.
snagged from Joe My God
And on a less positive note for inclusiveness, Coy Mathis who has been living as a female for quite sometime found out half-way through the school year that she will no longer be allowed to use the girls’ restroom…as it’s not a problem now, but might be in the future, and even though no parents or other students have complained.
A transgender rights group announced Wednesday that it has filed a discrimination complaint in Colorado on behalf of a first-grader who was born a boy but identifies as a girl.
via Parents of transgender first-grader file discrimination complaint – CNN.com.
Considering the stereotype of fraternities, its nice to see a positive response to a F2M transition like this.
Phi Alpha Tau members, defying the conventional stereotype of a fraternity, launched a campaign on an online fundraising site — Indiegogo.com — with a goal of collecting the $8,100 needed for the procedure, scheduled for May.
Not that I watch Big Brother, or frankly any reality TV, but it’s cool to see him pickup 50k in prize money.
‘It’s great to feel acceptance. A big part of it was about acceptance, all my life I have been an outsider, so to win this…..’
From CNN
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Against Me! singer Tom Gabel speaks out on being transgender, and shares her plans to transition from a man to a woman.
via Against Me!’s Tom Gabel speaks on being transgender – The Marquee Blog – CNN.com Blogs.
I’m not overly big on meme like things on this blog, however, Starbucks stood up to NOM and the other anti marriage equality bastages at their recent stockholders’ meeting and told them to go pound sand (and it is so very interesting that by standing up to the haters they call Starbucks out for “taking political action.” What the heck do they think those taking their side are doing…planting daisies? Go Sign it!
found via Joe My God, who maintains a very active political commentary blog, which I follow through my Google Reader. I know, caving to Big Brother, but I just can’t hit 30someodd blogs a day.
The Girl Scouts of Colorado subsequently released a statement through the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation GLAAD in support of Archuleta and her excluded daughter, noting, “If a child identifies as a girl and the child’s family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout.”
Honestly, the Girl Scouts were all about inclusiveness when I was a kid in the 70′s and 80′s (and yes I went from Brownie through Senior). Every troop I was part of had brothers who were members to a point…it was the 70′s folks, boys didn’t want to be part of the GS after a certain age. This local troop’s decision is so against the GS handbook: Pride, Self Reliance, Inclusiveness, and World View — I have my vintage copy from the 60s which has girls of all colors (some even, gasp, in pants) participating in activities — when that was still against the law in many states…including the pants.
They were one of the avenues that taught me it was okay to be the person I am.
Which is why I’m proud to stand up and say, “I was a Girl Scout.”
via Girl Scouts’ Inclusion Of Bobby Montoya, 7-Year-Old Transgender Child, Prompts Troops To Disband.
The question here is whether discriminating against someone on the basis of his or her gender non-conformity constitutes sex-based discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause. [...] We hold that it does.
In an interesting decision, citing Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228 (1989), the three judge panel of the court* determined that discrimination for gender non-conformity is already protected under the constitution as discrimination based on sex. In Price the plaintiff successfully maintained a discrimination claim where she alleged she was denied a promotion because she didn’t act like the defendants believed a woman should.
In this case, the State’s attorneys had argued that there was no separate constitutional protection for transsexuals. In thier ruling, the court has said it’s not needed as it falls squarely into gender based discrimination which is already prohibited.
The [Price] Court noted that “[a]s for the legal relevance of sex stereotyping, we are beyond the day when an employer could evaluate employees by assuming or insisting that they matched the stereotypes associated with their group . . . .” Id. at 251.
A person is defined as transgender precisely because of the perception that his or her behavior transgresses gender stereotypes. “[T]he very acts that define transgender people as transgender are those that contradict stereotypes of gender-appropriate appearance and behavior.” [citations omitted]. There is thus a congruence between discriminating against transgender and transsexual individuals and discrimination on the basis of gender-based behavioral norms.
Chalk one up for our side.
*in an interesting side note, CNN reports that one of the judges, a 2005 Bush appointee is considered one of the most conservative federal judges on the bench today.
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Gender Change of Veteran Accepted by Pentegon
I’d say it’s one of the more dramatic moves that the armed services has made with their new acceptance policies (After the continental shift from exclusion to inclusion). Considering that open service is still in its infancy, it’s a acknowledgement of just how far they will go to live up to their new ideal.
“In a short letter dated May 2, a Navy official told Autumn Sandeen, a veteran and transgender activist: “Per your request the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System DEERS has been updated to show your gender as female effective April 12, 2013.”
via Pentagon Recognizes Transgender Veteran, Advocates See A “Shift”.