MSNBC: Manning to use “Gender Identity” defense against treason charges

According to an article published today on MSNBC, attorneys for Bradley Manning, the WikkiLeaks guy, are planning a Gender Identity Disorder defense to show diminished capacity due to mental disorder.

From the article:

“The defense stated Saturday that Manning, 24, had written to one of his supervisors when he was stationed in Iraq before his arrest and said he had concluded he was suffering from gender identity disorder, which is classified as a medical disorder in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. He included a photo of himself dressed as a woman in the letter and said the issue was affecting his ability to do his job or think clearly.”

More:

“Manning is charged with aiding the enemy and violating the Espionage Act. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

If Manning’s case does go to court martial, his attorneys will apparently be just the second defense team to attempt to use a gender identity disorder as at least a partial defense in a military case, according to Jack King, a staff attorney with the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys specializing in mental health issues.

The only other case on record, he said, involved Karen Davis, a Navy electrician’s mate, second class, formerly known as Charles Marx, who was prosecuted in the mid-1980s “for wearing women’s clothing (a skirt, nylons, a women’s blouse, a bra, women’s fashion jeans, nail polish, a purse, and a wig) on numerous occasions while at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.”

In appealing her court martial in 1988, Davis’ attorneys argued that such conduct was not illegal. They also stated that, while living as Marx, she had been diagnosed by several Navy psychiatrists as having gender identity disorder and that cross-dressing was therapeutic.

The military appeals court allowed her dishonorable discharge to stand for the reason that cross-dressing was “prejudicial to good order and discipline and discrediting of the Armed Forces.”

King said such a case would be unlikely today, given the greater understanding of gender identity disorder.

“Now, if a person could show that because he or she believed themselves to be a member of the opposite sex they had an irresistible impulse to cross-dress, they would in all likelihood qualify for a medical discharge,” he said.

Several attorneys who work with transgender legal issues said they were not aware of a gender identity disorder defense being raised in a civilian court, and King said it’s easy to see why not, noting that such a diagnosis “doesn’t prevent you from knowing right from wrong.” The disorder is most often raised in criminal proceedings as part of an overall insanity defense, or by expert witnesses arguing that a defendant is so mentally damaged that he or she should be committed, he said.”

Read the whole article by clicking the link above.

Photo is from The Guardian.

B,But Trans Activists Say This NEVER Happens!

Interesting little item out of Colorado over the weekend. News station KRDO Channel 13 reports that a woman was terrified by a man in the women’s restroom of a local shopping mall. She fled the scene and reported the incident to mall security to investigate. She was told that because of the 2008 “Gender Identity Protections” law passed in Colorado, the mall was unable to even question –much less report to police- any males who are trespassing in formerly sex-segregated women’s bathrooms. The reason given was that any males who like hanging out in women’s restrooms “might” claim internal “gender identities”, which presumably could result in mall security being sued for questioning such a man.

From the article:

“COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – One woman says she had a double scare at the Chapel Hills Mall bathroom on Wednesday. It was in the women’s facility near the Children’s Place.

 She says a man was in the bathroom. She rushed to get help from mall security. The man was gone when they got the restroom. The woman also says she was told by security that they couldn’t restrain him unless he was doing something criminal. She says security told her it was because of a 2008 Colorado law.

 Chapel Hills Mall wouldn’t directly confirm or comment on the complaint. They did send this statement on the law and how they follow it to the letter.

 It states: “Chapel Hills Mall and their national security provider comply with all federal, state and local laws including the Public Accommodations Anti-Discrimination law amendments that became effective May 29, 2008. As will all public accommodations, which is defined as any place of business that offers sales or services of any kind to the public, Chapel Hills Mall is required to allow entry and services to all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation or transgender status. As outlined in the FAQ document produced by the State of Colorado for this law, individuals have the legal right to use gender-segregated services, such as public restrooms, appropriate to their gender identity rather than their assigned gender at birth, without being harassed or questioned.“

[bolding mine-GM]

Link with video:

http://www.krdo.com/news/29488435/detail.html

Speaking of trans activists claiming this never happens, those who click the link will see not one but two comments from self-proclaimed “woman with a penis”:  trans and anti-female-rights activist Autumn Sandeen, who chides the news organization for reporting something which “isn’t newsworthy”. He then goes so far as to accuse news station KRDO of “manufacturing news”, presumably because reporting news of interest to females makes it “un-newsworthy”. We can see in action the attempt by national trans activists to silence and suppress reportage of such incidents which are caused by “Gender Identity” laws erasing all rights of females to privacy from the male gaze in sex-segregated areas such as restrooms.

Trans activists claim that it is unlikely that predators will lie about an internal “Gender Identity” to gain access to female spaces (even though they make up all sorts of lies to do so). But as this article shows, in areas where Gender Identity laws erase female rights, trespassing males are not even being questioned, due to fears of “Internal Gender Identity”  lawsuits- even though we know without a doubt that predators are targeting women in such spaces.

Who Started the Campaign of Disinformation Against Cathy Brennan and Elizabeth Hungerford?

Violent, Bizarre, Bloody illustration from Kelley Ann Busey's Planetransgender post "Cathey Brennan UN letter: Toxic Transphobia Death" (sic)

I was looking at Fab’s post about the Trans Panther Party’s terrorist activities and threats against myself and the women who sent a feminist legal submission to the UN . Reflecting on all the violent rhetoric and genuine threats that have come about and been directed toward the Lesbian authors of that UN submission (some of which I’ve documented on this blog), I thought back to where it all started.

I really think Bilerico and Pam’s House Blend need to be blamed for creating and stoking this campaign of disinformation, harassment, and stalking of Lesbian activists Cathy Brennan and Elizabeth Hungerford. Bilerico and PHB were the first LGBT media outlets to respond to the UN legal submission.

To anyone who hasn’t been following this:  the UN submission suggested that in matters of litigation involving males in female sex-segregated spaces, non-transgender males should not be able to claim “gender identity”, if they have no prior history of transgenderism. That’s it. Non-transgender males would be prevented from falsely claiming transgenderism to gain access to female sex-segregated spaces. Not unlike the caveat in the CT Gender Identity protections law which was passed this year and heralded as a success by the trans community. Nothing to do with surgical requirements, or any restriction whatsoever on transgender people. There’s nothing even vaguely anti-trans about the UN submission. It’s a pro- women’s rights submission. Not an anti-trans one. One could even say it was a pro-trans submission, as it proposed codifying the rights of transgender males to enter female spaces.

What freaked out the genderists is that two feminist attorneys drafted a letter to the UN that addressed “gender” in any way. That they spoke of that which must never be mentioned by women: Gender. Women who do speak of Gender must be attacked and silenced immediately. Which is what Bilerico and Pam’s House Blend did.

Bilerico and Pam’s House Blend, both mainstream LGBT sites, were the first to fire shots. Bilerico ran a hideously inflammatory and inaccurate post titled “Less Than Woman, Less Than Human“, which actually raised the topic of violent retaliation against Brennan and Hungerford. The Bilerico post falsely claimed that the UN letter sought to deny basic human rights to trans people. It claimed the letter sought to discriminate against trans people in employment and housing (which couldn’t be further from the truth). Then the post uncritically, and bizarrely went off to conflate the UN submission with Radical Feminism, solely because the post author apparently first saw the letter’s text on a Radical Feminist site.(Cathy Brennan has never been a Radical Feminist and has in fact spent considerable unpaid time advocating for the rights of transgender people.)

This was followed by descriptions of attacks and hate crimes against transgender people, claiming the UN submission would increase such attacks. It was the worst sort of “reporting”: inaccurate, inflammatory, and unrelentingly addled. The author Mercedes Allen never did post a retraction. Fellow Bilerico blogger Jillian Weiss later posted an appeal to decency to the violent rhetoric that followed, but Weiss never mentioned the original post that started it all: the Bilerico post. As an attorney Weiss was uniquely positioned to refute the disinformation. But apparently chose not to.

Pam’s House Blend published their version the next day, the disgustingly titled “Cathy Brennan and Elizabeth Hungerford Take Their Anti-Trans Hysteria to the UN”.

This post was bursting with the same outrageous level of untruth, hyperbole, disinformation and downright lies. The author Laurel Ramseyer claimed “… it would presumably allow any women in or near a public bathroom to become “panty police” and make a “show me your papers” demand of any other woman entering the bathroom.” – which is absurd since the UN submission only deals with civil litigation matters. It was another mainstream LGBT post filled with hateful anti-feminist rhetoric and pure shit-stirring fabrication. Not only was there no published retraction- but soon after Cathy posted a link on her long-term Pam’s profile to the blog set up to refute the disinformation  (http://sexnotgender.wordpress.com/) Pam Spaulding BANNED her, and deleted her account.

There will always be crazy-ass losers and unstable fringe activists that lack the social and intellectual skills required to discern nuance or legal complexity. OR EVEN REALITY. Violent bullies like Anthony Casebeer and weekend terrorist paramilitary warriors the Caucasian Trans Panther Party, cognitively impaired Kelly Anne Busey of Planetransgender, violence obsessed Marti Abernathey at Transadvocate and the disturbed Katrina Rose at Endablog have never read (or never comprehended) the Brennan Hungerford UN submission. But they damn sure read the mainstream posts from the “authorities” at Bilerico and Pam’s House Blend.

California Murderer Loses Appeal for first US Taxpayer-Funded “Sex Change” Surgery

Eleven years ago Lyralisa Stevens killed a woman with a shotgun blast over a dispute about clothing. His victim was survived by two daughters. At the time of his incarceration Mr Stevens had been taking female hormones for 10 years, and had received silicone injections to his hips and buttocks. He received taxpayer funded female hormones during his incarceration at an annual cost of $1000.

According to CBS5 San Francisco, California provides such hormones to at least 300 prisoners at a taxpayer cost of $300,000 a year. It is unknown how many prisoners would request the $15,000 to $50,000 surgery if a precedent is set.

The first taxpayer-funded criminal ”sex change” surgery in the UK, performed on John/Jane Anne Pilley, (incarcerated for kidnap and attempted murder of a female taxi driver) not only received a taxpayer funded “sex change” surgery and was transferred to a female prison, but later filed suit for taxpayer-funded surgery to try to reverse the procedure when he changed his mind.

No US state has yet approved such tax-payer funded surgery for convicted criminals.

From the Sacramento Bee:  “Although California and other western states are required to provide transgender inmates with hormone therapy pursuant to a 2000 federal court decision, a ruling in Stevens’ favor would have made California the first state required to provide medically eligible inmates with sex reassignment surgery.”

Two years ago, after serving nine years of his sentence for the murder of Bonnie Lynn Lewis, the California shotgun-wielding murderer Lyralisa Stevens decided he wanted to be transferred to a women’s prison, which California permits when males have had their penis and testicles surgically removed. Using a court-appointed attorney he filed suit for the state to provide and fund the surgical procedure that would make his transfer possible, claiming that his clinical transgender condition had taken a turn for the worse. Clinical transgender diagnosis is based solely on the patient’s self-report, and is the only psychiatric condition that is treated surgically.

Ronshonda Renee and Staci McWilliams, the children of Bonnie Lynn Lewis, who Stevens murdered in 2003, became aware of the situation when they saw it on the news in April and were aghast. They told CBS5 “I just feel that it was totally wrong for you to take someone’s mom away from them and then still turn around and want special privileges. I feel that whatever you are getting, you deserve it,” said McWilliams.

“You want the tax payers to pay? For you to use our hard earned money to pay for you to have surgery after you committed a murder? I don’t think so,” said Ronshonda Renee.

The court gave no reason for its dismissal of the appeal. Transfer to a female prison was also denied. Mr Stevens, now 42, is serving 50 years to life. His attorney has not decided whether to challenge the San Francisco 1st District Court of Appeal’s decision by appealing to the state supreme court.

From the LATimes:  “Alison Hardy, Stevens’ attorney, acknowledged that a victory in her client’s case was always a long shot but said the court’s decision still came as a disappointment. ”Fifteen years ago, hormones weren’t prescribed in California prisons, either,” Hardy said. “We were hoping to…establish a beachhead.”

 Research shows that there is no evidence that transgender “sex-change” surgery improves the lives of transgenders.

 

 

 

NJ Appeals Court: Legal “Gender” Determines Obscenity

Phoenix Feeley

NJ appeals court affirmed yesterday that the government has a “moral” interest in enforcing unequal laws based on sex. In short: Male bodies are fine, Female bodies are obscene and must stay covered. Male chests are respectable, Female chests are pornographic. Male breasts = Moobs. Female breasts = Illegal Dirty Pillows.

Phoenix Feeley, a women’s rights advocate and (literal) fire-breathing performance artist and circus performer lost the appeal yesterday in her ongoing battle against charges incurred in 2008 when she was arrested –twice in one day- for removing her top on the beach like a male.

From the appeal decision:

The facts are essentially uncontested. On June 28, 2008, defendant removed the top of her bathing suit while sitting on the public beach in Spring Lake. Police officer Robert Zoino approached and asked that she put her top back on. When defendant refused, Zoino arrested her and brought her to police headquarters.

 After being processed and supplied with a tee shirt by the police, defendant was released. However, shortly thereafter, Zoino and another officer responded to a call of a topless woman at a street intersection near police headquarters. Defendant was again arrested and issued additional summonses. Police officer Michael Rutka found the tee shirt supplied to defendant hanging from the entrance door of the police department.

 Before the municipal court judge, and again on appeal to the Law Division, defendant did not challenge these proofs.2 Instead, she argued, among other things, that application of the public nudity ordinance under the facts presented violated defendant’s rights to equal protection under the fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Specifically, defendant contended that men were permitted to appear topless on the public beach, but women were not. Both the municipal court judge, and the Law Division judge, rejected the argument.

In a thorough written opinion, the Law Division judge cited extensively to our decision in State v. Vogt, 341 N.J.Super. 407 (App. Div. 2001). Noting that “defendant . . . [may have] present[ed] compelling policy arguments in her brief,” the judge nonetheless concluded he was “bound by the holding of the appellate court because both the factual circumstances and the regulations in question in Vogt and in this case [we]re indistinguishable.” He found defendant guilty of two ordinance violations, imposed an aggregate fine of $750, and this appeal followed.

Defendant argues that we should depart from continued reliance upon our decision in Vogt because it “unjustifiably sanctions arrest and prosecution based on gender.” The argument lacks sufficient merit to warrant extended discussion in this opinion. R. 2:11-3(e)(2).

The ordinance in this case provided in pertinent part:

[I]t shall be unlawful for any person to appear or travel on any street, avenue or road, beach, waterway, alleyway, driveway or any area of private property open to public view in the Borough or appear in any other such place in the Borough in a state of nudity; in an indecent or lewd dress or garment; or make any indecent exposure of his or her person; or urinate in any of the above described places except in public restrooms.”

She was charged with two counts of Public Nudity, one count of Dressing and Undressing in Public, two counts of Disorderly Conduct (later dismissed) and one count of Obstruction.

According to her blog she was:

Detained for over 6 hours

Sent for psychiatric evaluation

Physically abused by cops

Legal procedures not followed

Patient confidentiality not permitted

Left with no money, phone, or ride 3 towns and a 3 hour walk from where I was.

Feeley has been fighting for years against antiquated sex-based clothing laws that discriminate against women, and has put her safety and freedom on the line to do so. In 2005 she was wrongfully arrested and detained in Manhattan for walking down the street bare-chested, even though New York City had repealed its discriminatory sex-based clothing laws in 1992. She won a $29,000 settlement for that illegal arrest.

“In another country, a woman can’t take a scarf off her face without getting stoned to death,” she says. “What so different about the two?”

From yesterday’s NJ appeals court  decision:

“In Vogt, supra, 341 N.J. Super. at 416-17, we concluded that “there [wa]s no constitutional right for a woman to appear topless on a public beach,” and “[r]estrictions on the exposure of the female breast are supported by the important governmental interest in safeguarding the public’s moral sensibilities, and th[e] ordinance [wa]s substantially related to that interest.” Id. at 417. We further noted that distinctions based upon gender must satisfy an “`intermediate’ level of scrutiny,” i.e., “the distinction must be justified by an important governmental interest that is substantially accomplished by the challenged discriminatory means.” Id. at 417-18 (citations omitted). “The burden of justifying the classification is on the state, which must show that the claimed justification is `exceedingly persuasive.’” Id. at 418 (quoting United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515, 533, 116 S.Ct. 2264, 2275, 135 L. Ed. 2d 735, 751 (1996)). We determined that “the ordinance satisfie[d] both the federal and state tests for equal protection.” Id. at 417.

Defendant has presented no principled reason for us to depart from our holding in Vogt. We therefore affirm.”

(All Bolding mine.) In other words, women’s legal rights to equality are based on safeguarding arbitrary cultural sex discrimination traditions. The court’s obligation is to uphold sex-based social customs, even if discriminatory against females.

THIS is why mothers are harassed in public for FEEDING THEIR CHILDREN. And it is why 15 year-old girls want to undergo THIS procedure:

"Top Surgery" for Women

FIGHTING THE LIE OF “TRANS” : Guest Post by Bev Jo

FIGHTING THE LIE OF “TRANS”

 

Bev Jo

Women don’t have it easy and Lesbians have it even harder. We are oppressed in patriarchy — by institutions and individuals – we are oppressed by males, by het and bisexual women (who women choose to love is a choice, not something as trivial as “sexual orientation”), and also by men who claim to be women and men who claim to be Lesbians. Not only do they appropriate our identity, including some saying they are more woman than real women (though that’s true in terms of men’s definition of women). Anyone who protests gets death threats. (I have witnessed horrific Lesbian wars since 1970, but I have never seen or heard another Lesbian, no matter how severe the disagreement, threaten another Lesbian with death.)

When you let a woman think for herself and don’t bully or threaten her, don’t call her a “bigot” and “transphobic,” compare her to nazis, and don’t use pseudo-feminist politics against her, what actually is her instinctual reaction to men claiming to be women?  From what I’ve seen and read, it’s an immediate refusal to accept an obvious lie.

But then the pressure starts and most succumb to the harassment and also the flattery, impressed with the attention of these men since, of course, most women have learned the patriarchal rule of valuing men more than women and “keeping the peace” at any cost. Those who think for themselves will see the incredible narcissism of these men. They will also see how these female impersonators have no clue about what it means to be female. If asked, the “transwomen” men will reveal their fetishized, pornified, and objectified image of women that has nothing at all to do with us. It’s also obvious that they have been watching too much male-directed “lesbian” porn.

You can see female impersonators talking endlessly about themselves, groping Lesbians they don’t know in sexually invasive ways, and you can hear them trying to imitate their idea of what a woman is, but their domineering and aggression still comes through.

It is all so obvious, yet Lesbians try so hard to understand and be compassionate and not hurt anyone’s feelings.

But far more than feelings are being hurt. Real women and Lesbians are being bullied and stalked, lectured about how oppressive we are for staying with the truth, and we are losing our last tiny bit of remaining female-only space. We are also getting death threats.

You know what we call men who don’t take “no” for an answer?  Try saying no to these men and see what happens.

I’ve been trying to say no for over forty years to one who stalked me as a teenager right into my Lesbian community, and I still can’t get away. (When he could not get me to be his girlfriend, no matter how hard he pushed, he changed his name to one as close to mine as possible and now slanders me and other Lesbians.) Do know that some of these men have learned well what lies to tell. This one is now saying that he always felt like a girl, which is not at all what he said when he first went after me. He was incredulous that I was in love with another girl, and my being a Lesbian meant nothing to him until he later figured out that he would get a better deal with Lesbians than het women. As a typical het male, he was too pathetic to get into the power positions he later got into in the Lesbian community.

No female should be forced to be in “women’s” space with any man who has sexually harassed her. How many of these men have raped?

These men have histories. Many of them don’t declare they are Lesbians until decades after living with full heterosexual male privilege and sense of entitlement (including the much higher incomes that men get) with wives and children.

But having het male privilege is not enough for them. Some write about hating and being bitterly jealous of little girls who they fantasize as having the “pink bedrooms and ballet lessons” that they were denied. Not many girls want or get those things, but most little girls do get sexually assaulted and all are sexually harassed by boys and men. Why are these men so oblivious to the reality of what real girls suffer?

I have yet to read or hear a story from a man claiming to be a woman that sounds remotely like what a girl felt growing up. On the television series, “Sex Change Hospital,” a man says he knew he was meant to be a woman because when he was four, he got excited seeing his mother’s bra and put it on. Do you know of any girl or woman “excited” from seeing her mother’s bra?  (There is nothing about a bra that is intrinsically female – it’s a device men manufacture and tell women to wear so their breasts stick out.) This man’s wife was surprised he wanted to be a woman because he was such a “macho” man.

Female impersonators never look like real women. They are obsessed with the artifice that men demand women adopt. Their idea of “womanhood” is male-defined, male-identified “femininity,” so that they look like drag queens with their heavy, ugly makeup, plucked unnatural eyebrows, garish costumes, etc. When this man’s surgery was finished, he asked his father to look at his new “vagina.” Does that sound like a woman to you?

Meanwhile, the wives of these men have lost out on the deal that het women make with their husbands, which is heterosexual privilege. (Although some do still get the monetary benefits since some men who claim to be women get a contract guaranteeing their male salary post surgery.)

And then there are the 80% of “transwomen” who don’t have surgery and are some of those who invade our last spaces like the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival so they can expose their pricks to girls and women.

Besides the immediate knowing that these men are not women, why do those who are conned believe that a male medical system with male surgeon, synthetic hormones, and castration can make women out of men? Do they really think that we are just the absence of male parts? Would women so easily believe that someone could use those means to change race or species?

“Transphobia” is a lie. Of course women object to and find it offensive when men mimic us with misogynist ideas of “womanhood.” It’s like expecting African Americans to like Euro-Americans putting on blackface and doing minstrel shows. It’s insulting and oppressive. Do Lesbians bemoan how oppressed transvestites and drag queens are? They are caricaturing female oppression, which is exactly what men claiming to be us are doing.

Part of the problem is that throughout patriarchy there is an ingrained sense that all females somehow belong to all males, to comment on, to order, to possess, to oppress, to own. That is part of why men can feel so comfortable with just appropriating our identity. We are their possessions to play with as they like.

Drag queens and “transwomen” ridicule us. We are not “transphobic.” They oppress us.

II

STRATEGY

 

It’s a basic weapon of patriarchy to divide women. Men are appropriating Lesbian identity and re-writing our Lesbian history and getting into power positions in our Lesbian community. They go where they want and take what they want, ignoring our objections, which is a very male trait. They enjoy the attention of getting women to fight over them. They have no respect for Lesbian culture and community and try to destroy what little we have.

I know very few Lesbians who do not defer to these men and obey them by referring to them as “transwomen” and give them our pronouns. Those of us who refuse to betray our own kind are yelled at, insulted, and threatened. (If you don’t believe me, try it.) Our Lesbian culture, which is SO liberal and tolerant, does not allow any Lesbian to respect her own heart and mind about how she thinks of these men. The men simply come first.

The enforcement of this mass lie is like a brainwashed cult, with absolute obedience demanded. You are not allowed to think for yourself or speak for yourself on behalf of other Lesbians. Your wanting to protect and defend your beleaguered and almost destroyed people is called “hatred.” Middle class rules of “etiquette” and manners are enforced. (I have literally been told to obey Wikipedia’s etiquette on how to properly address a “transwoman.”) And we certainly are not encouraged to make a fuss over something as irrelevant as the truth. We are treated in parental and controlling ways where we are virtually told “How dare you talk back!”

Some “radical feminists” have been so desperate to try to figure a way to not lose more of what we have that they have resorted to betraying themselves. They are trying to work with some of these men as allies, hoping that they will police other female impersonators. They don’t seem aware of past feminist history in regards to trusting men. It doesn’t work. It never will. Those who don’t know history are condemned to repeat it.

The point at which you give up your basic knowledge to participate in a lie, you have lost the struggle and they have won.

What these men want more than anything is for us to accept them as women, publicly refer to them as “transwomen” and give them our pronouns. Agreeing to call them “transwomen” is betraying real women and giving these men exactly what they want. It also opens the door to losing everything. They can then call us more names, such as “misogynist,” for refusing to give into their increasing demands.

It is not sensible strategy to cooperate with defining us out of existence by defining men as any kind of women.

The next stage of complicity is to disrespect and betray other Lesbians and women by telling us to shut up on behalf of these “special women” who are actually men. It is considered more important that they might be offended by us telling the truth than that real Lesbians are insulted and silenced. This has happened on more than one “radical Lesbian Feminist” facebook thread. How is this any different than what has been happening for years where men are lauded at the expense of the Lesbians and women who are oppressed by them?

Have these “radical feminists” changed their plan for their own status and careers or because they mistakenly think this is a good strategy? So few of us have the courage to say the truth, yet you still want to silence us? For men?

This reminds me of Neville Chamberlain triumphantly waiving his worthless piece of paper with Hitler’s signature, declaring he had secured “peace in our time,” while betraying Czechoslovakia to Hitler.

III

Why Not Try this Strategy?

 

Instead of trying to work with men who are part of the problem, why not organize a much bigger group who could get righteously outraged over the issue of men invading women’s space? I’m talking about het women, who certainly outnumber the “good” men claiming women’s identity. I think this has never been attempted simply because of fear of their lesbophobia and Lesbian-hatred.

Though the loyalty has only gone one way, in terms of Lesbians supporting gay men, many Lesbians are afraid to break rank even to be publicly opposed to NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association.) I think the fear is that all of het women’s fear of queers will surface and that somehow we will be betraying gay men and “transpeople,” as if we really have anything in common with them.

Lesbian Feminism came out of alliances with het feminists. Lesbians soon separated because of het feminists’ Lesbian-hatred (though a lot of het feminists also came out.) But really, we are more natural allies with women than any kind of men, especially since it is all a choice and any het woman at any age can decide to join us. They are also oppressed by men and patriarchy. At this point, I think I trust even non-feminist het women to recognize “transwomen” as simply the men that they are more than I do some Lesbian feminists. Certainly these women would not want female impersonators using the same public restrooms as their little girls. This isn’t “transphobia.” This is sensible women recognizing that these men, like all men, are prurient and dangerous to girls.

So how about it?  Has anyone fighting to stop female impersonators from invading our space considered allying with het women on this issue? I would think we might even get a few concerned het and gay men who are fed up with the bullying of female impersonators and are worried about laws changing that might make their daughters vulnerable.

Whatever strategy you choose, remember that it is important to not be conned or mindfucked in any way by men claiming our identity. They are not our friends or allies, no matter how much the LGBTQuerty is shoved down our throats. That group has never supported Lesbians. We have always supported ourselves. So let’s not give them any bit of what they are demanding – FEMALE IMPERSONATORS ARE NOT WOMEN!  Please, do not support them by calling them “transwomen,” “transsexuals” or “transgender.”

Instead, please do what Lesbians rarely do — support other Lesbians. Put females and Lesbians first for a change, since no one else does.

For more of Bev Jo’s writings visit her site at:  Bev Jo Radical Lesbian

 

 

 

Global Business Law Firm “McDermott Will & Emory” Wins Tax-funded Sex Change for Mass. Child Rapist

Transgenders celebrated a major victory this week in a landmark case representing one of their own: Massachusetts child rapist Sandy-Jo Battista.

McDermott Will & Emory, one of the largest law firms in the world, representing over 50% of the Fortune 500 companies globally issued a press release this week announcing their latest landmark victory. After six years of free pro bono representation a team of McDermott Will & Emory litigators has won “the right” for the rapist of a ten year girl to receive tax payer funded sex change treatment while he remains incarcerated. The law firm, established in 1934 by Chicago lawyers Edward H. McDermott and William M. Emory called the ruling a “Major Win in Landmark Transgender Rights Case”.

Transactivists and McDermott Will & Emory believe that child rapists have a right to receive tax payer funded “sex changes” if they claim to begin suffering from symptoms of a disordered “gender identity”  during incarceration for their violent pedophilic sex crimes. The law firm provided six years and unknown thousands of dollars in free legal representation to secure this “right” for Sandy-Jo Battista, formerly David E. Megarry Jr.,  who was convicted of robbery, kidnapping and the rape of a child. He- or as transgenders claim- “She” is currently detained via civil commitment in the all male Massachusetts Treatment Center for Sexually Dangerous Persons facility without limit of sentence due to his legal status as a “Sexually Dangerous Person”.

Battista was apprehended in 1982 for hiding in the woods and abducting a ten year old girl, forcing her into his car, abducting and driving her into the woods known as Lombardi’s Grove in Milford, Mass. where he tied her up, gagged her, raped her, and left her there. He was also charged with robbery for taking the money she had earned selling fudge door-to-door to raise money for her skating club (which is what she was doing when he abducted her).

From the Dedham, Mass. Daily News Transcript:  “When he was 14, Batista assaulted a 6-year-old girl. A year later, prosecutors say Batista took another young girl into the woods, but stopped short of assaulting her.

He spent three years in a Department of Youth Services program at Medfield State Hospital for the juvenile incidents. Behind bars for child rape, Batista got slapped with 64 entries on his disciplinary record.

In a 1986 case, Batista got caught making obscene phone calls to young girls he picked out of local newspapers. About a decade later, Batista was penalized for keeping pictures of young girls in his jail cell, said Assistant District Attorney Peter Pratt.

At about the same time, Batista realized he was transgendered, Machado said.

He began to wear women’s underwear and cosmetics, got tattoos of naked women and had his name legally changed to Sandra Jo Batista in 1995.”

Transgenders say that the ten year old girl may have been “asking for it”. From the trans website “A Gender Variance Who’s Who” site administrator Zagria  in a post defending Megarry and concerned about the rapists’s welfare in a post titled: “What will happen to Sandy-Jo?” speculates about the ten year old rape victim: “Was it real forcible rape? Was it statutory but consensual? Was it mainly a misunderstanding? The various mentions online say nothing between these options.”

The Department of Justice, which unlike transactivist Zagria doesn’t consider child rape and kidnapping as an “option” took a different view than transgenders and sentenced the baby-raper to 18 years in prison. Transactivists may be surprised to learn that no legal entity in the country considers rape between a grown man and a ten year old child consensual. Go figure! As for Megarry/Battista, he remains civilly committed by the state of Mass. Due to his – “her” – frequent infractions behaviors and incidents during his – “her”- incarceration which deems him an ongoing threat to girl children.

Sandy Jo Battista

Transactivists claim that men like Megarry/Battista should be given taxpayer funded “sex changes” and transferred to women’s prisons. Supporter Zagria cites the Canadian case of “Synthia Kavanagh” a male murderer who was given a state-funded “sex change” and then transferred to a women’s prison.

In countries with Gender Identity Protections, (which override sex-based protections of women in favor of the “internal gender identity” of males) state funded “sex changes” of male rapists and murderers of women and subsequent transfer of the perps to women’s prisons is commonplace. In some cases, like John Pilley’s, the perp decides women’s prison isn’t as fun as they thought, wants to change back, and demands “sex change reversal” treatment, also paid for by the state.

From the victorious McDermott Will & Emory press release:

“The injunction obtained by McDermott on behalf of the Firm’s pro bono client, Sandy Battista, requires the State of Massachusetts to provide necessary medical care for Ms. Battista’s gender identity disorder (GID). The opinion reinforces the fact that GID is a recognized disorder that, if left untreated, creates a “substantial risk of serious harm,” and “can be extremely dangerous.”  The First Circuit found that an unjustified failure to treat GID gives rise to a constitutional violation. Judge Michael Boudin wrote the First Circuit opinion, joined by Judge Norman Stahl and retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter, who sat on the panel by designation.”

“This case is about one’s right to medical care while incarcerated,” said [Former actor] Neal Minahan,  an associate in McDermott’s Boston office who argued the case before the First Circuit. “Incarcerated, transgender individuals have as much right to medically necessary care as any other person in the State’s custody.  The First Circuit recognized that waiting nearly a decade to fill a medical prescription is inexcusable.  In this case, it violated our client’s constitutional rights.”

“Ms. Battista, a transgender resident of the Massachusetts Treatment Center, was first diagnosed with GID in 1997 and has struggled to receive treatment for the disorder for over a decade.  In June 2005, Ms. Battista filed this case as a pro se litigant in the United States District Court of Massachusetts in response to the DOC’s decision to block her prescription for GID treatment.  That treatment, which included hormone medication, had been unanimously approved by the DOC’s own contracted medical providers.  In November 2007, District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock appointed McDermott as pro bono counsel.  Years of intensely fought litigation culminated in a bench trial before the U.S. District Court in June 2010.  The McDermott trial team was lead by Minahan and Dana McSherry, a partner in the Firm’s Boston office.”

“The District Court found that Ms. Battista “may not be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment which consists of the neglect of her serious medical needs, nor may her serious needs become a pretext for the infliction of additional punishments. And that is what has happened here.”  After trial, the court issued an injunction requiring the DOC to provide GID treatment to Ms. Battista, including access to hormone medication.   That injunction was stayed pending the DOC’s appeal to the First Circuit panel, which issued its unanimous opinion on Friday, May 20, 2011.” [Italics/bolding mine-GM]

“The McDermott team working on this case also included partner Mike Kendall, associate Benjamin Franklin, legal assistant Christine Slyman, and former McDermott partners Christopher Man and Emily Smith-Lee.”

Another inmate, convicted strangulation killer Robert Kosilek, now “Michelle Lynn Kosilek” since developing transsexuality during his life sentence for murder- filed papers yesterday  in response to the ruling, demanding state funded electrolysis and plastic surgery to construct a superficial approximation of female genitals. He has already been receiving tax funded hormones.

Kosilek

It is currently unknown whether the murderer and child-rapist will be transferred to women’s facilities upon completion of their cosmetic transformation. Also unknown is if state funded FFS (facial feminization surgery) will be mandated, although according to medically accepted WPATH standards-of-care facial surgery along with breast augmentation IS considered medically necessary care. 

Some transactivists feel tax payer funded breast implants, electrolysis and “sex change” surgeries are not enough to “affirm” the “gender identity” of rapists pedophiles and murderers. Transjactivist Monica Roberts complains today about transgendered murder suspect Nina Kanagasingham, who is accused of throwing another male transgender under the wheels of a subway car, “My British trans cousins have been more than a little pissed about the sensationalist and transphobic coverage being generated in the British media concerning this case. They are also not happy about how Kanagasingham has been treated by the British legal system either.   In addition to being housed in a men’s prison, she was hauled into Old Bailey unshaven, a point in which the British press took great glee in pointing out in their stories.”

It’s unknown if trans advocates will win the right for police to hand suspected murderers claiming GID a razor prior to arresting them so that their “right” to look clean shaven is “protected” but after these recent transgender victories for male murderers and child rapists, who knows? With the advocacy and unlimited resources of the law firm of McDermott Will & Emory, anything is possible.

To the woman, almost 40 now, who was abducted, tied up, gagged and raped 30 years ago at the age of ten by this serial pedophillic predator and monster: My thoughts and prayers go out to you tonight as you struggle to deal with the “victory” of this man through the work of McDermott Will & Emory and trans activists worldwide. YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN.

Crossdressing and Sex Prosthetics Approved for Transgender UK Prisoners

A 20 page guidebook on transgender prisoners was issued to wardens across the UK last week. As a result of the UK’s Gender Recognition Act the Ministry of Justice’s guidelines state “An establishment must permit prisoners who consider themselves transsexual and wish to begin gender reassignment to live permanently in their acquired gender.”

Unlike other prisoners who must wear prison uniforms, self-identified transgenders may wear their own clothes, and will be given access to prosthetics, devices, and gendered street clothes used to disguise their physical sex. Males who want to must be referred to as “miss” or “ma’am” and be called by a fake name of their choosing. These new guidelines apply to transgendered who have not been issued a “Gender Recognition Certificate” by the government but to those who remain legally regarded as their actual physical sex. Male murderers and rapists who wish to “become women” are already provided with state paid Gender Reassignment Surgery and then transferred to women’s prisons, regardless of concerns for those women’s safety.

In at least one case, a man in prison for kidnapping and attempted murder of a woman received a taxpayer funded sex change, transferred to a woman’s prison, then after a few years demanded a reverse-sex-change back to male, also taxpayer funded.

I was unable to locate records of any “female to male” transgenders fighting for transfer to the male prison of their chosen gender. Presumably this is because females who want to be male decide to avoid placement with their brethren because the male prison population (like all male populations) is far more violent than the female one.

Instead of standard uniforms, inmates who wish to transgender may wear high heels, lingerie, dresses, wigs, make-up, nail polish, suits and ties, and other body coverings as well as complex prosthetic devices.

The new guidelines are being heralded by trans-activists as a new era in gender rights, and one beneficial to many transgenders who undergo incarceration in much higher rates than the general public. According to one US source, “Sixty-five percent of male-to-female (MtF) transgender people have spent time in prison or jail, as well as 29 percent of people who identify as female-to-male (FtM)—rates far above that of the general population.”

I Am Not A Man- Goodbye Frank Spisak

I AM NOT A MAN!
by Miss Frances Anne Spisak

I am not a man! I reiterate: I am a girl and I want to be recognized as one!! The state of Ohio is FORCING me, against my will, to remain transsexual. Prison officials refuse to provide me with the medical treatment I need to become a woman! Ohio is withholding female hormornes from me, and denying me the surgery needed to correct my disorder. Ohio is forcing me to be masculine in appearance and gender. I am being deprived of autonomy and my rights as a United States citizen! I have first amendment rights to be a woman!

I am one of society’s forgotten misfits, thrown into one of the largest successful businesses in America today: the prison system. As I understand it, when persons are sent to prison, that’s the punishment. We are not sent here to be abused, but many of us are, daily. Oppression of any kind is a mockery of our most fundamental American beliefs, and values about freedom and the dignity of other human beings. I am in a continual battle for my rights to be a woman, and for my rights and dignity as a human being. Things are rough here since I am the only transsexual out of almost 200 prisoners on the all male death row in Ohio. I may be the only transsexual incarcerated in any Ohio prison.

The prison system in Ohio is almost totally unprepared to deal with me. I stick out because I’m soft and effeminate. The male/female relationship in prison isn’t similar to the way it is on the outside. Here, if you are feminine–i.e., don’t resist a male’s sexual advances–you become his slave(wife, punk) and are stripped naked. Everything you own belongs to him, from the clothes you wear to who you hang around with, if he chooses to make an issue of it. Is is commonly believed, by male convicts, that a “woman” is supposed to act a certain way: like a slave. For instance, she must be submissive to all MEN, and stay out of controversies between two MEN. If you disobey a MAN, you may be physically brutalized. Women are called “bitches” or “whores.” To a certain extent the prison system supports and encourages these attitudes because it helps prison officials maintain authority and savage control. It also excites some.

The savage irony underlying my convictions and punishment is that the court which sentenced me to death, and the rest of society do not know the “real me” and retain only the false impression of a die-hard savage neo-Nazi gunman, generated at my trial in 1983. Because of my active mental illness at that time(and the great conflict I was experiencing over my transsexuality) I was unable to reveal to others that I am a woman trapped inside a man’s body(i.e., at my trial I wore a moustache!).

I was also unable to establish that I have a psychiatric disorder, and was insane at the time of the crimes. I do not state all this because I believe my mental illness entitles me to a “good citizenship award” for killing three people for no reason. On the contrary, mental illness is not a license to kill or an excuse to commit murder, but rather it is a reason to afford the afflicted person with the medical treatment for the illness, rather than criminal punishment for the acts. At the very least, my citizenship in a civilized state should entitle me to a trip to the hospital so the state can operate on me, and surgically correct me. In 1983 I was so mentally ill that being branded publicly as a racist neo-Nazi seemed wonderful in comparison with the humiliations and treatment I imagined I might have received if I openly admitted transsexuality! (note: my ancestry is Semitic).

Incarceration, for the past 16 years, in the brutal and sadistic all male prison invironment into which I’ve been unwillingly thrust, has cured me of all delusions! I’ve gained mental health and attained competency and am now putting together a lawsuit against prison officials in Ohio because I wish to obtain female sex hormones and a penectomy(surgical removal of the penis, testicles, and castration), which I NEED to become female and are medically nesessary in my case! The ACLU has informed me they cannot help me in a lawsuit because of the amount of work they are already doing in a suit against the prison(i.e., fighting for death row inmates’ rights to say their last words aloud before being executed). The state of Ohio wants to take away that right by making the condemned record his or her last words on a small 3×5 index card prior to being executed, and then give the warden the discretion to read all, part, or none of it to the press after the inmate’s death.

Because I’m still under sentence of death, this letter represents, in a sense, my last words. I may not get other opportunities to speak before I die.
Perhaps there is someone out there who would care to correspond with me, who can offer help, advice and maybe even friendship or affection, if they are not extinct commodities. Hell, I’ll even settle for postcards with dirty jokes!

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. I need contacts with lawyers, organizations, or people who are concerned enough to help. I am one desolate, desperate, and oppressed transsexual in bondage – seeking freedom and release! I am seeking assistance from anyone who will help me fight for dignity and my right to live and be a WOMAN.
P.S. I am permitted to receive one embossed envelope, per letter, for return postage purposes to write back to persons outside(NO STAMPS permitted!) All persons writing to me and seeking replies should kindly enclose an embossed envelope for postage(I am very poor).

UPDATE
Miss Frances Anne files lawsuit, and seeks $250,000

Contrary to what some of my critics say, the lawsuit I’ve filed, especially regarding my “serious medical condition” and NEED for treatment, is not a frivolous lawsuit! It has been clearly established by Federal law in four U.S. circuits since 1992(including the 6th Circuit in Ohio) and the District of Columbia, that transsexualism is a serious medical condition for which a transsexual prisoner is entitled to receive treatment while incarcerated. No Circuit Court anywhere in the United States has reached a contrary conclusion. Because transsexualism is a serious medical condition for which a transsexual prisoner is entitled to receive medical treatment while incarcerated in a prison, deliberate indifference by prison officials to a transsexual prisoner’s need for treatment violates the 8th amendment – prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment – pursuant to the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in a previous case. Ohio prison officials have been deliberately indifferent to my serious medical needs. I have repeatedly asked the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction officials to allow me to have an operation to make me into a woman, or to give me treatments with female hormones. All my requests have been denied.

In my lawsuit, I assert that I have a fundamental(and absolute) First Amendment U.S. Constitutional right to become and be a WOMAN. (i.e., the right of AUTOMONY: right of autonomous control over the development and expression of one’s personality, intellect, interests and tastes). Right of autonomy is “absolute, permitting no exceptions,” and one of the chief distinctions which sets the United States of America apart from totalitarian regimes.

I also raise legal claim that I have a First Amendment U.S. Constitutional right to estrogen and a sex-change operation, because such medical treatment is medically necessary for me to become a woman: a transsexual, like myself, cannot exercise her First Amendment rights to be a woman, nor become a woman, without these medical necessities!

My lawsuit also states that I’ve been PHYSICALLY INJURED by prison official’s refusal to provide me with male hormones and sex-conversion surgery in prison. Furthermore, I declare that I am suffering intense psychological PAIN daily because of the extreme discomfort I feel with the male anatomy and the inappropriateness of the masculine identity and role I’ve been forced to assume, and am expected to conform to by placement in the repressive and hostile all male prison environment into which I have been unwillingly thrust, and where I’m not free to express my soul and human spirit, nor free to end my quest for self-realization and attain self-respect and peace of soul by becoming a woman.

I am seeking a declaratory judgment that the acts, policies and practices of prison officials by denying me medical treatment necessary to become a woman violates my right under the United States Constitution, and I am requesting a preliminary and permanent injunction which will require them to change my name on their records and identify me as MISS FRANCES ANNE SPISAK, and require them to provide hormone therapy(estrogen) to me and hospitalization so that I can get surgery(castration and penectomy, etc.) to become a WOMAN while incarcerated. I am also seeking over $250,000 in damages(for pain, suffering, and mental cruelty to me).

I have always believed that my crimes were more the result of my psychiatric disorder than anything else and, if provided the medical and surgical treatment I NEED to become a woman, that I can be rehabilitated sufficiently in a woman’s role and that I will pose no future danger to society if ever released at a later date. This type of medical treatment and rehabilitation is more scientific and more humane that the fate I’ve been facing for the past 17 years on death row: execution by electric chair or lethal injection. We need to leave these barbaric methods of punishment behind us, along with the 20th Century that is expiring and going into the ashcan of world history along with its historical legacies of two World Wars, racism, genocide, inequality, and the persecution of sexual minorities.

MISS FRANCES ANNE SPISAK
on death row in Ohio/U.S.A.

[Frank Spisak is a 59 year-old Neo-Nazi Serial Murderer who in 1982, over a period of six months, murdered three Black men in cold blood, shot another 7 times (who survived), tried to shoot a woman in the back after she fought off his assault and attempted rape in a women's bathroom on a college campus, and tried to kill a man whom he thought to be Jewish. He is scheduled to be executed at 10am Thursday February 17, 2011 by lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility . BUH BYE FRANK!

US Veterans Class Action Rape Lawsuit Filed

US Veterans filed a class action lawsuit today against the US Military for the way their sexual assaults and rapes were handled (or not). According to Anuradha Bhagwati, 35, executive director of the Service Women’s Action Network, said the Defense Department’s own statistics show that fewer than one in five of these cases are even referred for court martial.

The lawsuit was filed today by sister attorneys Susan and Elizabeth Burke of Burke PLLC . From their press release: “Media Advisory: Military Rape and Sexual Assault Litigation – Feb. 15 WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Tuesday, Feb. 15, a group of U.S. military veterans who allege that they were raped or sexually assaulted during their international and domestic military service will discuss their forthcoming federal-court litigation, which will be filed early that morning, at the National Press Club at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. Scheduled to speak at the news conference in the NPC Murrow Room are: • Several of the veteran plaintiffs in the lawsuit. • Keith Rohman, president, Public Interest Investigations, Inc. (PII), Los Angeles, Calif. • Eleanor Smeal, president, Feminist Majority Foundation, Washington, D.C. • Anuradha Bhagwati, executive director, Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), New York, N.Y. • A representative of the veterans’ legal team.”

According to an AP report the plaintiffs “want an objective third party to handle such complaints because individual commanders have too much say in how allegations are handled.”

From the same report: “In one incident, an Army Reservist says two male colleagues raped her in Iraq and videotaped the attack. She complained to authorities after the men circulated the video to colleagues. Despite being bruised from her shoulders to elbows from being held down, she says charges weren’t filed because the commander determined she “did not act like a rape victim” and “did not struggle enough” and authorities said they didn’t want to delay the scheduled return of the alleged attackers to the United States.

“The problem of rape in the military is not only service members getting raped, but it’s the entire way that the military as a whole is dealing with it,” said Panayiota Bertzikis, who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit and claims she was raped in 2006. “From survivors having to be involuntarily discharged from service, the constant verbal abuse, once a survivor does come forward your entire unit is known to turn their back on you. The entire culture needs to be changed.”

A post from one of the plaintiffs at My Duty To Speak site for military victims of sexual violence:

http://mydutytospeak.com/2011/02/12/my-reasons-for-being-part-of-the-military-sexual-trauma-class-action-lawsuit/

Military Rape Crisis Center Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/militaryrapecrisiscenter

“Injustice At Every Turn”

The National Center for Transgender Equality is set to roll out their National Transgender Discrimination Survey Report tomorrow, with all the media fanfare they can muster. Titled “Injustice At Every Turn” the survey of 6,500 trans people tracks the feelings of transgender people and whether they feel discriminated against in areas of healthcare and plastic surgery access, workplace discrimination, public treatment, family approval, ability to obtain fictional legal sex markers, discrimination of criminals being jailed with those of their own sex, etc. The NCTE put out a call months ago for amateur trans activists who can present sympathetic anecdotes of their victimization that the public will easily empathize with. But they’re really doing trans people no favors.

The report’s not yet been released but I already know what it says. I know because I listen to the feelings of trans people, all the time, not just when they are surveyed. And the vast majority of trans people DO FEEL victimized.

Transgender males feel victimized by females who choose to congregate among themselves. http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/11968

They feel victimized when they are forced to cover up their breast implants in public like females.  http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/national/police-reportedly-ask-transgender-topless-sunbathers-men-to-put-tops-back-on-060110

Transgender male criminals- including rapists and murderers- feel victimized when they are not incarcerated in women’s prisons.   http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23740460-transsexual-killer-can-go-to-womens-jail.do

They feel victimized by those who don’t want to have sex with them.  http://community.feministing.com/2010/07/18/i-wouldnt-fuck-a-trans-person/

They feel victimized by little girls, “seething with anger” at little girls in public.   http://www.bilerico.com/2011/02/give_me_back_my_girlhood.php

They feel discriminated against when national health insurance won’t pay for their breast implants.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1343025/Transsexuals-fight-implants-lands-taxpayer-18-000.html

They feel discriminated against when they can’t live with teenaged girls in dorm rooms. http://www.dallasvoice.com/watch-transgender-woman-sparks-uproar-moving-allgirls-dorm-texas-1060957.html

They feel discriminated against by journalists that refer to them by pronouns that accurately report their sex   http://transequality.org/media.html

They feel victimized by “male exclusion” at women’s colleges.   https://floodsrollback.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/womens-college-without-boys/

57 year old males feel discriminated against when they want to start a late-in-life professional sports career in female sports   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwNMzlp0CJM

I could go on and on of course, but you get the point. If we listen to transgender people we will hear that they feel victimized.

And it’s all totally unnecessary.

99% of the victimized feelings of transgender people are caused by unnecessary, un-scientific, discriminatory laws that were enacted years ago when transgenderism was rare and little understood. These laws were actually enacted in an attempt to help trans people integrate, but they have had quite the opposite effect, and actually CAUSE most of the victimized feelings that trans people suffer with. The laws I refer to are those that enable the government to issue legal false gender markers.

When governments create these sort of institutionalized fictions (“males are female” for example or “blacks are white”) it creates all sorts of disastrous real world results when that fiction bumps up against non-fictional concerns. Such as medicine, statistics, science, minority rights, criminal science, biology, freedom of association, etc. And it undermines the equal rights of all people, including those that are transgender. If the government is going to issue false sex identifications to people who “feel like another sex” then to require individuals to undergo surgeries and hormones to obtain those fictional government papers is a violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act. If the government is going to issue false ID’s they ultimately have to offer them to everyone. Which ultimately renders the purpose of gender identification in government matters (such as medical research funding, statistical data collection, etc) meaningless. These government-created legal fictions are responsible for the vast majority of victimized feelings among transgender people and can easily be reversed by eliminating fictional legal gender markers. It’s a matter of fairness and equality. We know now that there is no such thing as a “sex change” and governments should not be invested in promoting scientific fictions. Not creationism, not religion, not “personhood” for corporations. Government statistical markers should be objective, not imbued with religion or fantasy. When the census tracks how many females are employed in technical fields, let’s see real statistics on women. When governments subsidize women’s health initiatives let’s have those resources go to females. When the government legislates TitleIX funding for female sports, let’s see it’s females that receive that funding. Government funded medical research should be based on science, not fiction.

Government sponsored fiction in legal sex markers is discriminatory against trans people. It forces them into situations where they are discriminated against by scientific fact. It invisibilizes them and denies the reality of their very physiology. It renders them statistically non-existent. It causes discrimination.

It’s time for our government institutions to put an end to this victimization of transgender people by eliminating fictional legal gender markers. Contact your Senators and Representatives today and tell them it’s time to put an end to legalized Fictional Gender Markers.

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Male called “Dyke”, Five Year Lawsuit Ensues

It all started back in 2006 when a male who self identifies as transgender was allegedly verbally harassed by a subway worker whom he had asked for help with a non-functioning metro-card. From the NY Daily News: “When she sought assistance, a female transit worker called her a “dyke” and ridiculed her”.

Now, for anyone not familiar with the predominant demeanor of New York Municipal Transit Authority workers, let’s sum it up in three little words: Unbelievably Fucking Rude. That’s right. To illustrate, note this comment left on the above quoted article:

“a friend of mines came to visit me from jersey last week. when it was time for her to go home i walked her to the train station. we went to the turnstile and she swiped her card it said swipe again it kept saying the same thing over and over. finaly we went to the pod that says u can check the amount on your card. and it said to see agent we went to the booth to see the agent. and she went off on us. mind you my friend brought that metro card that same day a 24>oo unlimited so that she could also use it to go to work since she works here in nyc. that clerk kept on being nasty until finally i said fugg that !! and began taking down her info. when she noticed what i was doing. she got really threatening to me. telling me how she was gonna whoop my ***. i told her. bring your a$$ from behind that booth n lets see who gets their a$$ whooped.she wouldnt do that. but continued to be threatening and talking ****. it took the clerk who worked with her to just give us the info on turning the card back into mta for a refund and allowing my friend to go thru the turnstile so that she could get home. some of these clerks act as if. its coming out their pay. wtf is up with that. its not our fault the dayum cards stop working.”

OK did you get that? The MTA agent THREATENED TO BEAT A RANDOM CUSTOMER’S ASS. Rude, huh? Actual threats towards customers. It takes a special person to spend 8 hours a day locked in an airless underground bullet proofed cement coffin down in the subway alone with lord knows what kind of wackos pulling all sorts of fucked up shit 24/7. Some of the booth agents are half out of their mind, and who could blame them. There but for the grace of god and all that.

With that bit of background established, back to our story.

The male who was yelled at and called a “dyke” filed a formal complaint against the mouthy booth agent. Order thus being re-established, he trotted back to the subway the next day, taking a gander at the ticket booth to enjoy the downcast eyes of the now-chastened service worker.

AND SHE LAUGHED AT HIM. SHE LAUGHED. AND POINTED. AND HER CO-WORKERS SNICKERED ALONG WITH HER.

Thus began the male ego’s five year (and counting) legal battle, not only for revenge, but for lucrative monetary compensation for mental and emotional injury.

The NYTransit responded to his complaint by setting up a disciplinary hearing for the employee which the plaintif failed to show up for even though he was under supoena and even though it was rescheduled three times. Smith was then transferred to another department with no formal discipline proceedings since the complaintant failed to show. The transgender-identified male instead pursued legal action against the NYTA claiming that they were financially liable for alleged damages caused by a worker’s rude-ass mouth.

The worker, Lorna Smith already had #16 complaints on her personnel file for rude behavior towards commuters (none of which involved gender or orientation complaints).  I was unable to determine the average # of complaints on MTA employee files but let’s just say I doubt it’s zero. The female-identified male, Tracy Bumpus alleges that MTA is financially responsible for the rude behavior and the epithet verbalized by Ms. Smith, and that Ms. Smith is also financially responsible for bruising his ego and embarrassing him- oh no wait- for  the DAMAGE caused. What damage is that? From court records:

“Bumpus, a transgender woman, alleges that she was verbally harassed by a NYCTA employee Lorna Smith, when Bumpus was on a NYCTA subway platform.

During her deposition, Bumpus testified that as a result of the incident and the alleged discriminatory conduct of defendants, that her two-year relationship with her partner, Magic Wilder, has suffered. Bumpus testified as follows:

“Because I had felt inadequate. The relationship for the most part is functioning as a heterosexual relationship. This incident made me feel insecure about who I was. I didn’t want him to touch me. I didn’t want to be bothered because this whole thing that me being trans and this issue [sic], that had not been issue, became an issue for me and because of that, you know, I questioned myself.”

He was made to QUESTION himself. By being called “Dyke”. It made him question his “heterosexuality” and damaged the “heterosexuality” of his relationship. Wow. Tough times.

The case has gone on ever since and last week received it’s latest court ruling allowing it to continue, ruling that the NYTA can be sued for the verbal first amendment actions of it’s employees if those words are discriminatory against a protected transgender class under NYC law. If the worker had called the transgender male “fat and ugly” for example there would have been no case. Or if an actual lesbian had been called “Dyke”. Or if an actual woman had been called a “twat”. You get the picture.

Nobody should be treated like shit. And no one should have epithets spewed at them by surly transit workers. And it’s good that if you’re really pissed off the NYMTA will set up a disciplinary hearing at one’s behest. That sounds like good practice. But that’s just not enough for some guys.