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Well, let’s just start this round up of the negative postings on the news of Amanda Simpson’s appointment as a Senior Technical Advisor at the Department Of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).
…At Raytheon, Simpson – a former test pilot who had worked for the company for more than a generation – transitioned from male to female and was instrumental in convincing the military contractor to add gender identity and expression to its equal employment opportunity policy.I have no doubt that Amanda Simpson has been through a lot in life. But am I wrong in thinking this is very far away from the next civil-rights movement?
~Kathryn Jean Lopez on the National Review‘s blog The Corner
Kathryn Jean Lopez of the National Review begins the discussion of a few of the negatively framed commentary regarding the appointment of Amanda Simpson as a Senior Technical Advisor at the Department Of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security. Lopez was responding to the first mainstream news breaking of Simpson’s appointment: ABC‘s blog entry by Jack Tapper, entitled President Names Transgender Appointee To The Commerce Department.
I would say that since Amanda Simpson is the highest level Presidential Administration appoint to date for any administration, trans civil rights issues are at least within the next wave Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Civil Rights Movement.
Peter LaBarbera (Americans For Truth About Homosexuality) and Matt “Bam-Bam” Barber (Liberty Counsel) both commented for CitizenLink, the “news” and political activism arm of Focus On The Family, in the piece entitled President Appoints ‘Transgendered’ Individual to Federal Post:
“Is there going to be a transgender quota now in the Obama administration?” asked Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth. “How far does this politics of gay and transgender activism go? Clearly this is an administration that is pandering to the gay lobby.”According to most estimates, “transgender” individuals account for less than a fraction of 1 percent of the population. Yet, LaBarbera said, they have convinced the Obama administration to affirm their position that gender is fluid and changeable.
“We should consider what transgender activism is about,” he said,” which is essentially recognizing civil rights based on gender confusion.”
Matt Barber, associate dean at Liberty University, said the appointment “boggles the mind.”
“This isn’t like appointing an African-American in order to try to provide diversity and right some kind of discriminatory wrong,” he said. ”This is about political correctness.
“President Obama, before he was inaugurated, told the world that he had signed off on every single demand of the homosexual-activist lobby.”
LaBarbera said it’s just another way to normalize homosexuality and transgenderism.
“It’s always the incremental change that keeps moving forward and keeps getting more radical,” he said. “It’s hard for the American people to keep up.”
*Sigh.* So transgender people don’t deserve to be employed to the best of skills and their character within the federal workplace like other Americans?
Apparently not.
From David Brody, the author of the blog The Brody Report at the Christian Broadcast Network (CBN). From the blog entry President Obama’s Transgender Appointment:
President Obama has appointed a transgender woman named Amanda Simpson to be the Senior Technical Advisor to the Department of Commerce. It’s the first time a President has appointed an openly transgender person. You’ve got to hand it to the President on this one. He delivered on his campaign slogan because this is definitely “Change you can believe in.”Oy-vey. Someone hand me an Advil. I wonder how this is going to play in the heartland…
…I know. I know. There will be those who say all that matters is whether or not Simpson is qualified for the job. And I know there will be those who will wonder why I am even writing about this considering there may be more important topics to discuss but here’s a newsflash for you: The transgender thing doesn’t play well with millions of conservative Evangelicals. Sorry if Biblical absolutes offend you or are so “1950 ish” but don’t think conservative Evangelicals are apologizing for it…
Sooooo…It’s is Mr. Brody implying that it’s okay to discriminate against qualified, transgender-identified people in the workplace because discriminating against transgender plays better politically in the country’s heartland? That line of reasoning is, as always, a bit disconcerting to me.
For shear nasty coverage though, one can’t get too far past the post Hope and Sex Change: Obama Names Transgender Appointee to Commerce Department by Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs:
Does Obama know anyone who isn’t wacky, radical, militant, judeophobic, socialist, marxist, pedophilic? …… Does he chill with anyone who is normal? Isn’t there one Marilyn Munster in the family? What a freak show this presidency is.I guess this is better than teaching fist f**king to our children. Now there’s a positive spin.
Yeah. Too bad the fist f**king story has already been shown to be a lie. But, how nice to tie the Amanda Simpson appointment to that kind of behavior, though.
Some other notable commentary is from the blog Notoriously Conservative‘s post Obama Appoints Shemale: Not even quoting from that article – the headline’s using an alternate spelling of the anti-transgender pejorative “she-male” is enough.
So anywho, such is what we can expect from media connected to the religious right and/or social conservatism. We hope for the best of humanity spontaneously erupts when this kind of news pops up in the media; the reality of what we get with the positive takes on the news is often the less positive, somewhat nasty takes on the news.
I just can’t wait for the Traditional Values Coalition to weigh in on this! Can you?
*Sigh.*
~~~~~
Related:
* Amanda Simpson Appointed Senior Technical Advisor For The U.S. Bureau Of Industry And Security
16 Comments
Well, Autumn…We knew this was coming, thanks to the chum thrown in the water thanks to the bigots who stirred up the Kevin Jennings “controversy”.
We who openly live in defiance of these narrow-minded, self-appointed moral guardians of all things “normal” have to deal with these perverts because they cannot mentally handle it.
For cryin’ out loud, these are the same types who opposed allowing left-handed children from using their “unnatural” hand, who opposed allowing “unnatural” interracial couples from legally marrying, who opposed the “unnatural” order of the US Supreme Court and the federal government to demolish Jim Crow and integrate schools, who opposed “unnatural” women from working outside the home, let alone in the military, physical labor, etcetera… the list goes on ad nauseum!
‘Notoriously Conservative’ isn’t even particularly original
That’s so….what? 2004? As in the Christina Aguilera episode of SNL and its Sex and the City parody?
But whaddaya expect from ‘conservatives’?
But in the meantime…
Well, in the meantime we have Ol’ Lou opining about Pope Brit:
Sorry, Lou – I just checked. My mind is where it should be – and its functioning, which is why I can easily detect christianist B.S., particularly when it oozes from Faux ‘news’.
But as for Lou’s brain?
That’s a whole other story………
Again they are clueless.They create the hateful diatribes, we mock them and make fun of them not because we hate them but because they are ridiculous. Sending money to those people, buying their books, and watching them on tv boggles my mind just as much as the idea that people fall for the Nigerian prince scam or send money to televangelists. Fractally absurd but they expect to be taken seriously because they have an opinion and in America everyone is entitled to their opinions no matter how stupid and/or crazy their opinions may be. Sigh.
I’ve got to think Amanda Simpson is a strong woman……for the fact that she’s already chosen to live her life as she knows best.
I hope the hater-xtian brigade doesn’t get her down or, worse yet, force her out of a job for which she’s quite qualified.
Im at a hormone low today, its monday…and nothing seems to be going right for me at all today. sigh
I wish I could just knee cap them all and call it a day… ooops, sorry, my full bitch mode is stuck to the ON position today.
“Matt Barber, associate dean at Liberty University”now THAT made my jaw drop. tell your children: obsess over other people’s genitals, and you can go far!!
What can I say?My mother told me after my son (soon to be 21) was born, when he showed tendencies to be left-handed, how she “broke” me of that “bad habit” by only handing me things when I reached for them with the “correct” hand. After all, she said, it was so much more difficult for “those people” in life. She then asked me if I was going to correct that with my son. My ex- and I refused, much to her distress. My son has turned out ok anyway.
(And no, I am not making this up.)
At least the female me is welcomed in their house. I have a decent relationship with them even if they have frequent pronoun problems. (FYI: Both of my parents are alive and in their mid/late 80′s.) I have a feeling they are the exception, not the rule, of their generation, though. Still, I understand all too well exactly what Marlene is saying.
Partially
Perhaps if he’s a quarterback – but certainly not if he’s a pitcher.
Fighting BackA few people have already take Notoriously Conservative to task on his ignorance with notes in the comments section.
Peter’s Just Jealousthat the Obama admin is more open to working with transgender folks rather than working with porn addicts such as himself. Sorry LaBarbera – if Obama hired YOU, nothing would ever get done because you’d be too busy surfing gay porn sites and jerking it behind the desk. Totally useless.
Matt Barber . . . is an associate dean at a phony (though “accredited”) institution of higher “education” that gives out degrees in Young Earth Creationism (a “scientific-sounding” version of six-day Creationism).
It was founded by Jerry Falwell and was kept afloat by generous donations made by Sun Myung Moon.
He’s not qualified enough to be a sideshow geek.
yeah, but i bethe gets a big fat paycheck from the phony junk diploma university. there is clearly a future in being a professional xtian bigot.
I just posted a comment to CBNI wonder if the moderator will allow it to appear.
It’s sad when people trot out the idea that “millions of conservative Evangelicals” aren’t getting it about transgender people.
If only they’d dust off their Bibles and read Isaiah 56, Matthew 19:12 and Acts 8.
What they do to the least of God’s people, they do to God. Francis of Assisi had to embrace a leper to be saved.
Maybe there are millions of “conservative Evangelicals” who should be hugging Amanda Simpson (at least symbolically) as a first step to their own salvation. It’s not enough to mouth the words “I accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior” as a sort of password to heaven – one who does so must live a truly Christian life.
Perhaps Brody’s coverage is the most honest of the critics. He acknowledges that Amanda Simpson is well qualified for the job. His concern is over the prejudice of those “millions of Evangalicals.” In a way, it seems as if he is almost ready to understand the message of the Good News, that we love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and that our neighbors include those who are different and not exactly easy to love.
Perhaps my test is to love Maggie Gallagher and Robert P. “Robby” George.
Gary Randall never disappointsGary Randall, the Oregon bigot who meddles constantly in Washington’s business, quotes LaBarbera and Barber in his daily blog post, but that’s not the interesting part imo. First, Randall clearly doesn’t understand the distinction between sexual orientation and gender identity.
Sure we gays are quite happy about this, but I’m guessing that “especially” should be applied to transfolk first and foremost. After all, numerous gays have been been appointed by the executive already, whereas Amanda is the first transgender person to be appointed. Only a person ignorant of the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity would make this mistake.
The other item I find truly interesting is that although Randall begins the post with the old familiar “he/she” slur and ends the post by alleging “gender confusion”, he forgets himself and uses the correct pronoun in the rest of the post. LOL, the old bigoted tax cheat is losing his touch.
Why is it . . .. . . that an organization called “Americans for Truth” is one where its spokesman, Peter LaBarbara, doesn’t know Truth from a hole in the ground.
Isn’t it amazing that so many of these right wing crackpot organizations put their lies right up in their names?
Traditional Values Coalition has no redeeming moral values.
Focus on the Family is terribly blurry and out of focus.
Liberty Counsel is in favor of oppression.
The National Organization “for” Marriage is actually against marriage.
Concerned Women for America is really anti-American.
Any of these groups with the word Christian in them are lying about that, since they’re really anti-Christian.