Update: The National Review has posted a peice on the 7-year-old trans girl from another person associated with the Family Research Council — Senior legal fellow Cathy Ruse. The name of the article is Male and Female He Created Them. From the conclusion of the article: No mention is made anywhere of the boy’s father, [...]

“The reason I felt violated and humiliated is because I do not think that I look like a man so I was offended that they stereotyped me as ‘transgender.’ I could not have been that confusing to them because I have breasts. Even though I wear men’s pants, shirts, and underwear I’m still a woman [...]

U.S. Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) has been dodging questions about his stance on the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA, S811). ENDA would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. But at a private company function in Massachusetts this week another of Senator Brown’s non-answers on ENDA revealed [...]

There is a fruit called apple. As a term, apple has dictionary meaning, to include: the usually round, red or yellow, edible fruit of a small tree, Malus sylvestris, of the rose family. the tree, cultivated in most temperate regions. the fruit of any of certain other species of tree of the same genus. any [...]

Since I recently received the post-gender-affirmation-surgery letter that states “[Autumn Sandeen] has had appropriate surgical treatment and has completed her transition to be female,” I have, in process, experiences of changing my M to F (male to female) at various government agencies and businesses. So, I’m going to document many of these change as I [...]

My FDL colleague Teddy Partridge has already blogged about this horrifying news, but I wanted to register my own level of despair (but not surprise) about the mistrial declared in the murder case of Brandon McInerney, who shot classmate 15-year-old Lawrence King in the back of the head at point-blank range with a .22-caliber gun. [...]

A vigorous debate was sparked by my recent diary about the anti-trans letter that Cathy Brennan and Elizabeth Hungerford submitted to the United Nations. However neither Brennan nor Hungerford were willing to participate in a meaningful dialog on Pam’s House Blend. Instead they’ve opted to post a response to some of the criticisms their letter [...]

Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. ~Martin Luther King Jr. A.G. Casebeer recently failed not only himself, but the trans community he belongs to. As background, Cathy Brennan and Elizabeth Hungerford wrote a letter to the UN against gender identity based civil rights legislation. Laurel Ramseyer, for Pam’s House [...]

Note: Last week I wrote a diary similar to this one. It and other diaries and comments posted over a period last Friday-Saturday got scrubbed from the database due to a glitch in an upgrade conducted by Soapblox (our current host platform). I didn’t have a backup copy of the diary. Since it doesn’t appear that it will be restored any time soon, I have re-written it from memory and with the help of fragments captured on other websites.

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Responding to a Call for Communications: Human Rights Violations Affecting the Status of Women posted by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women, lesbian attorneys Cathy Brennan and Elizabeth Hungerford submitted a letter last week opposing laws prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations based on gender identity and expression.

[The] proliferation of legislation designed to protect “gender identity” and “gender expression” undermines legal protections for females vis-a-vis sex segregated spaces, such as female-only clubs, public restrooms, public showers, and other spaces designated as “female only”. Females require sex-segregated facilities for number of reasons, chief among them the documented frequency of male sexual violence against females and the uniquely female consequence of unwanted impregnation resulting from this relatively common form of violence.^xxi

Brennan & Hungerford are alleging that laws protecting all our rights — but in particular trans women’s rights — to use public bathrooms and locker rooms puts non-trans women at greater risk of predation by men. It’s “bathroom bill” rhetoric dressed up to look like feminism.

The problem for Brennan & Hungerford is that their allegations about the consequences of including gender identity in anti-discrimination laws are not only dehumanizing to trans people, they’re based on intellectual dishonesty and the same fear mongering used by the radical religious-right.

Like Brennan & Hungerford, I am a lesbian born with a female brain and a female body. (For a trans woman’s take on the letter, read Mercedes Allen’s post at Bilerico.) Unlike Brennan & Hungerford, I demand solid reasoning from anyone who would seek to deprive a class of people of their civil rights. So when I see members of my demographic jumping on the international stage, engaging in intellectual dishonesty while seeking to deprive others of their rights, I am compelled to call them out lest my silence be interpreted as tacit support. It is not.

Good news from Nevada!  Yesterday Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, a Republican, signed into law bills prohibiting discrimination in housing (SB368) and public accommodations (SB331) on the basis of gender identity or expression.  Last week he signed AB211, a bill prohibiting discrimination in employment on the basis of gender identity or expression.   Taken together, the [...]