Why Christians Will Win the Transgender Debate.

Image courtesy of Dennis Hlynsky via Flickr creative commons - http://bit.ly/1VWTOaW

Image courtesy of Dennis Hlynsky via Flickr creative commons – http://bit.ly/1VWTOaW


Yesterday, I posted about an article: Why Christians Will Lose the Transgender Debate. There’s been a response as to why the author of that article is wrong.

…Unfortunately, Merritt is quite wrong in arguing that “conservative Christians will lose the transgender debate.”
[…]
Some might be guilty of doing this, just as some Christians focus on theology while ignoring people, but everyone I speak to about the transgender issues is focused on people rather than ideology.

How so?

First, they are focused on the people affected by transgender activism, such as the many schoolchildren who are being negatively affected and whose cases are now coming to public attention, or the women who have been sexually abused in the past and have now become unintended victims of transgender activism. [That link goes to a youtube video made by Alliance Defending Freedom, and if you don’t like being outraged first thing in the morning, or any other time, skip it.]

Do these people not matter?

Do we overlook other victims – including innocent little children – because they are not part of the LGBT spectrum?

[…]

The reality is that transgender activists expect us to embrace someone’s self-identification absent any scientific evidence, meaning that Bruce Jenner is now to be recognized as Caitlyn simply because that is how he now self-identifies. And should his biology and chromosomes affirm that he is a man, we are still expected to embrace him as a woman.

Genitals matter! Wait, no they don’t, chromosomes matter!

In that sense, it is transgender activists who sometimes ignore science and who open the door to the very dangerous slope of “perception is reality.” (For a striking example, see my video on the man who became a woman then became a mythical dragon.)

[…]

As for the stance we must take as followers of Jesus, as I’ve said over and again, we can reach out to those who are marginalized without sacrificing our children on the altar of political correctness and radical LGBT activism.

I invited Jonathan Merritt in joining me on the front lines as, together, we resist radical LGBT activism while reaching out to LGBT individuals with compassion.

The whole article is riddled with the worst misinformation and bigotry.

European Union Denounces HB 2.

europeanunion

The European Union spoke out against North Carolina’s anti-LGBT House Bill 2 this week, saying that it should “be reconsidered as soon as possible.”

In a statement released this week, the European Union singled out North Carolina’s HB 2, as well as the anti-LGBT laws that have passed in states such as Tennessee and Mississippi recently. The European Union said that those states “are violating an international agreement on civil rights,” reports The News & Observer.

[…]

The statement from the European Union posted online said that “traditional or religious values” should not be used to “justify any form of discrimination, including discrimination against LGBTI persons. These laws should be reconsidered as soon as possible.”

The European Union announced their support of the LGBT community in the statement, writing, “We will continue to work to end all forms of discrimination and to counter attempts to embed or enhance discrimination wherever it occurs around the world.”

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory’s campaign spokesman, Ricky Diaz, took no offense with the European Union’s statement.

“We relinquished our adherence to the British crown and European powers over 200 years ago,” Diaz, reports the Observer. “The law is now in federal court, where it will be resolved.”

[…]

N.C. Republican Party executive director Dallas Woodhouse told the Observer that the European Union’s statement was “absolutely no surprise since North Carolina Democrats led by Roy Cooper want to install European socialist policies … that are an affront to the common sense traditions of North Carolina and America.”

Full Story Here.  “Common sense traditions”. No, fuck that noise. North Carolina does not define America, and if there is any NC tradition going here, it’s one of bigotry. Given the amount of in state protest against this bigotry, I’m afraid those “common sense traditions” don’t define North Carolina, either.

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Gov. Phil Bryant.

In related news, Gov. Phil Bryant (Mississippi), is speaking out against the new federal education guidelines.

The Mississippi Gov.,who recently passed an anti-LGBT law in his state, spoke out against the Obama administration’s directive that transgender students are protected under Title IX.

In a Facebook post published on Friday, Phil Bryant said that the “Mississippi Department of Education should disregard the so-called guidance the Obama administration has issued regarding public schools’ restroom policies.”

[…]

The Mississippi Gov. called the directive “nonbinding,” saying it “does not carry the force of law.” “Because these decisions are better left to the states, and not made at the point of a federal bayonet, Mississippi’s public schools should not participate in the president’s social experiment,” said the Gov. via Facebook.

Full Story Here.

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Travis Weber, Family Research Council.

Travis Weber, of the Family Research Council, played a game of “I can’t answer that question” on Hardball.

Travis Weber, a member of the anti-LGBT hate group, Family Research Council, went on MSNBC’s Hardball on Friday, but refused to answer whether a trans woman belonged in a men’s bathroom or a woman’s bathroom.

[…]

Chris Matthews directed his next question at Weber, saying, “Tell her what bathroom she shoud use.”

The Family Research Council member refused to answer the question. Matthews asked the same question again: “What should a transgender person who identifies as a woman do? What bathroom should they go to? Just keep it simple.”

Matthews became visibly frustrated when Weber kept dodging his question. “You can’t answer the question, can you?,” said the MSNBC host.

Weber finally gave Matthews a response, saying, “They can use the bathroom of their biological sex, except when there’s a genuine issue, and an accomodation can be made.”

The MSNBC host was unsatisfied with his response. He asked Weber, “What does that mean?”

Full Story Here.

Are you gonna let the devil rape your children?

Another religious, um, person invades a Target, waving a bible about and screaming.

“Attention Target customers,” she yelled. “Do not be deceived, Target would have you believe with their Mother’s Day displays that they love mothers and children. This is a deception. This is not love, and they’ve proven it by opening their bathrooms to perverted men. I’m a mother of 12 and I’m very disgusted by this wicked practice.”

“Mothers get your children out of this store,” the woman yelled. “Mothers have enough decency to get out of this store, it’s a dangerous place… What Target has done is very hateful. It’s hateful towards families. It’s hateful towards mothers. It’s hateful towards children… Are you gonna let the devil rape your children?”

She then went on to accuse America of “bowing to the homosexual perverted agenda” and added, “You need to run and flee this place.”

“You need to run and flee this place”. One assumes she means Target, but if America is bowing to the gay agenda, perhaps it’s bible woman who should pack up and leave.

Via Raw Story.

https://youtu.be/TCIYsXhR1D0

Sunday Facepalm

March_sign

Wikimedia Commons.

Christians Sue State over ‘Abortion Mandate’.

ALBANY, N.Y. — Pushing back against the state’s notoriously liberal stance on abortion, a number of New York’s Christian organizations served the Department of Financial Services with a lawsuit, claiming the agency obscured regulatory language which forces employers to cover abortions.

The 44-page filing in Albany County Supreme Court uses terms like “moral evil” and “unspeakable crime” to describe abortion. It highlights a section of the “model language” used by DFS over the last two years — a standard state form which dictates how insurance companies operating in-state should present their coverage to clients.

According to the lawsuit, Section 6 of the “model language” includes a subsection dealing with “Interruption of Pregnancy.” The language states: “We cover therapeutic abortions. We also cover non-therapeutic abortions in cases of rape, incest or fetal malformation.”

“Practically speaking, ‘therapeutic’ would include abortions for emotional health, fetal health, fetal malformation,” said Mary DeTurris Poust, spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. “Really, we’re talking about any abortion.”

The Diocese of Albany is one of 13 plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which also includes Episcopalians, Baptists, Lutherans, a nursing company and a general contractor in Plattsburgh. Their document goes to significant lengths to outline core beliefs on the “sanctity of every life,” including a number of paragraphs dealing with the concept of life beginning at conception in the mother’s womb.

The group claims the model language was “known only to DFS and the health insurers, and never disclosed to plaintiffs.” They go on to say they were caught unaware when their respective insurance companies informed the group that “they had been separately covering abortions under the service category of ‘medically necessary’ surgery.”

“There is a possibility that we could have already been forced to pay for an abortion,” DeTurris Poust said on Friday.

The full story is here. I will be forever grateful that when I had an abortion back in the 1970s, no one thought that was any of their business. Mine was quiet and professional, and there were no screaming, hateful people anywhere, thinking they had an absolute right to interfere with a private decision to have a medical procedure.

Etymological LGBT history.

Rep. Alan Grayson

Rep. Alan Grayson

Rep. Alan Grayson has made etymological LGBT history.

The Florida Democrat reportedly became the first politician to say “cisgender” in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Grayson employed the term, which describes nontransgender people, in a scathing denouncement of the “Republicans, bigots in North Carolina” who support House Bill 2 […] In a wide-ranging, nearly 13-minute speech, Grayson, who is hoping to oust Republican Marco Rubio as a U.S. senator from Florida, cited trans pioneer Christine Jorgensen, #WeJustNeedToPee social media posts, infamous “wide stance” bathroom toe-tapper Larry Craig, and even the gender wage gap as among the reasons to be outraged at these so-called bathroom bills.

“You’re going to force people who look like men, act like men, [and are men, Rep. Grayson] you’re going to force them into a ladies room. My God, what’s wrong with you?” Grayson said.

I’d really like an answer to that question too. The Advocate has the story, and video.

Fake a film, win an award.

Last year, Canadian filmmaker Dominic Gagnon released a 74-minute film entitled “Of The North.” The film is a collage of the life of Inuit people using film clips the director says he took from public video sites such as Youtube.

Last year, Canadian filmmaker Dominic Gagnon released a 74-minute film entitled “Of The North.” The film is a collage of the life of Inuit people using film clips the director says he took from public video sites such as Youtube.

Last year, Canadian filmmaker Dominic Gagnon released a 74-minute film entitled Of The North. The film is a collage of the life of Inuit people using film clips the director says he took from public video sites such as Youtube.

[…]

Of the North has been screened at the Montreal International Documentary Festival, the Prizren festival of Kosovo, Leeds in Great Britain, the Film Festival of Rotterdam, the Distrital festival of Mexico City and it won an award at the prestigious Visions du Réel festival in Nyon, Switzerland.

[…]

The film has drawn tremendous criticism, because Gagnon has never been to the Northern territories and his film shows only selected segments of Inuit life, such as extreme weather, Ski-doos and hunting, and also shows drunk people, crashing vehicles and some sexually explicit scenes.

Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, an Inuk and a documentary filmmaker, told the CBC Gagnon’s film left her shaking.

“Violent, wandering drunks that neglect their children and don’t care for the lives of animals: that’s the image I took away from the film. I think it’s kind of a cheap move to totally play up a negative stereotype of a marginalized people for your own artistic gain,” she said.

Gagnon used the music of Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq in his film; she  told the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) she was “disgusted” by the festival’s decision to screen Of the North, a film she says is racist and used her music without permission.

[…]

Thirty-four of the videos are not made by Inuit, and not from the North, like the men fighting on the floor: this sequence was shot in Austin Texas, and they are not Inuit. The videos of the industrial off-shore drilling are in the Baltic sea. It is misleading, as the trailer suggests that Inuit are working on the oil drill, which is not true. Then he is mocking Inuit identity in a music clip, “don’t call me Eskimo.” The term “Eskimo” is derogative. It is a Cree word, they used it as an insult to the Inuit.

Adding what I said in a comment:

You need to read the full story, where it’s made clear that assholes like Gagnon could get away with this because the Inuit have next to no resources when it comes to communicating with the wider world. Efforts have started, and small headway has been made, but this is a poor community, with pretty much no one giving a damn about them. It’s even worse when you realize this piece of fakery won a fucking award – people else where in the world don’t know, and unless they make a serious effort to find out the truth, this bullshit will be taken for truth, screaming the old standard of Indians everywhere being drunken, savage brutes, and in the case of women, drunken whores not interested in any children they may have. This was a bone deep shock to Inuit people, who know the truth of their lives, and what is in this piece of fakery is not it. When the average American and the average Canadian doesn’t know jack shit about Indigenous peoples, what can be expected of those who live in Britain, Switzerland, and so on? It’s bad enough that people often romanticize the idea of Indians, in a completely unrealistic way, and here comes along someone who decided to make a profit through exploitation and theft.

ICTMN has the full story.

F*CK HB 2

north-carolina-beer-company-protests-anti-lgbt-billx750

North Carolina’s beer industry has a message for the governor: Hate has no place in their state.

In response to House Bill 2, the controversial law that forces trans people to use the public restroom that does not correspond with their gender identity, the state’s Wedge Brewing Company has begun printing “#F*CK HB2” on its beverages. The can of the company’s popular Iron Rail IPA, features the hashtag printed on the bottom of the can. It’s designed to look like a serial number.

[…]

“We’ve seen businesses, municipalities, and even rock legends from around the country punish North Carolina for passing this law,” Myers said in a statement. “We’ve seen business expansions and job opportunities pull out of the state. We see that our communities are being harmed by this action.” He further added: “We didn’t feel like HB2 represented us as businesses or as residents of North Carolina.”

In April, over 40 local companies announced that they would be releasing a limited-edition brew to raise money for local LGBT non-profits, including Equality North Carolina and Queer Oriented Radical Days of Summer (QORDS), a summer camp specifically for LGBT youth. The beer, called “Don’t Be Mean to People, A Golden Rule Saison,” will be available locally in May.

Full Story Here.

In related news, McCrory has found a whole new career in whining. What now? Well, the new federal education guidelines. Pat doesn’t like them.

[Read more…]

Bryant: We Are So Persecuted!

Phil Bryant (Facebook)

Phil Bryant (Facebook)

Oh, the whining. It never ends. Are these fossils ever going to realize it’s time for them to fade away, quietly? One of the most unattractive things about Christians is the constant need to feel persecuted, to somehow make a case that yes, oh yes, we are too persecuted! The very presence of anyone they don’t like, persecution! “Oh, it makes us think about things, thinking is bad.”

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant complained Christians are still being bullied in his state because not everyone agrees with their interpretation of a law that permits discrimination against LGBT people.

Bryant insisted the law was intended to prevent discrimination against Christians by allowing them to deny service, housing, medical treatment and some government documents to LGBT people or even unmarried couples — so long as they claim a religious objection.

[…]

“I mean, they cherry-pick these issues,” Bryant said during an appearance on a religious-right radio program. “If they had any integrity at all, they would say, ‘We understand Mississippi is actually trying to make sure that Christians and people of other faiths are not discriminated against.’ It is a nondiscriminatory law. It prevents discrimination against simply that segment of the population that has a deeply held religious view about marriage.”

The Republican governor whined that “dear friend Pat McCrory,” the governor of North Carolina, is also facing a political and corporate backlash after signing a similar anti-LGBT law.

[…]

Bryant complained that Christians were facing discrimination from anyone who disagreed with their interpretation of the law as one that protected the rights of religious people to practice their faith.

“We’re criticized, we’re threatened, we’re bullied, we’re told by corporations that we’re doing the wrong thing?” Bryant said.

[…]

Despite court challenges, directives from the U.S. Department of Justice and boycotts against their states, Bryant said he was certain he and his counterpart in North Carolina had significant support nationwide.

“I think the rest of the nation is beginning to wake up and say, ‘What world do they think we’re living in? This is not Hollywood, this is not more liberal areas, this is America, where common sense still prevails,’” Bryant said.

Aaaaand we’re back to that common sense bullshit. Interesting, that going by Bryant, Hollywood and more liberal areas aren’t part of America.

Full Story Here.

Liberty Counsel Conference: The Awakening.

Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin.

Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin.

Last weekend, the anti-LGBT hate group Liberty Counsel held its annual conference, The Awakening, to provide a platform for anti-LGBT and anti-Muslim voices.But the event was much more than that –– at times, it seemed a call to battle. “The war wages. We cannot stand idly by,” the Counsel said in promotional materials. And true to form, the panel of speakers formed an angry chorus.

The vitriol was perhaps best embodied by retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, who employed violent rhetoric in lamenting the advances in LGBT equality, particularly in regards to trans people. Boykin is executive vice president at the anti-LGBT hate group Family Research Council. He is perhaps best known for his anti-Islam statements over the years.

At The Awakening, however, Boykin lambasted non-discrimination ordinances that include sexual orientation and gender identity protections, especially those designed to protect trans people from humiliation and discrimination by allowing them to use bathrooms that match their gender identity. He even threatened physical violence against anyone using a bathroom that didn’t align with their assigned sex at birth:

“Where is the Christian world today? Where are the Christians of America today? They should be flocking to people like Kim Davis. They should be flocking to the city council to say, ‘No you’re not going to let a man go in my daughters bathroom, just because he feels like a man today.” Boykin said. “Where are the Christians that are standing up to these kind of evil.”

[…]

“Homosexuality is a developmental, gender identity disorder,” Quinlan harped, later adding, “I tell parents and friends who have loved ones in the lifestyle, to pray for relational failure –– that every relationship they have that is in that lifestyle will fail. And it does eventually because it’s a bankrupt relationship and it’s based on false premises.” Ironically, Quinlan, who claims to be a “former homosexual,” was married to a woman who also claimed to be “ex-gay.” The two made their marriage the focus of ex-gay activism and proof of change until 2008, when they divorced.

Full Story at SPLC.

Don’t Teach My Kid To Be Accepting!

Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress (Photo via Amazon.com Screen capture)

Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Christine Baldacchino. (Photo via Amazon.com Screen capture)

A Forest Hills Public Schools’ elementary parent in Ada Township, Michigan wants to ban the anti-bullying book “Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress” because he opposes boys wearing dresses.

In the story, Morris is laughed at by his classmates, but eventually, he helps them to understand that he likes wearing the dress because it’s the same color as a tiger, the sun and his mom’s hair. The story aims to teach children acceptance and stop bullying.

The parent who has such a big problem is a 35-year-old Army veteran and fundamentalist Christian, Lee Markham. […] “What the heck is going on?” Markham said. “This book is not just talking about accepting another viewpoint, it’s promoting another life.”

“We’re talking about one way to live life, but what about the other way, y’know, sorry to say it, the normal way what’s the benefit of actually adhering to societal norms,” Markham said.

Amid the many positive reviews on Amazon, there was another very angry [Christian] parent, most upset by the ‘don’t bully’ and ‘it’s okay if people are different’ message of the book:

I seldom write reviews, but this book was read to my child in 3RD GRADE!!! Parents were not notified, and some teacher thought it was good since there is ONE child whose parents let him wear skirts to school. Teaching boys to ACCEPT this is WRONG!!! THIS BOOK IS AGAINST GOD!!! You parents who let their children ‘express’ their gender inappropriately at school should know better!!! Boys are boys, and should behave and dress as such. This is not tolerance, and this is not about bullying. This is a scathing indictment of the breakdown of American morality. We are literally celebrating perversion!!! You can bet there will be a lawsuit at our school.

Markham went on about how awful the book is:

“His First Amendment right to his freedom of religion wasn’t addressed at all and instead another way of life is just put right in front of him. I just wonder who’s gonna correct all the damage that was done,” Markham reiterated.

Superintendent Dan Behm stated that the book will not be taken off the shelves, even though a parent is upset. Good for you, Superintendent, and thank you.

Full story here.

NC: Cops Say No

Police in several major North Carolina cities told NPR they will not penalize nor arrest a trans person for using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. Photo: Shutterstock.

Police in several major North Carolina cities told NPR they will not penalize nor arrest a trans person for using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.
Photo: Shutterstock.

While legal battles rage on over North Carolina’s anti-LGBT law known as House Bill 2, law enforcement officers in the state won’t be arresting any restroom deviants any time soon.

Damien Graham, a spokesman for the Raleigh Police Department, told NPR on Tuesday that his department will not enforce the sweeping law, which requires transgender people to use public bathrooms that do not match their gender identity, because “the bill doesn’t speak to enforcement nor penalty.”

Raleigh Police had attorneys review the language of HB 2, but since there “wasn’t any specific language that spoke to enforcement or even penalty,” the department wasn’t sure how its officers could enforce the law, Graham told NPR.

[…]

If the police receive a complaint about someone in the “wrong” bathroom, the department will respond, says Graham, but officers will not penalize or arrest anyone for using the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

[…]

Christina Hallingse, the public information officer for the police department in Asheville, told NPR that it would be nearly impossible to enforce HB 2. Doing so would drain the department’s resources, because it would require officers to stand guard outside public restrooms asking people to present their birth certificates before entering these gender-segregated spaces.

“It would take them off the streets, off patrol and having to put them at bathrooms,” explained Hallingse of the logistics of enforcing HB 2.

Full Story at The Advocate.

While it’s very nice to see police paying attention to reality, and doing the right thing for a change, McCrory continues on in stubborn asshole mode. Apparently he thinks he has a chance in the upcoming election, and is selling these bumper stickers for a donation:

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“It’s just common sense” has been McCrory’s increasingly plaintive defense of HB 2 and the indefensible. I’m expecting he’ll be utterly trounced by Roy Cooper in the November election, and I’ll be happy to see it.

Oh FFS 2

Shutterstock

Shutterstock

A North Carolina high school will allow students to carry pepper spray, razors and other items which one board member suggested they might need to defend themselves against transgender classmates they encounter in the bathroom.

The Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education removed prohibitive language in its policy on defensive weapons this week but will continue to debate which items will be allowed on campus, reported the Salisbury Post.

One school board member said pepper spray and other chemical irritants should be allowed in case a court strikes down the state’s controversial HB2, better known as the anti-LGBT “bathroom bill.”

“Depending on how the courts rule on the bathroom issues, it may be a pretty valuable tool to have on the female students if they go to the bathroom, not knowing who may come in,” said board member Chuck Hughes.

[…]

Board members agreed to allow students to carry disposable razors, as well — although they maintained a ban on straight-edge razors.

After some disagreement on razors, board members agreed to specify that personal razors should be used for shaving only while at school.

Full Story Here.

Oh FFS…

Joseph Martone Jr.

Joseph Martone Jr. The sign on his walker reads “Trust God End Abortion”.

…But minutes later, he was able to walk inside the store [Target] on North Powers Boulevard and North Carefree Circle as a customer and enter the women’s restroom unchecked.

Wearing a blond wig, a skirt and his salt-and-pepper beard and using his customary walker, the Colorado Springs resident said he was sad to have proved his point.

[…]

In recent days, customers in Jackson, Miss., and Layton, Utah, have protested with the same fears as Martone.

“Anyone can dress up like I have today and easily access the women’s bathroom,” he said.

Oh, please, all you fucking idiots out there, could you please get this into your brain: there was nothing stopping you from accessing the women’s bathroom before. Nothing at all. You didn’t even need to play dress up. Nope, just walk right the fuck in, because that’s what anyone can do in any public lav. Fuck, these people are beyond thick and annoying.

Story here.