Bloodless Persecution and Transgender Depravity.

(Knights of Columbus website) Baltimore Archbishop William Lori says institutions protecting religious freedom and morality are 'under assault.'

(Knights of Columbus website)
Baltimore Archbishop William Lori says institutions protecting religious freedom and morality are ‘under assault.’

Oh my! First up, bloodless persecution.

A Roman Catholic archbishop, however, warned that there is such a thing as “bloodless” persecution, and it is happening in the nation that is supposed to be one of the freest in the world, the United States.

During his address at the opening of the Divine Mercy University in Virginia, Baltimore Archbishop William Lori said Catholic institutions in America are “experiencing the severest threats to their religious liberty” at present.

[…]

“The institutions that are under challenge are places of mercy that seek to bring the healing balm of truth, love, and human skill to the spiritual, emotional, and physical wounds of human existence, to be indeed the ‘field hospital’ amid a culture where many are wounded daily,” the archbishop said, as quoted by LifeSiteNews.

To illustrate his point, the Roman Catholic official cited the legalisation of same-sex marriage and U.S. President Barack Obama’s contraceptive mandate as particular threats to religious freedom.

“We have only to think about the arbitrary redefinition of marriage and family or anti-family welfare and relief policies. As these intermediate structures either disappear or come under the direct control of the government, our society becomes less merciful and more impersonal, less apt to be a setting for human flourishing,” Lori said.

[…]

The prelate urged the faithful and all Christian groups to be steadfast in promoting values, especially during this year, called the Holy Year of Mercy by Catholics.

This year “presents us with a graced opportunity to see the most fundamental of our freedoms, religious freedom, through the prism of God’s mercy and compassion,” he said.

Mercy? Christians have a damn odd notion of mercy. Oh so merciful to force people to submit to your psychopathic figment of a god, unable to live life in a manner they wish, and meddlesome priests and parishioners to go poking their noses where they don’t belong. Merciful. Right. Well, I guess you don’t get to torture and crispy critter people anymore. That’s something, I suppose.

Jack Englehard.

Jack Engelhard.

Time for Transgender Depravity with Jack Engelhard.

Transgenders, some 700,000 of them nationwide, are less than one percent of the population, but they rule. Progressives want you to know that you are a bigot if you have a problem with men and women side by side in the same privy. What do we say about this? Nothing. Have we no shame? My cat won’t use the litter box until we leave the room. My cat knows dignity.

That’s nice, Jack. You have a sensitive kitty cat. What about all those people with distinctly undignified cats? The ones who don’t mind digging in the litter box, spraying sand all over the place while you are in the room? Do they need to die? Go to Ex-Undignified Cat Therapy? Sent to church? Rounded up and shipped off somewhere? There are even cats who go outside the box! *Gasp* Perhaps we best not talk about them.

Thanks to the depravity forced upon us by degenerate Liberals, the rest of us have been plunged down to the lowest rung of the animal kingdom. Your daughter is not safe in any school throughout the United States.

How sweet. Jack, like most all the other bigots, is terribly concerned with daughters.  All those sons can just take care of themselves, I guess. Back to daughters. The word choice is an interesting one. Not girls. Not young women. Not women. Daughters. Written with the heavy hand of patriarchy, and the weight of ownership. The concern over potentially damaged property.

I raised the alarm here on May 3 and again here on May 22 in a piece titled, “How Bruce Jenner changed the life of every American.”

The stats for that article reveal that it was read by about 25,000 Americans, which means I failed. I needed to reach all 320 million Americans to let them know that when Big Brother forbids you the rights for your most intimate acts and denies you your most hushed moments, all is lost.

Big Brother has forbidden me the rights for my most intimate acts and hushed moments? Hmmm. Okay, I’ll admit to being lost on the hushed moments bit, no idea. (It’s not like everyone can’t hear you tinkling away). Generally speaking, my most intimate acts don’t take place in public, but even if they did, I’d be with Mrs. Campbell, and as long as no one was in the street scaring the horses, who cares? I don’t really consider pissing to be an act of intimacy. It’s a necessary bodily function, and yes, if I have a choice, I prefer privacy, such as it is in a public lav. I was in a public lav last week. I went into a stall, and peed. End of story. No rights violated in any way.

I failed again now that we read this: “The international association of Conservative rabbis passed a resolution declaring its embrace of transgender people, and called on Jewish institutions and government agencies to ensure their full equality.” What is this?

This is not equality. This is not civil rights. This is an abomination – or so it was back in the days when decency meant something. This is not Jewish. This is not Christian. This is not American. This is an enormous sell-out against our Judeo/Christian ethics.

I do not care how many rabbis or ministers or priests support the transgender mythology, common sense tells us that this is wrong. Let’s be honest and call it sinful.

Oh, how about if we don’t, Jack. By the way, there’s no such thing as transgender mythology. Well, at least not as far as I know. I don’t think transgender people have all gotten together to create gods just yet. A sell-out of Judeo-Christian ethics sounds good to me, we could finally start living by actual ethics, which don’t harm people, and aren’t based on hatred, fear, and judgment.

To live in a time when any man can call himself a woman and any woman can call herself a man puts us outside the laws of civilization and into the lawlessness of the jungle. Together as a nation we have been declawed. We have been neutered. We have been dehumanized.

SIGH. Jungles! What in the fuck do you know about jungles, Jack? My bet would be nothing at all. Neutered. Declawed. Dehumanized. Are people being neutered and declawed somewhere? I certainly haven’t heard anything like that. As for you, Jack, well, you have your little claws out, don’t you? Scratching and scraping away at any move towards a more compassionate, caring and humane society. I haven’t been dehumanized in the least by anyone under the GLBT umbrella. No one has tried to declaw or neuter me, either. That last one would be a tad difficult where I’m concerned, but it’s not women you care about, is it, Jack? Nope, it’s all about the men. Manly men, howling the losses of patriarchy. Tsk.

To live in a place where the rules are upside down and where each man is his own judge is to live in a wilderness of moral decay.

There’s this men only thing again. I’m quite good with being my own judge of how to live my life. I’m not terribly interested in telling other people how to live their lives, and I’m too busy for that kind of thing anyway. Instead, I’m very good with all people having basic human rights, and being left in peace to judge what’s good for themselves.

Just Pee (Where You Wanna Pee).

The Tony-winning Broadway stars at Kinky Boots have put together an elaborate response to the bathroom panic that’s criss-crossing the nation — especially North Carolina. It includes a message from the show’s creators Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper.

Said Fierstein in a scathing post on Facebook:

“So, you don’t like transgender people? Have the balls to honestly say it. Today’s bathroom controversy is fueled by the same bigots that sought to ban gay and lesbian teachers forty years ago. All these years later they’re still hiding behind the claim that they’re only protecting their children. These discussions are great opportunities to educate and strengthen the bonds that make us all one human family. But when I see discussions on social media proposing a Men’s Room for adult males, a Ladies’ Room for adult females, a Little Girls’s Room for little girls, a little Boy’s Room for little boys and then another pair of bathrooms for Little Boys with a parent and Little Girls with a parent… Well, it’s time to take a step back and laugh at our own absurdity. This video is a reminder that sometimes we go to the bathroom just to pee.”

“You can change the world when you change your mind,” was the message posted by Kinky Boots to Facebook with the video, using hashtag #JustPee.

Thankfully, I haven’t seen those discussions, but if I had, there would be one question: how would that solve anything? You’d still be forcing transgender people into a binary they most likely wouldn’t be comfortable with. Absurdity is the only word for this nonsense. All this anxiety, all this panic, over what? Transgender people have been using public lavs, this didn’t just start a few months ago. It had seemed that a lot of people were finally coming around to the idea of unisex a/o family type public lavs, and now every possible permutation of a person has to have their own?

Via The Advocate. Now I have to watch this Kinky Boots again. That’s a good thing.

Going Catholic On Condoms.

putin-condom-x750

Perhaps I should say, doing Catholics one better on condoms. The Catholic Church has been telling people, for decades, that condoms don’t prevent HIV at all, and that they are against god. It seems Russia is prepared to outdo them on the misinformation score.

A Russian study actually blames condoms for the spread of HIV. The Russian Institute for Strategic Research (RISR), which was set up by the Kremlin in 2012, presented a report on Tuesday to Moscow’s city council that casts doubt over the validity of well documented statistics showing the spread of HIV in Russia.

It’s worth noting that one of stated goals of the RISR is “Family-based solutions as a strategy for overcoming depopulation.” Which is perhaps why it’s not a surprise to see that the study’s authors alluded to “traditional values” being the route to stopping the spread of HIV, blaming promiscuity and homosexuality for infections.

That certainly sounds familiar. Looks like the U.S. and Russia have a lot on common these days.

Tatyana Guzenkova, deputy head of the organization, presented the report, as according to the Russian daily newspaper Kommersant. It is also not a stretch to imagine this being used by the Kremlin to buttress its ongoing hostility towards Russia’s LGBT movement.

Like most things under the Putin regime, the RISR is hard to see as anything but government loyalists, especially because internal dispute about the study was quite vocal. The head of the Federal Center for fighting AIDS, Vadim Pokrovsky, for example, stressed the importance of focusing on condoms to reduce the spread of HIV.

Via Plus.

The Big Gay Hindu Wedding

Rishi Agarwal and Daniel Langdon, right, pictured here with Agarwal's parents, Vijay and Sushma. Agarwal’s parents have come a long way since Rishi came out in 2004 and hope sharing their story can help other South Asian parents who may be struggling with supporting their LGBTQ children. (Vince Talotta / Toronto Star)

Rishi Agarwal and Daniel Langdon, right, pictured here with Agarwal’s parents, Vijay and Sushma. Agarwal’s parents have come a long way since Rishi came out in 2004 and hope sharing their story can help other South Asian parents who may be struggling with supporting their LGBTQ children. (Vince Talotta / Toronto Star)

Rishi Agarwal’s story is nothing especially new, but his happy ending is one that’s spreading a message of tolerance and acceptance within a community that desperately needs it.

Agarwal was raised in a devout Hindu home in suburban Toronto by his parents Vijay and Sushma, who both emigrated there from India over 30 years ago. When Rishi came out to them in 2004, they were initially shocked and devastated.

But after opening themselves up and doing some research, the parents changed their opinion.

“There is a cultural kind of a stigma,” Vijay told The Toronto Star. “This is strictly our baggage, what we bring from India,” said Rishi’s mother Sushma. When their son asked them if he should move out of the house after coming out of the closet, they told him absolutely not, and that they still loved him.

Even though his parents’ mother country still frowns heavily on homosexuality—it is illegal to be gay in India and the topic is considered shameful in traditional Indian families—Vijay and Sushma not only learned to embrace their gay son, but also threw him a classically opulent Indian wedding when he decided to marry his boyfriend, Daniel.

Vijay told The Star of the struggle they faced in trying to make the wedding happen, in all its traditional pomp and circumstance. He says he was turned down by seven priests before finding one who would perform the ceremony. “They initially said yes,” he says, “and as soon as they found out that it was a gay wedding, they turned away.”

In spite of this, the wedding was a huge and beautiful bash, replete with all the colorful rituals: matching turbans, the grooms circling a sacred fire, exchanging flower garlands, and getting matching henna tattoos of each other’s initials.

[…]

Now, the Agarwal family is publicizing its story. They have spearheaded their chapter of PFLAG outside of Toronto, which specifically targets South Asian parents of gay children, and Sushma has even written a book about her experience, called Loving My Gay Child: A Mother’s Journey to Acceptance.

Agarwal and Langdon are cheered after exchanging flower garlands at their wedding. “The purpose of that is to welcome each other into each other’s lives,” said Agarwal. “The second that garland has been placed, it’s kind of like the point of no return.” (Photos by Channa Photography)

Agarwal and Langdon are cheered after exchanging flower garlands at their wedding. “The purpose of that is to welcome each other into each other’s lives,” said Agarwal. “The second that garland has been placed, it’s kind of like the point of no return.” (Photos by Channa Photography)

Via Out, The Star, and Metro.

Conservative Rabbis Back Transgender Rights.

Jewish_faith_flag-1837x1033

Following an onslaught of anti-transgender legislation across the country, the Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism, the international association of Conservative rabbis, made a historic move to protect transgender and gender non-conforming congregants.

Last week, the assembly passed a historic resolution urging officials in all levels of government to review their policies and practices to ensure the full equality of transgender people under the law.

The resolution will impact how Conservative synagogues, camps, schools and affiliated organizations address the safety and explicit inclusion of transgender and gender non-conforming people. It encourages all organizations affiliated with the Conservative Movement “to educate themselves and their employees about the needs of transgender and gender non-conforming people” and provide safe spaces, as well “evaluate their physical site needs, workplace needs, and language that impact gender and gender expression.”

Rabbi Gil Steinlauf, senior rabbi of Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C. and distinguished member of HRC’s Religion Council, expressed “pride” in the Conservative Movement for “its affirmation of the fundamental rights of transgender people within Judaism.”

“Since Talmudic times, our people have recognized that the human condition is not just binary. We have long known that God’s presence is manifest in a multiplicity of expressions of our genders and our lives,” Rabbi Steinlauf told HRC. “I hope this resolution will go far in promoting this deep truth of our religion in our society and in the world.”

Full Story Here.  JTA also has this story.

Finding Middle Ground For Bigotry and Fear.

Maya Dillard Smith.

Maya Dillard Smith.

Maya Dillard Smith, the interim director of the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, has resigned from her position because she does not support the organization’s fight for the right of transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

Smith reportedly said the ACLU is advocating for trans rights at the expense of safety for women and children.

[…]

Smith claimed that transgender rights have “intersectionality with other competing rights, particularly the implications for women’s rights.” She said that when her young daughters shared a bathroom with transgender women, it made her worry the children would be harmed. “I have shared my personal experience of having taken my elementary school age daughters into a women’s restroom when shortly after three transgender young adults over six feet with deep voices entered,” she wrote in the statement.

So, if three young adults, over six feet tall, with deep voices, who were afab entered, that would be okey dokey? This couldn’t possibly be about your own perceptions and prejudices, right?

She went on to say that her “children were visibly frightened, concerned about their safety and left asking lots of questions for which I, like many parents, was ill-prepared to answer.”

So, you’re ill-prepared. What you should have done from there was to embark on an education, learn, go out and meet a few transgender people, listen. Share that education with your children. Oh, but no, can’t have that! Instead, your lack of learning must be enshrined, and your willful ignorance paraded about, spreading fear and lies.

“Despite additional learning I still have to do, I believe there are solutions that provide can provide accommodations for transgender people and balance the need to ensure women and girls are safe from those who might have malicious intent.”

Because transgender people might be people, but they can’t be women! You just can’t take the chance of allowing a woman in a womens’ lav, too dangerous.

In an interview with Atlanta TV station WXIA, Smith argued that cisgender (nontrans) women should not have to share bathrooms with trans women because it could be”traumatic.” “If we have all-gender restrooms which will accommodate trans folks, what do we do about women who are the survivors of rape, for whom it would be traumatic to share a public restroom where you take down your underwear, and there’d be men in the bathroom,” she said.

Auuugh, no, no, no. You do not get to hold up rape survivors as free PR, claiming to care about us, while having the nerve to speak for all of us. By the way, Ms. Smith, a lot of transgender people, including trans women, have been raped. Are you speaking for them, too?

Smith has launched a website called Finding Middle Ground that features a video of a young girl talking about “boys in the girls’ bathroom.” “There’s some boys who feel like they’re girls on the inside and there’s some boys that are just perverts,” says the young girl in the ad. A caption appears on the screen after she speaks that reads “How do we keep ourl ittle girls safe and prevent transgender discrimination?”

This is the same exact shite Ted Cruz was putting out, with absolutely no evidence to back it up.

Full Story Here.

Odisha Becomes First State To Give Welfare Benefits To Transgender People.

Members of the transgender community will be given Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards that will allow them to access benefits under various government welfare programmes. (Representational Image)

Members of the transgender community will be given Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards that will allow them to access benefits under various government welfare programmes. (Representational Image)

Bhubaneswar: Odisha is the first region in the country to give transgender people social welfare benefits – such as a pension, housing and food grains – usually allocated for only the most impoverished, an official said Today.

Niten Chandra, principal secretary of Odisha’s Department of Social Security, said the move to give the transgender community the same benefits as those living below the poverty line was aimed at improving their overall social and economic status.

“Most transgender people are in a very bad condition because of social exclusion. For example, they very often do not get employment easily,” Mr Chandra told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“The government had a consultation with transgender people in April, and they had raised their problems and issues. On that basis, we are now taking many decisions to help them – giving them the Below Poverty Line status is one of them.”

There are no official figures, but activists say there are hundreds of thousands of transgender people in India, many of whom face ostracism and discrimination, as well as verbal, physical and sexual abuse.

A lack of access to education and employment opportunities has meant many male-to-female transgender people – also known as “hijras” – end up forced into sex work or moving around in organised groups, begging or demanding money.

In a landmark judgment in April 2014, Supreme Court recognised transgender as a legal third gender and called on the government to ensure their equal treatment.

The court recognised the community as a marginalised group and directed authorities to implement policies to improve their socio-economic status.

Identity documents such as birth certificates, driving licenses and passports must now recognise the third gender, and a certain number of public sector jobs, seats in schools and colleges must be allocated to third-gender applicants.

Full Story at NDTV and Reuters.

Gosh, it sure would be nice if the ‘greatest country in the world’ could play catch up.

OK, then go in the bushes…

Stacey Dash.

Stacey Dash.

Get ready for a whole lot of  Stacey Dash.

I had a “who?” moment here, I’m terribly clueless when it comes to entertainment personalities. It seems Ms. Dash is an actress, who plays the mayor of Chicago in the upcoming “Sharknado” sequel “The 4th Awakens.” Golly. I’m not surprised  at being clueless in this case. Ms. Dash is also a rabid conservative who loves guns and has a whole lot of hate to share.

When asked on Wednesday about a passage in her book that criticizes Caitlyn Jenner, a fellow conservative, for using women’s bathrooms, Dash — who supports a North Carolinalaw that requires transgender people to use bathrooms that correspond with their birth sex — didn’t hold back.

“It’s tyranny by the minority,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “Why do I have to suffer because you can’t decide what you wanna be that day?” Dash said.

“OK, then go in the bushes,” she continued. “I don’t know what to tell you, but I’m not gonna put my child’s life at risk because you want to change a law. So that you can be comfortable with your beliefs — which means I have to change my beliefs and my rights? No.”

I’m not comfortable with your beliefs, Ms. Dash. They are ugly, hate-filled, bigoted beliefs. No one is putting your child at risk, either. If you’re so worried about that, though, I have an idea – when you and your child have to pee, I suggest you find a convenient bush.

Full Story Here.

Protect your kids from tyrant Obama

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James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, has decided to add yet another terrifying screed to the growing pile of Christian hate and panic over transgender rights. It’s tempting to simply poke at such rhetoric, and while it is ripe for mockery, too many people actually listen to people like Dobson, and Dobson thinks a gun might be the answer. There’s always someone willing to pick a gun up here in uStates.

…Obama, acting like a king, is wielding dictatorial powers never envisioned in the law. He is determined to change the way males and females relate to one another, and worse, how children perceive themselves. If you are a married man with any gumption, surely you will defend your wife’s privacy and security in restroom facilities. Would you remain passive after knowing that a strange-looking man, dressed like a woman, has been peering over toilet cubicles to watch your wife in a private moment? What should be done to the pervert who was using mirrors to watch women and girls in their stalls? If you are a dad, I pray you will protect your little girls from men who walk in unannounced, unzip their pants and urinate in front of them. If this had happened 100 years ago, someone might have been shot. Where is today’s manhood? God help us!…

Dobson has the sense to frame the gun part as a lament, “oh, if this were in the past, we could just kill the varmints!”, a way to cover himself when some committed Christian out there decides packin’ a pistol in a pee station is a great idea, and finds reason to use it. This is highly inflammatory rhetoric, and it’s being shouted from all sides.

WND article. Raw Story article. The Advocate article.

Darla – #Absolutnights.

Screen capture.

Screen capture.

Absolut Vodka’s #AbsolutNights campaign centers on archetypes that don’t get much attention in traditional advertising…The newest ad in the series, titled “Darla,” features a guy at a music festival who runs into an old friend, who’s gone through gender reassignment and renamed herself. As they run the gauntlet of cool music festival stuff, Darla explains her experience in a teachable moment that honors the campaign’s tagline, “When was the last time you were true to yourself? Sometimes being open to new possibilities is all it takes.”

Reaction to this ad has been mixed, to say the least. The most mature response came from Unicorn Booty, whose editor-in-chief both slagged the ad for being a “typical cisgender redemption story,” which it totally is, and cautiously applauded it for being “one of the few [ads] from a major company that even acknowledges trans existence.”

Unicorn Booty’s response is a fair one, we think. Considering who Absolut’s preferred demographics are, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the ad’s protagonist is a cisgender guy who’s cool enough to accept his trans friend. But now that we know brands are open to speaking to the trans community in a way that isn’t crass or insulting, we should definitely ask more of them.

From Adweek.

Denmark: Historic Step in Trans Rights

File photo: Iris/Scanpix DK.

File photo: Iris/Scanpix DK.

From January 1st, 2017, transgender will no longer appear on Denmark’s definition of mental illnesses, the Ministry of Health has confirmed.

The move would make Denmark a groundbreaker if the World Health Organisation (WHO) does not make a similar move before the autumn, news agency Ritzau reported.

“At the moment, transgender is listed as a mental illness or behavioural problem. That is incredibly stigmatising and in no way reflects how we see transgender people in Denmark. It should be a neutral diagnosis,” Social Democrat health spokesman Flemming Møller Mortensen told Ritzau.

“The WHO is currently working on a new system for registering diagnoses. It has been working on it for a very, very long time. Now we’ve run out of patience, and want to send out a signal saying that if the system is not changed by October, then we in Denmark will go it alone,” said Mortensen.

Full Story Here. A huge shout-out to Denmark, for realizing that every day of waiting increases the stigmatization of transgender people, and wanting no part of that any longer. Now, the rest of the world needs to catch up.

Rainbow Flag Joins Grand Entry.

Courtesy SKINS, SFSU From L to R: Betty Parent; Ari Antone-Ramirez; Aidan Dunn Flagbearer. The Rainbow Flag is carried by Morningstar Vancil and the Eagle Staff by Edwin Gill.

Courtesy SKINS, SFSU
From L to R: Betty Parent; Ari Antone-Ramirez; Aidan Dunn Flagbearer. The Rainbow Flag is carried by Morningstar Vancil and the Eagle Staff by Edwin Gill.

The San Francisco State University Pow Wow, held annually in the spring, set a bit of history on May 15th as the first non Two Spirit pow wow to include the Rainbow Gay Pride Flag.

According to this year’s Head Dancer, Aidan Dunn (Osage), “the SFSU Pow wow committee has decided to de-gender their dance categories. For instance, the category formerly known as “Women’s Fancy Shawl” will now be simply ‘Fancy Shawl’. Most people probably won’t notice this difference, because it won’t cause any big changes in the way the dance categories work–but inclusive language matters a lot, because it can be used to include or exclude,” said Dunn.

Dunn said that changing a few words would enable pow wow organizers to open the circle a little wider to embrace more community members.

“This allows pow wow dancers to dance in whatever category they are called to dance, even if it isn’t what we might expect for their gender. SFSU is taking a bold step toward making Two-Spirit, LGBTQ, and gender-nonconforming pow wow dancers feel welcome in the arena. The Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS) Pow wow took this step last year but, to my knowledge, there are no ‘straight’ powwows anywhere in the US or Canada that currently do this.”

[…]

The inclusion of the Rainbow Flag in Grand Entry proceedings represents the inclusion of Two Spirits in the proceedings and that the circle welcomes all respectful gender expressions.

[…]

Additionally, the BAAITS pow wow, the first public LGBTIQA+ pow wow on Turtle Island, has been generating more and more success as early 3,500 dancers attended the festivities held at Fort Mason this past March.

Some family arbors at pow wows on the West Coast have displayed the flag as a sign of solidarity to the community or to identify LGBTIQA+ safe spaces. The University of Saskatchewan was the first to include the flag at a pow wow in Canada.

Full Story Here.

Two-Spirit Flag.