Good…

I remember 9/11.  I was up early for my morning walk.  It was primary day in Los Angeles and I stopped by the polling place to vote.  People were gathered around a small television set saying a plane had hit the World Trade Center.

As soon as I finished voting I called Tina who was on Long Island.

I hurried home and turned on the TV, and booted up.

I saw the pictures of the towers coming down over and over.

I was filled with rage.  So much anger I would have turned an entire nation into glass just to kill those responsible.

I’m glad we didn’t.  The wars we have gotten into were a mistake.

Nonetheless I am glad Bin Laden is dead…  Kill the rest of his followers too.  The same way…  Leave the civilians out of it.

From The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/asia/osama-bin-laden-is-killed.html?hp

By PETER BAKER and HELENE COOPER
Published: May 1, 2011

WASHINGTON — Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the most devastating attack on American soil in modern times and the most hunted man in the world, was killed in a firefight with United States forces in Pakistan on Sunday, President Obama announced.

In a dramatic late-night appearance in the East Room of the White House, Mr. Obama declared that “justice has been done” as he disclosed that American military and C.I.A. operatives had finally cornered Mr. bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader who had eluded them for nearly a decade, and shot him to death at a compound in Pakistan.

“For over two decades, bin Laden has been Al Qaeda’s leader and symbol,” the president said in a statement carried on television around the world. “The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat Al Qaeda. But his death does not mark the end of our effort.” He added, “We must and we will remain vigilant at home and abroad.”

The death of Mr. bin Laden is a defining moment in the American-led war on terrorism. What remains to be seen is whether the death of the leader of Al Qaeda galvanizes his followers by turning him into a martyr, or whether it serves as a turning of the page in the war in Afghanistan and gives further impetus to the Obama administration to bring American troops home.

The death of Mr. bin Laden came nearly 10 years after Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked three American passenger jets and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth hijacked jet crashed into countryside of Pennsylvania. Late Sunday night, as the president was speaking, cheering crowds gathered outside the gates of the White House shortly before midnight as word of Mr. bin Laden’s death began trickling out, waving American flags, shouting in happiness and chanting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” In New York City, crowds sang the Star-Spangled Banner.

Continue reading at:   http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/asia/osama-bin-laden-is-killed.html?hp

I’m tired of the so called “Liberal Media” singing the lyrics handed to them by the Christo–Fascists of the Right Wing.  It is Marriage Equality, not Gay Marriage.  For one thing lesbians might like to get married too and so might TS/TG people.

They accept the right wing frame that somehow LGBT/T folks want some sort of special rights when we just want the same rights straights enjoy.  BTW  those are only rights when everyone has them otherwise they are special privileges.  Why should straights be privileged and LGBT/T people be denied equality?

From the New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/weekinreview/01gay.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: April 30, 2011

WASHINGTON — It’s not every day that a leading law firm fires a client for holding a position so extreme that it may be said to be unworthy of a defense. And it is rarer yet — unheard of, really — when that client is the House of Representatives and the position in question is a federal law.

Yet that is just what King & Spalding, a venerable Atlanta firm, did last week. Under pressure from gay rights groups and apparently fearful of criticism from the law students it recruits and the corporate clients it serves, the firm said it would not defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act against a challenge that it violates the Constitution.

The episode has so far mostly been discussed as a matter of legal ethics, and the firm has had a rough ride. But there is something larger going on, too.

For many gay rights advocates, the decision amounts to a turning point in the debate — the moment at which opposition to same-sex marriage came to look like bigotry, similar to racial discrimination and the subordination of women.

To opponents of same-sex marriage, the firm’s decision is the latest evidence that elite opinion generally and the legal culture in particular is racing ahead of popular opinion and shutting down a worthwhile debate.

Continue reading at:   http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/weekinreview/01gay.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

From Raw Story:  http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/01/oklahoma-professor-allegedly-terminated-for-being-transgender/

By Eric W. Dolan
Sunday, May 1st, 2011

An Assistant Professor of English, Humanities and Literature at Southeastern Oklahoma State University was allegedly denied tenure and terminated because of her gender identity.

Despite being a highly accomplished scholar who was recommended for tenure and a promotion by her colleagues last year, Dr. Rachel Tudor will be terminated from the university effective May 31. She claims to have been dismissed from the Southeastern Oklahoma State University because she is transgender.

“I firmly believe that I was not granted tenure because of discrimination,” she told Raw Story. “In addition to the egregious violations of policy, due process, and precedent, the administrators responsible for denying me not only tenure, but even the opportunity for an up or down vote, have repeatedly refused to heed the voice of the faculty.”

Tudor recently received the Faculty Senate Recognition Award for Excellence in Scholarship. According to Southeastern Oklahoma State University policy, the president is obliged to honor faculty recommendations, except in cases where there is a “compelling reason” or “exceptional circumstances” to reject a recommendation.

“President Minks and Vice President of Academic Affairs, Doug McMillan, have refused to meet with me in person,” she continued. “In addition, it has been reported to me from reliable sources that Doug McMillan is committed to severing me from the university because he disapproves of my gender identity.”

Continue reading at:    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/01/oklahoma-professor-allegedly-terminated-for-being-transgender/

Prior to the late 19^th Century, May Day was a sort of pagan religion based Spring/Planting/Fertility complete with Maypoles and and stripped of meaning celebrations.

Then in the late 19^th Century, the 1880s  American workers were organizing unions and fighting the rich corporate bastards for such things as the 8 hour day and decent wages.

The May Day celebrations around the world are tied to those struggles and the events surrounding the Hay Market Massacre.

From LibCom.org:   http://libcom.org/history/articles/mayday-haymarket-martyrs/

The history of the world holiday on the 1st May – May Day, or International Workers Day, held in commemoration of four anarchists executed for struggling for an 8-hour day.

Originally a pagan holiday, the roots of the modern May Day bank holiday are in the fight for the eight-hour working day in Chicago in 1886, and the subsequent execution of innocent anarchist workers.

In 1887, four Chicago anarchists were executed; a fifth cheated the hangman by killing himself in prison. Three more were to spend 6 years in prison until pardoned by Governor Altgeld who said the trial that convicted them was characterised by “hysteria, packed juries and a biased judge”. The state had, in the words of the prosecution put “Anarchy is on trial” and hoped their deaths would also be the death of the anarchist idea.

The anarchists were trade union organisers and May Day became an international workers day to remember their sacrifice. They were framed on false charges of throwing a bomb at police breaking up a demonstration in Chicago. This was part of a strike demanding an 8 hour day involving 400,000 workers in Chicago that started May 1st 1886 .

It began over a century ago when the American Federation of Labour adopted an historic resolution which asserted that “eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s labour from and after May 1st, 1886″.

In the months prior to this date workers in their thousands were drawn into the struggle for the shorter day. Skilled and unskilled, black and white, men and women, native and immigrant were all becoming involved.

By the 1950s when I was a kid May day Celebrations were associated with Communism and the American Version of Labor Day had been watered down and moved to September to avoid the taint of anything associated with either its history or with radicalism.

As for the Maypole and the pagan aspect…  I vaguely remember various “Christian” organizations denouncing that one based on it being pagan.

I kind of like both aspects, the worker and the pagan, especially since the pagan is so closely related to nature, planting, etc.  Not to mention the closeness of May Day to Earth Day.

I especially like the international aspects of May Day as a special day for the working people whose labor produces all the wealth.  Which is a secret the rich do not want working people to know.  Again and again I have heard the rich described as the most productive.  Nonsense…  The lowest paid workers in any corporation tend to work harder than the most highly paid.  Those who work in the sweat shops are more productive.

There is an old truism, “Behind every great fortune, Great theft.”  Working people labor and produce the wealth that the owning class becomes rich upon.

The working people from around the world have more in common with each other than they have with the rich who own the corporations.

Hence the singing around the world of The Internationale (The original French words were written in June 1871 by Eugène Pottier (1816–1887, previously a member of the Paris Commune)^[1] and were originally intended to be sung to the tune of La Marseillaise.^[2] Pierre De Geyter (1848–1932) set the poem to music in 1888.^[3] His melody was first publicly performed in July 1888^[4] and became widely used soon after.)

From The Guardian UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/30/apple-chinese-workers-treated-inhumanely

Investigation finds evidence of draconian rules and excessive overtime to meet western demand for iPhones and iPads

Gethin Chamberlain
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 30 April 2011

An investigation into the conditions of Chinese workers has revealed the shocking human cost of producing the must-have Apple iPhones and iPads that are now ubiquitous in the west.

The research, carried out by two NGOs, has revealed disturbing allegations of excessive working hours and draconian workplace rules at two major plants in southern China. It has also uncovered an “anti-suicide” pledge that workers at the two plants have been urged to sign, after a series of employee deaths last year.

The investigation gives a detailed picture of life for the 500,000 workers at the Shenzhen and Chengdu factories owned by Foxconn, which produces millions of Apple products each year. The report accuses Foxconn of treating workers “inhumanely, like machines”.

Among the allegations made by workers interviewed by the NGOs – the Centre for Research on Multinational Companies and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom) – are claims that:

■ Excessive overtime is routine, despite a legal limit of 36 hours a month. One payslip, seen by the Observer, indicated that the worker had performed 98 hours of overtime in a month.

■ Workers attempting to meet the huge demand for the first iPad were sometimes pressured to take only one day off in 13.

Continue reading at:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/30/apple-chinese-workers-treated-inhumanely

From Mother Jones: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/state-policy-network-union-bargaining

Inspired by Ronald Reagan and funded by the right’s richest donors, a web of free-market think tanks has fueled the nationwide attack on workers’ rights.

By Andy Kroll
Mon Apr. 25, 2011 12:01

From New Hampshire to Alaska, Republican lawmakers are waging war on organized labor. They’re pushing bills to curb, if not eliminate, collective bargaining for public workers; make it harder for unions to collect member dues; and, in some states, allow workers to opt out of joining unions entirely but still enjoy union-won benefits. All told, it’s one of the largest assaults on American unions in recent history.

Behind the onslaught is a well-funded network of conservative think tanks that you’ve probably never heard of. Conceived by the same conservative ideologues who helped found the Heritage Foundation, the State Policy Network (SPN) is a little-known umbrella group with deep ties to the national conservative movement. Its mission is simple: to back a constellation of state-level think tanks loosely modeled after Heritage that promote free-market principles and rail against unions, regulation, and tax increases. By blasting out policy recommendations and shaping lawmakers’ positions through briefings and private meetings, these think tanks cultivate cozy relationships with GOP politicians. And there’s a long tradition of revolving door relationships between SPN staffers and state governments. While they bill themselves as independent think tanks, SPN’s members frequently gather to swap ideas. “We’re all comrades in arms,” the network’s board chairman told the National Review in 2007.

Occasionally, SPN think tanks boast of their clout. Such was the case when the Tennessee Center for Policy Research bragged on its website recently that it “leads the charge against teachers’ union” and “laid the groundwork” for the bills now in the Tennessee legislature to restrict, and possibly eradicate, bargaining for public school teachers. More often, though, the fingerprints of SPN’s members are less apparent.

Founded in 1992 by businessman and Reagan administration insider Thomas Roe—who also served on the Heritage Foundation’s board of trustees for two decades—the group has grown to include 59 “freedom centers,” or affiliated think tanks, in all 50 states. SPN’s board includes officials from Heritage and right-wing charities such as the Adolph Coors and Jacqueline Hume foundations. Likewise, its deep-pocketed donors include all the usual heavy-hitting conservative benefactors: the Ruth and Lovett Peters Foundation, which funds the Cato Institute and Heritage; the Castle Rock Foundation, a charity started with money from the conservative Coors Foundation; and the Bradley Foundation, a $540 million charity devoted to funding conservative causes. SPN uses their contributions to dole out annual grants to member groups, ranging from a few thousand dollars to $260,000, according to 2009 records.

Continue reading at:  http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/state-policy-network-union-bargaining

Courtesy of Facebook friend, Andy W. Taylor

From TruthDig: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/trumped-up_racism_20110428/

By Marcia Alesan Dawkins
Posted on Apr 28, 2011

Dispelling Donald Trump’s birther charges that Barack Obama is foreign-born, the president released his long-form birth certificate Wednesday. Politifact, the fact-checking site for politics, says its article about the issue (with a link to the certification of live birth) is the most popular item that it has ever published. The certificate and its release prove two things most people should already know: Obama is an American. And, as PBS host Tavis Smiley put it to MSNBC, the 2012 presidential race is shaping up to be “the ugliest, the nastiest, the most divisive, and the most racist in the history of this Republic.”

In an attempt to prove Smiley right, Trump is now questioning the president’s “qualifications” for having attended Ivy League universities. “I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?” Trump said in an interview with The Associated Press. Trump, who is toying with running for the Republican presidential nomination, offered no proof for his claim of Obama’s academic incompetence but said he would continue to investigate—whatever that means.

People of color know exactly what this means. What Trump is saying—without actually saying it—is that Obama was not admitted to Columbia and Harvard based on merit, but only because he is part black. As with any post-racial attack—appealing to racists but also appealing to deniability—Trump’s latest complaint feeds directly into our nation’s history of racism and racist entitlement. By questioning Obama’s qualifications and refusing to provide an answer, Trump is saying that people of color are taking seats in prestigious colleges and universities that they can’t possibly earn, taking up space and resources in a nation in which they don’t belong. Such comments cling to the ideas that being a person of color clouds one’s reason and judgment and that privilege, prestige, citizenship and education belong solely to white people. Ironically, Trump missed the reports from one of the president’s onetime colleagues on the board of editors of the Harvard Law Review that Obama did not check the box identifying himself as a minority member on his law school application.

But whether the president did or did not identify himself racially on his university applications is not really the issue, at least for those of us who aren’t interested in playing along with Trump’s trumped-up racism. What’s really at stake is the idea that people of color cannot be qualified for the presidency because they aren’t qualified for anything of importance—and that their lack of qualification hinges on the simple fact that they are people of color. This belief in people of color as intellectual and moral degenerates, coupled with demographic information supported by the latest census stating that Asians, Latinos, multiracials and African-Americans are increasing in numbers, is fueling fears that whites are a besieged group that needs to “take back America.”

Equally troubling is that many in the mainstream media choose not to expose such angry race-talk for what it is—the same old racism dressed up in one of Trump’s expensive suits. For instance, Dan Farber, the editor in chief of CBS News, tried to explain Trump’s racist, anti-affirmative-action charges as part of an effort to expose the president as an untrustworthy “cipher [who] cannot be trusted and is concealing a dark secret.” That’s simply untrue. And, as Ari Melber put it to The Nation, “I don’t see Trump saying that the President of the United States is a cipher—a zero or nonentity—but rather that back in the day, Obama was not good enough to get into college without a racial boost.” Or, take the renowned journalist Hendrik Hertzberg, who in this week’s edition of The New Yorker proposed that Trump is the “joke candidate of the present moment,” making charges that could be racist in nature but that were best interpreted in light of the GOP’s strategy of denying well-known facts such as global warming.

Continue reading at:  http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/trumped-up_racism_20110428/

Yes I wish President Obama were a stronger advocate for the working and under classes of American People.

Yet I am appalled beyond words with the racism the repulsive ultra right wing Republi-Nazi sociopaths are directing towards him.

In spite of my disappointments I realize how dangerously close the United States is to slipping into full blown Nazism.  Complete with death camps.  I have read too many analyses of the rise of the Third Reich and see too many parallels to not be extremely frightened for my nation and the people of the world.

The Christo-Fascist and Republi-Nazis are compulsive liars.  Like other sociopaths they are incapable of telling the truth about any thing.  Look at the example of Glenn Beck and his weaving of fiction and fantasy that he tries to pass off as actual history.  It is easy to dismiss those who believe his fantasies as ignorant, but there are more insidious people like those who feed him this tripe.

From Mother Jones: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/david-barton-gingrich-bachmann-huckabee

The GOP’s Favorite Fringe Historian

Jesus opposed the minimum wage, God hates socialism, and other teachings of the controversial evangelical leader Republican presidential contenders can’t stop praising.

By S
Thu Apr. 28, 2011 12:01 AM PDT

Newt Gingrich is a fan. So’s Michele Bachmann. Mike Huckabee’s such a booster that he recently said that all Americans should be “forced at gunpoint” to listen to this guy.

The object of this high praise from Huckabee—and recent shout-outs from other potential GOP presidential contenders—is David Barton, a Republican activist and minister who founded WallBuilders, a for-profit evangelical outfit that works to inject religion into politics. Barton holds some pretty unconventional views, and in the past he has spoken alongside fringe figures like Holocaust deniers and white supremacists. Among other things, he claims that Jesus would oppose the capital gains tax and the minimum wage; that global warming is “self-correcting”; and that the nation’s homeland security apparatus has been infiltrated by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. He also contends that the separation of church and state is a perversion of the Founding Fathers’ intention to create a Christian nation.

Barton is just the latest in a long, loud tradition of charismatic evangelicals capable of commanding legions of fundamentalist Christians, stretching from Billy Graham to Jerry Falwell to James Dobson. But unlike other evangelical leaders, Barton’s focus is on history—or his own unique version of it.

So why are some of the GOP’s top presidential contenders—along with a host of other Republican notables—touting Barton? Probably because of the undeniable appeal he holds for the evangelical community—a vital voting bloc for the Republican Party.

“The dance these candidates have to perform is somewhat delicate,” says Rob Boston, a senior policy analyst at Americans United for Separation of Church and State who’s tracked Barton for years. “They want to get the base fired up during primary season.”

At the American Family Association’s Rediscover God in America conference last month, Huckabee sang Barton’s praises. “I just wish that every single young person in America would be able to be under his tutelage, and understand something about who we really are as a nation,” Huckabee said. “I almost wish that there would be…a simultaneous telecast, and all Americans would be forced—forced at gunpoint, no less—to listen to every David Barton message, and I think our country would be better for it.” Gingrich recently said he “never listen[s] to David Barton without learning a whole lot of new things. It’s amazing how much he knows and how consistently he applies that knowledge.”

Barton concocts his arguments about American history from highly selective, professionally debunked readings of founding documents—some 100,000 of which he’s ferreted away in a vault in WallBuilders’ Aledo, Texas, headquarters. His life’s mission is to restore what he regards as the broken relationship between church and state. Through WallBuilders, Barton publishes books and finances a virtually nonstop speaking tour that, over the past two decades, has turned him into a superstar of the religious right.

Continue reading at: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/david-barton-gingrich-bachmann-huckabee

From People For The American Way: http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/barton-s-bunk-religious-right-historian-hits-the-big-time-tea-party-america

Barton’s Bunk: Religious Right ‘Historian’ Hits the Big Time in Tea Party America

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Why Barton Matters
• Barton 101
• Sloppy Scholarship
• Good Timing for Bad History
• Barton’s Bible = Tea Party Platform
• Barton on Politics:GOP = God’s Own Party
• Barton on Environmentalism: Green = Evil
• Barton on Religious Minorities
• Immigration
• Racial History
• The Courts
• Gay Equality
• Enlisting Jesus in the War on Unions
• Conclusion
• Additional Resources

Introduction

Newt Gingrich promises to seek his advice and counsel for the 2012 presidential campaign. Mike Huckabee calls him America’s greatest historian, says he should be writing the curriculum for American students, and in fact suggested that all Americans should be “forced at gunpoint” to listen to his broadcasts. Michelle Bachmann calls him “a treasure for our nation” and invited him to teach one of her Tea Party Caucus classes on the Constitution for members of Congress. State legislators from around the country invite him to share his “wisdom” with them. Glenn Beck calls him “the most important man in America.” Who is this guy?

This guy is David Barton, a Republican Party activist and a fast-talking, self-promoting, self-taught, self-proclaimed historian who is miseducating millions of Americans about U.S. history and the Constitution.

Barton has been profitably peddling a distorted “Christian nation” version of American history to conservative religious audiences for the past two decades. His books and videos denouncing church-state separation have been repeatedly debunked by respected historians, but that hasn’t kept Barton from becoming a folk hero for many in the Religious Right. His eagerness to help elect Republicans has won him gratitude and support from national as well as state and local GOP leaders. Former senator Sam Brownback, now the governor of Kansas, has said that Barton’s research “provides the philosophical underpinning for a lot of the Republican effort in the country today – bringing God back into the public square.” Indeed, Time Magazine named him one of the nation’s 25 most influential evangelical Christians in 2005.

Barton broadened his audience when Fox News’ Glenn Beck became a fan. Last year, Beck invited Barton to appear regularly on his “Founders’ Fridays” broadcasts, sending Barton’s books up the bestseller lists. And when Beck brought his messianic road show to Washington, D.C. in August 2010, Barton shared the stage with him. At America’s Divine Destiny, the kick-off event on the eve of Beck’s Lincoln Memorial rally, Barton waved copies of old books and sermons and argued that the nation’s founding documents were essentially cribbed from colonial-era sermons.

Complete article at:  http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/barton-s-bunk-religious-right-historian-hits-the-big-time-tea-party-america

From ATPN.Ca: http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2011/04/30/u-s-considers-native-canadian-groups-as-possible-terror-threats-embassy-cables/

By Jorge Barrera, APTN National News
April 30, 2011

OTTAWA-The U.S. has been keeping regular intelligence on potential security threats in Canada, including the activities of unnamed First Nations groups, according to two cables sent by the U.S. embassy in Ottawa and obtained by APTN National News.

The cables, labelled “secret,” were given to APTN by whistle-blower website Wikileaks. They were in a batch of about 800 cables that were not part of this week’s larger release of U.S. State Department cables originating in Canada.

They were embargoed until 9 p.m. ET Friday.

The cables, sent from the U.S. embassy in Ottawa, and titled, Security Environmental Profile Response For Mission Canada, appear to be part of regular updates on the situation in the country.

The U.S. identified the involvement of Aboriginal groups in anti-U.S. demonstrations and as possible terror threats in a Feb. 27, 2009 cable.

In a Feb. 16, 2005 cable, Aboriginal groups are only identified as possible terror threats.

The copy of the cables obtained by APTN, however, only include a “partial extract of the original cable,” according to the documents.

The cables are structured as answers to a list of questions not contained in the documents.

Under the subheading “Demonstrations,” the information details the size, type and frequency of demonstrations, highlighting those targeting the U.S. and its domestic and foreign policies.

Continue reading at:  http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2011/04/30/u-s-considers-native-canadian-groups-as-possible-terror-threats-embassy-cables/

From The Guardian UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/28/baltimore-trans-attack-mcdonalds

The beating of a woman in Baltimore graphically demonstrates how badly the United States lags on trans rights

Jane Fae
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 April 2011

Last week, the horrific beating (warning: graphic, violent footage) of trans woman Chrissy Lee Polis shocked the world’s trans community to the core. The authorities – and McDonald’s, on whose premises the incident took place – may be hoping the story will die down quickly. In the long run, though, this may prove to be a turning point to rank alongside Stonewall in historic significance, the moment that all those who fall under the transgender umbrella said: enough.

Lee Polis visited McDonald’s in Rosedale, Baltimore, where she went to the women’s toilets. There she was accosted by two teenage girls, aged 14 and 18. It is not clear whether they initially saw Chrissy as trans: one at least seems to have claimed they took issue because Chrissy spoke to “her” man. Whatever the initial motivation, however, the events that followed were rank with transphobia.

They attacked Chrissy, dragged her from the women’s toilets and proceeded to give her a good kicking. The store manager intervened briefly, and so did one customer. After a brief pause, the girls returned, pulling her by the hair, shouting abuse and only abandoning their vicious attack when Chrissy appeared to have a seizure – or, more likely, because a member of the McDonald’s staff called out to warn them the police were coming.

In one sense, so what? If you’re trans, you know this stuff. I average about one serious threat every other month. A few weeks ago, I was threatened with violence for daring to enter a female changing area not by the women there, but by a “concerned man”. It goes with the territory: at any moment we may encounter threat, abuse or worse. This, we quickly learn, is just part of the transition process.

This time, however, the incident was not unreported. While most of the McDonald’s crew did not intervene, one member of staff filmed the attack. He posted the clip online, titling it: “Two girls beating a man/lady at McDonald’s.” That and several more graphic comments highlighted that this was neither random violence, nor, as first reported, racial in origin.

A few days later, the story spiralled out from Baltimore to Maryland. It then went national – and global.

No law in the world can guarantee immunity from violence. Still, laws that underpin basic rights certainly help. Here in the UK, we have such laws. When I was threatened, I felt scared and upset. What I did not feel was the additional burden of being “in the wrong”. The leisure centre where I was confronted agreed there was no issue and upheld my right to use their facilities. The police confirmed this and had words with the guy who made the threats.

Continue reading at:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/28/baltimore-trans-attack-mcdonalds