Women Born Transsexual

From NORML: http://blog.norml.org/2010/10/18/prop-19-opponents-verbal-bluster-is-just-the-latest-sign-that-we-are-winning/

By: Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director

10/18/2010

In response to Friday’s threat by the Obama administration that they will “vigorously enforce” federal anti-marijuana laws in California, regardless of whether voters enact Proposition 19 this November, I have the following commentary in today’s edition of The Hill.

Obama administration may back marijuana prohibition, but that doesn’t mean that California voters have to do the same
via The Hill

[excerpt: Read the full text and comment on it here.]

Despite the claims from Prop. 19 opponents that the measure would be ‘preempted’ by the federal government, at no time has the administration challenge the fact that Californians have the legal right to determine their own marijuana policies. Rather, the federal government has simply reinforced that they remain of the opinion that pot ought to be criminally outlawed — a position that is clearly out-of-step with the American public’s sentiment.

Furthermore, Californians have been here before and not just in 1996, when a majority of voters decided in favor of legalizing the statewide medical use of marijuana. Seventy-eight years ago this November, Californians overwhelmingly voted for the repeal of a morally, socially, and economically failed public policy – alcohol prohibition. Voters did not wait for the federal government to act; they took the matter into their own hands. And they will likely do so again this November.

Continue reading at:  http://blog.norml.org/2010/10/18/prop-19-opponents-verbal-bluster-is-just-the-latest-sign-that-we-are-winning/

From Mother Jones’ Magazine: http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/gay-kids-foster-homes-bullying

One teenager’s heart-wrenching—and telling—story.

— By Jason Cherkis

Damn…  We could have had Hillary instead of Obama who seems to stand for nothing…

From Advocate.com: http://advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/10/19/Recruiters_Must_Accept_Gay_Applicants/

By Kerry Eleveld

A Pentagon spokeswoman says recruiters have been told they must accept gay applicants, following a federal court decision striking down the ban on gays serving openly in the military, the Associated Press is reporting.

As The Advocate reported last Thursday, the Department of Defense issued new orders via email late Thursday afternoon informing all five branches of the military that they must comply with an injunction ordered by a federal judge on enforcement of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” according to Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith.

“The Department of Defense will of course obey the law, and the email noted that, in the meantime, the Department will abide by the terms in the court’s ruling, effective as of the time and date of the ruling,” Cynthia Smith said in an e-mail. “Earlier today, the Staff Judge Advocate Generals [J.A.G.] from the Military Services, in consultation with the OSD Office of General Counsel, sent to their Service Staff Judge Advocate counterparts in the field an email informing them of the ruling by Judge Virginia Phillips of the Central District of California.”

The guidance came more than 48 hours after Judge Phillips initially placed the injunction on the policy – too late for gay veterans like Omar Lopez, who were anxious to reenlist when they first got wind of the policy’s suspension.

Continue reading at:  http://advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/10/19/Recruiters_Must_Accept_Gay_Applicants/

From Humboldt County’s North Coast Journal: http://www.northcoastjournal.com/news/2010/10/14/chloes-legacy/

10/14/2010

By Ryan Burns

Mourning parents hope to educate through the suicide of their teenage transgender daughter

On the Friday before Labor Day weekend, Karin Fresnel was on her weekly shopping trip at the Eureka Co-op when she noticed that she was being watched — first while standing in the beer aisle, then again at the meat counter. Finally, the petite, blond-haired woman who’d been following her through the store stepped forward and said, “Can I ask you a personal question?”

“My first thought was, ‘I’ve been clocked,’” Fresnel told the Journal last week. As a transgender woman, such confrontations are common. Not three days earlier a stranger on the street had called her “an abomination in the eyes of God.” So, fearing the worst, Fresnel drew herself up to her full height (six-three in heels) and answered, “Yes, you may, and yes, I’m trans.”

But the woman wasn’t looking to insult. “Her response was, ‘Oh, thank God. Do you know of any resources up here? My son … daughter … is transitioning.” This woman was Allison Murphy of Clovis, a rodeo-loving suburb six miles northeast of Fresno. She was in town visiting her 18-year-old daughter, Chloe, who until last year was known only as Justin. Murphy, the portrait of a concerned mom, had unknowingly stumbled across an ideal resource. Not only is Fresnel a trans woman, she’s also involved in numerous organizations that fight discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and sexually ambiguous persons, including Humboldt Pride, which she co-chairs.

Fresnel and Murphy talked for nearly an hour in the aisles of the Co-op, and three days later they met up again — this time with Chloe. “She asked lots of questions,” Fresnel said. Chloe had been suffering from severe depression and crippling anxiety for years, but on this day, in the company of her mom and someone who could finally answer her questions, she seemed hopeful, even happy, Fresnel said. “The expression ‘bright as a penny’ came to mind when I met her.”

On Sept. 24, 18 days after this meeting, Chloe committed suicide. She was 10 days shy of her 19th birthday.

Continue reading:  http://www.northcoastjournal.com/news/2010/10/14/chloes-legacy/

From an e-mail sent by Riki Wikchins organization, True Child

10/19/2010

At a time when there have been so many tragedies surrounding kids and sexual orientation, it’s helpful to remember how much this kind of bullying owes to masculinity and a gender culture that punishes those who don’t live up to its narrow ideals.

Dr. Michael Kimmel, one of the nation’s leading experts on masculinity and a board member at TrueChild, has an op-ed about the heartbreaking suicide of Rutgers freshman, Tyler Clementi, and gay teen suicides on Ms. Magazine Blog. Kimmel explains that writing these incidents off as anti-gay bullying hides much of the real issue. It is masculinity and gender norms, not just orientation, that are the root of the problem.

Writing that gay “teens” suffer such relentless abuse or bullying obscures as much as it reveals. Anti-gay sentiments are only partly related to sexual orientation. Calling someone gay or a fag has become so universal that it’s become synonymous with dumb, stupid or wrong. And it’s “dumb” or “wrong” because it isn’t masculine enough.

To the “that’s-so-gay” chorus, homosexuality is about gender nonconformity, not being a “real man,” and so anti-gay sentiments become a shorthand method of gender policing.

Many guys think being gay means not being a guy. That’s the choice: gay or guy.

Take Jesse Montgomery who suffered 11 years of a daily verbal barrage of “faggot,” “queer,” “homo,” “gay,” “girl,” “princess,” “fairy,” “freak,” “bitch,” and “pansy.” He was regularly punched, kicked, tripped. One of the students grabbed his own genitals while squeezing Jesse’s buttocks and on other occasions would stand behind and grind his penis into Jesse’s backside. By the way, Jesse Montgomery is straight.

Kimmel is right: it’s not enough to focus only on sexual orientation. For many of these kids, gay-bashing is not about sex, it’s about ideals of manhood and masculinity that are being violated. This is the elephant in the room: you have to confront masculinity, which is painful. As long as we focus just on gay-ness, we miss so much.

Riki Wilchins

Director of Programs and Research

P.S. On a related note, as a parent of a 4-year-old girl who is already playing dress-up, I was glad to see this new book about Dyson Kilodavis, another 4-year-old who likes playing dress-up. Check out “My Princess Boy” here (the Washington Post article is here )

________________________________________________________________________________________

*Michael Kimmel is among the leading researchers and writers on men and masculinity in the world today. He is the author or editor of more than 20 volumes and his book, Manhood in America: A Cultural History, was hailed as the definitve work on the subject.

The real fear regarding the ending of Drug Prohibition is that it will hurt the Police/Prison Industrial Complex.

Ever wonder what happened to the Untouchables and all those police units that were mobilized to “Fight the War on Alcohol” during Prohibition once Prohibition was over turned?

Hint.  They weren’t retired or absorbed back into other units.  They were instead given a new war to fight. The War on Drugs was created.  Incidentally the original war on drug  focused then as it does today mainly on the poor and on people of color.

As for the dangers of illegal drugs.  Pharmaceutical Corporation generated drugs kill more people every year than illegal drugs do.  Indeed most of my friends who died of drug over doses got those drugs from a Doctor and they were manufactured by a major corporation.

From Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/drugs/148533/15_million_americans_have_been_arrested_because_pot_is_illegal_–_when_will_our_dumb_marijuana_prohibition_be_overturned/

Criminal laws are not an effective way to control marijuana; removing criminal penalties does not lead to increased use; decriminalization creates savings in law enforcement.
By Kevin Zeese, CounterPunch

Posted on October 18, 2010,Printed on October 19, 2010
The great divide between politicians and the people is showing itself in California where polls show the voters support Proposition 19 and where the mainstream politicians mostly oppose it.

To many Americans, there are few policies more bankrupt than the prohibition on marijuana use, a recognition that a blue-ribbon panel reached four decades ago, urging an emphasis on drug education rather than incarceration.

In 1970, the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommended ending the illegality of marijuana in the United States. The Dutch also had a national commission that reached the same conclusion.

The difference was the Dutch listened to their experts and President Nixon and other American politicians ignored the U.S. experts. Well, the results are in – the experts were right and the politicians were wrong, even on the issue of how many people use marijuana. It turns out prohibition was less successful than decriminalization.

Continue reading at:  http://www.alternet.org/drugs/148533/15_million_americans_have_been_arrested_because_pot_is_illegal_–_when_will_our_dumb_marijuana_prohibition_be_overturned/

From The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/us/19brfs-JUDGESIGNALS_BRF.html?_r=1

October 19, 2010

By JOHN SCHWARTZ