Rapist for Jesus Threatens Women at “Gay Day” Michigan

08/09/2012 — Suzan

In a Playboy interview in 1976, then Presidential candidate, Jimmy Carter confessed to the sin of “lusting in his heart.”

People made fun of him.

But I was raised Catholic and was taught even thinking about committing a sin is the same as actually committing it.

So when a man fantasizes about raping women, he is a rapist in his heart.

According to the Bible he should therefore go castrate himself based on the concept behind the passage about “If thy eye offends, pluck it out.”

From Raw Story:  http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/09/man-with-bible-threatens-to-rape-woman-during-gay-day-in-michigan/

Man with Bible threatens to rape woman during ‘Gay Day’ in Michigan

By David Edwards
Thursday, August 9, 2012

Police in Grand Rapids, Michigan say that there was nothing they could do after Bible-preaching protesters threatened to rape and murder pro-LGBT activists at a “Gay Day” event over the weekend.

In a video posted to YouTube, several protesters with Bibles can be seen shouting at a woman celebrating in the inaugural “Gay Day” celebration, an event organized by the human rights group Tolerance, Equality and Awareness Movement (TEAM) to showcase the community’s diversity.

“Back in the day there was no free power, there was no going to the mall,” one protester tells the woman. “There was, ‘sit your ass in this house until I bring my ass home.’”

“And if your ass get to going out there like you said, guess what?” a second protester adds. “You get raped. And that’s what’s going to happen to you. … Keep your pussy clean, that’s all you need to do. Do you understand?”

After one man claims, “the Lord said that,” the woman challenges him to find the corresponding Bible verse.

He responds with Isaiah 13: “Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.”

Continue reading at:   http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/09/man-with-bible-threatens-to-rape-woman-during-gay-day-in-michigan/

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Trans Man Denied Cancer Treatment; Now Feds Say It’s Illegal

08/09/2012 — Suzan

From GLAAD:  http://www.glaad.org/news/trans-man-denied-cancer-treatment-now-feds-say-its-illegal

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Jay Kallio, a former EMT who is disabled with kidney failure, rheumatoid arthritis and now cancer, has struggled to get good medical care, but being transgender stood in the way.

At the age of 50, Kallio transitioned from female to male, but never had gender reassignment surgery, only hormone treatment. “I accept my body as I was born,” he said.

But when a suspicious lump was found in his breast and tested positive for cancer, the surgeon was so shocked that Kallio’s body didn’t match his gender identification—not knowing whether to address him as “he” or “she”—that he couldn’t bring himself to tell his patient the grim biopsy results.

Now the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has said that under the Affordable Care Act, it is against the law to discriminate against transgender and LGBT patients in federally funded healthcare programs.

See Original ABC Post

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Gender dysphoria replacing gender identity disorder in DSM

08/09/2012 — Suzan

From Xtra Canada: http://www.xtra.ca/blog/national/post/2012/08/07/Gender-dysphoria-replacing-gender-identity-disorder-in-APA-manual.aspx

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI
Aug. 7, 2012

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) will replace the term gender identity disorder in the upcoming fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), a move that activists have lobbied the APA to make for years, contending that that term characterizes transgender people as mentally ill.

Instead, the term gender dysphoria will be used to refer to people who experience “a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender,” according to an Associated Press report.

“We know that there is a whole community of people out there who are not seeking medical attention and live between the two binary categories,” psychiatrist Jack Drescher, an APA subcommittee member, said in the report. “We wanted to send the message that the therapist’s job isn’t to pathologize.”

Retired surgeon Dana Beyer also told AP that shifting the emphasis from a disorder that “by definition all transgender people possess to a temporary mental state that only some might possess” signals real progress. “A rightwinger can’t go out and say all trans people are mentally ill, because if you are not dysphoric, that can’t be diagnosed from afar.”

Like gay people before them, transgender people have seen APA language applied to their disadvantage.

According to AP, advocate Kelley Winters, who was among those who helped push for the change, also notes that the “disordered” label saddles transgender people with the burden of proving their competence.

Continue reading at:   http://www.xtra.ca/blog/national/post/2012/08/07/Gender-dysphoria-replacing-gender-identity-disorder-in-APA-manual.aspx

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Bryan Fischer: Christians Should Kidnap The Children Of Gay And Lesbian Parents

08/09/2012 — Suzan

Far too many TS/TG folks have the courts do the dirty work of custody and visitation denial.  I am saddened by the stories of some of my Facebook friends who are no longer permitted to see their children or share custody.

The APA/DSM classification of TS/TG people being disordered (GID) is used as a tool to deny custody and/or visitation.

From Joe My God:  http://www.joemygod.blogspot.com/2012/08/bryan-fischer-christians-should-kidnap.html

By Joe Jervis
Aug. 8, 2012

For years here on JMG we’ve been following the case of Lisa Miller, the “ex-gay” woman who kidnapped her daughter to Central America after losing several court cases that awarded custody to her former partner. The preacher accused of facilitating that crime is about to go on trial, prompting American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer to issue calls for an anti-gay “Underground Railroad” to help shield the kidnappers of the children of gay parents.

As you may recall, that “Underground Railroad” already exists in the form of the virulently anti-gay Liberty Counsel, as the kidnapped child was found living in the Nicaraguan home of the father of a Liberty Counsel employee. Over at Dead Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, students were taught that it’s sometimes best to obey “God’s laws” rather than “man’s laws” and that “righteous kidnapping” in cases such as Lisa Miller’s were justified. Those classes were taught by Liberty Counsel president Mat Staver and Lina Lindevaldsen, both of whom represented Miller in her failed custody attempts. The students were then tested on whether they’d break the law for God.

Continue reading at:  http://www.joemygod.blogspot.com/2012/08/bryan-fischer-christians-should-kidnap.html

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Let’s Be Clear: Transgender Discrimination IS Sex Discrimination

08/09/2012 — Suzan

From ACLU:  http://www.aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/lets-be-clear-transgender-discrimination-sex-discrimination

By Ian Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office
08/08/2012

Recently, the ACLU and numerous allied coalition partners wrote to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to request that HHS issue guidance to make clear that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s prohibition on sex discrimination applies to discrimination based on gender identity and sex stereotypes.  The fact that someone is transgender or does not conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity and femininity should never be a barrier to accessing health care services.

Discrimination in this area could include everything from a refusal to admit or treat an individual based on their gender identity to a requirement that those who are transgender or gender-nonconforming undergo intrusive and medically unnecessary examinations as a condition of receiving treatment.

In response to the LGBT coalition letter, HHS confirmed that this was in fact their view, while stopping short of issuing additional formal guidance at this time (though they have said they plan to do so in the future).  The implications for this are, as our colleagues at the National Center for Transgender Equality point out, that LGBT patients facing discrimination based on either their gender identity or a nonconformity with sex stereotypes at hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices, or other medical providers that accept Medicare or Medicaid (as well as other forms of federal funding) can file complaints of discrimination with the Office for Civil Rights at HHS and expect to have them investigated and taken seriously.  This is critically important for LGBT patients and families who are uniquely vulnerable to discrimination and mistreatment in health care settings.

A first of its kind 2010 survey from Lambda Legal found that 56 percent of LGB and 70 percent of transgender and gender-nonconforming respondents reported experiencing one or more of the following in a health care setting: being refused needed care; health care professionals refusing to touch them or using excessive precautions; health care professionals using harsh or abusive language; being blamed for their health status; or health care professionals being physically rough or abusive.

This latest positive development from HHS is in keeping with an ever-expanding number of court decisions and other interpretations making clear that transgender discrimination is sex discrimination.

Most recently, the EEOC issued a landmark decision in April that, following common sense and a growing body of case law, declared that workplace discrimination against transgender people violates the federal ban on sex discrimination in employment.  The EEOC said this is true regardless of whether an employer discriminates against an employee because the individual has expressed his or her gender in a non-stereotypical fashion, because the employer is uncomfortable with the fact that the person has transitioned or is in the process of transitioning from one gender to another (as was the case with former ACLU client Diane Schroer), or because the employer simply does not like that the person is identifying as transgender.  In Schroer v. Library of Congress, a federal district judge ruled that the Library of Congress illegally discriminated against Schroer in a groundbreaking decision that found that discriminating against someone for changing genders is a prohibited form of sex discrimination.

We at the ACLU will continue to push for clarity that bans on sex discrimination protect those who are transgender.   Let’s celebrate the fact that it is becoming increasingly clear that discrimination against transgender individuals – be it in the workplace or in a health care setting – is sex discrimination.  But let’s also continue to advocate for more such common sense interpretations.  And let’s continue to push for passage of explicit bans on discrimination against individuals based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

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Gender Equality: The Smart Thing To Do

08/09/2012 — Suzan

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Why Machismo Can Be Deadly For Gay Latinos

08/09/2012 — Suzan

From Alternet:  http://www.alternet.org/gender/why-machismo-can-be-deadly-gay-latinos

The adulation of traditional masculinity causes many Latino men who have sex with other men to lead hidden lives.

By Erika L. Sanchez
August 5, 2012

Machismo, that aggressive masculine pride common to a number of cultures, pressures many men who have sex with other men to refuse to identify themselves as gay. This tension between identity and reality can be incredibly detrimental to the Latino community. In fact, it can be deadly.

Roberto, 27, a former supervisor of two gay bathhouses in Chicago said that there was a very large contingent of “heterosexual” Latino customers at these establishments. “Bathhouses are used as outlets for them. Many men came to take a break from work. A lot of them were older. They were men like our dads.” During his employment at one of the bathhouses, an older Latino man died in a steam room. His wife and son arrived confused and hurt. “They didn’t know he was gay, so they took out their frustration on us.”

This contradiction, and the attendant secrecy, causes depression and isolation in closeted men. They have to compartmentalize their lives, which causes barriers within themselves as well as between them and their loved ones. “It causes confusion for their families. It also exposes them to risks,” Roberto says. “Some men may take out their frustration by abusing their families.”

Andrés Duque, 44, editor of the blog Blabbeando, gives an example from the Dominican Republic: “It’s probably one of the most homophobic countries in Latin America although there are some signs that this might be changing. But, culturally, you see the figure of the ‘bugarrón,’ a guy who is straight but will sleep with men for money, emerge as an identity. And you see some Dominican men adopt that identity proudly and the masculinity that it supposedly carries with it whereas they would never call themselves gay or bisexual.”

Continue reading at:   http://www.alternet.org/gender/why-machismo-can-be-deadly-gay-latinos

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