trans rights

Human Rights Day, 2025

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Today is Human Rights Day, and I’m of a mind to share two quotations:

Women’s Rights are Human Rights. – Hillary Clinton

Trans Rights are Human Rights.

I’m finding it difficult to write about human rights today when the United States is violating them left, right, and center, every which way we look, on the land, in the air, on the sea.

I find it difficult directing you to the human rights watches of Amnesty International and the United Nations, both of whom I’ve respected my entire life and have now abandoned them as they’ve abandoned many of us.

I find it difficult accepting that human rights are a right for all humans when we see so many rights being torn away, stomped upon, and set on metaphorical fire.

Last week, I saw a picture online of a drunk racoon passed out next to a toilet in a public bathroom, a gas station, I think, and that seems to have summed up the last eleven months  of where we are in terms of the world, of our elected leaders here around the world, and of the human rights being taken away and destroyed before our very eyes.

No, I’m sorry, there’s no witty twist, no redemption arc. It is what it is, and it’s a dumpster fire.

Transgender Day of Remembrance

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Today is the day that we remember those victims of transphobia, hate, and violence. One day, may the terror and horror they face be eliminated.

The week leading up to today was Trans Visibility Awareness Week, and it’s important to recognize that trans people are in the world and of the world.

Especially this year, when trans people are at higher risk because of our government, and others across the globe, we need to remember those that gave their lives, those that are both out and closeted, and respect their choices.

I would also like to remind people that while LGBT+ youth are at the highest risk for abuse and violence (both from strangers and from domestic abuse/violence), trans youth have even higher rates of homelessness, assault, and suicide. Pay attention to the words you use and what you may post on social media. That clever quip may not be that clever. Take away the stigma and let us all use anti-stigma identifying and inclusive language.

My pronouns are she/her. Yours are?

This missive encompasses many issues, so I’d like to end with the reminder that today is for the commemoration of the trans dead. Please remember them – all of them, especially trans youth and trans people of color who have lost their lives to too much hate and too soon.

Gender Queer: A Review

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After all the Republican outrage over banning books, I thought it was time to read one of the more “controversial” ones for myself. I already knew from previous experience that once these book banners got it into their heads that a book was “inappropriate”, there is usually no going back for them. One thing that I’m proud about myself is that I’m willing to make mistakes and apologize for them, and even, heavens to Betsy, change my mind as I grow and evolve. That doesn’t seem to be the case for the immediate future.

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Intentions-Inspirations-Resolutions

round button colored green with three sentences: 1. Ankose 2. Everything is connected 3. Tout est relie
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For readers who have been here for awhile, I rarely if ever declare or think about New Year’s Resolutions. That changes this year. After the election, I’ve been inundated with lies and misinformation, not to mention the focus on stupidity rather than real news, and I am damn sick of it. That led me to think about my life and my writing.

I may have already written about my new job, but I started working in October, and it is the kind of place that feeds my soul. I have never had a job like this before, and every day is a joy to be there, and that allows that joy to follow me home. It’s been a good couple of months.

Obviously, I’m disappointed (understatement) about the election. I hope we can get through the next two years, and use the midterm elections to return to sanity. My first Election Connection of the new year will appear in this space next Tuesday.

As I mentioned yesterday, I am really proud of my series writing, and those will continue. In addition to Election Connection, there will be more Mental Health Monday, monthly Inspired and Friday Food posts, and I’m hoping for a return to Penny Prompts – the writing prompts based on Louise Penny’s writing and her Armand Gamache mystery series.

Those are both my intentions and my inspirations and I hope to find more throughout the year. You will find more of my new year’s thoughts below the cut.

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Nancy Mace is a Bully. And a Bigot.

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Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day when we take account and remember those transgender people who have died, and been murdered, disproportionately trans women of color.

Today is also the day that Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina sponsored a procedure/rule banning trans women from using the women’s restrooms at the Capitol. I’m not sure if this includes tourists visiting the nation’s capital and its Capitol Building or just the ONE trans member of Congress who was just elected from Delaware. Either way, Nancy Mace has been using vulgar, transphobic, and bigoted language, and creating a hostile work environment, and creating potential hate attacks on others including youth in and out of schools.

Today is the day that Nancy Mace decided that THIS is the one issue that needs to be addressed in the last few weeks of the Congressional session.

On the other hand, Representative-Elect Sarah McBride of Delaware issued her own statement that she will abide by the rules set forth by the Speaker of the House (Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana), and she is in Congress to work for the people she represents in her district.

The difference between that reaction from Congressperson-Elect McBride and Rep. Mace tells you all you need to know about the morals of both of them and Mace’s lack of any.

Nancy Mace is a bigot; we know that. She is also a bully. This rule change won’t affect Ms. McBride as much as it will affect the hundreds of trans and non-binary kids who are getting bullied in classrooms from students their own age AND from teachers and staff.

I am disgusted with Republicans like Nancy Mace who should have better things to do than attack a fellow (soon-to-be) colleague.

I would say “shame on her,” but she clearly has no shame.

All of my well wishes go to Sarah Mc Bride.

Election Connection – NYS Prop 1

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19 Days

I belong to a group that is a religious based group. I get that I am on the outside of the norm for doctrine, for civil rights, and other issues, but for the most part we amicably disagree and I only correct factual errors. I have never, as far as I know, given my views on abortion. I do speak forcefully on trans rights.

So, here we are.

I was on a conference call last week when one of the members asked to make an announcement, and then proceeded to express a political ad in opposition to New York’s Proposition 1 that will appear on the ballet this Election Day, November 5, 2024.

An announcement would be something akin to informing what the proposition is and where to find more information to make your own judgment call. This was not the usual Catholic call to vote your conscience. This was an out and out vote no, and here’s why.

I listened anyway. I have an open mind, and I want to know where others are coming from. But when he began spewing misinformation, I blew a gasket. Silently, of course, we’re all muted, and I wasn’t going to call him out when 90% of the call would be against me, but I did hang up, and that is something that everyone on the call could hear.

I was really furious.

Yes, of course, vote your conscience, but learn the facts about an issue. Telling a captive audience that this bill is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” and making it about “girls’ sports” and of course, the behemoth single issue, abortion, I just can’t.

Proposition 1 is:

This is the complete text that you will see printed on your ballot.:

Adds anti-discrimination provisions to State Constitution. Covers ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity and pregnancy. Also covers reproductive healthcare and autonomy.

 [Italics mine.]

This is an official summary of the measure provided by your election administrator:

This proposal amends Article 1, Section 11 of the New York State Constitution. It prohibits any person, business, or organization, as well as state and local governments from discrimination pursuant to law. The current protections in the Constitution cover race, color, creed, and religion. The proposal will add ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy. The amendment allows laws to prevent or undo past discrimination.

 [Italics mine.]

Combatting Misinformation

Myth#1: This will increase abortions.

This will NOT increase abortions. This will save women’s lives. It will decrease the unnecessary deaths of women (look up Amber Thurman of Georgia). It will give everyone bodily autonomy and enable them to make their own medical (and other) decisions. Women are not second-class citizens. When Brett Kavanaugh was asked during his confirmation hearing if there were any laws restricting a man’s choices for his body, he could not name one. That’s because there are none. Equality is for everyone.

Reproductive rights include the decision of when and if to have a family, the use of fertility procedures and contraception. Bodily autonomy includes cancer treatments and vaccinations. Some contraception drugs are used for other ailments. Those decisions are between a patient and their doctor.

And don’t forget that more than a few Republican politicians including the candidate for VP, Senator Vance has said they will require girls and women to submit to a pregnancy test before they are allowed to travel across state lines.

Myth#2: Loss of Parental Rights due to anti-age discrimination laws

This is a ludicrous argument. Children will not be able to do whatever they want any more than they do now. Parents will still have a say in their children’s decisions. This is no way that will change that.

Your 5-Year-old still cannot get a tattoo. Your 15-year-old still cannot have breast enlargement (or reduction) surgery. Your 10-year-old cannot now drive a car. When you say these things, you sound stupid unless you’re just fear-mongering which frankly is worse.

Myth#3: Trans Rights will threaten girls’ sports

And while we’re on the subject, I mean, why no concern over boys’ sports?

Is it that we honestly don’t care? We certainly didn’t care when Michael Phelps won award after award, and no one batted an eye despite his “natural advantage,” something genetic, with which he was born. (Google it.)

Trans girls and women are not “men in dresses”. They are women and girls, and they deserve to spend their childhood playing the sports that they want to (just like the boys do).

Let me ask you a few questions:

Do you color your hair? Cut it? Wear nail polish? Makeup? Choose a style of eyeglasses? Do you shave your legs? Or face? Or go to the gym?

These are ALL examples of gender-affirming care.

For Catholics (which is the group on my conference call), there is nothing inherently anti-doctrinal about trans people, but there is and should be an issue when you are bigoted and when you misinform about who and what trans people are, and transness is.

You can call it freedom of speech, you can call it parental rights, you can call it protecting girls’ sports, but what it really is, is bigotry, plain and simple.

Saying everyone should be equal, and passing laws that do just that should be a positive thing; we should be striving towards equality for all, and not creating a caste system of second-class citizens.

Equality for all means EQUALITY. FOR. ALL.

I will be voting YES on Prop 1 in New York state, and I hope you will too.

Mourning

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I have come to realize that “pro-life” is a misnomer. The people who espouse it, who embrace it, who shout it from the rooftops, don’t actually know what it means. When I hear the phrase “pro-life” I’m supposed to think that the person shouting it believes in life. But they don’t believe in life when the life is gay, when the life is Black, when the life is an immigrant or someone who’s accented, when the life is poor or homeless or addicted to drugs. They don’t believe in life when they allow three people, three human beings, a mother and her two small children drown while watching, and actively stop help from getting to them. They don’t believe in life if they are killed by guns, which are more sacred to them than the life it takes. They claim to care about the life of people who aren’t people yet, still unborn, still getting their life from their host woman, but if that woman dies because she can’t receive a lifesaving abortion, well, that’s life. But it’s not pro-life.

They lie about the services at Planned Parenthood.

They lie about the activities inside “crisis pregnancy centers.”

They lie about women’s* bodies or they simply don’t understand how women’s bodies work, which should be the first clue that they shouldn’t be legislating on women’s bodies.

I’ve seen legislators who don’t understand the basics of puberty or menstruation or how babies are conceived, thinking that the only party is the woman who holds the responsibility for her actions and the future of three people.

They sound pathetic and stupid, and it’s embarrassing.

On this anniversary of the now reversed Roe v. Wade, I’m in mourning. I’m in mourning for what pro-life people did to Roe, the person: manipulating, gaslighting, and abandoning. I’m in mourning for my daughter. I’m in mourning for her friends. I mourn for the residents of Texas and Florida especially.

The only pro-life option is safe and legal abortions for anyone who needs one.

Why is there upset and indignation when the “pro-life” set is called pro-birth or forced birth, but what else are they if not that? No one comes to pray outside of social services or the WIC offices for the children once they are born. No one prays outside of counseling centers, real counseling centers for victims of sexual assault and incest. The only prayers are for doctor’s offices and clinics that offer full service reproductive health services. Why is that?

How can you be anti-abortion and pro-death penalty?

How can you be pro-war?

Things to think about because your hypocrisy is showing, and it has been for a very long time. With the Dobbs ruling, women are dying, women are being prosecuted and persecuted for having miscarriages, women are being denied life-saving care, women are left to die of sepsis, are left to infertility, and families are just left.

*When I say women, read: all child-bearing people.