I have a question to ask about this.
The trans civil rights movement began with stacked odds because it represents such a minority, less than 1 percent of the population, according to various studies. The movement is seen as the frontier beyond gay marriage rights, and trans activists “have moved so much faster than any of these other social justice movements,” said Mara Keisling, director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “It’s because they’ve all laid the groundwork for us.”
She expects to see a tipping point as more transgender children come out, just as gay rights picked up support from families with openly gay children.
Minneapolis became the first city to pass protections for transgender people 40 years ago, and more than 225 other municipalities and 19 states have followed suit. Houston is one of the only major U.S. cities without such a law.
Despite those ordinances, the rights of transgender people are being disputed in court or considered by federal authorities.
[…]
In 2013, the Public Religion Research Institute reported that 9 percent of Americans had a close transgender friend or family member. In 2014, the Human Rights Campaign said 17 percent of American survey respondents knew or worked with a transgender person, increasing to 22 percent this year.
It jumps to about 80 percent when the question is about gays and lesbians.
Remember those “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelets that were all the rage a few years back? I always thought they were obnoxious, but it seems to me they might serve a purpose these days. What would Jesus do with transgender people? Would he spit on them and call them perverts and refuse to let them use public restrooms, or would he embrace them as his brothers and sisters under a just and loving God? I’m just asking. I guess you can tell how I feel by the way I framed the question. I also know that this is a matter of life and death for a lot of people. I know that we will become more accepting as a society over time, but for too many people that won’t be soon enough.
I don’t think anyone is denying them the right to use the bathroom, it is the choice that they may make in regards to which bathroom that they will use that is being denied.
I knew Manny would be in first. If a man dressed as a woman goes into the men’s bathroom, she gets beaten up; if she goes into the women’s, she takes care of her business and leaves. But you’re skeered for the chirren…
It’s the “transgender children” part, in my limited experience, that conservatives seem to have the most trouble with. They believe this is parental indoctrination rather than parents allowing children to choose their toys, clothing, etc. Indeed, it appears that early childhood is where gender identification begins, sometimes irrespective of what gets assigned in utero.
It’s social mores that apply the ‘corrections’, guilt, etc. when adults don’t feel that children have chosen properly.
On the Transgender Day of Remembrance, Here’s another article worth reading.
Manny, would you still love a child of your own if she chose to live as a man? Just ‘yes’ or ‘no’, please.
When we get out in the real world away from our theoretical political arguments, public restrooms are really not very high up on the list of problems of transgenders, so far as I can see.
That’s because people don’t actually interact inside restrooms, but they do outside of restrooms.
People don’t whisper about me (or make slightly audible rude comments) everywhere I go (with certain unfortunate exceptions). But I’ve been in public situations with trasgender friends, and I’m shocked by how poorly people are able to handle the realization that someone is transgender. Suddenly, EVERYONE turns into that kid in a grocery store asking his mom too loudly about someone he sees.
I used to want to jump into those situations and defend my friends. Then I figured out that they go through that every day. All the time. They’ve figured out how to get through it.
Can you imagine?
Good informational post Katy Anders.
PDiddie, I have two adopted children one is autistic. I love children if I could have afforded to have adopted more children I would have done so. Having said that not sure what your question has to do with the last question that you asked.
As a school teacher for 20 years, I had students that were every thing. As a Hearing Officer I met all types of persons. I am fascinated by life and the difference in all of us. I worked easily with Leslie Perez and her mother. I voted for her twice when she ran for Democratic Party Chair when the homosexual community was working against her. While Bill Cosby, at this time is the wrong person to quote, he once stated that when you hate someone or a group the hate is like a cancer that kills the person that carries it and does no damage to the hated individual. We are different isn’t that what makes life so beautiful?
Dangerous Games: The True Story of a Convicted Murderer on Death Row Who Changed His Sex and Won Her Freedom (Book about Leslie Perez).
In this unusual story, engagingly told by screenwriter Bentley, Leslie Douglas Ashley met Carolyn Lima at a lesbian bar in Houston. In February 1961, soon after moving in together, the pair, who had turned to prostitution, were charged with fatally shooting a customer named Fred A. Tones, leaving his burned body in a vacant lot. A legal battle and media circus ensued. Ashley was sentenced to death; Lima was imprisoned and eventually released. Ashley’s verdict was overturned because the prosecutor improperly hid psychiatric records. Ashley was sent to a mental hospital, escaped and was captured six months later. After serving five years in prison, he was released and underwent a sex-change operation, becoming Leslie Elaine Perez. In a stranger than fiction twist, she became politically active in Houston’s chapter of ACT-UP.
http://www.houstonpress.com/news/political-sex-change-6565670
Manny: I can’t draw “yes” or “no” out of that. If you don’t understand what I’m asking, ask your smartest friend to explain it to you.