Conservative Rabbis Back Transgender Rights.

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Following an onslaught of anti-transgender legislation across the country, the Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism, the international association of Conservative rabbis, made a historic move to protect transgender and gender non-conforming congregants.

Last week, the assembly passed a historic resolution urging officials in all levels of government to review their policies and practices to ensure the full equality of transgender people under the law.

The resolution will impact how Conservative synagogues, camps, schools and affiliated organizations address the safety and explicit inclusion of transgender and gender non-conforming people. It encourages all organizations affiliated with the Conservative Movement “to educate themselves and their employees about the needs of transgender and gender non-conforming people” and provide safe spaces, as well “evaluate their physical site needs, workplace needs, and language that impact gender and gender expression.”

Rabbi Gil Steinlauf, senior rabbi of Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C. and distinguished member of HRC’s Religion Council, expressed “pride” in the Conservative Movement for “its affirmation of the fundamental rights of transgender people within Judaism.”

“Since Talmudic times, our people have recognized that the human condition is not just binary. We have long known that God’s presence is manifest in a multiplicity of expressions of our genders and our lives,” Rabbi Steinlauf told HRC. “I hope this resolution will go far in promoting this deep truth of our religion in our society and in the world.”

Full Story Here.  JTA also has this story.

Cool Stuff Friday

“I Am His Hands. He Is My Eyes.” The Friendship That Built a Forest​. Get your tissues out for this one, folks.

 

This image released by Electronic Arts shows the new diverse characters that will be available on "The Sims 4" the latest edition of "The Sims" video game. (Electronic Arts via AP)

This image released by Electronic Arts shows the new diverse characters that will be available on “The Sims 4” the latest edition of “The Sims” video game. (Electronic Arts via AP)

You can now create transgender Sims in popular video game.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The creators of “The Sims” are opening up gender customization options for the first time in the long-running history of the popular life simulation video game.

“The Sims” publisher Electronic Arts and developer Maxis said a free update available Thursday for “The Sims 4” will remove gender boundaries and allow players to create virtual townsfolk — or Sims, as they’re known — with any type of physique, walk style or voice they choose.

LGBTQ Nation has the full story.

I’m not very good at paying attention to time. I have an alarm clock, but no other clocks in the house. I do have watches, but none of them work, and I don’t like to wear them. I don’t much like the idea of having a clock hanging overhead, either, but have come across a clock which may change my mind…

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The Colour O’Clock by Duncan Shotton. Fabulous! I also quite like his plate-plate collection:

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He has a number of delightful things, go have a look: http://dshott.co.uk/

Finding Middle Ground For Bigotry and Fear.

Maya Dillard Smith.

Maya Dillard Smith.

Maya Dillard Smith, the interim director of the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, has resigned from her position because she does not support the organization’s fight for the right of transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

Smith reportedly said the ACLU is advocating for trans rights at the expense of safety for women and children.

[…]

Smith claimed that transgender rights have “intersectionality with other competing rights, particularly the implications for women’s rights.” She said that when her young daughters shared a bathroom with transgender women, it made her worry the children would be harmed. “I have shared my personal experience of having taken my elementary school age daughters into a women’s restroom when shortly after three transgender young adults over six feet with deep voices entered,” she wrote in the statement.

So, if three young adults, over six feet tall, with deep voices, who were afab entered, that would be okey dokey? This couldn’t possibly be about your own perceptions and prejudices, right?

She went on to say that her “children were visibly frightened, concerned about their safety and left asking lots of questions for which I, like many parents, was ill-prepared to answer.”

So, you’re ill-prepared. What you should have done from there was to embark on an education, learn, go out and meet a few transgender people, listen. Share that education with your children. Oh, but no, can’t have that! Instead, your lack of learning must be enshrined, and your willful ignorance paraded about, spreading fear and lies.

“Despite additional learning I still have to do, I believe there are solutions that provide can provide accommodations for transgender people and balance the need to ensure women and girls are safe from those who might have malicious intent.”

Because transgender people might be people, but they can’t be women! You just can’t take the chance of allowing a woman in a womens’ lav, too dangerous.

In an interview with Atlanta TV station WXIA, Smith argued that cisgender (nontrans) women should not have to share bathrooms with trans women because it could be”traumatic.” “If we have all-gender restrooms which will accommodate trans folks, what do we do about women who are the survivors of rape, for whom it would be traumatic to share a public restroom where you take down your underwear, and there’d be men in the bathroom,” she said.

Auuugh, no, no, no. You do not get to hold up rape survivors as free PR, claiming to care about us, while having the nerve to speak for all of us. By the way, Ms. Smith, a lot of transgender people, including trans women, have been raped. Are you speaking for them, too?

Smith has launched a website called Finding Middle Ground that features a video of a young girl talking about “boys in the girls’ bathroom.” “There’s some boys who feel like they’re girls on the inside and there’s some boys that are just perverts,” says the young girl in the ad. A caption appears on the screen after she speaks that reads “How do we keep ourl ittle girls safe and prevent transgender discrimination?”

This is the same exact shite Ted Cruz was putting out, with absolutely no evidence to back it up.

Full Story Here.

Odisha Becomes First State To Give Welfare Benefits To Transgender People.

Members of the transgender community will be given Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards that will allow them to access benefits under various government welfare programmes. (Representational Image)

Members of the transgender community will be given Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards that will allow them to access benefits under various government welfare programmes. (Representational Image)

Bhubaneswar: Odisha is the first region in the country to give transgender people social welfare benefits – such as a pension, housing and food grains – usually allocated for only the most impoverished, an official said Today.

Niten Chandra, principal secretary of Odisha’s Department of Social Security, said the move to give the transgender community the same benefits as those living below the poverty line was aimed at improving their overall social and economic status.

“Most transgender people are in a very bad condition because of social exclusion. For example, they very often do not get employment easily,” Mr Chandra told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“The government had a consultation with transgender people in April, and they had raised their problems and issues. On that basis, we are now taking many decisions to help them – giving them the Below Poverty Line status is one of them.”

There are no official figures, but activists say there are hundreds of thousands of transgender people in India, many of whom face ostracism and discrimination, as well as verbal, physical and sexual abuse.

A lack of access to education and employment opportunities has meant many male-to-female transgender people – also known as “hijras” – end up forced into sex work or moving around in organised groups, begging or demanding money.

In a landmark judgment in April 2014, Supreme Court recognised transgender as a legal third gender and called on the government to ensure their equal treatment.

The court recognised the community as a marginalised group and directed authorities to implement policies to improve their socio-economic status.

Identity documents such as birth certificates, driving licenses and passports must now recognise the third gender, and a certain number of public sector jobs, seats in schools and colleges must be allocated to third-gender applicants.

Full Story at NDTV and Reuters.

Gosh, it sure would be nice if the ‘greatest country in the world’ could play catch up.

OK, then go in the bushes…

Stacey Dash.

Stacey Dash.

Get ready for a whole lot of  Stacey Dash.

I had a “who?” moment here, I’m terribly clueless when it comes to entertainment personalities. It seems Ms. Dash is an actress, who plays the mayor of Chicago in the upcoming “Sharknado” sequel “The 4th Awakens.” Golly. I’m not surprised  at being clueless in this case. Ms. Dash is also a rabid conservative who loves guns and has a whole lot of hate to share.

When asked on Wednesday about a passage in her book that criticizes Caitlyn Jenner, a fellow conservative, for using women’s bathrooms, Dash — who supports a North Carolinalaw that requires transgender people to use bathrooms that correspond with their birth sex — didn’t hold back.

“It’s tyranny by the minority,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “Why do I have to suffer because you can’t decide what you wanna be that day?” Dash said.

“OK, then go in the bushes,” she continued. “I don’t know what to tell you, but I’m not gonna put my child’s life at risk because you want to change a law. So that you can be comfortable with your beliefs — which means I have to change my beliefs and my rights? No.”

I’m not comfortable with your beliefs, Ms. Dash. They are ugly, hate-filled, bigoted beliefs. No one is putting your child at risk, either. If you’re so worried about that, though, I have an idea – when you and your child have to pee, I suggest you find a convenient bush.

Full Story Here.

The Fight Against Blue Lives Matter.

Getty Images.

Getty Images.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards signed the country’s first “Blue Lives Matter” law last week, a piece of legislation that makes a civilian attack on a veteran, police officer, emergency responder, or firefighter a possible hate crime. Louisianans convicted of misdemeanor hate crimes against officers will be slapped with a $500 fine and possibly an additional sentence of up to six months.

Fusion has a very good look at why this legislation was unnecessary, and how it can be used to further crush those already deeply marginalized and poor. As most people know, across uStates, there’s an automatic add on to any interaction with a cop. Punch someone, it’s assault. Punch a cop, it’s assault of a police officer, and cops do love taking advantage of that little add on. Everything is worse if it’s directed towards a cop, it’s always been that way, so why this legislation? How would Ferguson have played out under such legislation? I think maybe there wouldn’t have been a Ferguson at all with such a law in place. This simply adds yet more weight on the side of authoritarianism, more protections for any tale a cop might spin.

Julie Baxter Payer, the governor’s deputy chief of staff, told Fusion in an email that the governor does not view this law as targeting communities of color. In the statement about the bill, Governor Edwards said “coming from a family of law enforcement officers, I have great respect for the work that they do and the risks they take to ensure our safety.”

Anneke Dunbar-Gronke, part of BYP’s leadership in New Orleans, told me the law is redundant and that she sees “no existing precedent that can trust this [law] will be used in a way that will protect citizens,” adding “when it’s a police officer’s word against civilians we see how that’s played out specifically when it’s a black person or a person from a community of color.”

“The danger in that redundancy is that it further criminalizes black people, poor people, and those with the least access,” she said.

The vague language of the law, Moore-O’Neal said, also leaves communities more susceptible to legal trouble. “The purpose of these sorts of legislation is not public safety for the public but safety for the elite,” she said. “The purpose of this is to quell social unrest.” Moore-O’Neal, who is black, explained that the law can be easily interpreted to quell free speech.

“Who is to say if I am protesting or having direct action against cops?” she said. “Who is to say that isn’t a hate crime?” In late May, BYP helped organize the “National Day of Action to End State Violence Against All Black Women and Girls,” with actions that took place in at least 21 cities across the country.
Fusion has the full story.

Protect your kids from tyrant Obama

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James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, has decided to add yet another terrifying screed to the growing pile of Christian hate and panic over transgender rights. It’s tempting to simply poke at such rhetoric, and while it is ripe for mockery, too many people actually listen to people like Dobson, and Dobson thinks a gun might be the answer. There’s always someone willing to pick a gun up here in uStates.

…Obama, acting like a king, is wielding dictatorial powers never envisioned in the law. He is determined to change the way males and females relate to one another, and worse, how children perceive themselves. If you are a married man with any gumption, surely you will defend your wife’s privacy and security in restroom facilities. Would you remain passive after knowing that a strange-looking man, dressed like a woman, has been peering over toilet cubicles to watch your wife in a private moment? What should be done to the pervert who was using mirrors to watch women and girls in their stalls? If you are a dad, I pray you will protect your little girls from men who walk in unannounced, unzip their pants and urinate in front of them. If this had happened 100 years ago, someone might have been shot. Where is today’s manhood? God help us!…

Dobson has the sense to frame the gun part as a lament, “oh, if this were in the past, we could just kill the varmints!”, a way to cover himself when some committed Christian out there decides packin’ a pistol in a pee station is a great idea, and finds reason to use it. This is highly inflammatory rhetoric, and it’s being shouted from all sides.

WND article. Raw Story article. The Advocate article.

Crushed Mummy Pigment.

Mummy brown, Egyptian brown, or caput mortuum (literally, “dead head” in medieval Latin) was a rich pigment varying in hue from burnt to raw umber, made primarily from white pitch, myrrh, and ground-up ancient Egyptians and their pets.

Mummy brown, Egyptian brown, or caput mortuum (literally, “dead head” in medieval Latin) was a rich pigment varying in hue from burnt to raw umber, made primarily from white pitch, myrrh, and ground-up ancient Egyptians and their pets.

Someone, at some point in history, thought, hey, here’s an idea—let’s make paint out of crushed up mummies. Mummy, or Egyptian Brown, peaked in usage during the 18th century, in British painting especially. The “raw materials,” however, were a hot commodity long before that, as mummy powder was believed to have all kinds of magical healing properties and were a mainstay in 16th century European apothecaries. “In the course of at least 300 years of trade, an unrecorded number of archaeological objects was destroyed in order to make pigment,” says Khandekar of the highly unethical practice, whose popularity finally petered out in the early 1900s.

The Creators Project has an excellent article, along with some wonderful photos, about Harvard’s vast collection of rare pigments in their conservation lab. I was aware of all the pigments except for Mummy. That one left me rather stunned.

Kitchen cosmos: the universe made from food.

A planet and moon made from glasses filled with water, food colouring and coconut milk. The stars are made of salt, cinnamon and baking powder.

A planet and moon made from glasses filled with water, food colouring and coconut milk. The stars are made of salt, cinnamon and baking powder.

Hat tip to Marcus for sharing this amazing art by Navid Baraty.

From cinnamon galaxies and floury superclusters to coconut planets and sugary stars, photographer Navid Baraty has cooked up an entire universe out of the contents of his kitchen cupboard. Baraty has said the ‘fictional space scenes’ are inspired by Nasa and Hubble space telescope images. Here are a few of his otherworldly confections.

For his Wander Space Probe series, Navid Baraty made a planet by scanning the bottom of a glass containing water and food colouring, and conjured stars from salt, cinnamon and baking powder. Photographs: Navid Baraty.

For his Wander Space Probe series, Navid Baraty made a planet by scanning the bottom of a glass containing water and food colouring, and conjured stars from salt, cinnamon and baking powder. Photographs: Navid Baraty.

You can see much more of this beautiful work at The Guardian, Navid Baraty’s Gallery, and the Wander Space Probe.

Wattlebird and the Interloper.

From Lofty. All photos are 1500 x 996, click for full size. Such a beautiful bird! This is a Red wattlebird, (Anthochaera carunculata).

Sitting at the window this morning I heard the “chirrup! chirrup” of the a wattle bird attacking its image in the driveway mirror on top of the woodshed. Once its mate arrived to watch its hero attacking the interloper the wattle bird had a quick preen and then rushed off.

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