Transgender News Roundup

Oxford City Council President Steven Waits

Oxford City Council President Steven Waits

Alabama City May Repeal Harsh Anti-Trans Ordinance.

The Oxford, Ala., City Council is considering repealing a controversial ordinance it approved last week, imposing fines and jail terms on transgender people for using public restrooms that match their gender identity.

The council will hold a special meeting at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday “to discuss potentially recalling” the ordinance, reports AL.com, a website for several Alabama newspapers. […] The American Civil Liberties Union’s Alabama affiliate is considering a legal challenge to the Oxford ordinance, and a rally to protest the law is scheduled for Saturday, AL.com reports.

Full Story Here.

Texas City Council Wholly Rejects Mayor’s ‘Bathroom Bill’

Mayor Jim Pruitt

Mayor Jim Pruitt

Supporters and opponents showed up to watch the Texas city council deliberate on an ordinance proposed by Mayor Jim Pruitt, one that would force trans people to use the bathroom that matches with the sex they were assigned at birth, not their gender identity. “I just think that it’s insanity not to have those protections in place,” Pruitt told Dallas TV station WFAA last week.

Unfortunately for the mayor, he couldn’t find anyone on the town’s city council who agreed with him. The ordinance died in debate, after not a single one of the five council members stood up to support it. […]

But Mayor Pro Tem Dennis Lewis argued that if Pruitt doesn’t agree with the company’s statement, the solution is simple: Don’t go there. Others have the exact same option, he said. “If Target wants to have this policy, I have the choice of not shopping at Target,” Lewis told the Morning News.

The bill was vocally opposed by the local Hilton Hotel, which warned that passing an ordinance targeting trans bathroom use would be bad for the town’s local economy. Rockwall — with a population of just over 37,000 — is located outside of Dallas. “Our business will suffer,” Hilton general manager James Montgomery told KHOU. “This will negatively affect travel and tourism to our area.”

[…]

Montgomery warned that if Rockwall were to pass its own anti-trans legislation, Hilton might be forced to follow suit and leave the town. As KHOU reported, “the hotel employs 175 workers and pays $750,000 in property taxes.”

Full Story Here.

Boston Raises Transgender Pride Flag.

Boston's mayor raised the flag in a show of support for the trans community in Massachusetts.

Boston’s mayor raised the flag in a show of support for the trans community in Massachusetts.

Boston Monday became the first city in Massachusetts to fly the transgender pride flag.

Democratic Mayor Marty Walsh raised the flag along with activists and other elected officials. Lawmakers are currently “pushing a bill aimed at creating anti-discrimination protections for transgender people, allowing them to enter a bathroom based on their gender identity,”in the state, reports MassLive, a website for several Massachusetts newspapers.

“We’ve proven there’s nothing to fear from being inclusive,” Walsh told MassLive. “Quite the opposite. We are safer, we are stronger when everyone enjoys the same protections.”

Both the House and Senate versions of the measure — House Bill 1577 and Senate Bill 735 — have been advanced by the state legislature’s Judiciary Committee. The Senate version of the bill is up for debate May 12, reports MassLive. Massachusetts currently has antidiscrimination protections for trans people in employment, housing, and other areas, but not in public accomodations. Boston has had a trans-inclusive public accommodations law since 2002.

Full Story Here.

The Supreme Court Decided Against N.C.’s Law 20 Years Ago.

John Miller

John Miller

A federal lawsuit aimed at dismantling North Carolina’s sweeping anti-LGBT law is just getting under way, but the nation’s high court already struck down an eerily similar law. That ruling celebrates two decades of precedent this month.

Imagine, for a moment, that a proactive city council votes to extend nondiscrimination protections to LGBT people. The ordinance guarantees equal access to public accommodations and freedom from discrimination in housing, employment, and health and welfare services. You know, the basics.

Then, a fervent backlash arises — led by religious and political conservatives — and all LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinances in the state are struck down in the heat of partisan overreaction. Further, local and state governments are prohibited from enacting these particular protections in any capacity. The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal file a federal lawsuit to stop the anti-LGBT law from taking effect.

This sounds a lot like North Carolina, where the state’s Republican leaders are intensely defendingHouse Bill 2, the draconian anti-LGBT law passed in a single day-long special session March 23.

But in reality, it’s the background of a landmark case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court 20 years ago.

Full Story Here.

Wow. Just Wow.

Robin. Bronze, one of an edition of 12 copies, 22 x 32 x 18 cm. LEGS: springs , pieces of costume jewellery; BODY: children’s tricycle fender; FEATHERS: hood ornament of a Citroen; WINGS: petrol tank plates of a 50s motorcycle Monet-Goyon, bike chain guards; TAIL: car part, motorcycle decoration; EYES: marbles; HEAD: two seed scoops, ornaments for bike lights; BEAK: autoscope part, bike ornament.

Robin. Bronze, one of an edition of 12 copies, 22 x 32 x 18 cm. LEGS: springs , pieces of costume jewellery; BODY: children’s tricycle fender; FEATHERS: hood ornament of a Citroen; WINGS: petrol tank plates of a 50s motorcycle Monet-Goyon, bike chain guards; TAIL: car part, motorcycle decoration; EYES: marbles; HEAD: two seed scoops, ornaments for bike lights; BEAK: autoscope part, bike ornament.

Edouard Martinet does stunning work. For me, this is in the jaw drop category.

Martinet has become the art world’s virtuoso insectophile, transforming bits and pieces of cast-off junk culled from flea markets and car boot sales into exquisitely executed insect, fish and animal forms.

What sets Martinet’s work apart is the brilliant formal clarity of his sculptures, and their extraordinary elegance of articulation. His degree of virtuosity is unique: he does not solder or weld parts. His sculptures are screwed together. This gives his forms an extra level of visual richness – but not in a way that merely conveys the dry precision of, say, a watchmaker. There is an X-Factor here, a graceful wit, a re-imagining of the obvious in which a beautifully finished object glows not with perfection, but with character, with new life.

Martinet will open a new exhibition of work at Sladmore Contemporary in London starting May 5th, 2016.  I wish I could see this in person!

Fly, 47 x 40 x 27 cm. LEGS : windshield wiper arms, bike brakes, bike chains, small typewriter parts; HEAD: motor vehicle rear light; PROBOSCIS: car hood hinge; ANTENNAE: ski boot fasteners; THORAX: motorbike headlight; On the top : 50’s kitchen utensil. WINGS: the glass is set in a windscreen brush holder, the wing ribs are made with soldering wire; ABDOMEN: motorbike headlight, part of ceiling lamp.

Fly, 47 x 40 x 27 cm. LEGS : windshield wiper arms, bike brakes, bike chains, small typewriter parts; HEAD: motor vehicle rear light; PROBOSCIS: car hood hinge; ANTENNAE: ski boot fasteners; THORAX: motorbike headlight; On the top : 50’s kitchen utensil. WINGS: the glass is set in a windscreen brush holder, the wing ribs are made with soldering wire; ABDOMEN: motorbike headlight, part of ceiling lamp.

Sardine, 25 x 70 x 11 cm. BODY: Moped chain guard covered with multiple bicycle logo badges; HEAD: Solex front fenders, car bumpers. EYES: Flashlights; GILLS: Car door parts, bicycle chain guards. TAIL: Motorbike exhaust pipe; FINS: Cake tins.

Sardine, 25 x 70 x 11 cm. BODY: Moped chain guard covered with multiple bicycle logo badges; HEAD: Solex front fenders, car bumpers. EYES: Flashlights; GILLS: Car door parts, bicycle chain guards. TAIL: Motorbike exhaust pipe; FINS: Cake tins.

Via Colossal Art; More of Martinet’s work (2016 Exhibition) can be seen here.

Jesus Loves Me and Jesus Hates You!

A South Carolina School Board Meeting Erupts Into “Jesus Loves Me” After an Attendee Speaks Up for Transgender Rights.

Lav

“Jesus loves me…” and evidently spends a lot of time thinking about bathrooms. ChiccoDodiFC/Thinkstock

Some very strange shots were fired on Monday in a brewing transgender-bathroom war in Horry County, South Carolina, when a woman defending transgender rights at a school-board meeting was interrupted by a roughly 500-person chorus of “Jesus Loves Me.”

In January, a high-school senior who has used the boys’ restrooms since seventh grade was suspended for a day for refusing to switch to the girls’ (or the nurse’s) restroom in his last semester of high school. Until last fall, when a teacher discovered that he was born female and complained, the school had never taken issue with his use of the boys’ bathroom; according to CNN, his family had “reached a decision with school administrators to use the boys’ room to make everyone more comfortable” five years ago.

[…]

Which brings us to last night’s epic school-board meeting.

In the video, which is worth watching in its entirety, a lone woman tries to defend the rights of transgender students amid a sea of angry citizens (many of whom look far too old to have school-age students, incidentally).

[…]

Even before the thundering “Jesus Loves Me” coda (which gets underway at 6:19 in the 7-minute video), this chaotic school-board meeting offers an amazing inside look at the circular, nonsensical reasoning that the anti-trans contingent deploys to defend “the word of God” and the “order of Nature” against the rights of kids. Because, as Mark Joseph Stern wrote on Tuesday, anti-trans Americans are losing the moral and legal argument, big time, they’ve got nothing but cockeyed gender-binary absolutism to keep them afloat. As one audience member puts it, “A male dog has a male body part. If we see a dog with two body parts, we all know that there is something wrong with the order of nature and the order of God when it comes to that dog.” Uh… amen???

Slate has the full story.

Ray Comfort & The Reason Rally

1462122962New Zealand-born evangelist and creationist Ray Comfort, co-host of the “The Way of the Master” TV show, has said he will give the thousands of atheists attending the Reason Rally 2016 in Washington D.C. on June 4 $25,000 worth of Subway gift cards, alongside a copy of his book.

“Most atheists don’t know that there’s never been an atheist president, that no member of Congress is an atheist, that in some states it’s illegal for atheists to run for office, and that recent surveys show atheists in America are about as popular as rapists. It’s a fascinating read,” Comfort said of the book, titled Why Pigs Will Fly Before America Has an Atheist President.

As for the gift cards that his Living Waters ministry will also be giving out, Comfort added: “The $25,000 worth of gift cards are a little something for them to chew on (we are hoping to feed 5,000 — it’s been done before).

“This is a small token of our love for atheists, and when we run out of books and gift cards we will give them millions of dollars,” he quipped, referring to the joke million-dollar bill, based on the book.

Most atheists don’t know about the lack of atheist politicians? Most atheists are unaware of how they rate in popularity? I have a bit of news, Ray. Most atheists aren’t quite as uninformed as you are.

Twenty five thousand dollars. That’s a substantial sum, and I imagine it could go one hell of a long way to helping out families in need, there are an awful lot of children going hungry in uStates. But no, it’s going towards shoring up Comfort’s already sizeable ego, indulging his need for constant self-advertising. A cheap gift card won’t be swaying the minds and hearts of those at Reason Rally, and I’m sure Comfort is well aware of that. So, when push comes to shove, what’s a Christian to do? Why, feed their ego, of course! Much more important that feeding those who are actually hungry. Right impressive, that.

So, all you moderate, progressive Christians out there – are you going to tell Comfort he’s wrong, that his values are seriously fucked up? That wasting money in self-aggrandizement is not a “Christian” thing to do?

Source.

18.

American Indians experienced some of the worst massacres and grossest injustices in history while Ulysses S. Grant was in office.

American Indians experienced some of the worst massacres and grossest injustices in history while Ulysses S. Grant was in office. Whitehouse.gov

…But changes in how the government treated Indians came at a critical juncture in westward expansion. As Grant worked to reform federal agencies, he also supervised the development of millions of acres of federal public lands and presided over the private acquisition of land by pioneers, spectators and railroad and mining companies.

During his eight years in office, Grant approved the Timber Culture Act (granting homesteaders additional acreage if they agreed to plant trees), the General Mining Act (authorizing prospecting and mining for minerals on public lands) and the Desert Lands Act (issuing arid Western lands to individuals who agreed to reclaim and irrigate). He also created the first national park at Yellowstone.

Yet Grant realized that his expansionist goals required the removal of Indians from desirable land. His Indian Peace Policy, designed to reform the Indian Bureau and remove corrupt agents, also called for rigorous agricultural training on reservations and established schools and churches that would transform Indians into Christian citizens.

“From the foundation of the government to the present the management of the original inhabitants of this continent—the Indians—has been a subject of embarrassment and expense,” Grant told Congress in December 1869. Calling the Indians “wards of the nation,” he proposed a new policy to establish “permanent peace” between white settlers and Indian nations.

[…]

Yet Grant’s policies toward Indians fell far short of what he promised. White settlers continued to push Indians off the land, relying on the Army to prevent retaliation. While Indians on reservations experienced poverty and increasing desperation, Grant oversaw the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad and the great slaughter of buffalo on the Plains, which destroyed much of the Indian economy.

The peace policy, ironically, led to some of the worst massacres in history. Grant’s strategy to contain Indians on reservations involved aggressive military pursuits, resulting in the Modoc War in California, the Red River War in Texas, the Nez Perce conflict in Oregon, the Black Hills campaign by Gen. George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Indian chiefs Sitting Bull, Gall, Chief Joseph, Geronimo and Cochise led their people into wars against the United States in efforts to preserve their land and ways of life. In 1870, Oglala Chief Red Cloud visited Grant at the White House, where he condemned Indian policy and described his peoples’ suffering.

Full Article Here.

Bible Beaters Hit Target

Oh, the upset, because people need to pee now and then.

Says the man:

“Target this is your wake up call. The Bible says that from the beginning God made them male and female. He didn’t make them transvestites. He made them male and female…Target, this is your warning. You will be judged according to God’s standards. Not man’s, but God’s…You need to repent…You will be judged. And if there are Christians in here, supporting this abomination, shame on you! … But you justify this place. You have to stand by the bathrooms because perverts can go in there. Because transvestites allowed.”

…

In Bradley, Illinois one of these “Christians” put a mall on lockdown and prompted a massive police response because store shoppers thought the man was an “active shooter”, NBC Chicago reports:

Michael MerichkoMichael Merichko was charged with disorderly conduct following a disturbance inside a Target store at 1615 N. State Route 50 in Bourbonnais, about 55 miles south of Chicago, according to the Bradley Police Department.

Merichko was allegedly protesting Target Corporation’s newly announced policy on letting transgender people use the bathroom that conforms to their identity. Police said his actions caused “panic among store employees and customers.”

Just after 1 p.m., multiple police agencies responded to the Target after receiving a 911 call about an active shooter inside the store, according to authorities.

…

And here’s another in Tennessee.

“Wicked. Wicked. It’s time to repent,” he yells. “Rip up your target cards. It’s time to get rid of the rainbow. The rainbow belongs to God, not to you. Target is the lowlife of places to work. You need to repent. Homosexuals shall not inherit the kingdom of God!”

Watch the video here.

…

And more, possibly in St. Louis:

White power meets business casual

Photo: Andrew Mears/ AFP

Photo: Andrew Mears/ AFP

Thank God for Donald J. Trump,” cried National Policy Institute director Richard Spencer into the microphone.

Spencer, 37, has a boyish, straitlaced look about him. With his well-tailored suit and a nicely kempt undercut, he’d meld perfectly into the swarms of youthful think tank employees trotting down Massachusetts Avenue. But NPI is no ordinary Washington think tank. Founded by an heir to a conservative publishing fortune, it drew white nationalists and sympathizers from around the country—and at least one from Canada—to its innocuously named “Identity Politics” conference a couple of days after Donald Trump dominated the field on Super Tuesday. For $45, I snagged the last ticket designated for millennials.

It is the rise of the bombastic Republican frontrunner that brought this amalgam of aggrieved crusaders together for an evening of cocktails, appetizers, and songs of praise to the candidate who’s inspired them to dip a toe into the stream of establishment politics.

Full Story Here.

There’s another hate group tackling Target for daring to be inclusive, the AFA (American Family Association):

The American Family Association, which is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, has been sending cisgender men into women’s restrooms at the retail chain.

Previously, the AFA had organized a boycott of Target, which allows customers and employees to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. The policy is a slap back at North Carolina’s anti-LGBT law prohibiting transgender people from using the appropriate facilities for their identity, although the law applies only to government buildings, not private-sector companies.

The group, which contends Target’s policy opens the bathroom floodgates to sexual predators, claims to have enlisted over 1 million people to join its boycott.

Sandy Rios, AFA’s director of governmental affairs, revealed its new anti-LGBT tactic in a Monday radio interview with Breitbart News.

“We’ve already had people testing this, going into Targets and men trying to go into bathrooms. There is absolutely no barrier,” she told host Stephen Bannon, who said “decent, hard-working people who don’t want their 4-year-old daughter to have to go into a bathroom with a guy with a beard in a dress.”

“Absolutely no barrier”. I think that one gets filed under “no shit, Sherlock.” There’s never been anything stopping anyone from going into any public lav. You don’t even need to play dress up, just walk right in. You’d think that might have occurred to the genius watchdogs of uStates morality, but apparently it just slid right by them.

Full Story Here.

Indigenous News Roundup

Running for Their Lives: 500-Mile Youth Spiritual Run Against Dakota Access Pipeline.

The public outcry against the Dakota Access Pipeline has been joined by a group of youth, both Native and non-Native, who are running a 500-mile spiritual relay this week from Cannonball, North Dakota to the district office of the United States Army Corps of Engineers in Omaha, Nebraska.

“We ask that everyone stand with us against this threat to our health, our culture, and our sovereignty,” said the group in a statement. “We ask that everyone who lives on or near the Missouri River and its tributaries, everyone who farms or ranches in the local area, and everyone who cares about clean air and clean drinking water stand with us against the Dakota Access Pipeline!” Full story at the link.

Europe Reintroduces Its Own Brand of Bison, Also Driven to Near Extinction.

Valène Aure via Wikipedia European bison, known as wisent, are being reintroduced into the wild across the Pond from Turtle Island. Here, wisent frolic in the Réserve biologique des Monts d'Azur, Haut-Thorenc, France.

Valène Aure via Wikipedia
European bison, known as wisent, are being reintroduced into the wild across the Pond from Turtle Island. Here, wisent frolic in the Réserve biologique des Monts d’Azur, Haut-Thorenc, France.

Amid all the bison buzz on Turtle Island, what with the National Bison Legacy Act having passed both houses of Congress and currently sitting on President Barack Obama’s desk, a lesser-known but parallel phenomenon is happening across the Pond.

Full Story here.

Marty Two Bulls

Marty Two Bulls

Reconciliation Is the New Assimilation: New NAIPC Co-Chair.

Courtesy Tamara Starblanket “Indigenous Peoples have the right to self-determination in international law. Minorities do not have the rights of self-determination.”

Courtesy Tamara Starblanket
“Indigenous Peoples have the right to self-determination in international law. Minorities do not have the rights of self-determination.”

[Read more…]

Best Science Image Finalists

Thanks to Opus for the heads up on some amazing photos.  The 20 best science images of the year?

Wiring the human brain Alfred Anwander, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences

Wiring the human brain
Alfred Anwander, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences

 

Black henna allergy Nicola Kelley, Cardiff and Vale University Hospital NHS Trust

Black henna allergy
Nicola Kelley, Cardiff and Vale University Hospital NHS Trust

 

Swallowtail butterfly Daniel Saftner, Macroscopic Solutions

Swallowtail butterfly
Daniel Saftner, Macroscopic Solutions

 

Maize leaves Fernan Federici, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and University of Cambridge

Maize leaves
Fernan Federici, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and University of Cambridge

More stunning images here.

Loretta Lynch: Fundamental Fairness

Ending Transgender Discrimination About ‘Fundamental Fairness’

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch spoke out against transgender discrimination during an interview with BuzzFeed Friday.

In the interview, she showed concern for transphobic legislation making its way through states such as North Carolina and Mississippi, which have both passed laws this year that target the trans community. “Our transgender family members and friends are also incredibly vulnerable to discrimination, in terms of the laws that we see, but also to abuse,” she said.

“We decided over 200 years ago that we wanted to be an inclusive society, and we wanted to guarantee equal rights for all,” she told BuzzFeed‘s Chris Geidner. She went on to explain her position:

“For that to mean something, we have to be careful, we have to be vigilant, so that when people, for whatever reason, are either [made to] feel like they’re on the outside — a particular group — or are placed on the outside, that that doesn’t happen. And transgender issues are no different, to me, in that regard.”

Full Story Here.

Texas is joining the bigotry parade, following in the footsteps of Alabama:

Rockwall Mayor Jim Pruitt

Rockwall Mayor Jim Pruitt

Texas is poised to become the next battleground in the debate over transgender bathroom use.

Rockwall Mayor Jim Pruitt, a Republican, proposed legislation on Friday that would fine trans people up to $500 for using the bathroom that most closely corresponds to their gender identity. The ordinance restricts bathroom access strictly to members of the same “biological sex,” described as the “physical condition of being male or female, which is stated on a person’s birth certificate.”

“Citizens have a right to quiet solicitude [sic] and to be secure from embarrassment and unwanted intrusion into their privacy,” the legislation reads, as the The Dallas Morning News reports.

Apparently, they literally copied Alabama, incorrect spelling and all.

“I just think that it’s insanity not to have those protections in place,” Pruitt told Dallas TV station, WFAA. “These folks aren’t transgender that this is targeting. This is targeting folks of the opposite sex that are going into those restrooms under the guise of being transgender and having access … This is not about sexual orientation or anything of that nature. It is about privacy and the protection of our children.”

As Mark Hicks, who serves as a city councilman in Lufkin, Texas, argues, the reason that towns like Rockwall are drafting such legislation is in response to Target’s recent decision to provide affirming restroom use for trans staff and customers in all its locations.

“I am among those who believe that the potential for abusive behavior by voyeurs, exhibitionists and sexual predators is increased exponentially with the implementation of this policy,” Hicks wrote in a letter to the editor published in The Lufkin Daily News on Sunday. “It creates an unsafe environment, and it should not be allowed or encouraged. I do not believe my wife or three young daughters should have to be concerned about using public facilities anywhere — and certainly not in a neighborhood staple like Target!”

There’s more here, if you can stomach it.