I just watched Sarah Palin's speech to Tea Party Nation on MSNBC. She is a used car saleswoman. A deceiver. And she doesn't care about people of color or queer folk, poverty or children in jail. Her message is self-serving and mean-spirited even tho she wears a smile on her face. She makes fun of her opponents, and acts like she's just being folksy. She doesn't once mention bailing out bank execs or selling out healthcare reform to insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry. But she reminds us over and over to be afraid of terrorists and to strive for upward mobility. She deflects all blame from our broken Congress, and places it squarely on Obama's shoulders.

The racist and small-minded teabaggers applaud and catcall, and the media goes wild. Sarah Palin just might win the White House in 2012.

Continue reading "Sarah Palin wants YOU to point fingers and shut up." »

One of the things I and other transsisters enjoy doing is telling the story of African descended trans people to college students around the nation.

Since only one side of the story has been told for the last 50 plus years, it is a joy to pass along our knowledge to students, administrators, and instructors eager to learn more about transgender issues from our unique chocolate flavored vantage point.

But while we African descended trans people deeply appreciate the opportunities that we get to do so, one thing that bothers us is the fact that we are primarily holding these discussions at predominately white institutions.

Continue reading "When Will African Descended Trans People Get To Tell Our Stories On HBCU Campuses?" »

I was supposed to begin the long-delayed series of PTSD stories I've been planning, but before we begin, I need to tell y'all about something that just happened in my house.

For us it wasn't a matter of life or death, but it is the kind of story that explains, perfectly, why we need to reform the health care system we have today--and for that matter, it's also a great explanation of why a single-payer system would be a giant step forward for everyone in this country, whether you're insured today or not.

It's also hilarious and sad and frustrating, all at the same time--which makes today's story a pretty good allegory for the current American way of doing health care.

So follow along, have a good laugh...and at the same time, take a minute to consider what could be, and how much less irritating things should be.

Continue reading "On Health Care, Vegas-Style, Or, Figure It Out In The Ambulance, Chump" »

Indiana Family Institute policy director Ryan McCann wrote a post on their blog advocating for passage of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but does the "traditional marriage supporter" who blames his fondness for discriminating against gays denounce the Biblical history of polyamorous marriage? Or does he castigate the current practice of only having one marriage partner at a time when he condemns, "changing the definition of marriage legally"?

Clip from the logically unbalanced post after the jump - plus a free sneak peek of the IFI's new traditional marriage bumpersticker.

Continue reading "Traditional marriage: Good enough for King David" »

Many trans and especially transsexual Americans were relieved this week by the U.S. Tax Court decision to reverse earlier IRS positions and allow costs of hormonal and surgical transition care to be deducted as medical expenses. The ruling concluded:

Petitioner has shown that her hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery treated disease within the meaning of section 213 and were therefore not cosmetic surgery. Thus petitioner's expenditures for these procedures were for "medical care" as defined in section 213(d)(1)(A), for which a deduction is allowed under section 213(a).

However, this recognition of the legitimacy of medical transition came at a cost to the dignity of transsexual women and men. It relied on the flawed diagnostic nomenclature of Gender Identity Disorder (GID) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and its implication of mentally "disordered" gender identity. Paradoxically, this case fueled opposition to medical transition access, based on the current wording of the very same GID classification and its more virulent companion diagnosis of Transvestic Fetishism. While the Tax Court decision underscored the utility of some kind of diagnostic coding for those who need access to hormonal or surgical transition care, it also illustrated the urgency of reforming the GID diagnosis and removing the Transvestic Fetishism category in the next revision of the DSM, published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

Ms. Rhiannon O'Donnabhain underwent corrective genital surgery in 2001 and claimed a tax deduction for surgical and hormonal treatment expenses as well as the cost of a breast augmentation procedure. Her courageous nine year battle with the IRS to affirm the medical legitimacy of her transition care took a tortuous off-again, on-again path among the potholes of politics and prejudice.

Continue reading "A Taxing Question of Medical Necessity" »

The joys of meeting new neighbours... and their gifts...

Click here for a larger image.

A new print and television ad campaign by an LGBT org in Sweden has been rejected by two major newspapers already. Below is the rejected print at (the sentence says "love has many faces"):

The editor of one the paper's says it's not because the ad is too sexy, but that "it reproduces a cliché-filled image of lesbian love." Don't ask me how he became the final arbiter over what will advance Sweden's lesbian population's goals.

The television spots are after the jump.

Continue reading "Swedish lesbian love ad rejected by papers" »

Actual questions and answers from a sex advice column in the Pune Mirror (India).

I got married a month ago and we have unprotected sex everyday. I have one bad habit, which is that I eat paper. Is this harmful? I have tried to get over this habit but cannot. My husband doesn't know about it. Will this pose a problem for me during pregnancy? Also, I have been suffering from a major stomach ache since the past few days. Could it be because of eating paper?

Is it paper or pepper that you eat? Either way, your stomach pain may be related to your eating habits. You will not have a problem during pregnancy due to this.

More after the jump.

Continue reading "Green penis veins, oral sex pregnancy, and other sex questions" »

So it's late in the day today at Creating Change, and I'm pissed off at people from Arizona.

Rather intensely so.  Here I've encountered a teacher from Coolidge, Alison Davidson from Saga in Tucson, Kim Pearson, who's based out of Lake Havasu, Trudy Jackson and Micheal Weakley from Phoenix.

There's no one here from Equality Arizona.  No one from Marriage Equality Arizona.  No Arizona Stonewall Dems or Arizona Log Cabin, no East Valley group, no "we are family"...

And yet, over the last several months, I've seen them all talk about how they need certain tools and skills and trick and tips and all that other stuff, and All Of That Stuff is here.

Continue reading "Roll Up Your Sleeves, Arizona" »

Over the weekend Towleroad posted the video of an "ex-gay" teenager and his testimony at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. If you're reading this and thinking, "That place sounds familiar," you should be reminded of Lou Engle and TheCall. Engle and his nationwide, youth "revival" have made headlines over the past year or so as several bloggers and organizations (including the SPLC) have tracked his routinely militant and violent religious rhetoric. (You can read my in-depth report on a similar religious militant in Charlotte, N.C., and his ties with Engle in here.)

As the teen, Jacob, is sharing his testimony, a worship leader chimes in: "Do you hear that? He was set free from addictions to homosexuality, heroine, crack cocaine. Anything else?"

Towleroad writes, "Unfortunately, Jacob was not delivered from ugly exploitation on YouTube and elsewhere by the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City."

Watch the video, and more commentary after the jump...

Continue reading "'He set me free...'" »

I'm very much torn with the iPad. I don't know whether to qualify it as a superpowered iPod Touch on growth hormones, or to call it an underdeveloped tablet trying to be the next best thing. In either case, the iPad will change the direction of tablet devices... some good, and some really bad.

Continue reading "The can of worms that the iPad opened" »

Last November, I posted about Brian Burke, the gruff president and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who very publicly supported his gay son Brendan, a hockey player for Miami University. Today I just learned of the sad news that Brendan was killed in a weather-related two-car accident in Indiana Friday afternoon.

My deepest condolences to Brendan's family, who loved him unconditionally.

After the jump, Brian Burke's statement about his son's coming out, and about gay hockey players in general.

Continue reading "In Memoriam: Brendan Burke" »