Just to provide some perspective on how much power the religious right wing wields in the United States, consider this breaking news story coming out of Catholic Spain, where the Defense Ministry, headed by a woman, seems to be on the verge of allowing FtM's into the military.

Following his second unsuccessful attempt to join the Spanish Armed forces on Tuesday this week, 28 year old transsexual Aitor G.R from Jaén, is now celebrating the news from the Ministry for Defense that they are currently completing the revision of the legislation of medical exclusions, under which Aitor was rejected because of his lack of a penis or testicles.

A ministry spokesman said that as soon as the new guidelines are announced, from the very same day candidates who lack a penis would be accepted.

Now, as a pacifist, I'd prefer to see progress in areas other than a society's ability to wage war. Nevertheless, even I will admit that this represents progress I never expected to see in my lifetime--much less, in Catholic Spain!