From the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law comes a report about how a group of doctors in Victoria, AU, are using their perceived authority to claim that same-sex couples are worse than opposite-sex couples for raising children, then declaring that same-sex marriage is wrong.
This has been decades in the making, but finally a positive ruling by the EEOC:
An employer who discriminates against an employee or applicant on the basis of the person’s gender identity is violating the prohibition on sex discrimination contained in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to an opinion issued on April 20 by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The opinion, experts say, could dramatically alter the legal landscape for transgender workers across the nation.
The opinion came in a decision delivered on Monday, April 23, to lawyers for Mia Macy, a transgender woman who claims she was denied employment with the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) after the agency learned of her transition. It also comes on the heels of a growing number of federal appellate and trial courts deciding that gender-identity discrimination constitutes sex discrimination, whether based on Title VII or the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the laws.
The EEOC decision, issued without objection by the five-member, bipartisan commission, will apply to all EEOC enforcement and litigation activities at the commission and in its 53 field offices throughout the country. It also will be binding on all federal agencies and departments.
At a certain point, you have to ask yourself why certain stories are so important to you. Why they become, not just entertainment, but myth: Something you use to explain yourself to yourself, or to explain the world. A thousand times, on Dr. Who, the lady Companion insists that the Doctor will save them, and every time, the people are all “BUT PERHAPS THIS TIME HE WON’T AND WE ARE SCREWED THOUGH,” and every time, the music swells and the Doctor comes and he saves as many people as he can. And you love it, every time it happens. Because that’s the story you need: There is someone out there, someone good and wise and kind, and he will always come to save you. I mean, I get it. Some people go to church for less.
To be a woman, and strong, is to be pathologized. Your voice is rendered unlistenable by virtue of its truth. [ - Charlotte Perkins Gilman]
I can’t even speak about this horror at this point. Please read these other people’s words, and please sign the petition at change.org if you can/will.
Controversy over 11-year-old transsexual: Alex will be placed in psychiatric care
So who Ordered the Pink Unicorn? « EssexGirlBecky.
Mayor of Berlin: Stop the institutionalization of a 11 year old transexual.
ScienceDaily Mar. 19, 2012 — For a 6-year-old, one of the most powerful educational tools may be direct instruction, according to new research on how children learn about prejudice. Scientists found that as children get closer to age 10, they begin to rely more on their own experiences rather than what people tell them — but for youngsters, instruction trumps experience.
The following youtube video presents a powerful, dramatic reading, with a simultaneously simple and highly complex message:
(Kind of amazingly) HuffPo has a great article deconstructing reactions to Tyler Clementi’s suicide, the blaming of Dharun Ravi (the roommate who spread the video of Tyler making out with another man), and societal reactions to bullying and homophobia.
The first picture that seemed to go up after DADT was repealed was the two women enjoying a kiss during a homecoming. Here’s one for the guys:
![[photo] Marine enjoying the embrace and kiss of his boyfriend on homecoming](http://imnotaboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/MarineHomecomingAfterDADT.jpg "MarineHomecomingAfterDADT")
Marine enjoying the embrace and kiss of his boyfriend on homecoming. Credit: Unknown.
Overheard recently on the net:
“People assume that gender/sex/sexuality is a strict progression of male to female, masc to fem; it’s not a line from here to there, it’s not even a cycle or a chart. Actually it’s more like a big fat tangle of gendery-wendery… sexy-wexy… stuff!”
Someone gets it!
