Partitioning countries is the legacy of colonial kickbacks by the losers – those who failed in their imperial designs. We have not given credit to countries which have picked up the pieces and have made a go with that historical legacy.

The question I really have is what the hell are the US legislators doing in passing resolutions that violate the sovereignty of another country and ignoring the pressing needs at home that need to be addressed.

I am not and don’t ever want to be US American but the US system creates a potentate with too much power.

I have spent a lot of years working in the USA, mostly as an Australian Federal Public Servant, seconded to the UN and various other of its agencies. I loved the natives I met outside work but they were self selected and I despaired of the utter inanity of the US media.

I have retired now on medical grounds but I am still compos mentis and do consultancies which are fun.

Please realise that the continued occupation of Afghanistan `that has delivered so little to the people has created a dynamic that has pitted the the Taliban as a nationalist resistance force against foreign occupation.

You are entitled to demonise perceived enemies but that’s no way to ‘win’ the unwinnable.

This is not something I made up, it’s all right there and in the comments, (the ones he hasn’t removed that is), John Aravosis, while quite happy to have transgendered support when it benefitted him, was too willing to throw that part of the community under the bus when push came to shove. Now I haven’t been posting this all weekend on blogs but you mentioned him in your post and in far too good a light. The truth about Americablog is much, much more ugly and I for one won’t allow a bigot to be praised and granted credit where none is due. Not without standing up and saying something.

Not to say symbolism isn’t important — being willing to toss aside the most vulnerable members of the LBGT communities without even an attempt to line up more support sure sends a signal to the pro-bigotry side: we’re willing to cave even before things get serious. 

Rather than cutting loose trans people without warning, Frank and company could have said, “hey folks we need more votes, go lobby your representatives.”

This isn’t “half a loaf is better than none,” this is “You can starve as long as I get mine.” 

As far as waiting politely…

Did gays and lesbians “wait their turn” when they pushed for inclusion in civil rights legislation in the ’70s, when they were told doing so might harm efforts by racial minorities?

Did they “wait their turn” when they demanded funding for HIV/AIDS research and finding a cure for it get higher priority in the ’80s, when established groups felt that doing so would take badly-needed money away from other fatal diseases?

Did they “wait their turn” when they demanded that their rights be acknowledged and respected in the ’90s?

Did they “wait their turn” in 2003 when they pushed for marriage equality in the face of warnings that it could have a disastrous impact before a critical presidential election?

And color me cynical, but “we’ll come back for you later” hasn’t had a particularly good track record as Teddy has pointed out. If trans protections aren’t part of ENDA they aren’t likely to be passed for years, if not decades — or possibly ever. Remember, the rationale for the LGBT communities banding together is that individually none of us have that much clout.

But if any of this doesn’t convince you, think about this: omitting gender identity leaves a huge loophole to be exploited by careful bigots, e.g. “We didn’t fire you because you’re gay/lesbian, we fired you because you’re nelly/butch.”

Likewise, if LGB folks are willing to abandon trans folks because “it’s got nothing to do with me,” there’s no reason hetro folks can’t abandon LGB folks for the same reason. So we might as well not bother with all those Gay-Straight Alliances in schools.

As Martin Luther King Jr. said, in the long run it would be the arguments of our enemies, but rather the silence of our friends, that will be remembered. 

Becca Morn, welcome! I agree with you that the progressive movement requires continuing education about transgender, and I hope tonight’s discussion is part of that. You will be pleased to know that such conversations as you’ve seen elsewhere, specifically regarding Ann Coulter, are prohibited at FireDogLake.

I am very pleased that tonight’s conversation managed to avoid any such attempts; probably a thank-you to the moderators is in order here. These can be challenging conversations for our great mod squad.

I hope you will continue to participate in our conversations on this subject — your perspective is valuable and very much appreciated. I just want you to know that you’re among allies who share your view that there’s nothing funny about the challenges transgenders face and no amount of idiotic nervous joking makes those challenges any funnier.

Thanks for the welcome, Teddy. I’ve actually been hanging ’round FDL for quite a while now; I just don’t often comment.

One of the things I’ve found interesting, for example, about the “Ann the Mann” phenomena is how it often gets going. Folks, rightly so, despise the hateful things Ms. Coulter says. Then it’s noted how she blatantly uses sexual displays to distract (hence the revealing little black cocktail dresses for morning interview programs)…and then it comes. Someone makes a joke about her adam’s apple being big, or some other slur relating to whether she’s actually a woman. There’s a round of laughing…and then someone has to top that.

It’s like people keep wanting to one-up each other on how much they hate her…and then the hate spills over into questioning her gender identity, as if that’s the worst thing that can be imagined.

I expect this sort of thing from the right-wing hatemongers. They demonize anybody who diverges from their norms (except themselves, where every hypocrisy is permitted and excused). When it happens on our side though, we become the very thing we hate: Intolerant of those who seem different or unusual.

As I said in my comment above, it saddens me how often so-called Progressives do it. And worse, excuse it by calling it “commonplace” or “not that big a deal.” (I’ve been deeply gratified to see that TG-related slurs aren’t tolerated on FDL.)

I’ve a good many transgendered friends (especially when I lived in the SF Bay area; I’m now in India on a program of spiritual study), both MtF and FtM, and in every instance they’re the bravest people I know. It takes incredible courage to say to the entire world, “Yes, you’ve assigned me this gender. I am otherwise.” I don’t know how they do it.

As with the gays and lesbians though, even more so for the transgendered, they can’t always fight off the despair. Suicide rates are abominably high — and I too wonder just how often they happen because of the “one too many” overheard ‘joke’.

I’ve also found it interesting how, when out of sheer curiosity I’ve reviewed the terms of every single health insurance policy I’ve had in my adult life — every single one of them specifically disallowed gender reassignment treatment (including counseling), medications, and surgery.

That’s another side-effect of dropping our trans-friends from the ENDA train: With that non-discrimination language, it would’ve been possible to challenge the legality of that exclusion in employer-provided health insurance. Now, it continues to be something granted or withheld (usually denied) at a whim. Now they remain without legal recourse.

Anyway, thanks again. And cheers from India…which has its own fascinating view on the mutability of gender, especially among certain Hindu deities.

I have dreams of crreating a solar-powered steam-engine skiff for our lake. It would be terribly inefficient, as the steam engine is unnecessary, but so, so cool…

This is SO important, and part of why I’m reluctant to answer TSF’s earlier question about some of my personal experiences. But it is probably impossible to measure how high a percentage of teen suicides are related to sexual identity issues.

Both Ms. ET and I brought our daughter and son through scouting. My son got to the Webelos level at the time the court decisions involving gay scoutmasters saw their “resolution.” Within weeks, at meetings and campouts, the typical around-the-fire passing-a-bottle around talks of the dads (after the kids were asleep in their tents) seemed to gravitate on this issue in a nasty way. I soon pulled ET, Jr. out of scouting, as it only got worse.

The happy homo jokes of my childhood 50 years ago were one thing, but I couldn’t handle the downward spiral.

Any who claim “moral” opposition to rights for the transgendered should be required to speak to issues concerning those whose gender was medically reassigned due to physical accident.

I’m recalling a then well-publicized case of 2 or 3 male babies effectively castrated in hospital by a defective circumcision machine. If memory serves, at least one of those babies was gender reassigned at the behest of the parents.

Strange how the world uses gender and sexually to control and fix people. What is circumcision for anyway? Why would you put your baby boy’s penis in a circumcision machine? The flip side is not letting people modify their bodies because…… well I can’t come up with a good answer to that one. When people want to take their own lives into their own hands why can’t they be left alone. And why is it that the men in power yell the loudest and hide the hardest? Fuckery. Mean fuckery. It is the attempted colonialization of our souls.