Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Cross-dressing day sparks school exodus
November 28, 2007
by Bob Unruh
A public school's "gender-bender" cross-dressing event, where boys were supposed to dress as girls and girls as boys, has prompted at least dozens, perhaps hundreds, of students to flee the tax-supported institutions in Iowa.
Many of the parents apparently are members of the Christ Apostolic Temple in Des Moines, which teaches a biblically based doctrine of rejecting the world's values.
"Christ Apostolic Temple Inc. Fellowship ... is a Bible-based organization that believes one must 'come out from among them and be ye separate.' (2 Cor. 6:14-17)," the organization's website says.
 The Des Moines schools are celebrating a centenary, but have lost students this year because of one school's promotion of cross-dressing |
That apparently includes cross-dressing, an event which has found sponsorship in other arenas from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, which has promoted a school lesson plan for teaching boys and girls to cross-dress.
State officials in Des Moines confirmed to WND that at least 80 children whose parents were alarmed by the "Gender-Bender Day" during homecoming week at the city's East High School have moved their children from the various districts in the area into homeschooling plans. Several parents told WND that the number could be in the hundreds. . . .
POV, Critique, Opinion: Is Sex Meaningless?
By Joel Hilliker
Some people think utopia is a place where sex is meaningless.
A group of lawmakers, judges, lawyers and educators in America, Britain, Canada and elsewhere want to engineer a world free from oppression and hate. They want to introduce a golden age of tolerance and understanding. They seek a society where everyone is accepted, where no one is condemned, where everyone feels emotionally validated, where no one’s feelings are ever hurt.
That might sound like a noble dream—but their version of it is a nightmare.
It is a world where the line between male and female doesn’t exist. Where not only is it just as common to be homosexual or bisexual as heterosexual, but every person has the choice—with society’s full, unflinching support—to act, dress or even biologically exist as either male or female, or anything in between. Where a school teacher, police officer, priest or president can be a man who likes wearing dresses and high heels, and anyone who expresses discomfort over the idea can be silenced with the full force of the law.
This utopian world removes pressure on singles to marry, pressure on married people to remain together, pressure on parents to make sacrifices for their children, and pressure on children to view their parents as authorities. In other words, it undermines the pillars of family life.
Proponents of this vision overlook, ignore, dismiss and ridicule any evidence that exposes the flaws in their thinking. And of that, there are mountains. Evidence showing biological, emotional and mental differences between men and women. Evidence showing the benefits of traditional marriage to both husband and wife, as well as society at large—and the high costs associated with its dissolution. Evidence showing the enormous advantages to children—in personal safety, academic performance, financial well-being, emotional stability, self-respect, and assimilation into law-abiding adult life, among other things—of growing up under the same roof with both biological parents, a living arrangement built upon a strong, stable relationship between a sperm-producing adult male and an egg-producing adult female.
Nevertheless, the reality-challenged individuals who refuse to acknowledge this evidence sit in some of the most powerful offices in Western civilization.
Such is the state of our society after decades of determined chipping away at the foundation of traditional family. Views that once inhabited the shadowy fringes are stomping their way into courtrooms and legislative chambers. Bit by bit, activist leaders are codifying their twisted vision into reality, aggressively introducing new laws and filling the judicial record with new precedent, giving them the legal power to stamp out dissent.
Legally Protecting Gender Confusion
One of their most recent victories occurred last October in California. The Golden State’s famous governor signed four bills into law, three of which criminalize behavior deemed discriminatory against cross-dressers, bisexuals and homosexuals (the fourth law enables homosexual couples to share a last name as if they are married). Specifically, one law strips state funding from any program guilty of such discrimination, another mandates that no instruction in public schools “promotes a discriminatory bias,” and a third demands that all public schools prominently display anti-discrimination policies.
The “discrimination” in these laws is broadly defined, including any bias against anyone based on “gender.” If you are unfamiliar with what this term has come to mean, allow the new California law to explain it to you. “Gender … includes a person’s gender identity and gender-related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth” (emphasis mine). In other words, if Burt wants to wear lipstick and panty hose and call himself Bertha, the law now obligates everyone to pretend as if this is perfectly sane behavior.
Illegal discrimination now includes anything “perceived” as different treatment because of behavior “perceived” as not stereotypically male or female. It includes anything that might suggest that a child living with biological Dad and Mom is advantaged over someone living with a single homosexual man or woman who has multiple partners. It could include a business treating a cross-dressing job applicant different from anyone else. It could include a reference to family in a school textbook that fails to mention it’s just fine if it involves a homosexual couple. You can be sure that zealous lawyers are itching to test the new laws by putting such “crimes” on trial.
California is now one of nine states with explicit non-discrimination laws for transgender individuals. By January, similar laws will also be in effect in four other states. Thus, against all common sense, gender confusion is protected by law—placed in the same category as biological realities like race and sex.
The implications of these laws are enormous. Universities nationwide are hosting gender-neutral student housing, bathrooms and locker rooms; transgender law advocates are pushing for student health insurance plans to include hormones and “sex-reassignment surgery.” Last year, New York City’s homeless shelter system, which segregates men and women, began allowing people to decide which shelters to use based on whether they “feel” male or female. Some people are pushing to open women’s public toilet facilities and locker rooms to Burts-turned-Berthas everywhere. Thus, to protect the right of a man who says he feels more comfortable as a woman, the law is preparing to trample on the right of women who feel more comfortable in public bathrooms devoid of perverted men.
That is the truth of the matter. If you think these social engineers are preaching a doctrine of tolerance, think again. Theirs is a deeply intolerant world view. They demand that the world conform to their thinking. . . .
Guidelines under fire for 'biased' sex courses
By Gary Emerling
November 28, 2007
Proposed guidelines for sex-education classes in D.C. public schools face opposition from critics who say the standards are biased against abstinence-only education, promote the view that homosexuality is innate and are not age-appropriate.
"I'm quite confident if you surveyed all the public school parents in D.C., the majority would not agree with these standards," said Richard Urban, executive director of Urban Life Training and Reality Assessment (ULTRA) Teen Choice, which promotes abstinence.
Mr. Urban is among those slated to testify tonight at a public hearing before the State Board of Education, which is expected to vote on the standards next month.
The guidelines say eighth-grade students should be taught the definition of sexual orientation "using correct terminology" and learn that some people "may begin to feel romantically and/or sexually attracted to people of a different gender and/or to people of the same gender."
They say sixth-grade students should be taught that "people, regardless of biological sex, gender, ability, sexual orientation, gender identity and culture, have sexual feelings and the need for love, affection and physical intimacy."
Ninth-graders should be taught to "analyze trends in ... contraceptive practices, and the availability of abortion," the guidelines state.
Regina Griggs, executive director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX), said her organization is concerned that the term "sexual orientation" in the standards could lead to a curriculum that teaches that homosexuality is innate.
She also said the suggested standards for sixth-graders could introduce "cross-dressing as perfectly normal and natural," and that guidelines for teaching kindergartners about different family structures are inappropriate. . . .
PEACE AT LAST
HAYNE Suthon, owner of Lucky Cheng's, the downtown eatery where the waitresses started out in life as boys, has made peace with ex-husband Robert Jason. Their bitter divorce in 2000 resulted in huge lawyer fees, arrests and domestic-violence accusations. The couple, which once co-owned a production company, has reunited to make a 10-part documentary series on transsexuals to be called "Being T." "Half of them work for me," said Suthon. "One's a professional golfer. We focus on tranny chasers, too." She said that her ex was "back on his game" as a producer and that the two had made amends after dumping their divorce lawyers and speaking to each other in "a civilized manner."
LGBTs in Asia Face Criminalization
November 27, 2007
Earlier in the year a court in Pakistan jailed a same-sex couple for perjury, raising the taboo issues of homosexuality and transsexuality in the conservative society. Shumail Raj, who had undergone a couple of operations already to become a man, was accused of lying by the court as court-appointed doctors who examined Raj said he was still a woman! The sentence was subsequently suspended by the Supreme Court.
Sexuality confronts and challenges cherished notions of culture, traditional values, practices and rituals. And hence sexuality outside marriage is not recognized, sexuality of women is not seen as existing, sexual choices other than of the heterosexual variety are criminalized and transgender people marginalized. And our societies, because of these age-old structures, values and roles assigned to men and women within it, while very rarely assimilating transgender and transsexual issues. Because how do you fit ‘these people' into these traditional roles of a man and a woman? And that is why very often transgender persons, in their own lifestyles, also tend to slip into the accepted stereotypes of orthodox relationships and each person's role within it as defined by the society that rejected them in the first place.
Some Indian epics, so rich in their diverse stories, have had the space for everyone. Shikhandi was the warrior in the epic Mahabharata that no one could kill because he was ‘neither man nor woman.' And yet in many Indian films transgender people have been the subject of ridicule and buffoonery, increasingly replacing the regular targets like overweight or drunk people. And these would be seen as signs acceptance - when they become the butt of jokes in the mainstream media and entertainment. At least you are not been hidden in dark corners and spoken of in whispers!
Sexuality is inextricably linked with social exclusion. Heterosexuals constitute the sexual elite while Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual and Transgenders (LGBT), sex workers, the HIV-infected constitute the sexual pariahs, the social outcastes. And with barely any control over the environment that they live in, they face the worst kind of abuse and human rights violations imaginable. Often abandoned by their families (due to the associated stigma) or given up to be brought up by similar groups due to their ambiguous sex, they very literally start early in life to fend for themselves. Having being pushed into the peripheries of society by their own families, they often become sex workers.
The most serious problem comes when attempting to access health services, if and when they are available. Even in places where health services from the government are accessible, the abusive language and rough physical treatment coming as part of the ‘free service' -- stigmatizing behavior by the supposed care providers -- causes the biggest damage. The attitude of the service providers more often than not forces LGBT individuals to seek recourse in places where they are treated with more dignity or at least the pretense of it.
Most laws for people of alternate sexualities are archaic and continue to treat them as criminals. Hence, due to the illegal status bestowed on them not only is the cycle of exploitation and violence endless but due to the limited access to health services - more out of social ostracism as also refusal of treatment - they are forcibly pushed into back alleys for unsafe abortions and other treatments at the hands of quacks.
And in multicultural societies the laws are not just archaic but even confusing as evidenced at various symposia during the 4th Asia-Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (4thAPCRSH) in Hyderabad, when several speakers spoke of the laws existing in their respective countries or regions. For instance, the fine on a Muslim transgender in Malaysia is much higher (anywhere between $200-$800) as opposed to $14 for a non-Muslim transgender. And it is this criminalized status that really poses the biggest threat to most people of diverse sexualities as they find themselves in situations of unprotected and potentially risky encounters - both in terms of health and laws of the state. . . .
Gulf authorities to pay for gender reassignment
Gemma Pritchard
The Bahraini government has agreed to pay for a trans person to undergo gender reassignment surgery in Thailand.
According to daily English-language newspaper Gulf Daily News, 32-year old Hussain Rabie is due to fly out to Thailand on Thursday to undergo female-to-male surgery on Sunday.
Rabie, who is partially blind in his right eye, hopes to return to represent the Bahrain Disabled Sports Federation in the men's shot put and discus.
His trip to Thailand is being fully funded by the Bahrain Health Ministry and he also has a court order to protect him if he is questioned by immigration officers.
The Health Ministry will pay more than BD5,000 (�6,400) for his operation, accommodation, plane ticket, food and drink while he is there.
When he returns, his final hurdle will be the Bahraini courts, where he is battling for the right to be recognised as a man and officially change his name to Hussain.
"I am so happy that the ministry offered to pay for the operation," Rabie told Gulf Daily News yesterday.
"I was very concerned as to how I would manage - I didn't know where to get that amount from."
He said that he wrote to former Health Minister Dr Nada Haffadh asking for support, but could not believe it when the ministry responded.
"I would like to thank the ministry for their help and support."
He added: "I am still not officially Hussain, but hopefully after the operation I will get a court order stating that I am a male and then all my identity cards and passport will change and I will officially be a man."
As a result of his decision to have the operation, he has now been suspended from his job as an operator at GPIC, been shunned by peers, separated from his husband and stopped from going to the gym.
However, he said although society is slowly starting to accept his situation after he went public, people are still opposed to him having the operation.
"People are still not aware of the kind of surgery being carried out," he said.
"The community accepts homosexuals, so why are they against me?
"What they are doing is legally and religiously prohibited, but I have seen so many people who are leading a normal life and working. Everybody around them accepts them.
"I am medically unfit and I want to correct my problem."
Rabie first approached a lawyer in August 2005 and legal papers calling for him to be legally recognised as a man were filed in June last year.
He submitted medical reports from Al Khalidi Medical Centre, Jordan, Ibn Al Nafees Hospital and Shifa Al Jazeera Medical Centre, Bahrain, at two court hearings last year.
The High Civil Court also ordered for a medical report to be compiled by a Public Prosecution doctor.
That report states that he is suffering from a gender identity problem and has no female reproductive organs. . . .
Let me lead a normal life
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MANAMA A WOMAN about to embark on the rest of her life as a man has appealed to the people of Bahrain for acceptance. Bahraini Zainab Abdulhafed Rabie will leave for Thailand on Thursday for her final sex change operation. She hopes to lead a normal life as a man when she returns and has already won the support of the Bahrain government, which is paying for the surgery. The Health Ministry will pay more than BD5,000 for her operation, accommodation, plane ticket, food and drink while she is there. She has also been provided with a court order that explains her condition, which she can produce if she is stopped by immigration officers - something that has happened often in the past. When she returns, her final hurdle will be the Bahraini courts, where she is battling for the right to be recognised as a man and officially change her name to Hussain. "I am so happy that the ministry offered to pay for the operation," she told the GDN yesterday. "I was very concerned as to how I would manage - I didn't know where to get that amount from." Ms Rabie said she wrote to former Health Minister Dr Nada Haffadh asking for support, but couldn't believe it when the ministry responded. "I would like to thank the ministry for their help and support." The 33-year-old will be accompanied to Thailand by her brother and will have the operation next Sunday. She will then remain in hospital for two weeks for supervision. "After the two weeks I will have to stay in Thailand for a month-and-a-half for regular checkups," she said. "I have a court order stating my condition, which will help me at the airport and avoid confusion. "I am still not officially Hussain, but hopefully after the operation I will get a court order stating that I am a male and then all my identity cards and passport will change and I will officially be a man." Ms Rabie was born with a condition known as intersexuality, a term used to describe someone born with a reproductive or sexual anomaly, but only found out the truth when she got married at 25. She has now been suspended from her job as an operator at GPIC, been shunned by her peers, separated from her husband and stopped from going to the gym. However, she said although society is slowly starting to accept her condition after she went public, people are still opposed to her having the operation. "People are still not aware of the kind of surgery being carried out," she said. "They think that I am having a sex transfer instead of a sex correction." Before she learned the truth about herself, Zainab, who is partially blind in her right eye, represented the Bahrain Disabled Sports Federation in women's shot put and discuss. Now she is looking forward to getting back into the sport and competing against men. "I am ready for the operation and I have no fears - the result will make me very happy and hopefully let me go back to my normal life. "The community accepts homosexuals, so why are they against me? "What they are doing is legally and religiously prohibited, but I have seen so many people who are leading a normal life and working - everybody around them accepts them. "I am medically unfit and I want to correct my problem." Ms Rabie's lawyer, Faouzia Janahi, said her client was still struggling to gain acceptance. "They do not want to treat her as a male or a female, so what is she supposed to do?" "She is going to correct her sex, not change it. People should know what the two different procedures are before judging. "As for her work as an operator with GPIC, nothing has changed. She is still suspended from work and is still getting a salary. "Hopefully, after the operation, everything will fall into place and Zainab will lead a normal life." Ms Rabie knew from the age of eight that she was different from other girls, but her family never noticed anything unusual. It was not until she was 31 that she decided to seek legal advice. Zainab first approached her lawyer in August 2005 and legal papers calling for her to be legally recognised as a man were filed in June last year. She submitted 11 medical reports - from Al Khalidi Medical Centre, Jordan, and one each from Ibn Al Nafees Hospital and Shifa Al Jazeera Medical Centre, Bahrain, - at two court hearings last year. The High Civil Court also ordered for a medical report to be compiled by a Public Prosecution doctor. That report shows that she is suffering from a gender identity problem and has no female reproductive organs. It says she also has a higher percentage of male chromosomes in her body than female chromosomes, as well as "obscure external genitals". She has had a mastectomy and will travel for Thailand for her final operation. |
Transsexual enlightens crowd
"I thought I was God's one mistake," said Rachel Crandall, executive director of TransGender Michigan, about her being a girl living in a boy's body. The speech took place in the Gold Room in the Bovee University Center on Monday as part of Transgender Awareness Week.
by Ian Glennie
11/28/07
Rachel Crandall is a transsexual on a mission for awareness and acceptance for all.
She made that known Monday night at the Charles V. Park Library Auditorium.
Crandall, executive director of TransGender Michigan, was born a male. She said she only identified with females since she could remember.
She used her personal experience to express the physical, mental and emotional strife transsexuals face.
"I felt like a little girl trapped in a little boy's body," she told the audience of about 30 people. "I wanted someone to understand and except me for who I was."
Crandall said being one's self is not only an issue that transsexual, bisexual and gay people face, but is an issue that everyone must come to terms with.
Her speech was part of CMU's first Transgender Awareness Week.
"It's a great step in the right direction," said Flint senior Will Calhoun. "It's bringing awareness to students that have been previously unaware of these issues."
Crandall said she was in an almost constant state of despair and depression while growing up, and spent the majority of her life crying.
"It was the feeling that you were God's one mistake," she said. "A number of times I wanted to kill myself."
She said she didn't come out as a transsexual until she was 34. Before then, she lived as a man.
Once she came out of her failed marriage to a woman, she lost her career and she admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital.
She said there was a period in her life when she would do nothing but rock back and forth in the fetal position for weeks. . . .
