Jur-ass-ic Park and Transgender Americans?

I often used to wonder where (or if) the cut off point in age was for gender bias I encounter. The great majority of the very young kids I see-see me at the least as a curiosity and most have no reaction at all. The world is getting better---but---at the same time, what the hell is up with the lack of LGBTQ protections under law? And, dare I mention (with yet another U.S. Veterans Day around the corner, we mark another year of  U.S. active trans military members not being allowed to openly serve.

By "Jur-ass-ic" Park I mean, the group of Dinosaur Americans I am most likely to run into problems with. Three times out of four (a number derived from my very unscientific experiment) the majority of stares and glares I receive anymore are from women close to my age. (66) Not all mind you, because many of my friends are "more mature" women too and have opened their hearts and warmth to me more than they can ever know.

So, I don't know. Transgender "Cloud Nine" looks pretty dreamy at times, until I saw an old fat red neck in Texas protesting "No Men in the Womens Room" on his T-shirt, or Good Ol' Boy Rick from Pawn Stars, who essentially has said the same thing. Somewhere along along the line it's sad but the definition of conservative has been intermingled with ignorance these days. One can be conservative if you bother to bring the right set of facts to the table. (Example of course are the rest room 'wars')

At any rate, I have a tendency to think the "Jur-Ass-ic" crowd will go the way of the other "big-ot-suars" over the coming years. Especially when I read stories like this: "Reform Jews poised to pass Transgender Resolution."

For sure, parents call the shots here and they are the ones who do or don't line up to buy tickets to these parks.

You can tell it in their kids.

Doing the "Right" Thing

I caught this story from an Associated Press release. As an American and a transgender veteran it quickly caught my eye:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - An independent commission led by a former U.S. surgeon general has concluded there "is no compelling medical reason" for the U.S. armed forces to prohibit transgender Americans from serving and that President Barack Obama could lift the decades-old ban without approval from Congress, according to a report being released Thursday. The report said Department of Defense regulations designed to keep transgender people from joining or remaining in the military on the grounds of psychological and physical unfitness are based on outdated beliefs that require thousands of current service members either to leave the service or to forego the medical procedures and other changes that could align their bodies and gender identities.


 "We determined not only that there is no compelling medical reason for the ban, but also that the ban itself is an expensive, damaging and unfair barrier to health care access for the approximately 15,450 transgender personnel who serve currently in the active, Guard and reserve components," said the commission led by Dr. Joycelyn Elders, who served as surgeon general during Bill Clinton's first term as president, and Rear Adm. Alan Steinman, a former chief health and safety director for the Coast Guard.

The ban itself of course is blatantly Un-American in that it discriminates precisely against transgender service members who are expressly working to protect many rights they have no access to. There is much more to this story. Go here to read it.

Laverne Cox "ENDA" it All!

Can't write it any better than this:

"Laverne Cox"

I was so moved by and proud of President Barack Obama's history-making declaration yesterday with this sentence: "For me, personally, I think it's important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think that same-sex couples should be able to get married." This is great news. Marriage equality is indeed an issue for transgender Americans, as well, as evidenced by Littleton v. Prange, and recently by Nikki Araguz's case. But while I believe in and am a huge supporter of marriage equality, as a transgender woman of color, I recognize that there are arguably bigger issues for my trans brothers and sisters, issues like employment and health-care discrimination and violence against transgender people, particularly trans women of color.
This is why I went to Albany, N.Y. Tuesday for Equality and Justice Day. I wanted to lend my voice to the support of the passage of the Gender Expression Nondiscrimination Act (GENDA). Many transgender folks are fighting for our lives and basic civil rights all over this country, and to have those rights acknowledged by our legislature in the state of New York right now. For the fifth year in a row, the state assembly has passed GENDA, but the bill has yet to come to the floor for a vote in the Senate. This bill is about acknowledging that trans folks should have the same rights as everyone else. That's all. It's simple. This is America. Equal access and opportunity are what we're supposed to be about.

Laverne Cox Actress, producer and transgender advocate; co-creator and star, 'TRANSform Me' from the Huffington Post.