Oh Dykes

What is so controversial that golfer Anna Rawson felt a need to apologize? From the Sydney Daily Telegraph-

AUSTRALIAN glamour girl Anna Rawson said she was trying to promote golf in a radio interview in which she referred to past female players as "dykes".

*****

She came under fire for her poorly chosen comments aired by NOVA 5AA in Adelaide on Wednesday.

"The tour has got so much better with so many young stars and great players,'' Rawson told the radio station in an interview arranged by her father Jim. "But the mentality unfortunately amongst the media and the industry hasn't changed.

"They still think we're at 25 years ago when the tour was full of, you know, a lot of dykes and unattractive females nobody wanted to watch.''

Rawson is talking about how the media perceives players on tour. Why should she come under fire?

The word Dyke isn't considered a slur against a female homosexual. Many lesbians use the word to describe themselves and others.

"I could never be with a woman, because I'm just fascinated by what men can do with their bodies that we can't,'' she said before admitting: "This interview will definitely get me in trouble.''

*****

"I was making a reference to how I feel society sees women's golf as a whole. I don't believe that. I wouldn't want anyone to think that was my opinion and I am sorry I said that, definitely.

"I was making a reference to how women make seven times less than men on the course and 20-to-25 times less on the sponsorship front. It's amazing how women's golf has grown and we have many great young players out here, yet society and the media haven't really caught onto that.

"That's what I was talking about, I wasn't talking about my opinion at all.''

So she can't ever be a lesbian(I can't either) and she says the usually lazy media can't or won't portray ladies golfers correctly today and the differences in prize money. Was any of this off the mark? No, so why the controversy?

Political correctness run amok. BTW that really is Rawson in the photo above. If you want to see more, I suggest a google images search.

All dressed up

I couldn't let this news slip by without comment.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Swedish health officials say they will remove transvestism, fetishism and sadomasochism from the country's official list of diseases and mental disorders.

The National Board of Welfare says labeling those aspects of sexual behavior and gender identity as disorders can add to prejudices in society. Gay and transgender rights activists welcomed this week's decision.

The board's director Lars-Erik Holm says he will raise the issue internationally when the World Health Organization starts the process of renewing its classifications.

I agree transvestism isn't a disease or mental disorder. As for other two, I don't know enough to form a opinion.

The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is the organization named Bash Back. They get the award for the following-

A radical gay rights group is claiming responsibility for a protest Sunday at Mount Hope Church in Delta Township.

Protesters who entered the Creyts Road church along with worshippers surprised the congregation when they stood up during the service, threw fliers at churchgoers and shouted slogans such as "It's OK to be gay," and "Jesus was a homo," according to David Williams, communications director at the church. His father, Dave Williams, is the church's longtime pastor. He was not preaching at the church Sunday.

Another group of protesters demonstrated outside the church at the same time as the indoor protest.

*****

A Lansing group affiliated with a radical gay organization known as Bash Back, formed to protest the Republican and Democratic national conventions earlier this year, put out a call on the Internet on Oct. 7 for activists to come to a "radical queer convergence" in Lansing on Nov. 7-9.

A posting on its MySpace page declared the convergence a "fierce success."
Fire alarm pulled

According to a report on the Bash Back group's news site, protesters inside the church pulled a fire alarm, unfurled a banner from the church balcony, shouted and threw fliers to the worshippers.

I'm sympathetic to many GLBT causes or members of the community but disrupting a church service isn't going to win this group support from me or anyone else. These drama queens have a right to protest, but there are places that people should respect, whether its a church or the funeral for a fallen soldier. For their outrageous actions last Sunday, I name Bash Back today's Knucklehead of the Day.

Hat tip- Doug at Below the Beltway who writes "Now, generally, they have a right to protest, but I've got to wonder what they think they're accomplishing by acting like jerks and idiots." Bash Back didn't earn any respect but did earn today's award!

Changes late in life

I think some of the reporting below is just nuts.

A man with high levels of the female hormone oestrogen is naturally turning into a woman, but doctors say the process is irreversible.

Terry Wright, 60, started losing his hair and beard ten years ago.

Since then, the father of five has developed smooth skin, hot flushes and breasts.

Mr Wright, a pub singer from Birmingham, gets harassed by local children who call him the "She-Man".

*****

Mr Wright, who has to wear a wig, has a slim build and is 5ft 4in height, making him appear even more feminine.

Blood tests have revealed that Mr Wright has abnormally high levels of the female hormone oestrogen. But doctors who have examined him say they have never seen such a case - and do not know what to do to reverse the process.

Some testicular cancers can produce high levels of oestrogen and drugs that used to treat prostate cancer can have similar effects. However, doctors say this in not true in this case.

An MRI scan has ruled out the oestrogen surge being caused by a tumour and a psychiatrist has judged him mentally sound.

His GP wrongly suspected he was trying to change gender and offered him a sex swap which he refused.

"I am a man, not a woman. And I do not want to be a woman. I just want to get my life back to normal," he said.

Professor Richard Ross, a hormones specialist and the head of Endocrinology at The University of Sheffield said: "This case seems very unusual."

Mr Wright added: "Doctors call me an 'interesting case' and 'unique' but I just want to go back to being a proper man."

While Mr. Wright's blood chemistry has changed, causing some physical changes, most people would still define him as a man because of what is between his legs. I would in Mr. Wright's case. Female hormones can't cause a man's equipment to disappear, but it would probably cause it to atrophy.

A couple of other observations on this article-

Mr Wright had to undergo a psychological test. At first glance a man taking on female characteristics would appear an abnormal event, so I understand the disbelief doctors and medical professionals would have when seeing Mr. Wright.

I don't blame Mr. Wright for wanting to be a proper man again. To have one's gender changed unwillingly, has to be unsettling. I vaguely recall stories of children raised as girls after a circumcision was botched. The results for the girls probably wasn't very pretty as they grew up.(Gender identity issues)

Update- A blogger in Australia is also discussing this news. Zoe has considerable experience with Idiopathic Partial Sex Reversal aka IPSR.

I'm a real lesbian, the rest of you are fakes

No I've not been having an identity crisis. From AP-

Three islanders from Lesbos -- home of the ancient poet Sappho, who praised love between women -- have taken a gay rights group to court for using the word lesbian in its name.

One of the plaintiffs said Wednesday that the name of the association, Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece, "insults the identity" of the people of Lesbos, who are also known as Lesbians.

Frivilous lawsuits aren't just confined to the United States. These 'lesbians' are forgetting the economic benefits the 'other lesbians' bring to Lesbos lesbians. I guess many residents of Lesbos feel just the same as South Floridians do. As much as we hate the extra traffic and other inconveniences that snowbirds cause every winter, at the same time intelligent people know the economic benefits for the area brought by these part-time residents and tourists. My wife works at our local church, after the snowbirds return north, the weekly collection falls off as much as fifty percent from the height of winter.

Dr. Steven Taylor suggests it would be rather easier to change the name of the island than win proprietary rights to the name lesbian. How about renaming the island Sappho? She is after all arguably the island's most famous resident, past or present

Just sinful

From the water is wet department.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, surging in Iowa polls in the Republican presidential race, wrote on a questionnaire while running for U.S. Senate in 1992 that homosexuality is "aberrant" and "sinful."

Huckabee is a Southern Baptist. That he would hold such a view is hardly exceptional.

As Dr. Taylor wrote, 'One can debate the overall issue,' and I think everyone is entitled to their opinions. God will ultimately judge whether homosexuals are being sinful, in the meantime I think they deserve human decency like anyone else.

After revelations like this and Huckabee's statements on AIDS from years back, I'm guessing we'll soon find out other important views of the Presidential hopeful. Like where he stood on disco, pet rocks, and the hula hoop. Stay tuned.

Linked to- Right Voices, Right Wing Nation, Rosemary, Stop the ACLU, Stuck on Stupid, Third World County,

Nothing works

An unusual immigration related story.

A New Zealand woman who married an American man with “ambiguous genitalia” has had her marriage licence quashed and been refused permission to stay in the United States.

The woman, who has not been named, married Stephan Thomas Calewarts - also known as Stephanie Tia Calewarts - in September 2006.

Then in October 2006 Stephanie Calewarts - whose name was legally changed in 2000 - asked a Brown County, Wisconsin circuit judge to change his birth certificate back to a male gender.

When the judge refused, the county revoked the couple’s marriage licence because Mr Calewarts’ birth certificate listed him as female because same-sex marriages are illegal in Wisconsin.

Because the marriage was null, the New Zealand woman couldn’t get a visa to stay in the United States, Mr Calewarts told the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

“Oh God, no,” Mr Calewarts said when told of an appeals court decision released today.

“I am scared to death right now. I am not going to see my wife. She is the only thing that means anything to me. I am a nobody right now.”

He had claimed that the 2000 court order changing his birth certificate to female was an error based on mistakes and misunderstandings.

Mr Calewarts, 58, said he had some surgery done for health reasons, not to change his sex.

But the District Court of Appeals ruled that Mr Calewarts had run out of time to appeal or challenge the earlier court decision.

*****

According to court records, he was born with “ambiguous genitalia” - tissue for both a penis and a vagina - because of birth defects, but his birth certificate identified him as male.

He had surgery in July 1999 to remove his testicles and after gender reassignment surgery in Montreal in 2000, asked for his birth certificate to be changed to female, court records said.

“I thought I was going to have two birth certificates. One of each. Big deal. I was born with two genders,” Mr Calewarts said today.

“I can’t have sexual intercourse because nothing works."

I have some sympathy for Mr. Calewarts. Children born intersexed or with undescended testicles, can end up be labeled the wrong gender at birth.(Sometimes with the parents making the choice.)

However once Calewarts had GRS surgery, I just don't understand how they could think they'd have two birth certificates and the ability to choose between male and female. I do however wish Mr. Calewarts and his wife well. Maybe he should look into immigrating to New Zealand. That may up working for the couple.

Hat tip- Ann Althouse
Linked to- Right Wing Nation, Rosemary, The World According to Carl, Yankee Sailor,

All Knucklehead Day Award Twenty Two

Our twenty second winner of the day is Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. He gets the award for the following.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Cambodian's prime minister said Tuesday he was severing ties with his adopted daughter, who is a lesbian, but appealed to people not to discriminate against gays.

"My adopted daughter now has a wife. I'm quite disappointed," Hun Sen said.

He made the rare revelation about his closely guarded family life during a public speech at a student graduation ceremony.

Hun Sen said he plans to file a civil court case to disown his adopted daughter so that she cannot claim any inheritance from his family.

"We are concerned that she might one day cause us trouble ... and try to stake her claim for a share of our assets," he said.

The prime minister and his wife Bun Rany have three sons and two other daughters. He said they adopted their third daughter in the mid 80's when she was 18 days old. She has carried his family name "Hun" just like his biological children. Hun Sen did not reveal her given name.

Although he is cutting ties with her, Hun Sen said he was not discriminating against gays and appealed to society to show respect for them.

"Most of them are good people and are not doing alcohol, drugs or racing vehicles," he said.

Do as I say, not as I do. What an excellent example for the people of his country. That Hun sen doesn't think his cutting ties with his gay daughter is discrimination, isn't just dumb, it qualifies him to be our twenty second Knucklehead of the Day.

Linked to- Big Dog, Right Wing Nation, Stop the ACLU, Third World County, Woman Honor Thyself,

Leave those worms alone

From Reuters-

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Altering a gene in the brain of female worms changed their sexual orientation, U.S. researchers said on Thursday, making female worms attracted to other females.

The study reinforces the notion that sexual orientation is hard-wired in the brain, said Erik Jorgensen, scientific director of the Brain Institute at the University of Utah.

"They look like girls, but act and think like boys," Utah researcher Jamie White, who worked on the study published in the journal Current Biology, said in a statement.

Researchers in Jorgensen's lab switched on a gene in female worms that makes the body develop male structures, but they only activated the gene in the brain.

As a result, the female worms still had female bodies, but they behaved like males.

"It suggests sexual behavior is encoded in our genes" and not caused by extra nerve cells specific to males or females, Jorgensen said in a telephone interview.

The statement by White is interesting. Do lesbians believe they act and think like men? They love women, but that doesn't make them male. Gender identity and sexual orientation are two different issues. Take for instance men who have gender reassignment surgery but live as lesbians post-op.

All of Jorgensen's work is good for headlines. Other than creating some lesbian worms, I don't think we've learned anything practical. Feel free to agree or disagree.

Linked to-Bullwinkle, DragonLady, High Desert Wanderer, Pirate's Cove,

Florida the rules are different here Chapter CLI

Unhappy with the price of a McDonald's soft drink, a South Florida teenager does a pepper spray drive by. What gives this story that 'only in Florida', is the fact that the man with the pepper spray was wearing women's clothes at the time. I wouldn't be buying the Gender dysphoria excuse if I was a juror at this teen's trial. Don't you just love the Sunshine state?

Hat tip- Rick at SOTP
Linked to- Bullwinkle, Jo, Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson, The World According to Carl,

A teenager has been arrested and charged as the trigger man -- although at the time he was dressed like a woman -- behind a drive-by pepper-spraying at an Oakland Park McDonald's, investigators announced on Thursday.

The arrest came hours after a blue Toyota Solara with five people inside, including two cross-dressing males, pulled into the drive-through at 3073 W. Oakland Park Blvd. just before 4:30 p.m. They wanted a 69-cent drink on Wednesday, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.

Clerk Shade Jones, of Fort Lauderdale, told them there was no such thing on the menu.

The driver got out of the way, and a 17-year-old from Fort Lauderdale leaned forward from the rear middle seat and aimed pepper spray at the drive-through window, according to a BSO report.

The teenager was arrested at 2 a.m. on Thursday, according to arrest documents. He is charged with two counts of simple battery, BSO spokesman Mike Jachles said.

''These drive-through workers are trying to make a living working hard, and they don't deserve to get pepper-sprayed,'' Jachles said.

Four adults also were in the car, including three women and another man dressed as a woman, Jachles said. On Thursday, none of the others was charged, he said.

Depends on what your definition of Gay is

New York Senator, former First Lady, and 2008 Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has come out of the closet.

Hillary Clinton officially declared she's not a lesbian - not that there's anything wrong with that.

During an interview with The Advocate to be published next week, Sean Kennedy, the gay magazine's news and features editor, asked the presidential candidate, "How do you respond to the occasional rumor that you're a lesbian?"

"People say a lot of things about me, so I really don't pay any attention to it," Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) replied.

"It's not true, but it is something that I have no control over. People will say what they want to say."

What politicians do in bed does not interest me as long as they 1- Do it with an adult and 2- Do it with someone with two legs or less! Amputees are all acceptable, horses aren't.

Hat tip- James Joyner at OTB who is counting down till Gay activist groups condemn Hilary for not saying she'd be proud to be gay.

Update- To clarify myself Bed means 'in private' to me. Rather than in a public place, like the case of this politician.

Linked to- Perri Nelson, Right Wing Nation, Stop the ACLU, Stuck on Stupid,

The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is High Point Church and its Pastor Rev. Gary Simons. They get the award for the following.

ARLINGTON, Texas - A megachurch canceled a memorial service for a Navy veteran 24 hours before it was to start because the deceased was gay.

Officials at the nondenominational High Point Church knew that Cecil Howard Sinclair was gay when they offered to host his service, said his sister, Kathleen Wright. But after his obituary listed his life partner as one of his survivors, she said, it was called off.

"It's a slap in the face. It's like, 'Oh, we're sorry he died, but he's gay so we can't help you,'" she said Friday.

Wright said High Point offered to hold the service for Sinclair because their brother is a janitor there. Sinclair, who served in the first Gulf War, died Monday at age 46 from an infection after surgery to prepare him for a heart transplant.

The church's pastor, the Rev. Gary Simons, said no one knew Sinclair, who was not a church member, was gay until the day before the Thursday service, when staff members putting together his video tribute saw pictures of men "engaging in clear affection, kissing and embracing."

Simons said the church believes homosexuality is a sin, and it would have appeared to endorse that lifestyle if the service had been held there.

"We did decline to host the service — not based on hatred, not based on discrimination, but based on principle," Simons told The Associated Press. "Had we known it on the day they first spoke about it — yes, we would have declined then. It's not that we didn't love the family."

You have a very funny way of showing your love Reverend. In all fairness, the Church did offer to help make other arrangements. Still the abrupt cancellation and the reason I feel are unjustified. I will be the first to admit, my views on GLBT issues is middle of the road to liberal. These people shouldn't be discriminated against, and should be afforded equal protection. In this case we're talking a church, and people who should know better. Maybe Rev. Simons should have asked what Jesus would want him to do? High Point and its Pastor were not being very Christ like.

High Point Church and its Pastor Rev. Gary Simons are today's Knuckleheads of the Day.

Linked to- Adam, Amboy Times, Big Dog, Bright & Early, Conservative Thoughts, Leaning Straight Up, Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson, Pirate's Cove, Planck's Constant, Pursuing Holiness, Right Wing Nation, Samantha Burns, Third World County, Webloggin, Yankee Sailor,

Take your choice

From AP-

BANGKOK, Thailand - Mr., Mrs. or Ms.? Thailand may soon let people who have had a sex change officially alter their title, too.

A proposal which would allow transgender men or women to choose how they are addressed is being considered by the country's National Legislative Assembly to support an anti-discrimination provision in the draft constitution, Thai newspapers reported.

Wiroon Tangcharoen, an assembly member who is also rector of Srinakharinwirot University, said he supported the move and did not believe it would affect room assignments in university dormitories, where students are segregated by sex, The Nation newspaper said.

Students wishing to live with members of their adopted gender would have to produce medical certificates proving they had undergone sex-change operations, he said.

"The university has nothing against male transsexual students staying in female dormitories on the campus," he was quoted as saying.

Even though Thailand is widely tolerant of gays, transvestites and transsexuals, many face family pressure, social prejudice and domestic violence.

Thailand is a popular place to go for those who have SRS(Sex change surgery).

Most of Asian society is not very gay friendly. Readers of my blog know I take a rather liberal stance on GLBT issues. Take for instance my views concerning former Largo Florida City Manager Steve Stanton. I wish more Asian countries practiced the tolerance shown in Thailand. GLBT people shouldn't be discriminated against.

Linked to- Bullwinkle, Cao, DragonLady,

The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Singapore's Media Development Authority. They get the award for the following.

SINGAPORE - Singapore's censors have banned an exhibition of photographs depicting gay men and women kissing, a gay rights activist said, calling the move "absurd."

The city-state's Media Development Authority denied organizers a license because the photographs "promote a homosexual lifestyle," Alex Au, founder of a Singapore gay rights group, People Like Us, told The Associated Press Wednesday.

The exhibition, entitled "Kissing," is a selection of 80 posed shots of same-sex kissing between fully clothed models, said Au, who shot the photographs.

"Kissing" was canceled after organizers received a letter from the Media Development Authority on Monday saying it was rejecting their application for a license to hold the exhibition, Au said. The media regulator confirmed in an e-mail that it rejected Au's application for a license to hold the exhibition.

"Presently, homosexual content is allowed in the appropriate context but it should not be of a promotional or exploitative nature," Amy Tsang, deputy director of media content, said in the statement. "The proposed exhibition ... which focuses mainly on homosexual kissing is deemed to promote a homosexual lifestyle, and cannot be allowed."

Tsang said, however, that authorities have previously allowed "brief same-sex kissing" in stage plays and adult-rated films.

The exhibition was part of "Indignation," a two-week gay pride series of forums, film screenings, lectures and other events that was scheduled to start later Wednesday.

The Gay rights forum was subsequently called off on Friday.

SINGAPORE (AP) — Authorities in Singapore on Friday banned a gay rights forum at which a retired Canadian law professor was to speak, the second time in a week the city-state has forbidden an event that touches on gay issues.

The forum was to feature Douglas Sanders, a professor emeritus in law at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and Thailand's Chulalongkorn University, the event's organizer, Alex Au, told the Associated Press.

But because the Aug. 7 forum, titled "Sexual Orientation in International Law: The Case of Asia," was deemed contrary to public interest, police canceled the event's license Friday and immigration authorities rejected Sander's visa application, Singapore's Home Affairs Ministry said.

"Our laws are an expression and reflection of the values of our society; the discourse over a domestic issue such as the laws that govern homosexuality in Singapore must be reserved for Singaporeans ... foreigners should refrain from interfering," the statement said.

But Au, the forum's organizer, said Sanders had no such intention.

"He was going to do a lecture in Singapore about international trends. He is not an expert on Singapore and had no intention of talking about Singapore," Au said.

TFM believes in freedom of expression for everyone, including people who he disagrees with. The gay rights forum and photos pose no threat to Singapore's culture or people, and its just further proof how idiotic the authoritarian mindset in that country is. This most recent stand is hypocritical in addition, just last month the same agency allowed a play with gay themes to show in the city state.

Singapore's Media Development Authority is today's Knucklehead of the Day.

Linked to- Adam, Amboy Times, Big Dog, Blue Star, Church and State, Dumb Ox, Leaning Straight Up, Morewhat, Perri Nelson, Pirate's Cove, Point Five, Pursuing Holiness, Right Voices, Right Wing Nation, Third World County, Webloggin, Woman Honor Thyself, The World According to Carl, Yankee Sailor,

Upheval

From NPR-

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday vowed to stay in office, despite a humiliating election that saw his Liberal Democratic Party suffer its worst defeat in a half-century and could have implications for relations with the U.S.

In a vote for half of the seats in the upper house of parliament, the electorate voiced its outrage over a series of political scandals and the loss of millions of pension records - a serious blunder in this rapidly-ageing country - stripping the LDP of its majority in the 242-seat body.

"To pursue reforms, to build a new country, I have to fulfill my duties as prime minister from now on," Abe said, acknowledging, nonetheless, that a Cabinet reshuffle was in order.

But the vote is a sign the electorate is angry. It was a terrible defeat for the prime minister a mere 10 months after he took office, succeeding the charismatic and popular Junichiro Koizumi.

The LDP remains in control of the lower house and thus still controls the government, but Sunday's defeat was a clear sign of Abe's tumbling fortunes and a dramatic reversal of the stellar support he enjoyed when he took office less than a year ago.

******

Phil Deans, a professor of Politics and East Asian Studies at Temple University in Tokyo, said Abe's mission to make Japan more assertive on the world stage is out of touch with the electorate.

"His nationalist agenda just doesn't have that much appeal. Most Japanese people don't care that much about revising the constitution and changing Japan's international role," Deans said.

The Democratic Party of Japan, or DPJ, now the largest party in the upper house for the first time in half a century, celebrated its victory. Democratic politician Yukio Hatoyama spelled out the vote's significance.

*****

The DPJ now controls the legislative agenda and can block government bills, ushering in a period of political gridlock. According to Koichi Nakano, an associate professor of political science from Sophia University, the opposition control of the upper house could cause more friction over Japan's alliance with the U.S., which had been especially close under Abe and Koizumi.

Abe has been a staunch US ally but the election results were more likely due to economic factors and recent corruption scandals in Japan's ruling party. Maybe the Japanese people finally had enough of politics as usual.

How did Kanako Otsuji, Japan's first openly lesbian candidate for the upper house, fare in the election?

TOKYO (Reuters) - The first openly gay candidate in Japanese national politics failed to win a seat in upper house elections on Monday, but vowed to continue her fight for minority rights.

Kanako Otsuji, 32, backed by the main opposition Democratic Party, had campaigned in front of rainbow-coloured flags, with loudspeakers declaring to passers-by she was a lesbian.

Ms. Otsuji is still young enough to try again. Try, try again as the saying goes.

Also discussing the election results in Japan- Captain's Quarters, Poliblog,
Linked to- Bullwinkle, Leaning Straight Up, Morewhat, Pirate's Cove,

Gender Dysphoria and Taxes

A Massachusetts woman will soon be going to tax court with the IRS. See Rhiannon O'Donnabhain used to be a man till having SRS. Then she tried to take a deduction on her taxes for the surgery. The IRS disallowed it. Therefore the case in tax court.

I think Ms. O'Donnabhain has a case,(TFM wishes she chose a different last name. I'm cutting and pasting instead of spelling it. LOL) though I disagree with her thinking the IRS decision was based on prejudice. Its far more likely to based on both the standard IRS that they're always right. The case where travel expenses for a relative of someone having SRS being allowed in addition to Gender Dysphoria being a recognized medical condition, would seem to give Ms. O'Donnabhain solid legal ground to stand on. I'll be interested to hear what the final outcome is. Good luck to Rhiannon O'Donnabhain.

Final Note- SRS aka Sex change surgery, is not covered by most insurance. So the patient in almost all instances has to pay for the surgery out of pocket.

Linked to- Amboy Times, Big Dog, Bullwinkle, Leaning Straight Up,

BOSTON (AP) — After a tormented existence as a father, a husband, a Coast Guardsman and a construction worker, a 57-year-old suburban Boston man underwent a sex-change operation. Then she wrote off the $25,000 in medical expenses on her taxes.
But the IRS disallowed the deduction — ruling the procedure was cosmetic, not a medical necessity — in a potentially precedent-setting dispute now before the U.S. Tax Court.

Rhiannon O'Donnabhain is suing the IRS in a case advocates for the transgendered are hoping will force the tax agency to treat sex-change operations the same as appendectomies, heart bypasses and other deductible medical procedures. The case is set to go to trial July 24.

An estimated 1,600 to 2,000 people a year undergo sex-change surgery in the United States, according to the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.

O'Donnabhain said she could have paid back the approximately $5,000 she received in her tax refund, but decided to challenge the IRS because she believes the ruling against her was rooted in politics and prejudice.

"This goes way beyond money," O'Donnabhain said in an interview with The Associated Press. "If I were to give the money back, it would be saying it's OK for you to do this to me. It is not OK for them to do this to me or anyone like me."

The U.S. Tax Court has never issued an opinion in a similar case, said Jennifer Levi, an attorney with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the Boston-based legal organization representing O'Donnabhain. But the IRS has ruled against allowing the deduction in at least one other case.

In a 2005 case, the IRS ruled the costs of a woman's gender reassignment surgery and related treatments were not deductible as medical expenses.

The IRS cited the section of the tax code that says cosmetic surgery or similar procedures are deductible only when they are needed to improve a congenital abnormality, an accident or trauma, or a disfiguring disease.

In a 1983 case, however, the IRS allowed a father to deduct his transportation costs when he accompanied his college-age son to a clinic where he received a sex-change operation.

Levi argues that because gender-identity disorder is a recognized mental disorder that is generally treated with hormones and surgery, the costs are legitimate medical deductions.

"Every mental health textbook and medical dictionary recognizes the legitimacy of both the diagnosis and course of treatment," Levi said.

IRS officials declined to comment, citing the upcoming trial.

Robert Adelson, a Boston tax attorney, said the IRS "might take the position that you were dealt a particular hand, you are the gender you are, and if you want to now change the gender, should the government now subsidize you to do so?"

Others say the IRS has made a mistake.

"The IRS ruling is pure bias, since scientists agree that gender transition services are medically necessary and not cosmetic," said Joel Ginsberg, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.

O'Donnabhain (pronounced oh-DON-oh-vin) will not disclose her original name to protect her family's privacy. She said she struggled with uncomfortable feelings she could not identify while growing up in an Irish Catholic family.

Out of the closet Japan style

Kanako Otsuji is Japan's first openly Lesbian politician. She is running for a seat in Japan's upper house parliamentary elections.

TFM votes based on whether I agree or disagree with someone's politics. A person's marital status, gender or sexual orientation matter little to me. I knew of the rumors about former Congressman Mark Foley being gay, but would have supported him for office before last year's scandal broke. While I consider myself conservative on most subjects, my views on GLBT issues are pretty open minded. Asian society is not gay friendly, and I'm sure Ms. Otsuji has had her share of obstacles. I myself will leave the judging to God. Or the determination of Otsuji's ability to govern, up to Japanese voters. Hopefully her sexual orientation won't be the deciding factor, one way or the other.

Linked to- Bullwinkle, DragonLady, High Desert Wanderer, Outside the Beltway,

Kanako Otsuji wants to open the closet for Japan's gay and lesbian community in order to increase their visibility and help them gain their basic rights as citizens.

The nation's first openly lesbian politician is running for a seat in upper house parliamentary elections in July under the banner of the major opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

"I wanted to change Japan through politics, and to do that we (homosexuals) have to become visible," Otsuji told DPA at her campaign office in Tokyo's Shinjuku Nichome district, known as a hub of the homosexual community.

Otsuji, then a member of the prefectural assembly in the western Japanese province of Osaka, officially announced her sexual orientation at a Tokyo gay pride parade in August 2005 and in a book published on the same day.

Since Japan has no law banning discrimination against homosexuals, many of them fear a backlash and do their best to hide under the blanket of pseudonyms or anonymity.

Many Japanese homosexuals feel more comfortable coming out of the closet with their close friends but resist revealing their sexual orientation to their immediate families or to their professional colleagues, Otsuji said.

After the 32-year-old politician announced her sexual orientation in 2005, her colleagues at the Osaka prefectural assembly began avoiding her.

"They just didn't know how to react and they ignored me," Otsuji said. "I have met many Japanese people who just regarded us as 'weirdos'."

In Japan, violent hate crimes mostly target gay men, Otsuji said, as seen in a murder case about 10 years ago, when a Japanese gay man was robbed and killed.

But lesbians, who tend to be more invisible in society, may just be ignored or, at worst, receive prank calls.

Although Otsuji, a Taekwondo master, has not experienced any violent harassment since she announced her candidacy, her campaign office has dealt with protest calls from voters.

Otsuji thinks the prejudice against gays and lesbians in Japan lies in how people perceive homosexuality only as "something to do with what happens in bed," and not a lifestyle variation.

That generates the feeling of shame. When people criticize, they express sympathy for the parents of homosexuals, who they think must feel ashamed of their offspring.

Otsuji's mother received bouquets of flowers when her daughter won a seat in the assembly, but no congratulatory messages reached her when Otsuji married her partner.

Both women wore white wedding dresses and veils for the wedding earlier this month. The couple received a telegram from DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa and blessings from their families and friends after they exchanged vows and rings at the ceremony held at the Nagoya Lesbian & Gay Revolution 2007 event in the central Japanese city of Nagoya.

"Japan's discrimination against homosexuals is not based on religion but morality," Otsuji said in an interview. "That's why I think the nation can turn 180 degrees as soon as it learns to accept the concept."

Yes I noticed- At least five years ago if not longer

From the National Review-

You may have noticed, on forms or posters, the “T” added to “LGB” (lesbian, gay, bisexual). “T” means transgendered: men in women’s bodies, or vice versa, before or after corrective operations. “T” is often followed by “Q,” questioning: still not sure. The interest in the mutability of gender is in part a reaction to the organ obsessions of popular culture that run from Hugh Hefner through Robert Mapplethorpe and The Vagina Monologues. Sexual identity is a reservoir of roles and functions, so much deeper than body parts. “Virtue” and “virtu” come from the Latin vir, man; the ladies, meanwhile, can claim Mother Nature; Shakespeare is full of cross-dressing heroines; one could go on and on. How sad then that the current vogue for gender bending should draw, not on the accumulated insights of poetry, but on interest-group lingo, academic theory, and doctors interested in marketing medical procedures.

I first saw the term GLBT sometime either early in this decade or the late nineties. That the ediotrs of the National Review just had an epiphany moment in their discovering this, shows me it isn't just the left MSM that needs a reality check sometimes. I don't consider anything gender bending about people who feel their body doesn't match how they feel inside. Transvestites and Transsexualism are two totally different things.

By the way I have a category at TFM for GLBT issues. TFM isn't trying to market anything either. Just present a forum for my views.

Linked to- Mad Pigeon, Morewhat, Webbloggin,

Freedom to Marry, Freedom to Think

From McClatchy Newspapers-

WASHINGTON - Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the poster child for gay marriage?

A coalition of civil rights groups that back gay marriage is using photos of prominent couples like the former Republican governor and his Mexican-born wife, Columba, in an advertising campaign marking the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, a U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave interracial couples the right to marry.

The groups say they hope to use the couples and the court case to bolster their contention that marriage is a civil right that should know no bounds - even for those of the same sex.


"We're honoring and celebrating something that just over 40 years ago some Americans said was immoral and wrong and could not happen," said Jimmy Creech, the executive director of Faith in America, a gay rights advocacy group that is bankrolling the ad campaign. "We're celebrating the wisdom that prejudice and bigotry was removed from the law books and Americans were given the right to marry the person they loved, regardless of race."

The "Freedom to Marry" advertising campaign - to be launched Monday - consists of six ads that will run in two Capitol Hill publications, Roll Call and Politico. They feature photos of interracial couples like golfer Tiger Woods and his wife, Elin, and former U.S. Defense Secretary Bill Cohen and his wife, Janet Langhart, who have authored a book about their marriage, "Love in Black and White." Couples married to someone of a different ethnicity, like the Bushes, are also featured.

The ads note that 16 states still banned interracial marriages until the Supreme Court struck down a Virginia law in 1967, finding "the freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men."

The supreme court decision the article is referring to is Loving vs. Virginia. Previously I blogged about that decision. My marriage is a interracial one, my wife Leonita is Asian/Filipino and I'm white. We just celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary on May 30th. That's my wife on the pony. That picture was taken in Poland seven years ago.



My and Leonita's families have always been supportive of us. There was never any friction, my late father positively adored Leonita. My mother-in-law lives with us.

Faith in America has a right to do whatever campaign they want. TFM has defended unpopular people before, Cindy Sheehan for one. Only if the stand is outrageous is it worthy of a Knucklehead. I've also blogged before how I feel that gay couples should get some kind of legal protection for their relationships.

Still I'm not crazy about this group, using my marriage and others like myself, to make their case. I don't feel its the same thing. Are I and the thousands of US servicemen who married Asian women they met abroad all poster childs for Faith in America's cause. Many may agree with FIA's cause, but you know something. I for one don't like being used to prove something. My politics and beliefs are mine, FIA's are there theirs. They are welcome to them, as am I to mine. Don't tell me what I should think or do, based on your set of criteria. I promise not to do the same.

Seriously I think FIA is targetting the wrong people. Their advertisements are running in publications for Washington insiders. If they want to get real change, they have to do it at a grassroots level and change public opinion. That's my opinion for whatever its worth.

Hat tip- Rick at SOTP
Linked to- Blue Star, Maggie, Perri Nelson, Woman Honor Thyself,

Fire him but......

This certainly isn't a police matter.

Broward Sheriff's investigators are looking at surveillance video footage in hopes of discovering who quoted a Bible passage that denounces homosexuality over the public address system this week at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

The Broward County mayor apologized for the incident Friday, and the county administrator vowed that if a county employee were found to be behind the incident, the person would be fired.

The unauthorized announcement quoted from Leviticus 20:13, which, depending on the translation of the Bible, states that: "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death."

The passage was read more than once over the public address system in the baggage area of Terminal 3 at 12:45 a.m. Tuesday, prompting complaints from a local gay couple.

*****

The microphone to the intercom system is "technically" accessible to the public, but it is for airport employee use only and a code must be entered to select the loudspeakers on which it is heard, Eggelletion said. About 400 Broward County employees work at the airport, along with 11,000 people who work for private airlines and other airport-related businesses.

I'm not defending what this person did, he or she should be fired, but why is this police matter. Doesn't the Broward County police have something better to do or is it so the airport makes those 20-50 deputies that milling around there every day, actually do some work?

There is plenty of crime in South Florida. Broward County police should have more important priorities, and I'm not talking the arrest of innocent people or the running down of pedestrians.

Linked to- Bright & Early, Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson,