Transgender teen turns 'bathroom predator' myth on its head by putting simple truth in the mix

The issue of transgender equality has become, unfortunately, yet another situation about lgbt rights in which religious right groups seem to be defining the terms of argument, i.e. reducing the argument to an inaccurate, attention-catching point which exploits fear and subsequently finds the lgbt community playing defense.

In this case, religious right groups and spokespeople have pushed everyone's attention on bathrooms and the fear of not being safe in that very private and vulnerable space. While I despise the fact that the lgbt community finds ourselves yet again in another position of playing defense, I am happy with the fact that we are getting rather skilled at fighting from that position.

Buzzfeed proves this point in by spotlighting a drawing created by a transgender teen which turns the bathroom predator myth on its head by adding a little truth to the formula:

According to Buzzfeed,the drawing, which 22-year-old writer Jason Gross created in 2012, has become "a symbol in the fight for trans bathroom rights."

Gross told Buzzfeed:

"It’s good to know that this isn’t just me being a baby and actually resonates with others,” he said. “So if it can help further the movement the way it seems to be doing I’m happy to let it go.”

'New film explores the ability to find love after 'ex-gay' therapy' & other Tue. midday news briefs

A Gay Conversion Therapy Survivor Finds Love In This Bold New Film - 'Fair Haven' promises to be good! According to the Huffington Post:

The romantic drama, which hits select theaters Friday, follows James (played by Michael Grant), a young gay man who returns to his family’s New England farm after receiving conversion therapy treatment. At first, James believes he’s been cured of his same-sex attraction, but soon finds myself reconnecting with a former flame, Charlie (Josh Green), as seen in the video above.

 The Particularly LGBT Drama of the ‘Moonlight’ Best Picture Oscar Victory - How 'Moonlight' echoes the "the nature of LGBT political advances in recent years."  

WATCH: Sean Spicer Repeatedly Gives Bad Answers as Reporters Keep Asking About Transgender Guidance Being Revoked - As this issue moves through the courts, I have a feeling that we will be seeing more of the inability of certain folks to defend discriminatory policies against the transgender community.

 
CPAC Attendees’ Inappropriate Behavior Prompts Apology From Convention Center - Look who was acting like a bunch jackasses.

 LGBT Activists On Trans Student Guidelines: "This Is More Than A Bathroom Issue" - Amen to that!

To 'Moonlight' from a black gay man - a BIG thank you

Everyone is talking about Moonlight's big victory at the Oscars last night, as well they should. However, I noticed that something isn't being said which NEEDS to be said. Therefore, let me give my two cents with a personal letter to the motion picture and it's makers:

To the director and producers of Moonlight,

Thank you so much for making this movie. As a gay black man, it has been difficult to see three-dimensional characters on television and the big screen who are just like me. I was so desperate, I would look at old Soul Train clips on youtube and make guesses about the dancers. Or the episode of New York Undercover featuring Joe Morton a former boxer who became a drag queen.

Your victory and continued success is not only a triumph for yourselves, but also to the African-American lgbt community at large. I hope that Moonlight will be the first in a long line of films which spotlights accurate African-American lgbt portrayals and storylines.

Because goodness knows, we need it. Seriously, we have come a long way and I feel that your film is a reward for all of the times lgbts of color have had to sit through some of the most disgusting, nauseating, stomach-churning, religion -questioning ( I think you know where I'm going with this) portrayals of us created by our own people, i.e. African-Americans.

I mean there's just so many

oversexed bisexuals, self-hating black gay men in prison who commit suicide so that their mothers won't find out their orientation, butchy rape enthusiast lesbians,  gay black male plane stewards with purple lip gloss, invisible high school characters who likes to wear flesh toned hot pants during prison visits, drooling gay men who get hot and bothered over seeing men hanging over hospital beds while wearing bloody diapers, hairdressers named Peaches, devious transgender women, specials on the "downlow," fake-ass authors who publish books on "how to spot if your boyfriend is gay," phony tv shows which offer a crusty, dried up olive branch in the form of AIDS education episodes between the mocking, and above all, sermonizing by certain gospel music programs featuring certain singers who happen to be gayer than a giant statue of Judy Garland

that I can take seeing before I get the desire to pull out my razor.

Granted, my comments are not meant to speak against the lgbts of color who don't fit the supposed norms because we are all God's children There is nothing wrong with  effeminate gay men or butch lesbians. Nor is there anything wrong with sex in general. It's just that I am so happy to see anything featuring us as the main subject and the center of attention rather than a side character who is treated like a condiment.

Because, honestly speaking, I am running out of episodes of Soul Train to watch.

''Moonlight' Best Picture win perfect ending to diverse Oscar season' & other Mon. midday news briefs

The ‘Moonlight’ Best Picture Win Is A Vote For Inclusivity In Hollywood - Some have called 'Moonlight' winning Best Picture a perfect response for 'Brokeback Mountain' losing to 'Crash' in 2006. I say WOW! Us lgbts don't forget anything. LOL

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson says ‘Moonlight’ only won Best Picture because of political correctness - Dear Tucker Carlson, kindly #@!% yourself and the horse you rode in on.

 Supreme Court Instructs Liberty Counsel to Refer to Transgender Teen Gavin Grimm as Male - The case has not been heard yet, but SCOTUS will NOT stand for any disrespect to Mr. Grimm. At the very least for now, this is a good thing. 

 ‘Intolerance in practice’: Chris Cuomo shreds pundit for fear of transgender ‘genitals in your face’- The right-wing has been tearing at Chris Cuomo all weekend for his transgender-inclusive tweets. As this interview shows, Cuomo doesn't give a rip what they think. Good!

 There Is A New Landmark Suicide Prevention Strategy For LGBTI People - Wonderful!

Hate group spokesman - 'religious liberty' executive order is still coming

Editor's note - Moonlight's victory last night for 'Best Picture' at the Oscars was huge; so huge in fact that it's going to take a while for me to properly conceptualize how I feel about it. It was wild enough to finally see a movie which speaks to the experience of being a black gay man in America. Watching as said movie take a historical nod was just a bit more moving than I realized.

Blackwell

The lgbt community can't afford to let our guards down for even a minute during this Trump Administration. While he has yet to sign any anti-lgbt 'religious liberty' executive order, an official of his transition team, who is also a member of the anti-lgbt hate group the Family Research Council, told noted journalist Michelangelo Signorile that the executive order is coming:

Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who has served as domestic policy chair of President Donald Trump’s transition team, told (Signorile) in an interview on SiriusXM Progress that the controversial “religious freedom” order that leaked to the press a few weeks ago is very much on the way, even though White House officials had played it down. 

According to Signorile, the worst is yet to come:

 . . . Blackwell, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council (deemed an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Policy Law Center), said in our interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over the weekend that the order is far from dead. He also confirmed that the former director of Family Research Council’s Center for Religious Liberty, Ken Klukowski, had “actually structured” the draft order as a legal advisor to Trump’s transition team. Klukowski, who is now a senior attorney at the Liberty First Institute and a Breitbart contributor, is one of the lawyers “in the process of redrafting it,” Blackwell said, hinting that the original order may have been perceived as being too vulnerable to a legal challenge.

“In the final analysis, what we want is an executive order that will meet the scrutiny of the judicial process,” he explained. “If there is no executive order, that will disappoint [social conservatives]. But a good executive order will not. So we’re still in the process.” Blackwell envisions the “anchor concept” of the order as one that will allow people with devoutly religious beliefs to turn away LGBTQ people in the course of business.

“I think small business owners who hold a religious belief that believes that traditional marriage is between one man and one woman should not have their religious liberty trampled upon,” he explained. “I would imagine that that will be, strongly and clearly, the anchor concept [of the order].” (In an interview with me at the Republican National Convention in 2008, Blackwell had explained that he doesn’t view LGBTQ people as a class of people who are discriminated against, but rather sees homosexuality as a “compulsion that can contained, repressed or changed.”) 

To recap - according to a member of the anti-lgbt hate group the Family Research Council, who is also working with the Trump Administration, a homophobic executive order will be forthcoming. And this order is being worked on by others connected to FRC to ensure that lgbts can't win in the courts should, or rather, when it is challenged.

Maybe it's just me, but this sounds like things are going to be "hopping" before the year is out.

And it's about time, too. I'm past ready to raise some hell.

'Media not doing good job in calling out anti-lgbt hate groups' & other Fri. midday news briefs

Major Publications Fail To Identify Anti-LGBTQ Hate Groups In Transgender Policy Coverage - We clearly have more work to do because this problem isn't simply about transgender issues. There is a reluctance in much of the media to call anti-lgbt hate groups what they are. I'm not of the mindset of some in my community about denying these groups a platform. I don't think it should be a platform where they are allowed to spew their litany of lies without challenged by a pro-lgbt spokesperson. And I also don't think the media should turn an invisible eye to these groups. They call them to respond on issues but rarely is there any story or article focused on the tactics of anti-lgbt groups. That HAS to stop.

2013 booklet on anti-lgbt groups

Speaking of which:

 How They See Us: Unmasking the Religious Right Lie on Gay America - my free online booklet on anti-lgbt hate groups and their tactics. Published in 2013, it is still relevant today seeing that Trump is working hand-in-hand with some of these groups and spokespeople. I have a feeling that the booklet will be needed a lot before it's all over.  

Transgender Republicans say Trump seriously failed his first LGBT litmus test - Transgender attendees at CPAC. Lawd hammercy!  

Why On-Screen Representation Actually Matters - Seeing people's lives mean a lot. And it's not solely an lgbt issue.

  Arkansas Supreme Court strikes down pro-LGBT city ordinance - Siiiiigh!

Stop Using Women And Girls To Justify Transphobia - PREEACH!!

Transgender cub scout makes more sense about 'bathroom' nonsense than Trump & religious right

No matter what anyone in the Trump Administration says, the protection of transgender students is a federal issue. And whether some folks like the comparison or not (and I don't really give a crap if they don't), claiming that this is an issue best served by the states is not unlike folks who claimed that segregation was state's right issue issue.

And let's be clear as to why some folks are trying to claim that the protection of transgender students is a state's rights issue. They don't want to have to deal with the courts and have their lies exposes again; just like their lies were exposed about sodomy laws and marriage equality.

But this issue, and the issue of transgender rights in general has led me to take a new tact in communicating to people. It's a process I call "hand over." I could rail and raise hell, but I don't think it would be right for me to do that in cases where I should hand over the spotlight to folks everyone needs to hear from, which is in this case members of the transgender community.

And specifically, transgender children: