Transgender student teaches school district $75,000 lesson in fairness

Let this story from Maine be a lesson to all schools across America. Treat our transgender children fairly or (oh Lord hammercy!) you're going to pay:

A final order has been issued in a transgender student’s lawsuit against the Orono School Department over the denial of her access to the girl’s bathroom in grade school and middle school.

The Penobscot County Superior Court order, dated Nov. 25, enjoined the school department from discriminating against other students as it did against Nicole Maines, 17, who lives and attends private school in Cumberland County.

The court also awarded $75,000 to the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in Boston, which represented the girl and her parents.

“A significant portion of the monetary award will go to the Maines’ family,” Carisa Cunningham, spokeswoman for GLAD, said Monday. She declined to say exactly how much the organization would retain and how much would go to the family.

 . . . In November 2012, Superior Court Justice William Anderson ruled in the school district’s favor. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court reversed that ruling in a 5-1 decision in January of this year.

“We are grateful that the Supreme Judicial Court has given us clear guidance on how to handle the issue,” Melissa Hewey, the Portland attorney who represents the district, said Monday in an email. “We understand that the student is thriving at her current school and wish her and her family only the best.”

 . . . The incident that sparked the court case began in 2007 when a child, who was born male but identifies as female, was forced to stop using the girls bathroom at the Asa Adams Elementary School in Orono. She was told to use a staff bathroom after the grandfather of a male student complained.

During the past five years, Nicole Maines and her family have been honored by GLAD and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine. Last month, Glamour magazine named Nicole Maines one of 50 “hometown heroes” — one woman from each state that the magazine honored for making a difference in America.

Go here for the entire story.

'Anti-gay activist's career based on distortions, myths' & other Tuesday midday news briefs

Klingenschmitt

Gordon Klingenschmitt's Entire Activist Career Is Based On A Myth - Are you an awful military chaplain who simply won't follow the rules and and is the constant subject of complaints from service personnel? Are you about to get kicked out because of your piss poor record? Well here are some easy steps to bounce back and achieve fortune and prominence. First claim that your "Christian liberty" is being violated. Then continue to carry that false story, while making a bunch of wild statements. Also, make sure to put in the words "Jesus" and "God" to keep credibility amongst the ignorant. Why in no time at all, you will be looked upon as a Christian patriot. And you may even be elected to public office. But don't take my word for it. Ask Colorado General Assembly Rep Gordon Klingenschmitt.  

Top Uganda Lawmaker: Foreigners Adopt Kids To Recruit Them Into Homosexuality - As you can see, Uganda was a fire of homophobia waiting to happen. All Scott Lively and company did was to toss a match. 

Anti-gay columnist: Straight porn, straight anal sex are 'homosexual acts' - Lord, Jesus. I ain't gonna touch that one. (Although the assumption alone gets two snaps up)  

The New Face of HIV Is Gay &Young - Just absolutely sad.

 Response to #DefendTheDuggars Raises Big Money for Amazing Cause in the South - Classic case of how you can use anti-gay activists to benefit the lgbt community, especially our lgbt children.

Misleading Anti-Transgender Newspaper Ads Spark Outrage in Minnesota - If this ad doesn't make you gag, check your pulse.

FDA to lift gay blood ban, anti-gay right certain to pitch a fit

LaBarbera not happy with lifting of blood ban

Today promises to be very interesting with regards to a subject that for now is under the radar. But soon it won't be.

According to The Atlantic:

Today, the FDA’s Blood Products Advisory Committee is meeting to discuss potentially revising that policy. In November, the Department of Health and Human Service’s (HHS) Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability recommended easing—but not lifting—the ban. It suggested a one-year deferral policy instead, under which gay men would be permitted to donate after a year of abstinence. The FDA will consider this recommendation, as well as scientific evidence on HIV blood safety, during its meeting.

Initially, gay men was banned completely from donating blood because of fears of getting blood contaminated with the HIV virus. However those who support the change point to the hypocrisy of the current policy. Earlier this year, a team of medical professionals and legal experts vouched for this change in an issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

According to CBS News:

 . . . changing times and technological advances have rendered the decades-old ban obsolete, said JAMA article co-author Glenn Cohen, who directs Harvard Law School's Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics.

"We think it's time for the FDA to take a serious look at its policy, because it's out of step with peer countries, it's out of step with modern medicine, it's out of step with public opinion, and we feel it may be legally problematic," said Cohen, who co-wrote the article with Jeremy Feigenbaum of Harvard Law School and Dr. Eli Adashi of Brown University's medical school. The lifetime ban for gay or bisexual men stands in contradiction to other FDA policies regarding people considered high-risk donors due to their sexual behavior, Cohen noted.

For example, there currently is a maximum one-year ban in the United States for blood donations by men who have had sex with an HIV-positive woman or commercial sex workers. The same goes for women who have had sex with HIV-positive men.