Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Supreme Court allows transgender military ban to go into effect

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/22/politics/scotus-transgender-ban/index.html?adkey=bn


By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter

Updated 10:03 AM ET, Tue January 22, 2019

"(CNN)The Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump's transgender military ban to go into effect on Tuesday, dealing a blow to LGBT activists who call the ban cruel and irrational.
The Justices did not rule on the merits of the case, but will allow the ban to go forward while the lower courts work through it."

This is the type of thing that makes me want to expatriate.

Elections have consequences.  The laws in the U.S. will not be interpreted in an LGBT-friendly way for a very long time I'm afraid. 

I read the article on Yahoo news, and the comment section is full of hateful comments towards Transgender people. What is truly sad is that one of members of Seal team 6 (the team that killed Bin Laden) is Transgender.

Also here:

https://www.susans.org/2019/01/22/supreme-court-declines-transgender-military-ban-cases-but-permits-enforcement-of-ban-for-now/

I saw this coming a long time ago. It's a Republican Supreme Court.  It is a highly partisan body at this point. Watch decision after decision come down siding with a hard line, right wing, Republican agenda.  Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh.  These are all extremely partisan, far right judges.  For life.  This is our future. Which political party is actively trying to oppress us?  The answer is clear.

'The Time Is Always Right To Do What Is Right'
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are exactly where we were 50 years ago. (https://michellepaquette.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-time-is-always-right-to-do-what-is.html)  "Don't ask.  Don't tell.  Try your best to pass as a straight heterosexual cisgender person."  We are told to wait, that it is not our time.

We led the protests and were in the front line at Cooper Do-nuts in 1959, at Compton's Cafeteria in 1966, at Stonewall in 1969.  We were told to wait, it is not our time.  The gay community pushed back, seeing transgender people as "not liberated" for seeking to secure access to competent and respectful legal and medical services, while the gay liberation movement sought to free their community from being seen as a medical or psychological problem.

We are exactly where we were a dozen years ago.  The federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ENDA, was to eliminate all employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.  PFLAG and other groups lobbied for transgender inclusion in ENDA, and the primary lobbyist for ENDA, the Human Rights Campaign, included transgender folks in their action.  In September 2007 Congressman Barney Frank polled and determined that transgender inclusivity would cause ENDA to fail, and split the bill into one for sexual orientation and one for gender identity.  HRC endorsed the "sexual orientation only" version of the bill, once more telling the transgender community to wait, that it is not our time.

I have protested the lack of inclusion of transgender persons in modern programs to educate others on treatment and respect for marginalized persons.  I have been told to wait, that it is not our time yet.

I was a transgender person in the US Navy, not out, but a dedicated and patriotic person there to serve my country and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign AND domestic.  Transgender people have served with honor, for decades.  We proudly and patriotically volunteered to serve in our nations armed forces, and we feel this assault doubly on our identity, on who we are.  Our brothers, our sisters, our family and allies have been targeted.  We know the price of freedom, and this test of our freedom and resolve cannot be allowed to stand.  Being transgender but not out made life considerably harder.

Yet, we are told to wait, that it is not our time yet.


From Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter From Birmingham Jail":
"I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: "All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely rational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this 'hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity."

"Letter from a Birmingham Jail"
http://abacus.bates.edu/admin/offices/dos/mlk/letter.html

"I fought for you.  Will you fight for me?"
https://michellepaquette.blogspot.com/2018/09/i-fought-for-you-will-you-fight-for-me.html

This is the first of many Supreme Court disappointments to come.  We have been accustomed to thinking of the US Supreme Court as a guardian of our individual rights as LGBT folks.  That is no longer the case.

Many critical court cases in our favor over recent years were decided by a razor-thin 5-4 margin.  The deciding vote was Justice Anthony Kennedy.  Kennedy, a Republican appointed by Ronald Reagan, was by any objective analysis a very conservative judge. 

BUT there was an important wrinkle in Kennedy's judicial philosophy: he thoroughly believed that LGBT people deserved to be treated with dignity and must be accorded the full range of Constitutional rights enjoyed by all citizens.  This made him a critical vote in Supreme Court decisions striking down state anti-sodomy laws and legalizing same-sex marriage.

As we all remember from last year, Kennedy retired and was replaced on the Court by Brett Kavanuagh.  Kavanaugh is even more conservative than Kennedy, and is quite clearly anti-LGBT.  What this means is that the razor-thin 5-4 majority in the Court has now flipped from pro-LGBT to anti-LGBT.

Many people who were disgusted with Donald Trump in personal sense nevertheless voted for him because he promised to appoint right-leaning judges to the federal court.  This is the result.

Previously, the Supreme Court was a factor that favored the extension of our rights as LGBT people.  From this point onwards, the Supreme Court will be a factor limiting and dismantling those same rights.

I only hope that one day I will live to see Transgender people given the same rights and freedoms as LGB people.

I'm going to be 57 in two days.  Hurry up, America, I'm counting on you!

I HAVE to believe that the US government works for ALL of us.  To think otherwise is horrifying.  But right now, I'm not as confident as I once was.  :(

Ryuichi

I wonder what happened to prompt this from the administration. Usually, things don't happen without cause. I wonder if something high up occurred that we know nothing about? A question that I will never have answered.

Quote from: GingerVicki on January 23, 2019, 03:14:50 PM
I wonder what happened to prompt this from the administration. Usually, things don't happen without cause. I wonder if something high up occurred that we know nothing about? A question that I will never have answered.

What happened was the Supreme Court decision on favor of marriage equality. That cut off a huge campaign for "marriage only between a man and a woman" at the knees.

Certain political action committees immediately pivoted to a backup target, the transgender community. A 5 point plan was developed to paint trans folks as something to be feared, and to drive a wedge between the LGB and trans folks to inhibit mutual support.

Under the leadership of Tony Perkins and the Family Values Council, the plan was sold to conservative Evangelicals and anti-LGBT nationalist groups. Brochures were printed, fundraising started, and their new business model of lobbying and litigation against trans rights was up and running.

For all the rhetoric, this really is just a business for the Political Action Committees. It is worth keeping that in mind. Once attacking the trans community becomes unprofitable, just as with marriage equality they will retarget their business to something else that excites their donors.

The key for the trans activists is to find a way to humanize the community and replace fear with sympathy, just as the "love is love" campaign did for marriage equality.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

At this rate, they'll probably get away with writing us out of the Title IX law.

Unfortunately, their administration is getting a bit savvier with the courts than they initially were with Bannon's crayon scribbled "Muslim ban"

Quote from: soyunachica on January 23, 2019, 11:44:03 PM
At this rate, they'll probably get away with writing us out of the Title IX law.

Trump's Department of Justice, Department of Education, and Department of Health and Human Services are already working hard on exactly that.

I think that working on the state level is our best bet for now. I'm getting involved with equality Virginia. The larger organization does a lot of advocacy based around having people and politicians get to know us. Their Ohio branch recently got Kasich to reinstate trans protections there.

Quote from: AnamethatstartswithE on January 24, 2019, 03:01:35 PM
I think that working on the state level is our best bet for now. I'm getting involved with equality Virginia. The larger organization does a lot of advocacy based around having people and politicians get to know us. Their Ohio branch recently got Kasich to reinstate trans protections there.

Virginia on a whole isn't too bad. I did run into a bigot when I was getting my marker on my license changed. Dressed in a nice casual dress she called me sir repeatedly and loud and refused my request. I left and contacted the DMV offices in the state and I was told that her actions did not reflect the state'ss or the departments policy and that she would be dealt with. I don't know what that means but when I walked back in there she wasn't there and I got my license gender marker changed without further incident.

Outside of that I never ran into anything else. Now this was in the Sterling Virginia area back in 2011.

Quote from: NatalieRene on January 27, 2019, 01:40:47 PM
Virginia on a whole isn't too bad. I did run into a bigot when I was getting my marker on my license changed. Dressed in a nice casual dress she called me sir repeatedly and loud and refused my request. I left and contacted the DMV offices in the state and I was told that her actions did not reflect the state'ss or the departments policy and that she would be dealt with. I don't know what that means but when I walked back in there she wasn't there and I got my license gender marker changed without further incident.

Outside of that I never ran into anything else. Now this was in the Sterling Virginia area back in 2011.

I haven't had many problems either, everyone at the dmv were very polite, that was a few months ago in he tidewater area. Currently we are trying to get gender identity protection laws passed, they've passed the senate in two previous sessions, but they keep dying in the house of delegates.

Quote from: AnamethatstartswithE on January 24, 2019, 03:01:35 PM
I think that working on the state level is our best bet for now. I'm getting involved with equality Virginia. The larger organization does a lot of advocacy based around having people and politicians get to know us. Their Ohio branch recently got Kasich to reinstate trans protections there.

I too am involved at the state level, as well as the local level.  I joined CT Equality here in Connecticut last year, and we're already working towards trans rights as well as LGBQIA+ rights. 

I knew that when that terrible day in November, 2016 happened, I would have to get mobilized, so that's what I'm doing.  Mobilizing.

Also, its super to hear that Kasich did at least one thing right during his tenure.  I wish he had also gotten rid of the ban on changing your legal gender on birth certificates.  Oh well.

Ryuichi

Quote from: Ryuichi13 on January 28, 2019, 02:21:56 AM
I too am involved at the state level, as well as the local level.  I joined CT Equality here in Connecticut last year, and we're already working towards trans rights as well as LGBQIA+ rights. 

I knew that when that terrible day in November, 2016 happened, I would have to get mobilized, so that's what I'm doing.  Mobilizing.

Also, its super to hear that Kasich did at least one thing right during his tenure.  I wish he had also gotten rid of the ban on changing your legal gender on birth certificates.  Oh well.

Ryuichi

I'm a late bloomer, I started getting active after the hhs memo in October. Though nov 2016 I hadn't even had my first gender therapist appointment yet.

And don't give Kasich too much credit, he's the one who rescinded the protections in the first place, and didn't reinstate them until a few weeks before leaving office.

Quote from: AnamethatstartswithE on January 28, 2019, 11:50:51 AM
I'm a late bloomer, I started getting active after the hhs memo in October. Though nov 2016 I hadn't even had my first gender therapist appointment yet.

And don't give Kasich too much credit, he's the one who rescinded the protections in the first place, and didn't reinstate them until a few weeks before leaving office.

Hey better late than never!  But now you're becoming your true self, so that's excellent!

TBH, I'm not giving him much credit.  I think he only rescinded the one in order to "look good" for a run for the white house.  >:(

I never voted for him when I lived in Cleveland, and I'll never vote for him for anything, no matter what "good" he pretends to do.

Its people like him that has made people like me mobilize!

Ryuichi

Quote from: Ryuichi13 on January 28, 2019, 03:47:28 PM
TBH, I'm not giving him much credit.  I think he only rescinded the one in order to "look good" for a run for the white house.  >:(

If a republican feels that that will help him look good, then that in and of itself is progress.

I am really glad that I have dual citizenship.  i can take off, and go back to Europe, if life gets to bad for people like us!

I used to be a political activist all my adult life.  I am now to tired to keep on fighting!

It continues to astound me that persons who avoided military service, who sought out cooperative doctors and lawyers to dodge the draft, exempt themselves from military service, would seek to block those willing to take the Oath.

They act from cowardice and fear, to deny others who unlike them are willing to make this self-sacrifice.