Wednesday 6 January 2010

Today's Battle : The Crucifixion of Amanda Simpson

At the Christian Broadcasting Network:
I know. I know. There will be those who say all that matters is whether or not Simpson is qualified for the job. And I know there will be those who will wonder why I am even writing about this considering there may be more important topics to discuss but here's a newsflash for you: The transgender thing doesn't play well with millions of conservative Evangelicals. Sorry if Biblical absolutes offend you or are so "1950 ish" but don't think conservative Evangelicals are apologizing for it.

I understand President Obama won't be after die hard conservative Evangelicals in 2012 but let's remember that moves like this don't play well with the million of conservative Independent voters and Catholics who will be up for grabs again in 2012 as well. A move like this could easily be part of a liberal ammunition package against the President in 2012. Hey, remember how he won North Carolina and Indiana in 2008? You think those conservative minded states may listen a little more closely when they hear the word "transgender?"

At Breitbart TV:
infinitefreedom January 4th, 2010 - 3:02 pm
Moral decay is the objective here.

Todd January 4th, 2010 - 3:03 pm
FREAK SHOW!!

MONKEY SEE MONKEY DO January 4th, 2010 - 3:07 pm
SICK

Gandhi's Fist January 4th, 2010 - 3:21 pm
Can’t Obama just appoint one uber politically correct candidate. A one-legged, blind, black, transgendered, turret’s ridden, albino midget of Hispanic heritage ought to cover his bases.
What would be real neat is if he hired the most competent person for the job. I can guarantee that wouldn’t be this piece of work. America, hang your heads in shame.

Joseph January 4th, 2010 - 3:55 pm
What the hell is this crap? OMG…DRAG CULTURE?? Friggin’ sick!!

Doozer Dave January 4th, 2010 - 4:45 pm
This is just so typical. As Jacob said, it has nothing to do with how this thing does the job but what it is! And I mean thing and it, to be politically correct, transgender people should have rights, but they do have rights no matter if they are male or female. What they want is special status so they can sue everyone more and try to make themselves “normal” in the eyes of society. That is immoral in itself. This country was not based on a “groups” rights but INDIVIDUAL rights. I have every right not wanting this thing in the government as you idiots who parade your sexuality in the streets have. BUT, I am the only one who can be discriminted against because I am a White, anglosaxon, christian male. Kind of strange how it is reversed now a-days isn’t it?

Bill January 4th, 2010 - 5:32 pm
Is she/he from brazil, and how many films has she/he done?

Commieobamie January 4th, 2010 - 5:40 pm
He saved his wee wee and gave it as a Dec 25th muslim terrorist day celebration gift to barry.

Thor January 4th, 2010 - 8:43 pm
Wow, this is unbelievable. These deviants are held up and glorified and then put into positions of governance! These creatures should be exiled. Amazing that this he/she/it changes their gender and then parades it in front of everyone. Just goes to show that these creatures are sick and are really not interested in what they profess and that their aim is to shove it in everyone’s face and demand that they be accepted as normal-which frankly is as far from normal as possible.

Terry January 4th, 2010 - 9:21 pm
Every day it is made more clear that the US fought on the wrong side in WWII.

etc etc etc etc etc

I wrote in reply:
Some people here make me embarrassed to be a conservative, that’s for sure.

They don’t take matters of National Security seriously.

The Job this gal is taking on involves making sure US technology that can be useful for making advanced weaponry – or Furby dolls – doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. It requires absolutely the best possible person for the job, with extensive experience in defence technology, or one day a US city is going to be froth on top of a mushroom cloud.

But they’d rather see someone in the position who thinks everything’s in the Bible, that the stars are lamps set in a beaten metal shield over a flat earth, that rain falls when valves in the metal – the “windows of heaven” open to let the “waters above” in, because it says so in Genesis. Just so long as they’re not Transsexual. Or Jewish. Or Catholic. Or Black.
I used slightly different wording over at the NY Daily News :
And yet there are those who ignore the qualifications and experience. They'd rather see US National Security suffer than hire one of "those freaks". Better to have a Good Evangelical Christian there, even if they think Pi is 3 because it says so in the Bible
While we're at it... a sortie against an article critical of Chaz Bono, and transsexuals generally, at the Catholic Exchange. An article of the more unctious kind, brimming with "truly compassionate response"s and encouragement "to seek out healing, primarily spiritually, but also emotionally and mentally, both with Christ, and those who understand the Truth about the human person". One dealing with the Theology of the Body from a standpoint of invincible ignorance. I tried to be charitable - at the end. My last post, after comprehensively refuting the whole thing:
Please note that I can’t blame you for not knowing this. Much of the work (as can be seen by the dates on the papers) has only been done in the last 10 years, and even in the last 5.

I’ve been called on by professors of psychology and biology to lecture to their students on the issue, as they have managed to get to their final year of study without knowing any of this. So what chance has a Theologian or Bio-Ethicist?

There were of course hints and even some experimental data in support as far back as the 1960’s. But it was possible until recently to say that the evidence was insufficient, that there was the possibility of contradictory evidence surfacing if more work was done. Well, more work has been done, and the original conclusions strongly supported by all the evidence, and refuted by none of it.

As far back as 2003, the proposition was deemed true on the balance of probabilities, though not conclusively proven.

“‘In my view the evidence demonstrates (at least on the balance of probabilities) that the characteristics of transsexuals are as much “biological” as those of people thought of as inter-sex’.” - Justice Chisholm of the Australian Family Court, after a review of the scientific evidence available in 2003.
Another day, another battle. Now back to my PhD work, and optimising the parameters of a genetic algorithm to find the minimum energy levels of Carnosine, and other long-chain enzymes.... I may not be a test pilot, nor do I parachute over Mount Everest - unlike some women I know - but I am raising an 8 year old boy, as well as doing the PhD.

Life's busy - but pretty good.

UPDATE : More at ABC News.

And from Focus on the Family....
"Is there going to be a transgender quota now in the Obama administration?" asked Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth. "How far does this politics of gay and transgender activism go? Clearly this is an administration that is pandering to the gay lobby."
...
Matt Barber, associate dean at Liberty University, said the appointment "boggles the mind."

"This isn't like appointing an African-American in order to try to provide diversity and right some kind of discriminatory wrong," he said. "This is about political correctness.
And on the Right-Wing Blogs : Notoriously Conservative :
I Don't Buy the Whole Transgendered Thing - Obama Appoints Shemale
Oh Dear.

And at Atlas Shrugs :
I think the big question here is how does this all look in the Eyes of our Creator?

How long before America is judged for all this wickedness?


And on Free Republic:
The self-mutilation advocates are sick. Its questionable if they're human at all.

20 comments:

Abby said...

Thanks, Zoe, for continuing to fight the good fight, even in the trenches of those who wish we didn't exist.

Anonymous said...

I believe in "playing the hand you're dealt." But these idiots think the proper deck of cards has red clubs and black hearts.

Bunny said...

I don't know why you waste your time arguing with people like that. You will never change their minds; that's their problem.

And if you really think that qualifications for the job are of primary concern when it comes to presidential appointees: you obviously don't understand how government works here in the states.

That only occurs in that country that most of us refer to as "Utopia."

Zoe Brain said...

Re : The Trenches - no point in preaching to the converted. You have to enter the belly of the beast.

Re : Arguing - because for every idiot I engage in dialogue with, there's maybe 2-3 lurkers. By my never allowing misinformation to remain unchallenged, the lurkers don't get the impression that there's a consensus of opinion.

And if I'm really lucky, my cool. rational arguments will be answered by batshit frothing-at-the-mouth insanity. That's guaranteed to win over quite a few, even in places like Free Republic.

Such converts are the most valuable: they fight against us for moral reasons; so when they see their actions were immoral, they become our most active allies.

Anonymous said...

This has only happened since the GLBT raped the identity of real transsexual.
The addition of the fetish freaks and the Tee-Gees has added insult to that injoury.

It was never like this in the 80's.

WSR Photography said...

Thanks for speaking up, as others have too. The problem with the hype from the media and conservative-religious community is that it's about the first political appointment in the federal government, but is it not the first (current or former) transgender in the US Government. The federal government has had policies supporting transistioning employees for a decade or longer (Clinton administration). They are transitioning or have transistioned quietly, protected by policies and regulations to ensure their privacy and job security. And no one outside their immediate work and human resources knows or knew.

The bad taste humor (David Letterman) and hype by the right is bs. Amanda Simpson earned and deserved the appointment, and now has the unnecessary pressure, unfortunately started by the transcommunity for her "pioneering" appointment, but only the first public one. It's sad, they didn't wait until she was already working and doing well to show her trans past is irrelevant.

And let's hope she doesn't think she speaks for or represents all the current and past transpeople in government. They may not appreciate or like it.

Cath said...

I don't know how you can stomach reading all this shit. You're a tough one! Kudos.

Battybattybats said...

anoldfriend, the 80's must have been different where you live than they were where I did.

Because in central western New South Wales where I lived in the 80's all transexuals were considered freaks and gay by most people. The local police were complicit in anti-transexual violence. Any hint of femininity in male children no matter the causation was answered with violence to toughen them up and masculanise them. Violent transphobic rhetoric and jokes were common.

Maybe the 80's were different where you lived.

Anonymous said...

Bats;
Before the homosexuals hijacked classical TS here in the states we were had none of the stigma the gays had and have to this day.

We worked quietly and behind the scenes with professionals to secure our right to have our birth certificate changed which now happens in all but three states. Anyone borne in California can marry in any other state. We put on the big girl pants and rolled up our sleeves and quietly and behind the scenes got the job done. We didn't turn our quest for civil rights into a freak show like the gays and Tee-Gees have.

While we are on the subject I get really tired of people like you and Zoe complaining about things in the US are, deal with your own problems before complaining about what we do here.
Or immigrate here.
We don't tell you how to run the socialist countries you guys live in.

Lysa said...

Hey, old friend, funny thing -- your bigoted heteronormative comments regarding how freaks are destroying the wonderful society you've set up remind me of something ... Oh, yeah, Zoe quoted several similar comments in the original post.

Stop doing that. It's just as ugly when it comes from self-proclaimed "classic transsexuals" as when it comes from freepers.

You can be "classical." That's fine with me, and by the way, thanks for all you did to pave the way. Now get off the road. I'm a "contemporary" transsexual dealing with all those issues today. And I count those freaks as my friends. Nobody's telling you how to live; I'll thank you not to tell me how to live either.

Also, knock off the ad hominem attacks. I'm a red-blooded yakee, born and raised in the Cradle of Liberty and living a life of rugged individualism in the Great American West, and I tend to agree with Zoe (in general) and Batty (in this particular case). So criticize the argument rather than the person, okay?

Anonymous said...

anoldfriend: you shouldn't use words like "socialist" if you don't know what it means. It makes you look uneducated.

If you're getting tired of hearing criticism, maybe you should stop reading it?

Battybattybats said...

anoldfriend. I guess you don't know that the sydney gay and lesbian mardi gras started out as a public protest against a series of still-unsolved murders that were suspected to have been perpetrated and covered up by the police.

The police then attacked this protest arresting many.

The police then barred public acces to the courtroom of the initial hearings ILLEGALLY and directly ignoring the courts orders to allow public access. This was a direct assault on the democratic and legal system by the police! And the outrage at this act began a long process of reforms leading not only to substantial victories in GLBT rights but also to serious reforms of the NSW police service including the independant commission against corruption which weeded out the endemic corruption in our legal system, setting back organised crime and improving the lot of ordinary straight citizens.

The continued tourism value of the Mardi Gras is massive.

And those 'loud Gays' helped get the conservative NSW government even when under contrary pressure from Reverand Fred Nile and other homphobes, to try a radical anti-aids policy including clean needle exchanges, legalised and substantially unionised prostitution with an emphasis on the rights safety and health of the prostitutes themselves, safe sex education and advertising including using softcore homoerotic fliers as a means of spreading safe sex information and more all of which resulted in the lowest per capita HIV infection rate in the world. Again improving the lot of many many straight people.

So the loud active 'freak show' has saved thousands of lives and made millions of dollars for TBLG as well as Cis/straight people while reducing sytemic oppression and improving the human rights of TBLG people.

Now while there are still problems here, which we are working on, maybe there's a lot you could learn from the way our country has suceeded on some things. (And besides the American Govenment and individual Americans HAVE on plenty of occassions tried to tell us how to run our country)

Anonymous said...

Imogen
I do know what socialism is and it sucks as do socialists.

Bats
you seem to believe that any press is good press and any attention is good attention.

We wouldn't be able to marry for the last in some cases 35 years if we took the freak show tactic.

Anonymous said...

Anoldfriend: then why do you keep misusing it? Australia, Canada, Europe are not "socialist."

I am a socialist, I should know.

Battybattybats said...

No anoldfriend I'm aware of the difference. And what part of thousands of lives saved is bad?

And considering how through my life I've seen pretty extreme 'freak' Goths getting cheerful smiles and open friendship in small rural towns where 15 years ago they were harassed on the street I know from personal experience that exposure to freaks, meeting freaks face to face and getting to know freaks makes freaks just part of day to day life.

Yes there is still hostility towards Goths, but nowhere near what we used to get. Now Emo are the ones getting more public flack as the Goths have gained most peoples respect or tolerance. Go have a look at Ruby Gloom or Growing Up Creepie on youtube.. Goth kids cartoons on mainstream network tv! Here's a taste, the Ruby Gloom theme. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k-njbMgByU oh and don't miss the lullaby http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Uw0Kgsqkn8&feature=related

And to be honest anoldfriend when I went to Movieworld, one of Australias biggest theme parks at New Years clearly Goth and very much transgender with my partner at my side and the same (their a FtM crossdresser who was wearing a shirt depicting a flayed ribcage and had a blue dyed fringe and a pink dyed undercut) we got respect from the staff and shopkeepers and the costumed actors who we got our photos taken with and only one minor comment from a passer by which, compared to the shouted abuse Goths like me often got in the late 80's and early 90's just for wearing plain black clothing from shopkeepers and people in the street, is a big difference. And the same held true for when we were clearly Goth and clearly Trans in Sydney's western suburbs with even more positive responses.

People can and do adjust to exposure to the exotic and different. Many even admire it. After being exposed to and being around enough of it they get used to it and it becomes ordinary.

Which is why this advert exists. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdpjM3OeLSo&feature=player_embedded

And polls show 60% of Australians support same-sex marriage and 85% gender-inclusive federal antidiscrimination legislation. Thats the majority supporting us WITH that yearly 'freakshow' of Mardi Gras. Even after it was televised on both free to air tv some years ago and on cable currently.

So maybe you need to rethink your conclusions about freaks as your models predicted results is contrary to the actual results I have just demonstrated. Freaks can and do get accepted.

Anonymous said...

I didn't know we were discussing Goths I thought we were discussing the Tee-Gees their problems and their relationship to legitimate TS.

Being Goth like being Tee-Gee is a choice not a birth condition.

kae said...

Hi Zoe, sorry, I haven't been around for a while...

I have read snippets of this post and it makes me.... sad.

If something like this happened to me or someone I loved it would break my heart, because of the losses... and I don't understand how people don't begin to understand, and make things harder. With your heart already breaking because these changes are things you have no control over and, to be happy, you must go with the changes rather than fight them.... there is unfounded, bigoted, and even nasty and violent hatred, and prejudice you must contend with.

I hope things are working out for you and your live has moved from awkwardness to smooth sailing!

kae said...

live

*sigh* life.

I'm a illiterate twit.

Zoe Brain said...

KAE! Good to have you back.

Smooth sailing? I'm doing a PhD, so stress levels are pegged at "extreme".

More like shooting rapids. I'm having immense fun.

A regards the heartbreak stuff - my main problem is the one most of us face. We get far too accustomed to it, we forget that others don't get treated this way.

Sure, we notice when our humanity is denied; when people in all sincerity call for our extermination or exile. But it's not these extremist views that are so much the problem as the constant, unremitting pariah status amongst so much of the population.

I don't question it when I have to travel interstate to see an endocrinologist who is willing to treat "those people". I take it for granted. Same thing with my Birth Certificate, I take it for granted that to get that issue resolved would take a full-blown case before the European Union Human Rights Court. It seems so normal to me, that when people are shocked, it surprises me.

Cases like this one happen all the time.

We fight as best we can, we win or we lose, then move on to the next battle, and the one after that.

The difficulty so many of us face is to truly understand that life is quite different for most people. Less high drama.

It's really not so bad for us. Those who have never been through the fires don't have the joi de vivre we get. The wonderful feeling of waking up and knowing our anatomy is correct. Others take that for granted. We've been given a gift there.

I'm not saying it's easy. But it is fun.

I wouldn't miss it for the world.

wreckage said...

Keep posting, and keep being cool and rational.

This is an issue that goes beyond emotional - gender identity is for most people core identity. I mean, I have no idea personally, but isn't that part of the problem? A disparity at the level of core identity causing distress? So people's reaction is predicated upon the degree to which they feel - emotionally, not rationally - threatened. It's not interpersonal threat, it's internal... psychology probably has the vocabulary I'm reaching for and missing, here.

Anyway, here's a conservative Christian listening carefully. I'd rather live in a society that tolerates what it sees as different. In plenty of places and plenty of times, the perceived aliens have been us. Have some charity towards us if you can, the Bible doesn't really go too in-depth with the relation between genetics, biochemistry, and social identity. This issue LOOKS moral, but may be in full or in part scientific - but we've been told, loudly, and more than once, that things we hold to be moral choices were really the realm of "science".

"Science says people are polygamous" "Science says people are the same as any other animals" "Science says foetuses aren't human" "Science says there is no God" and so on. Science is in fact silent on all these issues (I'm not here to argue on the morality of any of them except to say they fall contrary to conservative Christian morality), but a whole swathe of Western culture has heard so many illogical or impossible claims labeled "science" that we've become deaf to it.