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California courts side with trans people

Richard Simmons
It’s Richard Simmons

Slate Online just published an important article which should be shared throughout the transgender community. It accurately clarifies how the oddest allies of the transgender community, Richard Simmons, and his loss in a California libel suit has benefitted transgender Americans.

The article requires careful reading. Here’s the background:

A tabloid called Simmons a transgender woman. Simmons sued for libel and lost. What the judge said in his ruling was the key stroke which establishes a legal landmark for trans people:

For the first time in United States history, Keosian declared that misidentifying a person as transgender is not defamatory because it does not subject that individual to “hatred, contempt, ridicule or obloquy.” Keosian further explained that the judicial system should not countenance anti-trans animus, notwithstanding its existence in pockets of society. “While, as a practical matter, [transgender persons can] be held in contempt by a portion of the population,” Keosian said, “the court will not validate those prejudices by legally recognizing them.”

From the actual court document, which you can download here.:

The court does not mean to imply in its holding that the difficulties and bigotry facing transgender people is minimal or nonexistent. To the contrary, the court has reviewed the evidence submitted by Simmons regarding the deplorable statistics relating to transgender people….However, this court finds that even if there is a sizeable portion of the population who would view being transgender as negative, the court should not, in the words of our cousins in Massachusetts, “directly or indirectly, give effect to these prejudices.” (Albright, supra, 321 F.Supp.2d at p. 137–138.) Similar to the that court’s reasoning regarding the prejudices facing homosexuals, “[i]f this Court were to agree that calling someone” transgender “is defamatory per se—it would, in effect, validate that sentiment and legitimize relegating [transgender people] to second-class status.” Such a finding is consistent with holdings that misidentifying one’s race, medical condition, or sexual orientation is not libelous per se simply because there exist a portion of the population that expresses prejudice towards those groups.

The entire Slate article is worth a read. What it tells me is the legal foundations of the country are increasingly coming down on the side of transgender people. Added to this is the current administration’s hardline on indicting murderers of transgender people with federal hate crimes, and you have just a boatload of positive news about how society is shifting.

Good news all around!

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The difficulty of being the “woke” police

MUNROE - WARROR OR FOOL
It depends on your story.

Monroe Bergdorf. Bless her heart.

She’s been the topic of wild criticism of late, having offended an entire race of people. Some within that race are more open-minded to her criticism. Others, less so.

I can see her point. I can also see her critic’s points. Everyone has a story. Each is valid for the person holding it. So, how do we as a species, as a group of people, get along in the wake of all this story-making, much of which has to do with pointing fingers at what we dislike or disagree?

If everyone is telling stories and those stories are creating evidence confirming it, is it possible for us to all get on the same page? Is it possible for all white people to acknowledge their in-born privilege? Is it possible for all black people to acknowledge their victim mentality? Is it possible that you, or I, can tell a person he’s wrong, when the world is providing him evidence which confirms his stories?

For me, what matters is this: Are you happy in your personal life?

Whether you are trans, or cis, male or female, that question can be a guiding light for you. Answering that question doesn’t have to involve anyone else. For if you can find personal happiness, and tell stories from that place, your life will shape over time in favor of those stories. As that happens, people inconsistent with the happy stories you’re telling will fade out of your life and those who are “in tune” with your happy stories will fade into your life. It all begins with the stories you’re telling.

finger pointing hardly ever works
finger pointing hardly ever works

I worked several months with a person who defined himself as an activist, much like Munroe. The problem with being an activist is, it’s not a very happy life. This guy I worked with one-on-one was trying so hard to right the wrongs of society – in the areas of class warfare, wealth inequity, racism, sexism and more – all he could see when he looked out into society was a pandemic of problems, problems that, no matter how hard he tried, he acknowledged he was making very little progress in abating.

Ironically, he was making himself miserable! He was depressed, pessimistic. He had little hope for humanity. And, if matters for him weren’t bad enough, he was miserable over his eyesight which was increasingly failing on him. I find that situation ironic too: The more he focused on seeing all the negative in the world, the worse his eyesight seemed to be getting…

It’s one thing to want to make the world a better place. But you can’t do that telling stories about how wrong people are. Nor can you do that with your actions alone. All you do is make people defensive. You make them dig into their already negative stories, thus creating more of what you think must change. Not less.

Is there a place for activism? You bet. But there’s got to be a better way than throwing blame around claiming to have the high ground on woke.

 

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If you’re not recognizing how many people support you, you’re not paying attention

Now more than everThere is ENORMOUS outpouring of support from all over the place indicating the tide has turned. More and more people are supporting you, transgender folks. If you’re still wallowing in negative stories, there’s no better time than now to start examining them.

Trans-loving men (you trans-attracted and transamorous ones), there’s no reason for you to remain in hiding. The women you love are increasingly being not only defended, but supported by larger members of society.

Even in the midst of turmoil under Trump, that turmoil has not silenced the support outpouring. It has done the exact opposite. Check it out:

All across America, people are fighting for your rights. In Texas, the dreaded bathroom bill collapsed again, due in part not only to families of transgender people, but, get this, republican legislative leaders. I’m not making this up. Meanwhile, this awesome camp for transgender youth is getting tons of media coverage as an early-stage refuge for these young pioneers. Here’s another doing the same thing.

Here’s a lawyer fighting for the community on his own.

And even Richard Simmons is getting in on the act in his own weird way.

You can choose where to put your focus. But where you choose to put it has a profound effect on your personal life. If I were you, I’d focus on all the good coming your way. Celebrate it, tell your friends about it, Facebook about it, and see how your life gets better.

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Life’s gonna suck under Trump. Or is it?

donald-trump
What’s happening here?

I know. Pretty much everyone in the LGBT community hates Trump. Except maybe Caitlyn Jenner. While the rest of us worry about the terrible things his administration is going to do to the transgender community, let’s look at some of the real-world things happening that are making being transgender in America better.

BTW, we at The Transamorous Network are no fans of Trump or any other president. We can do far better without a president. Or a government. But that’s another story. Let’s instead look at some of the great things happening, many of which are because Trump is in office.

  • More than twenty 20 transgender people are now running for various government seats. These people are running for everything from city mayor to US Congress.
  • Gov. Christie, a republican, recently signed several pieces of legislation protecting transgender rights, insuring, among other things, that New York doesn’t go the way of Texas.
  • Speaking of Texas, the Bathroom Bill debate wages on, this time with many small businesses joining in to oppose the Texas Governor’s plans to “protect women and children”. Many Fortune 500 companies already have threatened Texas with economic hardship by refusing to do business with the state. California recently banned the use of state money to travel or do business in Texas.
  • The CEO of the state’s board of tourism recently ran the numbers:

“The bathroom bill debate has already cost the state $66 million in convention business. The state could lose more than $1 billion in additional convention business should Texas lawmakers pass the bill. San Antonio hotels have lost 43,623 booked hotel room-nights from convention groups that canceled because of the bathroom bill debate. San Antonio has already lost three conventions valued at $3.1 million because of the debate. Another 15 convention groups have threatened to cancel their events should a bathroom bill become law, taking with them $41 million in local spending.”

  • Newsweek recently reported that the Trump Administration’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered his prosecutors to review the case files on murders of transgender people to make sure there’s not a serial killer or hate group carrying out the attacks, he said in a speech Thursday morning. He also said he told his prosecutors to work with the FBI and U.S. attorney offices around the country to figure out how they can help local law enforcement investigating the murders. “We have and will continue to enforce hate crime laws aggressively and appropriately where transgendered individuals are victims,” the attorney general said.

The point isn’t to say people aren’t scared and worried about themselves or people they know. As we always say here at The Transamorous Network, the future is uncertain, but the probability of the future happening that you focus on increases the more you focus on it. Read that sentence again. It’s important.

And that’s why here at The Transamorous Network we strive to get you to focus on positive outcomes about the future and positive aspects about what is. For the future is borne of your thoughts.

So think positive ones.

 

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How “evil” works in your favor

img_7208
White supremacist, terrorist and murderer James Alex Fields Jr. arrested for his deadly participation in violence in Virginia.

It’s just so freaking interesting how things are progressing in the United States right now. As we watch our highest office in the land usurped by a racist, emboldening white supremacists to come out of the shadows, I wouldn’t blame transgender people for feeling fearful and worried. Or people of color.

And yet, it is undeniable that tremendous good is resulting from all this.

Before we look at that, let’s look at some facts. First, we here at the network already shared (via our Facebook Program IN YOUR FACE) how Trump’s infamous tweet about banning transgender people from the military was really a brilliantly-played smokescreen he laid to mask the FBI raid of his campaign chief’s house in the pre-dawn hours. This raid happened at nearly the exact same time Trump turned to twitter. Interestingly, as we said and you probably know, the entire world focused on the tweets. Including the transgender community. Meanwhile, few media reported at the time about the FBI raid, which would have further eroded Trump’s credibility.

Were you among the bamboozled? We weren’t!

We had been saying all along that tweet was NOT about banning transgender people from the military. It’s NEVER about what it’s about.

Then, we saw how Secretary of Defense James Mattis came out in the news essentially saying there may be no transgender ban. In fact, the White House has yet to offer a policy on the issue. It may, it may not. If it does, Mattis will take the responsible action, which I read to mean he’s going to do the right thing, which is not what the president wants.

Next we saw massive violence erupt in Virginia prompted by white supremacists who showed up to protest the removal of a confederate statue. The president then made a series of speeches about the event that were breathtaking…and not in a good way.

On the heels of all that, not one, not two, but several US cities are acting to remove prominent confederate statues from parks and buildings, the leaders of these cities acknowledging they represent symbols of white supremacy and have no place in United States public places. Many of those cities are in Southern states!

Following all that, the heads of all branches of the US Military came out stridently against white supremacy. This is a direct contradiction of their commander-in-chief. THAT alone is remarkable in US history.

One has to wonder: What the heck is next?

Stories create reality. Stories are powerful. It doesn’t matter if your stories focus on what you don’t want, or what you do want, they will faithfully create either. We pointed out in that same IN YOUR FACE episode that Neo-nazis, skinheads, and other white supremacists have some of the most focused, powerful stories….. Their focus is on how terrible and subhuman people of color are. The want a white nation. But they don’t focus on that. They focus on how terrible people of color, gay people, jews, transgender people and other minorities are. They decry how everything and everyone is against white race. All the while they don’t realize their stories are faithfully delivering what they focus on: bringing them more people of color, more binary and trans people, more whites who fight for people of color and equality, more jews doing the same. More gay people. And now, the removal of their cultural symbols.

Yes, the things happening over the last few weeks…since Trump came into the White House actually, can be seen as a kind of evil. But the acts of “evil” are always focused on pushing against good. And whatever your stories push against, you get more of. So it’s inevitable that evil will produce good. That’s what we’re seeing in our nation today.

What does this mean for us trans-attracted men and transwomen? It means look around you: the world is showing you demonstration after demonstration of the power of stories. It’s also showing you that everything eventually serves good. The same can be said for your life: Your life is predisposed to you experiencing good. It is showing you that what you focus on you get. So you can experience the life you always wanted, the love you always wanted, anything you’ve wanted. But you have to tell stories that support what you want, not what you don’t want. Which means you have to focus on that which you’re wanting.

But even if you don’t focus on positive stories, you will, eventually, have all you’re wanting.  For many that may not happen in this lifetime. But it will happen.

Since the choice is yours, why wait?