YMCA changes policy based on complaints over transgender locker rooms

Eric Mandel
MYNorthwest.com

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Schools slow to accommodate transgender students

John Finnerty
The Meadville Tribune

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Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden Both Gave Pro Transgender Rights Speeches This

David Walton
Herald Current

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Time ripe to bring transgenders into maintstream: High Court (India)

FPJ Bureau
The Free Press Journal

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Transgender students could get greater protection under proposed Winnipeg School Division policy (Canada)

Press
CBCNews

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Transgender Americans Have Been Registering Their Transitions With Social Security Since 1936

Francie Diep
Pacific Standard

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Transgender community demand answers following alleged prison rape (New Zealand)

Press
one news now

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UAB conference trains staff on needs of transgender students

Press
TimesDaily.com

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Alabama judges use segregation-era law to avoid gay marriage

Jay Reeves
LGBTQNation

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Rainbow List 2015: Time to meet the judges who'll be picking the LGBTQI people who are making Britain better (UK)

Sarah Morrison
The Independent (UK)

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West Bengal govt plans to recruit transgenders as civic police: All you need to know (India)

Press
India Today

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Maureen's Story: What Acceptance Looks Like

Pamela Valentine
Chicago Now

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8 Intimate Portraits That Seriously Blur Gender Lines

Erin Cunningham
Refinery 29

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Pledging to Fight Injustices, Hillary Clinton Focuses on Transgender Rights in Speech

Amy Chozick
The New York Times

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San Francisco, California

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Transgender patients one focus of Dallas surgery conference

Sebastian Robertson
WFAA

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CU-Boulder student leaders call for gender-inclusive housing

Sarah Kuta
CU News

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ezs comment #3

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Work cited:  One Million Moms’ Tax-Exempt Outrage Industry by Kelly Weill

When I was small, I learned about something called the tax exempt status.  It seemed OK to me.  Of course, when you're six years old, many things seem to be OK.  I was an occasional churchgoer, (when my mother dragged me there) and the kids seemed nice, the minister seemed nice, so going there seemed fine to me.

Then I turned twelve.  Oh, joy.

It was in that year that my mother decided to spend a year in Illinois, in a town just south of Chicago.  Now, please don't think that Chicago, Homewood, or Illinois is a bad place.  I'm sure it's a fine area.  It's just that for me, at that time, it was quite literally hell.  And chief among the reasons was his infernal hellishness, the "reverend" John Scudder.  His was a mishmosh brew of hatred of blacks, Asians, Native Americans (!) and everyone else who wasn't white.  Oh, and Jews.  He couldn't stand Jews.

He even warped the food we ate.  The food?  Well, are you familiar with the nut called the 'Brazil nut'? Well, not in Scudderland.  He delighted in calling them 'nigger toes'.  Isn't that just precious?  Mix that in with liberal amounts of 'healing' quackery, faithful readings of the National Enquirer,  and a haughty tone that rivals the Pope, (oh, I forgot, he's bad too) there you have John Scudder.

Oh, did I mention that donations made to the Pyramid of Light cult, oh, uh, church were entirely tax-deductible???

It's time for this mess to end.

Okay, okay.  I know what you're thinking.  What about that nice, really unassuming minister, priest, rabbi, or muezzin who only has the best interests of the congregation (and, in the wider sense, the nation and the world) at heart?  To be sure, these good people do exist.  I do not dispute that.  However, there are problematic nettles in which any house of worship finds itself.  Let's take the wider Christian church (Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox).  And let's say that better churches have housing, food, and/or shelter in their communities.  Here's the question: what percent are they giving to the poor?  One percent? Ten? Fifty?  If you really want to be all nit-picky about it,  here's what Jesus said on the subject:  "If you want to be perfect, go, sell all your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven." (Matthew 19:21, emphasis mine)

Well, how's our ol' pal Don Wildmon doing?  Not bad, not bad.  In his latest tax return,  Don's doing nicely, thank you.  His son Timothy's doing even better.  And that's only how they're doing on the Million Moms March.

Now, I have no beef with the Million Moms March.  I don't agree with them at all, but hey, this is part of the wonderful life that our zany creators put into place.  What I DON'T agree with their tax-free status.

Here is what I propose:  tax every house of worship in the United States, liberal, moderate and conservative; black, white, Asian, Native American or whatever combination they so choose, with the following exception-

If a house of worship dedicates to the poor housing, shelter, food and/or clothing, they can use an area
of a building for that purpose tax-free.  If the building is multipurpose, only those areas of the building for the express purpose listed above should be tax-free.  They must meet the following criteria:

1)  If the person expresses a different faith, or no faith, they must nevertheless be welcomed.

2)  If the person expresses different clothing attire, they must be welcomed.

3)  If a person is offered a holy book but refuses, they must be welcomed.

4)   No one should be coerced/cajoled or threatened with expulsion based on their attire.

Is it tough? Yeah.  But they'll get used to it.

Cheers,

Emily

Vote!

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I want to take you back a few years, to Harper's Weekly, around the year 1867.  See those men in the front cover drawing? They're voting.  Something so simple, yet so sublime.  Just two years earlier, the African-American men and women were nothing.  Less than nothing, really.  They were chattel. Slaves. Three-fifth of a human being, with the master calling the shots.  Slaveowners - and hopeful slaveowners - called them vicious slurs such as niggers and pickaninnies.  For a few brief years though, they called the shots.

A little less than twenty years before, the first women's rights convention, the Seneca Falls Convention, was held in that town.  It took over seventy years until the final nail was put into that shameful past.  

Unfortunately, the South did rise again.  It wasn't until the protests widened and Martin Luther King Jr. began his preaching and marching (to be fair, among many others) that the South truly began to erode.  Amazingly (and so, so sadly) there are pockets that still try to keep African Americans out of the voting booth.

This is freakin' 2015!!!

As a transgender woman, I find it absolutely maddening that there are transgender people who won't vote.

Here's the question - in your life, who will call the shots?

Charm play features look at transgender charm school

Press
Windy City Times

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The Transgender Journey

Alexus Arias
The Campus

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One Million Moms’ Tax-Exempt Outrage Industry

Kelly Weill
The Daily Beast

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please press:  http://www.thedailybeast.com

St. Louis Transgender Memorial Garden to be unveiled

Colin Murphy
LGBTQNation

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UN agencies call for end to violence and discrimination against LGBTI community (United Nations)

Press

UN News Centre

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please press:  http://www.un.org

Nation's Top Emergency Nursing Organization Releases New Study Identifying Issues for Transgender Treatment (UK/Ireland)

Press
Yahoo! UK and Ireland

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please press:  https://uk.finance.yahoo.com

Get prepared: EEOC cracks down on workplace transgender issues

James Dornbrook
Kansas City Business Journal

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please press:  http://www.bizjournals.com

Transgender Woman Sues Louisville Nursing College For Discrimination

Kayla Moody
WHAS11

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First legal victory for transgender inmate in US under the Prison Rape Elimination Act

Jacqueline Jones
Jurist

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Keep Transgender Prisoners Out of Solitary Confinement

Emily Zak
www.care2.com

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please press:  http://www.care2.com

ezs note:  If you have not done so already, please go to www.care2.com and sign the petition.  You''ll help a transgender prisoner's living conditions now.

Transgender Latina tells her story at Philadelphia workshop

Anne Marie Hankins
The Washington Post

Nicole Santamaria

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please press:  https://www.washingtonpost.com

Transgender Sutton Coldfield woman honoured for promoting LGBT acceptance (UK)

Dan Newbould
Sutton Coldfield Observer

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Understanding transgender: who, what, why and how

Karen Siegfriedt
Amador Ledger Dispatch

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Judge questions sexual harassment claim in Planet Fitness transgender policy case

Jessica Shepherd
MLive

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please press:  http://www.mlive.com

Transgender at school: As more teachers come out, districts struggle to put policy into practice

Casey Parks
The Oregonian

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please press:  http://www.oregonlive.com

Transgender woman Kellie Maloney on her plans to visit matchmaker Willie Daly (Ireland)

Margaret Jennings
Irish Examiner

Devils Lake, North Dakota

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Parents of transgender six-year-old 'will do anything to make her happy' in spite of their own sense of loss (UK)

Zahra Mulroy
Mirror

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please press:  http://www.mirror.co.uk

ezs note:  I don't know... maybe it's just me, with transgender stories entering my brain daily, but isn't it possible that these 'heartrending' stories are just a tad bit, *ahem*, melodramatic?  Y'know, just a bit?  Especially when you consider that Christine Jorgensen had her sex reassignment surgery in 1951!!!  Just a thought...

Transgender woman wins lawsuit against prison staff who ‘called her an animal and told her to kill herself’ (UK)

Justin Carissimo
The Independent

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please press:  http://www.independent.co.uk

HC gives protection to NRI transgender 'forcibly' brought here (India)

Press
Deccan Herald

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please press:  http://www.deccanherald.com

New prison policies aim to protect transgender inmates

Jaccil Farris
WFMZ

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Law And Order: SVU' Season 17 Episode 3 Spoilers: Watch The 'Transgender Bridge' Trailer

Peter Anthony
Design & Trend

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First ever transgender lingerie line to open in Kansas City

Shannon Halligan
KSHB

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please press:  http://www.kshb.com

Elko officials deny transgender student's restroom request

Press
13 Action News

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please press:  http://www.ktnv.com

Why transgender people can't get surgery approval in Thunder Bay (Canada)

Press
CBC.ca

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Minister confident transgender policy coming (Canada)

Press
BlackburnNews.com

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Banned Transgender Customers To Get $400K From Bar

Kristian Foden-Vencil
OPB

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please press:  http://www.opb.org

S P R E A D the word!

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If you vote - particularly as a result as a result of Emily's Virtual Rocket - you have my undying thanks.  But this year, let's kick it up a notch.  You probably have a listing of friends  you've made over the last few years on your computer.  What I'm suggesting is really ridiculously simple.  Say something like  "On Tuesday, November 3rd, please remember to vote.  And please remind your friends too."

It's that simple.

You don't have to have to have a thousand "friends"; five or ten real friends will do.  If you're lazy, cut and paste the line above.  This ain't rocket science.  (Besides, that's my line!)

Transgender woman says TSA detained, humiliated her over body 'anomaly'

James Queally
LA Times

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please press:  http://www.latimes.com

Vatican 'angered by transgender White House guest list'

Nick Allen and Nick Squires
The Telegraph

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please press:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk

ezs note:  Oh, puh-leeezse!  Pope Frank, if you're gonna turn all purple n' shit over who makes the the guest list, remember, you don't have to go to the White House.  In fact, you don't have to come to the United States.  The door's that way.

Transgender Waitress Tells the Life-Changing Story Behind Her Viral Facebook Post

Lane Moore
Cosmopolitan

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