education

Bigots spreading lies to demonize

Conservative media has been spreading a story that apparently first appeared on the badly named Christian Broadcasting Network about a transgender student in Florence, CO who has been accused of harassing girls in the locker room and rest rooms.

My old friend Cristan Williams debunked that story by speaking directly with Superintendent Rhonda Vendetti, who explained that there was indeed no harassment taking place. Indeed there were rather a few parents who were opposed to the fact that a transgender student was being allowed to use the locker room of the gender with which she identifies.

Pacific Justice Institute, which is taking the lead to repeal California's AB 1266, which protects the freedom of transgender students to pursue an equal education with that of their peers, has now basically admitted that they invented the story.

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Gender Prison: Erasing transgender

The Privacy for All Students campaign is inappropriately named because transgender students are excluded from the "all." But the group, which began in California to fight for the repeal of AB 1266 (a bill passed to ensure education equity for transgender students) and has already gained the support of the National Organization for Marriage, is gaining more support around the country from conservative groups around the country. Most recently throwing their support behind the repeal is the Pennsylvania Family Institute.

Brandon McGinley of the PFI has penned a screed entitled Saving Our Locker Rooms, in which he details the dangerous "[e]fforts to remove gender distinctions from public facilities".

In my home state of Pennsylvania, official legal guidance published by the city of Philadelphia on its gender identity ordinance declares that discomfort with sharing personal facilities with those of the opposite biological sex stems from “unsubstantiated fears and discriminatory attitudes” that employers are bound by law to attempt to “eliminate.”

--McGinley

So McGinley proposes what he claims are "cogent, rational arguments against non-discrimination laws" that would benefit transgender people. I do not think the word "rational" means what he think it means.

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Assumptions

Assumptions can be dangerous to people who are habitually marginalized. One of the big assumptions that people make about the concept of "transgender" is that transgender is a subset of homosexual. It is not. I do not have data to turn to, but I have heard, as I shared in a diary last week, that about 1/4 of transgender people are gay or lesbian, 1/4 are heterosexual, 1/4 are bisexual and 1/4 are asexual.

What exactly that says about the influence of the normalized control of gender and sexuality by our culture is something I'll let other people discuss.

But the assumption has a large impact on the everyday lives of gender-variant people. Even scientists studying sexually-transmitted diseases jump to the conclusion that transgender women are "men who have sex with men." And even direct evidence to the contrary often does not dissuade people from adopting the assumption.

Tonight I have two cases in point.

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Hate on television

Nothing endangers more transgender people than hate given media airtime.

We have come to expect it from Fox News. Fox and Friends invited Michelle Malkin to help hate on the new law in California which legally entitles transgender students to access facilities and programs appropriate to their gender.

The hosts of “Fox and Friends” are so mad that transgender students in California are now legally entitled to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity. And they are also so confused about what being transgender even means! (No one will explain it to them, either. No one! Not a single segment producer or Fox News intern or even the Internet!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Transgender Hero #5: Ashton Lee

Manteca High School junior Ashton Lee hand-delivered petitions. with nearly 6000 names to Governor Brown, urging him to sign AB 1266, which would give transgender students equal access to school programs and facilities.

Lee is a young transman. He testified in Sacramento during the legisiative hearings on the bill. Manteca High School has 5 openly transgender students.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

California law already prohibits discrimination in education, but transgender students are still unfairly excluded from physical education, athletic teams, and other school activities and facilities.  This exclusion negatively impacts students' ability to succeed in school and graduate with their class.

--Melissa Goodman, an attorney with the ACLU of California

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GLSEN adopts transgender student support and activism group

 photo TSR_grad_zps9a5d8da8.pngGLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) has thrown their support behind a relatively new student-created support organization called Transgender Student Rights.

TSR was  formed in 2009 in response to the advocacy needs of transgender and gender nonconforming students. Its past accomplishments have included a student rights resolution with a sample district policy, educational resources, direct service, and popular social media pages. In GLSEN, TSR’s leaders see an opportunity to build upon the powerful foundation that they laid, and increase the capacity, sustainability and impact of their organizing efforts.

One of the problems with student organizations is always the fact that students graduate and move on, making it a struggle to keep student interest and find effective leadership.

Where previously TSR was run by volunteers, there will now be full-time GLSEN staff members helping us reach our goals. GLSEN’s strength in policy, research, education and advocacy will do incredible things for trans* and gender nonconforming justice in K-12 education.

--TSR leaders Alex Pratt, Camden Goetz, Eli Erlick and Emet Tauber

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Transgender Student Rights await Governor Brown's pen

When stuff happens on July 3, it often goes unnoticed because of the approaching holiday. That appears to have been the case this past Wednesday as well.

The California state Senate approved AB-1266 Pupil rights: sex-segregated school programs and activities, which amends Section 221.5 of the Education Code to mandate that programs, activities and use of facilities be available consistent with a student's gender identity.

If signed by Governor Jerry Brown, California will become the first state to require schools to let students choose their bathrooms and sports teams based on their gender identity.

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Looking for Racism Everywhere? Sometimes it's Best to Look in the Mirror

Oh boy, have you guys seen this? I know many of us are well-versed in the anti-racism, victimhood tactics, mainly from our time at certain other websites. And we know how hurtful it can be. But I don't think I've ever seen a better example of just how much damage false accusations of racism can cause.

Here's a city council meeting where some kids from a special program at an area school were presenting a gift to the city. Their project involved spending a couple days in the town of Martinsville, VA, after which they were going to write reports and stuff about their experience and what they learned about the history of the town. Somewhere along the way, they decided it would be nice to make a quilt with each of the kids designing their own patch showing how they felt about the experience and to show their appreciation for the history of the town. In this city council meeting, the kids and their teacher were showing the quilt that they were about to present as a gift to the city.
 photo quilt-550x341_zpsacf5192d.jpg

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Hellraisers Journal: Students & Staff to Strike at Indiana U

You..ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

Friday April 10, 1903
Eugene V Debs and the Conflict within the Socialist Party
Part I
Problems started when the Western Federation of Miners established a new labor federation: the American Labor Union. The American Labor Union then declared itself in favor of Socialism and began a nation-wide campaign to organize unions on an industrial basis rather than on the craft basis favored by the American Federation of Labor. Debs was strongly rebuked for his support of the ALU by Socialist Party leaders such as Victor Berger and J. Mahlon Barnes who have achieved some influence within the AF of L. Barnes is a member of Samuel Gompers' own cigarmakers union.

Debs fired back with an article in last November's issue of the International Socialist Review. He stated that he would be willing to support Samuel Gompers:


Eugene V Debs

..when the American Federation of Labor sheds its outworn pure and simple policy, when it declares against the capitalist system and for union, class-conscious action at the ballot box; when it relegates leaders to the rear who secure fat offices for themselves in reward for keeping the rank and file in political ignorance and industrial slavery, and when it shall cease to rely upon cringing lobbying committees.

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Strikethrough: Defending Public Education

I wonder how many people watch the news and wish they had an "edit" button, to either change a bad argument that was made or to insert information that should be required for the subject under discussion. Like, say, any talks about American threats against Iran should mention the fact that both the U.S. and Israeli military forces admit there is no Iranian nuclear weapons program.

Or when a liberal is brought on to debate a conservative on a topic, that I could strikethrough ineffective or incomplete statements and replace them with a more forceful argument. Like a NewsHour segment on school vouchers from earlier this week, where the president of the National Education Association did little to challenge a representative from a right wing think tank.

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