West Point, Virginia School Systems Fires Anti-Transgender Teacher.

Anti-trans bigot, Peter Vlaming who was fired by the West Point School Board
for repeated insubordination.

In sharp contrast to the Gloucester County School Board which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to fight for the right to mistreat a transgender student, the West Point, Virginia School Board fired a teacher who refused to address a transgender student by the correct pronouns despite being ordered by the school principal to cease the offending behavior.  The teacher is not surprisingly being represented by someone from scamvagelist Pat Robertson's Regent University.  Not surprisingly, the usual hate groups, such as The Family Foundation - which has white supremacist antecedents - have their panties in a wad and are shrieking that the teacher is being "persecuted" and punished for his anti-LGBT beliefs.  The School Board denied the allegation and described the firing on insubordination in the face of clear directives as to how students are to be treated.  Equality Virginia summed up the situation well:

Transgender students, like all students, deserve the opportunity to do well in school and that means classrooms should be spaces where students feel safe, supported, and respected. But, transgender students are too often targeted for bullying, harassment, or mistreatment. Families expect teachers to support their children, not target them as different. 

Yesterday, the West Point School Board made it clear that transgender students should not be singled out because of who they are. We stand behind their unanimous vote. Research has shown that when transgender youth are allowed to use their chosen name at work, school, and home, their risk of depression and suicide drops. We know that taking steps to help young people affirm their gender identity is not only the respectful thing to do, but also developmentally appropriate. A public school teacher should know that, too. 

Whether the teacher - no doubt with encouragement from Christofascist groups - will contest the firing remains to be seen.  Increasingly, "Christian" hate groups are financing the legal costs of anti-LGBT teachers/professors who think they are above the rules and have a license to abuse LGBT students. Christianity is supposedly about love, but nowadays the Christofascists have made it all about hating others based on their race, national origin, religious belief and/or sexual orientation. Think Progress has more on this welcomed firing of a bigot.  Here are excerpts:

In a fairly open-and-shut case, a Virginia school district has terminated a teacher who refused to respect a transgender student’s identity in accordance with the school’s policies.

After a four-hour public hearing Thursday, the West Point School Board voted 5-0 to terminate French teacher Peter Vlaming. Vlaming had previously been placed on administrative leave after refusing to use the proper pronouns for a transgender student, even after administrators repeatedly instructed him to do so.

Following the vote to terminate, Superintendent Laura Abel released a statement explaining that Vlaming’s actions were clearly in violation of the school’s policies:

The School Board has policies that prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity. As detailed during the course of the public hearing, Mr. Vlaming was recommended for termination due to his insubordination and repeated refusal to comply with directives made to him by multiple WPPS administrators. As superintendent, it is my responsibility to enforce board policy, and due to Mr. Vlaming’s non-compliance I therefore recommended termination.

Vlaming, however, argued that “a specific worldview is being imposed upon me.” He had agreed to use the student’s new name, but tried to avoid using any pronouns to address him directly, which made him feel singled out. The teacher continued used the incorrect female pronouns to refer to him to others, and still also used those incorrect pronouns in his presence.

Vlaming’s attorney, Shawn Voyles — an adjunct professor at Pat Robertson’s Regent University — likewise claimed that Vlaming should be “free from being compelled to speak something that violates your conscience.” He insisted that the school’s gender identity policy was too vague and could not be enforced.

During Thursday’s hearing, Voyles identified the student by name in violation of the privacy agreement set forth beforehand. ThinkProgress reached out to Voyles for comment about this error, and he explained that it was inadvertent and that he had made an effort to redact the student’s name from his exhibits.

Vlaming said he has not yet decided whether he plans to take legal action to challenge the termination. “I have to research how we would do that, what that would entail,” Vlaming said. “I do think it’s a serious question of First Amendment rights.”

Conservative groups are very upset by the termination. The Family Foundation, an anti-LGBTQ organization in Virginia, responded by framing nondiscrimination policies as “being used to punish anyone who does not agree with the ideology of the day and to coerce good people to speak a message they fundamentally disagree with at the threat of their livelihood.”

The Family Research Council, an anti-LGBTQ hate group, went so far as to claim that affirming transgender kids constitutes “child abuse” — relying on junk science from another anti-LGBTQ hate group. The situation closely mirrors a case recently brought by a professor at Shawnee State University. Like Vlaming, philosophy professor Nicholas Meriwether refused to use a transgender student’s preferred pronouns. He was disciplined with a letter in his personnel file, and has since sued the university, claiming that the discipline infringed upon his freedoms of speech and religion.

Earlier this year, Indiana orchestra teacher John Kluge also resigned rather than comply with his school district’s policy of respecting transgender students. He tried to reverse that resignation, but the school did not accept it. Kluge has since filed a tort claim against the district, demanding he be reinstated and allowed to call students only by their last names.

A recent study found that 87 percent of LGBTQ students experienced some kind of direct harassment or assault related to their identity, and that anti-trans remarks from staff have actually increased since 2013. Conversely, it found that LGBTQ students feel safer when staff are supportive and comprehensive nondiscrimination policies are in place.

Federal Court Rules for Gavin Grimm

Gavin Grimm and his amazing mother - proud to know both of them.

It has been a long legal saga for Gavin Grimm and has family as they have fought the Gloucester County, Virginia, School Board which sought to discriminate against Gavin, an individual that we know personally, rather than stand up to a faction of LGBT hating Christofascists who forced that Board due to its cowardice to rescind the original policy applied to Grimm.  Gavin's mother noted on Facebook following the latest federal ruling as follows:

So 4 years ago the Gloucester County School Board chose to single out my son to discriminate against instead of doing the right thing by protecting his rights as a transgender boy and now once again the judge has said that he and all transgender kids ARE protected under Title IX of our constitution so let’s see if the school board will now change their policy and protect those that come after Gavin or if they will continue to discriminate against transgender people in our district. This case will be far reaching in this country so I think it is HIGH TIME this school board does what is right! My son had dedicated the last 4 years of his life to this cause and this school board ruined his high school experience!   

A press release by the ACLU looks at the court's ruling (which can be found here).  Here are excerpts:

A federal court today denied the Gloucester County School Board’s motion to dismiss a case brought by former student Gavin Grimm, holding that Title IX and the Constitution protect transgender students from being excluded from the common restrooms that align with their gender identity.

The court directed the parties to schedule a settlement conference within 30 days. The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Virginia. 

Joshua Block, senior staff attorney with the ACLU LGBT &HIV Project, had this reaction:

"The district court’s ruling vindicates what Gavin has been saying from the beginning. Federal law protects Gavin and other students who are transgender from being stigmatized and excluded from using the same common restrooms that other boys and girls use. These sorts of discriminatory policies do nothing to protect privacy and only serve to harm and humiliate transgender students.”

Gavin Grimm had this reaction:

“I feel an incredible sense of relief. After fighting this policy since I was 15 years old, I finally have a court decision saying that what the Gloucester County School Board did to me was wrong and it was against the law. I was determined not to give up because I didn’t want any other student to have to suffer the same experience that I had to go through.”

Having wasted who knows how much taxpayer money and brought worldwide derision to Gloucester County, the Gloucester County School board needs to come into the 21st century and stop kissing the asses of local Christofascists.  

Interestingly enough, a piece in LGBTQ Nation reports on a new study led by a Belgian neurologist that found that transgender individuals how functional brain characteristics that are typical of their desired gender,” said Bakker. . . . .nd that brain activity in transgender people resembles that found in heterosexual individuals of their identifying gender more than their sex assigned at birth. . . . they show functional brain characteristics that are typical of their desired gender,” said Bakker.  Obviously, the study - and many others - exposes the arguments of anti-science, anti-knowledge Christofascists such as those in Gloucester County to be fraudulent and based on little more than bigotry and an embrace of ignorance.  Here are article excerpts:

Their brain scans were compared to people of comparable age who were not diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The study found that transgender boys’ brain activity resembled cisgender boys’, and transgender girls’ brains resembled cisgender girls’.

The researchers said that their technique could be used to help transgender children at an earlier age.

“Although more research is needed, we now have evidence that sexual differentiation of the brain differs in young people with GD, as they show functional brain characteristics that are typical of their desired gender,” said Bakker.

“We will then be better equipped to support these young people, instead of just sending them to a psychiatrist and hoping that their distress will disappear spontaneously.”

The study’s results, which were presented at the European Society of Endocrinology’s meeting, fall in line with previous neurological studies that showed that transgender adults have similar brain structures to cisgender people of their gender.

Again, the Gloucester County School Board needs to kick the Christofascists to the curb where they belong, embrace modern science and knowledge, and put in place the polices sought by Gavin Grimm.

NBA and NFL Warn Texas that "Bathroom Bill" Could be Costly

One would think that the example of what happened to North Carolina after passage of HB2 - a heinous anti-LGBT, anti-civil rights bill backed by Republicans prostituting themselves to Christofascists - would chasten even the most whore like Republicans, but Texas Republicans seem hell bent to suffer similar economic consequences.  Now, both the NFL - which threatened that there would be no more Super Bowls held in Texas - has been joined by the NBA in issuing warnings to the state legislature.  Rational people would heed such warnings, but rationality and Christofascists and their political whores in the Republican Party are mutually exclusive.  LGBT Nation looks at the new NBA warnings to Texas.  Here are highlights:

The NBA is warning Texas over a proposed “bathroom bill” targeting transgender people that is similar to a North Carolina law that prompted the league to move the All-Star Game out of that state.

The NBA on Friday joined the NFL in suggesting that Texas will be overlooked for future big events if lawmakers pass a bill requiring people to use bathrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificate.

NBA spokesman Mike Bass says an environment where people are treated “fairly and equally” weighs heavily when the league chooses host locations. Texas has three NBA teams and has hosted three All-Star Games since 2006.

Charlotte was originally supposed to host the All-Star Game on Sunday. But the NBA moved the game to New Orleans after North Carolina adopted its “bathroom bill” last year.

It’s not as if Texas has not been warned before, either.

Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, a Republican, has voiced his opposition to the bill, calling it unequivocally bad for business.

This is a view shared by the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau, whose president Phillip Jones told lawmakers economic fallout is inevitable.  “This is not speculation. This is facts, based on what we’ve seen first-hand,” he said.

Anti-Gay AG Sessions Drops Push for Transgender Protections

Anti-gay bigot, Jeff Sessions with Paul "Reverse Robin Hood" Ryan

As this blog and numerous others pointed out, new Attorney General Jeff Sessions has a documented history of being a racist and homophobe.  Once sworn in, Sessions has wasted no time in proving that he is a menace to the LGBT community.  Indeed, not even 24 hours passed before Sessions directed Justice Department attorneys seeking to narrow an injunction against the Obama administration's efforts to afford protections to transgender students.  Other minorities need to take note that they too will now be targets for Sessions' white supremacist Justice Department.  When added to Der Trumpenführer's promise to sign the foul "First Amendment Defense Act" which would grant special rights to Christofascists, it all equates to open war of LGBT Americans - something I warned "friends" who voted for Trump about repeatedly. Politico looks at this disturbing but expected development.  Here are highlights:

The Trump administration has found a nationwide injunction it can live with.

In the slew of lawsuits challenging President Donald Trump's travel ban executive order, Justice Department lawyers have repeatedly argued that — whatever the alleged legal defects in his order — nationwide injunctions on its enforcement are improper.

However, on Friday night, Justice Department attorneys handling a lawsuit over President Barack Obama's efforts to protect transgender individuals dropped an effort to temporarily rein in a nationwide injunction a Texas federal judge imposed last year. That injunction prohibited the feds from enforcing the Obama administration's view that existing civil rights laws cover discrimination against those who are transgender.

Last November, the Justice Department appealed U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor's ruling to the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Justice Department attorneys urged the appeals court to limit the injunction so it only applied in the 13 states involved in filing the suit challenging the transgender policy.

That request to narrow O'Connor's injunction was set to be argued before a three-judge 5th Circuit panel on Tuesday in Austin, Texas, but on Friday evening the Justice Department withdrew the stay request.

No explanation for the change in position was given to the court. The move came one day after former Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) was sworn-in as attorney general.

Dropping the stay request avoids Justice Department lawyers having to appear before the 5th Circuit this week to argue for the stay while likely having little clarity to offer the court on how what stance the Trump administration plans to take on the transgender issues at the heart of the dispute.

The Justice Department has not completely abandoned the position that O'Connor's injunction was too broad. Federal government lawyers could pursue that claim as the appeal goes forward, but with their action Friday they have given up the effort to keep enforcing Obama's interpretation of transgender rights while the appeal proceeds.

The Supreme Court might give some guidance on that issue relatively soon. The justices are set to hear arguments next month on a case involving a transgender Virginia student who was born female but sought to use the boys' room at his public high school.

Normally, the justices would decide the case by June. However, it's possible the court might drop the case altogether, not rule squarely on the transgender rights issue, or even punt the case until they have a ninth colleague on the currently shorthanded high court bench.

"Not Gay" Louisiana Republican Admits to Sexting, Kissing Teen Boy

Republican Mike Yenni admits to an illicit relationship with an underage boy

Republicans and their puppet masters at Christian "family values" hate groups continue to hyperventilate about the dangers of transgender individuals using restrooms that conform to their gender identity, but out of Louisiana we are seeing another example of the real danger to children and youths is Republican elected officials (conservative "Christian" pastors and Catholic priests, of course, lead the way in child molestation).  In this instance, the GOP elected official sent a 17-year-old boy sexually charged text messages and gave him a “graduation present” pair of racy designer underwear, but claims that nothing else happened and that he's "not gay."  Yeah, and I'm Queen Victoria too!  A piece in The Raw Story looks at this matter which sadly is so common among Republicans that it is almost becoming non-newsworthy since such situations - and arrest made during solicitations for sex in restrooms - seem to happen weekly, if not more frequently.  Here are article highlights:

A Louisiana parish president admits that he sent a then-17-year-old boy sexually charged text messages and gave him a “graduation present” pair of racy designer underwear, but insists that he was only “playing along” with the teen and that no sexual contact took place.

The New Orleans Advocate reported Friday that Republican Mike Yenni characterized his relationship with the underage student at his alma mater Jesuit High School as a “lapse in judgment” and said that calls for his resignation are politically motivated.
 “I can’t explain why I did it,” the married, 40-year-old Yenni told New Orleans’ Fox 8 News. He maintained that many of the details revealed in a 2015 blog post by the boy about the affair were false and that he never had sexual contact with the teen beyond kissing, nor was he grooming the boy for a sexual relationship.
 Fox 8’s Lee Zurik asked Yenni what his intent was in exchanging erotic texts with a teen.

“I can’t…I really can’t answer it,” said Yenni. “I mean, it was just…it was a stupid action. It was a stupid action to even get into this form of text messaging. It was something…something that I can’t explain why I did it.”

Yenni met the boy at a Jesuit High School function. They began to exchange sexually charged messages. Yenni visited the boy at his job at a local mall and presented him with a pair of underwear. They kissed, but Yenni insists that was their only contact, which was not illegal because the age of consent for boys in Louisiana is 17.

A year after the liaison, the boy published an account of the affair, which was picked up by what Yenni calls a “tabloid.” He declined to address the accusations against him line by line . . .

“I’m not gay,” Yenni replied.

Anti-Transgender Gloucester County Appeals to SCOTUS

The anti-transgender Gloucester County School Board - the face of hate and ignorance

Having been rebuffed by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals three times now, the Gloucester County School Board has appealed its losses on the issue of the treatment of transgender students to the United States Supreme Court.  In addition, it has asked the high court to stay the 4th Circuit's ruling in favor of 17 year old Gavin Grimm pending the Court's decision of the case.  I'm hoping that SCOTUs both refuses the stay and refuses to take the case - a possibility heightened by the Court's current 8 justice membership.  The bottom line issue driving this case is the school board's desire to pander to Christofascists who began lobbying the board when it was learned that the board planned to accommodate Grimm's needs. Take away the religious extremists and the case would never have occurred.  The Washington Post looks at the board's latest effort at self-prostitution to the forces of hate.  Here are excerpts:

A school board that has been ordered to allow a transgender student to use the boys’ high school bathroom has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the order, arguing that it will cause “irreparable harm” and violate the privacy of students.

The Gloucester County, Va. School Board, which is being sued for passing a policy that barred a transgender student from the boys’ bathroom, said it hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will weigh in on the matter. In the interim, it is asking the high court to allow it to continue banning the transgender boy from the boys’ room while attorneys prepare a writ of certiorari to the nation’s highest court. Currently, the court’s order would mean transgender students could use the bathroom corresponding with their gender identity when school returns for the coming academic year.

Gavin Grimm, a 17-year-old rising senior at Gloucester High filed a lawsuit against the School Board last year after the board passed a policy requiring students to use bathrooms based on their “biological gender.” Grimm alleged that the policy barring him from the boys’ bathroom violated his civil rights and ran afoul of Title IX, which bans sex discrimination in public schools.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit sided with the teen in April, deferring to the Obama administration’s position that transgender students are entitled to use bathrooms that match their gender identity under Title IX. It was the highest court to rule on the question of how to accommodate transgender students in public schools. A federal judge later granted Grimm a preliminary injunction ordering the School Board to allow Grimm to use the boys’ bathroom while the case proceeds.

In a filing to the high court Wednesday, the School Board again asked for the case to be paused — and to keep Grimm out of the boys’ bathroom — until the case concludes.

Joshua Block, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, also has disputed the notion that allowing Grimm to use the boys’ bathroom would cause the sort of harm the school board describes.

“The only thing this injunction does is let Gavin use the boys’ restroom,” Block said last week. “The notion that simply allowing one boy to use the restroom during his senior year of high school would cause the sky to fall is impossible to take seriously.”

To the Christofascists the sky will fall because they will lose the ability to punish transgender students who fail to conform to the hate and ignorance based beliefs of the "godly folk." 

GOP Platform Committee - Religious Lunacy on Display

UPDATED:  The batshitery keeps on going.  Now this from the New Civil Rights Movement:

Republican National Committee subcommittee members Monday voted to approve a plank embracing the use of harmful anti-LGBT conversion therapy, after it was introduced by [Tony Perkins] the head of a certified anti-gay hate group [Family Research Council]. The plank will be voted on by a committee and then all RNC voting members before becoming an official part of the 2016 platform.

I had predicted that the Republican Party would find it difficult to tone down the party platform's anti-gay rhetoric.  So far, not only does that appear to be an on target prediction, but the Christian conservatives that are disproportionately represented on the platform committee seem hell bent to display to the world just how insane the GOP has become since they crawled out from under rocks and slithered from swamps to hijack the party.  Not only were efforts to blunt anti-gay positions defeated, but NBC News is reporting that a platform subcommittee has approved an amendment which calls for the Bible to be taught in public schools as a “historical document.”   As for the anti-gay elements, here are highlights from the New York Times which obtained some excerpts from the platform committee's work:

“The data and the facts lead to an inescapable conclusion: that every child deserves a married mom and dad. The reality remains that millions of American families do not have the advantages that come with that structure. We honor the courageous efforts of those who bear the burdens of parenting alone and embrace the principle that all Americans should be treated with dignity and respect. But respect is not enough. Our laws and our government’s regulations should recognize marriage as the union of one man and one woman and actively promote married family life as the basis of a stable and prosperous society. For that reason, as explained elsewhere in the platform, we do not accept the Supreme Court’s redefinition of marriage and we urge its reversal, whether through judicial reconsideration or a constitutional amendment returning control over marriage to states.” “

We emphatically support the original, authentic meaning of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. It affirmed that ‘No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination.’ ... That same provision of the law is now being used by bureaucrats — and by the current president of the United States — to impose a social and cultural revolution upon the American people. Their agenda has nothing to do with individual rights; it has everything to do with power. They are determined to reshape our schools — and our entire society — to fit the mold of an ideology alien to America’s history and traditions. Their edict to the states concerning restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities is at once illegal, ominous, and ignores privacy issues. We salute the several states which have filed suits against it.”

Gloucester County School Board Continues Self-Prostitution to Anti-LGBT Bigots

Click image to enlarge to better see the face of bigotry

There seemingly are no limits to the lengths that the self-prostituting members of the Gloucester County, Virginia school board (pictured above) will go to in order to appease anti-LGBT Christofascists in the battle to institutionalize the bullying of transgender students.   Having been smacked down twice by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and now under a District Court order compelling the school division to accommodate a transgender boy, the school board is now dishonestly claiming that such accommodations will cause other students to leave the school division.  My response? Good.  Good riddance.  Let them.  Remember, that there were no problems with accommodations until a local "holy man" - as Bob Felton would call such parasites - got wind of the situation and whipped the county simpletons into a furor. The Washington Post looks at the continued lies and batshitery from the board and its always sleazy counsel from Alliance Defending Freedom ("ADF"):

A Virginia school district claims that allowing one transgender student to use the boys’ bathroom would cause community uproar and could force some parents to pull their children out of school.

Gloucester County Public Schools is seeking to reverse a judge’s order that requires Gloucester High to let senior Gavin Grimm use the bathroom that matches his gender identity, rather than his biological sex.

If Grimm is allowed to use the boys’ bathroom, the district argued in a filing this week, “parents may decide to remove their children from the school system after reaching the understandable conclusion that the school has been stripped … of its authority to protect their children’s constitutionally guaranteed rights of bodily privacy.”

It was one of several arguments the school district made in the 14-page filing, part of an ongoing case regarding Grimm’s challenge of a school board policy that prevents transgender students from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity. A federal appeals court ordered a lower court to hear Grimm’s case, and the school district says it would like the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in. In the meantime, the courts have ordered the school district to let Grimm use the boys’ room while the case is pending.

Joshua Block, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Grimm, said that the fear of a negative reaction from some parents isn’t a legitimate reason to violate Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination, and that — according to the ACLU and guidance from the Obama administration — protects transgender students’ right to use facilities matching their gender identity.

The school system has said it plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, given the national interest in resolving questions about whether Title IX protects transgender students’ right to use bathrooms that match their gender identity.

In its June 28 motion, the school system asked the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to stay its earlier decision, arguing that Grimm can use a bathroom in the nurse’s office, or one of three other single-occupancy restrooms that are available to all students, while litigation proceeds.

It seems unlikely that the district court would reverse its own ruling. But the school system made clear in its filing that it intends to take the issue to the nation’s highest court.

The district says that within 10 days, it will ask the Supreme Court to rule on whether Gloucester High must let Grimm use the boys’ bathroom as the litigation unfolds — or whether it may keep him out.

Reading some of the comments to the Post story underscores something that have concluded for some time now:  few people are as foul and self-centered than the "godly folk."  Only their rights - and most importantly, their hate and fear based religious beliefs - matter and everyone else is supposed to forfeit their rights so that the knuckle draggers can continue to feel self-satisfied and  falsely pious.  It is far past time that they start being treated like the scum of the earth that they are.  Sexual orientation and gender identity are not a choice, but embracing ignorance, clinging to childish fairy tales and advocating bigotry are all choices these folks have made.  Let them begin to pay the consequences.  

As for ADF, Human Rights Campaign has accurately described ADF as follows:

ADF is one of the United States’ most dangerous organizations working to prevent equality for LGBT people across the globe.  An enthusiastic leader in defending the unconscionable “right” to discriminate against LGBT people, ADF is a worldwide exporter of hate. With offices in many places around the world, ADF uses their global reach and budget of over 54 million dollars to promote discriminatory legislation, and foster anti-LGBT initiatives. ADF bills itself as an “alliance-building legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith”—unless of course that faith contradicts with their own anti-LGBT version.

4th Circuit Court Lifts Stay On Order Granting Transgender Student Restroom Rights

Locally, the political whores on the Gloucester County School Board who have sold their souls rather than offend the sensibilities of hate and fear filled Christofascists suffered another loss today as the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Court lifted its stay on its order finding in favor of high school student Gavin Grimm that granted transgender students restroom rights consistent with the Department of Education's reading of Title IX.   The stay had gone into effect when the Christofascists puppets on the school board filed a motion indicating the board's intent to appeal the 4th Circuit's ruling to the United States Supreme Court - which is likely to refuse the appeal if the Court remains split 4-4.  Of course, if the petition languishes and if Hillary Clinton wins the White House (and better yet, the Democrats retake control of the U. S. Senate) a nationwide ruling in favor of transgender rights might be in the future.  Blogger friend Joe Jervis reports on this development as follows:

A three-judge panel from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals just denied the stay motion filed Wednesday by Virginia’s Gloucester County School Board, which seeks to thwart the federal mandate on transgender student rights. That filing two days ago had triggered an automatic stay on the pro-trans April order while the Court considered their demand. The vote today was 2-1. Equality Case Files has today’s ruling. The Fourth Circuit Court has jurisdiction over Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina, and (hello) North Carolina.

The summary lifting of the stay - which means Gloucester County - and North Carolina - must comply absent a stay issued by the Supreme Court reads as follows:

Click image to enlarge

I only wish the School Board members would be required to pay all of the county's legal costs - and those of Grimm - out of their personal pockets.  

4th Circuit Rejects Petition of Anti-Transgender Gloucester County School Board

After having been firmly bitch slapped by a panel of U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, the spineless Gloucester County School Board petitioned the Court for a "hearing en banc" - i.e, a reconsideration by all the judges on the court - in the hope that the board's anti-transgender policies would be upheld.  Today, the 4th Circuit rejected the requested rehearing leaving the political whores on the board who have prostituted themselves to Christian extremists with nowhere to go except for the U. S. Supreme (the denial is here).  Given the current 4-4 split on the Supreme Court thanks to GOP obstructionism, there is a significant chance that an appeal to the Supreme Court would be refused.   The one down side is that to date, the school board members are not personally liable for the litigation costs.  The Augusta Free Press has details.  Here are excerpts:

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will not rehear the case of a Gloucester County transgender high school student suing his school board over discriminatory bathroom policies. 

The court today denied the Gloucester County School Board’s request for an en banc review of an April decision which held that Title IX protects the rights of transgender students to use school restrooms consistent with their gender identity.

“Now that the Fourth Circuit’s decision is final, I hope my school board will finally do the right thing and let me go back to using the boys’ restroom again,” said Gavin Grimm, the high school junior who is the plaintiff in the case. “Transgender kids should not have to sue their own school boards just for the ability to use the same restrooms as everyone else.”

In an en banc review, cases are reconsidered by every active judge, of which there are 15 in the Fourth Circuit. In April, a three-judge panel ruled two-to-one in favor of Mr. Grimm in his challenge to Gloucester High School’s discriminatory restroom policy that segregates transgender students from their peers by requiring them to use “alternative, private” facilities. In order to hear an en banc review, a majority of the judges must vote to do so; however, none of the judges in this case requested a vote, according to the court order denying the request.

The April ruling marked the first time a federal appeals court has determined Title IX protects the rights of transgender students to use sex-segregated facilities that are consistent with their gender identity. The Fourth Circuit remanded the case for the district court to reevaluate Gavin’s request for a preliminary injunction under the proper legal standard.

Former Local Republican Party Chair Arrested for Aggravated Child Molestation

As Christofascist extremist continue to harass shoppers at Target and Republicans continue to prostitute themselves to the "godly folk" by continuing to push anti-LGBT legislation, a story out of Georgia again reminds us that the real threat to children and women is Republican elected and party officials. The former chairman of the Cobb County Republican Party was arrested yesterday and charged with child molestation.  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has details.  Before engaging in anti-transgender hysteria, the GOP needs to clean its own putrid house.  Here are story highlights: 

The former chairman of the Cobb County Republican Party was arrested Friday morning and charged with child molestation. 

Joseph Russell Dendy, 71, was arrested at his West Cobb home and charged with aggravated child molestation and child molestation, both felonies. He was being held at the Cobb jail without bond early Friday afternoon.

Dendy allegedly molested two boys, ages 4 and 12, during separate incidents inside his Creekview Court home, his arrest warrant says. One victim, who is now 20, told police he was molested in 2007 or 2008, when he was 12 or 13 years old. A second victim said Dendy molested him in December 2011, according to police.

An arrest warrant was issued for Dendy late Thursday, and deputies went to his home and arrested him at 9 a.m. Friday, booking records showed.

Dendy served two, two-year terms as leader of the Cobb GOP and was succeeded last year by his vice chair, Rose Wing.

Seven Things One Needs to Know About Transgender Persons

I often have little good to say about conservative religious beliefs given the hate and division they inspire.  I often have even less good to say about Baptists in particular.  The general mindset of these Christofasists is exemplified by modern day Pharisee Franklin Graham whose latest message of hatred and division is that conservative Christians should be willing to die rather than give into accepting transgender rights and individuals.  Thus my shock and surprise to find a reasoned piece at Baptist News that looks at a pastor's efforts to educate himself and others as to the medical and scientific truths of what being transgender means and entails.  Even more shocking - but in  a pleasant way - is his statement that who is to say that the transgendered are not "made in the image of God."  Here are highlights of this piece that ought to be required reading for the falsely pious "godly folks":

I don’t know much about transgender issues, but I’m trying to learn. . . . But with the help of a pediatrician friend and a geneticist friend, I’m listening and trying to learn. This is hard, though, because understanding the transgender experience seems so far outside what I have ever contemplated before. And the more I learn, the more theological questions I face as well. This is hard, even for a pastor.

Here’s some of what I’m learning from my friends who have experience as medical professionals dealing with real people and real families:

1. Even though LGBT gets lumped together in one tagline, the T is quite different than the LG and B. “Lesbian,” “gay” and “bisexual” describe sexual orientation. “Transgender” describes gender identity. These are not the same thing. Sexual orientation is about whom we feel an attraction to and want to mate with; gender identity is about whether we identify as male or female.

2. What you see is not always what you get. For the vast majority of humanity, the presence of male or female genitalia corresponds to whether a person is male or female. What you see is what you are. But for a small part of humanity (something less than 1 percent), the visible parts and the inner identity do not line up. For example, it is possible to be born with male genitalia but female chromosomes or vice versa. And now brain research has demonstrated that it also is possible to be born with female genitalia, female chromosomes but a male brain. Most of us hit the jackpot upon birth with all three factors lining up like cherries on a slot machine: Our anatomy, chromosomes and brain cells all correspond as either male or female. But some people are born with variations in one or two of these indicators.

3. Stuff happens at birth that most of us never know. It’s not an everyday occurrence but it’s also not infrequent that babies are born with ambiguous or incomplete sexual anatomy. In the past, surgeons often made the decision about whether this child would be a boy or a girl, based on what was the easiest surgical fix. Today, much more thought is given to these life-changing decisions.

4. Transgender persons are not “transvestites.” Far too many of us make this mix-up, in part because the words sound similar and we have no real knowledge of either. Cross-dressers, identified in slang as “transvestites,” are people (typically men) who are happy with their gender but derive pleasure from occasionally dressing like the opposite gender. Cross-dressing is about something other than gender identity.

5. Transgender persons are not pedophiles. The typical profile of a pedophile is an adult male who identifies as heterosexual and most likely even is married. There is zero statistical evidence to link transgender persons to pedophilia.

6. Transgender persons hate all the attention they’re getting. The typical transgender person wants desperately not to attract attention. All this publicity and talk of bathroom habits is highly disconcerting to people who have spent their lives trying not to stand out or become the center of attention.

7. Transgender persons are the product of nature much more than nurture. Debate the origins of homosexuality if you’d like and what role nature vs. nurture plays. But for those who are transgender, nature undeniably plays a primary role. According to medical science, chromosomal variances occur within moments of conception, and anatomical development happens within the nine months in the womb. There is no nature vs. nurture argument, except in cases of brain development, which is an emerging field of study.

This last point in particular raises the largest of theological questions. If Christians really believe every person is created in the image of God, how can we damn a baby who comes from the womb with gender dysphoria? My pediatrician friend puts it this way: “We must believe that even if some people got a lower dose of a chromosome, or an enzyme, or a hormonal effect, that does not mean that they got a lower dose of God’s image.”

Would that the Christofascists and their eager political whores within the Republican Party would bother to educate themselves as this Dallas, Texas pastor is endeavoring to do.  Kudos to the piece's author.

Reflections on the Debate Over Transgender Restroom Use

Anti-LGBT bigot and snake oil merchant/charlatan, Anne Graham Lotz

In the wake of the release of the Justice Department guidelines to every school division in the country, the debate has been fast and furious, with those on the right showing once again their disingenuousness and the animus that they hold toward those who do not conform to their binary view of sexuality.  Sadly, many commentators and news anchors have failed to challenge one of the main supposed justification for the anti-transgender jihad of the far right, led of course by the Christofascists: safety for women and girls.  

First, we are talking about restroom use by SCHOOL CHILDREN, yet demagogues like the Texas Lt. Governor  throw out the red herring of "a 30 year old man in the same restroom as young girls." I'm sorry, but I'm not aware of any 30 year students in our public schools. As for restrooms in public places such as Target stores, the myth of predators taking advantage of the guidelines applicable to public schools is ridiculous.  Yet few have called out the religious based comments of those such as Tony Perkins, a man with documents KKK affiliations, or Franklin Graham and his equally disgusting sister, Anne Graham Lotz, who have compared the guidelines to terrorism and a social 9/11.  Neither of the latter two would be anyone but for their famous father who was little better than  con artist selling a false product.  Meanwhile, others in the Christian Taliban whine that fundamentalist Christians must take over local school boards so that they can impose their own version of Sharia Law.  Decent people ought to be disgusted. 

Second, all the talk on the right about this being something to be decided at the state or local level sounds all too much like the bloviating during the 1960's against the Civil Rights laws that desegregated public schools and sought to end anti-black employment discrimination.  Change the words "black", "Negro", "African American" to transgender or LGBT, and its the same old argument which has no other goal than to enshrine discrimination and abuse of a certain class of citizens.  If one is an American citizen, one's legal rights should not depend on whether one had the misfortune to be born in a rural backwater or "red state" rather than  a progressive city or "blue state."  Bigotry is bigotry plan and simple and, candidly, it's to the point where when I hear someone talking about states' rights or local decision making, I now assume that they are a racist, homophobe, religious extremist, or all of the foregoing.

In the final analysis, this basically comes down to one thing in my view, the last gasps of the fundamentalist Christians and those who serve them in legislatures to impose their beliefs on all citizens and to abuse and stigmatize those who do not not conform to their myth and legend based beliefs.  Folks, it's the 21st century and it is far past time that lives and society be controlled by the ignorant ramblings of Bronze Age herders.  The best thing that could happen to the world would be to have every trace of the Bible - and the Koran - destroyed and eliminated.   Both books have given the world and mankind little but hate, destruction and bloodshed. 

Sorry for the rant, but I am so over the hate merchants holding sway and rarely being challenged by a largely gutless and worthless media that continues to give religion and religious belief undeserved deference. 

Poll: Majority of Americans Oppose GOP "Bathroom Bills"

Time and time again I have noted my shock that today's GOP continues to chase after a shrinking right wing white voter pool even as poll after pool suggests that the majority of voters do not support what the GOP/Christofascists are peddling.  With all Hell breaking loose around North Carolina's HB2 which was passed by the North Carolina GOP to supposedly rally North Carolina Christofascists to the voting booths in November, CNN commissioned a poll that found that nearly 3 out of 5 Americans oppose the GOP's "bathroom bills" and anti-LGBT agenda.  As I have noted before, the modern day Pharisees and political whores who now control the GOP have no long term plan for the Party's survival.  Perhaps it is a God send that Donald Trump has appeared on the scene to accelerate the death of the GOP and perhaps minimize the death throes.  Here are highlights from The Advocate on the CNN poll findings:

Most Americans support LGBT rights in some measure and oppose anti-transgender bathroom laws, such as the one passed in North Carolina, according to a poll released by CNN on Monday.

The survey found 57 percent of respondents were against laws which would require transgender people to use bathrooms that did not correspond with their gender identity. A law passed in North Carolina in March requires transgender people to use bathrooms matching the gender listed on their birth certificates, regardless of gender identity. Only 38 percent said of those polled by CNN they support such legislation.

Additionally, strong opposition outweighed strong support for these anti-LGBT laws, with 39 percent strongly opposed to 25 percent strongly supporting such efforts. Democrats and independents were more likely to oppose the transphobic laws than Republicans, but Republicans were evenly split on the matter, according to the survey.

About 75 percent of respondents favored laws guaranteeing equal protection for transgender people in jobs, housing, and public accommodations, while 80 percent were in favor of such protections for gay and lesbian people. 

I truly believe that today's GOP and its Christofascist supporters make the Pharisees of the Bible look like nice and decent people in comparison.

Gloucester County School Board Will Squander Money and Seek Rehearing En Banc

Transphobic, cowardly Gloucester County School Board

Rather that put the fiscal interests of Gloucester County taxpayers first and foremost, the Gloucester County School Board has opted to seek to appease a minority of religious extremists and file a petition for a rehearing en banc in the Gavin Grimm case - i.e., by the full 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.  Sadly, the move is not surprising given the general backwardness and knuckle dragging aspects of that county.  One can only hope that the petition is refused or that the en banc panel slams the school board's unconstitutional policy.  The Daily Press looks at this wrongheaded decision.  Here are highlights:

The Gloucester County School Board filed a petition Tuesday for a full 4th Circuit Court of Appeals review of the ruling issued last month in the lawsuit filed by a 16-year-old transgender student.

In April, a panel of three judges ruled in favor of Gavin Grimm who is challenging a bathroom use policy imposed by the School Board that requires transgender students to use either a private bathroom or the restrooms assigned to their birth gender. Grimm was born female but identifies as a boy.

In a lawsuit filed last June, Grimm said the high school is violating Title IX and the Constitution by refusing him access to the boys' restroom.

The en banc review the School Board seeks would be a rehearing of the case by all nine judges on the appeals court. The three-judge panel voted 2-1, in Grimm's favor, to send the case back to a federal judge in Norfolk. Federal Judge Robert Doumar refused to issue a preliminary injunction that would have required the schools to let Grimm use the boys' restrooms while his discrimination lawsuit proceeds.

If readers want more information on these transphobic cowards, go here.

Ted Cruz Continues to Spread Anti-Transgender Lies

Not only is Ted Cruz physically repulsive, but he is morally repulsive as well as he continues to use anti-transgender fear mongering in a desperate attempt to goad the Christofascists to turn out and vote for him in the upcoming Indiana primary.  Cruz cares nothing for the truth and cares nothing about the harm he does to others in his power mad quest.  Towelroad looks at the latest vicious lies Cruz is utilizing.  Here are highlights: 

Even though the right-wing myths about what happens have been debunked many times (as recently as last week by FOX News anchor Chris Wallace), Ted Cruz continues to hammer home his fear-mongering about the consequences of transgender “bathroom bills” and according to the NYT, the strategy is working for him, at least in Indiana.

Said Cruz on Meet the Press Sunday:

“Donald Trump came out on television agreeing with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that grown men should be allowed to use little girls’ restrooms. Now I view this issue as a matter of basic common sense. I don’t think it’s a right or left or Republican or Democratic issue. It’s common sense. Look, I’m the dad of two little girls. It doesn’t make any sense to allow grown adult men – strangers – to be alone in a bathroom with a little girl – and virtually all Americans understand that. And it is only the height of political correctness that refuses to acknowledge this.”

Chuck Todd then asked about Caitlyn Jenner’s recent stunt in which she used the bathroom in a Trump Hotel in New York City and then emerged with a message directed at Cruz: “By the way Ted, nobody got molested.”

Replied Cruz:

“If you pass a law that says any adult man can go into a girl’s restroom if he feels like a woman at that minute… Look the real danger is not people who are transgendered it’s people who are predators. People who are predators who use that law as an excuse to go target our kids. … The reason Donald Trump’s comment is so revealing…he said a few months ago, ‘I can be the most politically correct person on earth’. This is political correct nonsense. People want someone who tells the truth. Donald is playing a role and pretending to be something he’s not. I’ve been the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”