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Out of frustration of those in government and those running for a government office wanting to play the age old game of claiming people are pedophiles to get votes, I sent an email to a man who was running for the school board, in dissent of his opinion letter. I copied the media on my email and subsequently, one of the editors asked permission to publish my email. I agreed.
http://www.news-leader.com/story/opinion/contributors/2016/05/28/fears-bathroom-laws-misguided/85116126/
http://www.news-leader.com/story/opinion/contributors/2016/05/28/fears-bathroom-laws-misguided/85116126/
We can always count on you to put things in perspective and add some common sense/critical thinking to any situation.
I appreciate all you do.
rewdiazepam
RSS REBLOGGED BY TransActionTAGS DiscriminationEquality Hate LGBTQHB2 Share this article:
"This is a pass-through post I happened upon in my niece’s timeline on Facebook, which apparently has been removed for violating some policy or other of theirs. It was written by a young lady named Kasey Rose-Hodge. I think it has sufficient merit that it should be promulgated far and wide. Herewith, I make my small contribution to that effort."
"Dear creepy heterosexual men guarding our bathrooms,
My entire life, I've been told to fear you in one way or another. I've been told to cover my body as to not distract you in school, to cover my body to help avoid unwanted advances or comments, to cover my body as to not tempt you to sexually assault me, to reject your unwanted advances politely as to not anger you. I've been taught to never walk alone at night, to hold my keys in my fist while walking in parking lots, to check the backseat of my car, to not drink too much because you might take advantage of me. I've been told what I should and shouldn't do with my body as to not jeopardize my relationships with you.
I've been warned not to emasculate you, to let "boys be boys", to protect your fragile ego and to not tread on your even more fragile masculinity. I've been taught to keep my emotions in check, to let you be the unit of measure for how much emotion is appropriate and to adjust my emotions accordingly. I've been taught that you're allowed to categorize women into mothers/sisters/girlfriends/wives/daughters but any woman outside of your protected categories is fair game.
So to those of you who think you're being helpful by "protecting" me and my fellow women, you're like a shark sitting in the Lifeguard chair. I wasn't uncomfortable until you showed up at the pool and the only potential predator I see is you.
Your mothers, sisters, girlfriends, wives and daughters don't need you to walk them to the bathroom for safety. Your fathers, brothers, friends and sons need to walk themselves away from their own double standards. Women are sexually harassed and sexually assaulted on school campuses, on the street, at their jobs, on the Internet, in their own homes, in ANY public place. And it has been excused or ignored for so long because of what you and I are taught from the first years of our interactions with each other: You, as a male, are not accountable for your own actions. It's MY responsibility, as a female, to not "provoke" you. But then you get to Knight-In-Shining-Armor your way through life for those in your protected categories and I am expected to applaud you. Why the outrage now over bathrooms? Why aren't you outraged every single day?
If you're telling me that there are high volumes of boys and men out there, in schools or in general, who are just waiting for a "loop hole" to sexually assault girls and women, we have bigger problems on our hands than bathrooms. The first problem would be your apparent lack of knowledge of how often it happens OUTSIDE of bathrooms, with no "loop holes" needed. This isn't about Transgender bathroom access. This is about you not trusting the boys and men in your communities and/or fearing that they're all secretly predators. Why do you have this fear? How many fathers have panicked when their daughters started dating because they "know how teenaged boys can be because they used to be one"? How many times have girls been warned "boys are only after one thing"? A mother can bring her young son into the women's restroom and that's fine but a father bringing his young daughter into the men's restroom is disturbing because men are assumed to be predators and "little girls" shouldn't be exposed to that.
So instead of picking up your sword and heading to Target or the girls' locker room to defend our "rights", why don't you start somewhere that could actually make a difference? Challenge your children's schools to end sexist dress codes and dress codes that sexualize girls as young as age 5. Advocate for proper (or any) sex education classes in all public schools by a certain grade level. Focus more on teaching your sons not to rape vs teaching your daughters how to avoid being raped. Stop asking "How would you feel if that was your mother or sister?" It shouldn't take the comparison to clue you in to what's right or wrong. Question why you're more worried about your daughter being around men than your son being around women in bathrooms and dressing rooms. Stop walking by Victoria's Secret with no problem but covering your son's eyes if a woman is breastfeeding in public. Stop treating your daughter's body as some fortress you're sworn to protect as if that's all she's got to offer the world". - Kasey Rose-Hodge
Just saying...And again Good Job Legal! Janet mackie
The Loftis' of this world go about labeling every one NOT suspiciously creepy like themselves as automatically "pedophile"attaching to the word all their hateful Stranger Danger baggage even though (as we all know) Pedophile simply means someone child-attracted. Pedophile does not automatically = irresponsible dangerous child predator, Pedophiles are not implacably focused upon upon acting out every attraction. (any more than as a male- attracted woman I jump the bones of all men.) As a mature, responsible adult, I virtuously restrain myself as do Virtuous Pedophiles some of whom I am certain have managed to be virtuous at great cost to themselves (no matter what Mr Loftis' label may communicate to his ignorant followers or to the court hired 'therapists some of whom manage to be as ignorant of reality as the prosecutors who hire them )
I have long been concerned that the fashion in the hater's labels change as the wind blows (Pedophle is the buss word now but 'Homos'/ 'Lesbos' and Trans were once their favorite 'perverts as wittness the current tempest in southern toilets ')
They and their followers chortle, wave their (small) hands, shame, blame, and labels as they please as though those labels accurately defined anyone except what is going on inside their own fevered sex-phobic ignorant little minds pretending knowledge.
Unfortunatly while everyone seems to use the word 'Pedophile' meanings diverge radically. And with dangerous, some times tragic consequences. Meaning resides in the mind of the hearer and even when we on daily Strength use the words correctly they are head otherwise unless we belabor the point (as I have obviously done here!) If you disagree, please add your own expertice here. Janet Mackie
Yes, I too questioned whether I should have pointed out that pedophilia is a sexual attraction to prepubescent children, but I decided not to, because Mr. Loftis' opinion piece did not specify an age group. Rather he was generalizing that any male regardless of age would just magically up and decide one day that they "feel" feminine that day to need the girls' bathroom. Thus, to draw attention a specific age group by pointing out what pedophilia entails, would detract from my responding to Mr. Lofits.
The fact is, these right-winged fanatics are going to use every conceivable opportunity they can find, create, or manipulate, to conquer us all and force us into compliance with their ideological claims that we are all a bunch of heathens who must live by their interpretations of he bible or be cast out into the darkness of whatever hell they decide to create for us. So, there is no letter, email, or article that can be or ever will be written that is going to change their minds. As far as they are concerned, they are right and that is all that they care about. Thus, my piece was simply to try to educate others of more sensible minds who are willing to look at things in the broader scope and realize that the only ones who are rewriting the law are these right-wing fanatics.
First we don't want LGBT folks to have wedding cakes. Then we don't want transgender folks to use the bathroom. Now we don't want gays in space. What the hell is wrong with people.
https://mic.com/articles/144749/texas-rep-louie-gohmert-tells-congress-gay-space-colonies-will-doom-humanity#.lIjqYhdHK
I guess that dont matter. We have to give in to the minority. God forbid a transgender having to use the bathroom of his own gender. It could cause him or her such distress. I dont feel sorry for them. I can guarantee they dont care about how i feel or the majority of public.
I disagree with the reasons against such a bill. Its not about scaring people and thinking there will be pedophiles or rapists or any of that. That is bull. But that is how the politicians will use as an excuse. How about just plain privacy?
To be honest i could care less about a man in the bathroom with me. I just believe that women have the right to privacy. If the person has had a sex change its ok. I guess i am thinking more about younger girls and teenagers. This may make them uncomfortable to shower and use a bathroom with a male with male parts.
What is the solution? Not sure.
The article I wrote was in response to a candidate running for a school board position, and his erroneous definition of the word "transgender" to portray all male students as pedophiles and rapists in Missouri public and private schools for purpose of manipulating the fear and hate people have of sex offenders to promote and push a specific anti LGBT political agenda.
The right wing fanatics, which are the ones in main stream politics, are protesting transgender rights to use the bathroom that correlates to the sex in which they identify as being, on two arguments. The first is that transgender people are mentally ill because they identify with being the opposite sex from which they were born. The second argument is that in letting transgender people use the bathroom of the opposite sex they are, it puts children at risk of pedophiles.
Because transgender people are merely being "regarded as mentally ill," it makes them a protected class under the Americans with Disabilities Act, to mandate that reasonable accommodations be made for them to exercise their right to use the bathroom of the opposite sex from which they are born.
Because transgender deals with sex and not that of sexuality or sexual practices, the Civil Rights Act gives them protection on the bases of protecting one against discrimination because of sex. The language of the Civil Rights Act does not limit the federal protections to a person based upon the sex in which the person was born. As such, the Civil Rights Act reach covers all sexes at any time during a person's life and this includes people who undergo surgery to have their sex changed to the opposite from what existed at the time of birth.
You argue that your privacy rights trump the rights of transgender people. Well, a valid argument can also be made that you have the choice not to use a bathroom or locker room, so why should the rights of those who are transgender be sacrificed for the sake of you. So, federal law has to step in to settle and solve the dispute and federal laws trump city, county, and state laws, and that of the "privacy" argument.
Requiring a male who is transgender (identifying as being a female) to use a male bathroom or locker room, especially in high schools within southern states, places the male at extremely high risk of being beaten, raped, and even murdered. Is that what you would have done to them for the sake of your privacy because the reality is, since 2015, violence against transgender people has significantly increased and in a world that is already extremely violent, people look for any excuse to act violently against others.
You wrote, "We have to give in to the minority." The Constitution was not created to protect the majority from the minority, to the contrary. The Constitution was created instead to protect the minority from the majority because the majority would otherwise do unconscionable things to the minority. Unfortunately, people ignore this and presume that the whims of the majority always out do the needs of the minority because the majority is somehow more entitled to have rights than the minority. And this is how the Jews became victims to the evils of Hitler and his cronies, just as it is how people with mental illness have been used as guinea pigs by US government officials in medical experiments.