Transgendered teachers do they belong in the classroom?

This debate had steam coming from my ears! Equating transsexualism to mental illness!

What really amazes me is that time after time we hear cases of women who sleep with their students and male teachers who engage in “extra curricular” activities with their students (if you know what i mean). If the goal is to protect children, someone is obviously asleep at the wheel.

I fail to see how ones gender identity will adversely affect a child’s rearing. Its not the children who are confused…its the parents. Children are very accepting until they are taught to be otherwise.

Lets remove transsexuals from the equation for a moment and hypothetically say a teacher was inter-sexed, would that adversely affect a child?

Houston Mayor Annise Parker, waste no time in expanding protections to the TG community

Last year the GLBT community scored a major victory when Houston (one of the largest cities in the U.S.) elected and openly gay mayor.

Annise Parker is her name and she is not afraid to stand up for the community to which she belongs.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker has signed an executive order that adds gender identity to the city’s 12-year-old non-discrimination policy, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The two orders signed by Parker protect transgender individuals who work for the city from discrimination in the areas of employment and accommodations.

“The mayor wanted to put in writing what has already been the city’s practice, which is that we do not discriminate,” Janice Evans, Parker’s spokeswoman, told the paper.

Gay rights advocates cheered the move.

“This is essential” Kris Banks, president of the Houston Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Political Caucus, said. “A non-discrimination provision that protects sexual orientation but doesn’t protect gender identity is toothless. … It’s quite a thing, having a mayor that really understands all these issues.”

Parker, 53, became Houston’s 61^st mayor in January after a long campaign that included personal attacks against Parker because she is openly gay.

Dave Wilson, an outspoken gay rights opponent who campaigned to make Parker’s sexuality an issue during the mayoral campaign, said he was “sad this is happening in our city.”

The new protections allow transgender individuals employed by the city to use restroom facilities in city-owned buildings for the gender with which they identify. Previously, the city decided the issue on a case-by-case basis.

Opponents say such measures allow men to legally enter women’s restrooms, putting women and children at risk. Proponents counter that such behavior would be criminal.

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Judge rules in favor of lesbian teen

Last night I watched “Bruno” for the 1st time and while Bruno is intended to be a comedy it really did an excellent job at helping to illustrate the homophobic climate that permeates America. In the video you are about to see below a high school students memories are tarnished forever because she is openly lesbian and wanted to take her female companion to the prom.

In stead of having the problem and allowing a lesbian student to take part the school canceled the prom for everyone. The good news is a federal judge ruled that the openly lesbian teens civil rights were violated and hopefully that will help to pave the way for some sort of settlement and more importantly help to ease the struggles for the GLBT students that will come after her.

Oklahoma transsexual woman steps up to bat for the GLBT community

Some people are born leaders and some people just get sick of putting up with the bullshit of other and decide its time to take a stance! Something tells me that Brittany is probably colored by both.

After hearing what a state representative had to say about the community that Brittany is a part of (GLBT) Brittany decided it was time to take her state representative to task.

Brittany wrote a scathing letter introducing herself to her state representative and while doing so assured the hate monger that her seat would be challenged in the next election by a gender variant woman .

Brittany Novotny sent a letter to Oklahoma state representative Sally Kern this week — she of the quotable statements “Gays are a bigger threat to the nation than terrorism or even Islam” and “We’re trying to teach 2-year-olds that homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle.”

The letter was Novotny’s way of introducing herself, letting Kern know she plans to run against her in the upcoming election after several of Kern’s constituents encouraged Novotny to take on the challenge.

“In your nearly six years in the legislature, statements you’ve made and positions you’ve taken on issues have encouraged division instead of unity and pushed new business away from Oklahoma,” she wrote. “People are ready for a change.”

But Novotny is not just another outraged citizen. The 30-year-old practicing attorney is an alumna of the University of California Hastings College of the Law, a member of the national Democratic Party, and the first transgender person to chair the Young Democrats’ LGBT Caucus. After running her own law practice for four years, Novotny took a position with the American Federation of Government Employees, Local 916, where she handles cases for union members.

And she even handles her own Twitter account.

The Advocate: Did you anticipate that you would be running for office when you were younger?
Brittany Novotny: It was certainly something on my horizon — something that hoped I could do. I was involved with student government in college, and I decided it was a career that I at least hoped I could obtain.

Months before Kern was reelected in 2008 was the event that made her famous to a lot of people, when a video in which she called gays, among other things, more dangerous than terrorists was posted on the Internet. Why do you think she was reelected?
There’s a lot of factors as to why she won reelection in 2008. Most Oklahomans are good people, and they really didn’t agree with a lot of her comments. They may not be pro-gay rights, but they’re certainly not antigay homophobes by any sense of the imagination. But that being said, it requires a lot of time, effort, and money to run a campaign, and we haven’t had anyone with that kind of time or the kind of money that was needed to do the job here in house district 84. I don’t think people with vote against somebody just because of something they said. They need somebody that they will vote for.

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