Merry Christmas, Y'all!

Made it to another Christmas Day!

While this year has been full of challenges in terms of a move back to the Lone Star State just days after my birthday, getting readjusted to life in my hometown after an 8 year absence and leaving behind chosen family and friends I'd made in the Louisville metro area, there have been some blessings as well.

One of my blessings is getting to interact with you TransGriot readers on a regular basis, reconnecting with old friends in Houston, making new ones and in some cases actually showing up on your college campuses and other events to talk to you about various issues.


Hope you are all having a blessed and low stress holiday season.

May we all receive the Christmas gifts of increased acceptance, unconditional love, respect, and codified civil rights not only in our own nations, but around the world as well.   

May 2011 also be a better year for transpeople and our allies all over the world as well.     

Merry Christmas Y'all!

Trans Left Out Again-This Time By The UN

Damn, can my trans brothers and trans sisters get any love in any organizational body this holiday season?

Despite having transpeople such as Sass Rogando Sasot and Miss Major testify in front of UN commissions about the discrimination and violence we face around the world, when it came time for the UN to stand and deliver on a resolution on unjustified killings, guess who was left in the cold again?

Every two years the UN General Assembly passes resolutions condemning extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions and other killings.   The resolution condemns killings for racial, national, ethnic, religious or linguistic reasons and killings of refugees, indigenous people and other groups.   In 2008 an explicit reference condemning killing based on the victim's sexual orientation was inserted into the resolution. .


Last month there was a resolution sponsored by Muslim, Caribbean and African nations in the UN General Assembly's Human Rights Committee to delete the sexual orientation reference in that extrajudicial killings resolution .    The successful action by the Bloc of Haters to remove it triggered a firestorm of criticism from Western nations, human rights organizations and activists around the world.

It led to a resolution sponsored by the United States to restore the 'sexual orientation' reference that was removed last month with the main opposition coming from the same nations that led the push to remove it.

The resolution to restore the language passed in committee with 93 votes in favor, 55 against and 27 abstentions.  It then went to the 192 nation member UN General Assembly and passed with 122 YES votes, none against and 59 abstentions.

"Today, the United Nations General Assembly has sent a clear and resounding message that justice and human rights apply to all individuals regardless of their sexual orientation," said US Ambassador to the UN Dr. Susan Rice in a statement.

Boris Dittrich of Human Rights Watch echoed Dr. Rice.  "We are relieved by the result of the vote," he said in a statement "Countries that tried to roll back crucial protections for gay and lesbian people have been defeated."

Congratulations* GL community.  While once again you've had your human rights affirmed and this time in an international arena, the human rights of the trans people around the world who are taking the brunt of the hate casualties are left hanging.

It's days like this that make me wonder does anybody give a damn or even care that our humanity as transpeople is under attack?    Did y'all forget this and the fact that transpeople around the world are being brutally murdered in extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions and other killings when the UN General Assembly had this vote?  

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Do justice and human rights apply to trans people as well?   Because the 'all peoples of all nations'  part of the UN Declaration of Human Rights we submit includes trans people as well.

Oh well, maybe in 2012 we transpeople will qualify for inclusion in this UN resolution

Good News, Bad News In Utah

Who would have thought that Utah of all places would be on the cutting edge of GLBT civil rights law?

But then again, what have I said about don't let the red state-blue state labels fool you? 

First came the news December 7 that the Salt Lake City School Board passed on a 4-3 vote an anti-discrimination and harassment policy that includes sexual orientation and gender identity.

That was followed up by the news that Grand County a few days ago unanimously passed an inclusive anti-discrimination law that prohibits workplace and housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Grand County also became the 10th city or municipality to pass inclusive GLBT rights laws in the state this year, thus completing Equality Utah's ambitious program attempting to get ten municipalities to anti GLBT discrimination laws in 2010.  

However the Utah Legislature may be positioning themselves to become the Grinch that stole civil rights.

According to the Pride in Utah blog Senate President Michael Waddoups (R-Taylorsville), stating that “I’ve seen no advantage to the laws.” that have been passed in 10 cities and municipalities in Utah, hinted there's a chance the Republican dominated Utah Legislature when it starts in January may move to repeal the local non-discrimination laws .

Why am I not surprised?   Time for y'all to get busy Utah progressives defending your early Christmas gifts..

Shut Up Fool! Awards-Christmas Eve Edition

Ho Ho Ho!  .Merry Christmas and hope everyone is having  wonderful holiday season!   Yes, the Festival of Conspicuous Consumption  comes to a close tomorrow amidst a year in which many of us faced challenging economic times.   

With the New Year approaching in less than a week, let's hope it gets better for all the people who are fighting long term unemployment and we get this country back to work.

That's a nice segue into this week's Shut Up Fool Award.   It's time to decide who deserves a lump of coal in their Christmas stockings for their displays of stupidity and outrageous statements this week.

Don't forget I'm still taking Nominations for the Shut Up Fool of the Year Award which will be revealed on New Year's Eve.  Deadline to get those nominations in is December 30..

As usual, we had a long list of people who deserved lumps of coal in their Christmas stockings.  Sen. Mitch McConnell,  Gretchen Carlson, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Fox News, Newt Gingrich, Haley Barbour...

But this week's award goes to Pope Benedict XVI.    In his Monday speech to bishops and cardinals in Rome he blamed secular society for the Catholic Church sex abuse scandals.

Nope,  that's not a typo.

According to an AP article, Pope Benedict XVI told Vatican officials Monday that they must reflect on the church's culpability in its child sex-abuse scandal, but he also blamed a secular society in which he said the mistreatment of children was frighteningly common. 

"We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in our whole way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen," the pope said. 
 
"In the 1970s, pedophilia was theorized as something fully in conformity with man and even with children," the pope said. "It was maintained - even within the realm of Catholic theology - that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a 'better than' and a 'worse than.' Nothing is good or bad in itself." 

Umm hmm...you're really jumping the pontiff shark now, Hitler Youth alum..   Just like you did during that 2008 Christmas Eve speech when you claimed transpeople were a bigger threat to humanity than the destruction of the rain forests.   During your British papal visit in September you blamed the Holocaust on atheism when the historical reality is that the German Catholic and Protestant Churches and conservative Christian voters were major players in Adolf Hitler's rise to power.  

The former Catholic altar boy said in Mein Kampf.: “I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”

The Nazis condemned atheists and promoted 'Positive Christianity' to the point that German soldiers in World War II went into battle with Nazi eagle uniform belt buckles inscribed with the words Gott Mit Uns (God is with us) on them

Pope Benedict XVI, shut the HELL up fool!