Life, Law, Gender

WWJD - Revisited

This pathetic issue will not die.  People (some doctors) not only want to refuse to treat individuals whose life they disagree with on moral grounds, there is now a proposal in the MI legislature to provide the same option to health insurers!  According to yesterday's The New Standard:

Mar. 29 – Amid a nationwide debate over giving medical professionals the "right" to refuse to provide care on moral grounds, Michigan lawmakers are considering a bill that would extend so-called "conscience clauses" to health insurers.

Proponents of conscience clauses say they are necessary to protect religious freedom in the workplace and the faith-based identity of religious healthcare institutions. But opponents say that allowing providers to selectively opt out of providing medical care invites discrimination and restricts access to crucial services.

Proposed by State Representative Scott Hummel, the legislation, which passed a house committee earlier this month, would specifically allow healthcare corporations, insurance providers and health-maintenance organizations (HMOs) to "refuse to offer or provide a healthcare benefit on ethical, moral or religious grounds" if those values are stated in the institution’s articles of incorporation, bylaws or mission statement.

So, let me get this correct.  If the insurance provider documents their bigotry they can then refuse to cover someone.  Wow.  Can you imagine just how broad a swath "ethical, moral or religious ground" cuts?  Who gets to decide what's what?  Obviously, under this proposed legislation, the insurance company (or, under the previous bills, the doctors).  It would seem to me that nearly everyone violates someone's view of what is ethical, moral or religious.   Of course, it will be used mostly to discriminate against the LGBT community.

I want to liken this to race discrimination -- and I sincerely believe there are striking parallels (references to the Bible, to respective moral character, etc.) however I think the one important distinction is that these zealots [now] believe (I hope!) that race is immutable whereas I believe they think that sexual orientation is not.  I'm sure you all recall this famous quote:

"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix." - opinion of trial judge in the famous miscegenation case, Loving v. Virginia. Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 3 (U.S. 1967).

Under the proposed statute, but for the 14th Amendment, which would make it unconstitutional, it seems to me not a far stretch to imagine refusing coverage to someone of a different race.  Of course, but for the 1st Amendment, it is an even easier reach to imagine someone refusing treatment or coverage to a person with opposing religious views.

Where is the humanity?  Is this really what the religious zealots want to do -- refuse to care for another human being?  I am, as I was exactly one year ago, still disgusted.

Carnival of Bent Attactions

I don't really understand what "carnivals" are, or how they work.  What I do know, however, is that my blogger friends are all doing it (Maria, Jay, Jen) and Maria went so far as to request that we post about it.  So, this is a post about it.  This month's carnival will be hosted by Jay Sennett.  I don't really know what it is, but I'll check it out -- you do too.  I actually submitted an article to it (though I don't think it's worthy of extended circulation), my recent post entitled "How do you know?".

[UPDATE] Maria sent me an e-mail explaining all this stuff; I've copied it below.

Benevolent Creator

I snagged this fun test from Magic Cookie.  Click here to read the report on my personality.  One thing I really liked about the test -- when it wanted to know my sex it offered: male, female, other. Then, in the report it scored my masculinity as very low and my femininty as very high.  I would love to know how they scored that!

Benevolent Creator

A couple of sample paragraphs from the report:

Generally, you believe that you control your life, and that external forces only play a limited role in determining what happens to you.

You're concerned with others at both an individual and societal level—you sympathize with the plights of troubled groups, and you can care about people you've never met.

Sure they're platitudes, but I like 'em! :)

Scalia says - FU!

Courtesy of Donna at Changing Places comes this story about Justice Scalia:

BOSTON, March 27 (UPI) -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia startled reporters in Boston just minutes after attending a mass, by making a hand gesture some consider obscene.

A Boston Herald reporter asked the 70-year-old conservative Roman Catholic if he faces much questioning over impartiality when it comes to issues separating church and state.

"You know what I say to those people?" Scalia replied, making the gesture and explaining "That's Sicilian."

The 20-year veteran of the high court was caught making the gesture by a photographer with The Pilot, the Archdiocese of Boston's newspaper.

"Don't publish that," Scalia told the photographer, the Herald said.

He was attending a special mass for lawyers and politicians at Cathedral of the Holy Cross, and afterward was the keynote speaker at the Catholic Lawyers' Guild luncheon.

Just in case you were wondering how the justice thinks of you. 

How do you know?

A young woman classmate of mine approached me this afternoon, as I was headed out of the law school for home.  She had a basic question for me, but was a bit hesitant to ask.  I assured her that whatever she wanted to know, I was willing to respond to, to the best of my ability.

Essentially, she wanted to know how trans people know they're trans.  What a great question, and I'm delighted that she took the risk to ask me.

Of course, I don't have an answer, I have only my own experience and the benefit of what reading and conversation I've enjoyed with other trans folk to inform me.

Not far removed from this question is also the question of what causes transgenderism.  I answered that question first -- with an emphatic "I don't know", although I did allude to the research that suggests there might be some biological underpinnings (note paragraphs 33-35 of this document (Aug 2004 – Atypical Gender Development – Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES)) - also reproduced below the fold).  But, her question wasn't really about causation, it was more about internal recognition of it.

I think there must be many different responses to this question and I'd be delighted to have other people comment upon this.  How do you know what sex you are?  Is there such a thing as an innate recognition of gender identity?  Even if we grant the assertion that men and women have different brains and process information differently, how does one know they're doing it differently from others with their body type (or, for that matter, processing information the same as others of their body type)?

For a long time the psychiatric profession held transsexuals to the model of "when I was a kid I always played with [the opposite sex's] toys." Eventually, perhaps in recognition of the obvious stereotyping at play (no pun intended) there, that approach was abandoned.  I know that when I first began seeing a psychologist, I was required to take several standardized tests, including the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI).  That test was then scored, using two different scales -- one based on the "average male" results and the other based on the "average female" results (I was told at the time (12 years ago) that tens of thousands of these tests had been administered and that there was a discernible difference between scores of men and women).  According to the report, my thought processes were much more closely aligned with a woman's than with a man's (I'm still not sure I buy all that, btw).

But, even then, so what?  How does one know?  For me, it ultimately came to a realization that I was more comfortable around women then I was around men.  I related better.  It was as simple as that.  I've got all the other stories, too - about cross-dressing as a young child, playing jacks and hopscotch, etc. - but they don't really answer the question for me, perhaps because they are so steeped in stereotype and cultural norms.

At the end of the day, that's how I answered this young woman. I told her that I thought I just felt more comfortable around women - as if I were part of their circle - but that if society were structured differently, so that we didn't make such a big cultural distinction between men and women I don't know if I would have felt the need to transition.  Of course, our culture is the way it is and I am delighted that I did transition! :)

PDA - Double-bind

In the last post, I mentioned that the girl and I weren't overly affectionate in public and I noted that it was her choice and not mine.  Since then, I've been thinking a bit more about public displays of affection.

It seems to me that, if we (the LGBT community) are ever going to overcome discrimination, we need to a) shed our own adoption of homophobia and/or transphobia and b) be willing to take some public risks.

When we first started going out together, the Girl would not hold my hand in public at all.  Then, she softened up a bit and would only not hold my hand if there were children present.  Now, she holds my hand everywhere, except in certain places (like the resturant referred to in the previous post, or in places that she feels like are particulary homophobic).

My contention is that if we don't hold hands in front of children, it's because we have, ourselves, internalized some homophobia such that we think it's not ok for children to see affection between people of the same sex.  I'm OK with not kissing in public places as I think heterosexual couples should curb that as well.  But, holding hands? I actually think we should make a point of holding hands (protected free speech (as expressive conduct) under the 1st Amendment) in public, especially in front of children.  How else will people learn?

Yes, it carries some risk.  Sadly, we don't live in a loving country, one that is accepting of affection between gay men or lesbians.  There is the risk of being subjected to stares, ridicule and name-calling, or worse.  But, again, how else will society ever change if we aren't willing to put ourselves out there, even in this little area?

One check, or two?

The Girl and I have been going to the same little restuarant in the little town in which we live for brunch every weekend for the past 6 months.  Practically every time we go in we're asked if it's just the two of us and if it's one check or two. 

We're not overtly affectionate in public (her choice, not mine), but anyone that pays the tiniest bit of attention could see that we're a couple.  I know it's a small thing and that they don't get many same-sex couples coming into their restaurant but, still, I find myself a little annoyed at this dismissal of our existence.

Final 14th Amendment Class

Today is the final class session for my 14th Amendment class.  This has been a very interesting class.  It ranks right up there among the top 3 classes I've enjoyed at law school, despite its rigorous reading and the challenging problems it poses for your brain.

The 14th Amendment of the Constitution guarantees "... nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws..." among other things.  These are known as the Due Process clause and the Equal Protection clause and they do most of the work that you hear about when court cases arise claiming "discrimination" or unfair treatment (note that the 14th Amendment also has a "privileges and immunities" clause ("No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States") which immediately precedes the DP and EP language, but that clause was eviscerated by an early court decision). The 14th Amendment has a checkered past in the courts. It is fairly well accepted that when it was first drafted it was intended to apply only to the newly freed slaves.  Over the years, through various cases, it has evolved in its meaning to apply to most people in this country ("any person").   

There were many, many interesting aspects of this course.  The professor, Mark D. Rosenbaum, was one of them. He is a brilliant man, a dedicated teacher, and someone with some experience in front of the Supreme Court arguing cases arising under this Amendment.  He was also a person who challenged you every single day in class.  There was not a day when I didn't head into that class with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.  The class had all sorts of voices present.  The ultra-liberals, as you would expect, but also the ultra-conservative.  I appreciated the latter very much.  Although I strongly disagreed with their position, I really respected their commitment to their values and their cogent articulation of their positions.  There were people of color in the class and people from different cultures.  There were gays and people with strong religious views.  It was always interesting.  The class met three hours per day, two days a week with easily twice that in reading preparation. 

Another, and perhaps the most, interesting aspect of the class was the seemingly simple question of "what is liberty"?  Where does it come from?  What does in mean, in a Constitutional sense?  Is it the source of the rights that are not explicitly enumerated in the first 8 amendments of the Bill of Rights? Is there a right to "privacy"?  Is there a right to be free from segregation in schools?  Is there a right to marry?  What is a "fundamental" right?

The final exam is a 48 hour take-home that is due in two weeks.  I plan on picking it up a week from today and turning it in on the following Thursday.  I've heard from many people in prior classes that it's the hardest exam they ever took and several people have advised me to take it pass/fail.  But, I can't do that.  I just can't pass/fail a class that I care so much about.

The Empath

How many of you remember the Star Trek (original series) episode by this title?  I remember it vividly; it has always been one of my favorite episodes.  Sometimes, I feel like an empath.   I believe, I truly do believe, that I am blessed with an infinite capacity to love.  Maybe that means that I can also hate deeply, but I don’t know; I’ve experienced that emotion only very, very rarely in my life (and, thankfully, very short-lived when I did experience it).

An extension of that ability to love, I believe, is a capacity for feeling the pain of others.  I do this, sometimes too well.  As I’ve mentioned here before, my spouse’s former partner died of breast cancer.  Every time we’ve gone to her grave I’ve cried.  I’ve cried because it just hurts so very much to imagine the pain that my girl had to endure.  Last week we went and, for the first time, I did not cry.

I also try to give her the space to talk about Carolyn whenever she feels the need or seems strong enough to discuss it.  Each time, we both cry.  However, over the past many months I’ve realized that I now better understand who Carolyn was and what her loss meant for my Girl and how she’s accepted her death and how she’s accepted me.  My pain is less each time and I’ve noticed that the Girl’s is too. 

It is too bad that we sometimes have to endure suffering to arrive at a space of love and appreciation.  On the other hand, maybe it is the only way to get to such a space.  I don’t know.  What I do know is that both my Girl and I have had trauma in our lives that we weren’t sure we could live through and we have both now achieved a level of love and appreciation in our lives that, just such a short time ago, seemed unreachable.

Maybe it’s our ability to be empathic.

Dr. Denise

It's been a long time since I posted one of these stupid quizzes (actually, it's been nearly a year since my last one).  But, I saw this over at Kristine's place, Unblague, and after taking it she chided me about having dated men and asked me to blog about it.  So, well, ok.

You Have Your PhD in Men

You understand men almost better than anyone. You accept that guys are very different, and you read signals well. Work what you know about men, and your relationships will be blissful.

How Well Do You Understand Men?

Obviously, I know something about men (assuming that a single, stupid quiz with 8 questions can actually discern something like that).  But, as I told Kristine, I know more about men from having actually lived in both camps then from having dated men.  But, I have actually dated a few men.

This surprised her.  I thought I had blogged about that before, but I'm both too lazy and too short on time to go looking for a post that talks about it so I'll post a couple of comments here.

No, I'm not really attracted to men and never have been.  My basic attraction is to women.  However, I have known a couple of men that I thought were really wonderful and know several now that I think are drop-dead gorgeous.  And, during periods of self-exploration, I've even slept spent some time with a couple. 

I got the job!

I got the following email this morning:

Dear Denise:

I'm very pleased to inform you that the Women's Studies Program will offer you a GSI position in WS 270 "Women and the Law" for fall term 06.

The official offer letter will follow shortly. Congratulations

This is very exciting for me!  I know that I will enjoy teaching this course next term (and I might even be good at it) despite its significant time commitment.  Also, the full tuition waiver, the paid health insurance and the stipend are nothing to sneeze at!  Go me!

Life in Hell

I've always maintained that I'm incredibly lucky.  Life for me has been relatively pain-free and comfortable.  I've had my emotional ups and downs, but my physical safety has rarely been an issue.  Yes, I was sexually abused in the Navy -- but even that was fairly isolated and caused me no real long-term issues.  I attribute most of my "luck" to the privilege I've enjoyed in my life -- most especially class privilege, gender privilege and racial privilege.

Last year, coinciding with the Transgender Day of Remembrance, I wrote about an e-mail exchange I had had at the Law School with a class-mate and then got into a comments exchange with another about the reason these women were killed -- they argued that it was just as likely violence against prostitutes as it was violence against trans people.  I rebelled at that logic.  But, it is of course, no real leap of faith to know that many trans-women are, in fact, forced into prostitution to keep body and soul together.  Not every trans-woman has my ability to work.

So, it should be no surprise that more than half of transwomen find themselves behind bars at some point in their lives. 

Transgender women are more likely to end up in prison than virtually anyone else. The oft-quoted statistic about African American men — that one in four has a history of incarceration — is dwarfed by the available stats on people who are male-to-female, or MTF. A San Francisco Department of Public Health survey conducted in 1997 found that almost two thirds of MTF respondents had been incarcerated. More than 30 percent had spent some time behind bars during the preceding 12 months.                 - cited in SF Bay Guardian News, w/o source

The story from which the above quote is lifted is about what happens to those women who do wind up in California's prison system.  It isn't pretty.  In fact, for someone who can relate to their identity -- as I can -- it's absolutely tragic. 

Rosa casts her dark eyes downward and then looks up from under wispy bangs to say matter-of-factly, "I've been raped six times.

"At one time I was raped by five individuals," she continues in slightly tentative English.

Rosa wasn't born female, but she says she was very young when she realized "I was special." Today, she doesn't just "pass" as a woman — it's hard to imagine how anyone would see this person with the bewitching eyes and feather-soft voice as anything else.

Except that for the past eight years, Rosa has lived in men's prisons.

The way the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) sees it, Rosa has a penis, and that makes her a man. Never mind that she hasn't seen herself as male for decades, or that she's been taking feminizing hormones since her 16th birthday. Rosa, who is serving 15-to-life for stabbing a man she says was trying to kill her, was never able to afford sex-reassignment surgery. The one time she came close to saving enough money, she spent it helping her sister set up a fruit stand in Mexico. So the prison system put her in with the men.

Rosa, 37, isn't just out of place: In the hierarchical and hypermasculine world of a men's prison, she's the ultimate target. She's been insulted, degraded, and smacked around countless times. If another inmate is feeling feisty, he's likely to take it out on her. And if it's sex someone is craving, there are more than a few reasons he'd look to Rosa to satisfy his desires.

I have no reason to believe that any other state is significantly better.  But, at least in CA, a group of trans inmates has formed to help correct that system from within.  At this point, the prison system there has no policies (none!) about how to deal with a trans-inmate.  These are brave women.  Can you just imagine what it must be like to try and reform such a system as an inmate? 

I'm out of time to comment further; I have a paper due today that I've only just begun.  Read the story.  If, somewhere in your life as a lawyer -- or just a citizen -- you have the opportunity to help, please do.  These are people, they deserve to be treated with some respect.

He almost had me

... until I got to the last paragraph:

But maybe the elitist art czars of Portland, Maine, are just not truly appreciating what is really going on in this statue representation. Maybe this isn't a traditional family at all. Maybe the woman is no woman at all, but a transgendered male who was formerly shacked up with his homosexual partner. The couple may have adopted these two children who were forcibly removed from the clutches of a white, Christian fundamentalist family who spanked them.

If those were the circumstances the artist was seeing, would that make public artwork more acceptable?

I suspect it would.

The complete article, reproduced below the fold, is from WorldNetDaily.com.  I have too much to do right now to comment; I'll leave that to y'all.

How could you do this to me?

I've posted much about Amanda recently.  Well, here's another one -- she is 20 years old today.  20.  As in not a teenager anymore.  Excuse me?  I was just getting used to the idea that my kids were old enough to be called teenagers and now they're too old?

There is so much to know about Amanda and you can read more about her at her blog, or in my birthday post to her last year, or in sporadic comments throughout my blog.  But to really know her -- to have her in your life -- is a gift beyond description.  If there is such a thing as an "old soul", Amanda is it.

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!!!!

Small milestone

Sometime just before midnight last night my blog recorded its 100,000th hit (well, since I converted to TypePad and then added StatCounter (on 11/15/04), anyway).  According to StatCounter, that's an average of 207 hits per day, with 104 unique visitors each day.  Now, I know that some of those stats aren't fully reliable and I also get that those numbers don't indicate a huge dedicated readership.  Nevertheless, it amazes me that so many people have stumbled across my blog over the past year and a half.  Thank you all!