Anonymous 5:54 - yes in all the kerfuffle, neither "side" (and how bad is it when there are "sides") - has mentioned the Intersexed.

My son is mildly Intersexed, not severe but moderate hypospadias. Really bad chordee too, so genital reconstruction was needed before his gender became apparent, to avoid pain. We hope we guessed right. We opted for the minimum needed, to allow him to decide on further surgery later.

A T-inclusive ENDA would prevent your child from being fired, or prevented from using either restroom at work because of his non-conforming genitalia. ADA doesn't cover everything.

Your child is no more likely to be Gay than any other kid, and only 10% of IS people have significant issues with gender. (2 separate issues there, one sexual orientation, the other gender).

Phalloplasty is also getting better all the time, just ask some FtoMs who had less than your child does.

Please be open to possibilities that your child may be male, female, straight, gay, lesbian, bi.... but that they will likely need continued medical care all their life, and unless prepared to "go stealth" will get prejudice from many groups, including GLB ones. From some comments here, especially GLB ones.

You'll find URLs of IS support groups on the TS-101 page I've mentioned in other posts. No we don't expect IS people to be "out and proud" if they can possibly keep things quiet in their personal lives. Too many don't understand. Heck, even I pretend I'm standard TS usually, not IS.

Feel free to contact me privately on this, maybe I can help.

Would you all, as transgender advocates, tell your transgender friends to wait until the ENDA can include polyamorous people, and to content themselves with no rights at all until the ENDA does include the polyamorous?

If only 1 in 4 of them could get fulltime work in one of the most liberal states of the union...

If 30% of them gave up and suicided...

If 90% of them died prematurely because of the persecution they got...

If they had supported us in the past, even during campaigns that caused their existing rights to be lost...

Then not just Yes, but Hell Yes! I can't understand how anyone couldn't.

But that's me, and I don't expect others to live up to standards I set for myself, but can't justify logically.

Holly, even assuming what you say about me is correct...

Dana is tall (think Elle Macpherson almost), long-legged, blonde, statuesque (38D??), ravishingly beautiful, AND a better writer than I am. Brighter too.

Oh, and her partner? Think of a shorter-haired Lara Croft, yes, including the SLI (Standard Lesbian Issue) shorts. Might even be the more intelligent of the two as well.

Some of the nicest people on the planet.

Either of the two alone would be enough to make me wish I wasn't straight, but it's obvious they're a matched pair.

I too am glad Dana's blogging. But TANJ!

Carlton wrote:

ENDA doesn't help people like me, it helps the people working low skilled or minimum wage jobs from capricious employers.

A Trans-inclusive one would also help the aerospace engineers, bankers, lawyers and other TS professionals now living in cars and turning tricks just to eat. The ones who lost job, marriage, family, and life savings when they transitioned. The ones who have not been allowed to work since, not even flipping burgers. That's what that "75% of TS people not being in fulltime employment in Ca" figure means.

I am sorry the T's get left out this time, but they always get left out and forgotten.

Difficult to argue with that, so I won't.

It is not fair, but we do the best we can and try to come back fix our mistakes later.

Just as you did in Wisconsin, and Massachussets, and New York and... oh wait, you didn't, did you.

I think the turning point was NY, and the SONDA in 2002. Exactly the same arguments were put forward. Exactly. The same points were made, "do we delay rights for possibly years just to please a few?", "we'll come back later", "it's the idealogues that are holding us back!" etc etc. And also the same "but you never do come back", "rights for all or rights for none", etc etc.

History repeats, the first time as drama, the second as farce. This must be repeat what, 17? 55? But the similarities were never quite so strong, the situations nowhere near as identical as before.

I know it makes all but the most rabid transphobes feel uncomfortable to think that they're not just delaying, but actually denying rights indefinitely for some who have been part of the GLBT movement from the beginning. I know denial is probably necessary to allow them to bring themselves to do what they feel they must, as there's no alternative.

Well if there is no alternative, do it, and make no apology. We'll survive, well, most of us will. Just cut the hypocrisy, Ok? No more airbrushing of history, pretending we're latecomers. No more lies to make you feel better as you slip the knife in.

I'll even help you do it, the arguments about the millions being affected is pretty convincing. What I will not do is let you get away with the comforting illusions you need to clear your consciences as you stab us. It's either GLBT or GLB. It's either pragmatism or pride. Your choice.

Thanks, Holly! I travel a lot in my work, US, Europe, SE Asia, Israel. I've actually met both Dana and her partner, and am insanely jealous of both their looks and their having 2 "X" chromosomes each to my one. What can I say, I was born like it.

They're even nicer in 3D than virtually too, though we differ significantly in politics. Dana does some awesome work in GLBT civil rights law, actions not words.