omg my name is dave sugarman and i cannot even type properly!!!1one Which means you are either stupid or you really wish you were e. e. cummings.

Frankly I don't care what you think, dear. This whole thing still stinks of male chauvinism. All the big manly gay men are afraid of being associated with men who think they're women, or women who think they're men, or women who were once men, or men who were once women. They are as narrow in their view of human sexuality as the straight people who would deprive all of those people of their rights.

And I wasn't aware that oppressed minorities had the luxury of being able to pick their allies.

John,

I don't think you're a misogynist. I believe misogyny underlies homophobia.

I have no idea what the Republicans will do, and neither do you or Barney, for that matter. I have my connections and there's nothing tangible.

If the Democrats can't stand against one of those "men in dresses in public school" arguments, which, btw, I received today in Rockville regarding the trans bill I'm working on for the County Council, then they are truly pathetic. I have pointed out repeatedly to you and others, including my Congressman and friend, Chris Van Hollen, head of the D-CCC (so he REALLY cares about this), that no Democrat lost for supporting the inclusive Hate Crimes bill in 2005, and no Democrat has ever lost on the state level, either. Kentucky has been mentioned here -- the response has actually been the opposite of what you fear. So I am the rational analyst and you are the irrational, paranoid one :-).

I don't believe a failure this year would end any gay rights for thirty years, just as I don't believe that Barney's pushing and winning a non-inclusive bill will irreparably set back trans rights for decades.

I expect that Barney would prefer to do the easy thing rather than the hard thing, even if they are both doable.

If there were hard evidence that a trans-inclusive bill could not pass the House this month, I would support a non-inclusive bill.

Your perception that Bush wouldn't veto a bill (which will not even be introduced in the Senate this year) is way over the top.

Once these bills are passed, the lunatics shut up and go home, because nothing happens to them. Life goes on. And Americans will be focusing on Iraq next year and will not vote Republican because of some trans-related ENDA ads. I know you're an old Republican operative, but the world has changed, as you blog every day.

"And I don't care how butchy or straight-acting you are: if you're a boy who kisses boys, then you're the antithesis of a man in countless communities"

Yeah, so let's REINFORCE that stereotype by perpetuating the fiction that gays and transgenders are two sides of the same coin. Brilliant.

I do appreciate your comments. This means a great deal to me. I try to act with integrity every day, though sometimes my anger gets the better of me. I grew up in a fundamentalist environment, so I understand that mindset, even respect it at times, and can interact with it and try to alleviate the fear and ignorance that propels it. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt.

This is what I now do for a living, after having been a surgeon. I try to do my best. Some days I succeed, and other days I just plod along. I'm trying to leave a better world for my children.

I've said many times that I respect John for having initiated this conversation in the blogosphere, even though I disagree with him. And I think it's important that people be candid and honest, because that's the only way we can truly understand our differences. I'm glad I discovered what trans really meant to John, because it gave me the opportunity to "straighten" him out. I hope we can all move forward.

If he hadn't opened with such hateful trannie baiting comments such as "men who want to cut their penis's off"

His obsessive focus on MTF transsexual's and the surgery thereof smacks of a variety of misogyny peculiar to privileged gay men.

John, you're a lonely voice of sanity. Great work.

I've never bought into the idea of an insidious left-wing "political correctness," but the hysterical reaction to John's article that I see here is making me think twice. The caricatures and distortions of his argument and the reflexive insults are really amazing to read.

And yet I'm still waiting for someone to offer a reasonable explanation for why gay people and transgender people should be considered part of the same group. Sure, we're both discriminated against, but so are African Americans and Muslims and a host of other people. Why not add all of them to the acronym?

Those who don't question the connection between gay people and transgender people are simply falling for the common misconception that a man who has sex with men is more like a woman than a straight man. Once you buy into that, it's not much of a leap to assume that gay and transgender people are pretty much the same phenomenon. You're reinforcing the old stereotype that gay=feminine and straight=masculine. Well, as a gay man I can tell you that it isn't true. Believe it or not, when my boyfriend and I have sex, neither one of us wants to be, or pretends to be, a woman. Not that there would be anything wrong with that, as they say, but an apple is not an orange and no amount of screaming and vitriol will make it so.

John,

In one of your responses to the letters posted here, you said "Supposedly, the critics argue, without gender identity in the bill, employers will be able to fire gays who are fey and lesbians who are butch by saying they don't like fey or butch employees, but they're fine with GAY employees. Well, this hasn't happened in a single state or municipality that currently has local ENDAs on the books. Zero." In fact, Lambda Legal responded when Barney Frank recently made the same argument by stating that such cases DO exist, giving as an example a lesbian woman who was denied protection under New York's Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act when she was fired for not being feminine enough. (You can read Lamda Legal's full response here:

http://www.bilerico.com/2007/10/lambda_legal_responds_to_rep_barney_fran.php.)

A fully-inclusive ENDA is just as important to GLB folks, as it is to me, a trans woman.