Tag: transgender

Ilhan Omar Asks Keith Ellison to Investigate ‘Unscientific’ Ban of Trans Woman from Powerlifting Competition

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) is asking Attorney General Keith Ellison for an investigation after one of her transgender constituents was barred from participating in a USA Powerlifting competition. In late January, the organization released a statement to explain its policy that prevented JayCee Cooper from partaking in one of its competitions. “Two areas of policy impact such participation: the first has to do with the use of testosterone or other androgens, commonly used to assist in transition from female to male. By virtue of the anabolic nature of these compounds, they are not allowed, nor is a Therapeutic Use Exemption granted for such use for anyone,” USA Powerlifting’s statement reads. “The second area involves the participation of male to female competitors. Through analysis the impact of maturation in the presence [of] naturally occurring androgens as the level necessary for male development, significant advantages are had, including but not limited to increased body and muscle mass, bone density, bone structure, and connective tissue,” the organization said. It is under this second policy that Cooper, a biological male, was prevented from competing as a woman in a USA Powerlifting event in Minnesota. “The IPF [International Powerlifting Federation] Medical Committee, while respecting the rights…

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Minnesota Dems Want Teachers to Complete Mandatory Training on ‘Gender Identity’ and ‘Sexual Orientation’

Anthony Gockowski

A group of state Democratic senators want to amend the Minnesota education statutes to mandate a “cultural competency training” on topics such as “gender identity” and “implicit bias” for all public school teachers. According to Senate File (SF) 289, the training program would promote “self-reflection, effective interaction with people of different cultures, and discussion on all of the following topics: racial, cultural, and socioeconomic groups; American Indian students; implicit bias; systemic racism; gender identity, including transgender students; sexual orientation; language diversity; and individuals with disabilities.” “Training programs must be designed to increase teachers’ understanding of these topics and teachers ability to implement this knowledge with students, families, and the school community,” the bill adds. SF 289 would amend various sections of Minnesota Statutes 2018 to require that public school teachers “participated in cultural competency training” before obtaining licensure or renewal. Additionally, the bill would require teachers to present “to their local continuing education and relicensure committee” evidence of “work that demonstrates professional reflection and growth in best teaching practices, including among other things, cultural competence.” The bill was introduced by five DFL state senators and referred to the E-12 Finance and Policy Committee for a hearing. A second bill pertaining…

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Wisconsin Governor Issues Executive Order on ‘Gender Identity or Expression’ on First Day in Office

Anthony Gockowski

In one of his first acts in office, Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) signed an executive order seeking to prohibit discrimination on the basis of “gender identity or expression” in state agencies. Executive Order #1 states that it “is the expressed policy of my administration that the executive branch should prevent discrimination and harassment against any class of citizens because of age, race, religion, color, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression,” and so forth. The order is not yet available online, likely because Evers was just sworn in Monday, but he posted a picture of it to his Facebook page. “In addition to the excitement of taking the oath of office today, I had the opportunity to sign my first two executive orders as governor. These orders prevent discrimination in state agencies and recognize the importance of state employees,” Ever said in a Facebook post. “Each person deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. This fosters sound government, society, and business, and it’s just the right thing to do.” According to The Capital Times, the order states that any recipients of government contracts or grants can only hire on the basis of merit, and requires the Equal Employment…

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Court Decides in Favor of the Trump Administration in Curbing Transgenders’ Service in the Military

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US Army

A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a Trump administration policy of restricting transgender people from serving in the military. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Friday that a lower court judge was wrong to block the Pentagon from implementing its plan to limit transgender people in the military. The lower-court judge had ruled the Trump policy most likely violated the constitutional rights of transgender recruits and service members. Pentagon pleased with decision However, in ruling for the Trump administration’s position, the appeals court said Friday that the military policy “appears to permit some transgender individuals to serve in the military.” It also said the plan relied on the “considered professional judgment” of “appropriate military officials.” Pentagon spokeswoman Jessica Maxwell told VOA that the Department of Defense was “pleased with the D.C. Circuit’s decision.” “As always, we treat all transgender persons with respect and dignity. It is critical that the department be permitted to formulate personnel policies that it determines are necessary to ensure the most lethal and combat-effective fighting force in the world,” Maxwell said. Friday’s ruling will not allow the Pentagon to implement its policy immediately, because other judges have…

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Transgender Inmate Transferred to Female Prison After Year-Long Court Battle

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by Grace Carr   A biologically male transgender inmate was moved to an all-female prison in Illinois after a judge determined the inmate could be housed according to his gender identity. Authorities transferred Deon “Strawberry” Hampton, 27, from a male prison in Dixon to Logan Correctional Center women’s prison, ABC News reported Thursday. It costs nearly $26,500 annually to house an inmate at the Center, according to estimates from fiscal year 2016. The transfer marks the first instance that a transgender prisoner is housed in an Illinois prison according to gender identity rather than biological sex, according to Hampton’s lawyer, Vanessa del Valle, ABC reported. There were 28 biologically male transgender prisoners in Illinois’ 24 all-male prisons as of 2016, according to federal data, ABC reported. Following a near year-long court battle between Hampton and the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC), a federal judge determined that refusing to grant Hampton’s request to be transferred violated his equal protection rights, according to ABC. Hampton sued the IDOC in July after it refused to transfer him to an all-female prison. Hampton claims he felt like a “sex slave” during his time at the Dixon prison, The Chicago Tribune reported. Hampton is serving…

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Transgender Woman Wins Legal Battle Against All-Female Minnesota Football Team

Anthony Gockowski

A transgender woman was awarded $20,000 in damages last week by a Dakota County jury who found that the Minnesota Vixen female football team had wrongfully discriminated against the plaintiff. Christina Ginther, who underwent gender-reassignment surgery to transition from a man to a woman, was prevented from playing on the Independent Women’s Football League (IWFL) team after teammates discovered that Ginther is transgender. According to MPR, an attorney representing the Minnesota Vixen argued that league rules state that “a player may not play in the IWFL, unless they are now, and always have been, legally and medically a female, as determined by their birth certificate and driver’s license.” Ginther first went public with the story in March 2017 after filing a discrimination lawsuit against the Minnesota Vixen, owner Laura Brown, and the IWFL. “She said, ‘Well, your numbers were good. But in the process of drawing up player contracts, we looked at your social media and found out that you’re transgender,” Ginther recalled Brown saying. “I hung up the phone and just felt violated,” Ginther said. “I mean, just the sense of, ‘I’m a freak. I’m a defective. I am not worthy to be with this team.’” Ginther later joined…

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Trump Administration Seeks to Enforce Trans Soldier Ban in Supreme Court

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by Kevin Daley   In an unusual move, the Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to let President Donald Trump’s administration enforce its ban on transgender military personnel while it litigates legal challenges to the policy in lower courts. Thursday’s application is the latest in a series of aggressive measures the Trump administration has taken at the Supreme Court. “It is with great reluctance that we seek such emergency relief in this Court,” the government’s filing reads. “Unfortunately this case is part of a growing trend in which federal district courts, at the behest of particular plaintiffs, have issued nationwide injunctions, typically on a preliminary basis, against major policy initiatives.” “Such injunctions previously were rare, but in recent years they have become routine,” the filing adds. “In less than two years, federal courts have issued 25 of them, blocking a wide range of significant policies involving national security, national defense, immigration, and domestic issues.” Two federal appeals courts are currently considering three separate challenges to Trump’s order. The Justice Department broke with normal judicial procedure and asked the Supreme Court to decide on the legality of the trans ban on Nov. 23. A decision on that petition has not…

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Biological Male Wins World Championship In Women’s Cycling

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by Peter Hasson   A biological male who identifies as a transgender woman won a women’s world championship cycling event on Sunday. Rachel McKinnon, a professor at the College of Charleston, won the women’s 35-39 age bracket at the 2018 UCI Masters Track Cycling World Championships in Los Angeles, California. McKinnon, representing Canada, bested Carolien Van Herrikhuyzen of the Netherlands and American cyclist Jennifer Wagner to take home the gold. McKinnon celebrated the victory on Twitter, writing: “First transgender woman world champion…ever.” https://twitter.com/KatieSteampipe/status/1051604390501634048 Allowing biological males who identify as transgender women to compete in women’s athletic events has been a controversial subject, as critics have argued that it puts the female competitors at an inherent disadvantage. McKinnon did not immediately return an email seeking comment for this article. McKinnon in January was quoted in USA Today arguing against requiring biological males to suppress testosterone as a requirement for competing against women. “We cannot have a woman legally recognized as a trans woman in society, and not be recognized that way in sports,” McKinnon told USA Today. “Focusing on performance advantage is largely irrelevant because this is a rights issue. We shouldn’t be worried about trans people taking over the Olympics. We should be worried about their fairness and…

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Why the LGBT Alliance Could Be on the Brink of Schism

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rainbow flag

by Spencer McCloy and Monica Burke   Events at the July 7 Pride in London parade revealed deepening fractures that could lead to a schism in the LGBT community. A group of eight lesbians interrupted the parade to protest the inclusion of transgender individuals in the LGBT community. One protester shouted, “A man who says he’s a lesbian is a rapist,” referring to a man who identifies as a woman. The Daily Wire cited a flyer shared by anti-transgender lesbians that read, “The trans movement is … coercing lesbians to have sex with men. We firmly condemn this vicious form of anti-lesbianism disguised as progress.” The disruption was a demonstration by the “Get the L Out” campaign, which organizers describe as “a group of lesbian and feminist individuals and organizations, opposing the increasingly anti-lesbian and misogynistic LGBT movement and the erasure of lesbians.” The organizers of the Pride in London parade scrambled to issue an official apology, denouncing the protesters’ message in the days following the parade and calling the protest a demonstration of “bigotry, ignorance, and hate.” Adversaries labeled the protesters and others like them TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists), a term the feminists consider a slur. The demonstration produced a large backlash on Twitter: Live from Pride in London…

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Celebration Turns to Fury When State Rep. McCormick Drops, Then Announces a Replacement, to His School ‘Bathroom Bill’

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LGBT activists were ecstatic Wednesday when word spread that State Representative Gerald McCormick (R-Chattanooga) announced he was dropping his “controversial bathroom bill” following, as the Times Free Press reported, “assurances from Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery that he already can and will step in with legal aid to smaller systems facing lawsuits over LGBT access policies.” But alas, it was short lived – “Fake News,” if you will. A follow-up report by the news outlet clarified that while the McCormick did withdraw the measure, afterward, in an interview, the Chattanooga-area Republican said that he had a new bill in the works he planned on introducing soon that he told the Times, “should be a little clearer,” adding (sarcastically): “…plus, I wanted to give the Democrats time to introduce their own legislation since they’re so opposed to this and in favor of men being in little girls’ bathrooms.” The Times continues: McCormick said he believes the new wording “is a little bit better in terms of just giving the locals common-sense discretion to take care of this problem on their own without lawyers from New York or California coming in and telling some little rural county what to do in their bathrooms.” The…

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EXCLUSIVE Interview: Joe Carr Standing Firm on Conservative Record in 14th District State Senate Special Election

Wendy Wilson

MURFREESBORO, Tennessee — Joe Carr held forth on a range of issues Thursday at Slick Pig BBQ on East Main, a favorite hangout where he feels right at home. In an interview with The Tennessee Star, the conservative State Senate candidate energetically answered questions on immigration, health care and education. Carr announced Monday that he will run for the State Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville), who late last week was appointed as state director of rural development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Tracy’s resignation means there will be a special election within the next few months. Murfreesboro businessman Shane Reeves also announced this week that he will run for the seat as a Republican. Carr served in the Tennessee State House of Representatives from 2008 to 2014, lost the 2014 Republican U.S. Senate primary to Lamar Alexander, and also lost the 2016 Republican 6th Congressional District primary to Rep. Diane Black (R-TN-06). He lives on his family farm in Lascassas and is semi-retired after having founded and sold two engineering firms. In recent years, he has become known for his T-Bones and Politics fundraisers featuring big-name guest speakers. Viewed as a solid conservative by his admirers, Carr is against the…

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Family Action Council of Tennessee Praises Trump’s Decision To Ban Transgenders From Military

Wendy Wilson

  The conservative Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT) praised President Trump on Wednesday for saying that transgenders would not be allowed in the military, a reversal of a policy set in motion by former President Obama, who lifted a previous ban. David Fowler, president of FACT, said in a statement that “the military is not suited for social experimentation.” Obama had set a deadline of July 1 for fully implementing his policy, but Trump’s defense secretary had announced a six-month delay in enlisting transgender people. However, those already enlisted were allowed to transition and soldiers had started to undergo sensitivity training on welcoming soldiers of the opposite biological sex in barracks, bathrooms and showers. In a series of tweets Wednesday, Trump said that after consulting with generals and military experts, he decided that the U.S. government “will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military” so that the armed forces will not “be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.” Fowler’s full statement said: President Trump has kept a campaign promise to make military preparedness the focus of our military, and I commend him for doing…

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Commentary: Stop Diverting Our Defense Dollars To Sex Change Surgery

Tennessee Star Staff

  by ConservativeHQ.com Staff Last week, the House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2018 (“NDAA”) without incorporating a policy that ensures that limited military resources are not be used for sex-reassignment surgery and other gender transition efforts for service members. Next week, the House will vote on the Make America Secure Appropriations Act, which will provide a large increase in funding for the Department of Defense. Our friends at the Family Research Council have asked us to join them in encouraging conservative activists across the country to contact their Representatives to demand that they stop diverting our defense dollars to Bradley Chelsea Manning sex change surgery. Taxpayer dollars need to be protected from funding non-essential sex-change surgery and hormone therapy efforts intended to change a person’s gender. Estimates for these efforts, including the amount of time lost for the transition process, are about $3.7 billion over the next ten years. This is an irresponsible use of taxpayer funds. With the costs estimated for sex-reassignment surgery and hormones, the military could purchase twenty-two F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Planes, which cost $166.7 million each, or 116 Chinook Helicopters, which cost $31.8 million each, or 3,700 Tomahawk missiles,…

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Southern Baptist Ethics And Religious Liberty Commission Speaks Out Against Military Transgender Policy

Wendy Wilson

  Southern Baptist leaders object to the U.S. Army’s new mandatory transgender sensitivity training, reports Baptist Press. The training follows last year’s repeal of a ban on transgender men and women serving openly in the armed forces. Former President Obama’s defense secretary set a deadline of July 1 for fully implementing the new policy across all branches of service. Current Secretary of Defense James Mattis recently announced a six-month delay in enlisting transgender people, but those currently enlisted are allowed to transition. Soldiers are being told they must accept soldiers of the opposite sex who feel they have a different gender in barracks, bathrooms and showers. Andrew Walker, director of policy studies for the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), told Baptist Press that Army leaders’ acquiescence “to the demands of transgender activists is misguided.” “Most problematically, the Army is complicit in advancing a worldview that tells fundamental distortions about what it means to be a man or a woman,” Walker said. “The Army’s actions overlook the protests of dissenting soldiers uncomfortable with the idea of sharing private spaces with members of the opposite sex, which also pose risks to religious liberty. “It is unfortunate and lamentable that a venerable…

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Army Forces Troops, Civilians To Attend Transgender Sensitivity Training

Tennessee Star Staff

The Army is now holding mandatory transgender sensitivity training for officers, non-commissioned officers and civilians. As part of the Pentagon’s attempt to create an accepting environment for transgenders, the Army held a session Tuesday teaching officers and others how to implement existing military policy, particularly how to “assist soldiers who have a medical diagnosis indicating that…

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Report: Effort To Allow Transgenders In The Military Faces ‘Indefinite Delay’

Tennessee Star Staff

An Obama administration effort to allow transgender citizens to serve in the U.S. military is undergoing an intense review by the Pentagon, Military Times reports. Former President Barack Obama’s directive was issued in June 2016 and gave the services exactly one year to craft policy implementation. The Army and Marine Corps are reportedly the most resistant…

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