There have been many news stories concerning transgender youth in the last month or so, so I will be providing a round-up of five stories about the most misunderstood of queer youth.

MAINES FAMILY OF MAINE HONOURED BY ACLU:

Wayne Maines of Orono, ME is a conservative Republican from Northern Maine. Now, it's safe to say that conservative Republicans from Northern Maine don't exactly sign up to be trans allies, but when what he thought to be his son turned out to be his daughter, he was able to put his partisan predilections aside and be a father first.

The Maines family, Wayne, his wife, Kelly, and their 14-year-old children, Nicole and Jonas, were honored Thursday for their efforts toward ending discrimination against transgender Mainers.

“Our family has remained strong but silent for a long time,” Waynes Maines said in accepting the award on behalf of the family. “Our circle has been very small. Receiving this award provides an opportunity to thank all of you for your advocacy, your support and your friendship. It provides an opportunity for our inner circle to grow. This larger inner circle will help us share the hopes and dreams of transgender children with others that might not understand.”

In Maine, where Republicans swept both houses, a bill was proposed that would limit transgender people from entering restrooms most closely associated with their gender identity. That bill, thankfully, was defeated by both houses, even when Governor LePage claimed it would "help business", an offensive statement given these economic times. The bill was proposed because the Maines family won a settlement against an Orono school for not allowing Nicole to use the girls room.

The Maines family is an inspiration to us all, and I hope Nicole grows up happy.



GIRLS RULE, BOYS DROOL: AT LEAST IN THE SCOUTS, THAT IS!

Bobby Montoya (preferred name unknown) is a transgender girl from Colorado who wanted to join the Girl Scouts. After an initial no, his mother, Felisha Archuleta, would not give up.

Bobby, who said he’s been bullied for looking and dressing like a girl, told KUSA-TV: 'It's hurting my heart. It hurts me and my mom both.'

His mother, Felisha Archuleta, said she allows Bobby to dress and behave how he wants to be.

Ms Archuleta told KUSA: "He's been doing this since he was about 2 years old. He's loved girl stuff, so we just let him dress how he wants.'

She added: 'As long as he's happy.'

Note that the quote is reproduced as is, and I am not 100% sure how Bobby wants to be referred as, and we should let them transition at their own pace. This is a proud day for the Girl Scouts, especially since their male counterparts could do a lot better in allowing LGBTQ people in their organization: the Boy Scouts have been outright litigious in defending their right not only to kick LGBTIQ people out of the scouts, but also dropping the suehammer on those who wish to evict them from property owned by a major city that has an anti-discrimination ordinance.

However, this did not stop some shock jocks from Dallas from delivering some really nasty commentary:

This morning, Bo and Jim started talking about a 7-year-old girl, Bobby Montoya of Colorado, who was born biologically male but who identifies and, with the support of her mother, lives as a female. Bobby wanted to join Girl Scouts but was rejected because, as the Girl Scouts worker said, “he has boy parts.” Girl Scout officials higher up in the hierarchy quickly stepped in, said the first person misunderstood the policies, and that Bobby is more than welcome to join Girl Scouts. You can read the story here on Huffington Post.

Bo and Jim, in talking about the story, chose to refer to Bobby throughout as a boy and with male pronouns, which was bad enough. But what really set me off was when they said, basically, “You know this kid is going to get beat up all the time. Even the girls are going to beat him up.” They said it as a joke, an attempt to get laughs. And that is unacceptable.

You see, trans people don't always face violence from the boys, we also sometimes have to worry about girls who don't think we are real girls and get all angry that we are invading our spaces. Such an attitude is not acceptable, especially with the McDonalds beating that happened earlier this year. This is victim-blaming at its worst, and I am glad this was addressed.

But, please, next time a girl scout comes to your door selling cookies, just buy some, for you are celebrating a good cause. And think of this face right here:



QUACK ABLOW GETS DUCKING MAD WHEN TOMMY BECOMES TAMMY:

When people talk about LGBT families, its either the parents are LGBT or the children are LGBT. However, families where both parents and child are queer do exist. A lesbian couple in California, Pauline Moreno and Debra Lobel, are currently raising a male to female child who calls herself Tammy.

From the Herald Sun of Melbourne, Australia, via Equality Matters:

They say Tommy -- whom they now call Tammy -- began taking GnRH inhibitors over the summer to give him more time to explore the female gender identity with which he associates.

Tommy began saying he was a girl when he was three years old, his parents said. He was learning sign language due to a speech impediment, and one of the first things he told his mothers was, "I am a girl."

The child's parents also said Tommy threatened to mutilate his genitals when he was seven, and psychiatrists diagnosed a gender identity disorder. One year later, he began transitioning to Tammy.

After much deliberation with family and therapists, the child began taking hormone blockers a few months ago. The medication, which must be changed once a year, was implanted in the boy's upper left arm.

Tommy will continue the treatment until he turns 14 or 15, at which point he will be taken off the blockers and pursue the gender he feels is the right one.

The Herald Sun made a big booboo by not referring to the child by her preferred pronouns. However, that was not the biggest slight towards young Tammy, as Ducktor Keith Ablow, Board Certified Quack Of Faux News, fresh off his recent Chaz-hating binge, decided to become a big mean bully:

What’s happening here? We have two women raising a child. He’s adopted. And he’s come to believe that he too is female. That argues for a complete psychological evaluation, not just of the boy, but of his parents as well to see whether psychological forces are at play here to make him say such things. We need to do away with stigma and look at this as scientists and really understand what’s happening -- not make it a cultural debate, but a scientific one.

Right, because straight cisgender parents will ALWAYS raise straight cisgender kids. Just ask my parents, who are both straight and cisgender, how that worked out. Tammy is transgender and always was, its just that her parents, unlike many, are supportive. Had this child grown up in a more conservative home, she still would be transgender. That motherducker Ablow seems to think that her parents are Amazonian man-haters who, upon being forced to adopt a natal male, forced said natal male to wear assless chaps to school and force them to be chained in the basement in an effort to re-educate the child into being female. This is an Al Bundy style mentality that needs to stop before Tammy suffers psychological harm.

Furthermore, the quack reports that the effects of hormone blockers are hard to reverse, but was quickly rebuffed by more reputable medical sources. In fact, the Endocrine Society even recommends hormone blockers for transgender youth. Of course, as I blogged about before, there is a movement to have Dr. Ablow sanctioned by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine.

And here is a picture of Tammy:



PHILADELPHIA CURFEW LAW A THREAT TO LGBT CHILDREN:

Last year, Philadelphia Councilperson Blondell Reynolds Brown made this video:

However, a recent extension of the city's governmental curfew sponsored by Reynolds Brown in response to flash mobs over the summer, raises the question of what types of harm will befall LGBT youth. The measure was passed 15-1, with only Jannie Blackwell, a homeless advocate with a heavily pro-LGBTQ voting record, dissenting. Although I can't say Councilperson Reynolds Brown wants to screw over LGBandespeciallyT youth, she's been an ally to us for a while, there are unintended consequences to this law.

You see, the curfew law does not address the issue of youth homelessness, most of which are queer. A source from the Councilperson's office told me that officers have been using their discretion and that few of the youths actually stopped are cited, which is good, however, street cops are not known for good judgment on these issues, and what legal assurance is there that a homeless child will not be hauled off to jail for being unable to pay the fine/find a place to live, which would especially be a bad situation for trans youth, even though the city recently had to settle with a transgender girl who was abused in the male part of a juvenile facility.

We have the Sidewalk Behavior Law, which sets a high bar for officers to arrest homeless people without giving them appropriate services, however, it is largely targetted towards adults, who are not breaking the law by simply being away from their home at night, and determining whether this applies to curfew violations will be up to the courts, a costly endeavour that could be avoided by enumerative language so the police can be more easily guided, plus sensitivity training for said police.

MARRIAGE EQUALITY ADVOCATE LEAVES OUT TRANSGENDER CHILDREN IN PENNSYLVANIA VOUCHERS BILL:

State Senator Daylin Leach (D-wealthy suburbs of Philadelphia) has been, rightfully, an opponent to SB1, which would create a voucher system for Pennsylvania (you can read his blog post about the issue here), and he has caught a lot of flack for it. While he opposes vouchers for plenty of reasons, and I agree with him on it, he decided to add an amendment to the bill that would protect sexual orientation, but NOT gender identity.

Wait, I thought we were OVER this. No longer, when we pursue LGBT rights, should we leave out the T. Equality Pennsylvania has consistently pushed an anti-discrimination bill that includes both sexual orientation and gender identity as coequal categories to the anti-discrimination law, and either this is a terrible oversight or perhaps he has fallen to the big scary bathroom myths or the fact that a "boy" will be wearing a skirt and blouse to school, thus "disrupting the classroom".

The amendment was defeated and thankfully so. No more throwing gender identity under the bus, please.

AND I HAVE TO END ON A SAD NOTE:

A 19 year old transgender woman was found dismembered in Detroit.

The Wayne County Medical Examiner's office has confirmed the death of 19-year-old Shelley Hilliard, a transgender teen also known as Treasure, after her mother identified her torso this morning.

The teen, who was born Henry Hilliard, went missing in the early hours of Oct. 23 and was last seen on the 900 block of Longfellow on Detroit's west side.

The Medical Examiner's office received her torso later on Oct. 23, and Lyniece Nelson, Hilliard's mother, identified her this morning.

Nelson said she had no idea who might've done this.

"She was loved by a lot people, a lot of friends a lot of family," Nelson said. "She just brought joy to everyone that she came in contact with. She was always there for her family."

RIP Shelley



-Jordan Gwendolyn Davis