Oklahoma restaurant owner Bob Warner, of the Steak and Catfish Barn, is in the spotlight for a controversial message (above) he recently posted for his customers.
The sign, posted at the entrance of the restaurant, reads: “We do not have a transgender bathroom. So don’t be caught in the wrong one.”
Warner says the sign isn’t anti-transgender. He’s just protecting his business:
“We have a lot of redneck guys that come in here, truck drivers and everything,” said Warner. “They’re big husky guys, and I said ‘Man alive! If their wife or their little girl walked in that bathroom and a man followed them in there, I wouldn’t have a restaurant’.”
Paula Schonauer says she feels the sign reads as a threat. “That sign has an implied threat, a threat that’s very real to me.”
While Schonauer disagrees with the messaging, she does feel it’s a teachable moment, saying, “It’s an opportunity to show sometimes what transgender people deal with on a daily basis, unfortunately.”
• Joe Manganiello (above) hopes you had a great Monday 🙂
• A new tell-all book reveals Dick Clark worked to keep “American Bandstand” dancers in the closet.
• A Texas lawmaker has proposed legislation that w before they could get a prescription for Viagra to make a satirical point about the obstacles that Texas women face every day.
• Congressional Democrats will reintroduce The Equality Act, which would amend existing civil rights laws to add protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in workplaces, housing, and public spaces.
• Stargate, the production team behind Katy Perry’s “Firework”, Rihanna’s “Rude Boy”, and Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable” team up with Sia & Pink for their latest track, “Waterfall.”
• According to the coroner’s newly released report, pop music icon George Michael died of natural causes, which will really irritate the tabloids who were surely hoping for something more salacious.
• ABC’s 20/20 will air a report on the harmful effects of “conversion” or “ex-gay therapy” this Friday at 10 p.m. Eastern. Click here for an advance look.
• It turns out former Trump campaign spokesperson and serial liar Katrina Pierson’s bitching got her booted out of a White House gig. #NoOneIsSurprised
• The Will & Grace gang is all back together and working on the upcoming 10 show season reboot of the hit sitcom. Check out the four stars below, clearly happy to be #reunited&itfeelssogood
Back in 2014, as sports pundits were having their yucks about newly out football player Michael Sam, WFAA’s venerable Dallas sportscaster Dale Hansen spoke truth to power regarding the new landscape ahead for professional sports team owners and challenged them to be wise moving forward.
Last night, Hansen delivered an op-ed on his newscast regarding Texas teen Mack Beggs, a transgender high school student who won his weight class in the state wrestling competition. Beggs was forced to wrestle in the girls’ division due to University Interscholastic League (UIL) rules.
The UIL holds that athletes must compete according to the information on their birth certificate. In this case, that meant Beggs had to compete in the girls division.
But UIL rules also state that no athlete may use performance enhancing drugs – like testosterone – unless they are prescribed by a doctor. Obviously, as Beggs is transitioning, he is taking testosterone under the care of his doctor.
All of this comes together in that Mack Beggs is not to “blame” for any of the inconsistencies here. This is a high school athlete who just wants to compete. Beggs had requested to wrestle in the boy’s division, but was denied.
But I’m not nearly as articulate as the ever-wise Hansen. Here’s the text via WFAA :
I would have thought in 2017 – or maybe I just hoped in 2017 – we would be done arguing about birth certificates… but obviously we’re not.
Seventeen-year old Mack Beggs, a junior at Euless Trinity who was born a girl and is now in the process of becoming a boy, wins the girls’ state wrestling tournament Saturday. So the argument has started again.
Mack wanted to wrestle against the boys. The UIL says he had to wrestle the girls. And that’s not fair for anybody involved in this argument.
Mack has been taking testosterone and it shows. There’s a reason we have rules in sports against steroids, and it was an incredibly unfair advantage for him. It was also unfair to the girls who had to wrestle him.
The question is, “When does a girl become a boy, and when does a boy become a girl?” or “When can you play games against those you identify with and not what a piece of paper says you are?”
That answer is way above my pay grade. But someone has to find a better answer than what we’re being given now.
As I said when I wrote about Missouri football player Michael Sam, I’m not always comfortable when a man tells me he’s gay. I don’t understand his world. But I do understand he’s a part of mine. And I am saying the same thing now about Mack Beggs.
Transitioning is a struggle I cannot imagine. It is a journey I could not make… and it is a life that too many cannot live.
The problems that Mack Beggs is facing and dealing with now remind me again that I don’t have any problems. He needs our support, and he does not need a group of old men in Austin telling him who to wrestle because of a genetic mix-up at birth.
We have argued long enough about birth certificates. It’s an argument that needs to end. You don’t have to understand – I myself don’t understand. But Mack Beggs is not the problem so many people make him out to be. He’s a child simply looking for his place in the world, and a chance to compete in the world.
Do we really not have the simple decency to allow him at least that? Because it seems to me it’s the very least we can do.
Watch below as Hansen reminds us how common sense and compassion come together.
Donald Trump supporter Caitlin Jenner took to her Instagram last night to declare, “I have a message for President Trump from one Republican to another. This is a disaster and you can still fix it. You may have promised to protect the LGBTQ community. Call me.”
The video message was in regards to the Trump administration reversing course on protections for transgender students.
Jenner also included a message in the video’s caption, which read:
“I have a message for the trans kids of America. You are winning. I know it doesn’t feel that way today or every day, but you _ are _ winning. You are going to keep on winning so much you’re going to get sick of winning. Very soon, we’ll win full freedom nationwide, and it’s going to happen with bipartisan support. For all our friends out there, If you want to be part of this winning side, you can help by checking out the National Center for Trans Equality and letting Washington hear how you feel loud and clear. (Link in bio!) Now…I also have a message for the bullies. You suck. You’re losers and you’re going to keep on losing. Because you’re weak, you pick on kids or you pick on women or anyone you think is vulnerable. Apparently even becoming the Attorney General isn’t enough to cure some of you of your insecurity. As proof that you can’t stop our progress, the Supreme Court will soon hear an important Title Nine case thanks to the courage of a brave young man named Gavin Grimm. See you in court!”
You may recall that Jenner is a devout Republican who supported Sen. Ted Cruz in his White House bid last year, called Hillary Clinton a “liar” and has repeatedly said she feels she can be an ambassador between the LGBT community and the GOP.
We’re expecting new guidance from the Trump administration as the Donald changes course from the Obama administration regarding the accommodation of transgender students’ use of bathrooms in schools.
The “Dear Colleagues” letter will be issued jointly by the Justice Department and the Department of Education. According to reports, Education Secretary opposed the new language while Attorney General Jeff Sessions (no friend to the LGBT community) stood firm that the Obama era guidance should go.
Mr. Trump sided with his attorney general, these Republicans said, telling Ms. DeVos in a meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday that he wanted her to drop her objections. And Ms. DeVos, faced with the choice of resigning or defying the president, has agreed to go along. The Justice Department declined to comment on Wednesday.
Though an official order from the administration was expected to be released as early as Wednesday, Mr. Sessions and Ms. DeVos were still disputing the final language.
According to a draft of the letter, which was obtained by The New York Times, the Trump administration cites continuing litigation and confusion over the Obama directives as a reason for telling schools to no longer obey them.
“School administrators, parents and students have expressed varying views on the legal issues arising in this setting,” the draft says. “They have also struggled to understand and apply the statements of policy and guidance” in the Obama orders.
The draft also contains language stating that schools must protect transgender students from bullying, a provision Ms. DeVos asked be included, one person with direct knowledge of the process said. “Schools must ensure that transgender students, like all students, are able to learn in a safe environment,” the letter says.
While Trump played vague in the past regarding transgender issues, with this action he makes clear where he stands.
Yesterday, during a White House press briefing, spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters that Trump views the topic as a “states’ rights issue.”
The executive order could be issued as soon as today.
• This 22 year St. Louis police veteran (above) was told to “tone down” his “gayness” if he ever wanted to get promoted, despite placing 3rd out of 26 in promotion tests.
• Lady Gaga joined over 140 celebrities in denouncing Texas’ anti-transgender “bathroom bill.”
• Donald Trump’s second pick for National Security Adviser (now that Michael Flynn has resigned) has said “no, thank you” to the offer. According to reports, retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward turned down the chance citing “chaos” in the White House, labeling the offer as a “shit sandwich.”
• Finland’s Parliament rejects a citizen’s initiative to repeal marriage equality by a vote of 120 to 48. Hurray for the good guys!
• Donald Trump heads to Mar-a-Lago again this weekend. His three trips to his southern home have thus far cost the American people almost $10 million. Guarding Trump Tower in NYC could cost $183 million a year.
• Spend a few minutes inside the trials and tribulations of transgender folks in this short film, “Headspace,” by Jake Graf. Watch below:
One week after the Boy Scouts of America announced the organization would now accept transgender boys to be scouts, 9 year old Joe Maldonado put on his Cub Scout uniform and joined Pack 20 in Maplewood, NJ.
Scouting’s decision to change its longtime policy came about a month after The Record reported that Joe had been thrown out of a Cub Scout pack in Secaucus last year because he was born a girl. The decision was at least in part a response to the national debate generated by that story.
“This is fun; I’m so proud,” Joe, 9, said during the meeting. He said that the best part of the night was that “I am accepted, and I’m actually in Boy Scouts.”
The leader of Joe’s new Scouting pack, which serves Maplewood and South Orange, said after the meeting that Joe’s presence was “historic” because he had become Scouting’s first openly transgender member. He praised Joe for showing “an immense amount of courage.”
Kyle Hackler, the leader of his new pack, helped him put on his uniform and kerchief, and taught him the Cub Scout salute and oath. The meeting was held at the Clinton Elementary school in Maplewood.
“This means you’re the same as Scouts all over the world,” Hackler said to Joe.
Watch Joe’s happy face as he wears his Cub Scout uniform for the first time here.
Summer Luk, who describes herself as “a musician who’s trans, not a trans musician,’ shares a personal essay with The Advocate about her new music video, “Part of Me.”
In the op-ed, Luk explains why she fought against the narrative that trans women should be limited to portrayals that are only “sad and painful.”
Through music, I get to tell a different story about myself. Although my song “Part of Me” isn’t revolutionary or radical, it is a song that gives me permission to feel the feelings that I had to suppress as a youth in a conservative Christian household. This song, like all my other songs, was my way of learning to see myself through my own eyes and to acknowledge that while there’s a part of me that has experienced sadness, there are also parts of me that are silly, sassy, and even downright cheesy. I believe that only when I can acknowledge all these parts will I find the strength to move forward because I’m not leaving any part of me behind.
That is why I’ll always do what I’m not supposed to do as a musician who happens to be trans. That is why I will always write, perform, and exist not as a trans musician but as a musician who is trans.
The Dallas Morning News is reporting that, beginning immediately, the Boy Scouts of America will allow transgender youth who identify as boys to enroll in scouting programs:
The organization announced it had made the decision to begin basing enrollment in its boys-only programs on the gender a child or parent lists on the application to become a scout. The organization had previously held a policy that relied on the gender listed on a child’s birth certificate for those programs.
Rebecca Rausch, a spokeswoman for the organization, emailed a statement Monday. She said the organization’s leadership had considered a recent case in Secaucus, New Jersey, where an 8-year-old transgender child had been asked to leave his Scout troop after parents and leaders found out he is transgender, but the change was made because of the larger conversation about gender identity going on around the country.
“For more than 100 years, the Boy Scouts of America, along with schools, youth sports and other youth organizations, have ultimately deferred to the information on an individual’s birth certificate to determine eligibility for our single-gender programs,” the statement said. “However, that approach is no longer sufficient as communities and state laws are interpreting gender identity differently, and these laws vary widely from state to state.”
