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United States News Title: Loretta Lynch Just Became the World’s Most Powerful Advocate for Trans Rights Loretta Lynch Just Became the World’s Most Powerful Advocate for Trans Rights By Mark Joseph Stern On paper, the current conflict between the U.S. Department of Justice and North Carolina can seem dry, academic even. North Carolina passed a law forbidding trans people from using certain bathrooms that align with their gender identity. The Department of Justice notified the state that its measure violates several federal civil rights laws; North Carolina threw a tantrum, filing a lawsuit against the agency. Then, on Monday, the DOJ struck back, filing a suit against North Carolina for infringing on trans residents’ federal civil rights. The DOJ’s suit is a wonderfully tough, clear-headed document that carefully explains why “sex discrimination”—which is barred in employment and education under federal civil rights law— encompasses gender identity discrimination. Sex, the suit notes, is an incredibly complex concept: “An individual’s ‘sex’ consists of multiple factors, which may not always be in alignment,” including chromosomes, hormones, and gender identity. By distilling sex to the label a hospital put on one’s birth certificate—then restricting bathroom access based on that label—North Carolina “stigmatizes and singles out transgender employees, results in their isolation and exclusion, and perpetuates a sense that they are not worthy of equal treatment and respect.” “Gender identity is innate,” the suit declares, “and external efforts to change a person’s gender identity can be harmful to a person’s health and well-being.” Then the lawsuit affirms a simple truth that North Carolina has spent months attempting to deny: “A transgender man’s sex is male and a transgender woman’s sex is female.” That’s all strong and necessary stuff. But you can’t understand the full import of the DOJ’s actions until you watch Lynch’s astonishing speech announcing the lawsuit. Lynch is wry and unassuming in person; on Monday, she was as fierce and passionate as any member of the pantheon of American civil rights defenders. Lynch joined that pantheon on Monday. Her remarks are certainly the most important speech ever delivered on the topic of trans rights by any government official. They are a turning point in the history of LGBTQ rights in the United States, a resounding declaration of the equal dignity of trans Americans. “This action is about a great deal more than just bathrooms,” Lynch explained. “This is about the dignity and respect we accord our fellow citizens and the laws that we, as a people and as a country, have enacted to protect them—indeed, to protect all of us. And it’s about the founding ideals that have led this country—haltingly but inexorably—in the direction of fairness, inclusion and equality for all Americans.” Lynch then placed North Carolina’s law in the context of America’s dark history of segregation: To Lynch, however, this response contradicts basic American values: Lynch, who was born in North Carolina, also addressed her fellow North Carolinians directly: Instead of turning away from our neighbors, our friends, our colleagues, let us instead learn from our history and avoid repeating the mistakes of our past. Let us reflect on the obvious but often neglected lesson that state-sanctioned discrimination never looks good in hindsight. It was not so very long ago that states, including North Carolina, had signs above restrooms, water fountains and on public accommodations keeping people out based upon a distinction without a difference. We have moved beyond those dark days, but not without pain and suffering and an ongoing fight to keep moving forward. Let us write a different story this time. Let us not act out of fear and misunderstanding, but out of the values of inclusion, diversity, and regard for all that make our country great. Finally, Lynch reached out to the trans North Carolinians who have been targeted and stigmatized by their state’s sudden turn toward intolerance: This is a historic moment. North Carolina has elected to declare war on trans people’s civil rights—and the Obama administration has chosen the side of equal dignity for all. Lynch may be an ally rather than a member of the community, but it’s clear that she deeply empathizes with the trans movement’s fight for justice. To the states that would deny trans people fundamental rights because of their identity, to the governors who would defend their animus-fueled laws with chicanery and pretext, to the lawyers who would line up to reverse trans Americans’ hard-won civil rights, Lynch has an unmistakable message: Not on my watch. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 10.
#1. To: All (#0)
Unless, of course, the transgender female is confined in a Federal military prison and the Federal government decides whether the female pretender goes to the all male prison or the all female prison. Chelsea (nee Bradley) Manning is assigned to the all male Leavenworth Military Disciplinary Barracks. Oh, really. Perhaps Lynch will sue herself on behalf of Chelsea Manning.
If they allow you to go to an all female prison based on what you say are, maybe I'll commit a crime and say I'm a woman just to go to a female prison. I mean it would be like being a kid in a candy store. Of course, all the other males would do that to.
I remember years ago when this kind of topic was in the news. Rush Limbaugh had a caller that told him that he identified as a woman. Threw Rush off for a minute, till the caller said that his inner self was actually a male lesbian. I spewd soda all across the wall. Funny as hell.
#11. To: Stoner (#10)
I haven't seen studies on it or delved into it much, but I would bet most of these transgender guys see themselves that way. They want to look (sort of) like women, dress like women, have sex with women, but still keep their junk.
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