Broward OK's transgender rights

[Adrian Laguna]

That's my old county! I lived there for seven years.

Broward OK's transgender rights
Broward County has made it illegal to discriminate against its transgender residents, and supporters hope the silence from opponents on Tuesday means they don't plan to fight the change.

Posted on Wed, Feb. 13, 2008

BY BREANNE GILPATRICK
bgilpatrick@MiamiHerald.com

One woman shares her story about being too afraid to tell police about the two men who beat her for being transgender.

Another holds up a photo of her 7-year-old daughter and wonders what's going to happen when her classmates find out she started life as a boy.

One by one, more than 20 people shared their stories and persuaded the Broward County Commission to add ''gender identity'' and pregnancy to a list of protected classes, a civil rights milestone for the group that makes it illegal to deny housing or jobs to transgender or pregnant residents.

Tuesday's unanimous vote adds Broward County to a growing list of local governments nationwide that provide some civil rights protections to transgender residents.

In other counties and cities, critics have fought to prevent and repeal those changes, saying they're unnecessary and arguing it's wrong for people to try to redefine gender.

But at Tuesday's meeting, no opponents were heard. And supporters say they hope their silence means they don't plan to fight the decision in Broward.

''Either they're no longer watching us,'' Broward Vice Mayor Stacy Ritter said, ``or some of those nasty, name-calling, finger-pointing disrespectful people thought it wasn't worth it to attack us on this one.''

UGLY BATTLE

More than a decade ago, attempts to include sexual orientation in the county's anti-discrimination laws kicked off an ugly political battle in Broward.

The vote to ban discrimination against gays and lesbians came after a five-hour debate in 1995, with some critics warning of divine retribution and vowing to unseat elected officials who voted for the measure. The decision launched several unsuccessful repeals.

This time around, supporters tried to move quietly in their quest to expand rights for the gay and transgender community throughout South Florida.

In Miami-Dade, for example, an anti-discrimination measure passed overwhelmingly Jan. 29.

But there have been opponents.

Miami-Dade's Christian Family Coalition, for instance, accused supporters of the Miami-Dade measure of ''sneaking'' the referendum onto the ballot. And in a written statement before before Tuesday's vote, the group accused the Broward County Commission of ``putting political extremism over what science and humanity have known for millennia.''

NO CHALLENGE

Still, no one appeared before the Broward Commission on Tuesday to announce a challenge to the newly adopted ordinance.

Supporters of the amendment passed Tuesday have said they doubt opponents have the time to get a repeal on the ballot before 2010 -- and that they hope that in the interim, critics find another issue to fight.

''I am proud of this county,'' said Tobias Packer, who transitioned to life as a man about five years ago and now serves as the co-founder of the Transgender Equality Rights Initiative. ``This sends a real message to every resident that discrimination against any person, on any level, is not tolerated.''

I note that Miami Dade also passed a similar measure. This supports what I've said numerous times about the state. While Florida taken as a whole is kind of fucked-up, South Florida, especially South-Eastern Florida, is very nice and progressive.

[VT-16]

science and humanity have known for millennia

That one gender is inherently superior to the other and deserves better treatment? :P

[El Moose Monstero]

Perhaps I'm showing ignorance here, but a 7 year old daughter who used to be a boy? I thought transgender operations required a significant amount of psychological evaluation and testing before being permitted to continue. At least I thought that was the case for the UK, but my only contact with it was a documentary a while ago.

Is a seven year old able to make that decision? You wouldn't let a seven year old choose to have a vasectomy, or is there a tested method for diagnosing those who wish to have a sex change which would be used?

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Perhaps I'm showing ignorance here, but a 7 year old daughter who used to be a boy? I thought transgender operations required a significant amount of psychological evaluation and testing before being permitted to continue. At least I thought that was the case for the UK, but my only contact with it was a documentary a while ago.

Is a seven year old able to make that decision? You wouldn't let a seven year old choose to have a vasectomy, or is there a tested method for diagnosing those who wish to have a sex change which would be used?

In this particular case it's probably some chromosomal/genetic issue or defect or possibly a mishap during or immediately after birth. These things happen from time to time where doctors often recommend that would be less stressful for the child trying to fit in with one gender over the other.

[El Moose Monstero]

In this particular case it's probably some chromosomal/genetic issue or defect or possibly a mishap during or immediately after birth. These things happen from time to time where doctors often recommend that would be less stressful for the child trying to fit in with one gender over the other.

Ah, I see, and now you mention it, I do seem to recall an article on that somewhere on the BBC a while back. Thanks!

[Spin Echo]

Perhaps I'm showing ignorance here, but a 7 year old daughter who used to be a boy? I thought transgender operations required a significant amount of psychological evaluation and testing before being permitted to continue. At least I thought that was the case for the UK, but my only contact with it was a documentary a while ago.

Is a seven year old able to make that decision? You wouldn't let a seven year old choose to have a vasectomy, or is there a tested method for diagnosing those who wish to have a sex change which would be used?

I'd put my money on "circumcision accident".

[Darth Lucifer]

Maybe Steve Stanton can become a city manager in one of those places. For those who remember, Stanton was fired by the city of Largo last year for coming out as a MTF Transgender. Either way, I'm glad to see that at least some ppl in Florida are not prejudiced against trannies.

[Broomstick]

Perhaps I'm showing ignorance here, but a 7 year old daughter who used to be a boy? I thought transgender operations required a significant amount of psychological evaluation and testing before being permitted to continue. At least I thought that was the case for the UK, but my only contact with it was a documentary a while ago.

Is a seven year old able to make that decision? You wouldn't let a seven year old choose to have a vasectomy, or is there a tested method for diagnosing those who wish to have a sex change which would be used?

I'd put my money on "circumcision accident".

Except the viability of changing a victim of circumcision gone horribly wrong to a girl has been discredited due to a rather well known (at least in transgender circles) case in Canada.

In cases of intersex children with ambiguous genitals, if the parents "guess" and start raising the child as one gender folks are open these days to, several years later, going "oops - it's the other gender after all" and switching the child to the gender they identify with. Permanent surgery and hormone treatment is usually put off until puberty or later, what is usually meant is that such a child identifying as, say, a boy would be dressed in boy's clothes, addressed and referred to as a boy, and so forth. Vice versa for boy-into-girl. Until puberty, the differences in size/strength/speed/other characteristics (other than genitalia) between boys and girls is not so great as after.

[sketerpot]

science and humanity have known for millennia

That one gender is inherently superior to the other and deserves better treatment?

I thought it was "Queerbag transgenders are yucky!!! Mumble mumble God Jesus mumble American heritage mumble!".

Seriously, that seems to be their main argument.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

In this particular case it's probably some chromosomal/genetic issue or defect or possibly a mishap during or immediately after birth. These things happen from time to time where doctors often recommend that would be less stressful for the child trying to fit in with one gender over the other.

All transexuals (as distinct from crossdressers and transvestites) actually have sex disorders; it's just that most have them in the brain instead of physically to the genitalia. The BSTc region of the brain controls sex behaviour and in females is 50% of the neuron density as in males--but in transexual women (chromosomally male) it is of broadly equal neuron density to genetic females. This has been proved to be independent of the ingestion of feminizing hormones, with men who have received them for cancer treatment showing no change, whereas the difference is present even in transexuals who have not had hormone therapy.

Because of this slow recognition that the disorder is (unsurprisingly to people who adhere to real science instead of "psychology") caused by a physical structural defect in the brain, it is easy to realize that constant and continuous expression of female behaviours by a child of that age can be monitored with a comprehensive conclusion that they are in fact of a sexual expression distinct from their chromosomal identity. At that point, hormones can begin, usually timed with the onset of what would be normal puberty, causing the child to develop appropriately to their brain hardwiring almost perfectly--with the extremely young transitioners there is aren't any of the physical problems in terms of body form and so on. Instead of expensive reconstructive surgeries there's just one required, genital reconstruction, which is legally not permitted until the age of 18.

To my knowledge--granted, hardly complete--there's never been an early transitioner who has regretted it to the point of trying to reverse it, and we have more than a few who are now adults already. So such behaviour at an extremely young age in a consistent and constant fashion, if measured and confirmed over several years, seems quite good, and simply saves the poor thing from going through the wrong puberty.

These people are the lowest of the goddamned low, even in the queer community, and I rather feel guilty about my own privileged life when reflecting on the fact that for transwomen, homelessness, prostitution, beatings, rape and murder are the norm. These people have no hope whatsoever in most parts of the country, because they can and will be fired on a whim by their employers, they will be driven into prostitution to feed themselves because as "healthy adults" whose disorders aren't recognized by the Feds, they can't get welfare, and as normally abandoned by their families have no means to pay for college or receive any help, and that epidemic of destructive brutality against people born with a structural brain defect is so endemic and pervasive that it's led to more than 50% of transwomen in major urban areas like NYC, D.C., Atlanta, SF, LA, etc, to be infected with HIV--more than half. And what does Congress do? Strip the protections from the ENDA for them! They only need it twice as much as everyone else in the LGBT community, after all.