In May, an Alaska high school student became the first transgender athlete to compete individually for a high school state championship. As TheBlaze previously reported, Nattaphon “Ice” Wangyot, who was born male but identifies as female, qualified and competed in the Class 3A girls’ sprints at the Alaska state meet, taking home third place in the 200-meter dash (27.3 seconds) and fifth in the 100 (13.36 seconds).
Since the race, Wangyot’s story has made national headlines, earning the 18-year-old Haines High School athlete widespread praise for contributions to the LGBT movement.
But not everyone was celebrating the high schooler’s success. After the story was reported by KTVA-TV, Jennifer VanPelt, a mother of one of the girls who competed and lost, took to the comments section of the news station’s article.
After one commenter named Stephanie Leigh Golman Williams noted with frustration that a runner named Aurora Waclowski, who “has been top three since freshman” year, was knocked off the awards podium by a male-born runner, VanPelt clarified that it was actually her daughter, not Aurora, who was cut.
“Actually Aurora was still given an award for 4th and was able to still stand up on the awards podium. It was my daughter who finished 5th that missed out,” she wrote.
(Read more from “Mother of Girl Who Lost Race to Transgender Athlete Speaks out — and She’s Furious” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/tartan-track-609708_960_720.jpg720960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-08 03:09:312016-06-08 03:09:31Mother of Girl Who Lost Race to Transgender Athlete Speaks out — and She’s Furious
Nattaphon “Ice” Wangyot, who was born male but identifies as female, recently became the first transgender athlete to compete individually for a high school state championship, the Alaska Dispatch News reported.
Wangyot, an 18-year-old senior at Haines High School, qualified and competed in the Class 3A girls’ sprints at the Alaska state meet, taking home third place in the 200-meter dash (27.3 seconds) and fifth in the 100 (13.36 seconds). Wangyot also played for the girls volleyball and basketball teams this past year, USA Today High School Sports said.
Wangyot’s participation didn’t come without controversy, as Alaska Family Action president Jim Minnery and supporters protested outside the event last Friday:
“We are here today as a voice from the community to ensure that female athletes are not denied the playing opportunities and scholarships otherwise available to them and to make the playing field even again,” Minnery said, according to the Dispatch News. “… Allowing students to play on teams of the opposite sex disproportionately impacts female students who will lose spots on track, soccer and volleyball teams to male students who identify as female.”
Fairbanks Hutchinson junior Saskia Harrison turned in a time of 14.11 seconds in the 100-meter dash, which wasn’t fast enough to make the cut — and she wasn’t particularly thrilled that Wangyot advanced. (Read more from “HS Track Athlete Was Born Male but Identifies as Female — and and Turns in Quite the Run at Alaska State Championships” HERE)
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A Michigan family pulled their three sons out of public school for a week after finding out from their 9-year-old son that he had to share a restroom with a biological girl.
On May 13, the departments of Education and Justice issued a directive to schools around the nation, threatening to take away federal school funding if districts do not equate gender identity as a student’s biological sex.
The dad who pulled his kids out of school, Matt Stewart, told The Daily Signal that his 9-year-old son, who attends Southwest Elementary School in Howell, Michigan, informed him on Friday, May 20, that a girl was using the same restroom as him, at the same time.
“On Monday we had a conversation with our son’s teacher and the principal,” Stewart said. The next day, on May 24, Matt and his wife Lindsay removed their three boys, all who attend Southwest Elementary, from Howell Public Schools.
Stewart says that Erin MacGregor, the school district superintendent, suggested that his son could be accommodated with a single-use or unisex bathroom if the 9-year-old was uncomfortable with the current bathroom situation.
“As parents, we decided we were not going to force our children to make the decision between confusion, humiliation, and embarrassment,” Stewart told Kim Russell with WXYZ 7 Action News, Detroit’s ABC TV station.
A spokesperson for Howell Public Schools told The Daily Signal in an email that the school district could not comment regarding if a biological girl had been allowed to use the boys restroom at Southwest Elementary School, as the issue is a matter of student privacy. “Single-use bathrooms are available to any student who wishes to use one,” the spokesperson noted in reference to the accommodations available for Stewart’s son.
Stewart says that MacGregor confirmed with him on May 24 that there was no district-wide policy in place on this issue and that the superintendent had made the final decision allowing students to use the restroom of their choice, without prior notification to parents. The school district spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Signal that this information is correct.
On May 25, parents were informed through email of the school district’s intent to comply with President Barack Obama’s administration’s transgender student directive.
Meanwhile, Stewart was “hopeful that the superintendent and school board would be open to creating a policy where every student felt comfortable.”
“We are hopeful as parents that that would be a discussion that would involve members of the community in an open and transparent manner,” he said.
During the week Stewart’s kids were not in Howell Public Schools, the dad says the school district took “a 180” on the issue after those in the community spoke up.
The school district “changed their position” on May 31, Stewart told The Daily Signal.
“At Howell Public Schools we work tirelessly to create an inclusive environment where all students feel welcome, safe, and secure,” a statement given to The Daily Signal by a spokesperson for the school district says. The school district has decided to press pause on the Obama administration’s transgender student directive while it gathers feedback on the issue. The school district’s statement says:
At this time, we do not currently have any students using a restroom other than that designated for their biological gender, or requesting to do so. In light of this, we are pausing on the federal guidance issued to all school districts across the nation in a joint letter on transgender students issued by the Department of Justice and Department of Education on May 13, 2016, while we work to provide opportunities in the coming weeks to gather feedback on this matter. This feedback will further inform the board of education as they engage in a thoughtful approach to shape policies, practices, and guidelines consistent with legal requirements. Like districts across the state and country, Howell Public Schools and its board of education are staying apprised of the changing federal, state, and local dynamics relating to this matter.
“We have never sought to deprive any other student of their rights only to protect the rights of our own children,” Stewart said. He added:
This is an example of how we can make a difference in our communities. An injustice was brought to our attention and Lindsay and I spoke out, made others aware and shined a spotlight on what we felt was a hasty decision which was not well thought out. We appreciate the district’s responsiveness and are hopeful that they will be more cautious and thoughtful in the future on decisions which affect so many.
According to Stewart, MacGregor, the district’s superintendent, confirmed with him that Howell Public Schools will “only provide access to restrooms designated for a student’s birth gender or to a single-user facility” while the school district works to finalize policies and guidelines.
“We also trust that as they seek wisdom on the correct course that they will give parents the opportunity to have a voice,” Stewart said. “And when that happens we will speak up. For now, we will be sending our kids back to school with their assurances.” (For more from the author of “These Parents Pulled Their Kids out of School for a Week Over Obama’s Bathroom Directive” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/4802941163_0335005af2_b.jpg7681024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-02 23:42:382016-06-05 00:15:55These Parents Pulled Their Kids out of School for a Week Over Obama’s Bathroom Directive
The African-American woman who leads a state chapter of the ACLU has resigned, citing her own daughters’ “frightened” reaction to biological males using the women’s restroom.
The organization’s increasing focus on legislating the transgender lobby’s concerns pushed Maya Dillard Smith, interim director of the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, to tender her resignation.
“I have shared my personal experience of having taken my elementary school age daughters into a women’s restroom when shortly after three transgender young adults, over six feet [tall] with deep voices, entered,” she wrote.
“My children were visibly frightened, concerned about their safety and left asking lots of questions for which I, like many parents, was ill-prepared to answer,” she continued.
In a statement, she said that the ACLU has become “a special interest organization that promotes not all, but certain progressive rights.” (Read more from “State Leader Quits ACLU After Daughters Were ‘Visibly Frightened’ by Men Using Women’s Restroom” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/toilet-942100_960_720.jpg720960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-02 02:20:442016-06-05 00:09:24State Leader Quits ACLU After Daughters Were ‘Visibly Frightened’ by Men Using Women’s Restroom
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts jumped on the transgender bathroom bandwagon Wednesday when its House of Representatives voted 116-36 to move forward with a bill that legally replaces the concept of biological sex with that of gender identity.
The “Gender Identity Public Accommodations Bill,” or H.4343, seeks to further push for transgender “anti-discrimination” laws in three separate parts.
First, it would amend multiple areas of Massachusetts law to replace the word “sex,” with “gender identity.” Secondly, it would mandate that “[a]ny public accommodation…shall grant all persons admission to and the full enjoyment of such public accommodation or other entity consistent with the person’s gender identity,” while finally ordering the the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination to amend rules and policies to comply with the redefinition of sex to gender identity.
“We are doing the work the founders of our nation intended for us to do,” said co-sponsor Byron Rushing of the bill prior to its passage. “This is a great day for us and we should be very proud.”
“This is a historic day for Massachusetts,” reads a statement from pro-transgender group Freedom Massachusetts. “The wave of legislative activity #TransBillMA has seen in the last two months is the culmination of a decade-long fight to fully protect transgender people from discrimination in the Bay State.”
Others, however, were not so convinced of the law’s merit.
“This legislation takes rights away from 99.9% of the population,” said Rep. James Lyons of Andover (R), who voted against the measure. “Every parent that I have spoken with including a parent of a transgender child understands that this bill eliminates long held expectation of privacy and protection for children.”
“This is a collision of rights. Rights in conflict,” continued Lyons in his emailed statement to Conservative Review. “I have yet to see how changing the law to remove what is currently on the books helps anyone.”
Final vote on passage was delayed by a nearly five-hour round of debate over at least 36 proposed amendments which some likened to a Senate filibuster. The amendments in question included, among several others, provisions to which would have excepted facilities primarily used by minors, such as public school bathrooms and locker rooms, one that would have required proof of medical transition for individuals to use facilities that do not coincide with their biological sex, and one which would have exempted multiple use facilities, “where there is an expectation of privacy” among occupants, from the bill.
Only one of the amendments, a technical rewrite of section 2 of the bill, was adopted.
When debate on the bill began in the early afternoon, Lyons gave an impassioned speech on the House floor against the bill to a response of thunderous applause from the gallery, arguing that it was unnecessary due to the fact that transgender individuals are already protected from discrimination under current law.
“Based on my review, this is a medical issue. How does allowing the use of the bathrooms and locker facilities solve a medical issue and furthermore how does this law achieve the goal of eliminating discrimination?” reiterated Lyons in his statement to CR. “It appears both United States Supreme Court and the Massachusetts Supreme Court have provided guidance that transgender people are protected under existing statutes. MCAD is enforcing current laws. GLAAD states that transgender people are protected. So what is the issue? The issue is should we as legislators eliminate privacy rights and protection for our children.”
The bill, which has already passed in the Massachusetts Senate, now heads to Governor Charlie Baker’s desk, where it will likely receive his signature for final passage.
“We’ve certainly listened to a variety of points of view from many sides and have said, from the beginning, that we don’t want people to be discriminated against,” said the governor in an interview with the Boston Globe on Tuesday. “If the House bill were to pass in its current form, yeah, I would sign it.”
But while the Bay State has passed legislation in line with the recent cultural and legislative push to legally replace biological sex with experienced gender identity, other states are fighting back against it.
Currently, a total of 13 states across the country have banded together in filing a federal lawsuit against the Obama Administration’s recent 25-page letter that all but mandates transgender bathrooms in public schools nationwide.
“Our local schools are now in the crosshairs of the Obama administration, which maintains it will punish those schools who do not comply with its orders. These schools are facing the potential loss of school funding for simply following common sense policies that protect their students,” stated Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at the announcement of the lawsuit last week.
Furthermore, in a statement released Tuesday, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (R) announced that his office would be sending a letter to school districts throughout the state instructing them not to comply with the federal bathroom mandate.
“The President’s threat of withholding federal funds is just a threat. By standing together we will demonstrate Texas will not be threatened or blackmailed by a policy that doesn’t make sense and puts our girls and women at risk.”
Following the announcement of the Administration’s proposed guidelines in May, Patrick accused the President of extortion due to the implied threats that public schools which do not comply could lose federal funding.
“He says he’s going to withhold funding if schools do not follow the policy,” Patrick said a few days after the Administration’s mandate was issued. “Well, in Texas, he can keep his 30 pieces of silver. We will not yield to blackmail from the president of the United States.”
“So Barack Obama, if schools don’t knuckle down to force girls showering with boys and force 8-year-old girls to have to endure boys coming into their bathroom — he’s taking money from the poorest of the poor. The president of the United States will be ending the free breakfast and free lunch program — that’s what he’s saying.”
A conference committee will convene in the coming weeks to reconcile the differences between the differences between the House and Senate versions of the Massachusetts bill. (For more from the author of “Massachusetts House Overwhelmingly Passes Bill to Abolish Biological Sex” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/274475502_1280x720.jpg7201280Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-02 01:22:032016-06-04 23:37:56Massachusetts House Overwhelmingly Passes Bill to Abolish Biological Sex
In an official White House statement, President Obama denounced the “harmful practice of conversion therapy,” a therapeutic method designed to help people overcome unwanted same-sex attraction.
“My administration is striving to better understand the needs of LGBT adults and to provide affordable, welcoming, and supportive housing to aging LGBT Americans,” the president writes in his Presidential Proclamation for LGBT Pride Month, a declaration that has become an annual tradition. “It is also why we oppose subjecting minors to the harmful practice of conversion therapy, and why we are continuing to promote equality and foster safe and supportive learning environments for all students.”
The latter is an apparent reference to his controversial federal guidance that all public schools and universities must allow members of one sex to use the restrooms, showers, and overnight accommodations (including dorm rooms) of the opposite biological sex or lose federal funding.
However, the president took the opportunity of his last pride month proclamation to reiterate his support for a federal ban on reparative therapy for minors, a position he shares with Hillary Clinton.
Their real agenda may have nothing to do with concern over the safety of LGBT youth, an expert tells LifeSiteNews. (Read more from “Obama Touts Transgender Restrooms, Blasts ‘Harmful Practice of Conversion Therapy'” HERE)
On May 13, the Obama administration sent a letter to public schools on the topic of transgender students and where they use the restroom. But the directive, issued as “significant guidance,” didn’t just apply to the bathrooms. It also entered the space of locker rooms, showers, dorms, overnight hotels, and other places you might not expect. Watch the video to see The Daily Signal break down where exactly the Obama administration’s bathroom directive applies, and where it doesn’t.
(For more from the author of “What Obama’s Bathroom Directive Really Does” please click HERE)
Lawmakers in Oklahoma have introduced a measure that would urge Congress to impeach Barack Obama over his controversial federal transgender guidance for public schools and universities.
State Senator Anthony Sykes and State Rep. John Bennett introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 43, which says that the threat to withhold federal funding if schools do not open their restrooms, lockers, and showers to members of the opposite biological sex “exceeds the authority of the federal government.”
The non-binding resolution asks the state’s delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives “to file articles of impeachment against the President of the United States, the Attorney General of the United States, the Secretary of Education and any other federal official liable to impeachment who has exceeded his or her constitutional authority” by participating in the guidance.
“The Constitution of the United States does not grant the executive branch of the federal government any authority whatsoever over the public education system, nor over the use of restrooms or other facilities thereof,” according to the motion, which currently has the support of 15 state legislators.
The non-binding resolution also asks the Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt “to defend, by any means necessary, the interests of this state against the overreach” of the Obama administration. (Read more from “Impeach Obama Over Transgender Rules, Oklahoma Legislators Urge” HERE)
By Peter Baklinski. A woman has been fired from a Macy’s department store for denying a man dressed as a woman access to the women’s fitting room.
“I had to either comply with Macy’s or comply with God,” said Natalie Johnson, 27, a former employee at the retail giant’s location in Rivercenter Mall, San Antonio.
According to Johnson, on November 30th she witnessed a young cross-dressing man wearing make-up and girl’s clothing exit the women’s fitting room. She told the man “politely” that the women’s fitting room was for women only, making it clear that he was not to make use of the room again.
The customer, along with five companions, argued in response that Macy’s is friendly to the LGBT community.
Johnson retorted that Macy’s doesn’t discriminate against religious beliefs, adding that it would go against her religious beliefs to act on a lie that a man was a woman. (Read more from “Macy’s Fires Woman for Refusing ‘Transgender’ Man Access to Women’s Fitting Room” HERE)
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Target Store Suing a Hero Who Saved a Young Girl
By DennisMichaelLynch. Michael Turner was shopping in Target back in 2013 when a crazed man named Leon Walls ran into the store and stabbed a 16-year-old girl, Allison Meadows. Turner responded like a true hero by grabbing a baseball bat and chasing Walls out of the store. He then proceeded to help Allison as she was bleeding. To this day, Allison thanks Turner for saving her life whenever she gets the chance.
Strangely, and sadly, Target is now suing Turner.
Target is going after the hero for “chasing Walls to the front of the store where he could have endangered more people.” However, no persons were hurt. The lawsuit against Turner comes after Meadows and her family sued Target for inadequate security measures in keeping the store safe. The decision for Target to unjustly sue Turner over a ludicrous allegation has angered the Meadows family. (Read more from “Target Store Suing a Hero Who Saved a Young Girl” HERE)
Maybe parallel universes really do exist. Maybe, as my husband and I hiked through the deep, dark forest a few years ago, we somehow crossed through a portal, a stargate into another dimension—a universe that, superficially at least, looks quite similar to the one I’d known most of my life.
I almost hope that’s true. I’d like to believe it, because in the world I now inhabit—which outwardly resembles the one I remember—everything seems to have been turned inside out and become utterly bewildering.
Yes, I find myself wanting to believe that weird matrix explanation and to resist the more likely truth that the world I grew up in could have changed so completely.
I’d like to believe that somewhere back there the world I accidently exited still exists—that world where gender was a fixed biological fact, determined at conception.
But no, this is not the Twilight Zone; it is not an inexplicable parallel universe.
This is 21st century America, and, according to an ABC news article on guidelines recently handed down by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education:
There is no obligation for a student to present a specific medical diagnosis or identification documents that reflect his or her gender identity, and equal access must be given to transgender students even in instances when it makes others uncomfortable, according to the directive.
Yes, we really do live in a nation in which our government tells us girls and boys should be able to share restrooms and locker rooms. We really do live in a culture that values transgender rights over basic morality and children’s safety.
But the very hard reality in this topsy-turvy world is that transgender people are hundreds of times more likely to attempt suicide than the general U.S. population.
And what does our enlightened culture do about this very sad statistic?
Well, we make it easier for people to transition to this sad and depressing lifestyle. Helping them struggle down the hard road of facing reality is just too judgmental; it’s better to let them move into a make-believe life in which they face a 4-in-10 chance of attempting suicide.
My father gave in to his make-believe transgender impulses and became Becky. He’d spent most of his life dreaming of making that transition. When he finally left his family and got what he’d long desired, he still wasn’t fulfilled.
He considered suicide, but, thankfully, resisted. But later, pumped full of unnatural hormones and chemicals and adorned in women’s clothing, he died a sad, confused, forgetful, and regretful old man.
I missed Harold, the one who, during his periods of resisting his impulses, treated me as a father should treat his daughter.
I miss him dancing with my little feet placed on top of his, his big hands reaching down to clasp my little five-year-old hands. I miss those days of his sexual sobriety when we worked together at his father’s seed company and went to lunch together. I miss all those times when he accepted the reality that he was Harold, a man—a husband, father, and grandfather.
I don’t miss Becky, or those transition times when my father gave in to his transgender impulses. I don’t miss him telling me, when I was just nine years old, of his desire to become a woman and then requiring me to keep that confession a secret. I don’t miss the fanciful alternate world he transported into, leaving my mother emotionally distraught and financially destitute.
My father was the one who had entered another dimension, a make-believe dimension. And rather than returning to the real world, he wanted the real world to accommodate his make-believe world.
That’s what this small but vocal minority and their enablers want from the rest of the real world.
I’d like to believe that world in which truth is objective, and children’s modesty and safety is more important than being politically correct still exists and somehow I might find the portal to return to it. Back to that world where adults looked out for children’s best interests, even if doing so meant saying no and then dealing with rather than succumbing to the resultant temper tantrum.
I’d like to think that, in that parallel universe I inadvertently ambled out of, women and children’s safety is still more important than appeasing a tiny-but-very-vocal minority.
But it appears I’m no longer in that universe. I’m in one where choices—no matter how illogical—trump obvious facts.
I find myself in a world in which stating a very plain and evident biological fact is now considered a form of hate speech.
I’m now in a world that tells me I must not only tolerate but also celebrate behaviors that in just a relative eye’s blink before were condemned as detrimental to society. (For more from the author of “My Dad Was Transgender. Why I Still Think Gender Can’t Be Changed.” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/hqdefault-8.jpg360480Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-05-28 23:37:282016-05-28 23:51:05My Dad Was Transgender. Why I Still Think Gender Can’t Be Changed.
