Greeting fellow swampers and those who prefer to remain dry.
It has been a while since I shared with you some new insights gained from the world of genetics and political diversions. Fear not, your diligent swamp observer has been busy in the past few weeks (after digesting a really large pre-thanksgiving meal).
There have been too many people who are shocked/surprised when they actually meet me or talk to me on the phone, and find out I am not a 28-year-old man with olive skin.
The 28-year-old man with olive skin (my avatar) is Mr. Universe from the movie Serenity, just as my handle is a famous (and beloved) quote from that character:
"Can't stop the signal, Mal."
I am anything but a Biblical scholar...but I have read the book. When one is an avid reader as a child, one reads whatever she can get her hands on. It was one of the texts in our small home library.
I have absolutely no knowledge of the languages in which the book was originally written. so I'm afraid I'm going to take Rabbi Mark Sameth's word for what what is contained in his essay which appeared in the New York Times on Thursday: Is God Transgender? Rabbi Sameth is writing a history of the Tetragrammaton.
This will be a series on my part, although I can't guarantee timing, because I am schedule-challenged.
My rules for commenting are be respectful and kind, and understand that gender is a really sensitive topic for many people. Please try to listen and not attack each other. Men and women are all welcome to comment. Thank you.
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When Bernie first decided to run for President as a democratic socialist, challenging the extreme income inequality that advanced capitalism has brought to our society, I was excited. His message was echoing the Occupy Wall Street movement’s slogan that 1% of the wealthy owned more than the other 99%. Bernie was going to bring the concept of class struggle between working people and the corporate elite back into the political conversation!
The mother of the trans girl at the center of the controversy in Palatine, IL has posted an essay by the title name at the ACLU-IL website.
The ACLU of Illinois is representing the family in their dealings with the school district. The mother writing the essay says that her daughter's friends call her "the most famous anonymous student." Her daughter is "Student A" in the legal proceedings.
[O]ur daughter is “Student A” at the center of the recent controversy over whether a girl who is transgender should be permitted to use the girls’ locker room. The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights says yes. Our school district — Township District 211 — insists that students “of the opposite sex” should not be permitted in the girls’ locker room.
For the record, we agree with District Superintendent Daniel Cates about not permitting students of the opposite sex in the locker room. But the inconvenient fact for Mr. Cates and his supporters is that our daughter is not “of the opposite sex.”
She is a girl.
The district wrongly assumes what many who are not educated about the issue assume: That what makes a girl a girl and a boy a boy is simple anatomy. We believed this, until our daughter came along. Despite early signs — from as young as four, when she declared herself a girl, to the fact that she had mostly girlfriends growing up, played with dolls, begged to wear girls’ clothes, insisted on wearing a Hannah Montana wig while she danced around the living room, and was heavily distraught over the male characteristics of her body — we were still shocked and ill-prepared when, at the end of seventh grade, our daughter again told us that she was a girl and had to live openly as one.
