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Showing posts with label Election 2016. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Election 2016. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Texas Federal Judge Grants Injunction to Group Who Wants to Discriminate against Trans People's Right to Health Care

Yesterday, I read an article online in the Washington Examiner that a Federal judge in Texas granted a temporary injunction against regulations in the Affordable Care Act that mandates health care providers provide medically necessary health care services to people who identify as transgender.

 "The Catholic Benefits Association, which represents more than 700 Catholic employers including many hospitals, filed a lawsuit in federal court Dec. 28 in an effort to get its members exempted from the rule. Five states and several other Christian healthcare providers are already fighting the requirement in another case against the rule. A Texas judge halted the rule over the weekend.

The rule, which went into effect Jan. 1, says that doctors can't refuse to provide medically necessary health services within their scope of practice because of a patient's gender identity. For instance, a gynecologist couldn't refuse to perform a cervical Pap test for a transgender man .The rule doesn't explicitly require doctors to perform gender transition services, but it says providers can't refuse services they already provide based on discrimination. The Department of Health and Human Services wrote that it would deal with complaints of discrimination on a case-by-case basis, by looking into whether a doctor provides the same service when it's not related to gender transition.
"These provisions do not … affirmatively require covered entities to cover any particular procedure or treatment for transition-related care," the rule says." ( Washington Examiner 1/3/16)

Those who are suing believe that the rule can be interpreted so that medical providers would be compelled to specifically provide medical care for medications and procedures that are directly related to transitioning, such as prescribing hormones, gender reassignment surgery, feminizing voice therapy, or mental health services.

I think that their argument is specious at best; no health care professional can be compelled to practice in an area that they have no training or expertise (or interest for that matter). As a transsexual, I would not wish to place my health care for specific services that related to my own transition in the hands of a provider who did not have expertise in those areas related to my transition and ongoing medical care.

However, there are many areas of health care that we receive that have nothing to do with our transition. For instance, everyone needs to have the blood chemistrys, lipids and blood counts done done once or twice a year as part of routine health care. People need to be treated for high blood pressure and screened for breast cancer, colorectal cancers and other health conditions related to aging, regardless of their gender identity if they are biologically at risk for these conditions. I'm reminded of Robert Eads, who had ovarian cancer and was unable to find health care professionals in Georgia who refused to investigate symptoms that suggested cancer until it was too late for him to be cured and he died needlessly due to blatant discrimination based on his identity. I think such callous treatment of any human being is criminal.

It is concerning that some members of the new Trump Administration appear to be opposed to transgender rights established by the Obama Administration, notable Vice President elect Mike Pence. The nominee for the Health and Human Services Tom Price has also voiced opposition to the Obama Administration's policies as well, but Obama's agenda included allowing those who have not had gender reassignment surgery to use locker rooms and showers with cis gender individuals and personally, while I am for free access to public rest rooms, I think the Obama Administration's position on locker rooms and shower facilities were only trying to create a political wedge issue and there would have been much less opposition to enacting rules that allow for bathroom use only. 

It is difficult to find whether these individuals are strictly anti trans in every circumstance or whether they have more nuanced views. Primarily, I find the truth difficult to come by because the media is openly biased and does not report the news objectively any more. Transpeople are lumped in with GLB coalitions and people don't even understand who we are. The media certainly doesn't distinguish in reporting news that pertains to us. In any case, I think that if a health care professional refuses to provide medically necessary treatment that is non transition in nature, that health care provider should lose their license to practice.

 Again, time will tell. Mr. Trump himself appears to be at worst, neutral towards transgender people, and in some instances has expressed support for us.

I think it is incumbent for us to communicate with our legislators of every political persuasion by writing to them and writing in a respectful and well reasoned tone about what we believe. If one wants to persuade a legislature, one should not engage in hyperbole or be antagonistic in nature. We have more to gain by respecting civility, rather than engaging in a rant. 






Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Reply to Edy on my last blog article "Time Loves a Hero"

Generally, I would have responded to Edy's comment which was polite and respectful as a reply under her comment but because I expanded my remarks in detail, it was too long there to post and instead I will post it as a separate blog article. Please read Time Loves a Hero to put this entry into proper context!

 Dear Edy,
Thanks for commenting on my blog. Originally, I supported Ted Cruz because of many problems confronting our country that are much larger than the ones I have as a transsexual.
 Our current circumstances remind of what John Kennedy said- “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Too often it is about what the government is going to do for me, anymore. I prefer to live my life with minimal interference or social engineering from the government.
Originally, I was for Ted Cruz because of what he stood for: Strong borders preventing people from entering our country illegally, a strong national defense, the willingness to prosecute a war against ISIS and Islamic terrorism, here in our country and abroad, and rebuilding the economy which has been pitifully lagging for the past 12 years or so. We need real jobs for people, not a lot of low paying part time jobs with no benefits that people can’t live on and no potential for potential career development. Initially, Ted Cruz looked as though he could deliver that better than the other Republican candidates.
It was towards the end of the primary election process that I learned what Ted Cruz was saying about people. As a result, I determined that Donald Trump would be the candidate I would support.
You mention the bathroom issue in North Carolina for being shocked that I would support Mr. Cruz or Mr. Trump. I believe the left created a problem where one really didn’t exist to attempt to create a wedge issue with voters.
This problem didn’t originate in North Carolina. It was originally created by the City Council of Houston, Texas, controlled by the democrats. They held a referendum on an ordinance for transgender rights to use public restrooms. People like me have been using the appropriate bathroom to our gender identity for quite some time. For the most part there have not been problems, particularly if we assimilated into our gender identity and have had our legal documentation changed. For the most part, the general public is not very well educated about the lives of transgender people. We have been largely invisible, something that has worked for me very well. I prefer it that way. The referendum was defeated, public attention and scrutiny of people who previously had no problems suddenly had unwanted attention cast their way. In response the City of Charlotte North Carolina passed an ordinance allowing transgender people to use the bathrooms appropriate to their gender identity. This provoked the North Carolina legislature to pass HB2 prohibiting transgender people from using the bathroom that is appropriate for them to use. Prior to the left getting involved there was not much of a problem. So I am saying “Thank You very little” for making my life more complicated.
Then to dump gas on a fire, Obama comes out saying transgender people will be allowed to use locker rooms and shower facilities. To me it’s an attempt to use people like me as pawns in the struggle of identity politics. I am adamantly opposed to being used for a fight that only served to further marginalize transpeople. Being pre op, I have no place in a woman’s locker room. After I have GRS,  then  that is an entirely different manner. Think about this: Why on earth would I want to put myself in a position to make other women feel uncomfortable with my presence? I share the same sentiments as genetic women about privacy and feeling a sense of safety when I use these facilities?
The bathroom is a totally different situation. Women’s bathrooms offer much more privacy. Everyone uses an individual stall with a door. You go in, do what you need to do, wash your hands and check your makeup and hair.
Let’s face it, NO ONE like to have something crammed down their throats, particularly when it’s something relatively unknown. I surely don’t. That’s why I feel like the left has used us like pawns. They don’t really seem to care about us individually, just as a collectivist block of votes. They see us as expendables. That’s why I don’t support the Democrats. It’s been the same way with the Gay Lesbian and bisexual political organ: they threw transsexuals under the bus as expendables since the times I can remember. We are an afterthought.
The Republicans in North Carolina were stupid to react to the Charlotte city council. They have been played like a fine Stradivarius violin. As they are poised to repeal HB2 in a deal with Charlotte, now Liberal Charlotte threatens to pull back to repeal their bathroom ordinance. They would rather score political points against Republicans and Conservatives than do the right thing and make the whole bathroom thing a nonissue again.

In any event, my belief is that my inalienable rights as a human are not granted or removed by any government; they are bestowed by my Creator, no matter how you define the Creator.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Time Loves a Hero

“Oh they Say
Time loves a hero
But only Time will tell
If he’s real
He's a legend from Heaven
If he ain’t
He was sent here from Hell”
-Little Feat

Donald J. Trump has been elected the 45th president of the United States of America and it will be time that decides whether he is going to turn the U.S. around making us stronger militarily, internally safer, and an economically prosperous nation, or whether America has reached a point where it is impossible to turn our downward trend around and we become equally miserable with a low quality of life if Mr. Trump fails to govern in the manner he proposes.

It is laughable that the liberals, progressives and socialists are calling Mr. Trump a fascist when they were the ones who firebombed and vandalized Republican political offices in a number of states and they were the ones who were rioting and destroying property in places like Portland, or disrupting the ability of citizens to travel freely by disrupting traffic on interstates, highways and other streets. More often than not, those who engaged in these activities either were not registered to vote or failed to exercise their Constitutional right to do so. REALLY?! Isn't that activity the very nature of fascism?

Then we come to the issue of the Electoral College. How the liberals, democrats, progressives and socialists howled when Mr. Trump said he would wait to see the outcome of the election and how the outcome was determined before he would accept the results. How unprecedented such a notion was, they cried! Yet now they are the very ones trying to corrupt that process of our Constitution.

My, my my! How short the institutional memory of the left is! Was it not Al Gore who demanded that ever pregnant, dimpled and hanging chad be counted and that through divination the intent of invalidated cast ballots should be counted? Even then it was not enough. He took the election to the United States Supreme Court who turned him down flatly. That election went to the Electoral College. “Selected, not Elected…”, they brayed of the Election of G.W. Bush.  We also have the example of acceptance of election results as offered by John Kerry. “The election was stolen in Ohio…”, he droned on and on. Neither of them accepted the outcome of the election along with a peaceful transition of power in a democratically elected outcome.

Now in the 2016 election, we see the democrat liberals, progressives and socialists trying to corrupt the Electoral College. I think they are, the whole lot of them, hypocrites. Let’s not forget the futile recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania either. Spare no expense to delegitimize an election. That's ok, as long as Mr. Trump doesn't do it.

Mr. Trump was not my first choice for the presidential office. Originally, I supported Ted Cruz. In December of 2015 I wrote in an earlier blog article here-

“So why am I not a supporter of Donald Trump, you may ask? I am not a supporter of him for several reasons. While I agree with most of the things he says and what he says appears to resonate well with conservative people, the way he presents his views are unacceptable as he antagonizes people and does not try to persuade people who disagree with him. He does not present himself or his views in a presidential manner.
I also question whether he is a Trojan Horse, really a liberal democrat who is out to destroy any chance of electing an alternative to Hillary Clinton who will continue the policies of destroying our country that Barak Obama began. Apparently, he is a good friend of Ms. Clinton's too. I simply do not trust him to govern in a manner that is consistent with his stated political opinions. I do believe that he is an extremely divisive figure and not a uniting force in America”

I’ve come to change my views in some ways. I still have my reservations, but given the alternative, I believe that he was clearly the best person available to vote for.

Mr. Trump has seemed to moderate his tone and has been trying to bring the country together. He has, for the most part, been more presidential in his public speech, but I wish he would not use social media to make petty comments about trivial matters, such as how Saturday Night Live portrays him. I find that show to be irrelevant anyway. It hasn’t been very good since the early 1990’s.

I was obviously wrong about his being a Trojan Horse for the Democrat party. Originally, I thought he was very divisive, but I think he is much less divisive than a figure like Hillary Clinton and, unlike her, seems to want to be a uniting leader of the American people. If that were not true, he never would have won Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.  

It was revealed in Mrs. Clinton’s emails how she essentially holds most of America in contempt. It was obvious in how she got it wrong in her campaign slogan “I’m With Her”. Perhaps she should have put a little more thought into how that sounded and come up with “She’s With Us”. Her narcissism simply would never have allowed her to have that clarity of vision, ever.

I’ve also seen that he clearly is not a globalist and is invested in protecting American jobs and American workers. I highly approve of his picks for his cabinet. He is surrounding himself with people who know how to make business work for America and American workers. He’s also picking people who know how to run the military and understand what the purpose of the military is for, to be unencumbered by political correctness and to prosecute military action against our enemies without rules of engagement that prevent us from being successful in a defined military mission in which we can define the enemy and define success of the mission, instead of mucking about with murky goals and vague definitions of success. the majority of his selections for his cabinet and advisors are not professional politicians.

As is often the case, our politicians, as well as our citizens, embrace an ideal without understanding what the potential outcome may be of embracing that ideal. So it is with Globalism. I was asked not too long ago; when I thought that America began to go off the right track. I believe that it was with the election of George H.W. Bush who became president after Ronald Reagan. He was our first globalist president and every president elected has been a globalist whether Republican or Democrat. Globalism is going to lead to a totalitarian one world government run by the United Nations and until recent developments in the world, this appeared to be inevitable.

With the exit of Britain from the European Union and the possibility of other member nations exiting, such as Italy, in view of the disastrous results of events in Belgium, France and Germany as a result of their favoring Muslims terrorizing their citizens, the future of the E.U. is very much in question. I believe that nations serve the interests of their citizens best as individual nation states, not as collectivist experiments. It was this sentiment that helped elect Donald Trump and is a rejection of globalist’s agendas of free movement between countries.

As with any political ideology or movement, Globalism isn’t totally evil, nor are sovereign nation-states with their own ideologies and agendas who exist independently from each other pursuing their own agendas and destinies. Humans tend to be all or none in their thinking. They have difficulty discerning what is worth keeping and what is worth rejecting and have difficulty thinking critically and dispassionately. Mr. Trump seems to want to strike a balance between these dynamics.

What was the alternative? My opinion is that the alternative, to elect Mrs. Clinton, was to elect someone who is either so incompetent that she doesn’t understand the importance of keeping government classified information safe or she is so arrogant she believed that the rules of information protection didn’t apply to her. I think the latter is probably more true.

As Secretary of State, her tenure was a colossal failure. Her policies led to massive takeovers by Islamic radicals and Islamic terrorists of a number of Middle Eastern countries, and turned a blind eye and deaf ear to our Ambassador and embassy staff in Benghazi which led to their deaths. Then she lied to the American people about what happened.

She pushed for the admittance of undocumented Middle Eastern refugees, along with came a lot of Isis terrorists. When terrorist acts were committed by Muslims, she couldn’t even bear to say the words “Islamic terrorism”. Failure to diagnose is the surest way to lose our country.

She continued to advocate allowing illegal aliens from other countries to enter our country. Even if they committed heinous crimes such as child sexual assault, rape or murder, she defended their presence and was against deportation. Perhaps this is one of the most serious of her failings as someone to be entrusted with power in our government. Consider the reality of illegal aliens in America. They live in a state of poverty that our own people do not even know. They are exploited by the very people who advocate their illegal entry to our country by being employed in menial service jobs and paid far below what they would be paid for the same kind of work if they were U.S. citizens. They have no education, no skills and nothing to contribute to our country except to be exploited for their unskilled physical labor. Yet at the same time we are told that we should provide them welfare benefits and access to our system when we have other people who are applying for legal immigration to our country who have education and skills and who want to assimilate here into our culture, but they have to wait in long lines to come here legally. Where is the morality in that? It does serve the purpose of the globalists who want to cede our sovereignty to a one world government. At what expense? To reduce the entire country to a unified miserable standard of living much like what the people of the Soviet Union experienced? Is that the price of Globalism?

All the while, Hillary Clinton and her supporters accuse everyone who did not support her philosophy, world view and politics as intolerant and “haters” But it seems to me they are the most intolerant of all and most hateful of all. Personally, I can accept that people don’t agree with my opinions and world view, but rather than to label them as a “basketful of deplorables” as Mrs. Clinton herself did of those who supported Mr. Trump, I simply don’t agree with them. I can respect their views, but that is not true of how they feel about people who are like minded with my opinions.

The Democrat party’s biggest failure of all is to be able to look at why they lost the presidential election. Yes, we did learn the truth behind their lies when all of the emails of Mrs. Clinton’s server were revealed along with the Democratic National Committee and various party leaders in the government and in the party organization’s emails. It was not a very pretty picture on how they conducted their campaigns. If anyone stole an election, it was Mrs. Clinton and the DNC stealing the election in the primaries from Bernie Sanders. 

They cannot seem to reflect upon themselves and why over the last 8 years, they have lost the House of Representatives, the Senate, and two thirds of the states’ governorship and legislatures. Instead they want to blame it all on Mr. Trump, and the Russians who they believe exposed their corruption. Perhaps the Russians did expose their emails, but beyond that, they take no interest in understanding and learning why their ideologies are failing with the American people in larger numbers as time goes by. Mrs. Clinton, Democrats, aside from the northeast and the west coast, we are just not that into you. Rather than demonizing us, reflect upon your selves.


The people elected Mr. Trump because they are tired of professional politicians and tired of business as usual in Washington. Our government was meant to be run by citizens who serve and then go back to private life, not professional politicians. We are tired of voting for people who say they will do one thing and then do the opposite of what they were elected to accomplish. We are tired of Democrats and we are tired of Republicans who act like Democrats when it comes time to execute their duties as elected officials. That is why Donald Trump was elected. I hope he accomplishes what he sets out to do.  Whether he can or will do what he says he wants to accomplish, Time will tell.