I rather suspect male genitalia are more important in fulfilling many of the functions of a husband than those of a mayor. IYSWIM.
Started out as a prostitute, and then went into politics and TV?
I was hoping she could better her life.
Regards,
Shodan
Good point. I believe the best hope of a couple’s staying together through one person’s transition is if the other person is bisexual. (Or better yet, “omnisexual,” a great word that doesn’t get nearly enough play. Bisexual means you get to choose toys from two toyboxes instead of one. Omnisexual means there are no toyboxes any more, just toys.)
Phalloplasty.
That depends. There is no single authority to determine gender legally. In the USA the answer depends on which authority has jurisdiction over a given case involving Mike. Driver’s license gender is not passport gender is not legal name change is not marital validity is not the right to use a men’s lavatory, etc. The rules for all these differ from state to state as well as federally. Transgender law is still so new and unfamiliar, no one’s figured it all out yet. It’s a crazy quilt patchwork at the moment.
Here you go, good luck-- http://www.transgenderlaw.org/
If only my parents could lock me back in the closet and lose the key, the problem would be solved, and they could pretend I’d never escaped. All I’ll say to that is: Remember Bertha Rochester.
Heck, I felt deceived and lied to by myself, having gone all those years without admitting it to myself. Nobody’s angrier at me than me for failing to admit it, all those years. As soon as I realized it myself, I told my wife. She understands and supports me. Our marriage has grown stronger and closer as a result of our opening and becoming more honest with one another for the first time as a result of working through this together. We have been falling in love with one another now more than ever before. We just celebrated our 21st anniversary and renewed our commitment to each other. I feel so blessed to share my life with her. We are each other’s support.
Earlier, I didn’t mean to sound like I was complaining about my lot in life. I feel blessed and grateful to be alive and experience real human feeling in all its pain, tragedy, beauty, and joy. I’ve never felt so alive and conscious as now. Transgender was extremely difficult when I first came out, but after I got estrogen everything went much better, like the difference between driving on a rocky rutted dirt road and then suddenly you’re on smooth new pavement.
Everybody’s marriage is unique. This is something I’ve never told anyone: My wife was inviting me to wear her things before I even came out to myself. Now we give each other jewelry, borrow each other’s things, and do each other’s beauty treatments all the time.
Ms. Beyer is an inspiration to equity-seeking people everywhere. I was honoured to meet her at the International Conference on LGBT Human Rights, where she gave a stirring address. She paved the way for trans people to take a place in society and the life of their countries in New Zealand and beyond. She’s a great figure in human equality.
I can feel the love.
I take it you’ve never seen Largo’s annual Maypole festival.
Pinellas County itself has a name that sounds like “penis” with a few extra letters, and is shaped like a dick dangling into Tampa Bay. That may explain a lot…
Wow. Are you being intentionally obtuse?
When Stanton was presenting as a man, she was considered trustworthy. When she came out as a woman, she was considered untrustworthy. Perhaps she was considered untrustworthy NOT either because she was a woman or because she was trans, but because of some third option. Like, for example, that she owed the council a duty of disclosure about herself and she failed to make it.
If the council believed that, then they could act as they have without needing to feel that either women or transsexuals are inherently untrustworthy. They could simply feel that someone working as closely with them as Stanton has without revealing this key piece of information was untrustworthy.
For example: is it relevant to the job of a city manager for the council to know if he or she is married? I can’t see how. But I can imagine that some council members might feel, on discovering that Stanton had been secretly married for 14 years but presenting herself as single, as though Stanton had been dishonest with them.
Again: I in no way support or endorse the council’s action. I just disagree with the statement that the council must, by their action, be understood to say that they believe all transsexuals are dishonest, or all women are dishonest. Neither conclusion is compelled by what they’ve said or done.
What if a city manager never bothered to disclosed that he was Jewish until 14 years after he contracted for the job (let’s say he suddenly decides to become more observant and begins wearing a yarmulke in public)? Would the Commission be granted any benefit of the doubt for claiming that he was “unethical” for never telling anyone he was Jewish and therefore unfit for the job
No, I’m not, but thanks for making this personal.
And again, at what point could she have made this disclosure and not been considered untrustworthy? I don’t see any point where, before hand it would have been okay for her to be transexual, and afterwards, it wouldn’t have been. What makes her coming out now unacceptable, and what’s different between now, and the undisclosed earlier point where coming out would have been hunky-dory?
First, Pinellas is not pronounced anything like “penis”. It’s either “Pin-ell-us” or “Pine-ell-us”, depending on whether or not you’re a cracker. Largo, which can mean “slow” in Italian, is perhaps a better analog.
Those of you who are quick to condemn a total population or geography based on a few elected officials and some Christian groups with an agenda are painting with the same broad brush that you’d abhor if used by others.
There are plenty of people in this area who support Stanton. My parents live in the same neighborhood with her. My mother, a 70 year old woman who regularly attends mass, told me as this first broke, “I really think they aren’t giving him a fair chance”. Even my father, who is a bit more bigoted, is not happy with the way his city is handling this. He thinks it’s “really none of their business” and
Cite: 350 Rally to Protest City Manager’s Ouster
Yes, we have idiots and assholes here. The Largo City commisioners may top the list. We have Rhonda Storms, Christian bigot and busybody extrordinaire from Tampa, but now, unfortunately, helping to write laws in Tallahassee. This is true of every community, although their influence varies. We also have a sizeable GBLT community, on both sides of the Bay, and a large number of decent and reasonable folks who, if not openly supportive, are at least willing to live and let live. It’s nearly always the idiots who get the headlines.
Dude, what if Jesus was the Terminator? It’d explain why he was so hard to kill!
Under the circumstances, there isn’t one. The only way Bricker’s point about failure to disclose might possibly be valid is if Stanton had gone on vacation, had the surgery, and come back with the physical alteration without telling anyone in advance. “By the way, folks, this is who I am.” Then, maybe then, the commissioners would have a point. And still only maybe.
The more Bricker ties himself into knots trying to explain the commissioners’ thinking, the more he demonstrates that there isn’t any thinking going on here.
I don’t know if this matters any, but it could be that what Bricker is talking about is disclosing the information to the council privately, to give them time to understand what’s going on before the information is made public. Even if it’s not something that would affect Stanton’s ability to do her job, socially she has something of a responsibility to let her colleagues and coworkers know what’s going to happen so they aren’t surprised when a woman walks into the office one day saying she’s Stanton. I can certainly see how the council might be upset if the announcement were made publicly without letting them know what was going on first.
The news articles don’t really say what sort of announcement it was, though, and in any case the reaction is well out of line if that was indeed the transgression. The reaction as quoted in the articles really seems to be more Ick Factor than any sort of principled outrage.
One of the articles I read about this (I don’t want to go searching for it now) disclosed that Stanton had a plan in place for coming out at her workplace, and had started following it (she came out to the mayor first, who was very supportive) but someone leaked the news and the whole thing blew up in her face. She didn’t just suddenly show up at the office with boobs, or hold an “I’m a chick now!” press conference.
Gotcha. I’m fully prepared to believe that. I have a friend going through the same thing, and she’s taking the exact same careful steps in her workplace. It’s the sensible way to approach it, especially when you don’t know who might get their panties in a twist over it.
Even being charitable to the council members who voted against Stanton, at best it looks like they’re just giving in to the visceral shock of someone they thought they knew being something else entirely, rather than rationally getting a hold of themselves. At worst it’s straight-up bigotry. I really don’t see any deception or loss of integrity on Stanton’s part.
The area now known as Pinellas County was given its name by the early Spanish explorers – originally La Punta de Pinal de Jimenez, or Jimenez’ Pine Point. It was at the time covered in pine trees and saw palmetto.
And as Shibb pointed out, Pinellas doesn’t sound anything like penis. And also, everything else he said, cause I agree with him completely. None of you would like me to base my entire view of your homes on a single incident of backward intolerance, and I’d appreciate the same consideration.
Why, sounds like a ratings gold mine to me!
I don’t see Bricker trying to explain the commissioners’ thinking or defend their actions. I see him making the purely academic point that they might be able to come up with a coherent explanation for their decision – not a moral explanation or even a legally valid explanation but one that at least has some chain of logic behind it.
Wouldn’t it be nice…
I apologize. I’m a native of Cleveland, Ohio.
I apologize too.
No one should have to live in Cleveland.