Pam Spaulding's Blog, page 6

Wilton Manors Gays Kick Bigot Allen West To The Curb

Representative Allen West (R-FL) tried to reach out to the Wilton Manors Business Association for an audience. He found many in that community weren't too receptive.

When word leaked out that he was scheduled to address the Wilton Manors Business Association in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the local reaction was swift.

Legislative Director of the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus, Michael Emanuel Rajner, wrote Business Association President Celeste Ellich:

This morning I was shocked to read your email below announcing that WMBA is hosting anti-gay and fear-mongering Allen West who in his role has publicly worked to advance social injustice.

In 2000, I moved to Wilton Manors because it was a community that openly welcomed GLBT-people. Since that time, we have watched the City grow, embrace its diversity, enact anti-discriminatory LGBT-inclusive protections for all City employees, and extend the same protection mandate to vendors doing business with the City. I personally worked with our mutual friend, former City Commissioner Joe Angelo, to advance these protections in a City Ordinance. I know we share this vision for the City.

He included many examples of West's unacceptable positions and inflammatory, uncivil rhetoric. Rajner concluded:

Celeste, I’m demanding that you take a courageous stand of leadership for the rights of GLBT-Americans as President of the Wilton Manors Business Association and disinvite West to your August 8th meeting. If not, GLBT-community leaders and other social justice advocates will: Call for your resignation; Call on businesses to disavow the Wilton Manors Business Association for placing profits ahead of human rights; and Call on the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender-community to boycott any and all businesses who are a member of the Wilton Manors Business Association, including GLBT-owned businesses willing to put profits ahead of human rights. Yours in the struggle for social justice.

The response was populist as well as political. Reports the Florida Sun-Sentinel:

John Zieba, an owner of Rosie’s Bar and Grill, which caters largely to a gay and lesbian clientele, said he wanted the event cancelled.

His business was one of the newest members of the Wilton Manors Business Association – and as such was listed prominently on the business group’s website. After the West invitation made news last week, he got about 15 emailed complaints from angry people, some of whom said they wouldn’t patronize his establishment.

He emailed Celeste Ellich, president of the association, said that if the group “was going to continue to welcome this speaker or any other speaker with those messages of inequality and injustice we would be resigning from the association.”

He said plenty of other speakers could talk to association members about business issues who “don’t vehemently oppose the basic values of a lot of people in our community.”

Zieba said he respects “anyone’s right to be able to come into speak. I respect anyone’s right to come and rally against it.” He also said the proposed boycott of business association members was ill conceived.

The Association rescinded the invitation.
President Ellich tells the Sun-Sentinel:

Ellich said she heard from many people who wanted the appearance cancelled and others who said West should be allowed to speak. If the event proceeded, she envisioned people protesting his appearance and counter protesters demonstrating in favor of West.

Just a little sampling of some of West's greatest LGBT hits:

• Marriage Equality will lead to the extinction of the human race:

The term ‘gay marriage’ is an oxymoron. Because marriage is a union and a bond between a man and a woman to do one single thing: the furtherance of society by procreation, through creating new life. Have you ever read the book America Alone by Mark Steyn? It’s about demographics. And if we continue with a cycle of debt and punishing our unborn then it just becomes a matter of time before you don’t have society.

• DADT repeal will break down the military:

"When you take the military and you tell it they must conform to the individual's behavior, then it's just a matter of time until you break down the military," he said.

He rejected the comparison to racial integration of the military.

"Let me explain something to you," said West, who is black. "I can't change my color. People can change their behavior, but I can't change my color."

• West laments there are already gays in the military:

"Well unfortunately, they are serving, you just said that. But the thing I think you are looking at is, the military, the mission of the military is not to accommodate sexual behavior. Let me tell you something as a commander. I fined people for not having the proper haircut. I kicked people out because they couldn't run fast. I kicked people out because they couldn't do pushups. I kicked people out because they were overweight.

West too has a long, cozy history with religious extremists hate groups. It probably fair to say West's religious bigotry and misogyny wouldn't make his presence any more welcome to many potential audience members.

Which is exactly what City Commissioner Julie Carson had to say about the situation:

While the Wilton Manors Business Association and its members are free to invite speakers of their choice, and the City of Wilton Manors provides a great venue for those speakers, it is ironic that Allen West will address a group of business owners, many of whom are GLBT, and others whose businesses rely in large part on the currency of the GLBT community.

The good residents and business owners of Wilton Manors know that Allen West’s anti-gay, misogynist, and disreputable rhetoric have no place in proper civil or political discourse. His extremist views are not reflective of the soul of American Society, nor are they representative of the heart of the Wilton Manors business owners and residents who struggle to eradicate the very hate speech that the Congressman spews.

Wilton Manors Mayor Gary Resnick stayed out of the dustup telling Florida's Sun-Sentinel of the business association:

“It’s not a city group. They can decide to do whatever they want to do.”

Of course, like in the Debbie Wasserman Schultz debacle, (who West called "vile, unprofessional, and despicable," "a coward," "characterless," and "not a Lady," and demanded that she "shut the heck up."), he can't leave well-enough alone. He has to show everyone who's boss. It's the gay people who are really the intolerant ones says West, since they won't welcome him to come spit in their face. From a letter he released (PDF):

Many individuals over the last few days have stated that while they might not agree with all of the issues I have taken in Congress, they believe it is important to hear from their Representatives. For those individuals, I want to thank them for standing up for freedom of speech and public discourse These are the foundations of our nation and what makes the United States of America an exceptional nation.

In these very tough economic times, I find it intolerable that Florida Gay, Lesbian, Trangender Democratic Caucus would all upon a boycott to hurt small business owners trying to earn a living and only wanting to better be informed about business related issues from their Member of Congress. Clearly, we have learned who really are the intolerable individuals in South Florida.

Yes, it's the people who can't tolerate intolerable language who are intolerable.

Like many people, Representative West confuses his right to speech, with his right to a venue.

The Constitution guarantees us all the former, and no one the latter.

Representative West remains free to speak his mind as he sees fit, as demonstrated by his press release, and his access to the continued bully pulpit of his office. I presume his office is still accepting calls from constituents that would like to discuss their business concerns with the Representative? I certainly hope he does not only make himself available to constituents at public speaking events.

The free market of ideas, however, did not work in West's favor here. The Wilton Manors Business Association apparently felt there was more for the association—and the community—to lose by granting this bully another pulpit than they stood to gain.

And so it goes.

NOM whining that Al Franken 'ambushed' Tom Minnery

crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

Over two weeks after an incident in which a Focus on the Family spokesperson was busted during a Congressional hearing for distorting a study, the National Organization for Marriage is trying to sneak in a defense of that spokesperson.

On July 20 during a Congressional hearing on the Defense of Marriage Act, Sen. Al Franken called out FOF's Tom Minnery for misrepresenting a study on families to make the case that children do better in a heterosexual household as opposed to a same-sex household.

It was a two minute exchange which was played constantly over the blogsphere. And while some members of the religious right tried weakly to defend Minnery, the gist that Franken had caught him lying was unshakeable.

Now, NOM has something to say about that. Or rather the organization linked to a piece written by a woman named Carrie Daklin of Minnesota Public Radio.

The entire point of Daklin's piece was not focused on whether or not Minnery had tried to deceive, but rather the ridiculous point that Franken was mean to Minnery:

I have testified in a trial. It is not fun, it is not exciting. It is stressful. You are out of your element. Your adversary is salivating to get you to say something he can spin, some little something he can magnify out of proportion and use to his advantage. As an experienced paralegal I knew this when I testified, and I was in hyper-vigilant mode because I knew it. Imagine what it is like for someone who has no knowledge of the courtroom.

I have no knowledge of congressional hearings. I have never been to one. I can only hope that if I did have to testify before the Senate, whoever was questioning me would be kind, would recognize that this was his sandbox, not mine, and that, as a representative of our country, he would not embarrass me for his own purposes.

Sadly, when Tom Minnery testified, that was not the kind of treatment he received from Al Franken.

Where is my violin?

This was a serious hearing about a subject which affects millions of Americans. Minnery was offering testimony which was supposed to accurate. But his testimony was not accurate and Franken called him out on it.

If Daklin is truly concerned with how Minnery was treated, I suggest that she contact him expressing the wish that he get his ducks in the proper row should there be a next time he is called to testify in front of Congress.

As for NOM, is anyone really surprised that the organization weighed in on the issue when it thought people had forgotten about it and that it gave a weak defense of Minnery designed to craftily change the subject.

Apparently those leaving comments on this blog post are also in on the act. One commentator, in an attempt to prove Franken wrong, actually cited a Politico article on the matter. Of course she omitted the portion of the article in which the original author of the study said that Franken was actually correct.

 

Equality Matters puts the entire thing in the correct perspective:

It makes sense that NOM would focus on Franken’s style and not the substance of his argument; the group is no stranger to manipulating and misrepresenting studies in order to claim that gays and lesbians aren’t capable of being effective parents. In fact, NOM chairwoman Maggie Gallagher did just that, under oath, during Congress’ last hearing concerning the Defense of Marriage Act. 
This is a trend with groups like NOM and others in the anti-gay movement. As Judith Stacey, Professor of Sociology and Gender and Sexuality at New York University wrote in 2004: 

According to the child protection discourse that Professor Wardle, Maggie Gallagher, and others deploy, social science research demonstrates that legalizing same-sex marriage poses dangers to children and families… In particular, claims that research establishes the superiority of the married heterosexual-couple family and that children need a mother and a father conflate and confuse research findings on four distinct variables - the sexual orientation, gender, number, and the marital status of parents… Unfortunately, opponents of same-sex marriage, like Maggie Gallagher and Professor Wardle, and even some advocates, draw selectively, indiscriminately, and inappropriately from research findings about all four variables to address questions the studies were not designed to, and are not able, to illuminate. [University School of Quinnipiac Law Review, via Lexis, 2004, emphasis added]

UPDATE - Now the American Family Association - via its phony news service One News Now - is continuing to push the false narrative that Franken "was mean" to Minnery.  It's interesting that both this phony news article and Daklin's piece emphasizes the fact that Franken is a former comedian while de-emphasizing the simple fact that Franken was correct about Minnery's fraudulent testimony.

 Related post: Tom Minnery's lies are commonplace in religious right data

The wife of ACU head Cardenas: Gays 'are in our faces with...non-stop bombardment!!!'

I had to post this follow up to the earlier news that the American Conservative Union (ACU) has barred GOProud from co-sponsoring next year's CPAC. ACU Chair Al Cardenas is behind the move, and it's pretty clear it's not about political differences with the conservative gay org (there are actually few differences on that front), but naked homophobia. Why?

In light of his wife Diana's world view about TEH GAY, revealed today by Steve Rothaus of Gay South Florida in a red-hot-homophobic Facebook rant, it's clear that this is one family that philosophically rolls with the LaBarberas, the Phelps Klan and other extremist homophobes and certified hate groups.

You have to read this to believe it (via Scribd),  preserved for the ages, in case Diana decides to do a little deleting on FB):

One snippet of the proposterous bigotry in her rant about marriage equality:

Rena, it IS a threat to society. It is not nature's way. They can't procreate, can they?....You hvae them in your family? Well, there is no reason not to like them or love them, the same way you would love one who has a disability, or an illness, etc. I just DO NOT want them pushing their agenda on the majority who are not. This is just about sexual preference--keep it in the bedroom!!!! It is not about being denied any constitutional rights.....Ana, I got your point.....I am just tired of this topic being shoved in our face continually by all these gay activists and I have to ventilate my feelings.... You know I always wondered why homosexuals are referred to as 'gay', kind of an oxymoron? Nothing really 'gay' about them or their movement......I am all for intellectual honesty too!!

You think the "conservative" Al Cardenas sees eye to eye with, um, say, Dick Cheney, and other major conservatives who have gotten over their "ick" factor and have come out to support marriage equality?  

The blogmistress trip to NY to see Journey on The Today Show

The usual disclaimer: it's an unusual break from political banter, so if this off-theme Journey post doesn't interest you, there's the regular brew of new content on the Blend to consume....Also, for the "No Perry, No Journey" crowd - let it go. This is not the place to stir up that argument.

I'm back in NC after a whirlwind (tiring) weekend of fun in NYC. I subjected my wife Kate to my Journey obsession and convinced her to go up to see the J-Boys perform on live TV.

Journey is one of the acts appearing on the Toyota Concert Series on the Today Show, held each Friday this summer, in the plaza outside the Today studio at 30 Rock.

As a die-hard fan, I wanted to get as close to the stage as possible, and both Today and the Journey fan site were offering VIP passes. I entered both lotteries and won 2 passes from the fan site, so I was stoked.

The weather on Thursday was great, but when we walked outside at 4:45 AM on Friday, it was a downpour with wind to boot! Blogmistress bad luck. Kate and I made our way to the VIP line, which still had a number of equally die-hard fans there patiently waiting to get access to the plaza at 30 Rock.

And we waited...and waited. Got drenched...but at around 6:15 AM, the NBC rep came out and gave us our fan passes to wear in, and around 6:30 they let us in. Kate and I ended up about 4-6 people back from the stage -- really good viewing if you were taller than my hobbitty 5'3". If I held my arms high and used my zoom, I could see very well. That came in handy later for pix/vid.

The crappy rain at 4:30 AM; but the fans were chipper; right: the band came out to rehearse a bit while the tarp was still up.

As the rain tapered off, there was hope that all would go off well; the NBC folks and roadies did set up and the sound check. And the band (guitarist and founder Neal Schon, current lead singer Arnel Pineda, keyboardist Jonathan Cain, bassist Ross Valory, and drummer Deen Castronovo), came onstage to check things out. Based on a conversation I had with a woman in front of me, the standard practice at this concert series on Today is that all the acts rehearse a few tunes around 7:30 (not on air, but for the fans), and in the 8:30 half-hour, Matt Lauer, Ann Curry and Al Roker come out for the live performance and interview.

Below is the rehearsal performance of Don't Stop Believing that I taped, it didn't air.

A note: the group had just played a concert the night before, hopped on a plane to NYC to do this gig -- as I said, starting at 7:30 AM. They also did the rocking City of Hope from the latest CD, Eclipse (link is to my vid), as well as an instrumental of Faithfully (Arnel needed to save his voice to hit those notes live; the crowd sang instead). Arnel turned in an incredible performance despite little sleep and no decent time to rest his voice; the Journey catalog is notoriously difficult on the pipes. From my pix:

The talented tenor hit all of his notes (I held my breath!), but it was clear that the current tour (some of these gigs involve 3 concerts in 3 days) is a tour of attrition - the power rock vox I heard in Vegas needs more than a couple of hours of sleep, but they still kicked it. I cross my fingers for AP. Arnel's stagecraft was spot-on as usual. Casual Journey fans, like Kate, were bowled over by this concert (she's an Arnel believer now), and my fellow Plokkers (fans from the AP web site; Gigi and Coley) were there to represent with a sign and did get on camera. Kate and I can also be spotted in a few shots (I'm in this screen cap below, via Jeremy Hooper).

When we went live, the band performed: Don't Stop Believing, Faithfully (viewers voted for this one, I voted for Separate Ways), Any Way You Want It, and from the latest CD, Eclipse, the rocking City of Hope. Interestingly, the band did 2 takes of DSB; I'm not sure if they used parts of each take for the West Coast airing, or whether Journey wanted a redo; both takes were good. I would have loved to hear more from the new album, but most of the folks in the audience want to hear songs the band calls "the dirty dozen" -- the greatest hits.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

While on the air, the group also received an award commemorating "Don't Stop Believing" as the most popular single of the 20th century, no small accomplishment.

Related:

* Journey's new CD, Eclipse: a group revitalized, energized and rocking hard

* Blogmistress heaven: five new songs from 'Eclipse' debut in throw-down set by Journey in Vegas  

American Conservative Union bars GOProud from co-sponsoring 2012 CPAC

Personally, I think this is a bad move by the American Conservative Union simply because it only proves that they cannot handle a group that is aligned with it politically in all other ways except for the fact the target group is headed up by gays. (Wash Blade):

The decision means GOProud won't be able to pay to have a booth at the exhibition hall, nor will the organization have its name appear on promotional materials for CPAC 2012.

Kristy Campbell, spokesperson for the American Conservative Union, said ACU Chair Al Cardenas took the issue of GOProud's participation - as well as other groups - to the board "given controversies surrounding a few CPAC 2011 co-sponsors" and "concerns raised by a number of our board members."

The board, Campbell said, voted to bar GOProud from CPAC 2012 co-sponsorship. She declined to comment on the final vote tally for the decision, nor would she comment on the board's reasoning for excluding the gay group from full participation at the event.

...Also last year, GOProud board chair Chris Barron took heat from conservatives after he described Cleta Mitchell, chair of the ACU Foundation, as "a nasty bigot" in an interview. Barron apologized, but ACU chair Cardenas told FrumForum that "it's going to be difficult to continue the relationship" with GOProud and expressed disappointment in the group's reaction to the furor over its participation at the event.

Of course Ted Olsen (a conservative in good standing) has already made the conservative argument for marriage equality, something GOProud has backed away from, btw, so the ACU now makes it look like it's keen to let its homophobic mask drop. This at a time when the country, including conservatives, are moving in the opposite direction regarding LGBT rights.

Here's GOProud's statement:

"We are deeply disappointed at the decision of the American Conservative Union to bar GOProud from participating in CPAC. They are well within their right to do so, but a decision like this will have consequences.

"For the last two years, GOProud has sought to support CPAC and keep the conservative movement united. Unfortunately, elements inside and outside of ACU have pushed their own narrow, divisive and sometimes personal agenda. They have done so at the expense of the conservative movement.

"What is truly sad is that this troubling development takes place at a time when we should be united and focused on defeating Barack Obama.

"GOProud has been and will continue to be an outspoken proponent of conservative values and conservative policy. This organization will continue to work to bring conservatives of all stripes together to save this country and defeat the left. Obviously, that work will no longer be done at CPAC, but it will be done."

Click the link to view the American Conservative Union's letter to GOProud - 7 29 11 ACU Letter to GOProud re CPAC

My guess is that this is really about the lambasting of power broker Cleta Mitchell last year; it likely ruffled too many ACU board members (see my post "Why conservative power attorney Cleta Mitchell bashes GOProud while her firm embraces diversity") and her personal history that informs her anti-gay views.

Dolly Parton Issues Statement on Dollywood Incident

Last week lesbian couple Olivier Odom and Jennifer Tipton were initially refused entry into Dolly Parton's Tennessee amusement park because one of the women was wearing a T-shirt that read, "marriage is so gay."

The women complied with the request to turn the shirt inside out, but they have been quietly working with park officials requesting sensitivity and diversity training.

Today Park matriarch and LGBT community favorite issued the following statement, via Advocate:

I am truly sorry for the hurt or embarrassment regarding the gay and lesbian t-shirt incident at Dollywood's Splash Country recently. Everyone knows of my personal support of the gay and lesbian community. Dollywood is a family park and all families are welcome." Parton adds that the policies on clothing or signs with profanity or controversial messages are in place to protect the person wearing the shirt and keep disturbances at the park to a minimum. Parton adds, "I am looking further into the incident and hope and believe it was more policy than insensitivity. I am very sorry it happened at all."

I spent a weekend in Pigeon Forge. A friend rented a cabin in the Smoky Mountains to celebrate his 40th birthday. A handful of us joined him, and of course we sojourned to pay tribute to Dollywood.

Glad to see Dolly's working on making Dollywood a welcoming and happy environment to all. This radical, New York City homosexual had a pretty awesome time at her park and would love to continue recommending it to all his friends.

NOM's Proposition 8 hypocrisy will not be forgotten

crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

The National Organization for Marriage has a link on its site talking about how the California Supreme Court will be hearing Prop 8 arguments on Sept. 6:

Breaking News:

California’s Supreme Court announced on Thursday that a new hearing date, Sept. 6, had been added to the calendar in the ongoing legal challenge to the state’s voter-approved marriage amendment.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals— where the Prop 8 case is on appeal — asked the state’s high court to determine, whether under California law, marriage amendment proponents “have the authority to assert the State’s interest,” since California’s governor and attorney general refuse to do so.

“The coalition of national organizations like Focus on the Family, and state organizations like all of the family policy councils, will not be deterred on the issue of marriage,” [Ron Prentice, chairman of ProtectMarriage.com's executive committee] added, “because it involves God’s heart, society’s future and a child’s protection.” --CitizenLink

You will notice that the link is from Focus on the Family and NOM doesn't even offer commentary on what this will mean for the state of marriage equality in California.

It's an ironic thing seeing that (according to NOM Exposed), the organization spent over 1.8 million in the effort to pass Prop 8.

But then again maybe it's not ironic, seeing that after spending that money to pass the law, NOM was nowhere to be seen when it came to defending it in court.

Sure, when the trial was over and Prop 8 was overturned, Maggie Gallagher, NOM's chairperson, appeared on news programs and wrote columns about how the case was biased against "traditional marriage."

Gallagher blamed the judge, she blamed the lawyers opposing Prop 8 - Ted Olson and David Boies, and of course she blamed the gay community.

But the one thing she never mentioned is just why didn't NOM testify in the case.  The defense of Prop 8 only had two witnesses and one of these witness, David Blankenhorn, not only didn't have the scholarly credentials but his testimony also ended up hurting the defense's case.

Some folks speculate that Gallagher didn't want to be cross-examined in regards to NOM's finances and the claims the organization made in regards to children being harmed by marriage equality.

And some folks have even speculated that Gallagher didn't want NOM to be exposed for its use of false claims about gays using marriage to harm children, which most likely would have happened had Olson or Boies were allowed to cross-examine her.

Now just who would speculate such things?

Most likely anyone who has any decent common sense.

 

Porno Pete Loses IRS Tax Exempt Status

Courtesy of David Roberts at Ex-Gay Watch blog comes this news of gay-sex obessed pervert Peter LaBarbera's The Truth About Homosexuality "non-profit":

According to the IRS, the tax-exempt status of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) was revoked on 5/10/2010 (PDF). The reason for this action is listed by the reporting organization Guidestar as a “failure to file a Form 990, 990-EZ, 990-N, or 990-PF for 3 consecutive years.”  These forms are required of legitimate non-profit organizations for review by the IRS and the public.

Aw, ain't that a shame? By the way, Roberts adds, "there is no process for appeal."

Fred Karger Tied With Newt Gingrich In National Poll

Well, isn't this interesting? News out of Fred Karger for President campaign tells us the openly gay GOP Presidential aspirant is tied with Newt Gingrich in a newly released Zogby national poll.

The question the campaign presents is, will Fred be heard at the Iowa Presidential debates to be seen on Fox News? Fox News released the criteria for its August 11, 2011 debate – an average of 1% in 5 national polls. Says the campaign:

“We’re almost there,” said Karger. "This is now the 3rd poll in just the past couple of months where I am averaging the magic 1%. For a first-time candidate, who has not raised millions of dollars, I am ecstatic about the results. Now we just need to score in 2 more polls and I will be standing on the stage in Ames, Iowa next month with the other candidates. As the only Independent Republican running, I look forward to getting away from the divisive issues and talking about the issues of concern to most Americans – jobs first, education reform and getting out of Afghanistan and Iraq now. I have been at this for 18 months and all that work is beginning to translate into support. We’re up from 0% just four weeks ago."

With his expressed interest in moving the Republican party away from divisive social issues, I am a little confused why LGBT Republican groups like GOProud and Log Cabin Republicans have offered no visible suport that I'm aware of?

It certainly would be nice if Fred had the opportunity to confront Bachmann and Pawlenty to their faces on their homophobia, on the Fox News stage. Seeing as Karger is tied with Gingrich and trailing Pawlenty by only a single polling point, I see little reason he shouldn't be invited, as those canididates doubtlessly will be.

An Example Of Controlling Antitrans Sentiments

Sheila Jeffreys recently complained about how trans activists have successfully petitioned a number of feminist and womens conference organizers to pull her invitations for her to speak at these conferences. The issue has been the antitrans sentiments that Jefferys expresses.

Here's Sheila Jeffreys stating that in the Radfem Hub article The Need For Feminists To Challenge The Practice Of Transgenderism:

I was pleased to be invited to speak at the 'Feminist' Futures Conference that took place in Melbourne 28/29 May, because in the last couple of years I have been disinvited from or vetoed as a speaker at a number of feminist events such as conferences or Reclaim the Night marches.

Usually what happens is that members of a collective veto me, or they succumb to a campaign by transgender activists that pressures them to disinvite me, on the grounds that I am a 'transphobe'. In the case of the Feminist Futures Conference the committee was brave enough to hold out against the campaign to disinvite me, which was mounted not just by transactivists but by pro sex work activists. I remained invited, but the campaign against me on the conference Facebook page, on a number of blogs and in letters to the committee was vitriolic and led to the committee inviting 4 representatives of the bullies to speak, and the placement of one of them on the panel I was to be on. I decided to withdraw and there follows the gist of the talk that I gave at an alternative event, named the 'Real' Feminist Futures Conference, which was organised at the last minute as a side event, and was very successful.

The campaign against radical feminists who criticize the harmful practice of transgenderism has been quite effective up 'til now in preventing any rethinking.

Radical lesbian feminist Sheila Jeffreys just explained how confronting antitrans sentiment works.

Let's again first reprise what the concept of antitrans sentiment is. From Bayard Rustin's essay From Montgomery To Stonewall, found in the book Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin:

[T]he job of the gay community is not to deal with extremists who would castigate us or put us on an island and drop an H-bomb on us. The fact of the matter is that there is a small percentage of people in America who understand the true nature of the homosexual community. There is another small percentage who will never understand us. Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Nor was our aim in the civil rights movement to get prejudiced white people to love us. Our aim was to try to create the kind of America, legislatively, morally, and psychologically, such that even though some whites continued to hate us, they could not openly manifest that hate. That's our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay sentiment.

To add the concept of "antitrans sentiment" to Bayard Rustin's take on what our job today is, I'd restate his commentary in this way:

[T]he job of the gay community and the trans community is not to deal with extremists who would castigate us or put us on an island and drop an H-bomb on us. The fact of the matter is that there is a small percentage of people in America who understand the true nature of the homosexual and trans communities. There is another small percentage who will never understand us. Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Nor was our aim in the civil rights movement to get prejudiced white people to love us. Our aim was to try to create the kind of America, legislatively, morally, and psychologically, such that even though some whites continued to hate us, they could not openly manifest that hate. That's our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay and antitrans sentiments.

Some of the antitrans sentiments of Sheila Jefferies are found in Transgender Activism: A Lesbian Feminist Perspective:

If a solution apart from self-mutilation is to be available to the gender dissatisfied then it is important to interrupt the confident promotion of chemical and surgical solutions, even to the very young, by the medical profession, the popular media and fashionable queer politics. Janice Raymond does not consider that legislation outlawing surgery is the right way forward. I am not so sure, and classifying transsexualism as a human rights violation would be a step towards making surgery illegal...Feminist human rights theorists have suggested that the state may be held responsible through its acceptance or promotion for violent practices against women. The state support for the agony of transsexualism though funding of the operations, for instance, and acceptance of the promotion of chemical and surgical solutions in its hospitals could be tackled via the recognition of transsexualism as a form of violence against the person and therefore as a human rights violation. It does seem that transsexualism is growing in significance as a form of the violent destruction of lesbian bodies, supported not just by the pharmacracy but by queer, postmodern theory and popular culture's exploitation of lesbians as freaks. It is time to open serious discussion of what the political response should be of lesbian activists ant theorists to this old by newly vigorous form of lesbian oppression.

And...

Since transsexualism is socially constructed then it is important to consider how to counter the promotion of the practice.

...The medical profession need not direct the gender dissatisfied to surgery. Counselling is possible to encourage clients to take a more political approach to their situation and to realize that they can rebel against the constraints of a prescribed gender role, and relate to their own sex in their native bodies. Unfortunately many doctors are so convinced of the existence of a phenomenon they define as transsexualism that they do not offer any approach apart from self-mutilation.

From Jeffreys' piece The Need For Feminists To Challenge The Practice Of Transgenderism:

Sterilization of the unfit is regarded with near universal opprobrium. This, I am quite sure, is the same fate that awaits the practice of transgenderism.

There are similarities and some dissimilarities between the two practices. The similarities include the forces that created the practice, scientists and the medical profession, the explanation, biology, the support from 'progressive' sectors of society,  in some cases a similar set of victims, lesbians and gay men, and the aim, social engineering,. In the case of transgenderism the social engineering should be abundantly clear. The practice straightens out those who are a problem for the politically constructed gender structure that founds male domination. Those who do not conform to gender rules, and homosexuals, are surgically reconstructed to fit in. A whole industry and politics has developed to carve 'gender' onto the bodies of adults and children. Maintenance of the gender system is vital to the survival of male domination. Any challenge to the idea of gender threatens the main justification for the subordination of women.

Another similarity lies in the result of transgenderism, i.e. the removal of reproductive capacity...[T]he offer by the medical profession of in the present of transgenderism as a cure for the extreme psychological distress that those who suffer anxieties created by the gender system can experience, can be seen as an inducement that negates the idea that the practice is freely chosen. Quacks have always thrived out of the despair of their victims.

Roz Kaveney's Six Axioms Of Transgender Activism tell us what antitrans sentiment looks like:

1.) Display solidarity with all our trans brothers and sisters.

2.) Build alliances by getting involved as ourselves in other areas of politics.

3.) Refuse to let journalistic and intellectual attacks on our community go unanswered - we can have and keep the moral high ground.

4.) Be creative, be smart, be ourselves, and don't let anybody tell us who we are and what we do.

5.) Refuse the pathological model - we are not sick, just different.

6.) Refuse those politics - heterosexism, body fascism - that work against all of the above, but especially #1.

Sheila Jeffreys is attempting to define who trans people are, and what trans people do. She's attempting to use the pathological model to define us as sick. Confronting her intellectual attacks -- by informing feminist and women's conferences she's slated to speak at by telling the conference organizers that her comments about trans community are unacceptable to trans community, and stating the opinion that she shouldn't be given a platform for the antitrans sentiments she expresses -- is trans community confronting antitrans sentiments per Bayard Rustin's concept of controlling the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay -- and in Jeffreys' case, antitrans -- sentiment.

This isn't squelching free speech -- this is just our intra-community allies a platform to a particular message free speech that a particularly oppressed subcommunity of the women's community finds offensive.

Sheila Jeffreys believe the times are changing, however. She states in her piece The Need For Feminists To Challenge The Practice Of Transgenderism:

I think a tipping point has been reached [in the campaign against radical feminists who criticize the harmful practice of transgenderism]. Support for the practice has been almost total on the left, amongst all those who see themselves as progressive, amongst feminists and queer theorists and activists. Now it is clear that a rethinking is beginning, in the medical profession and amongst an increasingly broad swathe of feminists.

I believe she's wrong, but we'll all see if the statement is true in years to come.