NOTE FROM PAM: Adding some detail here. From the land of Falwell and Monica Goodling -- Regent University -- a pious pervert bites it.Stephen McPherson, a former Regent University law school assistant dean, pleaded guilty Friday in Chesapeake Circuit Court to sexually abusing children.In the indictment he was accused of assaulting girls between May 2000 and May 2002. The judge has ordered McPherson to "undergo a psychosexual exam."McPherson, 39, of Chesapeake entered guilty pleas to two counts of forcible sodomy and two counts of object sexual penetration. He is set to be sentenced May 22.
McPherson faces five years to life on each count. Assistant Commonwealth's Attorneys Karen Brown and Minna Sandwich agreed to withdraw nine other felonies against McPherson in return for his pleas.
This speaks for itself.
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/01/exregent-university-official-pleads-guilty-sexual-abuse
H/t to Above the Law.
http://abovethelaw.com/2009/01/lawyer_of_the_day_former_regen.php
How often does one get to be extremely offended and angered by reporting of an LGBT writer who visits an intimate trans space? That was me today, knowing I'd sat in a room with a clueless LGBT new media reporter this past Saturday at the Equality Summit's Transgender breakout session.
This excerpt below is from a piece is from the other new media reporter who went to the transgender breakout session -- she produced a piece for LA.MetBlogs:
I went to the tranny session and out of all the minorities struggling to find their voice in the LGBTI movement, none is between a bigger rock and a harder place than trannies. Generally considered a liability - as in, "You
Buffalo Bills and walking Thai surgery centers represent that slippery slope argument they keep talking about" - trannies are the black sheep of the LGBTI family. My group was stymied as to how to make their social and political challenges relevant to the movement without alienating the public and indirectly hurting the gay community as a whole. What I took away from this was: that's how non-white gays and lesbians used to, and still do, feel!
I left a comment on the blog:
I'm Autumn Sandeen, the other new media reporter who attended the Transgender breakout session.Your coverage of the Transgender breakout session is extremely offensive. To begin with, the word tranny is considered defamatory by GLAAD. Hey, I personally don't like being called a tranny -- you do not have my permission to refer to me as a tranny in the context of discussing trans people discussing transgender people's civil and marriage rights.
And, referencing to the Silence Of The Lambs' serial murderer when referencing the Transgender breakout session/transgender people in that room is just beyond the pale.
If I ever see you in a trans space again, expect me to ask you to leave. You're no longer welcome.
An LGBT writer who writes about trans people and hasn't first read the Associated Press Styleguide on the term transgender, GLAAD's Media Guide's Transgender Glossary, and the NLGJA Stylebook Supplement on transgender terminology shouldn't be writing about transgender people. It's easily knowable that tranny is considered a pejorative, defamatory term by many in the trans subcommunity of the LGBT community.
And, it's offensive in all circumstances to discuss transgender civil rights issues in the same paragraph where one references Silence Of The Lambs, Dressed To Kill, Psycho, or any other film where a transgender person is depicted as a serial killer. There is no room for discussion on that -- the LA.MetBlogs reporter's reference to a film's cross-dressing serial killer in the context of trans civil and marriage rights is just beyond the pale.
I feel infuriated -- and violated -- by that writer's coverage. How dare she call me and my peers trannies; how dare she reference Buffalo Bill in a paragraph discussing trans civil and marriage rights; how dare she write what she wrote after sharing intimate space with my trans peers and me at the Equality Summit -- How dare she!
~~~~~
Related:
* Thoughts On The Equality Summit's Transgender Breakout Session
Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFAA) has delivered a letter to the new Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, a request to support and work for full recognition of same-sex partners. The president of the organization, J Michelle Schohn, gathered the signatures of nearly 2,200 colleagues and friends across the State Department and foreign affairs agencies in support of the request by GLIFAA. Here is the letter that was delivered to Sec. Clinton today.
The missive was also sent to those heading up the U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Peace Corps and Millennium Challenge Corporation.The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520cc: The Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500Madam Secretary:
We congratulate you on your Senate confirmation, and we look forward to working with you in promoting America's interests and strengthening our national security in this rapidly changing world. Whether assigned stateside or overseas, Civil Service or Foreign Service, active or retired, we are all proud to be serving our nation.
We, the undersigned and representing the diversity of the foreign affairs agencies, would like to bring to your attention a matter that concerns us all. All of us are troubled that our families are not all treated equally and with the same respect. We are concerned that access to the federal health care insurance program is denied to same-sex partners of employees serving in Third World countries with substandard medical care. We question the logic of leaving same-sex partners to fend for themselves during an emergency evacuation of a high danger post. We are embarrassed when the Department will reimburse a variety of moving expenses, including the cost of transporting a pet, when an employee is assigned overseas, but will not do the same for a same-sex partner. We are saddened that individual and community safety are put at risk because full language instruction is not available to same-sex partners. We are uncomfortable that same-sex partners receive less compensation and fewer benefits for performing exactly the same job inside the mission as an opposite-sex spouse, that is, when same-sex partners are given a chance to work.
An order from your office designating same-sex partners as Eligible Family Members (EFMs) could remedy many of the inequalities that these families face. Other remedies will require coordination between the Executive and Legislative branches.
Madam Secretary, we believe that no colleague of ours is a second-class colleague, and no colleague's family is a second-class family. Given your commitment to protecting the safety and promoting the welfare of all Foreign Service families, we ask for your full consideration of our concerns and we hope that a dialogue aimed at ending this unequal treatment can be started.
Your loyal staff
What do you think the response will be from Sec. Clinton's office, and is she ready to speak out for equality now that the rubber meets the road? The host of issues raised in the above letter clearly shows the impact of irrational and illogical institutionalized discriminatory practices that affect the our country's diplomatic effectiveness abroad. Beginning the process of removing these barriers for same-sex couples representing our nation, given the host of other LGBT issues on the table, seems a relatively non-controversial and proactive way to open the dialogue on the Hill, where we know the resistance and spinelessness often lie.
Hat tip, Life After Jerusalem.
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