News & Articles

So now we are battling over which humans will use which bathrooms. At least a majority of us have accepted same-sex marriage, gays in the military, and that we have a number of distinctive sexes beyond just male and female. The scientific and anecdotal evidence is becoming overwhelming that humans have quite a wide range of “sexuality.” The religious forces in the world who believe that God created only straight male and females and that some evil Lucifer, Satan, snake, black cloud, or “intrinsically evil” astrological force has possessed about 10% of the earth’s population are gradually losing their philosophical grip on private parts. We are just beginning to understand how the billions upon billions of neurons snapping at each other in our brains affect our bodies and lives. We now know that the trite statement “I love you with all my heart!” doesn’t make biological and scientific sense anymore. The heart doesn’t think. It just pumps blood. That’s important to life, but it’s the brain that makes us human and drives all of our “functions.”  There’s not much doubt the brain controls and sends messages to what’s between our legs.                                                                                                                                
The story of Chris Mosier, a duathlon and triathlon transgender athlete featured in USATODAY, is illustrative of what members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community face in society. The 35-year-old says he realized at age four his gender identity and biological sex did not match, but after “three decades of agony” in 2010 he changed his name and started to get testosterone injections—and gave up his top ranking in the women’s triathlon category, a race of five miles, a 14-mile bike ride, followed by a 1.5-mile run. As a male he has now won a position on the U.S. sprint duathlon for the 2016 International Triathlon Union championships where he can qualify for the 2017 Long Distance Duathlon World Championships. As a male, Mosier consistently scores in the top third of his two major events. But this year’s national championship series, in which he must finish in the top 18 to advance, is in Cary, North Carolina. According to a North Carolina law just passed, he must use a bathroom that matched his gender at birth. That means the one with the door with the dress sign. Mosier’s response to the law: “I feel I need to be concerned about my well-being. I’m not as concerned in the race. But I’m going to be in a state where I don’t feel a lot of love. There’s the hotel, a restaurant, anything can happen…When I go to the restroom, trust me, I just want to pee….Where have there been cases of violence in restrooms? It’s a lack of understanding from the top, at the lawmaker level. They’re operating in a place of fear and it perpetuates the stereotype even more.”

The Fascinating Case Of Kendall Balentine Of Deadwood, SD, A Retired Marine And Deputy Sheriff

At age 48 Kendall Balentine, a retired Marine and a husky deputy sheriff, decided he had had enough of a secret life, and decided to fully transition from man to woman in 2015. He justified his decision this way: “All my life I put myself in harm’s way because I couldn’t be what I was. I decided now I was willing to die for who I am and fight for those who didn’t have a voice.” According to a Washington Post story, Balentine “knew” that he was a girl at a very young age, but his Vietnam-veteran dad would have none of it. He compensated for his femininity by becoming a masculine male dating lots of girls and majoring in collision sports. He worshipped the magnificent hunk of masculinity named Bruce Jenner who won a gold medal in the toughest Olympic event in 1976, the men’s decathlon. Over 30 years later after fathering the Kardashian klan Bruce became Caitlyn Jenner, appearing on the cover of numerous fashion magazines. Kendall joined the Marine Corps and later joined law enforcement agencies as a tough deputy sheriff, volunteering for the most risky assignments. She later said, “I built this wall of lies around me and it made me want to die.” At one point he attended a cosmetology school preparing to be a male makeup artist, but didn’t like the business and returned to the military.
After retiring several years ago, Balentine and his wife Pam retired to an isolated, seven-acre property next to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. It was here she decided to make the transition to female and underwent gender-reassignment surgery. Surprisingly, her father came and embraced her for the first time in her life, but only one of the children she fathered is supporting her change so far. In sparsely populated South Dakota, Kendall Nichole (new middle name supplied by her father) Balentine still struggles to find a transgender community for support.
When the Republican state legislature of South Dakota passed a bill requiring people to use bathrooms, locker rooms, and dressing rooms that differ from their present gender identity, Kendall was asked to lobby the governor by a national gay rights group to veto the bill. She did not hesitate. Wearing a “No Hate In Our State” T-shirt, she met with Governor Dennis Daugaard and told him her life story. A week later he vetoed the bill, saying that school districts “were best equipped to address bathroom and locker room accommodations,” not the state government.

Religion: A Devastating Mixture Of Love, Hate, Fantasy, Witchcraft, Female Evil, Snakes, And…….

Where does religious freedom end and civil discrimination begin? When ordinary citizens in the millions are not treated the same as hundreds of millions of other ordinary citizens. Population experts estimate that up to 10%  are members of the LGBTQ community. They also estimate that 100 billion humans have died that have once walked the earth; consequently there have also been about 10 billion LGBTQ who have walked the same earth. Current estimates put our transgender population at about 700,000, with 15,500 as members of the armed forces. The total LGBTQ population of the U.S. has members in every strata of society, business, religion, military, government, and every nook, cranny, and closet. It’s extremely difficult to name a species in the world that does not have an LGBTQ community. The Norwegians gave up trying to find a strictly “straight” species after studying 1,500 prominent species. Yes, even camels, horses, and worms. Yet we have major religions exposing their scientific illiteracy by pushing Leviticus and other Biblical pronouncements on their constituents.
We have ministers such as Pastor Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church of Tempe, Arizona calling for the mass extermination of LGBTQs “because God has called for it. No homos will ever be allowed in this church as long as I am pastor here. Never!” He has also given sermons on the evil of allowing women to speak in church as well as on the lying, evil ways of all the Jewish people. Sounds like a real Jesus Christ “Christian” to me. When the Boy Scouts of America lifted its ban on allowing gay adults to serve in leadership positions, Roman Catholic bishops in Bismarck and Fargo supported the medieval position of the Vatican on the LGBTQ community by issuing different orders. Bishop David Kagan of Bismarck ordered all parishes and schools to cut all ties with the national Boy Scouts. Fargo Bishop John Folda evidently didn’t go that far-maybe. He stated: “While we have some questions about the application of this new policy, it is my hope that Scouting remains a viable option for Catholic youth of the Diocese of Fargo.” He also stated he hoped the leaders of the 13 Catholic-chartered troops in the Fargo Diocese would “continue to act in accordance with the church’s teachings and select volunteers based on character and conduct consistent with those teachings.”  I think he’s stating gays do not have the character and conduct to lead troops sponsored by Catholic churches. Correct me if I’m wrong. Thirty million law-abiding citizens lack the character and personal conduct to lead? Examine gay leadership in business and government.

Democracy In Action And The Backlash Of Religious “Freedom”

All of the recent laws and legislation about religious freedom is actually about religion, sex, and politics. The acceptance of same-sex marriage and gay life styles by the majority of Americans has dealt a serious blow to attitudes about it being “intrinsically evil” and against all “Christian” teachings. And the idea that a transgender should use the gender bathroom he has “transed” to has aroused religious and certain political leaders to excite their parishioners and constituents. The Human Rights Campaign is monitoring about 200 measures in 34 states concerning religious freedom. Cheryl Petterson of St. Louis Park covered the subject well in a Star Tribune letter where she considered the protests about the Target decision on bathrooms. She commented on a critic’s statement that “Target has no right to force the vast majority of its customers to cave to the highly unique needs of the transgender people.” She responded:”I found myself wondering what ‘unique needs’ those are. A nicely dressed to-all-appearances female goes into the women’s washroom, goes into a stall, emerges a little while later, washes her hands and exits. A to-all-appearances young (or older) man goes into the men’s restroom, goes into a stall, emerges a little while later, washes his hands and exits. What are the ‘unique needs’ of either of those people? And how can an outside observer tell if they are transgender?” She nails the “problem.”  I might add—they both probably had to pee.
Oxford, Alabama had passed an ordinance making it a criminal offense for people to pee in bathrooms that do not correspond with the person’s original gender, making the punishment six months in jail or a $500 fine. It was repealed after a week. Authorities claim the law was passed “to protect our women and children.” Actually there has never been a case of a transgender person molesting anybody in a public bathroom. The American Family Association is pushing an online petition asking people to boycott Target over its bathroom policy. So far it has gathered over a million signatures. The petition reads: “This means a man can simply say he feels like a woman and enter the women’s restroom. Target’s policy is exactly how predators get access to their victims.”  With 700,000 transgenders loose in the country one might think that maybe one incident of molestation has occurred. The Association is sending men into women’s restrooms in Target stores to test the idea that its facilities are transgender friendly. It’s a funny way of expressing religious freedom. Maybe those spies will wear long beards and culottes.

Chicago Has The Right Idea

The 660 Chicago public schools require schools to accommodate transgender students and staff according to their gender identities in bathrooms, locker rooms, and on overnight trips. The policy also allows transgender adults to chaperone field trips. Transgender students are also able to take physical and sex education classes, and join clubs, sports teams, and other school activities according to their gender identities.
Ellen Krug, a Minneapolis lawyer who transgendered from male to female, who is “incredibly grateful” to Target, made this statement in a Star Tribune column: “In reality, most of the people seeking to demean me and other transgender people have absolutely no idea what it means to actually be transgender. Nor do they appreciate the challenges and difficulty of being true to one’s self and what it takes to tran