Excerpted from Gay British teenage male becomes carnival queen, published Oct 6, 2006, in the pro-homosexuality Washington Blade:

Wearing a tiara and flowing dress, 15-year-old David Bridge was cheered by thousands as the Blackberry Carnival queen in Axbridge, England, wire services reported.

[Click HERE to see the boy’s photo]

…The carnival committee was reportedly stunned by Bridge’s drag-themed audition, but was won over. “We had to decide which would offend people least, including David,” said carnival chair Robin Goodfellow, 66. “It was felt we couldn’t eliminate him just because he was male. This was the best solution on the day.”

Continue reading in Washington Blade…

Excerpted from Batavia Gender Controversy Persists, by Marketta Gregory, published Sept 15, 2006, in Rochester Democrat & Chronicle:

…”It seems like the administration is sweeping this under the rug and saying that any opposition is losing steam,” said Donald Shirk, the parent of a sophomore and senior pastor at Grace Baptist Church. “I strongly disagree.”

The district first heard about the teacher’s plans around Christmas; Shirk heard about it a little more than a week before school started. Since then, he and his assistant pastor, Mark Hurlbut, have been scouring medical journals, researching court cases and writing editorials saying that students shouldn’t be made to assist in the teacher’s treatment.

“This hit our community like a tsunami,” Shirk said. “Now we’re caught up in the surf.”

Other pastors have contacted Shirk, and they are hoping to start a petition to show that not everyone approves of the actions that have been taken by the school district. Also, a national group that offers free legal counsel to advance religious freedom has written to Stutzman, saying that students’ religious rights are being violated.

Attorneys working for the district wrote back to the Florida-based Liberty Counsel and explained the school’s position.

Meanwhile, the district has heard from several parents who support the teacher and what the district is doing. And even some of the people who don’t agree with sex reassignment surgery understand that the district is doing what it must do, Stutzman said, adding that gender identity disorder is considered a disability and protected under New York law.

“There are no other options in New York state.”

Continue reading at Democrat & Chronicle…

Excerpted from NY Transsexual Teacher Inappropriate Role Model, Says Knight, by Jim Brown, published Sept 13, 2006, by American Family Association:

…School officials announced a male teacher at the high school — who has been diagnosed with a “transsexual disorder,” says AP — is going through a medical transition and is dressing as a woman. Bob Knight with the Culture and Family Institute says the district should be putting the interests of its students first, but “like much of the public educational blob, is [instead] showing utter contempt for the parents.”

Knight contends that, by its actions, the district is telling parents it does not care if children become “sexually confused” by the transsexual teacher, or that someone “with a serious gender-identity disorder is being placed as a role model” in front of the students. In addition, he suggests the district is so committed to what he calls the “pansexual revolution” that it is telling parents “you’re going to go along with it, and we’re not even going to give your kids an out.”

Such an attitude, says the pro-family spokesman, is “arrogance at its worst.” He also feels the district, which has instructed students to refer to the teacher as “Mrs.,” is failing to ensure students have the best possible role model before them.

“I think that the district is well within its authority to tell the teacher …’If you can’t figure out that you’re really a man — you’ve got the DNA, the genetic sequence for being a man — you can’t be a teacher,'” says Knight…

School officials says the teacher will instruct about 100 students this year…

Continue reading at AFA…

Excerpted from post by Susan Jordan, published Aug 25, 2006, on the pro-homosexuality The Empty Closet:

Kodak Worldwide Benefits has updated health plan coverage to include procedures, services, and supplies for sex transformation (gender reassignment).

The updated plan coverage applies to expenses for sex transformation procedures, services and supplies (including therapy, sex hormones and transsexual surgery) that are provided on or after July 1, 2006, to any person participating in a self-insured option under Kodak’s US medical plans.

Continue reading at The Empty Closet…

Excerpted from Hoping Md. Is ‘Ready for a Person Like Me’, by Daniel de Vise, published Sept 2, 2006, in The Washington Post:

For the five decades preceding a fateful 2003 trip to San Francisco, Dana Beyer lived her life as a man named Wayne. The September primary will tell whether her legislative district, one of the most progressive in Maryland, is ready to elect the state’s first transgender lawmaker.

…She lived her first five decades as a man, graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell University, receiving a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and raising two sons in a marriage that lasted 19 years. A second marriage ended amicably after the 2003 procedure that Beyer terms her “transition.”

…”You know, I think this district is ready for a person like me,” Beyer said. As evidence, she cited Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D), the openly gay delegate she hopes to replace in the House. Madaleno is running for the state Senate.

At the candidates forum one recent evening, Madaleno introduced his partner and their 3-year-old daughter. His sexual orientation prompted much talk when he ran for office in 2002, Beyer recalled. “And now, nobody cares.”

Continue reading in The Washington Post…

Excerpted from Toronto School Board to Ask All High School Students Their Sexual Orientation, by Gudrun Schultz, published Sept 5, 2006, by LifeSite News

The Toronto District School Board is introducing a survey asking high school students to self-identify their sexual orientation, the Canadian Press reported last week.

Ontario students will be asked to provide voluntary information on a variety of questions—for students in grades nine to twelve, those questions will include whether they identify as straight, gay, “lesbian, transgendered, bisexual, queer or two-spirited (an aboriginal term).”

Experts in the field of children’s mental health have suggested the trend in schools toward determining child sexual orientation is dangerously misplaced. George A. Rekers, Ph. D., research director for child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, stated that children are particularly vulnerable to confusion in the development of their sexual identity.

Continue reading at LifeSite News…

Campaign for Children and Families (CA) PRESS RELEASE

Campaign for Children and Families is shocked and dismayed that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed SB 1441 (Kuehl). Today’s disastrous action by Schwarzenegger means Christian and other faith-based colleges in California will be forced to promote transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality if they accept students with Cal Grants.

“People of conscience are appalled that Arnold Schwarzenegger has trampled religious freedom to satisfy hyperactive sexual activists,” said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), a leading California-based pro-family organization. “SB 1441 will force religious colleges to either abandon their Biblical standards on sexuality, or reject students with state financial aid. Schwarzenegger is doing what Gray Davis did – trample religious freedom at the bidding of liberal activists from San Francisco and West Hollywood.”

“Arnold Schwarzenegger has two faces,” said Thomasson. “He speaks at churches and says he believes in religious freedom and family values, yet he’s stabbing pro-family Californians in the back. People of faith are suffering under Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s not the lesser of two evils, he’s doing evil.”

CCF had informed thousands of Californians about SB 1441, generating thousands of phone calls, faxes, and emails opposing this offensive bill. Last week, the Governor was faxed letters pleading for a veto by Christian colleges, including Westmont College (Santa Barbara), Shasta Bible College (Redding), The King’s College and Seminary (Van Nuys), Vanguard University (Costa Mesa), Life Pacific College (San Dimas), Trinity Law School (Santa Ana), William Jessup University (Rocklin), and Simpson University (Redding).

Supported only by Democrats in the California State Legislature, SB 1441 specifically requires “any program or activity that…receives any financial assistance from the state” to support transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality or lose state funding. SB 1441 contains no exemption for religious colleges and universities that accept students with Cal Grants, or child-care providers that accept CalWORKS vouchers.

Never. (Deuteronomy 22:5)

Excerpted from When is it OK for boys to be girls, and girls to be boys?, by Ilene Lilchuck, published Aug 27, 2006, by The San Francisco Chronicle:

Park Day School is throwing out gender boundaries.

…Park Day’s staff members are among a growing number of educators and parents who are acknowledging gender variance in very young children. Aurora School, another private elementary school in Oakland, also is seeing children who are “gender fluid” and hired a clinical psychologist to conduct staff training.

…”What is new is how parents and educators are addressing it and being open to it at earlier ages,” said Taneika Taylor of the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, an organization in Washington, D.C., that is trying to end discrimination and violence caused by gender stereotypes.

…Gender variance is an especially touchy topic when young children are the subjects. The Traditional Values Coalition calls efforts to accommodate these kids “normalizing the abnormal.”

The group’s executive director, Andrea Lafferty, said gender variance is a Bay Area phenomenon.

“If you talk to your typical person across America, they would be appalled,” she said. “God made us male and female, and God makes no mistakes. To teach a child at an early age self-hatred, and that’s what this gender variance is, is very sad.”

Continue reading in The San Francisco Chronicle…