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2018:JUN-OCT:
Trans women (D) runs for VT
Governor, and for CO House.
Court case in Anchorage, AK
about transgender women in
women's shelter.
The UK consultation on
Gender Recognition Act ends.

2018-AUG-14: Transgender woman won Vermont gubernatorial primary:

Christine Hallquist was registered as a male at birth and now identifies as female. She won the Democratic gubernatorial primary in mid-August. Her goal is to unseat the existing Governor, Phil Scott (R), who has won the GOP primary. She is promoting a $15 minimum wage, universal healthcare, abortion access, tuition-free public college, and action to reduce climate change.

She is the first transgender person to win the gubernatorial nomination of a major political party.

Tom Pauken, formerly the chairperson of the Republican Party in Texas describes the situation as:

"... craziness. There's a Republican governor, which is surprising in a predominately Democratic state. ... He's obviously going to win in November given this nomination. But that the Democrats would nominate such a person is beyond belief. ...

It's race, or it's gender -- all the left-wing social or cultural positions are showing up in victories for people who are representative of that radical agenda

It's an irony that while Hungary is moving back toward the re-Christianization of its country, here in the U.S. we're moving rapidly down the road of a post-Christian, anti-Christian society that has taken over one of our major political parties. It is scary."

Newsweek reports that since her nomination, she has received:

"... a steady flow of hate-filled messages and other threatening attacks."

On AUG-21, she told the Burlington Free Press:

"Early on when our team assembled I said 'the more successful we are, the more vitriol and threats we are going to receive. It’s kind of a natural outcome of our divided country'." ₁

Among the messages received were death threats, which were reported to the Vermont State Police, and the FBI office in the state. Vermont Governor Phil Scott (R) said:

"We must, as a society, do better to combat anger and violence. I’m hopeful Vermonters will join me in ensuring everyone -- regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion or other characteristics -- are treated with dignity, respect and acceptance." ₁

At the election in early November, she lost. Phil Scott, the Republican governor of Vermont, was re-elected to a second term.

Sponsored link

2018-AUG-27: Brianna Titone (D-CO) successfully ran for State House, District 27:

Brianna was identified at birth as male and now identifies as female. She is running for the State House in District 27. Her background includes firefighting, geology and software development. She said:

"My job as a candidate is to talk about issues. ... Education funding is the number one issue people are talking about, also transportation funding. I have a lot of experience; I have a lot of knowledge that really comes to table and I want to use those skills. I think people will see me as someone who really wants work together ... and not play identity politics. ... Some private messages that people send me on Facebook are horrible but I get a lot of people coming up to me being inspired by me and that really fuels me to get up early, stay up late and work really hard to win this election." ₂

She became the first openly transgender candidate to run for state office in Colorado.

Her opponent was Vicki Pyne (R), a small business owner who has served on several community boards. ₂

Brianna won the election by a narrow margin of fewer than 400 votes. ₃

Webmaster's predictions, made in 2018-DEC:

From now on, the Democratic party will nominate one or more transgender persons in most bi-annual elections.

By the year 2025, the Republican party will finally nominate a transgender person for a political post.

2018-SEP: Evangelical group fights for the religious freedom to discriminate against transgender persons:

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is a conservative Christian legal support group that regularly fights cases in courts, trying to guarantee the right of Christian group to discriminate against others on religious grounds, in violation of the Golden Rule. They represented The Hope Center -- a Christian non-profit agency that operates the Downtown Soup Kitchen -- a Christian homeless shelter in Anchorage, AK, who had refused admission to a transgender woman who they said appeared drunk. The city has a non-discrimination law which was expanded in 2015 to include both sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes.

David Dinielli, Deputy Legal Director for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) told KTUU-TV that the ADF:

"... is trying to use their own purported religious beliefs to impose them on others and kick LGBT people out from spaces, from schools, from bakeries and apparently in now in Anchorage, also from shelters. In our most vulnerable moments they think that their right to hate should trump our right to live. This is not the Alaska way. This is not the Anchorage way."

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave a keynote speech at the ADF's religious freedom summit on AUG-08. He said:

"You are not a hate group. ... [The SPLC has] used this designation as a weapon and they have wielded it against conservative organizations that refuse to accept their orthodoxy and choose instead to speak their conscience. They use it to bully and intimidate groups like yours which fight for the religious freedom, the civil rights, and the constitutional rights of others."

Casey Reynolds, Communications Director for American Civil Liberties Union Alaska, told KTUU-TV:

"The ability to believe what you believe and to practice your religion is one of our core fundamental rights. But you have to draw the line at which this is harming other people and society, and that is really what this [case] is about."

The ADF wrote in its court submission:

"It would not only be dangerous and against common sense, but would violate the Hope Center’s sincerely held religious beliefs to admit biological men into its shelter and allow them to sleep side by side and disrobe next to women, some of whom have been assaulted by men and fear for their safety."

Webmaster's comment:

I suspect that all homeless shelters have procedures for admitting sick, contagious people and placing them in isolation from the rest of their clients. They could use the same procedures to handle transgender clients.

David Dinielli repeated the commonly heard assertion that:

"There is simply no evidence that transgender people are more of a threat to anyone whether that be in bathrooms, locker rooms or homeless shelters. In fact we know transgender people are among the most, if not the most likely, to be targeted for abuse: sexual abuse and physical abuse."

The city attorney’s office has stated that since the current non-discrimination law was passed, the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission has received 18 complaints -- four based on gender identity and 14 based on sexual orientation. ₄

2018-OCT-19: The UK Government consultation on the Gender Recognition Act closed:

The government's consultation lasted 16 weeks, during which tens of thousands of comments were received. Many urged:

• An end to the requirement for a medical diagnosis or other evidence proving applicants' transgender status.
  
  
• Recognition of non-binary gender identities, so that transgender persons could identify as male, female, belonging to both male and female genders, or to neither gender.
  
  
• A lowering of the minimum age to register a gender change to 16. ₅

References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. Benjamin Fearnow, "Transgender Vermont Candidate Christine Hallquist Receiving Death Threats, Reported to FBI," Newsweek, 2018-AUG-22, at: https://www.newsweek.com/
2. Shaun Boyd, "Brianna Titone Makes History As First Openly Transgender Candidate To Run For State Office," CBS Denver, 2018-AUG-27, at: https://denver.cbslocal.com/
3. "Brianna Titone Makes History As First Openly Transgender State Legislator In Colorado," CBS Local, 2018-NOV-12, at: https://denver.cbslocal.com/
4. Jill Burke, "Women’s shelter challenges Anchorage’s non-discrimination law," KTUU, 2018-SEP-13, at: https://www.ktuu.com/
5. "Gender Recognition Act," Stonewall, 2018-OCT, at: https://www.stonewall.org.uk/

How you may have arrived here:

Original posting: 2018-JUL-05
Latest update : 2018-DEC-18
Author: B.A. Robinson