Excerpt: "A 46-year-old pregnant woman had visited his clinic at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia to hear the results of an amniocentesis test to screen her baby's chromosomes for abnormalities. The baby was fine — but follow-up tests had revealed something astonishing about the mother. Her body was built of cells from two individuals, probably from twin embryos that had merged in her own mother's womb. And there was more. One set of cells carried two X chromosomes, the complement that typically makes a person female; the other had an X and a Y. Halfway through her fifth decade and pregnant with her third child, the woman learned for the first time that a large part of her body was chromosomally male1. “That's kind of science-fiction material for someone who just came in for an amniocentesis,” says James.
LISTEN Claire Ainsworth discusses the spectrum between male and female. [sorry no separate link]
Sex can be much more complicated than it at first seems. According to the simple scenario, the presence or absence of a Y chromosome is what counts: with it, you are male, and without it, you are female. But doctors have long known that some people straddle the boundary — their sex chromosomes say one thing, but their gonads (ovaries or testes) or sexual anatomy say another. Parents of children with these kinds of conditions — known as intersex conditions, or differences or disorders of sex development (DSDs) — often face difficult decisions about whether to bring up their child as a boy or a girl. Some researchers now say that as many as 1 person in 100 has some form of DSD2.
[INSERT: Seems before now the "or disorders" should be dropped. It has a negative suggestion to it which under the natural circumstances of the development doesn't feel at all fair.]
When genetics is taken into consideration, the boundary between the sexes becomes even blurrier. Scientists have identified many of the genes involved in the main forms of DSD, and have uncovered variations in these genes that have subtle effects on a person's anatomical or physiological sex. What's more, new technologies in DNA sequencing and cell biology are revealing that almost everyone is, to varying degrees, a patchwork of genetically distinct cells, some with a sex that might not match that of the rest of their body. Some studies even suggest that the sex of each cell drives its behaviour, through a complicated network of molecular interactions. “I think there's much greater diversity within male or female, and there is certainly an area of overlap where some people can't easily define themselves within the binary structure,” says John Achermann, who studies sex development and endocrinology at University College London's Institute of Child Health.
These discoveries do not sit well in a world in which sex is still defined in binary terms. Few legal systems allow for any ambiguity in biological sex, and a person's legal rights and social status can be heavily influenced by whether their birth certificate says male or female.
“The main problem with a strong dichotomy is that there are intermediate cases that push the limits and ask us to figure out exactly where the dividing line is between males and females,” says Arthur Arnold at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies biological sex differences. “And that's often a very difficult problem, because sex can be defined a number of ways.”"
Funeral home settles landmark transgender bias case for $250,000
"Sex redefined ----- "Identity politics isn’t hurting liberalism. It’s saving it. "Why identity politics benefits the right more than the left" [...] The idea that identity politics is at odds with liberalism has become conventional wisdom in parts of the American political and intellectual elite. Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker has condemned contemporary identity politics as “an enemy of reason and Enlightenment values.” New York Times columnist Bari Weiss argues that the “corrupt identity politics of the left” amounts to a dangerously intolerant worldview. And New York magazine’s Andrew Sullivan claims the “woke left” seems “not to genuinely believe in liberalism, liberal democracy, or persuasion.” This line of thinking is practically the founding credo of the school of internet thought known as the Intellectual Dark Web .. https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/5/10/17338290/intellectual-dark-web-rogan-peterson-harris-times-weiss . P - It is also deeply, profoundly wrong. P - What these critics lambaste as an attack on liberalism is actually its best form: the logical extension of liberalism’s core commitment to social equality and democracy, adapted to address modern sources of inequality. A liberalism that rejects identity politics is a liberalism for the powerful, one that relegates the interests of marginalized groups to second-class status." ----- The idea of two sexes is simplistic. Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that."
The landmark lawsuit prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in June that discrimination against transgender workers is a form of unlawful sex bias.
Dec. 3, 2020, 2:55 AM AEDT By Reuters
A Michigan funeral home has agreed to pay $250,000 to the estate of a transgender former funeral director to settle a landmark lawsuit that prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to rule discrimination against transgender workers is a form of unlawful sex bias.
RG & GR Harris Funeral Homes Inc, represented by conservative group Alliance Defending Freedom, and lawyers for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the estate of Aimee Stephens filed a joint consent decree in Detroit federal court on Monday bringing the 2014 lawsuit to a close.
Transgender activist Aimee Stephens, sits in her wheelchair outside the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on Oct. 8, 2019.Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images file
Stephens, who had intervened in the EEOC's lawsuit in 2016, died from complications related to kidney disease in May, weeks before the Supreme Court issued its decision.
Chase Strangio, one of the American Civil Liberties Union attorneys who worked on Stephens' case, said the "settlement marks a closing chapter in Aimee Stephens’ remarkable fight for justice."
"We are sad that Aimee is not here to experience this moment with her wife Donna and grateful for all that Aimee, Donna, and the many trans fighters for justice and their families have done to bring us to this place. As Aimee always said, this fight is about more than just her and it will stretch far beyond this case," Strangio wrote in a statement .. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-comment-settlement-aimee-stephens-historic-discrimination-case .. Wednesday. "The Biden administration must make it clear that across all areas of federal law sex discrimination protections apply to LGBTQ people and Congress must pass the Equality Act .. https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/house-passes-sweeping-lgbtq-nondiscrimination-bill-historic-vote-n1007001 .. to close critical gaps in our civil rights laws that leave so many LGBTQ people, women, and many people of color vulnerable to discrimination. We will honor Aimee's legacy by continuing her fight for a country where all trans and non-binary people belong and feel safe."
Harris' lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
EEOC trial attorney Dale Price in a statement said that as a result of the case, "the law is now clear that discrimination against an employee because of his or her transgender status is sex discrimination.
"The EEOC had accused Harris of sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for firing Stephens when she told the company's president she planned to transition from male to female.
A federal judge in 2016 dismissed the case. He held that while the EEOC had stated a viable sex discrimination claim, Harris was shielded from the lawsuit because its president is a devout Christian who fired Stephens because of his religious beliefs.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2018 revived the case and said Stephens had been unlawfully terminated, finding that Harris had failed to show how employing Stephens would burden its owner's religious practice.
Harris appealed the portion of the 6th Circuit ruling holding that Title VII bars discrimination against transgender workers. The case was consolidated with two other lawsuits filed by gay workers who claimed they were fired because of their sexual orientation.
Before the Supreme Court, the U.S. Solicitor General argued on behalf of the EEOC that Title VII did not prohibit discrimination against gay or transgender workers. Commission officials did not sign onto the Solicitor General's briefs, and the agency continued to pursue lawsuits on behalf of LGBTQ workers.
The court in June sided with the plaintiffs, ruling that workers' gender identity and sexual orientation cannot be separated from their sex,so bias against LGBTQ people amounts to sex discrimination. The court upheld the 6th Circuit's ruling and remanded the case to the district court.
Monday's settlement requires Harris to pay $130,000 in back pay and compensatory damages to Stephens' estate, along with $120,000 in attorney fees.
The company also agreed to pay $3,700 to 17 female employees to settle a separate claim that Harris engaged in sex bias by providing suits to men while requiring women to buy their own clothing for work.
The case is EEOC v. RG & GR Harris Funeral Homes Inc, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, No. 2:14-cv-13710.
The 'two-spirit' people of indigenous North Americans
"Sex redefined "Identity politics isn’t hurting liberalism. It’s saving it. "Why identity politics benefits the right more than the left" "
------ This post was prompted by conix's luxuriating in Maher's milking of wokeness and presentism, in his comment re the Portland school district's curriculum in a video, here .. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=169979805 . Maher used a quote which said something like 'white people forced a binary sex position on indigenous people' when they came to North America. While the actual language used would be arguable i'd say basically the message is very likely the right one. That was off the top and now i know it was close to the mark. . And i'd add what is wrong with bringing the past to the present in an effort to boost understandings of where we are now in our understanding of --- umm -- LIFE. One on it here, i haven't read yet
This week's guest editor, Antony Hegarty, is a fan of the book The Spirit and the Flesh. He asked its author, Walter L Williams, to write a feature for guardian.co.uk/music on the 'two-spirit' tradition in Native American culture
We-Wa, a Zuni two-spirit, weaving
Walter L Williams Mon 11 Oct 2010 22.28 AEDT
Native Americans have often held intersex, androgynous people, feminine males and masculine females in high respect. The most common term to define such persons today is to refer to them as "two-spirit" people, but in the past feminine males were sometimes referred to as "berdache" by early French explorers in North America, who adapted a Persian word "bardaj", meaning an intimate male friend. Because these androgynous males were commonly married to a masculine man, or had sex with men, and the masculine females had feminine women as wives, the term berdache had a clear homosexual connotation. Both the Spanish settlers in Latin America and the English colonists in North America condemned them as "sodomites".
Rather than emphasising the homosexuality of these persons, however, many Native Americans focused on their spiritual gifts. American Indian traditionalists, even today, tend to see a person's basic character as a reflection of their spirit. Since everything that exists is thought to come from the spirit world, androgynous or transgender persons are seen as doubly blessed, having both the spirit of a man and the spirit of a woman. Thus, they are honoured for having two spirits, and are seen as more spiritually gifted than the typical masculine male or feminine female.
Therefore, many Native American religions, rather than stigmatising such persons, often looked to them as religious leaders and teachers. Quite similar religious traditions existed among the native peoples of Siberia and many parts of Central and southeast Asia. Since the ancestors of Native Americans migrated from Siberia over 20,000 years ago, and since reports of highly respected androgynous persons have been noted among indigenous Americans from Alaska to Chile, androgyny seems to be quite ancient among humans.
Rather than the physical body, Native Americans emphasised a person's "spirit", or character, as being most important. Instead of seeing two-spirit persons as transsexuals who try to make themselves into "the opposite sex", it is more accurate to understand them as individuals who take on a gender status that is different from both men and women. This alternative gender status offers a range of possibilities, from slightly effeminate males or masculine females, to androgynous or transgender persons, to those who completely cross-dress and act as the other gender. The emphasis of Native Americans is not to force every person into one box, but to allow for the reality of diversity in gender and sexual identities.
Most of the evidence for respectful two-spirit traditions is focused on the native peoples of the Plains, the Great Lakes, the Southwest, and California. With over a thousand vastly different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, it is important not to overgeneralise for the indigenous peoples of North America. Some documentary sources suggest that a minority of societies treated two-spirit persons disrespectfully, by kidding them or discouraging children from taking on a two-spirit role. However, many of the documents that report negative reactions are themselves suspect, and should be evaluated critically in light of the preponderance of evidence that suggests a respectful attitude. Some European commentators, from early frontier explorers to modern anthropologists, also were influenced by their own homophobic prejudices to distort native attitudes.
Two-spirit people were respected by native societies not only due to religious attitudes, but also because of practical concerns. Because their gender roles involved a mixture of both masculine and feminine traits, two-spirit persons could do both the work of men and of women. They were often considered to be hard workers and artistically gifted, of great value to their extended families and community. Among some groups, such as the Navajo, a family was believed to be economically benefited by having a "nadleh" (literally translated as "one who is transformed") androgynous person as a relative. Two-spirit persons assisted their siblings' children and took care of elderly relatives, and often served as adoptive parents for homeless children.
A feminine male who preferred to do women's work (gathering wild plants or farming domestic plants) was logically expected to marry a masculine male, who did men's work (hunting and warfare). Because a family needed both plant foods and meat, a masculine female hunter, in turn, usually married a feminine female, to provide these complementary gender roles for economic survival. The gender-conforming spouse of two-spirit people did not see themselves as "homosexual" or as anything other than "normal". Advertisement
In the 20th-century, as homophobic European Christian influences increased among many Native Americans, respect for same-sex love and for androgynous persons greatly declined. Two-spirit people were often forced, either by government officials, Christian missionaries or their own community, to conform to standard gender roles. Some, who could not conform, either went underground or committed suicide. With the imposition of Euro-American marriage laws, same-sex marriages between two-spirit people and their spouses were no longer legally recognised. But with the revitalisation of Native American "red power" cultural pride since the 60s, and the rise of gay and lesbian liberation movements at the same time, a new respect for androgyny started slowly re-emerging among American Indian people.
Because of this tradition of respect, in the 90s many gay and lesbian Native American activists in the United States and Canada rejected the French word berdache in favour of the term two-spirit people to describe themselves. Many non-American Indians have incorporated knowledge of Native American two-spirit traditions into their increasing acceptance of same-sex love, androgyny and transgender diversity. Native American same-sex marriages have been used as a model for legalising same-sex marriages, and the spiritual gifts of androgynous persons have started to become more recognised.
Walter L Williams is the author of The Spirit and the Flesh (Boston: Beacon Press) and is Professor of Anthropology, History and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California. His most recent book, Two Spirits: A Story Of Life With The Navajo is out now
Ok. that is a darn good read, not only because if supports what i thoughtt likely, but because it is drenched in generosity, decent good values and good basic, ordinary untainted common sense. How fucking sweet it is to move through it. Soooo, after reading that article only briefly i come back to my earlier off-the-cuff comment :
"Putting aside quibbles of the exact wording of the tiny bit of the Portland curriculum Maher gave you - context has seldom seemed important to you - have you considered at all the basic message of that tiny bit could be closer to the truth than you have imagined. P - How homophobic were the indigenous people of N America. Were they as into binary sexual identity as acidly as you are today." https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=169980703
to conix and Maher. And add: LOL What the hell are you two bitching about. And laughing at. Portland educators look to be pretty well on the mark to me. Seriously.
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