I think these kinds of issues really show what kind of politicians we have in this state -they do not care about people, they only want to tax us and spend our money. Although overly Democratic, this state can't pass any kind of LGBT legislation of any value. Yet, they are still considering tuition breaks for people that aren't even legally in this country and they want to increase the alcohol tax, which only serves to make the middle class and poor in this state poorer. Not to mention they have yet to amend the gambling legislation to allow table games so all of our neighboring states are light-years ahead of us in that revenue department. I'm pretty sure that one day, I will move out of this state because there is just too much political BS instead of common sense.

So in a Democrat controlled state we have a government that pretty much runs as if we were in a Republican state. Seems the above writer is right, if its a tax issue these democrats sure can muscle whatever bills they want to impose through with little or no problem. .... whoops sorry not taxes, I forgot the new word for taxes are increased fees.

Madaleno and Pena-Melnyk really showed their true colors this year. Doesn't seem like they are really interested the morals of our state. Madaleno, I sure hope that the LGBT community remembers that this is a state with some moral integrity that will fight to keep you from moral corruption. I think it is time to bring back the sodomy laws.

Shame on these politicians who cant even find their gonads enough to pass a bill designed to insure Trans people can have a job, contribute to society, and not be living on the street.

And at this point who knows how the hate groups like FRC, AFA, and maybe even NOM were involved. Along with some "anything but" christians, some of whom are trying to pass a "holocaust the gays" bill In Uganda.

This isn't America, it is AmeriKKKa. We should all be ashamed of the situation in our country, while eg Canada has gay marriage, a gun murder rate 1/7 of ours population adjusted, and guarantees its citizens cradel to grave medical care.

Whats the solutiion- a third party? who knows.

But America as it stands is beginning more and more to look like Taliban AmeriKKKa

Shame on all of us who haven't tried to change it. And this includes some democrats as well.

Shame on these politicians who cant even find their gonads enough to pass a bill designed to insure Trans people can have a job, contribute to society, and not be living on the street.

And at this point who knows how the hate groups like FRC, AFA, and maybe even NOM were involved. Along with some "anything but" christians, some of whom are trying to pass a "holocaust the gays" bill In Uganda.

This isn't America, it is AmeriKKKa. We should all be ashamed of the situation in our country, while eg Canada has gay marriage, a gun murder rate 1/7 of ours population adjusted, and guarantees its citizens cradel to grave medical care.

Whats the solutiion- a third party? who knows.

But America as it stands is beginning more and more to look like Taliban AmeriKKKa

Shame on all of us who haven't tried to change it. And this includes some democrats as well.

Shame on these politicians who cant even find their gonads enough to pass a bill designed to insure Trans people can have a job, contribute to society, and not be living on the street.

And at this point who knows how the hate groups like FRC, AFA, and maybe even NOM were involved. Along with some "anything but" christians, some of whom are trying to pass a "holocaust the gays" bill In Uganda.

This isn't America, it is AmeriKKKa. We should all be ashamed of the situation in our country, while eg Canada has gay marriage, a gun murder rate 1/7 of ours population adjusted, and guarantees its citizens cradel to grave medical care.

Whats the solutiion- a third party? who knows.

But America as it stands is beginning more and more to look like Taliban AmeriKKKa

Shame on all of us who haven't tried to change it. And this includes some democrats as well.

Shame on these politicians who cant even find their gonads enough to pass a bill designed to insure Trans people can have a job, contribute to society, and not be living on the street.

And at this point who knows how the hate groups like FRC, AFA, and maybe even NOM were involved. Along with some "anything but" christians, some of whom are trying to pass a "holocaust the gays" bill In Uganda.

This isn't America, it is AmeriKKKa. We should all be ashamed of the situation in our country, while eg Canada has gay marriage, a gun murder rate 1/7 of ours population adjusted, and guarantees its citizens cradel to grave medical care.

Whats the solutiion- a third party? who knows.

But America as it stands is beginning more and more to look like Taliban AmeriKKKa

Shame on all of us who haven't tried to change it. And this includes some democrats as well.

Transsexual and transgender people in Maryland, and around America, are rejoicing that the unjust H.B. 235 bill has been sent back to the committee. The gay and lesbian leaders and the trans sell outs who follow inEquality Maryland have been shown the door.

Now we will be able to educate the senate why lifesaving public accommodations protections are basic human rights. We thank the senators who publicly acknowledged our concerns. Now Equality Maryland knows they have to enroll our community, via Trans United and Trans Maryland, to get community buy-in. The transsexual and transgender communities own their voices, not the gay and lesbian establishment. Full equality is the only option.

We don't care about it taking years or decades, we represent, we have our voice.

Ashley is not very smart. What kind of trans person wants a voice instead of rights over the next decade. Shocking. I wouldn't follow her lead.

This was a sad day in MD. We can pass a law about dogs in restaurants, we can give in-state tuition for illegals, but we can't take care of our own Maryland citizens???? It's an embarassment.

If You Don't Have Anything Nice To Say About An Oppressor....

"Thank you Equality Maryland and trans sellouts for exhibiting the jacked up leadership that created this screwed up situation in the first place. You can blame 'errbody' else for your failures and try to minimize our role in the process of stopping your messed up legislative overreach, but before you go down that road, take a look in the fracking mirror as to who was most responsible for your twin legislative defeats this legislative session."

"EQ Maryland made the decision to cut public accommodations out of this bill in their double secret meeting in November, and then arrogantly got a 'tude because we transpeople who saw the danger of this horrendous bill passing dared fight them tooth and nail and call them on their crap.

New decade, new rules. You will not get a free ride at passing bills that only benefit your Gay, Inc political agenda and are detrimental to the trans community. You'll also need to talk to a multicultural slice of the community to get a true picture of the discrimination we face.

If you fail to do that and you continue 'bidness' as usual, if it puts us in the position of fighting you and our own sellouts to do so, then it'll be on like Donkey Kong once again..

But the choice for Morgan Meneses Sheets and friends is clear. They can either continue down the road of being problematic trans oppressors or be part of the solution."

http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2011/04/if-you-dont-have-anything-nice-to-say.html

"Ashley is not very smart. What kind of trans person wants a voice instead of rights over the next decade. Shocking. I wouldn't follow her lead."

And follow whose lead instead - 'Equality' Maryland's?

How about just following Ralph the Wonder Slug? Or Ed the Dancing Wombat? Or the dead groundhog out in the middle of the road? All have more sense than 'Equality' Maryland and would not have taken the discourse over putting trans people back to where they should have been in 2001 and poisoned it with the sure loser of gay marriage.

Gotta agree with Ben. It's a shame that these buffoons who were voted in by legal Maryland citizens - gay or straight - are putting the needs of people who are here illegally first. Simply continue to ignore the needs and rights of legal citizens and taxpayers of this state - what goes around comes around. Shame shame shame.

Why spend so much effort for so few psychologically damaged people?
These people are sick and need help not a pass on their sickness.

We do not need mentally damaged people in our schools with our children.

Kat, TransGriot and Ashley- Why/where have transfolk been hiding their power over the last decade?! Odd that you could do it yourselves better but relied on EqualMD to do your bidding, yet you are complainy after having done nothing yourself here in MD! Wait- you and your group have zero political power & developed none over the last decade while EqualMD was doing it? Everyone is ignoring you but me and I'm bored. Internet chatty complainy cathies is all you are. Happy that Ashley at least realizes it will take you decades to get rights on your own. That is SOOOOOO stickin it to Gay INC!!!

I see the same 3 people byatching about this bill. How egotistical are they? Quite naive as well. Comical.

Maryland Democrats are worse than Republicans. They accomplished nothing this session. A total failure in terms of not just social issues, but any other meaningful legislation.

Ashley speaks for most of us as a transgender and not a political lobbyist.. All we want is to be human and not second class anymore.

Not 30 seconds should be spent in the legislature to protect a class of brain damaged people that numbers in the tens.

Trannies are indeed mentally disturbed and should be helped not separated out as a protected class.

Discrimination laws protect all people, not just certain protected classes that these freak Pigressives declare worthy of separate protections.

Not 30 seconds should be spent in the legislature to protect a class of brain damaged people that numbers in the tens.

Tea Klux Klan members?

"Why/where have transfolk been hiding their power over the last decade?! "

I suspect that most have - out of necessity - channelled what power they have into individualized efforts to say alive in a legal regime in which gays and lesbians created a legal status for themselves superior to that of trans people, a status distinction of which anyone with the ability to read or know of the Maryland Code's definition of "sexual orientation" could not be unfamiliar.

Do you also ask the corpses of abused spouses where their power was while they were being beaten to death?

Tea Klux Klan members?

Posted by: TransGriot

Brain damaged freak of nature.

Tea Klux Klan members?
Posted by: TransGriot

No tranny, but those few of you who are so mentally disturbed that you think you are something you are not seems to be the issue.

Your jump that someone who believes trannys and you others are disturbed are TPPM members is most bigoted of you. But with your disability you are forgiven your ignorance.

"Trannies are indeed mentally disturbed and should be helped not separated out as a protected class."

So if some "trannies" who might happen to have some money get together, buy the business that employs you, and decides to fire all non-transsexuals, then you'd be fine with that?

A legitimate trans rights law wouldn't simply allow trans people to sue for anti-trans discrimination; it would allow non-trans people to sue for anti-non-trans-discrimination.

One of many failings of the gay rights industry is that it has never made any real attempt to convey that "sexual orientation"-based civil rights laws don't simply allow gays to sue straights for anti-gay discrimination; they allow straights to sue gays for anti-straight discrimination.

Kat, we do not need the mentally disturbed teaching our children.

As an employee, I would not work for a bunch of mentally disturbed employers.

My business would die if I was forced to hire these freaks of nature as many would.

Being a transsexual is not a civil rights issue, it is a psychological issue.
There are no laws that force the hiring of the mentally disturbed.

Thank God I live in Texas where non-sense like this is not an issue. Whew!

I was just reading the Baltimore Sun's "terms of service" and then I read this thread..

Do not provide User Content that:
* contains vulgar, profane, abusive, racist or hateful language or expressions, epithets or slurs, text, photographs or illustrations in poor taste, inflammatory attacks of a personal, racial or religious nature.
"*Trannies* are indeed mentally disturbed"
"My business would die if I was forced to hire these *freaks of nature* as many would. "

* is defamatory, threatening, disparaging, grossly inflammatory, false, misleading, fraudulent, inaccurate, unfair, contains gross exaggeration or unsubstantiated claims, violates the privacy rights of any third party, is unreasonably harmful or offensive to any individual or community.
"Why spend so much effort for so few psychologically damaged people?"
"These people are sick and need help not a pass on their sickness."
"We do not need mentally damaged people in our schools with our children."

* "flames" any individual or entity (e.g., sends repeated messages related to another user and/or makes derogatory or offensive comments about another individual), or repeats prior posting of the same message under multiple threads or subjects. WARNING: A VIOLATION OF THESE POSTING RULES MAY BE REFERRED TO LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES.
"Brain damaged freak of nature." (directed to a single individual)
"No tranny,..."

Why are the moderators violating their own terms of service by encouraging this discussion? The rules apply to all of us.

no civil legislation will salve an ailing conscience, you cannot make people like you...they will hate you for that. Illegal aliens were first thieves and immoral..then it was made illegal. The immorality came first, then the law. Trans/bi/homo/les perversions are all immoral first. I can reject them all and not be phobic or hateful. To believe it is immoral is not hate.

"Brain damaged freak of nature." (directed to a single individual)" Posted by: Michiko

You purposely left out this nice one
Tea Klux Klan members?
Posted by: TransGriot

directed at a single poster!!

Whats good for the goose......

"Being a transsexual is not a civil rights issue, it is a psychological issue."

This smells like it was written by someone who has materially benefited from the political decision to remove homosexuality from the DSM, thereby allowing people to assert that it isn't a psychological issue whilst claiming that transsexuality is.

Kat, it seems that every bad thing that happens vis-a-vis gender identity is the fault of a gay person.

I'm sorry, the only thing I can surmise now is that perhaps you cannot get a date.

I was alerted by Monica Roberts of Trans Griot that someone on this thread had intentionally misquoted me, which is obvious was to stigmatize me and other who feel as I do, therefore trying to discredit me

Someone in this comment thread who calls themselves "Ashley Love" copy and pasted a comment I gave to the Advocate: http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/04/11/Md_Gender_Identity_Dies_in_Senate/

Then, they libelously added their own sentence at the end which they created on their own: "We don't care about it taking years or decades...".
I never wrote that, and I do in fact care if it takes “years or decades”. The politically savvy people I know in Maryland have told me that public accommodations as a stand alone amendment would be near impossible to pass, and it would be easier to pass it if it was with the rest of the protections. Trans United and Trans Maryland oppose the bill w/o PA protections, and I support their stance.

Most transsexual and transgender Americans support the unjust bill being sent back; without public accommodations protections included the message is we’re 2nd class citizens, submitting to fear mongering of “bathroom hysteria” advocates, and that gays via Equality Maryland can make decisions for transsexual and transgender people without community buy-in, however, we’ll accept nothing less than a fully comprehensive bill

Furthermore, it’s unfortunate that Dana La Rocca on this thread, and elsewhere, has made it her new pastime to try to slander and discredit me. I feel the community deserves to know why she is doing this. Dana La Roca's testimony at the hearing had some concerns by many people. She used words like "unMOLEST" in the same sentence where she said she understood why people would be concerned for "your wives and children’s safety", alluding to the ‘trans women in restrooms issue’. Yes, we wanted the bill dead, but for her to play into the far right's "bathroom hysteria" crap to kill it will bite us in the back later; she essentially was spreading their message for them. I simply told her that “molest” was a highly poor choice of words. She couldn’t’ take constructive criticism, which many agreed with, and ever since she has been on a warpath to discredit me and slander me. It’s pretty pathetic and immoral, and only serves her vendetta, not the community. I just thought you should all know the bitter energy you are dealing with.

Its pretty pathetic that whoever impersonated me in the comment section of the article felt so desperate to slander those of us that oppose the bill that they would concoct the last sentence and try to pass it off if I said that. This just goes to show that "the compromise one makes today, will haunt them tomorrow". To pull a stunt like that is laughable. I guess the truth wasn’t enough to debate my quote, so they had to resort to a lie