Minnesota Governor Vetoes Equality For The Dead

Jim Burroway

May 17th, 2010

It’s bad enough when people refuse to recognize your dignity while you’re still alive, but Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty (R) has ensured that the insults will continue even after you die:

Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed a bill Saturday that would have given same-sex partners the right to decide what to do with the body of their loved ones, should they die.

John Graykoski

May 17th, 2010

Sadly, Pawlenty began as a fairly enlightened politician. Then came thoughts of the Presidency. Then came the Teabaggers. Now he is the Governor of “NO” and has become the new Republican model for NOT negotiating, NOT seeking consensus or compromise and FOR taking any stand which puts him in favor with the right wing domination of the Republican party. As a moderate, there is no place in the Republican’s big tent for the likes of me. Very sad to watch.

Priya Lynn

May 17th, 2010

What a scumbag. Just shows what an outrageous lie it is when these people claim to not hate gays.

John in the Bay Area

May 17th, 2010

I doubt that Gov. Pawlenty hates gays. It is far more likely that he just doesn’t care about anyone or anything other than his potential political future. In the long run, I hope that this veto haunts him with the label of “The Heartless Governor.” He might even regret his actions, if it cost him some votes (not of course for any moral reasons).

Priya Lynn

May 17th, 2010

I don’t doubt that he does hate gays.

Grant

May 17th, 2010

I don’t know if he hates gays or not, and it doesn’t really matter. His actions speak for him. We’re expendable.

Being gay is the last socially-acceptable category to discriminate against publicly and openly. But that’s changing – and I agree, these decisions will end up haunting the politicians who calculated that their decisions against us would net them more votes.

Ethan

May 17th, 2010

Actually, Grant, it seems that transgender people (or gender-variant folks, for that matter) are the “new gays”, in that even members of the LGBTQ community think it’s perfectly acceptable to discriminate against their trans* allies.

it hard enough to fight the bigots in the hetero community, without also having to combat the ignorance of queer community, too.

John in the Bay Area

May 17th, 2010

Ethan

I have noticed that the bigots here in my Bay Area town have tried to split the gay/transgendered folks. Particularly the Mormons have toned down their anti-gay hate campaign (but not completely, and are demanding that gay people not call them bigots) but attacking transgendered adults and children with gender atypical attitudes full bore.

Here, I don’t sense a shift on the pro-equality side, especially since the particular victims we are addressing are kids in the school district.

Rick Brentlinger

May 17th, 2010

As a former Republican, now an Unaffiliated voter (Thank you George W. Bush for convincing me to leave the Republican Party), I know at least one guy – Gov. Pawlenty – who will not get my vote should the Repubs be dumb enough to nominate him in 2012.

Tommy

May 18th, 2010

Yes, the transgendered are the new gays. Too many people know a gay person. Being gay is too easy to understand.

So now they claim schools will have to hire crossdressers. Which is horribly insulting and a lie. But when have social conservatives ever failed to be horribly insulting and lie?

Désirée

May 18th, 2010

Us trans folk do have a harder time – coming out as gay is becoming more socially acceptable, and once someone is “out of the closet” that’s it, they are out.

For trans folk, the object is often to go back into the closet. I transitioned almost 15 years ago on the job, so all 200+ people in the building knew about me. I spent several years being “out,” running the local tg support groups, doing the presentations in front of collage classes, marching in the parades and basically being the go to person on trans issues in Long Beach. Then I moved to another country and now, other than my wife and 1 or 2 close friends, no one knows. No longer am I Desiree the Transsexual, but just Desiree. It’s nice for me, but yeah, it doesn’t help trans visibility much. That of course is the dilemma all t* folk have – living stealth for ourselves or living out for the community.

We are the new gay. Haven’t you ever heard how to get your parents to accept you as gay? Just tell them you want a sex change because eventually, they will ask “Can’t you just be gay?” The rest of the world is even less understanding.

Jason D

May 18th, 2010

little note, John, Ethan, you don’t need the “ed”. It’s just “transgender”. Just like we don’t say gayed, lesbianed, bisexualed, or straighted. It’s a noun, not a verb.

Secondly you do have a point, there’s this very disturbing trend I see amongst the GLB community to look at our T-folks and say “why are you here?” It’s a toss up between seperatists who don’t care about any other member of the alphabet soup except their letter, be it the L, G, B, or T parts -or- it’s this condescending attitude that T-folks are hangers-on, trying to ride on our coattails.

Matt

May 18th, 2010

Maggie is on Thom Hartmann at 2PM EDT to try to defend this…

http://www.thomhartmann.com/

Ben in Oakland

May 18th, 2010

Jason: straighted?

Isn’t that what Rekers did to his rent boy?

Oh, wait.

Ethan

May 19th, 2010

@Jason D:

Not to nitpick with you here, but (though I didn’t actually use the word ‘transgenderED’), either are acceptable, as it refers the noun (gender) being in transition.

There was an interesting article in a Canadian magazine a few months ago comparing the fervor with which so many queers in Canada attacked the same-sex marriage issue, to the general apathy that exists about other queer issues now that that right has been achieved.

The article suggested that so many of those who came out in strong support of the right to marry were middle-class gays & lesbians, whose biggest concern was being treated as social equals among their middle-class straight counterparts. They got what they wanted, and now they can go back to not giving a rat’s ass about other issues in the community.

Jason D

May 19th, 2010

@Ethan,
Sorry for the mistake, somehow I thought you used the “ed”. From my conversations with actual transfolk, and the glaad media reference guide:

Problematic: “transgendered”

Preferred: “transgender”

The adjective transgender should never have an extraneous “-ed” tacked onto the end. An “-ed” suffix adds unnecessary length to the word and can cause tense confusion and grammatical errors. For example, it is grammatically incorrect to turn transgender into a participle, as it is an adjective, not a verb, and only verbs can be used as participles by adding an “-ed” suffix.

I was wrong about it being a noun, it’s an adjective, and adjectives don’t get “ed” added to them.

Timothy Kincaid

May 19th, 2010

All the MTF transgender persons I know either use “tranny” or “T-girl”. While that might just be an example of insiders getting to use whatever term they like, it does add to the confusion.

And considering the pejorative terms that are frequently thrown about, I think that we really can cut some slack for those who inadvertently add an “-ed” to the end.

Désirée

May 19th, 2010

I have never had a problem with transgendered, but then, PC in the English language has gone a bit far. We also aren’t supposed to refer to people as “the blind” “the handicapped” “the deaf” (i.e. we are not supposed to take a condition and use it as a collective noun), instead we are are to use them as adjectives – blind people, handicapped people, deaf people. However, in other languages, like Swedish, (where I live mow) this is common practice and considered proper grammar.

I have never referred to my self as a t-girl, but then, I’m over 40 now and not very “girlish.” “Tranny” has all sorts of baggage and in fact is currently causing a stir in the community thanks to a low budget exploitation film making the rounds called “Ticked-off Trannies with Knifes.” Personally, I have never had a problem with the term but don’t use it on myself that often.

I think ultimately, so long as whatever term is used, isn’t used disrespectfully or has an obvious negative connotation (he-she, she-male shim, it, etc) I’m fine with whatever term someone is comfortable with.

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