Taking Pot Shots At Trans Rights

March 25, 2008 ·

“I was sitting in my basement.
I just rolled myself a taste
Of something green and gold and glorious
To get me through the day.” — I Got Stoned And I Missed It, Shel Silverstein

“”I have always loved marijuana. It has been a source of joy and comfort to me for many years. And I still think of it as a basic staple of life ….” — author, Hunter S. Thompson

Another day, another … reason to go get stoned.

It’s too damn bad I stopped buying that stuff back in the mid 80’s. It’s not been an especially good weekend. We just reached a new and ignominious milestone in the War in Iraq. 4000 deaths.

A new friend of mine I met during our precinct convention (or Texas Two-Step caucus as the media likes to tag it) Emailed me today to say she couldn’t make it to next weekend’s senate district convention as a delegate. It turns out that she was notified that her grandson was one of those reported killed in Iraq this weekend. After the initial shock of Billy’s news, my thoughts then immediately went out to my own nephew who’s over there right now. Another fresh, innocuous Army face doing the honorable thing on the front lines … I can’t imagine what he’s thinking.

On top of that, two friends – one a former co-worker, and another one of the delegates from my precinct, are losing jobs at the end of the month.

Maybe there’s hope on the horizon. It seems there’s a decriminalization bill for small amounts of marijuana that is making it’s way through the processes in the U. S. House of Representatives. We can all just catch a buzz and fuggeddaboudit!

And guess who spoke out in favor of this bill …? Rep. Barney Frank, the top congressional GLBT (and I add the T though I fully realize we have no representation up on the Hill) member on the Hill. Yep, the same Barney Frank who knew we didn’t have enough support for a fully inclusive Employment Non Discrimination Act because, well, you know … we can’t have transgender people working in jobs around children and stuff. Especially not with the almost-daily reports of transgenders molesting kids and stuff … wherever the hell that raft of case histories came from.

Or maybe they weren’t there after all. Probably just all the pot smoke ….

“But you’ve got to understand. I want to be president. I want to lead. I want to set– Do you want your little kid to say, “Hey, Daddy. President Bush tried marijuana. I think I will?” — the Texas Gov. George W. Bush in taped interview with confidant Doug Wead

“Am I high? Just look in my eyes.
If you could see them from the other side,
You’d still be wonderin’ “Am I High?”” — Am I High?, Asleep At The Wheel

Oh yeah, back to Barney … he explained it this way: “Many elected officials are hesitant to support any proposals that might be viewed as weakening our drug laws, but I believe this is a common sense idea that will give some people who are suffering a measure of relief.”

In fact, Barney even gave high-fives to GOPpers supporting the bill as well. GOP maverick Ron Paul of Texas, and conservative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) are supporting the measure. That’s pretty impressive. Indeed, it does have some common sense to it, even if it is a pretty controversial topic.

“Do you really think people should be prosecuted for smoking marijuana? I don’t think most people agree with that.” Actually, I’d agree with him on that. Pot is not a dangerous, addictive drug in the vein of opiate, amphetamine or cocaine based drugs. The question is, has the party chair done a “whip count” to poll and see how many of the other Reps are supportive of this? Did they listen to the worried freshmen whom may be frightened about supporting such a political hot potato?

Who’d have thunk it, hmm? We’re living in a day – even in the same congressional session – where we could see gay rights and marijuana legalization with realistic chances of passage!

And as for transgenders? Sorry! Not a snowball’s chance in hell, babies!

“It’s Public Enemy, Number One!
Women Cry For It – Men Die For It!
The Sweet “Pill” That Makes Life BITTER!
Adults Only!
Drug Crazed Abandon!
Sin – degradation – vice – insanity!” — Movie Trailer soundbites from “Reefer Madness” (1936)

“Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.” — conservative pundit, William F. Buckley Jr.

What this clearly communicates is even if you’re a fully law-abiding transgender, you’re still lower than a pot-smoker who may be breaking the law. Ain’t that ducky?

It’s Barney’s way of saying “If you break a law because of pot, you can get a job – hell, we’ll make it legal, so you can be legit! But you transsexuals? We ain’t hiring! Back out to the shadowy streetcorners with ya, with the other hookers and lowlifes where ya belong!”

It’s kinda sad. I had a dream that some day we’d be at least as good, maybe even considered a little better than -potheads. Oh well, it was a nice pipe-dream, I suppose. We still haven’t even risen to the level of child molesters yet! They often keep their jobs – even in religious organizations and churches.

But don’t let them catch you transitioning from one gender to the other! Horrors! You’ll be tossed out with little hesitation!

Very few studies have been allowed to be compiled on support from the public for equal employment opportunities for transgenders. However, they have shown a consistent result: the majority of respondents support trans inclusion in employment legislation. In the North Carolina study that HRC contracted (and buried shortly thereafter), a slightly higher percentage supported trans inclusion in the workplace over sexual orientation!

And yet … there’s not the support for us transgenders on the Hill. Barney Frank says so. We’ve not done any education or lobbying on Capitol Hill for trans rights, said Barn. Done a piss poor job, according to his opinion. So it must be fact, right? The dude’s bitchin’, he wouldn’t shaft us.

He’s been the transgender community’s hero for years! No one has worked harder! That’s what we’ve all heard from … from somewhere. I don’t remember where. Or maybe it didn’t happen at all … I don’t know. Hey, what do you expect? Stoners are more lucid and employable than us trannies.

On the pot legalization bill, Barney noted that, “it’s one area where the public is ahead of the elected officials.”

Actually there have been a few studies on equal employment opportunities for transgenders. The consistent result has shown a majority of the public support trans inclusion in employment legislation. Oh, I said that already? I forgot. Hey-y-y! Barney was right! The public IS ahead of the elected officials! Oh, wow ….

“A drunkard wants another drink of wine, a politician wants a vote.
I don’t want much of nothin’ at all, but I will take another toke.” — Long-Haired Country Boy, Charlie Daniels

“I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.” — author, Hunter S. Thompson

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  1. Nefarious and corrupt minds will toss others into ovens for no other reason than to validate themselves. Transgender identity is an easy target; one that distracts from the exposure of others. It always is interesting to correlate who says what about others.

  2. Let me see. Is this the line of reasoning?:
    Barney Frank is a bleep because he scapegoated transgenders in order to obtain rights for gays but it is o k for transgenders to scapegoat people who smoke pot to obtain rights.

    I think conventional wisdom has it that “everyone knows” that transgenders are “deluded and crazy” just like “everyone knows” pot smokers are “deluded and crazy”. Imagine if someone were actually transgendered and smoked pot. Oh my god. Send in the clones.

    What if gender were only a myth? What if gender were something only to be transcended? What if it were nobody’s business how someone expressed themselves through dress and presentation? What if it were nobody’s business what people grew in their backyards?

    What if people stopped going poo-poo on each other to get what they want? I guess their wouldn’t be any poolitcs, would there?

  3. I have been fairly pithy about my observations of militant/Elitist gay political posturing, all the while using the Transgender as a tool to degrade those who were in search of transitioned lives. No question we are seeing what had been standing in many states, Transsexual protection laws for over 30 years, now being reversed and nullified by the courts and localities. No question that HRC, PFLAG pride parades, and Barney Frank are working hard to insert themselves into the social process at the expense of those who they “hate.” In my exploration of their activity I have discovered that they are even nudging the conservative right from within. Yes, they have their influence to bring disinformation and bigotry directed at the Transgender while promoting their legitimacy. It is a tactic that I have spoken of before, and it is classic. It is what the Bolsheviks, Nazis, KKK, and other corrupt political thugs have embraced through out history. It is simply creating a sense among the bourgeois, the voting public, that a particular group is dangerous and a threat to be “eradicated.”

    The days ahead are going to be very dark, and I am afraid bloody, as the transgender “happy family” and gay agenda pandering continues. Those who in the Trans-activist organizations have sold out to the need for GLBt alliance will find soon that it was fraud and a trap. To combine all in a Transgender envelope was a gay initiative, whom the Intersex-advocates saw immediately as something to disassociate from and reject.

    Congress is sitting back in horror over this, as some who years back had supported those who were identified as Transsexual are hearing from all over the fears of the public. A public in the last weeks who are being fed disinformation as is seen in Montgomery, MD. The Gendeer Protection bill was terribly written, and it was intentional. It is a campaign of hate, and today the biggest force in this bigotry is the HRC and the militant gay hierarchy who has built an esoteric and elitist network with in the media and corporate world. Again, there is no question as to the power and ability to exert influence into the election and business process. And no question as to the common perception and concern within the gay community; there is none.

  4. I’d support legalizing it, but we all know Bush ain’t gonna sign that bill, nor are very many states going to go along with it.

    I can’t smoke that stuff. It makes me stupid for days thereafter. I’ll enjoy some dark rum instead, a good bottle of red, maybe some Irish whiskey, or a cold dark brew. Perhaps Barney was burning the sinsemilla in September 2007.

    Thanks for quoting the best author ever produced by Atherton High School, of Louisville, Kentucky. May HST rest in peace, but with plenty of bourbon and ammunition.

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