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The T In Me: Living The Gender Binary

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J. Crew’s Jenna Lyons’ painting her son’s toenails pink has sparked outrage from the Right and a challenge from the Left. Writer Jay Morris explains.

Long before I was a sexual being, I was a “gendered” being. Right out of the womb, the doctor declared, “It’s a boy,” forever solidifying my role in American culture as someone who will prefer the color blue over the color pink, militant looking toys to long-haired dolls and hard lineless clothing to the softer wears of those declared “girls.” I wasn’t asked my preferences, but instead those preferences were assigned to me along with my gender marker.

But as I grew from an infant to a toddler, it was clear I had preferences that were considered feminine. I loved having my nails painted and my mother would oblige occasionally, but insisted the polish be removed only moments after its application.

 

Some boys like pink, some girls don’t. Get over it.


 

By kindergarten, it was apparent that I was gender variant. I loved playing house and preferred an Easy Bake Oven to playing cowboys and Indians. It didn’t take long to learn that this variance was unacceptable by society’s standards. Boys were to like certain things, girls were to like certain other things – the line in the sand was drawn. I did what most any child would do in the same situation and overcompensated to prove myself as a man. I got into fist fights, started riding a BMX bike and secretly pretended that my Heman figures were Barbie dolls and Wonder Woman.

Middle school was torturous. The overcharged violence I had in my younger days wouldn’t work anymore. I was larger than most kids, but ran and hit “like a girl.” Because of my height, the pressure to play sports was immense, but I hated sports. That earned me the label “f@g” to my classmates, yet I still wasn’t a sexual being. They were attacking me for being gender variant, not for being a homosexual – after all, I was still a virgin and only just starting puberty. Thus, it seems that the root of homophobia lies within the gender binary created by society – boys like blue, girls like pink; boys don’t like boys, girls don’t like girls.

Eventually, I grew up to be the cisgendered gay man I am today, with plenty of gender variance remaining.

As a result of my fear of disappointing society, I didn’t have the childhood I would have preferred to have had.

Thus, when I learned of the photograph featuring J. Crew’s Creative Director, Jenna Lyons, embracing her son’s preferences toward the color pink and painting his toenails, I applauded her. She is giving him the childhood he wants to have, rather than the childhood society expects him to have.

READ: “Fox News Attacks J. Crew President For Ad With Son’s Toenails Pink“

In support of Jenna and to further illustrate the ridiculousness of the gender binary, on Friday, April 22, 2011, I will be joining countless others and painting my nails pink.

Some boys like pink, some girls don’t. Get over it.

 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=jgIwWU6Rw3w%3Ffs%3D1%26hl%3Den_US%26rel%3D0

 


Jay Morris is a State Lead for GetEQUAL.org, a founding member of the Direct Action Network San Antonio, a writer for Ignite San Antonio Magazine, and blogger at jaysays.com. You can find him posting randomness on Twitter or engage him in conversation on Facebook.

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News

‘Every Time You Talk It’s a Campaign Speech’: Judge Blasts Trump’s Lawyer

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November 27, 2023

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The judge presiding over New York’s civil business fraud case against Donald Trump had a “testy exchange” with one of the ex-president’s attorneys, this time over the lawyer’s demand he be allowed to call as a witness the monitor overseeing Trump’s real estate holdings and who may oversee the disgorgment of some of his assets.

Judge Arthur Engoron, who already was forced to impose a gag order on Donald Trump and subsequently the lawyers for the ex-president, criticized attorney Chris Kise on Monday afternoon.

Last year Judge Engoron had appointed former U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones as a monitor for the Trump Organization.

“The Trump family’s lawyer Clifford Robert asked to call her to the witness stand on Monday, a request that Engoron promptly denied,” The Messenger reports. “’Besides being untimely and inappropriate, Judge Jones and her staff are arms of the court,’ Engoron said in a denial from the bench, adding that having her also testify would invite a conflict of interest.”

READ MORE: Johnson Suggests Santos May Resign – Will Indicted Congressman Try to Burn the House Down First?

Trump’s lawyers appear to want to use Jones to rebut Judge Engoron’s pre-trial ruling that Trump is liable for fraud.

Trump Hotels’s chief accounting officer Mark Hawthorn testified that he had had “ongoing conversations” with Jones.

“There were concerns they highlighted that required more and we responded diligently and adequately, but I would say no one from the team communicated to us [that] they uncovered any fraud or irregularities,” Hawthorn said.

The Messenger’s Adam Klasfeld reported on Monday, Trump attorney Chris Kise told the judge, “They’re the only ones in the courtroom jumping up and down claiming there’s fraud. The bank isn’t. The monitor isn’t.”

“Every time you talk, it’s a campaign speech,” Judge Engoron responded.

 

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OPINION

Johnson Suggests Santos May Resign – Will Indicted Congressman Try to Burn the House Down First?

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13 hours ago

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November 27, 2023

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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Monday afternoon said he has spoken to U.S. Rep. George Santos, suggesting the embattled and indicted New York Republican might resign rather than face an impending expulsion vote he’s likely to lose. But over the holiday weekend, Santos suggested he was not going to go without a fight, as he appeared to take a page out of another embattled Republican’s book: former U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn.

Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman reports Speaker Johnson says he has spoken to Congressman Santos “at ‘length’ about his ‘options’ ahead of expulsion vote. Johnson seemed like the house may avoid a vote — which would mean resignation.” (See video below.)

House Republicans allowed Santos to be seated despite news that he had manufactured his resume and even his religion, news that continued after Republicans allowed him to be sworn in. They refused to expel him when he was indicted on 23 federal felonies including for alleged wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, and lying to Congress.

READ MORE: ‘How Sick Your Soul’: Conservatives Slammed for Suing Over Program Supporting Pregnant Black Women

But last week’s damning Ethics Committee report provides, in great detail, “overwhelming evidence” of alleged misconduct, and even more evidence of his alleged criminal acts – beyond what even federal prosecutors listed in their indictments. And it has led to public outcry, forcing some House Republicans to rethink their refusal to expel him.

That report alleges Santos used campaign donor cash for shopping trips, Botox, and even the not-safe-for work site OnlyFans.

Over the weekend, Rep. Santos spoke on an audio forum hosted at X, formerly Twitter, and indicated not only would he not resign, he appeared to suggest he might take down some Republicans along the way.

In March of 2022, U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), amid mounting scandals, lashed out on a podcast, denouncing what he claimed was the “sexual perversion that goes on in Washington,” and alleged some of his colleagues he grew up looking up to, had used cocaine at “orgies.”

In a similar vein, Rep. Santos on Friday in that audio forum, “said he does not want to continue working with ‘a bunch of hypocrites’ in Congress, whom he accused of committing infractions more severe than his, including being ‘more worried about getting drunk every night’ with lobbyists,” The Washington Post reported. “Santos, without providing evidence, also accused his colleagues of trying to ‘sell off the American people’ and of voting while hung over.”

READ MORE: Trump Serves Up ‘Sarcastic’ Reason Why He Uses Obama’s Name Instead of Biden’s

“Within the ranks of United States Congress, there’s felons galore,” Santos alleged.

But he also declared, “I’m not leaving.” “Come hell or high water … it’s done when I say it’s done,” and yet, admitted he would likely be expelled.

“I know I’m going to get expelled when this expulsion resolution goes to the floor,” he said. “I’ve done the math over and over, and it doesn’t look really good.”

Santos, also “described himself in the conversation as the Republican ‘It Girl’ as well as the ‘Mary Magdalene of the United States Congress.'”

If he does not resign, Congressman Santos could face an expulsion vote this week.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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News

Trump Serves Up ‘Sarcastic’ Reason Why He Uses Obama’s Name Instead of Biden’s

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16 hours ago

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November 27, 2023

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A little before 7:30 AM on Monday Fox Business News host Maria Bartiromo demanded to know “who’s running the show here?” and asked if President Joe Biden knows “what’s going on or is he being directed by President Obama?”

There is no credible reporting that President Barack Obama is directing President Joe Biden on running the country, nor is there any credible reporting that President Biden needs him to.

But less than 45 minutes after Bartiromo’s baseless attack on President Biden, Donald Trump served up what appeared to be a response to news reports questioning his own cognitive abilities – and suggested he thinks Obama is “having a very big influence” in running the country.

MSNBC’s Brian Tyler Cohen, in a six-minute opinion video in late September, detailed some of Trump’s errors, including suggesting he beat Barack Obama in 2016 and World War II had not happened yet.

READ MORE: ‘How Sick Your Soul’: Conservatives Slammed for Suing Over Program Supporting Pregnant Black Women

Earlier this month, Forbes reported Trump recently has “mixed up” Biden with Obama at least seven times.

Last month, the Biden campaign posted one of Trump’s “flubs,” where he mixed up Biden and Obama.

Mediate reported that in a lengthier version of the audio, “Kilmeade corrects Trump, who then pretends he meant to say ‘Obama’ all along — forcing Kilmeade to correct him again.”

Also last month, Trump’s current top 2024 opponent, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, slammed Trump for apparent errors and confusion.

The mainstream media is taking notice of Trump’s flubs and misstatements as well, and not just of the ex-president mixing up his predecessor and his successor.

“Mr. Trump has had a string of unforced gaffes, garble and general disjointedness that go beyond his usual discursive nature, and that his Republican rivals are pointing to as signs of his declining performance,” The New York Times reported late last month. “In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has also told supporters not to vote, and claimed to have defeated President Barack Obama in an election. He has praised the collective intellect of an Iranian-backed militant group that has long been an enemy of both Israel and the United States, and repeatedly mispronounced the name of the armed group that rules Gaza.”

“In recent speeches,” The Washington Post reported two weeks ago, “Trump has incorrectly described Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as the leader of Turkey and falsely suggested Hungary shares a border with Russia. He has repeatedly referred to the Obama administration when he meant the Biden administration, and at one point he inaccurately suggested he’d beaten Obama — rather than Hillary Clinton — in the 2016 election.”

READ MORE: RNC Tightening Its Belt to ‘Keep the Party From Going Into the Red’: Report

But now, Trump is offering what he claims is his intentional reason for appearing to mix up Obama and Biden.

Sarcasm.

And his suggestion that, like Bartiromo asked, he alleges former President Obama is really in charge.

“Whenever I sarcastically insert the name Obama for Biden as an indication that others may actually be having a very big influence in running our Country, Ron DeSanctimonious and his failing campaign apparatus, together with the Democrat’s Radical Left ‘Disinformation Machine,’ go wild saying that ‘Trump doesn’t know the name of our President, (CROOKED!) Joe Biden. He must be cognitively impaired,’ ” Trump wrote Monday on his Truth Social account.

He insisted, “I know both names very well, never mix them up, and know that they are destroying our Country.”

Trump then claimed he “just took a cognitive test as part of my Physical Exam, and ACED it.”

READ MORE: ‘Trump Says His Threats Aren’t Threats’: Legal Expert Explains Latest Gag Order Twist

Watch the voice above or at this link.

 

 

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