Tuesday, April 12, 2016

An Open Letter to The Boss.

An Open Letter to Bruce Springsteen and His Band

In this November 2, 2008 file photo, Singer Bruce Springsteen and his wife Patti Scialfa listen as then-Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally at the Cleveland Mall in Cleveland, Ohio.
By Michael Brown Published on April 10, 20161899 Comments
Dear Bruce,
As a resident of North Carolina since 2003, I read with interest that you decided to cancel your April 10th concert in Greensboro because of HB2, the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act.
In your statement you explained that, in your view, the bill is “an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress.”
You added that it was time for you and your band “to show solidarity for those freedom fighters” (speaking of transgender activists), and you ended your statement with these powerful words: “Some things are more important than a rock show and this fight against prejudice and bigotry — which is happening as I write — is one of them. It is the strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backwards instead of forwards.”
I also read that your guitarist, Steven Van Zandt, has likened HB2 to an “evil virus” that is spreading through the United States in the form of similar legislation.
These are strong words, and they represent strong convictions. So, let me first commend you and your band members for putting your principles before your livelihood, even to the disappointment of your North Carolina fans. I have read that you regretted not performing at the 1985 Live Aid concert in Wembley, and perhaps this is your way of saying, “I do care and I’m here to make a difference.”
Whatever your motivation, I admire anyone who puts morality before money. My question to you and your band is simply this: In boycotting North Carolina and siding against HB2, did you really side with morality? Are you truly standing with “freedom fighters”?
I’m assuming you read HB2 for yourself and you’re not just listening to media reports attacking the bill or, worse still, getting your talking points from biased lobbyist groups like the Human Rights Campaign. (If you’re not really familiar with the bill, then click here and here and here.)
So, please allow me to ask you some questions.
First, how do you know if someone is really “transgender” or not? Is it determined entirely by how they feel about themselves? If so, do you think that it might be hard to make laws based entirely on how people feel? Did you ever stop to consider that?
Second, what’s the difference between someone with “gender dysphoria” (or, as it used to be called, “gender identity disorder”) and someone, say, with schizophrenia or “multiple personality disorder” or some other psychological condition? In other words, if a man is a biological and chromosomal male but believes he is a woman, is he actually a woman, or does he have a psychological disorder?
If he does have a psychological disorder, should we try to treat that disorder or should we celebrate that disorder? And is it right to call biological males who feel they are women and biological women who feel they are men “freedom fighters”? Perhaps that’s not the best use of the term?
If you are deeply offended that I would dare suggest that many transgender individuals are dealing with a psychological disorder, could you kindly point me to the definitive scientific literature that explains that these biological males are actually females and these biological females are actually males?
I’m not saying they don’t deserve compassion. To the contrary, I’m saying that’s exactly what they deserve: compassion, not celebration.
But perhaps I’m being too abstract here, so let’s get really practical. Let’s say that a 6’ 4” male who used to play professional football and who has secretly agonized over his gender identity for years finally determines that he must be true to himself and live as a woman.
Do you think it might be traumatic for a little girl using the library bathroom to see this big man walk into her room wearing a dress and a wig? Should we take her feelings into account, or is she not important? What if that was your granddaughter? Would you care if she was traumatized? And when you speak of “the human rights of all of our citizens” does that include little girls like this?
I understand that this gentleman will have difficulties should he decide to dress and live as a woman, but that is still a choice he is making, and it is not fair to impose his struggles on innocent little children, is it?
And what if this same man, whom we’ll assume is not a sexual predator, wants to share the YMCA locker room with your wife and daughter, standing there in his underwear as they come out of the shower stalls wrapped in towels. Is this fair to them?
Let’s take this one step further. If any man who claims to be a woman can use women’s bathrooms and locker rooms, then how do we keep the sexual predators out? I’ve asked people to watch this short video, giving examples of male heterosexual predators who donned women’s clothing to get into the ladies’ rooms, and I’d encourage you to watch it too. Without HB2, rapists and voyeurs and pedophiles would have free access to our women and daughters in the safety of their own bathrooms and locker rooms.
Since you don’t like HB2 — indeed, your guitarist called it an “evil virus” — what’s your plan to keep the predators out? How can we tell the difference between a “genuine” transgender person and a sexual predator? Since everyone knows you as “The Boss,” what would you do to keep the ladies and children safe?
And one final question.
When you booked the concert in Greenboro, the laws in North Carolina were just as they are today: In public facilities, people had to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that corresponded to their biological sex. Why, then, did you agree to come in the first place? Why cancel the concert when things today are just what they were six months ago?
Again, I appreciate your sincerity, but I question your judgment. In your zeal to do what is right, you have actually done what is wrong.

17 comments:

  1. I admire Bruce for his decision William and I had tickets to see this concert, maybe the last chance ever to see the boss. When you posted this I was coming on to post a subject which is the disaster that HB2 has been for my state. Bruce is just the tip of the iceberg. Since it's passage the state has lost 4 large conventions in Charlotte, a Pay pal office that was to employ now less then 450 people with great paying jobs and today Duetsche Bank has pulled out of a deal to bring at least 250 jobs to Cary by the end of 2017.AND the NBA is toying with the idea (yes I know it is unconfirmed that it did) but toying with the idea of moving the 2017 NBA allstar game out of the state.
    As usual the GOP has used fear mongering to get limited support for an atrocious archaic piece of legislation that moves a once highly progressive state back 25 years. This law was past with no democrat in the chamber as they had all walked out in protest. Now William I guess you find that a ok since you agree with the measure although the dems were wrong because there were no repub votes for the ACA but such as it is for the GOP. Always right and the dems always wrong. This law is so bad that Attorney General Roy Cooper has stated that he will not defend the state against any cases arising from this horrible piece of legislation.
    Funny thing I went to Trader Joe's quite recently and here is a highly progressive company way ahead of the curve as usual and problem solved. They have taken their two bathrooms, put a toilet in the men's a urinal in the women's put a man and a women on the door and a lock for privacy and this problem is easily solved.

    Our hideous governor Pat McCrory better wake up. His number one adversary for the last 4 year the attorney general is also his chief rival for the governorship in November. Although it is close dems are leading in every statewide race, governor, lt governor, treasurer, attorney general. The GOP is ruining our progressive state.

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    1. How do you propose controlling unisex bathroom access at large venues like stadiums or arenas where someone like Springsteen would entertain?

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    2. A lock? on every stall...............

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    3. A lock? On every urinal.......

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  2. Here's what the psychiatric association says: A psychological state is considered a mental disorder only if it causes significant distress or disability. Many transgender people do not experience their gender as distressing or disabling, which implies that identifying as transgender does not constitute a mental disorder. For these individuals, the significant problem is finding affordable resources, such as counseling, hormone therapy, medical procedures and the social support necessary to freely express their gender identity and minimize discrimination. Many other obstacles may lead to distress, including a lack of acceptance within society, direct or indirect experiences with discrimination, or assault. These experiences may lead many transgender people to suffer with anxiety, depression or related disorders at higher rates than nontransgender persons.
    According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), people who experience intense, persistent gender incongruence can be given the diagnosis of "gender dysphoria." Some contend that the diagnosis inappropriately pathologizes gender noncongruence and should be eliminated. Others argue that it is essential to retain the diagnosis to ensure access to care. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is under revision and there may be changes to its current classification of intense persistent gender incongruence as "gender identity disorder."

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    1. The author of the article you posted suggests that many transgender individuals are dealing with a psychological disorder.

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    2. I suppose it's all in how you define many. How about some. Would you want your children or grandchildren dealing with something like this?

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    3. LGBT Leader With Sex Offender Status Resigns From Charlotte LGBT Chamber of Commerce
      Posted on March 9, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

      NC SBI Sevearance 2015 photoChad Sevearance, the leader of the Transgender bathroom ordinance push in Charlotte, NC whose sex offender status was exposed by Family Values Coalition, has apparently resigned as President of Charlotte’s LGBT Chamber of Commerce.

      The resignation came on or around the 22nd of February, according to the LGBT news portal, Qnotes.

      The Charlotte Observer has not reported this tidbit, but we shouldn’t be surprised by that. Keep reading and you’ll see why.

      Qnotes describes Sevearance’s crime:

      Court records obtained by QNotes show Chad Sevearance-Turner, 38, was convicted of committing a lewd act on a minor in 1998. He was 19 and working as a music minister at a church in Gaffney, S.C. The minor was a 15-year-old boy who attended the church.

      Severance-Turner was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and he served two years before being released on parole. He has had no further violations since.

      […]

      During this week’s trial, all three of the boys described waking during the night to find Severance fondling them, either at their homes or at his home. They said that in July 1998 he started making excuses to spend the night under the same roof with them.

      Sevearance was born in November 11, 1977, which would make him 20 or 21 depending on the date, not 19. Sevearance apparently maintained he was innocent the whole time.

      Also, it wasn’t just one boy. It was three boys all under the age of 16, and it took a jury less than two hours to convict him. Local news outlet, GroupState.com 07/22/2000:

      A Cherokee County jury took less than two hours Friday to find former youth minister Chad Severance guilty of fondling a teen-age church member as the boy slept.

      Circuit Judge John Few sentenced Severance, 22, of Bessemer City, N.C., to 10 years in prison on a single felony count of committing a lewd act on a minor. He faces two other counts of the same charge, each involving a different teen-age male church member. All three boys were members of the New Harvest Church of God at 120 Boiling Springs Highway.

      Qnotes has Sevearance on the record saying this about his conviction (emphasis added):

      In an interview with qnotes, Sevearance-Turner said the decision to resign was fully his.

      “What I didn’t want to do was allow the right to continue to detract and to continue throwing stones at an organization that has done absolutely nothing but help individuals and our community in our city,” he said.

      Sevearance-Turner declined to comment on the details of his conviction, and dismissed them as irrelevant.

      “If this had anything to do with the non-discrimination ordinance, and if it had any credence or validity with what we’re discussing as a city and as an LGBT community, then I would absolutely welcome the interrogation,” he said, “but I think that it detracts from the real conversations we’re having.”

      Amazing. The leader of a community pushing for the “right” to let men pee in women’s bathrooms and vice versa and which literally opens the door for all kinds of sexual predators to take advantage, thinks his sex offender status is irrelevant.

      Don’t Do It Charlotte has all three of the charges from the South Carolina Court.
      View Charge 1, Charge 2, Charge 3.

      Sevearance’s petition to the South Carolina Supreme Court was denied in 2002.





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    4. On the media front, the Daily Caller has an article by Demi Dowdy of the Civitas Institute in Raleigh about the Charlotte Observer knowing about Sevearance’s status on February 8th, yet they failed to report about it.

      Excerpt:

      The Charlotte Observer, a publication that has consistently championed the proposed ordinance, knew about Sevearance’s predatory past for several weeks. Not only were press releases sent containing this information, but follow up calls were made directly to multiple reporters on staff. (See images)

      The violation of their readers’ trust is clear. And the journalistic integrity is absent. The reporters at the Charlotte Observer didn’t just turn a blind eye, they covered up the truth.

      Yes, they did cover it up, they buried it. The Charlotte Observer used their own news outlet for personal activism.

      Hey, remember with the Charlotte Observer memory-holed that story on Kay Hagan’s family sucking up stimulus money? Well now Hagan is under investigation for that very thing by the US Department of Energy. So far, the Charlotte Observer has not reported it.

      Their sister outlet, News and Observer is no better.

      Both of them seem to have an aversion to using Google and both of them elevate individuals in their stories while ignoring criminal records.

      Don’t forget, the News and Observer edited footage of DREAMERS upstaging Kay Hagan at a campaign rally. The News and Observer chopped up the footage, inserted still frames with added text in them. This was done to portray the situation in the best possible light for Hagan.

      The lesson here is that the average citizen has to assume the main stream news outlets they frequent are either lying to them, are lazy or both. What I suggest is when reading a story, Google the quoted persons or groups, you’ll be amazed at what you find — heck, it’s half of what I blog about here at this site.

      Update:

      As Carolina Plotthound points out, Sevearance now plans to SUE the NC Family Values Coalition. Tucked in the bottom section of the Qnotes article:

      Sevearance-Turner will remain an advisory to the board, and says he is in the process of filing a lawsuit against Fitzgerald and the outspoken activist brothers Jason and David Benham for misusing information from the sex offender registry.

      Exactly how did they ‘misuse’ this information?

      It’s relevant that he was convicted for committing ‘lewd’ acts on several minors. Discovery will be fun in that case, should it go forward.

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    5. https://ladyliberty1885.com/2016/03/09/lgbt-leader-with-sex-offender-status-resigns-from-charlotte-lgbt-chamber-of-commerce/

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    6. NewsGenderThu Feb 18, 2016 - 5:41 pm EST
      Man strips in front of girls in locker room, says transgender law allows it

      bathroom bills , transgender , transgenderism , washington state

      SEATTLE, Washington, February 18, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) - A man twice entered the changing room of a swimming pool and began disrobing, once in front of a young girls' swim team, saying transgender policies gave him the right to do so.

      The unidentified man entered Evans pool in Seattle near Green Lake last Monday, February 8, and began taking off his shirt in front of female patrons.

      When asked what he was doing, he said, "The law has changed and I have a right to be here."

      "Seeing this individual in the locker room, parents of swim team members (girls) and women who had paid for lap swim became alarmed and alerted our front desk staff," said Seattle Parks spokesman David Takami in a statement. "In response, an Evans pool staff member entered the women's locker room and asked the man to leave." They offered both the man and the girls the opportunity to use a family changing room.

      He left, only to return during a later youth lap swim, Takami said.

      Officials said he had made no attempt to present himself as a woman, nor to identify as transgender when he checked in. By all appearances, he was a man.

      But appearances do not matter when it comes to "gender identity." LGBT theorists hold that biological sex is distinct from gender, which is determined solely by the person's mental self-identification.

      Takami affirmed, "We have guidelines that allow transgender individuals to use restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity."

      "We want everyone to feel comfortable in our facilities," he said.

      Some patrons feel the man, who has yet to be identified, exploited the law to peep at women. "Either identify yourself as a transgender or you're not, and you're just taking advantage of a loophole," MaryAnne Sato, who visits the pool several times a week, told USA Today.

      A similar incident occurred in Olympia in 2012, when a 45-year-old biological male who calls himself Colleen Francis lounged naked in a women’s locker room, in an area frequented by girls as young as six. According to the police report an eyewitness stated, “There were girls 6 to 18 years of age and they were not used to seeing individuals in situations like this.” But the facility gave him the right to continue using its facilities as he wished.

      Those who oppose adding gender identity to non-discrimination ordinances and civil rights legislation have long warned the ordinances would be used specifically for that purpose.

      But LGBT political activists dismissed such concerns, calling opponents' warnings that such a thing could occur overblown at best, entirely fictitious at worst.

      Houston Mayor Annelise Parker said that opponents of that city's transgender ordinance waged a campaign of “fear mongering and deliberate lies” when voters repealed the so-called "HERO" ordinance in a landslide.

      Some in the city felt the action was intended to stoke those unfounded fears. Gunner Scott, a transgender activist, told KIRO radio host Jason Rantz he felt "concern" that "this was a setup by opponents of LGBT equality to try to exploit the recent debate of basic rights of transgender youth."

      But Aldan Shank, who regularly attends the pool, said he thought the man's actions were intended as statement in favor of transgender rights, albeit one that "sort of works against the point they're trying to make. They're causing people to feel exposed and vulnerable with the intention of reducing people feeling exposed and vulnerable."

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  3. Nope. In addition to of "Men"and "Women" on the doors we have "Men Who Want To Be Women" and "Women Who Want To Be Men". The real problem then comes down to figuring out the logos.

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    1. Another social experiment that will have major ramifications.

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  4. I was once in a country club where the restroom doors were labeled "Pointers" and "Setters", We could add "Pointing Setters" and "Sitting Pointers" or maybe just one that says "Poinsettias"? A little flowery touch, especially good for the Christmas season. Anyone who objects would likely stage a "set in" or a "point in" depending on their orientation.

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  5. I was once in a country club where the restroom doors were labeled "Pointers" and "Setters", We could add "Pointing Setters" and "Sitting Pointers" or maybe just one that says "Poinsettias"? A little flowery touch, especially good for the Christmas season. Anyone who objects would likely stage a "set in" or a "point in" depending on their orientation.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was once in a country club where the restroom doors were labeled "Pointers" and "Setters", We could add "Pointing Setters" and "Sitting Pointers" or maybe just one that says "Poinsettias"? A little flowery touch, especially good for the Christmas season. Anyone who objects would likely stage a "set in" or a "point in" depending on their orientation.

    ReplyDelete