Bruce and Caitlyn and Friends

Esther Jenner, 89: “He’s A Very Good-Looking Woman. I Loved Him With All My Heart—And I Certainly Love Her With All My Heart.”

Some people have said that 89-year-old Esther, the mother of her 65-year-old daughter Caitlyn Jenner, screwed up her pronouns in making the above statements. I don’t think so. She was simply saying that her son Bruce is her son and now Caitlyn is her daughter---and that her child remains her child regardless of transgendering from male to female. I think it is a remarkable statement of parental love. Esther had watched her 6’ 2”-195 pound very handsome son win Olympic gold in the 1976 Olympics in the decathlon, no doubt the world’s greatest athletic challenge. After his record-breaking win over the world’s best, Bruce rushed into the stands and kissed a pretty blonde woman wearing a “Go Jenner Go” yellow T-shirt. It was his wife Chrystie. Although he felt the pressures of the female brain as early as age six, it took him 59 years to transgender to female to satisfy those yearnings. But is this human condition so strange to contemplate if one uses reason and logic instead of the ignorant musings and prophecies of old prophets?

As an educator who has taught and supervised kindergartners to those working on PHDs, I am acutely aware of the differing intellectual abilities of the extremely broad spectrum of the human race. IQ tests reveal the borderline deficient to the genius. About 2% with IQs ranging from 0 to 70 are borderline deficient or dull, and about 2% are near genius or genius with IQs ranging from 130 on up to off the charts. About 14% with IQs ranging from 70 to 85 are considered deficient while 14% are in the 115 to 130 range and are considered superior. About 68% have IQs of 85 to 115 and are considered normal. We now have a population of about 320 million, so we have about 6.4 million people who need all kinds of help and 6.4 million at the superior and genius IQ levels who should be very capable of making life easier for the rest of us. One has the constant hope that the political class is in at least the normal range, although the evidence is transitory. The fact is we have over seven billion humans on the planet and we still have not found even identical twins with the same number of body cells. WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT.

Novelist Armistead Jones Maupin: “The World Changes In Direct Proportion To The Number Of People Willing To Be Honest About Their Lives”

The message in Maupin’s quote above is reinforced in a New Yorker cartoon of two bugs on a plant stem. A lady bug says to the other bug: “I didn’t know how to tell you, Frank, but I haven’t always been a ladybug.” A University of North Carolina dropout, Maupin at one time worked for North Carolina Republican Senator Jesse Helms at a radio station, and says he was a typical segregationist conservative like Helms, whom he admired as a friend and “hero figure.” Maupin served several tours of duty in the Navy during the Vietnam War. He knew he was gay in childhood, but didn’t come out until he was 30. He later broke with Helms by condemning him at a gay pride parade at North Carolina State University. He has published several novels and has worked in television and for several musical projects—and has been honest about his life.

When we examine the human products of the State Hatchery in Aldous Huxley’s famous dystopian novel “Brave New World,” where oxygen and nutrients are adjusted to make ten levels of “intelligent” human beings called Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons (with Pluses or Minuses in each case), we see a remarkable similarity to the wide-ranging levels in IQ tests. The Alphas are the geniuses while the Epsilons are the mentally deficient who do the scutwork of a modern society in 632 A.F. (After Ford). What makes us think that when it comes to sexuality each human has received exactly just the amount of testosterone and estrogen to put us in a narrow “normal” heterosexual range? Our human range of sexuality is probably as broad as the human intellectual range. We have lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender—and other levels of sexuality as we examine our neighbors and friends. Most of us identify with one gender—or possibly two. Now we have people who are “non-binary,” or “agender.” They say they are “male/female.” They do not choose a gender, therefore they are agender. Kelsey Beckham is an agender. Becky is not a he. Not a she. Not a male transitioning to a female, or a female transitioning to a male. Kelsey wears a shirt explaining this fact. Kelsey’s mother has asked her numerous times: “Are you sure? Are you sure you are not just a boyish girl?” Kelsey now spends time on the Internet with other agenders. Kelsey shops for clothes in both men’s and women’s departments. Kelsey would like less flesh on the hips and more muscle on top and a lower voice—but one that doesn’t sound like a man’s. We also have about one out of 2,000 babies born with both sets of genitalia, making it difficult to determine gender. And then we have the problem of XX and XY chromosomes which is too technical to go into here. I wonder if a Bible-Thumper, minister, priest, bishop, cardinal or pope wants to understand the wide range of human sexuality among their constituents. I would recommend the “Gender Book” to theologians. It might bend the verses in the “Good Book” a bit. It’s a 94-page book on gender specifics. By the way, a cisgender is a person who later agrees with the gender they were assigned at birth. Glory be.

What Happens When Pope Francis Meets Transgender Lui Akira Francesco Matsuo?

When Pope Francis visits the U.S. in September he is going to face some tough questions from a sexual minority of Catholics composed of LGBT members from around the world. Francis emphasizes the church’s work among the poor, immigrants, and prisoners. What will he do with transgender Matsuo who claims he is a practicing Catholic but as a transgender has been refused communion by the archbishop of Detroit because of his support for same-sex marriage? Matsuo was born female but has identified as a male since he was a toddler. Matsuo says: “I want him to extend his hand openly, especially to the transgender community. I am a practicing Catholic. I just don’t have a parish I can call home.” The Vatican is sponsoring an event called the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. Nicole Santamaria of El Salvador plans to attend the meeting and confront Pope Francis with her peculiar physical condition. She is in another sexual minority in that she was born with both sexual “conditions,” testicles and penis, and vagina and breasts. Will Pope Francis look her in the eye and tell her she is a second-class citizen, forever doomed to some kind of hell on earth during her passage? Will he tell her she doesn’t have a family? Will he refer her case to the College of Cardinals or to a committee of bishops for internal, external, and eternal study?

Can an intersex creature like Nicole be a Catholic in good standing? Another question for the Pope. What would Jesus Christ do with Nicole and Lui? It took the Vatican 400 years to admit that the scientist Galileo was right. How long is it going to take the Roman Catholic Church to admit that homosexuality and the wide range of sexuality among God’s creation is not intrinsically evil or an objective disorder, that gays and their ilk are not going to hell, that they belong to World Families just like heterosexuals do? The Vatican is presently denying the science of genetics in promulgating prophets similar to Donald Trump and Mike “the Fox” Huckabee. The evangelical Bible-Thumpers such as Franklin Graham think that the truth about human sexuality has already been spoken centuries ago from the ignorant deserts of the Middle East. Ignorance is not bliss. “Who am I to judge?” shocked the world, coming out of the mouth of a pope. Neither should the Vatican or the local bishop make such judgments. Deb Word, president of Fortunate Families, a support group for Catholic parents of gay children, wants to tell Pope Francis the story of her son, the altar server and faithful Catholic who is gay and didn’t come out until he was 23. Her son delayed telling his parents he was a teen gay because he was worried he was going to hell. Why put adolescents through such pain? Is that Christian? Francis has a real tough task ahead of him if he is to jerk the Vatican into the 21st Century. Six of ten Catholics approve of same-sex marriage. Nine of ten Catholic women use contraceptives instead of Vatican Roulette to limit pregnancies. Most of the present cardinals and bishops have been selected by Popes John Paul and Benedict, both non-Jesuit conservatives. It’s going to be tough to change the church.

Which Is The Most Powerful Drive? What’s Between Your Legs--Or Between Your Ears?

There’s the old story about how much blood the male human body contains. Evidence indicates there’s just enough to operate the brain and penis—but never enough at the same time. Caitlyn Jenner says her brain is more female than male. With a marvelous male athletic body as a teen, she still wanted to wear her mother’s and sister’s dresses after feeling that desire at age six. She started to take hormones in the 1980’s to transgender but lost her nerve because of society’s pressures. In an interview Caitlyn remarked that when she was Bruce she was never attracted to men. In other words, gender identity and sexuality were two completely different conditions. She is not gay. She has fathered six adult children. Her three wives support her decision, with Kris saying, “Not only was I able to call him my husband for 25 years and father of my children, I am now able to call him my hero.” Jenner was presented with the Arthur Ashe Courage award for exhibiting bravery in the field of athletics. Ashe was an AIDS activist during and after his tennis playing days. At the awards presentation, Caitlyn said: “If you want to call me names, make jokes and doubt my intentions, go ahead, because the reality is I can take it. But for thousands of kids out there coming to terms with the reality of who they are they shouldn’t have to take it. Trans people deserve something vital, they deserve your respect, from that respect comes a more compassionate community.”

Stubborn and ignorant theologians in many religions are mainly responsible for the horrific treatment of the LGBT community around the globe, spouting about intrinsic evil, sinning, and objective disorders that have created death sentences for gays in some societies. The climate is not good in this country. Over 40% of transgenders report attempting suicide. On average, one transgender woman is murdered every month. Over 40% of homeless youth are LGBT with many as transgender. In a study of 100 transgender youth ages 12 to 24, 51% had thought of suicide and 30% had attempted it at least once. The Centers for Disease Control report that four in 10 lesbian, six in 10 bisexual women, and one in three heterosexual women are raped or assaulted during their lifetime. Caitlyn Jenner in her blog wrote about the problems facing transgenders: “It’s not because trans people are somehow unstable---it’s because we live in a world that makes it very difficult to be trans. Many people, especially kids, can’t see how they can live as their authentic selves and keep their family, their jobs, and their homes.” To illustrate; A conservative California group is now pushing a Personal Protection Act that would fine a transgender $4,000 for peeing in the “wrong” bathroom.