Transgender Issues

Whose bathroom is it anyway?

Ordinarily The Scrapbook enjoys writing about the stupid things associated with modern politics and culture. It’s a touch irritating, though, to have to spend time and energy insisting that obviously true things are, in fact, true. Things like the differences between men and women.

As if bureaucracies weren’t complicated enough. The New York Times reports that beginning next year, New York City will give people the option of identifying themselves on their birth certificates not only as “male” or “female,” but also as “X.” New Yorkers such as Charlie Arrowood (who, we are…

Colorado turns up the heat on America’s most controversial baker.

“‘Having a vagina doesn’t make a woman,’ she said in an interview. ‘Even if many people don’t want to see me as a woman . . .’ ” (“Aiming for Miss Universe, and Transgender Rights,” New York Times, July 14).

Defending an actress for being hired to do a job is apparently beyond the pale these days.

Tracking the rise and fall of Rose McGowan’s sheroism (and I have for months) certainly adds color to anyone’s comprehensive reading of the modern women’s movement. But now, in a recent podcast, McGowan has opened up about being a movement outsider and revealed herself to be genderqueer. “I don't…

In Brave, a book she was writing even before Harvey Weinstein’s reckoning kicked off last fall, actress and activist Rose McGowan tells her life’s story as a series of brain-washings: “Here’s the thing about cults,” she begins, “I see them everywhere.”

For Rose McGowan, it was only a matter of time. She’s an ice-cold operator who’ll verbally shiv with military precision anyone who crosses her. She’d have to be, to survive the hellhole of Hollywood hypocrisy with her sanity mostly intact. It was only a matter of time, then, before she’d turn on…

What to watch tonight. If you're looking for something new and interesting to put on tonight, check out Errol Morris's Wormwood tonight on Netflix. It looks fantastic. The Times gave it a positive review, saying:

Hollywood casting has been much in the news, what with the revelation that Harvey Weinstein has for decades been making the most of the old casting couch—and the fact that Weinstein is hardly the only predator demanding sexual favors for the chance at movie roles. Which made it a good time for the…

The Boy Scouts of America announced Wednesday that they would admit girls into the organization for the first time ever. From now on, Cub Scout dens (usually around 6 to 12 kids) will be single gender—either male or female. Cub Scout packs (comprised of multiple dens) will have the option of being…

Massacre in Vegas. When tragedy strikes, there's a lot of misinformation out there. It's always best to sit back and wait (usually not very long) until the truth is reported. Here are three things to read today (if you're up to it) about the mass shooting in Las Vegas:

Can we send the Boy Scouts an economics textbook? I love popcorn. It's my favorite snack. I was also a Cub Scout once, and selling Trail's End popcorn was my least-favorite fundraising activity. (Selling magazine subscriptions for my Catholic grade school was much easier.) My mom, saint that she…

The Scrapbook is far too jaded and worldly wise to be shocked by the article in the Washington Post headlined “Transgender man gives birth to baby boy.” But we were taken aback by one outrageous, insensitive, gender-autonomy-denying detail: The poor infant is called a “boy.” How could they possibly…

Planned Parenthood has long been known for its frank, scientific, and matter-of-fact advice on how parents should talk to their kids about their bodies and sex. But the organization's recently revamped website has scrapped biological explanations for male-female distinctions in favor of a…

Bill C-16, which recently received Royal Assent and will soon become law, is the most recent bill to threaten free speech and to mandate that individuals adopt a social constructionist philosophy of gender. Those who refuse to use gender neutral pronouns such as “they” or “zi” and “zir,” or who…

As the Trump administration rolled back President Obama's guidelines to public schools regarding transgender students' access to the bathroom of their choice, a new rule from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has taken effect to ensure that transgender individuals have full…

The bathroom wars wage on. Repealing the Obama-era edict that hardened the conflict, as President Trump did Wednesday, changes little in practice.

The Trump administration is set to undo federal guidance issued by their predecessors last year that threatened public schools with the loss of federal funding if they didn't allow transgender students to use the school facilities matching their gender identity, according to a report.

Repeal of North Carolina's controversial House Bill 2, the so-called "bathroom bill," was expected to take place Wednesday with bipartisan support. But without consensus in the state legislature's last session, the repeal effort failed.

The Department of Defense issued its official implementation handbook for transgender service members and their commanders on Friday, just days before a Pentagon deadline for the military to provide gender transition medical care to members of the armed forces.

Earlier tonight, the NCAA announced it was pulling seven different collegiate championship events out of North Carolina this year. The NCAA's actions were prompted by North Carolina's law that stops local governments from passing ordinances forcing businesses to allow biological men into women's…

"Federal Transgender Bathroom Access Guidelines Blocked by Judge" is the headline atop a New York Times story. Here is how the case came to be, where it stands now, and why it is important:

The Pentagon announced it was lifting a ban on transgender individuals serving openly in the military Thursday, permitting them to enlist and banning dismissals based on their gender identity.

The Department of Education's civil rights office announced Wednesday that a transgender elementary school student in South Carolina will be allowed to pick the restroom with which the student identifies.

Left-leaning publications and transgender activists are applauding Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., today for her performance in a congressional hearing over trans issues. Talking Points Memo sums up what happened: