Ben Johnson, FloydReports.com
Last Wednesday, Barack Obama offered his long-form Certificate of Live Birth, saying, “We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We’ve got better stuff to do.” He added, “We’re not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers.” Two days later, he gave his idea of a dignified use of presidential time and resources as the Office of Public Engagement (OPE) headed by his closest advisor, Valerie Jarrett, held the first-ever White House conference devoted exclusively to transgender concerns. Among the transgender activists present at the super-secret gathering was the president of an organization that is lobbying the government to pay for sex-change operations, allow open military service and top-secret security clearances for trannies, and develop “transgender-specific needle exchange programs” for those who abuse intravenous drugs. The activists state although this was the first time the federal government invited them to discuss their agenda, it will not be the last; the next steps are already planned. And the Obama administration is already churning out significant regulations catering to cross-dressers – and silencing their critics.
Transgender, Not Transparency
The nation’s leading homosexual newspaper, The Washington Blade, reported all that was known about the first-ever meeting last week – which was not much. Shin Inouye, a White House spokesperson, confirmed the meeting was scheduled to take place at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building but nothing else. Just like the recent National Action Network summit with Al Sharpton, a bevy of White House celebrities were set to attend, but the White House would not say who they are. Inouye told The Blade, “OPE routinely holds meetings with various stakeholders to discuss various policy issues. Friday’s meeting, like most OPE meetings, will be closed press and off the record.” Inouye would not even state which “transgender” activists would attend, instead telling reporters to search the White House visitor records once they are released. (A Congressional committee scheduled hearings this morning on the enormous gaps in White House visitor logs.)
Nancy Goldstein at The Daily Beast noted the meeting’s air-tight secrecy:
It would be easier to evaluate Friday’s meeting if the public had access to certain basic facts. Like which activists and leaders were invited, or which staffers actually attended. Or what was on the agenda. Or whether it was a “listening” meeting, where members of the administration simply gather to hear a group’s concerns, or an “action” meeting that lays out steps toward change. Or what anyone said, or decided. About anything.
Some transgender people are not happy about the development, saying this sort of access is insufficient. However, the Blade reported the identity of one activist present on Friday – and that person puts the radical nature of the meeting, and the White House, into perspective.
Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) told the Blade the White House had sent an invitation. According to the biography posted online “Mara,” who became a “woman” in 2000, is “a transgender-identified woman and a parent…She is a founding board member of the Stonewall Democracy Fund, and has served on the board of Directors of Common Roads, an LGBTQ Youth Group, and on the steering committee of the Statewide Pennsylvania Rights Coalition.”
Mara has had trouble overcoming the vicious discrimination – or gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. Mara implored the LGBs to see themselves as one big family:
In addition to identifying as trans, I identify as a lesbian. There are a lot of gay men who later identify as transgender; there are a lot of lesbians who identify as transgender and vice versa. So the overlaps in our community are really big.
When not trying to change the minds of sexual minorities, Mara agitates to change the ancient teachings of the Christian faith. Mara initiated another first, the Transgender Religious Summit, from January 19-21, 2007, in Berkeley, California. One attendee summarized their goals and beliefs:
[W]e must overcome the theological barriers that traditional thinking erects. We do have a rich heritage in our past. People we now call TG existed in most aboriginal communities around the world. We were revered in many. It was only the influence of European explorers in enforcing their religious dogma that has buried aboriginal spiritual traditions. Our ‘two-spirited’ nature is indeed a gift from God. As such we need to use the Bible/Torah creatively to transform rejection into acceptance.
Now Mara has the ear of the president’s closest advisors.
Mara explained last week there would be no compromise nor separation from among NCTE’s issues at the OPE meeting. Mara told The Blade, “We’re going to say, ‘Here’s our agenda.’” That agenda is more extreme and offensive than most Americans could imagine.
Quotas, Set-Asides, and Security Clearances for Cross-Dressers
NCTE demands the Defense Department “allow transgender people to serve openly.” However, the government must….
