Excerpt from transcript of Danielle Grant's Local News 8 report:
Towleroad mentioned the story a fortnight ago, but with this fresh and very worthy video report courtesy of Eastern Idaho's #1 News Source, well, a second look might be in order.
The definition of family is under scrutiny.
This comes after a local same-sex couple was denied a family pool pass at Lava Hot Springs.
The two claim the staff at the swimming pool facility told them they didn't fit the description of a family and couldn't get the reduced rate.
The executive director of the Lava Hot Springs Foundation says they define parents as adults who are legally in charge of dependent children or who are married to the adult who's in charge of the kids.
Since the state of Idaho doesn't recognize same-sex marriages, the American Falls couple didn't get the $20 pass.
Local News 8 talked with both parties about it and the two ladies say they're frustrated the facility would belittle them. While the Lava Hot Springs foundation says they were just following its policy.
Sunshine, blue skies and getting wet in the water!
It was a day full of family and fun.
But the family of five says their fun was cut short in the ticket line.
"We're a family. We live together. This is our family and she said, 'No it doesn't work that way.' A family is a mom, dad and children. I was like are you kidding me?" said Amber Koger, who got turned away.
The executive director for the Lava Hot Springs, Mark Lowe, says to get the discount parents must be legally obligated to the children or married to someone who is.
And more than 100,000 people splash in the pools during the summer season and he says this has always been the policy.
"Not everybody accepts our lifestyle and that's fine we deal with that everat everyday but don't put our family down in front of the kids," said Jeri Underwood, frustrated with the situation.
Because, in all of the back-and-forth about "marriage" ... it's a useful reminder that this is ultimately about "family" ... a concept so basic and universal that even some of us from the Mormon Corridor are able to grasp that - when it comes to family - "It's about Time!"
And maybe it's about time I post a shameless plug for my YouTube channel. With a few more subscribers, it'll soon be the #1 "political news" channel in Taiwan.
Anyway, enough of my self-serving non sequiturs ... who would've thunk - even just a few years ago - that a press release like this would be issued from Lava Hot Springs, Idaho?
As Idaho booster Misty writes, "Idaho might not be the kind of place you fantasize about when you think vacation, but you might be pleasantly surprised ... Load up the car with snacks, friends, or your partner and kids and hit the road."
And sure as shootin', after this latest kerfuffle, you just might well be (properly welcomed and surprised). So, good on Lava Hot Springs, and here's to progress and to pleasant surprises in future (rather than that other kind that Jeri and Amber and their kids had to deal with so recently).
And yet, the conservative "Christian" organization that originally dreamed up the '30 Sexual Orientations' [an idea that the website of Republicans in Congress picked up for their Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 webpage (when that webpage linked to a webpage that listed DSM-IV codes on Sexual and gender identity disorder)] thinks nothing of frequently and repeatedly using the pejorative she-male int; in their webpages.
The most recent example of this organization -- the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) -- using the pejorative she-male 
on their webpages comes their June 22nd piece by their Executive Director Andrea Lafferty, entitled It's Baaackkk: ENDA!. In her piece, Lafferty states the following about a fully inclusive ENDA -- calling Rep. Barney Frank's legislative aide Diego Sanchez by the pejorative (emphasis added):
What made the ENDA debate almost enjoyable during the last Congress was the major "drama-rama" over which version of ENDA to bring to the floor for a vote.For months gays and transgender activists fought among themselves over whether or not to include "gender identity" in the bill. The drag queens and transsexuals wanted "gender identity," but Frank finally agreed to remove "gender identity" from the legislation in order to try to get it passed.
However, this is a new Congress and a new President who is a big supporter of all things LGBT. This new bill will include "gender identity," because Frank knows that Obama is cozy with the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) crowd and can be counted on to push the LGBT agenda.
Frank's senior policy advisor on ENDA is Diego Sanchez, who is described as a "transgender." Sanchez is a woman who either went through a sex change operation; or is living as a man, but hasn't had any surgery, or is a she-male who went through half of the operation. If this is the case, Diego had his breasts surgically removed, but still maintains female characteristics below the waist.
The article goes on to talk about bathroom use for folk like Mr. Sanchez.
So why aren't our lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organizations in Washington calling out the TVC for their use of pejoratives -- while pointing out that the Republican's in Congress got their sexual orientations talking point for the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act from an organization that uses the dehumanizing, anti-transgender pejorative she-male on a regular basis? A term that transgender people conside r at least as offensive as the other f-word?
I don't know. One of our DC based LGBT new or legacy media sources should be asking our LGBT civil rights organizations that.
~~~~~
Further reading:
* Traditional Values Coalition keyword search: she-male
* Jenn Q. Public: Conservatives, Meet Google (Article on the conservative "Christian" and Republican use of "30 Sexual Orientations" meme)
~~~~~
Related:
* TVC, OneNewsNow (AFA), And The Liberty Counsel On Diane Schroer Decision
* Mogt;Mostly Absent From The Hearing, But Commenting As If They Were There
* Landmark hearings on transgender discrimination begin
* The TVC & CWA Dump On Dana Beyer; Amy Contrada Warns Of The Transgender Apocalypse
* Just Feel The Love From The TVC
* Convincing sales pitch of the year, from Traditional Values Coalition
Egads, just in time to battle the Matthew Sheppard Act and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act: American Family Association's (AFA's) Speechless: Silencing the Christians
"interesting" infomercial is back on the air in California and North Carolina. From Andy Marra at the glaadBLOG:
Back in February,we blogged about partnering with LGBT community members and leaders in several local markets who were responding to an anti-gay infomercial titled Speechless: Silencing the Christians, which was produced by the American Family Association. Local expressions of concern led stations in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Columbus, Ohio to either decline to air the infome infomercial or postpone airing it indefinitely.Just this week GLAAD has received three more reports of constituents spotting the anti-gay paid program on their local affiliates. One person saw it in West Hollywood, California on Independent Cable Channel, KDOC on Sunday, June 21, where it aired from 7 to 8 p.m. Another GLAAD constituent alerted us that the infomercial aired on WJZY the CW Channel 46 in Charlotte, North Carolina on Saturday, June 20 from 9 to 10 p.m.
And we heard from other GLAAD constituents that the program aired on KMPH Fox 26 in Fresno, California on Sunday, June 21 (Special thank you to these twitter users for the heads up on Fresno: Gayrainarmy, k8cch14 and jace78).
GLAAD's Senior Director of Media Programs Rashad Robinson wrote this in a Huffington Post piece about this issue last February entitled As Seen on TV:
The infomercial was created and financed by the anti-gay American Family Association and features interviews with anti-gay activists who make a series of predictable, breathless, fear-mongering claims about LGBT people and equality.As you would expect, the video is propaganda, pure and simple -- manufactured to perpetuate a climate of hostility toward our community and to create a culture where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are less safe, less secure, and where our families are put in harm's way.
The glaadBLOG post Anti-Gay Infomercial Resurfaces in North Carolina and California 
has a "take action" component if this infomercial should show up in a television market near you.
I guess the AFA thought they could silently reenter this anti-gay infomercial onto the airways again without anyone noticing. Well, they were wrong.
~~~~~
Related:
* 'Victimized' AFA launches anti-gay 'Silencing Christians' web site and video
* The American Family Association's fascination with fraudulent documentaries
* Exposing the moral bankruptcy of the unraveling professional 'family values' crowd
Full copy of the br the breathlessly anti-LGBT video included below the fold, for those of you who are interested in watching this "interesting" video.
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