Carl Paladino Dysfunctional and Unfit for Governor

PICTURE REMOVED BASED ON CARL PALADINO ISSUING AN APOLOGY.
Carl Paladino showing his true colors.

In a story published today, The New York Daily News quotes Carl Paladino, the clearly mentally unstable short-fused dysfunctional heterosexist whoremonger "Republican" candidate for New York Governor as saying,

"I didn't march in the Gay Pride parade this year. My opponent did. [There is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual. That's not how God created us, and ] that's not the example that we should be showing our children - and certainly not in our schools."

*(italics show portion of Carl's statement NOT in the video remarks. Still, the rest was bad enough.)

Paladino was also quoted as saying that he does not support gay bashing,

"Don't misquote me as wanting to hurt homosexual people in any way. That would be a dastardly lie. My approach is live and let live."

It is actually even worse than reported at the Daily News - here is a video of the speech with some context:



Video source: Azi Paybarah via Pam's House Blend.


When Carl thinks of gay people as “dysfunctional,” he clearly shows his ignorance of the fact that for a percentage of the population, same-sex attraction is a part of their nature. When he says “That’s not how God created us” he shows his irrational prejudice is based on the teachings of some repellant and immoral false religious cult he may profess as a mask to cover his naked bigotry. When he talks about “examples for children” he implies that gays are unfit to be teachers, and that children should not be taught that there are different family constellations,and that gays should be relegated to the shadows and closets. Essentially, Carl has once again shown in a clear and unambiguous fashion that he is completely and totally unfit for election to the position of Governor of the State of New York.

The video reveals more:

Carl says:

"We must not pander to the pornographers and the perverts who seek to target our children and destroy their lives."

Carl is himself actually the sort of dysfunctional heterosexist pervert who wants to target our children, and anyone who is different, and destroy our lives, if we're not macho like him.

"I just think that my children, and your children, will be much better off, and much more successful, getting married and raising a family."

And what does he mean - is he supporting marriage equality? I sincerely doubt it, not in his bigoted context.

"And I don't want them to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid or successful option."

Carl proves he is a loon - homosexuality is not an option, it's a natural sexual orientation for a percentage of the population. Perhaps Carl should get some education before shooting off his mouth. Perhaps the sort of "homosexual" experiences Carl may have had were the kind that oversexed macho men who can;t keep "it" in their pants have when they don't have immediate access to women, like what he seems to have wanted to do with that New York Post Reporter he wanted to "take out" last week.

Carl Paladino has provem that he is is a liar, a sneak, a cheat, a whoremonger and an unscrupulous businessman. He is a clearly dysfunctional heterosexist who, based on the evidence of his display of sexual “prowess” won't be able to control his sexual urges unless he submits to a voluntary castration, and perhaps not even then.

He is so ashamed of his love child that he is unwilling to appear with her and his concubine with the rest of his family in campaign appearances. He has been paying off his concubine to keep her quiet and out of the picture. He pretends he is trying to protect the unfortunate child, but it is clear from his actions that he is not protecting her, but rather that he is ashamed of her – or else he would take her with him on the campaign, with both his wife, his concubine, and his other surviving children, and show the world he’s proud of her, and that she has a father who’s good for more than hush money.

After first erupting with his bilious and noxious lunacy, when he was challenged by a reported, he either backed off like the miserable cowardly pusillanimous uncouth wacko that he is, or he contradicted his earlier statement somewhat when he realized he went way over the line.

From what he says, it appears that he does not want private individuals gay bashing – he wants to make that the prerogative of the government of the State of New York. His earlier comments certainly did not imply a “live and let live” attitude.

Does he mean he is planning yet another way to repurpose the portions of the prison system that are going unused since the repeal of the horribly repressive Rockefeller drug laws? Is he already planning some sort of “final solution” for welfare recipients and gays?

Already, the camps he plans for welfare recipients sound like they will bear the motto, “Work will make you free.” The last time that was used, in the 1930's and 40's, the results for the inmates were not very promising.

Does he plan on rounding up gay teachers, and other LGBT people, and putting us all in camps, too, to be subjected to medical experiments from the quacks from NARTH in an attempt to find a “cure?”

When he was reported as making these statements, Carl was apparently talking to a group of Orthodox Jews – perhaps he forgot that Jewish people were among those rounded up for the camps the last time around – and maybe they have not forgotten. On the other hand, hearing their applause, perhaps they have forgotten - maybe they want it to happen all over again. Perhaps, in Carl's world, at some point he will be coming for them, too, and when he comes for them, who will speak up for them?

I must remind Carl that last week, he told a reporter from the New York Post, ”I’m gonna take you out!” If that wasn’t a threat of bodily harm, perhaps it was a request for a date. Considering Carl’s apparent satyriasis (inability to keep “it” in his pants), perhaps his dysfunctional voracity means he is willing to do it to anything that moves.

Carl Paladino has crossed the line one time too many. He has shown his true colors, and they are not at all pretty.

Carl, there is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional heterosexual. Not all heterosexuals are dysfunctional, but your history shows that you're mentally unfit and not exactly monagamous. God did not create you to be a bigot and a whoremonger.

New York does need any more short-tempered ill-mannered bigots, Carl. You are certainly not an example of an upstanding citizen who merits election to office, and you are a bully - not the sort of example that schoolchildren should emulate. I am standing up to you, bully, and I am not going away. I am a transsexual woman and a lesbian, and I vote. My vote, and the votes of many millions of New Yorkers, are going to make sure that you are going to return to Buffalo with your tail between your legs.

I am calling on you to do something honorable for the second time in your life (the first being when, at the request of your now-deceased drug addict son, you honorably admitted the existence of your concubine and child to your wife) – Do yourself a favor and withdraw from the race, before you embarrass yourself any more, and before you are buried by a landslide at the ballot box.

Catholic Bishops show they are heirs of Sodom

In their May 19, 2010 letter to memebrs of Congress, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops expressed their opposition to H.R.3017/S.1584 - better known as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, stating, among other things:

". . . we cannot support a bill - such as ENDA in its current form - that would legally affirm and specially protect any sexual conduct outside of marriage."

I challenge the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to point out the exact language by virtue of which ENDA specially protects "sexual conduct."

They can't d it, because it's not there.

The fact is that ENDA will not protect employees on the basis of sexual conduct - sexual activity - on the job, regardless of sexual orientation. This law will not protect people who want to have sex, gay or straight, in the boardroom or in the supply closet, or for that matter, on top of a desk. So where's the "sexual conduct" that is supposed to be "legally affirmed and specially protected?"

Perhaps the Bishops are holding out - maybe they actually want ENDA amended to protect the on-the-job sexual predation of altar servers and Catholic schoolchildren by members of the Roman Catholic clergy? Sorry, but ENDA will not be amended to affirmatively protect any on-the-job sexual activity, not even the sexual activity of Roman Catholic clergy, no matter how much the Bishops hold their breath.

Let me repeat: ENDA will not protect conduct or sexual activity - it will protect people whose sexual orientation and gender identity is different from the sexual orientation or gender identity of other people, from discrimination in employment. There is no "condonation" of any sexual activity whatsoever involved in the bill, not sex between a man and a woman, a man and a man, a woman and a woman, a trans person with another adult, or sex among a group of people of the same or different orientations, inside or outside of marriage. It does not protect inappropriate sexual conduct at the office or workplace, even if the people engaging in it are married to each other

All ENDA does is remove sexual orientation (not sexual "conduct" and not sexual activity), and gender identity and expression, as criteria for hiring and firing. It does not allow a preference or special right for one sexual orientation or gender identity over another. Indeed, this bill is the polar opposite of protecting "special rights." (If the Catholic Bishops want an example of special rights, they need only look at their position on marriage - their advocacy for special rights for heterosexuals.)

In that regard, the bishops are as wrong about ENDA as their fearless leader, "Papa" Joe Ratzinger, has been about the Genesis story of Sodom and Gommorrah. (In 1986 he snarkily wrote that "everyone knows" what the story is about, and then used it as an example to condemn homosexuality rather than the real sodomite sin, which is the sort of intolerant bigotry that the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops exemplify in their opposition to ENDA).

The Catholic Bishops show, once again, that not only are they whited sepulchres like the Scribes and Pharisees described in the Gospels, they are also like the Men of Sodom as described in Genesis - intolerant of people who are different.

I've shaken their dust off my sandals years ago.

The Roman Catholic Bishops have an incredible amount of chutzpah, peddling lies about the language of the bill and distortions of their own teachings as a means to an end.

When they teach that a good end does not justify an evil means, are they trying to imply that an evil end (preventing the passage of ENDA) justifies an evil means (lying and deceit to get their way)?

Bathrooms - An Ironic Experience at the State Capitol

Yesterday (Tuesday, April 21, 2009) I took a trip to the New York State Capitol in Albany to witness the Assembly debate and passage (for the second time in two years) of the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA, A5710/S2406) in that chamber.

The floor session was scheduled to begin at 3:30 PM, so I made sure I got myself a good seat in the Assembly gallery, which is accessed from a fourth-floor hallway in the State Capitol building. I took a look at the agenda, and realized that it might be some time before the bill came up for debate and a vote, so at about 3:45 PM, with a quorum not yet present, I decided to make a brief stop at the nearest restroom, which happened to be just on the other side of the metal detector and security staff at the entrance to the gallery.

I nodded to the security staffer in the dark suit and red buttoneer, went past the metal detector, and on my way to the stall passed by two older women who were on their way out. In passing, I noted that they might be Capitol cleaning ladies, wearing colorful crocheted patchwork smocks.

As I got into the stall, I started hearing knocking. With the bad acoustics, it seemed to me as if the knocking was coming through the wall to my left. Then I heard a man’s voice saying “hello, hello.”

After getting the necessary body functions taken care of and leaving the stall to wash my hands, I heard the continued knocking, and the man’s voice say, “you’re in the wrong bathroom.” At that point I realized the knocking and hallooing might be aimed at me. I looked around – I didn’t see any urinals in there, and I thought, and weren’t there a couple of older women just in here? And then I saw the security gentleman standing politely at the open bathroom door.

Anyway, at this point I stepped through to the anteroom and then out of the bathroom, and it turned out the knocking and “hallooing” had indeed been coming from the nice, respectful, Capitol security gentleman with the red buttoneer, who repeated the assertion that I had been in the wrong bathroom. I looked around at the glass sign above the door which clearly said “women” and then looked at the security man and told him, “No, that was the correct bathroom.”

His response was to say that “a couple of ladies” had complained. It must have been those cleaning staffers who were on their way out as I was entering.

Then he asked me, “Do you have I.D.?”

Now, I know that may have crossed the line – we don’t ask people for their I.D. when they use the bathroom. However, he was a Capitol security staffer in charge of the metal detector, and asking for I.D. is a permissible thing in connection with that process, though I hadn’t been asked for it when I passed through the metal detector. Regardless of whether he was entitled to see identity papers, I decided to take the easiest course, and opened my handbag, pulled out my driver’s license and handed it to him, with my as-yet-unwashed hands, to take a look for himself.

This was apparently satisfactory. So I asked, “Do you think I can go back in and wash my hands now?”

He had no problem with that.

I have never been confronted with this situation before, though I have heard of situations like it. There was that time a few years ago when I was on line at the Steak Escape fast food counter at the food court at the Palisade Center Mall, when I noticed a group of teens furtively whispering and alternately peering at me. One of them approached me to ask the time – and after I looked at my watch and gave it to him, he returned to the group to announce, “she’s a woman.” Apparently my voice passed muster.

I can just imagine what it might have been with the security staffer at the Capitol if I had not had my driver’s license corrected in accordance with New York DMV regulations – a situation that confronts many trans women who are early in transition, and have not yet gotten legal name changes and documentation in order.

I also thought of what the situation might have been like had the security staffer entered the ladies’ room to pound on the stall door and demand my immediate egress. That would have been frightening and upsetting, and I would have made a rather indignant and immediate protest and complaint. As it was, the situation was only mildly annoying.

I thought of just how ironic this was, being “clocked” by a couple of Capitol cleaning ladies who hadn’t even spoken to me, on the very day the Assembly was about to consider passing GENDA again.

And, of course, this entire experience turned out to be an ironic preface to the floor discussion between Assemblymember Gottfried and a Republican member whose name sounded to me like “Condon” (but there is apparently not a “Condon” in the Assembly)[ADDED NOTE: According to Caprice Bellefleur, who was watching the proceedings on television, the Republican member with the questions was Assemblymember Conte, who ended up voting for the bill - so it seems as if this Assemblymember was satisfied with Assemblymember Gottfried's explanations on the floor.], which predictably turned to the usual but politely-stated outrage over the so-called “bathroom issue.”

The “bathroom issue” seems to be based on the bogeyman that the law would encourage crossdressed male sexual predators to be lurking in bathrooms waiting to pounce on women. GENDA would not protect sexual predators, even if they disguise themselves.

However, GENDA would protect that poor early-transitioner who doesn’t have her I.D. in order from being barred from the correct bathroom.

The idea that innocent transgendered and transsexual women should be barred from the appropriate public rest rooms because cisgendered women might feel “uncomfortable” is reminiscent of the policy of racial segregation once practiced in the American South.

The comfort level of white women was “protected.” They were "safe" from having to share the use of toilet seats that were also used by women of color. In many places, there were three facilities – Women, Men, Colored. One might presume that “colored” men and women were supposed to have no problem sharing the same toilets – I guess African-American women were expected to deal with men the seat left up in public facilities, while white women only had to worry about other white women peeing on the seat.) Their segregated white childen were “protected” from exposure to African-American kids in the classroom. In hotels and restaurants, their only contact with African-Americans was with menial cleaning and kitchen staff, and perhaps entertainers, but they were assured that they would be sleeping on sheets that were not shared with African Americans (perhaps not thinking of the fact that the laundress and the maid had at least touched these items). Of course, there was always the shared bus, but even that was separated based on who could sit where.

My own discomfiture is with these ostensibly cissexual cleaning ladies (that’s what they looked like, anyway, with their crochet-patchwork smocks – they certainly weren’t dressed like Capitol professional or office staff – they looked more like the shabbily-dressed denizens of seedy bingo parlors) thinking their feeling of “uncomfortability” with transsexual women (or women they “clock” as transsexual or transgender women, who might just be butch-looking cissexual women, or cissexual women exhibiting symptoms of Poly-Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)) entitles them to bar people like me from using the correct public restroom.

If they feel that uncomfortable, I welcome them to “hold it” until they get to the privacy of their own homes. Their comfort level issue should not force me out of an appropriate public restroom. Of course, if they were educated on the issues, they might have a lessened sense of discomfort. They’re not being asked to share the ladies’ room with men, after all.

I actually felt bad for the security staffer – once he had the complaint, he felt it appropriate to use his position of apparent authority to make me prove my entitlement to use the bathroom facility near his security station. I doubt that he was aware of any guidelines as to how to approach this situation, or whether he had the necessary jurisdiction to make the inquiry. And I am sure that he felt terribly uncomfortable about the entire situation, especially after he reviewed my driver’s license to see the big capital “F” on it.

Perhaps he was unaware that the City of Albany already has an appropriate local law protecting transgender people from discrimination like this. I wonder whether there is some policy that the Capitol, being state property, is exempt from the application of local anti-discrimination law, or whether the issue has been raised.

I am not sure who supervises the cleaning personnel (or Capitol staff, if that’s what those two women were). My best guess with regard to the security gentleman, since he was not a uniformed state trooper, is that he is probably a civilian State Police security screening technician associated with the State Police Security Services Unit.

In any event, it might not be a bad idea for some basic sensitivity education to be provided so that gaffes like this don’t happen in the future. I am going to bring this quietly to the attention of State Senator Tom Duane, whose office is just a little way down the hall from the bathroom in question, and trust the good senator to know exactly what to do and who to contact.

Next week is Equality and Justice Day – and there will be hundreds of trans people in Albany, in the throng of over 1,600 people expected to be there for GENDA, Dignity for All Students, and Marriage. I’d hate to see situations occurring where someone without the right documentation gets barred from the appropriate bathroom.

McCain: Ignorance is Strength

It’s bad enough that Senator John McCain made a fighter-pilot “snap decision” without a great deal of thought in choosing Alaska Governor Sarah “Barracuda” Palin to be his vice president.

But John McCain has recently unveiled a sadly deceptive “attack ad” on the Obama record on education that makes it seem as if the McCain campaign is campaigning to keep our children ignorant in order to better protect sexual predators! In the McCain world of “social conservatism” it appears that the campaign slogan is now an Orwellian Ignorance is Strength.

This is a chilling reminder that the United States today has become uncomfortably more dystopian in a 1984 way, and that McCain and his sidekick Palin want to bring us more of the same.

McCain’s attack ad centers on a comprehensive sex education bill (referred to as Barack Obama's only accomplishment on education) that Barack Obama voted for in committee. This bill would have provided age-appropriate sex education to children in kindergarten - enough to allow them to know when a sexual predator has touched them inappropriately.

McCain's education attack ad is found on his campaign website here:

In the ad, we're told that this means "children are learning about sex before learning to read."

But we know that the “sex education” for kindergarten in the bill was designed to protect kids from pedophiles. The bill that McCain cynically attacks was supported by a coalition of education and public health organizations, including the Illinois Parent Teacher Association, the Illinois State Medical Society, the Illinois Public Health Association and the Illinois Education Association, according to the New York Times:

John McCain should know that the bill would only have given kindergarteners enough information to help them protect themselves against being touched in the wrong places. If he approved the ad, which he did, he is presumed to know that. Ignorance is no excuse here.

Either he is lying, or he believes that a policy of keeping children ignorant to help protect pedophiles is a good thing!

Senator McCain appeared on The View on ABC yesterday, where I saw him stand by this ad, calling it “true” when challenged by Joy Behar. Is this what we want in a President? We already know that McCain and Palin don't support sex education in the schools, supporting "abstinence only" education that leads to teen pregnancy - and also opposing abortion - a double whammy against young women in America that McCain also confirmed during his View interview.

It only confirms the Orwellian slogan Ignorance is Strength will be the centerpiece of a McCain administration. We may as well unveil this as a new slogan for McCain:

McCain/Palin: Country First - Ignorance is Strength

It isn't just sex education and women's reproductive rights and health where McCain and Palin share the bedrock belief that Ignorance is Strength - the theme seems to permeate their campaign. The worst thing is that while Sarah Palin might be a "true believer" in Creationist nonsense, McCain seems to be quite willing to cynically use the ignorance of the bloc of American voters who really believe the world was created in six 24-hour days some 6,000 years ago, just to get elected. After all, even though it took some cheating (Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004) to put George W. Bush "over the top," reliance on this bloc of voters got Bush awfully close to actually winning rather than the bloodless coup d'etat we got. (Oops, I shouldn't be putting it quite that way, but that's essentially what really happened, if one looks carefully.)

McCain’s continuing support for this ad seems to prove that the Hero *IS* a Zero.

Now that we see that Ignorance is Strength fits the McCain Campaign, let’s take a look at the other two slogans from 1984, while we’re at it:

McCain/Palin: Country First - War is Peace

This seems to have been the Bush Doctrine in a nutshell – preemptively attack other countries for no legitimate reason, so we can fight “over there” instead of “at home.” McCain supports the illegitimate invasion and occupation of Iraq. He assumes that the war was right – in his ignorance, he doesn’t seem to understand that Iraq was not behind the events of 9/11 – it doesn’t matter that “the surge is working” when there should never have been a war in the first place. His running mate Sarah Palin is under the same delusion – is this what we need in the White House? We’ve been suffering from this idiocy since 2003, and it’s time for a real change - Obama/Biden, rather than the illusion of "change" that McCain/Palin would bring.

McCain/Palin: Country First - Slavery is Freedom

McCain and Palin’s “social conservatism” is ultimately all about the patriarchal thing: making women into babymaking slaves who have no reproductive choice even if they’ve been raped.

Their anti-human rights position for lesbian, gay, bi and transgender people continues the national shame where some Americans have more rights than others – and transgender people have fewer rights than anyone else.

Whoopi Goldberg reacted on The View to McCain’s ignorant or cynical promise to appoint the kind of strict constructionist judges who would interpret the Constitution the “way the Founding Fathers intended” – does McCain think we should return to slavery? Incredibly, John McCain smiled goofily and didn’t even bother to deny it. (While I don’t envision a return of African Americans to hereditary involuntary servitude, I do see the nightmare of a Supreme court with a couple more social conservatives joining with Scalia, Thomas, Roberts and Alito in rolling back civil rights to match the obstructive court interpretations from the 1870’s to 1890’s and even up to 1953. I have already seen what happens when those four are joined by Kennedy. Add one or two more like them, and we will be seeing judicial regression for the next thirty years.)

Shame on you, John McCain, shame on you! Whether you're an outright liar counting on the ignorance of the people, or you're ignorant yourself, you don't belong in the Oval Office.