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However:

What happened to Harold and Clay is one of the many reasons same sex couples need more than visitation rights and ALL the same legal rights as anyone who is civilly married:

Three months after he was hospitalized, Harold died in the nursing home. Because of the county’s actions, Clay missed the final months he should have had with his partner of 20 years. Compounding this tragedy, Clay has literally nothing left of the home he had shared with Harold or the life he was living up until the day that Harold fell, because he has been unable to recover any of his property. The only memento Clay has is a photo album that Harold painstakingly put together for Clay during the last three months of his life.

Read the whole brutal story, if you can stand it, at Bilerico.

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Mourning Miners

Thank you, President Obama, for saying what you’ve said about the miners’ deaths. I’ve been maybe uncharacteristically silent on their massacre, because I’ve had no words.

The owners of Massey should be responsible, forever, for the financial well-being of all the families those miners left behind, and they should have to provide for them all on miners’ wages.

It is amazing to me that anyone could ever think companies could be responsible & not need government oversight. Massey is what you get when you even relax safety standards.

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It Has To Stop: Amanda Gonzalez-Andujar

Fuck this: I am so tired of reading these stories, so tired.

A transgender woman was found dead in her ransacked Queens apartment on Tuesday, her naked body sprawled across the bed, police said.

Amanda Gonzalez-Andujar, 29, born Edelbuerto, had not been heard from since Friday.

Feeling grateful that, at least, that the NY Daily News got her pronouns right, is not enough:. The NYT has a piece on their blog about the murder as well. Gina of Skip the Makeup reports that in fact, as usual, that the NYT and WABC both got it wrong first, & later corrected themselves.

You know, people always used to envy us for living in NYC because it’s the uber-liberal city, but it only takes one violent transphobic asshole to ruin your day. Or take your life.

(h/t to Matty)

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US Nuns Rock the House (& the Church)

It’s rare that a bit of political news actually makes me tear up, but the efforts by the Catholic US nuns today did:

Their numbers and influence may be declining, but American nuns demonstrated Wednesday what generations of schoolchildren already knew: They are a force to be reckoned with.

By sending a letter to Congress in support of the Senate healthcare bill, a wide coalition of nuns took sides against not only the Republican minority but against their own church hierarchy, as represented by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which opposes the bill. The nuns’ letter contributed to the momentum in favor of the legislation, despite opposition that is partially rooted in a disagreement over abortion funding.

“We agree that there shouldn’t be any federal funding of abortion,” said Sister Simone Campbell, the executive director of Network, a national Catholic social justice advocacy organization that spearheaded the effort. “From our reading of the bill, there isn’t any federal funding of abortion.”

Rock on, ladies.

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Not Vaccines

As it turns out, the risk of Autism has nothing to do with vaccination.
It has everything to do with the age of the mom, or in cases where the woman is younger, with the age of the father.

In an analysis of nearly five million births and more than 12,000 autism cases, every five-year increase in maternal age at delivery was associated with an 18% greater risk of the child later being diagnosed with autism, according to Janie Shelton, MPH, a doctoral student at the University of California Davis, and colleagues.

Mothers who gave birth when they were 40 or older had a 51% increased risk of having a child with autism compared with those who were 25 to 29, the largest age group (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.35 to 1.70), the researchers reported in the February issue of Autism Research.

Nature unfairly targets career women and guys who marry younger women. Go figure.

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US Tax Court Rules GID Expenses Deductible

From TaxProf Blog:

In a long-awaited decision, a fractured (8-5-3) Tax Court today ruled in O’Donnabhain v. Commissioner, 134 T.C. No. 4 (Feb. 2, 2010), that male-to-female gender reassignment surgery qualifies as a deductible medical expense under § 213, reversing the IRS’s position in Chief Counsel Advice 200603025.  The 8-judge majority held that:

  • TP’s gender identity disorder is a “disease” within the meaning of  § 213(d)(1)(A) & (9)(B).
  • TP’s hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery were for the treatment of disease within the meaning of  § 213(d)(1)(A) & (9)(B), and thus not “cosmetic surgery” excluded from the definition of deductible “medical care” by § 213(d)(9)(A).
  • TP’s breast augmentation surgery was directed at improving her appearance did not meaningfully promote the proper function of her body or treat disease within the meaning of § 213(d)(9)(B), and thus was “cosmetic surgery” excluded from the definition of deductible “medical care” by § 213(d)(9)(A).

Judge Gale wrote the 69-page majority opinion, joined by Judges Cohen, Colvin. Marvel, Morrison, Paris, Thornton, and Wherry.  Judge Halperin (12 pages), Judge Holmes (joined by Judge Goeke) (23 pages), and Judge Goeke (joined by Judge Holmes) (6 pages) wrote separate concurring opinions.  Judge Foley (joined by Judges Gustafson, Kroupa, Vasquez, and Wells) (8 pages) and Judge Gustafson (joined by Judges Foley, Kroupa, Vasquez, and Wells) (21 pages) wrote separate opinions concurring in part and dissenting in part.

Amazing news. GLAD is having a community conference call with the attorneys who worked on the case, and NCTE is supporting the call. For more info on how to participate, check after the break.

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