Transgender is the new Black

After reading about the African American struggle for equality in our text and in lieu of the recent blowing up of the controversial story concerning a transgender student in Colorado, I began to consider the parallels between the two. The civil rights movement in the African American community years prior fairs similar to the struggle the LGBT community faces today. Discriminatory and unequal treatment of transgender people rings especially relevant for discussion during this time with the controversy over a first grader named Coy in Colorado. Coy was born with male genitalia, but identifies with the female gender. The family has sought extensive therapy and it has been concluded that Coy is not just going through a “phase”, but is, in fact, transgender. She was allowed to use the girl’s bathroom until recently and is now being homeschooled as a result of the school revoking her privilege to use the facilities of the gender she identifies with. As you would imagine, in recent days this story has been elevated to the utmost importance of social equality issues.

Along with discussion of this particular issue, there has been a broader debate concerning the discriminatory and unequal treatment of transgender people that is enforced daily upon the community. In the article from the Huffington Post covering Coy’s story, it was stated that this type of discrimination is still being enforced in one of the only 16 out of 50 states which has enacted anti-discrimination laws for transgender people. This statement holds weight because it is not only establishing the fact that not even half of our states have enacted legislation for the equal rights and protection of the transgender community, but it also reveals that even in states with legislation, transgender rights are not being protected as they should.

This is not a new debate. Issues of inequality and discrimination against the LGBT community have been prevalent in our history and continue to be prevalent today; the Lavender Scare, the Laramie incident, recent legislation finally passing for equal marital rights of homosexual couples, gay high school and college students being outed and feeling the only way to escape the shame and oppression is to take their own lives on almost a weekly basis…and the list goes on.

The United States is not shy to discriminate against a target population; there is always a scapegoat community present. When equality comes for the LGBT community, who will be next…what will be the new Black?

JFK: Drug Addict?

Photo courtesy of: www.huffingtonpost.com

President John F. Kennedy is often thought of as a partaker in debauchery; called a sex addict, a drug addict, an adulterer. I will focus on JFK’s drug use in this post. In episode six of “The Untold History of the United States”, ‘JFK to the Brink’, there is a reference made to JFK’s addiction to pain killers. I wanted to explore that further… Was JFK just an addict or did he have good reason for taking the medications he did? The answer is a bit of both.

JFK had a number of medical disorders which he hid and even outright denied to the public; including such illnesses as, colitis, prostatitis, Addison's disease, and severe osteoporosis of the lower back (ABC News). He suffered terribly on a daily basis due to these conditions. In order to function it was necessary that JFK be medicated; he was on as many as 12 different medications at one time, including: “codeine, Demerol and methadone for pain; Ritalin, a stimulant; meprobamate and librium for anxiety; barbiturates for sleep; thyroid hormone; and injections of a blood derivative, gamma globulin, a medicine that combats infections” (id.).

To determine whether the medications he took were abused or necessary to his health remains inconclusive because he kept his medical records under great security. JFK wasn't the first president to mislead the public about his good health (Roosevelt, Nixon) and I’m sure he won’t be the last. Good health or not, JFK is among those presidents of the highest approval, with a peaking rate of 80 percent (Washington Post). Overall, his reliance on drugs didn’t seem to much affect his performance while in office.