Transgender activist runs for mayor of Idaho town

About a block from a street concert in downtown Nampa, Melissa Sue Robinson strolls with purpose into a trendy coffee shop - the unofficial liberal embassy of this sprawling Republican stronghold in southwest Idaho.

[Brian L Burleson]

Another freak on parade.

[Melissa Sue Robinson]

Robinson dice que si ella es elegida va a lograr la transparencia en el ayuntamiento, incluyendo las reuniones del Consejo televisiva. También trataría de dar incentivos fiscales a las pequeñas empresas y reclutar activamente a puestos de trabajo corporativos.

El mes pasado, el Departamento de Trabajo dijo que uno de cada ocho trabajadores en el condado de Canyon no tenían trabajo y la tasa de desempleo había aumentado al 11,9 por ciento. En todo el estado la tasa fue de 8,8 por ciento en julio, de 26 años de altura.

Por su parte, Robinson dice que ella ha sido muy bien recibida en Nampa, a sólo 15 millas al oeste de Boise, en la artemisa del desierto alto montado.

"Idaho tiene una mala reputación," dice ella. "No he encontrado una persona que no me gusta todavía."

Ha habido un conflicto - en el ciberespacio.

Robinson, amenazó con emprender acciones legales contra la inmensamente popular de micro-blogging Twitter sitio Web después de tropezar en una cuenta falsa creada en su nombre, bajo el título: "Una mujer con un pene". La cuenta ha sido cerrada.

"No hagas eso a alguien", dijo Robinson, que como un adulto, siempre pensó de sí mismo como una mujer, pero esperó a que su último 40s antes de someterse a la cirugía de reasignación de género.

Su trabajo de Seattle movió el invierno pasado para el suroeste de Idaho, donde Nampa es la ciudad más grande en el condado de Canyon, y un demócrata no ha disfrutado de un puesto electo en el gobierno local en más de una década. El senador John McCain recibió un derrumbe del 67 por ciento de la votación aquí en la elección presidencial del año pasado.

La elección de alcaldes en Idaho no son partidistas, lo que significa que los candidatos no tienen que declarar una de las partes.

Robinson, que apareció en las páginas de The National Enquirer en 2003 y fue invitado en Oprah con su hermano gemelo y su ex esposa en 2005, es un desafío un período de dos alcalde en ejercicio, ex profesor y un graduado de la Northwest Nazarene University, una de las ocho universidades de artes liberales en el país afiliado a la Iglesia del Nazareno.

"No parece como ella hay muchas posibilidades de - o hay en absoluto", dijo José Shafer, dueños de boutiques en Nampa. "Somos uno de los condados más conservadores en el estado. Creo que somos uno de los más conservadores en el país."

Shafer también trabaja como barista en la cafetería del Flying M, donde Reyes se reunió en una tarde reciente, con su directora de campaña, Leah McManus, un compañero de trabajo y 32 años y madre de dos hijos. Robinson, ex-esposa, Linda, sirve como tesorero de campaña.

Los dos estuvieron casados por 17 años y todavía viven juntos.

"La gente va a decir que no he estado aquí bastante tiempo, pero si usted me consigue detrás del escritorio del alcalde que voy a ejecutar esta ciudad", dijo Robinson, quien se describe como activista. "En este momento, es un good ol 'boys club".

Sin embargo, dijo, se siente la esperanza de que al menos su condición de género no se utilizará en su contra.

Mientras se ejecuta la alcaldía de Lansing en Michigan, en 2003, Robinson dijo que un grupo religioso recorrió la ciudad con signos de que gritó: "La homosexualidad es un pecado" y "Abajo con transexuales." Durante el funcionamiento de la de 2004 para la gubernatura de Michigan, fotos de ella se publican en línea en el sitio web de extremistas "Stormfront White Nationalist de la Comunidad"

Es hora de un cambio ", dijo de 32 años de edad, Gerald Walton-Grice, un residente permanente de Nampa.

En cuanto a los candidatos?

"No me importa si son homosexuales, heterosexuales, transexuales, rojo, amarillo o morado", Walton-Grice, dijo. "No importa".

En la red:

Melissa Sue Robinson: http://www.equalityidaho.org

[Pgetty]

Why only in Spanish?

[HE SHE]

Sick demented mind

[Emelye Waldherr]

Good luck, Melissa Sue! Show 'em what ya got!

[Leave it alone]

Brian L Burleson wrote:

<quoted text>
That's putting it mildly.

Maybe you are the SICK one. Who do you think you are to judge someone else because they live differently from you.

[Brian L Burleson]

Leave it alone wrote:

<quoted text>
Maybe you are the SICK one. Who do you think you are to judge someone else because they live differently from you.

I think all normal people would agree that a person who gets a sex "change" is the sick one, them and anyone else who supports that type of an abomination.

[Yuck]

Story says "she" is celibate. Does anybody wonder why? LOL.

[six toes]

Brian L Burleson wrote:

<quoted text>
I think all normal people would agree that a person who gets a sex "change" is the sick one, them and anyone else who supports that type of an abomination.

Maybe "he/she/it was born that way.
Define "normal", are you?

[Maryanne Arnow]

The term "Lifestyle Choice", which is, no doubt, one of the most negatively misused characterizations of people like ouselves, especially in what i have seen directly emanating/originating from "conservative" views, and often in my direct personal experience is largely based by expression within what some characterize as "theological tenets" of one form or another.

Allow me to explain from personal experience.

My first conscious awareness of myself at age 4 (yes, i said age 4), was with what i clearly define as a crystal clear and overwhelming awareness of my gender as being female (or, opposite/other than my physical/biological makeup at that age).

To explain further: From the first moment of my conscious awareness, i knew i was a girl. Age 4.

I can only describe this as an "all-encompassing" level of personal awareness on every level possible - physical, mental, and emotional, even from that age.

This was, in personal experiential nature, joyful, magical, and completely anguished, in every moment, 24/7/365 from that moment forward, until now at this moment i that i write this explanation. This was not, and could not have been, "sexual" in nature at that point in my life.

Nor, at that age, could it possibly be defined as a "Lifestyle Choice" by any known cultural, social, or psychological standards that are in use or have ever existed that i am currently aware of. There was no sexual abuse in my family. I had no sisters. I was not encouraged in this self-awareness in any way or form whatsoever by anyone friend or family in my life from that age onward.

Please explain how this could be a "sexually deviant choice of lifestyle" and that i, and any other such youth that by adolescence has also deeply grappled with such an issue since earliest conscious awareness?

Another point. If all of nature is a part of God, and vice-versa, and therefore we could not have POSSIBLY "chosen" to have been MADE the way that we are, with respect to the abovedescribed conditions, how would we or could possibly then be, such "abnormal freaks of nature" ?

Most Sincerely,

Maryanne A. Arnow

[Maryanne Arnow]

For additional potential of food for thought, or at very least, reasonably intelligent discourse:

There are many questions, many assumptions, lots of anger, insult, and obvious discomfort... But far too few real answers to help people understand and counter...

Let's begin with: "freaks of nature".
I have heard this before.

I have heard it in a context that is often associated with some kind of "spiritual" or "theological"/theoph ilisophical 'opinion', that anyone "guilty" of expressing themselves outside of the "norms" of gender, or sexuality, is against God's will, and therefore, "a freak of nature".

If in fact, there is truth to the existence of God in ALL things great and small, ALL things in nature, whether or not human beings percieve them as "freakish" in some way or another, this is an oxymoron.

If, in fact, God is in all things, and all things are a part of God's will and design, then there is NO "freak of nature".

Not now, not before, not ever. If God does not make "mistakes" in his/her/it's utter perfection, this is a self-cancelling argument that is meaningless, judgemental, bigoted, and patently false in every aspect of the statement.

Sincerely,

Maryanne

[Maryanne Arnow]

And to just add one more log to the fire:

As one that intensely suffered various forms of physical, mental, and constant emotional abuses most of my childhood, and now, for the same reasons, most of my adult life, for no other reason than being "different".

I was different and did not "choose" to be that way.

I was everything that would have been exceptional for a young girl, but was born biologically male.

I was smaller and weaker and built differently than any of the male kids. Did i choose that ? No, i don't think so.

Was i punished and brutalized and disrespected and penalized for something of which i had no choice in the making.

Yes, most assuredly.

Was i abused, teased, constantly beaten upon and called names like "retard and freak" for being several grade levels ahead (talking, reading, & writing on a first to 2nd year college level in 6th grade)?

Yep, you betcha - worse than almost anyone else ever in any place i lived or went to school in fact, because of the combination of these so-called "defects".

Was i abused and disrespected and judged for being quite naturally deeply sensitive and emotionally expressive as would be acceptable for any young girl but, for never a boy ? Yes.

Was i hit and hurt almost every day of my life in the world i grew up in, and in the first dozen years of public schools, for nothing more than simply having INNATE physical, mental, and emotional qualities that i could no more change than i could have blinked and turned the sky green or pink on a whim ?

Yes.

Have i experienced the very same, or worse as an adult in this culture, for no more than the very same reasons ?

Yes.

And somehow, all of you wish to continue somehow to express these so called acceptable "VALUES ?!" Under the guise of some supposed higher moral code ? You call that an acceptable code of morals ? acceptable ethics ?

Good solid "traditional old fashioned moral values" that were taught to all the people that react in this way to people like us.

Many of you have not ever changed in your disguises as adults, and now still continue in your sheer judgementalism, to do much more damage to your fellow human beings without the slightest compunction, or remotest idea of honest self-awareness of such as your own disgusting hypocrisy.

Nothing but hypocrisy.

All of you that hate, humiliate, attack, misrepresent, direspect, gossip, abuse, and beat down - anyone that is "different" than you -

You are going to lose. You will lose even your spirit, because of your hatred and the assumption you use, to have assumed to take the place of the one and only judge, whom YOU are NOT.

Most Respectfully,

Maryanne A. Arnow

[dont snow me]

Brian L Burleson wrote:

Another freak on parade.

So ugly and disgusting looking, it should never pose for a picture or go out in daylight. Truly ugly.

[Brian]

six toes wrote:

<quoted text> Maybe "he/she/it was born that way.
Define "normal", are you?

A: A man is born "that way"

B: A man who wants to "change" his sex isn't normal

C: I'm as "normal" as most men are.

[dont snow me]

six toes wrote:

<quoted text> Maybe "he/she/it was born that way.
Define "normal", are you?

Well, i haven't had my pecker cut off or tried to use the ladies room.

[King Tut]

Maybe they can run for president as anything is better than Obolshevik.

[Brian L Burleson]

"To explain further: From the first moment of my conscious awareness, i knew i was a girl. Age 4."

Did you have a Penis or a vagina when you were born?

If you were born with a penis, you were and are a man, if born with a vagina, you were and are a woman.

If you were born with three arms or a tail etc., you would be a freak of nature.

If you "change" your sex, you're a man-made freak.

[Brian L Burleson]

hmmm. the biological word for a male sex organ was censored, but vagina wasn't.

Perhaps the censors hate men.

[JimBob]

???

[Maryanne Arnow]

Dear Mr. Burleson,

If you are a reasonably intelligent person, and i am assuming you are, then try to wrap your head around this. It could not matter to me, or many others like me, whether or not the "plumbing" was congruent with the rest of the picture, from the first moment we knew ourselves. This is not just about the physical, but that is where you and many others are entirely stuck on it.

How is it, that 30 years later, with no guidance, no instruction, no sisters, no social or economic incentives whatsoever, that i was able to adjust to life in my correct gender as a female, and do so in a manner that is guided by strict clinical standards that must first completely rule out any other form of mental defect or psychoses before even considering allowing me to proceed in such a dangerous and controversial path ?

This is not a "choice" at that kind of an age. It could not be, nor was it ever. This sets the stage for a lifetime of torment and social rejection for something we did not make nor choose for ourselves. I chose to have the guts to be truthful to myself, my family, my profession, and the world i live in.

When is the last time you risked your life on the line, every single day, for what you know and believe in, with all of your heart and mind ?

I chose to live with integrity and fearlessness against the insults and abuses of people like yourself that only use anger and disgust as your only explanantions and assertions.

As was pointed out, we differ from others. My entire physical development differed, yet i could not choose that. My features differed, and obviously still do, yet i did not choose that.

My mentality and emotionality completely differed from that of any male person i have ever known, and more closely mirrored what would be considered as normal for girls, by any clinical standard that exists, yet i did not choose that.

This is about gender. Not sexuality. For those of us that percieve our gender as different than our baseline physical biology, it has no "off" switch, and usually intensifies as we age unless we do something to make ourselves congruent with our self-perception.

That perception is not yours to regulate, or judge, or take away, although your anger and disgust seems to indicate that you would have it so if you could.

At age 13, i was still fully expecting God and nature to catch up to me and i would develop what i thought should be the rest of my "normal" female attributes. I did not choose that my mind worked in this way.

You should do some study of the issue from more than one side, or more than one-half of an angrily distorted side, before you continue to judge others that you have NEVER personally given witness to the internal mental and emotional workings of.

If God chose to make a person with three arms or two heads, that is as it is. there are no "freaks" in that regard as you put it.

Should i choose to change my biology because it is possible for me to do so, and in the process, i become happier, more honest, more productive, and more physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally capable and stable in the process,(the primary goal of sex change by all current "clinical" standards), then what is inherently wrong with that ?

I still love, laugh, cry, think, and struggle just the same as you or anyone else does.

Still a real human being, no matter what labels YOU use. I would welcome you at my table because that is the standard of decency and old-fashioned neighborliness and compassion for others that i believe in.

If you were different, why would i wish to judge you in such hateful terms as you judge us ? That is NOT the word of unconditional love, nor acceptance, nor understanding. That is just hateful, shallow, and deeply entrenched ignorance for ignorance's sake.

Most respectfully,

Maryanne