No Open Season on Transgendered People, Please!

Beating up someone in a McDonald's isn't right, in my considered opinion. Even if the victim isn't wearing the 'right' clothes.

On a related topic, I'm not a big fan of 'hate crime' legislation: but since those laws are on the books, I think I understand why prosecutors may bring 'hate crime' charges against some young women in Maryland.

Here's what I'm talking about:

• "Suspects in beating of transgender woman Chrissy Lee Polis could face hate crime charges"
  Edecio Martinez, Crimesider, CBS News (April 26, 2011)
• "Prosecutors Review Charges in Attack at McDonald's"
  Associated Press, via FoxNews.com (April 25, 2011)
• "Victim of McDonald's beating speaks out"
  Jill Rosen, The Baltimore Sun (April 24, 2011)

"Love" isn't "Approval"

This may seem off-topic, but it's not. I'll get back to what I think about the possible 'hate crime.'

I've gotten the impression that quite a few folks in America think that "God hates fags." Sorry about the language - but there aren't many decent ways to describe what folks like Fred Phelps preach. (November 8, 2010)

I'm a practicing Catholic, so I'm not allowed to hate anybody. (December 9, 2010)

I'm also commanded to love people. All people. (Matthew 22:36-40)

"Love" needs to be defined in this context, I think. An educational psychology class I took included a personality profile on a continuum of "controlling" to "loving." I tested out as being far over on the "controlling" side. Possibly because I'm not inclined to let someone else get hurt.

Think about it. Is it particularly 'loving' to

• Let your friend drive drunk?
• Let your kids eat anything they want?
• Do nothing while someone you know commits suicide?

That last is not a hypothetical situation for me - and that's another topic. (January 28, 2009)

I think, based on very sketchy information in the news, that the person who was beaten in that Maryland McDonalds was not acting in full compliance with Catholic teachings.

But - and this is a very important point - I also think that beating that person was a very bad thing to do. 'Judgmental' as that may sound.

Weird!

Contemporary American culture is odd in some ways. Very odd, in my opinion.

Gender, Sex, and America

For example, look at how we use the word, "gender." It's got two main meanings:

• Gender
  1. "a grammatical category in inflected languages governing the agreement between nouns and pronouns and adjectives; in some languages it is quite arbitrary but in Indo-European languages it is usually based on sex or animateness"
  2. "the properties that distinguish organisms on the basis of their reproductive roles"
  (Princeton's WordNet)

Definition #1 was the one most often used when I was growing up. In the last decade or so, many Americans have started using "gender" when they mean "sex."

Which, in my opinion, is a trifle daft.

A pen, boat, or rock can have "gender," if the language allows it. But, and I think this is important, people have sex, not gender.

I could re-write that, to avoid a double entendre, but - I think you get the point.

Sex, People, and Rules

I indulge in nostalgia now and then: but my memory's too good to let me think the fifties, the sixties, or the age of disco were the 'good old days.' Although I do like some of those over-the-top disco fashions. And that's almost another topic, again.

I converted to Catholicism, and take my faith very seriously. That means that I can't cheat on my wife, kill my kids, or rob a bank. Those would be violations of the Sixth, Fifth, and Tenth Commandments.

There's something to the stereotype that the Catholic Church has rules about everything.

There's even a sort of dress code: including the often-misunderstood (in my opinion) rule about men dressing like men, women dressing like women, and not the other way around. I've discussed that before. (September 26, 2009)

What the Church teaches, as far as I can tell, is not that everybody should dress like folks did in America, back in the 1940s and 1950s.

Nothing wrong with zoot suits or poodle skirts, in my opinion: but 21st-century Minnesota isn't 'Happy Days'-era America, or first-century Israel. The winters are colder here than they were or are in the Holy Land, for starters.

Which gets me to what happened to Chrissy Lee Polis in that Maryland fast-food place.

Genders by the Bushel

I lost count of how many "genders" people were supposed to have - the number kept changing, when political correctness was in bloom. At one point there were over a dozen, as I recall.

I don't know if the fellow in Korea who married his pillow was covered: and that's not quite another topic. (August 7, 2010)

Transgendered People are - - - People

"Gender" comes into play because the person who was beaten in Maryland is what we call transgendered.

Definition time again.

• Transgendered
  1. "involving a partial or full reversal of gender"
  (Princeton's WordNet)

The news I've read uses the female personal pronoun when referring to Chrissy Lee Polis, or refers to the person as a woman. That's culturally-normative in today's America, and probably enforced by law.

I don't know if Chrissy Lee Polis simply wears women's clothing, or was surgically altered to resemble a woman: but from the label "transgendered woman" and associated descriptions, I gather that Chrissy Lee Polis is, biologically, a male human being.

And that Chrissy Lee Polis has decided to have the outward appearance, at least in part, of a female human being.

Do I:

• Think it's right for a man to dress as a woman?
  • No
  • Deuteronomy 22:5
• Hate people who aren't like me?
  • No
  • I'm not allowed to
  • Matthew 22:36-40

And I certainly don't think it's right to strike someone for not wearing the right clothes.

As I've said before, I've got the teaching authority of "some guy with a blog." But I think I'm on pretty solid ground here. I've put links to a few authoritative resources under "Background," below.

Related posts:

• 'Big picture' topics:
  • "The 1950s, California, and Old-School Thinking"
    (February 16, 2011)
  • "Hating People? Not an Option"
    (December 9, 2010)
  • "'Potty Parity,' Conservative / Liberal Values, and a Universal Church"
    (May 12, 2010)
  • "Are You a Boy, or Are You a Girl?"
    (September 26, 2009)
  • "The Catholic Church and Homosexuals: Harsh and Soft, Judgmental and Understanding"
    (March 13, 2009)
• Cultural mores and me
  • "Shop Class, Home Ec, and Being Catholic"
    (December 14, 2010)
  • "Brilliant, Talented, and On Medication"
    (November 30, 2010)
  • "Mind's Made Up About Catholicism? Don't Read This"
    (November 8, 2010)
  • "Legalized Rape, Brightly Burning Bras, and Fitting In"
    (May 8, 2010)
  • "Marriage, Catholic Beliefs, and This Catholic"
    (September 24, 2009)

News and views:

• "Suspects in beating of transgender woman Chrissy Lee Polis could face hate crime charges"
  Edecio Martinez, Crimesider, CBS News (April 26, 2011)
• "Prosecutors Review Charges in Attack at McDonald's"
  Associated Press, via FoxNews.com (April 25, 2011)
• "Victim of McDonald's beating speaks out"
  Jill Rosen, The Baltimore Sun (April 24, 2011)

Background (this is not an exhaustive list):

• Basic rules
  • Bible
    • Matthew 22:36-40
• Dress code
  • Bible
    • Deuteronomy 22:5
  • Catechism
    • 2524
• Sex
  • Bible
    • Genesis 1:28
    • Matthew 5:27-28
    • Matthew 19:4-12
    • 1 Corinthians 7:1-7
  Catechism
  • 2332-2336
• Social justice
  • Bible
    • Mathew 5:43-44
    • Matthew 6:33
    • Matthew 25:14-30
    • Matthew 25:40
    • Luke 19:11-27
  • Catechism
    • 1929
    • 1935
• Sin, emotions
  • Bible
    • Matthew 5
    • Matthew 25:31-46
    • Mark 7:21
    • 1 John 3:14-15
  • Catechism
    • 1033
    • 1765
    • 1866
    • 2262

"Catechism" refers to "Catechism of the Catholic Church," second edition. (Latin 1994, 1997; English translation 1994, 1997)