I am not talking about Florence, Mary and Diana, But of John Anthony, Clarence, Stephen, Sonia, Elena and the Notorious RBG. Or the members of the Supreme Court. The Senator from Kentucky  who is the majority leader in the Senate , Mitch McConnell, said on the death of Anton Scalia (February 13^th) announced that the next president would appoint the replacement, and that there would not be any hearings or votes on anyone appointed to the court by President Obama.

I know many do not know how the court works but let me give a brief civics lesson to the uninformed.  The Supreme Court hears oral arguments for two weeks a month starting on the First Monday in October as required by Article 3 of the US Constitution. During the week there are conferences set up where they discuss the cases heard and vote on them. Once the vote is taken,  2 Justices are assigned to write the Majority and Dissenting opinions. Here is the key point that must be made. The original vote is not the final vote. Later when the opinions are written they are then voted on. If someone who voted for the Majority disagrees with the written Opinion, they can change their vote.  This is the final vote taken and is typically pro forma.

The Constitution requires Congress to meet on the 3^rd of January, the President’s term to start on the 20^th of January but here is the rub, despite what happens on Election Day (the Tuesday after the First Monday in November (November 8^th in 2016), the new President is not officially elected yet. The Chosen Electors in each state meet in their respective state legislature on the Monday following the second Wednesday in December (December 19^th in 2016) and cast their ballots the results of the ballots are sealed and sent to The US Senate where in early January the votes are announced in a joint session of congress, and the President ‘officially’ get elected. Technically she cannot appoint anyone to the court until after she becomes President. But she will probably propose someone prior and officially nominate her choice on the 20^th of January. The Senate after swearing in on Jan 3^rd will have to start the process of approving the cabinet and the appointed federal Judges including the one for the Supreme Court. The likely hood of having the 9 Judge on the court within a year of Scalia’s death is very slim. If the new Justice is seated on the court on the 13^th of February they will have missed 54% of the oral arguments of the court’s calendar for the year technically they could not vote or have an opinion on any case heard prior to their being placed on the court.

I believe all of the Justices on the court are very smart I disagree with several and my two favorites are Ruth Bader Ginsburg (AKA The Notorious RBG)  and Steven Breyer (who in my opinion the Miguel Cabera of the Supremes) but a 4-4 is not as effective and the longer Senator McConnell delays the approval of a justice just because he can he should be charged with Obstruction of Justice.  But I seem to be the only one who is upset with this.

John Adams appointed John Marshall to the Court after he had lost the Presidential Election to Thomas Jefferson and Congress consented to Marshall before Jefferson took office.  Why can’t the current Senate Majority Leader do his duty to the American People?

Thus ends the Civic Lesson.

I just got to be me and I got to pee.

I have read a lot about Bathroom Bills especially North Carolina’s HB2. I find it discriminating on several levels. First the reason we “need” this type of legislation is to protect our daughters but not our sons.  While I must admit that more child sexual predators are male but there are some female ones as well.

When confronted no one can state one case where a transgendered person has ever used that as a excuse so they can pass into the female restroom to sexually assault a young girl, not one. They then throw in the  but someone who is not actually transgendered can then use that as an excuse to go into a women’s room and accost a young girl. That makes as much sense as saying we should not allow tourist into New Orleans because someone from California might show up.  What they are really saying is we should legislate discrimination against transgendered people  not because  of a legitimate reason but because someone with less than honorable intentions may perhaps do something in the future. In the last 25 years we have had members of the clergy and politicians been accused and convicted of sexually molesting children, yet there is no legislation being planned to restrict their bathroom access.

The more absurd part of this is that the law reads  that a person can only use the restroom that corresponds to the “sex assigned at birth”  What does that mean exactly? Let’s face it for the past 7 years I can change my gender identity on my passport without surgery.  The Michigan Secretary of State has just made it easier to change the gender on your birth certificate and your driver license.  I don’t carry my original birth certificate with me and those people who were present at my birth have all passed and if my drivers license says I am female and there is a question about my gender how are they going to prove otherwise?  If  I am out to an event on a Saturday night and need to use the facilities will the bathroom police keep me from using the facilities until they can get verification from the state offices on Monday morning because I don’t think I can wait that long. In reality what they will have to do is a modified what we called in the military as a short arm inspection, they will have to check to see what genitalia I have between my legs. In other words do I have a penis. ( oh for the uninformed you can have that surgically removed and have it converted to female parts.)  So let me sum up I can change my genitals, birth certificate, drivers license, and passport to say that I am what I say I am regardless of my “sex assigned at birth” what does this law actually mean?

The bottom line is I just got to be me and I got to pee.

Niki has always said you are what you pretend to be. For most of half a century I pretended to be something I was not, macho with a flair for bravado. I had been in several tense situations pretended I was fearless when I was scared. I had spent most of my life in aviation which is a very male oriented profession (think about it the pilot sits in a cock pit.) I had been in therapy. (My therapist on our first meeting laid out the objective of counseling, that I was in fact a woman living in a man’s body and not a man with latent desires but unable to process the feelings. She then asked me if I understood. I replied in my typical style by saying you want to know if I am truly transgendered and not a homophobic gay guy)  I digress.  I was scared to start the transition, I had heard of stories where people had been fired, beat up or killed just for trying to live their life their way.  It took a tremendous amount of moxie to go into our HR manager’s office and say that I was transgendered and I was going to transition. After about what seemed like forever but in reality was a few seconds she looked at me and said we are about to see if this company means what it says about diversity. At that time I knew I had come to the right decision and the right person, that line made all of the difference.  My plan was to do things gradually and not leave on a Friday as Ron and return Monday as Rhonda but over a couple of weeks do the transition so no one was shocked.  I had a business trip planned for the next week and during that time our HR department called meeting with everyone in the plant and at our offsite locations to inform them of my transition. When In returned the HR manager let me know that a couple of people had come and wondered about which bathroom I was going to use. I was asked if initially I would limit myself to the restroom nearest my office and the unisex one in the lobby. I was called into my boss’s office and the office of the company president both of whom assured me that they understood my decision and supported me.  This was a tremendous weight lifted off my shoulders. One of the supervisors came to me and asked me to explain this ‘thing’ so that it was understandable. I told him what was between my legs was my sex and what was between my ears was my gender and in my case they did not match.  He thought that was brilliant and he could use that.

I got an appointment with a doctor to get hormones and got them started right away. My therapist gave me what is called a carry letter which basically stated that I am in therapy for gender dysphoria and should be accommodated and treated like I was a woman.

I initially went overboard like a kid in a candy shop. Somehow I mentally equated being feminine with the color pink. I had pink tops, pink lipstick, pink nails, pink earrings, etc. Niki finally said to me I was overdoing the pink. In reality I was going through a modified puberty of sorts. When I recognized what I was doing I watered it down quite a bit.  But the sensations of being able to expose to the world how I really felt inside were very much a relief.  I know there were situations where I had to be what people expected and saying to myself as I prepared for this “It’s show time” and now I did not need to think that, I no longer needed to pretend. On one of my last service trips, before I finally made the decision to transition, I was in St. Louis and was taken to lunch by several of the company’s sales and technical people. It was in August and the conversation turned to sports, more specifically college football.  I was asked which team I rooted for Michigan or Michigan State. I said neither as my daughter was going to Ohio State.  That seemed to get the attention off of me but the rest of the conversation all I could think of I don’t belong here this is not my cup of tea. If they were talking about airplanes or more specifically the advances in avionics (Aviation electronics) I could carry on but sports….

Just after I started my transition I was tasked to go to our Columbus Office. I had worked in Columbus for 8 years before I was transferred to Grand Rapids. I knew many of the people there and wondered how they would react.  There were a few people who I had no concerns about and several that I had never met.  One of the people I had no concerns about was Bruce.  Bruce is one of the most liberal people most people know, his company voice mail ends in a statement about being environmentally consciences as “a good planet is hard to find.” As I walked the halls to the Lab where Bruce was people would say hi but did not know how to react openly. When I saw Bruce there was about half a dozen people in the lab and Bruce stood in front of me and sized me up top to bottom and back to top. He then said “You weren’t all that good looking as a guy but as a woman you are damn ugly as a woman.” The room was very hushed no one knew what to say and it was totally out of character for Bruce. There was total silence for several seconds then I started to laugh and told him I knew he would give me an honest opinion.  The room relaxed and knew I was not going to be militant about things, I was who I always had been in disposition. When people get pronouns wrong and then apologize for it I tell them I lived for 50 years being called in the masculine I cannot expect you to change overnight.

Niki has said she misses Ron but loves Rhonda. I don’t see where the inner me has changed but obviously she does. I think I am not as uptight as not much of a jerk which I totally blame on my inner conflicts. I think I am easier going and more fun now that I can be me!