Have you ever read something that you loved so much, you wish you could take it out to brunch and feed it a plate of delicious waffles? . . . No? Too specific? Okay then.

Writer Vivian Taylor recently wrote a post for Autostraddle about being a trans woman and how she deals with other people's pre-conceived notions. It's funny, introspective and well written, and did I mention the thing about how I want to give her a plate of waffles? Just checking.

But I'm done with it. You can be trans or cis. You can be super femme, you can be ultra butch. You can be straight or queer. You can have people saying you're a transcendent beauty who just stepped off a Renaissance canvas, you can have people saying you're a stomach turning monster. You can be a light in the world who every person you meet loves and devotes themselves to, you can be an awkward storm cloud who drives everyone away.

I don't care. Sun shines and rain falls on the just and unjust alike. I don't want to know who the Real Good Ones and the Real Bad Ones are. We're all people. We all deserve to be treated as valued members of humanity. That's all. 

If you have a few minutes, you should really go read the piece in full. But if nothing else, just remember that there's really no such thing as a correct way to be a human being, and you don't need to fit a certain mould to be treated with the same dignity and respect as others.

[Pic via Imgur]

Last year, Jenna Talackova made national headlines when she became the first openly trans woman to compete in the Miss Universe Canada pageant after having been disqualified initially.

Since then, Talackova's become something of a trans icon and has successfully parlayed her pageant run into a reality-TV show, which will be filming in Toronto despite the fact that Jenna hails originally from Vancouver. Sorry, Vancouver, we scooped you. If it's any consolation, you guys have lovely beaches.

The move to Toronto isn’t just a reality-TV gambit but “a personal-growth thing,” says Mudd. “She wants a change, and Toronto, with its proximity to New York, seems to be the place where she at least wants to start the journey. I don’t doubt that she’ll live in 15 cities in the next 10 years.” Or as Talackova herself put it: “I think it’s more a chapter in my life where I want to play with my career more so than being in, like, a relationship . ... I put too much time in relationships, too much energy.”

Shooting of Brave New Girl will run into August. As in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Talackova will be living alone in an apartment in Toronto (“I hate living with people – well, I don’t hate living with people – but I like having my own space”), but much of her time will be taken up having adventures with friends like Miss Universe Canada 2010 Elena Semikina and Dajana Radovanovic, another Miss Universe Canada contestant from 2012. Who will be Rhoda and who will be Phyllis? We’ll see in September. [SOURCE]

If the opening title sequence doesn't include at least one shot of Jenna Talackova throwing her hat in the air, I will be so pissed. Either way, this is pretty exciting. God knows we could use more trans visibility in reality shows, instead of a bunch of housewives throwing wine at each other.

It's impossible not to love wedding dresses. Sure, they cost thousands of dollars, they're worn only once (knock on wood,) and most of them end up being thrown in the attic/closet to collect dust, but it's really hard to look bad in a wedding dress.

Rohit Singh, a bride-to-be from Saskatoon, decided to prepare for her wedding by trying on wedding dresses at Jenny's Bridal Boutique. There was just one little problem standing in her way: according to CBC News, the eponymous Jenny decided to ban Singh from trying on wedding dresses because Singh happens to be a transgender woman.

"It might happen to some other transgender that might come to the store and she will hurt the same," Singh said. "It so embarrassed me and my husband." "Discrimination," Singh said of the experience. "I'm damn sure it's discrimination." The shop owner thought Singh was a man and felt other people in the store were uncomfortable with Singh trying on dresses. "She said, sorry we don't allow men to wear dresses here," Singh recalled. "I said I'm not a man, I'm transgender." 

In case you're wondering whether the public scrutiny or the revelation that Singh actually is a woman did anything to change Jenny's mind? Nope. Not at all.

"To me it doesn't matter," Correia said. "He looked like a man. There was quite a few brides in the store. If you see a man trying on dresses, you're going to feel uncomfortable."

Oh, you gigantic turd.

So Jenny's entire line of thinking here is that it doesn't matter if you're a woman or not. You cannot have any features that aren't stereotypically feminine if you want to try on her fugly-ass taffeta rags. No, that doesn't make you sound like a judgmental douche at all. 

Say what you will about the cosmetics industry, but they have a long history of being pretty damn impressive when it comes to philanthropy. Not only do all the sales from Mac's Viva Glam line go toward fighting AIDS, but now Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, a vegan, cruelty-free line of cosmetics, has taken it upon themselves to help a transgender individual in a big way.

January Hunt, a long-time OCC employee, is raising money so that she can afford her transitional surgery. To help her out, OCC created the January Rising Lip Tar and devoted all sales of the product to covering Hunt's surgery.

Left with few other options to help her complete her journey, Hunt started a fundraising campaign to help her raise the needed $30,000 for sex reassignment surgery and gender-affirming breast augmentation. Fortunately for her, she works with one of the most compassionate employers we've ever seen, who went above and beyond to not only support Hunt through her transition, but also to actively help her get there.

The January Rising Lip Tar, a gorgeous and vibrant hot pink, was created by Hunt and the creative team at OCC. It is available exclusively through Hunt's fundraising site for $25 a tube, and 100% of that money goes directly to Hunt's fund — no profit or production costs are taken out by OCC. The Lip Tar is only available for sale for 14 more days, and so far she has raised $19,471 for her surgeries. [SOURCE]

Let me get one thing clear: the majority of Christians are sane, rational people who treat other people with kindness and respect. Unfortunately, the most vocal ones tend to be those who err on the dumber side of things.

Take for instance Mary Hesson. She's a Christian writer and seems to be of the mind that trans rights will force Catholic children out of public schools. How? Well, this is never really explained, but she's pretty adamant this might possibly happen maybe.

Here's an excerpt from her article, titled (unironically) "Will 'Transgender Rights' Drive Catholics out of Public Schools?" THERE IS NO EYEROLL BIG ENOUGH FOR THIS FUCKERY.

In its rush to support the “progressive” agenda for transgender rights, the Board of Education has thrown privacy and safety – for the other students – right out the window. That’s bad enough. The full impact of its decision, however, is even worse.

It’s an insidious strategy that promotes a view of the human person utterly incompatible with Christianity. 

Wait, how is being compassionate and accepting of others incompatible with Christianity? I thought that was the whole point of being religious. That you were supposed to use your belief system to embrace and love others. But wait, it gets worse!

It’s bad enough that children in public school must learn in an environment that no longer recognizes God. But it’s even worse when that educational environment no longer recognizes basic truths about the human person.

Catholics in the past have been able to opt-out of public school sexuality education classes; it’s impossible to opt-out from a pervasive culture based on a flawed anthropology.

Wait, are you upset that you can't just choose to let your kids go uneducated, just so you wouldn't have to acknowledge the humanity of being transgender? What in the hell?

As someone who studied the Bible, I can tell you that most of it is just batshit lunacy. That being said, if you're willing to sift through it, there are some great, compassionate bits in there that outline a pretty great moral code to live by. Loving your fellow human beings, being charitable and compassionate, helping those who need it the most. But trying to raise your children to be uneducated because of your own personal transphobia and homophobia? That wasn't in there. And if it was, it was in the crazy parts.

All I can say is that no, transgender rights won't force Catholics out of school. There's no such thing as a finite amount of education, and there's no such thing as a finite amount of rights. Just because we embrace other people, that doesn't mean we have to make room for them by shunning others. There's room for everyone at the table; just fucking relax. 

I'm going to play this one out with a quote from Stephen Colbert that encapsulates why this is bullshit . . .