Not Always Nastiness

In March, I wrote extensively about the cases of Susan/Steven Stanton and Julie Nemecek. Both of these cases were about transsexuals making their journey public and encountering the ugly side of so-called "Christianity". Those stories made headlines throughout much of North America. To me, if they represent anything, it is the smallness of some people in their dealings with others. Neither of these people had done anything criminal or disreputable to justify their firings, and yet fired they were.

A week or so ago, another similar story emerged, this one about sports writer Christine Daniels who disclosed that after some 20 odd years writing sports as a man, she was transitioning and would henceforth be writing under the name Christine. I decided to sit back and see how the story unfolded - was it going to turn into another Julie Nemecek case, or would we see something positive for a change?

Aside from some stupidity from the usual suspects, the story has been a 'good news' story for a change. Her employer has been supportive, going as far as providing space for her to blog about her transition experiences (which is an intriguing publicity angle). As Christine says here, most of the correspondence she has received is positive, and I think she has a lovely response to a Bible bigot that tries to tell her that her "actions are not Biblically acceptable":

I don’t know what Bible you’re using, but you might want to check the pull-date on that one. My Bible is the same one used by my pastor, who has counseled me throughout the early stages of my transition, helping me to stay on track and continue moving forward, because that is the plan God has for me.

Since the news is so often "bad news", I thought it was time to bring forward a bit of good news from someone's life. It starts to restore your faith in humanity a little.