Reading through the daily stack of trans related news items posted by the awesome archivists over at TG News, I stumbled upon an article from The Christian Post about the National Conference on Christian Apologetics held in Charlotte, NC last weekend. The column featured one of the conference’s speakers, Dr. Michael Brown. As I started reading, it seemed like just another in a series of fear campaign columns we’re accustomed to from neo fundamentalist Christian activists. By the time I was near to finishing I was wondering how the hell this so called doctor had co-opted and appropriated my life?Dr. Brown has written some 20 books and is popular on the neo fundy fear campaign circuit. He is something akin to a “Jew for Jesus”…(Hey…I’m Jewish!)…and his message is that it’s time they (the Christian right) start waking up to the trans/homosexual agenda. Would you believe it? This didn’t occur to him until about six years prior, but it’s on his “radar” now. School systems are trying to find ways to discontinue discrimination against these non-conformists who, by the way, do not constitute a “protected class of individuals”. Society is ready to embrace these deviants who attempt to blur the sexes and this bothers Brown..He feels that most Christians and Christian theologians have stuck their necks in the sand and are either willing to be assimilated or are just waiting for the Rapture when they’ll be out of here. Honest…the column actually contains this sentence: “Yet the prevailing thought in churches is that "this stuff is happening elsewhere" or that Jesus is coming back soon and "we're out of here any minute," Brown, a Jewish believer in Jesus, lamented.” This concept is mindboggling…let whatever’s gonna happen here happen…we’ll be long gone and it won’t affect us or matter. And screw those perverts and sinners who are left holding the bag!At the root, as usual, is the straw man argument regarding trans persons and bathrooms (Hey…I’m trans!!). Referencing San Francisco Schools protocol, the article cites this provision “The policy for locker room accessibility states, "Transgender students shall not be forced to use the locker room corresponding to their gender assigned at birth. In other words, if Joey's convinced he's Jane, then he can use the girls' locker room and restroom, Brown summarized.”I have become accustomed to this simplistic and reductionist argument, but never inured to it. As usual, it’s baseless and ignorant. As usual, it’s predicated on provoking fear. And, as usual, logic is never sufficient towards dispelling these arguments.Now we get to the aw gee sensitive moment at the Christian Apologetics Conference. Lillian Kwon, the column’s author, complains “Many schools are also using the Riddle Homophobia Scale, where repulsion, pity, tolerance, and acceptance are measured as homophobic. Meanwhile, "positive levels of attitudes" that are encouraged toward GLBT persons include support, admiration, appreciation, and nurturance.” How sensitive of you Lillian!! She adds, “And while some may be extra sensitive in these times because of the recent bullying of GLBT students and teen suicides spotlighted in the media, Brown pointed out that there are some 4,000 to 5,000 suicides a year among teens and little is said about the other kids.” We can infer from this that Dr. Brown is less than sympathetic towards kids whose lives have become unbearable due to bullying. I suppose he resonates more with the repulsion, pity, tolerance,acceptance paradigm. I’d actually welcome the tolerance and acceptance were it genuine. We know it isn’t.Dr. Brown has a new book about to published, aimed at raising attention to this problem amongst those who have been eating sand. The book is to be called “A Queer Thing Happened to America: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been.”. (Wow…What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been…Truckin’…the Grateful Dead…I’m a Deadhead!!!).It was here that I lost it. Okay…I suppose there may be several crazy Jewish people out there…and it’s true,, we, as trans persons, and as trans activists, have seen the specters of transphobia and the bathroom issue before. But…now you’ve gone too far…appropriating the Grateful Dead’s WALSTB?? The phrase is the stuff of legends and to have this so called doctor co-opt such a major icon of Deadography goes way beyond the pale.In his own words, Dr. Brown states HIS agenda like this “"We must take a stand for righteousness in our society. We're called to ... expose darkness and to be a moral conscience and moral preservative. If we're not shining the light, if we're not making a difference ... how's the world going to have a moral conscience and know the difference between right and wrong." How wonderful you’ve accepted the mission to be the world’s moral compass! How fortunate we are!Well, Dr. Brown, do what you think you must, no matter how pathological your mission is. The world IS changing and history will prove your form of bigotry to be unsustainable. And…if you ever actually listened to the Grateful Dead, perhaps your perspective wouldn’t be so DEAD wrong!! But…and I repeat this…keep your hands off my music and the Grateful Dead!!. Cuz…now I’m REALLY pissed!!!