(Into the Light Walk) He Walks For YOU!

by Alan Bounville

Though I’ve been posting videos, some photos and text posts over the past few months, one thing I haven’t done is a photo and caption post like I have periodically been doing. So, here we go – photos and captions documenting the past few months of the Into the Light Walk.

For more photos that others have uploaded, please go to the walk’s Facebook photo page: https://www.facebook.com/IntoLightWalk?sk=photos. There are lots of photos there as well.
PS Some of these photos are not in chronological order. Between my computer crashing and a glitch uploading photos to the website, it has been a challenge to get back online to do a post like this.

South of Declo, ID, on a dirt road, Equality Cart got tired and fell over! The wheel came off. It was an easy fix.

(Into the Light Walk) It Gets Better – Calling Mom from the Continental Divide!

by Alan Bounville
Into the Light Walker

I decided to make an It Gets Better video, calling my birth mother from the Continental Divide in Colorado, as I walk across the country for gender and sexual orientation equality. In 2008, my mother, step-father and other family members in Florida voted against LGBT civil rights by voting for Amendment 2 (Florida’s Proposition 8). A year later I stopped talking with them because of this divide between us. This is the first conversation my mother and I have had in two years.

Does it get better? At times like these I wonder. Watch the video of the phone call below.



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GENDER LOVE: Glenn Close CAUGHT in Male Drag!

A new trailer has just been released for the Glenn Close drama Albert Nobbs, in which Close dons drag to work as a butler, and then falls in love with a woman.

THR writes: "The movie, directed by Rodrigo Garcia, is adapted from a short story by Irish novelist George Moore. Close, who co-produced and co-wrote the movie, first played the title character in a 1982 stage production and had been trying to mount a screen version ever since."

NO ACCESS: Breast Cancer Man Denied Coverage Because He's Not Female!

Raymond Johnson discovered last month that he was one of the 2,140 men who get breast cancer each year. But when he tried to use the Medicaid-funded Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act of 2000 to cover his cancer costs, he found out that he didn't meet an eligibility requirement: He wasn't a woman, reports the Post and Courier.

"Cancer doesn't discriminate, so this program shouldn't discriminate," Johnson complains. For breast cancer to be covered, it must be diagnosed by an "early detection" program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and in South Carolina, the screening program is offered only to women between the ages of 47 and 64. 

Because men do not qualify for the early screening program, they are not covered by the cancer treatment act. Even South Carolina's Medicaid officials says this is discriminatory, and have called on Medicaid to change its requirements. Officials say, however, that they're powerless to help unless the law is changed. "It was shortsighted to exclude men," said a nurse at the hospital now treating Johnson.

KING: Woman Draws Beard on Face, Robs Bank!

(AP) – Both Bonnie and Clyde would be proud. Cops say a woman drew a beard on her face and wore men's clothes to rob a bank in Alabama. She allegedly told tellers at the Bank of Tuscaloosa in Cottondale she had a bomb, placed a device on the counter, and asked for money. She made off with an unknown amount of cash, says the AP. Police think she might also have robbed another bank in early July. Local cops and the FBI are conducting investigations.

BASHED: Gay Couple Attacked by WOMEN in Newburgh, NY!

David Ludwig and John Delk, a newly-relocated gay couple in Newburgh, NY, were attacked on their first night out in the town by a group of people at the Terrace Tavern on Liberty Street, the Times Herald-Record reports, They spent much of the night at the Terrace Tavern, a Liberty Street bar. The music was terrific, and Ludwig and Delk danced and relaxed. It was after 1 a.m. when another patron noticed Ludwig's hand on Delk's wrist.

Ludwig said the man told them it wasn't a gay bar and they should leave. They refused, but finished their drinks and decided to go. Newburgh had seemed so much friendlier than their old neighborhood in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Ludwig thinks he probably touched Delk's wrist as they walked from the Terrace, and maybe that's what drew the attention of a group of young women.

"You're gay," the women called, according to Ludwig.

The women closed in. The first punch slammed into Ludwig's cheekbone. He remembers a whirlwind of fists. He swung wildly. Delk covered his head, and the women pinned him against a car until Ludwig could fight them off.

GENDER FREE: Gender-Neutral Pre-School Cans the Words Boy, Girl!

Teachers don't say things like "him" or "her," or read fairy tales like Cinderella or Snow White at the gender-neutral Egalia pre-school in Sweden, and boys and girls play either in the play kitchen or with Legos, reports CNN. The Stockholm classroom uses the genderless pronoun “hen,” as opposed to "han" or "hon," to address children. "Society expects girls to be girlie, nice and pretty, and boys to be manly, rough and outgoing," a teacher told the AP.

"Egalia gives them a fantastic opportunity to be whoever they want to be." Sweden and three other Nordic countries are leaders in the global gender gap, and the Swedes are also at the forefront in legalizing gay and lesbian partnerships, according to the 2010 World Economic Forum.

Fox News Nails J. Crew for Boy's Pink Polish in Anti Gender rant!

If there's one thing that Fox News cannot abide, it's pink nail polish on a little boy. Now he and the nation are apparently in for a world of psychological pain and years of therapy. And it's all because of a J. Crew email ad that featured a mom painting the toenails of her 5-year-old son. In the ad, J. Crew President Jenna Lyons laughs with son Beckett, whose toes she has painted, as she's quoted as saying: "Lucky for me I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink." Oh no, Jenna!

"It may be fun and games now, Jenna, but at least put some money aside for psychotherapy for the kid—and maybe a little for others who'll be affected by your 'innocent' pleasure," warns a stern Dr. Keith Ablow in a FoxNews.com column, stressing the polish was not merely pink, but "hot pink." This is a "dramatic example of the way our culture is being encouraged to abandon all trappings of gender identity—when the outcome of such 'psychological sterilization' is not known," sniffs Ablow. "It is unwise to encourage little boys to play act like little girls." One clear effect of the ad, or, rather, Fox's response, is that it's driving bloggers bonkers. "It's hard to know where to start," sputters one mom.

Maryland Senate Kills Gender Identity Bill!

Morgan Meneses-Sheets

A gender identity bill which had been criticized by some transgender activist groups for failing to include "public accommodations" has been sent back to committee by the Maryland Senate, MetroWeekly reports:

The Maryland Senate just sent the Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act, House Bill 235, back to the Judicial Proceedings Committee during the bill's second reading, 27-20, killing the bill in this year's legislative session.

The development comes two days after supporters of the legislation were relieved when the bill passed favorably in the Senate's Judicial Proceedings Committee on April 9, with a 7-4 vote with only one amendment from Sen. Brian Frosh (D-Montgomery), which according to Morgan Meneses-Sheets, executive director of Equality Maryland, was non-substaintial.

The "public accommodations" clause had been removed from the bill in order to help its chances of passage in the Senate.

Men, Women Starting to Look More Alike!

Anthropologists comparing ancient skulls to modern ones say it's getting harder to tell the girls from the boys. North Carolina State researchers who examined skulls from Spain and Portugal going back to the 16th century say that the differences between male and female specimens Science Daily have diminished over the ages, reports DailyTech. Specifically, modern women have larger facial structures, closer to the size of men's, possibly because of better nutrition.


"This has applications for characterizing older remains," says the lead researcher, according to . "Applying 20th-century standards to historical remains could be misleading, since sex differences can change over time—as we showed in this study."