I was up this morning and feeling restless, so I went for a spin on my motorbike. Took a nice cruise down the river road, spun off onto Lake and headed up to Franklin on my way over to Lyndale to head back down to Bob's Java Hut.
As I was traveling along, I noticed a police cruiser in my mirrors - didn't think much about it other than making sure I was driving within the posted limits. That is, until I hit a couple blocks past Chicago and noticed a guy in a white shirt toting a duffel bag and handing another guy a bag of what looked like oregano but probably wasn't. The interesting thing was that the patrol behind me didn't seem to take interest. Nor did the one approaching me in the other lane. Nor did the one turning left a couple blocks up. I then noticed a LOT of people with white shirts and duffel bags manning (and in one case womaning) corners and bus stops. Out of curiosity, I swung around after I was out of that "zone" and headed back down the street. Sure enough, most of the folks were on the same corners. Some were talking to folks, handing this and that across. Some were just hanging. Btw, is the white shirt thing like a uniform or just due to the weather? Anyway, like I said, there were a number of cruisers in the area that didn't seem to take much notice of what looked to me like a LOT of business going on. I have various theories as to reasons behind this (one of which is that I may have been drastically misperceiving things - maybe everyone was on their way to the gym or something), but it did seem odd to me. Re: Transsexuals: Fortunately, the law has little to do with how private establishments decide to operate, so I expect that the club I work at will continue to function in the same way. If you look like a man and are using the male restroom, fine. If you look like a woman and are using the female restroom, fine. If you look like whatever but use the restroom that is appropriate to the gender on your driver's license, fine. If you create a problem or someone complains, then we deal with it. If you continue to create problems, you're no longer welcome. Frankly, I can understand a cross-dresser/transsexual's concerns about using the men's restroom - in a world where people still beat other people up for not meeting their vision of "normal", they are in a whole lot more real danger going into a men's restroom in drag than they are using a cubical in the women's restroom and maybe being "caught". One thing I have to disagree with is the poster who claimed that women's restrooms are less unpleasant than men's - that contradicts my experience. When society has reached a point where there is no discrimination on gender or sexuality, there will be no need for separate restrooms (or showers). Frankly, I'd like to see that happen now. Let us divide the country at the Mississippi. The west goes to those who are into open mindedness, the east can go to those who want to live in a culture based on religious or cultural fundamentalism. You might be more "righteous" and we might have more flakes, but we won't stone women for adultery or crucify men for kissing other men. Sound fair? - Jason Goray Sheridan, NE __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
