Transgendered Rights?

THE WASHINGTON TIMES, Feb. 3—The city of Boulder, Colo., has extended legal protection to a new minority class: transsexuals, the Times reported.

The Boulder city council, which has already voted to ban discrimination against women, racial minorities, homosexuals and bisexuals, voted unanimously Feb. 1 to amend the city's 27-year-old human rights ordinance to protect transsexuals from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations. The vote, which was greeted with applause from the audience, met with little opposition after being first proposed by the city's Human Relations Commission in November.

The law, which takes effect March 1, defines transsexuals, or “gender-variants,” as those having “a persistent sense that a person's gender identity is incongruent with the person's biological sex.”

Boulder, a university town known for its liberal politics, becomes the first city in Colorado and the seventh in the nation to extend human-rights protections to transsexuals, a list that includes San Francisco, Seattle, Pittsburgh and Cambridge, Mass.

Catholics Returning to the Rosary

THE BOSTON GLOBE, Feb. 2—The rosary is making a comeback, the Boston daily said, citing reports from rosary manufacturers that sales have been steadily climbing for years.

“The business fell through the floor after the Second Vatican Council, and for years we had a warehouse full of rosaries,” said manufacturer George Malhame of Malhame & Co. “Now we have a very vibrant marketplace.”

According to two Northeast manufacturers quoted in the Globe story, sales of the beads have quadrupled over the past 15 years. Dealers say sales of high-end rosary beads are up — you can now spend as much as $4,500, or as little as 49 cents — as are sales to two relatively untapped markets: men and Protestants.

People who say the rosary offer a variety of explanations —often a mix of duty and desire, occasionally prompted by a return to faith or a renewed interest in the Church. “I started over a year ago, because of a conversion in my faith,’'said Eric Fraize, 27, of Quincy, who said that after his mother died, she appeared to him in dreams, prompting him to return to the faith he had abandoned. He now recites the rosary daily, and is contemplating becoming a priest. “I noticed a significant improvement in my life, and felt it imparted spiritual blessings and favors.”

Roberta Nelson, 56, of Charlestown, recited the rosary as a child, but drifted away from the Church and only recently returned: “I was returning to Catholicism more intellectually, reading theology books and trying to get in touch that way, but I had been given my mother's rosary beads … and now I say it once a week.”

School Prayer Gets a Push in Virginia

THE WASHINGTON POST, Feb. 1—A Virginia measure which even opponents expect to become law will require public schools to observe a minute of silence for meditation, prayer or reflection at the beginning of every school day. It was overwhelmingly approved by the Virginia Senate.

Some civil libertarians protested the measure, arguing that it crosses the constitutional line dividing church and state. “The big question is: What are we going to do to try and stem the increase in violence in our public schools?” said Republican State Sen. Warren Barry, the bill's sponsor. “This may just be a nibble, but it's a nibble in the right direction,“ Barry said.

Republican Gov. James Gilmore said in an interview that the measure would not infringe on any student rights and that it was a good way to help “instill character in the lives of young people.” Added Gilmore: “I support separation of church and state, and I don’t think this crosses that line.”