GLBT people pay taxes, too. And probably more than their fair share, considering most of them don't get to take advantage of tax breaks for having children, etc.

Why should their taxes pay for a slap in the face from some political hack in government?

Yeah, yuck it up. Then buy a dictionary.

The term "transgender" includes transsexuals and transvestites. Transvestites are people who wear the clothing of the opposite sex. Transsexuals are people who have, or had before surgery or other therapy, a sexual identity wholly or partially at odds with their sexual characteristics.

Transsexual people are particularly at risk for violence and suicide because they tend to suffer from societal ignorance (consult a mirror on this) or worse, familial rejection/disapproval, and legal invisibility (except in those jurisdictions which grant some small measure of nondiscrimination protection).

Of course, they may have readier access to a dictionary than D.L. has. In 2005, what Cosmo-reading American wants his or her sexual behavior to hover about "the norm"? Lighten up, D.L.

Yeah right - Are you stupid or just a liar?

The Bush administration has an unofficial policy to never use the word gay or lesbian. Why? Because they don't believe that gay people exist. They think gays are really just sick heterosexuals waiting to be cured.

Bush has never used the word gay or lesbian ONCE in a speech since he's been President. That's pretty amazing considering the fact that one of his primary goals is to make gays second class citizens in this country.

Of course this guy is a Nazi. His goal is to have less people attend the conference since they'll have no idea what it is about, and thus we'll continue to have higher suicide rates in this country amongst gay people. The reason we have higher suicide rates amongst gays is because people like the commenters on this board are abusive towards gay people (by calling them "deviants" for example).

And yes words hurt. So does bullying against gay people. The word "fag" is the most common slur in high schools today. And this teasing and bullying results in a suicide rate that is three times higher.

The commenters on this board, along with the Bush administration not only prefer to keep that suicide rate high, but they participate in abusive actions that actually make the rate higher. They think the less gay people we have the better.

So, I guess you don't agree that government money should go to grants that allow researchers to study why minority women seem to be at a larger risk of breast cancer.

Or, to study why African American males die earlier than whites.

Or, pretty much any population that is more at risk for a disease or condition that's not as prevalent in the population as a whole.

Or is it just the gays, LJD? I suspect it is.

Why should my tax dollars fund a special conference for "special people", only to have them get pissed off. Alternative: no conference- avoid killing yourselves by the same means every one else does.

Tired of squeaky wheel reactionary politics.

If the lecture is titled "Suicide and Sexual Orientation" (or Orientation/Identity), I think most people will know what that means, and it's easier to work with logistically.

Everyone has a race, but if a lecture is titled "Racial Discrimtionation in the Workplace," most people aren't going to assume that it's about discrimination against whites. So I don't think much of the "everyone has a sexual orientation" argument.

I would trust the knowledge and expertise of panel organizers to develop proper ways of describing public health problems much more than activist bureaucrats like Curie.

And, dammit, what about transvestites? Why the hell don't they get a mention?

Does the article say why the change was made? I don't have the time to deal with WaPo registration this morning.