Ho Hum, Another Transphobic Gay White Male Advocating TBLG Separation

Another day, another not so shocking instance of a transphobic white gay male making the case to throw transpeople under the human rights bus.

On the eve of South Dakota governor Dennis Daugaard trying to make up his mind whether he is going to be a trans human rights hero or a trans human rights oppressor, another one of those 'We Want A Divorce From The T******s' pieces popped up this morning in USA Today.

This op-ed was written by Joseph R. Murray, who was a campaign official for Pat Buchanan and would be surprised if he was a member of either GOProud or the Log Cabin Republicans.

Let me get right to the heart of why I and other trans people are tired of white gay men clamoring for separation now that you have accomplished much of your gay and lesbian legislative and societal wish list by simultaneously using the trans community as legislative bargaining chips.

It was trans people, and specifically trans people of color like Marsha P. Johnson who threw the first bricks and shot glasses at Stonewall while you Fire Island gays were cowering in your closets.  And far too often in my nearly two decades of human rights advocacy,it has been primarily white gay men who have been the biggest obstacles to trans human rights progress.

If you think I'm kidding about that, LGBT history has far too many instances of trans folks being thrown under the legislative bus in the name of 'incremental progress' and LG led groups breaking those promises to come back for us.  

And who came up with the bathroom meme?  Before the right wing started using it to attack us and human rights laws in general, it was Rep. Barney Frank with his 'penis in showers' arguments in the late 90's designed to stymie trans inclusion in ENDA.

Which brings me back to talking about this latest example and the repeated ignorant line that trans rights and gay rights are not the same.   While there are some issues that are unique to the trans community. we also identify as gay, bi or lesbian in Trans World in terms of our sexual orientations.

And if our human rights as trans people aren't secured, your hard won human rights gains in Gay World are also less secure.

Now that we have the Republican Party and right wing evangelicals coming out of the closet in terms of working to openly attack our humanity and human rights, now is not the time for advocating kicking the trans community to the curb from a movement we helped build and far too much of our blood has been shed in order to make real the promises of democracy and human rights for trans Americans.

And we're tired of conservative white gay men showing their inner transphobe and making the fatally flawed assumption that your whiteness, your wallets and your eager willingness to sell out the rest of the LGBT community will protect you from the anti-LGBT discrimination that your party wishes to impose on all of us.