One of the things I noticed in the aftermath of the NY Senate committee 12-11 vote that killed GENDA for another session was all the vitriol being hurled at NY state senator Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx).
While Diaz deserves it for being a longtime foe of TBLG rights coverage, what I didn't like was seeing and hearing once again, the 'conclusion jump' that ensued and recitation of the inaccurate meme that Democrats are no better than Republicans when it comes to GLBT rights issues.
Hmm, guess y'all conveniently forgot about the last eight years under the Bush misadministration, much less last week's State Department rule change that drops the SRS requirement for a passport gender marker change.
That came from a State Department run by Hillary Clinton, not Condoleezza Rice.
Lost in the GL community rush to condemn Sen. Diaz was the fact that 10 Democrats voted to pass GENDA out of committee and that the eleven Republicans voted against it.
Those eleven Republicans all happen to be white.
Why haven't you condemned those Republicans, especially Sens. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island) and George Maziarz (R-Niagara) who reneged on their commitment to support GENDA, only to vote against it in committee?
Maybe the answer lies in the perception that GLBT people of color have about the predominately white led GLBT rights movement.
The perception of many GLBT people of color is that white GLBT people are so desperate to regain what you see as your lost white privilege and show conservative whites you're 'just like them', you're reluctant to voice or mute your criticism for whites who oppress you.
But you have no problem expressing yourselves when that oppressor happens to be a person of color.
You also have no problem expressing yourselves and your feelings about an African American president you lukewarmly supported that you don't feel is moving fast enough on your issues.
So why no rising volume of condemnation for what is glaringly obvious to any person of color? It's white Republicans who are and have been for decades the enemy of TBLG rights.
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