It seems MD Del Joseline Pena-Melnyk is a little upset about all the attention she's been getting about the flawed trans rights bill she introduced at the behest of (In)Equality Maryland.
I guess I should be thankful for the small favor that Del. Pena-Melnyk referred to us as 'you people'.
And as for your threat to pull your support for this jacked up bill you worked so hard on, that goes both ways. We can also find someone to run against you in 2012 .
But seriously Del. Pena-Melnyk, you're a smart woman. We got screwed by the Maryland Legislature and our gay 'allies' in 2001 and we fear it's happening to us again. What did you expect the reaction of the Maryland trans community and their brothers and sisters around the nation would be when you introduce a bill that members of the community that it's supposed to help and lawyers we have consulted tell you is flawed and worthless?
Did you expect the portion of the Maryland trans community who isn't white, well heeled and kissing EQ MD's behinds to just sit down, shut up and submit to being screwed?
Did those smooth talking devils at (In)Equality Maryland tell you that MD 235 was 'supported by the trans community' as they paraded two white affluent trans people to parrot their party line?.
And you of all people as an attorney should know the significance of leaving public accommodations out of a civil rights bill for a marginalized group.
All we're asking for is that public accommodations language be added to HB 235 to eliminate the Mack truck sized loophole in it that will allow bigots to continue to discriminate against transpeople. Why is that so hard?
Can you explain to me and the Maryland trans community why that is so difficult or is too much to ask?
President John F. Kennedy once said in a televised June 11, 1963 civil rights speech, "When we grant rights to others which belong to them, we expand rights for ourselves."
Don't you think you and your kids deserve expanded civil rights? Don't you think that transpeople deserve the same rights that other Marylanders do? Right now, we transpeople have the perception, based on the HB 235 bill you put your name to that you don't.
So yes, Del. Pena-Melnyk, we're just as sick of 'you people' in the various levels of government playing games with our civil rights and our lives. Our people are dying and being disrespected out there. We transpeople don't have the luxury of waiting for the 'incremental progress' that EQ MD is pimping.
Morgan Meneses-Sheets and much of her all-white Equality Maryland staff is already covered under existing Maryland civil rights law. The GL members of it were covered in the 2001 Maryland law that transpeople were cut out of It's sad that the transpeople who live inside the borders of your state and contribute to its economy if they are lucky enough to have a job aren't.Isis King grew up in your district. You mean to tell me she doesn't deserve civil rights coverage when she comes home? Sandy Rawls in Baltimore doesn't? Alyson Meiselman, an attorney who has argued cases at the federal court level doesn't?
So if you're the civil rights champion people in Maryland have told me you are, how about stepping up to the plate and doing what is morally right and correct for the trans community? I know if I were in your pumps as a state legislator, I would want any civil rights bill that had my name attached to it be as airtight and comprehensive as possible so it fixed the problem, not kicked it down the road five, ten or twenty years later.
Maryland, the nation and the world are watching.
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