HRC, You STILL Have A Problem

“It is not true to suggest that any person or organization was told their flag was less important than another – this did not occur and no HRC staff member would ever tolerate such behavior. To be clear, it is the position of the Human Rights Campaign that marriage is an issue that affects everyone in the LGBT community.   Michael Cole-Schwartz HRC Communications Director

After declaring to the world the incident at the SCOTUS rally didn't happen, circling the wagons and basically calling National Stonewall Democrats Executive Director Jerame Davis and John Becker liars, The  Human Rights Campaign flip flopped faster than Mitt Romney in 2012 campaign mode and released a statement admitting what Trans and Bi World believes happened and a plurality of LG World suspects did by issuing an apology    

Human Rights Campaign Statement on March 27 Events
From Fred Sainz

In the midst of a tremendously historic week for our community, two unfortunate incidents at the United for Marriage event at the Supreme Court last week have caused pain in the community. In one case, a trans activist was asked to remove the trans pride flag from behind the podium, and in another, a queer undocumented speaker was asked to remove reference to his immigration status in his remarks.

HRC joined in a coalition statement on Friday apologizing for these incidents and the individuals involved have personally offered their apologies to those affected. But to be perfectly clear, HRC regrets the incidents and offers our apologies to those who were hurt by our actions. We failed to live up to the high standard to which we hold ourselves accountable and we will strive to do better in the future.

Yeah, right.  I have some waterfront property along I-10 between Breaux Bridge and Baton Rouge I'd like to sell you if you believe that statement was sincere.   It's an apology that Kat Rose at ENDA Blog 2.0 noted comes on April Fool's Day.

You STILL have a problem HRC, and this time I'm just going to spell out what your problems are with the trans community that have led to the extremely low level of confidence in your organization from the trans community.  

Your shady past transphobic history plays a major part in this.   It is also the fact you have had only two trans people sit on your board, which is the exact number of out transpeople that you have hired to work for you in your entire existence.  Your penchant (when you deign to do so) to hire transpeople who have no grassroots organizing experience or background with the history of the trans rights movement is also troubling to us..

That plays into the already negative perception that elements of the trans community have of HRC that you don't care about us or our issues.  It is also a trans community perception that it's in your organizational DNA to treat transpeople as less than equal.

It was interesting to read the press release bragging about the support you mustered and the millions spent to get marriage equality passed in Maryland, but couldn't (or wouldn't) commit to the same level of support and effort to pass a statewide trans rights bill pending in the Maryland state legislature at the same time.

Actions speak louder than words.  The SCOTUS rally flag kerfluffle said to the trans community that you really don't think of trans people as equals and you don't consider our issues important despite the fact we transpeople are fighting tooth and nail for the same basic human rights that you gay and lesbian peeps already enjoy.

And too many times you gay and lesbian folks gained those rights by repeatedly throwing trans people under the human rights bus.  We saw our stories appropriated, us getting cut out of legislation in the name of 'incremental progress' that eventually passed and protects GL people.

And it infuriates us when you euphemistically call GL only rights laws 'equality'.

Yep HRC, that's the hole that you're trying to climb out of, and March 27 only restarted the ossification of those beliefs held by the trans community.   As I said in that March 29 post, you had zero room for errors, misspeaking, or mistakes, and this one is a doozy.

What we're going to need to see this time is a concrete plan to permanently fix the internal HRC issues with transpeople so that you DON'T have another incident like this again.   I would suggest hiring talented transpeople across the board in all ethnic and age demographics in our community and keep them there a minimum of five years as a first step.

It not only makes a dent in our unemployment numbers, but it's painfully obvious you need to have some transpeople at Rhode Island Ave.  You don't know, are unaware or clueless on how to talk to us.  You don't have intimate knowledge of the issues that affect our diverse trans community and it ain't going to get any easier as time passes and the country becomes more diverse.   

And the second thing that needs to happen now is you need to start treating the trans community as a respected partner because our power is only going to continue to grow.   That means you are going to need to get used to having honest communications with us and the people we designate as our leaders, not the ones you choose to talk to.

HRC, you STILL have a problem.  The onus is on you to decide whether you wish to solve it.