Trans People Got Erased By Rachel Maddow

I've repeatedly made the point in this blog how important it is for us to know our trans history.  We need to have a working knowledge of it not only just for our own sakes, but to empower our trans kids, keep us from being erased in the media and frankly, so we are armed with the knowledge to rebut any lies coming from our detractors.

Former Minnesota resident Katrina Rose points out that while watching a Rachel Maddow Show story last night discussing the Minnesota gay marriage fight, while talking about the 1993 landmark gay rights bill she neglected to mention exactly why it was a landmark bill in the early 90's. 

It was a landmark bill because it was trans inclusive in an era when we trans folks were gleefully getting thrown under the legislative bus so often by the GL community we could tell by the tire tracks the brand name of the tires that ran over us.

I’m not demanding a dissertation from Rachel.  I’m not even saying there was a need to go into his opposition to trans-inclusion in 1975 or his being on board with inclusion when a bill finally passed in 1993. 

But if you are contextualizing Minnesota in the wake of it becoming the twelfth state with same-sex marriage rights, you do have to do the bare minimum of pointing out that it was the first with trans-inclusive civil rights.

Yes, Rachel.  You do indeed have to.

So, Rachel…

I’m saddened that I have to ask this: Why didn’t you?

You did mention the 1993 law.

Yeah, I'd like to know the answer to that question myself.  Here's Kat's ENDAblog 2.0 post. 

And let's see if the fact the 1993 bill was trans inclusive makes it to a future Maddow show Department of Corrections segment