HRC 'Charm Offensive' Talking Points

TransGriot Note: This was sent to me by a friend who despises and is deeply offended by what HRC and Barney Frank did to the transgender community. Over the last week HRC has been beating the bushes in the GLB_t community trying to spin last week's transgender-free ENDA vote and sanitize their anti-transgender history. We in Louisville heard some of these talking points in Vic Basile's speech last Saturday.

***
Speaking Points this week’s ENDA vote

o HRC amended its policy this week on ENDA, and moved to support the non-inclusive bill in the House.

o HRC adopted the strategy because we strongly believed that having the vote, even on an incomplete bill, is crucial to setting the stage for the next Congress and getting a fully inclusive bill to a President who will actually sign it into law.

o Having a vote on an incomplete bill as a means of bringing people along is a strategy that has worked with other important legislation on the Hill, ranging from the Family and Medical Leave Act – which was introduced and voted on in many forms before signed into law in its complete form, and most notably the strategy worked just this year when the fully inclusive Hate Crimes bill passed both the House and the Senate.

The Matthew Shepard Act – also known as the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act or the Hate Crimes bill, which passed both houses of Congress this year as a fully inclusive bill, was voted on multiple times in both the House and the Senate when it was still only a sexual orientation only bill.

Having a strong and compelling record of votes on the incomplete, non-inclusive bill gave HRC and leaders on the Hill the leverage needed to pass the fully inclusive bill this year.

The vote this week in the House on ENDA is not the vote that HRC and many of our allies wanted. We did everything possible, from comprehensive field work, to corporate advocacy, to lobbying to have a vote on the fully inclusive version of ENDA.

HRC and other political leaders believe that since the non-inclusive ENDA is moving forward, it must pass. If it were to be pulled or defeated in a bad vote, it would be a setback for going forward with any GLBT legislation in Congress for many years to come.

HRC made the hard choice to support this bill as part of a long term strategy to passing a fully inclusive bill in the future – just as we did with the Hate Crimes Legislation.

HRC will use this week’s vote to establish a baseline of support among members of Congress so that we can firmly establish which members are with us, and which ones need more education. This is a first step – not the end game.

HRC is going to redouble our educational efforts on transgender issues moving forward with an eye on the next 14 to 18 months, leading up to the next time that we might have a vote on ENDA in a new Congress.

***

Yeah, right. More HRC prevarication.

The word from people inside the Beltway is that the Mattachine gays are extremely pissed because we transgender people dared oppose this non-inclusive ENDA bill.

We watched you disingenuously strip us out of our legislative Holy Grail, diss us on the Hill and in the media as being selfish, and y'all thought that we were going to just sit idly by twiddling our thumbs while y'all pass a bill that we see as a life-or-death issue without us?

Y'all been doing too much Ecstasy.

As our punishment for fighting for our community's interests, according to our Beltway sources, the Mattachine gays have vowed that we transpeople are going to get frozen out of ANY federal GLBT civil rights legislation until 2013.

Once again, the true transphobic colors of HRC and its leadership cadres rear their ugly heads.

The Kentucky Fairness Alliance Dinner Protest

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the Kentucky Fairness Alliance Out and About dinner here in Da Ville at the Frazier Arms Musuem. KFA is our statewide GLBT org who is just as pissed as we are about the non-inclusive ENDA.

It was shaping up to be a great event. Robbie Bartlett, one of our local favorite blues, R&B and jazz singers was the entertainment. I had a great time talking to her about a variety of subjects before she had to exit the table and join her band in preparation for her performance. We had some local and state politicians that came to show their support along with many members of the progressive civil rights community in Louisville. I had a great time kicking Transgender 101 knowledge to some of our straight allies who were sitting with me at the Fairness Campaign table.

Unfortunately, the keynote speaker was the first executive director of the Homosexual Rights Corporation, Vic Basile. So when he strode to the podium to make his speech, I stood up and turned my back to him.

Another transperson at the dinner joined me along with five other guests. Others picked that moment to head to the bathroom or take cigarette breaks. When Basile got to the point in his speech about the ENDA passing on Wednesday being a historic moment, there were scattered boos in the room.

The protest had the effect of making Basile angry and I noted he started stumbling over his speech. When he was done I sat down as he got some weak golf clap applause. He hightailed it out of the room before I could pin him down about some selective retelling of African-American civil rights history in support of the HRC 'incremental rights' spin they are trying to use to justify cutting transgender people out of ENDA.

My point is that your push for 'incremental rights' will result in exponential increases in bigotry, discrimination and violence against transpeople like myself. We've already seen the anti-transgender sentiment surface during the ENDA debate among some elements of the GLB communty. And as Terrance at the Republic of T blog so eloquently put it, the 'incremental rights' crowd is extolling the virtues of using spoonfuls of justice to counteract shovelfuls of injustice.

It's not cool when you're the one at the receiving end of the shovelfuls of injustice.

In Basile's speech he made the point about standing in the way of intolerance. For a few minutes last night I took his advice and did just that.

Khadijah Farmer Lawsuit

TransGriot Note: Here's an example of what I and Lambda Legal have been talking about in terms of the transgender-free ENDA the House just passed NOT covering everyone in the GLB_t community.

Check out this New York Times article about Khadijah Farmer and her lawsuit against a New York City restaurant for throwing her out of the women's restroom hours after the NY Gay pride parade because of the bouncer's PERCEPTION that she was a man.

****

Sexual Stererotypes, Civl Rights, and A Suit About Both

By JENNIFER 8. LEE
Published: October 10, 2007
Women have been thrown out of men’s bathrooms, men who identify as women have been thrown out of women’s bathrooms and, of course, men have been known to get into trouble in men’s rooms. But women minding their own business inside women’s rooms have rarely been an issue, until now.

Yesterday, a New York woman filed suit against a West Village restaurant for being thrown out of a women’s room there by a bouncer who, she said, did not care she was really female.

The woman, Khadijah Farmer, 28, who lives in Hell’s Kitchen, said in an interview that she was at the Caliente Cab Company restaurant on Seventh Avenue with her companion and a friend after the gay pride parade on June 24 when she left the table to go to the women’s room. While she was there, a male bouncer burst in.

“He began pounding on the stall door saying someone had complained that there was a man inside the women’s bathroom, that I had to leave the bathroom and the restaurant,” Ms. Farmer said. “Inside the stall door, I could see him. That horrified me, and it made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I said to him, ‘I’m a female, and I’m supposed to be in here.’

“After I came out of the bathroom stall, I attempted to show him my ID to show him that I was in the right place, and he just refused to look at my identification. His exact words were, ‘Your ID is neither here nor there.’”

Ms. Farmer said she often is mistaken for a man, but her New York State nondriver photo identification card clearly lists her as female.

She said the bouncer followed her up the stairs and back to the table, asked her party to pay for the appetizers they had eaten and made them leave the restaurant.

Telephone calls to the management at Caliente Cab Company were not returned yesterday. The bouncer was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund filed the lawsuit on behalf of Ms. Farmer in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. It accuses the restaurant of discriminating against Ms. Farmer because her appearance did not comply with society’s norms concerning gender identity.

A 2002 amendment to the city’s human rights law protects the rights of city residents whose gender expression is different from their sex at birth. The state’s civil rights law does not include a similar protection. But the defense fund argues that it should be interpreted as protecting New Yorkers against sexual stereotyping, in which people are expected to conform to gender-appropriate behavior.


Although Ms. Farmer is not transgender, the legal defense group considered the suit to be a strategically important case with the potential to set a precedent, said Michael D. Silverman, the organization’s executive director and general counsel. The lawsuit’s claims are being made under both city and state law.

The fact that the bouncer refused to look at Ms. Farmer’s identification card before ejecting her showed that he was judging her simply by how she looked, Mr. Silverman said.

Sexual stereotyping, he said, was expanded as a legal concept under a 1989 decision by the United States Supreme Court. In that case, Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, the court found, 6 to 3, that a woman had failed to make partner at the accounting firm Price Waterhouse in part because she was considered too “macho.” The court ruled that male supervisors discriminated against her on the basis of stereotyped notions of appropriate female appearance and behavior.

“We’re asking the court to say that sex stereotyping by public accommodation is just as harmful when practiced by a public accommodation like a restaurant as it is when it is practiced by an employer,” Mr. Silverman said. “If Khadijah were wearing pearls and white gloves, would the bouncer have treated her like that?”

Kenji Yoshino, a Yale Law School professor who studies gender and sexuality under the law, said Ms. Farmer’s claims were much stronger under the city law. “The New York City statute is so much more directly on point.”

Ms. Farmer said she is mistaken for a man on a daily basis — especially in bathrooms and locker rooms, where she often gets funny looks. “I have a script that is almost routine,” she said. “I say, ‘I am a woman, and I’m supposed to be here.’”

“Usually,” she added, “they are embarrassed.”

Sign Of The Apocalypse-Me and Rush Agree

TransGriot note: I never thought I see the day when Rush Limbaugh and I actually see eye to eye on something. Here's a transcript from OxyContinin Man's November 8 show about the ENDA mess.


Democrats Shaft Transgenders

RUSH: By the way, this next stuff is great. Let me preface it by giving you a little story here of what's going on out in San Francisco. "National civil rights organizations are celebrating the passage by the House of legislation that would add 'sexual orientation' to a list of federally protected classes, but some San Francisco groups refuse to take part in the party." They're not happy about it.

They are the transgender and transsexuals, and they're at the back of the bus on this civil rights issue. "The vote Wednesday on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, also known as ENDA...was ultimately revised to remove protection for transgender workers, which upset gay rights groups here and across the country.

'People are livid,' said John Newsome, co-founder of And Castro for All, a bias awareness group. 'If the first step out of the gate leaves people behind, it is an ill-conceived first step.'" Barney Frank was getting tarred and feathered over this, and he told the transgenders and the transsexuals (paraphrased), "Just take your time. You're going to screw up this whole thing. We'll get this done in steps," but they're not listening. They're not happy. Here's John Lewis, who marched with Dr. King and got beat upside the head several times in the Selma march and so forth, late yesterday on the floor of the House of Representatives.


LEWIS: I, for one, fought too long and too hard to end discrimination based on race and color, not to stand up against discrimination against our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. During the 1960s, we broke down those signs that said "white" and "colored." Call it what you mean, to discriminate against someone because they are gay, is wrong, it is wrong! It is not right. Today we have an opportunity to bring down those signs! Now is the time to do what is right, what is fair, what is just! The time is always right to do right. Let us pass this bill.

RUSH: And next up, Barney Frank, a portion of his remarks.


FRANK: I feel an obligation to 15-year-olds dreading to go to school because of the torments, to people afraid they'll lose their job in a gas station if someone finds out who they are. I feel an obligation to use the status I have been lucky enough to get to help them, and I want to ask my colleagues here, Mr. Speaker, on a personal basis, "Please, don't fall for this sham. Don't send me out of here having failed to help those people." Yeah, this is personal. There are people who are your fellow citizens being discriminated against. We have a simple bill that says, "You can go to work and be judged on how you work, and not be penalized." Please don't turn your back on them. (applause)

RUSH: Yup. San Francisco values have to be brought to the House of Representatives here, and guess who the speaker is? Speaker is Nancy Pelosi.


PELOSI: It's not that we're tolerant in my district in California and San Francisco. It's that we have so much respect for the role that each person plays in our society. So tolerance, maybe. Respect, definitely. But let me also add, that it is the pride that we take in that diversity, and it is the pride that I take in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community that brings me to the floor today to urge a "yes" vote on this important legislation.

RUSH: But it left out the transgenders! It left out the transsexuals, and they're casting this as a civil rights issue. The transgenders and transsexuals were told by the House of Representatives to go to the back of the bus. That's what your House of Representatives was doing yesterday, ladies and gentlemen.

The Shady HRC Commissioned Poll

One thing that my father always hammered home to me as me and my siblings were growing up (and he would know since he ran radio stations for a living) was never accept what a media outlet is telling you until you ask the how, who, what, when, where and why questions and what their motivation is for saying it.

My father's wisdom has come roaring back to me ever since I heard about the poll published in Advocate.com that stated that 70% of the GLB community favored moving ahead on a transgender-free ENDA.

Just to catch you TransGriot readers up with this, the Advocate reported on the eve of the ENDA vote the results of a poll comissioned by HRC. It seems to indicate a strong majority of gays and lesbians supported passing the Employment Nondiscrimination Act even though it did not include protections for transgender people.

The stench from this poll started jumping out at me immediately. HRC commissioned it. The Mattachine gays have been getting beat up over the fact that 300 organizations are united in NOT having an ENDA proceed without transgender peeps and HRC is the lone holdout. They have had people openly question the incrementalist strategy that they wish to pursue.

Now this poll comes out less than 24 hours before debate starts on the Hill, it's immediately published and seized on by the incrementalist crowd as 'evidence' that the community wants to move forward even if it doesn't protect transgender people.

Okay, so lets take a look at the poll questions.

The poll was a random survey of 514 LGBT Americans conducted by Knowledge Networks, Inc. of Menlo Park, CA. It asked participants two questions concerning ENDA. The first asked which of the following three statements was closest to reflecting their views:

A. National gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organizations should oppose this proposal because it excludes transgender people.

B. National gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organizations should support this proposal because it helps gay, lesbian, and bisexual workers and is a step toward transgender employment rights.

C. National gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organizations should adopt a neutral stance for this proposal because while it helps gay, lesbians, and bisexual workers, it also excludes transgender people.

67.7 percent of the respondents chose answer B, 15.8% agreed with statement A, 12.8% agreed with statement C, and 3.6% did not answer.

But check out how this is worded. One of the things that you have to watch for and think about when you read poll results and analyze them is how the question is worded.

So let's do that.

National gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organizations should support this proposal because it helps gay, lesbian, and bisexual workers and is a step toward transgender employment rights.

Note the part I have in bold print. The question worded so that you think that passing a non-inclusive ENDA is a step toward transgeder emplyoment rights.

Excuse me? The step toward transgender employment rights was leaving HR 2015, the inclusive ENDA alone and not stripping transgder people out of it in the first place.


The second question asked people the following: "This proposal would make it illegal to fire gay, lesbian, or bisexual workers because of their sexual orientation. This proposal does NOT include people who are transgender. Would you favor or oppose this proposal?"

In response, 59.1% said they favored the proposal and felt strongly about it, 15.4% said they favored it but did not feel strongly about it, 15.1% opposed it and felt strongly about it, 8.8% opposed it but did not feel strongly about it, and 1.6% did not answer.

Of the 514 people the poll surveyed, 246 respondents identified as male, 262 identified as female, five identified as female-to-male transgender, and one person identified as male-to-female transgender. The poll was conducted between October 2-5. The margin of error was +/- 4.3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

I have a lot of questions about these so-called random GLBT people they surveyed.


How would a polling company know someone was GLBT unless they had that information in advance, especially if they're doing a RANDOM sample? Where did they get a list of GLBT peeps to question? What part of the country did these 514 people reside in? Did they target the calls to areas that have strong anti-transgender sentiment? Did they call their HRC Federal Club members?

My suspicion is that they surveyed HRC Federal Club members, who are viruently anti-transgender and by doing so, would guarantee the results they wanted. HRC has already been burned on a previous poll they tried to do in North Carolina a few years ago.

In 2001 Equality NC conducted a survey partially funded by HRC that was conducted by an independent polling company. They asked over 2000 North Carolinians of all persuasions if they would prefer working with gays and lesbians, compared to Transgender people. To HRC's shock and surprise, there was an overwhelming majority voting in favor of working with Transgender people.

So since HRC has a proven history of deceptive and morally bankrupt behavior, and of burying poll results that don't come out the way they want them to, count me among the skeptics as to just how accurate this poll was.

Congratulations*

The Kentucky Psychological Association is meeting at The Galt House in Louisville and yesterday Dawn and I were taking part in a panel discussion on transgender issues.

While I was getting dressed for the 3 PM start of this panel I'd flipped it to C-SPAN to watch the beginning of the ENDA debate before I exited the house. I arrived back at home just in time to see ENDA get voted on.

It's probably a good thing I wasn't home to watch the entire travesty unfold. I probably wouldn't have a television right now.

I have a good idea now how Dred Scott felt 150 years ago when Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote in dismissing his case, "that not only was he not a citizen of any state as a slave, he had no rights a white man is bound to respect."

That's the message that is resonating with me right now. 150 years later another group of white males, Barney Frank, John Aravosis, Chris Crain, Joe Solmonese and others in the GLB community are now telling me and other transgender people that not only do we not have any rights they are bound to respect, they don't care.

That is the symbolic message you sent to me, America and the entire world when you passed a non-inclusive ENDA yesterday in the House. Some of you are hailing that as a historic victory.

Yeah, right. Yippee. I raise a champagne toast to the fact that once again I've been screwed by the GLB community and I'm supposed to be rejoicing over it.

I'm supposed to be happy about the fact that you replaced an inclusive ENDA with 175 cosponsors for a flawed non-inclusive bill, got savagely attacked by Frank on the House floor as 'selfish' when we called you on it, watched the hidden transphobic hatred come bubbling to the surface from some GLB peeps, and watched as HRC came to our signature convention, collected a bunch of T-bills while LYING to the peeps assembled at SCC in Atlanta that they would oppose a non inclusive bill.

What crack pipe are y'all smoking?

From now on I don't EVER want to hear for the rest of my life the lie that your selfish GLB movement is similar to the 60's civil rights movement. You're not even close to having the moral fiber and spirit of inclusiveness my people exhibited in our fight against injustice.

As of 6:23 PM EST on November 7, 2007 you ceded any moral high ground you may have had when you threw transpeople under the bus to get a bill passed that doesn't even cover 'errbody' in your community.

So yeah, party hearty. have a good time. But mark my words, if Dummya even signs this bill into law (assuming it passes the Senate) I'll be sitting there with a smirk on my face, ready to tell you 'I told you so' when your unfriendly neighborhood homobigots start using the missing 'gender identity' or 'perceived gender identity' language to start terminating the 90% of gays and lesbians who aren't covered in Frank's Folly.

If you don't think that language is needed, ask Ann Hopkins or Khadijah Farmer.

My attitude this morning mirrors Miles Thirst, the ten-inch spokesperson for the Sprite ads featuring LeBron James.

"Congratulations on your no-prize winning hollow victory."

ENDA Insanity

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

That was a quote by Benjamin Franklin, one of our Founding Fathers. It seems as though some people in the GLBT community have forgotten that when it comes to transgender inclusion in civil rights laws such as ENDA.

In jurisdiction after jurisdiction from the local to the federal level, GLB people have repeatedly cut transgender people out of civil rights bills only to see them fail. Their transgender-free ENDA bill in 1994 passed the House but failed to pass the Senate.

You would think that if it failed without transgender inclusion, and local and state measures have passed WITH transgender inclusion, that the federal powers that be would at least run an inclusive ENDA at the federal level and see what will happen with it, especially if this is supposed to be a symbolic bill that Bush isn't going to sign anyway.

But nooo, Barney and his Mattachine clones stubbornly plod on, spewing the spin that if we add transgender peeps, the bill will fail. They berate us and call us 'selfish' for doing our jobs and lobbying for legislation that our community desperately needs. They deviously work behind the scenes to browbeat members into not voting for inclusive legislation in order to make their dire predictions come true.

Talk about insanity.

Obviously these peeps don't want their rights badly enough. If the overwhelming evidence is that close to 70% of the US population supports expanding civil rights protection for transgender people and 31 states now have inclusive laws at the state and local level, a GLBT legal organization tells you that adding transgender people improves the bill, and you've failed to pass GLB only protection at the federal level, wouldn't it make sense to add transgender people to your bill and not only improve coverage for your group but enhance its chances of passing?

Barney keeps saying that people on the Hill need 'more education', but when you point blank ask him who are the legislators that need education, he refuses to divulge that list of names. That makes me question whether or not there are members that 'need education on transgender issues'. Maybe there are, but his arrogance, history of transphobia, lack of candor and the duplicitous way he has conducted this push for ENDA passage in the 110th Congress causes me to question his integrity. It's also insane to trust and think that a person who hates your group will write solid legislation that will cover you.

The insanity on the transgender community's part is repeatedly trusting an organization with large segments of it that not only hate transpeople, but has a long history of leading the charge against transgender inclusion in GLBT rights legislation.

Some elements of the transgender community have also acquiesced to HRC's arrogant demand that we have ONE organization and ONE leader for them to negotiate with. That's stupid.

The African-American community for example has multiple organizations that handle our community business such as the NAACP, the Urban League, SCLC, et cetera. Even the gay community has multiple organizations that speak for it such as Lambda legal and the Task Force.

So why should the transgender community meekly submit to a program that even the gay community doesn't follow because a organization that has worked to retard your progress demands it? The other advantage of spreading your community leadership among multiple organizations is that if one becomes corrupted, you have another one ready and able to assume the mantle of leadership and keep your civil rights drive moving forward.

The other insane thing in the transgender community is turning a blind eye to people who sell us out. To my white transgender brothers and sisters, frankly you are newbies at operating in the political world as a minority. You not only needed people of color involved in your organzations from the outset because we have intimate knowledge of the coalition politics necessary to operate in this environment, we're used to it. Transsexuality cuts across all cultural, racial, economic and demographic lines and the leadership in the community needs to reflect that reality.

You can no longer think and act the way you did when you were part of the majority group. You have to have morally principled leaders as the heads of your organizations. Selling out cannot be tolerated or rewarded. If these sellouts prioritize their personal ambitions over advancing the group as a whole and are going to act as facilitators in concert with our oppressors to divide and conquer us and cripple our community, then they need to be isolated and expunged from further political activity on behalf of that group they have betrayed.

Dr. Ron Walters of the University of Maryland once stated that "the task of Black leadership is to provide the vision, resources, tactics, and strategies that facilitate the achievement of the objectives of Black people.

These objectives have been variously described as freedom, integration, equality, liberation, or defined in the terms of specific public policies. It is a role that often requires disturbing the peace. And we constantly carry on a dialogue about the fitness of various leaders and the qualities they bring to the table to fulfill this mission."

Substitute transgender for Black, and you have an analogy for what transgender leadership is striving to achieve in a nutshell. Criticizing people for not living up to those principles is NOT 'horizontal hostility' as some people call it, it is a critical dialogue needed to determine whether someone has the qualities necessary to lead.

It's time for sanity, clear thinking, reason and logic to reign once again for all parties not only in this ENDA debate, but all public policy debates in the United States, period.

Rep. Anthony Weiner's ENDA Floor Speech

TransGriot Note: A few days ago Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) took to the floor of the House to talk about ENDA. Since we don't have a transgender member of Congress (yet) to speak for us and refute the disinformation spewing out of the mouth of Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and others, it was nice to see a congressmember take some time to speak FOR us.

Here's the text of his floor speech.

Rep. Weiner:
"Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, later on this week or perhaps early next week, this House will embark on the latest chapter in our Nation's history of extending the civil rights that all Americans should be entitled to one other group. We will be considering the Employment Nondiscrimination Act. It is an effort to make sure that people are not discriminated against in their workplace because of their sexual orientation, because of their gender identity. It is something that is intuitive to so many Americans, and, frankly, the overwhelming number of Americans. And it is an example of how sometimes we in this House lead on civil rights issues and sometimes we follow.

"In this case, it is a little bit of each. Under ENDA, we will be following to a large degree. Hundreds of companies, including virtually all of the Fortune 50 and Fortune 500 companies, already recognized fundamentally that it is good business to judge people by the quality of their work, their intellect, their drive, by what they bring to the business, not what their sexual orientation or gender identity is.

"Overwhelming numbers of companies, and not just companies that you would describe as being progressive, but companies from all across the political spectrum, financial services groups like American Express and J.P. Morgan and Lehman. You have companies like Clear Channel Communication, Coca-Cola, Nationwide Insurance, Nike, Microsoft. These are all companies that, when they write the contracts for their other workers, it is fundamental to them that there will be no discrimination based on someone's sexual orientation or gender identity.

"For these companies and for the 90 percent or so of American people that responded to a Gallup poll in 2007, employment nondiscrimination based on gender identity and based on sexual orientation is obvious; it is not even an innovation.

"But we are going to be leading in some important ways. There are still about 30 percent of people who respond to polls who are members of the lesbian, bisexual and transgender community who say that they experience discrimination at the workplace regularly. Some of them, 25 percent, say they experience it on a regular basis. Why should that be? Is that an American value? Is it an American value to say we should discriminate on someone based on the sense of who they love or how they express it? Of course not.

"So, for those men and women throughout all 50 States, we will be leading later on this week when we pass the Employment Nondiscrimination Act. But it is very important that we also realize that we are leading on another element to this discussion. There is an active discussion going on in this Chamber and elsewhere whether or not to include gender identity in the same category we include sexual orientation. I say unequivocally the answer is yes. There are people who every day experience discrimination because of their gender identity.

"Susan Stanton spent 14 years as the Largo, Florida city manager; 14 years, obviously doing a good job, rehired, reappointed. Susan was once Steve Stanton. When he started hormone therapy and planned to become a woman, was fired.

"Diane Schroer, 25 years of distinguished service in the Army as David. Recorded 450 parachute jumps, received the Defense Superior Service Medal, hand picked to lead a classified national security operation. Retired and was offered a job with a private homeland security consulting firm. The offer was rescinded when Schroer explained he was transgender and wanted to begin the job as a woman.

"But the question has come up: If we can't include gender identity in this bill, should we do anything at all? Should we take half a loaf.

"My colleagues, I think the answer is no. I think we cannot toss this element of an important civil rights coalition to the side. We have to make sure, particularly in the context of us doing what is largely symbolic, there is no sense that the Senate is going to act on this, and certainly no sense that the President of the United States and this administration is going to. Maybe what we should say is we are in this together.

"If we are going to make a symbolic stand, the symbolic stand should be let's pass a one House bill with only part of the protections. Let's let the symbolic message be that we are sticking together, that when we say `GLBT,' we mean it. And we should do something else. We should also make it very clear to those watching this discussion that we are not going to negotiate against ourselves. We are not going to say if we toss this element or that element off to the side, maybe we will be able to get what we need. There are some things that are immutable, some civil rights that are immutable. This is one of them.

"We are going to stick together and pass an inclusive ENDA, or we are going to come back again and do it right."

I'm The ENDA Bill

sung to the tune of 'I'm Just A Bill' from ABC's Schoolhouse Rock
Music & Original Lyrics by Dave Frishberg
Performed by Jack Sheldon, 1975



You sure gotta climb a lotta steps to get to this Capitol Building here in Washington. But I wonder who that sad little scrap of paper is?


I'm the ENDA bill
Yes I'm the ENDA Bill
And I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill



It's been a long hard road
To the capital city
HRC and some gays have been acting real shitty
But I know I'll be a law someday
Oh how and hope and pray that I will
But today I'm still the ENDA bill

Gee, bill, you certainly have a lot of patience and courage.

Well, I got this far. When I started, I wasn't even a bill - I was just an idea. Some folks back home decided they wanted a law passed, so they called their local congressman and he "You're right, there ought to be a law." Then he sat down and wrote me out and introduced me to Congress, and I became a bill. And I'll remain a bill until they decide to make me a law.


I'm the ENDA bill
Yes I'm the ENDA bill
And I got as far as Capitol Hill
I'm waiting for Congress and Barney Frank
To determine my fate
While gays and trannies
Fight, cuss and debate
Is gender identity in the bill today?
Oh how I hope and pray that it is
But today I'm still the ENDA bill


Listen to those congressmen arguing! Is all that discussion and debate about you?

Yes. I'm one of the lucky ones. Most bills never even get this far. I hope they decide to report on me favorably, otherwise I may die.
Die?
Yeah, die in committee.

Oooh! But it looks like I'm gonna live. Now I go to the House of Representatives and they vote on me.
If they vote "yes", what happens?
Then I go to the Senate and the whole thing starts all over again.
Oh no!
Oh yes!

I'm the ENDA bill
Yes I'm the ENDA bill
And if they vote for me on Capitol Hill
Well then it's off to the White House
Where I'll wait for some time
The fundies will tell Bush
"This ENDA one you don't sign"
No override I won't become a law
Oh how I hope and pray that I will
But today I'm still the ENDA bill

You mean even if the whole Congress says you should be a law, the President can still say no?

Yes, that's called a "veto". If the President vetoes me, I have to go back to Congress, and they vote on me again, and by that time it's...

By that time, it's very unlikely that you'll become a law. It's not easy to become a law, is it?

No, But how I hope and pray that I will
But today I'm still the ENDA bill

T’was the Night Before ENDA

Guest Post by Monica F. Helms
Based on the poem by Clement Clarke Moore

T’was the night before ENDA and all through the House
Not a Congress Critter was stirring, especially The Mouse.
Our prayers all hung on the votes that would appear,
In hopes that the Baldwin Amendment would soon be here.

The trans people were anxious, all snug in there beds,
While visions of employment danced in their heads.
And Air Monica in her ‘kerchief and I in my Navy cap.
None of us were ready for the upcoming slap.

When out of the House there arose such a clatter,
I sprang to my computer to see what was the matter.
Away to the MS Windows I flew like the Flash,
Tore open my Outlook and pulled up my stash.

The light from my screen looked like new-fallen snow
Gave a falsehood of hope from my E-mails below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
The death of ENDA from the Congress’ big queer.

This little old Rep was so vile that it stank,
I knew in a moment it must be Barney Frank.
More rapid than eagles his hate it came,
And he blustered, and shouted, and called us nasty names!

“Now Drag Queens! now, She-males! now, transvestites and such!
It was easy to tell he hated us so much.
The words he used showed contempt and disgust.
That removing us from ENDA to him was a must.

As dry leaves that before the California fires fly,
Frank burned down our hopes of jobs with a lie.
So up to the House his hate of us flew
With a folder of false facts, and Speaker Pelosi too.

And then, in a twinkle, I heard from the House
That Frank was skulking, just like a mouse.
The Baldwin Amendment he said they should pass
But, behind our backs, he was kicking our ass.

Dressed in Armani from his head to his toe,
He was the darling of rich gay men wherever he’d go.
A bundle of promises he had packed in his case,
With a sinister grin splashed across his face.


His eyes how evil! his voice how scary!
And when he was angry, he would explode like Carrie.
He would proclaim his superiority wherever he’d go,
And the hair on his head was as white as the snow.

His face would fume when he would grit his teeth,
And everyone he saw, he would give them grief.
He had a broad face and an overstuffed belly,
That shook when he screamed, like a bowlful of KY Jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right evil old elf,
And I had to laugh, because he’s so full of himself!
A squint of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had everything to dread.

He spoke a bunch of words, and went “straight” to work,
And took trans people out of ENDA, just like a jerk.
And sticking his middle finger up into the air,
He told 300 groups that he really didn’t care.

He sprang to his office, to HRC he gave a whistle,
And the way they all flew like a nuclear missile.
But I heard him scream, “ENDA is all mine!”
“And you ain’t even getting it in Two-Thousand and Nine!”




Monica F. Helms is the founding president of the Transgender American Veterans Association and the creator of the Transgender Pride flag. She was honored with an IFGE Trinity Award in 2003

The Calm Before The Storm

We're 24 hours away from D-Day. The US House will be taking a vote on a bill tomorrow that will either be inclusive or be the first civil rights bill in history in which a wide majority of the people it's intended to help not only don't want it, but will leave out entire sections of the community.

While I can't predict which way the votes will go on the Baldwin Amendment and HR 3685 itself, I can say with certainty that the aftermath will be ugly not only for the GLB community but the transgender one as well.

And the sad thing about this mess is that it didn't have to happen. If Bush isn't going to sign ANY ENDA bill, then why wouldn't Rep. Frank leave HR 2015 alone?

Pehaps he and his like minded Mattachine transphobes feared the same thing I fear now about a non-inclusive ENDA passing. That Bush just to be contrary, will sign it anyway assuming it gets through the Senate.

I hope that some senator will see the wisdom of not leaving the transgender community out if the Baldwin Amendment fails and Frank's Folly passes the House without us in it.

Open Letter To The CBC

Dear Congressional Black Caucus,
When the 110th Congress was gaveled into session back in January it made history on many fronts. The members of the CBC for the first time would not only chair many subcommittees, but important committees such as Ways and Means and Judiciary.

An African-American would serve as the Majority Whip for the first time in a decade. It would even include not only its first representative from Minnesota, but that representative would be a Muslim as well. And the thing I am most proud of is that a CBC member of the Senate is not only running for president, but has a serious shot to win the Democratic party nomination for the job next year as well.

Yes, the CBC has come a long way since its founding in 1971 and it's not called the 'Conscience of the Congress' for nothing.

So as an African-American who happens to be transgender, I would like to appeal to that conscience and humbly ask why some members of the CBC aren't voting to expand civil rights to their fellow African-Americans who happen to be transgender.

I'm not naive to politics. I'm a student of history who is painfully aware of our tortured history in this country and how long it took civil rights for African-Americans to pass.

But I fail to understand why some CBC members are balking at expanding rights to people who desperately need them in the name of 'pragmatic politics'. There are over 300 organizations including the National Black Justice Coalition and the International Federation of Black Prides that support an inclusive ENDA.

I understand that the misguided ministers of the Hi Impact Leadership Coalition and others in Congress are placing tremendous pressure on some of you to vote NO not only on the Baldwin Amendment that would fix the problems in Rep. Barney Frank's HR 3685, but on HR 3685 as well.

But looking at our history, you can well understand why as an African-American transperson I'm imploring you to vote YES on the Baldwin Amendment and include people in this legislation that should have never been cut out of it in the first place.

Over 70% of the people listed on the Remembering our Dead List, which memorializes victims of anti-transgender violence are African-American or other people of color. Many of you were in Washington when Tyra Hunter was denied emergency medical treatment by an African-American EMT and subsequently at DC General that would have saved her life. The hate for transgender people is so palpable that several years ago Willie Houston, an African-American who was helping a man cross a Nashville street was shot and killed because he happened to be holding his wife's purse at the time.

I thank the CBC for standing tall on the hate crimes bill that passed the House May 3 and I and others expressed that sentiment to many of the CBC offices I was able to visit then. But what is more vitally important to transgender people like myself is having job protections.

It does me no good to have hate crimes protection if someone feels that they have a God given 'special right' to mess with my employment, fire me because I transitioned, or deny me or any person gay or straight a job we have the qualifications to do because we don't fit their impressions of how a man or woman is supposed to act, walk, talk or look.

I have already felt the sting of employment discrimination because I'm transgender. I need a roof over my head, food to eat, and clothes on my back. I have to earn money to pay for those necessities of life and that requires a job. Since medical care at the moment is tied up in gainful employment as well, an inclusive ENDA is a life or death issue to us.

The late Barbara Jordan, a fellow Texan, one of my heroes and a distinguished member of the Congressional Black Caucus once stated,

"One thing is clear to me: We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves."

As a transgender American of African descent that's all I and any other transperson is asking for. All we want is an expansion of the 'We, the People' in the Constitution to include us. All we are asking for is an opportunity to be able to use our talents to work and live our lives free of harassment. All we want is an equitable opportunity to do our part to help build our country. Because the Forces of Intolerance are arrayed against us now, we can't wait decades for a separate transgender-only ENDA to pass.

In short, we're asking for nothing more than you would want for yourselves or your children: First-class citizenship.

Whether we get that will be determined in large part by the actions of the Democratic Party and the members of 'the Conscience of the Congress.'

Since the CBC's founding you have never failed to lead on civil rights issues before. Please don't let failing to expand civil rights protection for transgender Americans become the first stain on that impressive and morally principled record.

Sincerely yours,
Monica Roberts
2006 IFGE Trinity Award Winner

Trans-less ENDA Moves To House Vote

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: October 18, 2007 - 12:40 pm ET

(Washington) The revised Employment Non-Discrimination Act which would protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in the workplace, but with references to gender identity removed, is headed to a vote on the House floor following approval Thursday in committee.

The House Education and Labor Committee voted 27 - 21 to mark up the legislation, sending it to a full vote in the House.

A number of Democrats on the committee attempted to reinsert gender identity without success. Several of them refused to vote in favor of marking up the bill as it stands - among them presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich.

GOP attempts to weaken the bill also failed.

Protections for transsexuals were removed by the bill's author, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), after it became apparent there were enough votes to pass ENDA only with gender identity.

The decision, however, has divided the LGBT community.

When the revised bill reaches the floor of the House, Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) will introduce an amendment that would add trans protections.

Baldwin said Wednesday that she has secured an agreement from the Democratic leadership to introduce the amendment.

Frank's decision to strip ENDA of gender identity was seen by some as a "necessary evil" in order to get any LGBT measure passed. But more than 300 community groups - including National Stonewall Democrats - opposed it.

As opposition mounted a number of organizations met last Friday with Speaker Nancy Pelosi who gave assurances that once ENDA becomes law and as soon as there is enough support for amendments adding back in the protections for transsexuals that version would also be presented.

HRC called the the process less than ideal but acceptable. It was rejected outright by the other major LGBT rights groups.

Baldwin's proposal appears to be acceptable, however, to those groups who formed an umbrella organization called United ENDA. Observers say the amendment is unlikely to pass.

Republicans and some Democrats say they will attempt to kill all of ENDA using a manuever to send it back to committee where it would most likely languish and die in the current session.

NBJC Response to ENDA Controversy

From the desk of H. Alexander Robinson, NBJC CEO
October 5, 2007

As an African American organization we are acutely aware of the compromises and incremental steps that were necessary to realize civil rights for African Americans and that the endeavor to assure racial justice for all Americans continues.

As defenders of the proposed two-bill strategy have noted, advocates for the rights of women, people of color and people with disabilities have had to accept incremental progress towards equality.

African Americans were forced to wait for voting rights, we waited for housing rights. But the rights that were extended were extended to everyone, not just African Americans, but all Americans.

At every step in their march toward civil rights African Americans, women and people with disabilities were called upon to examine their goals and decide the risk and benefits of decisions to compromise or take the stand "this far and no further." The LGBT movement is facing that moment today.

A transgender-inclusive ENDA is already a compromise. It extends employment protections, but does not cover housing, or public accommodations, or credit. In 1996 this compromise was suppose to move us quickly to passage of employment protections for gay Americans. Instead a decade later the promise is unfulfilled and the compromise is the high water mark.

As an LGBT organization it is unconscionable to think that we would support cutting transgender protections out of ENDA. Our fate and the fate of transgendered Americans are inextricably entwined. The risk we take if we abandon our friends and families for the illusory promise of incremental progress is too great, the price too high.

Discrimination is wrong and if we hope to garner the respect and support of our allies and our opponents we must act to keep our family whole. United we can see victory—divided we lose our moral authority and take a step back from our principled stand against injustice and discrimination.

Now is not the time to retreat, compromise or capitulate. Now is the time to educate, advocate and make it known justice must be for everyone for without it there can be lasting justice for anyone.


-----------------------------



About the Coalition

The National Black Justice Coalition is a civil rights organization dedicated to empowering Black same-gender-loving, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people. The Coalition works with our communities and our allies for social justice, equality, and an end to racism and homophobia.

The National Black Justice Coalition envisions a world where all people are fully empowered to participate safely, openly, and honestly in family, faith and community, regardless of race, gender-identity or sexual orientation.

The 2002 NTAC CBC Initiative Meeting Notes

TransGriot Notes: Just in case anyone wants to question whether the meeting happened, as the 'okey-doke' crowd in the transgender community tends to do, here's Exhibit A

------------------------------------------------------

These are the notes from a July 2002 meeting which took place in Atlanta with Rep. Cynthia McKinney.

Pay very close attention to the end of these meeting notes
Dawn
-------------------------------------------------------

Present at meeting: Congressman Cynthia McKinney, Sue and Bruce Nelson (PFLAG), Monica Helms, Dana Owings, Dawn Wilson, Monica Roberts, AC.

Meeting began 3PM 7-13-02

MH. Made intros. We are here to discuss T-inclusion in ENDA, or as part of a stand-alone bill

S&BN: We are members of PFLAG's Atlanta Chapter Board, and are representing PFLAG in support of this effort. PFLAG believes that T people deserve employment rights. We are not sure if ENDA is the mechanism that is needed, but we support the concept.

They questioned whether enough education on T matters had been done.

DO: I work for IBM, with a diversity program including GLB but not T as of yet. Protection for T people goes beyond TG people; it includes people who may not present in a traditionally feminine or masculine way. (HIT!)

DJW: People of color make the same stereotypes from pulpits with the
same prejudices

DO: We have a body of well-trained skilled people who have been let go from jobs for transitioning; people have also been let go for simply not presenting as "masculine enough" as men, and women for having short hair, mannish clothing, choosing to not wear makeup, etc. (the case of the New York hairdresser)

McKinney: Of late, the Capitol Hill police have been accused of discriminating against African-American employees for wearing their hair in a natural Afro style? This seems to be similar discrimination.

DO: We are asking for broad protections, mostly aimed at gender presentation, but yes, this should also be protected.

DJW: Discrimination is practiced disproportionately against African-Americans to begin with, and gender identity adds to and feeds the problem. I have faced prejudice since birth, but Caucasians who transition are suddenly slapped in the face with it, and don't know how to deal with it. (reference to www.rememberingourdead.com). On this website, people who are killed because of their gender identity are listed. A disproportionately large number on this list are
people of color and Hispanic.

MH: 235 names on this list, with 11 added in 2002.

McKinney: Were the assailants charged under hate crimes statutes, either state or Federal?

MR: In Texas, where I am from, T people were excluded from hate crimes legislation, and it creates a major loophole that the defense counsel for someone charged with a hate crime could use to win acquittal or a lighter sentence. In particular, that attorney could state that his client assaulted the victim not because of their
sexual orientation, but because of their gender presentation, and the hate crimes law would not apply, even if the victim were simply an effeminate male or mannish female.

DJW: You may be familiar with the case of Tyra Hunter, who died in DC because, following an auto accident, EMTs made fun of her gender status instead of rendering the emergency care they were paid to deliver. This is an example of the prejudice we transpeople of color face.

MH: On the ROD list, only 20% of those killed have had assailants convicted, and only 3 have received life imprisonment or capital punishment.

DJW: Many of the people on the ROD list were street workers; many of them ended up working the streets for money because of employment discrimination. We want to get to the cause of the problem first, not place band-aids on it. HRC does not wish to help us.

DJW: That is why we are asking if you could draft and distribute a `dear Colleague' letter, requesting a chance to educate the members of the CBC on the issues of trans people, particularly transgender people of color. We would also like a chance to do an educational session with the leaders of the NAACP and Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC). I am a professional lobbyist, former Senatorial aide for Senator McConnell, and an account executive by trade. Despite the fact that I hold responsible employment, I am deeply concerned about our young transpeople of color,and unwilling to wait longer for our inclusion.

MH: I also work with street youth, in the Atlanta area, and most of them are on the streets because of discrimination.

DJW: HIV and other STDs are rampant among the street workers. The streets are the only alternative, if someone cannot find work due to discrimination.

McKinney: Homophobia is rampant in the POC community. I am presently supporting Rev. Ken Samuels of the Victory Baptist Church in Atlanta, as he has been openly protested by members of fundamentalist white congregations and vilified by other fundamentalist clergy for his affirming stance on GLBT issues. They did not show up when I attended services at Victory, but I still support him.

DJW: I also belong to, and have been ordained by, an open and affirming denomination, the Disciples of Christ. Rev. Alvin Davis, in Atlanta, should know of Rev. Samuels, and I will contact him and obtain his support.

McKinney: I discovered Rev. Samuels' problem on the Queer Atlanta listserv, which I belong to. Lamont Evans posted to it….

DJW: Oh, he knows my friend Duncan Teague (everyone knew Duncan,including the Congressman). We will arrange some community support for Rev. Samuels.

DO: Some individual churches are open and affirming, and some are not.

McKinney: Has a dialogue been attempted with clergy?

MR: That is why we would like to become involved with SCLC

DJW: Religion is still vital to the African-American community, it is the center of it. Everyone needs something to believe in, and the racist and homophobic statements of Falwell and his friends have given Christianity a bad name in the T community.

DO: We know that our struggle for civil rights parallels that of African-Americans, and to a lesser extent Hispanics and Asians. It is our outward appearance that causes the discrimination.

MH: State Bill HB941 is pending in Georgia's legislature. It covers employment and housing rights, and includes gender in its language. It would not be a surprise if it passes before the Federal ENDA.

DO: 46 cities have protections in place for employment rights, and it is now 10% of the US population. Cities include New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle, New Orleans, Louisville, Houston, Lexington, and San Francisco.

MR: One clarification: Houston's protection only covers city employees.

DJW: Barney Frank's problem with T inclusion remains the bathroom issue, yet these cities have solved that, proving that it can be done.

McKinney: So, why is gaining GLB support for T rights so difficult?

DO: They need more education on T issues, they have some common ground, but sexual orientation is not an appearance issue, like T is.

MH: Dana and I recently attended an HRC town hall here in Atlanta, and much of the discussion focused on T inclusion in ENDA. I was asked to join the panel. We have worked to educate HRC's members at dinners and town halls across the country.

DJW: We work to educate college faculty and students, and have been involved with conferences for young people, who in turn change the minds of the older folks in the movement.

McKinney: Did HRC's nonsupport of T inclusion in ENDA predate Elizabeth Birch?

DJW. No, it did not, it dated to 1995. Birch clearly is hired help,hired to deliver a message from HRC's board, although one she probably agrees with.

DO: There is talk that some HRC board members do support us, but we have no way to know which ones do not, and they are not willing to tell us who.

McKinney: Have you considered having a rich T person buy their way onto HRC's board?

DJW. Unemployment is the problem in our community, and few have the funds to do this. Why should we have to buy our civil rights?

MH: One weapon we have against HRC is a survey they funded in NC, that shows that a majority of the GLB community there sees a greater need for rights for T people than for rights for GLB people.

DO: Many Fortune 500 companies support rights for GLB people, and a growing number also add T to that.

McKinney: How much money would it take to get on HRC's board?

DJW: It takes about $50K in donations raised. Most T people are using their funds for the costs of transition, and don't have access to this type of money. That is why we wish to bypass HRC.

McKinney: Who are the main 501c3 orgs who are doing T advocacy in Georgia, Atlanta, and DeKalb County?

MH: There isn't one yet. Georgia Equality is T-inclusive. Trans-Action isn't incorporated.

McKinney: I want to find a 501c3 that we can help obtain funding to work with T youth.

DJW: It would be nice to be able to set up a training so that people in the T community could learn how to obtain grants. In particular, I would see a grant program set up for T students.

DO: Many T activists regularly do presentations before college groups.

McKinney: Gender Inc. doesn't have 501c3 status, do they?

MH: Would a national 501c3 be adequate for the purpose?

McKinney: Yes.

MH. NTAC has 501c4, rather than c3, status.

McKinney: We regularly help 501c3 organizations get started with grants by sponsoring workshops. Rhonda, in my office (intro's Rhonda), is my staff expert on nonprofit organizations, and she regularly helps groups apply for and obtain grants.

Here's what I will do for you: I will try to get a meeting set up for you with Marty King (Martin Luther King III) at the SCLC – I don't think that will be difficult. I will also try to set up a meeting with NAACP's staff – it is difficult to meet with Kweisi Mfume. I also am formally inviting you to Washington for CBC weekend September 11, and I will see that you get to address the CBC at once.

TAVA Press Release on ENDA

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act
From: Monica F. Helms, President and Co-Founder
president@tavausa.org
Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA)
www.tavausa.org
October 13, 2007

There has never been a moment in the five-year history of this organization where we had to step forward and put our very existence on the line. The events of the last three weeks have changed all of that.

As a 501 (c)3 organization that specifically focuses on veterans’ issues, we are not allowed to be “political.” Some people may say that supporting a fully-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act and opposing any bill that excludes transgender people maybe consider “political.” The Board of TAVA disagrees. We see this as a matter of survival for the transgender community and TAVA will do what we can to fight for that survival.

History has shown us that since this country has begun, transgender people have fought in every war this country had. Some crossed gender lines so they could fight for this country, and others cross gender lines after they fought in various wars. No matter what, they were proud of their service our nation.

“Honor, duty and country.” Everyone who has served America proudly understands these words all too well. However, we are now witnessing people who have no honor, show only the duty to serve themselves and envision a country where their needs are met over everyone else’s. As veterans, this saddens us greatly.

There are estimated to be three million Americans who happen to be transgender people, with 300,000 of them being veterans. Many of them are without jobs and are living on welfare. Some, who retired from the military are surviving on their retirement check that comes once a month, but that hardly pays for much in this day and age.

The Transgender American Veterans Association implores all who read this that on Monday, October 15 to start calling the Democratic Party members of the House Education and Labor Committee. You can find them at: http://edlabor.house.gov/about/members.shtml. Ask them to send only a fully-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (HR-2015) to the House floor for a vote in Thursday instead of the flawed version, HR-3685 (Frank's Folly). That version will not only leave out Transgender Americans, but many others who do not confirm to society’s gender norms, regardless of their sexual orientation.

We especially would like to see all veterans, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, contact the House Education and Labor Committee to help save those veterans who may have saved your life in the heat of combat. We put our lives on the line to give time to this country. Now, we ask you to put time on the line to save our lives. TAVA thanks you.


***

Founded in 2003, the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) is a 501 (c) 3 organization that acts proactively with other concerned civil rights and human rights organizations to ensure that transgender veterans will receive appropriate care for their medical conditions in accordance with the Veterans Health Administration’s Customer Service Standards promise to “treat you with courtesy and dignity . . . as the first class citizen that you are.”

Further, TAVA will help in educating the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) on issues regarding fair and equal treatment of transgender individuals. Also, TAVA will help the general transgender community when deemed appropriate and within the IRS guidelines.

Your GLB Movement Is NOT Like Mine

As much as I despise Bishop Harry Jackson and his like minded band of homobigots in the Hi Impact Leadership Coalition, it pains me to say it, but I now agree with them on one argument that they've been making over the last few years.

Your GLB movement is NOT like mine.



I know the late Coretta Scott King said otherwise a few years before her death, but the reprehensible actions of Rep. Barney Frank and HRC have stripped whatever tenuous claims to the moral high ground the GLB movement once had.

So from now on I don't wanna hear or see ANY GLB leader try to claim that 'they' are the heirs of the 60's Civil Rights movement.

The GLB movement has taken off its cloak and revealed its true nature. It is a movement for straight-acting white gay men and women only and screw 'errbody' else.

Yeah, they want rights. They want rights for themselves only. And just like some of their misguided straight white male and female brethren some GLB people want the 'special right' to discriminate against someone to make themselves feel superior.

If you really were an inclusive, morally upright movement, you would have never thrown transgender people out of it or treated us like unwanted stepchildren.

The 60's civil rights movement wasn't an 'incremental movement', so you can drop that spin line right now. Even if they had to take 'half a loaf' as they did with the 1957 Civil Rights Act (which by the way was just as controversial back in the day as the current furor over Frank's Folly), they made sure that no one was left out and that whatever compromises were made put them in a better position to get what we African-Americans needed the next time.

This is the first civil rights movement in history that has not only cut people out, but doesn't even want to pass legislation that will help all of the people in their OWN group.

So a memo to you GLB peeps who agree with Barney. Until you've waited 246 years to get your rights, start working to craft and pass legislation that considers other people worse off than you and make them an equal partner in writing that legislation, please refrain from comparing your selfish civil rights push to mine.

Barney Come Clean

Today is National Coming Out Day. In the spirit of that and in the midst of this ongoing family feud over ENDA, we've had some folks in the GLB community have a coming out of sorts as well.

The transbigots.

Their poster child just happens to be the guy who is quarterbacking ENDA throughout the House, Rep. Barney Frank.

The transbigots, like their kissin' cousins in hate groups and the Religious Reich use their power, White Male Privilege and media bully pulpits to thwart the progress of a minority group for their own selfish gain.

It should be clear at this point who the leading transbigots are in this community. John Aravosis and Chris Crain along with Barney head the list. There are other transbigots that operate on a national, state and local level who see it as their mission to make the GLB community rainbow pure and transgender free.


But as I know from my African-American history, nothing is more dangerous to civil rights than having bigots in charge of writing and enacting civil rights law.

So Barney, come clean and stop prevaricating. You hate transgender people and have since your days in the Massachusetts Legislature. You're not a friend to our community.

Can you handle that truth?

A friend of our community would fight just as hard or harder to include us in legislation that we need, instead of engaging in Orwellian doublespeak and blaming the transgender community for the failure of your 'with all deliberate speed' approach to including transgender peeps inro federal law.

If you were the transgender community's best friend, you'd be honest with the GLB community and tell them, like Lambda Legal did that transgender inclusion in ENDA is necessary for this bill to cover 'errbody' in this community.


Khadijah Farmer's suit is Exhibit A to the fact that discrimination based on 'gender identity' happens not only to transgender peeps, but gay, lesbian and straight people as well.

If you were the champion for transgender people you claim you are, then you need to stop telling the lie that we haven't done the education on the Hill. We been educating folks on the Hill since 1994. I've personally taken part in lobbying efforts in 1998, 1999 and 2007 and helped plan NTAC's 2001 lobbying effort.

Maybe that education isn't getting through because of the HRCites that inhabit many of the congressional staff positions on the Hill in liberal-progressive offices. It wouldn't shock me if these aides are conveniently failing to pass on the information from transgender people that visit their offices or shield you congressmembers from it.

There are reams of information on the Internet and elsewhere about the violence, the unemployment/underemployment we face, and the general lack of respect for our civil rights that transpeople face. If you claim there are legislators who need 'more educating', who are they?

You're not going to tell us that because you know that 24 hours after you utter their names, they'll be flooded with calls from the transgender community and our allies.

Barney, you don't want that education to happen because you and the Mattachine clones in the GLB community DON'T want a transgender inclusive ENDA to pass. You have been duplicitous and underhanded not just during this entire sorry affair, but the entire time you've led the effort to pass ENDA.

So why should we transgender people trust you, much less believe anything you say now? You have let your personal hatred of transgender people get in the way of doing what's morally right and just. Having you as the lead legislator for the efforts to pass ENDA is the equivalent of asking the KKK Grand Wizard to pass federal legislation that would benefit African-Americans.

He'd do to African-Americans exactly what you're doing, Rep. Frank. Cut us out of the bill, then come up with some tortured logic and spin to try to justify it.

Oh snap, that was the modus operandi for the Dixiecrats.

It's past time for somebody that doesn't have a personal hatred for transpeople to become the lead legislator for getting ENDA passed.

Help A Sistah Out

TransGriot readers,
I have some of my peeps that need some 'ejumacation' and some calls as well. Help some the members of the 'Conscience of the Congress' get a clear idea that this is a civil rights issue, not a religious one as the Hi Impact Leadership 'ministers' are falsely trying to paint this.

This is a list of Congressional Black Caucus offices that voted for the hate crimes bill, but are not cosponsors of HR 2015, the inclusive ENDA.

Thankfully there are NO CBC cosponsors of Frank's Folly, HR 3685. We need to call
these peeps now. Word is that both ENDAs are rolling late this week and will probably be voted on October 15.


Tell them to vote YES on HR 2015, and NO on Frank's Folly, HR 3685

Congressional Black Caucus
2264 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
Telephone: 202-226-9776
Fax: 202-225-5730
congressionalblackcaucus@mail.house.gov

They claim that normal mail takes 4 weeks to process, due to security.
So that means call 'em early and often. Faxes will work as well.

Rep. Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (GA)
2429 Rayburn
(202) 225-3631

Rep. Corrine Brown (FL)
2336 Rayburn
(202) 225-0123

Rep. G.K. Butterfield (NC)
413 Cannon
(202) 225-3101

Rep. James E. Clyburn (SC) The House Majority Whip
2135 Rayburn
(202) 225-3315

Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (MI)
2426 Rayburn
(202) 225-5126

Rep. Artur Davis (AL)
208 Cannon
(202) 225-2665

Rep. Al Green (TX)
425 Cannon
(202) 225-7508

Rep. David Scott (GA)
417 Cannon
(202) 225-2939

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (MS)
2432 Rayburn
(202) 225-5876

Rep. Bobby L. Rush (IL)
2416 Rayburn
(202) 225-4372

A View To A Protest

Got back a few hours ago from my business ttip to Washington DC protesting the HRC national dinner.

These are Vanessa Edwards Foster's observations of the HRC protest.

I've been an activist for a long time, but believe it or not that was my first protest.



I left The Ville with AC at 6 AM and literally got dropped off on the steps of the convention center at 4 PM wih signs in hand while AC parked the car. We spent the next three and a half hours engaging HRC dinner attendees, various citizens, and attendees of other conventions talking place the same day at the convention center.

I spent most of the protest laying out the history to young transgender people, curious convention center employees, passerbys and explaining why we were there. I pointed out that the battle over HR 2015 is not just a transgender issue. I gave numerous examples of why it was important to have 'gender identity' in ENDA.

Without 'gender identity' in ENDA, it's a worthless piece of paper. Lambda Legal has said as much. Frank's Folly (HR 3685) not only doesn't cover us, it won't cover 90% of the GLB population or straight people. We all know women who have masculine body builds and upper lips they have to ruthlessly wax and shave and uncles who are slight of build and femme looking.

I also threw an occasional sarcastic comment or two into the chant mix.

I had a wonderful conversation with James, a gay man who exemplifies HRC's dilemma. Basically the young GLB people have interacted with transgender people their whole lives. The problem is the Mattachine gays who run HRC right now disproportionately come from my generation and hate transpeople.

I enjoyed the conversations I had with straight folks as well. Some absolutely get it. It's too bad that some of the peeps inside the Washington Convention Center that night and a purple congressman from Massachusetts don't.