The Houston HRC Protest

TransGriot Note: Aww is big, bad HRC 'scurred' of the ittle bitty transgender protest of their dinner? Yes. This is Phyllis Frye's 'Phyllabuster' report about yesterday's protest.


Phyllabuster: HRC goes petty: directs security to escort educators out

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) just got more petty and immature in responding to protests of its actions last fall that clearly divided a once united GLBT community.

As we arrived at the site for the Houston protest of the HRC fundraiser this Saturday, April 12th afternoon (reposts below for those new to this saga), we were told by hotel security that HRC had changed its mind about our attempts to educate.

We would be allowed to enter (without signs or banners, which we had never planned to bring inside). If we went directly to the event located on the second floor, we could hand out our lapel stickers that read, "GLBT & ENDA: United, Not Divided: I Support FULL Transgender Inclusion." And we could engage in conversation and educate those people who wanted to listen and learn.

So we walked around, outside the hotel for over an hour, carrying signs and visiting with each other. It was very festive.

The Houston Police gave us NO trouble. There were two very minor incidents where officers got a bit testy, but when I called their OIC, those officers were told they were wrong and to stop being testy with us. The rest of the force were very polite to us.

We joked amongst ourselves that we hardly warranted the riot barricades or the eight, horse-mounted officers or the other preparations and personnel. But the police felt it was better to be prepared than not.

The hotel had a guard at each door and along several parts of the sidewalk. They had placed traffic cones everywhere.

It was surreal -- all that effort for just little ole, inoffensive us.

After we had watched a lot of folks enter for the HRC event and it approached the planned 6 PM beginning, three of us entered the hotel, prepared to chat and educate for the hour before the 7 PM dinner, using our stack of 3 x 2 lapel stickers to initiate conversation.

We were met at the top of the escalator by an HRC official wearing a cream colored business skirt and coat. I asked if this was the HRC event area, and she said yes. So I offered someone a lapel sticker. I was immediately corrected, "No, not here, but here (she was indicating a place 18 inches away on the other side of a rope). Hotel security was poised nearby.

So we walked along the rope to an opening and around to the other side of the rope. I then offered another lapel sticker. An HRC man with a pink tie, a pink vest and dyed blonde hair (clearly who would be discriminated against on the basis of "gender expression") said, "No, not hear, but here (pointing us back to the initial place that we had just left).

I pulled out my cell phone. Immediately, the HRC guy told the hotel security to escort us out of the hotel. An event photographer took a photo as the hotel security closed and asked us to leave. There was no hustle. The security was polite. But we had to leave at HRC's direction and insistence!

So we did our gig outside until 7 PM. The weather was beautiful. During this part of our gig when we had planned to be inside educating, some friends drove up and lowering their window, asked how it was going. I told them about being escorted out at the direction of HRC when I began to offer lapel stickers. Our friends took a stack of lapel stickers and said, "They won't ask us to leave!"

As our group was packed up and leaving, I got a phone call that HRC had finally agreed to allow us to come in now -- after 7 PM, when all the cocktail chatty and education time was finished and folks would be sitting down to eat and hear a program. Or we could come back at 10 PM to offer folks our stickers as they left the event.

After being jerked around by HRC for the past hour, we were not about to submit ourselves to another trick or lie. We left to refresh and reflect at the nearby eatery.

NOTE: Protests against HRC are being planned for New Orleans and Phoenix. I will send info when I get it

HRC Calls Police To Stop Dinner Protest

As I noted in a TransGriot blog post, it's my Houston homeboys' and homegirls' turn to protest an HRC dinner.

The HRC Dinner is being held at the convention center hotel across the street from the George R. Brown Convention Center on April 12. The protest is being coordinated by the distinguished stateswoman of the Houston transgender community Phyllis Frye and veteran leaders Vanessa Edwards Foster and Josephine Tittsworth.

But it seems as though HRC has a problem with the Houston transgender community exercising their First Amendment rights. The National HRC office called the Houston Police Department in an attempt to shut down the protest.

Phyllis just concluded a meeting with the HPD, and this is a just released statement courtesy of Phyllis' Phyllabuster e-mail newsletter:

It seems that in response to my national Phyllabuster about our protest, ...... GET THIS ...... the National HRC called the Houston Police.

HPD and I had a very nice meeting. I do not foresee any problems. HPD was so courteous that I was given a "Demonstration Guide" that they published in 2003 to assist citizens in expressing their 1st Amendment rights will not violating any laws. I told HPD that I would scan it and attach to my list. It is attached herein as good general information.

During the chat with HPD, I was also informed that HRC has also instructed the hotel security to ask us to leave if we attempt to pass out any written information or ask folks to wear our stickers.

I always thought that HRC was big on education and discussion.

Well, we will be there (read reposting below).
and we will be peaceful,
and we will be within the law,
and we will be protected by HPD,
and we will attempt to hand out our lapel stickers.

Yeah, the Homosexual Rights Corporation is a friend of the transgender community. If you still believe that fairy tale, I have some waterfront property along I-10 in the Atchafalaya Swamp between Breaux Bridge and Baton Rouge I'd like to sell you.

The series of HRC dinner protests initiated by the transgender community not long after our ENDA betrayal in October 2007 has been conservatively estimated to have cost HRC $1 million dollars in lost donation revenue.

So I understand why they wanted to sic HPD on the trannies. That rent is expensive on that headquarters building in DC, isn't it?

So if you're in or are reasonably close to the Houston area and want to make your voice heard, the H-town transgender community would love to have you there. The fun will start at around 4:30 CDT. Just head to the corner of Polk Street and Avenida de las Americas. You'll see Phyllis', Vanessa's and Josephine's smiling faces there.

Give 'em hell H-town!

Crossposted from The Bilerico Project

Joe Lied, Our ENDA Inclusion Died

The Homosexual Rights Corporation (they don't deserve to be called 'Human') continues trying to get itself back in the good graces of the transgender community. But this YouTube video is a major reason why they're having a hard time in addition to the transgender community being fed up with the decade's worth of hostile duplicity, their passive/aggressive resistance to adding us to ENDA and their morally bankrupt bull.

Now they are trying to spin this video as Joe 'missspeaking'. That's what y'all might call it inside I-495, but outside the beltway we call it lying.

And it's all about WHERE you made that speech. You made that speech in Atlanta, not Washington. In the Deep South, when you say something, your word is your bond.

The best part about it is that it's on video for all to see.



Deal with this reality, Joe and HRC. You lied, and the $20,000 of our community's money the Homosexual Rights Corporation collected while making that speech at the Southern Comfort Conference will make it impossible to forget.

I'm Pissed Off

TransGriot Note: This is one I posted on Bilerico this morning that I need to share with you loyal TransGriot readers as well.

I'm not a happy camper this morning. A little after midnight EST I received a long distance phone call from a dear friend, who proceeded to shock me by revealing how despondent she was over some accumulated negativity in her life.

Then after getting approximately two hours of sleep and praying for a successful resolution to her problems, I check my e-mail this morning and get confirmation that Gabrielle Pickett was killed in June 2003.

This is on top of the reports I'm getting about the New York HRC dinner protest that Joe Solmonese is alleged to have admitted during his speech that they planned to cut transgender people out of ENDA all along.

So this morning I'm in a foul mood, and I have to get over it.

But that's gonna be tough. This accumulation of events over the last few hours has restoked my dormant anger at being cut out of ENDA. I have been increasingly hearing more and more distressing reports of transgender people who have lost hope thanks to Barney's and Joe's ENDA BS. Some are taking their lives or contemplating it as a result of their despondency over this situation.

We have had an explosion of jurisdictions since September 2007 either cutting us out of proposed policy changes such as the Jefferson County Public School Board's gay-only expansion of JCPS anti-discrimination policy here in Da Ville, or attempting to cut us out of legislation like the opposition tried to do in Scottsdale, AZ, Montgomery County MD, and Fort Lauderdale. They attempted to use the negative precedent that Barney Frank set as an excuse to deny transgender people our constitutional rights.

Fortunately for us those attempts failed and those protections passed in all three locales (unanimously in the case of Montgomery County, MD). The Fairness Campaign wasn't able to reverse what happened in Jefferson County, KY despite having an inclusive law on the books for almost a decade, and the policy squeaked by on a 4-3 vote without us. Two JCPS board members reluctantly voted for it, and were not happy that transgender people weren't included.

I'm even more upset that the Forces of Intolerance in the Montgomery County, MD battle are using the Barney Frank crafted 'showers argument' as cover for their bigotry. These so called 'christians' have lied, cheated and obsfucated their way into collecting enough signatures in their attempt to force an election to overturn the new law and deny their fellow transgender citizens civil rights coverage.

Barney Frank has the nerve to get indignant when he gets rightfully called out by Matt Foreman and others for being the Grinch Who Stole Civil Rights. Joe Solmonese is getting huffy along with his alleged civil rights organization because they are justifiably taking heat for their decade long morally bankrupt position opposing transgender inclusion in ENDA.

And while these two (and other anti-transgender gay exclusionists) gloat over their no prize winning hollow ENDA victory and try to justify their actions with the bogus 'incremental progress' lie, my people die.

They are dying either by their own hand or at the hands of the haters out there who took your actions as a signal that it's open season on transgender people. I shudder to think about how many names we'll be memorializing during this year's Transgender Day Of Remembrance events this November. One thing I can say with certainty is that a disproportionate number of those names we read later this year will be African-American and Latina.

The way I and some transgender people see it, every transgender person since September 2007 who violently dies or loses a shot at gainful employment because of your reprehensible actions, their blood is on your hands.

I hope that Joe, Barney and everyone who donates money to HRC can live with that.

Unfortunate Comments, Unfortunate Volleys and Unfortunate Silence

TransGriot Note:This guest column is from Vanessa Edwards Foster's Trans Political blog

“Words in papers, words in books,
Words on TV, words for crooks …
Eat your words but don’t go hungry.
Words have always nearly hung me.” — Wordy Rappinghood, Tom Tom Club

"I'd rather be hated for what I am than loved for what I'm not." — rapper Bushwick Bill of the Geto Boys

For the record, I was one of the folks Meredith Bacon wrote to regarding National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) ever working with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) again. It’s apparently making the rounds of the GLBT community and inspiring a bit of controversy due to some of the comments contained within.

Additionally I personally believe Meredith when she states her feelings about the organization she co-chairs and her feelings on working with HRC. Meredith has shown herself to be very true-blue, devoted to the transgender community, its advancement and the attainment of civil rights for all (including the trans community.) There’s no question on that point.

That said, her comments seemed contrary to NCTE’s historical position on HRC and Barney Frank. They also seemed at odds with a more tempered and at times unclear, and seemingly noncommittal position by at least one of their other board members and mostly keenly, their Executive Director/Founder. I didn’t disbelieve Meredith as much as I was skeptical of it being shared by NCTE.

I decided to cut to the chase and ask the founder, Mara Keisling, directly. As it turns out, the Email address I sent to must be only for outgoing mail and she reportedly did not receive it. (I haven’t received communication other than press blurbs from her since 2003, I had no other NCTE Email addresses from her in my Email address book.)

However, Mara was asked of this Email independently via a question from a radio interview with Becky Juro on Dec. 27. After hearing the comment, Keisling said it “would be inappropriate for [her] to comment at this time.”

“Words are like a certain person who
Can’t say what they mean,
Don’t mean what they say.” — Wordy Rappinghood, Tom Tom Club

Ironically, publications such as Chris Crain’s Windows Media Groups (home to the Washington Blade) have now picked up on Meredith’s comments, both in news reports and their editor’s blog. It was a broad shot across the bow by the Blade as NCTE is the only group in Washington they have enjoyed good working relations with.

Rather than anyone addressing whether NCTE will work with HRC in the future, the Blade chose to zero in on the demands for resignation from HRC’s board and leadership and a sentence from Meredith’s post that observed HRC being controlled and dependent upon “white, rich, professional gay men.” They’re using this as a cudgel to beat home their point that NCTE needed to demand retraction and repudiation – or remove Bacon from office.

Admittedly, Meredith’s wording is emotional and imprudent coming from a board chair. Even we in NTAC never even ventured such raw sentiment. Just a comment from one NTAC board member verbally requesting (as an individual) the resignation from then Exec. Dir. Elizabeth Birch was roundly used to dismiss and discredit the entire group. (Ironically it was NCTE making hay of that comment circa 2002, even absent any official imprimatur).

Personally, one thing I’ve felt strongly about, and that NTAC officially chose to do, is to stay out of any consideration of whom groups such as NGLTF, HRC, et. al. choose as leaders. It’s their community, their organizations, they need free reign to choose their leaders without our meddling or pressure – whomever that may be. Even in my case, when I was asked for my opinion on it (tempting as it was, being HRC) I refrained.

Similarly, asking for resignations is pointless. You never know who they’ll choose next (it could be worse!), and only serves to make the targeted group resentful. Blast the choices these leaders make that negatively impact us – that’s fair game. But leave their community to have their own leadership for their groups. It hasn’t gone unnoticed though how HRC and others in the gay and lesbian community don’t return that favor.

Certainly what Meredith publicly opined on behalf of NCTE would’ve never been tolerated in any official capacity from NTAC. We’d have been publicly pilloried and vilified – even by our own community.

“Words can put you on the run ….”— Wordy Rappinghood, Tom Tom Club

Meanwhile the comments the Washington Blade chose to zero in on (rich, gay white men), was a typically Crain-like attempt at creating tabloidesque controversy, and with the only trans organization they like, no less! Regarding the comment though, other than adding the words “and women” at the end of that statement, I’d like to ask Kevin Naff where he’s seen anything contrary to that resemblance in the organizational leadership or staffing hierarchy by these national groups or the agenda direction chosen by HRC?

How often do you see people of color represented in those “high-profile” positions? How often are there folks of less-than-moneyed means, the working class or the impoverished? How about anyone from any of the other alphabets in the amalgamated acronym affixed to every group’s mission (but seldom seen beyond the lettering)? When hired, are these segments there in representative numbers, or simply there as an individual whose sole function is plausible deniability when the calls come in about lack of voice or inclusion?

You may take umbrage at the statement’s blunt wording, but the point she uncomfortably breached about who controls isn’t inaccurate. It’s just not mentioned in “polite company.” When you look around the GLBT community, and most especially the GLBT movement you see raw, unbridled classism.

When you look back at the African American Civil Rights movement, you saw nowhere near the level of it. And yet looking at the GLBT movement in its history and especially more recently, it’s a classist movement rivaling the Republican Revolution a la Gingrich and the Marie Antoinette era in France.

Why is it that this movement starts off and gains traction with a Sylvia Rivera or Bob Kohler or Ray Hill or Marsha P. Johnson, and ends up with well-paid heroes taking the bows on stage and screen such as a Harry Hay, an Elizabeth Birch, a Matt Foreman or a Joe Solmonese? Why, you simply kick those in between – Jessica Xavier, Kerry Lobel, Sarah DePalma, Yoseñio Lewis or Dawn Wilson – to the curb, marginalize them as radical loose cannons and just take it and run with it. Who’s going to remember, right?

Moreover, why is it those in the most need are the least heard and the last considered?

You may adopt the mantle of victimization over Meredith Bacon’s not-so-choice wording, Messrs. Naff and Crain. Privilege aside, you were victims. Happy?

However you will also do so in full defense of trying to silence the subject and perpetuating what Bacon was pointing out: a movement that’s indeed ruled by and fully in control of the elite. The comments weren’t decorous, and expecting resignations is unrealistic (from either side), but Bacon was more gutsy than inaccurate in breaching the subject. Lord knows the Washington Blade would never address the subject of their volition.

In the meantime, we still have no idea whether NCTE does or does not intend to work with HRC in the foreseeable future. It’s a point the Blade skillfully chose to overlook, especially in light of the recent ENDA affair. From NCTE there has been nothing but silence on their relations with HRC or on Bacon’s comments. Even after the Blade contacted her on the comments, Exec. Dir. Mara Keisling has continued to refuse comment. The silence is deafening, and one can only surmise from the outside what’s taking place within the walls of NCTE. Only “one source familiar with” NCTE, in the Lou Chibbaro column in the Blade, said that Bacon “was only speaking for herself.”

On a different subject, another “source familiar with” NCTE also relayed that Rep. Barney Frank in anger was reported to have called Mara Keisling “a stupid ass” and added that all the organizations rallying with her on the United ENDA Coalition were “stupid asses” as well during their rush to coalesce and isolate HRC and Frank on their ENDA stunt. Again, not-so-choice wording said in extreme emotion.

Does anyone reading this believe that Kevin Naff, Chris Crain and the Washington Blade will be publicly calling for repudiation of Rep. Frank’s comments, or requesting a resignation? How about any other individual or organization? Yep, I wouldn’t bet the ranch on that one.

It’s just so much easier to thrash NCTE co-chair Bacon’s indiscretion, and simply sidestep any lack of decorum from Barney Frank.

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

“What is courage? … The courage to speak our mind and not stay silent, simply because we are afraid that other people might not agree with us. Of course, there will be conflicting views. And of course, conflict is unpleasant. But not speaking your mind can lead to much worse unpleasantness.” — from the website, www.indianchild.com

Why Didn't You Tell Us?

I have a confession and an apology to make to the transgender community.

I'm one of the people that was alerted to the fact that ENDA was in trouble back in May and there was a problem with us being included in it.

I've gotten a lot of questions in the post-mortem over this latest ENDA disaster about why those of us who discovered what was about to go down didn't do more to get the word out to the community and possibly avert what happened.

What for?

This community believed every negative word ever uttered about me, AC, Dawn Wilson, Vanessa Edwards Foster and anyone either associated with NTAC or who didn't buy into the 'HRC is our friends' mantra.

So my thoughts were at the time, why burn up my money, gas and valuable vacation time sticking my neck out there for peeps that didn't appreciate it?

Why set myself up to get criticized by a community that only a few months ago was loudly calling for NTAC to disband and join forces with the all-knowing, all-powerful insiders of the greatest civil rights organization since the African-American civil rights movement?

You believed the hypnotic 'HRC is our friends' PR spin and we were the salmon swimming upstream against the prevailing tide of transgender public opinion. You failed to ask the skeptically critical questions when the news coming from inside the beltway was "We're included, it's a slam dunk."

That slam dunk attempt got slapped into the cheap seats by Barney Frank.

The transgender community has an annoyingly bad habit in its internal discourse of discounting, shouting down or dismissing any voice that isn't white or has a penchant for saying what it doesn't want to hear.

That tendency bit them in the butt this time. The transgender community also has a major race problem that was exploited by our opponents on BOTH sides of this issue.

So when I (and others) were confronted with a situation in which I was being called 'crazy' and an 'uppity n-word' by a certain person being hailed by the community as the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful, greatest civil rights leader since MLK, who they believed with all their hearts would lead us transgender people out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land of civil rights equality and can do no wrong, then what was the point of sounding the warning if they believed that feces?

It would have gotten the same reaction from the transgender community that AC, Dawn and I got from Babs Casbar in the Longworth Building cafeteria when we told her during the NTAC Lobby day what we'd discovered. When she asked where we'd gotten our info and we told her, her reaction was, "What do they know?"

Okay, this person is active in the Stonewall Democrats, and she didn't know who the Congressional Black Caucus was or the level of power this organization had acquired since the Democratic takeover of Congress?

Babs did send me an e-mail after everything blew up that we were right, but being right and having the ability to say 'I told you so' doesn't make me feel any better about this disgusting mess. Obviously the CBC reps knew more and were willing to share with fellow African-Americans what your vaunted 'insider' legislators wouldn't tell you.

So much for the image of NCTE being the 'insiders'

Even if we did tell y'all, all you peeps who drank the 'HRC Is Our Friends' Kool-Aid would have done is shrugged your collective shoulders, did a 'There they go again' Reagan imitation and blew it off because that info came from 'those crazy NTAC people.'

But it's not like I and others didn't try to sound the alarm. I wrote about the possibility of us being screwed in my TransGriot print column in THE LETTER that was published in July 2007. I posted it on my blog as well.

And here's the paragraph in which I sounded the warning:

But one thing I repeatedly heard in several offices I visited during the recent National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) Lobby Days May 15-17 disturbed me. Several staffers informed me that Senator Kennedy’s bill DOESN’T mirror HR 1592 by including the words ‘gender identity’ and the definition for it as set forth in Section 3.6 of the House bill. I hope by the time that this column is read that it turned out to be just a rumor and the bill does mirror the one that passed the House May 3.
But what if that information IS true?

There are some gay and lesbian people that would be ecstatic if that happened. Some of them have expressed the attitude that the term doesn’t belong in ‘their’ ENDA bill. That’s a fundamentally short sighted, selfish and myopic viewpoint.

That's what I wrote in July 2007. As a matter of fact, Dawn, AC and I along with other NTACers were disturbed enough to consider putting together a team of lobbyists to storm the Hill unannounced before the August recess. But since NCTE was on the Hill and the community conventional wisdom was arrayed against NTAC, against our better political instincts we punted the ball and let NCTE run (and screw up) the show.

In hindsight, we should have followed our instincts, ran our clandestine lobby day, reported our findings after it was done and said to you NTAC critics who would have bitched about what we'd done 'screw y'all, we're trying to get this ENDA bill passed.'

Others may not be forthcoming about their mistakes, but I will own up to mine.

I apologize to the community for not doing enough to FORCEFULLY get the word out there. That won't happen again.

But even if I or others come up with the info and put it out there, whether you like it or not, you are minorities now. It is critical to your survival and it's your responsibility as American citizens and voters to acquire info, use your God-given critical thinking and reasoning skills to filter it our and act (or not act) on it.

The Final Five Sellouts

This ENDA mess is reminding me more and more of Battlestar Galactica.



Mara Keisling reminds me of Gaius Baltar, who was seduced by Number Six only to discover to his horror within moments of the devastating Cylon nuclear attack on the Colonies that she was a Cylon. He also discovered that he unwittingly aided and abetted the destruction of the Colonies (think transgender community) by letting his girlfriend poke around the Colonial Military defense mainframe computer. He also submitted a Command Navigation Program to the Colonial military (think the 'HRC Is Our Friends' PR strategy) that contained an electronic backdoor that the Cylons used to neutralize Colonial defenses.

NTAC and current chair Ethan St. Pierre is represented by Admiral William Adara, who because of his previous service in the First Cylon War refused to network the computers on the Galactica, which saved his ship from destruction (and as we found out later and it was expounded on in Razor, the Pegasus as well because it was undergoing a retrofit at the Scorpian shipyards.

Admiral Helena Cain, AKA Dawn Wilson not only figured out what happened after the attack, but has been an unrelenting opponent of the Cylons (oops, HRC).

But people in the transgender community, despite her obvious talents and leadership skills, fear her.

You have President Laura Roslin, AKA former NTAC chair Vanessa Edwards Foster, who has grown into leadership stature despite being attacked by the cancerous whisper campaign orchestrated by the head of NCTE, outright efforts to sabotage her organization by repeated raids on the NTAC BOD and calls by transgender sheeple for NTAC to close its doors and merge with NCTE.

While all this was going on she was being called 'crazy' like myself and others who refused to drink the 'HRC is our friends' Kool-Aid.

Joe Solmonese is Aaron Doral, the smooth talking polished media pro who excels at sowing seeds of confusion and deception. Ask the folks who were in attendance at the 2007 SCC who parted with $20,000 of hard earned cash during his speech how good he is.

But as entertaining as this Battlestar analogy is getting, I'm going to skip ahead and get to the heart of it. It seems as though the HRCylons and Barney Frank are tired of me and the Admiral Adamas in the transgender Colonial Fleet criticizing them over their duplicitous amoral BS around ENDA and want to hand pick their own leaders to negotiate with.

The word from the transgender grapevine is that Mara is out and they are grooming Susan Stanton to become their new spokessellout. She's perfect in their eyes for the job. She doesn't know the community history because she's new, has a nationally known name, a very public discrimination story that played out in front of television cameras and hasn't had an opportunity to talk to us old HRCylon War vets about HRC's sorry history.

HRC in conjunction with Barney Frank's office are putting together their own transgender 'leaders' that they feel will be pliable enough for them to work with.

I've seen this game run before. It's the same one the Republican Party has been trying to run on the African-American community for decades. The GOP doesn't wanna talk to the NAACP or our elected leadership in the Congressional Black Caucus, so they have spent millions cultivating their network of megachurch black preachers and black conservatives that they conveniently use and ignore when it suits their purposes. HRC and Barney Frank are trying to run the same game on the transgender community.

The information that we do have on the Final Five sellouts thanks to Donna Rose is that they are upper middle class white transwomen.

No peeps of color, no transmen, no working class transpeeps who will inconveniently call them out like Commander Lee Adama on cutting transpeople out of ENDA. So far Susan Stanton's name is the only one that has surfaced, and we are working hard to find out the identities of the Final Five.

Fortunately I won't have to do what Deanna Biers (aka Number 3) did to find out that information and I'll definitely let you TransGriot readers in on the secret when they are revealed.

Help Wanted: Sellout Tranny

This is part of a brilliant post on Vanessa Edwards Foster's Trans Political blog called Want Ads: Looking For Mr. or Ms. Goodbar

Help Wanted: Transgender Political Insider, No Experience Necessary - Will Train!

Need individual with a smiling face and a Can-Do Attitude! Personal Ambition a serious plus! Must take directions well. Must be able to learn public relations marketing from a gay and lesbian perspective (Marketing experience a huge plus)

Must like the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Gay and Lesbian Equality. Must possess ability and willingness to both raise funds or to be able to attract leads for fundraising for HRC. Can easily substitute a great personal story (author of an autobiography or esp. high-profile job loss, lawsuit or hate crime victim) for fundraising skills.

To be filled: Immediately.

Very competitive salary commensurate with other transgender activist salaries, plus perks! We are an EEOC employer. Only transgendered applicants, preferably white, docile and above-average income need apply.

***

Yes, the above is a satirical take on what's actually happening right now. HRC is in desperate need of superficially plastering over the era of discontent in Transgender, and subsequently adjacent portions of the GLB community. They can't be without a throw-down tranny to upkeep the façade of plausible deniability.

HRC The Fake Civil Rights Org

TransGriot Note: Once again, in the spirit of the Christmas season, another one of my infamous song rewrites. Grab some egg nog, Christmas cookies, sing along and celebrate the lump of coal that HRC and Barney put in your civil rights Christmas stocking. Merry Christmas!


HRC The Fake Civil Rights Org
(sung to the tune of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer)


HRC, the fake civil rights org
Plays inside the Beltway games
And if you ever saw them
You'd be appalled, shocked and ashamed

United ENDA and Tammy Baldwin
Pleaded with HRC in vain
To keep all of us poor transpeeps
Included in the ENDA game

Then one muggy DC eve
Barney came to say
"You transpeople don't desetve your rights"
"I'm cutting you out of ENDA tonight"

Aravosis and Chris Crain loved it
Rich white gays shouted out with glee
"Thanks HRC and Barney"
For keeping ENDA gay only

You're No Friend, Barney

'No person is your friend who demands your silence or denies your right to grow.'

That Alice Walker quote is at the heart of this post. I was stunned to learn from a friend of mine that somebody e-mailed him my little Christmas rewrite of Dr. Seuss. The Grinch that Stole Civil Rights for transpeople is allegedly not happy about it, and supposedly retorted that I was insulting the best friend we had in Congress.

Friend? I'm an intelligent girl, Mr. Chairman. I know the difference. You are NOT a friend, Barney.

We transpeople have numerous enemies gay and straight. You played right into their hands by failing to move forward on a transgender inclusive House version of ENDA. You played politics with mine and other transpeople's lives, caused a split in the GLBT community over a bill that Bush probably isn't going to sign and for what?



Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Anthony Weiner (D-NY), Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) are our friends, Chairman Frank. Unlike you, who berated the transgender community from the House floor and in the press, they have used that same floor speech time and their press opportunities to stand up for us on the Hill.

You have proven yourself by your recent actions in strong arming a non-transgender inclusive ENDA through the House NOT to be. As of now you are part of the cadre of people in this country that want to not only silence transpeople, but deny our right to grow.

I'll probably be on the Hill in the near future to lobby. I'm going to make it a point to stop by your office. I don't want to talk to aides, I want to talk to you.

Chairman Frank, I want you to personally tell me, an African-American transperson, WITHOUT inside the Beltway spin, how cutting us out of ENDA speeds up the granting of rights for transgender people. Better yet, why don't you come down to one or both of our community's major conferences, either IFGE in Tucson, AZ in April 2008 or Atlanta's Southern Comfort in September 2008 and explain yourself?

As we tried to tell you, symbolism matters. And the symbolic message you sent to us, the country and the world is that the United States ISN'T a leader on civil rights legislation any more, much less isn't a democratic country. A democratic country is judged on how it protects the least of its citizens, not the most powerful or the privileged. You sent the message courtesy of the House that it's okay to disrespect and cut transpeople out of legislation when the going gets tough.

And unfortunately it didn't take long for that message to resonate with lawmakers around the country. Here in Jefferson County, KY and other jurisdictions in the state we have not had a problem passing laws or policies with BOTH sexual orientation and gender identity until now.

The opponents of a GLBT inclusive bill in Scottsdale, AZ cited your ENDA stunt as justification to strip us out of the bill. Fortunately the council members there had more cojones than you showed on the Hill and rebuffed them. Even the peeps in Montgomery County, MD showed more courage than you did in the ENDA debate and unanimously passed their inclusive rights bill despite shrill opposition. Maybe you should take a ride up I-270, have a chat with Duchy Trachtenberg and find out how it's done.

You made an impassioned plea to your House colleagues to consider gay and lesbian kids during the ENDA debate. Too bad you didn't exhibit the same level of compassion when it comes to transgender kids.

Chairman Frank, if you're the friend of the transgender community you claim that you are, prove it to me, transgender people and the world. In addition to showing up at one of our signature conferences, ask your fellow Bay stater Sen. Ted Kennedy to introduce a Senate ENDA in 2008 that includes transgender people. If by some miracle it passes the Senate, amend yours in the House-Senate conference committee to include us.

But I won't hold my breath. That has as much chance of happening as the Miami Dolphins winning the Super Bowl this year.

You're A Mean One, Barney Frank

sung to the tune of You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
by Dr. Seuss
Copyright © 1957, Dr. Seuss.

TransGriot Note: In the spirit of the season, dedicated to the Grinch Who Stole Civil Rights for transpeople.



You're a mean one, Barney Frank.
You really are a heel.
You're as cuddly as a cactus,
You're as charming as an eel.
Barney Frank

You're a bad Congressional banana
With a greasy black peel.

You're a monster, Barney Frank.
Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain's got convoluted logic,
You've got transphobia in your soul.
Barney Frank.

I wouldn't touch you, with a
thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.


You're a vile one, Barney Frank.
You have duplicity in your smile.
You have all the tender sweetness
Of a seasick crocodile.
Barney Frank.

Given the choice between the two of you
I'd take the seasick crocodile.

You're a foul one, Barney Frank
You're a nasty, cantankerous skunk.
You cut transpeople out of ENDA
Your soul is full of gunk.
Barney Frank

The three words that best describe you,
are, and I quote: "Stink. Stank. Stunk."

You're a liar, Barney Frank
You're the king of sinful snots.
Your Mattachinesque plot
Accelerates your moral rot,
Barney Frank

Your soul is an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable,
Mangled up in tangled up knots.


You nauseate me, Barney Frank.
We'll scream about it till were hoarse.
Your crooked legal jockeying
Triggered this negative discourse.
Barney Frank

You're a duplictous lying transhating scumbag.
That's par for the course

Experts Question HRC's ENDA Survey

TransGriot Note: Seems like the TransGriot isn't the only person who thinks that the HRC survey that came out in the middle of the ENDA debate is shady and bogus.

Researcher says methodology 'doesn't make sense'

By JOSHUA LYNSEN | Nov 28, 4:47 PM
from the Washington Blade

Polling experts are questioning a recent Human Rights Campaign survey that asked gays about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

The survey's results, circulated last month by HRC when many gays were locked in heated debate over the measure's lack of transgender protections, show most people who responded support the bill as written.

But John Stahura, who specializes in survey research and directs the Purdue University Social Research Institute, said the survey's methodology is problematic.

"They're playing games," he said after reviewing survey excerpts at the Blade's request. "It doesn't make sense."

Conducted for HRC by Knowledge Networks, the survey shows most respondents believe national gay groups should support ENDA despite its lack of protections for transgender workers "because it helps gay, lesbian and bisexual workers and is a step toward transgender employment rights."

According to survey excerpts, about 68 percent of respondents chose that scripted statement among three offered lines to best represent their "point of view."

Another 16 percent of respondents indicated national gay groups should oppose ENDA "because it excludes transgender people," and 13 percent wanted groups to take a neutral stance "because while it helps gay, lesbian and bisexual workers, it also excludes transgender people."

About 3 percent of respondents refused to answer the question. The survey offered no margin of error.

Stahura said he "never would" structure a survey to include such explanatory clauses "because what you're asking people to evaluate is the because."

"I don't know why they didn't go with a straightforward, 'Here's the act. Should we support it, should we oppose it, or should we take a neutral stance?'" he said.

Brad Luna, the HRC communications director, said each scripted statement included explanatory clauses to focus respondents on the measure's omission of transgender protections.

"With complicated proposals such as this, if you don't link opposition to a reason, you might get people opposing for a variety of reasons," he said. "We chose this method because we wanted to know specifically if people supported or opposed ENDA because of the transgender exclusion."

The survey, conducted Oct. 2-5, polled a roster of people who are gay, lesbian or bisexual, and were previously located by Knowledge Networks through random-digit- dialing methodology.

Among the survey's 514 respondents, 246 are male, 262 are female, five are female-to-male transgender and one is male-to-female transgender. Survey excerpts provided to the Blade by HRC did not disclose the sexual orientation breakdown among the respondents.

Luna said HRC is confident in the work that Knowledge Networks performs.

"While all surveys have limitations, Knowledge Networks surveys are very high in quality," he said. "They have a stellar reputation, and I have full confidence in their work."

But experts said the survey could have been done better, and the excerpts released earlier this month by HRC left some questions unanswered.

"I don't know based upon this response that you could say how the community — the gay, lesbian, bisexual community — feels about the legislation, " Stahura said. "I don't think those questions give you that answer."

Christopher Barron, a Washington political consultant Log Cabin's former political director, who is gay and does survey interpretation, agreed. He said the methodology, which he described as "bizarre," might not allow the results to be projected nationally.

"It may be that it's completely and totally sound," he said. "But there's nothing there that tells us that it is, so you can't assume it's a nationally representative sample."

Luna told the Blade this week that the survey is nationally representative.

Barron and Stahura, who reviewed a two-page memorandum and three data sets prepared by Knowledge Networks and provided to the Blade, also noted they could not determine whether the survey is scientific. Both experts said that lingering question would preclude them from using the survey's findings in their work.

"I would not approve it for publication, " Stahura said. "I think with the 'becauses,' you're really pushing people toward particular responses in this instance."

Luna disagreed. He said there was "never any intent to influence survey respondents. "

"We wanted to gain an understanding as best we could of where people were on the issue," he said. "A number of voices were claiming to speak for the LGBT population, but no one in fact had done the research to know."

Joshua Lynsen can be reached at jlynsen@washblade.com

Snatching Rancor From Victory's Jaws

by PAUL SCHINDLER
Gay City News
11/15/2007

Last week, for the first time in history, a house of Congress voted to approve a gay rights measure. Oddly, nobody on our side is walking away from the field of political battle feeling all that energized.

Barney Frank, the chief sponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and one of only five out gay or lesbian Americans to have ever served in Congress, felt compelled to call a press conference a month ago to rally his fellow Democrats against portions of the LGBT community.

The Human Rights Campaign has been pilloried by many in the community for what critics say were duplicity and compromised insiderism. It will take political vapital for HRC to mend fences with transgender rights groups and other leading LGBT organizations, who for their part feel aggrieved that a longstanding game plan was abandoned, but only at the last minute, by HRC and a Democratic leadership, both of whom failed to level with them.

And if HRC's poll is correct that two thirds of the community agreed with the compromise it made, then many gay and lesbian Americans, if not transgenders, are likely confused about what the shouting over the past seven weeks was all about.

A few parting shots are in order.

In February, Frank and Tammy Baldwin, an out lesbian Wisconsin Democrat, introduced ENDA with protections against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. As early as last November, right after the Democrats gained control of Congress, HRC's Joe Solmonese told Gay City News he was "absolutely" confident the measure would be taken up by both the House and the Senate. Since 2004, HRC's board had a policy that ENDA be fully inclusive, so that statement of absolute confidence meant something very specific.

As late as September 14 of this year, Solmonese was still confident, pledging, at a gathering of transgender activists, to "oppose" anything that did not protect gender identity.

But surely Solmonese knew that Frank, for one, was less than absolute in his posture. After last year's elections, asked whether he yet had any notion of an ENDA tally, Frank told Gay City News, "What would be the point of a count?" as he emphasized that the House had never looked at a trans-inclusive version of the bill before and it was too early to speculate.

Some have claimed in recent weeks that Frank, in fact, is transphobic, which I believe is unfair, but I do think it's reasonable to observe that he has at times demonstrated difficulty in artfully discussing the gender identity issue, a charge that on almost any other matter cannot be leveled at him. In 2004, as HRC weighed adopting its pro-trans policy on ENDA, Frank told this newspaper, "There are people who are transgendered who have not had the physical change. If you're talking about workplaces with gyms, it's just not practical." On other occasions, he shorthanded the issue by mentioning the "group showers issue."

This is not a useful starting point in educating the American public or wavering members of Congress about the realities of life as a transgendered person - and about their crying need for anti-discrimination protections. Surely, HRC was aware of Frank's limitations on this score.

If HRC had the commitment it said it did to transgender inclusion, it was incumbent on the group in February - not in September, but six months earlier - to make clear to Frank that gender identity was non-negotiable in moving ENDA forward. Solmonese has argued convincingly that HRC could not oppose a gay rights bill that the Democratic leadership took to the House floor. Fair enough. But the House leadership would never have dreamed of taking the ENDA it passed to the floor had a bottom line been established upfront.

Related to the problem of what apparently was left unsaid in February is what clearly went undone since then. Frank and the Democratic leadership have explained that the shortfall on votes for a trans-inclusive ENDA only became clear when the "whip count" was done in late September. Members of Congress ask each other for their final calls on a vote only as floor consideration approaches.

But what about HRC? The fully inclusive version of ENDA had 171 co-sponsors, out of 218 needed for passage. Presumably the 171 were solid - that is, even if opponents tried an amendment to force an up-or-down vote on the gender identity language alone, the co-sponsors would hold tight. It was the backbone of the 47 members who would have to be added to gain a House majority that everyone worried about in the event of mischief by those looking to kill ENDA.

But for a lobbying group as large as HRC, gauging the views of 47 or 50 or even 70 members of Congress shouldn't be out of its grip. How is it that on September 14, when Solmonese appeared before transgender activists and pledged his fidelity, he was unaware that the effort for a trans-inclusive measure was falling short by dozens and dozens of votes?

By contrast, in the 11 months from the time the New York high court ruled against the right to marriage for same-sex couples to when the State Assembly passed Governor Eliot Spitzer's marriage equality bill this past June, the Empire State Pride Agenda kept a running tally of those supporting the measure, updated continually and posted on its website. To be sure, its vote-counting led to tensions with Assembly Democrats leading the charge, but ESPA remained committed to knowing the score itself.

It is fair to ask why HRC did not have the same command of the ENDA count.

But is also appropriate to pose challenges both to those organizations who
stood against HRC on its ENDA strategy and to the community as a whole.

During the second week of October, as advocates for a fully-inclusive ENDA scrambled to salvage that approach to the bill, Matt Foreman of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force told Gay City News that his group and its allies were targeting roughly 65 House members considered key to turning the issue around - that is, mostly ones thought to be in need of shoring up on gender identity. He said that out of between 25 and 30 with whom they had already had substantive conversations, support for opposing anything but a trans-inclusive bill was running five to one.

But on November 7, only seven members of the House voted against ENDA because it lacked transgender protections. Asked to explain that, Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality, which worked closely with the Task Force, said that was due to HRC's last-minute announcement that it was supporting Frank's version of ENDA and intended to penalize principled dissenters on its legislative scorecard.

That last day of HRC lobbying and a scorecard threat did not produce such a political sea change. The die was cast in late September when Frank felt comfortable telling the world he was moving forward the way he saw fit. For that, HRC alone is not responsible. The entire community failed.

We have simply not made the case for protecting transgendered Americans or for the corollary - that without gender identity and expression language, effeminate gay men and butch lesbians are also at risk.

Maybe at heart, that's because we are not yet convinced of it ourselves.
Look at the HRC poll; even if it's not a perfect measure-and the group could have done a heck of a lot better sales job when rolling it out - surely it gets it largely right. Challenging gender norms threatens many Americans.
It's a shame that it also threatens so many gay and lesbian Americans.

©GayCityNews 2007

How A Self-Hating Drag Queen Helped Cost Us ENDA Support

And no, I'm not talking about Barney Frank, who hates transpeople period.

One of the things I've been warning the GLBT community about over the last two years is how the Shirley Q. Liquor controversy would come home to roost one day if they didn't take forceful steps to deal with it.

White GLBT peeps who found the minstrel act funny pooh-poohed mine and others assertion that SQL would (or could) possibly be used as a wedge issue in the African-American community.

Well, I'm about to say I told you so.

In this ENDA post mortem, while trying to ascertain why CBC offices who were solidly on board with HR 2015 that Dawn and I'd lobbied back in May were suddenly shaky on the issue, I discovered an interesting reason for the ENDA sqeamishness.

The Hi Impact Leadership Coalition (Lou Sheldon's TVC African-American sellout ministers division) returned to the Hill to lobby CBC offices in the wake of our Transgender Lobby Week to kill the Hate Crimes bill. They had a not-so-secret weapon in hand: the June issue of Rolling Stone containing the SQL article.

Their copies of the magazine had Syimone's comments prominiently highlighted. Syimone is a African-American drag queen (at least on the outside) who just happens to be from Louisville, where Dawn and I reside. She was tapped for comments for this pro-SQL article.

Let me rehash what Syimone said in that June interview.

I’m not offended by Shirley Q. Liquor because my sexuality is more important to my sense of who I am that my skin color is, and I don’t see the so called Black community out there in the streets protesting for my right to love and fuck and marry who I want.”

My source told me that those anti African-American comments were gleefully pointed to by the Hi Impact ministers. Not only did reading about Shirley Q. Liquor's minstrel show piss them off, Syimone's comments added gasoline to their pissivity as well. While the Hi Impact Leadership Coalition's stated mission was to kill hate crimes, this lobbying trip had the inadvertant effect of pissing off enough CBC members to initially shift several CBC votes out of our column on ENDA.

In addition to the ten votes we initially lost, the Hi Impact 'Don't Muzzle Our Pulpits' smear campaign combined with the anti hate crimes, anti-ENDA calls, visits they received most of the summer from Hi Impact church congregants and intense pressure from the Hi Impact boys moved other CBC members from solidly on our side to wavering.

We already have major problems in the African-American transgender community in terms of our images and 'ejumacating' our people on transgender issues. We don't get much ink or air time as is, so any African-American transpeople who are asked to interview for a media outlet need to be aware of this fact. We need to go into that media interview opportunity making sure that we are on point, accurate, articulate and paint this community in the best possible light.

Syimone obviously forgot that lesson, but then again she considers herself more 'gay' than African-American. I guess after November 7 you're not as 'gay' as you thought you were, huh?

Yo, sis, how does it feel to be cut out of legislation by your gay 'friends' and being used as the tool to grease the skids to make it happen?

HRC Pastoral Letter Debunked

TransGriot Note. HRC has been on a 'schmooze and confuse' charm offensive in the wake of the odious transgender-free ENDA vote last week trying to get back in the community's good graces. (good luck with that) This was a pastoral letter they sent out to GLBT ministers. A response to it came back from Reverend Paul Turner of Atlanta, GA who I had the pleasure of meeting at the 2004 SCC.

First, the letter from Harry Knox.

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Now that the vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) has
taken place in the House, I want to write to all of you to reconfirm
our commitment in the Religion and Faith program toward educating
people across the country about transgender people, the particular
struggles they face, and why a fully inclusive ENDA is essential for
all of us. In the days ahead we will be talking with many of you as
we make our plans; we'll also want to know how we can help you with
your work on transgender issues.

I am writing today, however, to speak to the hurt, anger, and feelings
of betrayal many of you have felt as a result of the recent struggle
in our community around this bill. The last four weeks or so have
been among the most painful of my career as I have heard transgender
sisters and brothers I love express their hurt over being left out yet
again. I have agonized with many of you, my colleagues, over
strategic decisions that seemed to put us over against each other,
even as we leaned heavily on personal regard for each other and
commitment to the long term success of our whole LGBT community to get
us through.

At this point you know that HRC made a political calculation over what
we thought was the best position we should take moving forward. The
bill passed by the House yesterday is not the bill any of us wanted.
After a deep and painful process we made the decision to stay at the
table with Congress and support the non-inclusive ENDA legislation, HR
3685 in the House.

Our president, Joe Solmonese, has consistently stated our ultimate and
unequivocal commitment to a fully inclusive ENDA. Supporting HR 3685
was, in his mind, the best way toward getting a truly inclusive bill
passed as quickly as possible. I believe his sincerity and trust his
political instincts. In addition, I personally believe that we never
win by standing still. To not move forward at this point would have
set back our work in significant ways - our choice was between moving
forward and falling backward.

I believe that if members of Congress have a positive experience
voting for employment protection for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals and
getting re-elected in the process, they will be more likely to support
a fully inclusive bill in a year or two. However, if the bill had
died in committee or had been voted down on the floor, the negative
experiences of members of Congress would ensure that we would have
little chance of getting any bill to the table in the foreseeable future.

I also know that many of you disagree. As your colleague and friend,
I honor your feelings and respect your wisdom. That we have disagreed
over this strategic decision is painful for me and I hold in my heart
the pain it has caused you.

My hope and prayer is that you will see in the actions of the HRC
Religion and Faith Program the commitment to building support for a
truly inclusive ENDA that I have felt and seen in my colleagues here
at HRC over the last few weeks. There are about 60 districts
represented by members of Congress who were ready yesterday to support
protections for LGB folks, but not yet ready to do so for transgender
people. Sharon, Kyla, and I plan to make our commitment to justice
for transgender people manifest in our hard work to educate the people
of those districts and ultimately, the men and women who represent
them in Congress.

I don't ask that you put your hurt and pain behind you; those
experiences have a great deal to teach us about how we can move
forward. What I do hope is that our pain will not prevent us from
taking the necessary next steps together. All of us are precious in
God's eyes and all of us are necessary for the hard work ahead.

Please pray for me and all your colleagues at the Human Rights Campaign.

God bless you all,
Harry Knox, Director
Religion and Faith Program
Human Rights Campaign Foundation
1640 Rhode Island Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.716.1612 (cell)
harry.knox@... (hrc.org)

****


Reverend Turner's response

Dear Harry,

Nice try with this letter, but it does not wash.

The transgender are real flesh and blood people and are not HRC's bargaining chip.

<<"At this point you know that HRC made a political calculation over
what we thought was the best position we should take moving forward.">>

There is no going forward if everyone is not with us.

This is not Animal Farm where "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal then others"!

HRC has made a horrible and tragic miscalculation...a poll of 500 people does not speak for the entire LGBTQ community.

HRC sold it's sisters and brothers down the river for a bill they knew was not going to pass or have a chance in hell of becoming law.

When a house is on fire you don't stand outside and decide whom you are going to rescue, the attempt is made for all.

If the hypocrites in congress didn't want transgender people in the bill, then they should have been forced to make an amendment to take it out from the floor...not have HRC bargaining and agreeing that a part of our community was expendable and could simply wait for another day.

By removing Transgender people from the bill y'all sent a clear message to everyone concerned that the transgender community is somehow not on equal footing with the rest of the community.

This was wrong and you my friend know it. Pastorally speaking you and the rest of HRC chose to be the Esther who didn't bother to go before the King. Shame on you. I wonder how many Transgender people will die because even HRC thinks they are not worthy of protection? This was a time for leadership, guts and courage.

Y'all said it couldn't get through with Trans as apart of it, that it would have lost...well my friend you may have won the battle but HRC may have cost themselves far more then they think.

I cannot express how sad and disappointed I am in you...as a pastor you should know that God's people are not expendable at any price!

So your attempt to "explain" to "sooth", to "justify" this despicable act on the part of HRC falls far short.

I am no longer a supporter of HRC, nor will I honor their name or pass on their e-mail with their weekly calls for money. They will not again receive one dime of my money or the church's and I will certainly encourage folks to find other organizations to give to other then HRC. I do believe there are organizations out there that still understand the meaning of community and that without all the hard work of the Trans community we would be nothing.

I know this doesn't mean a hell of lot to you, as I am not one of the high profile pastor's that you run with these days, nor is our church all that important to you or HRC, but you have lost my support and more importantly my respect.

I am of a mind to call for a boycott of the HRC dinner in Atlanta as well as any other HRC events in this city that seek our hard earned money. I might be persuaded to change my mind providing HRC admits their mistake and makes amends with the transgender community...but hey you and I both know that is not going to happen.

It is truly a sad day.

Reverend Paul M. Turner
Sr. Pastor
http://www.gentlespirit.org