First Ever UN Ministerial Meeting On LGBT Rights

You've heard me frequently write and say that trans rights are an international human rights issue.  On September 26 a groundbreaking meeting took place at the United Nations in New York that underscores that comment.

Leaders from the UN's core group of countries working to end violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people gathered for the first ever UN ministerial meeting on LGBT rights.


The meeting's purpose was to discuss advancements for protecting the human rights of LGBT persons and to secure commitments from Member States toward making the protection of TBLG citizens in those member state and elsewhere in the world a reality.

Free & Equal -- the unprecedented UN public information campaign for LGBT equality -- captures strong statements by several attendees, who included the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the Argentine, Brazilian, Croatian, Dutch and Norwegian foreign ministers, the French Minister of Development Cooperation, senior officials from the European Union, Japan and New Zealand, and the directors of Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.




Those present issued an historic Ministerial Declaration on Ending Violence and Discrimination against Individuals Based on their Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity that was endorsed by Secretary of State Kerry, the foreign ministers of Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, El Salvador, France, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway, and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union.

In case you TransGriot readers are wondering what the declaration says, you knew I'd find it for you.:

Ministerial Declaration on Ending Violence and Discrimination against Individuals Based on their Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity



United Nations, New York, 26 September 2013

1. We, ministers of Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, El Salvador, France, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and United States, and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy – members of the LGBT Core Group at the United Nations – hereby declare our strong and determined commitment to eliminating violence and discrimination against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

2. In so doing, we reaffirm our conviction that human rights are the birthright of every human being. Those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) must enjoy the same human rights as everyone else.

3. We welcome the many positive steps taken in recent decades to protect LGBT individuals from human rights violations and abuses. Since 1990, some 40 countries have abolished discriminatory criminal sanctions used to punish individuals for consensual, adult same-sex conduct. In many countries, hate crime laws and other measures have been introduced to combat homophobic violence, and anti-discrimination laws have been strengthened to provide effective legal protection against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace and other spheres, both public and private.

4. We also recognize that countering discrimination involves challenging popular prejudices, and we welcome efforts by Governments, national human rights institutions and civil society to counter homophobic and transphobic attitudes in society at large, including through concerted public education campaigns.

5. We assert our support for, and pay tribute to, LGBT human rights defenders and others advocating for the human rights of LGBT persons. Their work, often carried out at considerable personal risk, plays a critical role in documenting human rights violations, providing support to victims, and sensitizing Governments and public opinion.

6. We commend the adoption by the United Nations Human Rights Council of resolution 17/19 on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, and we welcome the efforts of the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to raise global awareness of human rights challenges facing LGBT individuals, and to mobilize support for measures to counter violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

7. Nevertheless, we remain gravely concerned that LGBT persons in all regions of the world continue to be victims of serious and widespread human rights violations and abuses.

8. A landmark 2011 study by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which drew on almost two decades worth of work by United Nations human rights mechanisms, found a deeply disturbing pattern of violence and discriminatory laws and practices affecting individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

9. It is a tragedy that, in this second decade of the 21^st century, consensual, adult, same-sex relations remain criminalized in far too many countries – exposing millions of people to the risk of arrest and imprisonment and, in some countries, the death penalty. These laws are inconsistent with States’ human rights obligations and commitments, including with respect to privacy and freedom from discrimination. In addition, they may lead to violations of the prohibitions against arbitrary arrest or detention and torture, and in some cases the right to life.

10. In all parts of the world – including in our own – LGBT individuals are subjected to intimidation, physical assault, and sexual violence, and even murder. Discriminatory treatment is also widely reported, inhibiting the enjoyment of a range of human rights – including the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and work, education and enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health.

11. We are fully committed to tackling these violations and abuses – both at the domestic level, including through continued attention to the impact of current policies, and at the global level, including through concerted action at the United Nations.

12. We recognize the importance of continued dialogue between and within countries concerning how best to protect the human rights of LGBT persons, taking into account regional initiatives. In this context, we welcome the outcome of a series of recent regional consultations on the topic of human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity that took place in March and April 2013, and encourage the holding of further such meetings at regional and national levels.

13. Key to protecting the human rights of LGBT individuals is the full and effective implementation of applicable international human rights law. Existing international human rights treaties provide legally binding guarantees of human rights for all – LGBT people included. But for these guarantees to have meaning they must be respected by Governments, with whom legal responsibility for the protection of human rights lies.

14. Cognizant of the urgent need to take action, we therefore call on all United Nations Member States to repeal discriminatory laws, improve responses to hate-motivated violence, and ensure adequate and appropriate legal protection from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

15. We strongly encourage the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue its efforts to increase understanding of the human rights challenges facing LGBT people, advocate for legal and policy measures to meet these challenges, and assist the United Nations human rights mechanisms in this regard.

16. We agree with the United Nations Secretary-General’s assessment that combating violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity constitutes “one of the great, neglected human rights challenges of our time”. We hereby commit ourselves to working together with other States and civil society to make the world safer, freer and fairer for LGBT people everywhere.

Dallas Observer LBGT Movers And Shakers List Has No Trans, Bi Or Lesbian People On It

Received a link from one of my DFW area TransGriot readers to an interesting Dallas Observer article by Alicia Auping that discusses seven LGBT movers and shakers in the Dallas area.

When you peruse the list of seven people named, can you guess what the common thread is?

Yep, the people featured in it were all white gay males.  

The list the Observer put together is not only devoid of ethnic diversity, it is also devoid of people from the trans, bi and lesbian community of Dallas as well.  

Just on the trans end of it you have inaugural Trans 100 honoree and Black Transmen Incorporated (BTMI) founder Carter Brown living in the Dallas city limits.  So does Dr. Oliver Blumer, the board Chair of the Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT) and Rev. Carmarion Anderson, the South regional minister for the national group TransSaints of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries.

Brown, Dr. Blumer and Rev. Anderson are three highly respected Dallas area trans residents making a difference not only locally but in the Lone Star State and on the national level.  

There's Judge Tonya Parker, the first elected openly gay judge in Dallas County and the first openly gay African-American elected official in the state of Texas that you could have included on this list but didn't. 

There's Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez who was just featured in an HBO documentary.   Dallas based GetEqual activist CD Kirven.  Lambda Legal community educator Omar Narvaez.  Resource Center Dallas CEO Cece Cox.  Patti Fink, the president of the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance, and current co-host of the longest-running LGBT-exclusive radio program in America and Lividia Violette, who is a national board member of Bi Net.  

They are just some of the Dallas area BTL people who are movers and shakers too and should have garnered recognition for their efforts to make Dallas, Texas and the nation a better place.  

But instead, what the Observer did in this article is fall into that troubling pattern of ignoring or erasing the accomplishments of people in the TBLG community who are not white gay males.

If you claim that the LGBT community is a diverse one, it's vitally important that you showcase that diversity especially since not all the members of the rainbow community are white gay males. 

That visibility is also vitally important in a red state like Texas.  When GLBT people of color come out who are trailblazing leaders in the community, that needs to be highlighted.  

It's also important to consider when you put together these LGBT lists that you have not only ethnic diversity, but also representation from the bi, trans and lesbian part of the community in addition to the gay male one.

Happy National Coming Out Day 2012!

Today  is National Coming Out  Day, in which the rainbow community in the US and in several nations around the world celebrate being trans, bi, gay, lesbian or wherever you fit in the community rainbow. 

It was founded in 1988 by Robert Eichberg, a psychologist from New Mexico, and Jean O’Leary, an openly gay political leader from Los Angeles, on behalf of the personal growth workshop, “The Experience and National Gay Rights Advocates.”

There are events held across the country and the world that seek to raise awareness of the community, our human rights struggles, and assist those people who are trying to come to come to grips with the epiphanies they have had.

It happened for me decades ago, but I still remember how overwhelming and scary a time it was.  It's almost 20 years later and the only regret I have about coming out and transitioning is I didn't do it sooner.

For those of you who choose today to do so, I congratulate you.  You're taking the first small step for you but a giant leap in living a happy, more honest life for yourselves.

Do Marginalized People Need to Turn the Other Cheek?

Guest post from Renee of Womanist Musings who is all that and four bags of ketchup flavored potato chips.  

Last year, I wrote a piece about Destruction's thoughts on Disney's Peter Pan. He was incredibly disturbed by the movie, because of the racism in it.  Yesterday, it received a new comment and since the piece is now buried in the archives, I have decided to elevate the comment for the purposes of discussion.

Your kid has the capacity for common sense that has eluded the world for centuries. However, is it not just as bad to return racism like that with hate as it is to be racist in the first place? He recognizes the need to stop the racism, but it's your job now to teach him how to deal with it. Taking a militant standpoint only makes things worse. Nonviolence. Kill ignorance with kindness.

Hir comments were restricted to race, because the post itself was about race; however, I think that this conversation can and should be made broader.  The suggestion that Destruction not become militant is an exhortation that is constantly aimed at historically marginalized people. Think about how the GLBT community has routinely been charged with pushing a militant gay agenda by homophobes. The gay agenda has been constructed as actually threatening to heterosexual people. Consider for a moment how the fight for gay marriage has been responded to with the suggestion that it will somehow harm heterosexual marriage. The women's movement continues to be subject to the exact same sort of discourse, even as they tell us they we are over reacting to things like rape culture.  Rush Limbaugh has made quite a living for himself attacking women's activists and suggesting that they are militant. When Disabled people protested the ableist, Jerry Lewis, they were called a militant angry fringe.  Whenever historically marginalized people respond with anger, they are accused of working an agenda or of being overly militant.

With any marginalization there comes a point when one comes to awareness of where exactly one stands.  For POC, we begin in an environment of love with our parents and over time, as we venture into the world, we become aware of what it is to be a person of colour in a White supremacist world.  For gays and lesbians, they begin to notice that something is different about them, and once they realize what their sexuality is, the awareness of what it means to be gay or lesbian in a homophobic culture quickly takes hold, as they deal with the issue of coming out or not, or negotiating the various oppressions aimed at them.  For trans people, there is the dawning awareness of realizing one's internal gender, does not match the outward gender, and what it means to be trans in a world in which cis bodies are privileged.  With this comes of course the consideration of coming out as trans, whether or not to transition, and of course all of the oppression that comes with being trans. With disabled people, there is the realization that the disability itself exists, and then negotiating a world that is not built with us in mind. No matter the ism, there is a point of coming to awareness with it, and a decision of what to do next.  The next step will be different each group, but what they all have in common is that any fight for inclusion, equal rights, or freedom from oppression will inevitably be viewed as militant, and quickly dismissed by the ruling classes.


Destruction is almost 11 years old, and in his short time on earth, he has been subjected to a ton of racism, though he is bi-racial. He understands that within his home that he is loved and valued, but the innocence has long since been cast from childhood, due to the racist attacks he has had to negotiate. Whatever feelings he develops about Whiteness, are a direct consequence of living in a White supremacist world. The idea that I should again thwart his agency by telling him how he is too feel, or react is problematic, and denies him one of the few areas of agency in regard to the oppression that he faces.

Much has been made of kumbaya approach to reacting to oppression. Turn the other cheek has become the expected response, even as marginalized people are on the receiving end of violence on a daily basis through either a physical action or hate speech. The arrogance it takes to believe that gays and lebsians should not hate a group like The Westboro Baptist Church, or Focus on the Family, or that POC should not hate groups like Stormfront, or the KKK is ridiculous.  Hating the people who wish us death and actively work to oppress us is not only human, but natural.  The very idea that hating our oppressors is the same thing as the oppression itself, speaks to a complete denial of the humanity of marginalized people, and an attempt to once again control us. 

Hate, while it isn't pleasant, isn't always as counter productive as it is made to seem.  Sometimes, hate can be the inspiration to demand change, and sometimes it helps to embolden self worth - thus a negative emotion can become a creative force. Hate should not always be the preserve of the most privileged people.  Hate, like it or not is part of the human experience;  it is an emotion like any other.  Telling marginalized people not to hate, is to deny them a common experience.  It is particularly problematic when the hate is aimed at someone intent on causing them harm.  If ze had said not to become consumed by hate then, and only then -- would ze have had a point.


Militant does not have to mean violence.  I have often described myself is militantly Black with pride.  For me, it means embracing my Blackness and loving myself in spite of all of the negative connotations inscribed to my Black, female, disabled body.  Militant can and should be an expression of self. The only reason militant has historically been seen as problematic, is because privileged people far prefer marginalized people to be passive and silent.

I am not going to tell anyone how to negotiate their oppression, because to do so would embolden my various privileges, while removing their agency. Though Destruction and I share the same racial oppression, telling him how to feel, would send the message that he should sensor himself, or that he is not entitled to his feelings, which is exactly what Whiteness has invested so heavily in teaching him.  It is one thing to abjure violence, and another thing entirely to suggest that marginalized people have to avoid feelings of anger and hatred to those who do them harm.  In the end, whatever emotions he develops towards Whiteness, will be because of his lived experience, and it is not for me or anyone else to tell him how to feel. 

Whoop! Texas A&M Student Senate Passes Inclusive Non-Discrimination Policy

My rainbow family at Texas A&M had a trial and tribulation filled 2010-11 school year in which they had to deal with homophobes in their student government, Texas GOP state legislator Wayne Christian (R-Center) trying to attach amendments to the state budget bill that sought to ban all LGBT centers on college campuses or eliminate their funding that had the backing of the Texas A&M Student Senate, and deafening silence from the TAMU administration as all of this drama was going on. 

But there was some good news coming out of College Station last night as the Texas A&M Student Senate passed an inclusive non-discrimination policy that covers sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.

Whoop!   I guess the homophobic student senators either graduated or got booted out of office.

Congrats to my Aggie rainbow family, Andrew Jancaric and everyone who worked tirelessly to make that policy a reality.  As you, Lowell and other Aggies have consistently said and role modeled through your actions, hate is not an Aggie value.

Hopefully the knuckleheads on your beautiful campus who think it is will be reminded of that point if they attempt to ignore the new policy that makes it crystal clear.   

Houston 2011 TDOR Musings

The 13th Annual TDOR has come and gone for another year, and for the second straight year since I returned home I attended the Houston TDOR event on the UH campus.   .

This year instead of it being in the AD Bruce Religion Center's chapel, it was at Farish Hall

There were six speakers each making brief statements and one of them was HISD trustee Anna Eastman.  In a moving speech that garnered her a standing ovation, she surprisingly mentioned me speaking in front of the HISD board when they were proposing to add the gender ID inclusive policies back in June.

I was surprised to learn that my speech swayed the board into voting affirmatively for those policies.  Ironically I was pissed off when I left the HISD administration building that night because I felt it was the worst public speech I'd done in a while, but it did the job along with the several years of lobbying by Jenifer Rene Pool and Chris Busby to get us to that point.

The UH LGBT Advocates did a wonderful job in organizing the event.   We had to start it 15 minutes late due to the traffic exiting Robertson Stadium in the wake of the UH-SMU game but it ran smoothly.

I enjoyed seeing my UH younglings again in Marshella, LaKeia, Yesenia, and James.   Sat at a table with Lorraine Schroeder and Jo Tittsworth who shared some info with me about where the 2012 TTNS will take place, but I'll wait until the TTNS folks are ready to announce its location and dates before I post it.

Also enjoyed seeing various people in the Houston TBLG community.   Enjoyed finally meeting Tim Brookover in the flesh, and meeting fellow blogger Daniel Williams' sister Melissa.  I enjoyed seeing Judge Frye, Vanity Wilde, Lilly Roddy, Janet Logan and Jenifer Pool along with a long list of people who attended this event. 

I also got teased by Councilmember Jolanda Jones about the post I wrote about her on the blog.   She was there as one of the people reading the names of the people we memorialized on the 2011 list.  

But the thing that bothered me as I listened to the names being read and how they died is the same thing as last year.  70% of the people being memorialized on the Remembering our Dead lists are trans persons of color.  The one that really got to me was 14 year old Brazilian Erica Pinheiro de Siqueira who was shot eleven times on Christmas Day.

Obviously, hatin' on transpeople doesn't stop during the holiday season.  One of the speakers also mentioned that the GL community needs to clean up its own act internally when it comes to the anti-trans hate in the it's ranks a point which I wholeheartedly agree with and have been saying ad nauseum since 1998 along with countless other trans people.

As Rev. Abena McCoy said during the November 20 Washington DC TDOR, where they had a much more trouble filled year:

“You are unique, and the Creator loves you just as you are. You are not a mistake. God doesn’t make mistakes…We celebrate transgender today. Lord, you knew what you were doing when you created transgender.” Rev Abena McCray

That the Creator did.   It's past time the rest of the world and certain religious denominations got that message. 

Now that another TDOR is in our community's rear view mirror, what are we going to do so that when the calendar turns to November 20, 2012 we aren't reading names of people on the list from the Houston area?  

Will this community do a better job of ensuring the TDOR ceremonies reflect the diversity of this city and state we are all proud to live in and be better representative of a community that is responsible for writing some of the transgender community's history?

And the one thought crossing all our minds is how long will the list of names we read next year be?