The Transgender Sista Among Us

Minister Lisa Vazquez at the Black Women, Blow The Trumpet blog had a very interesting post she wrote on July 17 entitled 'The Transgender Sista Among Us: Chaos or Community?'

Check this thought provoking post out, TransGriot readers.

There are also as of this date 36 comments that run the gamut of opinion as well. If you wish to comment on it, please do so first on Lisa's blog. I also don't mind if y'all want to leave comments here as well.

From An E To A C

TransGriot Note: I mentioned that Dawn spent the last few days of her vacation in San Jose, CA fencing in the US Summer Nationals tourney there. She said she was ready, so did Maestro Stawicki. I'll let her tell you in her own words how things transpired.

Guest post by Dawn Wilson

When I was growing up I had the distinct pleasure of hearing how athletic and competitive my family was. For example my uncle "Sweet" Lou Johnson hit two home runs, including the game winner while clinching Game Seven of the 1965 World Series for the LA Dodgers. My first cousin Jack "Goose" Givens scored 41 points to win the 1978 NCAA championship for UK. That competiive drive also extends to other sporting arenas as well. My whole family are equestrians and my aunt Mary Evelyn in Lexington, KY coached her junior high school football team to 11 straight championships.

You get the point.

When I started fencing, I was slow and uncoordinated. Four years later I am coordinated, fast and now a national medallist. It has not been an easy road. I did a lot of this while dealing with difficult people, but I did it.

When I arrived Monday I was a little upset because my United flight was late. (I'm sticking with Southwest from now on.) I got checked into my hotel, grabbed something to eat with a team mate and squeezed in some work out time before heading to bed to be rested and prepared for Tuesday.

Despite feeling like I lacked proper preparation time in San Jose because of my late arrival the day before, I started the day off winning the first two bouts rather easily. I then had to face Liz Enochs who had been the NAC champ and point leader this year. I beat her 5-2 and went on to win the pool 6-0!

By the DE Mary Wilkerson was ranked 1st and I was ranked 2nd. Liz was ranked 4th. Thanks to my sweep of my pool I had a first round DE bye. Then I faced Cat Randall and Anne Galliano beating them by 10-6 and 10-5 scores. In the semis I faced Katherine Bowden-Scherer and Mary faced Liz. Both Mary and I were knocked out and had to fence for 3rd. Liz went on to become the 2008 Women's Veteran's 40 Champion and I beat Mary for the bronze medal. In the process, I earned a new rating: C08.

What that means is that I not only jumped up two spots ranking wise thanks to my performance in this tournament, I will fence in Division 1 in Decemeber and in January 2009 at home here in Louisville.

I wish to thank everyone in LFC for all the support I have received over the years. It was you guys who helped make this possible! I would especially like to thank the following people for going the extra mile: Maestro, Michael Gauss, Lou Felty, Will Garner and Kate(who was one of the few people who stayed late to practice with me from the saber class), Michelle Reese and Orion Bazzell.

I guess I am the family championship athlete now!

Why Do Black Folks Celebrate The Fourth Anyway?

This started out as a journal entry and morphed into a prayerful reflection on why it is that some black people celebrate the Fourth of July anyway. This is the shape of one woman's opinion looking through the lens of her trans experience.

Guest Post by Fredrikka Maxwell
July 7, 2008

Yesterday was the Fourth of July, America's 232nd birthday. I spent that day in Clarksville, TN with my mother, my sister, and briefly visited with one of my brothers.

At nine that evening I tuned to Nashville's channel Five for a broadcast of the fireworks display at Nashville's Riverfront Park. I kept watching the crowd to see if I could spot a black face. Not a particular black face, but any black face. Surely in a crowd that Nashville officials estimated to be around 100,000 there'd be some black folks, right?

Well in all the quick shots of the crowd I only caught a glimpse of one black face. And it suddenly made me feel sad. And I asked myself why do blacks celebrate the Fourth anyway?

One of the three commentators from the news team, urging the audience to enjoy the display, said: "It's yours. It's your America."

Perhaps that may be why black folks celebrate the Fourth. Maybe many of us recognize that although America has been unkind to the children of its former slaves, those same children somehow managed to help build this country anyway with our own blood, sweat, toil, and tears.

Perhaps many of us recognized that, although many of our soldiers could not sit down at a downtown lunch counter over a cup of coffee after the long train ride home, they were still American soldiers who have blessed the soil of every place American soldiers have ever marched going back to the American Revolution, with their blood.

Perhaps some of those soldiers dreamed, hoped, and prayed that some of their children would go to school and graduate from college and become supreme court justices and maybe, just maybe, on a long, long, shot, President of the United States. (That's right, I'm betting on young Mr. Obama!)

Maybe, despite the oppression we have borne, we are still in there hoping, praying, dreaming, and working, striving so that we shall overcome, and placing our claim before America and God so that one day, America will indeed be the great nation it can be.

If America is to be that great nation then things will have to change and we need the kind of change we can believe in. And that is especially true for us black trans men and women.

Go down to Memphis, Lord! And deal with those violent men who are sworn to uphold the law, and to protect and serve.

Go down to Memphis where our sisters end up near abandoned buildings and end up dead.

Go down to Philly, Lord, and find out what happened to sister Nizah way back in 2002.

Go down to DC, the nation's capital, Lord, and deal with those who execute our brothers and sisters on street corners in a furious hail of bullets, executed only for the crime of being trans.

And go down to Nashville, where the story of Nakia Baker broke and was written in disrespectful terminology.

Even our lawmakers sometimes seem a law unto themselves and their lobbyist friends. Witness how we've been sliced out of federal employment nondiscrimination legislation by a group that called themselves our allies, Lord! With allies like that who needs enemies?

These are not marks of a great nation. Perhaps they are the marks of a nation still trying, after nearly 230 years to come to grips with the claim of black America on our national charter and its founding document which declares for all the world to know that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all are created equal and are endowed by the Creator with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

And that includes trans people.

When America comes to grips with our claim upon its charter, then can God make of us a great nation. And maybe it is that hope, that prayer, that dream, that keeps us going and why some black folks celebrate the Fourth of July anyway.

Belly of the Beast-The Atlanta HRC Dinner

TransGriot Note: The transgender community's protests of HRC dinners continue. Last weekend was the Atlanta HRC dinner, and Monica Helms in a post from her Trans Universe Blog tells us what went down in the ATL.

The "Belly of the Beast" – The Atlanta HRC Dinner
By Monica F. Helms


At the last minute, I didn’t know if I could attend the Atlanta HRC Dinner protest in front of the Hyatt Regency, May 3, 2008. Work had me signed up to do 2 hours of overtime right in the middle of when the protest was scheduled. Luckily, I was able to trade the hours to a co-worker.

On Saturday, I had to formulate a plan to talk with the most people I could at the dinner. But in order to do that, I needed to go inside the “Belly of the Beast.” Being a former submariner, I was familiar with submarine war tactics, which have helped me as an activist in the past. You sneak into an enemy’s port, lay a few torpedoes in the sides of their ships, then slip silently away. They never know what hit them.

For this dinner, I needed a disguise, in other words, a “duck blind.” When hunting ducks, the hunters have to blend into the environment, so they build a camouflage enclosure where they can see the ducks, but the ducks cannot see them. For this, I would wear my long evening gown that had no back. It’s also how spies blend into a fancy party. “My name is Bond. Jane Bond.” I was ready to do some shaking AND stirring. Of course, I probably blew my cover when I wore my “Trans and Proud” and “TAVA” buttons.

I knew that I would not get into the dinner without a ticket and I had no intention of buying one. However, they always had their Silent Auction before the dinner and you didn’t have to have a dinner ticket to go in there.

When I arrived at the Hyatt, two people were already handing out flyers and holding signs. Sir Jesse was outside and Anneliese was just inside the hotel door, handing out flyers as people came in. Others who arrived later were Jamie, Jae, Marisa, Dante, Betty and a friend of hers, Ghetto Gospel.

I heard earlier from Betty that on Thursday, May 1st, Joe Solmonese had a meeting with a half dozen transgender people here in Georgia . I wasn’t invited, nor was a few other transgender people who have worked at the national level, such as Dana Owings, Kristin Reichman and Cole Thaler from Lambda Legal. I’m willing to bet it was not accidental.

I was told that Joe “. . . apologized for misspeaking at Southern Comfort . . .” and that “. . . had he known what was going to have happen, he wouldn’t have said what he had said.” To me that translates to “HRC has no integrity when it comes to speaking to transgender people and I have the backbone of a jelly fish.” George Orwell would be so proud.

Once inside, I strolled into the Silent Auction like I belonged there. In reality, if HRC was more supportive of transgender people and their needs, then I would have indeed belonged there. But, I was nothing more than an interloper in the game of intrigue. Okay, so I’m getting a bit melodramatic.

The first thing that I noticed was that in a city that has a large population of African Americans, the crowd looked distinctly white and distinctly male. There were some attendees who were People of Color and there were attendees who were female, but where I saw the most diversity was with the “hired help” and the volunteers. Interesting enough, one of the dinner’s co-chairs (Ebonee Bradford) was an African American woman.

The theme for the evening was a Las Vegas casino, complete with the bright lights, Vegas showgirls and an Elvis impersonator. I mingled with the crowd, talking to various people there, some who openly admitted they were part of HRC’s organization. I spoke with one woman who touted HRC’s “wonderful” Corporate Equality Index, having no idea I would be the wrong person to try and convince their CEI was so “perfect.” I proceeded to point out that my 100% company screwed me over simply because I’m trans when I needed a medically necessary operation that others in the company can get.

I told the woman the bar for transgender medical issues was set so low that an ant could jump over it. HRC does that to falsely inflate the numbers on the 100% list and to placate the corporations by allowing them to medically mistreat their transgender employees, just as long as their gay and lesbian employees are treated fairly. Transgender people don’t need to be treated fairly, by HRC’s standards.

During my journey through “ Never-Never Land ,” I had a chance to speak to the Beast Master himself, Joe Solmonese. I was nice and I complimented him on how appropriate the casino theme for the dinner was. “This is such a perfect theme you have here, Joe. It’s all about gambling . . . and you’re gambling with people’s lives.” I suspect he didn’t appreciate that.

Of course, I wasn’t going to stop there. I informed him about the Transgender Veterans Survey, conducted by TAVA that had just ended and it had 827 responses to it. Besides the military and VA-related questions in the survey, we had a great deal of general questions. I said he needs to see how many of our transgender veterans were unemployed and under-employed, and how many have been discriminated on the job. It didn’t seem to faze him. Ask me if I’m surprised.

Interesting, the number of transgender veterans who took our survey far surpasses the number of responses on the questionable survey HRC conducted to see if transgender people should be in ENDA. Also, you have to factor in the small population our respondents came from to really get the impact.

Then I asked Solmonese why I didn’t get an E-mail inviting me to the meeting on Thursday. He said, “I don’t know who put that together.” Ah, really? Does he expect me to believe he’s that clueless on something as important as a meeting? He then asked me, “What did you hear of the meeting?” I responded by saying, “That it took place and I wasn’t invited.” Also, the media wasn’t invited. I guess he doesn’t want to take a chance of going on record with what he says to transgender people. I wonder why.

The one thing that really set me off was when I had a chance to speak with a person I thought was a friend. He is an effeminate gay man who is the partner of a lawyer who I know through SLDN and the American Veterans for Equal Rights. He proceeded to tell me about his four-hour session at the spa to get ready for the event. I told him I was there to educate people on the need for a fully inclusive ENDA.

He said, “Oh, I don’t support that at all. They said there aren’t enough votes with transgender people in the bill. Besides, we need a win.”

I was pissed. “So, you want a win on the backs of millions of transgender people?” He tried to say something, but I continued. “You are an effeminate gay man and without Gender Identity and Gender Expression in ENDA, you’re just as fucked as transgender people. You and butch lesbians will be screwed, just like me.” He didn’t respond to that. Besides, he had his sugar daddy, so to hell with everyone else. I walked away.

The best thing I found out was when I went back outside to join the protest. Betty, a member of the Atlanta Pride Committee, informed me that they just had a vote that day to turn down HRC’s offer to be a sponsor for this year’s Pride. In a year where the expenses have increased in putting on Atlanta Pride, they turned down $5000 from HRC because of their stance on ENDA. I always knew I loved the people on the Atlanta Pride Committee, but this made me love them even more. I hope others will take that stance with HRC at their pride events. Betty also informed me that a trans man will be the Grand Marshall for the Pride Parade.

So much for the Atlanta HRC Dinner. I may not have made an impact on many people, but a friend reminded me that every little bit helps. I want to express my appreciation to Jamie Roberts and Sir Jesse McNulty for putting this together. It’s people like them and the Atlanta Pride Committee who make me proud to live in Georgia.

HRC's Overdrawn At The Bank Of Trust

by Vanessa Edwards Foster
http://www.transpolitical.blogspot.com/


"You say it's fine -- keep your place in line
Keep biding your time but you talk in a vacuum.
Because you've been bought
I don't know what I want
But I know I don't want to be anything like you." — Interference, Cop Shoot Cop

While I watch the returns coming in from Pennsylvania’s primary, I’m going to keep things short. It appears Hillary’s found a way to keep her campaign alive and a lot of it is dependent upon keeping the gay and lesbian vote in tact and activated.

Regardless of how little I care for her candidacy, sending Chelsea out was a good strategy and well-played: use your strength to cover the one area you might be weakest in to neutralize your opponent’s strength – in this case, Obama’s dominance of the urban centers. A little master-stroke for Harold Ickes. However, I still plan on making his and his candidate’s life hell for their taking for granted our community. Just the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) repudiation factor in Trans America alone will play well with our base and those who still support full equality rather than the watered-down imitation.

While on the subject of HRC, a rumor came a few weeks back from a prominent activist in the community with ties to HRC that another of our community leaders was meeting with Joe Solmonese. I just took it with a grain of salt to see if another shoe dropped.

Well, the other shoe did drop. This time it came from a surprise return of one of my old contacts on the Hill who noted HRC’s reporting to him of a lunch meeting between Joe himself and the “transgender community’s leader” to smooth things out. Initially he thought that was me! He’s been off the hill since about 2002 and I assured him it was no one from NTAC (barely able to contain my laugh). I can also say it was not Donna Rose either, something I confirmed.

For now we’ll just narrow it down and leave it at that point. Until then, it’s “Mystery Trans” ….

But it does beg one question from either party: what the hell are they thinking?!?

No matter how stupid HRC presumes trans folks are how do they calculate that we haven’t figured out their notably consistent behavior patterns yet? Even dumb animals pick up on patterns after so many replays. Speaking for myself, I’m no worse than a dumb animal and I’ll wager that the trans community isn’t either. (For the record, I was onto them in the late 90’s). Yeah, most all have figured out the cheap trick.

We in the transgender community have never been afforded credibility in gay and lesbian America even when we were fully honest. After HRC’s record of trust betrayal, and further the manipulation afterwards for political cover, how do they feel they’ll warrant any trust? As the saying goes “there’s no fool like an old fool.” Well, we’re done with this. Stick a fork in it. They’re inexpiable.

As for this “transgender community leader,” if you think you’re being seen as doing anything beyond self-serving motivations by playing into HRC’s hands and helping fracture our already-fractured community even further, dream on! Waking up to reality will be exceedingly tough.

Truly we’re a cash-poor community. HRC’s ability to flash a little green and put stars in peoples’ eyes and attract the occasional myopically self-ambitious tranny to help them sink us from inside is well established. But if HRC is thinking they’re going to have us following these Manchurian trannies now or in the future, they’re out of their overconfident minds. It’s this combination of temerity and arrogance that’s going to smash them and their historical legacy, along with any Transidict Arnold they get to cling to their back like a baby possum while mama possum crosses the ten-lane midtown interstate during rush hour.

Their history is etched in stone, never to be revised away. Forgiveness is easy – forgetting is not. They already know that. They’ve never forgotten us and what umbrage they took from us – and we’ve never taken money from or opportunized upon their issues nor urged gay-exclusive legislation. Yet they’re still vindictive. All things considered, what do they realistically expect from us?

As in banking, trust is doled out on their history. Debts can be forgiven, but future loans are only given again once they’ve demonstrated enough to make those they’ve burned previously sufficiently overlook those old burn scars. In the bank and trust of queer equality, HRC is the most severely and consistently overdrawn.

If HRC really thinks solutions are as simple as finding or creating their new tranny shill to assist in the obfuscation and deceit, they’ll learn in short order that we’re no longer playing those games. And it will be yet one more brick in the wall between us.

“I don't need no walls around me.
And I don't need no drugs to calm me.
I have seen the writing on the wall.
Don't think I need any thing at all.
All in all it was all just the bricks in the wall.” — Another Brick In The Wall - Part III, Pink Floyd

“You're a total blank and you're as funny as a bank.” — Interference, Cop Shoot Cop

Transgender Pride: It’s About Time

Guest Post by Bet Power

When it comes to our rights, we transgender people cannot wait our turn. Yet that’s what Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and the Human Rights Campaign told us to do when they stripped the proposed federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) of protections for gender identity/expression and left in only sexual orientation.

They also told us this: Let lesbians and gays (but only those who are gender-conforming) move forward under the law while trans people stay behind; “incrementalism” is a valid strategy for human rights; gender identity/expression would kill the bill; the votes were not there to pass the original, trans-inclusive ENDA; trans people first need to educate others more; and – most offensively – yours (Trans) is a new movement: put in more time, pay some more dues.

Tell that to Susan Stanton, the Largo, Florida city manager fired for transitioning to female. Tell that to 15-year-old Lawrence King, an effeminate gay boy bullied and then killed by a classmate who shot him in the head just because of what he wore.

It’s about time we look at history to see how long trans people have struggled.

Transgender is not a recent fad. In the United States, trans and intersex activism started before gay activism. In 1895, a group of New York androgynes started a group called The Cercle Hermaphrodites “to unite for defense against the world’s bitter persecution.” (Stryker: It’s Your History). It wasn’t until 1924 that Henry Gerber founded The Society for Human Rights, in Chicago. In 1950, the gay-male oriented Mattachine Society began; and in 1956, the lesbian group Daughters of Bilitis.

Trans people took part in the civil rights activism of the 1960s, including a group of 150 patrons in “non-conforming clothes” who were turned away at Dewey’s Lunch Counter in Philadelphia. They went on to protest and distribute information about gender variance.

Some would like us not to mention Compton’s Cafeteria, where the first recorded transgender riot against police oppression occurred in August 1966 in San Francisco, preceding the more famous 1969 Stonewall Riots in NYC by three years.


Some prefer to erase important historical facts about Stonewall itself, which started Gay Pride:

▼ Police routinely harassed bar patrons under old NY state laws prohibiting cross-dressing as well as men dancing with men.

▼ A transgender woman, Sylvia Rivera, threw a bottle at a police officer after being prodded by his nightstick (Duberman: Stonewall), perhaps the first act of resistance at the Stonewall Inn sparking several nights of riots. Rivera said, “That night, everything clicked. Great, now it’s my time. I’m out there being a revolutionary for everybody else, now it’s time to do my own thing for my own people.” (E. Marcus: Making History)

▼ A butch female wearing a man’s black leather jacket who was being brought to a patrol car put up a fierce struggle that encouraged the crowd to do the same (D’Emilio: Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities).


▼ Besides Sylvia Rivera, these transgender individuals – among others – are veterans of Stonewall: Marsha P. Johnson, Daria Modon, Miss Major, China Fucito, and Storme DeLarverie.

▼ When riot control police arrived at the Stonewall to rescue officers trapped inside the bar and break up the demonstration, a group of drag queens formed a chorus line, kicked up their heels, and taunted police by singing, “ We are the Stonewall girls / We wear our hair in curls / We wear no underwear / We wear our dungarees / Above our nelly knees!” (www.glbtq.com)

▼ Throughout the first night of the riots, police singled out many transgender and transsexual people and gender non-conformists, including butch women and effeminate men, often beating them.

If it were not for the Stonewall veterans – including drag queens, trans people, and transsexuals alongside gays and lesbians – we would not have the community assets and organizations we have today, from GLAAD and GMHC to Lambda Legal Defense and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project.

It’s about time we move forward with a loud and proud 21st century Transgender Movement. We’ve come of age. Our time is now. Critical legislation is in need of your support. Until the LGBTI Movement stands up to oppression based both on gender expression/identity and sexual orientation, the federal ENDA and Hate Crimes bills may never pass. Trans people want to keep making progress along with gays, lesbians, and bisexuals – just like at Stonewall.

We hope to see you all at the first New England Transgender Pride March & Rally on June 7 in Northampton (www.transpridemarch.org). Remember Stonewall? That was us! “We’re fired up / Won’t take no more!”

Bet Power is the Director and Curator of the Sexual Minorities Archives, a national collection of LGBTI literature, history, and art since 1974, located in Northampton, MA. He is also the founder of the East Coast FTM Group (www.ecftm.org), monthly peer support for the full spectrum of masculine persons in the transgender community.

"These Republicans Will Self-Destruct in 10 Seconds...."

Guest Post By Vanessa Edwards Foster
Trans Political


“In the attic, lies.
Voices scream.
Nothing’s seen.
Real’s a dream.” — Toys In The Attic, Aerosmith

Is it just me, or does the Republican Party seem to be doing everything possible to self-destruct right before everyone’s eyes? Sex scandals, crossdressing judges, financial improprieties, lobbyist influences, dissension amongst their ranks, duplicity and a seeming obliviousness to reality all seem to be the mode of the day in what’s become the legacy of the so-called Reagan Revolution.

This week saw (of all things) innuendo of possible extra-marital relations from presidential front-runner John McCain with (of all people) a lead lobbyist for the telecommunications industry. Apparently this was based upon speculation … but it was speculation by his own senate and former campaign staff – not from Democratic Party insiders.

Could it be the revenge of the conservatives – the Coulter, Limbaugh & Dobson wing of the party? It’s certainly possible. Currently the party and the McCain campaign are trying to deflect the spotlight and force it to the New York Times who broke the story. Unsurprisingly there’s been nothing but outrage coming in concert from the entire GOP party ranks (though I can’t help but think there’s a vengeful smirk on the faces of some of those McCain-haters in hardcore conservative-land).

But before you rush to judge the New York Times for putting the hater-ade on McCain, keep in mind that this is the same New York Times who also endorsed McCain as the best candidate for president over even home-state girl, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Yes the timing of this seems suspicious and the automatic presumption that it was a liberal sneak-attack may well be overlooking obvious saboteurs from within. As I write, it appears there may be some cracks in McCain’s solid denials as other publications such as Newsweek are inspecting this closer.

Beyond the top-level it seems the hits just keep on coming in sanctimonious GOPperville. Arizona Rep. Rick Renzi is now charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering from a land deal he pushed in his congressional committee for a business partner and other which netted him $733,000 at a time his insurance business was strapped for cash. He allegedly worked to conceal the transaction as well, failing to disclose it on that year’s financial disclosure statement. I’m sure the excuse will be “mere oversight … it’s hard to keep track of all these insignificant amounts of money….”

But there’s more! Renzi was also charged with insurance fraud and embezzling from the trust account of Patriot Insurance Agency, his family-owned business in his home district. It seems he raided the business cookie jar and left nothing but crumbs in order to fund his successful election to Congress in the Bush/Cheney coattail elections in 2000. Shades of Tom “the Hammerhead” Delay – or as he’s more commonly known in Texas: BugBoy. DeLay did the same thing by timing his entry to Congress on the Reagan coattails and did so by bankrupting his former exterminating business (slogan: “DDT is healthy!”) to finance his successful ascent to U.S. Congress. Oh – and he left his former partners holding the bag. At least Renzi tried to go back and help his former bagmen. Too bad it’s going to backfire on them.

Then there’s the ongoing saga Idaho Sen. Larry Craig in what was a busy news month (thankfully allowing very little press attention for the senator!) The Senate Ethics Committee gave ol’ Sen. Larry a soft slap-down (admonished, not censured) for his indiscretion. True-to-form he’s going down swinging, saying he was “disappointed” and that he “strongly disagree[s] with the conclusions reached” by the committee. Sen. Larry feels he got the shaft. But hey, he at least had use of a couple-hundred grand from his campaign fund to help him fight to overturn his initial guilty plea! Yep, life’s so unfair to the senate’s top toilet tapdancer.

“I will tell you that the Senate certainly can bring about a censure reslution and it's a slap on the wrist. It's a, "Bad boy, Bill Clinton. You're a naughty boy." The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy, a naughty boy. I'm going to speak out for the citizens of my state, who in the majority think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.” — Sen. Larry Craig, remarking on Bill Clinton’s sexual indiscretions with Monica Lewinsky.

Not to be outqueered, there was a Bush appointee to the federal bankruptcy court bench, Robert Somma. It seems the good judge was arrested on a driving-while-intoxicated charge after a minor rear-ender (not the queer part, this was the vehicular variety) in neighboring New Hampshire. It seems Judge Somma was pulled over following a visit to a gay bar while in heels, fishnet hose and a black evening gown.

For Judge Somma, I feel sorry: he hasn’t made a career of being a red-meat, mouth-frothing social conservative – it’s more a guilty by party affiliation situation. Of course that party affiliation will cease immediately now that he’s been found to be trans while driving drunk. DWI by itself is assailable, heterosexual adultery (a la Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana) is excusable in family-values conservative-land. But being undeniably queer? Kiss of death.

It’s not necessarily the press’ fault this time. The conservative papers in New Hampshire only mentioned the drunk driving and had nothing about Somma’s dress – oddly a rather progressive take on it considering it was his DWI arrest that should’ve been the the highlight, not crossdressing. Expectedly, the bloggers – progressive and conservative alike – picked up on the crossdressing part. Now it’s all about the judge’s “perversions” of being caught in drag. On the liberal blogs it’s expected considering this was conservative Bush’s pick and considering the in-your-face conservative hypocrisy displayed this millennium. But conservative blogs? Gotta admire that Good-Ol’-Party loyalty a la Schrock and Foley….

“And does it matter who is right or wrong?
I look for something before I go insane.” — I Feel Insane, Daisy Chainsaw

On the topic of perversion, moving down to the state level there’s also the case of Republican State Delegate (State Rep) Robert McKee from Hagerstown MD. It appears that Delegate McKee recently resigned his longtime delegate seat after authorities obtained a search warrant and seized his computers and files. It appears the delegate, sponsor of bills on child abduction and protecting children from sexual predators had child pornography on his computer.

Even more troubling was the resume outside of politics from the family values Republican: Washington County Foster Care Review Board, 1989-95; Western Maryland Children's Center Advisory Board, 2005-Executive Director, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Washington County, Little League of Halfway, Inc., 1980-85, Secretary, Parent and Child Center Advisory Committee, 1985-88, Staff, Maryland District I Little League, 1986-. Chair, Maryland State Association of Big Brothers and Big Sisters Agencies, 1986-. Vice-President, Hagerstown Junior Basketball League as well as a member in good stead of First Christian Church in Hagerstown. McKee called the incident “deeply embarrassing” and added that, “it reflects poorly on my service to the community.” You reckon?

Want something local? Here in Harris County / Houston, Texas we’ve got our own red-meat conservative in deep doo-doo. It seems our District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal got into trouble for Email indiscretions (including shared racial cartoons and videos), then after his communications were subpoenaed, he committed obstruction of justice by deleting the evidence. His initial Email trail exposed little love notes to his administrative assistant: things like “every time I fly I think of you” and “I bet I could help you sleep” and “I want to kiss you behind your ear.” When it was just those claims, he attempted to put on the innocent face, claiming it wasn’t what people were thinking they were. Then came the racially-biased cartoons and shared videos depicting African Americans that came to light with much more heat. This from our county, which sentences more people to death row than any other county in the nation in a state that executes more convicts than any other in the nation – the overwhelming majority are minority with African-Americans comprising the highest individual number.

So what does our top legal beagle in the county do when the state’s closing in and orders him to turn over all communication transcripts? Why, what any other good law-and-order Republican would do: delete the Emails. If the White House can do it, why can’t he … right? Meanwhile one of the instant candidates (someone deep in the closet, no less) who swarmed in from the GOP side like vultures on a fresh carcass began the call for Rosenthal to step aside “for the good of the party.” Yeah. Someone’s wearing their ambition a bit too prominently on their sleeve, it seems. And who better to elect than another closeted Republican, eh? Bush redux, or Schrock or Foley or Craig et. al.

Finally, DA Rosenthal resigned this week, claiming his decision-making was clouded due to his prescription drugs. And, oh yeah – the dog ate his homework too. Certainly it makes you wonder about this obscured judgment from the top legal authority in the county that he would even attempt the claim (not to mention all the convictions now lying in the balance considering this impairment). But maybe there’s some merit to this claim (implausible as it seems). On the Bennett & Bennett.com blog noting Rosenthal’s departure and claims about prescription drugs, Mark Bennett notes that Rosenthal’s prescribing physician was Dr. Sam Siegler … husband of Kelly Siegler … assistant prosecutor in the DA’s office and one of the loudest voices calling for Rosenthal’s resignation and herself one of those instant candidates filing for Rosenthal’s seat in the 24-period between the Rosenthal scandal hitting the air and the deadline to make the upcoming primary elections. This is the kind of intrigue and curious maneuvering you typically only see in soap operas.

“Although I have enjoyed excellent medical and pharmacological treatment, I have come to learn that the particular combination of drugs prescribed for me in the past has caused some impairment in my judgment.” — Harris County District Attorney, Chuck Rosenthal

Think this kind of backroom strategizing doesn’t occur in real life? Just tonight I watched as 60 minutes broke the story on former Alabama governor Don Siegelman, a democrat, being apparently railroaded and convicted on bribery charges and sentenced to seven years last summer. It appears that Siegelman was specifically targeted being the only democrat as governor of the bank of states in the Deep South. This rubbed the Bush Administration raw, and none other than master-of-chaos Karl Rove began a search to have someone find a way to frame the governor (for lack of a better word). Currently 52 current and former state attorneys general of both parties – conservative and liberal alike – have called for a congressional investigation into what they feel was a blatant miscarriage of justice. Apparently the entire scheme was plotted to keep Alabama’s governor a Republican. And apparently they can concoct such a plot, find the devotees to carry the case to fruition and lock someone up merely for a political agenda.

This was ordered from the White House administration!

“Leaving the things that are real behind.
Leaving the things that you love from mind.
All of the things you learned from fears.
Nothing is left for the years ….
Toys! Toys! Toys … in the attic!” — Toys In The Attic, Aerosmith

Yes, this Grand Old Party has shown its rotten core from the top to the bottom. Think the GOPpers are slinking away? From presidential frontrunner McCain, it was damn the torpedoes and blast away at Obama, calling the senator’s campaign “an eloquent but empty call for change.” At the local level, I watched nine of the ten GOP candidates running for Tom DeLay’s old seat, all of whom were completely making no bones about their desire to retake his seat and America with a return to “true conservative values,” as candidate Patricia Dunbar put it. All of the assembled on this morning’s local were trying mightily to out-froth-at-the-mouth the others candidates, and in fact the debate was great for a few great belly laughs (which I may write about later). These GOP folk are so clueless they may as well be from another galaxy!

Who needs the “call for change” when, as McCain would infer, we’re doing just great with the past eight years of conservative reign? And they think transgenders are crazy?

“I'm getting (fucking) older but still I'm hanging on.
The world gets weirder – or maybe I'm insane.” — I Feel Insane, Daisy Chainsaw

"There is a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line." — TV personality, Oscar Levant

HRC3 ≠ Bright Future For Transgenders

Guest post by Vanessa Edwards Foster
www.transpolitical.blogspot.com

“This is a story of the lives and loves, and hopes and dreams, of young Batswana [sic] in the context of the changing cultural norms and values of modern times. Each of the dancers are shaped and challenged by the forces upon them: love, power, money, lust, and authority. They must choose their destiny by making difficult choices and search for what they truly believe in.” — plot summary for the documentary, Re Bina Mmogo (2004)

It’s been a really blue funky week and a half for me. Seeing John Edwards drop out of the race just over a week ago, I’m left with nothing but second choices for the upcoming presidential election. I feel as if I’m wakening from a really bad hangover.

My personal preference was for a presidential candidate who would address the rampant inequities, to eliminate poverty and end the disenfranchisement and disparity in this entitlement-oriented society. The last thing I wanted was a choice of gatekeepers for the corporate power stranglehold status quo.

With my last best hope for that out of the campaign at virtually the same time my job ended, it’s been consideration time over the two primary candidates who are left.

Sen. Barack Obama seems like a decent enough selection, but then the sublime (and not-so-sublime) race baiting started up from the Clinton campaign – specifically by Bill Clinton himself. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s closeness to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is bad enough, but this was a further turnoff. Soon that was followed by the opposition in the guise of Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) and others turning it into tit-for-tat mud war with the two campaigns voting blocs breaking into race vs. gender lines.

So much for us unifying.

To Obama’s credit, he’s been mostly above this fray and has done a remarkable job keeping this from being a “black presidency” / race-oriented campaign. While it’s been toned down a bit from the supporters on both sides, it feels more like a volcanic dome for now with a still volatile magma bubbling underneath awaiting catalyst.

More baffling is why Obama has not tried to capture the elemental message of Edwards’ campaigns (both ’04 and current) and indeed Martin Luther King Jr’s. dream in this, Black History month: to give voice to the ills that currently wrack this nation’s economy. The rhetoric of wanting to work with and negotiate compromise with Corporate America – the very parties who’ve overwhelmingly benefited from and by-produced this avariciously stagflated malaise – is troubling. These guys are pros at business negotiation, and they never go to the table with intention of losing anything, period. To break even or gain are they’re only options. Negotiating with them means the workforce stands to break even at best, or worse, lose even more. Neither option is palatable.

Sen. Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Obama also caused me to step back for a second look. Kennedy’s great on most social issues, but is about as intransigent on opposing transgender rights as it gets in Democratic circles.

While I haven’t particularly cared for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s politics heretofore (most especially her “working with the system” approach mirroring Obama’s rhetoric), I also had to consider the fact that she’s the hopes and dreams of the Women’s Movement, personified by the National Organization for Women (NOW). That’s no small consideration as NOW has stood by the transgender community through thick and thin in recent years. Understandably I have a good deal of respect for them.

Meanwhile, the African American organizational leadership has done precious little for the transgender community – even for the African American trans community – recently. It would’ve been nice to have a prominent organization chime in during this session’s House ENDA debacle where Barney Frank (seemingly in concert with the High Impact Coalition) managed to pull a number of significant African American legislators in the House into a bloc opposing transgender inclusion in ENDA. Rep. Clyburn himself was one of the chiefs among those.

Then again, none of the above occurring should necessarily read anything into the Obama campaign as they’re disconnected incidents. Similarly NOW’s desire for a Hillary Clinton presidency shouldn’t be read as saying Hillary and NOW are on the exact same wavelength. Lord knows that the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has sunk their hooks eye-deep into Clinton as well, which also doesn’t bode well but may similarly be discounted as completely unconnected.

So now that Super Tuesday’s come and gone, and both candidates are close in delegate count – with an recent slight shift in momentum towards Clinton, I began giving both campaigns a serious look. Meanwhile, a friend of mine who knew of my transgender status and I believe knew I was an Edwards supporter sent me a statement from Sen. Hillary Clinton to the LGBT community via the Bilerico Blog, title of which was “I Want To Be Your President.” This was doubtlessly an attempt to sell me on supporting the Clinton campaign.

The statement started off impressively enough. Clinton noted that “[f]or seven long years, the Bush Administration has tried to divide us - only seeing people who matter to them. It's been a government of the few, by the few, and for the few. And no community has been more invisible to this administration than the LGBT community.” At prima facie it’s powerful statement with a very cohesive quality.

Then I caught myself and read it again. Indeed it does say LGBT. However, what we’re seeing play out currently in Congress on Employment Rights is about sexual orientation only, and the Transgender community is still completely inconsequential (if not outright invisible) to this effort. It’s not simply the Bush Administration trying to divide us. It’s Democrats – worse, gay Democrats. Kinda renders the good senator’s moving statement rather inert.

A little later, she follows it up with “I am proud to be a co-sponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act ….” Really? So maybe, Sen. Clinton, when you were saying LGBT, it was one of those statements you just blurt out from habit, without really thinking about what LGBT (specifically the T part) infers?

Nope. Near the end of the same statement Hillary proudly claims “[w]e're going to expand our federal hate crimes legislation and pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and assure that they are both fully inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.”

So maybe she’s not paying attention to the actual text of the legislation she’s “proudly” co-sponsoring? I can only speculate on this. Didn’t she get into trouble for supporting legislation giving presidential authorization to Bush to unilaterally decide upon war with Iraq? One would think she would be more diligent about legislative text after such an incident.

Sen. Clinton proclaimed “I am proud to have fought Republican efforts to demonize and marginalize the LGBT community, and I will continue to do that as President.” Good, good. How about the marginalizing of us from the Democrats’ efforts? Say, like, maybe taking a stand against these progressive legislators supporting anti-discrimination for gays and lesbians in employment, but still saying we can’t have trans folks in the workplace in positions of responsibility? That would be helpful! Then again, Clinton herself answered in a Town Hall (to a transgendered questioner, no less) that she supported a fully inclusive ENDA in theory, but had concerns about trans people in certain positions of responsibility…. But she’s also “fully committed to the fair and equal treatment of LGBT Americans.” The doublespeak is starting to bleed through a bit too conspicuously.

The good senator couldn’t help but to gush over her credentials, to have “spoken in front of so many LGBT audiences” such as “the Human Rights Campaign, Empire State Pride Agenda ….” Hmmm. there’s something to win back the transgender hearts – two prominent organizations that also support non-inclusive, incremental, “sexual orientation only” rights. Really warms your heart, doesn’t it? Or maybe that’s just heartburn – I can’t decide.

Somehow, either Penn & Associates (Clinton’s Campaign advisors) or the LGBT Steering Committee is failing badly at what Hollywood calls “continuity.” Did they really think that lucid trans folk would find these claims attractive? Boy, I just love being considered as clear-thinking as a box of rocks! I suppose you’ve got to admire their chutzpah, if nothing else – nice try!

To close the deal, our Mrs. Clinton then vows “to have openly gay and lesbian staffers serving at all levels of my campaign.” Finally! Now that’s a statement I can believe without hesitation. Sure, there is no “transgender” mentioned there – but at least she was honest in this particular part. To me, falseness is deceitful hoax. With certainty there is at least comfort in knowing.

Is it sad that Sen. Clinton believes that any openly transgender staffer – even at an entry level – is a total non-starter? Surely! But we transgenders need to understand that at the current level, we are only “rhetorically” equal – not “egalitarian” equal. It was something that Sen. Edwards pointed out while in office, and that also earned him the cold-shoulder from the likes of HRC, et. al. Heaven forbid that transgenders end up in positions of responsibility! Can you imagine their embarrassment and shame? (Pardon me while I extract tongue from cheek.)

Actually, this entire Clinton “statement to LGBT” could well have been written by HRC. No surprise, though. Hilary Rosen (former board member and mate of former executive director, Elizabeth Birch) is the Chair of the LGBT Steering Committee for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Thus we complete the trinity of HRC to the third power: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Human Rights Campaign, and Hilary Rosen, Chair of the LGBT Steering Committee (okay, that last one was a bit of a stretch). Nevertheless, they feel it’s foregone conclusion, it’s in the stars and in the numbers and that their dream agenda of LGB incremental rights is eminent and will come to pass.

Both of my contacts on the Hill noted that it was the dream game plan was to not have a transgender-inclusive piece of employment legislation crossing the desk of “President Clinton” (as one staffer put it one year ago). According to one of the contacts, .the lobbyists and a couple of the leaders in the House appear to be seeking ways to inconspicuously “ease away from [gender identity].”

As I write, we’re seeing this scenario play out before us in the House and shortly the Senate as well, and not strictly with ENDA.

Even former HRC board member, Donna Rose, also noted in her blog that “I'd be remiss if I didn't share that a large group of LGBT steering committee supporters is floating a string of emails in the background recommending that she use the term "gay and lesbian" instead of GLBT when talking to broader audiences.” I couldn’t help but note that Donna also got the same “I Want To Be Your President” statement being passed around (widely it seems as hers came from a different source).

As it turns out, my friend’s forwarding of the Clinton statement did make up my mind. It did not form my decision as she likely intended. After yet another rather HRC-centric statement coming from the Clinton campaign, I’m tossing my lot in with Sen. Barack Obama. Hopefully we might see a more Edwards or Kucinich or Richardson-level of support for transgenders from Sen. Obama.

One thing that is for certain: a vote for Sen. Clinton may as well be a vote for HRC and it’s incremental and non-egalitarian approach to equality. It’s a case of “just buy the campaign message and don’t ask questions.” They’ll manipulate and bury our issues, we’ll never be heard from and then hope disappears.

The last thing I want to do is give HRC any easy victories courtesy of the transgender community. If they can brazenly work to marginalize our organizations and leaders and to thwart rights for transgenders, then we shouldn’t be faint of heart nor have misgivings when it comes to returning like in kind. With Obama we have at least a sliver of hope. It’s certainly better than the current alternative!

“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose ….” — Me and Bobby McGee, Kris Kristofferson

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” — Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Enron Activism

Guest post by Monica F. Helms

After ten years as an activist for the transgender community, I am seeing a rather dangerous trend in the mindset of many other activists in our community. I call it “Enron Activism,” after the failed corporation who convinced their employees to put all of their money in the company’s stock and not diversify. Many transgender people are not supporting the idea of diversifying our efforts when approaching various issues. We saw what happened to the Enron people when they didn’t diversify. Not pretty.

I’m not talking about those wonderful people who work just one issue, like homelessness, AIDS/HIV, the youth, or transgender veterans. I’m talking about those who think their approach to the broader issues facing the community is the only way we can accomplish anything. They even go as far as saying that what other people are doing has no merit.

Historical references from other rights movements show us that a multi-prong approach is always the best. Each of those movements had leaders who took one direction to achieve their goals, while others took another direction. While Gandhi was on his hunger strike, others were in the streets protesting. A similar thing happened in South Africa and here in this country. Individuals took a single approach, but they DID NOT put down those taking a different approach. That’s the difference I’m seeing today in the transgender community.

I have heard a lot of negative comments from all sides of the transgender community on what other people are doing. Most of the comments are centered on how the community should react to HRC and their supporters. I have been a target of some of those attacks for things I’ve said. Some people are saying we should ignore HRC, but when others want to do protests, educational initiatives or write extensive blogs about HRC, they are somehow “wrong.” Why? “I don’t see any benefits in that.” I can’t recall anyone becoming omnipotent all of a sudden.

Others who are planning on doing educational initiatives at HRC events are looking at those who want to ignore HRC and they say, “I don’t see how that will do any good.” For a community that prides itself on being able to think beyond binaries, it amazes me to see so many stuck with a singular viewpoint in activism. And sadly, some are stuck in a never-ending, singular hatred towards others in this community.

I get the impression that if a person didn’t come up with an idea initially, then it has to be wrong, flawed, not helpful, or has no redeeming value. Sometimes, one never sees the redeeming value of an effort until after someone makes that effort. I always say, “There is no shame in failure, but there is in failure to try.” Why are there so many in this community who don’t even want to try and want to put down those who do?

This very thing happened to TAVA when we decided to have the first Transgender Veterans March to the Wall. Other veterans dumped on us with all kinds of negative remarks, such as, “You shouldn’t be so visible at the Wall.” “People will say horrible things to you.” “The police will arrest you.” “You have to have a lot of people to make it successful.” It turned out to be one of the smoothest run events in transgender history. We had 50 people show up; we laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and even got a police escort from the hotel to the Wall. We were not afraid to try and look what happened.

It would be nice that one of these days someone will come up with a novel idea and instead of hearing from a ton of negative people in our community, we hear things like. “I may not want to participate, but I wish you luck.” Or, “Let us know how it goes.” Or even, “Just be careful.” No, we won’t hear that. Some will waste a multitude of bandwidth writing on why this person is wrong, why the effort will fail, and even put down the person on a personal level. It’s a terrible thing to witness, but I am guilty of doing it, too.

Rather than the constant horizontal in-fighting, we need to become more unified. Yes, I know I’m dreaming. Many talk a good game about wanting to unify the community, but their actions and constantly putting down of what others are doing makes that unification much harder.

A person may think that what someone else is doing will not help the community, but they need to stop verbalizing it. We are coming up on one of the most critical years in our history and the action of outside groups and people to divide us are succeeding. We are better than that . . . at least I think we are.

I can just see Ken Lay smiling because the transgender community’s attitude toward diversification mirrors his. He’s looking at us through all those flames that surround him.


TransGriot Note: Monica F. Helms is the founder and president of TAVA, the Transgender American Veterans Association

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

Schoolin' Rev. Coleman

Guest commentary by Jaison Gardiner
This was printed in the Louisville Courier journal November 27, 2007


Rev. Louis Coleman of the Justice Resource Center was quoted in the November 16 issue of the Courier-Journal that 'he worries that expanding our school district's harassment and employment policies to protect against sexual orientation discrimination will open the door for gay and lesbian employees to push their beliefs onto students.

"I just don't think policies should be put in place to protect habits or behaviors."

That's news to me since he was a Fairness supporter back in the day.

Fellow Frank Simon-flunkie Rev. Charles Elliott said that the fight for equal rights for LGBT people is nothing like the struggles of black folks during the civil rights movement. "We were fighting a race problem back then, not a habit or behavioral problem… Being (gay) is a choice. We didn't have a choice to be black, we were born that way,” he insists.

Being LGBT isn't a 'choice' as he disrespectfully put it either.

Mike Slaton, organizer for the Fairness Campaign of Louisville, said no one is suggesting that anti-gay bias is the same as racism. "Hate hurts no matter who it is directed at. We all deserve fairness regardless of our race, sex, creed, sexual orinetation or gender identity. No one chooses to be the object of discrimination."

While Mr. Slaton’s attempts at mitigating the gay rights movement are admirable, he is only half right.

Anti-gay bias is indeed the same as racism, sexism and the other isms. The fact is that all oppressions are linked and injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

In our society, the heterosexual, middle-class, white Christian male is the benchmark against wich all others are measured. Generally speaking, the less one of us measures up to this standard, the lower we find ourselves on the totem pole of social justice and public opinion.

As long as some people believe its okay and have the misguided idea that their religion makes it's okay to discriminate against people, then it will be necessary for political leaders to pass civil rights protections for the low people on the societal totem pole.

Changing this negative paradigm demands that we all work in coalition with others (yes, even gay folks) in the social justice movement without leaving anyone behind.

LGBT people have no more of a choice in deciding our identity than black folks, heterosexuals or women. The only 'choice' we make is either to hide who we are or to live openly as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Religion and political affiliation are choices that are currently protected by JCPS nondiscrimination policies, so why are Coleman and crew getting upset about the proposed addition of sexual orientation and gender identity to those policies?

I’d like to point out to Rev. Coleman and those who think like him the story of Bayard Rustin, an influential black civil rights activist who did much of his work behind the scenes. Rustin was the principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington in which Dr. King delivered his famous 'I Have A Dream' speech.

Bayard Rustin injected Gandhi’s non violent protest techniques to the Black civil rights movement and helped sculpt Dr. King into the iconic Nobel prize winning national symbol of peace and nonviolence that he would became.

Only one problem. Bayard Rustin was gay.

Some of Rustin’s contemporaries in Dr. King's inner circle decided that Rustin’s audacity to be true to himself as an openly gay man overrode his blackness and diligent work for the movement and was a liability. Then-Senator Strom Thurmond and the FBI attempted to raise public awareness of Rustin’s sexuality and even circulated false stories that Rustin and King were romantically involved -- all inan effort to undermine the civil rights movement.

Those scare tactics worked in 1963. NAACP Chair Roy Wilkins wouldn’t allow Rustin to receive any public credit for his major role in planning the March.

It’s time that black LGBT people stand up and refuse to be the Rustin to Frank Simon’s Thurmond and Louis Coleman’s Wilkins. It’s time that black LGBT people
refuse to be silenced, bullied, overlooked disrespected or disregarded simply because we have the audacity to live in our own truth.

Black LGBT people need to recognize our individual and collective power as a community. Gay and straight folks alike need to recognize that black LGBT people have always played and will continue to play important and indispensable roles in the struggle for the rights of all people, whether it be the labor movement, women's liberation and, even for the rights of blacks and Latinos in America.

It’s time that religious conservatives stop skewing the Bible to justify their hatred, fear and loathing of LGBT people.

And time’s up for all the cowards who sit idly by and don’t speak up against injustice and bigotry in our country. After all, as Edmund Burke eloquently said, the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.

A year before Bayard Rustin died in 1987 he said, "The barometer of where one is on human rights questions is no longer the black community, it's the gay community because it is the community which is most easily mistreated."

Actually, I think it’s both communities that are human rights barometers, and there are more similarities in their struggles than either would care to admit.