Countdown To A Bill's Death

The clock is ticking to the close of the Maryland legislative session on April 11 and one of the things people on both sides of this debate are focused on is the calendar and the clock.

It's our friend for those of us who despise this unjust law and the enemy of those who want to pass it.

The sad part is that as a person who wants to see trans rights codified into law, I'm disgusted I'm even in the position where I've not only spent bandwith criticizing a trans rights bill and point out its fatal flaw, I'm openly rooting for its demise.

Sucks To Be Disrespected, Doesn't It Del. Pena-Melnyk?

Was chuckling at the Metro Weekly post featuring Del. Joseline 'You People' Pena-Melnyk complaining about not being seen by Senate president Mike Miller concerning the unjust trans rights bill she 'worked hard' on.

Del. Joseline A. Pena-Melnyk (D-Anne Arundel, Prince George's) said, "It is a tremendous, gross disrespect to the community because he's marginalizing a group of people and basically saying, 'You don't matter, you don't count.'" 

 Hmm, is she talking about herself, Sen. Miller or Morgan Meneses-Sheets?

Yeah, Del. Pena-Melnyk, it sucks doesn't it?   Now you know how those of us who opposed your HB 235 that stripped public accommodations out of it and respectfully tried to have a civilized discourse with you about it felt when we were disrespected, belittled and yelled at by you.  


Neither do I feel good about being put in the position of having to openly root against a trans rights bill and advocate to kill it because it was so fracked up.


Now that you've and the EQ MD people tried removing public accommodations from a trans rights bill and it's about two weeks from deservedly dying in committee, can we go back next session or whenever y'all take up this issue again to try compiling a comprehensive trans civil rights bill that we can all get behind?

It's not a good idea to write civil rights legislation that beneifts a marginalized community based on being 'scurred' about what the Religious Reich will say about it.  

We transfolks already know what their game plan is.  They will lie, lie, lie and hope one of those lies is enough for y'all to be 'scurred' enough to water down the tough comprehensive rights bill we need   We hope and pray 'you legislative people' are smart enough not to fall for it.   

But alas, you and EQ Maryland fell for the Reicher okey doke.  Robert 'Android Marriage' Broadus and friends won before they even hopped in their cars to come to Annapolis to regurgitate that ridiculous testimony in front of your committee.


You now know what it's like to walk in our pumps.   Doesn't feel good does it?

HB 235 Dying In The MD Senate?

The unjust HD 235 trans rights bill crossed over to the Maryland Senate Monday and has landed in the Senate Rules Committee   

According to the Baltimore Sun's Maryland Politics blog, HB 235 has some formidable procedural hurdles with less than two weeks left in the Maryland legislative session

It has to first undergo a short Rules Committee hearing to determine its policy committee assignment.

Once its assigned to the proper policy committee, it then has to undergo a hearing in that committee before it hits the Senate floor for a vote.  

But with two weeks left, the Senate is engaged in trying to pass Maryland's state budget, and Senate president Thomas V. Mike Miller said that they are unlikely to take up this bill before the session ends.

"When we are through with the budget we’ll have time to deal with other issues that might have a chance of passage," Senator Miller said after the morning session. "At this point in time I’d say the chances of passage of that bill are next to none."

Kill the bill! Kill the bill! Kill the bill!

Hmm.. that's not what InEquality Maryland wanted to hear after all the shady stuff they pulled just to get to this point.   After losing their gay marriage bill, the last thing the want to happen is have another loss.

But the civil rights karmic wheel is turning on them, and they have no one to blame but themselves.   You introduce a comprehensive bill, the entire community would have gotten behind it, and my last two months worth of posts on this issue would have a much different tone.     



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March 27, 2001-Another Day That Will Live In Trans Infamy

Today was the day exactly ten years ago that the trans community in Maryland was cut out of a GLB civil rights bill that surprise surprise, has public accommodations language in it.

The unjust one they are trying to force down our throats in the name of  'equality' unfortunately passed the Maryland house of delegates Thursday and is now on its way to the Maryland Senate.   

At any rate, thanks to Transadvocate, here's the post documenting the sad history of this day that will live in trans infamy and a previous screwing by our GL 'allies'.   

Why HB 235 Is An Unjust Law

To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.'

Rev Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr 'Letter From Birmingham City Jail, 1963

I've called HB 235 an unjust law.   You may be asking yourself what's the difference between a just law, an unjust law and why is HB 235, the Maryland GINDA bill an unjust law? 

The opening quote I started the post with by Dr. King neatly summarizes what an unjust law is.  The following quote by the Drum Major For Justice is what a just law is: 

A just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself."

HB 235 is an unjust law because the majority cis population in Maryland would not only NOT follow it themselves, but would rebel if a similar law they knew with absolute certainty didn't protect their civil rights were imposed on them in the manner that GINDA is being forced on the trans community. 

Based on the 2001 law they passed for themselves that has public accommodations language in it that they cut transpeople out of back in the day, I would submit that the GL community of Maryland would not be satisfied to willingly follow GINDA either.

HB 235's fatal flaw is that because of the missing P/A language, it will not protect us from discrimination as  Equality Maryland (who wrote it) and Del. Joseline Pena-Melnyk (the legislator who sponsored it) claim it will do.   Despite the protestations of EQ MD, Del. Melnyk and its supporters, HB 235 will not protect the rights of the trans people of the state, much less give us the legal tools to fight any discrimination that occurs against us if it passes at the same level of civil rights coverage that cis residents of Maryland get.

They need to stop pretending that this unjust trans rights bill will meet those parameters.   If it does, are you gay and lesbian EQ Maryland people willing to remove public accommodations language for the bill you passed for yourselves in 2001?  

Didn't think so.   But you want transpeople in the Free State to settle for civil rights 'crumbs' in the name of 'incremental progress'..

The Maryland trans community that will be negatively affected by HB 235 has repeatedly asked for public accommodations language to be amended into it.   EQ MD and Del. Pena-Melnyk have obstinately balked at doing so.  They continue to refuse to comply with that reasonable request in light of increasing legal evidence bolstering the trans community's position on the bill.    

Their refusal to do so raises questions in the minds of the trans community of Maryland, the nation and our social justice minded allies as to why a legislator and an organization that purports to be an ally to trans people continue to push a flawed bill.   

Their insistence on doing so means that Equality Maryland has forfeited the moral high ground they had going into this legislative session. In addition, the EQ Maryland forces are using immoral tactics, obfuscation, silencing of trans people's voices sounding the alarm about their reprehensible behavior and outright deception in order to gain support for this unjust law

Can Equality Maryland, Morgan Menenses-Sheets and Del Pena-Melnyk look themselves in the mirror and say with a straight face that HB 235 uplifts the human personalities of Maryland's long suffering trans people?

Based on the contentious debate occurring over this bill, I would submit the answer to that question would be no.  The sad part is that it won't take much to turn this unjust law into a just one.   All they have to do is amend the bill.    

The question at this point is will they do so? 

 

Resistance To HB 235 Is Not Futile...

 And the Inequality Maryland Borg ain't liking it.

InEquality Maryland has failed in its primary mission of getting same gender marriage passed in the state.  Now that they desperately need a legislative win in the state that surrounds three quarters of Washington, DC they have turned their attention to passing a flawed HB 235 trans rights bill.


Despite the fact that organizations, local and national noteworthy transpeople and Maryland trans residents have told the Gay, Inc crowd represented by Morgan Meneses-Sheets and her EQ MD friends that HB 235 without public accommodations language is worthless, they seem to have adopted the 'resistance is futile' attitude and are merrily trying to assimilate public opinion and force a bill down the throats of the Free State trans community they don't want..

And they don't care how HB 235 affects transpeople and future trans rights legislation that we'll attempt to pass in other states.    All they care about is winning.
  

In addition to assimilating various trans drones to their way of thinking, the EQ Maryland Borg have embarked upon a disinformation campaign designed to mask the fatal flaw of HB 235.  It includes bamboozling allies into supporting the bill without telling them it will cause harm to us,  an attempt to try to name the bill for slain Baltimore transwoman Tyra Trent, slanted articles in media outlets such as the Metro Weekly and the influential GL oriented paper the Washington Blade, and not telling the truth during the legislative hearing and in subsequent conversation on the bill that it is worthless without public accommodations language.

I found it interesting that they had Lisa Mottet of The Task Force's Transgender Civil Rights Project testify in favor of a bill that doesn't have public accommodations language in light of the fact they just released a report in conjunction with NCTE entitled 'Injustice At Every Turn' that spends more than a few pages documenting the public accommodations problems that transpeople encounter.

EQ MD has also been called on another one of their major talking points.   It claimed that it would protect trans people in homeless shelters, an issue we had crop up here in Houston with the treatment of trans and LGI youth in Covenant House shelters that was recently resolved.  HB 235 as currently constituted would not protect trans people from discrimination.

The embattled EQ MD forces have disabled comments on their webpage, been engaged in removing comments from their Facebook page that point that inconvenient fact out, attacked bloggers critical of them that have gotten the word out about this issue, and derailed any threads in the Gayosphere and Transosphere that discuss the unjust HB 235 bill.

The Cathy Brennan drone has been tasked with that trans oppression mission, but is getting major pushback from people who have pointed out her role as a trans oppressor in 2001.    She was part of the Free State Justice group that cut transpeople out of the inclusive Maryland bill that (surprise, surprise) has public accommodations language.  Transpeople being cut out of the 2001 bill is why we're having to refight this battle now..

They have even tried to claim that Del. Joseline Pena-Melnyk, the sponsor of HB 235 was allegedly threatened by trans opponents of the bill, but when pressed on that couldn't produce any credible evidence to back that accusation up.

Inequality Maryland is finding out that resistance is NOT futile.   The trans community in Maryland held a protest at the Supreme Court building highlighting the fact that if this bill passes, it would probably be ruled unconstitutional 

They have also sent that message loud and clear they aren't going to accept legislative crumbs or so called fauxgressive allies and trans sellouts trying to force them down our throats, either.     

 Live long and prosper Maryland trans community, and keep up the good fight.