Trans Rights Flow From Marriage Equality? Um, No,

Peeped the latest lie spin coming from the 'all marriage all the time' forces trying to pimp the meme to the huddled trans masses yearning for human rights that GL people gaining marriage equality will mean trans rights flow in their wake.

Really?  Seems like that hasn't happened in Massachusetts, New York, or New Hampshire. 

Jillian Weiss' quote from a Bilerico project piece on the subject tells it like it T-I-S is along with Kat's post at ENDAblog.  

"The idea that marriage equality is going to help transgender rights is a theory that has no evidence to back it up.".

Let's make this crystal clear once again.  Civil rights do not flow from marriage.  It is the other way around.  Out of all the things we marched for during the Civil Rights movement, jobs, voting rights and stopping the violence and brutality aimed at my people had a much higher priority.

Not All Women Received The Right To Vote Today

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."   United States Constitution, 19th Amendment 

Today is the 91st anniversary of the August 1920 day that the 19th Amendment to the constitution for women's suffrage was ratified by a one vote 50-49 margin in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

With Tennessee becoming the 36th state to adopt it, the 19th Amendment became the law of the land and is rightfully celebrated as a human rights advance in the States. .

But I can't let this day pass by without reminding people that not all women got the right to vote today.  Despite the involvement of Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman,  Ida B. Wells, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and Frederick Douglass, Black women had to fight for inclusion in a suffrage movement in which white women were upset that the 1870 ratification of the 15th Amendment had given Black men (in theory) the right to vote before they received it.  

White suffragettes, especially those from the South sought to "win women's suffrage through demonstrating their allegiance to white supremacy."

Translation: they threw Black women under the bus to get their suffrage rights.   That came to a head with an 1894 clash in Great Britain between Ida B. Wells and Frances E. Willard. .  

Even when on paper African American women earned the right to vote on this date, Jim Crow segregation, disenfranchisement and all the heinous bag of tricks and violence used to suppress the rights of African Americans to vote would ensure that the power of African American women voters wouldn't be felt until after the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

Today the power of the African American women's vote has led to Black women getting elected to all levels of government including former Senator Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL) and a long list of distinguished former and current members of the House of Representatives.  Some of those Black women reps have provided major political leadership roles as well.

Rep.Shirley Chisholm in 1972 and Carol Moseley-Braun in 2004 made historic runs for president, and the votes of Black women are sought after by politicians seeking to build a winning electoral voting coalition    

And thanks to Black women voters, there's an African American POTUS and FLOTUS residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

So yes, today is a wonderful day to celebrate, but as with all things in America when it comes to African Americans and our long tortured history in this country, it's a bittersweet moment as well.

Argentina's Gender Identity Law Being Debated Tomorrow

When same gender marriage was passed last year in Argentina, the GL groups there in the wake of their happiness over its passage and being signed into law July 21 by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner uttered a bitterly familiar phrase to the transpeople left behind legislatively.

We've heard it said over and over in the United States and Canada but have seen them fail repeatedly to live up to it:  We'll come back for you.

Looks like the Argentine GL groups meant what they said.   

There is not only a push to get Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner reelected to another term in the upcoming October 23 election, they are pushing a Gender Identity Law on behalf of the trans community.

The Argentine Congress will begin debate tomorrow on a proposed gender identity law that if passed, would allow anyone to correct his or her name, gender and image registration in all public records through a quick and simple procedure.   

The current policy in Argentina is for trans people who wish to have government ID that reflects their name and gender presentation to get the changes to them done via a judge's ruling.   While our transpeople do occasionally win these court hearings, it can be a lengthy, costly and frustrating process if they have to appeal adverse rulings.

Because they have been trying since 2007 to get this bill through Congress and it keeps getting stuck in the Argentine Senate, in advance of tomorrow's upcoming debate,  FALGBT, the Argentinian Federation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans people and the ATTTA (Asociación de Travestis, Transexuales y Transgéneros de Argentina) launched an informational campaign entitled 'Identitad:  Direcho de ser.'  (Identity: The Right to Be in English)  complete with this video.



Best of luck to our trans brothers and sisters in Argentina and hope I have positive news to report soon from our South American trans cousins 


H/T xQSi Magazine