There The 1% White Gay Peepul Go Again

I've been keeping up with the ENDA executive order kerfluffle being stirred up by some quarters of Gay, Inc. It reminded me of something that Kat Rose said on her FB page last year.

Why is it that when a politician changes his mind to the detriment of trans rights its 'political reality,' but when a politician changes his mind to the detriment of same-sex marriage, he becomes the embodiment of betrayal - Benedict Arnold multiplied by Julius and Ethel Rosenberg with a Quisling chaser?. 

I would also add to that statement by Kat, anytime a politician doesn't immediately jump to the will of what white gay peeps demand at that moment in time. 

And I have to wonder did anyone in Gay, Inc leadership ranks or the Gayosphere take political science, think strategically about issues that affect this community or have any fracking common sense?  

What's going on in rainbow political world is that elements of the white GL community started going apoplectic because President Obama hasn't signed an executive order that is alleged by the GL 1% to be the elixir for stopping anti-GLBT discrimination. 

The ENDA executive order elements of the Gayosphere are loudly complaining about would only protect a small slice of the GL population.  It would if signed only prohibit discrimination for those rainbow community people employed by federal contractors, not the entire community..  

As they like to say when any issues surface that affects them short of full legislative equality, it's crumbs.   

It was also interesting that within days after the screaming started in the Gayosphere, the unanimous trans friendly EEOC ruling in the Mia Macy case came down.

But back to discussing the executive order drama.  

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which is a trans community political Holy Grail, is more comprehensive than the proposed executive order the Gay 1% is pimping.  ENDA would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in both public and private employment..

So why are they tripping, especially since the trans community has repeatedly urged them since 2004 to focus on passing an inclusive ENDA, local and state level GLBT employment protection and human rights laws like New York's GENDA instead of this 'all gay marriage all the time' push?  

I submit to you that the reason the Gay 1% boys and girls went on that 2010 full court DADT repeal press was desperation for a policy win in the wake of another devastating marriage equality referendum loss in Maine that dropped the marriage referendum record to 0-31. 

And don't think we trans peeps forgot about Rep. Barney Frank cutting trans people out of ENDA in 2007 or the fact that people like Americablog's John Aravosis (who cheerleaded that decision) is one of the gay bloggers chewing on the POTUS' behind about that executive order. 

Um John, I trust a constitutional scholar and former law professor over you any day.  In addition I don't buy for a moment you have 'evolved already' on the issue of trans inclusion in ENDA.


There's a Houston connection to this GLBT political theater because the questionnaire that the POTUS signed to get the Houston GLBT Political caucus endorsement over Hillary back in 2008 mysteriously found its way into the gay media via MetroWeekly.   The Caucus denied they leaked the questionnaire, but my suspicions are it came from some Hillary supporters that are still pissed that then Senator Obama won that Caucus endorsement by a razor thin margin.

GetEqual is making noises about protesting Obama campaign headquarters over the executive order, which if they do go there is not going to sit well with African-American TBLG people and exacerbate our already testy post Prop 8 relationship with our white GLBT counterparts. 

But sure as making money betting Dan Savage is going to say something insulting to another group, the White Gay Peepul are going to go there anyway. 

You longtime TransGriot readers know I have called out GetEqual and Gay, Inc orgs at times for their penchant of knee-jerk protesting of President Obama anytime in their vanillacentric viewpoint they perceive he's on the 'wrong' side of GL issues.  But GetEqual won't lift a finger or expend the same levels of energy to protest their real Republican gay oppressors to the Black rainbow community's disgust .

So GetEqual.  I eagerly await the posts describing your upcoming protests of Romney campaign headquarters around the nation and the upcoming GOP convention in Tampa.

Umm hmm,  That's what I thought.

Never mind the fact President Obama has been the most gay friendly one that have ever occupied the Oval Office and the best ever on trans issues.    Mitt version 2012 damned sure won't be signing any GLBT friendly legislation if we are unfortunate enough to have him win on November 6, much less nor will any progressive GLBT friendly legislation be coming out of a House or Senate controlled by bat guano crazy conservative politicians.


The smart political play would be to ensure that the POTUS gets reelected to a second term, bust your rainbow asses to ensure the Democrats hold the Senate and if possible increase senate representation (think Senator Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin) , and get the House back in Democratic (and Nancy Pelosi's hands) while gearing up for a full court press to pass an inclusive ENDA in 2013.


But what we're getting right now is a replay of what happened in 2010 in terms of elements of the white gay community demanding the POTUS sign an executive order in the middle of a tight political campaign year on an issue that demands and needs a legislative solution to distract from another anticipated marriage equality loss, this time in North Carolina.

It's Easy to Call John Derbyshire a Racist

Guest Post from Renee of Womanist Musings

John Derbyshire, a former writer for the conservative magazine The National Review was fired after he published a piece in Taki's Magazine entitled: The Talk: NonBlack Version.  Derbyshire was inspired to write this article because of the conversations that Black parents are having with their sons in the wake of the murder of Trayvon Martin. I am going to share with a small portion of Derbyshire's advice to his children:

(10a) Avoid concentrations of blacks not all known to you personally.
(10b) Stay out of heavily black neighborhoods.
(10c) If planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks on that date (neglect of that one got me the closest I have ever gotten to death by gunshot).
(10d) Do not attend events likely to draw a lot of blacks.
(10e) If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible.
(10f) Do not settle in a district or municipality run by black politicians.
(10g) Before voting for a black politician, scrutinize his/her character much more carefully than you would a white.
(10h) Do not act the Good Samaritan to blacks in apparent distress, e.g., on the highway.
(10i) If accosted by a strange black in the street, smile and say something polite but keep moving.
(11) The mean intelligence of blacks is much lower than for whites. The least intelligent ten percent of whites have IQs below 81; forty percent of blacks have IQs that low. Only one black in six is more intelligent than the average white; five whites out of six are more intelligent than the average black. These differences show in every test of general cognitive ability that anyone, of any race or nationality, has yet been able to devise. They are reflected in countless everyday situations. “Life is an IQ test.”
(12) There is a magnifying effect here, too, caused by affirmative action. In a pure meritocracy there would be very low proportions of blacks in cognitively demanding jobs. Because of affirmative action, the proportions are higher. In government work, they are very high. Thus, in those encounters with strangers that involve cognitive engagement, ceteris paribus the black stranger will be less intelligent than the white. In such encounters, therefore—for example, at a government office—you will, on average, be dealt with more competently by a white than by a black. If that hostility-based magnifying effect (paragraph 8) is also in play, you will be dealt with more politely, too. “The DMV lady“ is a statistical truth, not a myth.
(13) In that pool of forty million, there are nonetheless many intelligent and well-socialized blacks. (I’ll use IWSB as an ad hoc abbreviation.) You should consciously seek opportunities to make friends with IWSBs. In addition to the ordinary pleasures of friendship, you will gain an amulet against potentially career-destroying accusations of prejudice.

At first The National Review simply tried to separate itself from Derbyshire's article, but decided to fire him after public outrage was evident. There have been several articles in major news outlets like The Guardian and Huffpo, as well as commentary at CNN, declaring Derbyshire's piece to be racist. Anger at this piece is the quintessential White liberal response, and comes with the added bonus of being able to separate oneself from Derbyshire and declare that since you would never dare to express these kinds of idea publicly that you are not a racist.


It is absolutely impossible to read even a small section of The Talk: NonBlack Version, without declaring it racist. Socially there is very rarely difficulty calling out the extreme overt examples of racism, in large part because racism has come to mean to many: A noose, a burning cross, brilliant White sheets and in some cases the N word [note: I say some cases, as there are plenty of White people who actively believe that they are oppressed, because of an inability to use that word without facing some form of social censure].  What gets ignored is the systemic ways in which racism works and the everyday acts of covert racism that negatively impact the lives of people of colour.

Challenging racism as an institution is beyond the understanding and desire of many, because it would mean the eradication of White privilege. They would rather live in a world in which they can co-opt pre 1963 Dr. King, and wax poetically about a colour blind society, while our children are being undereducated in broken down schools, and shot for daring to wear a hoodie at night. This is the world as it really is, and why I simply cannot take comfort in any kind of discipline that Derbyshire is facing.

Reading his article, what I felt was not outrage, because this is exactly the kind of thought pattern and behaviour that Whiteness has normalized.  People are simply upset that Derbyshire had the nerve to air his dirty laundry in public, rather than internalizing his racist ideas.  The world is still very much segregated, with Sunday being the most segregated day in North America.  If you doubt that, walk into a Black church and then a White church.  Blacks and Whites who supposedly worship the same God don't even pray together, and yet we are told that racism is a thing of the past and that we are all equal now, with exception of course, of a few isolated incidents.  White on Black violence, even when it is continually perpetrated by the police, is always constructed as isolated, [Oscar Grant and Sean Bell] because White people are individuals, but the moment a Black person behaves in a manner which we have deemed socially unacceptable, ze is suddenly a representative of their race.

To bring up the systemic ways in which racism effects the lives of people of colour is deemed racist because interjects the much taboo subject of race into a conversation.  We cannot even talk about racism, except to view it as a thing of the past, and yet we have White liberal after White liberal decrying the language Derbyshire used, while not holding themselves accountable for the multitude of ways in which they uphold and maintain White supremacy.  Today, racism is seen as a card that Blacks employ to achieve an unfair advantage over decent God fearing White folks. The conversation has been so twisted that we now have White people claiming that they are victims of racism, when people of colour react with righteous rage to the ongoing assault against their persons.

It's easy to call Derbyshire a racist, and that is why it is happening.  If it meant a true assault on White supremacy, what you would be hearing right now is crickets and not outrage.  Nothing this man wrote in his column is in the least bit surprising.  I found that I could not even drum up outrage, because I am so accustomed to living with this sort of racism day after day.  Whether it is the White person who seeks to turn me into their very own Black BFF [yes we're collectors items], or commentary on how "articulate" I am -- racism is a part of my lived experience -- and has been since I was a very young girl. No amount of liberal hand wringing is going to change that and so I will just nod at the commentary and accept that there will be no substantive change in my lifetime. Today it's not the Derbyshire's of the world that we have to fear, but those who declare themselves to be decidedly not racist, even as they do everything in their power to ensure that yet another generation of Black children grows up with the stigma of being "othered" in a White supremacist world.

Still Pissed About Trayvon Martin

It's taken me a few days to calm down enough to write this post about the hate crime murder of 17 year old Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman   

That's right, I said 'hate crime murder'.  Not even going with the pretense of  'alleged killer' since the Sanford, FL po-po's so fracked up this investigation I only trust the Department of Justice to handle it properly

And you wanna know why it's possible for rap groups to come up with songs like NWA's back in the day hit that probably is getting downloaded at a prodigious clip these days.


Trayvon's killing is not only bringing a fresh round of anxiety for mothers of Black sons Trayvon's age or younger, it brought back all those memories of the list of ''don't do this'' my parents and grandparents told me and my siblings as we were growing up.  And even I forgot a time or two and lipped off to a cop or two after being justifiably angry about jacked up DWB traffic stops.  

I am sick of the War on Black People.  I'm beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of young Black kids simply minding their own damned business being presumed by racist white people to be engaged in criminal activity, high, or up to no good. 

Why isn't Zimmerman's ass in jail?   I'm willing to bet if the racial script was flipped Trayvon's behind would have been arrested and in the Seminole County Hilton Jail five seconds after the po-po's arrived at that gated community.

Once again, it reinforces the fact in the USA that no matter what we do, whether we are the president of the United States or some 17 year old kid just getting a late night snack, the lives of Black people don't mean jack to some people infected with vanillacentric privilege, ignorance and bigotry. 

And in some cases it's justification enough for these bigots to kill us.