On November 6 when the nation will be in breathless anticipation of whether the Democrats or Republicans have control of the US House and Senate, trans people's eyes will be nervously cast at Massachusetts to see whether the human rights law protecting the Massachusetts trans community stays in place or is repealed.
The Massachusetts legislature passed in 2016 a law that extended public accommodations protections to its transgender citizens and prohibited discrimination against them.
Predictably, the transphobic bigots formed Keep MA Safe, and successfully fought to get a referendum on the 2018 ballot, called Question 3, that would eradicate those protections.
And as they've done in Houston and elsewhere, the transphobes are peddling the debunked bathroom predator lie to make sure that the NO votes on Question 3 carry the November 6 day.
Once again, the human rights of trans people are on an election ballot, but this time it's in the blue state of Massachusetts. I and a lot of people outside of the state are concerned about this referendum because if they transphobes are successful in killing this Massachusetts trans rights bill, it could set off a wave of anti-trans referendums just in time for the 2020 presidential election.
And those concerns are shared by our allies and my fellow trans elders who are keenly aware of the Bay State's anti-trans past.
Knowing that historically Massachusetts has been the home of transphobic TERF's for decades like Janice Raymond and Elizabeth Hungerford, and former US Rep. Barney Frank opposed trans inclusion in ENDA by pushing in the 90's and 2000's the transphobic 'penis in showers' argument, we know there's a possibility that the NO votes could prevail and roll back the human rights of our trans cousins living there with unpleasant repercussions for the rest of transkind in the US.
A WBUR poll conducted back in May was equally disturbing, showing that only 52% of Massachusetts resident were in favor of keeping the trans rights law versus 38% of Massachusetts residents who favored getting rid of it.
.
Massachusetts will be a trans political battleground as we get closer to Election Day, and that's why the bipartisan Freedom For All Massachusetts coalition started back in May.
They are hard at work to ensure that we hear good news from the Bay State on November 6.
And while it's wonderful a broad based coalition of business community, women's groups, law enforcement, supportive legislators, organizations and trans people and their families has been assembled, and Bay State transpeople are feeling somewhat confident that their fellow citizens will support them when the time comes, the reality is this election is taking place during a time in which our human rights and humanity are under daily attack by the Trump misadministration, its Department of Injustice Justice, the TERF's and right wing fundamentalists.
The only support that matters is in the voting booth on November 6. That's why Trans World will be nervously watching the election results from Massachusetts on that date..
Because once again, trans people's human rights are on the ballot, and it's a must win election for us.
While many of us were heading to bed in the Lower 48, the citizens of Anchorage, Alaska were counting ballots in the latest trans rights battleground.
The anti-trans hate group the Alaska Family Council had managed to get a proposition on the ballot that if it had passed, would have stripped the trans protetctions from the city's LGBTQ rights law passed in 2015 by the Anchorage Assembly. Proposition 1 would have also barred transgender people from using the facilities and locker rooms that matched their gender presentation, even if they had changed their identity documents.
Translation: The Alaska Family Council haters were trying to pass a nastier Last Frontier version of North Carolina's HB 2.
It was also going to be the first time that the city of Anchorage would attempt to use a mail-in ballot for a civic election, and turnout was expected to be high. Anchorage is also the largest city in the state of Alaska .
The Yes on 1 IForces of Intolerance rolled out the usual anti-trans playbook of anti-trans lies and fear mongering but were outgunned by Fair Anchorage, the coalition group working to defeat the unjust Proposition 1
The Yes on 1 haters raised $128,000 to spend on their scampaign to $800,000 for the Fair Anchorage coalition. Fair Anchorage not only had more money, they learned the lessons from the failed HERO defense fight here in H-town and attacked the bathroom predator myth head on.
Meanwhile the Yes on 1 side was committing the cardinal sin in Alaskan politics of using a non-Alaskan in their commercials.
In addition to ads from Alaska' native community, who have felt the sting of discrimination themselves, advocating for their trans neighbors and urging a NO vote, Fair Anchorage also had local trans people in their commercials and engaged in their coalition of groups fighting this latest trans rights battle.
That predictably deployed trans predator lie by the YES on 1 trans oppressors was also blown up not only in this ad featuring an APD officer, but a statement from the Fair Anchorage campaign that quoted firefighters, former state reps and a former police spokesperson.
It also pointed out that a YES vote would be bad for Anchorage.
“While backers of Prop 1 claim they're advocating for public safety, nothing could be further from the truth," Mike Stumbaugh, president of Anchorage Firefighters Union Local 1264, said, according to the press release issued by Kati Ward, Fair Anchorage campaign manager. "And in the 200-plus cities and 18 states with laws nearly identical to Anchorage's nondiscrimination law, the results have been the same: Protecting transgender people is not a threat to public safety — here in Anchorage or anywhere else in the country."
Over 40 Anchorage based businesses also opposed the passage of Proposition 1 as bad for business and the city reputation.
Fair Anchorage not only aggressively tackled and demolished the predator myth, they also took on and demolished another of the right wing's favorite lies in claiming that by letting transgender women poop and pee in women's restrooms, cisgender women's safety was compromised.
And here's one of the NO on 1 ads that featured a trans person and their parent
35,054 ballots (17.4% of the city's voters) had already been returned before the April 3 deadline. With all the ballots counted, Proposition 1 was defeated by a 53%-46% margin.
Congrats to the Fair Anchorage coalition for decisively beating the Alaska Family Council haters. That's wonderful news considering Massachusetts is facing its own looming trans rights election this November.
It also lends credence to what I have been saying in terms of transphobia becoming less of a winning issue for Republicans and the conservative movement
Yesterday Puerto Rican voters took a major step toward the island becoming the 51st state.
In Sunday's non binding referendum that drew 23% of the island's registered voters to participate in it, statehood received over 500,000 votes, with free association/independence drawing over 7800 votes and 6800 votes for the current status as a territory
Gov. Richard Rossello (NPP) in the wake of the vote told supporters that he would create a commission to select two senators and five congress members that would head to Washington DC and demand statehood from the US Congress.
Will Puerto Rico become the 51st state? Congress would have to approve the change in status from a commonwealth to statehood and the President would have to sign it, but good luck getting the Republican controlled Congress to agree to do so. The 3.4 million peeps on that Caribbean isle tend to vote for Democrats, and the GOP is going to have enough problems trying to hold on to power in 2018 and 2020.
Trump has stated he's in favor of it, but you can never believe anything Dear Cheeto Leader says
But you never know.
But like the residents of Washington DC, Puerto Rico has voted to say si to starting the process toward statehood. It's just will it happen in our lifetimes?
I've been watching the elections returns coming out of Bermuda over their non-binding referendum on marriage equality in which there were two questions on the ballot as Bermudians went to the polls yesterday starting at 8 AM until 8 PM Bermuda time.
Are you in favour of same sex marriages in Bermuda?
Are you in favour of civil unions in Bermuda?
As I write this post at midnight CDT Houston time, both questions, with 41% of the vote counted, are losing badly by a nearly two to one margin.
On the same sex marriage question, there have been 12.670 NO votes cast versus 5797 YES votes.
Civil unions aren't fairing much better. 11,589 NO votes have been cast versus 6812 YES votes.
And the folks who are ecstatic about how the referendum is going are the Preserve Marriage peeps, who as you probably guessed, got an assist from US based haters meddling in Bermuda's electoral business and were pushing a NO NO vote with the usual gaybaiting and lies.
The Preserve Marriage opposition also stated that no matter the result, they would continue as an organization after this referendum.
Meanwhile Marriage Equality Bermuda was fighting not only the lies of their opponents, but to get their fellow Bermudians to do the right thing and vote YES YES.
No matter the result, I still have a problem with a majority group voting on the human rights of a marginalized minority group, and using deceptive tactics and outright lies to ensure victory at the ballot box in order to continue to oppress them.
TransGriot Update: Final results are that both questions failed. Same gender marriage by a 69% margin, civil unions by a 63% margin. The good news was that the 44% turnout was under the 50% threshold needed to make the results binding.
But the Bermudan government was planning on recognizing the results regardless of the outcome and reading it as 'the will of the people'. So supporters will have an uphill climb to make it happen or will have to do it through the courts while being fought every step of the way by the Preserve Marriage haters.
And I have no doubts the Bermudians who are on the correct side of human rights history will prevail
You might be surprised to know that I have a few Bermudians who not only are fans of this blog, but I am Facebook friends with. I had the pleasure of meeting Zakiya Johnson-Lord while I was in Chicago for Creating Change a few months ago.
I noticed as I perused my Bermudian friends pages the #VoteYESYESBermuda hashtag and other similar ones started popping up on their posts. When my curiosity kicked in to find out what those memes and hashtags were about, I discovered it was concerning an upcoming June 23 marriage equality referendum on the island.
The non binding referendum will ask Bermudians to ponder and vote YES or NO on two questions that concern TBLG Bermudians.
Are you in favour of same sex marriage in Bermuda?
Are you in favour of same sex civil unions in Bermuda?
Advance voting for those who can prove they will be off island on election day took place June 14-16 at the Bermuda College Student Centre, and it will be interesting to see how the June 23 voting takes place.
Our Bermudian cousins in favor of marriage equality not only posted the #VoteYESYESBermuda hashtags on their pages and Twitter feeds, the #VoteYESYES, #LoveWinsYESYES and #LoveMustWin tags have also popped up.
I'm surprised that our US based radical 'christians; haven't openly meddled in Bermuda's electoral business, but then again let me not speak too soon since they may be on the down low funneling cash to the anti- marriage side.
Deadline to register was May 18, and hope my Bermudian friends are not only registered to handle their electoral business, but hope it goes their way on Thursday when voting starts at 8 AM Bermuda time and continues until 8 PM their time at these locations.
Best of luck and hope people not only vote YES YES, but that love wins on Bermuda,
Just in case you wondering where the Houston Black community stands on Prop 1 passage, outside of the loud and wrong cadre of sellout ministers cooning it up for the Texas GOP fueled opposition to the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.
The NAACP Houston Chapter, the Greater Houston Black Chamber, the Houston Area Urban League and a long list of local politicians enthusiastically support HERO. The Houston Forward Times, one of the oldest Black newspapers in town, just released an editorial that affirms their support of our much needed human rights ordinance.
"Houston is almost the 3rd largest city in the US. We need to step up. I want to know that my family is going to be treated fairly when we go into a business, or my kids are at school; and that if that is not the case, that there is a way to deal with it locally. I want to know that we don't have to be second class citizens; that this is not the Jim Crow South. I want to know that no matter who my children want to love, the color of their skin, whether they move differently, or speak differently because of their disability, that we can feel safe. We have experienced discrimination and others have too. It's time for us to change that."
We have Houston civil rights icon Rev William Lawson, who supports it along with Pastor Rudy Rasmus, who has been featured ina pro-HERO commercial.
And just to remind the HERO haters and the willful ignorati on this issue, it was the discrimination that Judge Alexandra Smoots Hogan faced at a Washington Ave nightclub in February 2014 that was the catalyst for getting HERO passed.
HERO is needed and necessary. It covers 15 categories and provides a local remedy against discrimination experienced in housing, employment and public accommodations,
Our opposition only has fear, smear and lies to throw at it.
So Black Houstonians, don't let the HERO opposition hoodwink and bamboozle you into voting against your own human rights.tomorrow.
Council members Jerry Davis, Ellen Cohen, Dwight Boykins (who voted against HERO last year), Richard
Nguyen, Ed Gonzalez, Robert Gallegos, Mike Laster, Larry Green, Stephen
Costello, David Robinson, C.O. “Brad” Bradford and Jack Christie, voted
in favor of reinstating HERO
The usual conservative haters of Council members Dave Martin, Oliver Pennington, Michael Kubosh, Jack Christie and Brenda Stardig voted to repeal it.
Houston City Council then voted 13-4 to approve the city attorney's straightforward language to place on the November ballot Councilmember Bradford proposed offering different language, but that motion was defeated 12-5.
The language that City Attorney Donna Edmondson came up with that will appear on the ballot is the following:
Shall the City of Houston repeal the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance,
Ord. No. 2014-530, which prohibits discrimination in city employment and
city services, city contracts, public accommodations, private
employment, and housing based on an individual's sex, race, color,
ethnicity, national origin, age, familial status, marital status,
military status, religion, disability, sexual orientation, genetic
information, gender identity, or pregnancy?"
Translation. what that means Houstonians, is that if you support HERO and wish to keep it, you vote NO on Election Day or during the early voting phase.
“Today what happened is that council members reaffirmed the original
Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, and we put it to the voters in the
clearest, most straightforward language we could, based on the fact that
there was a petition, and that is, ‘Do you want to repeal the ordinance
or not?'” Mayor Annise Parker said during a press conference
following Wednesday’s meeting. “I and many others will go out and
advocate to not repeal the ordinance.”
It's on like Donkey Kong now. To help you peeps remember how to vote on HERO in November, just say or sing this little human rights protecting tune to yourself. If you want HERO, Vote NO!" TransGriot Update: And once again, the HERO haters went crying back to the GOP Texas Supreme Court mad because they hate the straightforward no BS ballot language the city came up with.
Great news out of California! The Forces of Intolerance-California Division have failed in their mission to overturn AB 1266!
The School Success and Opportunity Act was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown August 13 and took effect January 1. It requires that the gender identity of trans students in grades K-12 is recognized and they have access to facilities, activities and sports teams based on their gender identity
Of course the right wing haters didn't like that, and mobilized in an effort to get AB 1266 repealed. The spot check was at just a high enough percentage to move the verification process to the next step of verifying all the signatures and cause concern for the trans community and our allies in California and across the nation.
The Orwellian named Privacy For All Students opponents were spearheaded by NOM's Frank Schubert, who orchestrated the Prop 8 repeal campaign.
PFAS needed at least 504,760 signatures to force a
public vote on AB 1266 and get the repeal referendum placed on the November 2014 ballot. Had that happened, it was sure to be a just as nasty and divisive a campaign as the Prop 8 one was.
PFAS submitted 619,387 signatures, but
California county election officers determined that just 487,484 of them were
valid, according to a final count posted on secretary of state Debra Bowen's (D) website.
While the PFAS anti-trans coalition is telling their supporters they will continue the fight against AB 1266, the Support All Students Campaign that introduced and passed the law is celebrating along with transpeople across the country.
Said Transgender Law Center Executive Director and Campaign Chair
Masen Davis: “This law gives schools the guidelines and flexibility to
create an environment where all kids have the opportunity to learn. We
need to focus on creating an environment where every student is able to
do well and graduate. This law is about doing what’s best for all
students — that’s why it’s supported by school boards, teachers, and the
PTA.”
- See more at:
http://www.frontiersla.com/frontiers-blog/2014/02/24/breaking-frank-schubert-loses-effort-to-overturn-trans-student-law-fails#sthash.6Dxaluu5.dpuf
And the big winners today are the trans students in California.
After hearing the news coming out of California moments ago, I'm going to repeat what I said in a post last month. Hope you Cali peeps have a game plan in place if the PFAS haters succeed in getting this on the November 4 ballot.
My concern about that possibility is elevated because of the news that the haters effort to get a referendum on the ballot to repeal AB 1266 cleared the first hurdle.
The random sampling indicated that AB 1266's opponents failed to gather
the 504,760 valid signatures of registered voters they needed to
put their measure on the ballot, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen (D) said. However Los Angeles County was the last one in the spot-check verification process, and its 77.9% verification rate bumped up the statewide verification rate to 77.93% and 482,582 signatures.
While that was below the 81.5% one needed to shut down implementation of the law or immediately put the repeal referendum on the California ballot, it was enough to move it to the second phase. Secretary of State Bowen's office will now check every one of the 619,241 signatures received on those petitions, and that process needs to be completed by February 24.
So that now another month and a half of waiting to see if this referendum happens or it doesn't.
In the interim, Childen of Light, better be using your time wisely.
My Left Coast transpeople and their allies have their eyes turned toward their state capital of Sacramento awaiting word on whether the transphobic haters efforts to put a repeal effort on the ballot for have successfully made it to the next round of the process or they failed.
Deadline for all 58 California counties to complete the random sample validation is January 8, but hope the supporters have been using their time wisely and setting up their game plan in case this does happen.
AB 1266 went into effect on January 1, so it is NOT on hold pending the results of the signature count.
And the news so far has been bad for the Forces of Intolerance trying to kill the law. The Orwellian named Privacy For All Student (PFAS) group needed to gather 504,760 signatures to put the issue on the November 4 ballot, and the PFAS haters verification percentage has been steady at 78.24%
Even with the Mono and Tulare County petitions that were ordered by a state judge to be checked because they were initially refused because they came in after the Veterans Day weekend deadline didn't help the PFAS haters much. The Mono County only added 17 signatures to the total and the Tulare County ones added another 3,872.
If that continues to be the case, it means that they will have submitted 484,487 signatures, 20,000 shy of the number needed and the attempt to put AB 1266 on the ballot for repeal will have failed.
We'll find out later this afternoon if that still is the case.
As you read this post, the signatures that were collected in the effort by the haters to put a Repeal AB 1266 initiative on the ballot in the 2014 election cycle are being verified and counted.
So what is AB 1266? It's the School Success And Opportunity Act, the bill passed by the California Assembly and signed into law by California Governor Jerry Brown (D) that restates the obligation of California schools to allow transgender students to participate in all school activities, programs, and facilities.
It also reaffirms to school districts, teachers, parents and students that California’s nondiscrimination law not only covers trans students, it requires public schools to respect a transgender student’s identity in all school programs, activities, and facilities. This bill will simply ensure that transgender boys and girls are treated just like all other boys and girls so that they can participate fully in school activities and graduate on time.
For the moment the news is encouraging from the Left Coast. As the referendum against AB 1266 proceeds to random sample, the proponents operating under the Orwellian name of Privacy For All Students, would need 92.1% validity to qualify the measure for the November 2014 ballot. So far the smaller California counties that have submitted their full validation have had 72.49% validity rates.
But my inquiring mind is asking this question. Which of those 58 California counties were the ones that failed to make the validity threshold? Did they include any of the more populous California counties like Alameda (Oakland), San Francisco, Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange (Anaheim), San Diego, Contra Costa, Riverside (Palm Springs), San Bernadino, Fresno, Santa Barbara, Solano, San Mateo, Santa Clara (San Jose), and Sacramento just to name a few?
We trans peeps can't allow ourselves to be tempted to take the tranquilizing drug of complacency in this situation or relax until the California Attorney General's office utters the words, "It failed'.
We need to be ready to jump into political combat mode if it doesn't.
I know the San Francisco based Transgender Law Center is monitoring the situation, but what happens if the haters do get enough signatures to trigger a referendum to repeal AB 1266, and are they and our California allies doing enough to plan for what they do if that happens?
I've always been a prepare for the worst case scenario while hoping for and working toward the best case outcome kind of girl, and worst case scenario in this instance would be they get enough signature to trigger the repeal referendum.
So what needs to happen if they do? First order of political business is this AB 1266 repeal referendum must be spectacularly defeated and die a politically painful death. We must send the message that their bathroom demonization tactics and lies to oppose trans rights, which is the only thing they have left to oppose trans human rights laws, will not succeed at the ballot box.
At that moment that the Repeal AB 1266 referendum is approved this becomes not just a California issue, but a political and movement one for the entire US trans community we must win. It's also an issue that will require a national level response to it.
We know for a fact that once they get the word, the haters will be mobilizing if they aren't already to pour every dollar and fly every conservative hate activist and field organizer west to California.
Cali Gay, Inc peeps, they won't all be white either. To give the overwhelmingly white conservafools and money behind the effort a veneer of diversity, they will find useful fools like Jesse Lee Peterson down in LA and other non-white sellouts to shill for this Kill AB 1266 effort. They will find cookie-chomping knee-grow pastors willing to sell out the Black and Latino trans community for their media face time and 40 pieces of silver.
The haters are definitely going to be bankrolled by out of state interests and flying in conservafool carpetbaggers to help them, so y'all better be prepared to counter that. You need to be prepared to do the same simply because you will be justified in doing so to defend AB 1266. You should not hesitate in IMMEDIATELY asking for national and INTERNATIONAL help and money from the trans community and our allies. You should be putting together now your lists of liberal progressive churches, pastors, Hollywood actors, athletes and politicians, and double checking to make sure they are ethnically and regionally diverse.
From the millisecond the referendum gets cleared by the Cali Attorney General's office you need to pounce on and utterly destroy to the point they are radioactive the bathroom meme and all the other scare tactics the wingers are going to throw at it because it's the only way they can be successful.
You need to find the Cali trans kids like Ashton Lee who fought to get it passed and who benefit from the law. Give them face time along with cisgender kids and parents willing to rebut the lies of the haters that they are 'doing this for all California children'.
Make sure your California media buys reach Black, Asian and Latino voters and places besides the LA and San Francisco metro areas.
Don't be afraid to go for the right wing jugular because you've not only have the moral high ground, you got to be in it to win it.
Cali transpeople, you need to do your part to help defeat the haters too. T-bills need to be donated to the coalition when it forms. If you can't give cash, sweat equity is also needed in the form of volunteers to phone bank, canvass, register voters, staff offices, and Get Out The Vote mobilization on election day to defeat it. Get informed about AB 1266 and go to war in the comment threads of your local newspapers to counter the lies the haters will be trying to spread.
You must do the little things to win the hearts and minds of undecided voters. Attention to details like that may help you defeat the hate referendum.
And when you build that diverse intersectional coalition to defeat this repeal effort, in addition to making sure it is properly funded and the money raised is spent wisely, hire some trans peeps in the getting paid positions to help coordinate strategy for this AB 1266 defense effort . We are the people best qualified to talk about our lives and come up with the necessary talking points to come up with a clear message about us.
We transpeeps (for a fee) can also tell you what NOT to say either.
It's also personal for us transpeople, too. I have some other ideas, but they will only be released to the Defend AB 1266 coalition or whatever name they come up for it should that become necessary.
Hopefully you learned your lessons from the failed 2008 Prop 8 efforts, but just in case you forgot them, just wanted to make sure you didn't frack stuff up in this critical effort in 2014 that trans people will need you to win, preferably in a decisive manner should it come to pass.
