Comments on: No, not so much.

By: You don't have to be straight to be an ass : The Curvature

You don't have to be straight to be an ass : The Curvature — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:19:54 +0000

[...] For more excellent analysis, check out Jill and piny. [...]

By: Cola Johnson

Cola Johnson — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 06:10:23 +0000

I also find it hard to believe that transpeople will ever get their own initiative offering this kind of protection, because they are less visible than the larger gay community. Their best bet is being included in this one, and it’s sad that our the people we put in office don’t see that.

By: RachelPhilPa

RachelPhilPa — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 00:14:00 +0000

Louise,

I’d suggest:

Call other white people on their racism.

Call other straight people on their homophobia.

Call other cissexual / cisgender people on their transphobia.

And constantly check yourself, and listen when poc / queer / trans people call you on something.

(For the record, I am a white, middle-class trans woman.)

By: More Than A Symbol « Matt Zeitlin: Impetuous Young Whippersnapper

More Than A Symbol « Matt Zeitlin: Impetuous Young Whippersnapper — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:35:25 +0000

[...] by Matt Zeitlin on October 3rd, 2007 Piny of Feministe has a long, thorough and convincing response to my argument that dropping transgendered from ENDA is an acceptable, ultimately beneficial [...]

By: Elaine Vigneault

Elaine Vigneault — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:02:35 +0000

I’m with Holly @ #10 on this one.

By: Valerie

Valerie — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:11:44 +0000

If the situation were reversed, and Gay and Lesbians were left out of the bill, I am sure there would be similar reaction among their community. Why abandon transgender folks when they have been with us all along? A step forward for gay rights, yes – but a step backword for the LGBT community, in my eyes.

By: Holly

Holly — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:58:45 +0000

Oh, here’s HRC’s “take action” page, it’s basically a send-letter-to-your-rep kind of form.

http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/campaign/enda_oct/bgg6iir0kkit8i?

Boy, lobbying is one of my least favorite forms of activism.

By: Holly

Holly — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:57:36 +0000

The HRC has now down an about-face and is insisting they won’t support an ENDA that jettisons trans people either. I guess that makes pretty much every single large LGBT organization around now!

The support is heartening, and sometimes it does seem like priorities have changed about from five years ago, when I first started hearing and having arguments about whether trans people should be in ENDA, or the local NY state version, SONDA, which got passed in this state without trans people. 5 years later… still no state protection for trans people in this state, go figure! Matt Foreman, who at the time was a major advocate in the fight for SONDA and instrumental in keeping trans people out of it, has since had a change of heart and pushed for a trans-inclusive ENDA as part of the NGLTF.

Maybe now that most people in the LGBT umbrella seem to agree that we shouldn’t be leaving anyone behind, we can get on with the work of telling everyone else. As for what you can do — HRC is asking people to send letters to their representatives, asking them to support a fully inclusive ENDA. I guess that goes double and triple if you live in the Massachusetts 4th (south mass, west of cape cod) or the California 8th (most of San Francisco) because Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi are the congresspeople who are still moving forward with the new stripped-down ENDA despite their allies from outside Congress, like HRC, asking them not to.

I wonder if HRC is still honoring Pelosi at a fundraiser this week…

By: Thomas, TSID

Thomas, TSID — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:19:29 +0000

JFP, CB and Mythago said what I first thought. The analogy of legislation to judicial decision is flawed from its inception, for all the reasons stated above; and for one more. When judges say more about the law than is necessary to the holding in the case, what they say is not binding. It is what lawyers call dicta. Now, folks can argue over whether something is dicta or not, and it may be a good indicator of how the Court is going, but really, the judges are bound to apply the law to the facts presented by the case — there’s a “case or controversy” requirement in the Constitution. So even if the Loving Court had said, “no person shall be denied the right to marry his or her chosen spouse,” we’d still have to refight the battle.

By: maatnofret

maatnofret — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:19:20 +0000

I remember one of my transgendered friends bringing this up almost ten years ago. She was fired from her job for being trans, so she educated herself and knew a lot about this issue. Although MN has a law protecting against sexual orientation discrimination at work, and that definition supposedly includes trans folk, the statutory language was not strong enough to help her win her subsequent lawsuit.

Her objection to being excluded from ENDA did not go over well with a few other gays and lesbians. Watching an exchange between her and a couple of HRC members about ENDA really opened my eyes to the rampant transphobia that existed within the gay and lesbian communities at that time.

Judging from the way things are going a decade later, that prejudice is still in place.

I agree that that trans folks getting stabbed in the back here. It’s hateful and absurd. It makes me wonder—who is next? Bears? Drag queens? People who insist on flying rainbow flags in public? Who among us isn’t a little bit, well, queer? Besides, it’s not as if we can ever jettison enough people out of the movement to please the people who hate us–”us” meaning GLBTI and allies. If we keep going, who will remain? Log Cabin Republicans? Oh yes, I’m sure *they’ll* be a big help. Sheesh.