Posted on 08/05/2004 3:39:08 PM PDT by scripter
Transgender advocacy groups plan to demonstrate outside the Washington headquarters the Human Rights Campaign, a major homosexual advocacy organization, on Saturday.
The "Unity Rally for Transgender Rights" will protest the Human Rights Campaign's "dubious efforts on behalf of transgender inclusion in federal legislation."
Transsexual Menace, the rally organizer, said members of groups such as the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition, Pride at Work, and Parents, Friends & Families of Lesbians & Gays will take part in the transgender-rights rally.
The demonstration will take place on Saturday, Aug. 7, when the HRC board convenes to discuss a contentious issue: whether to include transgenders in federal legislation it is pushing.
'Include us, too'
Some transgenders say the homosexual community has thrown them overboard, in an effort to make federal legislation palatable to lawmakers.
"In a climate where the GOP is using scare tactics to erase the GLBT people from gaining civil rights, we believe that for the largest GLBT organization in our country to be playing these kinds of political games is not only divisive to our community but unconscionable," said Ethan St. Pierre, organizer of the Transsexual Menace event, in a press release.
"HRC is the largest GLBT national organization, and when they support non-inclusive language in what should be trans-inclusive legislation, it sends a clear message to Congress that we [transgenders] don't matter and that our lives mean nothing!"
In March 2001, the Human Rights Campaign announced it was including transgender people in its mission statement. After the announcement, many in the transgender community were initially pleased and hopeful, Transgender Menace said, while others remained skeptical.
But Transgender Menace says it's time for HRC to include transgender protections in the federal bills it pushes.
GLBT leader agrees
Matt Foreman, the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, wrote an op-ed on Tuesday, saying the time for debate is over: Foreman says it's time to include transsexuals in all pro-homosexual federal legislation, including the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).
"ENDA must be amended to protect transgender people," Foreman wrote. "If it is not, we all must walk away from it."
In a candid op-ed, Foreman second guesses himself, admitting he should have included transgender people in a New York law that barred discrimination against gays, lesbians and bisexuals. At the time the law was passed, Foreman served as executive director of the Empire State Pride Association.
"All I can say is that hindsight is 20/20," Foreman said. "I made mistakes in New York and that painful experience seared into my mind and heart three lessons that I think are directly applicable to ENDA."
"The first lesson," said Foreman, "is not to accept what legislators have to say on this subject." He says lawmakers view the inclusion of transsexual protections as automatic bill-killers.
Said Foreman, "On the side, we'd be told that 'Look, let's be honest. It took this long to get members OK with you (gay) people, but this transgender thing? No way.'
"We accepted that answer because we thought we had to," Foreman wrote. We thought that making a stink about this would derail other legislative priorities...In hindsight, my judgment was wrong."
Foreman said he now believes that if homosexual activists had insisted on "trans-inclusion" years ago, "it would have happened, maybe not immediately, but it would have happened."
Foreman says homosexual advocacy groups must make sure a "trans-inclusive bill is the only bill acceptable. Period."
Foreman said it's vital to make a bill "trans-inclusive early on so that when it finally starts moving, the issue is behind you and can't be used as another excuse for inaction."
ENDA, introduced in 1994, is not expected to pass any time soon, Foreman noted. "Now is the time to make it trans-inclusive, so that when all the conditions come together and make ENDA ready to move at last, it will be the law we can all embrace."
Foreman says the third lesson is hard to admit: "I failed to recognize my own anti-trans ignorance and prejudices. Legislators essentially said, 'You gays in suits are OK, but them, there's no way.'
"I realize now that I bought that I was a 'good gay,' and from there's no escaping the unspoken corollaries -- I am better and I am not one of them. From there, it's easy to start spinning out the differences between anti-gay and anti-transgender discrimination and why the remedies to it are different, etc., etc."
Foreman says it would be "disingenuous not to recognize" that many homosexual activists "do not understand why or how trans issues are 'gay' issues -- and how 'gay' issues are trans issues -- and don't see any reason to spend time or political capital on them. This, I think, has kept us from being strongly and implacably united around trans-inclusion.
"That needs to change now," Foreman concluded. "ENDA as we have known it must die. Long live a new ENDA for all our people."
Frustration
Leaders of the transsexual "rights" movement say they are very frustrated. "Many in the community feel we've been led down the primrose path straight into a dead end," said National Transgender Advocacy CoalitionChair Vanessa Edwards Foster, explaining the sentiment behind Saturday's planned protest.
"We're not equal, nor are we anywhere near it. We don't have an open voice, nor are we closer to having that. HRC decides who, HRC decides when, HRC decides what policy and priorities, and we're expected to quietly go along for the ride."
Definitions
While the homosexual community wrestles with transsexual inclusion, many conservatives reject the entire GLBT agenda to redefine cultural norms.
The re-definition of marriage is unacceptable to many conservative groups, and so it the notion that one's gender may also be subject to re-definition -- that gender is psychological, not biological.
The advent of transgender protection also gives rise to new dilemmas and lawsuits, a particular concern to the business community.
In June of this year, a salesman sued the Iowa tractor dealership that fired him when he began the transition from male to female. Lauren Jansen -- formerly Larry Jansen -- accused the company of violating the 1964 Civil Rights Act, CourtTV.com reported.
And in Portland, Ore., a transsexual sued the owners of an athletic club for ordering her to leave, after she changed in the women's locker room.
Ping
oh boy !
"What to Do About Transsexuals ?" Heal ?
Does the sexual mutilation crowd claim they're like that because of genetics too ?
You mean there's not enough room in the "rainbow tent"? What about DI-VER-SI-TY?
Tsk Tsk! Sounds like discrimination to me!
"In a climate where the GOP is using scare tactics to erase the GLBT people from gaining civil rights,
The opposition to gay marriage is BI-PARTISAN. There is no GOP conspiracy against gays or transgendered people.
"The first lesson," said Foreman, "is not to accept what legislators have to say on this subject."
Legislators speak for the people who voted for them. That's their job. So what you're really saying is don't listen to people who vote.
Why don't we just do away with voting altogether and allow any dictator who can muster the power to take over ..... to tell us all what to do and what to believe? Problem solved.
And don't forget us Male Lesbians. We have rights you know.
Well here goes the slope we have all been waiting on. The downward spiral to transgender, sibling lovers, polygomy, and animal relationships.
This is exactly why we have to have an amendment. Although I don't think we should have to do anything.
It should be the opposing view that has to convince us, the man and woman group, that they have to pass an amendment. Why should we have to protect what already is?
It all boils down to tolerance and acceptance. The gays can't tolerate us because we believe marriage is between man and woman. So much for their tolerance. I thought it went both ways.
And acceptance. I am convinced that this recognition is more important than their lover getting benefits.
I avoided the "videos" link on that site!
;Homosexuals Debate What to Do About Transsexuals
Aw screw em............
;-)
Transgender Menace ?????????????
BUT the transexuals are not homosexuals, they are usually wanting to be the other sex, whomever the other sex may be.
AND next will be the transvestites, and they want to be heterosexual with the other partner, as long as that partner allows them to dress alike.
My answer stands.... ;-)
Transsexuals are not cross dressers or transvestites. They have been sexually mutilated and hormonally tortured. They are extremely sick individuals who ruin their bodies, minds and souls to seek the impossible.
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