Originally published at TransAdvocate. You can comment here or there.

Running for office in 2003, Althea Garrison said that a:

“most compelling reason why someone should vote for me is that I am different and unique from the other candidates, when candidates run and loose [sic] elections most of them goes back to their obscurity not me I continue to fight and bring issues to the limelight,“

and of marriage equality in Massachusetts she said:

“Furthermore, to grant special benefits and privileges to a certain group of people is discriminatory toward heterosexual males and females. The issue of same sex marriage is not like race in which a person has no control over the color of his or her skin of which they were born, same sex is a matter of choice and lifestyle not to be confused or associated with class or race.“

Garrison’s stance on marriage equality has gained her the support of the anti-gay rights group MassResistance :

“Althea Garrison has supported MassResistance and collected hundreds of signatures for us, so we’re returning the favor, despite what people may say. Jack Hart is a disaster. Go Althea!”

What makes this story unusual is that Garrison is transgender. MassResistance is the group that called the 2008 Transgender Pride Parade:

“a public celebration by very disturbed people. Gruesome display of body mutilations.”

and wrote a 125 page missive called “The Coming Nightmare of a ‘Transsexual Rights and Hate Crimes’ Law in Massachusetts”, saying:

There is no bottom to this pit of depravity, and they will drag many innocent victims along with them: the young, the lonely, the psychologically and physically wounded, the confused – including some of your children and grandchildren, family, friends and neighbors. There will be no safe haven. You cannot cocoon in your homes or churches. Our public schools, businesses, public accommodations (which may include churches), your employers and insurers, will all be forced to yield to yet-undefined perversions, protected by law.

Either they haven’t harnessed the power of “the Google” when doing research on those they support for public office or they’ve been sucked into our “bottomless pit of depravity” and now support transgender rights. I’m not holding my breath on the latter.

Originally published at TransAdvocate. You can comment here or there.

Recently Mara Keisling said:

“during her Oct. 4 speech that Congress is very close to passing a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that would include both sexual orientation and gender identity.

‘It’s going to pass with either McCain or Obama in the White House,’ she predicted.’

‘We are so close to winning,’ Keisling said. ‘We’re already at the point where they want to know us. We’re going to pass ENDA and it will protect all of us. When the new administration comes in, I believe we have 218 votes [in the House] and close to 60 votes [in the Senate] locked down — it will be a no-brainer.’”

But that doesn’t really jive with what U.S. Rep. Barney Frank has recently said:

“If we pick up 15 or 20 Democrats, most of them will be supportive. But I am disappointed in the transgender community. They seem to think that if Nancy Pelosi and myself, George Miller and a few others waved a magic wand we could deliver it. Look, this past year in the legislatures of Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York, efforts to add transgender protections…were defeated. And I testified for it in Massachusetts and lobbied for it. And as a political problem out there, I wish there weren’t, but pretending that something doesn’t exist is never a good way to deal with it. I am afraid that too many people in the transgender community think that talking to me and Nancy Pelosi is the way to do it. I don’t yet see enough grassroots lobbying on their part.

I do think that the hearing that we had — and by the way, we had a hearing in the House over the objections of many of the transgender leadership. But I really doubt their political wisdom...Because they said it was part of our deal to separate it from ENDA and they wanted to not have anything separate. We did a good job in that hearing and we helped persuade some people. So we’re making progress. We’d make even more progress if the transgender community was willing to do the hard political work. And not, frankly, think they can just talk a few leaders into handing this to them.“

If an inclusive ENDA is a “no brainer”, why is the National Center for Lesbian Rights hiring a senior-level organizer:

“to work with individuals and coalition groups to ensure that Members of Congress and their staffs are educated by community members about the intersecting problems of gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination. Organize professional staff, community leaders, and volunteers to hold events and meetings, all with diversity emphasis to work with individuals and coalition groups to ensure that Members of Congress and their staffs are educated by community members about the intersecting problems of gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination. Organize professional staff, community leaders, and volunteers to hold events and meetings, all with diversity emphasis to work with individuals and coalition groups to ensure that Members of Congress and their staffs are educated by community members about the intersecting problems of gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination. Organize professional staff, community leaders, and volunteers to hold events and meetings, all with diversity emphasis.”

It sounds like the National Center for Lesbian Rights is taking the battle seriously… but does Keisling? If she is taking the battle seriously, why would she go down to Atlanta and spout these words to some of the most wealthy transgender people in the country? Why is a gay and lesbian organization doing the work (and paying for it), that should be done by our own community? Like Keisling, I think the answer is a no brainer.

Originally published at TransAdvocate. You can comment here or there.

Last year I wrote Photo Ops, Donations, And The Selling of Our Dead, when the Human Rights Campaign tried to hijack the Washington D.C. Transgender Day of Remembrance.

To refresh your memory, the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, Gwen Smith, said of the day:

“The Transgender Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgendered people, an action that current media doesn’t perform. Day of Remembrance publicly mourns and honors the lives of our brothers and sisters who might otherwise be forgotten. Through the vigil, we express love and respect for our people in the face of national indifference and hatred. Day of Remembrance reminds non-transgender people that we are their sons, daughters, parents, friends and lovers. Day of Remembrance gives our allies a chance to step forward with us and stand in vigil, memorializing those of us who’ve died by anti-transgender violence.”

Apparently that scope isn’t wide enough for the folks in Orlando, Florida. They’ve set out to expand the day to Transgender Day  Of Remembrance and Inspiration. Part of that “inspiration” is to fundraise for the Orlando Youth Alliance.  I’m sure it’s an oversight, but the Orlando Youth Alliance’s website asks:

• Are you curious about your sexuality?
• Are you having problems dealing with the issues of your sexuality?

and states that:

Almost every GLBTQ youth has questions about their sexuality at some point in their life.

and their donation page, a goal of their fundraising efforts is to help build a:

24 hr safe house for those who have been kicked out of their homes due to their
sexuality.

Transgender children generally are kicked out of their homes for their gender presentation, not their sexuality.

Another ironic aspect is that one of the sponsors is Tri-ess.  Tri-ess describes itself as:

an educational, social and support group for heterosexual crossdressers, their partners, the spouses of married crossdressers and their families.

One only needs to look as far as their email list descriptions to get an idea of how transsexuals are viewed within Tri-ess:

Those of you with strong, militant transsexual attachments, please move on. This list is not for you. For the purposes of this list, those with “militant transsexual attachments” are defined as those who actively promote transsexualism.

Most of the people on the TDOR list are transsexuals (or people living full time in their chosen gender), not crossdressers.

The Day of Remembrance isn’t a day for inspiration or fundraising. It’s a solemn day that should be revered as such. It’s not a day to sell our dead for money or motivation.

Last week I received an email from the Human Rights Campaign informing me that Joe Biden will be speaking at the the Human Rights Campaign National Dinner on October 4th, 2008.  Since that time I've expected to hear about an organized protest of this event from the transgender activist community in Washington D.C. Protests have already happened from coast to coast (and everywhere in between). Last Feburary the New York City protest caused many prominent local politicians to boycott the New York City HRC Dinner. In July the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, Pride at Work, And Castro For All, the Lou Sullian Society (FTM SF), and the Trans March came together to boycott the Human Rights Campaign Dinner. Such a strong presence of organized labor was especially important. The key note speaker for the San Francisco dinner, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, dropped out of the event because of labor's involvement.
( Read more )

Originally published at TransAdvocate. You can comment here or there.

Last week I received an email from the Human Rights Campaign informing me that Joe Biden will be speaking at the the Human Rights Campaign National Dinner on October 4th, 2008.  Since that time I’ve expected to hear about an organized protest of this event from the transgender activist community in Washington D.C. Protests have already happened from coast to coast (and everywhere in between). Last Feburary the New York City protest caused many prominent local politicians to boycott the New York City HRC Dinner. In July the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, Pride at Work, And Castro For All, the Lou Sullian Society (FTM SF), and the Trans March came together to boycott the Human Rights Campaign Dinner. Such a strong presence of organized labor was especially important. The key note speaker for the San Francisco dinner, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, dropped out of the event because of labor’s involvement.

You can see video from the San Francisco protest here:

At upcoming Boston HRC dinner on October 25th, protesters are looking to build on the San Francisco success. From Left in SF:

“The group is working to build a coalition of trans and queer activists, anti-war activists, and women’s rights activists to protest HRC’s lack of grassroots coalition building, support for pro-war and anti-choice candidates, and support of a non-inclusive version of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA).

‘It’s time to show HRC what real solidarity looks like,” said Trevor Wright of QueerToday.com, ‘transgender and labor activists united in San Francisco to build the largest protest ever of HRC, and we plan to show the country Boston can too!’”

When contacted for comment about the upcoming National HRC Dinner, Pride At Work Executive Director,  Jeremy Bishop, said

At Pride at Work  we’re going to push it as hard as possible to make sure Obama is in office, but an inclusive ENDA is one of his top priorities. That’s kind of where we’re focusing some of our energy. Also educating Congressional folks so that when the next ENDA comes to their desk and we have a larger Democratic majority,  the problems we had last year will not be recreated.

Boston transgender activist, Ethan St. Pierre, sees it differently.

“Even though other organizations dropped the ball last year, the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition had a two week notice to pick up the slack and move forward with a protest, and it was still a fairly successful event.

Last October’s HRC national dinner protest was the kick off to the nations HRC dinner
protests that have taken place across the country. We are now busy organizing protests
in our own cities. Considering that this is the one year anniversary of HRC’s betrayal, that  Joe Biden is speaking at the HRC national dinner in DC,  and that the DC dinner takes in the MOST money, that the activists who live in the DC area would have done something on their own.”

Can we all agree that United ENDA is dead? The major organizations of “United ENDA” are located in the Washington D.C. area, yet the Human Rights Campaign is having a dinner without the voice of protest of the transgender community. The only transgender representation at the dinner will be on the inside. Founding member and current NCTE board member, Dana Beyer, is a table captain at the dinner. According to the HRC Dinner website:

Table Captains are the heart of the National Dinner’s attendance. Each Table Captain strives to fill a table of 12, creating their own guest list and spending an inspirational evening surrounded with friends and family. As a ‘thank you’ for helping to support the drive for equality, Table Captains are listed in Dinner advertisements, invitations and program books.

Where are the grass roots activists? Where are the protesters? The silence coming from Washington D.C. is deafening.

Originally published at TransAdvocate. You can comment here or there.

Recently the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) announced their effort to collect data on  “discrimination against transgender people in housing, employment, public accommodation, health care, education, family life and criminal justice.”

Mara Keisling said of this effort:

“This is an absolutely critical national effort. We urge all transgender and gender non-conforming people to take the survey to help guide us in making better laws and policies that will improve the quality of life for all transgender people. We need everyone’s voice in this, everyone’s participation.”

One of the glaring holes in this effort is that it comes in the form of an online survey.  Looking at this Transgender Day of Remembrance site, I wonder how many of these people had internet access? How many of these people were connected into online transgender networks?

The recent transgender hearings in Congress have been called historic by some, and in many ways they are. But many of the same questions of privilege and race remain. There’s an amazing disconnect that the hearings were held in a city that has had one of the highest transgender muder rates of African Americans (and a population that is 56% African American), and some of the most desperate conditions for transgender African Americans. Yet the people that spoke before Congress were people of privilege.  Diane Schroer (a retired Colonel) , Rep. Tammy Baldwin (a lesbian US Representative); Rep. Barney Frank (a gay US Representative); William H. Hendrix III (a PHD from Dow Chemical),  Sabrina Marcus Taraboletti (a former NASA engineer),  Shannon Minter (a lawyer),  Rep. Robert Andrews (a US Representative), are all white people that have a certain amount of racial and economic privilege. The only person of color on the panel was Diego Sanchez. Sanchez is the Director of Public Relations & External Affairs, AIDS Action Committee. He’s worked for Starwood Hotels, ITT Sheraton, Coca-Cola, Holiday Inn, Burson-Marsteller/NY and Ketchum/Atlanta. Sanchez is a Rhodes Scholar candidate and a UMass/Boston Emerging Leaders Senior Fellow and holds a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Georgia with a major in Public Relations. While he is a person of color, he hardly represents the average transgender person of color. He’s a person of economic priveldge. But it’s Taraboletti’s testimony that sticks out in my mind, especially when she said:

Personally I have lost my wife, most of my assets, and my home in divorce. I have been abandoned by half of my family and friends. At the same time, I had to find the $70-90,000 of funding and endure the extreme pain of electrolysis, and the various other surgeries required to complete the transition from male to female.

Contrast that to the Washington Transgender Needs Assesment Survey (which was NOT on online survey) done in 2000:

Participants range in age from 13 to 61, with nearly 80% 36 years and under. Seventy-five percent report being born anatomically male, 24% female and 1% intersexed. Over 94% are of color, with nearly 70% African-American and 22% Latino/a. Eighty-four percent are U.S. citizens, and 20% have immigrated to the U.S., mostly from Latin American countries. The majority of the participants self-report their sexual orientation as Gay (65%), their gender identity as Transgender (69%) and their relationship status as single (69%).

Forty percent have not finished high school, and only 58% are employed in paid positions. Twenty-nine percent report no source of income, and another 31% report annual incomes under $10,000. Fifteen percent report losing a job due to discrimination from being transgendered. Forty-three percent of the participants have been a victim of violence or crime, with 75% attributing a motive of either transphobia or homophobia to it.

Neither the Congressional hearings or this online survey even begin to cut into the abject poverty and discrimination that most transgender people experience. If the statistics are to be believed, the number of transgender people that live at or below the poverty level is fairly substantial. Where is the outreach to those of us that have the least? Those of us that are suffering the worst from discrimination in employment, housing, and medical care? Where are people that Earline Budd and the folks over at the Tyra Hunter’s Drop-In Center serve?

If you are online and you give money to these organizations, odds are you probably aren’t suffering the worst discrimination. This survey seems more like an effort to poll donors of the sponsoring organizations, than a picture of the state of transgender people in the United States.

Originally published at TransAdvocate. You can comment here or there.

I recently recieved an email alert from NCTE about a fully inclusive ENDA. Mara Keisling said:

Dear Friends,

I have no doubt we can pass a transgender-inclusive ENDA next year if we all do the work now to educate Congress and the public.  In a recent interview Rep Barney Frank (D-MA) agreed saying:

“The more Democrats we have, and obviously, not every Democrat votes with us, the better we’ll do.  If we can pick up 15 Democratic seats, then I think we are in good position to pass a transgender-inclusive ENDA.” (http://www.365gay.com/features/interview-with-barney-frank)

Of course he’s right, not every Democrat votes with us and not every Republican votes against us.  That’s why the best work we can be doing now to get us in position for winning our rights in 2009 is the work of building relationships and educating all of our lawmakers - whoever they are, where ever they are.

When I’m visiting lawmakers on Capitol Hill one thing I hear far too often is that lawmakers don’t think they have transgender people in their districts.  You and I know that is impossible - we are every where.  I can visit your representatives everyday up on the Hill, but they really need to hear from you and to meet you face to face.

As Paul Harvey says, “and now, for the rest of the story.” Barney said in a video interview with Towleroad blog:

“If we pick up 15 or 20 Democrats, most of them will be supportive. But I am disappointed in the transgender community. They seem to think that if Nancy Pelosi and myself, George Miller and a few others waved a magic wand we could deliver it. Look, this past year in the legislatures of Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York, efforts to add transgender protections…were defeated. And I testified for it in Massachusetts and lobbied for it. And as a political problem out there, I wish there weren’t, but pretending that something doesn’t exist is never a good way to deal with it. I am afraid that too many people in the transgender community think that talking to me and Nancy Pelosi is the way to do it. I don’t yet see enough grassroots lobbying on their part.

“I do think that the hearing that we had — and by the way, we had a hearing in the House over the objections of many of the transgender leadership. But I really doubt their political wisdom…Because they said it was part of our deal to separate it from ENDA and they wanted to not have anything separate. We did a good job in that hearing and we helped persuade some people. So we’re making progress. We’d make even more progress if the transgender community was willing to do the hard political work. And not, frankly, think they can just talk a few leaders into handing this to them.”

And that, my friends, is the REST of the story! Good day!

Originally published at TransAdvocate. You can comment here or there.

On June 25, 2008 I was asked to sign on to the National Stonewall Democrat’s Transgender ActBlue page. While I disagreed with the effort (there was no concerted effort behind the scenes to make the fundraising campaign a success), I donated $150 to try and help in the effort.  As I predicted, it was a flop (collecting a measly $4,951. I know gay donors that have given as much).

While I felt uncomfortable with the idea of the page, I felt comfortable giving money to the NSD. That trust was shattered on September 2nd, 2008. Ethan St. Pierre reported here of an e-mail from Steve Driscoll, the Co-Chair of the Stonewall Democrats, saying:

I might also add, that after beginning discussions with HRC in OCTOBER about collaborating on events for the Democratic National Convention (to avoid the the anger and resentment they engendered by their high-handedness in Boston four years ago) as well as requests for sponsorship of the NSD Denver convention, AND following up with phone calls every two months with no return calls, I finally heard from them TODAY that no sponsorship would be forthcoming. When I pointed out to Marty Rouse last week that they sponsored the Logs Convention, his response was “Oh right, we did, didn’t we”.

How can the National Stonewall Democrats try and squeeze cash from the Human Rights Campaign on one hand, and profess to be part of a “United ENDA” on the other? Since the very month that we were written out of ENDA and the so called “United ENDA” campaign/coalition started, they’ve been courting HRC money.

In the last few days both HRC and the NSD have denied these aligations (but NSD has NEVER denied that the email was sent from Steve Driscoll) but Michael Petrelis has shown that HRC isn’t above giving money to Republicans. Frankly I’m more upset with the National Stonewall Democrats, an organization that I respect and was a proud member of. I’m not going to lie, this one stings. I didn’t see this one coming. The fact that the NSD needs the money is almost as disturbing as them asking for the it.

Originally published at TransAdvocate. You can comment here or there.

In my last blog post, Where Your HRC Donations Are Going, I reported that HRC had donated money to sponsor the Log Cabin Republicans but that they had donated zero dollars to sponsor the Stonewall Democrats. Let’s take a closer look at who HRC is NOT supporting and what that effect has and will be.

In this email, Steve Driscoll, Co-Chair of the Stonewall Democrats, discusses the nonsupport of the Human Rights Campaign in the efforts of the NSD to elect Obama for President.

From: StDriscoll@…

To: _____________________

Cc: jhoadley@stonewalldemocrats.org

Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 2:24 PM

Subject: HRC Sucks.

In light of HRC taking the weasel way out - again - I think we should take the lead.

I might also add, that after beginning discussions with HRC in OCTOBER about collaborating on events for the Democratic National Convention (to avoid the the anger and resentment they engendered by their high-handedness in Boston four years ago) as well as requests for sponsorship of the NSD Denver convention, AND following up with phone calls every two months with no return calls, I finally heard from them TODAY that no sponsorship would be forthcoming. When I pointed out to Marty Rouse last week that they sponsored the Logs Convention, his response was “Oh right, we did, didn’t we”. I then pointed out the obvious, that there were a lot more of us than there were of them - and I got no response when I asked what they got for their purportedly $10,000 to the Logs.

When I called him (twice) today he said that budget constraints were the reason why they would not be giving us a comparable (or any) sponsorship. I siad that there was an inequity here and asked if no one took NSD under consideration when they decided to sponsor the Logs. I then suggested that perhaps they could come up with some other way show support. His response: “there will be couple of HRC staff people in Denver”.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am absolutely furious about this. Not only is this inequitable, it’s fuckin dismissive and disrespectul. The task Force is at least giving us a stack of tickets to their Unity Dance. From HRC we’re getting bupkiss - and worse.

I, for one, will not attend their concert - and I will not go quietly into that good night either.

Any ideas?

Originally published at TransAdvocate. You can comment here or there.

On Tuesday I attended the HRC/Victory Fund luncheon and on Wednesday I attended the LGBT caucus at the convention center in Denver. Many stories were broke in the past few days, but one event passed by without a word. In a very consistent manner, Barney Frank again signaled that when ENDA is introduced, it will NOT be fully inclusive.

Speakers including the likes of Tammy Baldwin, Diego Sanchez, and others have repeatedly spoke about the hopefulness of an inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act, but that seems more like a wish, than even close to being a reality. Some in the activist community have commented that I’ve “given up”, but I’m not a believer in false hope. Barney Frank is the shepherd, and we are the sheep.