Crain Brain Drain

I really had to laugh at the complete arrogance and hypocrisy Chris Crain showed in his recent Editorial entitled: “A year of living dangerously.” I focus on this one sentence in particular, “I also learned the hard way how the impact of hate crimes is felt differently, and more broadly, than other violent crimes.”

Please explain to us how you have learned anything, Chris. You showed that you are relentless in your opposition to transgender people being covered by hate crime legislation and were highly upset when the House passed a hate crimes bill that included us. Did you learn that you can be a target just as easily as transgender people can? No, we found out you didn’t learn that. Did you learn to treat others in the GLBT community with more respect? No, not that either.

Or, did you learn that even though you feel that rich gay white men are on the top of the food chain in the GLBT community, that they are not immune to violence. I’m sure you learned that. It’s a step in the right direction. My question to you is, “What will it take for you to experience to learn the rest of it?” I hate to think what it’ll be.

Monica Helms
President of TAVA
Executive Director of TransAction

Marti Abernathey is the founder of the Transadvocate and the previous managing editor. Abernathey has worn many different hats, including that of podcaster, activist, and radiologic technologist. She's been a part of various internet radio ventures such as TSR Live!, The T-Party, and The Radical Trannies, TransFM, and Sodium Pentathol Sunday. As an advocate she's previously been involved with the Indiana Transgender Rights Advocacy Alliance, Rock Indiana Campaign for Equality, and the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition. She's taken vital roles as a grass roots community organizer in The Indianapolis Tax Day Protest (2003), The Indy Pride HRC Protest (2004), Transgender Day of Remembrance (2004), Indiana's Witch Hunt (2005), and the Rally At The Statehouse (the largest ever GLBT protest in Indiana - 3/2005). In 2008 she was a delegate from Indiana to the Democratic National Convention and a member of Barack Obama's LGBT Steering and Policy Committee. Abernathey currently hosts the Youtube Channel "The T-Party with Marti Abernathey."