“I know some of my transgender sisters question my commitment to their equality, but let me be the first (I think) to point out where the top-three Democrats on in inclusion of gender identiy in federal hate crimes legislation (where I support it) and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (where I support in principle adding it at some later date, but oppose its inclusion now).” – Chris Crain
First of all, it’s not just the sisters that question you “commitment” to our equality rights. There are trans-brothers in this fight too, ya know (Ethan St. Pierre is the Chair of the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition).
This question at hand isn’t hard, Chris. Either it’s the GLBT community, or it’s not.
Secondly, the transgender people from the previous generations have paid just as for their rights as gays and lesbians. They were out on the street cashing in their skin for advocacy. I’d remind you of the work done by done by the likes of Sylvia Rivera, Marsha “P” Washington, and the “screaming queens” of the Compton Cafeteria Riots. Transgender people have stood hand in hand with gays and lesbians in the fight for equality. Now you’d like to throw us under the bus?
“Even Edwards, it should be noted, stopped short of the strategically suicidal position backed by the Task Force and the Human Rights Campaign, which is to actually oppose workplace rights and hate crime protections for gay Americans unless transgender protections can be adopted at the same time.”
Why not remove gay men from the bill? Leave lesbians in because they’re super popular right now (Can you say L Word!? Rosie!? Ellen!?) Not even heterosexuals can say no to lesbian protections! The bill woud sail right through both houses and President Bush would most certainly sign it! Everyone loves lesbians!
Of course it’s an absurd propisition to remove gay men from the legislation for expediencies sake. Removal of gender identity from either bill is just as absurd. The firm stand taken by HRC and NGLTF (and PFLAG) is a great step forward in the rights for equality of ALL GLBT citizens.
*update*
Some folks got the impression with the first image that I am attacking HRC. It’s supposed to be under the context of Chris Crain’s “dream.” I’m thankful that most of the community (including HRC) don’t buy the incremental rights crap anymore.
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Related posts:
Shame on, shame on…
Michael Crawford posted last week about HRC’s defense of the Jena 6, where Joe Solmonese gave a speech about how we know bigotry and bias, and the Jena 6 know bigorty and bias, and Black people in general know bigotry and bias, and we should all work …
Chris Crain, instead of responding to us, why don’t you spend your energy talking to them about transgender rights? Or better yet, we’ll talk to them, with you at our side?
Let’s say we do that, and some bills that don’t have certain TG/TS provisions YET, pass.
What next? Is there going to be a vigorous campaign to move things forward for transgendered/transsexual people?
We want to forget the past, and go forward. Can we?
Should TG/TS secure our civil rights with the current efforts, we will do our best to live up to them, and all will see this. Regardless of the outcome this day for TG/TS people, we will not live second class lives, or accept that status from anyone. We now have self worth, and self dignity, and we will show that to the world.
You will know what “our finest hour” looks like, and it will be inspiring.
Chris Crain, instead of responding to us, why don’t you spend your energy talking to them about transgender rights? Or better yet, we’ll talk to them, with you at our side?
Let’s say we do that, and some bills that don’t have certain TG/TS provisions YET, pass.
What next? Is there going to be a vigorous campaign to move things forward for transgendered/transsexual people?
We want to forget the past, and go forward. Can we?
Should TG/TS secure our civil rights with the current efforts, we will do our best to live up to them, and all will see this. Regardless of the outcome this day for TG/TS people, we will not live second class lives, or accept that status from anyone. We now have self worth, and self dignity, and we will show that to the world.
You will know what “our finest hour” looks like, and it will be inspiring.
My two non-trans cents:
Strategically speaking, I think that passing a non-trans-inclusive ENDA and waiting for Congress to catch up would mean that there wouldn’t be trans workplace protections, ever. Seriously, it took 43 years after the Congress passed legislation protecting along the lines of race and sex, etc., to even seriously consider including sexuality. But gender identity? I think it’s with the rest of us or never. Maybe I’m pessimistic. I guess Chris’s “strategic” argument only works if you’re only thinking about the effects on gay and lesbian people only.
Practically, Monica’s totally right. An employer can just say that a lesbian was too butch or a gay man was too femme and be within his/her rights without “gender identity” in the ENDA. Sexual orientation and gender identity are separate, but not wholly unrelated.
Philosophically, I identify as queer as a transgression on heteronormativity. Rejecting heteronormativity for me is more than about who I f*ck, but also how I interact with others and how I see myself in the larger context of patriarchy and gender relations. I can’t even imagine separating my identity from the identity of trans. Even though I don’t identify as trans, the links between the two, for me, are undeniable.
My two non-trans cents:
Strategically speaking, I think that passing a non-trans-inclusive ENDA and waiting for Congress to catch up would mean that there wouldn’t be trans workplace protections, ever. Seriously, it took 43 years after the Congress passed legislation protecting along the lines of race and sex, etc., to even seriously consider including sexuality. But gender identity? I think it’s with the rest of us or never. Maybe I’m pessimistic. I guess Chris’s “strategic” argument only works if you’re only thinking about the effects on gay and lesbian people only.
Practically, Monica’s totally right. An employer can just say that a lesbian was too butch or a gay man was too femme and be within his/her rights without “gender identity” in the ENDA. Sexual orientation and gender identity are separate, but not wholly unrelated.
Philosophically, I identify as queer as a transgression on heteronormativity. Rejecting heteronormativity for me is more than about who I f*ck, but also how I interact with others and how I see myself in the larger context of patriarchy and gender relations. I can’t even imagine separating my identity from the identity of trans. Even though I don’t identify as trans, the links between the two, for me, are undeniable.
I agree Sabrina. I was merely addressing motivations here. Chris Crain is a shit-stirrer, and I should know because I’m a bit of one myself. The difference between us that one of advocates for equal rights and treatment for all GLBT people, and one of us believes it’s ok to gain basic civil rights for himself and others like him while another more persecuted minority is forced to wait additional years more for them.
You’d think a man who suffered an anti-gay hate crime and who’s hoping Congress passes legislation that will allow his partner, a foreign national, to live in the US would get it, that our issues and our lives are really not so different. Maybe he does and maybe he doesn’t, but it’s clear he still believes that transpeople should be content with the back of the bus until he gets his.
I agree Sabrina. I was merely addressing motivations here. Chris Crain is a shit-stirrer, and I should know because I’m a bit of one myself. The difference between us that one of advocates for equal rights and treatment for all GLBT people, and one of us believes it’s ok to gain basic civil rights for himself and others like him while another more persecuted minority is forced to wait additional years more for them.
You’d think a man who suffered an anti-gay hate crime and who’s hoping Congress passes legislation that will allow his partner, a foreign national, to live in the US would get it, that our issues and our lives are really not so different. Maybe he does and maybe he doesn’t, but it’s clear he still believes that transpeople should be content with the back of the bus until he gets his.
Isn’t it fabulous that Chris and his partner rented “Transamerica” last night? What a wonderful way of showing his solidarity with his “trans sisters.”
I’m clueless why anyone continues to take this man seriously. He’s been shoved out of Window Media, he’s living in Brazil, he has no voice except for an infrequently read blog and a column in a few papers (although I hear he’s haranguing the Blade to publish him).
He’s doing as he has always done — taken controversial stands to attract attention, as he did by hiring Jeff Gannon to write a column in the Blade, to the horror of all of the paper’s employees and readers. His latest has been his whining about the HRC and Joe Solomnese.
Despite his constant name-dropping, I can assure you he has no standing with anyone of importance. Forget him!
Isn’t it fabulous that Chris and his partner rented “Transamerica” last night? What a wonderful way of showing his solidarity with his “trans sisters.”
I’m clueless why anyone continues to take this man seriously. He’s been shoved out of Window Media, he’s living in Brazil, he has no voice except for an infrequently read blog and a column in a few papers (although I hear he’s haranguing the Blade to publish him).
He’s doing as he has always done — taken controversial stands to attract attention, as he did by hiring Jeff Gannon to write a column in the Blade, to the horror of all of the paper’s employees and readers. His latest has been his whining about the HRC and Joe Solomnese.
Despite his constant name-dropping, I can assure you he has no standing with anyone of importance. Forget him!
Becky,
“It’s worth remembering that when Chris was on my show, I asked him if he intentionally picked a fight with the trans community with his “transjack” editorials and he freely admitted he had.”
You know, i don’t really see how this is different from the old debates that started with, “Hey you leathermen, tone it down for the parades please, we want straight people to think we’re just like them so they will like us.”
Well, nothing we do, other than going into the closet completely and following their script for our lives, will make some people not hate us. We can earn peace if we go back into that cramped and miserable little closet. That’s been an option all along. But it never moves us an inch closer to being understood, respected, or accepted as we are. Straight people and homophobes outnumber us, they out-fund us, they have us politically out-maneuvered, and the only thing we have going for us is our witness on our own behalf — the freedom to tell our stories and be open about who we are.
Our lives are messy. We don’t have the freedom to tidy them up. And the straight people who look at our lives and judge us on the messiness thereof have to hear what it is like to walk in our shoes, how we largely had to each figure it out for ourselves and learn what would get us to the end of the day alive.
But in the end we shouldn’t have to tidy up our lives for sympathy. We shouldn’t have to give up anything more than we’ve already lost just to be treated as human beings. That goes for all of us, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered; genderqueer, intersex, questioning. Folks like Chris Crain and Barney Frank have not made me bitter towards gay people, because that would be ludicrous; they’re under the same gun we are, and they’re doing what they think they have to do for their survival. Fighting for survival isn’t pretty.
But we can’t, we can’t, we can’t let the haters think they can get some of us to sell out the others. Because who will it be next? Will we have operative transsexuals fighting to exclude rights for non-ops?
Becky,
“It’s worth remembering that when Chris was on my show, I asked him if he intentionally picked a fight with the trans community with his “transjack” editorials and he freely admitted he had.”
You know, i don’t really see how this is different from the old debates that started with, “Hey you leathermen, tone it down for the parades please, we want straight people to think we’re just like them so they will like us.”
Well, nothing we do, other than going into the closet completely and following their script for our lives, will make some people not hate us. We can earn peace if we go back into that cramped and miserable little closet. That’s been an option all along. But it never moves us an inch closer to being understood, respected, or accepted as we are. Straight people and homophobes outnumber us, they out-fund us, they have us politically out-maneuvered, and the only thing we have going for us is our witness on our own behalf — the freedom to tell our stories and be open about who we are.
Our lives are messy. We don’t have the freedom to tidy them up. And the straight people who look at our lives and judge us on the messiness thereof have to hear what it is like to walk in our shoes, how we largely had to each figure it out for ourselves and learn what would get us to the end of the day alive.
But in the end we shouldn’t have to tidy up our lives for sympathy. We shouldn’t have to give up anything more than we’ve already lost just to be treated as human beings. That goes for all of us, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered; genderqueer, intersex, questioning. Folks like Chris Crain and Barney Frank have not made me bitter towards gay people, because that would be ludicrous; they’re under the same gun we are, and they’re doing what they think they have to do for their survival. Fighting for survival isn’t pretty.
But we can’t, we can’t, we can’t let the haters think they can get some of us to sell out the others. Because who will it be next? Will we have operative transsexuals fighting to exclude rights for non-ops?
Hey Chris,
Monica makes an excellent point: What will you do when you get those gay and les only rights passed and then G&L start being fired and evicted for transgressing gender expectations (such as a man who “acts gay” or a woman who “acts like a man”)? Sure, we sometimes win these cases in federal court and sometimes we don’t…you really want to take your chances on that?
Everyone,
It’s worth remembering that when Chris was on my show, I asked him if he intentionally picked a fight with the trans community with his “transjack” editorials and he freely admitted he had. For anyone interested, the recording of the show can be found at: http://beckyjuro.podomatic.com
Interestingly, based on the emails I got afterward, that show was probably single most popular I’ve ever done with non-trans listeners. I can’t tell you how many letters I received thanking me for showing CHirs for exactly who he is.
Becky