Same Ole “Ball and Crain” Dreams

ballandcrain.gifI 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!

leslove.gif

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.

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."

42 Comments

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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!

  8. 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!

  9. 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?

  10. 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?

  11. 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

  12. 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

  13. 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

  14. As an African-American transperson who is tired of people like yourself pushing ‘incremental change’ and getting repeatedly cut out of GLBT legislation, I suggest you take a page from the 60’s Civil Rights Movement that you gay people claim you want to emulate.

    Did you hear Dr. King ever say, “Let’s get rights passed for light skinned African-Americans only, then we’ll come back for the rest of y’all.”

    No, the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights Acts were broadly designed to cover as many people as possible. While they are meant to cover Adfrican-Americans, over the last 40 years they have been used by us and women, Latinos and even gay people to reaffirm and expand our constitutional rights.

    It should be obvious to even you that when you cut transgender people out of bills, you gay peeps don’t come back for us. Never again. An ENDA without us in it will be assured of a painful public death.

    What you gay peeps don’t get is that it is NOT your sexual orientaion that gets you terminated from jobs, it’s the perceived transgressions against the binary gender system.

  15. As an African-American transperson who is tired of people like yourself pushing ‘incremental change’ and getting repeatedly cut out of GLBT legislation, I suggest you take a page from the 60’s Civil Rights Movement that you gay people claim you want to emulate.

    Did you hear Dr. King ever say, “Let’s get rights passed for light skinned African-Americans only, then we’ll come back for the rest of y’all.”

    No, the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights Acts were broadly designed to cover as many people as possible. While they are meant to cover Adfrican-Americans, over the last 40 years they have been used by us and women, Latinos and even gay people to reaffirm and expand our constitutional rights.

    It should be obvious to even you that when you cut transgender people out of bills, you gay peeps don’t come back for us. Never again. An ENDA without us in it will be assured of a painful public death.

    What you gay peeps don’t get is that it is NOT your sexual orientaion that gets you terminated from jobs, it’s the perceived transgressions against the binary gender system.

  16. Oh, and Chris,

    If there had been a visible and organized gay and lesbian lobby in the early sixties working alongside Black groups for civil rights, i find it singularly impossible to believe that the gay and lesbian community would have happily and quietly “taken one for the team” if that’s what it took for Black people to get their civil rights.

    Just ask the women’s suffragists. They took one for the team and it was over 50 years before they got theirs.

    Trans people have been alongside gay, lesbian, and bi people in this struggle all along, in fact many of us are GLB and vice-versa. We ARE you. That’s why it’s upsetting to hear it said that we are just dragging you down or holding your rights hostage by demanding our own. It’s creating a division where there isn’t naturally a division.

  17. Oh, and Chris,

    If there had been a visible and organized gay and lesbian lobby in the early sixties working alongside Black groups for civil rights, i find it singularly impossible to believe that the gay and lesbian community would have happily and quietly “taken one for the team” if that’s what it took for Black people to get their civil rights.

    Just ask the women’s suffragists. They took one for the team and it was over 50 years before they got theirs.

    Trans people have been alongside gay, lesbian, and bi people in this struggle all along, in fact many of us are GLB and vice-versa. We ARE you. That’s why it’s upsetting to hear it said that we are just dragging you down or holding your rights hostage by demanding our own. It’s creating a division where there isn’t naturally a division.

  18. “just as it would have been wrong to hold hostage civil rights based on race or gender to include sexual orientation (or gender identity), it is immoral to hold hostage gay rights until trans rights can be included.”

    I would agree with you wholeheartedly Chris, if not for the fact that both NGLTF and HRC both have made it clear that they are GLBT organizations, not gay and lesbian organizations. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference never said it would advocate for gays and lesbians. That’s where your comparison falls apart.

    As long as HRC and NGLTF fundraise on the basis of being GLBT, they had damn well better follow through on it.

  19. “just as it would have been wrong to hold hostage civil rights based on race or gender to include sexual orientation (or gender identity), it is immoral to hold hostage gay rights until trans rights can be included.”

    I would agree with you wholeheartedly Chris, if not for the fact that both NGLTF and HRC both have made it clear that they are GLBT organizations, not gay and lesbian organizations. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference never said it would advocate for gays and lesbians. That’s where your comparison falls apart.

    As long as HRC and NGLTF fundraise on the basis of being GLBT, they had damn well better follow through on it.

  20. Chris,

    We are hardly holding your rights hostage. Please refrain from this inflammatory hyperbole. It’s not as if we are numerous, powerful, or influential enough even in GLBT circles to stop you and other gay and lesbian advocates from getting your way. If protection for our rights is taken out of ENDA, all the hollering and letter-writing and protesting we do isn’t going to raise a single eyebrow anywhere.

    All we are asking for is solidarity.

    If anyone is holding your rights hostage, it’s the right wing homophobes.

    And, isn’t it just as immoral to hold trans rights hostage?

    And lastly, if our rights are not politically “viable” now, when will they be? What is the cue that we should wait for that will tell us all, okay, it’s alright for trans people to have their rights protected now?

  21. Chris,

    We are hardly holding your rights hostage. Please refrain from this inflammatory hyperbole. It’s not as if we are numerous, powerful, or influential enough even in GLBT circles to stop you and other gay and lesbian advocates from getting your way. If protection for our rights is taken out of ENDA, all the hollering and letter-writing and protesting we do isn’t going to raise a single eyebrow anywhere.

    All we are asking for is solidarity.

    If anyone is holding your rights hostage, it’s the right wing homophobes.

    And, isn’t it just as immoral to hold trans rights hostage?

    And lastly, if our rights are not politically “viable” now, when will they be? What is the cue that we should wait for that will tell us all, okay, it’s alright for trans people to have their rights protected now?

  22. I can certainly understand why trans people want inclusion or bust in ENDA, but you should be able to understand why many gay people resent the idea that until Congress is ready to back trans inclusion, gay rights have to wait. The question works both direction, sisters.

    Civil rights progress comes incrementally, and just as it would have been wrong to hold hostage civil rights based on race or gender to include sexual orientation (or gender identity), it is immoral to hold hostage gay rights until trans rights can be included.

  23. I can certainly understand why trans people want inclusion or bust in ENDA, but you should be able to understand why many gay people resent the idea that until Congress is ready to back trans inclusion, gay rights have to wait. The question works both direction, sisters.

    Civil rights progress comes incrementally, and just as it would have been wrong to hold hostage civil rights based on race or gender to include sexual orientation (or gender identity), it is immoral to hold hostage gay rights until trans rights can be included.

  24. Good point, Sabrina.

    The problem with taking transgender people off of ENDA is if that happens we will never get our rights (at least in the foreseeable future). The people who want to remove transgender people from inclusion in ENDA do so out of selfish motives. Unfortunately, because of their selfishness, once they obtain their goal they will be too busy helping themselves to turn around and help us.

  25. Good point, Sabrina.

    The problem with taking transgender people off of ENDA is if that happens we will never get our rights (at least in the foreseeable future). The people who want to remove transgender people from inclusion in ENDA do so out of selfish motives. Unfortunately, because of their selfishness, once they obtain their goal they will be too busy helping themselves to turn around and help us.

  26. Chris,

    Your analysis of Edwards, Clinton, and Obama on transgender rights is interesting. But don’t you think in light of their support for trans inclusion in hate crimes legislation, that this means they are reasonably close to where we are as a community?

    So it seems to me that we should be trying to guide them to where we are, rather than just easily caving in. Because, i mean, if we simply wait until we have legislators who are sympathetic and compassionate towards transgender folks, rather than trying to guide them there, we will be waiting forever. Your analysis should guide our lobbyists to being more proactive on trans-inclusion.

    On the downside, protection for transfolk was removed from New York’s SONDA act in order to get it passed and we are still waiting… waiting… waiting for any activists there to move at all on our behalf. So i’m afraid that history is a big reason why transactivists are nervous about our being taken out when we’ve already been included.

  27. Chris,

    Your analysis of Edwards, Clinton, and Obama on transgender rights is interesting. But don’t you think in light of their support for trans inclusion in hate crimes legislation, that this means they are reasonably close to where we are as a community?

    So it seems to me that we should be trying to guide them to where we are, rather than just easily caving in. Because, i mean, if we simply wait until we have legislators who are sympathetic and compassionate towards transgender folks, rather than trying to guide them there, we will be waiting forever. Your analysis should guide our lobbyists to being more proactive on trans-inclusion.

    On the downside, protection for transfolk was removed from New York’s SONDA act in order to get it passed and we are still waiting… waiting… waiting for any activists there to move at all on our behalf. So i’m afraid that history is a big reason why transactivists are nervous about our being taken out when we’ve already been included.

  28. Hi sabrina,

    Well said, especially …

    “Why should my rights be more negotiable than yours?”

    Stephanie

  29. Hi sabrina,

    Well said, especially …

    “Why should my rights be more negotiable than yours?”

    Stephanie

  30. Hi Marti,

    This is a much better use of your time and energy than your trying to get those Frosty’s at that … Pat’s Place? … eeek, bugs! … to take you seriously.

    I mean, Mr. Crain is ever so much more … well, if not with us … he’s just ever so with it.

    And, Kat, nice point, lol.

    Stephanie

  31. Hi Marti,

    This is a much better use of your time and energy than your trying to get those Frosty’s at that … Pat’s Place? … eeek, bugs! … to take you seriously.

    I mean, Mr. Crain is ever so much more … well, if not with us … he’s just ever so with it.

    And, Kat, nice point, lol.

    Stephanie

  32. “…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.”

    More suicidal (not to mention homicidal as to existing trans recognition rights) than continuing to push for gay marriage?

    Hardly.

    Kat

  33. “…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.”

    More suicidal (not to mention homicidal as to existing trans recognition rights) than continuing to push for gay marriage?

    Hardly.

    Kat

  34. Chris,

    My concern is that removing gender identity from a bill like ENDA will send the signal to the Republicans that our coaliton can be divided, that some of us are willing to negotiate away the rights of others in order to secure their own. Why should my rights be more negotiable than yours?

  35. Chris,

    My concern is that removing gender identity from a bill like ENDA will send the signal to the Republicans that our coaliton can be divided, that some of us are willing to negotiate away the rights of others in order to secure their own. Why should my rights be more negotiable than yours?

  36. “I can only shake my head — you’re so interested in attacking me that you don’t even cite my detailed analysis of where the top three Democrats stand on transgender rights.”

    The end game is the same Chris. You want HRC and NGLTF to throw transgender people under the bus for the sake of gays and lesbians.

    “your’e right that it would be ridiculous to remove gay men from these bills because “sexual orientation” covers gay (male or female), bisexuals and straight people. Not a powerful example for you.”

    The question isn’t a matter of sexual orientation or not, it’s a matter of advocating as a community or not.

    “My partner and I rented “Transamerica” last night. Very enjoyable and affecting. Felicity Huffman was amazing!”

    Wow, how very progressive of you! You really should buy yourself a cookie and pat yourself on the back, then go rent Malcolm X!

    Gay rights are just as important to me as the rights of transgender people. My son is gay, so this is about my family. But he gets something that you don’t, that we all win or lose this together.

  37. “I can only shake my head — you’re so interested in attacking me that you don’t even cite my detailed analysis of where the top three Democrats stand on transgender rights.”

    The end game is the same Chris. You want HRC and NGLTF to throw transgender people under the bus for the sake of gays and lesbians.

    “your’e right that it would be ridiculous to remove gay men from these bills because “sexual orientation” covers gay (male or female), bisexuals and straight people. Not a powerful example for you.”

    The question isn’t a matter of sexual orientation or not, it’s a matter of advocating as a community or not.

    “My partner and I rented “Transamerica” last night. Very enjoyable and affecting. Felicity Huffman was amazing!”

    Wow, how very progressive of you! You really should buy yourself a cookie and pat yourself on the back, then go rent Malcolm X!

    Gay rights are just as important to me as the rights of transgender people. My son is gay, so this is about my family. But he gets something that you don’t, that we all win or lose this together.

  38. I can only shake my head — you’re so interested in attacking me that you don’t even cite my detailed analysis of where the top three Democrats stand on transgender rights. Is it just more fun to slam me than to care about your own civil rights?

    Your’e right that it would be ridiculous to remove gay men from these bills because “sexual orientation” covers gay (male or female), bisexuals and straight people. Not a powerful example for you…

    P.S. I’m aware of no beef with my trans brothers. I’ve never been criticized in public or in private emails I’ve received by a trans man. Only my transgender sisters…

    P.P.S. My partner and I rented “Transamerica” last night. Very enjoyable and affecting. Felicity Huffman was amazing!

    Beijos!

  39. I can only shake my head — you’re so interested in attacking me that you don’t even cite my detailed analysis of where the top three Democrats stand on transgender rights. Is it just more fun to slam me than to care about your own civil rights?

    Your’e right that it would be ridiculous to remove gay men from these bills because “sexual orientation” covers gay (male or female), bisexuals and straight people. Not a powerful example for you…

    P.S. I’m aware of no beef with my trans brothers. I’ve never been criticized in public or in private emails I’ve received by a trans man. Only my transgender sisters…

    P.P.S. My partner and I rented “Transamerica” last night. Very enjoyable and affecting. Felicity Huffman was amazing!

    Beijos!

Comments are closed.