By Kelley Winters The National Center for Transgender Equality Executive Director Mara Keisling respondedKeisling, M (2016). Response to BuzzFeed Article. Blog, National Center for Transgender Equality, Oct. 28. http://www.transequality.org/blog/response-to-buzzfeed-article]to sharp criticismHolden, D. (2016). Top LGBT Leaders Are Divided Over Compromising On The Bathroom Fight. BuzzFeed News, Oct. 25. https://www.buzzfeed.com/dominicholden/lgbt-leaders-divided-bathroom-fight] of the recent strategy by NCTE and other nonprofits funded by the Gill Foundation to back a Pennsylvania state nondiscrimination bill that included LGBT employment and housing protection but excluded public accommodation protections.… Read more.

Is the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's executive director, Rea Carey, a Trans-Exclusive Radical Feminist?  If I was a Christian and "liked"  Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church on my Facebook page, would you think I was a radical anti-gay Christian Fundamentalist? Rea Carey's Facebook page: If it's difficult for you to see, here's a close-up of one of her "likes": if you're not sure who Cathy Brennan is, she's about as iconic in trans circles as Fred Phelps is in gay ones.… Read more.

When Mara Keisling of NCTE publically came out in support of Maryland's gender identity anti-discrimination bill, I wondered what her angle on it was. Bilerico recently posted "3 Ways to Improve ENDA Advocacy: Take the Fight to the States" written by civil rights attorney Tico Almeida. Almeida points to why there was such a push for HB235:"But the policy and legislative advocates at both NCTE and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force think it is plausible that we can… Read more.

It would seem so.  Though they've been silent publicly, one only need look as far as NCTE Executive Director's Facebook wall: Now if the Executive Director of Maryland Equality (Morgan Meneses-Sheets) is thanking Keisling, I'd suggest that Keisling supports the bill. Or you could just look at this picture: Any questions? Read more.

There’s been quite a buzz in recent months over our GLBT community – particularly how the GL views and treats the T. It’s reached a fevered pitch with Rep. Barney Frank tampering with the ENDA language and the release of the movie “Trannies With Knives” by gay male prostitute-turned-film maker Israel Luna. Read more.

That's my opinion on where the good doctor is headed. In a recent post at Bilerico.com she said: "The incredibly unflappable Signorile asked about the failure of Congress to move on ENDA and DADT, and the President's failure to lead. Frank's angry response was that the LGBT community has failed to lobby Congress. He characterized our community as "lazy" and "whining". He said "that is why we will lose" on ENDA and DADT. It was obvious he was more interested… Read more.

As I write this, I  feel as if I've been transported back in time to May of 2007. The National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) had just had a successful lobby days event and I reported back that the talk on the Hill during  Lobby Days was that we were being written out of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Mara Keisling said then that: "Rumors that a non-inclusive ENDA will be introduced in the Senate are unequivocally only rumors that seem to… Read more.

"He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." — Martin Luther King Jr. Well it didn't take long for responses to my last blog. One person wrote me privately saying she was disappointed I didn't "understand" how "serious" the Pam's House Blend controversy was and that I should've "come down harder" on her and Autumn Sandeen for these bannings or muzzlings they enacted on their trans "members and bloggers." Then on my posting I had… Read more.

Back on Feburary 25, 2009 Kathy Padilla wrote a post over at Pam's House Blend titled "Hate Crimes & ENDA: Bad Bills Come and Bad Bills Go". When it came out I really thought it would be one of those explosive posts that rocked the community down to the bone. She said: "The new definitions can generally be said to cover gender expression but not gender identity. Which in the real world would present the likelihood that gender variant gay,… Read more.

According the Washington Blade, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) approved a policy statement that"the group will not support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, if it excludes language protecting persons from discrimination." The Advocate followed suit with: "The Human Rights Campaign adopted a policy statement on Wednesday that says the group will not support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act if it excludes protections for transgender individuals. The statement was approved by the HRC board of directors in Washington, D.C. 'It’s the… Read more.

There's a recurrent story that is going through the gossip circles during the Christmas season in trannyland. It goes like this: Barney Frank and the Human Rights Campaign really got their clocks cleaned by the United ENDA controversy, and now that they've really learned their lesson! Good ole' St. Frank and the HRC's equality elves will surprise everyone and come on board by supporting a fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and opposing any version that doesn't include everyone. There's only one problem with that dream/fantasy/rumor... it ain't true! Read more.

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.

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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.

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“We're setting sail to the place on the map from which no one has ever returned ….”  — Ship of Fools, World Party It was just Tuesday that I read in the press that Gay/Lesbian/Straight Educators Network (GLSEN) founding executive director Kevin Jennings was stepping down. He announced he will be back from his current sabbatical as planned on Feb. 1, but will step down on August 1, 2008 after thirteen years. According to another organization source, he isn’t taking… Read more.

“So I get on my knees and pray … we won’t get fooled again!” — the Who Fresh on the heels of Southern Comfort Conference (SCC), many of the transgender community reveled in what seemed a penultimate victory: HRC – yes, the Human Rights Campaign – was actually appearing to take the transgender community as equals. (Obviously the ultimate victory would be equal rights for us all, jobs and all.) All of the years of HRC’s historic missteps seemed to magically disappear. We’re now a welcome, if amnesiac community for the Equal Sign people. During the speeches there was much congratulation and self-congratulation, and plenty of high spirits about the impending bills in Congress awaiting votes: Hate Crimes (already passed inclusively in the House) currently awaiting Senate approval, and the all-important Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA) approaching the House vote. All seemed right with the world in Trans America’s focus point that weekend at SCC in Atlanta. All seemed eerily right to some of us long-timers with memories intact as well. Eerily too right. After the speech, everyone clapped, ate, enjoyed the rest of SCC and went home. Most of us waited with baited anticipation. Myself, I couldn’t get over how this reminded me of 2002. At the SCC in 2002, HRC came down and made the big presentation again, and ushered in the coming out of a brand new national activist on the scene, Mara Keisling formerly of then-disbanded WGTE – the group name under which a study in concert with HRC was conducted. She was planning to open shop with an org of her own. No more WGTE, now NATE or NOTE was the names she was hashing over at the time (later settling on NCTE). HRC was not going to deal with the existing trans orgs -- NTAC nor IFGE, while GenderPAC left the trans fold to focus on "gender." So Mara’s sudden emergence fit them to a T, literally, and was welcomed in the HRC fold. However, it wasn’t just HRC’s king or queen-making within the trans community that was the draw of this presentation. This was more about the study findings, ballyhooed as changing the minds of HRC about trans inclusion in legislation. Word went out, there at that conference, that HRC was behind transgender inclusion and would begin such a push immediately. The question from the skeptical among us was posed as to what would happen if this ran up the HRC flagpole, and they instead decided “Nah!” and let Mara twist in the wind. Mara responded that they wouldn’t dare try, “and if they did, rip them a new asshole for publicly trashing her political credibility.” I’ll never forget the look on David Smith’s face at her answer … curious. Read more.

According to the Washington Blade:"House Democratic leaders are strongly considering dropping anti-discrimination protections for transgender persons from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, after an internal Democratic head count on Wednesday found that the bill would likely be defeated if it included the trans provision, multiple sources familiar with the bill said. "In May of this year I reported of the whispers in the halls of Congress to drop transgender people from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Some went as far… Read more.

"A Town hall meeting is an informal public meeting derived from the traditional town meetings of New England. Similarly to those meetings, everybody in a community is invited to attend, voice their opinions, and hear the responses from public figures and elected officials, although attendees rarely vote on an issue. In today's heterogeneous communities with large populations, more often, town hall meetings are held so that people can influence elected officials in their decision making or to give them a… Read more.

If nothing else, last week was historic in that the three major transgender advocacy organizations (National Transgender Advocacy Coalition, National Center for Transgender Equality, and the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition) brought in citizen lobbyists to Washington D.C. from across the United States for a week of direct congressional advocacy. Rolling in to DC on Tuesday, I had the chance to see the lobbyists for the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) in action. Tuesday night NTAC sponsored a plenary session or… Read more.

In my post, "Just Wondering" I asked where the outrage was concerning Michael Savage's attack on on transgender people. It's two weeks later, and I'm still asking myself the same question. Ann Coulter - Called one man a faggot. Don Imus - Called a team "nappy headed hoes." Michael Savage - Called a murdered transwoman a psycho freak. "Yeah, process of becoming a woman -- psychopath. should have been in a back ward in a straitjacket for years, howling… Read more.

In my March 26th post "Just Wondering...", I asked where the outrage was concerning Michael Savage's recent tirade against transgender people. I checked the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) website to see if they'd issued any kind of statement concerning Savage's assault on the transgender community. Finding none, I contacted the only transgender contact at GLAAD that I knew of, Andy Marra (She's also on the board of NCTE, GLSEN (NYC), and NYAGRA, but you might recognize her… Read more.

In my recent post, Rose Colored Glasses, I had quite a few people respond here and on livejournal. Anyone familiar with the history of the trans-community and HRC (Human Rights Campaign) will know how contentious that relationship has been over the years. In March of 2001 the board of directors changed their mission statement to include transgender people. In the six years since our inclusion it's been an uphill battle to get HRC to actually include transgender people in their… Read more.