on
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.
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.
