Do you remember Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno? He was the alderman who stated he wouldn’t allow a Chick-fil-A to be built in his ward after Chick-fil-A’s CEO Dan T. Cathy stated that Chick-fil-A supported “the biblical definition of the family unit,” and the broad LGBT community became aware that Chick-fil-A’s non-profit arm (the Winshape Foundation) was donating millions to organizations that were working against marriage equality.
Alderman Moreno, as a straight man, threatened government action to shut down business in a manner that many LGBT community and religious, social conservatives thought was quashing free speech.
And, a number of religious right, socially conservative organizations blamed LGBT community members for the actions of Alderman Moreno even though multiple national LGBT non-profits spoke out against Alderman Moreno’s pronouncements. Many LGBT advocates and activists thought that the LGBT community lost the PR battle on that issue.
There is a parallel problem of others speaking for trans people in San Francisco when these speakers aren’t trans themselves, and the commentary of these non-trans speakers is seen by many trans advocates and activists as damaging to the community.
The particular issue of non-trans speakers speaking on behalf of trans people was the flying the Transgender Pride Flag over San Francisco’s City Hall Nov. 20 – the Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Behind the scenes, the ask was made of the mayor to fly the Transgender Pride Flag over San Francisco’s City Hall by San Francisco’s Transgender Day of Remembrance planning committee.
The committee knew the flying of the flag was symbolic and were ready to accept a “no.” They were also very aware that the more important things were the substantive legislative and regulatory changes that their city and our state made for trans people’s civil rights and access to appropriate health care.
A San Francisco based gay blogger found out about the ask of the mayor and took it up as a cause. This blogger took a very confrontational approach on the issue; he began by making a strongly worded demand to the mayor that the Transgender Pride Flag be flown over the city, sending the letter in on a weekend, and then demanding an answer by Sunday when almost no one was working at City Hall.
The blogger was asked repeatedly by multiple members of the TDOR committee, as well as by other longtime transgender community advocates and activists, to stop his unwanted activism on behalf of the trans community. He responded by telling the committee members, advocates and activists that he was going to continue his public demands of the mayor.
In the end, the Transgender Pride Flag wasn’t flown over San Francisco’s City Hall. The blogger posted about how horrible the mayor was for not flying the flag on city property.
So who will ultimately be assigned the credit for making brutish and unreasonable demands of San Francisco’s mayor? Will it be the individual non-transgender blogger, or will it be San Francisco’s trans community? I look at Alderman Moreno’s actions and the anti-LGBT backlash that followed and wonder.
If a credible group of activists from a minority community tells someone outside that community that their advocacy is counterproductive and should be stopped, the appropriate response isn’t to keep going with the unwanted advocacy, but instead is to just stop.
Funny, but that is EXACTLY how transsexuals feel about having transgender extremists presuming to speak for us. Perhaps it is te to practice what you preach.
How does it taste Autumn?
To have someone speak for you that you don’t feel has a right to.
Remember that the next time you open your mouth about women of transsexual history.
We are sick to death of the forced inclusion of transsexuals especially straight transsexuals in your little club.
I have a pretty good idea who Sandeen is referring to. He is quite well known here, and tends to force himself into situations and conversations where he does not belong. Personally, I could care less about having the transgender flag flown at City Hall, and am not at all unhappy that it was not, but if it is the person I am thinking of, I would say that the TG activists got a major taste of their own medicine, though I doubt they will pay much attention.
If it wasn’t for Alderman Moreno, most people in the country would not know that Chick-fil-A was anti-LGBTQ. His advocacy helped to shine a light on their business practices and brought it into the national dialogue. Trying to somehow draw a parallel between his advocacy (when dealing with a business who wanted to open a store in the area of Chicago he represented) and this gay blogger is ridiculous. There is no parallel here. Additionally, there were many of us who were working with the Alderman who were behind what he did and still stand by his actions.
This is the problem with extremism. What Alderman Moreno, and in a very similar manner, Mayor Ed Lee in San Francisco, did was to threaten GOVERNMENT action against individuals exercising there First Amendment righst to religion and free speech. Now, people may not agree with what Cathy and his company spend part of their money on, but it is their LEGAL right to do so. If you support such government actions, then you would have no basis to complain if some local governing official wanted to block a retailer like, oh, say, JC Penney from building opening because they use Ellen Degeneres as a spokesperson. Or any other such action. You see, what is sauce for the goose, as they say, is sauce for the gander. This is why we have the First Amendment. It may protect speech that you don’t like, or speech that I don’t like, but it also protects your right to speech. Unless you are willing to have someone take action against you, because they don’t like your politics, or how you live your life, or how you think, or some other thing that you take for granted as a legal right, then be careful about wanting to do that to others.