On the day the constitutionality of Prop. 8 was being argued before the Supreme Court, a rally was organized by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, Family Equality Council, GetEQUAL, Marriage Equality USA and the New Organizing Institute. The rally was successful, almost in every way, in how the event demonstrated a unanimity of LGBT community organizations and members standing behind marriage equality.
Almost.
There was an incident involving a trans person standing near the podium of the rally holding a Transgender Pride Flag. An HRC staffer asked the trans person three times to move away from the podium. The HRC representative told the trans person that the rally organizers wanted only American flags on or near the podium. The incident went viral on social media the next day, and it was reported by someone who was there that the trans person was told by the staffer that marriage equality wasn’t a trans issue. The HRC put out a statement regarding the incident which included this paragraph:
“It is not true to suggest that any person or organization was told their flag was less important than another – this did not occur and no HRC staff member would ever tolerate such behavior. To be clear, it is the position of the Human Rights Campaign that marriage is an issue that affects everyone in the LGBT community.”
The problem for the HRC is that the organization has a horrible reputation in trans community. In 2007, three years after the HRC publicly stated that they wouldn’t support any form of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that didn’t include antidiscrimination protections that didn’t include gender identity, they supported a version of ENDA that didn’t include those antidiscrimination protections. Even though the HRC now has staff members that are personally committed to trans equality, numerous trans people still don’t trust the HRC.
There seems to me to be a cold war between trans community members and the HRC, and returning to the détente that had been in place prior to this incident seems untenable in the long term.
One of the problems is that the HRC doesn’t have good optics on trans community issues.
So with these thoughts in mind, here are some ideas on what the HRC could do to demonstrate that transgender equality is a high priority for their organization and in the long term tamp down the cold war:
1. Hire more transgender staffers. The HRC and the HRC Foundation together have more than 100 staffers, but since Allyson Robinson left to become the executive director of OutServe-SLDN they now have no trans staffers. They need some trans specific affirmative action.
Specifically, they could hire a trans staffer for their policy setting department to make sure there is trans participation in their decision making processes. Additionally, they could hire a field organizer that specifically could be dispatched for trans specific legislation as their current regional field organizers aren’t experts on trans legislation and are utilized mostly on field organizing for marriage equality. Lastly, they could add trans people to their department management to demonstrate to the LGBT and business communities that transgender people can be eminently capable leaders.
2. Update their health care policy to include all transition surgeries. Currently, San Francisco, Calif..; Portland, Ore., Multnomah County, Ore., and a number of Fortune 500 companies have more progressive health care policies for transitioning trans people than the HRC does.
3. Devote more resources to transgender issues. Significantly more HRC resources are devoted to marriage equality than basic civil rights protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and since basic civil rights protections based on gender identity are the number one issue for most trans community members, devoting more resources would send a strong message to trans community members.
The HRC can do more than they have to build credibility among trans people, as well as to trans intra- and extra-community allies, so incidents such as this one regarding the Transgender Pride Flag don’t resonate negatively in the way these currently do.
The question in my mind is whether that credibility they currently don’t have regarding trans people and issues is important enough to the organization that they take decisive actions to improve their reputation.
Perhaps the ‘transgender” community should pause and reflect on the possibility that they are asking for more than is reasonable. Maybe they might want to realize that even HRC is put off by some of their antics. Perhaps they might consider that insisting that “women have penises” and “men can get pregnant” is not really as acceptable as they think.Political correctness can only carry you so far…
I have to agree with this the transgenders have clearly stepped over the line in insisting men can become pregnant and women can inject sperm into trans-men to father children. The world is not drinking Tee-Gee Kool-Aid in this day and age.
Anne
“Maybe they might want to realize that even HRC is put off by some of their antics.”
I agree. Holding up a flag (a flag!!). That is just going too far. /sarcasm.
The issue is not the flag, but what that flag represents. HRC was trying to push the idea that same sex marriage is a sane and rational idea. Somehow, having that conflated with “women have penises, and men can get pregnant” just might not be what they would want to convey.
The above 2 comments…’A Woman, Period’ and ‘sd woman’ are more of the typical, rampant anti-trans* discrimination that we (transgender people) face on a daily basis. We are human beings with emotions, we struggle daily for our civil rights, and society, in general, feels that it is okay to marginalize and invalidate us with a consistency that is appalling.
The propositions for inclusivity presented in this article are great. I feel that it would lend strength to mending a rift that is growing between the trans* community and the HRC. I, for one, would love to see these suggestions adopted by the HRC, and I would like to thank Autumn Sandeen for her objective and reasonable approach.
Really? Shoving silliness like, “women have penises, and men can get pregnant” down people’s throats is the civil rights you are struggling for? Do you think the average person might, just might, find that a bit much? Do you think that even HRC just might find that a bit much?
And you do realize that what is euphemistically referred to as “transition surgeries” is actually NOT a transgender issue. The vast, overwhelming majority of “transgender people,” as well as the vast majority of gays and lesbians, would absolutely blanch at the thought of such surgeries. These are issues for transsexuals, not for people who identify as transgender or for those who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Personally, while it is not an issue for me, I think there are others who are more in a position to address such medical issues than either “transgender people” or HRC. These life and death issues issues should certainly not be a political football.
If you mean anti freakish behavior in public, anti acceptance of outrageous ideas like women having penises and being able to inject sperm into a female then guilty as charged.
If you mean tolerance of gender variant people of all kinds having a reasonable degree of social latitude then it is you who are the ones who need to need some education and perhaps some pity.
Anne
Maybe it’s time for the transgender community to realize that gay & lesbian organizations like HRC and the Gay & Lesbian Task Force represent…..
…wait for it…..
gays and lesbians!
Basically something I was saying in 1996.
Actually Jenna is right.
The Task Force, in conjunction with NCTE, produced the most thorough study of trans gender people and discrimination that any organization has ever produced: Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. Clearly, you’re uniformed about the commitment of the Task Force on trans issues.
In 2004, the HRC made a big deal about putting the T in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). In 2007, then HRC Executive Director Joe Solmonese stated that the HRC would oppose any version of ENDA that didn’t include the T. Later that year, the HRC changed their view and supported a version of ENDA that didn’t include gender identity.
The HRC then reaffirmed their support for trans civil rights, stating that their position was a 2007 only thing.
These organizations chose to embrace trans people in their mission statements. Their actions, in lieu of their mission statements, should be evaluated regularly.
Oh please honey, you know HRC is only paying you Tee-Gees lip service.
Whatever dope you have been smoking please send some this way.
Anne
Also you should stop making threats to Cathy Brennen.
You are out matched Autumn.
Anne
Sandeen loves to bully people….
Uh, so what Sandeen seems to be saying is that these groups are pretty much paying lip service to ‘transgender people.” The survey by the Task Force puts a lot of emphasis on transgressive behavior (they seem to assume, rather correctly, that this is typical of “transgender people,” which is another reason I would never want to be associated with that term. The vast majority of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people I know, and know of, seem to want to live rather ordinary lives. The vast majority of transsexuals that I know, also want rather ordinary lives. The vast majority of transgender people seem to want to attract attention, and act as transgressively as possible. Again, is it any wonder that a lot of these groups tend more towards distancing themselves at times?
Hmn, I’m guessing ‘A Woman, Period’ is a radical feminist, because only REAL women bleed monthly. I’m not so sure about ‘sd woman’. She might be a HBS/WBT transsexual who’s had the operation.
So when we stop having our periods we are not REAL women anymore?
What kind of masochist bigot just are you.
No, I am about as far from a radical feminist as you can get. But I do love how you want to equate menstruation with being a “real woman.” As sd woman points out, I guess that means any woman past menopause, or who has had a hysterectomy, ceases to be a real woman. And you seem to be reading something into my username that was not intended. If English is not your first language, you might not understand that use of the term “period,” but it was not a reference to menses, but to punctuation.
Autumn please tell me you weren’t the one cyberbullying Cathy Brennan and involving her children!
Don’t trust that liar, go look for yourself like the rest of us have.
Anne
Now, this is interesting… Jenna was trashing me and sd woman as men in a comments on a previous article, but here seems kind of buddy-buddy with Sandeen…. At least until finding out about Sandeen’s bullying of Cathy Brennan. Yes, very interesting….
Strange bedfellows indeed.
Some people do believe for the sake of the fight “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” some of us know better than to trust radicals.
Anne
I never trust radicals…or bullies.
Hmmmm. I’m hetero-normative post-gcs. I have no stake in the marriage equality bid. Even so, I support Gay Marriage. You see, even with my sneakily taken cis-privilege and my avowed hetero-privilege, I know there are decent gay and lesbian persons out there. IOW, I’m simply more enlightened and decent than the gender-essentialists and transphobes, despite the fact I fit in better in society’s conceived norms. Chew that cud!
You have no privilege being female is is your god given right to marry like it is for the rest of us. Correcting a birth defect doesn’t grant you any privilege being female entitles you to marry any man you choose, it has always been that way and always be. As for gay marriage that is a privilege that will be granted by the state and just like any other civil marriage it is a privilege just like driving a car, not a right, and it makes no difference if the marriage is same sex or not, if it is a civil marriage it always be a privilege.
The gay community has a bad habit of confusing rights with privileges.
If marriage was a right Autumn could marry his sister or mother.
Anne
@SD woman ;> I have seen no evidence that her “children” were threatened by anyone. We have only her WORD (LOL) for it, which is essentially meaningless. Now, when you waddle back to report that the veracity of her “claims” have been disputed, you tell them all your friendly Moonsister Robyn sent ya! Giddeup! ;>
BTW, I hear tell “Butch” is jendah! A lil bug whispered in my ear…
Oh look! Jennifer and Anne have been joined by none other than Robyn Elliot, a/k/a Jonathan Aeryn Fulton, who also likes sending sexually-explicit messages to lesbians, and locked down his Twitter feed really quick once he was found out!
All I had to do was mention the harassment of Cathy Brennan and her children, and Robyn “insert middle name of the week here” Elliot appears. You doods couldn’t be more obvious!
Actually Jenna, I was the first one to mention it here, you can have credit for it if you want.
Anne
Interesting…. I don’t recall ever mentioning a name, and yet this person seems to assume who I am. Even more curious. Yes, very curious indeed. I really do believe that Jenna is acting at the behest of a certain party who wishes, shall we say, to keep his hands clean. Again, I will point out that in the past, referring to someone who, ahem, “identifies as a woman” in a way that would be, uh, considered, oh, shall we say, “misgendering,” is verboten, but somehow it keeps getting ignored. Oh well, this is not a place where one expects a great deal of credibility anyway. But it is rather fun to watch it all go down.
Oh, and for the record, I think any bullying of that sort is wrong. But apparently some only think it is wrong when the bully is not a friend, or whatever.
Jenna! Well bren, you certainly DO get around. Care to explain how you’re getting msgs from US from CMU now? It seems you see Me/aerin, etc EVERYWHERE! We’re in your head rent free. The view is astonishing! I feel so speshul that you read my twitter feed, terf. Perhaps simply blocking you just wasnt enuff? I’m cool with lesbians, espc the trans lesbians. I just really really really hate you. ;> PS the way you make enemies, I’d think you should upgrade that mace and taser to kevlar and an assault rifle. :)))
Oh I see, because I speak out about you harassing Cathy Brennan, then I obviously must *be* Cathy Brennan. Well mister man, I take that as a compliment, because Cathy and I are something neither you nor your buddies Jennifer and Anne will ever be…. females.
Your words speak for themselves, Robyn. You use words of violence and try to escalate things. That’s a violent man thing. Any woman – any REAL woman – would instead understand how despicable it was for someone to drag a woman’s children into the argument. It’s one of those things that really do separate the women from the fakes.
Interesting. So, would you care to give us your view of Sandeen? Or is that not allowed? Or would it expose the scam? You are free to hold your opinion, but it is just that. Your opinion. Others, who actually matter, would disagree.
Jenna I suppose you have the results of doing genetic testing on me?
I would love to see your results and how you obtained them.
You and my doctor might not be in agreement on that little issue.
Anne
Anne….. I don’t need genetic testing for you. I know exactly who and what you are.
And no, I will not join you guys in your obsessive bashing of Autumn Sandeen. The bashing and bullying that you do speaks volumes about your character, or lack thereof. For a couple of guys who claim to be women (just because you say so), you sure spend an inordinate amount of time cruising gay & lesbian websites. You both might want to seek professional help for your obsessive personality disorder.
ROTFL! As I had come to suspect…. I believe the appropriate term here us TROLL. Thanks for playing, but soooo lame.
Troll, or Sock Puppet. Really, really lame.
You are right AWP.
Funny this person no doubt one of Sandeen’s supporters is a troll, pretending to be a lesbian,
Anne
Or, perhaps is Sandeen. I knew something was odd when “Jenna” supported drag queens without qualification. That was a bit off right there.
A real radfem wouldn’t, because they are parodies of women, they are women hating by their very nature.
Anne
Oh look at the two of you, trying to goad and chide me into doing what you want me to do, and hurling insults when I won’t. Such typical male behaviour.
By the way, anyone who bothers to go back and read the comments to Autumn Sandeen’s previous posts can easily see who the real trolls are. You two apparently do not realize just how obsessed with Sandeen you are.
ROTFL! Personally, I want you to go on doing exactly what you are doing. You have shot down the last, tiny bit of credibility that Sandeen had. Given that Sandeen has cyberstalked me on more than one occasion, it is not an obsession. It is simply self-defense. I simply challenge Sandeen’s extremist views, which Sandeen thinks should go without question.
Terfs. God’s own sick joke on the GBTQL. and for the last time, we DO NOT want to have SEX with you. Respect the boundary, RAPIST! ;>