My peer blogger Marti Abernathey, who like me identifies as transgender, asked for a quote for her Bilerico post HRC’s Project Win Back, Part II. So before I hit the road for the San Diego Pride Festival yesterday morning, I sent her a comment on the news (as reported in a Usenet group) that the HRC has hired Allyson Robinson — an out, transgender woman — as the HRC’s new Associate Director of Diversity:

The HRC changed their position on ENDA last fall regarding how inclusive an ENDA bill needed to be to receive their support. The organization hasn’t since changed it back to requiring parity for sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.

Hiring a transgender woman without a corresponding change in the HRC’s political policies regarding full inclusion for all legislation the organization supports…Well, I think this hiring is going to be perceived by most transgender people as the HRC engaging in tokenism. If the HRC isn’t going to treat gender identity and expression as having the same level of legislative priority with sexual orientation, then how is a transgender employee at the HRC going to be perceived externally as an equal to the gay and lesbian employees at the HRC?

I personally don’t see how.

Marti characterized my quote as follows:

But some have not been as positive about the hiring. Blogger and activist, Autumn Sandeen said…

Well first of all, after getting home from Sunday night I looked on the web, but didn’t find any official media releases announcing the hire. I personally don’t have any inside information regarding Allyson Robinson’s possible hiring by the HRC. That said, Marti likely didn’t report the hire in a vacuum — I’m going make the assumption that Marti verified the Usenet story with at least one other source.

[Below the fold, how I'd characterize my quote.]

Secondly, I wouldn’t characterize my quote in Marti’s post as either positive or negative of the HRC, despite Marti characterizing it as a negative comment. I’d characterize my quote as more of an observational comment.

Don’t get me wrong — I would like the HRC to change their strategy regarding employment protections for the entire LGBT community; I would like to see a strategy towards passing one fully inclusive ENDA, vice passing a sexual orientation only ENDA in the relatively near future, and passing an ENDA for gender identity and expression in some future legislative year. However, my observation on their recent hire of a transgender woman new Associate Director of Diversity is independent of my feelings regarding the HRC’s political strategy.

Basically, I was observing that the HRC’s very first hire of a transgender woman to their staff, had it been done in summertime of last year, and had the HRC not changed their position on ENDA in autumn of last year, would have signaled the HRC’s real embracing of the T of LGBT.

The timing of Allyson Robinson’s hiring doesn’t send that same message now. Instead, assuming the news of her hiring is accurate, this new hire now sends a “damage control “message that Marti alludes to in her piece. The hire also is likely to be perceived by many members of the trans community as an exercise in transgender tokenism.

Allyson Robinson has a hard row to hoe. Again assuming the news of her hiring is accurate, her credibility with the trans community was compromised on the day she accepted the job with the HRC. This is specifically because how the HRC’s long history with the trans community is perceived, and because of the HRC’s relatively recent history regarding their position changing on ENDA.

I hope Allyson has some thick skin — my educated guess is that she’ll likely experience a great deal of criticism from our transgender peers during her tenure at the HRC.