In the mode as a credentialed new media reporter for Pam’s House Blend, I’ll be heading up to Los Angeles early tomorrow morning to cover the Equality Summit. It’s billed as follows:
The Equality Summit is a gathering of community leaders committed to winning back marriage equality in California to network, share information and resources, and plan next steps.
You can read about the goals of the Equality Summithere.
Personally, I’m extremely pleased to see in the schedule that I there is a transgender interest/constituency group listed for the 11:30 AM breakout session. About to the same level that I’m pleased seeing the transgender specific breakout session, I’m concerned that I don’t see the phrase lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender used anywhere in the description, goals, or anywhere else on the webpage for the summit.
My concern stems from the lesson I took away from watching the film Milk: The LGBT community must be visible with our identifications in our political campaigns, and seeing that the phrase lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender is used in our campaigns is paramount. The lack of on the phrase lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender on the summit’s webpage seems like a huge omission.
To me, clarity matters; inclusivity matters; and language matters.
There are going to be a lot of mainstream and new media reporters at the event who are likely going to do a good job in covering the main thrusts of the Equality Summit. As someone who identifies and transsexual and transgender, I’m going to cover from a very militantly trans and you-”leaders”-better-say-the-phrase-lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender perspective.
How I’m going to report goes to the core of what blogging is — new media reporting is reporting with a visible agenda.
I’ve been preparing for the summit this week. For those who follow my tweetson twitter, you know that I recently bought a new RCA Small Wonder just for covering events like the Equality Summit. I’ve been trying to figure out today who I want to get one or two minute interviews with, and what’s the one or two questions I’m going to ask all of those folk I have an opportunity to get on camera.
And hey, I like even steamed the wrinkles out of two blouses for wearing tomorrow! — I haven’t decided whether to go with a light blue or a white blouse. Hardly a world-shattering decision to make on blouses to wear, but I really do need to look somewhat professional at the summit.
It’s going to be a really long day, Saturday. The summit starts at 7:45 AM PST, and is scheduled to close at 7:30 PM. Add to it a 2-1/2 to 3 hour drive each direction from San Diego.
So hopefully I’ll have some interviews and a report or two from the summit up tomorrow. If not, Sunday for sure we’ll have something up.
Pam is working on seeing what data from SoapBlox can be saved from PHB’s host, and looking to see how to host the old data (and new material) elsewhere.
The 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals has mad a ruling regarding in the past week regarding Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts of America. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune:
The state Supreme Court, after a nearly two-year delay, will be asked to determine whether city of San Diego leases of Balboa Park land violate the state constitution’s ban on government preference for religious groups.
The move Wednesday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is hearing a lawsuit challenging the leases, is the latest turn in the long-running case.
…The case focuses on a 2003 ruling by U.S. District Judge Napoleon Jones in San Diego. Jones struck down two leases that the city had with the Scouts for 16 acres in Balboa Park and on Fiesta Island. Jones concluded the Boy Scouts, which bars openly gay leaders and requires members to take an oath to God, is a religious organization and the leases amounted to government assistance to religion.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by a lesbian couple and an agnostic couple. The Scouts appealed, and in December 2006, the federal appeals court said it wanted the state Supreme Court first to weigh in on three questions of state law: Do the leases amount to aid to religion; if so, does that aid support a sectarian purpose; and do the leases violate the state constitution’s “no preference” ban on government favoring a religious group.
Federal courts on occasion will ask state high courts to issue opinions on unique questions of state law that arise in cases before federal judges.
Back in December of 2006, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts of America, according to a December, 2006 San Francisco Chronicle article, that:
[Below the fold, some history of Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts of America.]
In the piece Commission to investigate suspension of transgender student, I made a reasonable assumption that a transgender student was harassed for using a female restroom based on operative status. Apparently, she was discriminated against relating to whether or not she had genital reconstruction surgery (GRS), but it apparently was for being post-operative, and not pre-operative. From the New York Daily Record:
Jamie Nicole Anderson says she just wants to be treated like everyone else. The York woman is a 42-year-old ex-Marine who takes her 11-year-old son to school and never misses his football, baseball or hockey games.
…In May, she got a sex change operation, from male to female, and, she says, that’s when the trouble started.
…Anderson said she was banned from using a women’s rest room and was repeatedly referred to as “he” and “his” by her [Harrisburg Area Community College (HAAC)] clinical instructors.
Further:
Anderson said she was suspended for three days Oct. 2 by HACC for “insubordination,” using the women’s rest room after being told not to because some operating room employees said they were “uncomfortable” with her being there.
Anderson said she was dismissed from her program Oct. 30 for her violation of a dress code that forbids more than two earrings in an ear.
“I forgot to take (one) out that day,” she said.
Anderson said she filed the complaint because she wants the situation corrected for her and other transgendered people like her.
If one is born with a penis, I tend to believe the arguments against fully inclusive anti-discrimination language will always revolve around the bathroom, whether or not a trans person/a person of trans history currently has a penis or not. Some transsexuals (and people of trans history) see a difference between pre-operative and post-operative folk where anti-discrimination rules should only be applied to the post-operative folk. In the real world where discrimination is often based on fear and/or hate, discrimination is often based on what the genitals looked like at birth, not what one’s genitals look like now, or not what gender one is between the ears. It’s based on societal gender norms associated with natal genitalia shape — just as it is for effeminate gay and straight men, and masculine lesbian and straight women.
Anti-discrimination laws that give legal recourse for sexual orientation and gender identity and expression based discrimination are what keeps businesses and government from behaving badly against those perceived to be gender variant people.
Jamie is never going to be perceived as a woman by those who discriminated against her. I’m with Jamie — to correct the situation for her and other transgender people like her, sometimes one has to fight against unacceptable behavior.
[I]f you take Cambridge, the upper west side of Manhattan, Georgetown, Santa Monica, and San Francisco our of this debate, there is no debate. Do you agree with that?
Well, No. Not only no, but Hell No. I care about Pastor Warren speaking at President-elect Obama’s inauguration; I live in San Diego — and Pam who’s been writing about this a lot at PHB is from North Carolina. So Hey! We don’t live in the gay-five-cities, and we’re talking about this issue! Nice sterotyping of where LGBT people and our progressive allies live, MSNBC, Hardball, and Barnacle!
And getting back to Pastor Warren, it bothers me a lot that we all know that Obama wouldn’t invite an anti-Semite to give the invocation; he wouldn’t invite a Aryan church racist to give the invocation; he wouldn’t invite someone who compared veterans, disabled people, pregnant women or any other minority group or protected class members to pedophiles — or adults who engage in incestuous relationships — to give the invocation. So why did President-elect Obama invite a pastor who believes gays and lesbians to pedophiles and adults who engage in incestuous relationships?
What this tells me is that even the incoming President’s administration team sees lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people as acceptably safe to berate as deviants within American society. President-elect Obama doesn’t berate LGBT people himself, but he finds it acceptable to give places of honor to those who do.
[Below the fold, what I asked in an email of MSNBC.]
I was very surprised to hear the news that my friend Diego Sanchez is going to by Rep. Barney Frank’s (D-MA) new Legislative Assistant — a senior policy advisor to the congressman. Mr. Sanchez is going to be taking over for Joe Racalto at Rep. Frank’s Washington DC Congressional office — Sanchez’s new workplace is going to be a congressional office in Washington DC’s Labor Building.
As Rep. Frank’s Legislative Assistant, Sanchez will be responsible for tracking LGBT, healthcare, veterans, and labor issues, as well as issues regarding the 2010 census. The confluence of LGBT issues and the 2010 census will be if or how LGBT couples are counted — is the federal government going to count how many same sex couples’ have formed domestic partnerships, civil unions, or marriages within states that recognize these unions? Are they going to count the children of these relationships in a way that reflects these children’s legal parentage? Sanchez will be the one tracking this particular concern for Rep. Frank and our LGBT community, and working to see that our LGBT families are counted in a manner that accurately counts our families.
Just looking at his LinkedIn profile, there is just no doubt that Sanchez’s 30-years of experience in Healthcare, HIV/AIDS, press relations, communications, and LGBT issues, as well as his experience as being on the DNC Platform Committee and an At-Large Delegate at last year’s Democratic National Convention, shows that he’s extremely well qualified for his new position.
So why report on this new hire in Rep. Frank’s Office? Well, not only is Diego Sanchez a well-qualified candidate applying for a congressional job, but Sanchez is also Latino; Sanchez is also a transman. As a transman, he’ll be the first out trans person to ever work as a senior staffer in a DC congressional office.
And, Diego Sanchez’s hire by Rep. Frank not only breaks the DC congressional office barrier for trans people, but he breaks that barrier for trans people of color:
As a Latino, formerly as a Latina woman, and now as a transman, I’ve been a lot of ‘firsts’ but it doesn’t make me token. It makes me first to get a chance and it usually feels tardy, for me and many others who are capable but don’t get a shot.
–Diego Sanchez
Perhaps surprisingly, Sanchez isn’t the first trans person to ever work as senior staff for a congressperson. Rep. Norm Coleman (R-MN) has employed SusanKimberly as his Chief of Staff in his home district office.
How to run an effective divide-and-conquer strategy is something that the leadership in the LGBT civil rights organizations showed the opposition how to do in the 2007/2008 ENDA battle. As many recall, LGBT community leadership splayed out for “Christian” right organizations the divide over gender identity and expression language and the civil rights trans people.
Well, I look at the recent piece from Bay Windows / EdgeBoston entitled Mass Family Institute is down, but is it out?, and realize we’re looking ahead again at yet another divide-and-conquer the LGBT community over trans people campaign; at another fear-based campaign that’s going to focus on the idea of predator men-in-dresses using public bathrooms. From the article (emphasis added):
By most visible measures the Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI), which just two years ago was well positioned to place a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage on this year’s ballot, is at a low point in its influence on Bay State politics. Its amendment campaign failed in 2007, and last summer it stood powerless as the House and Senate pushed through a repeal of the 1913 law, clearing the way for out-of-state same-sex couples to marry in Massachusetts. And despite MFI’s efforts to elect social conservatives to the legislature this fall, groups like MassEquality were able to increase the number of same-sex marriage supporters in the 200-member legislature from 151 to 158. National allies on the religious right, such as MFI’s parent organization Focus on the Family and its spin-off, Family Research Council, spent thousands of dollars in prior years to fund MFI’s marriage amendment campaign, but they appear to have largely withdrawn from their involvement in Massachusetts in 2008.
Yet MFI President Kris Mineau said the future looks bright for his organization and the social conservative movement in Massachusetts.
“I believe the outlook for MFI is very positive, because as we say in the fighter pilot business, this is a target-rich environment,” said Mineau, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.
He said MFI is open to pushing for another marriage amendment in the future if it becomes viable. In the meantime the organization will press forward lobbying on a range of issues including opposition to abortion, casino gambling, pornography and comprehensive sex education. MFI’s top priority in the upcoming session is defeating a bill to amend the state’s hate crimes and non-discrimination laws to add gender identity and expression protections. The bill was first filed in the current session and died in committee.
So now we see a predictable LGBT target, and from previous bathroom predator campaigns from the opposition in the past couple of years we know what their ads are going to sound like:
In this time where resources are much scarcer, and LGBT people have been dissatisfied to how the No On Prop 8 Campaign was run by LGBT civil rights organizations, how much in the way of resources are LGBT civil rights organizations going to devote to basic civil rights issues over other LGBT issues, such as marriage equality? And assuming a civil rights organization is willing to devote precious resources to a transgender civil rights effort, how much money will LGBT people donate to any LGBT causes when many of these folk 1) have limited resources themselves, and 2) no longer trust the LGBT leadership to run effective political campaigns?
And perhaps most importantly, is the LGBT community again going to be divided-and-conquered over civil rights related to the phrase gender identity and expression? — over bathrooms? Not just in Massachusetts regarding state law, but nationally regarding ENDA?
I believe that now is the time to prepare for the predictable future. It would be a shame to see the LGBT community caught flatfooted yet again over predictable arguments that we can expect to see from our opposition.
[Below the fold: A comment, apparently made by a gay man, regarding transphobia that goes to the point on how gender identity and expression is a dividing point for LGBT community. Warning: lots of profanity and insults to trans people.]
[NY, USA] Trans woman Teish Cannon was shot and killed Friday night in Syracuse, New York: “Moses “Teish” Cannon was openly gay, and his family said Saturday that is why he was shot and killed Friday night. His death should be treated as a hate crime, they said … [Cannon's mother Roxanne] Green talked lovingly about Moses Cannon and said she accepted who he was. “That’s the life he chose. That’s who he wanted to be,” Green said about her son … “Teish was loving, caring and compassionate,” said Rhonda Gary, Cannon’s aunt. “She carried herself with respect.” The family did not mince words. Cannon’s death, they said, was a hate crime. The family said the person who shot Moses Cannon deserves a sentence of life in prison without parole. “I feel the person who lured him there (to Seymour Street) should get the same,” Green said.” — Mother: Gay son targeted by killer
[NY, USA] Syracuse police have charged a suspect in the Cannon killing: “Dwight R. DeLee shot and killed Moses “Teish” Cannon with a .22-caliber rifle Friday night because he didn’t like that Cannon was openly gay, Syracuse police said … “There was no previous argument between these individuals, there was no previous fight, there was no bad blood,” [Police Chief Gary] Miguel said. “Our suspect took a rifle and shot and killed this person, also wounding his brother, for the sole reason he didn’t care for the sexual preference of our victim. Isn’t that sad? Isn’t that a sad situation that that’s the sole reason why? “I talk to you about this atmosphere of violence and that certain individuals believe that violence is the answer no matter what, and here’s just another example,” Miguel said. Cannon’s family said his death should be treated as a hate crime. Miguel said it’s up to the District Attorney’s office to decide if it’s a hate crime.” — Syracuse man was killed for being gay, police say
[TN, USA] “Gay, lesbian, bisexual, most of us are familiar with, maybe even comfortable with. But matters of gender identity — which are separate from sexual orientation — are less understood. Simply put, Johnson’s brain and soul did not match her genitalia. That was tough for Skinner to deal with. And it certainly didn’t line up with her religious beliefs. But — and here’s the lesson — Skinner respected that her daughter knew herself better than even a mother could. Her love for her child, God’s child, never waned, even if her understanding of what her daughter was going through wasn’t complete. Skinner wants people to know that Duanna was a good, loving person. “She was very smart, and that’s why I wanted her to get her life in order.” And order didn’t mean life as a male. “I don’t think she would have ever returned, because she said she could never be a man again.” Because in her heart, Duanna Johnson never was.” — Essence of person can belie physical
[TN, USA] “With candles in their hands and great sadness in their hearts, dozens of Mid-Southerners demanded justice Sunday, November 16, 2008 during a prayer vigil for Duanna Johnson. “We’re here to commemorate Duanna’s life,” says vigil participant Casey Lanham, “and to remember the sacrifice she unfortunately had to encounter.” “All citizens of Memphis,” says Amy Livingston of the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center, “should agree that all human life has dignity and should be respected and valued. Duanna was a beloved member of this community. And by community, I mean Memphis.” … “This is a stand for a human being,” says Will Bates, “who was killed because she was different than everyone else. This is a stand for humanity. This is a stand for all of us.” — Mid-Southerners Demand Justice for Duanna Johnson
[MA, USA] Gunner Scott of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition spoke at the Proposition 8 Protest in Boston yesterday [begins at 01:12 of the video] …
[USA] From Donna Rose, “I hope that some of the broader community outrage over denial of basic rights gets saved for ENDA. It’s a whole different thing being on the side getting your rights than being on the side denied. Many of those same people out marching this weekend will find a way to justify excluding others from getting theirs if and when they’re faced with those kinds of decisions. Many of those writing passionate letters about higher ideals will be ready to betray those ideals if they have the opportunity when ENDA rolls around again. They will have conveniently forgotten what it feels like to be on the outside.” – The Side Denied
[USA] From Becky Juro, “Unbelievably, it took the actual stripping of already existent marriage rights from gay and lesbian Californians to finally mobilize our community to loudly and proudly fight for our rights in significant numbers nationwide. At last, LGBT America has said “Enough!” and we’re taking to the streets in protest all across our country. It’s about damn time … For me, and I’d bet for many of you reading this, particularly if you are transgender, the parallels to the recent past are pretty obvious. When the transgender community was stripped from ENDA, we responded in much the same way, though on a much smaller scale. For the past year or so, there have been regular protests at Human Rights Campaign events nationwide, and while significantly smaller in size, they’ve been consistent and they’ve been active. Despite their small size, the message has gotten out, slowly but surely, not by force of numbers but by constantly being out there, constantly promoting the same clear message of equality and fairness, and by never, ever, backing down or giving up on what we know to be right. That’s how this battle will be won. Not by marching and protesting for a week or even a few weeks, but by being consistent and unrelenting, by making our voices heard wherever and whenever they need to be heard, over and over and over, until the message finally starts sinking in to the community, to those inclined to support us, and eventually to average fair-minded straight Americans. We’ve seen it happen with HRC and ENDA, and we’ll see it happen here, perhaps even more quickly because of the huge numbers involved.” — It’s The End Of The World As We Know It
[USA] “Over the summer, a wrangle between eminent psychiatrists that had been brewing for months erupted in print. Startled readers of Psychiatric News saw the spectacle unfold in the journal’s normally less-dramatic pages. The bone of contention: whether the next revision of America’s psychiatric bible, the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” should be done openly and transparently so mental health professionals and the public could follow along, or whether the debates should be held in secret.” — Wrangling over psychiatry’s bible
As I looked at the Americans For Truth About Homosexuality website this morning, I’m struck by how it’s Veterans Day — I’m struck by how unlikely it is that Peter LaBarbera would thank me for my 20-year service to country, or thank any other LGBT veteran for their service to country.
What has me thinking this way is that Mr. LaBarbera posted a short comment on “big-boned men in dresses,” attached to the news of the Application for non-career federal jobs in an Obama Administration — the application process for which the Obama Administration has stated (emphasis added):
The Obama-Biden Transition Project does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or any other basis of discrimination prohibited by law.
Will big-boned men in dresses and high heels like this fellow be allowed to use women’s restrooms in federal buildings under the Obama Administration? That’s what Obama’s plan to create “rights” based on gender confusion might bring. Obama’s pro-transsexual agenda — he favors federal rights based on “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” — was never discussed or debated seriously in the election campaign.
Should I ever meet Col. Dianne Schroer (Ret.) again, I’ll have to remember to tell my big-boned man in a dress aquaintence that her honorable service to country doesn’t matter; she shouldn’t consider herself human or professional enough to work for the federal government. That’s because “Christian” Peter LaBarbera believes a decorated military veteran with 25 years of service, who served as an Army Ranger, who happens to be transgender would show up at work wearing nothing but lingerie like the trans woman on the cover of a magazine that Mr. LaBarbera know doubt bought at his local porn shop — the porn shop where Mr. LaBarbera apparently gets all his ideas about how all gay and trans people behave.
And, I’ll have to remember to tell Col. Schroer that “Christian” Peter LaBarbara implies she and all other potential trans emplyees would rape the cisgender women in federal buildings’ restrooms specifically because they are transgender — that’s another reason the federal goverment shouldn’t hire trans people like her.
Forget Sarah Palin (who, rightly so, is going to be and should be “burnt toast” rather sooner than later … good take here on that today) … who’s not been in national government yet … or ever … I hope.
But, how some folks can so embrace some folks who have been in Washington — who’ve been part(y) and parcel to a big, bipartisan mess — and deny most responsibility for such — and take on greater patriotic airs, too … is beyond my simple comprehension.
Sorry, for me, it doesn’t work.
I don’t have any kind of secure position or entitlements.
Whatever I’ve scrapped and saved for, however prudent I’ve been, over the past decade … doesn’t mean shit to a tree … or pig …
#2 - I’m a lifelong “Yankee Yellow Dog” … but I’ll not likely be voting for the Obama-Biden ticket come election time. Time enough to share my simple thoughts about that later. Meanwhile, let’s say I can’t disagree with Serena Freewomyn today over at Bilerico …
… the Democrats are chicken shits who will pander to the least common denominator …
Of course, I’ve held thesame view (but multiply it by an appropriate double-digit — at least — numerator) of the Republicans for the past 40 years … as long as I’ve been voting.
Sorry, call me a curmudgeon (or whatever you may prefer) if you wish, but no apologies, I conscientiously object to ‘em all.
#4 - Marti Abernathey, who’s been busy with the Obama campaign, among other things, I’m sure, has a post up at Transadvocate (and Bilerico) today about “St. Barney” (as Kat Rose refers to him) …
On Tuesday I attended the HRC/Victory Fund luncheon and on Wednesday I attended the LGBT caucus at the convention center in Denver. Many stories were broke in the past few days, but one event passed by without a word. In a very consistent manner, Barney Frank again signaled that when ENDA is introduced, it will not be fully inclusive.
As someone who identifies and transsexual and transgender, I’m going to cover from a very militantly trans and you-”leaders”-better-say-the-phrase-lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender perspective. 
