Who Can Speak For The Broad LGBT Community?
By: Autumn Sandeen Monday May 28, 2012 6:06 pm
http://pamshouseblend.firedoglake.com/2012/05/28/who-can-speak-for-the-broad-lgbt-community/I recently listened to a trans activist talk around a table about the work of his trans-specific service organization. This nonprofit organization provided antidiscrimination training that complied with a particular government mandated sexual orientation and gender identity training requirement for a particular service sector. There were:
No broader LGBT organizations in the immediate area providing that kind of training
The gender identity training was fully integrated in with sexual orientation training
The trans organization didn't provide gender identity training as stand alone training
The public and private enterprises receiving the training expected the trans organization to be subject matter experts with the gender identity portions of the training, but weren't so sure that trans people could be experts on sexual orientation training. The public and private enterprises would often ask if this trans-specific organization partnered with a broader LGBT organization in the local area, such as the local LGBT Community Center of their city. This, even though their LGBT Center didn't have this kind of training for any public and private enterprises in that professional sector as part of their mission or vision.
In other words, it was presumed trans people couldn't speak credibly on anything involving sexual orientation — this, even though trans people clearly are part of the LGBT community; this, even though a recent Task Force survey indicated over half of trans people don't identify as heterosexual people.
