Why I believe the ENDA fiasco will be a good thing.

[Sarah]

So regardless of the fact that I believe the Barney/Franks are idiots for deviding the GLBTQ community over a bill tat is guaranteed to be vetoed;
I happen to think that this will be a good thing for our community.

Here's why. I leave the sugar off for this one, you are dully warned.

I think we have been whineing. Really, when we say "our community" what we are really talking about is just Trans-Identified people.
We really have not had some sort of organized community or organization.

We need a lobby group. Some place we can send money to hire our own lobbyist lawyers in Washington. For Trans. People.

We also need a swift kick in the ass.

We have been sitting arround for years whining and complaining about our lives and frustrations and hoping that the GLB organizations and groups will defend us.

They will not. Not with unity This was made clear with ENDA.

And what are we going to do about it?? Bitch and moan about how unfair it is,,, or are we going to step up to the plate  and face the pitcher?

We got to stand on our own people. We can't just sit there whining about how the GLB lobby groups shafted us.
We need our OWN lobby group. One that can work WITH the GLB groups on common issues, but also stand on its own.

Why not?

Someone asked Ghandi: "how do you change the world?" he said " Be the change you want to see"

If you want to be accepted in public, show up.
Seriously, Show up at the public pool in a bikini (if you are a woman) or without your shirt (if you are a guy) and let people deal with it.
Who cares what they think.
If you live somewhere where you would be on your own, MOVE!
If you are having problems being accepted and you live in bumfreak Arkansas: Well no duh! Hello-oo!? I would not be going to a Hells Angels Bar and think they would be fine with it. Get the heck outa there! and fight the power someplace else!
But if you live in a city or town with a group, Do somthing!
There is a group here in Denver of Gay folks that go to a diff bar on fridays every so often and do whatever. They kiss, and hang out and flirt, and generally make themselves seen.

Be visible. Let them get a good look.

Because we are not going away!

I think this Barney/Frank thing is going to unite our community in ways it hasn't before and I think that rocks!
That's just my opinion.
-Sarah

[Wing Walker]

So regardless of the fact that I believe the Barney/Franks are idiots for dividing the GLBTQ community over a bill tat is guaranteed to be vetoed;
I happen to think that this will be a good thing for our community.

Here's why. I leave the sugar off for this one, you are dully warned.

I think we have been whining. Really, when we say "our community" what we are really talking about is just Trans-Identified people.
We really have not had some sort of organized community or organization.

We need a lobby group. Some place we can send money to hire our own lobbyist lawyers in Washington. For Trans. People.

We also need a swift kick in the ass.

We have been sitting around for years whining and complaining about our lives and frustrations and hoping that the GLB organizations and groups will defend us.

They will not. Not with unity This was made clear with ENDA.

And what are we going to do about it?? Bitch and moan about how unfair it is,,, or are we going to step up to the plate  and face the pitcher?

We got to stand on our own people. We can't just sit there whining about how the GLB lobby groups shafted us.
We need our OWN lobby group. One that can work WITH the GLB groups on common issues, but also stand on its own.

Why not?

Someone asked Ghandi: "how do you change the world?" he said " Be the change you want to see"

If you want to be accepted in public, show up.
Seriously, Show up at the public pool in a bikini (if you are a woman) or without your shirt (if you are a guy) and let people deal with it.
Who cares what they think.
If you live somewhere where you would be on your own, MOVE!
If you are having problems being accepted and you live in bumfreak Arkansas: Well no duh! Hello-oo!? I would not be going to a Hells Angels Bar and think they would be fine with it. Get the heck outta there! and fight the power someplace else!
But if you live in a city or town with a group, Do something!
There is a group here in Denver of Gay folks that go to a diff bar on Fridays every so often and do whatever. They kiss, and hang out and flirt, and generally make themselves seen.

Be visible. Let them get a good look.

Because we are not going away!

I think this Barney/Frank thing is going to unite our community in ways it hasn't before and I think that rocks!
That's just my opinion.
-Sarah

Hello, Sarah, and thank you for making your views known.

I am a woman, born into a male body, so that makes me transsexual, F to F.  That's right, I said F to F.
I am 56 years old and i have seen a few things that perhaps you can't.

A few years ago I lived in the Washington, DC area.  I had a two-bedroom apartment and I was the only occupant.  Every year transsexual people came to Washington to visit Capitol Hill to lobby *our* cause.  They made appointments and visited the right office at the appointed time and were given the brush-off, were laughed at by rude Congressional staff members, told that they had no appointment, any number of reasons to preclude having an actual meeting with a member of Congress.

I know what happened because they stayed at my place.

Hiring lobbyists is prohibitively expensive for a group whose members don't have the money for surgery and other treatments.  Lobbying is where the money is at.  That's why Senator Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) is resigning:  he is going into the lobby business, greasing the palms of his colleagues on the Hill.  He will be handsomely paid and will spread the lobbying funds around the Hill.

Bottom line:  we don't have the millions necessary to hire effective lobbyists.

Try reading  www.ts-si.org  It might be fun and shed some light on things for you.

I make a distinction between myself, transsexual, and transgendered.  I have been diagnosed with gender identity dysphoria, or GID.  I was born female but my body wasn't.  I will have that dichotomy removed when my body transitions from male to female through gender reassignment surgery, but I am in no way transgendered, thus I recommend reading what's on the above website.  It might make you angry, or make you question things.  You might like it and you might not, but it's the only journal that I know of that is by transsexuals for transsexuals.

Barney Frank is a single name.  He is an openly-gay Congressman from Massachusetts.  He is opposed to a "trans-inclusive" ENDA.

Bush will veto the ENDA and the Human Rights Campaign will pretend that they are on the side of transsexual and/or transgendered individuals.  The only member of Congress on the side of transsexual and transgendered persons is Tammy Baldwin.  She is openly Lesbian and of open mind and heart.

By the way, if "our community" is to be united, may I please ask you who are the members of "our community?" 

I have heard much protestation from transsexual persons.  I have marched with my brothers and sisters in front of HRC headquarters to protest their acceptance of an ENDA that did not include us, but I have not heard any whining.

I leave it to you, Sarah, to separate facts from opinions in my reply.

Wing Walker

[Melissa-kitty]

Good post!
FYI, there is a transgender lobby and organization, the National Center for Transgender Equality.
http://www.nctequality.org/
Worth checking out.
Namaste, Tara

[lisagurl]

Sarah

Some of us just are women and do not want to express a different view than the norm.

[Kate]

Be visible. Let them get a good look.

Because we are not going away!

Well, the thing is, that's exactly *opposite* of why I transitioned. I need to be invisible, for them NOT to look, and to vanish...

I do like the "Be the change you want to see" idea, but in my case I'm showing them that I'm not confrontational, have no "agenda," I'm not rocking the boat or pushing gender norms... I'm just a blah, boring middle-aged woman who happens to have started life as a male

~Kate~

[Lisbeth]

Be visible. Let them get a good look.

Because we are not going away!

Bear in mind that I am visible, and I work on creating change on a daily basis.  And I have helped create change in the hearts and minds of thousands of people, though I have personally affected only hundreds.  350 organizations telling HRC and BF that they are wrong is no small feat.

[Attis]

The better course post-ENDA is to keep promoting good business practices of inclusion, which I've noticed are accelerating because of the lack of an ENDA inclusion of the TG statuses (odd correlation?).

[Cindi Jones]

Sarah, you are correct in that we have no real community.  I suspect that it will always be that way.  Many of us do not want to stick out. We just want to live normal lives.  Once we go through that painful step of transition, we no longer want to deal with the pain of remembering all of this.  The further we can get away from it, the better.  We are very fortunate here in this forum because there are several how have completed transition and are willing to share their experience.

I believe that our society will eventually learn to deal with us because as you said "we are not going away".  But coming together as a community is quite unlikely.  Yet, I still encourage everyone to do what they can. You can write letters to congress, post online comments to news articles, and help someone else along the way without too much effort or chance of being discovered.

Cindi

[Sheila]

Sarah,
  Some of what you say is true. I do like what you have said, there are groups that are strickly T, one was named in a previous post. It is unfortunate that most of the TS people want to be who they are and don't want any publicity and I don't blame them one bit. I kind of like being just a woman. I have been out and have met lots of people and have put a face with a name. Who this will hurt will be the gender queer/variant people. Those who want to be female sometime and male sometime (I hope I got that right). This will also hurt the FtoM as they have no surgery that is profected. They still have no genitals that look like a male. They are still male but some want them to look like a male. Again, I hope I said it right.
Sheila

[Sarah]

Sarah, you are correct in that we have no real community.  I suspect that it will always be that way.

I somehow doubt this.
I am seeing it happen already.
Times change.
Ways change.
Especialy with young people.

In my community I have only seen an increased interest.

The things you have said, apply to gays and lesbians as well.
There are always going to be people of all types who do not wish to be involved.

But the general trend I've seen is that as acceptance becomes less and less of an issue, people tend to want to help other people and places achieve the same. It's natural human compassion.
All Gays and Lesbians wanted was to live in peace.
And when they got it in some places, most turned to help others along as well.

Think about it this way:
Do you want the next generation of Transgender kids to have to go through what you went through?
You have the ability to help do something about it.
Even if it's just sending money to lobby groups.
There is always somthing you can do.
And most people do.

As far as a community is concerned, those tend to happen naturally as people realize they either have somthing in common, or, realize that there is a real need to organize as ENDA has done.

The kinds of predjudice that some people are facing needs to be stopped.
It needs to be made so obvious that all of society deems it as unaceptable as lynching and the kkk.

It took a lot of work to get the civil liberties we already have.
There are always people willing to step up to the plate and swing.

So I'm not worried about it.
I see it happening.

[Pica Pica]

Be visible. Let them get a good look.

Because we are not going away!

Well, the thing is, that's exactly *opposite* of why I transitioned. I need to be invisible, for them NOT to look, and to vanish...

I do like the "Be the change you want to see" idea, but in my case I'm showing them that I'm not confrontational, have no "agenda," I'm not rocking the boat or pushing gender norms... I'm just a blah, boring middle-aged woman who happens to have started life as a male

~Kate~

In that sense you are the change you want to see. You are showing them. You are showing them that trans people are nice normal girls and boys with slightly odd origin stories.

[Cindi Jones]

I like your spunk and attitude Sarah!  Winners need to come to the forefront.  When we are successful and visible, we make a positive difference. 

When (and where) I transitioned, there were very few of us who ever got out of the slum of poverty and prostitution.

Now days, we are successful in all walks of life.  Society has been able to accept us to the  point of allowing us to make a living.

Many of us here are making a great difference for trans gendered people everywhere. Every post offering help is a huge lifeline to those who are afraid and know not where to turn.

So yes!  Do it!  Make a difference wherever you can.

Cindi