When the Government does Right
Filed by: Rebecca Juro
October 30, 2009 3:00 PM
http://www.bilerico.com/2009/10/obama-transgender-lgbt-hate-crimes-gender-identity.phpFinally, we're in.
The body of federal law of the United States of America now formally recognizes and protects its citizens from violence driven by hate based on sexual orientation and gender identity for the first time in American history. While both of these steps are critically important ones in our ongoing fight for equality, I'd like to suggest that the inclusion of gender identity, and therefore the formal acknowledgment of Transgender-Americans in federal law, is even more important than the inclusion of sexual orientation. For the first time ever, we exist in federal law now, and that's going to make things a lot easier down the road.
For one thing, as I and many others have noted in the past, the days of feigned ignorance about trans people and issues by politicians are over. Support us or don't support us, but the politicians can't claim they don't get it anymore, at least not the ones who want to appear informed and therefore credible.
