Democrats Advance Trans Rights, But Rarely Say So In Charlotte
The Obama administration has moved broadly to block discrimination against trans people. An unusual concern: Advocates wish the president and others would match their deeds with words.
Chris Geidner BuzzFeed Staff
Posted Sep 9, 2012 7:26pm EDT
http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/democrats-advance-trans-rights-but-rarely-say-so (http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/democrats-advance-trans-rights-but-rarely-say-so)
It was difficult to sit long at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte this past week without hearing about the end of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" or the party's now-official statement, "We support marriage equality." Rarely discussed, however, was the dramatic new focus on transgender issues within the Obama administration and the Democratic Party.
In the early days of the Obama administration, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocates and activists pushed for more action to match President Obama's campaign promises on their rights. As Obama accepted the nomination to run for re-election this past week, however, transgender advocates had the opposite concern. Thrilled, for the most part, with the administration's actions on trans issues, many transgender Democrats found themselves looking for the action to be matched more often with words — from elected officials like Obama, but also from LGBT leaders themselves.
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Diego Sanchez, an out trans delegate from Massachusetts who works in the office of Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, said of Obama's Thursday night speech, "I wish rather than 'gay,' he had said 'LGBT.'" Noting the Obama administration's actions on trans rights — from prohibiting housing discrimination to making it easier for transgender people to change their passports to reflect their gender identity — however, Sanchez added, "I know that when he said gay, he meant LGBT, and I trust that a lot."