Compiled by Rex Wockner
Published Thursday, 29-May-2008 in issue 1066

Quote"I've never seen a worse job of lobbying done by the transgender community (than on the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ENDA). They seem to think that all they had to do was to get the gay and lesbian community to say 'OK.' I think they thought that this was a train, and that they were a car on the train. I said to them, 'You've got to work this, you've got to lobby people.' They did a terrible job of lobbying, and so we didn't have the votes."
Openly gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., to the Oregon gay newspaper Just Out, May 2. A GLB-only version of ENDA has passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is pending in the Senate.

This is certainly in contrast to what Mara Kiesling said at Syracuse University a few weeks back.

(Mara is the director for the National Center for Transgender Equality www.NCTEquality.org)

As I recall, Mara said that there were about 150 to 200 LGBT organizations who were lobbying for gender-inclusive GENDA.  (I don't recall the exact number, but it was in that range.)

There were only 2 saying implying that the transgender community was expendable.  Those 2 were Barny Frank and HRC.

What a bunch of hoo-ee from Rep. Frank!  He should be ashamed of himself.

Chaunte

Quote from: Chaunte on May 29, 2008, 10:48:48 PM
There were only 2 saying implying that the transgender community was expendable.  Those 2 were Barny Frank and HRC.

It was a long train. I heard Mara's interview on CSPAN and elsewhere. Except the train had Barny and Joe as the engineer and the engine respectively so the train went where they thought it should go instead of where the others wanted and said.

All the forces in the LBGT community won't get an all-enclusive ENDA until Barny and Joe get their heads out of their asses and represent everyone they're supposed to. But even with that,  I've always had the impression, even though Barny is a good and effective representative, he's also a  politician and knows when to dump unwanted parts of bills. I haven't seen anything from him that suggests he really believes in and wants an all-enclusive ENDA. He's pushing his agenda, which is gay rights with inclusion for lesbians, but everyone else is politicial fodder.

My view of both of them? They have a 50/50 guarantee, the first 50 feet or 50 seconds they walk away from you or the podium.