Hey Sandy,
Let me comment on what's going to come naturally from me when I cover the Democratic National Convention for
Pam's House Blend, just due to my life experiences, areas of expertise, and my connections.
1.) I'm a Californian, and consider myself part of a broader LGBT community -- even though I realize many LGB and many T folk don't see T's as being part of a broader community. So that said, since marriage equality is going to very much going to be Californian LGBT issue this election cycle due to a recent California Supreme Court ruling and the upcoming
California Protection Of Marriage initiative to be voted on in November; and by the fact that I'm going to be a "best woman" for my best friend Vicki's wedding in August too [Vicki identifes publicly as a post-operative trans woman, has had her birth certificate's gender marker legally changed to an
F, and is marrying a woman], marriage equality is definitely going to be on my mind and in the questions I pose to delegates and politicians at the convention. (Wow, that was a wordy sentence!)
2.) I'm a disabled, transgender military retiree and veteran (U.S. Navy: 1980-2000), who has a DADT story posted up on the SLDN's and HRC's websites -- I'm going to bringing up transgender related military and veteran issues as a "subject matter expert" with whoever will listen.
On top of my personal experiences, The
Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) is going to have a report from a recently conducted survey out on transgender veterans prior to the start of the Democratic National Convention, so I'm also planning on using that report as a starting point for discussing transgender military and veterans issues at the convention.
3.) I'm going to be like stink on sh** when it comes to transgender issues being included in the Democratic Party Platform.
And btw, we have an F2M on the platform committee (Diego Sanchez, for those who weren't aware), and he definitely plans on pushing the transgender inclusion issue in the
Platform Comittee meetings. The issue of a Democratic Party platform statement supporting transgender civil rights and equality
is definitely going to be an issue at the convention, and I'm going to be talking to Diego at the convention about what happens within that committee regarding trans people.
Diego is Latino -- he's going to be the first transman, the first latino transman, and first F2M delegate to participate at the Democratic National Convention. And, for the first time as well, there is going to be
an African-American transwoman delegate (Marisa Richmond) as well. I plan on also writing about the intersections of race, gender, and transgender at the convention too.
4.) I work with
TransFamily Youth Allies (TYFA) pretty regularly, so transyouth issues will always be on mind, especially with regards to ENDA.
Lastly {with number 5.), here}, in
Pam's House Blend I wrote about
Colorado's new public accomodation law. I plan using that as a springboard to discuss public accomodation issues as well, since the convention is going to be held in Denver.
So Sandy et al, that's what I was already planning on discussing and writing about from the convention. Are there other issues I'm missing that y'all think are important and should be addressed? Anything that's of particular interest to members of
Susan's Place, and write about in an entry here? Your input is being requested.
