Trans Group Blog

where a variety of voices from within the trans community gather to discuss issues, post news, and compile information

Posted by Rebecca Juro at 12:35 PM   

QuoteThe days when you could treat transpeople like crap and not have it be seen as a reprehensible thing by most Americans are over. It seems we've crossed that line for the virtually all of the LGB community and probably for most of modern America, and we can thank HRC, Barney Frank, and all the rest of the Democrats who went ahead with a non-inclusive ENDA despite the community outcry not to do it for pushing progressive public opinion over the line by highlighting and modeling the kind of unjust exclusion and discrimination transgender and gender-variant people face every day.

That's right, you heard me. We have HRC and the incrementalist Dems in Congress who voted for the crippled, non-inclusive ENDA to thank for the surging support for transgender rights in our community and probably in our country overall, at least in part. Ain't that a kick in the ass? Stranger still is the fact that we have to thank them for modeling bad behavior, thus rallying the community to our cause in droves to organize and fight against them and their elitist agenda.

I think that is the way somethings work. If your negative to a issue, then it comes news worthy in a hurry. That is how the riots in the mid sixties got attention in Congress and how we got out of Vietnam. I have always believed in a peaceful way of settling matters but sometimes a good demonstration with rock throwing and disrupting the norm gets peoples attention. Just like Stonewall.

I agree with Sheila. A well-placed rock or a well-swung two-by-four can attract attention in a hurry.

However, the big thingy here for me is that if we cannot find it within ourselves to maintain the attentiveness and think that simply because people have started paying attention that they will now continue to do so and that the momentum built this spring and early summer is unstoppable, that the attention will surely disappear once more.

Becky is absolutely right that this needs to be an ongoing concern for us and that the campaign isn't won by winning the first battle. There's still a long way to go and our energies need to remain focused on moving people and keeping their attention. Don't drop your rocks and two-by-fours just yet. Maybe in twenty years will come a time when what we see beginning now is taken as a matter-of-course.

Trust that the right-wing and christian-right screeders are not going to let up from their side, regardless how much in disarray they currently may appear.

The thing we need to learn from them is not to give up and not to let up. In that respect they make very good examples.

Nichole

Quote from: Sheila on July 07, 2008, 11:22:32 AMI have always believed in a peaceful way of settling matters but sometimes a good demonstration with rock throwing and disrupting the norm gets peoples attention. Just like Stonewall.

I will second the desire for peaceful outcomes.  But I will also add that my path to peace in grade school, junior high and high school was only through a protracted series of fights.  Interestingly, each time I got close to the alphas of the clique, they'd have a change of heart and proclaim that 'that Savage kid' should be left alone, and the long cease-fire would finally be upon me.  But it was necessary to undergo that process each time I changed schools.

Someone said, "Life is like high school, but with money"

Karen

We have made big strides in our 'community', but we are just beginning. The 300 plus organizations that backed our inclusion was a 2x4 between the eyes of Barny and company. I feel the people who are making us 'normal' are the ones who get up every morning, go to work or school or whatever and do their living and pay the bills and just go about their daily living. They are the ones who are making it for us. Some come out and tell their stories and then go back in and live their lives as it should be. The populace sees that and sees that they are not to be afraid of but rather to embrace. I know a lot of TS's who have done just that.

Transgender Inclusion Goes Mainstream

Link
7/8/2008

"Rebecca "Becky" is probably one of the top trans bloggers in the
country, with articles that appear in some of the most visible LGBTQ
blogs on the Internet, including The Bilerico Project. She also hosts
her own talk show, "The Rebecca Juro Show," on QMORadio, Thursdays at
7 PM. Becky has been one of my inspirations in starting my own blog.


If there's anything you can count on the city of San Francisco for
when it comes to LGBT rights and community support, it's that even
when they're not on the very leading edge of something, they'll still
do it bigger, better, and more fabulously than anywhere else. New
York, Philadelphia, and several other major cities have had protests
and demonstrations against the Human Rights Campaign at their local
fundraising events, but what's waiting for HRC in San Francisco on
July 26th, when they hold their next fundraising dinner in that city,
is likely to make the rest look like a warmup act"