Taking One For The Team
By Autumn Sandeen

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/06/09/Taking_One_For_The_Team/

How we identify ourselves matters. When I came out as a male-to-female transsexual seven years ago, I began by embracing a transgender identity and identifying myself as a part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. I remember in my first months of being out in LGBT community being so clueless to how some LGB people thought trans people don't belong in LGBT community.

Trans people have been working for LGBT community issues since there has been an LGBT community. Shannon Minter, for example, has worked tirelessly for marriage equality for years, and Prof. Jillian Todd Weiss has focused like a laser beam on passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act this past year. Still, some LGB people still believe trans people don't belong grouped together with them.

But I believe in the idea of the LGBT community. If just one subcommunity of our coalition of subcommunities finds an issue to be an important issue -- even if that particular issue doesn't directly affect my transgender sisters and brothers -- then that issue is my issue.

Until the L's, the G's and the B's begin to realize that the T is the tie that binds, we won't be able to fully unify.  Remove the stigma and a lot of LGBers will see there is a lot of T in each of their respective sub-communities.  Trans gender = crossing the gender lines.  Go to the next Pride Parade and count how many gays & lesbians cross the gender lines.  They are all trans.

Quote from: Julie Marie on June 10, 2010, 10:49:06 AM
Until the L's, the G's and the B's begin to realize that the T is the tie that binds, we won't be able to fully unify.  Remove the stigma and a lot of LGBers will see there is a lot of T in each of their respective sub-communities.  Trans gender = crossing the gender lines.  Go to the next Pride Parade and count how many gays & lesbians cross the gender lines.  They are all trans.

Whether or not they identify as trans, bills that protect gender identity AND expression do include those LGBs. Supporting the "T" should be a no brainer.

Z