Romney Spokesman Gleefully Outed A Trans Woman, Ending Her Career

By Annie-Rose Strasser on May 11, 2012 at 2:12 pm

http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/05/11/482819/romney-spokesman-gleefully-outed-a-trans-woman-ending-her-career/?mobile=nc

With all the talk over Mitt Romney's bullying of a presumed gay classmate, some have questioned whether it's fair to judge someone on their actions in high school. But everyone agrees that anything from a recent political career is fair game.

So it's telling that one doesn't have to reach that far back to find other incidents of LGBT bullying from Romney's close staff. Romney campaign senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom (of Etch-a-Sketch fame) outed a transgender woman in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, effectively ending her political career, when he was a reporter for the Boston Herald.

America Blog reminds us of the incident, relayed in a GQ profile, which tells of Fernhstrom's apparent "glee" when he found the representative's birth certificate:

Top Romney Aide Outed Trans Political Opponent
BY Diane Anderson-Minshall
May 12 2012 1:53 PM ET

http://www.advocate.com/politics/politicians/2012/05/12/top-romney-aid-outed-trans-political-opponent

Mitt Romney has been under assault all week for a variety of political gaffes, but a new report in Raw Story highlights the questionable ethics of his top aide and political strategist, Eric Fehrnstrom.

Before he was an adviser to Romney, Fehrnstrom was a political columnist for the Boston Herald, and according to a recent profile in GQ titled "Mitt Romney's Dark Knight," in 1992 he intentionally outed Althea Garrison as transgender. A Republican, Garrison had recently been elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, but the outing effectively ended her career.

[...]

Mara Keisling, director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, told Raw Story that the malicious outing speaks to Fehrnstrom's character.

"Privacy for transgendered people is a matter of survival, physical and economic survival," Keisling told Raw Story. "Once you out a trans person, you can't just 'Etch a Sketch' it away."

While I commend Ms Garrison's public service, I think that the end of her "career" as a Massachusetts state representative (1993-1995) had more to do with her political stances than her gender, and serving as a Republican in a predominately Democrat state.

Here is her wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Althea_Garrison

I keep out of USA politics as you can see.

Outing another politician is pretty disgusting.

We have Gay politicians here but they have announced it them selves. We have politicians who need medical help, and if they wish they announce it themselves. We have politicians with ill children and if they wish they announce it themselves.

If Romeny's crew, and by default him, thinks this is normal behaviour, I hope to the goddess he goes nowhere except to be flushed down a toilet. It is unforgivable behaviour.

JMO

Cindy

Quote from: Cindy James on May 17, 2012, 04:07:53 AM
I keep out of USA politics as you can see.

Outing another politician is pretty disgusting.

We have Gay politicians here but they have announced it them selves. We have politicians who need medical help, and if they wish they announce it themselves. We have politicians with ill children and if they wish they announce it themselves.

If Romeny's crew, and by default him, thinks this is normal behaviour, I hope to the goddess he goes nowhere except to be flushed down a toilet. It is unforgivable behaviour.

JMO

Cindy

The incident took place in 1992.  That would have been before any association between Gov. Romney and the knucklehead spokesman.  Romney should probably dump the guy, IMHO.

If he doesn't it shows he really doesn't care about anything except gaining political power.  As Cindy posted, politicians here will announce things if they want, and it doesn't do them any harm.
People accept that they are human, and can have the same concerns as everyone else.  Playing the man rather than the ball doesn't go down well anyway.

Karen.

Quote from: justmeinoz on May 17, 2012, 05:58:21 AMIf he doesn't it shows he really doesn't care about anything except gaining political power.

I tend to assume that about all politicians by default until they convince me otherwise, which is almost unheard of. They all lick their fingers and hold them up to judge the political winds. "Is this going to help me get (re)elected or hurt me?" I think they may occasionally try to throw in a little bit of actual stuph they care about now and then, but for the most part, I feel like those who started because they cared about things got it burned out of them once they played the game for a little while.

That said, I think attention should be brought to this and it should hurt him politically because that's the only way politicians learn.

Saw this last week- made me throw up in my mouth a little bit