{"id":305,"date":"2023-02-22T16:14:50","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T00:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.makemydayusa.glamazon.net\/?p=305"},"modified":"2023-03-31T19:32:54","modified_gmt":"2023-04-01T03:32:54","slug":"coal-for-the-hrcs-stocking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/coal-for-the-hrcs-stocking\/","title":{"rendered":"Coal for the HRC"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

In October 2007, the Human Rights Campaign (the HRC) broke a four-year promise by supporting an Employment Non-Discrimination Act that excluded trans people. Twice earlier (1990s and 2002) trans people were included under its protection and then were cut out of it as a bargaining chip. In 2005 I attended an HRC fundraiser in Phoenix where the HRC presenters flat-out vowed they wouldn’t throw us under the bus this time. Like many attendees there I donated hundred of dollars, hoping they’d honor this pledge. Of course they threw us under the bus. Again.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The following was published as a guest editorial in the Bay Area Reporter<\/em> on December 20th, 2007.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"Coal for the HRC\u2019s Stocking<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

When Santa makes his naughty or nice list for 2007, the Human Rights Campaign will find a huge lump of coal in its stocking for its betrayal of the transgender community and our true supporters. When it broke three years of \u201cwe will never accept anything less than a fully-inclusive ENDA\u201d promises, the HRC finally revealed itself as merely another political player posing as a civil and human rights organization.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Transgender people are not the only ones hurt by the HRC\u2019s divisive politics. For decades trans and LGB people have worked to build a coalition based on our similarities and common interests, to add that \u201cT\u201d to LGBT. Aside from the hatred that all<\/em> LGBT\u2019s face from bigots who don\u2019t know or care about our differences, the overlap between gender identity\/expression and sexual orientation is as varied and multifaceted as humanity. Butch lesbians and effeminate gay men break the exact kind of gender rules a fully-inclusive ENDA would have covered.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For three years the HRC has built its credibility on both its promises of full inclusion and its few, highly visible yet ultimately token transgender board members. Donna Rose\u2019s resignation from the HRC board during the ENDA betrayal left a vacuum, but it appears they are grooming a new token trannie, one who is willing to defend the HRC from her own community\u2019s criticism.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Susan Stanton, the former city manager of Largo, Florida, who gained national exposure earlier this year when she was fired due to anti-transgender discrimination,\u00a0may become the next symbolic transperson for the HRC. On December 2nd the HRC sponsored Stanton’s appearance in Oak Park, IL where she spoke about her experiences. While she could potentially benefit the trans community, she could actually do us more harm as our HRC \u201crepresentative.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Stanton maintains “until we as a trans community do a better job of education, to expect organizations such as HRC or the Congress or the city council of whatever city to give equal protection to our community\u2014it\u2019s just not going to happen. The biggest thing we need to do as a community, instead of aiming the poison dart at HRC, is to get rid of the sense of victimization in this community.\u201d Stanton expands these comments on a blog at republicoft.com, where she accuses our community of \u201ccelebrating\u201d our \u201ccollective victimization.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Most transgender people agree we must continue to educate, however the co-participation of non-trans people lends additional credibility to our efforts and proves that we do not stand alone. Stanton\u2019s insinuation that we haven\u2019t tried hard enough to educate and her generalizations about \u201cvictimization\u201d, shows how far removed she is from the transgender community.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Less than a year into her transsexual transition, Stanton admits she knows little about our community. She has yet to face the years of bigotry that most LGBT people have. Her presumptuous remarks ill serve the community she now purports to represent, a complete acquittal of the HRC and those LGBs who lobbied for dropping us from ENDA.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

According to Rose\u2019s blog, the HRC has a project named \u201cWin-Back\u201d, an effort to resurrect its image of credibility. So far Stanton seems to fit their bill: a high profile transgender figure who\u2019s willing to toe the HRC line. As an HRC mascot, Stanton could help perpetuate the appearance that the HRC truly stands behind transgender people instead of merely paying us lip service and taking our donations. And for the HRC to appoint<\/em> an inexperienced representative over the many established transgender leaders we have already have would be a huge slap in our face.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As a transsexual woman who, in San Francisco in 1985, was fired from her job for the same reason Stanton was, I am empathetic to her plight. With Stanton\u2019s employment future uncertain, I understand why she would accept the HRC\u2019s outstretched hand, and perhaps even why she\u2019d defend it from our censure. Still, many in the trans community hope she will reach out to us for our perspective and experience, especially if she aspires to truly represent us.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Meanwhile, I can only look on the HRC with further disgust for its plans to use Stanton or another to try to help stem the erosion of support since their sell-out. It will take far more than tokenism to regain our trust; it will take the removal of all those in the HRC that supported the ENDA betrayal. You’re not fooling anybody, HRC, least of all the transgender community.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Bay Area native Christine Beatty is a longtime transsexual activist, published author, freelance journalist, co-founder of the rock group Glamazon and a corporate computer geekette. She currently lives in Los Angeles where she\u2019s writing her memoirs. Her website is www.glamazon.net.<\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In October 2007, the Human Rights Campaign (the HRC) broke a four-year promise by supporting an Employment Non-Discrimination Act that excluded trans people\u2014after collecting a LOT of donations from us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14,9],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transjournalism","tag-trans-politics","tag-transgender"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":453,"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions\/453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glamazon.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}