Gays And Bi Folk Are Transgendered

The battle within the gay and lesbian community over Barney Frank's decision to strip protections for transgendered people out of the Employment Non Discrimination Act continues to heat up. Yesterday Frank issued a press release critical of Lambda Legal, which opposes his political ploy, and today Lambda Legal shot back at Barney Frank.

To me, stripping the "Ts" out of ENDA to make it more palatable for some Democrats so as to get their vote is abhorrent. However, a number of gay bloggers and activists, notably John Avarosis and Rex Wockner, argue that the "Ts" are not gay folk and that we should take the ENDA bill we can get without protections for transgendered people and leave them behind. They want us to throw the "Ts" out of the LGBT movement. The least powerful sexual minority would then be left to fend for themselves.

The best argument I've read in favor of continuing the fight for a fully inclusive ENDA is made by Gabriel Rotello. Rotello points out that gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered individuals share an important characteristic: we all fall outside of accepted norms when it comes to gender identity. We all have traits, sexual for all of us as well as non-sexual for many or most of us, that go against "straight" norms of behavior.

Now, however, 21st-century research has produced a new concept: That the
root of our difference is not merely how we make love, but the larger fact that
we exist between the two genders in a variety of gender-atypical ways, some
sexual and some not.
This idea has immense implications, because if the
ultimate cause of our oppression is gender transgression, then shouldn't it also
be the focus of our identities and our movement? Shouldn't we stop being the
les-bi-gay-trans-whatever movement, with a new syllable added every few years,
and simply become the trans movement? I think we should. ...Yes, sure, all the
other arguments against the removal of transgendered people from ENDA are valid,
foremost among them that we are sacrificing the most vulnerable among us for the
political expediency of getting a bill passed. But if you look at LGBT people as
all, in a sense, transgendered, such a bill is not merely sacrificing the rights
of one sexual minority within our movement. It's betraying and denying the
strange, wonderful, mysterious and very human thing that makes us what we
are.

Read Rotello's essay here.

PHOTO: A boatload of "trans" people: gays, bisexuals, and transgendered individuals, invades the Pines on July 4, 2007. Don't throw anyone overboard when it comes to ENDA. Photo by Bob Russell

Jim

Pass A Full Transgender Inclusive Version Of ENDA

RE: ENDA: The Employment Non Discrimination Act - It seems as though openly gay Congressman Barney Frank made a calculation that the only way it would pass, even with Democratic Party control of the House is if they stripped the "T" (transgender) out of the bill, so he split the bill up into two bills, one that protects lesbians, gays, and bisexuals, and the other that protects transgendered people. The sexual minority community revolted at this with some 90 organizations issuing statements or sending letters opposing such a move.

Barney Frank has made a number of silly statements and has done some whacko things, but this one truly is revolting. Even if both houses of Congress were to pass his "stripped down" ENDA, Bush would veto it and he has enough Republican support to sustain such a veto. So why abandon some of the people who need protection the most? So that the Democrats can claim some sort of limited victory? The outpouring of opposition to Frank's plan has forced the Democratic leadership in the house to cancel their plans to adopt his ridiculous strategy. ENDA needs to protect all members of sexual minorities. They need to go back to the original bill and work to pass that again and again until it is signed into law. No thanks, Barney, we don't want your half-assed bill.


PHOTO: We think of our summer cottage as being located in sort of a beach version of "Brigadoon," since it sleeps in the off season and comes to life once again every year in the Spring. This friend's house has closed its eyes for the winter.

Jim