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Mara Keisling’s 2010 Assessment: ‘I Failed. The Movement Failed. Organizations Failed. The President Failed’

I failed. … The community failed. The movement failed. The organizations failed. Congress failed. The president failed. Government failed – part of why government failed is because they didn’t prioritize us. Partially that’s because we didn’t make them, partially it’s because the Republicans were just obstructing everything, partially it’s because our community didn’t step up enough, partially it was because our community was scattered in what they wanted. But we failed together. … We had a colossal fail this year. But it is simplistic and unhelpful to say that any particular person failed, because every single one of us failed. … We still made a lot of progress, we really did. We still got more done in the last two years than we’ve ever gotten done in two years before.

—Mara Keisling, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, reflecting on another year without ENDA (among other things). Says Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, “You can put me in the category with Mara.” Adds Kate Kendell, head of National Center for Lesbian Rights: “Things are more fucked up than you think.” [via]

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