Trans folks may become political sacrifices. Though the majority of Democrats support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, they apparently disagree on whether or not the government should support trans rights:
House Democratic leaders are strongly considering dropping anti-discrimination protections for transgender persons from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, after an internal Democratic head count on Wednesday found that the bill would likely be defeated if it included the trans provision, multiple sources familiar with the bill said.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s apparently worried about how the bill will fair with trans inclusion. Sources close to Congress say Pelosi has considered editing out trans rights.
Gay rights groups HRC and the Gay and Lesbian Task Force don’t support the move, but gay politico Barney Frank thinks it’s worth a shot: “I think the notion that we should let the whole bill die if we can’t pass [a] transgender [provision] is a terrible idea.” Frank points to past wins, including women and blacks, which came in stages, not a flood.
Heather_L_James
Part of me says even if it passes, Bush will veto it, so what does it matter. Part of me says why the fuck did I have to be born into this godforsaken country. Being trans I can handle, being an American is what I would rather change.
Paul Raposo
Fucking bullshit. These politicos are creating a hierarchy of whom should be protected, with trans people at the bottom and that is garbage. I’m an all or nothing person and I say let the damned bill die before tossing the “T” in LGBTQ under the bus. God knows when Hillary gets into power the chance of a trans protections bill being introduced, so much as passed, will be nothing more than a dream.
Matt
Love Barney, but I don’t see how his women-and-blacks analogy works. Was there ever legislation that provided the right to vote, for instance, “in stages”, first to, say, light-colored African-Americans, then only years later to the more dark-skinned? Did thin, attractive women get to vote before dumpy fishwives? I just don’t get it.
larrybob
That is ridiculous to cut out the people who are the most discriminated against from the bill. Who are the representatives who would vote for an LGB bill but not an LGBT bill?
Check out this study on transgender employment from the Transgender Law Center. Even in San Francisco, very few transgender people are employed full-time. Most are employed in non-profits and government agencies. Everyone needs workplace protection, including Trans people.
http://www.transgenderlawcenter.org/do/sfbg_tg_survey.html
kiveon
Barney Frank talks tough, but he is another coward afraid to stand up for what is right!
I am a gay male, I do not want transgendered people thrown under the damn bus in order to get this law passed! I say it is all or nothing, I do not want to be included in any “Protections” that leave other memebers of the GLBT community out.
Kate
Transgendered have a long history of getting thrown under the bus. even after stonewall riots trans inclusive language was dropped to advance the gay issues, that is history. Stand beside us so we can feel justified to stand by you
Deborah
This is typical, and part of HRC’s and the DNC’s strategy. Make a bill that includes trans-persons, and then drop us in order to make the bill more palatable in an election year. It’s already been done many times now, and the bill ends up failing every time.
Democrats in the House know Bush will veto the bill, no matter who is excluded from protection, and that they lack the votes to override said veto. What is really happening is political posturing in an election year. There are millions of gay and lesbian voters, but less than 10,000 trans-persons, in the United States. Trans-persons tend to mostly be poor (due to job and health care discrimination), while most gays and lesbians tend to be part of the middle class economy.
Even if every trans-person in the country were able to give the maximum allowable campaign contribution ($2,000), it would be less than if only half of gays and lesbians contributed only $1. Is it any wonder that every time ENDA comes to a vote, we’re the first to be excluded from its protections?
Now you know why I do not support GOP or DNC candidates, nor HRC and similar groups. UNtil they support my having the same rights as everyone else, I cannot support them.