It’s a bittersweet morning for millions of gay Americans.
Just yesterday the House of Representatives passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, an historic piece of legislation that could protect America’s homos from anti-gay discrimination. As many of you know, however, that bill does not include our trans allies, who have been left out in the legislative cold.
The truth of the matter is that we don’t know what happens next. We can’t be sure that the Senate will vote on this bill – it’s yet to be introduced by Ted Kennedy. And, what’s more, if the Senate does pass ENDA, President Bush promised to veto the measure. Gay City News‘ Doug Ireland writes:
The course of Senate action on the bill is unclear; Massachusetts Democrat Ted Kennedy, the lead sponsor, has not yet formally introduced it. And in a written statement several weeks ago outlining both policy and constitutional objections to ENDA, including the assertion that it would threaten the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act, the Bush administration made clear the president will veto the measure if it makes its way to his desk.
Given the near certainty that ENDA will not become law until a new president is in office, gender rights advocates hope to press the Democratic leadership to reconsider the exclusion of transgender protections when the bill is taken up again in 2009.
Many organizations took yesterday’s passage to mean one thing: it’s back to the drawing board. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which fought tirelessly for trans inclusion, released a statement expressing sadness over the discriminatory decision, but vowed to continue the fight. Says president Matt Foreman:
We are deeply disappointed that House leadership decided to ignore the position of a vast majority of LGBT organizations, ignore the legal assessment that this bill may not even provide adequate protections for gays, lesbians and bisexuals, and ignore the fact that this vote might make it more difficult to persuade members of Congress to support a fully inclusive bill in the future.
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We are relieved this episode is behind us, and starting right now we are going to pick up where we were six weeks ago – namely, working to pass into law in 2009 the ENDA our entire community wants and deserves.
Human Rights Campaign – the massively powerful and wealthy non-profit whose lobbying helped pass this non-inclusive piece of legislation – sent out a similar statement, although president Joe Solmonese leaves the future notably blank:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Today, we witnessed the making of civil rights history in the U.S. House of Representatives by the passing of ENDA. This vote by Congress is an important step at ensuring that millions of gay and lesbian Americans will never again have to go to work in fear of losing their jobs because of who they are.
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Our fight for equality will not be won overnight. It will be won one step at a time, and we will not give up until we reach the finish line. This is a critical piece of legislation and a major step toward the finish line for all Americans.
Though Solmonese himself doesn’t mention the lack of trans rights, HRC’s press folk did express “disappointment” that HR 3685 neglects countless American citizens.
Though we can’t know where this vote will take our queer nation, it’s clear that the wounds will take weeks – if not years – to heel. The past six week have been decidedly decisive, with people taking sides on who deserves rights and which path best suits our current cultural climate. It’s sparked infighting and no doubt many, many tears. It’s pitted smaller organizations, activists and journalists against HRC, an organization we undoubtedly need. But, we also need organizations like the National Center For Transgender Equality, whose leader, Mara Keisling, voiced her aggravation against HRC yesterday:
…They totally abandoned us, but even worse was all the lies. I can tell you that HRC has aggressively been pushing for passage of the non-inclusive ENDA since the end of September. We got an e-mail yesterday from one congressional office describing their letter as HRC’s new new position. They went from, ‘We don’t support the bill,’ to ‘We don’t support the bill but we support you if you support the bill,’ to ‘Forget trans people, we need a win.’
We cannot let this win destroy our communities. We cannot let it destroy our solidarity. Must we support this bill? Yes. Must we continue to push for trans inclusion? Yes. The next months and years won’t come easily, readers, but if we can keep our wits, wiles and wisdom, we’ll succeed. When, where and how remains to be seen, but we must not let these wounds fester. Now that we have a legislative leg to stand on, we must use it to walk into a democratic and civil future.
Click here for the entire roll call of ENDA votes.
Matt
So I assume now that ALL the folks who have posted here, myself included, and all those who’ve read but not posted, will wiggle our pert little asses out and work to get folks elected to Congress who will support a better ENDA after the current occupant of the oval office is gone. And we need to be sure there’s an occupant of the oval office who will sign a resurrected ENDA. And maybe we need to stop bitching at each other, sniping at our friends and allies and supporters, and get something done.
Mr. B
Matt, that might have been the best thing anyone has said on the subject.
d8alterego
I want to repost my comment which I made on the other ENDA post:
No one seems to get it. WE DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH VOTES. There are two camps out there: the dreamers and the realists. The dreamers want an all inclusive bill to pass tomorrow (that’s the PC way). If everyone wants to wait for a fully inclusive bill, you may have to wait a lot of years for that to happen. The realists know that this bill will help move everyone into the direction of complete equality eventually. Barney Frank introduced this bill around 30 YEARS AGO. Just this year it makes it to the floor and what do we do? We complain because it’s not all inclusive. DO NOT GET ME WRONG! I want an all-inclusive bill, but it would take another decade or more for that to politically happen. I probably would be outraged by the injustice if I were apart of the transgender community and would demand for an inclusive bill. Being rational, I’d like to think I’d realize that Congress doesn’t have the votes or balls/ovaries to tackle it anyway. I am proud of our unified LGB AND T community.
I hold no illusions that this is all symbolic anyway. The president will veto this bill and, of course, Congress does not have enough votes to over-ride (thanks to GOP hard-liners).
Speaking of which, their opposition is due to the fact that it would be a litigation nightmare if this bill was passed (because anyone can claim to be gay) and infringes on religous rights. Two words: bull sh*t!
1. Religion is covered under civil rights laws (how convenient for them). At least they have the federally protected ability to sue a company if they are discriminated against due to their religion whereas we are not covered.
2. What litigation nightmare? If they are arguing that someone can just claim to be gay and sue the company, can’t the same be said for a religion? Can’t they claim to be one religion or another and not be challenged on their beliefs?
This is a historic moment. Those congress men and women that are voting for this bill deserve our support because they are putting their political futures on the line for us. We all know that tolerance and respect for our community is hard to come by, yet these politicians are fighting our fight. They also have to make their disagreeing constiuents happy. I, for one, would like to keep these politicians in office so that one day, they can vote again for a completely inclusive ENDA
zeami99
Something was done! Something amazing was done. What a genuine true step forward, from which to take another and another.
It is a landmark day and to all all those who made it happen, I say THANK YOU! You are the ones who made it happen. You are positive advance.
guilex78
Actually d8alterego, we did have enough votes until someone made it a big deal with their trans-panic.
Rt. Rev. Dr. RES
Let me ask again. Nothing is new this morning but the fact that a lukewarm bill passed in a sense of the House resolution that has divided the T out of the LGB community.
No Senate bill able to pass or will come up. No presidential signature to make it law.
If you ask my American spouse, he is too angry to make his fingers dance on the computer keys. As for me, a Canadian, I find that these ” honourary gestures” are centrist pragmatic compromises that both divides the minority and dilutes the protections sought.
Pryhhus understood this strategy, and anticipated the same result as those crowing about the action today.
Matt
So a nice thank-you to the 35 Republicans who transcended their party’s platform to vote for ENDA. I want to know the identities of the 25 dems who voted No, though.
RtRev I’m sorry to hear that you’re disappointed up there in Canada( and, seriously, I enjoy your posts and point of view), but frankly we who actually have to live down here need to focus on getting something done (which may well include “centrist pragmatic compromises” as well as direct action and political involvement) rather than fussing that what is momentarily achievable is unsatisfactory and therefore loathesome or running off to form ideologically pure but ultimately inconsequential (and self-defeating) third parties. So I’ll take what I agree is a small, mixed, Pyrhhic, symbolic and disappointing — but, for the US, nonetheless historic — “victory” any day over yet another in a long line of outright defeats.
Rt. Rev. Dr. RES
Matt – thank you for your post and commentary. Of course, I disagree with many persons whom I both love and respect. Ask Nigel lol
and sometimes, my mother-in-law (oops I am in trouble now LOL)
I understand even while in disagreement. And of course, Matt, I love you too dear one.
David
Homosexuals and transgendered people are fundamentally different people, and the label implies a completely different identity. Equality comes in small steps as the society at large becomes comfortable with a perceived threat or abnormality. Transgendered people now have to do the same thing gay people have been doing for decades. Go out into your communities and show the rest of the world that you deserve love, rights, and respect. The rest will follow.
Yesterday was an unequivocal victory, and anyone who casts it as less than that needs to wake up and realize how progress happens.
Leland Frances
One of the things that has not changed is that virtually all of those that have sided with ENDA Insane, as those in San Francisco the SF Chronicle described this morning as “livid,” live where they already have job protection, many, including ENDA United head Mara Kiesling, with transgender protection.
Nor is it insignificant that those multiracial, multi-oriented, and gender expressing groups that endorsed the version that passed are organizations with far longer experience in political reality and success, such as the NAACP and the Jewish Anti-Defamation League. They and national labor groups wrote every member of Congress to vote for this bill which calls for job protection for the MILLIONS of gay men and women in 31 states, ignoring the “we must burn down the village in order to save it†demand for political suicide of Mad King Matt at the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. What kind of “leader†tells others to vote AGAINST his own? Particularly when Foreman works where he, himself, already has job protection. What’s that saying about a general never asking his troops to do something he’s not willing to do himself?
His partner in slime, Mara “I ALREADY Have Job Protection Fuck YOU Gays†Kiesling is probably spitting the same lie today she did yesterday and for weeks before, “They all know it is against the position of the vast majority of LGBT people to move ahead with this bill.†Someone please alert the National Education Association [who also signed the letter to Congress]—this must be NEW New Math: a few hundred rabid extremists = “the vast majority of LGBT people.†She may no longer be anatomically male but apparently the need to confuse an inch on a map with a mile is something that can’t be surgically removed.
One must respect her desire for job protection SHE enjoys for Ts living elsewhere, while denouncing her dishonest, divisive, demonizing tactics. Maybe Foreman, having failed in his effort to bring down HRC [which I regret but for other reasons], will quickly add “Transgender†to the name of his group. The absence of a second T in NGLTF remains egg on his face he can’t wipe away as easily as he did his ringing defense not that long ago of leaving Ts out of New York States’ job protection bill.
While there are unlikely to be enough votes to override a certain Bush veto, those who don’t understand both the emotional and tactical significance of a symbolic victory are thinking awfully small if they’re thinking at all. It took an actual and violent revolution to turn a group of British colonies into the independent United States but it might not have happened or as quickly as it did without a few men throwing some tea into Boston harbor. Technically, Rosa Park’s refusing to give up her seat on that Alabama bus only got her arrested, but it led to the integration of the entire bus system in Montgomery, and, eventually restaurants, movie theatres, schools, and businesses, and contributed mightily to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act [which however great in terms of race, no, did not gays, let alone Ts include].
The 2003 Supreme Court legalization of “sodomy†was, in most places, only symbolic either because states had already changed their own laws or no longer enforced those still on the books. Even the iconic Stonewall Riots were, technically, nothing more than what New York media who covered them at all described them at the time: an extended hissy fit by the patrons of an illegal dive owned by the mafia. And their narrow focus contributed to the myth much-repeated in this debate, “She sat there with her legs crossed, the lashes of her mascara-coated eyes beating like the wings of a hummingbird. She was angry. She was so upset she hadn’t bothered to shave. A day old stubble was beginning to push through the pancake makeup. She was a he. A queen of Christopher Street.†– “New York Daily News.†National mainstream media ignored her and the non-transgender gays who far outnumbered her over those days but look at us now, Ma!
We must move forward in electing a Congress that will pass a bill that includes transgenders and a President who will sign it, even if that means stepping over the bitter bodies still blocking the door to common sense, civility, and honesty. Who, living where THEY live, working where THEY work, lost nothing yesterday except respect.
Rt. Rev. Dr. RES
I would suspect that there will be some bloggers here who will now use the acronym GLB or LGB and leave the T to fend for their own. After all, the transgendered were only added for expediency and after all, who else will want to add to the alphabet soup that is gay and lesbian and bisexual people. Hey, wait a minute, bisexuals are as suspect as transgendered folk….call Barney Frank and Joe Salmonese and tell them that they can go back to just gay and lesbian liberation …..yes that is IT….the United States G&L Human Rights Campaign..how succinct and how pithy….thirty second sound bite stuff….with rights as porous as a sieve.
Rt. Rev. Dr. RES
True progress is never acheived by betraying parts of the whole. Dividing an oppressed minority has always been a successful tactic by the majority right wing who oppose your rights.
You have insisted , yes insisted, upon inclusionary language….Gay Lesbian (or the other way) Bisexual and Transgendered…..until the centrists and pragmatists told you what neocons would accept to achieve defeat from the jaws of total victory.
Now, I should expect some intellectual honesty. The individuals who wanted exclusionary language should now use the term GLB or LBG. I will expect to see LGBT only with those whose rhetoric matches
their terminology.
The next attack might be bisexuals, since they choose which of their dual orientations they wish to create monogamous relationships with. Also, when they behave heterosexually, will they have ENDA support? Better think about this. I am sure your right wing might demand another surgical amputation.
David
True progress is never achieved by betraying parts of the whole? So back when black men and all women could not vote, the “dividing of an oppressed minority” was alright? Or should women have bitched and moaned and not helped this democracy progress from the time they were granted suffrage until the passage of the Civil Rights acts?
For the record, I have never insisted on inclusionary language, as I feel that the gay/lesbian/bisexual identity, a matter of who you are genetically programmed to be attracted to, is different from the trasgender identity, a matter of denying one’s physical being. For me, the two simply aren’t equitable.
That does not, however, mean that they don’t deserve the protection of the law. But, just as women helped drag the rest of the country along to Civil Rights, gays must drag the rest of the country along to rights for transgendered individuals. It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen. Be patient, and trust in the model that has worked for countless minority groups in various geographic locations and historical moments.
Rt. Rev. Dr. RES
David – I found your analogy worthy of thought and consideration.
You may not have insisted upon inclusionary language, David, but “for the record” it has been LGBT for some time now. No one discussing our civil rights in any nation has not used the LGBT acronym. This was the first time that it was clear that the four groups were divisible for convenience or incremental inclusion.
Can you just see, however, the Pandora box you have opened. I can see it. The bisexual is the “weak sister” in this remaining triumvirate.
You see, bisexuals state that both are hard wired within them…..the heterosexual and the homosexual component are there….in varying degrees and in varying expressions. The discussions usually go everywhere from the fact that they are either gay or straight persons confused or afraid to admit their homosexual orientation exclusively. It speaks to the quacks who despite the DSM-IV still cling to the words “choice” “cure” for start.
If you state that suffrage (1919) did not wait for Brown after Plessy’s sixty or so years, in 1954 or Civil Rights act in 1964-65 and the Loving finale in 1967, you may have a point. But there are several points with validity. Must you compulsorily require generations to achieve what Canada, Spain, Netherlands , Belgium and South Africa can accomplish in the blink of an eye – from fascism, apartheid, and Roman theocracy???
Patience is indeed a virtue, David. It is difficult when you are a gay or lesbian family in a Red State and you read about the five nations with full rights and understand the hypocrisy of your sacred documents, and the reality of your rights, benefits, etc…. I just bought SICKO and I cannot believe the lies that the fascists spread to keep the working class poor, ignorant and often arrogant in that ignorance.
I would prefer, David, that you were impatient and thirsty for freedom to the point that nothing else consumes your activism.
Karen
“…the trasgender identity, a matter of denying one’s physical being.”
David, how dare you! You imply that sexual preference is not a choice, that it is hard-wired, then in the next moment you imply that transgender are ‘just confused’ about their gender identity. BE ME FOR A DAY!
And I’m not just yelling at you, your remark provided a convenient excuse to offload a small portion of the crap and bile I’ve seen printed by transphobic gays and lesbians since that black day in September… And perhaps the Christian Right will crib notes from those transphobic writings from the so-called ‘LGBT’ so-called ‘ community. Granted, there are LGB’ers who are NOT transphobic and are accepting of trans people. I hope in the future, rather than subdividing the comunity by the letters L-G-B-T, that it is split into two groups — Inclusive and Exclusive.
Rt. Rev. Dr. RES
Karen – hang in there – for there are gay and lesbian and bisexual folk who are going to rediscover their humanity in the process of redemption from betrayal.
Barney Frank has paid much for his outing. The leadership once thought about him for speaker of the House. Barney was outed against his will – he outed himself five minutes before his gay scandal erupted.
Barney joined the DLC leadership early on in the process. In backing his MA colleague, John Kerry, Frank eyed the Senate seat. He became a vociferous opponent of civil marriage in his home state in favour of civil unions like Kerry. He and a decade long life partner refused to marry. Anyone can refuse marriage, but then view his civil union preference – second-tier rights – with the canard of incrementalism – and you have defined the man who wrote the neocon-lite exclusive ENDA for the LGB or GLB.
Karen, your transgender identity does indeed allow you to be part of those who psychosexual minority issues need protection and inclusion in our common effort for justice.
Those who exclude you are quislings and are part of the right wing effort to divide and conquer those whom they all hate.
As that great Lutheran pastor who died in Nazi camps, Pastor Noemuller said : ” When they came for the Catholics, I said nothing; when they came for the Communists and the Socialists, I said nothing; when they came for the Jews and Gypsies, I said nothing; and when they came for me, there was no one left to speak for me.
Have courage, American people are great. I married one and partnered him 31 years ago. Our son is a dual national of Canada and the USA. Political immaturity is dominant right now, but pray and have hope. Even the good sometimes succumb to what Ayn Rand defined as the ” virtue of selfishness.”
lyssa
I think the gays owe me a compression bandage and a knife extraction.
But I’m afraid to let them get close enough to pull it out…you know what happens when a transperson exposes their back to gays…
fightingwords
It’s amazing how poor the memories (or perhaps history education) is of some of you who would pretend that the fight for trans equality just started, or that it is piggy-backing onto the lesbian and gay struggle. Do you any of you know who was actually involved in Stonewall? Trans people, many of them people of color.
If it weren’t so sad, it might be funny that those are all folks who are repeatedly left out in the cold in forums like this, much less in the lobbying of organizations like HRC that only appeal to the most “acceptable” and assimilated homos in the country.
And it’s rampant transphobia within the movement that gets in the way of otherwise intelligent people noticing that the language of the inclusive bill doesn’t simply protect people who identify as transgender, but a broad spectrum of people of all orientations who simply don’t, whether consciously or not, conform to their expected genders.
And David, for you to say that people down here have to live…. Which people down here? You obviously aren’t speaking for everyone. You simply don’t care about the folks who got knifed in the back with this bill.
“So back when black men and all women could not vote, the “dividing of an oppressed minority†was alright? Or should women have bitched and moaned and not helped this democracy progress from the time they were granted suffrage until the passage of the Civil Rights acts?”
They did bitch and moan. A lot of white women who had been involved in the abolition movement did, in fact, turn their backs on it and relied instead on all kinds of racist rhetoric to fight for their own rights.
And guess who got left out then, as they’d been before? Black women. But why should anyone care about them?
Really. I would say your ignorance is appalling, but sadly, it’s pretty damn common.
Kim
For me it seems that many people still don’t want to recognize that it could happen, that a woman is born with a penis. I think it’s necessary to say goodbye to terms like M2F and F2M, and such ugly words like “gender identity disorder” oder “gender identity disphoria”. Please US-transpeople recognize your true self and fight for the right for your birth gender. A transsexual woman is born female!
lyssa
Kin Hear Hear!!!
The English did it with the Gender Recognition Act of 2004, why not us!
We can overcome LGB hate AND mainstream prejudice, too.
Now you’re talking…
libhomo
The only reason that there were not enough votes for trans inclusion is that Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic Party power brokers didn’t want there to be. Trans exclusion if part of their larger strategy to whittle away at ENDA in a year everyone knows it will be vetoed. The idea is to make sure there is nothing of substance left in ENDA by the time a Democrat is in the White House and might actually sign it.
People forget that Nancy Pelosi is the same heterosexist bigot who gay baited her way into Congress during the worst of the AIDS crisis. She hasn’t changed one bit.
Squidbear
Wow…for this one we’ll need to bring up every card available! This struggle for justice must be won so that society can be more respective of our civil rights. If we don’t change our rights for the better now, the priority remains the same…and i’m tired of struggling for something which is supposedly my birthright.