• Gay Rep. Barney Frank wrote an ENDA-related guest post for The Bilerico Project.
We then began the work on passing a transgender inclusive ENDA. I was optimistic at first that we could do this, although I knew it would be hard. One of the problems I have found over the years of discussing this is an unwillingness on the part of many, including leaders in the transgender community, to acknowledge a fact: namely that there is more resistance to protection for people who are transgender than for people who are gay, lesbian and bisexual.
• What’s scarier than inequality? Carrot Top – ahhhhhhh…
• Republican Representative Patrick McHenry owns a house with another man. Just like Condi and Randy?
• Georgetown covering up anti-gay attack?
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.
• Gossip Girl: still in high school and already getting cosmetic surgery.
• “Shoefiti” explained.
• Matthew Rhys loves pretending to be gay.
• Liz Taylor is in love. Again.
• Have some Good Times!
• Check out the NY Art Book Fair!
Paul Raposo
“Matthew Rhys loves pretending to be gay.”
“I had a long chat with the creator and one of the writers. They said, ‘Don’t go off and research gay people.’ He’s just a guy who happens to be gay. He’s not governed by his sexuality. He has none of the cliched feminine traits. He’s a regular guy.”
And I love it when straight people present gay characters and make them as straight as possible.
Bryan
Barney Frank has been one of the largest supporters ever of LGBTQ rights in any branch of government. It is upsetting to read him getting trashed by transgendered activists on The Bilerico Project because the T is not being included in the latest incarnation of ENDA.
I know that most of us (one would hope all of us) in the gay community support trans rights, but as Congressman Frank put it, that fight is decades behind the fight for gay rights. I wholeheartedly support transgendered rights, but I don’t believe that a bill that could protect so many from discrimination in the workplace should be killed because there is not enough support yet to include transgendered people. Does this make me a bigot? I hope not.
We as a community need to make baby steps, which in America has been the best way to win the “hearts and minds” of the American people.
Gregg
Is the separation of trans and gay rights really that big of a surprise? It would be nice if we could sweep away all discrimination in one swipe. But just as women’s rights were not in sync with African American rights, gay and trans do not necessarily equal one another. Yes, gender is involved with both minorities, but they are not the same animal. Discrimination is discrimination, but laws need to come in steps.
David
…It sure does takes alot of political courage to stand up for discrimination.
David
The more I think about this, the more I get pissed off. How disgusting.
In case you missed this from the comments:
“It may be 2-5 years before the Congress will be able to pass a trans-inclusive ENDA, but it will be decades before a transgender only bill will pass.”
And
“So, your arguments are solid and make sense, but it boils down to simple human dignity. WE NEVER SELL OUT OUR FRIENDS. That is what this compromise does. It sells out our friends so we can reap the rewards.”
AND
“…even in San Francisco, only 25% of transgender people have full-time jobs. This is a group definitely in need of workplace protection!”
MusicGal
Didn’t Barney sleep with Perez Hilotn? Wasn’t Perez a prostitute who lived at his apartment? Same guy?
libhomo
Nancy Pelosi always has been a homophobe. She came up with kicking trans people to try to divide and conquer the queer community.
Frank is trying to scapegoat trans people for the Democratic Party’s lack of real support on queer issues. I’m not stupid enough to buy it.
Bill Perdue
Log Cabin Republicans, Stonewall Democrats and the Human Rights Campaign are locked in a political closet. From the start they’ve been clueless about their actual role.
By shackling themselves to the parties of bigotry, war and union busting they marginalize themselves. Trapped by loyalty to reactionary or rightist anti equality parties they’re permitted to speak but ignored, encouraged to hustle votes and money but lack even a facade of clout. So why are they continually surprised when the knife is driven into their back? The HRC, the Stoneheads and the Logheads are futility incarnate. They sit idly as Republicans scapegoat us and Democrats betray us.
That’s changing. Driven by massive anger at Bush’s oil piracy, an eroding standard of living and demands for full equality by ourselves and others, politics are heating up. The Democratic and Republican parties have combined to pass laws like the Patriot Act, DOMA, DADT and other laws that relegate us to second class citizens by force of law. They refuse to impeach Bush and Cheney or to end the war. They have no solution for the economic problems of Americans because they create them to increase the wealth of the already bloated rich.
The 2008 cycle of the presidential follies will produce a Democratic victory and that will kill them. They’ll begin paying the price for decades of pretending to be the allies of working people, minorities, women, etc. They’re trapped between a rock and a hard place as growing political volatility makes it impossible for them to continue substituting promises and posturing for real world political results.
We should urge people to vote for leftwing parties instead of wasting their vote. For the present the best option for is to join and build the union controlled US Labor Party. The LP party’s growth will provide a refreshing political arena where our agenda for full equality can proceed free of dependence on theocrats and backstabbers.
Cathy Renna
while it can certainly be argued that there are specific issues that the LGB and transgener communities (or populations, more accurately) do NOT share……this issue is not one of them. the GLBT folks most often targeted for discrimination are the more generder non-conforming among us. There IS overlap on this issue that no one is talking about. I can personally attest to the fact that the bias I have faced both in the gay community AND outside of the GLB community was exclusively about my gender presentation. I am not super butch but pretty androgynous and the sexism I experienced for not being “womanly” enough (even when working at gay and progressive organizations) was painful and appalling
dc-20008
Let the trannies and all their buddies get together and lobby to get their own rights laws. I see no reason to block rights for gays, just for them. They aren’t gay.
Ed Kohler
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