I received a phone call from a good friend, Zan Thorton, telling me that Congressman Barney Frank had fifteen disabled people arrested in his office, Tuesday, September 16, 2008, at around 3 PM.  Zan informed me that around fifty LGBT and straight disabled people entered the Congressman’s office around 1:30 PM and asked to speak to him about the housing crisis for disabled people.  They were there representing the Center for Disability Rights.

According to the Congressman’s Chief of Staff, Peter Kovar, the group, several in wheelchairs, came into the office, went right into Congressman Frank’s office and “moved things around” to have a place to sit.  He informed them that they couldn’t be in there and that Frank was about to go to the House floor for a vote.

(Break)

Kovar stated they needed an appointment to speak with the Congressman.  The Spokesperson for the group, Bruce Darling, Executive Director of the Center For Disability Rights, stated they have tried and tried to get an appointment but had been turned down each time.  Kovar asked them to leave their literature and come back later, and asked them to leave “five times.”  Congressman Frank even asked them to leave three times.

The group started chanting, disrupting the office activities, so someone called the police.  Out of the fifty, fifteen people, all of them disabled, refused to leave and were arrested.  In that fifteen, one was trans, three were lesbians and three were gay men, including Bruce Darling, and all were in wheelchairs.  According to Zan, the other eight were either straight or she didn’t know.  Zan called me while the Metro Police Department processed her in.

I got a chance to speak with Peter Kovar and he was “mystified” why the group took a belligerent stance when this was an issue that Frank highly supported.  The group actually has a legislative aid in the Congressman’s office who had been working with them on this legislation.  One of the things Zan told me was that they also wanted to talk with the Congressman about transgender rights.  Seems to me that they may have ruined their good relationship with Frank’s office.

This is just another incident in the increasing evidence that some LGBT people are willing to ratchet up the level of confrontation with other LGBT people, causing more to be harassed, injured and arrested by the very LGBT people they protest.  We have seen a person physically ejected from an HRC dinner, mounted police at the Houston HRC dinner and I was almost arrested handing out flyers at an HRC sponsored event.  HRC has hired a goon squad to protect their people and now Barney Frank is willing to have disabled LGBT people arrested.

I am not defending the actions of the protestors any more then I am defending the actions of HRC and Barney Frank’s people.  There is a fine line between protesting to get your point across to the largest audience and crossing the line, making yourself look foolish.  Even though some of our LGBT people grew up in the 60s and participated in the Civil Rights and war protests, the technology of the 21^st Century has created a whole new set of “Rules of Engagement.”

The biggest change in the 21^st Century is the advent of the digital recording media.  Practically every cell phone can take photos and many can do video as well, after which they can be sent to other phones and E-mail addresses.  Instead of relying on a lone news camera person with a black and white 16mm camera to cover the events that get viewed days later, we can send out video from over a hundred different angles, and from both sides of the conflict, instantaneously.

Digital still cameras can capture hundreds of photos in a matter of minutes, then downloaded on a laptop and sent to thousands of people instantly through a Wi-Fi connection.  Text messages and phone calls are also instant, so many people are aware of the event as it happens.  As evident of this, my friend Zan called me from the DC MPD as she was being processed in.  That wouldn’t have been possible in the 60s.

So, how does this world of instant everything changed the face of protesting?  It can lay bare the atrocities of some people and governments, breaking the barriers of silence and repression.  We saw Buddhist monks protesting in Tibet, yet the Chinese government tried to suppress the information and pictures.  We could see protesters in China during the Olympics, getting past the strongest surveillance China has ever initiated.  Children misbehaving on a bus, train wrecks and natural disasters are recorded and sent out for all to see.  Not only is Big Brother watching us, but so is all of his next of kin.

But, there is another side to this age of instant recordings.  We, the protesters, are also scrutinized in great detail by those whom we protest.  Make one mistake, say one wrong thing, act just a little stupid and our actions will also find their way on YouTube.  A picture is worth a 1000 words and moving pictures can invalidate a 1000 words we may try to use to defend our actions.  How many elections have been derailed because of a stupid comment splashed on YouTube?  Movements can experience setbacks because of the actions of just a few.  Just ask yourself this, “Do I want to be the person who makes my organization look foolish?”  It’s a question Joe Solmonese should have asked before taking the podium at Southern Comfort last year.

I have heard many activists who say we should take to the streets and cause civil disobedience to make our issues more visible.  I don’t see this as a viable way to approach things in the 21^st Century.  Digital technology makes our issue visible in ways we could have never dreamt of, or hoped for in the past.  We can use that instead.

Also, we should take a queue from what happened to protesters at this year’s Republican Convention.  The police no longer care if you are just passing through or not.  If you are in the area, you’re a target.  Due process isn’t due anyone any longer.  There’s also no gray area and the police don’t care about harming people.  This hasn’t changed much since the 1960s, but they have more weapons to use.  I hope the people who protested Frank’s office don’t come away with too big of a fine to pay.  We will chalk this up as another learning experience.

Angela has been an activist for the transgender community is some form or another for the last 42 years. Some of our community’s activists weren’t even born then. She has been on the board of NTAC, It’s Time, North Carolina and the several other organizations too numberous to mention. Currently, she serves as the Vice President of the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) and is one of its Co-Founders. Also, Angela is one of my closest friends.

And, the big question for Senator Obama is . . . . ?

You know something? I am so tired of arguing with people about HRC and about their loyal transgender members and workers at the bottom of the food chain we call the “GLB community.” I am also getting tired of the absolute position of transgender leaders whom I know, about their insistence that we don’t need HRC and that they compare them to our worst enemies..

I actually agree with both sides of all this argument, which makes me stop and think a minute about why we need to argue in the first place?

Deep in the pit of my stomach, I have always sought the most acute area of pain in our community and focused the things I have done in that direction. As a professed and unashamed healer in our community, I really have no choice but to be drawn to ease the pain and that is how it has been for most of my life.

(Break)

So I have just one question about ENDA right now and I think it is something that we can all work on together, inside and outside of HRC. It’s really very simple and it doesn’t require anyone to do anything spectacular, but it seems to me like it is the logical next step.

I have recently mentioned on a number of occasions that Senator Barack Obama, now leading contender for the Presidency of the United States, has openly said that he fully supports an inclusive ENDA to include gender language, just as he championed our cause in his home state of Illinois.

Now to further that thought, the word came from the DNC Platform Committee that the party platform will include gender language in it for the first time. Gee, it would appear that we might have just been educating out there and some of it sunk into a few Democrat craniums after all. You think Congressman Frank took notice?

In the America that I helped defend, that I have grown up and worked in without to many complications over the last 63 years, a President of the United States, not sometimes, but always, trumps a Congressman from Massachusetts, who also just so happens to be a gay man.

Besides all that, aren’t the party leaders supposed to follow the rules of the Democratic Party Platform in making their decisions about legislation? You bet that Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, who allowed the shimming and shaking of her party when it came to writing, rewriting, amending and removing amendments before a vote on ENDA in the House, has new grounds for judging the situation. Last year, she easily backed down from Barney Frank’s lack of foresight about the bill. Both Frank and Pelosi need to follow the example of the person who may be the next President.

So doesn’t this argument between transgender people that is causing all this pain seem a bit ridiculous? Isn’t there only one question that we all truly need to know right now and who is going to be brave enough to ask it? Has anyone already asked it? If we get the answer that we need, then everyone can roll up their targets, go home and fight together inside and outside of HRC in a new direction. We can then apply pressure, protest, picket and ask the same question to Frank and Pelosi by asking them to pull the damn exclusive piece of junk that they have passed in the Congress, change it and do what the party and the President wants them to do. Never mind the incremental “crapola.” It should be a mute issue about inclusion.

That simple question is:

“Senator Obama, would you veto an exclusive version of the Employment Non Discrimination Act if it did not include employment protections for transgender people?”

It’s a tough question to ask a man who believes in not impeding any rights bill from passing, but it is an important question to ask. If the answer is anything but “Yes,” I will take my vote on November and either find someone else to vote for, or just sit this one out and encourage everyone to do the same until people come to realize that this makes common sense.

For now, I will pay $500.00 of my money, the money I was going to give to Obama, to the first person or a charity or campaign of their choice, who gets an answer to my exact question as stated. Put it on You Tube for posterity and for the record and send me an email telling me about how you got the statement and you get my money and profound gratitude.

Anyone want to add to that bounty?

Recently, there has been a heated discussion on The Bilerico Project about the emotion of Anger.  I have written articles on love and being in love and finding love, but I have never tackled the very misunderstood emotion of anger.  I felt that this could be a challenge to spark my meager writing talents.  Here goes.

I will be the first to admit I can get angry at times.  (I can hear the audience now, “F-in’-A, Monica!”)  I have no delusion about this one bit.  I don’t deny it like others try to do.  It has been made apparent several times that I am one of the biggest mixer of feces on blogs, in articles and on Yahoo lists.  Yep, I even bought a huge wooden spoon at Target to make the mixing easier.  Sometime, it’s real anger, while others is more like faux anger, or even “anger lite.”  Less filling.

(Break)

I decided that I would approach the idea of discussing anger in the transgender community by looking at the causes.  Regardless of how I approached this subject, I could end up angering some people with this article.  Open discourse is highly welcomed.  I will also not ignore the comments after this article, because I hope to provide more input as questions and comments come up.

Let’s start with the Dictionary.com definition of “anger:”

Noun – a strong feeling of displeasure and belligerence aroused by a wrong; wrath; ire.

Synonyms – Resentment, exasperation; choler, bile, spleen. Anger, fury, indignation, rage imply deep and strong feelings aroused by injury, injustice, wrong, etc. Anger is the general term for a sudden violent displeasure: a burst of anger. Indignation implies deep and justified anger: indignation at cruelty or against corruption. Rage is vehement anger: rage at being frustrated. Fury is rage so great that it resembles insanity: the fury of an outraged lover.  Displease, vex, irritate, exasperate, infuriate, enrage, incense, madden.

How much of that describes the experiences and feelings of the majority of the transgender community?  Quite a bit, if you ask me.  Noticed the words, “Strong feelings aroused by injury, injustice, wrong, etc.”  Have transgender people ever been “injured?”  Have they faced “injustice?”  Have they been “wronged?”  And people wonder why we’re angry.  Some transgender people of wealth and privilege also seem to wonder why the rest of us become angry so easily, because they have rarely ever faced any of the above mentioned experiences.

Now that we have shown the definition of the word “anger,” let’s explore how it specifically relates to the transgender community.  “Why would any transgender person become angry?”  Most of us are painfully aware that once we start our transition, we could loseWeight Exercise everything.  I lost my parents, my family, my children and all of my friends.  However, I am one of the lucky ones because I didn’t loseWeight Exercise my job.  I have been working for the same company for 18.5 years, spending 11 of those years as Monica.

Over the years, I gained back my children and the rest of the family.  I had to loseWeight Exercise my father before I my mother accepted me back.  I still don’t have any contact with my pre-Monica friends, but I have made more friends in the past eleven years then I ever made in the previous 46.

As I said, I am one of the lucky ones.  Others are not so lucky.  Job discrimination has spiraled out of control in this community.  Being fired for being trans, then not getting hired after applying for hundreds of jobs can make a person angry.  No wonder people become upset with a non-inclusive ENDA and the people who created it and supported it.  For all practical purposes the supporters of that bill are saying to the unemployed trans person that their situation doesn’t matter.  Trans people are getting the message that only the gender-conforming, queer people deserve their rights first, so they become angry because of that perception.  This makes the unemployed transgender person feel even more isolated.  Some LGB people who have the money and the time to fight for equal rights seem not want to help the transgender community.  Their message is that those who cannot spend time or money to speak up for themselves don’t deserve their attention.  It does nothing but increase the anger.

What about “injustice?”  The courts appeared to have been stacked against us for a very long time.  Just a simple divorce proceeding can turn into the Spanish Inquisition, complete with rack.  Every bit of the trans person’s intimate secrets get plastered all over the court records, making them look like the worst human since Genghis Khan.  All of their assets end up being given over to the spouse, as well as the custody of the children.  The trans person becomes saddled with all the bills and child support.  And, if they have a decent job, they still live paycheck to paycheck.  This one form of injustice can make a person very angry, and usually does.

Other court proceedings have had more devastating results.  Just read over court cases of Christie Lee Littleton and J’Noel Gardiner and you’ll get an idea of what I’m talking about.  Michael Kantaras’ custody case in Florida in 2002 was no picnic for him, even though he won the case.  Peter Oiler lost his discrimination case against Winn Dixie in 2003 and I personally saw how angry he became from that.  The job discrimination case against the Library of Congress involving Diane Schroer still awaits future results.  Hopefully those results won’t increase our anger.  There have been many more court cases where transgender people went to court for discrimination reasons, custody battles and other rights, only to be shown the door for their troubles.  Did they become angry?  Sure they did.  Oh yes, there have been some wins, but the percentage seems very low, making the anger very high.

Various forms of discrimination and injustice can make transgender people angry.  Violence is another.  In 1998, the Remembering Our Dead list came into existence with about 100 names.  Today, the list contains over 400 names.  You can find the updated list and all of the associated information with the International Transgender Day of Remembrance on this new site.  Those are the most drastic examples of violence against transgender people.

In the recent survey done by the Transgender American Veterans Association, we asked, “Have you ever been a victim of violence?”  Out of 821 transgender veterans who answered that question, 211 said “Yes.”  That comes to 25.7%.  When asked, “Have you ever been raped?” 128 out of 813 said “Yes.”  We also asked, “Have you ever been physically assaulted at a VA facility?” and seven out of 313 said “Yes.”  That comes to 2.2%.  All of this shows that one out of every four transgender people have faced some form of violence.  Not only do these numbers anger the people who have faced the violence, but it also angers the entire community.

Others things seem to anger transgender people.  I will name three things that have been the focus of many transgender people’s anger for nearly a year now.  HRC, ENDA and Barney Frank.  Need I say more?  Barney Frank began the process of splitting up the LGBT community, and even caused a rift within the transgender community when he substituted a fully inclusive ENDA with a non-inclusive one.  Joe Solmonese promised that HRC would only support a fully inclusive ENDA and HRC went back on his word two weeks later.

After that, trans people who worked with HRC jumped ship and others, sensing a vacuum or a chance to “get ahead,” filled their places.  Just saying nice things about HRC or trying to quell the anger of others can get you hate mail.  I lost a friend because of this anger.  Of course, I cannot condense all of the events and all of the feelings of the last year into two paragraphs.  Suffices to say, anger has played a huge part of the feelings by the transgender community when it comes to what some may characterize as our “Axis of Evil.”

When I wrote articles of love and me finding love, I felt extreme joy and happiness.  Writing this article about anger has not been a pleasant task.  Several of the examples I used have caused me to become angry, both in the past and today.  No one can quantify anger, or to really define it.  I just hope that when people read this, they may have a little better understanding on why you see transgender people get angry.  Just remember this.  What you hear them say or write just might be the tip of their anger.  Many different things could cause a transgender person to become angry.  Many things.

Rebecca “Becky” is probably one of the top trans bloggers in the country, with articles that appear in some of the most visible LGBTQ blogs on the Internet, including The Bilerico Project. She also hosts her own talk show, “The Rebecca Juro Show,” on QMORadio, Thursdays at 7 PM. Becky has been one of my inspirations in starting my own blog.

If there’s anything you can count on the city of San Francisco for when it comes to LGBT rights and community support, it’s that even when they’re not on the very leading edge of something, they’ll still do it bigger, better, and more fabulously than anywhere else. New York, Philadelphia, and several other major cities have had protests and demonstrations against the Human Rights Campaign at their local fundraising events, but what’s waiting for HRC in San Francisco on July 26th, when they hold their next fundraising dinner in that city, is likely to make the rest look like a warmup act.

Angela has been an activist for the transgender community is some form or another for the last 42 years. Some of our community’s activists weren’t even born then. She has been on the board of NTAC, It’s Time, North Carolina and the several other organizations too numberous to mention. Currently, she serves as the Vice President of the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) and is one of its Co-Founders. Also, Angela is one of my closest friends.

“Final testimonies and Summary of the Hearings”

Before Sabrina Marcus Taraboletti testified or even said one word, I predicted under my breath and to myself, “She is going to jump up and give her testimony holding the mic.” I was wrong of course, but Sabrina is a no nonsense woman who many of us are used to seeing control the situation at past Southern Comfort Conference. She did not let me down. As always, Sabrina started right out with enthusiasm and conviction.

Sabrina has always been a very “real and committed” person in every respect. It became even more evident during her testimony that Sabrina Marcus is the Transgender Community and of all the testimony given that day, she is the one who represented the average TG person; you, me and the whole community. Her story is the one heard at every support group meeting on any given night when one might attend such a gathering. Sabrina is exemplary of what we are and what we have been screaming from the hilltops for so many years. No matter how much we follow the rules of life and being a good person, if we express ourselves we are going to get fired, blacklisted or worse. Please stop the pain. Not just my pain, but also that of the people I love and who love me.

(Break)

I am so glad that Sabrina was allowed to testify. She brought our families, children, relatives and the significant people in our lives and laid them right out in front of that hearing table for the Congress people to witness. Sabrina brought literally millions to that hearing by making them real enough so that everyone there understood that it’s not just the person who is Transgender who is affected when they loseWeight Exercise their job. It is also their children and the fewer opportunities they will have in their futures with a parent and provider out of work.

Sabrina clearly brought to the hearing room the feelings of hurt, financial loss, being violated, cheated, harassed and humiliated for being a Transgender American. When she was finished speaking, I looked at the Congress people. They sat really quiet for a moment and all of their heads were bowed looking at their desks. I really think that they may have felt a little humiliated to now know about all this, and for the first time they understood how far reaching discrimination against Transgender people in the workplace imbeds and affects itself into every American life.

Thank you, Sabrina.

The final witness provided the perfect ending for our testimony. Shannon Minter clearly and without any doubt made the argument that there are no protective federal laws for Transgender people in the workplace and that Title 7 has never been a good argument. Nearly every defense tried using it has failed in the courts. For all those in our community who think that the judicial system is the way to win our rights, they should listen carefully to what Shannon had to say.

As a lawyer Shannon Minter has had a lot of experience in fighting cases of discrimination against gender diverse people, both in and out of the workplace. His experience and testimony was very valuable in making clear the justification for a federal law to protect us. It was the perfect way to end the testimony on a low note that was actually a high note for our community.

Shannon served another major perspective with his testimony also. If you were sitting in the hearing room and looking up at the Congress people there, you would have noticed that 90% of them were privileged, white males sitting behind those desks. They were looking down at Shannon, seeing another “privileged, white male.” Then they made some amazing comparisons from the moment that Shannon said he was born a woman. WOW! There went the bathroom issue right out the window. You could see the wheels turning in their heads again. I don’t think that they could hardly believe what their eyes were telling them.

I am not one to push the “passing privilege” button. But let’s face it, the FtM’s simply can go places that the MtF’s cannot because no one is going to question a partially bald, bearded, very male looking person in the men’s room. At the same time, FtM’s have available to them, all the other so-called privileges that are still traditionally allowed men in our society. If that were not true, then gender would not have had to be a protected classification in the EEOC. Unfortunately by “gender,” the laws don’t mean “gender expression.”

But besides giving an excellent rundown of the situation as it exists today for gender diverse people in the workplace, Shannon also represented a sector of our community that at present is still in a full transition type of limbo. The full transition is still emerging and being refined, but there is no doubt that Shannon and men like him are changing the face of our community in many valuable ways.

SUMMARY

I won’t drag this along and I thank everyone who has actually read this account. As they say, I wish you were all there.

This Congressional hearing was an historic event for our community. It could not have happened without the people of our community, who over many years of suffering the loss of livelihood and being delayed their equality, created a united crescendo that could no longer be ignored. To the survivors who have continued the fight and to those who are just beginning to fight, this hearing has created hope that if we unite with one voice, there are people who will listen to us. Therefore, we have no choice but to unite for the sake of those who are unable to fight any longer and those who have yet to be gifted with gender diversity by the Creator and will be joining the fight later. This hearing has created a great opportunity for all Americans to take another step in their advancement to a “more perfect union”.

Finally, it is impossible to forget the many hours of negotiating, deliberating and hard work that has gone into this hearing by Mara Keisling and her staff at NCTE. By representing the heart and spirit of our community, they made sure that the right people understood what had to happen and the importance of the message that had to be communicated to Congress. As every day goes by, NCTE continues to grow, learn and become more representative of our entire community. They deserve our respect, our admiration and our financial support.

We also need to recognize the work of NGLTF and their coordination with NCTE to make all the right choices in presenting this hearing and preparing for it. Without their support, our community would not be where it is today.

Not everything was perfect. I would have liked to have seen a Transgender African American person testify, as Monica Roberts has also stated. And, it would have been a good thing to have a press meeting after the hearing to celebrate this event with the American public. But all in all, my grade for this hearing was A+.

Last but not least, I would like to thank Congressman Barney Frank and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin for their moving and supportive testimony. Their being at this hearing and speaking truly made this a family affair of the GLBT Community.

Video clips from the Hearing here.

Audio of the entire Hearing here.

Angela Brightfeather

Vice President and Co-Founder, Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA)

www.tavausa.org

Angela has been an activist for the transgender community is some form or another for the last 42 years. Some of our community’s activists weren’t even born then. She has been on the board of NTAC, It’s Time, North Carolina and the several other organizations too numberous to mention. Currently, she serves as the Vice President of the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) and is one of its Co-Founders. Also, Angela is one of my closest friends.

“Our Opposition Testifies Against Us”

Before I report on the opposition, I need to mention the testimony of Dr. Bill Hendricks of the Dow Chemical Company, who was a witness from the corporate sector. He addressed the hiring of Transgender employees and Dow’s perspective about what has happened to them.

During his testimony, I could not help but think of the work that is being done all over the country today in corporations and businesses to broaden their HR policies to include Transgender people. I specifically want to mention the work done along those lines by Donna Rose and Jamison Green, who felt compelled to “draw the line” when it came to what we used to call “biting the apple.” They recruited the favor of many HR executives in their work on behalf of our community.

I appreciate a company like Dow and many others being inclusive. I also know that they are obtaining loyal, hard working and intelligent employees in the process, people who also really appreciate their jobs.

With 48,000 employees, working in 150 countries across the world, I was rather set back to hear that they have only experienced one person transitioning. I could not help but wonder about that single employee who transitioned at Dow since 2005. That would be two and a half years, give or take a few months. I may be stepping on a few toes here in saying that it is strange for a company of 48,000 employees to have only one Transgender person who they know about, when they probably have hundreds of Transgender people working for them. I heard this perspective echoed throughout the hearing. Most people feel that the only real Transgender people who are discriminated against are those who wish to transition on the job. This assumption is ridiculous.

(Break)

Dr. Hendricks read from a script, so I am not sure how the body of his address was put together or how much input Transgender groups made in coaching him. But, I feel that they missed an important point and an important opportunity for a major corporation to state that they know they have hundreds of Transgender employees and that they would not fire them if did come out. Dow would go on record as protecting their job also, even if their employee did not want to transition. In fact, I would have liked to have seen that one person who transitioned at Dow speak for her company at the hearing. Perhaps these are a few things that people might think about at the next hearing.

One of the things that bothered me about this testimony is that it came from a corporation. I would have liked to have seen a representative from the Labor and Union sectors testify. Perhaps, someone who would speak for the vast majority of Trans people, who work below the corporate level every day might make a compelling statement. I would have liked to have heard if they have had any problems with the Transgender workforce who were lucky enough to have jobs in the trucking, construction, transportation, medical and law enforcement sectors. I would also have liked to hear them testify as the ability of the common workforce to adapt to our situation.

Now we move on to the opponents at the hearing, the first of which is JC Miller, a lawyer and partner at the firm of Thompson Hine.

I find it a good thing to look for statements in the opposition’s testimony which provide hard evidence of the way they plan their attacks, especially the legal attacks instead of the moral ones used by people like James Dobson and his fascist tribe. Ms. Miller’s testimony gave us many directions as to where the legal attacks will come from. I think that when listening to her clear testimony, we hear their important need to emphasize “fears”, if not “great fears.” That was the seed she was paid to sow.

However, we will see the primary legal attack fall into the category of “definitions.” Who are Transgender people legally? What constitutes a Transgender person to those who aren’t sure and even some who think they’re sure in our community? As she put it, “There will be problems with language and definitions.”

We all know about this slippery slope of clearly defining and putting us into boxes to break us down and play one against the other. It may come in the form of, “Well you TS’s are OK but we don’t know about these part time dressers or those drag queens.” We know that this is coming and will be thrown up as a fear just as often as the bathroom issue is. Sadly, we already have people in our own community buying into this way of thinking.

This also points to the fact that we are all in this together and we need to stay together on the issue of gender expression and identity. My friends on the Hopi reservation in Arizona have identified 32 different genders in their society. Perhaps Ms. Miller might like to find out how they define those 32 genders before she calls for the need to do the same thing about the entire Transgender Community. The Hopis seem to have worked well with them for over 10,000+ years

I am not sure about her statement regarding mannerisms. I would assume that any reference to mannerisms would include protection for effeminate males and masculine females who may not identify as being Transgender. That being the case, she tried to limit the discussion to one type of Transgender person and eliminate protections for others.

Ms. Miller moved on to “shared facilities.” A groan was heard from the audience. Her references to “carving out” a section of the legislation that will especially talk about rest rooms told a lot about her thought process. Their hot button issue of the bathrooms was debunked by Shannon Minter, showing strong evidence that this “straw man issue” had a lot of history to prove this was really a non-issue. If they can accomplish anything in rewording ENDA, it would be to “carved out” areas to provide special exemptions for religious organizations and small businesses, all to further excuse certain parties from having to deal with Transgender people in the workplace. Barney Frank has already bent to their will on this issue in both versions of ENDA.

We have given away too much already in the legislation negotiated by Barney Frank and HRC. Like Donna Rose and Jamison Green, it’s time to draw the line in the sand and not give any more ground. Next year, if the Democrats win, I hope the talk about ENDA becomes, “What are you going to put back in the legislation instead of taking more things out?” This again can refer back to the opposition’s need for definitions so they can create additional targets to “carve out” more of us.

Ms. Miller also brought up a “huge problem of notification”. Are you kidding me? Will an employer have to accept the transition of an employee one day and immediately start construction on a new set of rest room facilities the next day? This is one of the most ridiculous things I ever heard.

Ms. Miller should have turned directly to her right and asked Dr. Lawrence if that was what Dow had to do. Or she could have gone to any of the over 300 companies that have inclusive policies and have Transgender employees to ask them if they had proper notification and what happened immediately after.

Another point brought up was jurisdictional problems. The opposition wants Congress people to make sure that they pass federal legislation to not back efforts in the states to pass their inclusive laws. My big question on this is, “Why can’t we chew gum and walk at the same time?” It also reminds me of one of my other favorite sayings, “We have to fight on all fronts.”

Ms. Miller called in the reserves by bringing up “prevailing costs” even though she did not mention what they might be or what she referred to. She finally ended with the specter of “frivolous lawsuits” from things like looking through key holes in the rest rooms. Now that was really reaching. Ms. Miller’s testimony might be summarized as the introduction of “fears” to deny people of their rights. But never the less, it was informative in learning about some of their arguments.

The testimony of the next witness, Mr. Glen Lavy, Sr. Council for the Alliance Defense Fund actually made my skin crawl. It was like listening to someone arguing against the Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil Rights Act or the Americans With Disabilities Act.

I felt amused by Mr. Lavy’s fear of sitting in a room full of Transgender people and affirmed my belief that Transgender people have a power and presence that can literally make people like Lavy writhe in anger and fear. Of course Lavy sat directly next to Sabrina Marcus Taraboletti, who looked at him directly as he made his address. She had that look she got when people didn’t shut up and listen to her when she ran the Southern Comfort Conference. I think an intimidating look might be the expression that came to mind. Being a religious righter, Mr. Lavy had entered into his version of the The Twilight Zone and his presentation sounded like it.

Every point of Mr. Lavy’s testimony against us was so laden with fear that one by one, each point could have been defeated and torn to shreds by almost any Transgender person with even a little experience.

His position on employment rights for Trans people, violating the rights of employers was preposterous and absurd. Only outdone by his next statement that employers not having any means of knowing an employee’s views.

Then Lavy launched into this comparison of race and gender which left me astounded. Apparently he thinks that all Transgender people are passable and out to fool employers and make them all look like fools after they pop the big news about who they are. His argument would make you think that back before the Civil Rights Act that if an employer were to hire a light skinned African American who may have passed as white, would they have had the right to fire that person for not telling them that they were not actually white?

After that, Mr. Lavy stated that religion is not protected under Title 7, so why should Transgender people in the workplace be protected? It certainly takes a “sharp” legal mind to come up with that excuse, seeing as that freedom of religion was addressed by the founding fathers in the Constitution already. Chairman Rob Andrews took Mr. Lavy to task during the questioning phase, absolutely cutting him to shreds and leaving him speechless, defenseless and looking as stupid and prejudicial as his specious arguments.

Mr. Lavy’s flimsy statements then moved to our old friend, the bathroom issue.

We could all go on forever about the bathroom issue and we all know that this was going to be brought up somewhere in the opposition testimony, if not in more than one place. It was inevitable. His first shot across the bow was that employers cannot accommodate the rest room needs of Transgender people. My answer to that is that architects cannot seem to accommodate the bathroom needs of people who are not Transgender.

As a contractor, I know that there are certain spaces inside of every building which architects, planners and employers consider “bad space.” The bathroom ranks right up there in the category of “bad space” along with janitor’s closet and mechanical rooms. If employers had any sense – and some already do – they would probably prefer to have a single unisex bathroom, which would cut down on 50% of the construction cost for bathrooms in every project budget.

However, since we all are familiar with this argument and grow tired of it, we can finally end Mr. Lavy’s testimony with his statement (fairy tale) about a fictitious transgender bus driver in Utah whose major problem was finding a bathroom on her changing bus route because she does not have a permanent route. Mr. Lavy expected this to be a strong supportive example in his favor and I hate to pop his bubble, but this should be traceable for anyone who wants to waste the time looking for this bus driver in the Transgender community.

A lot of things made me mad about Mr. Lavy’s testimony, but the one thing that really made me incensed was that someone like James Dobson did not have the intestinal fortitude to face Congress himself. Perhaps he felt that it was below him. But I would certainly have liked to see him subjected to the same cross examination that Lavy got from the Chair after all the witnesses made their statements. In fact, Dobson is too afraid to show up at such a hearing because he knows that he would be made to look in public exactly like what he is, a pompous, arrogant, self righteous, right wing, radical, conservative, nut case. All we will hear is his constant rants from a distance.

Video clips from the Hearing here.

Audio of the entire Hearing here.

Next: Congress comes out to the Transgender Community – Part 4

“Final testimonies and Summary of the Hearings”

Angela has been an activist for the transgender community is some form or another for the last 42 years. Some of our community’s activists weren’t even born then. She has been on the board of NTAC, It’s Time, North Carolina and the several other organizations too numberous to mention. Currently, she serves as the Vice President of the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) and is one of its Co-Founders. Also, Angela is one of my closest friends.

“Congressman Barney Frank and Colonel Diane Schroer”

You never seem to see Congressman Barney Frank enter or leave a room, or so it seems to me on every occasion I have seen or talked with him personally. Even sitting at the witness table, he folds his hands in front of him with his palms flatly on the table and bends over and rests his chin on them to lower his profile. But, when the time comes, Barney Frank literally explodes in your face and you know you’re in a room with a very astute and respected politician.

When called to speak, Congressman Frank (who I will refer to as “Barney” henceforth, after having shaken his hand a few times) went right into his routine of cracking a few jokes at the Senate’s expense, in connection with having to deal “with the wrong body.” It was his diplomatic attempt to leave the last thought on the failures of Congress to move the ENDA legislation through the Senate. The man is a master.

(Break)

The first thing you may notice, as I did, when you see the video of Barney’s address, is that he does not have any papers in front of him. He looks directly at the chair of the committee and other committee members and he speaks less from memory than he does from his heart. There is no doubt that he understands our dilemma regarding employment problems. This is something that I have always known and trusted about him. But, like his entrance into any room, he seems to feel that maybe we can “sneak” something by others if we are patient.

Previously, Barney somehow did not feel that our problems were “ripe” enough to be solved immediately. This is where we differ greatly. The comments of the Chair in saying “The way we operate here is we don’t measure our duty by the quantity of those who are aggrieved. We measure it by the depth of the grievance that those who have been discriminated against suffer.” This was eloquently put and gives great hope for next year and any rewrite of ENDA. It made me feel like standing up and singing God Bless America.

Barney moved on to note three very relevant points. The first is that Transgender people are not protected in the workplace by any existing federal legislation. To protect them now, as in the case of ENDA, is not a duplication of effort.

Frank asked the committee to consider the premise of expanding the opportunity for all Americans to grow by accepting Transgender people freely and equally in the workplace. His example of previous anti discrimination legislation that has passed and that they were never disruptive was spot on. He pointed out that the track record for such expanding legislation allows Americans to accept people of all types, who faced the exact same complaints as would be resolved in ENDA, and always has been proven to be wrong.

Lastly, Barney’s remark on the feeling of “being uneasy”, seemed to me, to be his mea culpa for remarks regarding the rest room and shower concerns voiced by him some years ago. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that Congressman Barney Frank has become confident enough to pierce through the fog of fear mongering and hate speech, and has finally lost his fears of being confronted by an FtM in the Congressional showers. Hurrah!

Getting ahead of the inevitable “rest room” issue and having Barney Frank address the feelings of people about being “uneasy” when it comes to Transgender people is something that he speaks well to, because it comes from personal experience. One can only imagine back in the 70’s how uneasy the first gay congressman must have made people think and act and how much he has felt that same uneasiness that we sense in some people about who we are.

This is the tragedy of ENDA and what happened to it. The Congressperson who is most experienced with our making others uneasy and being in turn discriminated against, refused to step aside and let United ENDA do its job. We need him on our side for many reasons, but it is time for him to understand that delay and denial equates to loss of lives, threats and bullying of our children and suffering for our families. Just how uneasy does a person have to feel before “being uneasy” justifies damaging the lives of others immeasurably?

It’s hard to summarize Congressman Frank because he defies summarization. He continues to work hard, surprise and delight people with his intellect and background and he seems to be far from done. In the long run, I hope that our community and he can reach a mutual understanding of each other and respect, because like this hearing that was held, he also is an important part of our history.

The testimony of Diane Schroer was off the charts in every respect. At the very end of her address to the chair, you can hear her voice cracking a bit. Sitting to the right of her I leaned forward and could tell that she was fighting off the tears. If anyone understood the historic nature of this hearing, it was Diane Schroer.

As some of you know, I used to be a Drill Sergeant. I remember when a person like Colonel Schroer walked into an area where I was, someone would always say “oh shit, stand tall”. You get the impression from Diane right away that she is not the type of woman who tolerates being told that she is “second class” in any way as compared to anyone else. The testimony that she gave at the hearing was about justice and being treated like a human being. Her past history and unimaginable service to our country only lend credence to the depth of that injustice and the same injustice that is played out every day to Transgender Americans.

Diane is a stark example of the best and the worst in our society today. She gave the very best that she could in defense of our country and in return she received the worst treatment that can be afforded a bona fide hero by one of our most prestigious and intellectual bastions of government, the Library of Congress.

Such a contrast and such a compelling situation is only superseded by Diane’s grace and courage while still under fire and having to defend herself. From the offset, she has handled her grievance with dignity and respect through the ACLU, who also seems to recognize those traits in her and the validity of her case. This is why they are helping to defend her in court.

When successful, Diane’s case can be the building block for other future judicial cases to be determined, just as Peter Oiler’s case was, although different in many ways.

The future of Diane Schroer within our community will be set by her and after she has won her case. She remained strong to win her case and has done a great job of surviving so far, unlike others who have fallen to the prejudices and inexperience inherent in their own minds. Diane is more than a survivor alone. She is an outstanding leader, who I hope will grace our cause for equality long after she has obtained her own place in the Library of Congress.

Video clips from the Hearing here.

Audio of the entire Hearing here.

Next: Congress comes out to the Transgender Community – Part 3 -“The Opposition Testifies Against Us”

Angela has been an activist for the transgender community is some form or another for the last 42 years. Some of our community’s activists weren’t even born then. She has been on the board of NTAC, It’s Time, North Carolina and the several other organizations too numberous to mention. Currently, she serves as the Vice President of the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) and is one of its Co-Founders. Also, Angela is one of my closest friends.

It was my great privilege to attend the recent hearings held in Washington, DC this week on Transgender Unemployment, as the representative from the Transgender American Veterans Association, TAVA. My thoughts are fresh from the hearing and my sense of having to be there to witness an historic moment in our community was more than justified.

I pleasure myself sometimes in thinking that I am a person of vision. Only those who have been active in the Transgender Community for a few years may understand it. In my fondest visions of the past concerning our community, I would have to be the Transgender reincarnation of Nostradamus to have been able to predict our community giving testimony at a Congressional Hearing about Trans Unemployment problems. We all know that this is at the heart of so many of our long list of problems.

(Break)

Well, that would be a lie. There are many that made this hearing possible and some have passed on, like Christine Jorgenson, and many others, but many are still in this fight to the end. Many of those people had visions also for our community and still do. These hearings are confirmation of many of those visions that hard, hard time and sacrifices made possible. There are the heroic efforts of those who work in DC and take the flack from this community, but still manage to hang in there and do a great job. They are equal to or better than many organizations who have been around much longer and have done this by being among those people and working with those groups and with their assistance.

Groups like NGLTF, United ENDA, ACLU, the DNC, IFGE, AVER, SLDN and TAVA are changing our lives and from what I witnessed this Thursday. We need to support them in every way that we can. Sorry, I’m leaving out the fine work that HRC did in helping and advising on getting this hearing. But, Joe Solmonese’s apology for “misspeaking” to a small and closed gathering of Transgender people in Atlanta is not the same as apologizing to our community.

This hearing is remarkable to me, because it means that there are people in high places, in places that we never thought they would be, finally ready to listen to our Transgender children and their parents in PFLAG, our Transgender Veterans in TAVA. They are reading our emails and letters about ENDA. This hearing is not our coming out to them, but it is they who are coming out to us and asking us to show them where it hurts and why it does, to be a Transgender person in America. Certainly an event worthy of all Transgender people in America helps us sympathize with how Michelle Obama felt when she said “this is the first time in my adult life I have felt proud to be an American.” Yes, Ms. Obama, I understand.

As my friend Pamela in Charlotte might say, some of us survivors have to pinch ourselves from time to time so that we know that we are not just dreaming about events that have been occurring over the past five years. It is truly a testament to those survivors who have fought for so many years and to the many younger activists who have taken up the cause of Trans Equality and been doing such a professional and outstanding job.

We all step up on the shoulders of those before us and so many names come to mind. From the past to the present, I have nothing but respect and admiration for their sacrifices and hard work. From the hundreds of support groups that meet across the country in every city and town on every Saturday night, to those who lobby and work hard in DC, we are all working for that person we don’t yet know in the closet that has not been able to live and be who they are without fear.

Other perspectives about the hearing that you may read will, I think, be different than mine, but they revolve around the same theme of “community.” This is a word that has finally reached a maturity and recognition that even the Congress of the United States is willing to work with and understand.

My perspectives have been dragged through the hearts and souls of hundreds of support group meetings and thousands of Transgender friends I have known over many years. The reality of this hearing, in part, is the culmination of a long journey and the promise of a better future for our children, our families and us.

Now the trip.

After suffering for a few days earlier in the week with a case of food poisoning, the day before the hearing left me spent and dehydrated, but finally free of my own personal rest room issues and the determination that the four hour trip North from Raleigh to DC had to be made.

I usually stay at the Red Roof Inn in Alexandria when going to DC because I have to blanch at paying $250.00/night for a room inside the beltline. Wednesday evening I arrived without a problem and tried to sleep. It was one of those restless nights that I did not need. You just know that tomorrow is going to be special, like Christmas.

Waking and getting ready, I didn’t even stop for coffee in the lobby and headed straight for the Capital with my little map on the passenger seat to guide me. I drove into town and found a place to park within a few miles from the Rayburn Building where the hearing was to be held in room 2175. I have lobbied in the halls of this building many times before, but this time it was really a different feeling of anticipation.

After going through the scanning and security, I was stopped due to some of the jewelry I was wearing (a TAVA badge) and the officers, who were right on cue with the “stand here please mam” and their getting a female officer to pat me down acted like they were very thoroughly trained in Transgender 101 before I got there. I had to laugh a little inside, thinking about being patted down by a female officer in the Rayburn Building and all the times in years past when I was fearful of just such a thing happening, but in the neighborhood police station. Those sure were the good old days.

Approaching the hearing room, people were lined up outside in the hallway waiting for the doors to open. Standing against the wall at least 70 people had assembled and were all talking nervously and exchanging business cards. Then I noticed some familiar faces like Donna Cartwright, Mara Keisling, Shannon Minter, Sabrina Marcus, Lisa Mottet and others pop out of the crowd with warm smiles and excited hugs.

I was surprised to meet others there who had traveled from Phoenix, San Diego, New York, Kansas, Ohio, and many other places who also felt the need to be there to witness an important moment for our community. I also met supporters from HRC and NGLTF and other organizations like the ACLU who sensed this as a special moment in time and had to be present. They are had some part in the planning of this hearing.

After a short while, a very dictatorial young lady came out into the hall, announced that she would only allow 45 people inside the hearing room because that is all the room she had and that she was handing out passes so we all had to line up against the wall. Those who did not get a pass could go to the hearing room one floor above and watch the hearing from there on their closed circuit screens.

I felt very safe in my position and being able to get a ticket and had even prearranged with Mara to have a “seat sitter” in the hearing room save me a chair. Mara asked me that since I had a ticket, would I mind giving up the seat that was being held for me. Not a problem. But now there was a quiet reshuffling going on and I noticed a rather large contingent of HRC folks begin to move to the front of the line

Standing next to me was a gentleman who I had met from HRC who had worked with Donna Rose and Jamison Green when they had worked for HRC in their corporation and employment area and we had discussed his work. He is not a “policy person”. I turned to him and quietly told him that if he did not go and tell his co-workers to get back in line or give their tickets to Transgender people waiting in line, I would immediately start my own version of an anti HRC protest on the spot, right there, right now. Noting that if anyone deserved the right to sit in that hearing room it should be Transgender people.

He looked at me and smiled until someone next to me told him “Oh, she is serious and she will do it”. He went to talk to them and came back and told me that they would be watching the hearing from upstairs in the other room. I breathed a small sigh of relief, knowing that I would not have to make my point further, but also happy that they understood my concerns.

The doors opened and in we went. 30’ ceilings, oak everywhere, curtains over the windows and three rows of bleacher type oak desks side by side from one side of the room to the other, where Congress persons could look down at the table in the center of the room, casting their eyes down to the long table on the floor level where the witnesses sat.

After some milling around and shaking hands, the Congress people took their seats on both sides of the Committee Chairman, Congressman Rob Andrews, a proud graduate of the Cornell Law School, close to my old home town and a place that I went to at least once a year to give a class on us, convened the hearing. I immediately wondered and hoped that he was in one of those classes.

The rules of the hearing were laid down by the Congressman as to length of time for each witness to speak and testify and we were of to the races with a statement made by the Chair that could only be described as eloquent, relevant, persuasive, accurate, forceful and committed to a fair presentation, remembering that cause by law had to be proven, but that also the recent ENDA law and all the fuss and bother out there that the non-inclusive version generated from the GLBT community, helped to lay a groundwork for the need for this hearing. Well, in so many words at least.

Of the seven chairs at the table, only two were occupied. One seat was filled by Congressman Barney Frank and the other by Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin. The testimony began with Ms. Baldwin and my account and views of the testimony are as follows, I trust that you all will listen, or have listened to it yourself:

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin of Minnesota was first to speak. When reading from a script, she was less effective but still meaningful. When telling the story about being an attorney and representing a Transperson who was fired from their job when announcing her gender to her employer, Tammy Baldwin speaks the best. When talking from her heart, she is the most effective and she needs no script to get the message across. If I had any complaint at all about her testimony, it was in her references to “being trapped in the wrong body”. This one statement advances us immediately into the areas of doubting if she doesn’t need some further training about the diversity of the Transgender Community.

Video clips from the Hearing here.

Audio of the entire Hearing here.

Part 2 Our older “buddy” statesman, Congressman Barney Frank.

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