Trans Universe

Guest Blogger: Vanessa Edwards Foster

(Originally posted on Trans Political, July 23, 2008)

Vanessa Edwards Foster is the former President & Co-Founder, National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) President, Texas Gender Advocacy & Information Network (TGAIN) Former President & Screening Committee Chair, Harris County Women’s Political Caucus National level Alt. Delegate 2004, National level Delegate 2008 to Dem. Convention Election Judge 1999-2005 Former President, Texas Assn. for Transsexual Support (TATS) Former President, Gulf Coast Transgender Community Former Treasurer & Screening Committee Co-Chair, Houston Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus Former Secretary, Montrose Counseling Center. Volunteer Coord, City Councilmember Annise Parker (1st Lesbian elected to Houston political office)

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” — Chinese Proverb

The rumors have been flying for some time, and even recently Donna Rose noted on her blog about meeting with Joe Solmonese with HRC. One might think she’s going there to give them a piece of her mind (or another piece as she’s already made public her opinions post-ENDA).

As it turns out, that’s not the case. A friend of mine there locally reported of the upcoming San Francisco HRC Banquet and its accompanying protest from the bay area’s GLBT community in a show of strength. Of course, we recently received a press release of HRC holding up their current Business Council trans person, Diego Sanchez as speaker (fresh from testimony on Capitol Hill.) It wasn’t the press blurb over Diego that really got my attention, but the report that another trans person was working hard to be the trans keynote there: Donna Rose. Per the note, she was trying to be “the bridge between the two parties” by addressing the banquet.

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Since this article will find its way to various non-trans-specific blogs, I should begin with describing what an Educational Initiative is and a little history behind them.  The EI was a creation of long-time activist, Angela Brightfeather when she was the Chair of the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition’s Activism Committee.  Her idea came about in 2001, when the transgender community was having difficulty convincing the Human Rights Campaign to support inclusion in ENDA.  Déjà vu all over again?

An EI is NOT a protest in spite of what many may think.  It is a true, educational opportunity to allow transgender people to speak directly with HRC’s supporters and put a face on an issue that many have no idea about.  The original purpose came out of anger and a hope to put a dent into HRC’s income at a place that they get their most money, at their local dinners. (more…)

In 2001, I joined a Yahoo Group by the name of TSVets, which still exists to this day. This is a group that is opened to all transsexuals who have served our country in the military. The list has a variety of veterans from all branches of the service, all the modern wars, different ranks, different income levels and different levels of surgical status. Some are completely healthy, while others are disabled or have PTSD. In short, they are no different than the rest of America’s veterans.

As time went on, I realized that even though transgender veterans did all the same things in the military as their non-trans veterans counterparts did, the Veterans Administration medical facilities did not treat them equally as they did all the other veterans. We know today that the VA has a dismal record when it comes to how they treat all veterans. Transgender veterans would just like to be treated equally as crappy as everyone else.

I did not like what I heard on the TSVets list about the treatment some transgender veterans received at the VA and I discussed it with my friend Angela Brightfeather, an Army veteran and activist from North Carolina. At the time, we both served on the Activism Committee of the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC.) She saw this as an important issue to undertake, which later led to the creation of the VA Committee in NTAC. As we dug deeper into the issues, we realized that the problems were not something a committee could handle, so we formed the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) in January, 2003, a national 501 (c) 3 organization.   (more…)