Seems that the subject of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has gotten hotter than a dark-colored car in a Phoenix summer. Straight media, straight bloggers, gay media and gay bloggers have all chimed in with their opinions, comments and condemnations of this very discriminatory law. It all started when President Obama said he wanted to repeal DADT during his State of the Union Speech.

The Palm Center in Santa Barbara, CA sent out a list of “recommendations” on what they can do to help the Pentagon Working Group on gays in the military work this issue out smoothly. They are:

• Consulting existing literature as a roadmap;
• Assessing the Impact on Unit Cohesion Properly;
• Consulting troops for relevant information rather than to ask their permission for reform;
• Sending study teams to Britain, Israel, Australia, and Canada; Using an appropriate standard for assessing the likely impact of change;
• Consulting research on the timing of implementation;
• Noting that leadership and consistency are more important than second-order effects; and
• Correcting for biases introduced by “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

This looks to be a very good plan of action, but notice something is missing.

Through all of this, a part of the LGB**T** community gets intentionally left out. Once again, the Trans American Veterans Association will raise their voices to not only say that trans people should be allowed to serve openly, but will insist upon it.

Of course, this has never been a popular stance with gay and lesbian people who want to claim that because DADT only covers “sexual orientation” and that trans people are not affected by the law. (Could someone please bring out that dead horse again?) Let me remind those whose reality is something akin to what Alice saw in Wonderland. We have records, as does SLDN, of straight and asexual trans people who have been harassed under DADT and kicked out. And, as was pointed out in previous articles, trans people can be gay, lesbian or bisexual. DADT AFFECTS TRANS PEOPLE, TOO.

As I have said countless times in the past, the military has no concept of the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity. To them, a heterosexual crossdresser is gay. A person who wishes to live the rest of their lives different from their birth sex, no matter who they are attracted, is gay. They only care about exercising their right to the legalized bigotry that DADT gives them.

Now, I’m hearing other trans people spouting defeatist attitudes toward ever seeing trans people serving openly in the military. Guess what. Some already have. We have passed onto SLDN several people who were allowed to start their transition before getting out. They used this information to help other trans people who were being forced out under DADT. Some even legally changed their name before getting out, assuring their DD-214 would have their new name. Another individual was called back to active duty AFTER she completed her transition and reported to SAC Headquarters during the first Gulf War. They had no problem with her change.

We have also pointed out that trans and trans-like people have served in every war this country has fought, since the beginning. It has been estimated that there are between 200,000 and 300,000 living trans veterans in the US today.

Add to all of this, Canada, Great Britain, Israel and Thailand are known to allow all trans people to serve openly. Australia and Spain allow only their trans men to serve openly. As been pointed out in the past, Canada allowed trans people to serve BEFORE allowing gay, lesbian and bisexual people could serve. The wheel has long since been invented for this.

We are also hearing the “hermaphrodite scare” cycling through the hatemonger organizations. “We can’t have hermaphrodites serving in the military!” Ah . . . reality check time. They’re already there.

According to medical science and the figures collected by the Intersex Society of North America, one in 500 people on planet Earth have some form of intersex condition. With 1.47 million active duty troops and another 1.46 million in the reserves, there are nearly six-thousand people in uniform who are intersexed. Seems the Pentagon is not too worried about this, so why should the rest of us be?

If the military wanted to weed out all intersex individuals, they would have to perform expensive special tests and medical exams by experts in the field. One of the tests would be to check the sex chromosomes on all three million service members. In the civilian world, that can cost somewhere around $800 dollars each. That would come to a total addition to the Defense Budget of another $2.344 billion dollars. Of course, in a military world famous for $1500 toilet seats and $700 hammers, you think they will pay only $800 for each test? Seems to be a hefty amount of tax dollars to spend on placating the hate mongers’ “concerns.”

And, we also heard the “bigotry-for-profit” groups hollering, “If we let gays serve in the military, we’ll have soldiers wearing dresses!” This is obviously coming from people who have never served in the military and have no concept of military rules and regulations. You see, the military has these clothing things called “uniforms.” It’s been sort-of a tradition with militaries since . . . oh say . . . before the ancient Egyptians.

Militaries today get real testy if a person is even slightly “out of uniform.” They are not noted for having a sense of humor when it comes to this. The military goes so far as to regulate size and type of earrings women can wear. Men cannot wear any earrings. So, the people who think male soldiers will get to wear dresses on a whim are doing nothing but instilling fear in the uneducated masses so they can convince them to send money to fight this scourge. The “bigotry-for-profit” groups are sending their children to college off the hard-earned money of ordinary Americans. It’s a scam worthy of the snake-oil salesmen in the old West.

Interesting enough, since DADT doesn’t have “gender identity of expression” in the language, it means that it doesn’t prevent trans people from serving in the military. For the most part, there are just policies and rules keeping trans people out of the military. President Obama may not be able to overturn DADT with an Executive Order, but he may be able to use one to allow trans people a chance to serve openly.

However, I doubt that any of the mostly-gay organizations would lift a finger to lobby the White House for that if it was proven possible. The incremental mindset many of the people running those organizations would not allow trans people to get something before gays and lesbians do. At least not in the good ‘ol U-S of A.

But, as we can all guess, President Obama will not be willing to spend one thin dime of his political capital to issue such an Executive Order. It becomes a moot point.

Here’s what trans people will face if they serve in the military or try to join after DADT is repealed. There is a policy in place preventing trans people from enlisting, and all the reasons the military used to kick them out before DADT will come back into play. Some uneducated commanders will think that because DADT has been repealed, their trans troops will be allowed to serve. I’m sure there will be people there to set them straight.

I feel that the repeal of DADT will put the wheels in motion to a day when trans people will be allowed to serve openly. This will not be an easy process, but if people are willing to stop throwing their hands in the air and giving up, then these rules can be changed. The trans community needs to work together with allies and ignore the perennial naysayers and those with a defeatist attitude that populate our community.

The repeal of DADT will not send intersex people to their recruiters in droves to sign up. And, if they did, so what? They have already served in honor. The repeal will not force male soldiers to wear dresses, regardless of what the hate mongers say. The repeal will take a tiny bit of pressure off of the trans troops, but they will still have to hide.

Even if trans people got the chance to serve openly, most would never tell anyone about being trans. The stigma that society has put on trans people would not be erased in an accepting US military, anymore then it does with trans people working in an accepting company. There will be a lot of work ahead of us if trans people want to serve openly in the military. We will never know if we can fix it if we don’t try.

The following is a plea to Congress and the President to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) HR-3017, which is currently stuck in the House Committee for Education and Labor, Chaired by Rep. George Miller.

LGBT Americans want to help get this country back on its feet, but can’t as long as most of the country can still legally discriminate against them.  We need ENDA and we need it passed NOW! There is no excuse to discriminate in the work place any longer.  None.

American Veterans For Equal Rights president Danny Ingram and Transgender American Veterans Association president Monica Helms have made a joint YouTube video appeal to President Obama and Congress to Lift the Ban on LGBT military service by repealing Dont Ask Dont Tell.

On this Veterans Day, as President Obama considers sending more patriotic American troops to Afghanistan, AVER and TAVA remind the President of his campaign promise to repeal DADT.

Send the link to others and your Congressional reps.  Here is the video:

As I type this, there are just two states that haven’t been called, Missouri and North Carolina.  Obama has won 349 electoral votes to McCain’s 147.  McCain took Georgia and the Senate race is still a toss up.  With Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss at 52%, Democrat Jim Martin at 44% and Libertarian Allen Buckley at 4%, and with many votes still uncounted, we could be looking at a run-off.  I hope that happens.

However, most of the propositions and initiatives aimed at LGBT people passed.  Arizona’s amendment to their constitution to ban same-sex marriage, Prop 102, passed, 56% to 44%.  Arkansas’ Initiative 1, a ban on gay couples from adopting children, passed 57% to 43%.  Florida’s Amendment 2, a constitution amendment banning gay marriage, needed 60% to pass and it got 62%.  California’s Prop 8, a ban on gay marriage, is still undecided, but it leads 52% to 48%.

(Break)

There are many other interesting initiatives that were voted on here in then US, such as banning affirmative action in Colorado and Nebraska.  It passed in Nebraska, but is at 50/50 in Colorado so far.  Arizona’s Prop 202, a ban on hiring illegal immigrants, failed.  Abortion limits failed in South Dakota and hasn’t been called in California, but is losing so far.  Colorado’s Amendment 48, defining life beginning at the moment of conception, failed miserably, 73% to 27%.  Michigan had two interesting propositions, Prop 1 allowing medical marijuana use and Prop 2, allowing stem cell research, passed 63% to 37% and 53% and 47% respectively.  And, Washington State becomes the second state allowing doctor-assisted suicide.  Oregon is the other.

History was made last night, and I got to see it, as I have seen many others in my lifetime.  Hope has come to this country.  Change has come to this country.  Respect from the rest of the world has come back to this country.  As a transgender activist, I have more hope than any time in the 11 years of being involved in this community.  This day after is one I will never forget.

Now, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and help to move this country forward for everyone.  I am thrilled.

(Sung to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island theme.)
“Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a faithful vote,
That started in this Southern State, on a day to wear a coat.

This girl is a mighty Democrat, who’s never, ever late,
But, standing in that line that day, was a three hour wait,
A three hour wait.”

Somehow, that song came to mind when I finally saved my selections on the computer and got my “I am a Georgia Voter” peach, three hours to the minute from when I first stood in line.  In about three-quarters of the country, states have initiated early voting and Georgia is one of them.

The news told many stories about long lines and hours of waiting before people could get to vote.  On Monday, October 27, is some parts of Georgia, people waited for SEVEN HOURS to vote and in other parts, they waited TEN HOURS.  Tuesday and Wednesday the wait dropped to four hours in many places.  I felt lucky for only having to wait three hours.  The good thing about Georgia is that if you get in line before 7 PM, the polls will stay open until that last person votes.

(Break)

I heard on the news earlier that the Florida Republican Governor, Charlie Crist, signed an executive order extending the polling hours and allowing people to vote on the weekend.  He didn’t want people to accuse Florida of having problems like what happened in 2000.  Several Georgia officials have requested that we do the same thing here, but the Republican Secretary of State, Karen Handel, simply said, “It’s against the Georgia law.”

I’m not surprised that our state will do nothing to help more people get out and vote.  Georgia has had a long history of doing whatever they could to disenfranchise voters and suppress their right to vote.  We won’t see our Republican Governor, Sonny Perdue, sign any executive order to help voters, because Republicans think that extending early voting will help Democrats.

I live in Cobb County and I had a polling location just down the street from where I worked, at the Cobb Galleria, so I got in the line right away.  The temperature at the time was in the low 60s, but the day before, they had temperatures in the low 50s.  The weather looked favorably down on me.  I brought two sandwiches and ate one of them right away.  Time: 5:20 PM EDT.

Shortly after getting in line, two women who worked for the sports bar Jocks and Jills came out with a cart of hot chocolate in cups.  They wanted the voters to stay warm.  We followed the line from one end of the long building to the other, then it came back to the middle of the build so we could go inside.  Once inside, I saw that the line snaked from the doors to the other end of the long walkway, back to the doors and then back to the other end of the walkway.  Time: 6:10 PM EDT.

“The massive line was way too long, and my legs might never hold
The only thought running through my mind was, ‘It’s hell getting old.
It’s hell getting old’.”

Before I got to the far end of the walkway the second time, I had eaten the second sandwich and talked with my mother.  My new phone allowed me to go on line and when I did, I discovered my friend had won a contest.  I also had a chance to read any new E-mails as soon as my phone received them.  It took awhile, but I made it to the other end of the walkway a second time.  Time: 7:00 PM EDT.

When I turned the corner from the long walkway, I discovered the line twisted and turned along the outside of the huge open area in the middle of the mall, sometimes snaking around the small shops in the middle.  During this part of the wait, I listened to music and did some aerobic dancing, while standing in line.  I also made some more phone calls and again read E-mails.  After the long journey, I made it to the room that contained the voting machines, but I couldn’t see them from that end of the room.  Time: 7:50 PM EDT.

I reached the next step, a table where I had to fill out a form that would allow the computers to find my house and provide me an electronic voting card with the appropriate choices for my part of Cobb County.  As I waited for the next person with a computer to be freed up, I talked with the polling volunteer at the head of the line.  She told me that they had over 11,000 people who voted at that one polling place in Cobb County in the last three days.  After seeing the line I had to stand in, I believed it.

The moment of truth arrived.  I placed the card in the machine and up popped the first choice, my choice for President.  With the eagerness of a school girl on her first date, I touched the screen and watched in delight as the “X” appeared next to Senator Barack Obama’s name.  After 22 months of listening to and watching campaign speeches, debates, political commercials, polls, pundits, commentators, right wing nuts, left wing nuts, lies, half truths, deceptions, outrageous statements, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, promises, a plunging economy and rising gas prices, I get to earn my “I am a Georgia Voter” peach.  Damn, it was the hardest and most valuable voter peach I have ever earned.  Time: 8:20 PM EDT.

“I finally made it to the end of this long, long voting line.
With Obama, and his VP, too.  Jim Martin and his wife.
The voting star.  The tax assessor and Mary Ann,
Here at the polling place.”

It isn’t over.  I got to vote, but the end of this journey for the candidates is still on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, sometime late into the night.  Democrats all across this country still need to get out and vote.  I will be at a Georgia Democratic results-watching party someplace in Atlanta on that Tuesday night, cheering each time a state is placed in the Obama column.  And, when Obama is declared the winner, the real works begins.

By Dr. Jillian T. Weiss

Dr. Jillian T. Weiss has a J.D. and a Ph.D. in Law, Policy & Society. Currently Associate Professor of Law and Society at Ramapo College of New Jersey, she has conducted research involving hundreds of companies and public agencies that have adopted “gender identity” policies. She publishes a popular blog on the subject of Transgender Workplace Diversity, and has numerous research publications on the subject of gender identity. Links to these are found below.

Dr. Weiss is also Principal Consultant for Jillian T. Weiss & Associates, a consulting firm that works with organizations on transgender workplace diversity issues. She has trained hundreds of employees at corporations, law firms, diversity trainers and governmental organizations. Dr. Weiss has worked successfully with Fortune 500 companies and large public agencies during the past few years, including Boeing, HSBC, KPMG, Viacom, and the New York City Department of Homeless Services. Her work has been featured in news stories by the New York Times, Associated Press, the Society for Human Resource Management, Workforce Management Magazine, and HR Executive Magazine.

Originally posted on The Bilerico Project.

It was a beautiful fall day as my partner and I drove upstate from New York City to enjoy the change of seasons in Northeast U.S.A. this past weekend. We enjoyed looking at the glorious colors of the foliage in my car, proudly emblazoned with an “Obama ‘08″ sticker on the rear bumper of my Jeep.

Suddenly, from hundreds of feet behind, a red SUV accelerated madly, blowing the horn continuously as it careened within inches of our bumper. We were traveling at about 60 miles per hour, and just entering a sharp exit curve that required slowing to a speed limit of 40 mph. This is a dangerous situation for any vehicle, but especially to roll-over prone vehicles like my boxy, high and narrow Jeep. My heart pounded and my knuckles whitened as I wrestled the steering wheel into the curve. I slowed down to accommodate the steeply-banked turn, hoping the maniac behind me would slow down enough to avoid an accident. Instead, the red SUV moved even closer and the continuous horn blaring did not cease.

(Break)

My partner and I were both frightened — what kind of nutcase were we dealing with? Would there be an accident? Were we dealing with one of those deadly road rage situations you read about in the paper? What had angered this person to the point of reckless high-speed driving? As we would find out in moments, the answer lay in the “Obama ‘08″ bumper sticker on the back of my car.

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles south in Washington, D.C., Senator McCain is expressing “outrage” at the remarks of Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a revered civil rights leader who witnessed the terrible violence visited upon African-Americans and those who stood with them in the segregation years.

“What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse,” Lewis said in a statement.

“George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama,” wrote the Democrat.

McCain Campaign Increases Racist Rhetoric

Meanwhile, increasingly frustrated at Sen. Obama’s rise in the polls, McCain and his campaign are using rhetoric targeting Sen. Obama as a frightening, unpatriotic, lying demagogue who condones terrorists. While neither McCain nor the campaign has actually said that Obama is a terrorist, they have said that Obama is palling around with terrorists and is a terrorist’s best friend. It is a short leap to the perception in the public mind that Obama is a terrorist, and those who support Obama are supporting terrorism.

A google search for “Obama is a terrorist” brings up over 275,000 websites using that specific phrase. This “Obama is a terrorist” meme is all over the place, and McCain cannot disavow it. One brave man has gone to McCain/Palin rallies and found people willing to go on camera agreeing that he is, in fact, a terrorist.

McCain supporters at his town hall meetings have said they are scared for their children if Obama is elected, McCain and Palin have given fiery speeches accusing Obama of lying about his association with Bill Ayers, a member of the 60’s Weather Underground group, who participated in bombing statues and buildings as well as violent street protests. Supporters at these events have been documented on camera shouting comments like “Traitor!”

One supporter began his speech at a McCain rally by calling Sen. Obama “Barack Hussein Obama.” Others have revealed at McCain town hall meetings that they believe internet rumors about Obama being an Arab Muslim, rather than a Christian African-American. A woman at one town hall, who spoke disparagingly of Obama, received wildly telegraphed signals from Sen. McCain to stop before he grabbed the microphone from her: “I can’t trust him. I have read about him. He is not… He is not… He is an Arab….” McCain stopped the woman before she could go, but not before she demonstrated the extent to which campaign rhetoric is fueling wide-spread racist internet disinformation campaigns about Obama’s Arab and terrorist “ties”.

Senator McCain is apparently recognizing that the carefully-controlled campaign rhetoric is tapping into a vein that could spiral into violence by some on the right. He has chastised his followers who have openly showed their rage, fear and prejudice, saying that “Sen. Obama is a decent person.”

But, as he himself said, he does not mean to diminish his followers’ “ferocity.” His attempt to disassociate himself from the “terrorist” rhetoric ignores the effect of his inflammatory message. In fact, when McCain made his comment about Obama being a “decent person,” his own crowd jeered and booed. When Republican campaign speeches and ads openly state that Sen. Obama is a liar regarding his alleged ties to “domestic terrorists,” McCain’s tepid disavowals do nothing to dissipate the fear and rage generated among his supporters.

Right Wing Rhetoric

I googled “Obama Arab,” and came up with this as the first result:

Kenneth Lamb, journalist of some note, posits an interesting argument to Obama Hussein’s roots on his blog, Reading Between the Lines . Please go here and read it all.Yes, it’s important. Add it to the troubling pot of where Obama Hussein’s allegiances lie. Obama Hussein, descendant from Arab slave traders. Ouch. Spin that.

That’s from a blog called “Atlas Shrugs,” which has the following as its byline:

Western Civilization hangs in the balance. This blog is part of the solution. Get your heads out of the sand and fight the Great Fight. The Jew may be the canary in the coal mine, but you, my friends, will be next. Changing the World, one word at a time…Citizen Soldier

I gather from this that the Citizen Soldier should “do something” if he or she wishes to save Western Civilization from the dangerous effects of an Arab slaver as president. Hmm, let’s see, if I were your average Turner Diaries-reading right wing extremist with strong NRA beliefs, what would I think of to do? What would Timothy McVeigh do?

I googled “Obama terrorist” and came up with this as the first entry:

Obama’s Terrorist Connection – William Ayers This video, which has almost 140,000 views, is only one of many on the internet. It intersperses dramatic news footage of 1960’s bombings and Weather Underground members advocating violence with pictures of Obama and misleading text suggesting that he was very close to Ayers despite knowing of Ayers’ background. The comments include a number of equally racist and violent sentiments, such as

“HUSEIN WHO? DIDN’T WE HANG HIM?”

and

If obama becomes president he will probably get assassinated the first week by some red neck.

There are many other comments that imply that the election of Obama is going to result in the death of Americans through terrorism.

The McCain campaign is stoking these fires by harping on the idea that Obama has terrorist ties, and claiming that any association, no matter how tenuous, is a matter for fair comment. These tenuous disclaimers do nothing to quell the violence they raise in American hearts.

Free Speech, George Wallace and “Fighting Words”

McCain expressed outrage that his campaign’s assertions about Obama’s “terrorist” ties should be likened to those of George Wallace, which, as Rep. Lewis correctly noted, “created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks” against African-Americans in the 1960s. While Senator McCain and Governor Palin insist that they have the right to raise Obama’s “terrorist associations,” they are refusing any responsibility for creating a climate in which violence might be seen as justified. Thus, while decrying terrorism themselves, they are inciting violence against Senator Obama — and cars with Obama bumper stickers — with “fighting words” like “terrorist.”

The words “Sen. Obama is a terrorist” are “fighting words.” “Fighting words” are words generally expressed to incite hatred or violence and to place the targets of the words in danger of harm. This idea was first defined by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1942 decision (Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire), in which the Court was required to decide whether calling someone a “fascist” and a “racketeer” constituted free speech or disorderly conduct. The Court said it wasn’t a freedom of speech issue.

There are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech, the prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise any constitutional problem. These include the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, and the insulting or “fighting words” those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace. It has been well observed that such utterances are no essential part of any exposition of ideas, and are of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them is cl

early outweighed by the social interest in order and morality.

Repeatedly using words that suggest that Senator Obama is a terrorist, even though the words, when parsed in Mrs. Grundy’s English class don’t quite add up to that, is not protected by the First Amendment.

“Terrorist” is not merely a pejorative term like “soft on crime” or “lefty.” Consider the case of Nadar Sokanvar, who told co-workers on the first anniversary of 9/11 that he thought the U.S. would be hit by terrorists. He was convicted

of disorderly conduct and sentenced to 30 days in jail for saying that. The court held that the main issue is a “perceived or real threat to the safety of others,” and that the key factor was that others believed their safety was at risk as a result of the statement. (98 P.3d 303) Consider the case of Reggie Upshaw, who gave a public speech that he supported the terrorist attacks of 9/11 — he was thrown in jail for disorderly conduct and inciting a riot. (741 N.Y.S.2d 664) The judge upheld the charge, noting that it is necessary to consider the defendant’s words and deeds in the context in which he spoke and acted.

When McCain and Palin and their campaign create a perception that Senator Obama is a terrorist whose election would threaten the lives and safety of Americans, and they know that their campaign rhetoric is creating a condition in which others are responding to that threat with violence, then their speech is no longer in the realm of free speech. It moves into a much darker territory — the territory of fighting words, of inciting a riot.

McCain and The Man In The Red Jeep

After accelerating at high speed towards our car on a steeply banked highway exit, and blowing his horn continuously for a minute or so while inches from my bumper, the red jeep swerved to the right and stepped on the accelerator. As it pulled even with our car, the window opened and a man in his forties with tattoos on his arm leaned out. He screamed something towards my partner, who was sitting frozen in her seat. It took us a moment to recognize it as “Don’t vote for a black man!”

He then stepped on the gas and swerved in front of our car, cutting us off. As I stepped on the brake, he stuck his arm out the window and raised his middle finger, and I let him go. Feeling very shaken, I memorized his plate number and my partner wrote it down. We discussed calling the police, but I felt that filing a police report would be tantamount to giving this dangerous thug our names and addresses.

I was shocked that afternoon to hear Michelangelo Signorile having a discussion with Naomi Wolf on his Sirius OutQ radio show about how one mark of an increasingly right-wing society is seemingly random attacks by ordinary citizens on their opponents. Michelangelo brought up the fact that a number of incidents of intimidation against Obama supporters have been reported in the national press.

Were the enraged acts of the man in the red jeep just the acts of an individual, with which McCain and Palin and their accusations of “terrorism” against Obama are unlinked? I say no.

I say that John McCain, by encouraging his supporters to call Senator Obama a terrorist, whose election will result in American deaths by terrorists, is taking the same road as George Wallace.

The subject is different — yes. Wallace advocated racial segregation, and McCain does not advocate racial segregation. McCain does not espouse racist ideology. But that is beside the point. While it was not John McCain or Sarah Palin in the red jeep behind me, it is they who “sowed the seeds of hatred and division” and “created the climate and the conditions that encouraged that vicious attack.” As the courts said in the cases of Nadar Sokanvar and Reggie Upshaw, a perceived threat may be dangerous, and the context of violence moves speech from politics into incitement to riot.

Of course, John McCain and Sarah Palin aren’t on trial for disorderly conduct and incitement to riot, nor should they be. But neither should be claiming “outrage” at the suggestion of Rep. John Lewis that their “Obama is a terrorist” line is contributing to an atmosphere in which violence is becoming more likely.

Am I exaggerating? Go ask the man in the red jeep.

By Monica F. Helms

Today is a special day, a day that transgender bloggers across the country put fingers to keyboard to urge their friends and readers that we need to support Senator Barack Obama for President. This has been a historical week, but one we should have never seen. We have had eight years of a failed administration, led by a man who has failed in every company he has run, and failed as the Governor of Texas. Seems easy to see that if he can’t handle a company, should he have been handling a country?

On a Monday when the Dow had its highest numerical drop in history, transgender people are rallying to show that our community cares about the future of this country. We don’t want four more years of this failed policy. We want four years of an administration that actually supports the needs of the transgender community. We want four years of a chance to recover and to prosper once again. We want four years where other countries in the world trusts us once again. We want Obama!

This is why we have set this day aside to break some goals in the number of those who donate to Obama’s campaign from the transgender community, our friends and family members. We are looking for 200 donations and as I type this, we have 172. We also set out to break $10,000, which we have. I think we can bring both numbers well past the goals we set for ourselves.

To donate in the name of the transgender community, go to the Obama’s Transgender ActBlue page set up specifically for the transgender community. You don’t have to be trans to donate on that page. Our friends and allies who believe in equal rights for all people need to visit this page and help Obama’s campaign and show how much you support your transgender friends and family members. Let’s move this country in the right direction. Let’s help Obama win the White House.

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?