I just ran across something interesting: a op-ed entitled Taking Our Case to the People which appeared in the Bay Area Reporter on March 2, 2001. It was in response to a reality that was finally setting in: The coke-snorting, draft-dodging, anti-constitutionist, christianist rich brat who claims to be from Texas had gotten his clutches on the presidency of the United States.
Our progress does not rest with any one individual, political party or component of government. It comes from making our case to the American people, who at the end of day, will be the final arbiters of judgment regarding our nation’s leaders.
The author of this item?
Elizabeth Birch, then the head of the Rhode Island Avenue Cesspool of Transphobia.
Trans people’s progress does not rest with any one individual, cadre of politicians, or organization which claims to speak for us and to know what is right and what is possible. It comes from making our case to the all people of all sexual orientations and gender identities, who at the end of day, will be the final arbiters of judgment regarding those who claim to act in our best interest.
If you’re in San Francisco this weekend, exercise your ability to be an arbiter.
Proclaim to all who will listen what the Human Right Scampaign actually is.
Remind all who will listen of the proven hollowness of what Birch wrote in that same paper a few weeks later, after the self-selected, self-important group of people who ultimately govern the organization altered its mission statement to read:
HRC is a bipartisan organization that works to advance equality based on sexual orientation and gender expression and identity, to ensure that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans can be open, honest, and safe at home, at work, and in the community.
I only felt safe at work in 2001 because not only did I work in what was then the only state to have a trans-inclusive civil rights law but I also had a boss who only cared that I did a good job for him.
I certainly didn’t feel anything other than contempt for the stunt that the Scampaign was pulling. In Birch’s words:
We at HRC believe that changing our mission is an honest reflection of HRC’s work at this moment in the institution’s history. Although HRC’s primary focus is on issues related to sexual orientation, it also has an important institutional commitment to issues related to gender expression and identity. HRC views this step as honest and proportional.
And Nixon claimed he wasn’t a crook.
Through the years HRC has worked to build alliances with transgender organizations and leaders and recognizes that the issues that affect lesbian, gay, and bisexual Americans and transgender Americans are often related one to the other. Whether viewed as being on an integrated or parallel journey, HRC believes transgender Americans are an important part of our collective quest for equality.
Notice that she did not say she viewed trans people to actually be equal to her or that she viewed any trans issue to be equal to any gay/lesbian issue. Remember, it took the Scampaign seven-and-a-half YEARS after this op-ed for it to hire a transsexual woman of any caliber or in any capacity; and one of the two trans men that were deemed worthy of receiving Scampaign paychecks exhibited (in 2004) a disturbing paucity of knowledge about trans law, while the other was so seemingly-near-closeted that well-informed people were either unaware of his being a trans man or were unclear about it.
HRC is committed to educating the public on issues that affect transgender Americans. HRC will continue to work at the local, state, and federal level in coalition with transgender organizations and transgender leadership, and while, at times, we might not always agree, the change to the mission statement is intended to reflect an important and affirming demonstration of good faith.
How good is that faith lookin’ now, eh? Prolly about as good as all of that food that spoiled in peoples’ refrigerators and freezers here in the Quad Cities during the major power outages earlier this week.
Think about how much legitimate educating that a few more trans employees might have been able to do on Capitol Hill between March 30, 2001 and October of 2007.
Think about that and then exercise your ability to be an arbiter - not just this weekend, but whenever you see that obnoxiously fraudulent purple-n-yellow (un)equal sign.
