NY Times: Just Another Shill For the Human Right Scampaign

[UPDATED - 11/12/07: 12:36 pm CST] 

From the NY Times of Nov. 9:

It’s frustrating to take equality one step at a time. But that is how equal justice has been won in this country.

The incremental nature of the nation’s long march toward equal justice is captured by this Timeline of Federal Civil Rights Laws, prepared by the Human Rights Campaign.

Well, if HRC sez so, it must be so. Yuk. Yuk. Yuk.

As I’ve stated here, token bits of history - particularly distorted bits - don’t change the nature of evil being perpetrated in the present.  That doesn’t stop the presently-privileged from rationalizing.  From the comments to the NY Times piece:

As it states in the article, “it was important to take the victory that was achievable.” As a lesbian who is 67 let me remind us of the progress that has been made in the past 50 years. In the late 1950’s we were dodging vice-squads,uttering passwords to plain doors to get into the back room; there was no such thing as a rainbow bumper sticker or a public committment ceremony. Baby-steps, baby-steps, forward ever forward for our lives. We can, we will!

I submitted a comment in response (as I’m typing this post, it has yet to clear), pointing out that “In the late 1950’s” at least one state had already legislatively approved of transsexuals and transsexualism - and asking her (and all others who have been deluded into believing that HR 3685 is anything other than an abject act of subjugation by the privileged against the already-marginalized) why such pro-trans “baby-steps” were not the increments that were praised, lauded and followed by our ‘leaders’.

“History teaches us that progress on civil rights is never easy,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, expressing regret about the exclusion but nevertheless urging an “aye” vote. “It is often marked by small and difficult steps.”

I guess it shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that those who are being stepped on by Barney’s ENDA see it a wee bit differently.

UPDATE

My comment went though - and it looks like ’TwiloMike’ got a bit miffed at my calling out Barney Frank:

I understand your frustration and I feel for the plight of the trans community. What I don’t understand is the insult you leveled at Barney Frank and the gays who support HR 3685. A dose of realism, please. The bill which includes transsexuals will not pass. It won’t even come close and noth gays and the trans community will have to wait longer. If progress is to be made today, then a compromise seems necessary.

I don’t see Mike volunteering to be compromised, do you?

Of course, progress doesn’t have to be made today. It can be delayed… oh… say… decades, while mainstream America learns to view trans people with the same barely-welcoming gaze that it currently has for gays.

I don’t want to wait those decades. I will continue to advocate for the acceptance of the trans community and legal protections for it, but I certainly don’t appreciate the sentiment that the advance of gays without transsexuals is an oppression of transsexuals by gays. Your accusation stems from “misery loves company” and twists reality to generate maximum perception of victimhood.

Gays aren’t looking to oppress transsexuals. Where the heck did you even get such an idea?

That last paragraph caused me to laugh so hard that I spewed on my monitor; I had to switch it out.  Consequently, my response took a while to start.  It hasn’t posted yet on the NYT website, but here it is:

Nice try, Mike. 

From the actions of Barney Frank and his apologists of today (at HRC and on gay-primacy-centric blogs such as those of John Aravosis and Chris Crain) back to the exterminationism philosophy of Janice Raymond to the initial round of exclusion-as-policy in the early 1970s, the gays and lesbians who have appropriated for themselves the collective role of official community policy advocates have oppressed trans people not simply by omission but often by active comission.

One does not get to benefit from disasters than one causes - be it setting a forest fire or causing an explosion that creates a crater in the middle of a baseball field.  You quite artfully dodged addressing my position about trans issues - and people - being more accepted early on than gay and lesbian issues and people.  That is a landscape is no longer the case.  Why?  Hint: It is *not* because of trans people volunteering to have our issues and our lives - and our history - be subjugated to the needs and wants of people who hate us for existing.

I demand trans inclusion in ENDA and all civil rights bills not because of the fear I have of discrimination by right-wing christianists but because of the fear I have of discrimination by transphobic gay men and lesbians such as those who are most insistent that trans people have no place in ENDA.

Period.

Seriously, Mike - have you absolutely no familiarity with the lies and duplicity that HRC has used to subvert trans political viability in Congress? 

The Ugly is in the Fix

Deb Price on Black Wednesday II - though, needless to say, as someone who will benefit from Barney’s ENDA, she isn’t quite willing to call the vote what it is.

The vote on Wednesday was stuffed with surprises — who could have imagined a lawmaker explaining “gaydar” on the House floor? — lessons and tears. One disappointment — that transgender people were not included — is a reminder of the hard work ahead.

Years of lies and deception by HRC and its Capitol Hill minions that wrought Black Wednesday II = “One disappointment.”

Yeh - that’s the ticket.  But, then, Deb isn’t the one who will be on the short end of that “One disappointment.”

Interestingly, one of the people mentioned in this ’snapshot of the day’ that she’ll “cherish” will will be on the short end of that “One disappointment.”

‘The beauty is in the mix’: That eloquent description by Pelosi of what makes her hometown of San Francisco special was the real message of the day. Rep. Susan Davis of California told a sweet story about a male-to-female transgender landscape architect, while Rep. Jay Inslee of Washington talked of Dave Kopay, his “boyhood hero,” who helped the University of Washington Huskies reach the 1964 Rose Bowl, went on to play pro ball with such teams as the Detroit Lions and Washington Redskins, then came out as gay.

Care to guess who?

Word to the Wise: That’s Cyanide, Not Salt

Carolyn Lochhead in the San Francisco Chronicle on the Barney-orchestrated ENDA vote:

The vote has been repeatedly delayed, with the latest debate-but-no-vote ploy surfacing last week. That bold decision has now been made official with a vote on the overall bill, sans transgender, scheduled for tomorrow afternoon after French President Nicolas Sarkozy addresses Congress.

In case you wondered, the House dining room menu has switched back to French fries from “freedom fries.”

If its being served anywhere near (geographically or temporally) ENDA 3685, it ain’t gettin’ anywhere near my mouth.

After weeks of delay and behind-the-scenes skirmishing among Democratic leaders, the House will debate but not vote Wednesday on including transgender people in a job discrimination bill.

The apparent point of the exercise is to pacify the transgender community and their allies while shielding increasingly precious freshman Democrats, whose concerns now seem to dominate every controversial policy in the House.

Martinez Democratic Rep. George Miller has assured the conservative-leaning freshmen whose victories in 2006 gave Democrats their new House majority that they would not be forced to actually vote on the transgender issue.

The issue blew up in Democratic leaders’ faces last month when in hopes of passing landmark gay civil rights legislation during their first year in power, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., pulled transgender people out of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act known as ENDA, for fear it would fail.

The manuever opened an angry split between the openly gay Frank and much of the gay community.

A nice choice of wording.  It alludes to the fact that a vast majority of the discord related to this is of Barney Frank’s (and, yes, the Human Right Scampaign’s) making.

Where ENDA is now (as of last night)

This is a copy of the article on ENDA that will run in tomorrow’s issue of Colorez!, southern Arizona’s GLBTS newsmagazine. Props to ENDAblog contributor justkelly, from whom I stole the headline pun that was just too good to not steal.

The Never-ENDA Story: the Baldwin Amendment, a Veto Threat, and Another Delay

By Kynn Bartlett

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a landmark civil rights law designed to protect GLBT employees from workplace discrimination, is stalled again after a tumultuous fortnight of political wrangling — and some GLBT-community in-fighting.
As reported in the Oct. 11 issue of Colorez!, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., conducted a “whip count” of the Democratic members of the House and found there were not enough votes to pass ENDA with gender identity protections included. There were, Frank said, enough Democratic votes to overcome Republican opposition if gender identity language were removed from the bill; ENDA would pass the House if it only provided protection based on sexual orientation.
“I am convinced that we have the votes to pass in this House a bill that has been the number one goal of the gay and lesbian and bisexual community and our allies for many years, a bill to ban discrimination based on employment,” said Frank on Oct. 10, in a speech on the floor of the House. “I think it will be an extraordinarily good thing for America if we are able to do that.”
Frank introduced H.R. 3685, a revised version of ENDA that addresses sexual orientation, and H.R. 3686, a version only for gender identity. These bills were designed to replace Frank’s H.R. 2015, the version of ENDA introduced in April 2007, which included gender identity for the first time since federal legislation establishing protection from workplace discrimination was first proposed in 1974.

ENDAs Game

Well, another week has gone by in what is rapidly becoming The Never-ENDA Story. A lot has been going on, and the historical significance really cannot be overstressed. Never in the history of the GBLT movement has ENDA received so much attention and action; in thirty years of struggle, it has never before been this close to actually being vetoed.

Over the past week, activists have made phone calls, staged protests, written letters and lobbied almost nonstop for a fully-inclusive bill. A line has been drawn in the sand, and we have stood up to our leadership and declared that a divided ENDA is an unacceptable compromise of our principles. It does not reflect our values as a community, and we do not endorse it. And our leadership has heard us. They have heeded the will of the people, and after much deliberation have declared that tough noogies, they’re doing it anyway.

Incidentally, I’m not generally one to spread rumors, and lord knows I have no proof of this, but I have it on pretty good authority that, prior to revising the bill, Barney Frank made some hefty investments in the makers of Zantac and Pepto Bismol. I’m just saying, that’s all.

Still, there is a contingent within the community that feel the pro-trans-inclusive side are being “selfish” by demanding the original bill be kept intact. The argument is with trans-inclusion, ENDA is bound to fail a vote, and the whole community would be held back unnecessarily. And to tell the truth, while I still disagree with it, I can see where this argument comes from; and if the bill had a snowflake’s chance in hell of going all the way, it is an argument that would need to be addressed.

But let’s not kid ourselves; trans-inclusive or not, anything GBLT-related that gets anywhere near the White House is going to get stomped down faster than you can say “circular file”. I mean, this is George Bush we’re talking about, here: the man just vetoed children’s healthcare, for crying out loud. He’s like the villain in Oliver Twist. He’s sure not going to show the love for his queer peeps.

So, let’s review: in the past few weeks Barney Frank has crippled a vitally important bill, opened up a huge rift in the community, put everyone at each other’s throats, unleashed more animosity and malice within the community than we usually get from the outside, and pretty much guaranteed failure for both versions of a bill that nobody ever seriously expected to be signed into law in the first place. This, as I understand it, is called “Taking a principled stand.”

And so it goes. ENDA-lite is scheduled to be introduced to committee this Thursday, but Speaker of the House Pelosi has has promised to hold a floor vote on the full version just as soon as political support is there—that is, when mainstream acceptance of transgendered individuals has reached the point where most people are okay with hiring them. That’s an interesting strategy for you: don’t pass the law until it’s not needed anymore. Well, you can always count on today’s Democratic Party to do the Right Thing. Or at least the middle-right.

In any case, ENDA is down but not out. No time period has been established for adding Gender Identity back in, but it is tentatively scheduled sometime after the Final Trump. Still, as Barney Frank has pointed out, even getting a stunted, crippled version of ENDA within striking distance of the veto pen is still a victory, of sorts. But then, you have to wonder about a man for whom even symbolic victories are Pyhrric. After all, he was instrumental in the passage of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”, a compromise bill whose author believed it would last “five to ten years”.

 

That was nearly fifteen years ago, but no doubt he’s working on it.

 

The compromise designed to kill trans rights

So yesterday, while I was busy with other things (which is why we need more bloggers here! send email to volunteer), apparently Nancy Pelosi cut a deal of some kind to vote on trans-inclusive ENDA (HR 2015) “as soon as the commitments to pass a fully-inclusive ENDA are acquired”:

The Human Rights Campaign has collaborated with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to craft a solution to the controversy surrounding the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Today, in a meeting with HRC and other gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy groups, Speaker Pelosi took an unprecedented step and committed to giving H.R. 2015, the fully-inclusive version of the bill, a floor vote in the House once enough support for it to pass has been secured.  This commitment by the Speaker of the House is an unprecedented departure from the usual delays seen in Congress on an issue that will have already been considered by the full House.

Additionally, as the community continues to advocate and educate Members of Congress to secure enough commitments for final passage, the inclusive version of the legislation will receive committee hearings.

Although H.R. 3685, the version of the bill that provides workplace protections on the basis of sexual orientation only, will move to committee mark-up next week, Speaker Pelosi has given HRC her word that as soon as the commitments to pass a fully-inclusive ENDA are acquired, she will move that bill ahead.

“Speaker Pelosi’s promise to put a fully-inclusive ENDA to a vote continues to underline HRC’s passionate advocacy on behalf of the entire GLBT community,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese.  “Our strategy throughout has been to stay at the table and fight for the ultimate goal that we all share. Today, that strategy has proven to be successful.  With this commitment, the inclusive ENDA bill will continue to receive legislative action as it moves through the committee hearing process during the time HRC, and other coalition organizations, continue to advocate directly with Members to support this critical inclusive workplace protection bill.”

Since I don’t trust HRC, I am pretty skeptical right off the bat.

I’d like to know who the “other gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy groups” are, and whether they promote the Pelosi Compromise.

Meanwhile, Autumn Sandeen talked to a pro-inclusive-ENDA member of Congress — funny how the anti-inclusion Democrats haven’t come forward (except Barney Frank)? — who described the type of campaigning she’d like to see:

What Rep. Davis wanted to hear instead is personal stories. She wanted to know where and how members of our community has experienced discrimination in the workplace, where and why some of us haven’t experienced discrimination in the workplace, and how all of these experiences have effected us.

So, we went to the meeting and told our stories. We also told some of our peers stories. She’s now heard several reasons why passing a fully inclusive ENDA is really necessary.

Meanwhile, John Aravosis continues to lead the anti-inclusion charge, links to an op/ed by Matthew Shepard’s mom (she supports trans-inclusion in ENDA, BTW, and refers to the LGBTQQ community, something which apparently abhorrently inexplicable to Aravosis), bashes his (former) fellow Republicans for attacking a child with a medical condition as part of a political battle, makes an unfunny joke about ENDA covering uncontrollable urination, and continues to promote the lie that ENDA is a gay-rights bill that will benefit “25 million gays and lesbians.”

Truly, an inspiration embarrassment for equal rights.

Can anyone imagine him fighting as strongly for transgender rights as he does for his own? Even people who agree with him?