Melissa and Paula Go to Washington

I know that a few of you old timers and fans of Jimmy Stewart remember the old film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”. Well, this week Paula and I traveled from Columbus Ohio for NCTE’s Lobby Days in DC which involved briefings, meetings and training as well visits to our US Congress members and members of the US Senate seeking what none of us really should have to beg for – rights, dignity and freedoms that every American citizen should have in our society. Specifically we asked them and offered many reasons why they should support the “Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HB 1913) which is established to amend existing laws so as to deter acts of violence and hatred against those in the transgendered community as well as the other equally important categories such as sexual orientation, women (gender) and those with disabilities. The religious right wing Nazis have been hard at work in opposition to this bill on the grounds that their “preachers” will be somehow subject to liability under the Act for condemning us to hell and back! The members of Congress are confused by the laws because they believe this blatant lies.
I can tell you the strategy is one of the old adages….if you tell the lie many times and convince many people of the lies then it somehow becomes true. What bullshit this is…say the lie six million times and it does not make it true. The truth of the matter is that “preachers” will be able to spew their doctrine all they wasn’t because it is protected by the First Amendment freedoms of freedom of religion And expression. However, if some low life moron in the “preachers” congregation decides that because we are all going to hell that it’s ok to attack me and try to harm me or kill me to speed up this process, that person is subject to criminal liability under the provisions NOT the “preacher”. The amendments under the bill increase funding to local agencies and increased resources from FBI to local agencies to aid in the investigation and prosecution of these crimes. Finally the bill expands when the terms apply and does not limit it to just voting and other such actions. Local law enforcement officials, prosecuting attorneys and Sheriffs Association all support the bill. So do many religious organizations that believe in the principles that actions must be taken to discourage hatred and violence against the marginalized communities. The bill has passed the House as of Wednesday April 29th and now heads to the Senate for possible passage. I hope and pray that it does and that those who have worked so hard against its passage from the religious right burn in hell for their support of violence against the LGBT communities! Hate is not any religious value to be promoting and I also believe that lying as they are doing in this smear campaign against this important piece of legislation is also against the principles of the Ten Commandments.
The other issues we lobbied for included ENDA (Employment Non Discrimination Act) as well as the upcoming issues involving health care and insurance for those in the LGBT communities. ENDA is a huge and important piece of legislation for those in the LGBT community because it ends employment non discrimination against the last two unprotected groups in the US (currently the protected classes include gender, race, age national origin, physical handicap, religion etc). The last bastions of discrimination in this country include discrimination based on one’s sexual orientation and gender identity. Of course the objections of extending protection to these groups stems not on legal grounds but on religious grounds. (You know once God condemns us in obscure text sections of the old testament written by men and copulated from many sources and translated so many times one’s head nearly spins that’s it folks – no rights and dignity for you by a government built on the principles of separation of church and state. Never mind there is NOT one single mention of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered people or any condemnation thereof based on the new testament which, by the way, is the basis of how Christianity got started in the first place. I swear that these religious right wing zealots believe that the world will come to an end if these pieces of legislation are enacted
Health care issues will also be on the horizon as well. These include prohibiting discrimination against those in the LGBT communities by health care providers and insurance carriers. We will also seek to include transitional health care costs in the legislation. We spent a good part of Sunday evening socializing and meeting others who had come to lobby. This year’s NCTE Lobby days were the largest on record with just over 200 transgendered people and allies involved in the process. Paula and I met so many new and wonderful friends which only served to remind us how beautiful and talented and caring the people of our community are and how many of us are prejudged by so many so wrongly in our society. Hugs felt so good and I so wish that others in society could see the warmth and talent that exists in our community. Monday was a day filled with briefings and training sessions to learn more about the legislation and issues involved as well as practice on lobbying. Finally at the end of the day each state delegation met plan our strategies for meeting our representatives and senators. For Paula and I that met meeting two Republican Congressman and one Republican US Senator (Voinovich) on the capitol for lobbying. The Congressmen both voted against the Hate Crimes bill despite our best efforts but one of them was so paranoid about meeting us he actually stood behind the door and listened to us but would not greet us while we met his aide for fear I guess that we might be contagious. Senator Voinovich is a different story. He has pledged his support for the Hate Crimes Bill and remains undecided on ENDA. More work is needed to educate and seek his support on this crucial piece of legislation. Senator Brown will support us on these bills as well. At the end of a very long day on Tuesday we took our group photo on the capitol steps and had a nice reception on the patio of a local establishment.
We know we have much work to do but I know we will continue to write, call and visit these people and push them on these important issues! If necessary Paula and I will go back to DC! I know we plan to return for lobby days again next year too and I encourage anyone who has not done so to come if you can. If you can’t come to Lobby Days then write and call and meet your representatives and senators in their local offices. I do sense a change in Washington and in this country but we cannot let up one bit my sisters and brothers- as the right wing will only take its setback in the House on the Hate Crimes Bill as a need to step up their attacks and lies against the LGBT communities. It will get vicious before it is all done- believe me. However, I know the talent and passion that exists in our community and if we all work hard on these issues and in our efforts we can be successful in bringing about changes so long needed in society! Maybe someday when hate and prejudices and discrimination will have little role in our society and everyone can see the world will not come to end because all people have rights and dignity and opportunities in this country built on the premise of equality and life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!

Pictured above is Paula and I with Erica from Minn and Debbie from Virginia at the NCTE Reception

Harvey Milk, Closets, Fear and Transgendered Power

Paula and I just got back from viewing an evening out in which we dined at an Irish pub near the OSU campus and took in a movie. The diner was delightful as always love good food and Irish ale and Paula and I chatted about many things in our lives currently. However, despite the fact I love her company and good food and drink, all of that paled in comparison to the movie which we saw- MILK! If you have not seen this film you need to do so my friends! It is an extraordinary and powerful film about the life of Harvey Milk, the first gay man elected to a prominent position when he took office in 1978 in San Francisco. Sean Penn is fabulous in the role of Harvey Milk and clearly captures his essence as a human being. The film is sad at the end because of his tragic, premature death as the result of a man tormented by his own demons (It was suspected Milk’s killer who held the same elected position as that of Milk was a deeply closeted homosexual who tried to live a life of a traditional Irish catholic and “moral” life as a married man with children). The end is a perfect example of the dangers of putting handguns in the hands of mentally disturbed individuals filled with anger and repression and way too much testosterone!

Harvey Milk could have done so much more for the rights and dignity of people if he had not been tragically killed that morning in his own office along with the mayor of San Francisco at that time. The event came shortly after two major victories won by Milk and his allies- the defeat of proposition six which would have made it permissible to fire any school employee in California for being gay or simply supporting the rights of gays as well as the enactment of city wide ordinance protecting individuals from housing and employment discrimination based on one’s sexual orientation. This ordinance has since been amended to include and protect those of the transgendered community. Harvey Milk left a great legacy in the world and many have followed in his footsteps but most importantly he set the example for leadership and changes in our struggle for dignity and human rights.

What I admired most about him was his courage and there is part of the movie where in order to win the tide to defeat proposition six against the likes of a right wing religious zealot and “Nazi” Senator at that time supported, of course, by the likes of Anita Bryant and her “Godly inspired” crusade against rights for gay people. In order to win the vote against the tide of money and power displayed by the so called “Christians” Harvey Milk encouraged his friends and supporters to break down the doors of their own closets and come out to their families and friends as well as their employers so that people could know and connect with a gay person and find out that their sons and daughters and employees were simply people who were gay. According to Harvey Milk the greatest thing holding back the community was the fact that many lived in the closet and only by coming out and coming clean could the movement grow. Power ONLY comes from being free and without power nothing important can ever be accomplished. It takes great courage to let people who you work for and love and care about know who you really are as a person. That courage is what gives you power and with that power much can be accomplished. But courage is what brought about Harvey’s accomplishments personally as well in his movements and causes. It gave him and those that followed and supported him power. I will state this as bluntly as I can put it …… if the transgendered community does not show the same courage we will be left behind in the struggle for dignity and human rights that all people deserve!

So those of us who are transgendered in any way (crossdresser, transvestite, undefined transgendered, pre-op transsexual as well as post- op TS better heed the warning and get out of their damn closets and show some courage and take a voice in our community if we ever want to be able to accomplish anything in this society, achieve power and find ourselves victorious as Harvey and his followers did thirty years ago. The main problem is so many people in the transgendered community live in the closet, fearful of letting other human beings who supposedly love and care about them know about their true selves. So what if your friends desert you and so what if your family casts you aside like some weird freak. As Harvey Milk talks about in the movie….if your friends reject you- they were NOT really your friends and if your family rejects you THEY don’t deserve you! Some of them may later come around and that is great if they do- but do not let the fear of them rejecting you paralyze you and don’t let your family blackmail you into silence because they will cut you off if you come out and come clean. I know I was guilty of the same for so long. The day my ex-wife confronted me she awoke something in me and I decided I needed to come clean. She does not realize the long dormant activist she awoke inside me. Every person I told thereafter gave me more courage and more freedom. I lost friends and family like they were going out of style, BUT I hide from no one and I am truly free. With this freedom, power can come. Fear captures us as humans and the courage found deep inside all of us can overcome that fear and free our soul and our determination to bring about change.

As I have pointed out before transgendered people live in closets both prior to and after transition if they are TS. Cloak and stealth are just more ways to define closets and they keep us from moving forward in achieving rights and dignity for our community. Running and hiding from your past will only leave you without strength and courage and to be quite honest, true stealth and cloak are not really possible in today’s technology driven society. It is a myth! Just for shits and giggles, I used the internet to track down the past history and such for three of my transgendered friends who have transitioned and live fulltime as the men or women they are in their souls. It was done with little effort and almost zero cost. People you are only fooling yourself and no one else if you truly believe you can live in cloak or stealth. The problem in our community and why we will not likely prevail in achieving many of the goals that those in the lesbian and gay communities have and will achieve, is that society only sees a tip of the iceberg of our community and thinks we are a very small, minute group of freaks. Most of the community lies under the water- afraid to emerge from the comfort of the closet, stealth or cloak they have attempted to create in the murky waters below.

We are already a much smaller group than those of the gay and lesbian communities as it is and if most of our community remains hidden, then plain and simply we will find ourselves left out of society and existing with few if any rights and we will have no one to blame but ourselves! Someday someone will tear down your closet and you will be outed but when that day happens and you find yourself with little protections or rights don’t come crying to those who have come clean and let the world know who they really are- whether that be a man who likes to dress and express his feminine side on occasion or a post operative TS who lives life as a man or woman in a gender opposite that of their birth. I am not advocating running around and always announcing yourself to everyone but don’t play the game of denial to those who confront you. We have nothing to be ashamed of as transgendered people. So get out your closets and get living life without fear and with courage. You will feel empowered! Give up your stealth and cloak and be proud of who you are-even your past.

I know many post operative TS who try to pretend they have always been living life in their true gender despite transition. Everyone one of us in the TS community was born either male or female in our outer, genetic gender and we lived life for sometime this way as difficult as it may have been. We transitioned and now life in our true gender but we should not be ashamed of who we are or our past life. I will never be a genetic female no matter how much surgery I incur or hormone compounds I ingest. The very fact I was born genetically male and transitioned to live life as female because it is who I am as a human being means exactly this- I am a transgendered person! I am and always will be transgendered! If I deny who I am as a human being or the existence of part of my life in another gender, even as improper as that past life was to my soul, then I live in shame of who I am as human being. If we act like that in our community then how are we ever to achieve anything in our community or even individually. How are we ever going obtain power? Just as Harvey Milk did in encouraging his community to come out and be open we must do the same to let others know WE EXIST and that we are just people like everyone else: fathers, mothers, spouses, sons and daughters, lawyers, architects, doctors, teachers, bartenders, carpenters, truck drivers and every other profession under the sun- but people who just happen to be transgendered. When we do this we will not only find our personal freedom and power but we will find ourselves accomplishing so much more as a community. “Milk” is about a man’s accomplishments in life when he found his courage and passion for what he believed in and left the confines of his closet at age 40 to live a life without fear and even in his death his work and legacy carried on long afterward. Let’s hope we all find our courage as Harvey Milk did and get involved in moving our push for human rights and dignity forward as transgendered people. Tear down the closet doors and turn off the stealth and our power awaits us!