I had a conversation with another Queer activist yesterday. She asked me what are the major concerns of the Hampton Roads Trans community and the greater LGBTQ community in Hampton Roads.
I said, "Marriage equality is certainly important. Everyone should certainly have the right to be "married." As for the Trans community, inequality means no employment, little to no health care, and rampant housing discrimination. It is most difficult to think about marriage when you do not have a roof over your head. You do not have a job. You cannot afford to eat. Health care professionals turn you away because they refuse to treat Transgender people."
"As for the greater LGB community, many of these folks share the same issues in particular if they are LGBTQ of any color than white."
It is so easy for folks who are white, middle class, assimilated to sit back in their easy chairs and ponder their marriage equality navels.
Military service is not the answer to these immediate issues for Transgender people. It is a tradeoff. One trades their lack of civilian rights so they can gain said rights by putting their own well being in harm's way.
Do not misunderstand me. Everyone should have full equality throughout society including the right to get married or to join the military.
Employment, housing, food, and health care are more important than getting married or a military trade off.
Let's get our priorities right!
|
| Policy Conference and Lobby Days 2011 |
Join us from
March 13-15, 2011
in Washington DC as we hear directly from policy makers and educate legislators on Capitol Hill
More information
Register today
|
| Join Our List |
 |
|
|
Tonight, in his State of the Union address, President Obama celebrated the fact that the American military will no longer bar openly gay and lesbian service members. He went on to call on colleges and universities to open their campuses to ROTC and military recruiters now that the discriminatory Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy has been repealed.
However, students on campuses like Stanford and Harvard have already pointed out that the repeal of this policy, while an improvement, still does not allow transgender people to serve openly or to join the military. We support the organizing efforts of students on those campuses and others in continuing to advocate for the exclusion of the military from their campuses as long as the military continues to discriminate.
While the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell is a victory for fairness, it does not fully address the discrimination that LGBT people face. We must keep up our efforts until the job is completely done and the US military is open all Americans who seek an equal opportunity to serve our country.
In the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, conducted by NCTE and The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 20% of respondents reported having served in the military, a rate of service twice the national average. The full report from the survey will be released on February 4th.
For more information about the military's policies that impact transgender people, please read the joint statement issued by NCTE and the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. |
|
About NCTE
The National Center for Transgender Equality is a national social justice organization devoted to ending discrimination and violence against transgender people through education and advocacy on national issues of importance to transgender people. By empowering transgender people and our allies to educate and influence policymakers and others, NCTE facilitates a strong and clear voice for transgender equality in our nation's capital and around the country. The National Center for Transgender Equality is a 501(c)3 organization. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 comment:
The repeal of DADT should certainly make things a lot easier for a lot of people. Even so, it does absolutely nothing for the vast majority of the LBGTQI.
The important aspect of this is that we are still an oppressed minority, mainly by religious mandates, enacted into the laws of our land in every area from religious freedom to our rights to equal opportunity in employment, housing, medical care and other vital legal protections. We are being denied equal protections under the Constitution.
It is obvious by the actions of the progressive leadership during last year's inclusive ENDA negotiations, that DADT was just a bone tossed out to the few of our community in the military.
I would that the agenda of the leadership of the LBGTQI take a much more critical look at exactly what needs to be addressed and how we address it.
1. We need to take a fresh look at our rights under the 1st Amendment. The way it has been done to date is alienating much of our mainstream culture. They do have the right to worship and believe as they desire, and their rights to do so should not be challenged. However, at the same time, we need to become more proactive on the matter of our rights as well. If the mainstream demands their beliefs be respected, then they must also respect ours as well. No more; "Heads we win, tails you lose." double standards.
2. We need to make certain that whatever future legislation becomes proposed works to the principles that people have the freedom to believe as they will. All actions must be rigidly examined by the legal test of "reasonable" and anything that falls into the category of "imaginable, but not tangible" must be excluded from the laws of our land. People have to accept that not everyone will share their beliefs and allow others their's as well.
3. As medical research has shown, beyond reasonable doubts, that both sexual preference/identity are more matters of genetic predisposition or cause - and prenatal development. We need to challenge any enacted legislation that denies gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals access to both public sector and private sector medical coverage, both preventative and anything medically necessary to the improvement of their situation. Language that excludes such coverage, unless it is "Physical"* can no longer stand the test of "reasonable doubt" nor a "preponderance of evidence." Behaviorism has never done more than scratch the surface of human nature and has done demonstrable harm to too many people. It must be discounted as appropriate.
If we can not advance our freedoms through the enactment of new laws, I would then suggest that we must unite to challenge those laws, already on the books, that have become disproved by valid scientific and medical research or pander to religious tenets.
We are dealing with civil issues here - not criminal. Those who oppose us must not be allowed to demand proof that we are NOT perverse beyond any reasonable doubt. If anything, the burden of proof of any perfidy, on our part, lies on them and religious tenets are not valid proof of anything.
JMHO
*Take a look at the exclusions from coverage in the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Anything of sexual relationship is excluded unless it is absolutely visually apparent. At the same time, while GID is listed as a potentially lethal affliction under the DSM, and the AMA has now deemed transitional medicine medically necessary, any form of coverage for transsexualism, and many other sexually related disorder, which cause an individual the inability to function within our society are exclusively denied, even though there are many other conditions in the DSM (where GID does not belong) that are covered. This includes the exclusion of issues related to sexual orientation and other conditions that would be helped by coverage for things like counseling, therapy and other types of procedures to allow one to function better in a culture that has become way too stratified.
Post a Comment