Category: politics & causes

politics, both trans & otherwise

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Romney’s LGBT Record

During Mitt Romney’s tenure as governor of Massachusetts, his administration blocked the publication of a state anti-bullying guide because it used the terms “bisexual” and “transgender,” new documents obtained by the Boston Globe and interviews with former state officials reveal. At the time of the delay in 2006, Romney aides said that the document required further review. But an email from a top-ranking Department of Public Health official said that “Because this is using the terms ‘bisexual’ and ‘transgendered,’ DPH’s name may not be used in this publication.”

And that’s not atypical.

Especially while his cohorts are busy telling women not to say “vagina” around women.

These guys are a mess.

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Trans United Bloggers

As I did last time around, I’m looking for bloggers who would be willing to write about the Trans United for Obama volunteer effort. Since the bloggers themselves might not see this post, I’d love for anyone who does to recommend blogs and people who they think would be great.

I’d like trans people of course, but also allies, family, friends = you name it.

Thanks.

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Her Vagina

Representative Lisa Brown is now banned from the Michigan House of Representatives because she said “vagina”.

She was speaking out against a bill that would limit abortions.

“Finally, Mr. Speaker, I’m flattered that you’re all so interested in my vagina, but ‘no’ means ‘no,'” Brown said Wednesday.

You really have to wonder about a group of lawmakers who are so uncomfortable with women’s bodies that they can’t abide the word “vagina” but who feel comfortable telling women what to do with their bodies.

I strongly recommend a filibuster with The Vagina Monologues.

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Allied

My friend Dylan found this article on what it means to be an ally – and therefore given more power & privilege than the group you’re working for, and I find it echoes a lot of my experience.

These four points especially:

  • We don’t *need* the movement: we can leave at any time.  This means we are more free to piss people off etc
  • Outsiders to the movement will reward us more.  We’ll be seen as more generous, heroic etc for our efforts in the movement, and probably given more respect, airtime and resources as a result.  Sometimes this results in really tangible benefits like research grants, book deals, employment.
  • Insiders in the movement will reward and value us more, knowing that outsiders will value us, and that therefore we’re useful spokespeople and a legitimising presence.  This means that sometimes we can get our way by threatening to leave.  Even without threats, people will be eager to appease and placate us.
  • Because we’re usually still able to access the various kinds of support and resources open to us outside the groups we are allies to, that means we have two areas to draw on, whereas non-ally activists have only their own communities’ support and resources.

Very, very good thoughtful stuff, and unlike many other articles on the subject, it actually provides useful ways of defeating, or subverting, those kinds of power.

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Trans United for Obama Launches Nationwide Volunteer Effort

WASHINGTON, June 8 — Trans United for Obama, a national volunteer effort, has launched a campaign to rally transgender people, their allies, families, and supporters in the re-election campaign of President Barack Obama.

The campaign, organized by a group of transgender advocates, educators, bloggers, authors, and their families and allies, aims to educate people about the historic changes that the Obama Administration has accomplished in the past three and a half years to secure equal rights and protections for all Americans, including transgender people.

Among the victories achieved during President Obama’s first term is the removal of onerous and outdated requirements to change gender markers on legal documents such as passports, immigration documents, federal employee records, Veterans’ Administration records, and birth certificates for American citizens born outside of the US.  In addition, discrimination based on gender identity is now banned in areas like federal employment and public housing programs, and President Obama signed the first federal law aimed at addressing the rampant violence that transgender people face.

Trans United for Obama (TU4O) will work closely with the president’s campaign and will hold regular national calls to coordinate and boost trans and allied people’s participation in the re-election campaign. One of its goals is to register new trans voters and support others who may be prevented or discouraged from voting by new and discriminatory voter ID laws in several states. Supporters can register at the website to volunteer, donate money to the campaign through the grassroots fundraising site, and express their support for the re-election of President Obama and for his ongoing efforts to secure equal rights for transgender Americans.

Trans United for Obama can be found at http://www.transunitedforobama.org/index.html.

To learn more about the Trans United for Obama campaign, follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TransUnited4Obama

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Vote WI

Today’s the day of the election that resulted as a result of the efforts to recall Governor Scott Walker, SO EVERYONE HAS TO VOTE to make sure this wasn’t all in vain & we don’t wind up with this shithead staying in power.

His campaign has outspent Barrett’s something like 7:1.

So please, Dems, no matter what you’re doing today, get out & vote.

You don’t need a photo ID to vote in this election, either.

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Boston DOMA Ruling

In Thursday’s opinion, a three-judge panel in the First Circuit Court of Appeals found that the law couldn’t stand. Writing for the court, Judge Michael Boudin, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, observed that Supreme Court precedents limit government’s power to take action against “historically disadvantaged or unpopular” groups, including gays and lesbians. The 1996 law imposes “serious adverse consequences” on them, he wrote.

Justifications offered for the law—”defending and nurturing the institution of traditional, heterosexual marriage” and “traditional notions of morality,” among others—were insufficient to justify such discriminatory treatment, Judge Boudin said.

Six states plus the District of Columbia currently authorize same-sex marriages, and more than 100,000 same-sex couples have been married. Thirty-nine states have passed laws limiting marriage to a man and a woman.

More here.

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NC

North Carolina looks to pass a law that will make it impossible for same sex couples to have anything that even resembles marriage – a law that’s referred to as a super DOMA. Wisconsin has one in place, too, and I understand, for some, they are meant to uphold a traditional Christian marriage of one man + one woman.

What they do, sadly, is make LGBTQ feel less welcome, cause an increase in bigotry and violence against queer people, and put many children of LGBTQ people further into legal limbo when their parents separate, amongst other things.

I do not understand why civil recognition of my partnership offends people so deeply that they would pass this kind of law.

I don’t understand why people hate gay people so much.