Jillian Weiss has written an excellent summation of what’s up with ENDA at Bilerico. Do check it out. I was on the conference call as well, & Weiss’ “take” on what was said is the same as mine on all the important points.
Good News: ENDA & DADT Update
ENDA & the bill to repeal DADT are supposed to go to the floor this month!
Meanwhile, the whip count on ENDA, which Obama also backs, is entering its fifth week. The effort has most recently focused on rechecking support among Members thought to be more comfortable with the legislation than politically imperiled moderates who have raised most of the concerns, one source familiar with the effort said. That, the source said, bodes well for its progress. But many Members remain officially undecided and have quietly voiced frustrations about the prospect of taking a tough vote that they see as a distraction from an agenda focused on job creation.
“It seems to run contrary to what the Speaker said a few months back about focusing on jobs and moving away from these controversial items,” one senior Democratic aide said. “Anything that’s not specifically tied to keeping the economy going raises red flags for folks.”
But Frank said that he is optimistic about the vote count and that transgender protections will remain in the bill.
“There’s no chance of doing it without it,” he said of the transgender protections.
Frank said he’s told wavering Democrats that “the principle is the same. It’s discrimination.”
He said concessions were made in the drafting of the language to address moderates’ concerns. For instance, Frank said, transgender people with “one set of genitals” would not be able to go to a bathroom for people with another set of genitals.
And, Frank said, they also would have to have a “consistent gender presentation” in order to be able to sue for discrimination.
“They can’t sit there with a full beard and a dress,” Frank said.
We’re going to need to make a lot of calls, folks. Stay tuned.
May Day: Massey Miners’ Families Offered $3M for Loved Ones
But they had no money for safety regulations.
Today is May Day, still celebrated as a workers’ holiday by many, and this news makes me sick. To hell with Massey, BP, and the state of Arizona.
What we’ve seen with Massey and BP is a direct result of the cronyism of Dubya who was more willing to let his friends make money than to enforce safety standards. Those men shouldn’t be dead. The people who worked on that rig shouldn’t be either. Where are the shitheads who make these decisions? I want to see them cleaning the oil off all marine life.
I can’t even bear to read the news about Gulf spill, but I am absolutely sure I would trade a million Sarah Palins for 1 goddamn sea turtle. She should be choking on oil, instead.
Hawaii Congress Approves Civil Unions
In the midst of all the bad news, about Arizona and the BP Gulf spill, Hawaii’s state Congress approved Civil Unions. The Senate approved it back in January, when it got snagged on opposition, but just yesterday Hawaii’s House approved it, so it goes next to the Governor, who has not indicated whether she would sign it or not.
Still, news that doesn’t suck!
Unemployed Trans + ENDA Direct Action
NCTE has a direct action going on. If you’re a trans person or ally who is out of work, you can drop off your resume + cover letter to your local Congressperson, and then send copies to NCTE who will deliver them in person. The idea is to show Congress exactly how much we need ENDA. More below the break: Continue reading “Unemployed Trans + ENDA Direct Action”
Guns, God… and the Trans?!
Wow. A Republican trans woman named Donna Milo is running against an incumbent Democrat in Florida, which makes two trans women who don’t seem to understand politics.
Sorry, folks, but the Family Values crowd isn’t pro-transsexual, and if you actually think the old school Conservativism has any pull just now, you haven’t been paying attention. Trans or not, here’s hoping Milo loses (but I still hope her transness isn’t used to undermine her).
Autumn Sandeen Chains Herself to WH Fence
No kidding – you go Autumn!
Our hopes swelled when President Obama promised at the State of the Union to end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), the policy that discriminates against lesbian and gay servicemembers. But his words mean nothing without action. And he has an opportunity to take action right now. The Defense Authorization Bill (DAB) provides funding for all military operations, and it will soon be up for renewal.
President Obama knows that the DAB provides a way to repeal DADT immediately. And he knows that repealing the policy quickly and decisively is the right thing to do for LGBT servicemembers and for all of the armed forces. But recent reports suggest that the Administration is trying to delay any law change until December or even later.
Join us in supporting Lt. Dan Choi, Capt. Jim Pietrangelo, Petty Officer Larry Whitt, Petty Officer Autumn Sandeen, Cadet Mara Boyd, and Cpl. Evelyn Thomas as they take action at the White House to demand that DADT be repealed through this year’s DAB
Response to the APA’s New GID
Callen-Lorde and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center, both of New York, have written a response to the APA’s revised DSM diagnosis for Gender Identity Disorder — which is now being re-named Gender Incongruence. They make a few important and valid points in a statement which is tidy, well-written, and well-argued. I’m impressed & will be added as a signatory.
Re: Comment on the proposed “Gender Incongruence” in the draft revision of the of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, version 5
(DSM-5)American Psychiatric Association:
The undersigned providers of and advocates for medical and mental health services to transgender and gender non-conforming communities welcome this opportunity to offer feedback and comment on the American Psychiatric Association’s draft revision diagnosis for Gender Identity Disorders (GID), “Gender Incongruence” (GI).
The lead organizations facilitating this response are Callen-Lorde Community Health Center and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center of New York City. Each of these organizations started providing community services in 1983 and together serve over 2,000 people of transgender experience with primary health care and hormone care as well as substance abuse, mental health, and community building services. Our organizations, as well as the other signatories to this letter, represent the largest settings providing health and social services to transgender and gender non-conforming people and their families in the United States.
We appreciate the APA’s proposed “Gender Incongruence”(GI) diagnosis is an effort intended to de-stigmatize gender non-conformity and improve transgender-identified people’s access to mental health care. We agree with the intention behind this effort; however, we endorse an alternative viewpoint, based on our years of collective practice knowledge. We believe GI will continue to inappropriately pathologize gender non-conformity, maintain barriers to medically necessary health care, and lend justification to gender based stigmatization and discrimination.
Prior to addressing the reasons behind our recommendation, we would like to respectfully address the process by which the APA undertook this effort.
From the vantage point of LGBT health and community centers, the conceptualization of “Gender Incongruence” occurred without valuable and necessary input from community providers who serve and are accountable to significant numbers of people affected by this diagnosis. The November 2008 Report of the DSM-V Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group indicates that the “sub-work group has addressed feedback from interested advocacy groups and other stakeholders. Surveys were sent to more than 60 organizations.” While other agencies have provided feedback in this process, we are concerned that the institutions that provide the bulk of medical and mental health services to transgender people nationwide were not asked for input. We have reached out to LGBT community health centers and LGBT community centers; none of these key, high-volume, client-centered, community-driven stakeholders seem to have been included in the research or vetting process. Without input from a representative sample of such organizations and their clients, the conclusions of the sub-work group regarding GI cannot be considered generalizable.Our specific concerns regarding the validity and utility of the proposed inclusion of GI are as follows:
– Gender non-conformity is not a mental disorder: The proposed definition of a mental disorder in the DSM-V expressly prohibits the inclusion of diagnoses that are “primarily the result of social deviance or conflicts with society” (APA, 2010). The “Gender Incongruence” diagnosis inherently contradicts this tenet. Whereas the criteria for other psychiatric diagnoses are lists of symptoms that impair functioning, the proposed criteria for GI are a list of characteristics of gender non-conformity. There is no evidence or need for treatment that decreases gender non-conformity or crossdressing, as noted in “Transvestic Fetishism.” The GI diagnosis obfuscates the root cause of the distress many transgender people experience – pervasive discrimination. It is commonly acknowledged among mental health providers that being gay, bisexual or lesbian is not a disorder, but that the social impact of stigma, discrimination and homophobia can cause the individual great distress. GI falsely assigns dysfunction to the gender non-conforming person, rather than within the social environment.– An inappropriate pathway to transgender-specific medical care: There is legitimate community concern that removal of a mental health diagnosis would limit access to transgender-specific medical care. While a minority has succeeded in using the legal system or in fulfilling their insurer’s requirements for coverage to access care, the majority of people needing transgender-specific medical care are denied coverage. GI maintains these barriers to care. Medical interventions are better substantiated by the use of medical diagnoses, not psychiatric diagnoses. Access to transgender-specific, medically necessary care can be directly and more effectively addressed by utilization of a revised medical diagnosis in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). The psychiatric needs of transgender people are better addressed by existing psychiatric diagnoses.
– GI lays the groundwork for unethical and harmful reparative therapy: A GID diagnosis has historically been misused to justify treatment of “pre-homosexual” children in the hope of preventing or delaying the development of a positive and healthy gay or lesbian identity. With adults, transgender-specific medical intervention is often offered only if reparative therapy fails to relieve distress and improve social functioning.
The GI diagnosis will continue to lend false credence to interventions that foster shame, encourage children and adults to betray their true selves, and delay healthy identity development. This practice is harmful and unethical.In summary, we propose all diagnoses addressing gender non-conformity and identity be eliminated from the DSM-5. The mental health needs – when present – of gender non-conforming people are addressed by existing diagnoses. We ask the APA to formally renounce reparative therapy addressing gender non-conformity in children, adolescents and adults. We acknowledge that a diagnosis must exist for those who require medically necessary transgender-specific care, and ask the APA to advocate for a viable transgender-specific medical diagnosis in the ICD. Finally, we respectfully request that the APA include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender healthcare institutions and community centers in these processes.
Sincerely,
Callen-Lorde Community Health Center
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center of New York City Continue reading “Response to the APA’s New GID”
Tammy Baldwin’s Statement on Recent Obama Decision
Courtesy of Our Lives magazine:
President Obama’s decision to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to take steps to ensure that hospitals participating in Medicare or Medicaid respect the rights of patients to receive visitors and designate others to make decisions about medical care in the case of an emergency is the right one. It follows the lead of many states and makes a strong statement about who we are as a nation and what we value.
Mourning Miners
Thank you, President Obama, for saying what you’ve said about the miners’ deaths. I’ve been maybe uncharacteristically silent on their massacre, because I’ve had no words.
The owners of Massey should be responsible, forever, for the financial well-being of all the families those miners left behind, and they should have to provide for them all on miners’ wages.
It is amazing to me that anyone could ever think companies could be responsible & not need government oversight. Massey is what you get when you even relax safety standards.