“You’re living in your own Private Idaho …
Underground like a Wild Potato …
It leads you straight,
Right through the gate.” — Private Idaho, the B-52’s
It was painful to watch the Matt Lauer interview with Sen. Larry Craig on ABC’s Tuesday Night interview. Why they would allow a show to watch a man struggle mightily with his guilt on national TV escapes me. Perhaps the GOP couldn’t stop him – or maybe they decided this would help clear one of their many black marks over the recent years for the upcoming election season. Either way, it was like watching Dick Cheney wax about all the WMD’s and nuclear weapons that are still stashed by Saddam somewhere there in Iraq from somewhere around the time Hussein contracted all the hijackers to fly into the World Trade Towers. Yeah ....
When scrambling to defend ourselves we can cover most things we wish to hide, but there are almost always little telling clues that betray the ones trying to obfuscate truth. Both Craigs were well disciplined in their answers and facial reactions. Watching his wife’s expression during the answering process while speaking to Lauer, and then watching her expression while sharply looking over her husband’s answer was a bit of a giveaway. You could palpably feel the a) Love, b) Desperation, c) Anger!
Mrs. Craig’s trying hard to do the dutiful “stand-by-your-man” routine that now Sen. Hillary Clinton did as first lady to then Pres. Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal. It’s ironic that it was Craig's husband doing the less-than-charitable piling on during that affair with his now infamous “It’s a bad boy, Bill Clinton … in fact, a nasty bad boy” comment.
Of course, Bill Clinton’s multiple sexual impropriety claims were always coming from the behest of rather partisan individuals, either directly or via bankrolling. With Sen. Larry, he was outed by none other than Roll Call, a not-so-liberal publication that acts as a non-partisan newspaper for Capitol Hill – not the New York Times, or the L. A. Times, or even the Idaho Statesman. Rats! That takes the punch out of the liberal media witch hunt claims!
“Don't let the chlorine in your eyes
blind you to the awful surprise
that's waitin' for you.” — Private Idaho, the B-52’s
It was oddly amusing to note how the good senator from Potato-land now sees the condemnable actions of cops who “profile” and how easily innocents can get swept up into this (ahem) dragnet. Perhaps good news for all the longhairs, the blacks or Latinos who’ve been pulled over and searched for drugs or unlicensed weapons – a good conservative senator sees their injustice of how they’ve been railroaded as was he! You can also bet good Sen. Larry will seek a cessation of the profiling of guys ‘cruising the men’s rooms or other gay hot spots’ for possible sex simply because they’re fitting a profile. Criminy, all those men in the bathhouses weren’t sexually insatiable and immoral – they’re just poor men looking for a place to take a bath! Isn’t bathing a natural and hygienically admirable thing? Cleanliness is next to godliness, so they say.
One damnable part of the entire public interview was when Sen. Larry decided that after his guilty plea, he demanded a do-over “to the extent that all Americans” would want to defend themselves. When does the rest of America get a do-over upon their guilt pleas? Maybe those “profiled” hippies, ethnic minorities, hookers and gay men can use his precedent to reclaim their clean records – or not. Or maybe we can all just get together and agree that rich folk, especially politically-connected and most especially if they’re conservative, connected, rich folk, have a standard of law that’s very special and one we can all envy (but in all likelihood, never enjoy ourselves).
Hey! Why have one standard when you can afford two? One for everyone else, and a special one just for you! Capital idea!
The second, and most damnable part was Craig’s explanation that he should’ve fought the charges and that (as Matt Lauer supposedly was to understand) Sen. Larry Craig is “a fighter.” As Lauer himself pointed out from earlier in the interview per Sen. Larry’s own words, he initially pleaded guilty, went to work, told neither his attorney, nor his staff or colleagues, nor even his own wife and family in hopes that he could avoid this hitting the media. Does that sound like “a fighter”? If he was such a “fighter”, why even admit guilt in the first place, rather than the typical Republican approach (a la Tom DeLay, George W. Bush, Richard Nixon, et. al.) of denying it to his final breath. So what if your hand is photographed in the cookie jar? Denial to the point of deceit is good in conservative values – admitting guilt is defeat and shows poor resolve (no matter how true it may be.) You never lose until you admit it.
“Get out of the state! Get out of the state you’re in!
Walkin' through the gate that leads you down,
down to a pool fraught with danger:
It’s a pool full of strangers.” — Private Idaho, the B-52’s
What came through loudly and clearly was the order of things. There’s an obvious pecking order of being queer. There are shades of queerness to straightness along a continuum, with the higher-echelons always looking down upon and disparaging those beneath. Just as the transgender community found the last few weeks how gay and lesbian community (at least the straight-acting portion) still consider trannies trash. They look down on dykes, fems, leather boys and bears too, so we shouldn't feel alone.
But even the Disco gay set is held at arms’ length by the more denial-oriented gays a la Andrew Sullivan, Matt Drudge, the khaki pseudo-straight gays and lesbians and closeted politicos a la Rep. David Dreier or former Rep. Mark Foley, for whom “outness” is anathema. Indeed, in conservative circles, outing is a career-ender.
Then you have the straight folks who at times sidle up to the straighter of the G&L folks, but damn near stampede themselves to death when someone in their party is scandalized by being labeled “gay.” Then you have the hyper-straights who look disparagingly upon the straights who occasionally sort of “understand” gay colleagues, and create a buffer between their sanctimony-by-example lives and those of their “welcoming, tolerant” set. In hyper-straight America, God is always unforgiving. That welcoming-and-understanding garbage was spewed by some hippie kid of His, the liberal! Who’s gonna listen to that kid when they can follow Paul instead?
Everyone tries to be top-of-the-heap in order to look down on the others. It makes them feel big. Is this what it’s all about: success is the ability to look down upon all the others (or as many as possible)?
Sometimes just being you is liberating beyond belief. It makes me sad for Sen. Larry that he’s cut himself off from ever knowing this feeling (at least with any credibility left intact). It reminds me of the sexuality rumors that flew for so long about a local weatherman in Houston, Frank Billingsley. Even the gay community (desperately seeking heroes or validation) was pushing him out of the closet – one that Billingsley fought. Eventually, he settled down and let it gradually seep out. Meanwhile his weather forecasting and reporting style was also reaping him kudos, even among those who once salaciously awaited his public outing with a hangman’s baited breath.
In the end, Frank became simply a good weatherman, everyone was pleased with his job, and folks basically moved on to other topics beside his personal life. The sexuality controversy faded into a complete non-issue. It became that way for many gays and lesbians over the past decade or so – once discovered or outed, as long as they weren’t in religiopolitical or conservative environs, their talent, their output, their surpassing the obstacles became what they were known about. We’re in the very seminal stages of that in the Transgender Community as well.
Ultimately, all these folks needed was a chance to prove themselves. Sadly, for many like Sen. Larry – conservative, but also gay – they will never have that opportunity to prove themselves in this lifetime without being self-loathing and denouncing their own lifestyle. Even as we speak, the GOP folks have circled their wagons, and Sen. Larry is not on the inside of that circle. He’ll be left out to the wolves.
Who knows what Sen. Larry could’ve done if he’d just been allowed to be himself, free from prejudice and judgment. But then again, we live in America. What were we expecting: humanitarian compassion?
“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.” — from the play ‘Hamlet’ by William Shakespeare
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Fresh New Lies, or How To Kill Off the Last Of Hope
“I’m up on the Tight Rope … one side’s Fate and one is Hope,
It’s a Circus Game for You and Me.
I’m up on the High Wire … one side’s Life and one is Fire,
But the Top Hat on my Head is all you see.” — Tight Rope, Leon Russell
Indeed there is a very fine line between Hope and Hell. It’s also proven pretty easy to become manic by letting our emotions fly to the sky based upon this concept of Hope. So much for this “Hope” stuff. It appears that we’ve collectively bought into the same fate as Icarus when we should’ve kept our feet on the ground, our eyes clear and our ears open to hear.
Now what was it that Joe Solmonese said to the press during the controversy exploding around their national banquet? Something about how not only would HRC “support only a fully inclusive ENDA”, but that it would actively oppose anything less?
Well, we found out a couple weeks after his grand proclamation at the Southern Comfort Conference (SCC) in September before a standing ovation from the Transgender Community attending that the “actively opposing” thing was, well, just rhetoric. Made for nice speechy stuff, drew in the rousing cheers (and a few memberships and donations!), but that’s really all it was good for in Trans America.
However, in both news conferences and in person, Joe and HRC both said they stood by their board vote of 2004 where they would only “support a trans-inclusive ENDA.” Even during the protest of the HRC Banquet on Oct. 6, 2007 in Washington, HRC sent out one of their handlers to challenge the protesters, and his words to me were repeating the HRC board vote of 2004 and their commitment to the board’s vote.
While they could feign innocence over not realizing people would take their 2004 board vote as meaning they would oppose anything less or claim that Joe badly misspoke while at SCC, they’re going to have an even tougher time explaining away their most recent actions.
In her most recent Phyllabuster of Oct. 13, entitled “No more winking or nodding - HRC screws GLBT community,” Phyllis Frye had this report to the trans community.
“The Human Resources Campaign (HRC) began actively sending paid lobbyists to Congressional offices on Friday morning for the passage of the alternate Employment Non-Discrimination Act or ENDA (HR 3685) which does NOT include the legal terms of protection in employment based on "gender identity or gender expression" but leaves only protections based on "sexual orientation."”
They’re actively lobbying for passage of HR 3685. Hmm … sounds like they’re supporting HR 3685. And guess what? That’s the bill that is distinctly not transgender inclusive! A non-inclusive bill … and HRC is specifically supporting it with their with their own lobbyists. You’ve gotta hand it to HRC: they’ve never met a bandwagon they didn’t like (to hop on).
So much for that board vote stuff about “only supporting an inclusive ENDA.”
I’d like to see how this is spun to somehow cover their ass this time. No doubt, they’ll dig deep and pull one out of their hat – a real doozy, I’m sure. But are we buying any of this?
Transgender Community! Can you say; “We Bought a Bill of Goods?”
It’s a tough pill to swallow for those who put their eggs in that HRC-and-Barney-are-friends basket. Thankfully I kept a safe distance from them (learning from a couple previous experiences with them) … others similarly stayed clear of them for similar reasons. However HRC was pretty successful in getting their marketing out to us, and enlisting some of the newer folks with more recent credibility within the trans community. You’ve got to hand it to them: they played us well (and will continue to do so for whichever of the Barnum Babies they can still manage to hook.)
Whether it’s with those outside of the community, or even from within, you always have to have a healthy skepticism. Treat this political game as you would if you were a consumer. In essence, you are. It’s caveat emptor (buyer beware, for those not familiar with the phrase). If we too easily buy into the sales pitch, we’ll end up owning a Florida time-share with a water view … of the Everglades swamp.
Be smart consumers, and take a look at the history of that used-car you’re about to buy. Don’t be afraid to look into where it’s been, nor to ask questions. Guarantees are always nice, but many times we’ve seen how they aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. Beware of promises that don’t pan out.
For me personally, it means I listen intently to my couple of contacts on the Hill and pay little to no attention to the GLBT community. I must say they’ve been fully accurate every time. One of them even closely predicted the HRC & Barney Frank response to Mara Keisling in one meeting that anyone opposing them would have a price to be paid and would face little support.
His specific words were that they were “closing ranks” and “going forward with this” and if we “stand in their way, it will not be taken kindly – it’s your future.” At the time, I was feeling brushed-off (he was admittedly rushed during our briefest of visits) and the last part I took as being a bit ominous. But the candor was helpful nevertheless, especially in light of recent events.
Ultimately, that’s where we all should be moving towards: nurturing our own specific relationships with our own Congress-Critters, or even other Congress-Critters’ office staff. Or better still, the Critters themselves. At the very least, we get a more circumspect view of what we’re buying.
Oh! One last thing: once you learn what’s true and become a skeptic, be prepared to have the “Kook” label affixed to you. It happens – no big deal. Just be patient and wait for the day when all the dirt comes out in the wash.
I’m finishing this blog entry with a poem that is quite apropos, written by one of the HRC Steering Board members from North Carolina who recently resigned, activist Robbi Cohn. Thanks for expressing your thoughts, Robbi! You’re one of NTAC’s heroes!
“I am transgender.
I am the person who is unemployable merely because of my gender identity.
I am the person who lives within a heartbeat of homelessness.
I am the person who might be reduced to prostitution to survive.
I am the person most likely to commit suicide because I have no way to survive.
I am the person living with the despair of hopelessness.
I am the person my family has abandoned an d forgotten.
I am the person my church tells me is damned.
I am the person the military has asked me to “don’t ask, don’t tell”.
I am the person right-wingers think will molest women and children in bathrooms.
I am the person who has the same values as other human beings.
I am the person Barney Frank has asked to wait my turn.
I am the person my political party wishes would just go away.
I am the person who has spent countless hours educating in vain.
I am the person who my political party has claimed still needs to educate.
I am the person my community has asked to not make waves.
I am the person who advocates for equal opportunity.
I am the person who believes in diversity.
I am the person who believes people should be judged by what they do, not how they look.
I am the person who wants to love and be loved.
I am the person my one-time friends and acquaintances often shun.
I am the person who works for equality for all marginalized human beings.
I am the person who abides by the principles of Martin Luther King, Jr.
I am the person who trusts in the wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi.
I am the person who finds solace in the love of the Great Spirit.
I am the person who was created to be free.
I am the person who was endowed by my creator to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I am the person whose potential should remain unlimited, yet has been marginalized.
I am the person society has disenfranchised.
I am the person who must work in stealth, lest I be fired.
I am the person who has erected a wall around myself so as to keep my reality secret.
I am the person other minorities have disinherited.
I am the person elites within my community tend to disparage.
I am the person who lives in your neighborhood.
I am the person who attends your church.
I am the person who works side by side with you wherever I am employed, if I am employed.
I am your brother, sister, father or mother.
I am transgender.” — Robbi Cohn © 2007
It’s a Circus Game for You and Me.
I’m up on the High Wire … one side’s Life and one is Fire,
But the Top Hat on my Head is all you see.” — Tight Rope, Leon Russell
Indeed there is a very fine line between Hope and Hell. It’s also proven pretty easy to become manic by letting our emotions fly to the sky based upon this concept of Hope. So much for this “Hope” stuff. It appears that we’ve collectively bought into the same fate as Icarus when we should’ve kept our feet on the ground, our eyes clear and our ears open to hear.
Now what was it that Joe Solmonese said to the press during the controversy exploding around their national banquet? Something about how not only would HRC “support only a fully inclusive ENDA”, but that it would actively oppose anything less?
Well, we found out a couple weeks after his grand proclamation at the Southern Comfort Conference (SCC) in September before a standing ovation from the Transgender Community attending that the “actively opposing” thing was, well, just rhetoric. Made for nice speechy stuff, drew in the rousing cheers (and a few memberships and donations!), but that’s really all it was good for in Trans America.
However, in both news conferences and in person, Joe and HRC both said they stood by their board vote of 2004 where they would only “support a trans-inclusive ENDA.” Even during the protest of the HRC Banquet on Oct. 6, 2007 in Washington, HRC sent out one of their handlers to challenge the protesters, and his words to me were repeating the HRC board vote of 2004 and their commitment to the board’s vote.
While they could feign innocence over not realizing people would take their 2004 board vote as meaning they would oppose anything less or claim that Joe badly misspoke while at SCC, they’re going to have an even tougher time explaining away their most recent actions.
In her most recent Phyllabuster of Oct. 13, entitled “No more winking or nodding - HRC screws GLBT community,” Phyllis Frye had this report to the trans community.
“The Human Resources Campaign (HRC) began actively sending paid lobbyists to Congressional offices on Friday morning for the passage of the alternate Employment Non-Discrimination Act or ENDA (HR 3685) which does NOT include the legal terms of protection in employment based on "gender identity or gender expression" but leaves only protections based on "sexual orientation."”
They’re actively lobbying for passage of HR 3685. Hmm … sounds like they’re supporting HR 3685. And guess what? That’s the bill that is distinctly not transgender inclusive! A non-inclusive bill … and HRC is specifically supporting it with their with their own lobbyists. You’ve gotta hand it to HRC: they’ve never met a bandwagon they didn’t like (to hop on).
So much for that board vote stuff about “only supporting an inclusive ENDA.”
I’d like to see how this is spun to somehow cover their ass this time. No doubt, they’ll dig deep and pull one out of their hat – a real doozy, I’m sure. But are we buying any of this?
Transgender Community! Can you say; “We Bought a Bill of Goods?”
It’s a tough pill to swallow for those who put their eggs in that HRC-and-Barney-are-friends basket. Thankfully I kept a safe distance from them (learning from a couple previous experiences with them) … others similarly stayed clear of them for similar reasons. However HRC was pretty successful in getting their marketing out to us, and enlisting some of the newer folks with more recent credibility within the trans community. You’ve got to hand it to them: they played us well (and will continue to do so for whichever of the Barnum Babies they can still manage to hook.)
Whether it’s with those outside of the community, or even from within, you always have to have a healthy skepticism. Treat this political game as you would if you were a consumer. In essence, you are. It’s caveat emptor (buyer beware, for those not familiar with the phrase). If we too easily buy into the sales pitch, we’ll end up owning a Florida time-share with a water view … of the Everglades swamp.
Be smart consumers, and take a look at the history of that used-car you’re about to buy. Don’t be afraid to look into where it’s been, nor to ask questions. Guarantees are always nice, but many times we’ve seen how they aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. Beware of promises that don’t pan out.
For me personally, it means I listen intently to my couple of contacts on the Hill and pay little to no attention to the GLBT community. I must say they’ve been fully accurate every time. One of them even closely predicted the HRC & Barney Frank response to Mara Keisling in one meeting that anyone opposing them would have a price to be paid and would face little support.
His specific words were that they were “closing ranks” and “going forward with this” and if we “stand in their way, it will not be taken kindly – it’s your future.” At the time, I was feeling brushed-off (he was admittedly rushed during our briefest of visits) and the last part I took as being a bit ominous. But the candor was helpful nevertheless, especially in light of recent events.
Ultimately, that’s where we all should be moving towards: nurturing our own specific relationships with our own Congress-Critters, or even other Congress-Critters’ office staff. Or better still, the Critters themselves. At the very least, we get a more circumspect view of what we’re buying.
Oh! One last thing: once you learn what’s true and become a skeptic, be prepared to have the “Kook” label affixed to you. It happens – no big deal. Just be patient and wait for the day when all the dirt comes out in the wash.
I’m finishing this blog entry with a poem that is quite apropos, written by one of the HRC Steering Board members from North Carolina who recently resigned, activist Robbi Cohn. Thanks for expressing your thoughts, Robbi! You’re one of NTAC’s heroes!
“I am transgender.
I am the person who is unemployable merely because of my gender identity.
I am the person who lives within a heartbeat of homelessness.
I am the person who might be reduced to prostitution to survive.
I am the person most likely to commit suicide because I have no way to survive.
I am the person living with the despair of hopelessness.
I am the person my family has abandoned an d forgotten.
I am the person my church tells me is damned.
I am the person the military has asked me to “don’t ask, don’t tell”.
I am the person right-wingers think will molest women and children in bathrooms.
I am the person who has the same values as other human beings.
I am the person Barney Frank has asked to wait my turn.
I am the person my political party wishes would just go away.
I am the person who has spent countless hours educating in vain.
I am the person who my political party has claimed still needs to educate.
I am the person my community has asked to not make waves.
I am the person who advocates for equal opportunity.
I am the person who believes in diversity.
I am the person who believes people should be judged by what they do, not how they look.
I am the person who wants to love and be loved.
I am the person my one-time friends and acquaintances often shun.
I am the person who works for equality for all marginalized human beings.
I am the person who abides by the principles of Martin Luther King, Jr.
I am the person who trusts in the wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi.
I am the person who finds solace in the love of the Great Spirit.
I am the person who was created to be free.
I am the person who was endowed by my creator to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I am the person whose potential should remain unlimited, yet has been marginalized.
I am the person society has disenfranchised.
I am the person who must work in stealth, lest I be fired.
I am the person who has erected a wall around myself so as to keep my reality secret.
I am the person other minorities have disinherited.
I am the person elites within my community tend to disparage.
I am the person who lives in your neighborhood.
I am the person who attends your church.
I am the person who works side by side with you wherever I am employed, if I am employed.
I am your brother, sister, father or mother.
I am transgender.” — Robbi Cohn © 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Hero Worship
“What makes us heroic? Confronting simultaneously our supreme suffering and our supreme hope.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
Over the past few years, the transgender community has had its share of reports of heroism from Mara Keisling and Lisa Mottet of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) about the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). It flew in the face of what this writer and many others active in the trans rights game knew as conventional wisdom. These claims were oft-repeated by others who believed this new “heroic” phase of both Barney and HRC, disbursed by blogs, claimed on list-servs, spoken about by the hand-chosen few trans people they use for PC PR, and even distributed on a prominent trans activist’s newsletter, providing a well-orchestrated legitimacy to these reputably embattled folks. One of my personal contacts on the Hill who knows Phyllis Frye was “shocked” to see that even she believed in the “hype” as she put it. She probably would’ve have believed as well had she not known differently, first-hand.
In the face of claims from our true allies on the Hill (congress-critters’ staffers, for those needing elaboration), we were always countered by Mara and Lisa with claims that “these [staffers] have their own [agenda] for wanting to bring HRC and Barney Frank down” and other dismissive explanations.
What a sea change we’ve seen from a month ago. It turns out that everything our Hill contacts said was true. Consistently true, in fact.
What’s more though is how many of us came to believe Barney and HRC in the role of “hero,” without asking. Skeptics, such as our own NTAC, were the ‘anti-heroes,’ summarily kicked to the curb and discredited for our stodginess, or for our unwillingness to disbelieve our ‘unreliable’ Hill contacts. Looking at this weekend’s protest and noting the presence of Mara Keisling and others from NCTE, we can’t help but notice how suddenly our isolated little bandwagon became crowded. Guess everyone wants to be the intransigent anti-hero now.
Moreover, this makes one question who are considered the transgender community’s heroes? How about the well-funded organizations that never leave transgenders behind in their support? When HR 3128, the “Federal Employment Protection Act” (known as the Waxman Bill in the community) was introduced in 2004 protecting sexual orientation, but not gender identity, the National Organization of Women stood up to oppose the bill for it’s lack of inclusion, as did AFL-CIO’s Pride At Work and (after initially signing on) Parents, Family & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). All of the aforementioned organizations were heroic.
Even NCTE couldn’t oppose the bill, instead helping quietly to generate support within the trans community and supportive allies in favor of the bill (prompting one ally from the gay and lesbian community to wonder to this writer “how is this transgender advocacy?”) Was this an example of trans heroism?
I’d posit that the folks from NCTE like Chair, Meredith Bacon and former Chair, Donna Cartwright – both of whom were boisterously adding to the protest cheers, neither of them earning a penny for it – were more heroic. Donna especially was a mere month earlier repeating the “HRC as hero” role on the TGV Advocacy list. For someone to then come out so soon after, knowing all were watching, and actively engage in protesting took guts.
In fact, there are a number of individuals in the Transgender Community who’ve worked tirelessly at thankless voluntary positions of leadership, expended a lot of their own money out of pocket, and in some cases hampered if not outright killed their paying 9-5 jobs they do to pay their bills. Unlike the gay and lesbian community and a precious few amongst our own, none of the trans activists earn a living at this full-time sideline.
Some of these unpaid board members who take personal time off and pay out of pocket to travel cross-country with no compensation for issues pertinent to the community, I’d consider them heroes: folks like, Kathy Padilla, Jerimarie Liesegang, Carrie Davis, Marisa Richmond, Rachel Goldberg, Michael Woodward, Rusty Mae Moore and Chelsea Goodwin, Roz Manley, Katrina Rose. Angela Brightfeather Sheedy, Marti Abernathey and Josephine Tittsworth to name a few.
How about board leaders who’ve paid the price with no due?: It’s Time America’s leaders all did the work gratis, like Jane Fee, and two of them paid a severe economic price with major kinks in their careers: Jessica Xavier and Sarah DePalma. In the latter case, Sarah and her partner both struggle just to keep a roof over their heads.
There was ICTLEP with both Phyllis Frye and her staff of one, the late Dee McKellar. Dee was near minimum wage and Phyllis barely made livable wage – certainly not the worth for their work.
Or take NTAC’s Chairs, Dawn Wilson, Yoseñio Lewis, myself and Ethan St. Pierre, all of whom lost their jobs once taking over the top spot of the group and went through long-term joblessness, save for current Chair St. Pierre who was unemployed well before taking the top spot. All lived well below the median while Chair – and in at least one, if not two cases, lived well below the poverty line while Chair. Any of the above leaders are the “heroes-who-are-not” (especially in the latter case). NTAC of course just finished organizing the protest of our popularly advertised “heroes,” HRC.
There’s plenty of other heroes, including those leading quasi-national or local groups who’ve also done their share of traveling: Miranda Stevens Miller, Lori Buckwalter, Courtney Sharp, the late Alexander John Goodrum, Sarah Fox, Dawn Wilson, Monica Roberts, Michael Woodward, Virginia Stephenson, Babs Casbar, Cecilia Chung, Naomi Archer and others.
Not everyone has to travel to be a hero. Some (because of budget) keep the local groups active and spend a great deal of time keeping our “allies’ feet to the fire” via the media: Gwen Smith, Dallas Denny and Rebecca Juro come to mind.
There’s even a (precious) few major donors who are also heroes for keeping even the struggling groups alive and providing hope: Julie Johnson, Diane Dale and Jo Ann Roberts for instance.
Sometimes it can be someone who seemingly appear to some to “cross over to the enemy’s side,” but really don’t. Shelley Emerson in Atlanta has long been a major donor to GLB organizations and issues, and a former Federal Club Member. She recently resigned, hopped in her car, and with injured foot drove 600 miles to DC to protest the very same HRC. She tried to get the chasm between trans and GLB closed, and worked diligently to achieve that to a small degree. But when push came to shove, she stood on principle and helped join the renunciations of this former “ally.” Similarly Robbi Cohn of NC and Melissa Brown of Michigan resigned from their diversity committee and board of governors respectively.
Donna Rose is an open story. Most don’t know that I’d spoken with Donna some time before anyone else had spoken with her about activism and gave her a run down of the situation between T & GLB. She was skeptical – everyone has a right to make up his or her own mind without another’s coercion or hard sell. After being involved with HRC, and then elected as their first trans board member, she took no small amount of heat – even from some well-known names in the trans leadership. I spent my time peeling folks off of her and letting them know she hadn’t had the history yet (not what we long-timers had) and had no way of knowing what we experienced. But Donna’s a smart cookie, and I knew with time she’d see what this charade was all about. When it became apparent last week, it was a lot to give up for her personally, and a bit humbling of an experience for her. Yet she resigned straight up, was forthright, and did what she felt was the honorable thing for her community. That was heroism.
Meanwhile, none of the above HRC board were ever paid for their time – again all out of pocket, and again done in the dashed hopes of furthering our community.
Some of the folks who should qualify as heroes suffered loss of their livelihood or marriages and then still came out and assisted the trans community cause immediately after. Susan Stanton, the city manager from Largo, FL who then came out to lobby with NCTE was the most recently, but certainly not the only. Recall Dana Rivers who lost her job as a teacher, then came to Capitol Hill with GenderPAC. Of course, for crossdressers, Peter Oiler was the standard-bearer after being fired from Winn-Dixie. Christie Lee Littleton took no small amount of heat when her marriage challenge was working through the Texas Courts – virtually all of our community leaders trashed her. My words to them that “wouldn’t it be funny if she came out after this lawsuit and became an activist?” turned out to be prescient. Christie Lee indeed did come out, and became very active in San Antonio and in Texas, as well as coming to Capitol Hill, along with Peter Oiler, to lobby with NTAC.
A couple gave the ultimate sacrifice as activists: their life. Tacy Ranta, a protégée of Jessica Xavier, was killed on a Baltimore street in what may well have been a hate crime. Terrianne Summers, a protégée of mine, ended up ambushed while pulling into her driveway after work. There were activists who continued fighting even when (esp. in Terrianne’s case) they were tired, frustrated, getting nearly no support and wondering aloud if they even had any effect. Terrianne was the sparkplug, organizing the first Winn-Dixie protest at their corporate headquarters a mile away from her home in Jacksonville. She was also re-energized and again beginning to organize the second anniversary protest of Winn-Dixie when she was gunned down. It pains me to no small degree that her activism may have contributed to her death. Nevertheless, both Terrianne and Tacy were heroes to their very last breath of life.
Not everyone who’s a hero is trans, of course. Family members such as Mary Boenke, and even families with a trans family member killed, such as Ethan St. Pierre and his mom Ellen (aunt / sister, Debra Forte) or Queen Washington (daughter Stephanie Thomas) or la familia Guerrero, esp. mom Sylvia Guerrero (daughter Gwen Araujo) certainly took public stands and went those extra miles to get word out that their they cared for their loved ones and wouldn’t allow society to brush it aside or ridicule them. These are certain heroes, every bit as much as Judy Shepard is also a hero for advocating for hate crimes protection for all – not simply for her son, Matthew.
Sometimes we have straight allies who heroically stand up for us even though we’re not family. Board member, Ken Dollarhide, and PFLAG’s Jim & Sue Null come to mind. Politicians such as Rep. Dennis Kucinich (the first presidential candidate to prominently say the word – much less declare support for – transgenders.), and Rep. Jan Schakowsky. Locally we have state heroes like Rep. Jessica Farrar and Rep. Garnet Coleman, while New York had hero former Dep. Mayor, Gifford Miller, and Houston has Council Member Ada Edwards, who even heroically co-organized the Bush Inaugural Day protest on Houston’s Fed. Courthouse steps back in 2001, along with Dan DiDonato and myself.
Speaking of Dan, he’s one of the staunchest heroes I know from the gay & lesbian community who’s not a politician, along with Two-Spirit Circle members Victor Cutnose and Gilda Yazzie. Add to them heroic gay/lesbian politicos like U. S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), or New York State Sen. Tom Duane, or even NYC Council Member Margarita Lopez.
Finally, how about the true heroes who fought this equality fight back in the days of yore when it was harrowing and possibly dangerous for one to come out of the closet, much less do so blatantly and challengingly. Ray Hill is one such individual: a local Houston activist par excellence and even a national-level activist who once represented his own case all the way to the Supreme Court and won! Ray was also one of the co-organizers of both of the first two gay and lesbian (as they were known then) marches on Washington. Ray and I have disagreed strongly on each other’s views on Hate Crimes laws, to the point of even debating it before our local GLBT Political Caucus. That said, there’s no one I trust to be at my side or watching my back in any battle than Ray Hill. Ray was also someone who never fell for a line of bullshit, and saw through the smokescreen every time! And for all his work, he was just as casually brushed aside and kicked to the curb as any trans activist: too loud, not mainstream.. While he’ll never get any GL community recognition, he’ll always personify “hero” to the underclass underdogs in this disparate GLBT amalgam.
Speaking of those who never get their proper due (at least in life) are both Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson of the Stonewall Riots, 1969. Sylvia especially fought hard to get the trans part into the first Pride festivities and was not going to take getting shoved off lightly. She literally fought them on the stage. Gay activist and Stonewall vet, Bob Kohler commented that Sylvia sat afterwards on the front edge of the stage, nose bleeding and crying. It was the only time in Sylvia’s hard-as-nails life that she was ever seen crying.
Both Marsha and Sylvia did sex-work on the mean streets of New York to survive – there were virtually zero job opportunities for trans people in the late 60’s and most of the 70’s. That lifestyle may have cost Marsha her life. Sylvia continued on even without her best friend and Stonewall cohort. Sylvia continued doing a large amount of street activism, bringing much attention to the plight of homelessness among gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Sylvia was the brainchild and co-coordinator of the 25th anniversary of Stonewall March (dubbed the Illegal March) and other protests that saw her arrested numerous times. She did all of this while living well below the poverty line, and for a good amount of that time, living homeless in a refrigerator box on the Christopher Street Piers. Sylvia hated aggressive elitists with a passion, but saved a special brand of that for folks like Harry Hay and the HRC. Just mere months after organizing one of the larger transgender marches through the streets of downtown New York, Sylvia died of liver cancer. One might think that, due to her lack of education and years on the streets in a self-medicated haze, that Sylvia was a burnt husk of a human. Quite the contrary. The night before the Amanda Milan Vigil and March, I found her surprisingly canny and very aware of what happened around her, and when she or the community was being manipulated. But even on her death bed, with negotiations moving forward with the Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA) about pushing for an inclusive bill such as the one Sen. Tom Duane authored, Sylvia fought and demanded a spot on the board for a trans-centric trans person on ESPA, and seeking a move toward the inclusive language. Even near death and against the toughest of odds, Sylvia exhibited tremendous heroism.
Sadly, after her death, ESPA Exec. Dir. Joe Grabarz reneged on all the promises on Sylvia’s deathbed, and the organization pushed forward, ignoring Sen. Duane’s bill, per the instructions of their then-board Chair, Jeff Soref. More loose promises were made and never kept, and to this day, New York State still has no employment protections for the transgender community. Heroic for their community –nothing heroic at all to the New York trans community.
Actually, I’m sure I’ve likely left off a number of activists who should be listed among these heroic types: folks who’ve earned nothing, or at best a pittance, working on behalf of a cash-poor and extremely marginalized community. These are, however, my opinions (and opinions I’ll admit come along with a half a bottle of NyQuil as I have a serious cold). Feel free to disagree with the above assessments.
However, if you’re of a mind to keep folks like Jeff Soref, or Joe Solmonese or HRC or even the exalted “ally” Rep. Barney Frank on the Pedestal of Heroes, feel free. I’ll respectfully and unequivocally disagree. HRC and Barney make no sacrifices – they’re simply doing what is expected of them to earn their paycheck each week. Ask them to find a real 9 to 5 job, and then do what they do on the side in their “spare time”! If our community’s heroes can be dismissed, shut out, disreputably labeled, disemployed, underemployed or fully unemployed, and live this for decades, then perhaps we can hope for a day when we’re all egalitarian, and allow the gay and lesbian community to experience the same type of living standards we enjoy.
Until that day is met, I really don’t want to hear about their “heroism” any longer.
“Here is a hero who did nothing but shake the tree as soon as the fruit was ripe. Does this seem to be too small a thing to you? Then take a good look at the tree he shook.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
“I had to kick their law into their teeth in order to save them.” — Gwendolyn Brooks, African-American poet
Over the past few years, the transgender community has had its share of reports of heroism from Mara Keisling and Lisa Mottet of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) about the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). It flew in the face of what this writer and many others active in the trans rights game knew as conventional wisdom. These claims were oft-repeated by others who believed this new “heroic” phase of both Barney and HRC, disbursed by blogs, claimed on list-servs, spoken about by the hand-chosen few trans people they use for PC PR, and even distributed on a prominent trans activist’s newsletter, providing a well-orchestrated legitimacy to these reputably embattled folks. One of my personal contacts on the Hill who knows Phyllis Frye was “shocked” to see that even she believed in the “hype” as she put it. She probably would’ve have believed as well had she not known differently, first-hand.
In the face of claims from our true allies on the Hill (congress-critters’ staffers, for those needing elaboration), we were always countered by Mara and Lisa with claims that “these [staffers] have their own [agenda] for wanting to bring HRC and Barney Frank down” and other dismissive explanations.
What a sea change we’ve seen from a month ago. It turns out that everything our Hill contacts said was true. Consistently true, in fact.
What’s more though is how many of us came to believe Barney and HRC in the role of “hero,” without asking. Skeptics, such as our own NTAC, were the ‘anti-heroes,’ summarily kicked to the curb and discredited for our stodginess, or for our unwillingness to disbelieve our ‘unreliable’ Hill contacts. Looking at this weekend’s protest and noting the presence of Mara Keisling and others from NCTE, we can’t help but notice how suddenly our isolated little bandwagon became crowded. Guess everyone wants to be the intransigent anti-hero now.
Moreover, this makes one question who are considered the transgender community’s heroes? How about the well-funded organizations that never leave transgenders behind in their support? When HR 3128, the “Federal Employment Protection Act” (known as the Waxman Bill in the community) was introduced in 2004 protecting sexual orientation, but not gender identity, the National Organization of Women stood up to oppose the bill for it’s lack of inclusion, as did AFL-CIO’s Pride At Work and (after initially signing on) Parents, Family & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). All of the aforementioned organizations were heroic.
Even NCTE couldn’t oppose the bill, instead helping quietly to generate support within the trans community and supportive allies in favor of the bill (prompting one ally from the gay and lesbian community to wonder to this writer “how is this transgender advocacy?”) Was this an example of trans heroism?
I’d posit that the folks from NCTE like Chair, Meredith Bacon and former Chair, Donna Cartwright – both of whom were boisterously adding to the protest cheers, neither of them earning a penny for it – were more heroic. Donna especially was a mere month earlier repeating the “HRC as hero” role on the TGV Advocacy list. For someone to then come out so soon after, knowing all were watching, and actively engage in protesting took guts.
In fact, there are a number of individuals in the Transgender Community who’ve worked tirelessly at thankless voluntary positions of leadership, expended a lot of their own money out of pocket, and in some cases hampered if not outright killed their paying 9-5 jobs they do to pay their bills. Unlike the gay and lesbian community and a precious few amongst our own, none of the trans activists earn a living at this full-time sideline.
Some of these unpaid board members who take personal time off and pay out of pocket to travel cross-country with no compensation for issues pertinent to the community, I’d consider them heroes: folks like, Kathy Padilla, Jerimarie Liesegang, Carrie Davis, Marisa Richmond, Rachel Goldberg, Michael Woodward, Rusty Mae Moore and Chelsea Goodwin, Roz Manley, Katrina Rose. Angela Brightfeather Sheedy, Marti Abernathey and Josephine Tittsworth to name a few.
How about board leaders who’ve paid the price with no due?: It’s Time America’s leaders all did the work gratis, like Jane Fee, and two of them paid a severe economic price with major kinks in their careers: Jessica Xavier and Sarah DePalma. In the latter case, Sarah and her partner both struggle just to keep a roof over their heads.
There was ICTLEP with both Phyllis Frye and her staff of one, the late Dee McKellar. Dee was near minimum wage and Phyllis barely made livable wage – certainly not the worth for their work.
Or take NTAC’s Chairs, Dawn Wilson, Yoseñio Lewis, myself and Ethan St. Pierre, all of whom lost their jobs once taking over the top spot of the group and went through long-term joblessness, save for current Chair St. Pierre who was unemployed well before taking the top spot. All lived well below the median while Chair – and in at least one, if not two cases, lived well below the poverty line while Chair. Any of the above leaders are the “heroes-who-are-not” (especially in the latter case). NTAC of course just finished organizing the protest of our popularly advertised “heroes,” HRC.
There’s plenty of other heroes, including those leading quasi-national or local groups who’ve also done their share of traveling: Miranda Stevens Miller, Lori Buckwalter, Courtney Sharp, the late Alexander John Goodrum, Sarah Fox, Dawn Wilson, Monica Roberts, Michael Woodward, Virginia Stephenson, Babs Casbar, Cecilia Chung, Naomi Archer and others.
Not everyone has to travel to be a hero. Some (because of budget) keep the local groups active and spend a great deal of time keeping our “allies’ feet to the fire” via the media: Gwen Smith, Dallas Denny and Rebecca Juro come to mind.
There’s even a (precious) few major donors who are also heroes for keeping even the struggling groups alive and providing hope: Julie Johnson, Diane Dale and Jo Ann Roberts for instance.
Sometimes it can be someone who seemingly appear to some to “cross over to the enemy’s side,” but really don’t. Shelley Emerson in Atlanta has long been a major donor to GLB organizations and issues, and a former Federal Club Member. She recently resigned, hopped in her car, and with injured foot drove 600 miles to DC to protest the very same HRC. She tried to get the chasm between trans and GLB closed, and worked diligently to achieve that to a small degree. But when push came to shove, she stood on principle and helped join the renunciations of this former “ally.” Similarly Robbi Cohn of NC and Melissa Brown of Michigan resigned from their diversity committee and board of governors respectively.
Donna Rose is an open story. Most don’t know that I’d spoken with Donna some time before anyone else had spoken with her about activism and gave her a run down of the situation between T & GLB. She was skeptical – everyone has a right to make up his or her own mind without another’s coercion or hard sell. After being involved with HRC, and then elected as their first trans board member, she took no small amount of heat – even from some well-known names in the trans leadership. I spent my time peeling folks off of her and letting them know she hadn’t had the history yet (not what we long-timers had) and had no way of knowing what we experienced. But Donna’s a smart cookie, and I knew with time she’d see what this charade was all about. When it became apparent last week, it was a lot to give up for her personally, and a bit humbling of an experience for her. Yet she resigned straight up, was forthright, and did what she felt was the honorable thing for her community. That was heroism.
Meanwhile, none of the above HRC board were ever paid for their time – again all out of pocket, and again done in the dashed hopes of furthering our community.
Some of the folks who should qualify as heroes suffered loss of their livelihood or marriages and then still came out and assisted the trans community cause immediately after. Susan Stanton, the city manager from Largo, FL who then came out to lobby with NCTE was the most recently, but certainly not the only. Recall Dana Rivers who lost her job as a teacher, then came to Capitol Hill with GenderPAC. Of course, for crossdressers, Peter Oiler was the standard-bearer after being fired from Winn-Dixie. Christie Lee Littleton took no small amount of heat when her marriage challenge was working through the Texas Courts – virtually all of our community leaders trashed her. My words to them that “wouldn’t it be funny if she came out after this lawsuit and became an activist?” turned out to be prescient. Christie Lee indeed did come out, and became very active in San Antonio and in Texas, as well as coming to Capitol Hill, along with Peter Oiler, to lobby with NTAC.
A couple gave the ultimate sacrifice as activists: their life. Tacy Ranta, a protégée of Jessica Xavier, was killed on a Baltimore street in what may well have been a hate crime. Terrianne Summers, a protégée of mine, ended up ambushed while pulling into her driveway after work. There were activists who continued fighting even when (esp. in Terrianne’s case) they were tired, frustrated, getting nearly no support and wondering aloud if they even had any effect. Terrianne was the sparkplug, organizing the first Winn-Dixie protest at their corporate headquarters a mile away from her home in Jacksonville. She was also re-energized and again beginning to organize the second anniversary protest of Winn-Dixie when she was gunned down. It pains me to no small degree that her activism may have contributed to her death. Nevertheless, both Terrianne and Tacy were heroes to their very last breath of life.
Not everyone who’s a hero is trans, of course. Family members such as Mary Boenke, and even families with a trans family member killed, such as Ethan St. Pierre and his mom Ellen (aunt / sister, Debra Forte) or Queen Washington (daughter Stephanie Thomas) or la familia Guerrero, esp. mom Sylvia Guerrero (daughter Gwen Araujo) certainly took public stands and went those extra miles to get word out that their they cared for their loved ones and wouldn’t allow society to brush it aside or ridicule them. These are certain heroes, every bit as much as Judy Shepard is also a hero for advocating for hate crimes protection for all – not simply for her son, Matthew.
Sometimes we have straight allies who heroically stand up for us even though we’re not family. Board member, Ken Dollarhide, and PFLAG’s Jim & Sue Null come to mind. Politicians such as Rep. Dennis Kucinich (the first presidential candidate to prominently say the word – much less declare support for – transgenders.), and Rep. Jan Schakowsky. Locally we have state heroes like Rep. Jessica Farrar and Rep. Garnet Coleman, while New York had hero former Dep. Mayor, Gifford Miller, and Houston has Council Member Ada Edwards, who even heroically co-organized the Bush Inaugural Day protest on Houston’s Fed. Courthouse steps back in 2001, along with Dan DiDonato and myself.
Speaking of Dan, he’s one of the staunchest heroes I know from the gay & lesbian community who’s not a politician, along with Two-Spirit Circle members Victor Cutnose and Gilda Yazzie. Add to them heroic gay/lesbian politicos like U. S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), or New York State Sen. Tom Duane, or even NYC Council Member Margarita Lopez.
Finally, how about the true heroes who fought this equality fight back in the days of yore when it was harrowing and possibly dangerous for one to come out of the closet, much less do so blatantly and challengingly. Ray Hill is one such individual: a local Houston activist par excellence and even a national-level activist who once represented his own case all the way to the Supreme Court and won! Ray was also one of the co-organizers of both of the first two gay and lesbian (as they were known then) marches on Washington. Ray and I have disagreed strongly on each other’s views on Hate Crimes laws, to the point of even debating it before our local GLBT Political Caucus. That said, there’s no one I trust to be at my side or watching my back in any battle than Ray Hill. Ray was also someone who never fell for a line of bullshit, and saw through the smokescreen every time! And for all his work, he was just as casually brushed aside and kicked to the curb as any trans activist: too loud, not mainstream.. While he’ll never get any GL community recognition, he’ll always personify “hero” to the underclass underdogs in this disparate GLBT amalgam.
Speaking of those who never get their proper due (at least in life) are both Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson of the Stonewall Riots, 1969. Sylvia especially fought hard to get the trans part into the first Pride festivities and was not going to take getting shoved off lightly. She literally fought them on the stage. Gay activist and Stonewall vet, Bob Kohler commented that Sylvia sat afterwards on the front edge of the stage, nose bleeding and crying. It was the only time in Sylvia’s hard-as-nails life that she was ever seen crying.
Both Marsha and Sylvia did sex-work on the mean streets of New York to survive – there were virtually zero job opportunities for trans people in the late 60’s and most of the 70’s. That lifestyle may have cost Marsha her life. Sylvia continued on even without her best friend and Stonewall cohort. Sylvia continued doing a large amount of street activism, bringing much attention to the plight of homelessness among gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Sylvia was the brainchild and co-coordinator of the 25th anniversary of Stonewall March (dubbed the Illegal March) and other protests that saw her arrested numerous times. She did all of this while living well below the poverty line, and for a good amount of that time, living homeless in a refrigerator box on the Christopher Street Piers. Sylvia hated aggressive elitists with a passion, but saved a special brand of that for folks like Harry Hay and the HRC. Just mere months after organizing one of the larger transgender marches through the streets of downtown New York, Sylvia died of liver cancer. One might think that, due to her lack of education and years on the streets in a self-medicated haze, that Sylvia was a burnt husk of a human. Quite the contrary. The night before the Amanda Milan Vigil and March, I found her surprisingly canny and very aware of what happened around her, and when she or the community was being manipulated. But even on her death bed, with negotiations moving forward with the Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA) about pushing for an inclusive bill such as the one Sen. Tom Duane authored, Sylvia fought and demanded a spot on the board for a trans-centric trans person on ESPA, and seeking a move toward the inclusive language. Even near death and against the toughest of odds, Sylvia exhibited tremendous heroism.
Sadly, after her death, ESPA Exec. Dir. Joe Grabarz reneged on all the promises on Sylvia’s deathbed, and the organization pushed forward, ignoring Sen. Duane’s bill, per the instructions of their then-board Chair, Jeff Soref. More loose promises were made and never kept, and to this day, New York State still has no employment protections for the transgender community. Heroic for their community –nothing heroic at all to the New York trans community.
Actually, I’m sure I’ve likely left off a number of activists who should be listed among these heroic types: folks who’ve earned nothing, or at best a pittance, working on behalf of a cash-poor and extremely marginalized community. These are, however, my opinions (and opinions I’ll admit come along with a half a bottle of NyQuil as I have a serious cold). Feel free to disagree with the above assessments.
However, if you’re of a mind to keep folks like Jeff Soref, or Joe Solmonese or HRC or even the exalted “ally” Rep. Barney Frank on the Pedestal of Heroes, feel free. I’ll respectfully and unequivocally disagree. HRC and Barney make no sacrifices – they’re simply doing what is expected of them to earn their paycheck each week. Ask them to find a real 9 to 5 job, and then do what they do on the side in their “spare time”! If our community’s heroes can be dismissed, shut out, disreputably labeled, disemployed, underemployed or fully unemployed, and live this for decades, then perhaps we can hope for a day when we’re all egalitarian, and allow the gay and lesbian community to experience the same type of living standards we enjoy.
Until that day is met, I really don’t want to hear about their “heroism” any longer.
“Here is a hero who did nothing but shake the tree as soon as the fruit was ripe. Does this seem to be too small a thing to you? Then take a good look at the tree he shook.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
“I had to kick their law into their teeth in order to save them.” — Gwendolyn Brooks, African-American poet
Monday, October 8, 2007
Observations From A Protest
“Don't you know you're talking about a revolution, sounds like a whisper” — “Talkin’ ‘Bout A Revolution,” Tracy Chapman
Well, finally woke up from a nap after a tough weekend protesting the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) National Banquet in Washington DC. On one hand, I hate these last-minute actions where you have to travel halfway across the country.
· They’re obviously quite expensive (not to mention no planning or chance for budgeting).
· They’re physically taxing as sleep is minimal (you sleep on the road wherever you may find place (again, not easy at the last minute), and the events themselves can be draining if not injurious (not at this one, but at one in New York).
· They’re stressful trying to get everything coordinated and plotted out while (in my case) getting out press, dealing with press calls and individuals’ calls wanting information.
· They’re also a bit of a concern: you wonder how turnout will be, whether it will be effective, and even concerns over your personal safety or arrests.
* The last item above I had some concerns about as I was singled out by two of DC’s finest and also a couple of the Convention Center security for some uneven treatment. (Note to self: leave the red beret at home next time.)
On the other hand, there’s nothing like being completely incensed and having such a task ahead of you with all odds working against you. It compels the fight in you. It also certainly lets you know you’re alive.
The HRC protest was a rousing success – and the first of an ongoing campaign that will not relent, so a wrap-up is in order. We had folks from Atlanta, Raleigh, the SF Bay Area, Boston, Louisville, Knoxville and myself from Houston. The effort, coordinated by the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC), drew approximately 100 protesters out to line the front entrance, replete with signs and UnEqual stickers (the newest trend: speaking truth to power) from all of the unequally disparate portions of this GLBT alphabet soup.
My personal disappointment was the lack of music (I need to fix this for next time) for setting the mood. This required the yelling and cheers through duration, which went well. The only problem is sometimes these can get out of hand, but blessedly there were no serious breaches.
“While they're standing in the welfare lines,
Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation,
Wasting time in unemployment lines.” — “Talkin’ ‘Bout A Revolution,” Tracy Chapman
While I’ve not always agreed with my NTAC-alum Angela Brightfeather Sheedy who came up from NC, I gotta give her some serious high-fives. In protests, Angela is fully in her element! Singularly, Angela was an MVP here. She was mobile, was persistent, and had her message down pat (focusing on the stats of unemployed and underemployed T folk). Way to kick butt Ange!
We didn’t get Jamison Green, but we did have fellow Texan, now bi-coastal DC-Californian, Shannon Minter of National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR)! I’ve watched him grow up from 1996, and I gotta say I’m proud! Yeehaw, Bubba … thanks for showing, and for wearing the unequal and being a very vocal part of this!
Donna Cartwright came out, representing both Pride At Work and NCTE, and was another star – especially with getting the crowd energized and generating the cheers for the phalanx at the steps to the entrance.
Monica Roberts (formerly of Houston) and Anne Casebeer made the drive from Louisville and were more than willing to vent the stored-up frustration, though both were on best behavior during the protest vocals. Props for keeping the eyes on the prize!
Even the Co-Chair of NCTE, Meredith Bacon, with UnEqual sign prominently displayed, was there for what may have been her first trans protest! Meredith was an active part of the gauntlet of protest cheering crew at the front steps, along with NTAC’s Chair, Ethan St. Pierre, and Transgender American Veterans Assn.’s Exec. Dir, Monica Helms.
Danielle Clarke traveled in for the effort as well. She’s been hampered by a bad rep based on past experiences, but I will say that she was much more focused and lucid for this effort. For a brief few seconds I listened in on her response to the local Fox News channel, and she did (for a layperson) a decent job. There was nothing to add to it.
Mara Keisling, Exec. Dir. of NCTE showed up to visually support the protest. Not part of the chants, or those with posters or UnEqual stickers, she was there to speak with press. From what this writer observed, she appears to be keeping her powder dry in hopes of an HRC change-of-heart.
One thing that did stick out: we had a number of signers and verbal supporters throughout this week, but only had NTAC, IFGE, NTCE, Pride At Work, NCLR and the Equality Federation folks (passing out EQUALI_Y stickers) at the protest. We also had folks joining us from the Green Fest attendees, the radical and activist segments of the unaffiliated GL community, as well as the IndyMedia activists. Conspicuously absent (from those I observed) were NGLTF, PFLAG, GenderPAC and other signers onto the newly formed United ENDA group (www.unitedenda.org). One wonders if they’re similarly keeping their powder dry, looking to get back in HRC’s good graces.
Another conspicuous absence was Donna Rose, though hers was in solidarity with the trans community. Principle is a precious asset, and Donna is keenly aware of that.
Message to Mara, any of the fence-sitting GL organizations, or any other hold-outs for an HRC “come-to-Jesus” moment: this game is already over. We went through this in 2000, 2002 and 2004, there is no hope here, and the trans community – certainly those of us not of the privileged few looking for personal opportunity – is moving on. Stick a fork in it.
Random observations:
There were two other events going on at the convention center simultaneously. The Green Fest had one of the events, and also ended up joining in solidarity. Once they got windfall of what happened on the ENDA bill. These young adults (anathema to the Bush/Reagan conservative paradigm) believe in egalitarian ideals. There’s no judgmental predisposition to transgenders– they’re just openly curious.
That we enjoy eager support from them shouldn’t come as a surprise. One thing I’ve noted over the years is that we have much more baggage and work to do within GLBT, but there’s a refreshing lack of that with progressive straight America! If we take the time to explain it to them, they get it! And it’s plainly obvious who’s on the inside and who’s left outside! This is one of the ready benefits of the protests: opportunity to reach out to the curious potential allies in the straight community.
The AUSA convention was also going on, and we got a couple of the military folks walking through asking questions as well. In fact, one retired gentleman walking with cane asked about the protest and was legitimately curious about why we were doing this. I gave him a brief overview and steered him towards TAVA’s Monica Helms.
We also had plenty of press coverage. Metro Weekly and the Advocate were both there covering for the GLBT community. Better yet, we had straight press coverage (finally). Both CNN (yes, Cable News Network) and the local Fox channel in DC had TV crews out to film and interview. As event coordinator, NTAC Chair, Ethan St. Pierre had his hands full with press to get our message out (save for the one I worked with CNN at the end of the evening.)
We even got major dispersal in the Indymedia press (and a big thanks to Isis for the assist!)
Having Ethan and Mara working press most of the protest allowed me and others such as Angela, Danielle and Andrea B. to be a bit more mobile, catching protesters away from the protest cheers to get a message out.
We did see two transgenders attending the event: Dana Beyer of suburban MD, and Amanda Simpson of Tucson. While most of the trans committee members, board of governors and directors have resigned, Beyer is still holding on with HRC. Both of the two recently ran for political office and enlisted help from the Victory Fund, which could explain the calculus behind their attending. At this writing, it’s unknown if there was any type of visual or verbal protest on the inside of the banquet from either of the two.
Of the GL attendees, we did have a few supporters who signaled to us while braving the picket lines, and almost the same number who were saying the words but weren’t giving a very convincing case. Even the latter, though, were better than the rest.
There were some who did the trendy keep-a-cell-phone-to-the-ear busy thing to shut out the protests. One even walked by me, intently focused on his blackberry, and after passing me I noted he had a video game of some type on! That was probably the evening’s most clever method of avoiding “having to look at the protesting trannies.”
Most however didn’t use the props to avoid confrontation. Most were either eye-rollers or the avoid-eye-contact types. A number of them engaged in more overt response. One attendee who walked up near the edge of the building saw me and decided to give a hearty thumbs down to me, then Angela and then the entire crowd assembled near the entrance. His elitist childishness was very caricatural.
One lesbian walking up the steps responded to me “you don’t understand. We’ve been at this for many years. You haven’t.” I guess she’s never heard of Sylvia Rivera or Marsha P. Johnson – either that or believes they’re confused gay men!
Yet another couple walked up, and in tones dripping icy cold, chastised me that we “don’t’ even know what they (HRC) are doing for [us]. Being that there’s few if any trans people ever in groups like HRC, it kinda stands to reason that we wouldn’t know what they’re doing that isn’t publicized. We do know what they’re doing to us, and how much they’re keen on fundraising and even using trans examples of discrimination or hate crimes for their own legislation which many times has not included the very community they cull money or anecdotal support from. How often do you see trans people raising serious money at the largest GL events, or using examples of sexual orientation discrimination to help pass a gender identity only bill?
While we’ve got some support on the inside, we’ve got about twice to three times as many of these attendees that either have no problem leaving us out, if not emotionally opposing inclusion of gender identity if it hurts their chances.
I guess none of them had thought about what the past few years worth of G&L marriage push has done to the trans community’s marriages, even in states that previously allowed post-operative transsexuals to marry – though that’s a subject for another time.
The only other observation of any note was a few of the cops who peeled off and followed me to the far end of the convention center building. At the time, I thought Officer McClain instructed them to follow me to monitor and (when they desired) limit my protests. According to Angela Brightfeather Sheedy, that wasn’t it at all.
It turns out they were (not so subtly) wondering aloud about me. “Is that one of them [trans]? Is that still a man? Or is that really a woman?”
At one point Angela added her take on their questions: “If you can’t tell and have to ask, does it really matter?” Perhaps these next few years’ of protests are going to be kinda fun after all!
“Poor people are gonna rise up and get their share
Poor people are gonna rise up and take what's theirs” — “Talkin’ ‘Bout A Revolution,” Tracy Chapman
Well, finally woke up from a nap after a tough weekend protesting the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) National Banquet in Washington DC. On one hand, I hate these last-minute actions where you have to travel halfway across the country.
· They’re obviously quite expensive (not to mention no planning or chance for budgeting).
· They’re physically taxing as sleep is minimal (you sleep on the road wherever you may find place (again, not easy at the last minute), and the events themselves can be draining if not injurious (not at this one, but at one in New York).
· They’re stressful trying to get everything coordinated and plotted out while (in my case) getting out press, dealing with press calls and individuals’ calls wanting information.
· They’re also a bit of a concern: you wonder how turnout will be, whether it will be effective, and even concerns over your personal safety or arrests.
* The last item above I had some concerns about as I was singled out by two of DC’s finest and also a couple of the Convention Center security for some uneven treatment. (Note to self: leave the red beret at home next time.)
On the other hand, there’s nothing like being completely incensed and having such a task ahead of you with all odds working against you. It compels the fight in you. It also certainly lets you know you’re alive.
The HRC protest was a rousing success – and the first of an ongoing campaign that will not relent, so a wrap-up is in order. We had folks from Atlanta, Raleigh, the SF Bay Area, Boston, Louisville, Knoxville and myself from Houston. The effort, coordinated by the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC), drew approximately 100 protesters out to line the front entrance, replete with signs and UnEqual stickers (the newest trend: speaking truth to power) from all of the unequally disparate portions of this GLBT alphabet soup.
My personal disappointment was the lack of music (I need to fix this for next time) for setting the mood. This required the yelling and cheers through duration, which went well. The only problem is sometimes these can get out of hand, but blessedly there were no serious breaches.
“While they're standing in the welfare lines,
Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation,
Wasting time in unemployment lines.” — “Talkin’ ‘Bout A Revolution,” Tracy Chapman
While I’ve not always agreed with my NTAC-alum Angela Brightfeather Sheedy who came up from NC, I gotta give her some serious high-fives. In protests, Angela is fully in her element! Singularly, Angela was an MVP here. She was mobile, was persistent, and had her message down pat (focusing on the stats of unemployed and underemployed T folk). Way to kick butt Ange!
We didn’t get Jamison Green, but we did have fellow Texan, now bi-coastal DC-Californian, Shannon Minter of National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR)! I’ve watched him grow up from 1996, and I gotta say I’m proud! Yeehaw, Bubba … thanks for showing, and for wearing the unequal and being a very vocal part of this!
Donna Cartwright came out, representing both Pride At Work and NCTE, and was another star – especially with getting the crowd energized and generating the cheers for the phalanx at the steps to the entrance.
Monica Roberts (formerly of Houston) and Anne Casebeer made the drive from Louisville and were more than willing to vent the stored-up frustration, though both were on best behavior during the protest vocals. Props for keeping the eyes on the prize!
Even the Co-Chair of NCTE, Meredith Bacon, with UnEqual sign prominently displayed, was there for what may have been her first trans protest! Meredith was an active part of the gauntlet of protest cheering crew at the front steps, along with NTAC’s Chair, Ethan St. Pierre, and Transgender American Veterans Assn.’s Exec. Dir, Monica Helms.
Danielle Clarke traveled in for the effort as well. She’s been hampered by a bad rep based on past experiences, but I will say that she was much more focused and lucid for this effort. For a brief few seconds I listened in on her response to the local Fox News channel, and she did (for a layperson) a decent job. There was nothing to add to it.
Mara Keisling, Exec. Dir. of NCTE showed up to visually support the protest. Not part of the chants, or those with posters or UnEqual stickers, she was there to speak with press. From what this writer observed, she appears to be keeping her powder dry in hopes of an HRC change-of-heart.
One thing that did stick out: we had a number of signers and verbal supporters throughout this week, but only had NTAC, IFGE, NTCE, Pride At Work, NCLR and the Equality Federation folks (passing out EQUALI_Y stickers) at the protest. We also had folks joining us from the Green Fest attendees, the radical and activist segments of the unaffiliated GL community, as well as the IndyMedia activists. Conspicuously absent (from those I observed) were NGLTF, PFLAG, GenderPAC and other signers onto the newly formed United ENDA group (www.unitedenda.org). One wonders if they’re similarly keeping their powder dry, looking to get back in HRC’s good graces.
Another conspicuous absence was Donna Rose, though hers was in solidarity with the trans community. Principle is a precious asset, and Donna is keenly aware of that.
Message to Mara, any of the fence-sitting GL organizations, or any other hold-outs for an HRC “come-to-Jesus” moment: this game is already over. We went through this in 2000, 2002 and 2004, there is no hope here, and the trans community – certainly those of us not of the privileged few looking for personal opportunity – is moving on. Stick a fork in it.
Random observations:
There were two other events going on at the convention center simultaneously. The Green Fest had one of the events, and also ended up joining in solidarity. Once they got windfall of what happened on the ENDA bill. These young adults (anathema to the Bush/Reagan conservative paradigm) believe in egalitarian ideals. There’s no judgmental predisposition to transgenders– they’re just openly curious.
That we enjoy eager support from them shouldn’t come as a surprise. One thing I’ve noted over the years is that we have much more baggage and work to do within GLBT, but there’s a refreshing lack of that with progressive straight America! If we take the time to explain it to them, they get it! And it’s plainly obvious who’s on the inside and who’s left outside! This is one of the ready benefits of the protests: opportunity to reach out to the curious potential allies in the straight community.
The AUSA convention was also going on, and we got a couple of the military folks walking through asking questions as well. In fact, one retired gentleman walking with cane asked about the protest and was legitimately curious about why we were doing this. I gave him a brief overview and steered him towards TAVA’s Monica Helms.
We also had plenty of press coverage. Metro Weekly and the Advocate were both there covering for the GLBT community. Better yet, we had straight press coverage (finally). Both CNN (yes, Cable News Network) and the local Fox channel in DC had TV crews out to film and interview. As event coordinator, NTAC Chair, Ethan St. Pierre had his hands full with press to get our message out (save for the one I worked with CNN at the end of the evening.)
We even got major dispersal in the Indymedia press (and a big thanks to Isis for the assist!)
Having Ethan and Mara working press most of the protest allowed me and others such as Angela, Danielle and Andrea B. to be a bit more mobile, catching protesters away from the protest cheers to get a message out.
We did see two transgenders attending the event: Dana Beyer of suburban MD, and Amanda Simpson of Tucson. While most of the trans committee members, board of governors and directors have resigned, Beyer is still holding on with HRC. Both of the two recently ran for political office and enlisted help from the Victory Fund, which could explain the calculus behind their attending. At this writing, it’s unknown if there was any type of visual or verbal protest on the inside of the banquet from either of the two.
Of the GL attendees, we did have a few supporters who signaled to us while braving the picket lines, and almost the same number who were saying the words but weren’t giving a very convincing case. Even the latter, though, were better than the rest.
There were some who did the trendy keep-a-cell-phone-to-the-ear busy thing to shut out the protests. One even walked by me, intently focused on his blackberry, and after passing me I noted he had a video game of some type on! That was probably the evening’s most clever method of avoiding “having to look at the protesting trannies.”
Most however didn’t use the props to avoid confrontation. Most were either eye-rollers or the avoid-eye-contact types. A number of them engaged in more overt response. One attendee who walked up near the edge of the building saw me and decided to give a hearty thumbs down to me, then Angela and then the entire crowd assembled near the entrance. His elitist childishness was very caricatural.
One lesbian walking up the steps responded to me “you don’t understand. We’ve been at this for many years. You haven’t.” I guess she’s never heard of Sylvia Rivera or Marsha P. Johnson – either that or believes they’re confused gay men!
Yet another couple walked up, and in tones dripping icy cold, chastised me that we “don’t’ even know what they (HRC) are doing for [us]. Being that there’s few if any trans people ever in groups like HRC, it kinda stands to reason that we wouldn’t know what they’re doing that isn’t publicized. We do know what they’re doing to us, and how much they’re keen on fundraising and even using trans examples of discrimination or hate crimes for their own legislation which many times has not included the very community they cull money or anecdotal support from. How often do you see trans people raising serious money at the largest GL events, or using examples of sexual orientation discrimination to help pass a gender identity only bill?
While we’ve got some support on the inside, we’ve got about twice to three times as many of these attendees that either have no problem leaving us out, if not emotionally opposing inclusion of gender identity if it hurts their chances.
I guess none of them had thought about what the past few years worth of G&L marriage push has done to the trans community’s marriages, even in states that previously allowed post-operative transsexuals to marry – though that’s a subject for another time.
The only other observation of any note was a few of the cops who peeled off and followed me to the far end of the convention center building. At the time, I thought Officer McClain instructed them to follow me to monitor and (when they desired) limit my protests. According to Angela Brightfeather Sheedy, that wasn’t it at all.
It turns out they were (not so subtly) wondering aloud about me. “Is that one of them [trans]? Is that still a man? Or is that really a woman?”
At one point Angela added her take on their questions: “If you can’t tell and have to ask, does it really matter?” Perhaps these next few years’ of protests are going to be kinda fun after all!
“Poor people are gonna rise up and get their share
Poor people are gonna rise up and take what's theirs” — “Talkin’ ‘Bout A Revolution,” Tracy Chapman
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Déjà Vu All Over Again!?! Do We Hafta???
"So I get on my knees and pray ... we won’t get fooled again!" — We Won't Get Fooled Again, the Who
Fresh on the heels of Southern Comfort Conference (SCC), many of the transgender community reveled in what seemed a penultimate victory: HRC – yes, the Human Rights Campaign – was actually appearing to take the transgender community as equals. (Obviously the ultimate victory would be equal rights for us all, jobs and all.) All of the years of HRC’s historic missteps seemed to magically disappear. We’re now a welcome, if amnesiac community for the Equal Sign people.
During the speeches there was much congratulation and self-congratulation, and plenty of high spirits about the impending bills in Congress awaiting votes: Hate Crimes (already passed inclusively in the House) currently awaiting Senate approval, and the all-important Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA) approaching the House vote. All seemed right with the world in Trans America’s focus point that weekend at SCC in Atlanta. All seemed eerily right to some of us long-timers with memories intact as well. Eerily too right.
After the speech, everyone clapped, ate, enjoyed the rest of SCC and went home. Most of us waited with baited anticipation. Myself, I couldn’t get over how this reminded me of 2002.
At the SCC in 2002, HRC came down and made the big presentation again, and ushered in the coming out of a brand new national activist on the scene, Mara Keisling formerly of then-disbanded WGTE – the group name under which a study in concert with HRC was conducted. She was planning to open shop with an org of her own. No more WGTE, now NATE or NOTE was the names she was hashing over at the time (later settling on NCTE).
HRC was not going to work with the existing trans orgs -- NTAC nor IFGE, while GenderPAC left the trans fold to focus on "gender." So Mara's sudden emergence fit them to a T, literally. So Mara’s sudden emergence fit them to a T, literally, and was welcomed in the HRC fold.
However, it wasn’t just HRC’s king or queen-making within the trans community that was the draw of this presentation. This was more about the study findings, ballyhooed as changing the minds of HRC about trans inclusion in legislation. Word went out, there at that conference, that HRC was behind transgender inclusion and would begin such a push immediately.
The question from the skeptical among us was posed as to what would happen if this ran up the HRC flagpole, and they instead decided “Nah!” and let Mara twist in the wind. Mara responded that they wouldn’t dare try, “and if they did, [she’d] rip them a new asshole for publicly trashing her political credibility.” I’ll never forget the look on David Smith’s face at her answer — curious.
The question was posed to Mara personally about how solidly on board HRC was, to which she replied to this writer that the Hate Crimes Bill “was a slam dunk, and even ENDA’s got a chance” at passing with inclusion in the upcoming 2003 session. Heady stuff.
Then we all went home then and waited with curiosity and anticipation. We waited until about the start of the Iraq War, when Mara herself dropped the bombshell that Hate Crimes would not be inclusive, and HRC was supporting its passage nevertheless. She began trying the line HRC used on her that “gender” was inclusive of us, which was virtually no different than Riki Wilchins and GenderPac in 1999 – which precipitated the creation of NTAC and many trans members redoubling efforts for explicit language.
Later that same year, the second shoe dropped – ENDA would not be inclusive either. So quickly that optimism went from hope to empty promise. Trooper that she was, Mara continued pushing HRC and giving us great stories of HRC’s heroism and – shock! – Rep. Barney Frank’s heroism on our behalves.
Needless to say, considering the earlier promise and the historical examples, it seemed a bit too improbable to get comfortable with. Fast forward to NTAC’s 2004 Lobby Day: Mara Keisling stopped by with a couple folks she’d rustled up and lobbied along with a number of the NTAC horde hitting the Halls of Congress.
At the invitation of Dr. Dana Beyer, I tagged along with she, Mara, Rachel Goldberg (board chair of GenderPac) and a trans man and NCTE member who’s name I never got. This visit was with who Mara described as a critical holdout to our inclusion in House legislation, Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT). We were meeting with their new legislative aide on policy, Danielle Rosengarten. We arrived with some concern, but it was quickly alleviated by Danielle’s disarming openness and enthusiastic support of us! She even noted that Rep. Shays was on board and was ready to move forward with inclusive language in both our desired bills. We were momentarily overjoyed ....
Then, the bracing cold water in the face.
Danielle then commented that both she and Rep. Shays just didn’t understand why Barney Frank and HRC were unmovable about not wanting inclusion, about restating that “more education needs to be done” and that Congress and the public “just wasn’t ready [for gender identity inclusion] yet.”
[For a moment, contrast that sentiment in 2004 with the push for same-sex marriage and their thoughts on it at that early time and more so later.]
I can’t say that I was at all surprised, sadly enough. What did surprise me was the reaction by Mara upon learning (in front of leaders from both trans or gender organizations and others) that she was indeed left twisting in the wind. The official reaction was that “we (transgenders or NCTE, not explained which) should be tempered and measured.” Political credibility and all ....
Well, I got the same feeling this year at SCC as I had in 2002. Lots of buzz, lots of really enthused trans hopefuls, and an HRC leader reportedly saying that ‘he knew how we feel.’ Needless to say, that last comment raised a few eyebrows even among the hopefuls. But hope seemed to spring forth defiantly.
So we went home, and waited again. This wait was pretty short – less than a week. Jeffrey Hancuff, Labor Staff Asst. for the House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee called NTAC Chair, Ethan St. Pierre requesting information on transgenders who have worked around children. Unusual request to come out of the blue! Turns out that there were suddenly concerns about transgenders regarding pedophilia and child molestation and that they needed statistics to prove otherwise!
Obviously, the first question would be “where did they get this?” You find more of that in straight society. The next question would be “how is the gay and lesbian community dealing with it?” Turns out, that question was only posed to our situation – odder still.
Just last night we had the latest brace of water in the face: an article in the Washington Blade stating that the House Democrats are wobbling and wanting to eliminate the coverage for gender identity. No, it’s not the typical Blade hatchet job, but actually from their only even-handed reporter, Lou Chibbarro. This doesn’t appear to be mere conjecture coming from Lou – rather unlikely.
And our reported hero over the years, Rep. Barney Frank, had this to say in the same article regarding transgender excision from ENDA:
Frank said that if the whip count found that ENDA could not pass with a transgender provision, he would strongly urge [House Speaker] Pelosi and his Democratic colleagues to move the bill to the House floor without a trans provision, with the intent of introducing a separate transgender bill at a later date.
"I think the notion that we should let the whole bill die if we can't pass [a] transgender [provision] is a terrible idea," Frank said. "It's exactly the opposition of what the civil rights movement always did," he said, noting that legislation protecting other minorities, such as women, the disabled and Latinos, came about incrementally over a period of years.
So now the ball gets tossed back into HRC’s court in what will be the hottest of hot seats they’ve ever had to sit upon. Yes, fresh from their victory over we transgender skeptics in the rest of America, HRC now has to see if they have the gumption to stick with us and piss off their primary constituency – gay and lesbians, primarily moneyed ones – or will they opt to go the ways of their antecedents and opt for expediency?
To be honest, I can sympathize with HRC’s predicament. The perennially Teflon-coated mega-org has no slick back door out of this one. They either choose to stand upon principle and fresh promise made to a historically disenfranchised and newly-hopeful community – transgenders – or choose to finally push the group over the hump and win what they’ve sought in vain for decades: an actual victory at the national level that would finally validate them to those who’ve supported this, the most heavily financed GLBT org in history. These are not easy choices from their vantage point. Most of all, for once their Teflon shield will do them no good. The must make a choice of one side or another, and all eyes are watching them
Where’s that Twix bar when you need it, huh?
Things are moving quickly now, and as I finish, a new press blurb came out in the same Washington Blade. Nine GLBT organizations stood firm and stated, “We would ... oppose any bill that did not protect transgender people.”
The signatories were all Washington-based orgs: PFLAG, NGLTF, NCTE, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the National Stonewall Democrats, the National Coalition for LGBT Health, Pride at Work / AFL-CIO, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects and finally the Mautner Project (an LGBT Health-based group originally out of Minnesota.)
Do you notice anything about the signatories to the above statement? There were some glaring omissions including NTAC (truth be told, we were not asked nor notified – not unusual.) So the question is: were the other omitted organizations asked? If not, why not? And if so, then to those organizations ... well ... why?
Baseball great Yogi Berra said it best: It’s Déjà Vu all over again!
So ... Why?
Fresh on the heels of Southern Comfort Conference (SCC), many of the transgender community reveled in what seemed a penultimate victory: HRC – yes, the Human Rights Campaign – was actually appearing to take the transgender community as equals. (Obviously the ultimate victory would be equal rights for us all, jobs and all.) All of the years of HRC’s historic missteps seemed to magically disappear. We’re now a welcome, if amnesiac community for the Equal Sign people.
During the speeches there was much congratulation and self-congratulation, and plenty of high spirits about the impending bills in Congress awaiting votes: Hate Crimes (already passed inclusively in the House) currently awaiting Senate approval, and the all-important Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA) approaching the House vote. All seemed right with the world in Trans America’s focus point that weekend at SCC in Atlanta. All seemed eerily right to some of us long-timers with memories intact as well. Eerily too right.
After the speech, everyone clapped, ate, enjoyed the rest of SCC and went home. Most of us waited with baited anticipation. Myself, I couldn’t get over how this reminded me of 2002.
At the SCC in 2002, HRC came down and made the big presentation again, and ushered in the coming out of a brand new national activist on the scene, Mara Keisling formerly of then-disbanded WGTE – the group name under which a study in concert with HRC was conducted. She was planning to open shop with an org of her own. No more WGTE, now NATE or NOTE was the names she was hashing over at the time (later settling on NCTE).
HRC was not going to work with the existing trans orgs -- NTAC nor IFGE, while GenderPAC left the trans fold to focus on "gender." So Mara's sudden emergence fit them to a T, literally. So Mara’s sudden emergence fit them to a T, literally, and was welcomed in the HRC fold.
However, it wasn’t just HRC’s king or queen-making within the trans community that was the draw of this presentation. This was more about the study findings, ballyhooed as changing the minds of HRC about trans inclusion in legislation. Word went out, there at that conference, that HRC was behind transgender inclusion and would begin such a push immediately.
The question from the skeptical among us was posed as to what would happen if this ran up the HRC flagpole, and they instead decided “Nah!” and let Mara twist in the wind. Mara responded that they wouldn’t dare try, “and if they did, [she’d] rip them a new asshole for publicly trashing her political credibility.” I’ll never forget the look on David Smith’s face at her answer — curious.
The question was posed to Mara personally about how solidly on board HRC was, to which she replied to this writer that the Hate Crimes Bill “was a slam dunk, and even ENDA’s got a chance” at passing with inclusion in the upcoming 2003 session. Heady stuff.
Then we all went home then and waited with curiosity and anticipation. We waited until about the start of the Iraq War, when Mara herself dropped the bombshell that Hate Crimes would not be inclusive, and HRC was supporting its passage nevertheless. She began trying the line HRC used on her that “gender” was inclusive of us, which was virtually no different than Riki Wilchins and GenderPac in 1999 – which precipitated the creation of NTAC and many trans members redoubling efforts for explicit language.
Later that same year, the second shoe dropped – ENDA would not be inclusive either. So quickly that optimism went from hope to empty promise. Trooper that she was, Mara continued pushing HRC and giving us great stories of HRC’s heroism and – shock! – Rep. Barney Frank’s heroism on our behalves.
Needless to say, considering the earlier promise and the historical examples, it seemed a bit too improbable to get comfortable with. Fast forward to NTAC’s 2004 Lobby Day: Mara Keisling stopped by with a couple folks she’d rustled up and lobbied along with a number of the NTAC horde hitting the Halls of Congress.
At the invitation of Dr. Dana Beyer, I tagged along with she, Mara, Rachel Goldberg (board chair of GenderPac) and a trans man and NCTE member who’s name I never got. This visit was with who Mara described as a critical holdout to our inclusion in House legislation, Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT). We were meeting with their new legislative aide on policy, Danielle Rosengarten. We arrived with some concern, but it was quickly alleviated by Danielle’s disarming openness and enthusiastic support of us! She even noted that Rep. Shays was on board and was ready to move forward with inclusive language in both our desired bills. We were momentarily overjoyed ....
Then, the bracing cold water in the face.
Danielle then commented that both she and Rep. Shays just didn’t understand why Barney Frank and HRC were unmovable about not wanting inclusion, about restating that “more education needs to be done” and that Congress and the public “just wasn’t ready [for gender identity inclusion] yet.”
[For a moment, contrast that sentiment in 2004 with the push for same-sex marriage and their thoughts on it at that early time and more so later.]
I can’t say that I was at all surprised, sadly enough. What did surprise me was the reaction by Mara upon learning (in front of leaders from both trans or gender organizations and others) that she was indeed left twisting in the wind. The official reaction was that “we (transgenders or NCTE, not explained which) should be tempered and measured.” Political credibility and all ....
Well, I got the same feeling this year at SCC as I had in 2002. Lots of buzz, lots of really enthused trans hopefuls, and an HRC leader reportedly saying that ‘he knew how we feel.’ Needless to say, that last comment raised a few eyebrows even among the hopefuls. But hope seemed to spring forth defiantly.
So we went home, and waited again. This wait was pretty short – less than a week. Jeffrey Hancuff, Labor Staff Asst. for the House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee called NTAC Chair, Ethan St. Pierre requesting information on transgenders who have worked around children. Unusual request to come out of the blue! Turns out that there were suddenly concerns about transgenders regarding pedophilia and child molestation and that they needed statistics to prove otherwise!
Obviously, the first question would be “where did they get this?” You find more of that in straight society. The next question would be “how is the gay and lesbian community dealing with it?” Turns out, that question was only posed to our situation – odder still.
Just last night we had the latest brace of water in the face: an article in the Washington Blade stating that the House Democrats are wobbling and wanting to eliminate the coverage for gender identity. No, it’s not the typical Blade hatchet job, but actually from their only even-handed reporter, Lou Chibbarro. This doesn’t appear to be mere conjecture coming from Lou – rather unlikely.
And our reported hero over the years, Rep. Barney Frank, had this to say in the same article regarding transgender excision from ENDA:
Frank said that if the whip count found that ENDA could not pass with a transgender provision, he would strongly urge [House Speaker] Pelosi and his Democratic colleagues to move the bill to the House floor without a trans provision, with the intent of introducing a separate transgender bill at a later date.
"I think the notion that we should let the whole bill die if we can't pass [a] transgender [provision] is a terrible idea," Frank said. "It's exactly the opposition of what the civil rights movement always did," he said, noting that legislation protecting other minorities, such as women, the disabled and Latinos, came about incrementally over a period of years.
So now the ball gets tossed back into HRC’s court in what will be the hottest of hot seats they’ve ever had to sit upon. Yes, fresh from their victory over we transgender skeptics in the rest of America, HRC now has to see if they have the gumption to stick with us and piss off their primary constituency – gay and lesbians, primarily moneyed ones – or will they opt to go the ways of their antecedents and opt for expediency?
To be honest, I can sympathize with HRC’s predicament. The perennially Teflon-coated mega-org has no slick back door out of this one. They either choose to stand upon principle and fresh promise made to a historically disenfranchised and newly-hopeful community – transgenders – or choose to finally push the group over the hump and win what they’ve sought in vain for decades: an actual victory at the national level that would finally validate them to those who’ve supported this, the most heavily financed GLBT org in history. These are not easy choices from their vantage point. Most of all, for once their Teflon shield will do them no good. The must make a choice of one side or another, and all eyes are watching them
Where’s that Twix bar when you need it, huh?
Things are moving quickly now, and as I finish, a new press blurb came out in the same Washington Blade. Nine GLBT organizations stood firm and stated, “We would ... oppose any bill that did not protect transgender people.”
The signatories were all Washington-based orgs: PFLAG, NGLTF, NCTE, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the National Stonewall Democrats, the National Coalition for LGBT Health, Pride at Work / AFL-CIO, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects and finally the Mautner Project (an LGBT Health-based group originally out of Minnesota.)
Do you notice anything about the signatories to the above statement? There were some glaring omissions including NTAC (truth be told, we were not asked nor notified – not unusual.) So the question is: were the other omitted organizations asked? If not, why not? And if so, then to those organizations ... well ... why?
Baseball great Yogi Berra said it best: It’s Déjà Vu all over again!
So ... Why?
Monday, September 24, 2007
Freak Of The Week: The Tabloid Media
"Give 'em an act with lots of flash in it
And the reaction will be passionate.
Give 'em the old hocus pocus ….
Give 'em the old three ring circus”
— Richard Gere as Billy Flynn in the song "Razzle Dazzle" from the movie “Chicago”
What the hell is up with being trans?
Seriously, why is it such a heinous scandal to have someone attached to anything hinting of crossdressing or transsexualism? One would think that in 2007 we’ve progressed beyond that stage, but clearly that’s not so.
A couple of items jumped out at me this week prompting this. One was a tabloid (Star or Enquirer, can’t remember which) with a blaring headline replete with photos showing a sad looking Cher, and an alternate photo of daughter Chastity Bono in what appears to be a man’s suit. The headline was: Cher’s Heartbreak Over Chastity’s Sex Change Decision.
The other item concerns photos released of Oscar DeLaHoya and trumpeted as lead story on Entertainment Tonight for multiple nights in a row, even bleeding over into the nightly six o’clock local news at one point. The photos have what appears to be the boxing champ in a fishnet bodysuit, spike-heeled pumps and even wearing a wig with a jaunty fedora in one photo.
It’s very possible that both of these stories could turn out to have no veracity at all. We are, after all, talking about tabloid print and gossipy, paparazzi-esque TV tales (I hesitate to fix the word “news” to it).
The problem is why they make such a hugely salacious issue over them. It’s because using transgenderism or anything that peripherally smacks of it is for humor or titillation is still PC to America. Yes, anyone can gleefully and freely pick up the cudgel of “transgender” and beat the target of their derision into ultimate character assassination.
It’s not a new phenomenon, to be sure. For years it’s provided easy (and openly hateful) yucks for conservative pundits, but even daytime talk, sitcoms and night-time stand up comics have mined this subject with morbid fascination. Even a Gay Comedy Showcase on cable a couple years back had four of the five gay comedians tossing out tranny jokes early in their set. One comic even lamented the disappearance of transgender hookers in Times Square: “where are my tranny hookers?”
How nice … after so many years of effort, we in the transgender community are still simply reduced to “Tranny = hooker.” We’re always open season for them all. We’re the Freak of the Week!
In the case of Cher’s daughter, Chastity, she did look good in the suit. She’ll probably be able to transition over fairly easily, if indeed she decides that’s where she wants to go. But there are good ways to go about announcing someone’s transition, and not so good ways. This was a “not so good” way. Why, after years of being lesbian, is it suddenly so sensational a headline for her to be transsexual?
Keep in mind if Chas decides to transition to male, this will not (or should not) be a capricious decision. There’s a lot of heart-wrenching changes this makes to both family and perhaps more importantly societal relationships. Many are the times I’ve heard of lesbians making the transition to male only to lose most of their friends, their lovers and their previous community support base. An activist I know who worked for the Human Rights Campaign for many years, and for many years desired to make the transition but never did. When I directly posed the question to her, she was taken aback by my bluntness, but also confirmed that indeed that loss of lovers, peers and even career to that point were what stopped her (or rather, him) from moving forward. These will not be small-time concerns for Chas, who’s been long involved in the gay & lesbian community.
As for Oscar DeLaHoya, the story seems a bit more improbable. It certainly gives the tinge of someone vengeful wanting to put out a reputational hit on the pro boxer. However, if it is true, so what? I’m sure if you bring it up to his face, he’s likely to beat your ass to a pulp, trans or not. Would his being trans somehow lessen his prowess in the boxing ring? We’re not talking about steroids or other performance enhancement drugs. Should we place DeLaHoya in a lesser light than a Barry Bonds because America likes drug use better than transgenderism? For that matter, should DeLaHoya even be considered on the same level as the steroid-headed athletes populating much of sports today? If so, why? Simply because he wore what some would consider inappropriate clothing in what was supposed to be intimate (read bedroom) environs?
It’s a safe bet that none of us would like our private moments, or private fantasies and any dalliances in costumed play-acting publicized widely. The DeLaHoya photos were obviously not at a public event. Republican presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani’s drag performances in front of live audiences were public. Note the airplay that’s gotten, especially during an election season. There are photos of President Bush himself in a cheerleader costume – a female cheerleader outfit – during his prep school days. I’m sure that if these would’ve made the media mill in similar fashion that it would’ve drawn a strong rebuke from conservatives spouting the need to keep people’s private lives private.
But apparently folks like Chastity Bono and Oscar DeLaHoya are, as Karl Rove would put it, “fair game.”
The thing that truly bothers me is the ease with which media equates transgender with something automatically lascivious whenever it does choose to publish. You would think that after more than a decade of transgender activism that I’d be more numbed to this practice. In my case, the endorphins didn’t kick in. Instead it’s been like an upper arm that’s continually whacked in the same spot with a baseball bat until it becomes swollen with the bruising and perhaps even more tender than when it all began.
We’ve got innocent civilians in Iraq dying by the score daily in a war they didn’t request. We’ve got American soldiers stuck in a long-term civil war between two power-grabbing factions doing an impossible task, bored, underpaid, scared, angry and coming home in by the dozens flag-draped coffins every week. We’ve got millions of people slowly dying from diseases in the richest country in the world simply because they can’t afford insurance or healthcare. We’ve got people losing their homes to foreclosure, and workers being laid off while others get hired overseas, and income disparities like nothing we’ve seen since President William McKinley at the start of the 20th century. We’ve got people from New Orleans and a few who’ve returned there trying to piece together their lives in a country who doesn’t want to be distracted by their problems.
No, we’re a nation that would rather be distracted by more titillating news; something to get our heads wagging and our tongues clicking. Let’s focus on the Freak of the Week and impugn someone’s character by affiliating them with that! Yeah, that’s gotta draw in a few advertisers!
Let me say, I’m sick of being considered nothing more than a freak, and I’d daresay the rest of my community – the transgender community – feels likewise. Go make your money casting aspersions on some other community, and leave us be.
“Razzle dazzle 'em
And they’ll never catch wise ….
Give 'em the old flim flam flummox.”
— Richard Gere as Billy Flynn in the song "Razzle Dazzle" from the movie “Chicago”
“The longer we listen to one another -- with real attention -- the more commonality we will find in all our lives.” — Barbara Deming
And the reaction will be passionate.
Give 'em the old hocus pocus ….
Give 'em the old three ring circus”
— Richard Gere as Billy Flynn in the song "Razzle Dazzle" from the movie “Chicago”
What the hell is up with being trans?
Seriously, why is it such a heinous scandal to have someone attached to anything hinting of crossdressing or transsexualism? One would think that in 2007 we’ve progressed beyond that stage, but clearly that’s not so.
A couple of items jumped out at me this week prompting this. One was a tabloid (Star or Enquirer, can’t remember which) with a blaring headline replete with photos showing a sad looking Cher, and an alternate photo of daughter Chastity Bono in what appears to be a man’s suit. The headline was: Cher’s Heartbreak Over Chastity’s Sex Change Decision.
The other item concerns photos released of Oscar DeLaHoya and trumpeted as lead story on Entertainment Tonight for multiple nights in a row, even bleeding over into the nightly six o’clock local news at one point. The photos have what appears to be the boxing champ in a fishnet bodysuit, spike-heeled pumps and even wearing a wig with a jaunty fedora in one photo.
It’s very possible that both of these stories could turn out to have no veracity at all. We are, after all, talking about tabloid print and gossipy, paparazzi-esque TV tales (I hesitate to fix the word “news” to it).
The problem is why they make such a hugely salacious issue over them. It’s because using transgenderism or anything that peripherally smacks of it is for humor or titillation is still PC to America. Yes, anyone can gleefully and freely pick up the cudgel of “transgender” and beat the target of their derision into ultimate character assassination.
It’s not a new phenomenon, to be sure. For years it’s provided easy (and openly hateful) yucks for conservative pundits, but even daytime talk, sitcoms and night-time stand up comics have mined this subject with morbid fascination. Even a Gay Comedy Showcase on cable a couple years back had four of the five gay comedians tossing out tranny jokes early in their set. One comic even lamented the disappearance of transgender hookers in Times Square: “where are my tranny hookers?”
How nice … after so many years of effort, we in the transgender community are still simply reduced to “Tranny = hooker.” We’re always open season for them all. We’re the Freak of the Week!
In the case of Cher’s daughter, Chastity, she did look good in the suit. She’ll probably be able to transition over fairly easily, if indeed she decides that’s where she wants to go. But there are good ways to go about announcing someone’s transition, and not so good ways. This was a “not so good” way. Why, after years of being lesbian, is it suddenly so sensational a headline for her to be transsexual?
Keep in mind if Chas decides to transition to male, this will not (or should not) be a capricious decision. There’s a lot of heart-wrenching changes this makes to both family and perhaps more importantly societal relationships. Many are the times I’ve heard of lesbians making the transition to male only to lose most of their friends, their lovers and their previous community support base. An activist I know who worked for the Human Rights Campaign for many years, and for many years desired to make the transition but never did. When I directly posed the question to her, she was taken aback by my bluntness, but also confirmed that indeed that loss of lovers, peers and even career to that point were what stopped her (or rather, him) from moving forward. These will not be small-time concerns for Chas, who’s been long involved in the gay & lesbian community.
As for Oscar DeLaHoya, the story seems a bit more improbable. It certainly gives the tinge of someone vengeful wanting to put out a reputational hit on the pro boxer. However, if it is true, so what? I’m sure if you bring it up to his face, he’s likely to beat your ass to a pulp, trans or not. Would his being trans somehow lessen his prowess in the boxing ring? We’re not talking about steroids or other performance enhancement drugs. Should we place DeLaHoya in a lesser light than a Barry Bonds because America likes drug use better than transgenderism? For that matter, should DeLaHoya even be considered on the same level as the steroid-headed athletes populating much of sports today? If so, why? Simply because he wore what some would consider inappropriate clothing in what was supposed to be intimate (read bedroom) environs?
It’s a safe bet that none of us would like our private moments, or private fantasies and any dalliances in costumed play-acting publicized widely. The DeLaHoya photos were obviously not at a public event. Republican presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani’s drag performances in front of live audiences were public. Note the airplay that’s gotten, especially during an election season. There are photos of President Bush himself in a cheerleader costume – a female cheerleader outfit – during his prep school days. I’m sure that if these would’ve made the media mill in similar fashion that it would’ve drawn a strong rebuke from conservatives spouting the need to keep people’s private lives private.
But apparently folks like Chastity Bono and Oscar DeLaHoya are, as Karl Rove would put it, “fair game.”
The thing that truly bothers me is the ease with which media equates transgender with something automatically lascivious whenever it does choose to publish. You would think that after more than a decade of transgender activism that I’d be more numbed to this practice. In my case, the endorphins didn’t kick in. Instead it’s been like an upper arm that’s continually whacked in the same spot with a baseball bat until it becomes swollen with the bruising and perhaps even more tender than when it all began.
We’ve got innocent civilians in Iraq dying by the score daily in a war they didn’t request. We’ve got American soldiers stuck in a long-term civil war between two power-grabbing factions doing an impossible task, bored, underpaid, scared, angry and coming home in by the dozens flag-draped coffins every week. We’ve got millions of people slowly dying from diseases in the richest country in the world simply because they can’t afford insurance or healthcare. We’ve got people losing their homes to foreclosure, and workers being laid off while others get hired overseas, and income disparities like nothing we’ve seen since President William McKinley at the start of the 20th century. We’ve got people from New Orleans and a few who’ve returned there trying to piece together their lives in a country who doesn’t want to be distracted by their problems.
No, we’re a nation that would rather be distracted by more titillating news; something to get our heads wagging and our tongues clicking. Let’s focus on the Freak of the Week and impugn someone’s character by affiliating them with that! Yeah, that’s gotta draw in a few advertisers!
Let me say, I’m sick of being considered nothing more than a freak, and I’d daresay the rest of my community – the transgender community – feels likewise. Go make your money casting aspersions on some other community, and leave us be.
“Razzle dazzle 'em
And they’ll never catch wise ….
Give 'em the old flim flam flummox.”
— Richard Gere as Billy Flynn in the song "Razzle Dazzle" from the movie “Chicago”
“The longer we listen to one another -- with real attention -- the more commonality we will find in all our lives.” — Barbara Deming
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
GOPs and Gays and Good Ol’ Politics
“The gays and lesbians are after me! The gays and lesbians are after me!!!” -- Texas State Rep. Robert Talton (R) while running down the halls of the Texas Capitol Building being chased by a transsexual activist.
All apologies, but I had to start this article with a bit about Robert Talton of Pasadena, Texas (or as we like to refer to our suburb here in Houston, Pasa-g*ddamned-dena). It was instructed to we trans activists not to bother with Talton, he was bad news – not the worst, but bad news. Well, myself and another close friend with me that day, Dani MacCleney, were always up for the challenges – giant killers we considered ourselves.
During that first visit any of us had made to Talton’s office we discovered something. He was very much into the evangelical playbook, fashioned his entire agenda after a tight circle of cherry-picked biblical text. However, he had some pretty serious skeletons in his closet. We both walked out with one word in mind: xenophobia.
In time, I and others learned to fight fire with fire, using biblical text to counter his own. That’s when the rules changed, he couldn’t see us any more, he needed DPS officers (state police here in Texas) to escort him to and from his appointments and to act as sentry outside his office to keep us out. He even singled out a female minister (sitting next to her husband), pointed and declared “I don’t like you and I don’t like your kind!” The minister was aghast, replying “What!?! Presbyterians?!?”
Apparently Talton presumed the minister, whose hair was short, was a lesbian even though she was sitting next to her legally-married husband.
Here in Texas, Robert Talton personifies the word phobia – whether homophobia or transphobia (or other unpublicized lesser-known phobias) he’s become Public Enemy #1 of anything GLBT. Indeed he revels in his reputation as a pig would wallow in mud.
Recently we had the latest in a recent spate of Republican outings and subsequent oustings from their political office and party participation itself. Former Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) has been a staunch anti-GLBT vote to the red-meat conservatives dominating the GOP. He comes from the mountain state red zone, Idaho, where anti-homosexuality rants play to standing ovations. Yes, he was a man in his element.
At least he was, so long as he kept his personal and private feelings about sexuality private.
Then came the infamous “sting” in June at the Minneapolis airport men’s restroom. Yes, it seems Sen. Craig got caught up in a sex-sting dragnet in airport bathrooms there. Kind of an odd place to pick up a quickie, but some will go to extraordinary lengths I suppose – no pun intended, of course. Apparently this is a recent fad, and one that even the conservative senator appeared to know about.
In typical hand-in-the-cookie-jar guilt, the senator tried his mightiest to wiggle out of being nabbed. First he plopped down his business card and demanded “how do you like that?” The arresting officer was unimpressed. After a bout of entrapment claims, Craig finally acquiesced and pleaded guilty to the charge.
Then came the contrition (or as best as the Republican senator could muster): “I’m not gay and never have been gay.” Note how he cleverly avoided anything to do with bisexuality (he is marred), and how we never here him talk of never having had a homosexual experience. Still … clever wording, very Republican.
The one major misstep by Sen. Larry … he admitted guilt to the charge. Cardinal sin in RNC-land. There was a literal RNC stampede away from ol’ Sen. Larry after the guilt plea. Who cares about honesty? When there’s consistent denial, it’s plausible deniability regardless of how red-handed you’re caught – at least in Republican-land.
Unless it’s adultery by a male politician with a woman (a-la Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), admitting guilt is a kiss of death. Witness the contrast between Randy “Duke” Cunningham (caught and admitted guilt) and Tom DeLay (caught and denied vehemently).
However, it was more than guilt that got him a speedy one-way ticket out of GOPperville. Compounding it was being caught as being gay. Though it may seem so in recent years, GOP does not stand for “Gay Old Party” – something the conservatives will be quick to point out. Again, when you have an “R” next to your name, you’re never truly gay until your caught by your own admission, red-handed or no. Why be like Mark Foley or Ed Schrock when you could be a David Dreier or even aspire to the highest office in the land like President George W. Bush?
Even though the hypocrisy of the consistently anti-gay legislator was blatant, hypocrisy by his own party is much more bluntly evident. Sen. Larry is a fine man up to the minute he admits his guilt. And in their defense, Republicans point out Gerry Studds and Barney Frank (both D-MA).
How weak is that?
Democrats aren’t the judgmental ideologues. That’s Republicans. Democrats pardon. Republicans never forget, nor let it go. And while Jesus forgives, and Democrats generally follow suit, Republicans tend to like Paul’s teachings better, or the Old Testament punitive styles better still (Jesus being a bit too liberal for their tastes.)
Later Sen. Larry hinted at wanting a do over. Or maybe not. He decided the error of his ways was admitting guilt, and that holding out for wearing the opposition down (RNC-style) is a better strategy. But then he even rescinded that by saying it’s his “intent” to step down September 30 as planned. Notice the equivocal wording. (Can you say “wiggle room”?) Who knows what’s Sen. Larry’s plans are – we’re not sure he knows just yet. Recently he’s flipping and flopping like a freshly beached fish on a hook.
One thing you can say, you gotta admire the chutzpah of Republicans and their morals. Whether it’s Rush Limbaugh railing about all druggies needing life in prison until he’s popped gaming scrips to feed his addiction to hillbilly heroin (aka: oxycontin), or President Bush taking hard line on lawbreakers until it happens to a well-connected aide such as Scooter Libby.
Sen. Larry was always a reliable vote against anything GLBT, a good RNC company man. The American Conservative Union rated Craig's 2005 voting record at 96 out of 100 points! After his guilty plea, he bleats at the crowd during his press conference back in Idaho, “I am not gay. I have never been gay ….”
But of course, rumors had been going around even in his own party circles of his rep. A report from the Idaho Statesman noted:
Yeah GOPpers can’t get away from gays fast enough (especially if its one of their own). One word comes to mind when someone who they typically consider a good red-meat Republican ends up being publicly known as gay: Hypocrisy. It’s too jarring a 180 degree turn to not notice. Leave it to GOPs to be the only ones brazen enough to be so blatant and somehow get away with it in plain sight.
Gay panic aside, GOP-folk may miss some of that Log Cabin money and support in a really tight election season. One wonders if the RNC and GOP politicos will try to revisit their “almost victory” 50-49 senate vote of 1996 where they calculated their votes on the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA) after the DOMA blowout. Maybe if they give another “almost victory” they’ll be able to fool enough well-to-do, tax-break-hungry gays and lesbians to pull off a victory again.
Although looking at the GOPpers' well-demonstrated history over the past decade, it’s hard to see how anyone gay or lesbian could find anything redemptive with an R next to its name. Not unless they’re really hardcore about social climbing, power mongering and addicted to those tax breaks on their economic recovery windfalls.
Regardless of whether gay or lesbian America ever decides to give them another chance, GOPs and RNC folks can always fall back on their newest victory cry for their red meat base: “I am not gay! I have never been gay! Oh! And Iraq was a justified war!” Don’t ask. Don’t tell. Nobody wants to know.
All apologies, but I had to start this article with a bit about Robert Talton of Pasadena, Texas (or as we like to refer to our suburb here in Houston, Pasa-g*ddamned-dena). It was instructed to we trans activists not to bother with Talton, he was bad news – not the worst, but bad news. Well, myself and another close friend with me that day, Dani MacCleney, were always up for the challenges – giant killers we considered ourselves.
During that first visit any of us had made to Talton’s office we discovered something. He was very much into the evangelical playbook, fashioned his entire agenda after a tight circle of cherry-picked biblical text. However, he had some pretty serious skeletons in his closet. We both walked out with one word in mind: xenophobia.
In time, I and others learned to fight fire with fire, using biblical text to counter his own. That’s when the rules changed, he couldn’t see us any more, he needed DPS officers (state police here in Texas) to escort him to and from his appointments and to act as sentry outside his office to keep us out. He even singled out a female minister (sitting next to her husband), pointed and declared “I don’t like you and I don’t like your kind!” The minister was aghast, replying “What!?! Presbyterians?!?”
Apparently Talton presumed the minister, whose hair was short, was a lesbian even though she was sitting next to her legally-married husband.
Here in Texas, Robert Talton personifies the word phobia – whether homophobia or transphobia (or other unpublicized lesser-known phobias) he’s become Public Enemy #1 of anything GLBT. Indeed he revels in his reputation as a pig would wallow in mud.
Recently we had the latest in a recent spate of Republican outings and subsequent oustings from their political office and party participation itself. Former Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) has been a staunch anti-GLBT vote to the red-meat conservatives dominating the GOP. He comes from the mountain state red zone, Idaho, where anti-homosexuality rants play to standing ovations. Yes, he was a man in his element.
At least he was, so long as he kept his personal and private feelings about sexuality private.
Then came the infamous “sting” in June at the Minneapolis airport men’s restroom. Yes, it seems Sen. Craig got caught up in a sex-sting dragnet in airport bathrooms there. Kind of an odd place to pick up a quickie, but some will go to extraordinary lengths I suppose – no pun intended, of course. Apparently this is a recent fad, and one that even the conservative senator appeared to know about.
In typical hand-in-the-cookie-jar guilt, the senator tried his mightiest to wiggle out of being nabbed. First he plopped down his business card and demanded “how do you like that?” The arresting officer was unimpressed. After a bout of entrapment claims, Craig finally acquiesced and pleaded guilty to the charge.
Then came the contrition (or as best as the Republican senator could muster): “I’m not gay and never have been gay.” Note how he cleverly avoided anything to do with bisexuality (he is marred), and how we never here him talk of never having had a homosexual experience. Still … clever wording, very Republican.
The one major misstep by Sen. Larry … he admitted guilt to the charge. Cardinal sin in RNC-land. There was a literal RNC stampede away from ol’ Sen. Larry after the guilt plea. Who cares about honesty? When there’s consistent denial, it’s plausible deniability regardless of how red-handed you’re caught – at least in Republican-land.
Unless it’s adultery by a male politician with a woman (a-la Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), admitting guilt is a kiss of death. Witness the contrast between Randy “Duke” Cunningham (caught and admitted guilt) and Tom DeLay (caught and denied vehemently).
However, it was more than guilt that got him a speedy one-way ticket out of GOPperville. Compounding it was being caught as being gay. Though it may seem so in recent years, GOP does not stand for “Gay Old Party” – something the conservatives will be quick to point out. Again, when you have an “R” next to your name, you’re never truly gay until your caught by your own admission, red-handed or no. Why be like Mark Foley or Ed Schrock when you could be a David Dreier or even aspire to the highest office in the land like President George W. Bush?
Even though the hypocrisy of the consistently anti-gay legislator was blatant, hypocrisy by his own party is much more bluntly evident. Sen. Larry is a fine man up to the minute he admits his guilt. And in their defense, Republicans point out Gerry Studds and Barney Frank (both D-MA).
How weak is that?
Democrats aren’t the judgmental ideologues. That’s Republicans. Democrats pardon. Republicans never forget, nor let it go. And while Jesus forgives, and Democrats generally follow suit, Republicans tend to like Paul’s teachings better, or the Old Testament punitive styles better still (Jesus being a bit too liberal for their tastes.)
Later Sen. Larry hinted at wanting a do over. Or maybe not. He decided the error of his ways was admitting guilt, and that holding out for wearing the opposition down (RNC-style) is a better strategy. But then he even rescinded that by saying it’s his “intent” to step down September 30 as planned. Notice the equivocal wording. (Can you say “wiggle room”?) Who knows what’s Sen. Larry’s plans are – we’re not sure he knows just yet. Recently he’s flipping and flopping like a freshly beached fish on a hook.
One thing you can say, you gotta admire the chutzpah of Republicans and their morals. Whether it’s Rush Limbaugh railing about all druggies needing life in prison until he’s popped gaming scrips to feed his addiction to hillbilly heroin (aka: oxycontin), or President Bush taking hard line on lawbreakers until it happens to a well-connected aide such as Scooter Libby.
Sen. Larry was always a reliable vote against anything GLBT, a good RNC company man. The American Conservative Union rated Craig's 2005 voting record at 96 out of 100 points! After his guilty plea, he bleats at the crowd during his press conference back in Idaho, “I am not gay. I have never been gay ….”
But of course, rumors had been going around even in his own party circles of his rep. A report from the Idaho Statesman noted:
[A] man, who identified himself as gay, told a reporter that Craig cruised him at the R.E.I. store in Boise in November 1994, following him around the store for half an hour. (http://www.idahostatesman.com/eyepiece/story/143801.html)And later ….
The last reported incident to the Idaho Statesman about Senator Craig's conduct came from a professional 40-year-old man with close ties to Republican officials. According to the man's story about the encounter with Senator Craig, the man "reported having oral sex with Craig at Washington's [DC] Union Station, probably in 2004." A reporter for the Idaho Statesman interviewed Craig on May 14, 2007 [a few weeks before the airport sting] regarding the allegations about his conduct, and in response to the reporter's questions, Craig said "I'm not gay, and I don't cruise, and I don't hit on men. [...] I don't go around anywhere hitting on men, and by God, if I did, I wouldn't do it in Boise, Idaho! Jiminy!" (http://www.idahostatesman.com/eyepiece/story/143801.html)
Yeah GOPpers can’t get away from gays fast enough (especially if its one of their own). One word comes to mind when someone who they typically consider a good red-meat Republican ends up being publicly known as gay: Hypocrisy. It’s too jarring a 180 degree turn to not notice. Leave it to GOPs to be the only ones brazen enough to be so blatant and somehow get away with it in plain sight.
Gay panic aside, GOP-folk may miss some of that Log Cabin money and support in a really tight election season. One wonders if the RNC and GOP politicos will try to revisit their “almost victory” 50-49 senate vote of 1996 where they calculated their votes on the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA) after the DOMA blowout. Maybe if they give another “almost victory” they’ll be able to fool enough well-to-do, tax-break-hungry gays and lesbians to pull off a victory again.
Although looking at the GOPpers' well-demonstrated history over the past decade, it’s hard to see how anyone gay or lesbian could find anything redemptive with an R next to its name. Not unless they’re really hardcore about social climbing, power mongering and addicted to those tax breaks on their economic recovery windfalls.
Regardless of whether gay or lesbian America ever decides to give them another chance, GOPs and RNC folks can always fall back on their newest victory cry for their red meat base: “I am not gay! I have never been gay! Oh! And Iraq was a justified war!” Don’t ask. Don’t tell. Nobody wants to know.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Who Needs Truth When There's Revisionism?
Post #12: Sept. 2, 2007
Just when you think you’ve heard it all ….
Just a couple weeks ago, President George W. Bush let loose what we in Texas parlance (at least among polite company) term “a whopper.” First he went on news saying how we needed to get more results from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s Administration, and start seeing real progress. This coming right on the heels of the Iraqi ministry taking a month of vacation while the life-or-death issues of this “fledgling democracy” teetering on the brink are put on hold with all the urgency of reviewing a bill on water allocation to farmers. Seemingly, give-‘em-hell-George appeared to be lighting a fire under the Prime Minister.
Then at almost breakneck direction change, the Mr. Bush calls another press conference to reiterate his “unwavering” support of Al-Maliki, and blasting critics calling for his ouster. He goes on to chide the critics of Al-Maliki, noting, “it's not up to the politicians in Washington, D.C., to say whether he will remain in his position. That is up to the Iraqi people who now live in a democracy and not a dictatorship.”
Odd that Georgie would bring that up because a mere year and a half ago, it was Ibrahim Al-Jaafari that appeared poised to be re-elected as Prime Minister in Iraq. Unfortunately for him, the White House wanted none of that. The Bush Administration insisted Al-Jaafari step down, and Al-Jaafari dug in his heels initially and refused. With no small amount of arm-twisting, and some help by enlisting the cleric Ali Sistani to show that Al-Jaafari’s obstinance would hold the nation back, the man who the Iraqi Parliament would’ve elected stepped aside.
The man that Iraq’s Parliament on whole were not so keen on (especially the Sunni segment), was instead “democratically elected” – with a little help and wisdom from their neighbors halfway across the globe! Hey, we would expect nothing less in our own democracy, right?
And while Bush’s words sounded like the typical beat-up-a-Democrat, Congress-been-keeping-me-back rhetoric, he was actually responding to critics within his own party.
The astonishing part of all of this was … Bush did this with a straight face! More impressive, virtually no one called him on it!
It’s something we’ve seen a startling increase in, especially in the 21st century: Real-Time Revisionism. Unlike other examples in history, these days revisionism can’t wait for the history-book writers to massage the facts in a decade or two. No, history is now revised now in the span of a mere year or two.
This brand of nuanced politic-speak has been perfected to an art form by the Bush / Cheney Administration, most notably with the Iraq War mission creep. Revisionism has also become a well-used defense or attack strategy by the RNC, and to good effect. And in typical RNC fashion, as long as you say it loudly enough and long enough (especially if you shout the challengers down) it becomes fact. It’s notably helpful to have the press in your pocket, where they can participate in spreading the desired outcome of what’s already past.
To be sure, this isn’t strictly a conservative trait. Indeed some of their counterparts have watched their success with revision and wish to duplicate for themselves.
It’s become a concept that’s in vogue in the GLBT political community as well. It’s not a new approach by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) as they’ve used this to lesser success over the years. Lately, however, it’s become much more forward, particularly with a sales push to the transgender community.
Claims made about their historical “support” of inclusive language in either Hate Crimes or Employment Non-Discrimination bills fly directly in the face of reality. In later years they’ve taken note of the pressure of other GLBT organizations pushing them to get with the program that most others adopted years ago: actively pushing for trans-inclusive language. It hasn’t stopped them from trying to support language such as the Senate bill that has gender only as they attempted to slide with in the previous Congress.
Now, with the assistance of a few trans leaders they tap to assist in getting their marketing message to the transgender community, the message is all about how they’ve supported us all along. Ahem, nice try.
Even one of the transgender organizations is now claiming they themselves has always supported fully inclusive language – i.e. gender identity. Yet it completely contradicts their helping market the message from HRC, which was “gender”, in order to become the insiders in 2003 - 2004. Even the explanations given about this discrepancy were explained away as being done to please legislative lawyers from these allied organizations. Yet they too wish to rewrite reality simply to assuage guilt or puff up their legacy.
The bottom line, both of these organizations wish to retroactively change their past behavior. Physically that’s impossible, but revising history is much easier, requires no difficult stands to be taken, and as the GOP has shown, is successful. At least it’s successful as long as you can intimidate the rest into not pointing it out or making an issue of it.
Therein is the key to successful revisionism: complacency by those of us who see it and who should say something about it, but don’t. If we let it slide, then we deserve the kind of false history we’ll get.
Those who actively succeed in real-time revisionist history, whether conservative or liberal, all have common traits. Revisionists want no responsibility for their actions. Sure, everyone wishes they could all have a “free pass,” but nobody gets that. In fact, these very same revisionists will be the first one to hold others accountable.
Revisionists are also keen on having a storybook legacy – they just don’t want the muss and fuss of actually going through the hardships to accomplish it.
We as a nation need to begin pulling in the slack, and not giving free passes to this behavior. We should all start questioning the equivocating speech by nailing them down on the specifics and keeping it on record.
If revisionism is allowed, then why bother expecting accountability? What’s the point of truth? It’s a sad day when money buys our history and we never live to know fact.
“Life ‘tis all a cheat
Fooled with hope, men favor the deceit
Trust on, and think tomorrow will repay
Tomorrow’s falser than the former day."
from the play "Aureng-Zebe" by John Dryden
Just when you think you’ve heard it all ….
Just a couple weeks ago, President George W. Bush let loose what we in Texas parlance (at least among polite company) term “a whopper.” First he went on news saying how we needed to get more results from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s Administration, and start seeing real progress. This coming right on the heels of the Iraqi ministry taking a month of vacation while the life-or-death issues of this “fledgling democracy” teetering on the brink are put on hold with all the urgency of reviewing a bill on water allocation to farmers. Seemingly, give-‘em-hell-George appeared to be lighting a fire under the Prime Minister.
Then at almost breakneck direction change, the Mr. Bush calls another press conference to reiterate his “unwavering” support of Al-Maliki, and blasting critics calling for his ouster. He goes on to chide the critics of Al-Maliki, noting, “it's not up to the politicians in Washington, D.C., to say whether he will remain in his position. That is up to the Iraqi people who now live in a democracy and not a dictatorship.”
Odd that Georgie would bring that up because a mere year and a half ago, it was Ibrahim Al-Jaafari that appeared poised to be re-elected as Prime Minister in Iraq. Unfortunately for him, the White House wanted none of that. The Bush Administration insisted Al-Jaafari step down, and Al-Jaafari dug in his heels initially and refused. With no small amount of arm-twisting, and some help by enlisting the cleric Ali Sistani to show that Al-Jaafari’s obstinance would hold the nation back, the man who the Iraqi Parliament would’ve elected stepped aside.
The man that Iraq’s Parliament on whole were not so keen on (especially the Sunni segment), was instead “democratically elected” – with a little help and wisdom from their neighbors halfway across the globe! Hey, we would expect nothing less in our own democracy, right?
And while Bush’s words sounded like the typical beat-up-a-Democrat, Congress-been-keeping-me-back rhetoric, he was actually responding to critics within his own party.
The astonishing part of all of this was … Bush did this with a straight face! More impressive, virtually no one called him on it!
It’s something we’ve seen a startling increase in, especially in the 21st century: Real-Time Revisionism. Unlike other examples in history, these days revisionism can’t wait for the history-book writers to massage the facts in a decade or two. No, history is now revised now in the span of a mere year or two.
This brand of nuanced politic-speak has been perfected to an art form by the Bush / Cheney Administration, most notably with the Iraq War mission creep. Revisionism has also become a well-used defense or attack strategy by the RNC, and to good effect. And in typical RNC fashion, as long as you say it loudly enough and long enough (especially if you shout the challengers down) it becomes fact. It’s notably helpful to have the press in your pocket, where they can participate in spreading the desired outcome of what’s already past.
To be sure, this isn’t strictly a conservative trait. Indeed some of their counterparts have watched their success with revision and wish to duplicate for themselves.
It’s become a concept that’s in vogue in the GLBT political community as well. It’s not a new approach by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) as they’ve used this to lesser success over the years. Lately, however, it’s become much more forward, particularly with a sales push to the transgender community.
Claims made about their historical “support” of inclusive language in either Hate Crimes or Employment Non-Discrimination bills fly directly in the face of reality. In later years they’ve taken note of the pressure of other GLBT organizations pushing them to get with the program that most others adopted years ago: actively pushing for trans-inclusive language. It hasn’t stopped them from trying to support language such as the Senate bill that has gender only as they attempted to slide with in the previous Congress.
Now, with the assistance of a few trans leaders they tap to assist in getting their marketing message to the transgender community, the message is all about how they’ve supported us all along. Ahem, nice try.
Even one of the transgender organizations is now claiming they themselves has always supported fully inclusive language – i.e. gender identity. Yet it completely contradicts their helping market the message from HRC, which was “gender”, in order to become the insiders in 2003 - 2004. Even the explanations given about this discrepancy were explained away as being done to please legislative lawyers from these allied organizations. Yet they too wish to rewrite reality simply to assuage guilt or puff up their legacy.
The bottom line, both of these organizations wish to retroactively change their past behavior. Physically that’s impossible, but revising history is much easier, requires no difficult stands to be taken, and as the GOP has shown, is successful. At least it’s successful as long as you can intimidate the rest into not pointing it out or making an issue of it.
Therein is the key to successful revisionism: complacency by those of us who see it and who should say something about it, but don’t. If we let it slide, then we deserve the kind of false history we’ll get.
Those who actively succeed in real-time revisionist history, whether conservative or liberal, all have common traits. Revisionists want no responsibility for their actions. Sure, everyone wishes they could all have a “free pass,” but nobody gets that. In fact, these very same revisionists will be the first one to hold others accountable.
Revisionists are also keen on having a storybook legacy – they just don’t want the muss and fuss of actually going through the hardships to accomplish it.
We as a nation need to begin pulling in the slack, and not giving free passes to this behavior. We should all start questioning the equivocating speech by nailing them down on the specifics and keeping it on record.
If revisionism is allowed, then why bother expecting accountability? What’s the point of truth? It’s a sad day when money buys our history and we never live to know fact.
“Life ‘tis all a cheat
Fooled with hope, men favor the deceit
Trust on, and think tomorrow will repay
Tomorrow’s falser than the former day."
from the play "Aureng-Zebe" by John Dryden
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Do It For The GOPper: Republican Presidential Politics Plays to the Faithful
"Just give me power, by the hour ... Salvation's yours! The Power's mine!" -- Rat Race Kid - Give Me Power ©
While the Dems got through with their debates today, in the interest of fairness it behooves me to at least give the GOPpers a report with regards to Trans America.
Two weeks earlier, they had their first network debate with all candidates currently declared (Fred Thompson is not one of those) in Iowa; the following week they conducted their straw poll there, with the expected victory for Mitt (the only presidential candidate ever named after a baseball glove) Romney. For the sake of fairness, the other top-tier candidates to date – Rudy Giuliani and John McCain – skipped the straw poll. Fred Thompson has not officially declared, so he’s officially not a candidate and polled better than the aforementioned other skippers.
So what does this mean for GOP America? Moreover, what does this communicate to Transgender Americans?
The straw poll itself showed little. The only surprises were two outsiders (those not willing to throw the money around to buy a victory) placed second and fifth respectively. Ark. Gov. Mike Huckabee topped both Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, and Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado who tossed the money out only to see less-than-expected results for the buck. Furthermore the ultimate GOP outsider, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, finished closely behind those conventional two.
As for GOP nominations and ultimately success, all candidates in the debate have their dilemmas to hurdle. None of them appear a lock-tight cinch.
Rep. Tom Tancredo is the candidate of choice if you really want to “stick it to the Mexicans.” He’s the choice of the “deport-all-the-non-English-speaking-foreigners” crowd – especially if it’s spoken with a latino accent. There’s some agreement from this writer in that opening the border wide simply to bring in cheap labor is wrong. This only accomplishes desperation among American citizens in the workplace, drives down wages in favor of exploiting those newly-arrived workers while driving up profits for the top tier, and foments polarization between citizens and immigrants. Most pointedly this has little to do with humanitarian concern. The ultimate goal is the bottom line and preying upon those who don’t know any better. If that were Tancredo’s push, it would be noteworthy. However, the Colorado Rep’s complaints come off as thinly veiled indignation at having to read signs in Spanish in his home state.
Watching former Health Secretary, Tommy Thompson was vaguely frightening. He of the V-chip implantation under his skin (or ID chip, whatever) came across at times as being very machine-like in the debates. His answers at times weren’t really answering the questions from the debate, but rote spewing of campaign-speech soundbites. It left me wondering if he was even aware of being in a debate. It seemed he was almost acting as if he was shooting his campaign commercial. Being HHS Secretary, he defied the party and scored big audience applause on women’s health and issues of the uninsured, something that will keep folks like Billy Kristol awake at night. Thompson also chastised the Iraq war calculus, but stopped short of calling the war there a mistake.
Senator Sam Brownback showed himself to be the conservative’s conservative, mean-spirited, willing to sling any amount of mud to win and to momentarily grasp any argument – however flimsy – in order to win. He comes across as the typical GOPper who distrusts (and likely outright despises) anyone that’s not straight, white, male and conservative. While being nearly a clone of the Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, Dick Cheney ilk, he’s also strangely against the ongoing Iraq War. Thus his niche: like Bush in every respect, will slavishly pander to prejudicial religious leader voting bloc, but doesn’t like Bush’s handling of the war.
Sen. John McCain was by far the most painful to watch in the Iowa debates. He looked uncomfortable, scored very few points with the audience, and generally came across as unprepared or distracted. In answering an Email question about regrets, his cryptic answer of testifying about someone he thought was a friend, when he shouldn’t have was baffling. While he’s gamely tried to say his campaign isn’t flagging, it’s virtual implosion is wearing on him and it shows. While he would’ve been a much better and plausible choice for independents in 2000, his star has long-since fallen. The 2004 partisan-loyalty to non-vet Bush over the vets push for Kerry and against the mishandling of the Iraq war were bad enough (something he then looked very uncomfortable with). Afterwards, his obvious pandering to both George W. Bush in 2006 (where he famously asked all to not vote for him but to vote for the President to show their support), and the blatant 180 to the religiopolitical leadership (vis a vis tacit remorse in his meetings with Falwell) showed him to be just as personally expedient as any other GOP hopeful. It’s hard to believe that once upon a time McCain was a self-admitted “maverick” and pushed principle over party. Nowadays, he’s just another GOP politicker.
Mayor Rudy Giuliani – what can I say about him other than he’s the number two guy, trying harder, but not a polished speaker. Sure the polls have him at the top. But the arch-con folks have not weighed in, and do not want this as their poster boy. Yes, he’s slicker than goose dung, shown particularly when he deflected the answer about his "one defining mistake" with humor. Was it really humor, or a knowing cognizance that GOP America never forgets and especially hates any GOP candidate being embarrassingly candid on record? Rudy’s answer to the mistake question showed distinct shades of W – nothing for the record, and all about glibness. Hizzoner scored biggest on the defense of abortion, though he tried to finesse his position initially (something he should learn from, but likely will not). One troubling aspect he showed (not only on women’s rights but others he’s developed expedient amnesia on during campaigning): Rudy will buckle on principle if the money (read elected office) is right. After the straw polling, his offspring’s views of Rudy came to light. Rudy’s response? "I love my family very, very much and will do anything for them. There are complexities in every family in America," and basically a ‘leave my family alone’ reply. Nice attempt to cover, but too many eyes are watching.
Mid-stage we had Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, the only man named after baseball equipment. His birth name is Willard, but he avoids it (think ‘movies about rats.’) Mitt’s very polished, extremely practiced, and nothing more than a political rhetoric machine. His all-too-predictable conservative responses were anthropomorphic. It’s almost as if he’d gotten the V-chip implanted instead of Tommy Thompson (or certainly a much better version of it). When pinned on his past political views by the oh-so-Rovian candidate, Sen. Brownback, Romney unsuccessfully tried to outright lie, then feverishly deflect attention from his past political values. Just as GOP folk painted Sen. John Kerry, you can put a big ol’ flip-flop costume on Mitt as well. Is this a Massachusetts thing? He’ll be the dutiful pet for the RNC when it counts. Mitt also took pains to note that he was not “a carbon copy of {George W Bush}.” Indeed, he favors not only keeping Guantanamo (a la Bush/Cheney), but also even expanding it! After the straw poll, embarrassing claims came out about his sons “showing their patriotism by volunteering” for Mitt’s campaign rather than joining the military and directly fighting the war on terror. This comes from perhaps the biggest proponent (outside of McCain) of Bush’s decisions in Iraq and support for the overall concept of the Iraq War. Supportive … so long as it ain’t his kids who must go. Very Bush-like, wins points with the W crowd.
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee sounded almost like a Democrat. During the debates, he scored a number of times on issues of the uninsured, on war (not jumping into war and forcing other nations to be like us), on democracy (how we should set an example others will follow – later capitalized by Romney), and how he believed we should all be considered equal. His final statement was best, that he worked for all Americans no matter what race, religion, belief! Another score was on our national infrastructure decline while nation-building in Iraq. (In context, George W. Bush also stumped on the promise of no “nation building” like Bill Clinton. Take that for what it’s worth.) On debate alone, Huckabee almost won my heart. Then I snapped to reality and recognized this was a GOPper. If (big IF) he were to somehow win the nomination, he’d have to face the music of profit-uber-alles Corp. America and the religiopolitical leaders who believe in swift and extreme judgment. That the governor would be so candid is laudable. However the message’s populist nature in the RNC-world is a political career-killer. Unless he’s willing to ditch all that Iowa debate rhetoric, then Gov. Mike might as well turn in his GOP credentials on the way out the door.
Rep. Ron Paul of Texas actually scored many of the biggest applauses in the Iowa crowd; mostly with bringing troops home and ending the capricious fashion America (circa 21st century) goes to war. Paul also made big points about how America made more progress with peace against former enemy (Vietnam) than in war. It’s a point worth taking when considering Vietnam with whom we now enjoy good relations and trade, contrasted to thirty-five years earlier. Knowing Rep. Paul from here in Texas, I’ve always been fully aware that (unlike McCain) he embodies the word “Republican maverick.” If there’s anyone who’s not a George W. Bush, status quo Republican, it’s Ron Paul. The downside (from a conservative vantage-point) is that he’s indistinguishable from Rep. Dennis Kucinich. Indeed, he’s also co-author of the same bill with Rep. Kucinich to immediately bring the troops home. While that’s great news to families of the soldiers in Iraq, it’s blasphemy to the Romney / Cheney / George W. Bush paradigm. Add to that Rep. Paul’s populist message and his desire to see the big money shut out of politics and you see a lost totally cause in a GOP world. Rep. Paul would do much better to run as Libertarian then the corporate-owned GOP. Ron still puts faith in the GOP. Outside of politics, though, few others do.
The only other candidate in the GOP race for President isn’t even a candidate yet. Even now, many pundits are speculating that his dalliance in officially jumping in is actually writing himself out of the script for whatever reason. Star of TV and movies, Sen. Fred Thompson, appears to almost have a carte blanche to the top of the GOP ticket almost as soon as he announces. And therein lies the rub. This Tennessean Thompson (not to be confused with Tommy of HHS and Wisconsin) is playing coy and remaining above the fray. Good in one sense: he’s not beaten up in the early stages. However, the bad side is that no one really knows what he’s about. True, it worked for George W. Bush’s elections. But that also works on the bad side as well: what worked for Bush shouldn’t have. Sen. Fred will shoot straight, a distinctive plus from the current administration. But he’ll also be beholden to the same RNC kingmakers and their mandates for what their party’s choice will be. That’ll be an ill fit for Fred Thompson, and he’ll prove to be an ill fit for the RNC –on either the religiopolitical side, or the corporate side, depending on his issue that day. Fred Thompson may be the only candidate on the R side that’s been candid with the transgender community. He was one of the offices that informed lobbyists from the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) what was happening behind the scenes on our issues from the likes of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). He qualified that statement by saying he wasn’t going to support trans issues, but reported that he felt what HRC was doing on the sly was wrong. Clearly, Sen. Thompson won’t be getting the HRC or the gay/lesbian vote.
But will he, or for that matter, any of the GOP crop win the transgender vote? If the individual is all about getting big windfall tax breaks for themselves, and has no concern for the ability to have an ID with an appropriate name and gender marker, or a passport, or doesn’t care for seeing fairness in trial cases, child custody or health care treatment, is independently wealthy enough to never need for job-seeking, and certainly has no concern for the well-being of other in their community – then yes, someone may vote GOP. But for the overwhelming majority of trans America, especially anyone who’s been paying any attention, the answer is a resounding no. The RNC will dictate where the party and their candidates will go. They don’t care for mavericks (see McCain) or independent thinkers (Ron Paul, Huckabee). As they demonstrated with Bush 41, if you don’t toe the line, kiss your political career and your legacy (inasmuch as they can affect it) goodbye. Voting for anyone with an R in back of their name is voting for the RNC and all of their social engineering plans for the “New American Century.”
And for transgender America, that’s about like ridding oneself of a headache by self-decapitation.
While the Dems got through with their debates today, in the interest of fairness it behooves me to at least give the GOPpers a report with regards to Trans America.
Two weeks earlier, they had their first network debate with all candidates currently declared (Fred Thompson is not one of those) in Iowa; the following week they conducted their straw poll there, with the expected victory for Mitt (the only presidential candidate ever named after a baseball glove) Romney. For the sake of fairness, the other top-tier candidates to date – Rudy Giuliani and John McCain – skipped the straw poll. Fred Thompson has not officially declared, so he’s officially not a candidate and polled better than the aforementioned other skippers.
So what does this mean for GOP America? Moreover, what does this communicate to Transgender Americans?
The straw poll itself showed little. The only surprises were two outsiders (those not willing to throw the money around to buy a victory) placed second and fifth respectively. Ark. Gov. Mike Huckabee topped both Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, and Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado who tossed the money out only to see less-than-expected results for the buck. Furthermore the ultimate GOP outsider, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, finished closely behind those conventional two.
As for GOP nominations and ultimately success, all candidates in the debate have their dilemmas to hurdle. None of them appear a lock-tight cinch.
Rep. Tom Tancredo is the candidate of choice if you really want to “stick it to the Mexicans.” He’s the choice of the “deport-all-the-non-English-speaking-foreigners” crowd – especially if it’s spoken with a latino accent. There’s some agreement from this writer in that opening the border wide simply to bring in cheap labor is wrong. This only accomplishes desperation among American citizens in the workplace, drives down wages in favor of exploiting those newly-arrived workers while driving up profits for the top tier, and foments polarization between citizens and immigrants. Most pointedly this has little to do with humanitarian concern. The ultimate goal is the bottom line and preying upon those who don’t know any better. If that were Tancredo’s push, it would be noteworthy. However, the Colorado Rep’s complaints come off as thinly veiled indignation at having to read signs in Spanish in his home state.
Watching former Health Secretary, Tommy Thompson was vaguely frightening. He of the V-chip implantation under his skin (or ID chip, whatever) came across at times as being very machine-like in the debates. His answers at times weren’t really answering the questions from the debate, but rote spewing of campaign-speech soundbites. It left me wondering if he was even aware of being in a debate. It seemed he was almost acting as if he was shooting his campaign commercial. Being HHS Secretary, he defied the party and scored big audience applause on women’s health and issues of the uninsured, something that will keep folks like Billy Kristol awake at night. Thompson also chastised the Iraq war calculus, but stopped short of calling the war there a mistake.
Senator Sam Brownback showed himself to be the conservative’s conservative, mean-spirited, willing to sling any amount of mud to win and to momentarily grasp any argument – however flimsy – in order to win. He comes across as the typical GOPper who distrusts (and likely outright despises) anyone that’s not straight, white, male and conservative. While being nearly a clone of the Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, Dick Cheney ilk, he’s also strangely against the ongoing Iraq War. Thus his niche: like Bush in every respect, will slavishly pander to prejudicial religious leader voting bloc, but doesn’t like Bush’s handling of the war.
Sen. John McCain was by far the most painful to watch in the Iowa debates. He looked uncomfortable, scored very few points with the audience, and generally came across as unprepared or distracted. In answering an Email question about regrets, his cryptic answer of testifying about someone he thought was a friend, when he shouldn’t have was baffling. While he’s gamely tried to say his campaign isn’t flagging, it’s virtual implosion is wearing on him and it shows. While he would’ve been a much better and plausible choice for independents in 2000, his star has long-since fallen. The 2004 partisan-loyalty to non-vet Bush over the vets push for Kerry and against the mishandling of the Iraq war were bad enough (something he then looked very uncomfortable with). Afterwards, his obvious pandering to both George W. Bush in 2006 (where he famously asked all to not vote for him but to vote for the President to show their support), and the blatant 180 to the religiopolitical leadership (vis a vis tacit remorse in his meetings with Falwell) showed him to be just as personally expedient as any other GOP hopeful. It’s hard to believe that once upon a time McCain was a self-admitted “maverick” and pushed principle over party. Nowadays, he’s just another GOP politicker.
Mayor Rudy Giuliani – what can I say about him other than he’s the number two guy, trying harder, but not a polished speaker. Sure the polls have him at the top. But the arch-con folks have not weighed in, and do not want this as their poster boy. Yes, he’s slicker than goose dung, shown particularly when he deflected the answer about his "one defining mistake" with humor. Was it really humor, or a knowing cognizance that GOP America never forgets and especially hates any GOP candidate being embarrassingly candid on record? Rudy’s answer to the mistake question showed distinct shades of W – nothing for the record, and all about glibness. Hizzoner scored biggest on the defense of abortion, though he tried to finesse his position initially (something he should learn from, but likely will not). One troubling aspect he showed (not only on women’s rights but others he’s developed expedient amnesia on during campaigning): Rudy will buckle on principle if the money (read elected office) is right. After the straw polling, his offspring’s views of Rudy came to light. Rudy’s response? "I love my family very, very much and will do anything for them. There are complexities in every family in America," and basically a ‘leave my family alone’ reply. Nice attempt to cover, but too many eyes are watching.
Mid-stage we had Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, the only man named after baseball equipment. His birth name is Willard, but he avoids it (think ‘movies about rats.’) Mitt’s very polished, extremely practiced, and nothing more than a political rhetoric machine. His all-too-predictable conservative responses were anthropomorphic. It’s almost as if he’d gotten the V-chip implanted instead of Tommy Thompson (or certainly a much better version of it). When pinned on his past political views by the oh-so-Rovian candidate, Sen. Brownback, Romney unsuccessfully tried to outright lie, then feverishly deflect attention from his past political values. Just as GOP folk painted Sen. John Kerry, you can put a big ol’ flip-flop costume on Mitt as well. Is this a Massachusetts thing? He’ll be the dutiful pet for the RNC when it counts. Mitt also took pains to note that he was not “a carbon copy of {George W Bush}.” Indeed, he favors not only keeping Guantanamo (a la Bush/Cheney), but also even expanding it! After the straw poll, embarrassing claims came out about his sons “showing their patriotism by volunteering” for Mitt’s campaign rather than joining the military and directly fighting the war on terror. This comes from perhaps the biggest proponent (outside of McCain) of Bush’s decisions in Iraq and support for the overall concept of the Iraq War. Supportive … so long as it ain’t his kids who must go. Very Bush-like, wins points with the W crowd.
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee sounded almost like a Democrat. During the debates, he scored a number of times on issues of the uninsured, on war (not jumping into war and forcing other nations to be like us), on democracy (how we should set an example others will follow – later capitalized by Romney), and how he believed we should all be considered equal. His final statement was best, that he worked for all Americans no matter what race, religion, belief! Another score was on our national infrastructure decline while nation-building in Iraq. (In context, George W. Bush also stumped on the promise of no “nation building” like Bill Clinton. Take that for what it’s worth.) On debate alone, Huckabee almost won my heart. Then I snapped to reality and recognized this was a GOPper. If (big IF) he were to somehow win the nomination, he’d have to face the music of profit-uber-alles Corp. America and the religiopolitical leaders who believe in swift and extreme judgment. That the governor would be so candid is laudable. However the message’s populist nature in the RNC-world is a political career-killer. Unless he’s willing to ditch all that Iowa debate rhetoric, then Gov. Mike might as well turn in his GOP credentials on the way out the door.
Rep. Ron Paul of Texas actually scored many of the biggest applauses in the Iowa crowd; mostly with bringing troops home and ending the capricious fashion America (circa 21st century) goes to war. Paul also made big points about how America made more progress with peace against former enemy (Vietnam) than in war. It’s a point worth taking when considering Vietnam with whom we now enjoy good relations and trade, contrasted to thirty-five years earlier. Knowing Rep. Paul from here in Texas, I’ve always been fully aware that (unlike McCain) he embodies the word “Republican maverick.” If there’s anyone who’s not a George W. Bush, status quo Republican, it’s Ron Paul. The downside (from a conservative vantage-point) is that he’s indistinguishable from Rep. Dennis Kucinich. Indeed, he’s also co-author of the same bill with Rep. Kucinich to immediately bring the troops home. While that’s great news to families of the soldiers in Iraq, it’s blasphemy to the Romney / Cheney / George W. Bush paradigm. Add to that Rep. Paul’s populist message and his desire to see the big money shut out of politics and you see a lost totally cause in a GOP world. Rep. Paul would do much better to run as Libertarian then the corporate-owned GOP. Ron still puts faith in the GOP. Outside of politics, though, few others do.
The only other candidate in the GOP race for President isn’t even a candidate yet. Even now, many pundits are speculating that his dalliance in officially jumping in is actually writing himself out of the script for whatever reason. Star of TV and movies, Sen. Fred Thompson, appears to almost have a carte blanche to the top of the GOP ticket almost as soon as he announces. And therein lies the rub. This Tennessean Thompson (not to be confused with Tommy of HHS and Wisconsin) is playing coy and remaining above the fray. Good in one sense: he’s not beaten up in the early stages. However, the bad side is that no one really knows what he’s about. True, it worked for George W. Bush’s elections. But that also works on the bad side as well: what worked for Bush shouldn’t have. Sen. Fred will shoot straight, a distinctive plus from the current administration. But he’ll also be beholden to the same RNC kingmakers and their mandates for what their party’s choice will be. That’ll be an ill fit for Fred Thompson, and he’ll prove to be an ill fit for the RNC –on either the religiopolitical side, or the corporate side, depending on his issue that day. Fred Thompson may be the only candidate on the R side that’s been candid with the transgender community. He was one of the offices that informed lobbyists from the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) what was happening behind the scenes on our issues from the likes of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). He qualified that statement by saying he wasn’t going to support trans issues, but reported that he felt what HRC was doing on the sly was wrong. Clearly, Sen. Thompson won’t be getting the HRC or the gay/lesbian vote.
But will he, or for that matter, any of the GOP crop win the transgender vote? If the individual is all about getting big windfall tax breaks for themselves, and has no concern for the ability to have an ID with an appropriate name and gender marker, or a passport, or doesn’t care for seeing fairness in trial cases, child custody or health care treatment, is independently wealthy enough to never need for job-seeking, and certainly has no concern for the well-being of other in their community – then yes, someone may vote GOP. But for the overwhelming majority of trans America, especially anyone who’s been paying any attention, the answer is a resounding no. The RNC will dictate where the party and their candidates will go. They don’t care for mavericks (see McCain) or independent thinkers (Ron Paul, Huckabee). As they demonstrated with Bush 41, if you don’t toe the line, kiss your political career and your legacy (inasmuch as they can affect it) goodbye. Voting for anyone with an R in back of their name is voting for the RNC and all of their social engineering plans for the “New American Century.”
And for transgender America, that’s about like ridding oneself of a headache by self-decapitation.
Summer Songs that Helped Us Survive
“When I was Stone Blue … Rock and Roll sure helped me through ….” Foghat©
Warning beforehand, this is a fluff-piece – you’ll have to excuse me. Actually, a little of this can be blamed on Verizon commercials.
What originally inspired this was the return of typical south Texas summer heat in all its oppressively humid splendor. Mostly we’d been spared this year, save for July 21 (my birthday) and one other day in June – the only profusely body-moistening days so far this year. It’s an oppressive climate sometimes. Typical heat brings the discomfort, discomfort brings discontent, discontent seeks an outlet – it’s a generally predictable pattern.
A little background, I also live without air conditioning and heat – by choice, mostly. After being laid off in Jan. 2003, it was obvious budgetary reasons. Since then, with the continued “economic recovery” (income deflation and cost inflation), I’ve continued the practice. Houston’s known as for disproportionately expensive electric and gas utility bills. It’s mostly not too bad until the really extreme humidity sets in.
Yeah, I know – New York is humid, Washington is humid, lots of east coast places are humid. But when I hear folks there complaining in real time about it, I can’t help but chuckle. Courtney Sharp, a New Orleans native, and I both shared a laugh at DC’s “humidity.” Ask anyone in the Gulf Coastal region, it’s a different climate here in more ways than social.
Back to the subject, I sat waiting for my computer to cool down and watched a bit of TV. Lo, there was a Verizon commercial with a guy doing an AC/DC imitation in his copy room at work – a grown-up who never grew up. It got me to thinking: why the hell am I up here sweating when I could be downstairs diverting my focus on the heat with an album or two?
Yes, album. Being a vintage ’57 model, I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s vinyl era. No, this isn’t about fetish clothing a la tranny, but music media – LP albums to be exact, turntables and the like. It was a great escape for those of us, pre-computer and internet, when we all thought we were alone. Maybe that isolation wasn’t so for New York or L.A. or the Bay Area. But for transpeople in the howling hinterlands between the left and right coast, and especially in the heart of South Texas, isolation was as pervasive as life itself.
And music was the soundtrack to life. More than any other genre, rock and roll became a more symbolic form, more attention demanding than any other category. It’s defined generations, added subconscious imagery to mass marketing, and even become a suggestive influence for the more vulnerable and impressionable (think Judas Priest and the suicides, or N.W.A. and the gangsta wannabes).
While music would never dictate my life choices, it certainly had its soothing qualities – savage breast notwithstanding. It was also a wonderful shared experience, whether it was concerts (a rare and eagerly anticipated “event” in Corpus Christi), cruising around with the cassette or eight-track blasting, or even simply kicking back at home playing albums and partaking in our favorite intoxicant – in whatever form that may have taken.
It was probably just me, but it seemed like a much more magical time.
We certainly had heaping portions of teen angst, lack of opportunity, frustration, and sensory and cultural malnourishment. Authority and social mores were hollow and hypocrisy-filled, it was pre-computer age (much fewer distractions) and our future lives appeared to be an ultimate dead-end. As Jimi Hendrix sang in a line from Manic Depression© “I know what I want, but I just don’t know how to go about getting it.” The endless humid heat coupled with boredom and idleness caused us to be both outwardly and self-destructive. It’s amazing that we kept from killing ourselves! No one questioned the condition: we were all in the same boat. Think the movie “Dazed and Confused”: then exchange the live oak woods outside of Austin for the open beaches and sand dunes outside of Corpus Christi – everything else was exactly the same, save for the surfboards.
Yet even with all of that seemingly spirit-crushing outlook on life, we managed to be happy! We managed to find something to fill that gaping maw, and it had little to do with a perpetual buzz or simply “hanging out at the island (the beach).” It ultimately boiled down to music.
For music, we’d hop in the car and drive 6 hours and 400 miles across state to attend a Texas Jam in Dallas. We’d spend a weekend sleeping in the Astrodome parking lot, eating and drinking little, in hopes of snagging a ticket to a sold-out concert – or alternately just hanging out in the parking lot, partying and feeding off of the multitude of open cars and trucks blaring music. Even in talking with a lot of the others in the trans community, music was the one constant that kept us from going off the deep end.
Even though it was pre-trans years, and I was internally conflicted, it was unnoticeable in the midst of all the others standing sweat-drenched in the open summer sun, baking like potatoes ‘til our skins were almost equally as brown and crispy. And through it all was the soundtrack of the quintessential, emotion-charging, high-energy songs of summer – songs to bake by.
Yes, I was into Punk and New Wave, but not many folks in South Texas were. Even so, Punk was more intimate music for smaller venues, being born in the pubs and smoky little basement bars. Loud, very much so. Expansive and reverberating outdoor music, no.
Not sure why, but very few songs from outside the US were on this list, surprisingly (esp. for UK groups). Possibly it was because of their more complicated and sophisticated rhythm and song structure – the progressive rock. The synergistic songs that seemed to inspire action, regardless of heat-fatigue, were those more reliant on the up-temp power chord crunch. There was one John Lennon song, Instant Karma that made it in that category. And also an Aussie group, AC/DC with Problem Child, that also had that spontaneous activating quality.
The rest were all American continent groups, most with something to do with Texas. Songs like Ted Nugent’s Free For All, and Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s Roll On Down the Highway (Canadian), Kiss’ Calling Dr. Love, the Raspberries’ Go All The Way and the Sweet’s Ballroom Blitz were there to be sure – none really anything to do with Texas then (though conservative Ted’s now a Texas resident).
Maybe Texas was more inclined towards setting up amps in open areas (like beaches) and just letting the music blast forth, neighbors-be-damned. It was really the mentality, blare until the police came and shut it down. We had ZZ Top with LaGrange, Steve Miller Band (who lived in Dallas) with Jungle Love, the Eagles’ Good Day in Hell and at the tail end of the era, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s When The House Is Rockin’. Save for the middle break, Edgar Winter’s instrumental Frankenstein would be there as well.
The #3 all-time top beach songs had no connection with anything to do with Texas (save for Ronnie Montrose being in Edgar Winter’s group at an earlier point, and both Winter brothers being from Orange, TX). But this isn’t six degrees of Texas. Actually there were two Montrose songs off of their first album that really rated in this, as Space Station #5 should also make this list. But the one song, Rock The Nation, was another of those blistering, power-chord reverberation heavy songs that would get cranked to top volume and echo up and down the shore. Needless to say, the song subject was equally appropriate.
The Doobie Brothers weren’t from Texas, nor had connections to it, but one of their songs was probably the #2 quintessential beach / summer sunburn song and captured the essence of relentless summer heat in our neck of the woods. China Grove was really not even an official town, more just a collection of businesses and a few homes and trailers at the intersection of Rigsby and Foster Rd. just outside the Loop, east of San Antonio. There’s nothing there. Why it rated a song, I have no idea. But it was a song that captured the essence of summer for us then.
The top summer song that floated my boat back then, whether the beach or campgrounds, was yet another Texas boy from Orange. Rick Derringer was a one-hit wonder, and never enjoyed much recognition in his solo career. However, his one hit was a good one. Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo used to blast out of a jukebox at our lonely little campground west of San Antonio on our two family vacations up the Nueces River. It was one of the few decent songs on the box, and it got the overwhelming lion’s share of play. In my mind’s eye, I can still hear (and even feel) the beat from the bass-thumping box a football field away, wending through the live oaks every night. Even at the coast, in the mid-day heat, it was enough to get us energized, to inspire harder play in the pick up football games or give it our all in traffic Frisbee games on the drive-on beach. There was just something about that crunch that shook your bones, no matter how heat-fatigued, and activated you. It also helped you put the heat out of mind, arguably one of, if not the most important quality of all!
Clearly, this is not a definitive list for everyone. Certainly age and the era we grew up in will influence other songs filling that list. I can see a Guns N’ Roses Welcome To the Jungle, a Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit, or even Marilyn Manson’s Mobscene or something from Korn being subsequent generations’ top outdoor summer songs. There will be other suggestions and a near-infinite number of opinions on how they beat the heat, pain (physical or emotional), quell frustration or simply keep their focus. But for my prime of youth era, for me and for those I also observed, these were the songs that did it. Whatever gets you through your life! (thanks again, John Lennon)
As I wrap this up, it’s another of those more typical summer days in Houston, a smoggy, humid, 100 degrees with a bullet at 3PM. Even in oppressive heat, it works! Besides the cicadas rattling outside, you can guess what I’m listening to at the moment. Sorry about the noise, neighbors!
Warning beforehand, this is a fluff-piece – you’ll have to excuse me. Actually, a little of this can be blamed on Verizon commercials.
What originally inspired this was the return of typical south Texas summer heat in all its oppressively humid splendor. Mostly we’d been spared this year, save for July 21 (my birthday) and one other day in June – the only profusely body-moistening days so far this year. It’s an oppressive climate sometimes. Typical heat brings the discomfort, discomfort brings discontent, discontent seeks an outlet – it’s a generally predictable pattern.
A little background, I also live without air conditioning and heat – by choice, mostly. After being laid off in Jan. 2003, it was obvious budgetary reasons. Since then, with the continued “economic recovery” (income deflation and cost inflation), I’ve continued the practice. Houston’s known as for disproportionately expensive electric and gas utility bills. It’s mostly not too bad until the really extreme humidity sets in.
Yeah, I know – New York is humid, Washington is humid, lots of east coast places are humid. But when I hear folks there complaining in real time about it, I can’t help but chuckle. Courtney Sharp, a New Orleans native, and I both shared a laugh at DC’s “humidity.” Ask anyone in the Gulf Coastal region, it’s a different climate here in more ways than social.
Back to the subject, I sat waiting for my computer to cool down and watched a bit of TV. Lo, there was a Verizon commercial with a guy doing an AC/DC imitation in his copy room at work – a grown-up who never grew up. It got me to thinking: why the hell am I up here sweating when I could be downstairs diverting my focus on the heat with an album or two?
Yes, album. Being a vintage ’57 model, I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s vinyl era. No, this isn’t about fetish clothing a la tranny, but music media – LP albums to be exact, turntables and the like. It was a great escape for those of us, pre-computer and internet, when we all thought we were alone. Maybe that isolation wasn’t so for New York or L.A. or the Bay Area. But for transpeople in the howling hinterlands between the left and right coast, and especially in the heart of South Texas, isolation was as pervasive as life itself.
And music was the soundtrack to life. More than any other genre, rock and roll became a more symbolic form, more attention demanding than any other category. It’s defined generations, added subconscious imagery to mass marketing, and even become a suggestive influence for the more vulnerable and impressionable (think Judas Priest and the suicides, or N.W.A. and the gangsta wannabes).
While music would never dictate my life choices, it certainly had its soothing qualities – savage breast notwithstanding. It was also a wonderful shared experience, whether it was concerts (a rare and eagerly anticipated “event” in Corpus Christi), cruising around with the cassette or eight-track blasting, or even simply kicking back at home playing albums and partaking in our favorite intoxicant – in whatever form that may have taken.
It was probably just me, but it seemed like a much more magical time.
We certainly had heaping portions of teen angst, lack of opportunity, frustration, and sensory and cultural malnourishment. Authority and social mores were hollow and hypocrisy-filled, it was pre-computer age (much fewer distractions) and our future lives appeared to be an ultimate dead-end. As Jimi Hendrix sang in a line from Manic Depression© “I know what I want, but I just don’t know how to go about getting it.” The endless humid heat coupled with boredom and idleness caused us to be both outwardly and self-destructive. It’s amazing that we kept from killing ourselves! No one questioned the condition: we were all in the same boat. Think the movie “Dazed and Confused”: then exchange the live oak woods outside of Austin for the open beaches and sand dunes outside of Corpus Christi – everything else was exactly the same, save for the surfboards.
Yet even with all of that seemingly spirit-crushing outlook on life, we managed to be happy! We managed to find something to fill that gaping maw, and it had little to do with a perpetual buzz or simply “hanging out at the island (the beach).” It ultimately boiled down to music.
For music, we’d hop in the car and drive 6 hours and 400 miles across state to attend a Texas Jam in Dallas. We’d spend a weekend sleeping in the Astrodome parking lot, eating and drinking little, in hopes of snagging a ticket to a sold-out concert – or alternately just hanging out in the parking lot, partying and feeding off of the multitude of open cars and trucks blaring music. Even in talking with a lot of the others in the trans community, music was the one constant that kept us from going off the deep end.
Even though it was pre-trans years, and I was internally conflicted, it was unnoticeable in the midst of all the others standing sweat-drenched in the open summer sun, baking like potatoes ‘til our skins were almost equally as brown and crispy. And through it all was the soundtrack of the quintessential, emotion-charging, high-energy songs of summer – songs to bake by.
Yes, I was into Punk and New Wave, but not many folks in South Texas were. Even so, Punk was more intimate music for smaller venues, being born in the pubs and smoky little basement bars. Loud, very much so. Expansive and reverberating outdoor music, no.
Not sure why, but very few songs from outside the US were on this list, surprisingly (esp. for UK groups). Possibly it was because of their more complicated and sophisticated rhythm and song structure – the progressive rock. The synergistic songs that seemed to inspire action, regardless of heat-fatigue, were those more reliant on the up-temp power chord crunch. There was one John Lennon song, Instant Karma that made it in that category. And also an Aussie group, AC/DC with Problem Child, that also had that spontaneous activating quality.
The rest were all American continent groups, most with something to do with Texas. Songs like Ted Nugent’s Free For All, and Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s Roll On Down the Highway (Canadian), Kiss’ Calling Dr. Love, the Raspberries’ Go All The Way and the Sweet’s Ballroom Blitz were there to be sure – none really anything to do with Texas then (though conservative Ted’s now a Texas resident).
Maybe Texas was more inclined towards setting up amps in open areas (like beaches) and just letting the music blast forth, neighbors-be-damned. It was really the mentality, blare until the police came and shut it down. We had ZZ Top with LaGrange, Steve Miller Band (who lived in Dallas) with Jungle Love, the Eagles’ Good Day in Hell and at the tail end of the era, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s When The House Is Rockin’. Save for the middle break, Edgar Winter’s instrumental Frankenstein would be there as well.
The #3 all-time top beach songs had no connection with anything to do with Texas (save for Ronnie Montrose being in Edgar Winter’s group at an earlier point, and both Winter brothers being from Orange, TX). But this isn’t six degrees of Texas. Actually there were two Montrose songs off of their first album that really rated in this, as Space Station #5 should also make this list. But the one song, Rock The Nation, was another of those blistering, power-chord reverberation heavy songs that would get cranked to top volume and echo up and down the shore. Needless to say, the song subject was equally appropriate.
The Doobie Brothers weren’t from Texas, nor had connections to it, but one of their songs was probably the #2 quintessential beach / summer sunburn song and captured the essence of relentless summer heat in our neck of the woods. China Grove was really not even an official town, more just a collection of businesses and a few homes and trailers at the intersection of Rigsby and Foster Rd. just outside the Loop, east of San Antonio. There’s nothing there. Why it rated a song, I have no idea. But it was a song that captured the essence of summer for us then.
The top summer song that floated my boat back then, whether the beach or campgrounds, was yet another Texas boy from Orange. Rick Derringer was a one-hit wonder, and never enjoyed much recognition in his solo career. However, his one hit was a good one. Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo used to blast out of a jukebox at our lonely little campground west of San Antonio on our two family vacations up the Nueces River. It was one of the few decent songs on the box, and it got the overwhelming lion’s share of play. In my mind’s eye, I can still hear (and even feel) the beat from the bass-thumping box a football field away, wending through the live oaks every night. Even at the coast, in the mid-day heat, it was enough to get us energized, to inspire harder play in the pick up football games or give it our all in traffic Frisbee games on the drive-on beach. There was just something about that crunch that shook your bones, no matter how heat-fatigued, and activated you. It also helped you put the heat out of mind, arguably one of, if not the most important quality of all!
Clearly, this is not a definitive list for everyone. Certainly age and the era we grew up in will influence other songs filling that list. I can see a Guns N’ Roses Welcome To the Jungle, a Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit, or even Marilyn Manson’s Mobscene or something from Korn being subsequent generations’ top outdoor summer songs. There will be other suggestions and a near-infinite number of opinions on how they beat the heat, pain (physical or emotional), quell frustration or simply keep their focus. But for my prime of youth era, for me and for those I also observed, these were the songs that did it. Whatever gets you through your life! (thanks again, John Lennon)
As I wrap this up, it’s another of those more typical summer days in Houston, a smoggy, humid, 100 degrees with a bullet at 3PM. Even in oppressive heat, it works! Besides the cicadas rattling outside, you can guess what I’m listening to at the moment. Sorry about the noise, neighbors!
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