Post by Ayla on Mar 25, 2016 7:51:18 GMT 8
transgender.wiki/op-ed-lets-start-fixing-the-states-of-hate-transgender-discrimination-laws-problem/
Late last night as members of the transgender community on the East Coast were counting how many food stamps they had left for the month, before tucking themselves into bed, the North Carolina Governor and Legislature were repealing the newly enacted ordinance that was designed to protect members of the transgender community and give them a safe place to pee, members like me that don’t have passing privilege when it comes to using women’s restrooms. Governor McCrory, the leader of the North Carolina state of hate, says and thinks people like me are men in women’s bathrooms.
I’ve always been a dreamer, and I dream big. So, as I’ve pondered how to fix this mess, and it’s occurred to me (and no doubt many others) that we, the transgender community, need to pioneer our civil rights efforts in the same footpath of blood, sweat, and tears that the African-American Community did in the 1960s. Federal law and the U.S. Constitution are already written in favor of protecting us, but we lack the very specific and more narrowly written type protections that enabled the African-American community to establish their civil rights, so they could grow and flourish. No one is no longer telling a black person that they can’t use the bathroom. No one is telling a person of color that their bathroom is not the same one the white people use. To do so would be unspeakable and draw quick legal action. But the transgender community is currently living just like the black community was in the early 60s. And nobody really seems to care. We need to start dreaming big and make some bold moves. We need to start taking care of ourselves.
Since transitioning to living as a female and becoming a member of the transgender community, like many other people, I’ve come to expect the usual cavalry to ride to our rescue. I’m talking about the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign, and Lambda. They’re great organizations and they’re doing great work, but while these organizations are winning battles, the transgender community is losing the war. There’s no Republicans and religious zealots committing suicide because of anything our government or these civil rights organizations have done to date. But we certainly have members of the transgender community continuing to commit suicide because life is so unbearable and unfair.
In dreaming big, we, as in members of the transgender community itself are going to have to start becoming engaged in the fight for our civil rights. Everyday members of our community are going to have to suit up in their civil rights armor and fight in the vanguard. We are going to have to use groupthink and try various things. We might even lose some battles, but we can’t stop fighting. And when we fight, we need to do it under the principle that we will leave no transgender community members behind in what we accomplish. And don’t leave others to fight alone and fight the battle for you.
Dreaming big will be accomplishing things like the equivalent of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In the same way that the Voting Rights Act prohibited racial discrimination in voting, we need an anti-discrimination act that will give us a safe place to pee. That’s how sad the state of our transgender union is at this moment.
The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which took effect in 1868, says that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction “the equal protection of the laws”. Transgender people in North Carolina and many other states don’t have equal protection under the law – they have no protections. The primary motivation for this clause was to validate the equality provisions contained in the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which guaranteed that all people would have rights equal to those of all citizens. Again, the transgender community doesn’t have rights equal to all citizens.
In fixing this, we as a community need to stop relying on already stressed legal aid organizations to help us, and start engaging our legislators directly. Republican legislators are not dreaming these hate bills up on their own, they’re doing it on behalf of their constituents that won’t leave them alone. We need to become really vocal, aggravating, and noticeable. We need to proverbially chain ourselves to the White House fence and fight for the trans* cause. Not the transsexual cause, but the trans* cause. When Don’t Ask Don’t Tell fell and open gay and lesbian military service became allowed, the “T” got nothing. And the “T” usually gets nothing. So it’s time for the “T” to start fighting for itself when it comes to having the basic human right of getting a safe bathroom to use.
I hereby challenge you to start thinking of ways to fight back, and to actually do the fighting. Dream big. Make some conservatives proverbially die for their country instead of just trans people. Rally your friends and community members. Engage in activism that ultimately establishes Federal level legislation creating the 2016 Transgender Protections Act that’s based on that 1965 Voting Rights Act. Create a picket sign and stand outside your Congressional Legislator’s office until they do it. Let’s work to get Congress to pass a law saying that states cannot take away our right to use a safe bathroom. Also ask Congress to put some teeth into that new law. Tell them to write it so that states lose their Federal funding for creating or enforcing laws that restrict transgender people from having a safe bathroom to use, or for enacting laws that remove existing protections for transgender people.
Late last night as members of the transgender community on the East Coast were counting how many food stamps they had left for the month, before tucking themselves into bed, the North Carolina Governor and Legislature were repealing the newly enacted ordinance that was designed to protect members of the transgender community and give them a safe place to pee, members like me that don’t have passing privilege when it comes to using women’s restrooms. Governor McCrory, the leader of the North Carolina state of hate, says and thinks people like me are men in women’s bathrooms.
I’ve always been a dreamer, and I dream big. So, as I’ve pondered how to fix this mess, and it’s occurred to me (and no doubt many others) that we, the transgender community, need to pioneer our civil rights efforts in the same footpath of blood, sweat, and tears that the African-American Community did in the 1960s. Federal law and the U.S. Constitution are already written in favor of protecting us, but we lack the very specific and more narrowly written type protections that enabled the African-American community to establish their civil rights, so they could grow and flourish. No one is no longer telling a black person that they can’t use the bathroom. No one is telling a person of color that their bathroom is not the same one the white people use. To do so would be unspeakable and draw quick legal action. But the transgender community is currently living just like the black community was in the early 60s. And nobody really seems to care. We need to start dreaming big and make some bold moves. We need to start taking care of ourselves.
Since transitioning to living as a female and becoming a member of the transgender community, like many other people, I’ve come to expect the usual cavalry to ride to our rescue. I’m talking about the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign, and Lambda. They’re great organizations and they’re doing great work, but while these organizations are winning battles, the transgender community is losing the war. There’s no Republicans and religious zealots committing suicide because of anything our government or these civil rights organizations have done to date. But we certainly have members of the transgender community continuing to commit suicide because life is so unbearable and unfair.
In dreaming big, we, as in members of the transgender community itself are going to have to start becoming engaged in the fight for our civil rights. Everyday members of our community are going to have to suit up in their civil rights armor and fight in the vanguard. We are going to have to use groupthink and try various things. We might even lose some battles, but we can’t stop fighting. And when we fight, we need to do it under the principle that we will leave no transgender community members behind in what we accomplish. And don’t leave others to fight alone and fight the battle for you.
Dreaming big will be accomplishing things like the equivalent of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In the same way that the Voting Rights Act prohibited racial discrimination in voting, we need an anti-discrimination act that will give us a safe place to pee. That’s how sad the state of our transgender union is at this moment.
The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which took effect in 1868, says that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction “the equal protection of the laws”. Transgender people in North Carolina and many other states don’t have equal protection under the law – they have no protections. The primary motivation for this clause was to validate the equality provisions contained in the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which guaranteed that all people would have rights equal to those of all citizens. Again, the transgender community doesn’t have rights equal to all citizens.
In fixing this, we as a community need to stop relying on already stressed legal aid organizations to help us, and start engaging our legislators directly. Republican legislators are not dreaming these hate bills up on their own, they’re doing it on behalf of their constituents that won’t leave them alone. We need to become really vocal, aggravating, and noticeable. We need to proverbially chain ourselves to the White House fence and fight for the trans* cause. Not the transsexual cause, but the trans* cause. When Don’t Ask Don’t Tell fell and open gay and lesbian military service became allowed, the “T” got nothing. And the “T” usually gets nothing. So it’s time for the “T” to start fighting for itself when it comes to having the basic human right of getting a safe bathroom to use.
I hereby challenge you to start thinking of ways to fight back, and to actually do the fighting. Dream big. Make some conservatives proverbially die for their country instead of just trans people. Rally your friends and community members. Engage in activism that ultimately establishes Federal level legislation creating the 2016 Transgender Protections Act that’s based on that 1965 Voting Rights Act. Create a picket sign and stand outside your Congressional Legislator’s office until they do it. Let’s work to get Congress to pass a law saying that states cannot take away our right to use a safe bathroom. Also ask Congress to put some teeth into that new law. Tell them to write it so that states lose their Federal funding for creating or enforcing laws that restrict transgender people from having a safe bathroom to use, or for enacting laws that remove existing protections for transgender people.
