Reverend Wright Ain't Right ... But What Is?

"Crazy-eyed man with a shotgun.
Hot headed creep with a knife.
Love and peace and harmony,
Love you could cut with a life." — Under The God, Tin Machine

What the hell is everyone’s fixation with Rev. Jeremiah Wright? Someone tell me how in the wide, wide world of sports this became the most pressing issue in the country?

Yes, the man has some racial tendencies in some of his ideas and theories. And he’s a pastor in an all black church. Take a look at some of the southern or less contemporary white evangelical congregations, and trade out “white” and “America” and exchange that with a group of color – Arabic being the most frequent target of choice in today’s USA – and exchange that with any other country, or for that matter, liberals, gays, poor and indigent people who are minority, or going back a ways, hippies and college radicals.

Now explain to me how this differs so widely from what you hear from Rev. Wright after exchanging the contexts?

Yes, there’s the obvious: it doesn’t attack America (more precisely the government). I’ll grant you that. Additionally Rev. Wright chose to be as audacious and sensationalistic as possible to – surprise – draw attention to himself! It’s a trick you can find from Rev. Pat Robertson too. Remember his comments about feminists and gays being the cause of 9/11? Sure, it didn’t attack American government, but it did attack blocks of American citizens. Even Rush Limbaugh pontificated that if you want to be noticed, you must be outrageous. Otherwise, you blend into the scenery.

Who’da thunk it? Someone working hard to draw attention to himself!

It’s a certainty that in any election outside of an overwhelmingly black electorate, Rev. Wright won’t win an election. His high-contrast bombast ensures that.

In case anyone hasn’t noticed, though, he’s not running for election. Sen. Barack Obama is.

Lest we forget, Obama isn’t the only presidential candidate who’s been tied to controversially polarizing religious leaders. After blasting religiopolitical evangelicals as being agents of evil, Sen. John McCain himself sidled up to Revs. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell this presidential season, even speaking at graduation ceremonies at Falwell’s Liberty University. George W. Bush managed to be elected after speaking and forming very friendly relations at the controversial religious Bob Jones University in South Carolina.

One of Bilerico.com’s bloggers, Rev. Irene Monroe, took Obama to task in “Obama's Chickens Have Come Home to Roost” by first quoting Rev. Wright’s speech at the National Press Club:

"We both know that if Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected. Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls -- Huffington, whoever's doing the polls. Preachers say what they say because they are pastors. They have a different person to whom they're accountable. As I said, whether he gets elected or not, I'm still going to have to be answerable to God, November 5th and January 21st. That's what I mean. I do what pastors do. He does what politicians do."

Rev. Monroe, from what I can surmise, possibly a Clinton-supporter, then muses:

Where Obama ran afoul is that he didn't think his involvement with Rev. Wright would collide with his carefully crafted post-racial electable message

But maybe there's a bigger lesson here that Obama is now learning. And it's this: whether he dons the face of a Christian and/or the face of a politician in this bid for the White House - no lie lives forever. Like chickens, they eventually come home to roost.

Yes the chickens do come home to roost, regardless of whether you’re black, white, conservative, female, gay or whatever. Sure, Obama’s not dealt with this issue well and it’s exposed some weakness and possibly not complete honesty. Yes, that’s disappointing and I’m saddened. But does this mean I’m going to change votes?

To whom?

Take a look at Hillary Clinton issues with honesty. Before anyone begins to defend the Kosovo “misremembering,” that’s not going to impress me! I’m very acutely aware of her “open letter to the GLBT community” where she tried to play up her long-time support of the transgender community (wrong!) and even went so far as to claim she was so supportive of we trannies that she was signed on to co-sponsor the upcoming ENDA bill in the Senate! Too damn bad it’s the House version which has no coverage for transgender!

How about the robotic maverick, John McCain? He’ll say whatever he’s programmed to say. Get Rover or the right RNC person on the line and McCain will sing like a bird on a wire. Mr. No-to-tax-cuts-for-the-rich just loves them tax cuts now. Of course, we should remember his big dust-up trying to convince Obama to join him in signing up for federal financing (thus limiting his campaign donations severely), then shortly after eschewing the same financing after pulling in loans based upon accepting said fed campaign financing as collateral.

And hey! Don’t forget McCain’s big TV news opp down in New Orleans saying “never again” …. One question to that: where the hell was his voice speaking out while all that was going on before God and the world? Tell us, Mr. Maverick ….

Ultimately, we’re back to electing a group of less-than-perfect, less-than-fully-forthcoming individuals who are “politicians” with all the unctuous trappings of all the other “politicians” who’ve occupied the White House. If you wanted someone who really cared and had the best message for all those being trampled in America, you’d have voted John Edwards as your Dem nominee – but notice the collective yawn for that campaign from the voters!

We’re getting the candidates we deserve.

In my estimation, with the crop of candidates we have left, Obama is still the best of what we have. He’s not perfect. So what? Hopefully he doesn’t take the continued believers’ support for granted or become arrogant in thinking we don’t matter, and instead learns from this and becomes a better, more aware and more human candidate. Fallible and all.

One thing that’s certain: this Rev. Wright stuff’s gotta stop. Not only is it inflammatory, objectifying and pernicious, it’s not the most pressing problem we’re facing!

Has anyone looked at the economy? The escalating prices and the flat wages and layoffs? The geopolitical instability due to food shortages or unaffordability? How about the ever-popular Iraq War? Or any of the others Bush / Cheney are trying to cook up and leave us with (yeah, we need another war, right?)

Yeah … thanks for focusing on the important things, folks. Where’s Britney Spears when you need her?

“Washington heads in the toilet bowl
Don’t see supremacist hate.
Right-wing dicks in their boiler suits
Picking out who to annihilate.
Toxic jungle of uzi trails,
Tribesmen just wouldn’t live here.
Fascist flare is fashion cool.
Well you’re dead, you just ain’t buried yet.” — Under The God, Tin Machine

Hitting Home In A Hard, Hard Way

"My doctor told me not to smoke,
drink nothin stronger than a coke,
I’m not even supposed to hear a dirty joke,
'cause laughing will strain my heart.
I've had every ailment known to man
from the African mumps to dishpan hands
I lost every race that I ever ran –
I never even got to start.” — Think You’ve Got Trouble, Marvin Rainwater

It seems we have this never-ending fight for our rights: employment, hate crimes and even now (especially in gay / lesbian circles) marriage rights are a constant. As we’re engaged in the upcoming election season and are on the crest of a political catharsis in the country, we’ve become enrapt in presidential campaigning and what that means to ENDA. As a result, we’ve locked horns with folks like HRC, Barney Frank and others trying to get that most key of rights: the right to work … life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and all that.

Sometimes it’s easy to overlook the day-to-day urgency we as a community face. For some of us, maybe not – we live it. But for even folks like myself who happen to be at least temporarily employed, we sufficiently hold the wolf from the door long enough to not get actively involved in hand-to-hand survival with it.

Unless you think the danger’s passed, let me remind you the hard times are still here for the overwhelming majority of us. Even if one is active, or even a leader on a local, state or national basis, we’re only a paper-width distance from personal and/or economic disaster.

Cyndi Richards is a friend of mine. Admittedly she’s not everyone’s favorite cup of coffee. But she is consistent, doesn’t try to be someone different to each audience (no phony), and is a generous soul (easy to agree to if you’ve been to her parties at Southern Comfort Conference!). Bottom line, like her or not, she’s real.

Whether I agree with her or not, that’s something I can respect.

This past week I got an Email (that unfortunately ended up in my spam folder) from someone on a Yahoo group she runs. It noted she was in the hospital due to a burst appendix. Cyndi herself sent out a note today in her own inimitable style:

Greetings from the brink of grim painful death,

Chicago may be a BIG city, but within our delightfully diverse community, it can still often seem like a small town, made even tinier courtesy of the wonders of the web. As I'm sure you know only too well, whenever something happens in a small town, it's like when the town boarding house exploded --- roomers (rumors?) are FLYING!

And so, forgive me for taking up your busy time with the minor details of my puny little so-called life, but as there are already reports containing various degrees of accuracy which you may (or may not?) have noticed flying around several trans-oriented web-sites concerning a recent event which is probably only of interest to an infinitesimally small circle of friends anyway, I thought you deserved the respect that only first-person clarity can yield. And so, my strange-but-true cautionary tale unfolds. Take it for whatever it may be worth to you and yours.

Yes, it's true that, as chair of Illinois Gender Advocates, I have been "running and gunning" pretty much non-stop since the presumably successful Equality Illinois Lobby Day of April 9th. And so, there I was about ten days ago, cruising along life's bumpy road, with all the normal rattle and hum, and then, all of a sudden, the damn wheels fell off.

Due to lack of full-time employment and zero health insurance (a situation far too crushingly commonplace within the trans-community), I chose to "tough out" what I perceived as a rather harsh case of food poisoning (severe stomach cramps, dizziness, and projectile vomiting followed by violent, gut-wrenching dry heaves) at home in bed alone.

After about 48-60 hours of pure gastro-intestinal HELL, my otherwise super-human tolerance for pain and suffering had reached its limits. Because, as a usually healthy sort of non-insured person, I have no "family doctor" (and no family either), I reached out to a friend who just happens to be a fireman/paramedic.

Once I had described my symptoms, his normally cheerful tone became quite dark and serious. He advised, no, commanded me in no uncertain terms to get to the hospital IMMEDIATELY! Since he was on-duty (in another town), he couldn't come get me himself, so I called another good friend, who (bless her heart), picked up the phone, dropped everything else and came-a-runnin'.

After being wheeled into the ER, doubled over in pain, preliminary blood tests led to a CT-scan, which revealed that my appendix had burst, at least 24 -36 hours prior to my hospital admittance.

I woke up from emergency surgery some 18 hours later.

Upon my initial meeting with an absolutely incredible life-saving surgeon (an Irani [sic] national, more about him some other time), I was firmly chastised for waiting so long to seek help. I explained my dilemma. He sadly shook his head and rhetorically observed that he has seen far too many patients in the same perilous predicament, which he feels is unconscionable in this country. He then quietly informed me that I had been within an hour (at most) of turning completely septic and dying from peritonitis.

Although the story gets far more bizarre, the upshot of the whole thing is that I spent 6 unbelievably expensive days in the hospital, being post-surgically fed and sedated from the same tube, while another larger diameter length of hose drained several ounces of toxic residue from my "southerly" incisions.

EWWW...

My post-operative pain is exceeded only by the very realistic fear that I will wind up losing my home as a result of not being able to pay the upcoming tab for this abrupt health emergency.

As of yesterday, I have been discharged from the hospital and I am now slowly recovering under the wing of the very same angel that originally brought my almost fatally-flawed body into the hospital.

It's no small amount of comfort to know that the continued existence of an otherwise insignificant and mostly misunderstood trans-person matters to somebody. It is my deepest hope that there is someone, anyone, that cares enough to reach out beyond their own personal comfort zone on YOUR behalf, although I would never wish my most recent tribulations on ANYONE.

And so it goes.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. I'm not going ANYWHERE for the next couple of weeks - doctor's orders.

Just a little background, Cyndi’s someone who transitioned and lost her professional livelihood (what a shock, eh?). She was not one to sit back and do nothing; she didn’t sit back and become vocally self-piteous. Cyndi became involved in the community and even in politics. Even her note above says little to nothing about her personal situation. She’s been living on the edge for some time. She’s been in fear of losing her home for the entire year – now much more likely thanks to the recent unforeseen health issues.

This goes on every day, not just with Cyndi and will continue going on for many years to come, if HRC and Barney Frank have their way with ENDA and other items on their legislative agenda. Meanwhile, being trans, we’re expendable in Washington DC: Transgenders mean nothing. That’s the bottom line.

And for trans people who don’t toe the Barney Frank/HRC let’s-sacrifice-the-trannies line, this is something we should be expecting for our lives. We’ve got no safety net; we’ll hit pavement the minute we fall and our friends in these elite gay circles will nod and offer the polite golf claps.

One more trans person neutralized, one less obstacle on their superhighway to equality for sexual orientation only.

Meanwhile, we in our community have one of our own that is in need. If there’s anything you can spare to help out an active trans person who, like many of us is sans job much less health insurance, please consider a contribution to the fund. A friend of Cyndi’s, and an attorney in the Chicago area, is coordinating collecting funds to help defray some of the costs. Her Paypal address (and also Email address in case you want to make a donation other than via Paypal) is: joanie_rae_wimmer@yahoo.com

And before you ask – no, I have not been in touch with Cyndi, nor been asked to coordinate something like this. Cyndi’s story hits home for me. There but for the grace of God go all of us ….

“These unhappy times call for the building of plans that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.” — Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Until we get rid of the need for hospitals and other providers to cover the costs of people who are not covered ... the overall cost is not going to go down. The only real cost savings comes when you have universality." — Elizabeth Edwards, spouse of presidential candidate John Edwards

Lola vs. Powerman And The Moneygoround: Lessons In Classism

“If you happen to be rich and you feel like a night's entertainment
you can pay for a gay escapade.
If you happen to be rich, and alone, and you need a companion,
you can ring tingaling for the maid.” — Money, Money, Money by Joel Grey & Liza Minellli in Cabaret

Typically I don’t get much time to read blogs. Maybe I should try to make some time to. One came across the wire that hit the nail on the head last night. Becky Juro wrote “Money Changes (Almost) Everything [http://www.bilerico.com/2008/04/money_changes_almost_everything.php] in a recent post to Bilerico’s blog detailing the true culprit behind the current GLB(tqi et. al.) movement: classism.

Surely it’s not a new subject. When My Husband Betty.com’s Helen Boyd asked me five questions in 2005, the answer I gave to what was the biggest challenge to the trans community was the same: classism. Yet I got this in a gale force storm known as Sylvia Rivera when I showed up at Transy House’s doorstep the night before the 2001 Amanda Milan vigil. Sylvia unceremoniously dressed my ass down and schooled me on it in her own take-no-prisoners streetwise style.

Even a couple years before that, we had Chelsea Goodwin and Rusty Mae Moore forcing these issues to light at the very inception of NTAC, as well as Jessica Xavier trying to shine the harsh light on it earlier still. No, it’s nothing new – just kicked out of eyesight, mostly.

Nonetheless, Becky does a great job of noting how it’s not the province of only those born into privilege, but tends to be more an aversion to personal discomfort and apathy (or laziness) that are its lifeblood. Becky does an excellent job of pointing how it not only affects the GLBT environment, most precisely personified by HRC, but also ties it to the same feigned concern but inactivity by so-called concerned America on an issue as begging as Darfur.

Juro connects the loose ends that HRC and their ilk leave:

One of the most common assertions, one I believe has been repeatedly proven conclusively accurate over the last several months, is that HRC's leadership not only simply doesn't get it, but they really show little or no interest in getting it in the future.

…. When you consider that in order to be a part of the organization's leadership, to have decision-making and agenda-setting power at HRC, one must raise or donate fifty thousand dollars a year, the answer is as simple as it is obvious: The problem is money.

Think about how much personal wealth one must have in order to generate this level of donation to HRC. Can someone with that kind of cash in the bank possibly understand what it is to have to live on a budget, to have to make economically-dictated decisions between what one wants, what one needs, and what one can afford? Can someone who can simply write a donation check for more than twice as much as many of us make in a year really understand what is to have to pay the bills working a low-paying job at a local retailer or the impact that losing such a job because of bigotry has on those who depend on such relatively meager incomes to survive?

The answer, of course, is yes. Not everyone with money is born into it, and many wealthy people proactively educate themselves and use their financial clout to help make things better for others not so fortunate. The real question, however, is not if it's possible that someone so wealthy can possibly understand the reality of the lives of the vast majority of Americans who don't enjoy that level of wealth, but rather if it's likely, and the answer to that question is clearly a resounding "No!"

Indeed, this was a sentiment Donna Rose expounded on in her blog: “The Cost of Activism” [http://donnarose.com/MyBlog/?p=24]:

One of the huge barriers for me as a trans-activist who participates on national boards is money. It gets to a point where I can’t afford to be involved any more. I mean really. I just don’t have the cash to do it.

I’m not talking about the typical give or get financial obligation that many boards have of their board members (for HRC is was $50K/yr, for GLAAD it is $20K/yr). That’s a whole other discussion. What I’m talking about here are simpy the expenses involved to attend a single board meeting. …

Donna noted she wasn’t seeking pity, and how she had a job that paid decently – and was quite fortunate. But she also pointed out the wide disparities even between her “fortunate” position and the typical expectation of gay and lesbian board members.

The only reason I could afford to come to Washington to attend events at HRC was because I know people in the area there who were nice enough to allow me to sleep on their couch. It’s not fancy, it’s often inconvenient, but that’s what has to happen to be able to attend. One year a friend who was staying at the Mayflower invited Elizabeth and I to change in their room before the National Dinner. It’s hard having to rely on the kindness of others all the time…

“If you happen to be rich and you find you are left by your lover
though you moan and you groan quite a lot;
you can take it on the chin, call a cab, and begin
to recover on your fourteen carat yacht.” — Money, Money, Money by Joel Grey & Liza Minellli in Cabaret

It’s something that I, and in fact, every leader in NTAC not only could relate to, but predominantly relied upon. It would probably freak my friends out and certainly not give a romantic appeal for folks to know I’ve spent a few nights on my road trips sleeping in my car. How many of HRC or even GLAAD’s board members or staff can say they’ve washed their hair in gas station bathrooms or traveled over 1200 miles each way for the price of gas, two gallons of water and two boxes of Triscuits?

It’s not simply just an HRC issue. Many are the times I’ve gotten the impression that leaders in the gay and lesbian community simply don’t have a clue about our lives – we don’t even show up on their radar. The distance between our communities’ realities is galactic.

Our economic situations are at diametric ends of the spectrum. Unlike their status in society, we have no political power or even elected representation. We have no ability seek redress, as even our voice on our own issues has been co-opted by these very same self-presumptive de facto representatives. They have the power, the agenda firmly in their grasp and will do all in their power to control it through their own fulfillment of their wish-list and then later as a cottage industry for themselves afterwards in the role of gatekeeper and trans community kingmaker.

Becky’s blog generally concurred, and even echoed almost verbatim the sentiments of at least the board chair of NCTE, Meredith Bacon:

HRC is, simply put, an organization run by rich gays for the benefit of rich gays. Period. End of story. It's an organization so arrogant and so completely out of touch with the pulse of what's really going on in the 99% of LGBT America that can't write fifty thousand dollar yearly checks to the organization just to have a voice in its administration, that they can't even get their own people to take the time to fully understand what they claim to be fighting for.

Even worse, HRC's leadership thinks we're all morons.

Funny … I don’t feel like a moron. Regardless of what they think, at least I can look myself in the mirror without flinching. Money can buy a lot of things. But money can’t buy integrity.

"Money makes the world go round,
Of that we both are sure
(On being poor).
Money, money, money, money …..” — Money, Money, Money by Joel Grey & Liza Minellli in Cabaret

HRC's Overdrawn At The Bank Of Trust

"You say it's fine -- keep your place in line
Keep biding your time but you talk in a vacuum.
Because you've been bought
I don't know what I want
But I know I don't want to be anything like you." — Interference, Cop Shoot Cop

While I watch the returns coming in from Pennsylvania’s primary, I’m going to keep things short. It appears Hillary’s found a way to keep her campaign alive and a lot of it is dependent upon keeping the gay and lesbian vote in tact and activated.

Regardless of how little I care for her candidacy, sending Chelsea out was a good strategy and well-played: use your strength to cover the one area you might be weakest in to neutralize your opponent’s strength – in this case, Obama’s dominance of the urban centers. A little master-stroke for Harold Ickes. However, I still plan on making his and his candidate’s life hell for their taking for granted our community. Just the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) repudiation factor in Trans America alone will play well with our base and those who still support full equality rather than the watered-down imitation.

While on the subject of HRC, a rumor came a few weeks back from a prominent activist in the community with ties to HRC that another of our community leaders was meeting with Joe Solmonese. I just took it with a grain of salt to see if another shoe dropped.

Well, the other shoe did drop. This time it came from a surprise return of one of my old contacts on the Hill who noted HRC’s reporting to him of a lunch meeting between Joe himself and the “transgender community’s leader” to smooth things out. Initially he thought that was me! He’s been off the hill since about 2002 and I assured him it was no one from NTAC (barely able to contain my laugh). I can also say it was not Donna Rose either, something I confirmed.

For now we’ll just narrow it down and leave it at that point. Until then, it’s “Mystery Trans” ….



But it does beg one question from either party: what the hell are they thinking?!?

No matter how stupid HRC presumes trans folks are how do they calculate that we haven’t figured out their notably consistent behavior patterns yet? Even dumb animals pick up on patterns after so many replays. Speaking for myself, I’m no worse than a dumb animal and I’ll wager that the trans community isn’t either. (For the record, I was onto them in the late 90’s). Yeah, most all have figured out the cheap trick.

We in the transgender community have never been afforded credibility in gay and lesbian America even when we were fully honest. After HRC’s record of trust betrayal, and further the manipulation afterwards for political cover, how do they feel they’ll warrant any trust? As the saying goes “there’s no fool like an old fool.” Well, we’re done with this. Stick a fork in it. They’re inexpiable.

As for this “transgender community leader,” if you think you’re being seen as doing anything beyond self-serving motivations by playing into HRC’s hands and helping fracture our already-fractured community even further, dream on! Waking up to reality will be exceedingly tough.

Truly we’re a cash-poor community. HRC’s ability to flash a little green and put stars in peoples’ eyes and attract the occasional myopically self-ambitious tranny to help them sink us from inside is well established. But if HRC is thinking they’re going to have us following these Manchurian trannies now or in the future, they’re out of their overconfident minds. It’s this combination of temerity and arrogance that’s going to smash them and their historical legacy, along with any Transidict Arnold they get to cling to their back like a baby possum while mama possum crosses the ten-lane midtown interstate during rush hour.

Their history is etched in stone, never to be revised away. Forgiveness is easy – forgetting is not. They already know that. They’ve never forgotten us and what umbrage they took from us – and we’ve never taken money from or opportunized upon their issues nor urged gay-exclusive legislation. Yet they’re still vindictive. All things considered, what do they realistically expect from us?

As in banking, trust is doled out on their history. Debts can be forgiven, but future loans are only given again once they’ve demonstrated enough to make those they’ve burned previously sufficiently overlook those old burn scars. In the bank and trust of queer equality, HRC is the most severely and consistently overdrawn.

If HRC really thinks solutions are as simple as finding or creating their new tranny shill to assist in the obfuscation and deceit, they’ll learn in short order that we’re no longer playing those games. And it will be yet one more brick in the wall between us.

“I don't need no walls around me.
And I don't need no drugs to calm me.
I have seen the writing on the wall.
Don't think I need any thing at all.
All in all it was all just the bricks in the wall.” — Another Brick In The Wall - Part III, Pink Floyd



“You're a total blank and you're as funny as a bank.” — Interference, Cop Shoot Cop

“Dude, Pimp My Daughter!”: Hillary Sews Up The Gay & Lesbian Vote Bloc With Chelsea

"Chelsea Clinton has got the body and ass of life." — Christopher Murray of Gawker.com


“I grabbed her ass!” one young lesbian exclaimed to her friends after snapping a picture with her arm around the former first daughter, Chelsea Clinton, this past weekend in Philadelphia. The shout drew amused laughs from Chelsea, Gov. Ed Rendell and others in the Chelsea retinue.

Yes, as Wonkette.com phrased it, I’m sure MSNBC’s “David Shuster wept because this was proof positive that the Clintons were pimping their daughter out.” For a family that was so guarded about Chelsea’s privacy and distance from the campaign – including the “pimping” comment Hillary took umbrage to – this was a little bit of vindication for Shuster.

Philly – the town that gave us cream cheese and cheese steaks (which aren’t steak, and aren’t really cheese but cheesy sauce) – is home to a large, vibrant and very active GLBT community. Being next in the never-ending primary, and a battleground state as well, there’s no denying Philadelphia’s importance come November elections. So if Clinton is going to catch her second wind anywhere, it’ll be in Pennsylvania – specifically Philly. So it was time for Hillary Clinton’s secret weapon: her daughter.

Chelsea Clinton, it seems, is the toast of the Great Gay Way. At least in Philadelphia (and from reports, in Portland, OR during their Red Party as well). Our local rock radio station was crowing about the Chelsea gay pub crawl and ass-grab. Admittedly, it’s a smart move for Hillary. She’s always been the dream candidate of the gay/lesbian community personified by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Why not shore up an easy and solid bloc for themselves in the Pennsylvania’s most populous town, as well as Oregon’s.

For trans folks in those states who are solidly ObamaTrans, this spells trouble. Like HRC, Hillary’s gunning with both barrels, she’s got HRC folks with her and we’re in a full-scale war.

One of the city’s local blogs, Gawker.com, reported:

Chelsea Clinton was in town Friday night, and boy did she have a fabulous time! And why not: She hit all the gay bars in Center City, along with Ed Rendell and Rob Reiner.

"Chelsea, the gays love you," shouted one gay person. "We love your highlights -- you're gorgeous baby!" said another.

Who knew Obama, and by extension the hopeful trans population, would be sunk by highlights? We can’t fight back on that one. The campaign’s getting ugly. Gawker.com continued:

… Chelsea Clinton was also sexually harassed by at least one person, and not just Christopher Murray, above in the photo, who said Chelsea "has got the body and ass of life."

“Gawker” then replays what’s been hitting the news: the infamous lesbian photo-op with a little something extra. I’m not a Clinton supporter, but something about that strikes me as not that plausible – more braggadocio than real, said for a cheap laugh.

But it’s making the rounds of press and other bloggers like Hicktown Press, who wondered:

“Okay, let’s pause there for a moment. Where exactly was the Secret Service when Chelsea was being attacked by a rude, obnoxious freak? How did someone get so close to her as to put their hands on her behind?” As one of the respondents to that blog in noted, the Secret Service would’ve had the grabbadocious one eating concrete shortly after.

Even with that said, if that were to have been a trans person pulling something like the lesbian Chelsea incident in Philly, I’d daresay the hue and cry would been intense. Straight press would’ve painted us as “freaks” groping the former-president’s daughter. The Gay and Lesbian community would’ve used it as a veritable arsenal of brickbats to lob at us for years after, braying about our lack of maturity, credibility, social awareness, ad nauseum. We’d have never lived that down here in dual-standard-land. So, thankfully it wasn’t one of ours drawing the sensational press.

It appears there were consequences though for the lesbian ‘grabber’. Per Gawker.com:

“Sadly, that woman has now been tracked down and fired from her job for grabbing Chelsea Clinton's ass.”

Again, I doubt the actuality of the incident. If she got fired simply for alcohol-buzzed bravado but no incident, then it was unwise speech – but not a terminable offense.

Undaunted, the Chelsea Clinton juggernaut continued in the city of brotherly love, as SeaQwa.com reported:

After being introduced by Rendell, Clinton gave a brief speech to the mostly male crowd at Woody's [a local gay bar in Philly where the word “crowd” is an understatement], which briefly stopped dancing and checking out the dancers standing on tables (and wearing only briefs) to listen to her.

"I'm so excited to be here," she told the crowd.

"The gay community has great feelings toward the [former] president and Hillary and they happen to love Chelsea," [former Philly mayor, now Gov. Ed] Rendell said.

“We’ll see tonight, easily, 1,500 people,” he said. “And they’re all voters.”

Wonkette.com concurred in their report:

“[Chelsea] Clinton was mobbed by admirers, including some dumb broads who could not figure out how to save pictures on their camera phones. Ed Rendell came along and yapped on a man's phone trying to get the man's mom to vote for Hillary before the guy finally interceded and was like, ‘Dude my cell phone minutes, I do not have so many of them.’”

This past couple weeks has been rough for both the Obama campaign, and also for the trans community. HRC came out and all but declared war with Judy Shepard’s speech here in Houston to challenge the truth wherever they encounter it. It’s a prideful thing for them.

For the Obama campaign, we see HRC helping Clinton breathe life anew calling the gay and lesbian vote home.

Bottom line: the Clinton campaign is not afraid to say they want the gay vote in Pennsylvania and the rest of America. As for transgender, well, Clinton’s folks tried … but with disastrously duplicitous results. The only trans votes Clinton get will be from either HRC sycophants or self-loathing trannies.

That said, trans folks are going to have a tougher time trying to split the gay and lesbian bloc into the fully-inclusive equality types for Obama and the expeditious, get-ours-now-and-don’t-look-back crowd for Clinton. When Matthew Shepard’s mom, Judy Shepard issues a call to arms for all to come to the aid of HRC, we better take note of what we’re facing in the coming months. Even NGLTF’s Matt Foreman, on his departure from his executive director position, admitted concerns that a trans-inclusive ENDA isn’t on the horizon.

HRC and Hillary Clinton are coming after us. They want to win again, and we’re in their way.

How do we fight against those “gorgeous highlights”? We didn’t see that coming.



A troubling sign of the times from Pennsylvania's GLB(t) world ....

Mixed Message: Which Way Does She Go?

“You can fool all the people all the time if the advertising is right and the budget is big enough.” — Ed Rollins, Pres. Reagan Election Campaign Chief

By now, most everyone in GLBT America is at least cursorily aware of what happened last September: HRC’s Joe Solmonese was keynote speaker at Southern Comfort Conference, was welcomed as the hero he’d been advertised as, and spoke about not leaving transgenders behind in pending legislation – specifically on ENDA – to a standing ovation.

Two weeks hence, Rep. Barney Frank with HRC in tow began the process of divesting their ENDA legislation of anything transgender.

Immediately after, NCTE’s executive director, Mara Keisling, was in a precarious position. She was the poster child of objectifying and dismissing folks like NTAC members who were perpetually at odds with HRC, while moving the community to acceptance and amending our view of the gay and lesbian communities heroes: HRC and Barney Frank. Now with the new “political reality”, Mara needed to scramble to keep folks focused on her and the new message: HRC was now “immoral” and “liars”, etc.

To accomplish getting the message out, she spent no small amount of time (and travel budget!) doing Town Halls, revamping her previous mantra of HRC-equals-hero.

When she passed through Houston, I didn’t bother going. It would’ve only served as distraction for Mara and painted me as target. Of all those who attended and mentioned the visit, all had the same general comment: “mixed signals (or message).” One even mentioned that here in Houston, Phyllis Frye appeared to be biting her lip on some of Mara’s comments. (I did mention that Phyllis always has the tight-lipped expression, to which she added that they were more pursed than they were before).

Not being the nosy type, I just put it aside figuring I’d learn later. Well, I finally heard the specifics from at least the Dallas Town Hall dog-and-pony show. A friend, Kelli Busey, noted to me how the meeting was well-received, and how Mara was letting off steam about HRC and what happened with the betrayal of their previous collaborative efforts. All attending appeared to be in agreement, and the Kelli was glad to know that Mara had finally come around.

… At least until the very end of the speech.

She then reported that Mara lamented that one thing we [NCTE or the trans community?] did wrong was not fully integrating the transgender movement into HRC. Yes, Human Rights Campaign – that, HRC! Kelli told me Mara had her until that point, after which her jaw figuratively hit the floor. She now keeps a wary distance from Mara and actually came down to participate in Houston’s HRC protest.

Perhaps that’s what was said in Houston, Austin and elsewhere – time will tell. If this was her comments to those trans gatherings, like Kelli, I’m flabbergasted by that statement. What benefit is there for the transgender community on the whole by subsuming ourselves and our movement in HRC?

Have we not learned enough by their established behavior patterns over the years? Even Mara should’ve figured this one out by now!

Doing that would officially sanction HRC as our de facto conservators – making official what they already presume and advertise for themselves. They would own our voice, our issues, our stories, and the timing and pace of our rights and agenda. Does anyone actually look forward to HRC allow us our own pulpit from which to educate? Does anyone think they would even consider listening to us as peers, much less equals? Does anyone believe they’ll take our pressing issues with the same weight as their own distinct issues? Does anyone even fathom there might be a possibility for power or even funding revenue sharing on a commensurate basis?

Not only no, but hell to the no!

They hold all cards. They have the money, they have the media, and they have the power (or access to them directly), and we have none of that. There is zero reason for them to compromise with us, and even less desire on their behalf. The only thing we have is that we are in the right, and we hold history – and the ability to keep it from being sanitized the way they hope to after they fulfill their own dreams, take up stakes and move their circus on to whatever is next for the gay and lesbian community.

So what benefit could there possibly be for the trans community by giving away our movement to the likes of HRC? What – maybe by allowing them to raise even more money on transgender issues they’ll somehow be inclined to be suddenly generous? Even without us, they still raise more money on transgender issues than transgender organizations! Take a look at history: how generous have they been? Ya getting it yet?

Additionally, why would we sell our community down the river for the sake of a couple thousand bucks or whatever “largesse” they deign to toss us? Might as well wait for crumbs off of Henry VIII’s banquet table.

What else could there possibly be? Trans people in visible – and meaningful – positions? Dream on. They “included” transgenders some seven plus years ago, and we still apparently don’t have the skills or communication level to be able to lobby on our own issues in their wise estimation. And with all of their professional skills on transgender issues (something we clearly lack in HRC mindsets) we still need to “do more education” on our issues! Think about that.

Other than being there for show, transgenders are not professional, not contemporaries, not leaders and by all of their own accounts (directly or sublimely) not intelligent enough to grasp political reality and the nuances of Washington, the media and public opinion. That message comes through loudly and clearly.

So why would we want to be affiliated with them?

And why would someone in a position of our community’s leadership make such a statement? What could any of us in trans America possibly gain by such an absorption by HRC? I’ve got to wonder whose side Mara’s on, and what would possess anyone to think there’s anything but a net negative for trans people in such a combo?

Pardon me, but I’m sticking with what I’ve learned from dealing with them the past twelve years. No more blind leaps of faith into that abyss!

“You can climb a mountain.
You can swim the sea.
You can jump into the fire,
But you'll never be free.” — Jump Into The Fire, Nilsson

Judy Shepard: Back Up HRC On Press “Misinformation” About Leaving Transgender Behind!

This week has been wild … far too many things to write about – not enough time. On top of it, my dad and Sally were in from Oregon the past two days – monopolizing my time since we rarely see each other.

On the subject of parents, Matthew Shepard’s mom, Judy Shepard was in town as the keynote speaker at Houston’s HRC banquet. I missed out on getting a chance to touch base with her again. We met in 2000 at the Martinez vigil in Cortez, Colorado as she was there with a contingent of other PFLAG parents, including Carolyn Wagner and Gabi Clayton. She was very sweet, we chatted quite a bit about what Paula Mitchell was going through, how it touched her own life and brought back some of the memories of 1998 for her. I’d mentioned to her my own sentiments about starting a march to Austin immediately after Matthew was found, and how we’d held a vigil in Houston which I volunteered at as many of the spontaneous events sprung up around the country following Matthew’s death.

I had kind memories of Judy from that visit (and another brief encounter in Columbus, Ohio’s PFLAG convention).

Then I got wind from a media friend in Dallas about her speech in Houston (after noticing our protest line outside).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-Tigva-HCk

About three minutes into the speech, Judy comes around to noting that “Joe [Solmonese] and the other lobbyists are just stellar,” and how they are there at the banquet to “celebrate the work they do for ‘us’ on the hill.” She then adds that theirs is work that is “frequently misrepresented in the press.”

Judy notes “the way that people think we should force people to vote the way we want them to…. It doesn’t work that easy. It’s not that smooth.” Heard that line before? Yeah … me too. Someone drank the Kool-Aid.

From there on, it’s downhill.

“I commend all of you for understanding how important it is to support them (HRC) even when the press begins to rail at them about things they don’t understand.” [about 4:30 into the speech]

“We have an important job and an important message to keep morale up and keep the information correct.”

“We have a job to maintain that honesty and that sincerity.”

“You need to pay attention to what’s going on.”

“Marriage is not going to change everything for you (oddly she never brought up employment issues at all).”

“We have a lot of education that needs to be done, particularly around the transgender issue.”

“We need all of you to support what HRC does and to talk in a way that shows your knowledge of a situation. We need the right information out there.”

Talking about her visits to college campuses, Shepard says she can’t relate how many times she’s heard from them: “well HRC just deserted the transgender issue.”

To that, Shepard replies to them: “Well no, not really. They didn’t do that at all! Do you read their policy? Do you read what’s on their website? Or are you just listening to the hype the popular press is giving you misinformation?”

To the banquet attendees, Shepard implored them that “we have to talk to people. We have to tell our stories. We need to be … authentic about who we are.”

She wrapped up with a call to arms for all HRC members: “Y’all need to back up what’s happening, everywhere in every situation that happens.”

In a nutshell, it’s up to all HRC supporters to go forth and challenge every claim about their disparity and disparagement of the transgender community. This will be their messaging, and they will stick to it:

It’s all been a concoction of the press’ imagination, and an attempt to create controversy from something that never happened.

HRC, not the transgender community, has been honest and sincere. We trans activists allegedly don’t know up from down and right from wrong, not even understanding what has happened to us legislatively or even from out well-meaning and knowledgeable friends at HRC. We should all read their policy and their website and not pay attention to exclusion from legislation, or lack of access to legislators whom we’ve clearly failed to educate this past decade and a half.

Meanwhile, marriage is possible in the near term for gays and lesbians, and there’s not much need to even discuss employment – not an issue at all.

Pardon me, while I pick my jaw up off of the floor.

Of all the people to be public, and to issue the call to all in HRC to take up the battle and defeat the transgender bullies and the illusory press – it’s Judy Shepard!?! Folks in NTAC, most consistently mistrustful of HRC, have had precious little contact with press – you won’t see one word from me on HRC in press since 2007. Ironically, most press on HRC and Joe Solmonese has come from Mara Keisling: hands-down the best friend HRC has ever had in helping market themselves with and make serious inroads into the transgender community!

And the press and transgender community have been unfair to HRC? And they need to now fight back?!? For honesty and sincerity???

Truly I feel like I’ve just been mugged, robbed and beaten senseless by Santa and his posse of gangsta elves. It’s like finding out the tooth fairy is actually a pervert who breaks into people’s homes to rape them while they sleep. The Easter Bunny playfully nibbles all he sees and spreads MRSA – the flesh-eating staph bacteria. How did this happen? Did I really miss this one that badly?


Doubtless this will also come as a shock to Carolyn Wagner, Gabi Clayton, Courtney Sharp, Sue Null, Mary Boenke and all of the trans-supporters in PFLAG-land. I’m stultified.

This speaks to the level of HRC’s persistence and myopic focus on their singular goals, regardless of costs, damage or image. They’ll worry about that last part, Rove-style, once they’ve won all and can buy a retroactive sanitizing of their history for posterity. Until then, regardless of what it takes, HRC will ‘vanquish all foes who stand in their way and seize victory’.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, these college challengers, the trans-friendly gay press, and we bully trannies, we stand in their way – we’re their foes too. Call the riot police ….

“It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State.” – Josef Goebbels