Trans movement left standing at the altar

Transgender political support melts away as L & G declare mission accomplished in the USA

With L & G rightly claiming victory in securing equal marriage rights in the USA, Trans people are finding the shutters going up at their local LGBT centers.

Transgender people have always the poor relation in an unlikely alliance: how could sexual orientation and gender identity ever be given equal consideration when they are such different issues?

I personally will never leave a soldier behind!
The fight must go on!

stickygirl said:

Transgender political support melts away as L & G declare mission accomplished in the USA

With L & G rightly claiming victory in securing equal marriage rights in the USA, Trans people are finding the shutters going up at their local LGBT centers.

Transgender people have always the poor relation in an unlikely alliance: how could sexual orientation and gender identity ever be given equal consideration when they are such different issues?

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Errrmmm... I think ^^THAT^^ is pretty damn unfair (not to mention just plain wrong).

Regardless of what the Guardian may report (because god knows they are so unbiased ::roll eyes: most major LGBTQ organizations are STILL working hard for Trans rights (they are still fighting for real L & G rights, FFS).

I know for a fact that groups like Lambda Legal are taking trans discrimination suits to court damn near every week.

I saw a thing the other day where a couple were denied a civil partnership because they were a man and a woman.
Apparently civil partnerships are "only for the gays".

Safe_Bet said:

Errrmmm... I think ^^THAT^^ is pretty damn unfair (not to mention just plain wrong).

Regardless of what the Guardian may report (because god knows they are so unbiased ::roll eyes: most major LGBTQ organizations are STILL working hard for Trans rights (they are still fighting for real L & G rights, FFS).

I know for a fact that groups like Lambda Legal are taking trans discrimination suits to court damn near every week.

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And Trump is threatening to appoint SCOTUS justices to overturn marriage equality, so anybody trying to declare "mission accomplished" even on that one issue is getting ahead of themselves.

That said, trans & intersex groups do have reason to be wary. Some LGB groups have been great about representing the T and I, others less so... and then there are the C*thy Br*nn*n types.

Safe_Bet said:

Errrmmm... I think ^^THAT^^ is pretty damn unfair (not to mention just plain wrong).

Regardless of what the Guardian may report (because god knows they are so unbiased ::roll eyes: most major LGBTQ organizations are STILL working hard for Trans rights (they are still fighting for real L & G rights, FFS).

I know for a fact that groups like Lambda Legal are taking trans discrimination suits to court damn near every week.

Click to expand...

The tone of the article is a warning, not a statement about how things are now. There have been huge steps forward in the last year or two, but with bathroom bills & changes in healthcare rules being pushed by transphobic pressure groups, legal changes are needed at national level, beyond the reach of individual states, or else all the progress in fighting individual cases will be washed away.
When there is so much hate directed at trans people it's only natural ( for me ) to be fearful. Even though all these issues are mostly being fought out in the US, they impact on everyday life to trans people wherever they are. I know too how reading news articles can be like looking through the wrong end of a telescope: I am sure if I travelled to the US I would have a great time and wouldn't come up against any transphobia. I probably wouldn't get shot either.
I think maybe I should stop reading news articles - I'm sure I'd be happier, but avoiding news isn't in my nature. That article didn't have me running for the hills, but it has made me think about it and read about it more, too.

I certainly have no problem with any of the transgender rights. It is still kind of weird to me that it goes in the same acronym with a bunch of letters for who you want to fuck, though, since transgender is solely about who you want to be. I guess it kind of has to be, though, since transgender is such a tiny, tiny group. I've only ever met 2 and people certainly aren't shy about admitting they like same sex partners around me. It is kind of interesting that the majority of people I know like same sex activity, though.

infinity706 said:

I certainly have no problem with any of the transgender rights. It is still kind of weird to me that it goes in the same acronym with a bunch of letters for who you want to fuck, though, since transgender is solely about who you want to be. I guess it kind of has to be, though, since transgender is such a tiny, tiny group. I've only ever met 2 and people certainly aren't shy about admitting they like same sex partners around me. It is kind of interesting that the majority of people I know like same sex activity, though.

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Well, two that you know of. Some trans people can pass, some are still living as their assigned genders (I know one guy who's M to friends, F at work, because he doesn't feel safe talking to bosses about transition).

But, yeah, T is probably rarer than LGB. Impossible to get an accurate count, but the estimates I've seen range up to about 1% of the population.

And, yeah, lumping everybody into the one acronym can lead to some oddness. A couple of months back I wrote to a comedy venue to say that I didn't appreciate their comedian's transphobic "jokes". Their reply was "we care a lot about LGBT issues, we run fund-raisers for gay and lesbian causes!" Which, uh, that's nice for the LG part of the acronym, but not what I was writing about...

It also leads to people assuming that all trans peeps are gay, which I know most aren't.
I guess it just confuses some people that someone might want to swap their gender but not the gender they rock the bed with.

When you have to sit down and disentangle gender from sexuality as trans folk do, then it becomes ( a bit ) clearer. Most people are on default setting, certainly the assholes in politics are: trans=sex monster - how charming, how informed and ... how dangerous

I put the same question to a contact on Tumblr who is American and pretty wised up. He gave me this
"To recap, the Guardian article talks about a major equality rights group in New York state disbanding after marriage equality has been won nationwide. Specifically,

As in other states, donor support is also in jeopardy. Many recent transgender rights victories were the handiwork of gay rights organizations – groups that expanded thanks to a record outpouring of financial support for gay marriage.

Now, those contributions are drying up. And transgender rights advocates say they don’t have a donor base that comes close to making up the difference.

Yes, it’s true trans movements have less funding in general, and funding that used to be funneled through defunct marriage equality orgs is drying up. Donors or grant decision-makers often claim they’ve allocated money to an “LGBT” group when really it was just LGB, whether it’s in politics or research, people aren’t informed enough to know the difference.

However, it’s also true that these LGB orgs didn’t always advocate in trans people’s best interest. The transgender movement is concentrating its efforts and resources into fighting for our own issues and ensuring our voice is heard. I think the future is in trans-focused efforts run primarily by trans people and our direct allies.

There’s always good and bad news (and the media prefers to capitalize on the latter). If you add it all up, I think trans rights have seen an avalanche of good in the last few years – removing medical requirements to amend your legal gender in US Passports and Social Security, lots of local non-discrimination ordinances, lots of “Bathroom Bills” defeated, out trans people employed in high positions in the Federal Government, health coverage of trans-related surgeries.

Here’s a brief summary of 2015 wins, trans wins in Canada, and a classic feel-good from Buzzfeed. At the same time, 2015 saw the most number of documented murders, mostly of trans women of color.

This doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges left, or that some of the beneficial decisions aren’t sometimes reversed! In Washington state, which already has protections for trans people across the board, there is a Bathroom bill and other harmful policies up for debate in this legislative season. (Rally on Feb 15th in Olympia if you’re there!)

American politics are fractured into local politics, divided into progressive and radically conservative towns, states, regions, ebbing and flowing in positive and negative. It’s important to remember the big picture and see how quickly we’ve become a force to be reckoned with in just a few years."

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