Not that he’s ahead but, Barney Frank needs to shut-up and stop digging his whole deeper. Last week he gave a statement to Congress again proving that he really doesn’t care about the transgendered community. There are several things that could be commented on but, I will just focus on two of them.
In his statement he said that we’ve been dealing sexual orientation predjudice and fighting it since the Stonewall riots of 1969. And that the predjudices towards the transgendered are newer. A little history lesson for Mr. Frank, it was the transgendered and crossdressers the police were after that night at Stonewall. The transgendered community has been dealing with the predjudice just as long and they’ve had to take it from those who should support them as well. The difference is that they aren’t going to take it anymore and the rest of the LGBTQ community is finally starting to fight for and with them, rather than against them.
In regards to lobbying efforts by the LGBTQ organizations and individuals in the last couple weeks Mr. Frank said “Where were they when we needed them? I’m glad to see the activity now – I just wish it was not so late.” The answer is, we were there. Everyone was involved. However, they were focused on the hearings and getting the bill through committee and onto the floor. They were told it would be a tough fight but, that it would pass. So they worked on making sure people didn’t pull their support rather than aggressively pursuing people for votes and scaring them. The organizations and community were then blindsided by Mr. Frank’s decision to pull the gender identity portion of the bill. Had he made it clear months ago that, that was a possibility people would have done hard lobbying and educating.
I think that was his plan all along. Put gender identity in to get stronger support from the organizations. Then pull it at the last minute. And he expected everyone to just lay down and take it. Only to his dismay that isn’t what happened. He talks about people in Congress telling him and the others behind the bill what they wanted to hear. Which is exactly what he did to the community. He told us what he needed to, to get the big chunk of support and then changed it at the last minute to get what he wanted.
There’s a couple of questions being over looked in all of this. Those questions are:
1) If people having jobs, not being on public assistance, taking care of their families, and everything else that ripples from being employed is such a fundemental part of the platforms for both parties how can either side justify allowing anyone to be fired or not hired for anything other than their ability to do the job?
2) Why is there such a rush to pass it by the end of this year? Now that people know the truth is their any harm in waiting a couple months while we do some more lobbying and educating. After all Mr. Frank has said that the whole reason for this is that there hasn’t been enough education on the subject. Maybe we get more votes, maybe we don’t. But what difference does it make if a fully inclusive ENDA or a sexual orientation only one is passed and vetoed this year or early next year? You never know what can happen in a few months.
The sudden notion that this bill will not pass if it includes gender identity is very odd. Anytime a bi-partisan bill goes for months with all indications that it will pass and then suddenly when it gets crunch time it supposedly needs a major change to pass it is a bit suspect.
I’m not even going to go into my big tirade about the HRC and them supporting it without the gender identity provision and then trying to reverse course after all the other LGBT (or if your more progressive LGBTQ) groups made it clear they wouldn’t support it. Mainly I’m not going to do that because that post would end up being way too long. The short version though is that the HRC is a two faced organization that hurts the entire LGBTQ community and other organizations with their wishy-washiness.
Disclaimer: Before reading any further please note that I am not trying to insult any portion of the community. I have friends all over the spectrum and have to date have found them to be very accepting of transgendered people. But, there is a portion of the community that wants nothing to do with trans people and that bothers me. Even those who don’t support the trans people would still find support from me and all my friends in their fights for equality. Also incase you might be wondering I am not trans.
Back to the subject at hand. What really hurts about this is that it is Barney Frank an openly gay man doing this and trying to make excuses for why it is okay. First off for him to say that the Transgendered leadership in this country is hurting the movement by not realizing the truth of the matter and how hard the fight is, is completely unacceptable. Yet it shows a greater problem in the community and that is the in fighting.
Sure the G and L portions will take all the help they can get in the fight. Including from the transgender people but, when it comes to fighting for those transgendered people too many people in high positions seem to still be too willing to throw the T part under the bus. Luckily there is a younger more understanding portion of the LGBTQ community that is willing to fight for the ideal of equality for all. People who actually believe that an injustice for one is an injustice for all.
And now for the extremely radical and possibly inflamatory portion of the post. In his statement reqarding removing the gender identity provision Mr. Frank said: “The question facing us – the LGBT community and the tens of millions of others who are active supporters of our fight against prejudice – is whether we should pass up the chance to adopt a very good bill because it has one major gap. I believe that it would be a grave error to let this opportunity to pass a sexual orientation nondiscrimination bill go forward, not simply because it is one of the most important advances we’ll have made in securing civil rights for Americans in decades, but because moving forward on this bill now will also better serve the ultimate goal of including people who are transgender than simply accepting total defeat today.”
The Mr. Frank since women are traditionally more accepting of peoples sexual orientation and men generally just love the idea of two women together I have a question for you. Would it be okay to pass a change to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell that makes it okay for lesbians to be openly in the military but, not gay men? Because you know it’s more important to pass something with a major gap as we work towards the ultimate goal than not getting it passed at all.
