GenderLife Forum: The Information Exchange

According to this article in the SF Chronicle some big names in San Francisco politics are joining in the boycott of the HRC fundraiser gala, including San Francisco Supervisors Tom Ammiano and Bevan Dufty, Assemblyman Mark Leno and state Sen. Carole Migden.

You just gotta love the HRC's response: "HRC's position is that we could not oppose - and, in fact, should support - legislation to provide crucial civil rights protections that would be brought to the House floor for a vote, even though we did not and, certainly, would not have chosen that course," according to the statement signed by Joe Solmonese, the organization's president, and the co-chairs of the group's board of directors. Apparently they want to take credit for any bill getting to the floor but evade responsibility for us getting pulled out of it.

Naturally, a battle is being fought in the Comments on the article, largely the output on a single minded gay purist who thinks we should ignore the decades-old alliance and intermingling of gay and trans lives and identities, not to mention the millions of $$$ that we and our supporters poured into the HRC based on the HRC's oft repeated promise "never" to exclude us from legislation. So if you have a moment, stop by the article in the SF Chronicle and leave appropriate thumbs-up/down in the comments and make some of your own.

I put in my $.02

"The Human Rights Campaign should not be human rights cowards"

- I could not have said that better than that article..
I'm glad to see the responses that have been posted about the HRC betrayal in this forum, as I have been outraged at them for a long time now.

If I was on the board and contributions started dropping off as a direct result of the actions of the leadership I would be compelled to vote for a change in that leadership. New Chant "No Mo Joe"

Thanks for contributing a comment to that SFgate forum, Deena. It would be nice if more girls would go through there and at least click thumbs-up on all the pro-TS/anti-HRC comments and thumbs-down on all the anti-trans comments, because it's looking like mostly the bigots are voting.

Well, I also signed up, left my own comment and voted. There's a couple of commenters there that really has issues with us. It's just sad to see that.

But I not only voted, but I also left a comment, under the name of routerspecialist.

I did alot of "thumbs-downing" to msa_646. I find it hard to argue in a forum like that with people who don't even know their own history regarding rights,Stonewall, sexual orientation, etc...

Christine and Hope really gave some good insight to them I think.

The Three Sad Principles of Social Advancement:

1) No rights were ever obtained without a certain degree of violence. It can go from quiet demonstrations to open gunfire in the streets.

2) To legal recognition follows emotional rejection, even by many who supported you before you had any rights. It may take centuries to get over it.

3) In order to obtain rights, a group must put some other group down. It's part of the process of establishing boundaries.


HRC is just doing #3. As you see, most people agree with it.

For example, this comment:

"HRC was forced to make the decision to a support the bill that would have a chance at getting passed instead of pushing for another with additional protection for transgendered people, which would surely die on the Senate floor. Remember "Progress rather than Perfection". I am an ardent supporter of rights and protections of the transgendered people. People's stance on things change over time. It takes time, I hate it does, but what can I do?"

has 41 thumbs up and 11 thumbs down. Why? Because people know that, in order to advance their own interests, they must sacrify other (smaller, weaker) groups.

The GLB is much bigger, much more powerful than the T. Now, or soon, they'll throw us to the lions. It's not that they are evil, it's that they are realistic.

It happens time and again.

I agree, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to fight the guards off and delay my bout with the lions for as long as possible.

Of course. The whole point of life is fighting to the death to keep alive.

It's a war, and each day is a battle.

Besides that, some day we'll have to throw someone else to the lions. And I can see the passable easily throwing to the lions the non-passable, or the post-ops doing the same to the pre-ops and non-ops.

It's all a matter of perspective. The only universal is cruelty.