Time was that if I wanted to find out the latest on what's happening with the rights of those of us who transcend gender stereotypes, I had to look for that one page newsletter with the bombs on the masthead and the words "In Your Face" screaming across the banner. Now one need only pick up a copy of that establishment icon, Time magazine, to read about the latest doing of GenderPAC. In the June 18 issue of Time, along with five other community activists fighting to improve the quality of our lives, there stands Riki Wilchins austerely framed by the Capitol Dome in twilight. The juxtaposition of Riki's image with images of Susan B. Anthony, Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., speaks volumes about the success of GenderPAC and the gender rights movement. You've come a long way, Riki! I want to believe in Riki. I want her to be the King or Gandhi
of the gender rights movement. I have known Riki for many years,
and consider her my friend. No one could have catapulted the
transgender movement into the spotlight the way that she did.
No one could have done it as quickly as she did. And I am grateful
to Riki for having achieved so much for the community at great
personal sacrifice. |
So why do I have this hollow place in my heart for this remarkable achievement. I guess it is because there has been so much controversy about Riki's leadership style. She has always been an enigmatic figure. The transsexual menace leading the protests at Camp Trans. The brilliant postmodern theorist lecturing about identity politics. The smartly-dressed Washington lobbyist who is able to get into offices that have eluded the best of us. And she can be all of these simultaneously. The latest controversy started at the end of last year, and resulted in most of the transgender-identified GenderPAC board members leaving the organization under less than desirable circumstances. Seems that Riki and GenderPAC have declared identity politics dead, and have retooled GenderPAC to be a broad-based gender rights organization. But theory and reality sometimes just get too much for the
grassroots activists battling it out in the ward offices and
city halls across the country. That is where the true progress
has been made over the past half dozen years since GenderPAC
was formed. And the progress was made mainly by transgender-identified
activists telling their personal stories of discrimination and
suffering to elected officials who had never even met a transgendered
person before. As visible as Riki and GenderPAC are, the fact
that there are now 34 jurisdictions across the country that offer
nondiscrimination protection to gender variant people is due
to the courageous folks in those districts who have worked for
years in obscurity to make a little difference in their corners
of the world. |
I avidly believe, like Riki, that gender rights need to be defined broadly to include all those who transcend gender lines. I believe that masculinities and femininities are purely societal constructs, and that everyone should have the right to decide for themselves whether they color outside the defined gender lines. But a movement that was started by transgender rights activists needs to keep that identity alive.
In a statement recently issued by It's Time Illinois, we said,
"Transgender people and transgender identities have always
been 'disappeared' when it was expedient to do so. The Stonewall
Rebellion which gave rise to the Gay Rights Movement was started
by transgender people. We were integral to that movement until
it was decided we were too controversial, and we were eliminated.
We can't let that happen again! Although GenderPAC may find it
tempting to mainstream the transgender rights movement into a
broad-based gender rights movement, they do so at the risk of
losing the visibility of our identity once again. We need to
keep transgender at the forefront of the transgender movement."
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Miranda Writes...