For the fourth year in a row, a group from Chicago traveled to Washington DC for GenderPAC's National Gender Lobby Days. I used to think that we must certainly be making a spectacle of ourselves, the day that a hundred "men in dresses" flock to the hill, wandering the halls of Congress, looking for a sympathetic ear to bend. That was how it was portrayed in the media the first time that a major Lobby Day was held back in 1996. I wasn't with the group that time, but I've been there every year since. I was there at the 2nd Lobby Days in 1997. We were supposed to meet on the south east steps of the Capitol for a photo op and news conference for 20/20. We gathered and waited. And we waited, and waited. The news crew never showed up. We later learned that they were there but failed to identify us. Apparently they were looking for something other than the crowd of well-dressed business women and men who were gathered, briefcases in hand, for a day of lobbying. |
The old stereotypes are slowly fading away. Maybe our group is getting more confident with lobbying, more comfortable with themselves. Whatever the reason, we are just another group lobbying Congress. Just one of the crowd, along with the tobacco lobby, the National Rifle Association, and the Human Rights Campaign. We were exercising one of the most basic freedoms conferred upon us by the architects of our government. I doubt that any other country would allow any citizens, let alone a group of transgender women and men, free access to the offices of their legislators. It is an amazing, empowering feeling. One of the bills we lobbied for was the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA). The bill hasn't been introduced yet this year, but, even if it was introduced, many of us would not be covered by it. That's right! The fabled Employment Nondiscrimination Act, that Holy Grail of gay rights legislation, is not inclusive of gender variant people such as myself (or butchy women or effeminate men). |
How can that be? Transgender people have been lobbying and educating Congress for five years now. Why doesn't Congress just add "gender identity and expression" to the bill and be done with it? The answer will astound you! The wording of the bill is not controlled by Congress! It is controlled by the group that is behind the major sponsors. In the case of ENDA, that group is HRC, the Human Rights Campaign. The only stumbling block for inclusion of gender variance in ENDA is the HRC! When asked, the HRC will tell you that they will lose votes if "transgender" were included in ENDA. Well, we asked the congresspersons directly this time if they would not vote for ENDA if it included "gender variance". Every one of them indicated that they would continue to support ENDA with the more inclusive language. Many were appalled that HRC is using that as an excuse to keep transgender out of ENDA, and several indicated that they would take that message directly to HRC. What will it take for HRC to wake up and realize that we are part of the LGBT community, we are they, they are we, we are all in this together. What's the world coming to when politicians are more enlightened than the spokespersons for our community? |
Were
they looking for the "men in dresses" or were they
looking for something even more outrageous? Probably!