"Conservatives understand that cultural change is a long, gradual process of small but cumulatively deadly victories. Liberals want it all now. And that's why, in the culture wars, conservatives often win and we often lose. While conservatives spend years, if not decades, trying to convince Americans that certain judges are "activists," that gays "recruit" children, and that Democrats never saw an abortion they didn't like, we often come up with last-minute ideas and expect everyone to vote for them simply because we're right. Conservatives are happy with piecemeal victory, liberals with noble failure. We rarely make the necessary investment in convincing people that we're right because we consider it offensive to have to explain an obvious truth. When it comes time to pass legislation, too many liberals just expect good and virtuous bills to become law by magic, without the years of legwork necessary to secure a majority of the votes in Congress and the majority support of the people. We expect our congressional allies to fall on their swords for us when we've failed to create a culture in which it's safe for politicians to support our agenda and do the right thing. ENDA, introduced for the first time 30 years ago, is an exception to that rule. It took 30 years to get to the point where the Congress and the public are in favor of legislation banning job discrimination against gays. It's only been five months since transgendered people were included in ENDA for the first time."
That was posted in an article written by John Aravosis on salon.com. Amen, John. I'm with you. God bless the Ts out there, but I need legal protection now. I can't wait 20 years for it. We need to get the greater US on board with *any* gay rights, so we can start adding in protections not just for Ts in the workplace, but for all of us to marry and adopt. So let's start smaller than is ideal, so we can get as big as we want sooner that will otherwise happen. Please...!!!
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The problem with the "we'll come back for you" argument is that: It Hasn't Happened.
Not in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut where trans people were thrown over board -- and six years later are still left to fend for themselves.
Not in Massachussets, where it's been 17 years. Not in Wisconsin, where it's been 18 years. In fact, as far as I'm aware, not in any state where sexual orientation protections were passed but not gender identity.
The problem is that the lawyers in the trenches of anti-discrimination lawsuit find that omitting gender identity leaves a gaping hole that can -- and is -- exploited. As Lamdba Legal put it, they may not be able to fire you for being gay, but they can -- and do -- fire you for supposedly fitting the stereotype of being gay. Hell, the courts have upheld the firing of hetero women who were deemed not "feminine" enough.
The thing that Aravosis glosses over is that ENDA has no chance becoming law this year -- Bush has vowed to veto it, and there's not enough votes to override.
The other thing Aravosis whitewashes over is the long history of trans people's involvement with LGB people's activism -- and how trans rights actually went backwards in the 1970s thanks to the LG communities throwing us -- and drag queens, and femmy gays and butches out of the movement in the name of respectability.
So it's a symbolic vote anyway. And what sort of signal are we sending by saying we'll fold before the going gets tough.
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