Is The Human Rights Campaign thinking about our rights?
Dateline: WASHINGTON April 1, 2013 — The Human Rights Campaign apologized Monday for treatment of transgender and immigration rights activists at the Supreme Court last week, days after the nation’s largest LGBT group initially had sought to brush aside the criticisms.
Well, at least they apologized this time.
This seems to be just another chapter in the never ending saga of HRC trivializing and marginalizing transpeople, and this time they also did their thing with LGBT immigrants.
As a transactivist who is relatively new to the dance, I missed the years of bitter fighting by transgender activists merely to be included in the mission of HRC (Human Rights Campaign). I became involved when HRC said we were included and the fight at that time and arguably still today is that HRC’s actions do not meet and match their words. I suppose the slogan, “trans rights are human rights!” was intended for the ears of HRC Directors rather than right wing legislators as one might reasonably assume.
After observing the manner in which transgender people were excluded from “SONDA,” the NY State gay employment non-discrimination legislation that was promoted in 2001, I was appalled, shocked, and angry. Was not the beginning, at least the symbolic beginning, of the modern “gay” rights movement in New York the Stonewall riots? Were not the acknowledged heroes of Stonewall the trans identified or openly gender variant icons, Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson and Stormie Delarvarie? What really riled me was that the big time “gay rights” groups like ESPA in NY and HRC would encourage trans identified people and drag queens to dress up and volunteer for their big fundraising galas, but did the legislation they were pushing cover transgender people or gender variant gays? Umm . . . Nope! there’s a Yiddish term for this kind of behavior, it’s called “chutzpah.” It fits!
Meanwhile, in the fall of 2001, for me, personally, the unthinkable happened my lover, my best friend, the mother of my children, the woman who gave me support with my transition, at first reluctantly, but later with enthusiasm, my wife of 34 years — died suddenly of late stage cancer which had been diagnosed only a month before.
Babs Casbar Siperstein
At some point in time, trying to focus and fight the murky clouds of my loss and grief trying to make some sort of sense of everything while holding together a family and a business already under stress, I came to a stark realization! I was no longer a comfortable middle class married white man living a double life with a supportive wife, but now a single transwoman. What was frightening was the realization that if gays and lesbians were “second class” — what was I, how was I now perceived?. I was angry, frightened and insecure because the conclusion to that question was, to me, intolerable and unacceptable.
I was angry, but I saw an opening, maybe an opportunity to be part of the “gay establishment.” After all, in my old life as a straight white man, I was used to a little privilege, a little local stature, I held an advanced college degree, felt that I had the ability to relate to most people in business, and took responsibilities in local religious, cultural and civic institutions. Then again, it became a challenge to do this without “outing” myself. My late wife and I had created the name “Casbar” and we were known in the trans community as the Casbars! We were “out” to our trans and gay friends but not out to our family, straight friends, neighbors and business associates.
One of the first things that I did to get involved in the mainstream gay political infrastructure, was join an organization. There were not too many choices, although the president of the NJ Log Cabin Republicans was a friend and an early LGBT mentor, her inspiration, “Christie” Whitman, was no longer Governor. More importantly, I could see by 2002, that the “Compassionate Conservative” Bush was not as advertised and the Republican Party was trending nationally toward something dark, arrogant and reactionary. We now had a progressive Democrat as Governor in Jim McGreevy who I had known as a popular mayor of the town in which I had my business, and the Stonewall Democrats seemed to be a growing and diverse organization that included HRC members. Although the leadership seemed more to the left of me politically, all in all there seemed to be more of a comfort level politically and socially and they did seek an inclusive membership and participation.
By this time I was aware that the federal Employment Non Discrimination Act, commonly known as ENDA, like SONDA offered workplace protections for gays and lesbians only, ostensibly excluding transpeople and even gender variant gays. When the Stonewall President started to circulate a call support ENDA, I called, “time out!” I asked, “Why are you supporting this legislation that does not include people like me as well as some of the gay and lesbian members who may not be the most mainstream conformists in their gender expression?” Well they did stop and think, and I was then offered a “challenge” by one of the Stonewall members who was also a member of the HRC board of Governors. It was the late summer of 2002 and one of the HRC big wigs was hosting a fundraiser for incumbent US Senator Torricelli who was up for re-election that November, and I was “invited” to come to the fundraiser and meet the Senator.
I’m a realist, I’ve been around, I know nothing is for free and this was $100 or for $1000 you can have an extra hour with the Senator in the VIP room. Money means access, money wisely spent . . . invested can yield dividends. This was not pocket change and business was very challenging at the time, but I had to make a decision, if I was going to be an activist who was going to make changes, I’d better be prepared to put my money where my mouth was. I wrestled with it, then decided to go all in for the 1000. It was the first and, in retrospect, perhaps the best political decision as Babs that I ever made. Remember I was still stealth, not “out,” and did not want to write a check with my real name, so I came to the event and signed up for the Host VIP hour with an envelope with 10 hundred dollar bills! The senator’s senior staffer who “manned” the entrance table nearly freaked out, as she explained there were laws that prevented cash contributions. I did have a credit card in my femme name which she eventually took. I guess I created a little “splash.”
Once inside I was able to introduce myself and have a little one on one time with the Senator as befitting a VIP setting. I spoke about ENDA and said I was very concerned by the fact it did not include transpeople like myself. The Senator’s response startled me, as he said that I was covered by the legislation. I then told him that the ENDA language talked only about “sexual orientation” which was about GLB people only, and those who appeared to be straight acting. I told him firmly and succinctly, did not belabor the point and moved on to other things that were not contentious and used the remaining time of the event to listen, learn and network with the lesbian and gay political activists present and the Senator’s staffer.
I came away with a great deal of knowledge that day, and the realization that it appeared that HRC lobbyists were not giving good info about transpeople and who was and was not covered in the legislation. I learned that there was a big disconnect with HRC and the T, something that was confirmed time and time again over the years and again with the flag incident that prompted this post. There was confirmation of my belief that transpeople needed access and if I were able to do anything, I needed political access at the very least. I showed HRC that I was willing and able to support issues financially and that would later provide more opportunities for political involvement and access. That is the start of another story for a later day.
Oh, I said that this was my best investment. A couple of days after the fund raising event, the Senator abruptly resigned his Senate seat because of a big scandal. The checks folks had given him were immediately deposited and they never got their money back, but because I gave my credit card and that paperwork was not processed by the time he suspended his campaign, it turned out to be a freebee and that money was available for other events which funded my “political education” as well.
Babs
Category: Transgender Body & Soul, Transgender Politics
About the Author (Author Profile)
Babs at 76 passed away in 2019. She was a member of the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee, Deputy Vice Chair of the NJ Democratic State Committee and Political Director of the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of NJ. She served on the Executive Committee of Trans United 4 Obama. She has served as Vice Chair of the DNC Eastern Caucus, was President of NJ Stonewall Democrats, Co-Chair of National Stonewall Democrats Federal PAC Board, Vice-Chair of Garden State Equality, Executive Board member of National Stonewall Democrats as Chair of the DNC Relations Committee and a member of the NJ Civil Unions Review Commission.Subscribe
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As a good friend of Babs this is a fantastic view of T’s and HRC! We have discussed this often! I is remarkable that HRC actually apologized! I was very vocal about HRC using us as a bargaining chip in 2007! Met Sue Fulton and expressed my dislike of HRC on one of her posts! Meghan Stabler gave me a very nice call saying that HRC had changed! It does seem that Meghan Stabler is making a difference at HRC! Have heard rumor that HRC has actually hired a lower level T- person? Wonder what could happen if we could get us all working together? Seems a bit like herding cats and dogs together?
Ah, I disagree, Pat. In this context, I’d put homosexuality in the same category as crossdressing – not transsexualism. Let me explain.
It’s said that “once a crossdresser, always a crossdresser”, although many people don’t understand the subtlety of what this means. They think – as you’ve indicated – that because a crossdresser switches from one presentational mode to the other, they’re not always a crossdresser. Even though a crossdressER may not always be crossdressING, they are always – and, in my experience, always will be – a crossdresser. It’s not something that can be switched on and off at will, even though it can be hidden under traditional male clothes. The same applies to being gay – I suspect few people can tell a gay person just from looking at them (unless they’re overtly “camp” in their mannerisms, as some are), and a gay person can “act normal” (excuse the phrase) in company where they don’t wish their sexual orientation to be detected. But a gay person will always be gay – their sexual orientation doesn’t change just because they happen to be in the company of the opposite sex, for instance.
I accept, of course, that transsexualism is different – once the decision has been made to transition (physically or otherwise), there’s no hiding and no going back.
My point (which I clearly didn’t make very well) was that since gays can “hide”, and crossdressers can “hide”, there’s no reason why their modes of political campaigning shouldn’t be similar. So I’d ask you the question why gays have decided to come out and get political – even though they could hide their sexual orientation if they wished – when crossdressers have chosen to stay in the closet. To use your examples, there are exclusive gay establishments, sure … but why aren’t there exclusive trans establishments too? It’s become acceptable for gays to come out and seek acceptance amongst the public, but this is only because gays have forced the issue … why haven’t crossdressers done the same? I understand what you say about crossdressers needing to be concerned with their safety … but I don’t suppose there are many gay people who’d willingly die for their beliefs if there were a better option! In any case, why do you assume that being a crossdresser is inherently unsafe? I’d argue that it’s no more unsafe than being black.
I’m sure you can see where this is going. Gay people have decided to fight for their human rights, and – to be perfectly frank – it’s about time that crossdressers grew some balls and did the same. Shouldn’t we confront the lies, the persecution, and the discrimination that we all know exists? If not, who’s going to do it for us? Can we expect to be able to cower in gay bars for the indefinite future? If yes, why do you think so?
There are different dynamics at work. I suspect that being LG or TS is rather a full time component of the person. Being a CD is, for many, at best, a part time proposition. To be full time and out and proud as LG or TS impacts all aspects of the person’s life. Often with part time CDs the non-T side is how we present to the world most of the time.
Over the past few decades there were many rather exclusively gay establishiments. These were needed because people who were gay had to be concerned with how they expressed themselves in many civilian settings. Over time it has become acceptable for gays to come out and they have found a level of acceptance in the general public. Many of us CDs need to be concerned with safety and some of the predominantly gay establishments are a safe haven for our outings.
Pat
You’re right Pat – “T” has never been a natural add-on to LGB. And of course, there are two major flavours of “T” as well, which are in many ways as different from each other as they are from LGB. Not only that, but a lot of the “T” which the public sees in the form of gay drag at Pride festivals, etc. – this further complicates the issue by giving the impression that trans people are gay by default, and this in turn causes relationship issues for heterosexual crossdressers.
However, it must be acknowledged that the LGB community has provided a “scene” where trans people – predominantly crossdressers and pre-op transsexuals – can meet in a semi-public space and be relatively safe. Some may also argue that trans people have benefitted from LGB activism in that they’re now more visible than they used to be … although as a crossdresser, I think that has more to do with wishful thinking!
Nevertheless, Stonewall was almost a half-century ago, and gays have made a lot of progress since then. It’s now time for trans people to come out from behind the LGB coat-tails and stand on their own two feet. Transsexuals are already politicially active (at least in the UK), but crossdressers are still deeply closeted. This must change … otherwise we’ll still be pushing for inclusion in protective legisation in another 50 years’ time, and that’s unacceptable.
Babs,
Thank you for taking the time to put together a nice article about HRC. I tend to split my time between NY and NJ and do what I can to follow politics in both states. Sometimes watching the local politicians seems like observing a race to the bottom of the cesspool.
While the “T” has been affixed to the back of the LGB acronym for a while there really has to be some discussion of whether it really is a proper fit. In my time both in male mode and when I do get out and about as Pat I never shy from any encounter with LG people. It seems to me that in large measure that they do not understand “T” people any better than most civilians at large. What that proves to me is that our need for outreach in all directions and to all people remains a priority.
I am not one who believes that we can simply create laws or legislate in a way to open hearts and minds. Creating a sea change of tolerance is not an overnight proposition. For acceptance to come about it needs to occur properly, gradually, and in a way that leaves people feeling comfortable. We cannot underestimate the value of individuals spreading the aura of acceptance and tolerance one person at a time.
Pat