Equality Iowa

(This was originally posted to my xanga site at: http://racheleliason.xanga.com/ )

At a party in October 2002, Gwen Araujo was “outed” as transgender. Discovering this young woman was not biologically female, three men tied her up, beat her repeatedly, strangled her and dumped the body miles away.

In august of 1995 a car accident turned fatal for Tyra Hunter. Discovering that she had male genitalia, EMT’s stopped caring for her and made crude jokes while she bled to death.

Robert Eads wouldn’t have turned any heads if he walked down the street. He was a man like any other, except that Robert had been born a girl. He still had ovaries, and he developed ovarian cancer. Over twenty doctors refused to treat his cancer because they did not want a transgender patient.

Early last year a good friend of mine decided that he had had one too many slights and assaults from a world that felt “she” should not be allowed to live “her” life as “she” truly was, a man. He was found hanging in his basement by his loving wife. His passing was devastating to all who knew him.

It is stories like this, and there are way too many to mention, that led Gwendolyn Ann Smith to found the first Transgender Day of Remembrance. The day memorializes all those who have died as a result of outright hatred, or simple callous disregard.

This fall the Des Moines LGBT community celebrated the day of remembrance at the state capitol for the first time. We gathered, we spoke our minds, and our hearts. The governor, Chet Chulver issued a proclamation recognizing the day. It was a simple act, motivated I would like to think, by human compassion.

For this he is now being attacked by conservatives. Chuck Hurley of the Iowa Family Policy Center has accused Culver of promoting “sexual confusion and deviant behavior”. They want to paint the governor as evil because he acknowledged to suffering of one small minority.

As a member of the transgender community I am outraged. Apparently it is not enough to prevent my community from having full civil rights. These people spend millions preventing gays from being able to marry, they lobby in Washington to keep words like sexual orientation and gender identity out of the ENDA (employee Non-Discrimination Act) so they can fire us for who we are.

Now they want our sorrow. You can’t have it. You have no right to it. You have 364 days to paint us as “deviants” and call us nasty names. We have one. One day where we remember these people, not as you see them, but as we see them. One day when Gwen is not a “tranny” but a beautiful young woman who had her whole life ahead of her. A life that was taken from her. One day where Robert wasn’t a “freak” but a kind man and a loving husband. One day where my friend did not have to die, because nobody hated him without even knowing him.

Chuck Hurley, if you don’t want us to have a “special day” then stop hating us. Stop telling people it’s okay to hate us because we are different. Stop calling us deviants. Because when you tell people that it’s okay to hate us, some of those people are going to get it into their heads that this means it is also okay to kill us. And that is what has created the need for a Transgender Day of Remembrance in the first place.

Click on this link to read a very informative report by People For the American Way on the virulent anti-GLBT politics of the far-right in our country.  This report has been around a while, but can still help us understand better those who would undermine equality and freedom.  Knowledge is power when it comes to dealing with hate politics in the public sphere.

ENDA MAIN POINTS

The Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. It creates express protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people similar to those available under existing federal discrimination laws for other protected classes of workers.

Workplace protections for LGBT people are urgently needed and long overdue. The President has promised to sign this bill. All we need now is for Congress to act.

Statistics:

• 12 states and more than 100 localities have LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination protections, covering nearly 40 percent of Americans.
• According to numerous surveys, substantial majorities of likely voters in the U.S. support an inclusive federal employment non-discrimination law.
• More than 150 of Fortune 500 companies have enacted nondiscrimination policies protecting LGBT workers.

Millions of LGBT workers are unprotected. Everyday an LGBT person remains invisible on the job or suffers open harassment and discrimination based on who they are. Passing ENDA will go a long way to rectify this inequity and indignity.

Passage of this critical legislation would help ensure every employee has a level playing field in the workplace; ENDA reflects the core American values of treating people fairly and ensuring everyone gets a fair shake.

We look forward to the day when LGBT people no longer have to fear the loss of their jobs on the basis of their sexual orientation or their gender identity. When that day comes, America will have taken another step forward in assuring justice and equality for all.

For more information go to www.unitedenda.org.