Gay "Allies" who are transphobic

Hey Yall,

I recently was very appalled to find out that a person who liked OUTspoken for Equality (a group I admin on facebook) and commented on a recent post was and I quote " I'm a big fan of Gay and Lesbian equality BUT I resent the trans group using gay & lesbians as their ticket to ride." However, the problem is this: Don't gay and lesbian community always hear that from the Homophobic elements of the Black Community too? The "Civil Rights Mantra" is often used against us because we can 'de-gay ourselves' I've recently watched a movie that made it seem like gay equality would take away the progress of the black community, and that to say that the black and gay struggles are similar is to open Pandora's box. Well, I submit to you that it is already opened and protections based on race haven't eroded, and still homophobic elements of the black community use the conduct v. race card.

But what's even more troubling is when 'progressive' people who are LGB are discriminating against the T of our community. Don't these people get that the same forces out to stop us from getting marriage are the same ones out to make sure that trans people don't get adequate healthcare in prisons, or on the outside for that matter? The same people who call gay people pedophiles are the same ones that don't want trans people to have their birth certificates changed to reflect the self identification of the person who sought it? In TN there is such a law and many states while they don't change the gender marker whatsoever and in OK and many other states that have restrictive laws that say that unless the plumbing matches, there can be no change. The same people railing against this are the ones assaulting women, workers, our children and saying that we can't have birth control hormonal or otherwise or give out condoms in high schools where students need it the most. They probably would even want to defund ANY and all public health services because they don't stress abstinence and 'family values' which I covered in another post as to how the 'traditional family' is not all that traditional and the notion of family that AFA spreads is not exactly how people see family realistically. We have a formidable foe in the Religious Right and yet, here we are seeing people who claim to be progressive revealing their transphobia.

I've heard Dan Savage is a bit transphobic, I admire him a lot and love his activism. However, I don't think I could look at him the same way. Also with Barney Frank, I don't get people who just...is transphobic understanding the discrimination against gay and lesbian people who actually would say something like: HEY TRANSFOLK, STOP RIDING ON OUR COATTAILS!  First of all, the Labor Movement, the Vietnam Movement, the revolutions and social uphevals didn't reinvent the wheel. I am PROUD that the gay rights movement was started with a lot of trans and drag queens who put up a fight, that black and white together, butch dykes and sissies, butch men and feminie women, were all there at Stonewall fighting for the ability to live our lives as loud or as quietly as we wanted.

I remember when Chrissy Polis was assaulted and the 'progressive' voices of LGBT people were bringing the race of the attackers as the focal point in which to say that is wrong becuase they 'hated on the lovely white woman' and that the 'blacks are prone to violence' As a black man I am not only offended I am appalled that those who would back me because I'm gay would hate on me because I am black and possibly say that I deserve to be discriminated against because I'm a black man.

BUT, I wish that these people would know that they are like the homophobic element of the black community that discards Bayard Rustin as the architect of the Civil Rights Movement, that the March On Washington wouldn't have been the same without him, that we could still be fighting for the protections on the basis of race that we are now fighting for sexual orientation. I would love for the Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation. A GAY MAN marched for their rights, along with Gay and Straight Latinos, Jews, Allied Whites, Native Americans, and now that blacks got their stride forward, they are not looking back at the gay community as a whole and saying: How may I help you? The Gay Community CAN NOT afford to do that to our trans brothers and sisters. It would be cruelty of the worst kind.

So for those people like this commentator (supporting gay rights but transphobic) I say this: Don't forget that we (the LGBT rights movement) are riding the coattails of the Civil Rights Movement, Labor Movement, Women's movement and the Vietnam Anti War Movement by peacefully protesting, lobbying and doing all we can to get our rights recognized under the law. Gay transphobes, you take a seat alongside the Right Wingers you despise and have a bit of your bitter brew. Venom doesn't taste any sweeter coming from you

Until Next Time
Terry