Art Of PoliticsBy Judy OsborneMorning has never been my favorite time of day, and my stunning self never emerges without lots of preparation. Nevertheless, there I was on the streets Saturday morning at nine. My destination was a Hands-Off-Washington emergency board meeting. Word had spread the board was going to create an initiative protecting gays and lesbians from job discrimination, but were considering leaving t-people out. Various others were showing up as I arrived in the pre-dawn darkness (well not exactly, but it seemed like pre-dawn darkness). Kaz, who had called to let me know, was holding a locked door open to let us all in. Kaz is an FTM who runs the Workers World Party around here and protests a whole variety of injustices with rallies and sit-ins. Also making their way into the lobby were Ellie and Corrie, never shy to express their opinions; Princess La Rouge, who together with Dana made us OK with the gay/lesbian community in the first place; and Marsha Botzer, who represents the t-community on the Hands-Off- Washington board. Four or five other t-people showed up as well. Hands-Off-Washington was organized four years ago in response to a particularly nasty religious-right initiative in Oregon which would have enshrined discrimination against gays and lesbians. HOW helped out in the Oregon campaign and learned what to do when the bigots arrived in our state, which they did the following year. HOW quickly became a talented organization. HOW leaders valued research and used the results in effective campaigns against the right's initiatives. So far the right hasn't won a single victory in our state. One of HOW's first moves was to organize a transgender caucus, since t-people were named in the right's initiatives as a specific target of discrimination. We couldn't hide even if we wanted to, so we got involved. Ever since that time we've been helping gays, lesbians and bisexuals advance HOW's causes, all the while breaking down barriers between us and becoming friends. Betrayal? or Practical Politics?Because of this history, I was surprised and angered that HOW board members were even thinking of leaving us behind. The reason they were considering doing so became clear as we all listened to almost two hours of research results, reported live over a speakerphone by the director of the research company HOW had employed. The situation was this: A bill protecting gays and lesbians from job, housing and public accommodations discrimination has been submitted to the legislature nineteen years in a row. Transgender protection was added two years ago. The bill came within one vote of passage several years ago but never actually made it into law during all those nineteen years. A similar bill was introduced again this year, but even its supporters realized that it had no chance to pass in the solidly Republican legislature. Tired of waiting, HOW decided to investigate the possibility of collecting signatures for an initiative on the ballot this year asking the state's voters directly to vote for a law against job discrimination. The research we were hearing looked into what the initiative's outcome might be.
The voice on the speakerphone spoke of encouraging results: a ballot initiative protecting gays and lesbians against job discrimination alone (dropping public accommodations and housing) would be voted into law by a comfortable margin. Many more positive conclusions were revealed to us during the next two hours. Then the bomb went off.
Transgender Makes Bill A LoserA portion of the study examined how the public would react to adding t-people to the initiative. The researchers asked the transgender questions in a satisfactory way and at a good time during the interviews. They explained who we are with words I might use. Nevertheless, when t-people were added, the research showed that the whole initiative would fail by a substantial margin.The subsequent discussion was brutal. We all are friends, but still the arguments were about the gay and lesbian communities taking a huge step forward by leaving t-people behind. One lesbian teacher from redneck country described the agony of three lesbian teachers in her school when a lesbian student was denounced, called a faggot, and thrown down a flight of stairs. None of them could come out to comfort, protect and advocate for the student because they would lose their jobs and be of no use to anyone in the school. This initiative was going to be the best thing in this teacher's life (yet when the vote finally came she voted to include t- people). We didn't need to argue our case. Gay men, lesbians and others on the board did it for us. But HOW's chief lobbyist in Olympia, who is very good and has often been supportive of t-people, pointed out how difficult it would be. In ten super-eloquent minutes he told the board that it's not about heart, it's about numbers. He described how the religious right would exploit the issue with pictures of fetish- dressed receptionists greeting the public, plus a host of other transvestite themes. Our opponents would stress us because we're the weakest link in the issue, and that's how politics works. He conveyed a very real sense of how rough it would be. Realistic arguments were made in opposition to our inclusion, such as pointing out the need to raise massive amounts of money for media to counter the religious right's exploitation of the transgender issue, while at the same time offending a number of large contributors who don't yet know us well enough to like us. Board President Laurie Jenkins cited her experience with the narrow defeat of gay and lesbian protective statutes in Tacoma, which led to a larger failure the next time they tried to pass them and ultimately to the collapse of any organization protecting gay rights in the city. Her greatest nightmare was that she would preside over a similar dissolution of Hands-Off-Washington, which she feared would happen if the initiative were to fail. The discussion flared on and on. People on both sides of the issue spoke with logic, passion and eloquence. I found myself preparing to be left behind. The disappointment would be huge, but I rationalized that it might be better in some ways. What if t-people's inclusion actually did cause the initiative to fail. Could I and other t-people handle breaking the hearts once more of all these beautiful people who might be sacrificing their own victory to fight for justice and equality for all of us together? The VoteNobody wanted to vote. The decision was just too difficult. Finally, very late in the afternoon, everybody finished speaking and the vote was taken. The board voted by a large majority to take us along with them in our quest, together, to find a legitimate place in society.Comments? E-mail Judy at ckfc08c@prodigy.com |