By Allison Marsh
December 12, 1996
Ms. ------, Member
General Government Committee
Olympia City Hall
900 East Plum Street S.E.
Olympia, WA 98501
Dear (individual copy to each committee member):
Thank you for allowing me to speak on behalf of the transgendered "community" at the Committee's December 12 meeting.
Because there are many more homosexual than transgendered people; because gay and lesbian people have made great strides in achieving public understanding and acceptance; and because of their own courage, a great deal of attention is being paid to their achieving the same rights that heterosexual people have always enjoyed without question.
The transgendered sector of our population occurs in the same way and at approximately the same time in fetal development that the homosexual population does. Yet transgendered people are disproportionately more-often subject to discrimination, censure, rejection, and violence than those who are homosexual.
As I said at the meeting, both the cities of Portland and Seattle have long included prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender, or gender orientation. These have not brought about the plethora of actions detrimental to landlords which was forecast by the person who predicted that dopers and bad-credit risks would put on dresses and defy the landlords not to rent to them.
On the other hand, discriminatory firings have been contested in court several times where the laws prohibited discrimination only on the basis of sex or sexual orientation. People who have made complete sex transitions have often lost such cases; people in the process of change have seldom if ever won, and people who crossdress have been denied relief because sexual orientation does not mean the same thing as gender orientation. If we want our city housing ordinance to be fair, we must include those additional four little words: "gender or gender orientation", as have Portland and Seattle.
Incidentally, there was a little more drama in this morning's meeting of the Committee than anyone else was aware of.
As a 30-year retiree from the State Department of Personnel salary administration functions, I have never disclosed to anyone at work that I am transgendered. I wouldn't have lost my job; but I would have seriously impaired my ability to confer, mediate, and make recommendations which would be accepted without prejudice.
As a 35-year member of the Olympia Lions Club, I have never chosen to disclose to anyone that I am transgendered--that it is, and always has been an important part of who I am. For some members it would be very difficult to accept me as a friend if they knew "the other part of me".
One of the people to whom I would have most wished not make that disclosure to was the person who opposed the inclusion of "transgendered", as a landlord. This man worked in the same department that I did for about 20 of my 30 years there, and while we were not friends, we knew and worked with mostly the same people. He is also a member of the Olympia Lions Club. He and I belonged to the same Rental Property Owners Association for several years. So I do not expect further disclosure of my own transgenderedness to remain within my control. But sometimes, one simply must stand up and be counted.
Thanks for making that possible.
Sincerely,
Allison Marsh