I'm sure much will be written regarding the First National Gender Lobby Days and what wasaccomplished, however what I wish to do is to share with you my own personal experiences andobservations with respect to this historic event. Although the organizers have been quick to thank those of us who attended, I would like to express my appreciation to those who worked such long, hard hours to provide the rest of us with the opportunity to even participate in such a happening.

As you may have already heard, approximately ninety to one hundred of us from all over the countryattended the First National Gender Lobby Days, representing seventy percent of the States. The actual lobbying effort was scheduled to take place on October 2nd and 3rd, however I arrived Saturday evening in order to have time to relax and see a little of Washington. I'm glad that I did, because it gave me an opportunity to make some wonderful new friends.

After an uneventful flight from Sacramento to Washington National Airport, I finally managed to collect my baggage after waiting an hour for it to come up on the baggage carrousel. I would not normally check anything, but the thought of a girl dragging all that luggage on and off an airplane hardly seemed lady-like, hence I was able to "enjoy" an extra hour in the airport. The next part of the adventure involved taking the Metro from Washington National to the hotel at College Park, MD an advertised 42 minutes away. Now the fun begins !

Unaware that there was more than one way out of the Metro station, I proceeded to walk the advertised four blocks to the hotel. After hiking darn near to Baltimore, I began to realize that I was never going to reach the hotel. Thank goodness I'd bought one of those little luggage thing-a-ma-bobs with wheels or I would have really been in bad shape. So, back to the Metro station and a phone... "Help, I'm lost !" No problem, simply walk straight out the "other" exit four blocks to the hotel. Sure enough, there it was. And there I was, soaking wet from the humidity and glowing more than any lady has ever glowed.

So, I checked in, dried myself off and went to dinner. Other than Taco Bell and a few other fast food places, there was really only one true restaurant near the hotel... look it's a college town ! I walked over to the restaurant and just as I was checking in with the hostess, someone walked up to me and asked if I'd liked to join them. It was a girl named Debbie, who used to teach at UC Davis and was now living in Wisconsin. Turns out that another one of the girls had spotted me and sent her over. That other girl was Michele Kammerer, a Fire Captain in the Los Angeles Fire Department that I had met earlier in the summer while touring art galleries in Sacramento.

Doing the Town

The first thing we decided to visit was the Viet Nam War Memorial. This probably could have been amoving experience no matter what, but given that quite a few of the girls had been there (yes and done that !), there were more than a few tears shed. We had to walk down the mall to the Memorial, so there was ample opportunity to shoot pictures with the Washington Monument as a backdrop. On the way, we ran into two other groups of girls here for Lobby Days. Wow, I'm suddenly beginning to feel we're out in force !

Following the Viet Nam War Memorial, we headed over to the Natural History Museum. Not having a lotof time, we saw what we could and then tried to see at least part of the American History Museum. I think the scientific exhibits in this museum were some of my favorites. About out of time, we headed back to the Metro station. We had to make an eight o'clock meeting back at the hotel.

We just had enough time to grab dinner at Taco Bell (oh boy !) before the meeting began. The meeting room was crowded, hot and humid. But we needed to get a quick education in lobbying and although it took three hours we finally had reached some comfort level by the time we broke up. The Human Rights Campaign Fund (HRCF), who you might recall we had previously been at odds with, was there to help us. They are a professional, full-time lobbying organization and were able to provide us with a number of pointers... little things such as, sending cards to the Congressman's office for the upcoming holidays. Phyllis Frye, Riki Wilchins and others had done a great job of putting together packets of information to be distributed to each Congressman's office.

This was the first time the California delegation was assembled. There were five of us, and I think we may have just had the most diverse and stereotype-breaking bunch of folks at Lobby Days... the neatest part was we had two guys ! The delegates were the aforementioned Michele Kammerer and Lisa Maxwell; James Green, Director of FTM International; Stephan Thorne, Sergeant San Francisco Police Department; and myself, a Sacramento Gender Association Board Member.

Hitting The Marble

Congress was not in session this week, something that may have turned out to be an actual blessing. The nice thing was the office buildings were not crowded and we were not competing with a large number of professional (and rich !) lobbyists to get into the various offices. Besides, the chances of getting to meet with an actual Member of Congress as opposed to a member of his or her staff was slim to begin with.

In every meeting I was in, I would say we were warmly received. everyone was courteous. Many of thestaff had lots of questions which we gladly answered. Besides covering a number of major issues (ENDA inclusion, health care, hate crimes reporting, incarceration issues and the Gender Bill of Rights), the main purpose of our visits was to break down barriers, destroy existing stereotypes, and establish an ongoing dialogue with the Members of Congress. I think we accomplished them all.

At best, we are where the Gay and Lesbian movement was twenty to twenty-five years ago. I always knew that these people were a political force, however I am totally amazed at what they have accomplished. Nearly every office had a staff member responsible for gay and lesbian issues and in many cases there were gays and lesbians on the staffs. This fact may be somewhat distorted given that we were dealing entirely with California Members of Congress, but none-the-less, it is impressive. We have a long way to go. We know that the political environment is currently not a good one for us, but we have made a start. We are in for the long haul and when we do this again next year, it will be great to be able to go back to these offices and at least know that they know something about what it means to be transgendered.

On Tuesday morning, we met in front of the office of Marion Barry, the Washington DC mayor. Theintent was to distribute leaflets explaining our concerns regarding the Tyra Hunter incident and to attempt to get the mayor to come out and talk with us. After about an hour, he finally did. He really became quite willing to talk after he determined that the TV cameras belonged to 20/20 ! Some members of TOPS wanted an opportunity to meet with the DC fire chief and they got it.

By Tuesday evening, many had departed for their homes. I was not flying out until Wednesday afternoon, so Stephan and I had dinner at a restaurant in Georgetown and just unwound from the previous two days activities. On Wednesday morning, I packed up and headed back to Washington National on the Metro. I was beat... we were all beat but we all felt that we had accomplished a lot for our community and that the world would never be quite the same.

First Steps Lisa Maxwell reports on an important event in transgender history.
Successful Lobbying Days Unite Community, Accomplish Goals Phyllis Frye describes the details of how the historic work got done.
TS Menace Protests Hunter Death Riki Wilchins' report on protests and meeting with DC Mayor and Fire Chief in connection with the Death of Tyra Hunter.