Courtesy Riki Anne Wilchins, Betsy and Transexual Menace
On July 21-23 a horde (a pride, a covey??) of gender activists and friends descended upon the unsuspecting NOW National Conference to be visible, educate, run around in black Menace t-shirts, make friendly noises & friendly faces, and ask the National Conference to pass the NJ-NOW State Conference resolution recognizing the rights and needs of transgender and transexual people. Present were folks associated with ICTLEP, IFGE, da' Menace and organizations from over 8 cities across the US. Included were local Ohio gender activists from Akron and Columbus who showed up to support the action and work their attractively cross-dressed rear-ends off!
Some 250 signatures (later amended to 150) needed to be collected for the resolution to be introduced on the Conference floor. It is worth noting that one of the earliest signatories (collected by M-to-M Tonye Hawk who arrived a full day early to do set-up) was Ms. Ellie Smeal, past-president of NOW! Out of @700 attendees, your GenderGang signed up almost half, giving up only when it was clear that introduction was inevitable. They then concentrated on collecting signatures for a resolution introduced by the Lesbian Rights Task Force, which called simultaneously for both de-pathologizing Gender Identity Disorder and also the right to medical care *on-demand* for all people to achieve and maintain their own expression of gendered identity.
Expecting controversy, NOW staffers scheduled the NJ transgender resolution last. It never materialized.
The resolution would have passed without dissent by conference acclimation, except for 2 delegates (that's not a misprint: only 2!) who demanded debate. Unfortunately, the Conference never got beyond debating the first few resolutions before ending Sunday afternoon: the remainder were tabled to the National Board for a vote when they meet in session in September. In addition, the head of Now National's Membership Committee wrote us a note saying she considered this an important issue and requesting an info packet to be mailed to all 50 state NOW chapters for discussion and education. And Ms. Smeal, accompanied by the current president's righthand, stopped by the NJ-NOW folks to promise to shepherd the resolution through the September board beeting.
On the last day, a march was held from the conference center to the Ohio State Capital Building. In the parade, near the front, was the transgender contingent. They entered the square early and mounted the steps facing the Capital Building, so as marchers entered they saw 12 transgender activists and friends, most in black Menace t-shirts, standing in line behind a 3-foot long "Transgendered and Proud and We Vote" banner with their right fists in the air. You could have heard the cheers all the way in Cincinnati...