Congress Members To Speak Out
Against Violence Versus TGs

For the first time, members of Congress have gone on record about transviolence as 60 members of the transgender, intersex, lesbian, gay, and bisexual communities converged on Capitol Hill today for GenderPAC's 2nd National Gender Lobby Day. At present, 3 members of Congress have spoken out about violence against transpeople with the possibility of half a dozen more making statements in the next week.

Said GenderPAC Exec. Dir. Riki Anne Wilchins, "This marks the first time we've actually been able to get any congressmember to speak publically on a trans-related issue. But now that we're `on the map,' all kinds of things become possible. We owe a real debt to the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for supporting our efforts to gain this breakthrough."

GenderPAC plans to release a complete list of signatories, once all signers have okayed a public statement.

Unlike the First Lobby Day (in 1996), this year activists concentrated their efforts on gender-violence. The event coincided with a number of happenings that highlight the urgency of speaking out on violence against gender-variant people:

• The jury verdict in the strangulation of transgender woman Chanelle Pickett, in which admitted assailant William Palmer was found innocent of murder and convicted only on assault and battery.

• The publication of GenderPAC's first National Study on Transviolence, the largest study of its kind, which found that over 60% of respondents had survived assault of some kind (with a weapon, without a weapon, or sexual assualt).

• The prestigious Leadership Council on Civil Rights (LCCR)'s annual report, which, for the first time, specifically mentioned transviolence: "...Trans-gendered people have been assaulted, raped, or murdered; these crimes should be included in the Hate Crimes Statistics Act."

• The bombing of the Otherside bar in Atlanta, which, in addition to gays and lesbians, was known for its popularity with a large bisexual and transgender clientele.

GenderPAC has also requested a meeting with the Department of Justice to discuss the need for federal monitoring of hate crimes against the transgender community.

Hermaphrodites Work the Halls Too

Meanwhile, five members of the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) also conducted a groundbreaking lobbying effort on Capitol Hill today to educate Congressmembers about the toll of Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM) on their community.

Cheryl Chase, executive director of ISNA said, "Transgendered people are the targets of violence because their gender expression is considered `abnormal.' Cutting the genitals of intersex infants is simply another form of the same hatred. It's great to see the synergy in these groups working together."

Noted researcher Dr. Anne Fausto- Sterling, Professor of Medical Science at Brown University, estimates that about 1 in every 2,000 births is intersexual. Most of these children will be subjected to IGM at anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 years of age, and some as late as 13.

ISNA and GenderPAC are currently investigating an amendment to the recent Congressional bill which outlaws Female Genital Mutilation in the US. The bill, passed as part of the broad appropriations bill, Public Law 104-208, contains a specific exemption for surgical procedures for "the health" of the patient. The amended wording would allow such procedures only for "physical health" and not for cosmetic or pscyho-social reasons