Repeal of DADT isn't a transgender specific issue, in that when soon lesbian, gay, and bisexual people are allowed to serve openly, transgender people still won't be able to serve openly. I took to the White House Fence though because I operate under this principle regarding ordinary equality for LGBT community members:
Ordinary equality isn't about your subcommunity of the LGBT community, nor is it about my subcommunity of the LGBT community. And, it isn't about you; it isn't about me. No, it's about our broad community; it's about us.If an equality issue is an issue for even one subcommunity of the LGBT community, then it we must say together "this is our LGBT equality issue." Then in solidarity we must be prepared to work and sacrifice for the resolution of that equality issue -- our LGBT community equality issue.
In how I decided to work and sacrifice for the repeal of DADT, it didn't matter to me that repeal of DADT wasn't a transgender specific issue. I practice what I preach. I went to jail twice for my lesbian, gay, and bisexual community siblings to further freedom, equality, and justice for our broader LGBT community. Again, ordinary equality isn't about you or me -- instead, it's about us.
We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community... Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.~Cesar Chavez
So with ordinary equality for LGBT community in mind, my eyes turn to Maryland. There are two LGBT bills up in the legislature -- one is for marriage equality, and the other is for adding gender identity to the protected classes for housing and employment.
As one might imagine, there's a lot of LGBT focus in Maryland on the marriage equality bill, and much less LGBT focus on the gender identity bill. Even so, both bills are in trouble in Maryland's legislature.
According to the Baltimore Sun's Md. Senate approves same-sex marriage:
Maryland's Senate passed a landmark measure Thursday evening that would allow same-sex couples to wed, pushing the controversial issue to the House of Delegates, which appears nearly evenly split on the issue....But approval in the House of Delegates is far from assured. The bill in that chamber has 58 sponsors; 71 votes are needed for passage. And if it is passed, opponents would almost certainly petition for a referendum, giving Maryland voters the final say.
...The House traditionally has been the more liberal of the two chambers on social issues. But Republicans gained six seats in the November election.
...Already one of the legislation's original 59 co-sponsors has asked that his name be removed.
Reading between the lines, it appears that -- as of the moment, anyway -- that the 71 votes for marriage equality in Maryland's House of Delegates just aren't there as yet. That's not to say that the votes won't be there, but the fight for marriage equality is far from over.
As one might imagine, one can find statements by Maryland's LGBT legislative leadership regarding marriage equality and this legislative session. Maryland State Senator Rich Madaleno (D-Montgomery County) released a statement to his constituents relating to Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 24, 2011, identifying his Equality Agenda for the year. He lists two items in his Equality Agenda:
My Equality AgendaTuition Equity
In Montgomery County, we celebrate diversity and value education. I am working with my friend and fellow Senator Victor Ramirez, along with Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez and the New Americans Caucus, to pass the Maryland DREAM Act. This bill would make undocumented students who complete high school in Maryland and whose parents pay state income tax eligible for in-state tuition at our public colleges and universities. Allowing these young people to continue their education will ensure a well-trained and dynamic workforce, which will benefit everyone in our community.
While my colleagues and I work to promote unity and inclusivity, some members of the General Assembly continue to preach intolerance and division. A Baltimore County Delegate is challenging Montgomery College's decision to treat all students that graduate from Montgomery County Public Schools equally. I will continue defending Montgomery College and students in our community against these attacks. Passing the Maryland DREAM Act will bring us one step closer to a federal solution of comprehensive immigration reform.
Marriage Equality
While Congress finally found the political courage to end the discriminatory "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, we are continuing the fight to bring full equality for gays and lesbians in Maryland. I'm happy to tell you that the Majority Leaders in both the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates will serve as the lead sponsors for the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act. This symbolic action shows that Maryland's leaders are ready to provide same gender couples with the freedom to marry. Additionally, every legislator from Montgomery County, including my District 18 colleagues Delegates Al Carr, Ana Sol Gutierrez, and Jeff Waldstreicher, have signed on as sponsors.
Working with Judicial Proceedings Chairman Brian Frosh, Majority Leader Rob Garagiola, and my strong ally Senator Jamie Raskin , I will do everything I can to move this bill through the committee process and find the votes on the Senate floor. However, this effort will not succeed without your active support. Please call or e-mail your friends and family around the state and encourage them to contact their State Senator and Delegates to urge them to vote for Marriage Equality this year. If you live outside District 18, make sure you contact your legislators as well.
Note that even though there is a gender identity civil rights bill making it through the Maryland legislative houses -- the Human Relations - Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity - Antidiscrimination bill (HB 235) -- that bill isn't listed by Sen. Madaleno as one of his Equality Agenda items for this legislative session.
That omission doesn't appear to align with Sen. Madaleno's campaign website where under the Issues section, Sen. Madaleno states this about his efforts regarding civil rights (emphasis added):
[Below the fold, more regarding non-findable commentary on HB 235 by Sen. Madaleno, Del. Macintosh, and the five other Maryland LGBT Caucus members, as well as an ask regarding what the Maryland LGBT Caucus members need to say March 1st regarding HB 235.]
Securing Civil RightsAs your State Senator, I have fought diligently for the civil rights and civil liberties of all Marylanders. My leadership has included:
Successfully advocating for domestic partnership benefits for state employees, which go into effect July 1st. I was recognized as "Champion of Our Community" from the LGBT Faculty and Staff Association at the University of Maryland for my work on this and other LGBT issues.
Serving as lead sponsor of the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, which would grant the freedom to marry to same-sex couples.
Serving as a sponsor of legislation to eliminate the inheritance tax paid by surviving domestic partners -- gay or straight -- on jointly owned homes.
Cosponsoring the Freedom of Association and Assembly Protection Act to protect the rights of all Marylanders to organize to advance their political and social views free of the chilling specter of government surveillance and dossiers. A version of this legislation was signed into law.
Serving as lead sponsor of legislation to ban employment, housing and public accommodations discrimination on the basis of one's gender identity.
I know I'm left wondering why the publicly available text of his recently stated Equality Agenda isn't matching the rhetoric on an important, LGBT community issue identified on the Securing Civil Rights section of his Issues page.
I know I'm also wondering more specifically why public statements in strong support of the Human Relations - Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity - Antidiscrimination bill (HB 235) -- one of the two pieces of LGBT community legislation for this year -- doesn't seem to be readily available when one searches the news, the blogosphere, or Sen. Madaleno's campaign website.
Unfortunately for me, there apparently was a conference call for media on Friday, February 25th. In the call, Senator Madaleno was slated to discus the HB 235, but I wasn't aware of the call -- Pam's House Blend was notified about the call in an email, but I personally wasn't copied on that email, so I missed the call.
I'm a Transgender-American. Again, I went to jail twice in an effort to secure a right to open military service for the lesbian, gay, and bisexual servicemembers in my broader community. I'm someone who sees the LGBT community as a community of subcommunities, and I'm willing to engage in personal sacrifice for the freedom, equality, and justice of those in my broader community -- even when the particular community issue I'm engaged in working on doesn't directly involve the specific aspirations of the transgender subcommunity of the LGBT community.
So, I'm perplexed about Maryland politics regarding LGBT issues and LGBT people. I'm perplexed as to why Sen. Madaleno -- a gay Maryland State Senator who in the past has supported legislation that includes adding public accommodation protections based on gender identity -- either didn't make strong statements to his colleagues and to media in past months on Maryland's gender equality civil rights bill, or his statements weren't reported on in mainstream or LGBT media. I'm very perplexed as to why I can't find statements from Sen. Madaleno in the past few months stating how public accommodation protections shouldn't be stripped from the current Human Relations - Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity - Antidiscrimination bill. I'm perplexed as to why, during the week of Martin Luther King's birthday, Sen. Madaleno put out an Equality Agenda that didn't include the Human Relations - Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity - Antidiscrimination bill.
Another of Maryland's LGBT community legislative leaders who has publicly commented on the marriage equality bill is Del. Maggie McIntosh (D-Baltimore City). From what I understand, Del. McIntosh is the presumed next speaker of the House of Delegates. In Del. McIntosh's recent email to her constituents (also posted to her website), entitled Maggie's Legislative Update: Civil Marriage and Redistricting (February 17, 2011), she highlighted the following:
Civil Marriage: Senate Vote Coming SoonFirst, I am pleased to let you know that the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee is expected to issue a favorable report later this afternoon on SB 116, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, meaning it may come to a vote by the full Senate within the next two weeks. The Baltimore Sun reports that Senate President Miller is confident there are the votes necessary to override a potential filibuster and the final vote may be as soon as Monday, February 28th. Assuming SB 116 passes the Senate, it will then come up for discussion in the House Judiciary Committee.
As one of the main sponsors of civil marriage legislation over the past several years, I am proud of the progress we have made towards securing equality for LGBT Marylanders. I am also especially proud of all of you who have worked tirelessly to get us to this point. Many of you have written to me to share your personal stories and I had the opportunity to meet with a number of concerned citizens from Equality Maryland this past Monday to discuss why civil marriage legislation is so important. Should things go as expected this afternoon in the Senate, it will mark a major milestone in the struggle to ensure the rights of LGBT citizens, but it is not the end of the road. I will continue to push and to work with my peers to ensure this legislation passes and equality becomes the law of the land in Maryland. The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection act will pass because it is right and because Marylanders are fair-minded people who have, and will continue to, make sure their legislators are as well.
It should be noted that as mentioned in that Baltimore Sun article (referenced above in this essay), the marriage equality bill passed the Senate on Thursday, February 24th.
It should also be noted the other issue Del. McIntosh mentions in her email/website post is redistricting -- there is no mention of HB 235 in that email/website post. When I searched the rest of her website for commentary on Maryland's HB 235, I couldn't find any.
So Del. McIntosh, much like Sen. Madaleno, doesn't have any readily available statements online from past months indicating that she opposed removal of the discrimination ban on public accommodation from HB 235.
In reference to both Sen. Madaleno and Del. McIntosh, there seems to be an apt quote from Martin Luther King Jr.:
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
There are seven LGBT legislators in Maryland, commonly referred to the Maryland LGBT Caucus. The seven LGBT legislators are listed below:
Richard Madaleno - State Senate, District 18 Maggie McIntosh - House of Delegates, District 43
Anne Kaiser - House of Delegates, District 14
Bonnie Cullison - House of Delegates, District 19
Heather Mizeur - House of Delegates, District 20
Mary Washington - House of Delegates, District 43
Luke Clippinger - House of Delegates, District 46
As individuals or as a caucus, I can't find any documentation online that indicates they publicly spoke out against stripping public accommodation from HB 235. And as individuals or as a caucus, I can't find any documentation that indicates they publicly spoke out in support -- let alone in strong support -- of any version of gender identity civil rights legislation this year.
However, there is a press conference scheduled at noon on Tuesday, March 1st in the House Office Building, room 218. This would be the perfect opportunity for Maryland's LGBT Caucus -- our LGBT community's friends -- to as a group state something to this effect:
We, as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Caucus of Maryland's legislative branch, strongly support passage of the Human Relations - Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity - Antidiscrimination bill (HB 235) before the Maryland State Legislature -- the bill that bans gender identity based discrimination in employment and housing. We will work with our colleagues in the state legislature to do whatever it takes to get the votes needed for HB 235 to be passed in both the House of Delegates and the Senate.We know that members of the transgender subcommunity of the LGBT community aren't happy that public accommodation protections are not in the current version of this year's Human Relations - Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity - Antidiscrimination bill. Should the current Human Relations - Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity - Antidiscrimination bill become law this year, the LGBT Caucus is committing itself to submitting -- and working with our colleagues in the state legislature to do whatever it takes to get the votes needed for -- a bill that would ban gender identity based discrimination in public accommodations. We will submit and to do whatever it takes to get the votes needed for such a bill passed into law, and we will do this every year until such a bill passes into law.
Should the current Human Relations - Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity - Antidiscrimination bill not become law this year, the LGBT Caucus is committing itself to submitting -- and working with our colleagues in the state legislature to do whatever it takes to get the votes needed for -- a bill that would ban gender identity based discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. We will submit and to do whatever it takes to get the votes needed for such a bill passed into law, and we will do this every year until such a bill passes into law.
That's my ask: that's a reasonable request of Maryland's LGBT Caucus. It would be a timely statement because at 1:00 PM EST on Wednesday, March 9th, the House Health and Government Operations Committee is having a hearing on HB 235.
The days of leaving transgender people out of LGBT community civil rights protections should be over, and Maryland's LGBT Caucus should clearly state that on March 1st.
Transgender men and women are out and about in society, and the Diagnostic Statistical Manuel (DSM) is going to be revised to remove the "Disorder" from the Gender Identity diagnosis the next version of the DSM. Permitting legislators to state that transgender people shouldn't receive civil rights protections because they are considered mentally disordered, or permitting others in broader society to state that transgender people shouldn't receive civil rights protections because they are considered mentally disordered, should be met with pushback by LGBT legislators.
The same is true regarding pushing back against the "bathroom bill" meme; same is true regarding pushing back against the "transgender kindergartener teacher" meme.
Whatever reason is given for denying transgender citizens ordinary equality, our LGBT community legislators should pushback against those arguments...those memes. Our LGBT community legislators shouldn't be silent about the need for employment, housing, and public accommodation protections for transgender community members. Real or perceived continued silence on these ordinary equality issues by our LGBT friends would be silence many in the LGBT community will remember.
And too, according to the Gay & Lesbian Task Force's recently released transgender survey:
The sexual orientation of the [survey] sample demonstrates the diverse spectrum of sexual orientations among transgender and gender non-conforming people. Among respondents, 23% reported a lesbian, gay, or same-gender attracted sexual orientation; 24% identified as bisexual; 23% reported a queer/pansexual orientation; 23% reported a heterosexual sexual orientation; 4% describe themselves as asexual; and 2% wrote in other answers.
It's pretty clear that a majority of transgender people also identify as a member of the LGB portion of the LGBT community. As members of a broad, LGBT community with significant overlap between the subcommunities, it's important that we work as a united community for each other...for each other's issues.
And to restate what I stated at the beginning of this essay, it's not like I'm preaching what I haven't personally practiced.
So, my take on this is that the Maryland LGBT Caucus should a statement similar to the one above on March 1st because the current version of the Human Relations - Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity - Antidiscrimination bill is set for a committee hearing in the House of Delegates on March 9th. A statement similar to the one above, given by the LGBT Caucus on March 1st, seems to me should be a fairly high priority matter. Sen. Rich Madaleno and Del. Maggie McIntosh need to take the lead on making sure such a statement is made.
To do less would be to watch Maryland's LGBT legislators treat the "T" in LGBT as a small "t." That should be unacceptable to Maryland's LGBT legislative caucus; that should be unacceptable to LGBT community activists as a whole.
~~
By the way, transgender civil rights legislation in Maryland has significance to me beyond just being a national issue for transgender people. 
I have responsibilities and personal business I need to attend to for the next nine months to a year, but I was planning to move near to Washington DC -- but not within the beltway -- when my responsibilities and personal business are taken care of. My reason is simple: I need to be close to where the next LGB, & especially T civil rights battles are going to be waged to put -- hopefully along with GetEQUAL -- direct actions into the arsenal for obtaining LGBT community's freedom, equality, and justice.
The likeliest area I would move to, if I can follow through with my intention to move from San Diego to an area close to Washington DC is Montgomery County, Maryland. (There's a better than 80% chance it'll happen -- it's more of a question of when than if.)
As of right now, my plans -- after hopefully having moved to Maryland -- would be to put the repeated use of the Gender Odyssey Model tactic as a "lunch counter" strategy into application. Others can employ "insider" skills -- my job would be to empower the insiders as someone putting pressure on society and legislators with "outsider," tried and true civil rights tactics and strategy.
I wish I was in Maryland now, but I need to take care of some things before I can move to the area. But as I contemplate and plan a move, I'm keeping in mind a quote about faith from Martin Luther King Jr.:
Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase.
I couldn't believe more strongly that there must be flights of steps one can take to win freedom, equality, and justice for LGBT community as a whole, and especially for my subcommunity of the LGBT community. I will in faith take what I see as the necessary personal steps to achieve freedom, equality, and justice for my community siblings.
~~~~~
Related:
* Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination bill introduced in Maryland House
* ENDA: The LGBT Community Has Ceded The "Bathroom Bill" Argument Without A Fight
* ENDA: An 800-Pound Transgender Elephant - With Issues - In The Room
* Guest column by Kerry Eleveld - The False Choice: ENDA v. Marriage Equality
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