I even know of one Gay group that has set about trying to close down a Trans Support Group.

I’m afraid I’m utterly disillusioned these days.

I know it can be a thankless task, but unless you keep at it, it may not be done as you want it: if you can, just keep plugging away for your own self respect – don’t let them grind you down or shaft you, you can make a difference

Individuals rarely apologise (too embarrassing), groups rarely apologise (fear of litigation, all principals moved on..).

You either remember, move on, and don’t get allow the situation to arise again, or you remember, but allow it to stop you doing something to your advantage. That also goes for groups.

What we mustn’t do is quash any enthusiasm that the younger cohort following us feel. They are the future since they will have to live in the world as it will become.

But I am sorry that the animosity festers yet

The health care industry stands to lose about 1 BILLION dollars. Naturally, they will fight tooth and nail to try to keep that money. Getting meaningful HCR that’s not riddled with loopholes requires a LOT of loyal Democrats, and a LOT of HEAVY LIFTING.

After HCR is passed and signed, then I will begin to hold his feet to the fire.

In the mean time, I think that the best way to support human rights is to call your senators and representitives, and demand an abortion neutral HCR.

You respond that we Trannies keep our heads down? We dont, we just get ignored.

I’d love to put the past behind us but to do this we need the Gay Community to acknowledge it’s sins against our community otherwise we will not become involved again, will not have our energies used only to find ourselves left high and dry again.

Sylvia Rivera (sp?) commented on this. She said that she was always asked to help with Gay Rights and was always told that the concerns of people like herself would be addressed. They never did and when she died the Queer Press refused to publish an Obit.

To allow us to have access to the Community The Community must acknowledge the sins of the past and appoligise for them.

To quote Diamanda Galas:

‘and now the Infidel is told
to forgive and to forget
to understand:

advance into a paradise of Dead Memories,
of Living Death, the Old Folk’s Home
of catatonia
of madness
and dispair’

It’s also the case that gv people don’t always see themselves as being in the same battle as LGB people. However, activists MUST put history behind us otherwise we are divided and we are thus more vulnerable to those who would extirpate us

National Queer Rights groups existed in the US a year before Stonewall and where set us by Gender Variant people who then used this expertise to help other Queer Groups organise on a national level.

Gender Variant people where involved in the Stonewall riots and a Gender Variant person took New York City to court to force a change in the Licensing Laws to al-low Gay Bars to exist as legal entities independent of organised crime. The same person largely bank rolled the first Pride march and was due to speak at Pride the year Bette Middler turned up only to be told they where not welcome as it upset to manny people.

None of this appears in the official His Story of Gay Rights.

Let us not also forget the violence done to Gender Variant people by Gatz who not only wrote them out of the Gay Rights movement but out of His Story too and the violence of The Transexual Empire.

You’ve not met a single Gender Variant person in you Activist life? I’m not surprised as we where forced out of the movement and are not allowed back in.

No one tried and no one tries now.

Queer Rights are forcibly transformed into Gay Rights.

Your point about forceable removal of gender variant people: I can’t say I ever saw that, but there are two salient points:
a) gv people are an even smaller minority than lgb people
b) the got lumped into the lgb lobby for convenience and because it was “abnormal sex”, when it is clear that many of the imperatives and aims were different (apart from the desire for equality and recognition). I can honestly say that I hadn’t knowingly met a trans person until about 10 years ago, despite being active in a small way during the previous 25: so in the early days we didn’t understand all the issues.

If a) and b) obtain, then the LGB demands (and usually gay male because of the preponderence of gay men involved in “leading” the movement) would outweigh numerically those of gv people.

It wasn’t, and isn’t right, but we tried, and many of us are still trying to make the right difference.

The other thing we have to remember is that the only reason Gender Variant people where not involved in the movement is because they where forcibly removed from it to allow a greater legitimacy and a certain Heterosexual approval.

gay men tend to see the gay rights thing as theirs because it was they who did a lot of the fighting for them. I can remember the decriminalisation in 1967 and felt a bit safer, something no lesbian had to experience.

CHE, GLF were male dominated, not because women were meant to be excluded, but because many of them made common cause with feminists. So many gay men of a certain age (45+) see a lot of the advances we’ve achieved to have been down to them, including a lot of the leg work for trans rights.

Since the “queer” rights agenda has splintered we still tend to be the mouthy ones working in committees and within (patriarchal) structures for changes that benefit everybody, but with a gay male perspective.

It may not be right, and younger “queer” people haven’t got the same baggage, but that’s how things are, despite our best efforts

To be honest I think her anger has some justification. There is a tendency amongst some Gay Men to see the whole of Queer Rights as Gay Rights or (more exactly) THEIR RIGHTS.

On this occasion I think she misunderstood the post she responded to but her anger comes from a real place.

While I don’t think her appointment was an empty gesture to appease the LGBT population; it is worth remembering that Obama has STILL failed to honour his pre-election promises to the LGBT population to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell or the Defence of Marriage Act.

Hateful as George Bush at least he told no lies to the LGBT population.

If Obama has not honoured his promises to the LGBT population in time for the next election then he should not take their votes for granted.

Why should and LGBT person vote for a hypocrite and a liar?