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Saturday, Sep 06, 2008
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Letters |
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| THE ENDA of OUR DREAMS Have you heard the news today? There's news of evangelist Pat Robertson endorsing Republican Rudy Giuliani for President in 2008. Questions were raised regarding whether or not Hillary Clinton left a tip for an Iowa waitress that has become a part of her campaign lore. And, oh yes, Jennifer Lopez is pregnant. That's the way it was on November 7, 2007 - the day the US House of Representatives finally passed a non-inclusive ENDA bill over the typically unmarked grave of the trans community. On a day that openly gay Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank wiped tears from his eyes in the House Chamber and pronounced this moment "very personal," the eyes of the world were as blind as if some musically challenged imposter attempted to impersonate Ray Charles. It was the great emancipator Abraham Lincoln who once said "the world will little note what we do and say here." Chances are that yesterday's "victory" for the gay community will be far less remembered than the events at Gettysburg when Lincoln spoke in 1863. Chances are it will be as well-remembered as the winner of the 1994 World Series. (There was none in that strike embittered season) The victory this week was exactly the "hollow victory" that Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese predicted at the Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta in September. Apparently, shortly after leaving Atlanta, Mr. Solmonese picked up a Mitt Romney dictionary and discovered a new definition for "hollow victory." Speaker after speaker rose in the House Chamber exactly one week after Halloween to pay tribute to America's history of "tolerance." For some Republicans of course, the legacy of tolerance included slaves and the hooded horsemen of the Imperial Klan. For some Democrats, the legacy of tolerance includes the "misunderestimated" commander-in-chief who invests in deadly mercenaries rather than mercy for New Orleans hurricane victims or children without health care. Neither side spoke of tolerance for a community that registers somewhere underneath laboratory rats in the human understanding scale. There is no outwardly vocal PETA for the trans community. Employers, families and even Congress can fold, spindle and waterboard these alleged humans to the full extent of their pleasure without fear of retribution. Of course this time, there was a faint, faint whisper of a rebellion being born. This time, it took weeks, rather than days to do the fashionable thing. The tearful "Queer Eye to Let the Trans Die," procession was filled with a layer of remorse from the testimony of everyone from Barney Frank to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. This was because of the rumbling of some 300 LGB organizations that refused to let the "Ts" be thrown into the harbor of no return. The National Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Task Force organized a posse and for one month it took prisoners. ENDA was delayed, again and again, as hopes increased that the already-doomed bill would sit on window sill - like a hot pie waiting for global cooling to intolerance, and a new Congress. For a brief shining moment, the trans community found a new growth hormone that didn't require a therapist's signature. Instead of spending all their time following the yellow brick road to surgical Oz, transsexuals began to look behind the smoke and mirrors of their inalienable rights. It worked for a while. Some actually dreamed that we would one day be judged by the content of our character instead of the content of our underwear. Some actually saw a day when Rudy Giuliani might convince Pat Robertson that planes do not fly into buildings every time a cross dresser is spotted at Gracie Mansion. The newly House-passed ENDA is likely to die the kind of death that most Americans envision for those of the gender unstable community. America hopes that like the Jerry Springer Show reruns of old, this "perversity" will just go away. Ultimately, there will come a new day when a trans-inclusive ENDA gets a fair hearing. It may not be seen until Pat Robertson and Rudy Giuliani tiptoe through Main Street at Disneyworld together. Or it might come the next time Jennifer Lopez is pregnant. Barbara Sehr Co-chair SEAMEC GAY HISTORY To SGN Letter to the Editor, Regarding the inspired column by Gilbert Baker and the origins of the Rainbow Flag: the rainbow as an icon is not exclusive to Gays, and this point of information should not be lost in this "brand" everything culture. As I'm sure Gilbert remembers, the pre-manufactured sew-it-on yourself stitched rainbow patch was a very, very popular hippie counter-culture item. As a sew-on-to your jean jacket item, it was a must-have look! For a while in the '60's and early '70's, the one place you could be sure of finding the patch was San Francisco. To wear the patch was to be part of the psychedelic culture of the '60's. Later in the '70's, Jesse Jackson created the Rainbow Coalition, a progressive off-shoot of the Democratic party. That Gilbert extended the rainbow's popularity to the Bay Area Gay culture was, well, "right on," but certainly not exclusive. A couple other flags from that era were the anarchist Lesbians, which were purple and black, and the anarchist ecologists, which were green and black. In writing this letter to the Editor I prefer to remain anonymous, but I was certainly living in San Francisco at the time of the Gay/Dan White riots. Did you know that the City Hall was almost set afire? That 23 cop cars were torched and burned to the ground? That nowhere outside of San Francisco was the story reported? The savage fury of the storming of City Hall the night the not guilty verdict came in was not surprising, given the state of Gay rights at that time, as well as the failure of the jury system and the follow-up police riot on Castro Street. Kill the mayor and a city council member and be given no jail time? Remember the "twinky" defense? For your readers who haven't a clue what I'm talking about, maybe you can get Gilbert Baker to share more of the history. Thanks, Anonymous |
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| Film Festival Pictures | |
| Halloween on Capitol Hill
Slide Show photos by Joey - SGN photographer |
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