The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, is coming up (hopefully) for a vote in the House and the Senate. ENDA has called for banning employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. In 2003, ENDA defined sexual orientation as homosexuality, bisexuality, and heterosexuality. Recently, Trans advocate groups have partnered up with other Gay Rights groups to try and pass a version of ENDA that would add “gender identity” and “gender expression” to the list.
In the past, Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts was the lead sponsor for ENDA, but with groups calling for the addition of “gender identity” and “gender expression” Senator Kennedy seems to be having second thoughts about sponsoring ENDA.
Why the sudden change of heart? Why back out now? ENDA has been on the table since the ’70′s, way before it was “cool” to support the cause. Now you want to back out of it? We don’t deserve to be treated equally under the law?
You stand for human rights, but you back away when a group of people is suffering because it doesn’t fit within the societal constructs set forth by a majority. You back away when the people who need defending are too different than you. It’s alright to defend same-sex marriage or people who love those of the same sex because you’ll be considered a saviour and it’ll make you progressive, but defending transgender people will just make you too liberal? Will allowing “gender identity” and “gender expression” tear at the moral fabric of our country?
Our nation was founded on Liberty. Our nation was founded on the belief that everyone deserved the same freedoms, not a select few, not most, but all. If we deprive even a small portion of our population the rights and freedoms that others have, we are not doing our country, our Constitution, all of the great people that fought and continue to fight for our country, justice. If one citizen of our country is deprived of life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness, then we all are.
You may not agree with how we live our lives and that’s ok. You don’t have to. But at least acknowledge that we exist and that we deserve the same as everyone else.
I’ve been working on a couple of projects lately that have kept me pretty busy. I’m not going to announce them just yet, but one will be ready to announce by the end of next week, hopefully.
For anyone just coming to my blog, you’ll soon find out that I’m Trans. I don’t hide it, and I probably don’t talk about it enough, but I’m not ashamed of it. I started this project last year, as a blog about Trans news. But as I got to thinking more about it, I realized that I could do so much more.
Trans people deserve to be heard just like everyone else. It’s not easy to come out as Trans. When I came out as Trans on my site I received a lot of support from my friends and from people that I had just met. It was a great feeling. At the same time, I’ve received some hurtful comments and e-mails. While I know that in the big picture, it shouldn’t matter, the negativity that seemed to jump out of the screen from those comments and e-mails got to me. I can only imagine what kinds of things other Trans people have heard, or read.
It’s sad when people are so narrow-minded and think the only solution to our “problem” is that we need God in our life. It’s also sad that people just don’t want to understand who we are, but just want to put us down. I’m not after special treatment, I’m after what everyone else wants and what some people already have. I don’t consider myself to be less of a person, and it’s sad that some people view me as such.
Anyway, I’m getting off topic. Next week I’ll be launching my project officially. So be sure to check back then. If there are any fellow Trans people reading this and want to know what it is early, shoot me an email or IM me. I’ll be happy to fill you in. I have a few more kinks to work out, so it would be nice to have some beta testers.
Finally, Episode 2 has arrived. I’m sorry if I sound a bit pissed off or angry or upset. I had just gotten in a fight with my dad, so I might have sounded like I was a bit t’d off. I talk about a couple of laws that Congress in mulling over and I also talk about some personal feelings about discrimination. You can view the video after the jump. Show notes follow the video. Continue Reading »
On December 28th, the Gender Public Advocacy, or GenderPAC, released a report about violence against gender non-conforming people. From doing my own research into Transgender violence, I can say that it’s not easy to find numbers. It’s under reported but you know it happens. At this time, the United States government doesn’t require the FBI to track gender based hate crimes, and according to the GenderPAC report, if the FBI did keep track, then gender based hate crimes would outweigh every category except race.