HRC Up To Their Usual Tricks!!! Lip Service & No ACTION For T-Folks!!

[Lib Grrrrl]

HRC is at it again! More lip service to the transgender community, and still no real positive action!

They continue to TRY to sound good to the general public, who is uninformed about these issues, but, behind the smoke and mirrors, HRC is the same bullshit GLB-only club that it has been since it's inception!

Here's their latest smoke-and-mirrors attempt to make them SOUND like they care about transgender people and their issues...

THIS is what appears on DU's homepage, encouraging people to sign postcards to their Congresspeople to urge them to vote "No" on the Federal Marriage Amendment.

This June, the right wing will attempt to write discrimination into the Constitution—again!

Senators Frist and Santorum have promised a vote that threatens to make gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people second-class citizens forever.

Take action with the Human Rights Campaign!

THIS is what appears when you click the link - THIS is what appears on the actual postcards...


Yes! I oppose discrimination in the Constitution

I am writing today as your constituent to voice my opposition to the discriminatory Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA).

This amendment would forever write discrimination into the United States Constitution. The Constitution was written to protect and ensure equality for ALL Americans. This amendment would destroy that equality by rewriting the Constitution to treat same-sex couples differently than other Americans.

Please vote against the FMA and defend the principles of freedom and equality in our Constitution.

Signed by:



Now, WHERE do you see TRANSGENDER mentioned anywhere in there? You don't. Because they don't care...in fact, HRC actively opposes TRANSGENDER rights!

Take it from me, I know. The original ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) written in 1994 was transgender-inclusive, and HRC changed it to remove protections for transgenders...and have since that time only introduced the non-inclusive ENDA.

I personally went to lobby Congress in 1997, in favor of a transgender-inclusive ENDA. A Legislative Assistant in Tom Harkin's (D-IA) office came out and told me that HRC had "pre-lobbied" us, and had told all the supporters to tell us that they could not support a transgender-inclusive ENDA...that it had to go without protections for transgender people.

Apparently, HRC believes that the way to advance civil rights is to deny those same rights to others.

Apparently, HRC believes in the "I got mine, you go to hell" attitude.

Apparently, HRC believes that the way you advance civil-rights issues is to exclude other groups, who are equally needy of protection from discrimination.

Apparently, HRC wants us transgender people to believe that, once they "get theirs" then they will send the boat back for us...but their actions over the past decade give us no reason, whatsoever, to believe them.

HRC has sold us transgender people out for the last time. I will no longer be silent in the face of their brand of discrimination.

These are people who face discrimination...cry out against it...and yet, practice it themselves!

These are people who fight the label "special rights" and yet do everything they can to narrow the focus of civil rights legislation, to make them more "special rights" and less "human rights" than any organization I am aware of!

If you want to get involved with a truly WORTHWHILE organization, send your donations to NGLTF - The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force...which, in spite of it's currently non-inclusive name...has pushed for the inclusion of transgender people in every piece of legislation it has supported over the past five years.

I want everyone to know that HRC does not walk what it talks! HRC continues to put transgender in their mission statement, so that they look good....and yet, in secret, continue to fight, oppress, and exclude the transgender community at every turn. At least NGLTF walks the walk!

PLEASE, readers...if you support human rights...if you support civil rights, for EVERYONE...let HRC know it. Stop sending them money. Stop participating in their campaigns. Let them know that when they change their actions towards transgender people, you will once again support them. In the meantime, send your support to a truly inclusive human rights organization, NGLTF!!

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with NGLTF, I am not on their board of directors, and in no way do I benefit, personally, from any donations made to NGLTF.

[helderheid]

1. Human Rights Campaign!

(except for transgenders)

[Mnemosyne]

2. .

:kick: for equal, not special rights!

[Ian David]

3. They just hired a new director...

maybe it's a typo?

You know... new job... learning curve...

Didn't HRC just issue a mission statement saying they were going to work reall extra-super-double hard on Transgender rights this year?

[Lib Grrrrl]

4. I'm From Missouri....

SHOW ME!!!

They have been SAYING the same bullshit for over a decade now, and I'm suddenly supposed to believe in them?

I call bullshit!

ACTIONS speak louder than WORDS.

When HRC starts showing some real ACTION towards transgender issues, my attitude might change. But, till then, words are NOT going to suffice, when ACTION is demanded!!

To begin with, a transgender-inclusive ENDA is the ONLY ENDA bill they should be introducing and supporting.

Secondly, they should also be promoting transgender inclusivity in hate-crimes legislation (did you know Texas's law does not cover transgender peeps?)

When HRC starts walking what they are talking, maybe then I'll give them a break. Until then, THEY are Public Enemy Number One...and the foulest hypocrites I have ever encountered!!

They scream discrimination, and yet practice it themselves!!

They fight the label "special rights" and do everything in their power to NARROW, rather than to BROADEN the scope of civil-rights legislation!!

Does that not seem rather hypocritical and counter-productive to you?

Does that not sound more than a little disingenuous to you?

Oh, they CLAIM they will be "working really extra-super-double hard on Transgender rights this year?" Well, forgive this transgender activist if she doesn't believe them until they produce real ACTION, and not just more WORDS.

They say all the right things in public to make them look good...and then exclude us transgender people, by using us as bargaining chips in smoky, back-room deals..."Hey, Mr. Legislator...if you will help US get OUR rights, we'll sell the queens down the river..."

THAT is what they been doing for ten years now, and I don't expect it's gonna change.

Bitter? Pissed off? you're damned skippy I'm bitter and pissed off!! And, I think, with good reason! And I, for one, no longer intend to "sit down and shut up."

[Ian David]

5. I'm going to give them a call about this myself... how about you?

I think you can probably get a little "higher up the foodchain" than I can.

[Lib Grrrrl]

6. I've Been After Them For TEN YEARS On This Point

Actually, I doubt I CAN get higher up in the foodchain than you could...because everyone at HRC knows EXACTLY who I am, and as soon as they hear MY name...the eyes will roll, and in the background, you will hear, "It's the bitch queen again...who wants to talk to her THIS time...??"

Believe me, I am THAT well known, by name, at HRC.

This is not new. I'm just recruiting others to join the fight I have been fighting for ten years! I have had some help along the way, but not nearly as much as I might wish to have.

I want to make sure that HRC is FORCED into WALKING WHAT THEY TALK or quit talking...because I know they are no friends of the transgendered people...and it's time the rest of progressive America knew it, too.

For ten years they have claimed they "needed more education on transgender issues." There has been no shortage of transgender people, including myself...willing to educate them. They don't really WANT education...just another excuse to stall us and hold us off, and hold us back. Those of us in the forefront of the transgender struggle for the past decade can tell you...HRC does not need...nor do they want...education. They just want a way to continue to refuse to ACT in our interests, while simultaneously making everyone else believe that they ARE...and that they DESIRE to work in the interests of transgender people. The cold, brute honest fact is, they don't...and their actions over the last decade prove it.

No more having thier cake and getting to eat it, too. If they are gonna talk the talk, they'd better start walking the walk...or I am gonna start pointing out every occasion in which they fail to walk what they talk.