Last week, I went
to Washington DC to lobby Congress as part of the
National Center for Trans Equality annual lobby effort.
My first lobbying
of Congress was in the mid 1990s with GENDERPAC. But
once the Republicans took over Congress and set a new agenda
and George Bush got elected, my lobbying presence in
D.C. seemed irrelevant.
But last year,
what is politely called a "fair-minded
majority" took over in Congress and there
seemed to be a place for progressive, urban, trans New
Yorkers to speak out.
Back in the 20th
century, most legislation at the Federal level was
written as gay and lesbian only. A unified empowered trans
community is a newish idea and so lobbying on behalf
of that community is also new. After years of
activists working to change gay and lesbian community to
LGBT Community -- that is, to include trans people in
the mosaic of queer life -- it became imperative
that legislation be written to include gender identity
and gender expression.
At first, the
journey to change minds was difficult, as with all new
ideas. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the lead gay and
lesbian lobby group in D.C., was hesitant about
the place of trans within their purview, and so work
began to educate and inform. Finally, in 2004, HRC
agreed that a unified LGBT community empowers us all and
recommended to Congress that the two pro-equality
bills in Congress -- Hate Crimes and the employment
protection bill called ENDA -- have language changed
to include gender identity and expression.
And so off we
went, with a powerful message for inclusion and a new
vision. The Democratic caucus agreed with our new ideas but
were still the minority in 2004 and 2005. Progressive
leaders and Rep. Barney Frank eventually changed the
language to be trans inclusive and, when Congress
changed hands in 2006, we were ready to go.
Lobby Day 2007
was glorious. We arrived with an upbeat message for
the LGBT community, including trans people. But the
climate on the Hill changed because of fear and lack
of education and trans language was deleted again in
October. Trans people hoped for an amendment for gender
identity, but it never made it to the floor of Congress
and ENDA passed the House without gender-identity
protection.
The winter of
2007/08 was difficult as blame was assigned, new strategies
died on arrival and the LGBT Community figured out where to
go, with gays and lesbians moving forward and
trans people talking about "the ick
factor" of perceived trans realities.
In 2007, I
visited as many NY Congresspeople as I could, including
Charles Rangel, Louise Slaughter, Joe Crowley, and Carolyn
Maloney. I figured these leaders would understand and
tell the rest of the NY state Democratic Conference to
support trans people in ENDA. However, when the vote
came up, few Democrats felt compelled to vote against a gay
bill on the floor of Congress and trans people were
told that including rights for us jeopardized the new
Democratic majority -- that it would be the fault of
trans people if the Democrats lost their majority after 12
years in the minority. Yipes!!! What's a girl
to do?
But five New
Yorker representatives voted "no" anyway, in
solidarity with trans rights: Jerry Nadler, Anthony Weiner,
Ed Townes, Yvette Clarke, and Nydia Valasquez.
So what about
2008? The House has already moved on and away from trans
inclusion. And the year has been dominated by the non-stop
perpetual primary season. How does a small, virtually
invisible minority get its voice heard and what does
that voice say?
This year, we
decided we would go to the Senate and speak with them. We
would say "The ENDA bill is in the Senate. Do not
move it. Wait until after the election."
It's a simple message that would make sense,
especially since President Bush is on record as having
no interest in signing the ENDA bill into law.
Our rationale: Why move a partial bill that will not
become law when the promise for next year is so much
better?
Now that we have
a message, we need messengers. The 2008 lobby group
seemed smaller than last year, and there were only 5 New
Yorkers who came to DC: Pam Barres and Deb Oppenheimer
from Rochester, Eileen Thomas from Long Island, Damon
Hainline from Brooklyn and myself. I had made some
calls before hand and was able to get an appointment with
the office of NY Senator Hillary Clinton. This was
wonderful, since Senator Clinton is a prominent
supporter of an inclusive LGBT community and is one of three
people who may be President next year.
We showed up
early at 10:45 and we were asked whom we were meeting with.
None of us were sure, and so I mentioned the name Tamera
Luzzatto. The receptionist smiled and told us that was
the Chief of Staff. We were shown in at 11:00 and met
Tamera, along with Miguel Rodriguez, the Chief
Counsel. Considering that in the past, I have spoken with
23-year-old interns who could not spell
"transgender" much less have any working
knowledge of the issue, this was to be a very different
visit.
We sat and
thanked them and explained our issue and told our stories.
Of course, Senator Clinton was a sponsor of the
original trans-inclusive ENDA, so we did not have to
go back to square one. After politely listening, Mr.
Rodriguez offered to call the office of Senator Kennedy to
say "New York constituents are here to tell us not to
move the ENDA bill this year."
What a simple
sentence and a simple idea. Finally, we had our message. We
don't have to explain the gay/trans split of ideas, the
insider community contention on correct strategies, or
delve into hurt feelings and unmet expectations. All
we have to do is ask the Senate, "Just wait until next
year." That's a concept any New York baseball fan can
understand.