At the 2008 Equality NC Conference, Mara Keisling, National Center for Transgender Equality - "Winning Transgender Inclusive Legislation" fielded a question about the status of the relationship between the transgender community and the Human Rights Campaign. The transcript is below:
"People believe that what happened last year was this. One of two things had to have happened. Either they really believe that transpeople are a core part of the fabric of the family -- or they don't. If they do, then the decision they made last year (to agree to have trans protections stripped from ENDA) is unthinkable. They couldn't have done it. If it's not, then they have no right to speak for us.
You can't speak for people and then say they don't get theirs now, and that's OK. Now that's a simplification of what happened and I'm very well aware that that's a simplification of what happened. And some of my particular personal feelings about this have to do with how it was handled. It was handled very, very badly and it still continues to be handled very, very badly by a lot of folks on a lot of sides. But you know just two weeks ago, they released their Congressional scorecard in which they penalized the seven members of Congress who all who all up to that point had 100% perfect civil rights records. All seven of them have been penalized by HRC for supporting a trans-inclusive bill by voting against the non-inclusive one.
So, we don't believe that you have a right to speak for transpeople...you know we kept saying 'We need to stay at the table.' You don't stay at the table by locking everybody else out. And I happen to believe that they are continually disrespectful to all other LGBT organizations and dismissive of our skills and our right to be there. And that's some of my personal stuff. That being said, we all are in the same activist space.
Most of the senior management and a lot of the lower-level people at HRC are my dear friends. This isn't personal in that sense. But it is very personal in the sense that we need ENDA so that people can stop dying.. It's a real survival thing - people don't have jobs, people don't have hope. It is very personal to me and a lot of us for that reason. That being said, I don't advocate one way or another that people do or don't work with HRC. I know what our position is at NCTE. And until they change their position -- which they are still not willing to do -- that will be our position.
And frankly -- and I don't mean this again as a negative HRC thing -- their dominance is declining anyway. They used to be the only game in town in DC, and that's no longer true. There are, I believe, nine LGBT organizations with policy shops in DC. Now HRC is still the best connected in Congress; but again, I believe they are more interested in using those connections to have connections.
We as a marginalized LGBT community are so used to being marginalized that we think it is a victory if a senator talks to us or that a senator comes to our fundraiser. We think that's a victory? That's no longer a victory for us; we have real power now. Now is when we have to take those connections and we have to say 'Here is what we need, and here's what you have to do and you have to do it now.' And I just don't believe they are strong enough to do that. Now, I think those people who work with HRC -- and many of you probably in the room do -- I think you can make them get there. If they know that their grassroots supporters want that, maybe they will get stronger and more 'backboney' -- and more aspirational.
None of the work we're doing we're doing just to do it. We're doing it to save people's lives, and to save people's dignity...but I do not want people to stop giving to HRC, I don't want them to stop going to HRC stuff. I want HRC to be strong, I want HRC to be a real leader. I want them to do their job. I just want them to do it in a way that is responsible. If you're going to be a spokesperson for transpeople, you cannot sell out transpeople. And that's my view of it, and it's not personal, I don't hate anybody, but it is very personal in the sense that this is really serious business. I have fun in my work, I really do, but people are dying."
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I like this. Thank you for recording it.
psyravi 2 years ago
Mara rocks. She was more diplomatic than I could have been.
CJLillis 3 years ago
great video pam..
sickntired08 3 years ago