So, L's, G's, B's, T's, and Q's like E's, N's, D's, and A's together. But we don't like D's, A's, D's, and T's together, is that it?
In a recent PageOneQ article House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was quoted as saying that anti-hate crimes legislation and ENDA held priority over the repeal of DADT. Pelosi had a breakfast meeting Tuesday where she met with "progressive bloggers and writers" according to the article. The repeal of the 1993 Don't Ask Don't Tell law has been on LGBT activists' radar lately after Representative Ellen Tauscher introduced a bill to reverse it. In case you've been living under a rock DADT is the bill signed by by Bill Clinton where the military is not allowed to ask you if you're gay and you're not allowed to tell if you're gay. All very separate but equal.
In my own humble opinion, I tend to agree with what Pelosi seems to have been implying. Laws protecting LGBT people from hate crimes and discrimination should take precedent. Of course I believe an inclusive military would be lovely, but those signing up to join know they're getting into an organization with a long history of intolerance. Yes, I think all that's going to change eventually, but homosexuals in the military ought to know they've got a long uphill battle ahead. And there are huge gaps in civil rights protections out there in everyday America.
For instance ENDA. As Pelosi was quoted by PageOneQ:
The priorities have been Hate Crimes and ENDA, fully inclusive legislation in those two areas, so we'll have to have our strategy work around on how we can get those passed, as well as move forward on Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
The struggle to get some employment protections into law has been going on since the 1970s when they tried to tack "sexual orientation" onto the Civil Rights Act. And the Employment Non-Discrimination Act has been batted around since the 1990s. But a couple of things keep getting in the way.
One problem is that issues like marriage rights (as evidenced by the whole Prop. 8 debacle) and DADT tend to get more media attention. These issues stay in the spotlight because they elicit heavy emotional reactions from both supporters and detractors.
The other problem is that activist groups can't get along when it comes to supporting ENDA. The biggest issue is transgender inclusion. Because many of ENDA's opponents use the whole pervert-in-the-little-girl's-room argument some have been quick to drop transpeople from the whole thing. What these people don't realize is that such opponents are never going to give in. In fact, when we stop fighting together and start turning against one another the right-wingnuts win. Not only does our legislation not get passed, but now we represent a smaller, divided force.
As Pelosi indicated now is the time for us to pursue inclusive legislation. Lest we forget, the Stonewall Inn was a popular hangout for a mixture of people, most significantly transwomen. The modern LGBT rights movement was sparked by a bunch of angry "trannys" (a term too many of us throw around without discretion). To drop transgendered people out of our struggle for civil rights will not only weaken the movement as a whole, but will reveal an underlying weakness of character. If we can't stand up for each other, no one is going to stand up for us.
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