Editorial column: Boys Don't Cry

[BenL]

http://gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm...d=569328&rfi=6

Boys Don't Cry
By: PAUL SCHINDLER
10/10/2007
In the current debate over the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA - whether we should or should not move forward with protections for transgendered Americans as well as gays and lesbians - both sides are claiming the moral high ground, and the shrewder political calculus.
The recent effort to strip the bill of the protections for gender identity and expression it included as originally introduced this year is "politically inexplicable and unconscionable," said the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Matt Foreman, pointing to the success just weeks ago of a trans-inclusive hate crimes bill in the Senate.
"Now, the notion that you do not pass an anti-discrimination bill protecting large numbers of people until you can protect everybody, in my judgment, is flawed, morally and politically," out gay Congressman Barney Frank said on the floor of the House the other night, after earlier stating, "I say to my colleagues in the gay community, maybe I will do a little stereotyping, maybe they have seen "The Wizard of Oz" too often. They seem to have Speaker Pelosi, a wonderful, dedicated, committed supporter of human rights, confused with Glenda the good witch. They think if she waved her magic wand she could somehow change things."

Schindler's piece concludes this way:

Transgender rights are my cause because I am a gay man. My transgendered friends and sources helped me synthesize their experiences and the uncomfortable memories of my own life into that understanding.
For those who haven't had the opportunity to immerse themselves in this question the way my job has demanded, I suggest a crash course. Go rent "Boys Don't Cry." It wasn't just an Oscar vehicle for Hilary Swank.
©GayCityNews 2007

Do we split the community on this? Is part of the pie better than none of the pie? Aren't we all gender outlaws in one way or another?

[Alecto]

As for that last, that was another argument actually. Because we're all gender outlaws, oftentimes existing sexual orientation hate crime laws could not be utilized because what was REALLY the basis for the attack was gender expression.

I'm of the opinion that there is no reason to remove these protections, except to try to split the community (which...check it out...totally happening). :-/