Apartheid: The Least Worst Choice
The Debate on ENDA continues.
Guest Editorial: The Least Worst Choice
by Marc Salomon‚ Aug. 01‚ 2008
It’s always difficult to lose a political contest. Sometimes it takes a while to mourn that loss and move on, adapt and face the new political reality. Such is the case with the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and the fiction crafted by United ENDA to justify their politically untenable position.
First off, nobody is saying that transgenders were not active in the 1960s. What is empirically true is that transgenders did not do the political work to build a majority in Congress to pass an inclusive ENDA, otherwise the votes would have been there.
more here.
Guest Editorial: Don’t Leave Out Transgenders
by Hale Thompson‚ Aug. 04‚ 2008
Without spending too much time refuting Marc Salomon point by point, I will say that the arrogance and fictions shot through his diatribe reflect an insular, privileged and black-and-white version of identity politics.
The Left OUT Party on July 26th outside of the HRC dinner was an historic moment in LGBT politics. Similar to United ENDA (the nationwide coalition of over 350 organizations that have objected to “ENDA Lite”), it consisted of an incredible coalition of labor, social justice, political and LGBT organizations and reflects a political will and momentum to push for a more just version of ENDA.
As Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said, it’s not about snubbing HRC. It’s about a very practical pursuit of justice and equality: “As mayor of the largest city in California, I am committed to a world in which no member or group in society is denied full and equal rights. It is my hope that this time next year we will find us all united by victory in the fight [for marriage equality in California] and ever more determined to establish equal rights, with no exceptions, for every one of us.”
more here.
To the Editor:
The task before queers as respects ENDA is legislative. But the approach being taken by those who insist on
holding back LGB rights until transgender folks can find the votes looks much more like an emotional salve more appropriate to the therapist’s couch than the halls of Congress.
Unable to argue on the merits of my critique of the Democratic Caucus and United ENDA, Hale Thompson elects to go ad hominem, by attacking me and my motives instead of the substance of my comments. And Thompsons’ arguments are like a discussion with a therapist than a proactive plan for legislative victory.
What is insular and privileged here is the insistance by more comfortable LGBT living in the progressive coastal enclaves that the rights of lesbians, gays and bisexuals in the flyover to employment protections are expendable even though there are the votes at hand to secure those rights.
The critical mass for federal rights for trans folks is simply not at hand. Those rights don’t appear to even be close at hand. Therefore, nobody is being thrown under the bus. Trans folks don’t have the political equivalent of the bus fare yet and that bus is not coming.
They will not be at hand until the political work is done to secure the votes needed to pass legislation. If someone can pull a rabbit out of a hat, then wonderful. If not, there will be more busses coming. There is no evidence that adopting protections for LGB will in any way prevent T from following suit once they’ve secured the political support, as there are historical models that support the success of that approach and none that I know of that support “all or nothing.”