My Story Part 82 – Politics

Okay, many of you roll your eyes up and go on to another website when you see something about politics. For me, I would have done the same thing a couple of years ago but I have learned some things as I worked to pass the gender inclusive anti-discrimination law… politics is a necessary evil that we have to put up with.

Six years ago I would have jumped to another blog, then I went back to college to get my Master's in grassroots organizing and I learned you have to be active in politics if you want to pass an anti-discrimination law. At the same time as I was going to college, I was also attending fundraisers for PACs (Political Action Committees) and there I met politicians. I attended fundraisers for Gender PAC and also Love Makes a Family, and at them I met state legislators that were sympatric towards LGBT issues.

I also attended house parties for candidates where you have to make a donation to their campaign fund; usually I made the minimum contribution. But I was seen by the candidates, which was the whole idea, to be an out trans-person. Sometimes I was the only trans-person there in a whole sea of lesbians and gays. I also volunteered to work phone banks (which I decided was not for me and I vowed never to do that again) and to hold the candidate’s sign at the polling site (which I liked and wouldn’t mind doing it again). It was during the November elections when I was out in front of a polling place holding a sign for the candidate for Attorney General when my state Representative stopped by offering coffee for the volunteers there. I talked to him for a few minutes over the coffee about the elections. This spring when I went to talk to him about the anti-discrimination bill, he remembered me from that cold November morning. Did it help get his vote for the bill? I don’t know, but I do know that it didn’t hurt. Last October, I went to a Meet & Greet for then candidate Malloy, while I was there a legislator came up to me and introduced me to another legislator. and we talked a while about the anti-discrimination bill. I first met Gov. Malloy, then mayor, in 2005 at the Gender PAC fundraiser where he said that he was in favor of a gender inclusive non-discrimination legislation (Which as Governor he signed into law last Friday). During a Meet & Greet by the National Association of Social Workers, I meet a few more legislators who were also social workers and they met a trans-woman who was also becoming a social worker.

So, what is the moral to this story? It is that as much as I hate politics, you sometimes have to bite the bullet and become involved in politics. If you want to help pass anti-discrimination legislation in your state, you are going to have to do more than send an email or make a phone call… you are going to have to be seen by the politicians and network with other organizations.