What Else Is New

There is an article in the Las Vegas Sun about how we trans-people are overshadowed by gays and lesbians… no, I never would have guessed.

Overshadowed by gay and lesbian compatriots, the transgender community is fighting for acceptance
By Lornet Turnbull, The Seattle Times
Monday, July 1, 2013

Seattle —
The "T" in LGBT
Gwyneth Yeh identifies as a transgender woman. Launch slideshow »

They are the “T” in LGBT and arguably the most maligned segment of that community.

Many transgender men and women face hardships in routine areas of daily life. They are twice as likely as the general population to be unemployed or homeless and four times as likely to live in poverty.

Some 90 percent said in a 2011 national survey that they had encountered discrimination at work, and more than one in three attempt suicide at some point in their lives.

Such dire statistics are part of what inspired Danielle Askini, a 30-year-old transgender activist, and a group of volunteers, to organize Trans Pride in Seattle during the week set aside at the end of June each year to mark the historical launch of the nation’s gay rights movement.

And they even did it to us in the article, “nation’s gay rights movement.” Ah folks… it is the national LGBT rights movement!

Still, transgender people — who can be either gay or straight — have not gained the kind of visibility that the gay community has.

Yup, we can be straight or gay; so it is not the Gay Rights Movement! Nor was Stonewall the beginning of the “Gay Rights Movement,” we were out there protesting long before Stonewall, the first time that we know of was at the Dewey Lunch Counter in Philadelphia in 1965 and in San Francisco at the Compton Cafeteria in 1966.

Askini believes the next step is for transgender people to gain more acceptance through visibility, by allowing others to get to know them as neighbors, co-workers and friends — much as the larger gay and lesbian community has done.

“That cultural shift has started to happen,” she said. “The reason we started Trans Pride is to highlight that, to increase visibility, while creating something where we in the community can see one another and celebrate ourselves.”

A recent PEW poll found that ~92% believe that the change in attitudes about marriage equality was the result of knowing someone who is LGBT.