The Best From The Past – GenderPAC Fundraiser

I am going to be busy this morning so I dug through my blog and picked an old post from my Geocites blog...

December 10^th 2005

Last night I went to a fund raiser for GenderPAC's Connecticut 10th Anniversary Reception down in Stamford. It was the first time I ever went to something like that and I was a little nervous, not knowing what to expect. I drove down there with a friend from CTAC (Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition). Adding to my nervousness was the fact that it had snowed all day and I didn't know how the roads conditions would be, but they were just wet.

We were the first to get there and were met by the hostess, I had met her before, (I had done an outreach with her at Connecticut Department of Mental Health and she also did a presentation at a COS). The other guesses filtered in one or two at a time until there was about ten or fifteen people there. There was State a Senator [Andrew McDonald] and a Representative [Mike Lawlor], a mayor [Governor Malloy, then mayor of Stampford], a first selectman, a human resources director, numerous lawyers and other people there. I felt way out of my league, but after a while I relaxed and made a number of contacts, the idea of these things is to see and be seen.

My goal in going to these events is simple, to get the anti-discrimination law (both state and national) changed to include gender and gender expression.

I look back and I see a shy, quite woman looking up the steps of the COS meetinghouse and wondering what have I gotten myself into. Now, five years later, I walked into the hostess's house and wondering what have I gotten myself into. I have changed a lot in these five years and I think for the better. The biggest change is in self-acceptance and that has changed my whole outlook on life, to a more positive and self-assured person.

This was the first time that I went to a fundraiser for a non-profit and I went to two more GenderPAC fundraisers and got to know the governor and the legislators who are now governor, a Supreme Court judge and the Under Secretary for Criminal Justice Policy and Planning.

Because I got to know them when I testified before the Judicial Committee for the non-discrimination bill I was more relaxed knowing them on the committee. And the night that the senate voted on our bill, former Senator McDonald came up and joined us for the final vote on the bill.