Diana’s Little Corner in the Nutmeg State: What Do You Think?

Thursday, January 22, 2015

What Do You Think?

I scrapped my planned blog because the non-profit that I’m a member of received an email and I want your opinion on it. I do not know if they have any trans members on their board or in leadership positions; but this is part of the email we got,

The STONEWALL Rebellion Veterans' Association ("S.V.A.") is comprised of the legendary veterans of the historic 1969 N.Y.C. Stonewall Rebellion by Gay boys and girls (not 'men' + 'women' as is sometimes wrongly reported) and their regular friends (not 'activists' as is often falsely stated) for Gay - with a capital "G" - civil rights at the now landmark Stonewall Club in Greenwich Village, New York City. The monumental event established the modern Gay, Lesbian, Bi and Transgender (GLBT) community and launched the worldwide Gay rights movement, now benefiting millions of people, whether Gay or strait, in civil rights, marriage, employment, housing, hospital visitation, healthcare, insurance, apartment succession, legal, prison visits, joint tax filings, right of survivorship and many other benefits plus much more, i.e., respect!

Okay, what I have a problem with is “…legendary veterans of the historic 1969 N.Y.C. Stonewall Rebellion by Gay boys and girls…” and “…Gay - with a capital "G" - civil rights…” and “…worldwide Gay rights movement…” I feel that this marginalizes all the lesbians, bi, and trans people that took part in the uprising by lumping us under the “Gay” umbrella.

The email goes on to say,

>From the legendary Gay (observe the capital "Gay", not 'gay') people who originated the 'Gay Marriage' movement as of the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion when, after the first night on June 27th, many signs read: "Gay Marriage" as well as "Gay Rights" and "Gay Power"; no alphabet GLBT soup non-sense!

As a member of the “alphabet GLBT soup” I find that offensive (also noticed that they put the guys first in LGBT, whatever happened to chivalry?).

So what do you think (and remember this was sent to a trans organization)?
Do you find the email open and affirming to all?
Or am I being overly sensitive?

1 comment:

Stephanie Lee-Davis1/22/15, 10:11 AM
That is because it's Glb=====>>t Always was, always will be.
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Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.

A right delayed is a right denied.Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.

Martin Luther King Jr.

No one is born hating another person… People must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
Nelson Mandela

We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist
James Baldwin

There is a fine line between free speech and hate speech. Free speech encourages debate whereas hate speech incites violence.
Newton Lee

The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.
Albert Einstein

"The point is that there are always obstacles, whether they seem insurmountable or merely bothersome. The question is not how difficult the path, but whether in your heart, you wish to undertake the journey."
Zandru's Forge

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Mahatma Gandhi

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

You've Got To Be Carefully Taught
You've got to be taught
To hate
And fear
You've got to be taught
From year
To year
Its got to
Be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to
Be carefully
Taught
You've got to be taught
To be
Afraid
Of people
Who's eyes are oddly made
And people who's skin is a different shade

South Pacific
Songwriters: Oscar Hammerstein II / Richard Rogers