This is totally Bull! It is just another Gay and Lesbian organization that is walking away and claiming victory when it is a copout.
At least when the non-profit shut down here in Connecticut once they got marriage equality they made arrangements to fund the ctEQUALITY to pass the gender inclusive non-discrimination law.
Notice that they list their achievements…
EMPIRE STATE PRIDE AGENDA ANNOUNCES PLANS TO CONCLUDE MAJOR OPERATIONS IN 2016Did you get that, “in the form of new regulations announced in partnership with Governor Andrew M. Cuomo” not a law, not a court ruling, no it is just an executive order! It is an executive order that the next governor can change with a stroke of a pen just like it was created.
After Securing Top Priority in 25th Year, New York’s LGBT Advocacy Group Plans to Transition Remaining Policy Work and Maintain Role in Electoral Politics
December 12, 2015
New York, NY – After 25 years of groundbreaking advocacy and service to New York’s LGBT community resulting in over 100 state legislative and policy victories, The Empire State Pride Agenda, New York’s statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, will conclude major operations in 2016. In the coming months, the Pride Agenda will identify aspects of its policy work to transition to partner LGBT organizations. The organization will maintain its Political Action Committee (PAC) in order to play a continuing role in electoral politics.
The announcement follows unanimous votes earlier today by the Boards of Directors of the Empire State Pride Agenda Foundation, Inc. and the Empire State Pride Agenda, Inc., to wind down their operations in first half of 2016. The Pride Agenda’s third corporate entity, the Empire State Pride Agenda Political Action Committee, will continue as part of this process.
The Boards’ decision comes on the heels of securing the Pride Agenda’s top remaining policy priority – protecting transgender New Yorkers from discrimination in housing, employment, credit, education and public accommodations – in the form of new regulations announced in partnership with Governor Andrew M. Cuomo at the organization’s Fall Dinner on October 22, 2015.
Melissa Sklarz, Vice Chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda, Inc. and Co-Chair of the Pride Agenda Foundation Board of Directors, added, “In 2009, the Empire State Pride Agenda made transgender civil rights its highest priority, alongside marriage equality. Governor Cuomo's partnership with the Empire State Pride Agenda resulted in equal rights for transgender New Yorkers. As the Pride Agenda winds down, we will assist in the direction of time and financial resources to programs that directly work to create safe, secure, and stable lives for transgender New Yorkers and their families.”How about directing time and financial resources to passing a law?
At least when the non-profit shut down here in Connecticut once they got marriage equality they made arrangements to fund the ctEQUALITY to pass the gender inclusive non-discrimination law.
Notice that they list their achievements…
- “Division of Human Rights to implement new regulations that will interpret the State’s Human Rights Law to include protections based on gender identity and expression.”
- Marriage Equality Act.
- Dignity for All Students Act
- “Pass a state law allowing same-sex domestic partners access to Family Court and the domestic violence protections it provides.”
- Removed “…the last vestiges of New York’s history of stigmatizing homosexuality by eliminating terms like ‘sodomy’ and ‘deviant sexual intercourse’ used in the state’s penal code to describe forms of sexual assault.”
- The “passage of the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA) that outlaws anti-gay discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodation, education and credit throughout the state.”
Diana -
ReplyDeleteI've always thought that the Gays and Lesbians were fair weather friends. And now we have proof of it. And I've thought that we must build bridges to other communities (such as Kink and BDSM), so that we can have others to help cover our backs. Although we'll likely get some support from Lesbians (they were always more political), I've written off the Gays as simply being selfish.
The only way that Transgenders will be accepted is for most of us to be open about our nature when asked. Being large, I take advantage of the fact that people don't like looking at fat people that much. So I can glide through society easier than if I were of a "normal" size. Once I lose the weight, I'm not sure of how stealth I can be (or want to be). So far, I've been received warmly by most people I encounter. But there is always the lingering fear of troublemakers and self-appointed moral guardians....
M
I have many gay and lesbian friends and the vast majority of gays and lesbians are great and caring people. But I think that this was a really bad decision, I think just because trying to pass the law didn't work you don't throw in the towel instead you change your strategy.
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