We Are Only A Stepping Stone

Don’t think that the Republicans are only going to stop at us, their goal is nothing less than forcing us back into the closet. This is only the beginning of a new era of a new Lavender Scare. They won’t stop until they make criminals out of all of us.

3 ways the LGB community is screwed if transgender rights fail
LGBTQ Nation
By Brynn Tannehill
August 3, 2017

Every once in awhile some anti-transgender LGB person pops up and demands that transgender people get kicked off of Activism Island.  Whether it is military service, bans on reparative therapy, employment law, or public accommodations, there are a few LGB people who are actively working against transgender people being part of their movement. They are attempting to appeal to the nearly 50% of LGB people who don’t see themselves as having common concerns with the transgender community.

In the past I have made arguments that the communities are connected via history, sexual orientation, and common enemies. This was written over four years ago, and now an entirely new set of reasons for the LGB community to support the transgender community has emerged.

When our enemies attack us, they don’t see lesbians and gays, and trans people they see GAY people. They don’t see any differences between us, they only see hate. When I told my boss that I’m trans he thought… gay.

1- LGB people can be banned from bathrooms and locker rooms
One of the biggest reasons given for dumping the transgender people from the movement is that the issue of bathrooms and locker rooms doesn’t apply to LGB people. How quickly these people forget that the entire argument for keeping DADT revolved around keeping lesbians and gays out of bathrooms and showers (or at least keeping them in the closet so that homophobic straight people could feel comfortable.)

Remember Anita Bryant and her “Save Our Children” campaign? It was all about teachers and bathrooms.

2- DADT can be brought back
If President Trump’s tweets on the matter of transgender service turn into an actual order to the DoD, it will be challenged in court immediately.  The arguments that will be used to support the administration’s case are likely to include executive authority, the exceedingly small increase in cost associated with having transgender service members, or the unfounded assertion that inclusion of transgender people will affect readiness.
[…]
3- LGB people will lose their last, best chance at job protections
Legal protections in employment are the most important issue to LGB people, according to polling data by Pew.  It was even more important than marriage when the survey was done in 2013.  Which is why you need to know that if transgender people fail in their claims that anti-transgender discrimination is discrimination on the basis of sex stereotyping under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, so will the claims that sexual orientation is similarly protected.

Attorney General Sessions’ Department of Justice has already filed a brief on why sexual orientation should not be covered under Title VII.

Justice Department Says Rights Law Doesn’t Protect Gays
New York Times
By Alan Feuer
July 27, 2017

The Justice Department has filed court papers arguing that a major federal civil rights law does not protect employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation, taking a stand against a decision reached under President Barack Obama.

The department’s move to insert itself into a federal case in New York was an unusual example of top officials in Washington intervening in court in what is an important but essentially private dispute between a worker and his boss over gay rights issues.

“The sole question here is whether, as a matter of law, Title VII reaches sexual orientation discrimination,” the Justice Department said in a friend-of-the-court brief, citing the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination in the workplace based on “race, color, religion, sex or national origin.” “It does not, as has been settled for decades. Any efforts to amend Title VII’s scope should be directed to Congress rather than the courts.”

But the DoJ ignores the Supreme Court Price Waterhouse decision and all the other that did find that sex discrimination also includes sex stereotypes. And what could be more not typical sex stereotypes of males and females than LGBT. We sure don’t fit the image of a typical male or female.

The fortunes of the entire LGBT community hinge on what happens next in our country and in court. It doesn’t matter if you know any transgender people, or like them, or identify with them. Even if you don’t, if the transgender community falls, so does the LGB community.

And don’t forget that Trump & the Republicans are packing the courts with judges who believe more in their version of the Bible than the Constitution.

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Today I am up at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival with some friends, we were planning on going yesterday but the heavy rains changed our plans to going today instead.