Inroads

Even in this environment the has been fostered by the current administration we have victories. The people are not buying it!

Two stories this morning, one is about a trans person being made head of a department at a major university and the other a poll that found broad base support for us.

Transgender Woman Will Lead Gender Studies Program At Rutgers

Rutgers University: Catherine Fitzpatrick may be the first openly transgender woman in the U.S. to lead a women's and gender studies program

Rutgers Today via Patch

By Eric Kiefer, Patch Staff

June 12, 2020

[…]

An English literature professor at the university since 2014, Fitzpatrick believes she may be the first openly transgender woman in the country to lead a Women's and Gender Studies program.

On the face of it, there is nothing earth shattering about the appointment of a professor with Fitzpatrick's experience and credentials to this position. Born in London to a family of Irish builders, the current Brooklyn resident is Oxford educated, with previous teaching positions at the University of Sheffield and The New School. Fitzpatrick is also an accomplished writer, poet and performer, with a lengthy list of published books, essays, poems, grants, awards and prizes.

There are openly transgender scholars who lead other programs and departments at the university level, according to Yale professor Susan Stryker, one of the country's foremost scholars on gender issues. But when Fitzpatrick was asked to take the helm of a program dedicated to the study of women and gender – an appointment Stryker also thinks is a first for a transgender woman – it felt like the ultimate validation of her true self.

When you think about it this is just really about the best person getting the job, nothing unusual about it. But for the fact that she is trans didn’t matter, the fact that she is trans didn’t enter into the picture something that doesn’t happen very often.

As a community we face a very high rate of unemployment and every success should be celebrated and acknowledged.

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A major health non-profit conducted a poll and found wide spread support for us in employment and health care.

Poll: Large Majorities, Including Republicans, Oppose Discrimination Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People by Employers and Health Care Providers

Half Say Society Hasn’t Gone Far Enough in Accepting Transgender People

The Kaiser Family Foundation/

June 24, 2020

Large majorities of Americans think it should be illegal for either employers or health care providers to discriminate against people because they are lesbian, gay or bisexual, or transgender, a new KFF poll finds. This includes large majorities of Republicans, independents and Democrats across a range of questions about such discrimination.

The poll gauges the public’s views following two major developments this month that move in opposite directions on LGBTQ protections. First, the Trump administration finalized regulations removing protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity (including transgender status) in health care, arguing that the definition of sex does not extend to either. Then last week the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that gender identity and sexual orientation are protected under the definition of sex discrimination in the workplace.

The poll finds:

• 9 in 10 in ten adults agree with last week’s Supreme Court ruling, say it should be illegal for employers to fire or refuse to hire people because they are lesbian, gay, or bisexual (90%) or transgender (89%).
• About 9 in 10 say it should be illegal for doctors or other health care providers to refuse to treat people because they are lesbian, gay, or bisexual (89%) or transgender (88%).
• 85% say it should be illegal for health insurance companies to refuse to pay for health care services for people who are transgender.
• In each case, large majorities across partisan lines, including more than 7 in 10 Republicans, think such discrimination against LGBTQ people should be illegal.

Did you get that?

Ninety percent of the people think that the Supreme Court did the right thing in banning employment discrimination against us! In the climate where the Trump administration is doing everything it can to strip us of our rights the people are not buying it.

Other findings include:

• Most adults say that people who are transgender (79%) or are lesbian, gay or bisexual (74%) face at least some discrimination in the U.S. today. This is similar to the share who say the same about Black (84%) and Hispanic (77%) people. While still a majority, a smaller share of Republicans say each of these groups face at least some discrimination.
• Half (49%) of the public says our society has “not gone far enough in accepting people who are transgender,” up 10 percentage points from a 2017 Pew Research Center Poll. In comparison, relatively few (15%) today say our society has “gone too far” in accepting people who are transgender, and a third (32%) say it “has been about right.” A similar share of Republicans say society has gone too far (30%) as say it has not gone far enough (24%).
• More than a third of adults (36%) say they personally know someone who is transgender, including nearly half (46%) of those under age 30.

I like the last finding the best… our visibility is paying off!