I Am Not A Fan

I didn’t listen, I was warned but I didn’t listen.
What I am talking about is the HRC, it will take a very, very long time to forget what they did to the trans community.
Ethan warned me but I didn’t listen and then the HRC stabbed us in the back.

Another of our leaders just wrote an article about the Human Rights Campaign latest dis of us.
HRC is dishonoring our dead by not honoring Drag and Cross Dressers authentically
Planet Transgender
January 1, 2021


Kudos to HRC for honoring Jaheim Bella Pugh, a murdered cisgender gay man on their TDoR page.

The trouble is that HRC identifies Jaheim Bella Pugh as a Gender Non-Conforming‘ person. While technically correct this term is easily conflated and misunderstood as it describes gender, not sex.

Jaheim Bella Pugh, according to his mother, was a 19-year-old cisgender gay man just beginning to learn who he was. Bella was the name of his new puppy which he adopted as his drag name.

After thorough research, I could not find anywhere that he self-identified as a gender non-conforming or transgender person. There was one person who posted a tribute identifying Bella as transgender but that has since been refuted by multiple sources.

The whole idea behind the TDoR project which honors our dead is to investigate with integrity each individual and how they died. This is critical so that we may know who they were. Prior to the first TDoR, a trans-peer-led initiative, those who murdered us were arrested but never served jail time for their crimes.

However, there is no honor in superimposing a narrative that fits your needs while intentionally disregarding facts about a person’s life and death.

The thing to remember that the HRC is first and foremost a GAY INC. Organization, their funding mainly comes from rich white gay males.

The article goes on to say…

Monica Roberts, god bless her soul, 2007 Transgriot article Why Trans people Hate HRC explains a lot. Monica was a forgiving soul and in her later years helped national gay rights groups understand our plight. But with Monica’s passing, there are few trans sources left on the web. Especially few that would let bygones be bygones as Monica and I did. Monica wrote:

“In 1995 Elizabeth Birch took over as Executive Director of HRC at a time when there was an epidemic of gays and lesbians cutting trans people out of civil rights legislation.”

“In many cases, gay people who sat on various HRC boards either nationally or regionally led the efforts. In 1999 Dianne Hardy-Garcia, who was the executive director of the Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby (now Equality Texas) at the time and an HRC board member, led the successful effort to cut trans people out of the James Byrd Hate Crime Bill (to Monica’s and TGAIN”s vehement opposition). That bill was eventually killed in the GOP-controlled Texas Senate but passed in 2001 as a GLB only bill and was signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry.”

Et tu, Brutus
My experience with the HRC goes back to 2007 the year that they stabbed us in the back. When I do my trans history workshop at the True Colors conference I have a section on the HRC and ENDA.

2007: The year of betrayal

• In April, Rep. Barney Franks introduces a gender-inclusive ENDA.
• In May, at NTCE Lobby Days training, HRC follows suit.
• In early September, before 800 transgender people at the Southern Comfort Conference, HRC President Joe Solmonese once again promises to only support a gender inclusive ENDA
• In late September, Rep. Barney Frank pulls the inclusive ENDA bill and substitutes a non-inclusive ENDA bill
• Joe Solmones says the HRC will would not oppose or endorse the non-inclusive bill
• In late October HRC says they will support non-inclusive bill, but will not penalize any congressperson who votes against the non-inclusive bill.
• In November HRC, says they will penalize any congressperson who votes against the non-inclusive bill
• Six U.S. Representatives vote against the non-inclusive bill and lose their 100% rating on LGBT issues from the HRC

It will take a miracle for me to trust the HRC.

---

Another topic Planet Transgender mentioned was about the Trans Umbrella, those who follow my blog know that I believe that the umbrella covers drag queens/kings and crossdresser.

Drag queens and cross-dressers regardless of whether they are cis or trans-self-identifying belong under our trans umbrella. The problem is the world does not accept them as they are. Some trans people in my community think including them under our umbrella is oxymoronic.

When I first saw that visualization years ago I couldn’t have agreed with them more.

It is a very difficult concept to understand which is why we must have this conversation about it.

Transgender people on a whole need to live in our authentic gender 24 hours a day.

Drag artists and cross-dressers express their gender as they need, temporarily, but that doesn’t make their lives any less precious or their gender any less viable.

We must be inclusive and shelter all those who cross the gender norms.