This is a re-post of a February 2015 blog about Jennifer Finney Boylan in honor of her being elected president of PEN America... a great honor!
*****
There is an op-ed article in the LA Times about the progress we have made,
We still have a long ways to go, what do you think?
Getting Americans to accept transgender people remains a challengeWe have made great inroads but most of them are on paper. Trans students are still being harassed in schools, trans employees are still being fired, and trans people are still being attacked because of we are.
By Jennifer Finney Boylan
February 13, 2015
The tall young man, the head of a major LGBT civil rights organization, looked out at his audience and asked what seemed, in 2011, like a preposterous question. "Is it possible," he wanted to know, "that in the years to come we will be able to declare the movement over? That we will have reached, at long last, a time in which our goals will have been achieved?"
[…]
And yet, the last few years have left many Americans dizzy at the speed of progress, whether gay, straight, transgender or cisgender (an antonym of "trans" that applies to those comfortable with the gender they were assigned at birth). At times it's been hard even to keep track of the string of marriage-equality victories. Marriage equality is now the law in 37 states; in six others, courts have overturned the ban on same-sex marriage, but those rulings are being appealed. And the Supreme Court is expected to resolve the legal battle over marriage equality by June.
As I travel the country speaking about LGBT rights, I've begun to hear, with some earnestness, the question that seemed so preposterous to me just four years ago. Are we all done, then? Is it time to furl the rainbow flags and head home?
The answer, alas, is no, and not only because marriage equality is far from the only issue, or even the most important issue, affecting our community. Across the country, a gap has emerged between progress on the legislative front and progress that still needs to be made in Americans' hearts. Marriage equality and anti-discrimination laws have achieved remarkable victories in statehouses, electoral refrendums [sic] and the courts. But full acceptance is as elusive as ever.
We still have a long ways to go, what do you think?
"Declaring the movement over," well now with the rise of fascism in the U.S, unless we defeat it and those fellow travelers then the movement will never be over. I think the man is more than likely a very privileged person. Perhaps for the white middle class the movement is over but for the woman who has to sell herself on the street it hasn't even begun.
ReplyDeleteI remember writing in an essay, "The sun may be shining for us here but remember that it is pouring down rain in other places. So as some have said, "It's the best of times, it is the worst of times." Yes, perhaps things have vastly improved in some things but if you live in hell or Florida-- well you get the picture. I will never forget what Harry Hay said at one time, "A law is a law, on the books one day off the books the next." Then would come the worst of times.
Joe Solmonese was still heading HRC in 2011.
Delete