Entries tagged with “discrimination” from Trans-cendental

How much longer should we wait for gay, Lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people to be able to serve honorably in the military?

"These things take time", we are told. In the 1990's William Jefferson Clinton talked about lifting the ban, but instead settled on a compromise that requires dishonesty. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue" has become "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" as the military aggressively removes people from service because they were at a Pride event or posted something on a website.

Nearly two decades later, people are still being separated from service because of who they are rather than how they perform as soldiers. This is an unacceptable way to treat these brave individuals who voluntarily serve our country by putting their lives on the line. This is an unacceptable way to treat those people with whom they serve by breaking up teams that have worked together for months or years. This is an unacceptable way to treat Americans who rely on these trained individuals to protect them.

How much longer should we wait? This change is past due. Every second of delay is merely adding to the tardiness of the required action.

The President has said it requires legislative action, and Harry Reid has said the President should take action. They're both right. The President should take action immediately to protect our soldiers by suspending action under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" while the Congress immediately moves to pass legislation that prevents the military from using sexual orientation or gender identity as criteria for removing servicemembers.

Now.

Today.

This hour.

This minute.

The lives of GLBT soldiers depend on it.
The lives of all soldiers depend on it.
The lives of all Americans depend on it.

1.Full civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals must be enacted now.  Delay and excuses are no longer acceptable.

 - The Dallas Principals

On a Christian denominational discussion board, a person who is gay said

the Christian church is the stated enemy of the gay community

and a person who is clergy in that denomination said

Or do you mean the gay community is the stated enemy of many Christian churches, the UCC & MCC excluded, at least. 

Which got me thinking:

"What might it look like if someone wanted to treat Christians the way gay people are treated?"

(Crossposted on Pam's House Blend)

A friend of mine changed his Facebook status to "...lost his fundamental civil rights today."

This got me thinking: Can we lose our fundamental civil rights?

I thought about the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

 Please note that the founders did not say the government created these rights, only secured the rights people already had.

There is also the ninth amendment to the US Constitution:

Amendment 9 - Construction of Constitution. Ratified 12/15/1791. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

So can a law or constitutional amendment remove a person's rights?

My church is Plainfield Congregational United Church of Christ, part of the Eastern Association of the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ.

I'm really tired of settling. I'm not interested in incremental rights. I'm not willing to support a candidate who talks out of both sides of his - or her - mouth, speaking on one hand of "protecting marriage" from gays and at the same time "supporting gay and lesbian people" with domestic partnerships or civil unions.

When Tyra Hunter was 24 years old, she was riding in a car in Washington, D.C. Her car was broadsided by another car. She was knocked unconscious due to the collision, but regained consciousness by the time emergency crews arrived. She was still dazed and had respiration problems because some of her teeth had been knocked into her airway.The paramedics went to work on Tyra, but in assessing the injuries they discovered she had male genitals.

At this point, one of the caregivers said "This ain't no bitch. It's a nigger. He's got a dick and balls." The paramedics ceased treating Tyra and instead laughed and joked about her while onlookers demanded they get back to work on her.

Later, after treating another injured passenger, other emergency workers found Tyra gagging and trying to move away from the insulting paramedics. Finally, a supervisor demanded that her airway be cleared.

In addition to these insults and lack of care, she was received at the hospital as "John Doe", given a contraindicated medication, and was not given blood that had been ordered for her. She died from lack of oxygen in her blood.

This is the kind of health care some transgender persons can expect. Value judgments can override common decency and mercy - and the basic job requirements. Amazingly, the District of Columbia defended the paramedics on the basis of their first amendment rights to free speech.

Time and again, I come back to what Jesus taught about how we treat others: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". "Love your neighbor as yourself" . The parable of the Good Samaritan, in which the person who acted as a neighbor to a victimized person was the one who didn't even get along with people of his kind. The parable of the sheep and the goats, where Jesus says that as you do to others, you do to him.

And yet, this is what we can expect from some of the people who choose a career in caring for others.

This is not how to do health care.

This is not how to do emergency care.

This is not how to be a Christian.

This is not how to be a human being.

Whatever one's opinion of transgender people, they are people. There is no excuse for allowing people to suffer while we laugh.

My prayer is that the paramedics learn to care for all others, and that they do not need to experience what Tyra did in order to learn it. I would not wish that on my enemies - because I love them.


Trial notes: http://www.gpac.org/im/tyra/tyindex.html



Remembering our dead: http://www.gender.org/remember/.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is November 20.

No commentary today - just the real work concerns of a real human being.
   
http://rebeccaaugephd.blogspot.com/2007/10/returning-to-work-concerns.html

So the Arkansas Attorney General decided that a law that said gay people can't adopt was unconstitutional. No matter - the Arkansas legislature went back and said only married couples could adopt.

To put this another way, children may not be adopted by unmarried persons regardless of sexual orientation.

Throughout the Bible - in the Hebrew and Christian books - priests and prophets have spoken of the importance of caring for orphans. Yet Arkansas decided it would be better for these children to be housed in foster and group homes than to find a permanent home with one or more parents.

Children need a loving home. To deny children of the opportunity to be loved is to go against God's law and basic compassion.

Let us put the needs of children first.

References:

• http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2007/10/ar-ag-gives-go-.html
• http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3182
• http://www.bilerico.com/2007/10/proposed_ban_on_gay_adoptions_in_arkansa.php

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. - Galatians 3:28

Think about this.

We are all one.

There are no distinctions.

Imagine if we, as Christians, stopped making distinctions between people.

Imagine we stopped distinguishing between people based on color of skin or national origin or citizenship.

Imagine we stopped distinguishing between classes.

Imagine we stopped distinguishing between genders.

Imagine we valued each member of the body of Christ equally - both in and out of church activities.

Imagine we supported each member fully, and didn't distinguish based on where one came from, what kind of work one did, or what gender role(s) one fit.

Imagine we took this idea further and applied it to all of humanity.

Just imagine.
   

It's Monday morning and time to head back to work. Well, it's time for some of us.

But not for Susan Stanton. Fired from her job as city manager of Largo, Florida after announcing she was transitioning from living as male to living as female, her latest bid for employment hasn't panned out either.

Such is the body politic, which has a tendency to consume its own pieces. Surely the church is better.

Alas, no. Marla Evans has more free time on Sundays, now that her church has told her to stop coming to play guitar (for which she was paid) and to stop volunteering to teach Sunday School. This even though Marla never showed up at church as Marla - always as her pre-transition identity as Mark. The church found out she was transgender because of a news story.

Can we justify this separation? I've heard the phrase "sin is anything that separates us from God", but to me that's only half the picture: sin against God. What about when we separate others from us? Is that not sin against each other?

I Corinthians 12 suggests it is such a sin.

The Apostle Paul writes that we are all one body and the body is not made up of one part but of many.

The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

If that is so, how can the Body of Christ, represented by this church, say to this member of the body "I have no need of you"? Are Marla's talents diminished by her being transgender?

In fact, the members of the church are harmed by missing Marla's musical and educational talents. Again in I Corinthians 12, Paul writes:

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

And so, every part of this church - the children in Sunday School and the people in worship services - suffer because the person they knew as Mark has been severed from the body.

Every organization, every body, should guard against removing persons that offer so much to their organizations. And if any organizations should know this, it should be the churches.

references:
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070928/NEWS0119/70928016/1075
http://www.wdio.com/article/stories/S202050.shtml?cat=10335
http://rebeccaaugephd.blogspot.com/2007/09/transgendered-woman-says-she-was-asked.html

     As someone who transitioned over two decades ago, I don't have much to fear with respect to being called out on gender identity. I have much more to fear due to my identity as a lesbian in a 17 year relationship. Yet I am unwilling to use my privilege as an apparently cisgender person to grab for protection as a Lesbian while leaving behind my less privileged brothers and sisters.

     It is morally wrong for me to abandon my brothers and sisters. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus tells of two respectable leaders who chose not to help a man who was robbed, beaten, stripped naked, and left for dead. They knew they were at risk of becoming ritually unclean, requiring them to turn back to Jerusalem - a costly delay.

     Yet a Samaritan - who didn't even get along with the Jews - was so moved by the man's situation that he stopped to help and even paid to have the man stay at an inn and recover.

     We have the opportunity to stop and help - even if it causes us delay - or to walk on with the hope that the man will not suffer too much waiting for us to come back

     If it is more difficult to pass ENDA with transgender language included, what does that tell you? It tells me that more people are willing to accept discrimination against transgender people and, therefore, transgender people need this law even more than gay and Lesbian people do.

     Waiting until people don't want to discriminate before passing an anti-discrimination law makes no sense.

     Waiting until people don't want to discriminate against a class of people before passing an anti-discrimination law to protect that class makes no sense.

     I'm siding with the Samaritans on this. Walk on by at your own risk.

     We live in a very independent culture. We're big on personal responsibility, and "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps". That rugged individualism often leads to a "somebody else's problem" mentality where we don't want to get involved.

     In the fight for gay and lesbian rights, a lot of opposition has come from conservative black churches. Indeed, many black men will not identify as gay or bisexual, although they have sex with other men "on the down-low". So for black men who have sex with men, there is a cultural tearing between fighting for their equal rights as African Americans and fighting for their rights as men who have sex with men (MSM).

     And when Human Rights Campaign (HRC) stood up for the black students in Jena, Louisiana, many gay and lesbian people shouted "this is not our fight".

     Now, due to the backlash from conservative groups, Congress is removing protection for transgender people from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). So do I support this as a Lesbian, knowing that I will be protected from being fired or evicted based only on my sexual orientation? Or do I reject this because it I can still be fired or evicted because of a transition I made two decades ago?

     For me, this is not an academic argument. It's a choice between some protection and "all or nothing". When ENDA was first proposed, HRC actively worked to exclude protection for transgender persons, with a promise to revisit the issue later to include us. They have since come to support inclusion.

     It's easy to say "at least we'll get some protection" and cut off a segment of our population. After all, it's not really a loss to transgender people: we don't have protection now anyway! Yet the more we divide ourselves up into smaller and smaller groups, the weaker we become. Should there be separate gay employment and lesbian employment? What about bisexuals - when they're in straight relationships, they're already part of the majority! What about the straight-looking straight-acting folks - they can "pass", so why should they support leathermen and bulldykes?

     One of the consistent themes of the Bible has to do with how we treat our brothers, sisters, and neighbors. In the Bible, people are constantly looking for a way to lop off a group of people. For example, the priests and scribes wanted to not have to worry about foreigners, tax collectors, prostitutes, and the other unclean.  Yet Jesus pointed out that everyone is a neighbor. Paul pointed out that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. We are all of the same flesh - all human, and we cannot have one of us suffer without it affecting the rest of us.

     It's not just the body of Christ, it's the family of humanity. There is no reason to leave any of our brothers and sisters behind. There is no reason to draw a line - a division - between us.

     And when we do, we weaken the body. We become small and isolated. We become individuals with individual problems, and not a community that works together for justice for everyone.

     For me, I will not support this bill that will half-protect me and protect some of my brothers and sisters but not others. And I will not support those legislators who are willing to defer justice for some in the name of expediency.


sources:
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid49423.asp
http://transadvocate.com/enda/last-ditch-effort-the-right-wing-whopper-lies.htm
http://www.bilerico.com/2007/09/homotextual_charles_haynes.php
http://www.bilerico.com/2007/09/a_nontransgenderinclusive_enda_no_way.php
http://www.gendertalk.com/?q=node/239