Letters

CITYBEAT READERS SPEAK OUT

The Right Thing to Do

Stonewall Cincinnati has always assumed a leadership role in educating our members, the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community, and the larger non-gay community regarding issues that affect our lives and our ability to participate, on an equal basis, in the political process. We welcome this opportunity to respond to Eric Hunter's column "Transgendered Agenda Rides Gay-Rights Coattails" (issue of Sept. 4-10) and to address an issue that even well-meaning individuals may find difficult to understand or may simply not have thought about at all -- why gay/lesbian rights organizations should be transgender-inclusive and fight for legal protection against discrimination for transgendered people.

Hunter writes, "If I as a gay man suffer discrimination, I have been discriminated upon on the basis of my sexual orientation. If a transgendered person is discriminated against, she or he has been discriminated upon on the basis of his or her gender." Discrimination against lesbians and gays is more complex than Hunter's statement indicates. Gay, lesbian and bisexual people experience discrimination in many different ways and for many different reasons -- not only because of their sexuality, but also because of their gender identity. Many of the actions and words associated with gay-bashing and homophobia are directed at gays and lesbians because of how they present their gender, not who they choose as partners. If I am called a "f*cking dyke" walking down the street alone, the person yelling it is reacting to the way I look, not who they think I sleep with.

Far from being in a separate category from sexual orientation and preference, gender and gender perception have everything to do with homophobia and discrimination. To fail to see this connection and in it a reason why gay/lesbian rights organizations should be transgender-inclusive is to create a false category in which being gay is solely about affectional and sexual relationships independent of gender identity.

While some gays and lesbians may try to separate themselves from transgendered people, those who discriminate against us certainly do not. Gabriel Rotello writes in a column for The Advocate ("Last Word," Dec. 10, 1996): "Whether we face prejudice for being too butch or too femme or for being cross-dressers or androgynes or for being perceived as gay or lesbian, we are all ultimately disliked for the same reason: transgressing our expected gender roles. ... All homophobes are first and foremost Ôtransphobes.' "

Hunter states in his column, "I am not as much of an all-for-one person as I thought or wish I were. As a gay person, am I willing to give up legal protection in the Human Rights Ordinance for myself because of transgender inclusion? No." This statement is a tribute to the success of the divide-and-conquer technique used by opponents of civil rights throughout history. If we can be convinced that the rights of "others" is not an issue we need to be concerned with, then we will indeed remain a minority.

Gay and lesbian citizens make up 8-14 percent of the overall population. Not all of them vote. The fundamentalist right makes up 25 percent of the voting public. If we focus on the narrow issue of lesbian and gay rights, we will be outvoted every time. We need the votes of straight people, whose reason for voting for gay rights is social justice, not their own experience of discrimination. If our concern is human rights, it does not stop at the doorstep of a self-enclosed gay/lesbian/ bisexual community. As Urvashi Vaid writes in Virtual Equality, "Gay people do not fight for the freedom to live in a lavender bubble, but in a more just society."

Referring to the inclusion of transgendered citizens in protections offered under the city's Human Rights Ordinance, attorney Scott Greenwood is quoted as saying, "In brute political terms there isn't the political necessity even if in fact it is the right thing to do." There is no political necessity for any community to protect transgendered people from discrimination, and yet some communities have. In July, the city council of Evanston, Ill., voted unanimously to add transgenderd individuals as a protected class to their Human Rights Ordinance.

For 15 years Stonewall Cincinnati has practiced value-based politics. Our mission is to assure equality for all people, not only those who are lesbian, gay or bisexual. Inclusion of transgendered people in the definition of sexual orientation is "the right thing to do" whether it is politically necessary or not.

Political expediency is not in the best interest of our community, and compromising the basic values of our organization would dishonor Stonewall Cincinnati's history of leadership and integrity.

We thank CityBeat for its continued coverage of gay issues.

-- Lycette Nelson, Executive Director, Stonewall Cincinnati
Barry Grossheim, Former Acting Executive Director, Stonewall Cincinnati

Correction

The article "School Funding After the Tax Hike" (issue of Aug. 28-Sept. 3) said that Hamilton County and city of Cincinnati efforts to contribute $5 million each to Cincinnati Public Schools are the result of a shortfall in CPS funding because of the 1996 stadium sales tax hike. In fact, a portion of the sales tax hike has been funding schools for the past year.

CityBeat, Vol. 3, Issue 43; September 11-17, 1997