Divide and Conquer the TGLB

My "Buckeye State" coverage continues today in Cyrsti's Condo as I read about this tactic going on in my hometown and perhaps others called the wedge. This comes from my hometown Springfield, Ohio Equality Group:

"Ugly strategies of division die hard in Springfield. When ES brought their message of equality to city commission meetings, you could see some members scratching their heads. Why were white evangelical pastors suddenly preoccupied by African-American civil rights when these conservative leaders weren't visibly worried about our community's racial tensions on the other 364 days of the year? Other communities have seen this odd behavior too, and some language leaked from the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage (NOM) clarifies the confusion.

 Under a plan called "Not a Civil Right," NOM explains "the strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between blacks and gays." How do they do this? Trick LGBT advocates into comparing their trials to the African-American struggle for civil rights--even to the point of suggesting "civil rights" is an expression that gay folks would never in good conscience use if they didn't want to compare themselves to African-Americans. (Forget for the moment that women, ethnic groups, veterans, people with disabilities, and, yes, religious folks of all stripes also have civil rights.)"

Yes, I know you didn't see any mention of transgender women or men in this post. I will give Equality Springfield a break on this because quite possibly I'm the only transgender person most of them have ever seen and I have only been to one meeting. My second will be tonight.

It's also interesting to note that Springfield is one the last remaining towns of any size in Ohio still resisting insuring civil rights to all it's citizens and the good old "Tea Party" political folks had a hand in planting some of this plan. Remember them? Wasn't their original agenda a fiscally responsible government?

All of this makes the meeting tonight extra interesting in that a Tea Party backed candidate is running for a key city commission spot this fall. Bring on the fun!

**If you live in the area and would like to contact Equality Springfield, here is some relevant info:
Equality Springfield P.O. Box 506 Springfield, OH 45501-0506

I Got A Wedgie

As I have written here in Cyrsti's Condo, this week is yet another step towards my goal of slamming the door on my former life...and paying forward the best I can.

Just to catch you up a bit, I am attempting to step up and out in my hometown to do what I can to further TLGB goals. Last night was a public meeting in City Council Chamber outlining the local Springfield (Ohio) Equality Group goals.  The location of the meeting and who was going to be there gave me tons of angst. For the first time ever I was going face to face as a trans woman with a veritable who's who of the leaders of the place I was born and active in for most of my life.

As with what normally happens with me, I said to hell with it-hitched up my big girl panties and headed to the meeting. In the process, I gave myself one of the bigger wedgies I have had for a while.

I have my own little motivation mental speech in situations such as this which basically says "nothing is as good or as bad as it seems". Last night was no exception.  Upon arrival, all the good seats close to the door were taken - of course and I had to walk around the entire room to find a seat. For the most part, it didn't matter. I garnered very little attention, found a seat and fidgeted around until I fixed my wedgie. It seemed I was mostly invisible with the general public in the room and totally transparent to the local Equality organizers. They are as exclusive as the Pentagon and their speaker never uttered the transgender word. But hey I'm used to that from the male gay community and the presentation got better.

The Equality Ohio speaker who spoke next, was truly inclusive to all- including we invisible transgender people in the room and she did explain the upcoming  huge discrimination vote in the Ohio legislature. She specifically said it does include gender identification.

As far as the parent group goes here, I am now a paid member and will take my crusade of one to the general membership meeting this coming Thursday. So this isn't over for me.

Two final positives were presentations by a youth group leader who (yes) included trans women and trans men in her group discussions and a minister who spoke to religious acceptance vs tolerance in a place of worship.

Look, in no way do I think this will ever end in my life-for me. But I continue to feel the youth of our culture will change my generation's ignorance.

Now I have to do something about those pesky wedgies!