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According to Vice President Joe Biden, transgender issues are “the civil rights issue of our time.”
There is a reason Trans United For Obama exists. The Obama administration has been a pro-trans issue administration.
This is in stark contrast to when Mitt Romney was the governor of Massachusetts when he was notably transphobic and biphobic, as well as not being pro-LGBT regarding school bullying and marriage equality.
When I voted early last week, I voted pro-LGBT…pro-transgender. I refuse to vote against my own self interest in the manner that GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans recommend LGBT people do.
Trans people have a stark choice. The smart transgender vote is for President Obama.
As voter identification laws create unique problems for transgender voters, trans people need to study up on the National Center for Transgender Equality’s resources for Voting While Trans to make sure their votes are taken and counted.
13 Comments
Joe Biden’s remarks were very heartening. One hopes he carries that message into the next Administration. We need lots more work, opening hearts and minds.
Lack of empathy, understanding, compassion, and open mindedness.
I have never had trouble voting. The people at both polling places I’ve used since my transition happened all of those years ago have been courteous and helpful. And lest you get the idea that I live in the heart of Tolerance, I’m talking about central and south central Texas. Never had a problem, not one. I voted yesterday and had a very pleasant conversation with two of the poll workers about turnout while I was waiting for a booth.
Good for you, and props to those local voting officials who were both courteous and helpful. That said, voting rights should not depend on the kindness of strangers (so to speak).
Thanks for this diary, Autumn.
The civil rights issue of our time – instigated by the GWOT and the expansion of a totalitarian police state – is extraordinary rendition, no speedy trial by jury and no habeus corpus.
This affects all Americans. Biden has deflected this enormous issue with his statement.
The discrimination and mistreatment of Transexuals is wrong and it presents a worthwhile and important civil rights issue.
But Biden pulled a fast one. He and the Obama Admin have adopted the worst of Dubya/Cheney Civil Rights Destruction and expanded it.
Oh, I’m fully with you. It shouldn’t be random or case by case. Just relating my own experiences.
Besides, you enjoy full civil rights and participation in society. Why the hell should you care about a couple of people who can’t get jobs or housing or services or credit or fair treatment by police…….? It’s no skin off your teeth, right? Maybe if you got your skull fractured by a brick for walking to the convenience store and then got arrested for having your skull fractured by a brick, you might see that your little nightmare scenario has been all too real for a lot of us for like, fucking ever. Is it meaningless to you then that the first Vice President of the United States EVER threw a bone to transgendered Americans? I share some of your concerns but trolling this thread with them is reprehensible. Just my .02.
Good day!
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The critical civil rights issue is still what it was when I was sitting in in 1961: slavery. Full disclosure: one of my best professional friends is trans-gendered. But the trans-gendered are quantitatvely small potatoes compared with the descendants of slaves who still bear the cross of that condition. There is a huge amount of injustice in this word, but some injustices are bigger than others.
Civil Rights are the purview of government. How a government functions affects the execution, understanding and protection of Civil Rights. If I government has decided that it does not need to adhere to the rule of law, that it can exist above it, that it IS in fact the law, then it has no legal obligation to be concerned with Civil Rights. A government that dispenses with the rule of law has entirely committed itself to ignoring Civil Rights—shit, that is the whole fucking point of operating outside the rule of law. Having a government that exists within the rule of law is the foundation from which all Civil Rights accrue. Without the former, there is none of the latter beyond the words that might be spoken by the Executive.
Why do we have to have a hierarchy? Why can’t we all simply stand for equal human rights for all humans?
Divide and conquer is still the tool of those who would control us, to our detriment.
Indeed. In our fear and desire for immediate self-preservation, we often imagine that the injustices visited upon us are the most egregious while disregarding the fact that the injustices that happen to us and the injustices that happen to others are cut from the same cloth.