Our favorite Astroturfed trans rights org, Gender Rights Maryland added some POC's to their board of directors a few days ago. Joining the previously all white well to do trans founders of GRMD's inaugural board are Mark McLaurin, Political Director of SEIU Local 500, Rev. Meredith Moise, and Bonnita Spikes, Criminal Justice chair of the Maryland NAACP.While the diversity was sorely needed, what's problematic is that they have joined an organization founded by the same white trans people who were all too willing along with the dying Equality Maryland to sell out the rest of the trans community for their own personal comfort over the unjust HB 235 that didn't have public accommodations language in it.
Congratulations*, you added POC's to your vanilla flavored board. There's still one major problem with it. All the POC's in question are cis people. They are NOT trans people of color.
Mark is an ally, but he is not trans. Bonnita Spikes and Rev. Moise are allies. Bonnita is the mother of a transwoman. Still doesn't change the fact they are not transwomen like Sandy Rawls and do not know what it is like to walk in our pumps as African American transwomen.
Sandy Rawls does. Sandy has the respect of the political establishment, the African American community and the African American trans community in Maryland even if y'all do hate her. When you peeps were on the EQMD board trumpeting her initial support of the unjust bill y'all were shameless in promoting it. But when she saw through the BS and withdrew Trans United's support now you want to make her persona non grata?
Interesting.
If you GRMD peeps were serious about representing the viewpoints of transpeople of color, you would have found transpeople of color for your board. But oh yes, there's that stigma of you founders being attached to the losing side of the HB 235 mess and being the trans shills for that jacked up legislation that impacts your ability to do that.
They aren't experiencing on a daily basis what we have to deal with as trans people of African descent, nor do they see from our perspective the issues that we chocolate trans people feel need to be covered in any trans civil rights law.that affects our community.
We aren't kidding about Black trans representation on boards that truly represents our legitimate demands as African American transpeople. Putting a Black face on a board and expecting us to jump up and down about while y'all still do the same old same old vanilla flavored BS ain't gonna cut it in the 2K10's and beyond.
If Black transpeople with broadbased ties to and knowledge of the issues that affect the African American trans community aren't sitting on the boards of trans organizations, or the Black trans rep you do get is still pimping an agenda that works more for the white trans community than ours, your organization is not going to get our support.
So once again, even with POC's on the board, the wealthy white trans perspective of incrementalism on trans rights, which has repeatedly failed and you pimped in the last failed legislative session, will prevail.
Nice try, GRMD.
