Race matters in the trans community.
Note that much of the squawking in defense of this unjust bill is coming from predominately white transpeople while the opposition has been a multicultural bunch. The interesting point is this drama which will hopefully be coming to a close with the end of the Maryland legislative session on midnight on April 11 is who you're not hearing from in this debate.
It's interesting to note that Maryland has a 30% African American population, but yet the voices of Black transpeople have been marginalized, swamped and silenced by the EQ MD spin team..
Note when Sandy Rawls of TransUnited initially supported the bill, how quickly EQ MD plastered her face and image all over their website and trumpeted it as a win all over the Net . But when she discovered a few days afterward the bill didn't have public accommodations language and would be worthless without it at the advice of attorneys she consulted, she withdrew her organization's support.
Ever since then EQ MD hasn't even bothered to try to gain support in the Black trans community because of the opposition they ran into at a town hall meeting in Baltimore shortly thereafter or have used deceptive means to do so.
Interesting that the organization that represents Black trans Marylanders now that Sandy withdrew support has been characterized by white trans people on the EQ MD side as 'not representing all trans people', 'just an Internet or Facebook page' or 'small'
It's why I and Ashley Love have our noses stuck in this business at the invitation of the Trans Maryland folks fighting this bill. Doesn't matter whether we live in New York or Houston, it IS our business when some misguided GL peeps desperate for a legislative win at any cost or to pad their resumes and well to do vanilla trans supporters desperate to have ANY trans coverage encoded into law settle for a piss poor bill that doesn't fix the problems that ail all of us.
And guess who that lack of PA language is disproportionately going to impact? The transpeople who look like me.
The white transfolks furiously spinning to defend EQ MD's shady actions will just go on their merry way high fiving each other if this bill goes through, sipping champagne and appletinis at the next HRC Washington dinner or EQ Maryland fundraiser because that's how they roll.
As Dr. Dana Beyer said on her FB page during one of those heated debates on the bill stated, "I don't need those protections."
Still sniffing that vanilla flavored arrogance, huh? In the meantime the Black trans community in Maryland will be grappling with the toxic waste of transphobic intolerance anytime they step out of Baltimore or Montgomery County that HB 235 will be worthless to address because of the lack of public accommodations language that Dr. Dana, the Mara's and the EQ MD Civil Rights Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight cut out of the bill.
They think their white privilege and cash flow will protect them from trans discrimination, but it won't.
Marylander Frederick Douglass said it best a century ago, and it bears repeating. 'The destiny of the colored American is the destiny of America.
Just as that is true for the country, that is true for the TBLG community as well. If the Black trans community isn't healthy, then the trans community and the TBLG community at large won't be healthy either..
The predominately white staff of Equality Maryland and their trans sympathizers have either forgotten that point or are not caring one bit about us unless they need melanin in a photo op.
And that's sad and pathetically selfish of them..
