Saturday I plan on attending an elegant event thus the fashion lay out. I purchased the black off the shoulder cocktail dress hoping an event would come along. The shoes are equally elegant and I hope to make an entrance/statement. The event, Palm Beach HRC's Winter FĂȘte. I want HRC Palm Beach to know that, we the transgender, are a force to reckon with.
I have had a love/hate relationship with HRC. In case you do not know this alphabetic soup acronym, it stands for the Human Rights Campaign. HRC describes itself this way:
The Human Rights Campaign represents a force of more than 1.5 million members and supporters nationwide. As the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer civil rights organization, HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are ensured of their basic equal rights, and can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.
What is not to love? However, they have not always supported the transgender community and have been willing to throw us under the bus when the going got political. This goes back to 2007 when HRC took a stance on a version of Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which at the time included sexual orientation as a protected category but not gender identity or expression. HRC stood virtually alone among LGBT civil rights organizations in not denouncing a non-inclusive version of ENDA. Source Wikipedia.
I was at the 2007 Southern Comfort Convention (SCC) when Joe Solmonese, then president of HRC, spoke before a crowd of approximately 900 trans people. He promised, "Going forward, HRC would support only trans-inclusive legislation". The promise did not hold up long. Ten days later HRC went weak again in neither supporting nor opposing the non-inclusive version of ENDA, being promoted in Congress by then Rep. Barney Frank. Transgender folks lost an ally in a battle already lost, when support would have gone far.
HRC does seem to have progressed past this misstep. There is much on their web site that gives us lip service. There is no question that we are all going to face challenges for the next four years. The in-coming administration is hell bent of rolling back progress and we are going to need all the support we can find.
HRC prove yourself.
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