Comment regarding Riversides Proclamation (posted below)
"I'm a cis- bi- ally of Trans folks. I'm wondering about the
proclamation as the LGBTQ DOR rather than TDOR. Do you think adding the LGBQ
diminishes the focus on Trans violence issues? Can you share any history as to
how/why the city chose to proclaim it that way? I have some Trans friends who
are, I think understandably, upset with it. Thank you--Joe Reilly"
No, actually I think
expanding the scope supports these issues because it brings them out into the
open where they ought to be – there is no diminishing of the real issues. Being
a victim of violence, of bullying and other hate crimes is not something limited
to Trans folks. These things happen to Gays, to Women, to people of color, to
anyone seen as different and so even with statistics that are horrible with
respect to Trans folks we can’t be exclusive. We don’t get to stand totally
apart if we want to integrate back into society as equals. We have to reach out
to others and support them if we want them to do the same for us.
Building community is
what we are trying to accomplish here in Riverside and it must include everyone
or it will fail. To be included means we have to learn to be inclusive and we Trans
folks have to initiate it because right now we are seen as the bottom level of
humanity by many. Maybe we will be the ones to start resolving it IF we don’t
shut others out in the process, even if some of them have done it to us. Change
can, must, start with us. We have to
learn to share our special days and work through our issues with others who have
similar experiences. There are not enough days in the year to give every
identity their own special day. What we need to be doing is merging together
with others to put an end to the problem of bullying and hate crimes and
violence at the level of it being a human problem rather than a Trans only
issue.
Many cities have
established LGBT centers with lots of services and groups and outreach to
specific target groups like Trans and Homeless youth & etc., but Riverside
has no such thing other than one privately funded shelter that serves LGBT
youth under 17. The only sense of established “community” is a downtown coffee
house and a couple gay bars. If the facts
I have been given by our Human Relations Commission are correct then this
proclamation is the very first City acknowledgement of anyone in the LGBT
spectrum and as such we—a diverse group of Trans and LGB activists and CIS
allies—agreed that it would be counterproductive to take this first crumb from
the City and assign it exclusively to just one segment of the spectrum when we
have many Gay and Lesbian folk and others who have struggled for
acknowledgement here for 30, 40 or more years. I have personally spent over 8
years working towards this end and have put out call after call in support
groups, on-line forums and on Facebook for trans people to join me in this work
but only a tiny handful have taken part, so out of necessity I turned to our long-time
LGB and CIS allies and our progressive Churches. Without them we would not have
held any of our 4 annual Trans Days of Remembrance, we would not have been able
to host an entire week of Trans Awareness events Nov 17th -23rd
here this year, and we would have no services at all here for trans folks so we
must not and will not throw our allies under the bus now.
Were this LA or Palm
Springs, San Diego, San Francisco or even San Luis Obispo there would already
be an LGBT establishment such as these cities have and we would have been able
to handle this proclamation differently. However because there is minimal LGBT
establishment here we have to have something to build upon in order to
establish it in a lasting way. Mostly the “community” here is just little
splinter groups and factions in which everyone nitpicks each other when we try
to work together. In fact every time one of these groups tries to get investors
for a project or to establish an LGBT center here other factions start
undermining the effort and being divisive, so no one invests in our
“community”. Mark Takano our Congressman is openly gay but he has distanced
himself from the LGBT community here because it is so unstable and immature. Therefore
we asked that LGBT Day of Remembrance be proclaimed annually on Nov 21st
because we still wish to honor and respect the Trans people of the world on the
20th and stand with them while trying to establish a sense of common
ground for growth here. We see this as expanding rather than diminishing the
impact of TDoR observances.
With this proclamation
coming from the City it was our hope that it would be a foundation upon which
to start uniting fragmentary groups back together without all the attendant
sniping of the past, but already trans people who don’t seem to grasp the
bigger situation are sniping and complaining and undermining the very historic
significance of this accomplishment. So, no, I don’t think your trans friends’ upset
is understandable at all. I’m sure I will get flak for saying this but I
believe it is the ones complaining and grumbling who need to change, to stop
being so exclusive of others in their thinking, to work with others instead of
pushing their it’s-our-day-and-ours-only kind of agenda at the rest of us gender
and sexually diverse folk. The Trans “community” will never come into its own
until we accept being equal with others that are not Trans because otherwise we
continue teaching people that some are special and others not, and that just
happens to be the root of the entire problem! As humans we should be working to
end the problems common to humans. Anything less is futile in my opinion.
This is the released version of the Proclamation with the corrected date. The first issue with the 20th on it was an error.
