Update: Americablog is reporting this:
The other announcement Obama will be making is a non-discrimination "something." Basically, he's going to add "gender identity" (i.e., transgender persons) to the existing federal non-discrimination policy that already covers gay people, and even Bill Clinton adopted the initial non-discrimination policy in the 1990s. And even George Bush left the policy in place. So, yes, this is a small step forward, but very small indeed.
I haven't seen anyone else report this -- I hope it's true, but I'm not holding my breath.
~~Autumn~~
Let me remind my peers about Dallas Principle numbers 1 and 2: 
1.Full civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals must be enacted now. Delay and excuses are no longer acceptable.
2.We will not leave any part of our community behind.
So to my lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender activists, and to the President, let me say this one word about the executive memorandum on federal benefits for domestic partners that will be signed today: "More."
Remember Diane Schroer? I do. She's the 25-year Army veteran who did not get a job at the Library of Congress specifically because she was going to transition from male to female. An executive order from the Obama Administration could fix that issue so it didn't happen again -- but we have yet to see such an executive order.
With news that the today will see many domestic partnership benefits awarded to lesbian, gay, and bisexual couples by presidential fiat, I'm left wondering about transgender federal employment protections that could be added quickly with another executive order.
As usual, the transgender subcommunity of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community is seeing their basic civil rights protections take secondary importance to marriage equality and domestic partnership issues. I get it; there are lots more LGB people than there are T people. And, I get that this current kerfuffle over the Department of Justice's defense of DOMA brief needs to be addressed by an action that directly looks at federal benefits for lesbian, gay, and bisexual couples.
However, I also get that a new executive order could provide the exact same protections based on gender identity and expression that a Clinton era executive order provides based on sexual orientation. I also know that the LGBT community civil rights groups would welcome this kind of executive order. I also understand this kind of executive order would take almost no direct effort except copying and pasting the executive order that gives federal protections based on sexual orientation, and substituting the words gender identity and expression for sexual orientation.
As a candidate, President Obama said this:
The transgendered community has to be protected. I just don't have any tolerance for that sort of intolerance. And I think we need to legislate aggressively to protect them.
So to my activist community, I ask this: Will there be an effort to press for basic federal employment protections based on gender identity and expression "now"? To President Obama's administration, I ask this: When will we see an executive order granting federal employment protections based on gender idenity and expression?
If not "now" -- if not today -- when?
Let us leave no community behind. My transgender brothers and sisters deserve no less than the same federal employment protections as lesbian, gay, and bisexual federal employees -- and this can be done by Presidential fiat.
I leave our progressive, civil rights, and LGBT activists with this thought by Martin Luther King Jr.:
The time is always right to do what is right.
Mr. President, while signing this presidential memorandum on domestic partner benefits, remember you can do more for the LGBT community with executive orders. Your next presidential order should be regarding federal employment protections for transgender people. It should be submitted and signed as close to now as possible.
Transgender people are Americans too. |
