LGBT Civil Rights Orgs' Leadership Give Forecasts For LGBT Civil Rights In The Obama Era

by: Autumn Sandeen

Fri Nov 14, 2008 at 22:30:00 PM EST

One thing I need to correct, though: Everyone I interviewed did answer the question on the ability to pass a trans-inclusive ENDA. Because the final formatting of the interview for print was under space constraints, I did not include every answer from every person. However, as I noted at the end of the piece, the full transcripts of the interviews would be posted online.

Right now all of them are posted, with the exception of Patrick Sammon (I'm having some technical problems getting that interview fully transcribed, so my apologies), with links on the Metro Weekly home page (www.metroweekly.com).

I just want to make sure that if they get criticized it's for something they actually did (or didn't) say!

Well, ummm...Yeah. I guessed, and I guessed wrong. My apologies folk, especially to the E.D.'s of the four orgs in question.
~~Autumn Sandeen~~
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I got an DC's Metro Weekly come a Q&A with a number of LGBT Civil Rights organizations' Executive Directors. Some of the questions from MW were:

- From your perspective, what is the most immediate effect of the presidential election on the GLBT community?

- Since the 1990s, a small number of GLBT issues have consistently emerged at the federal legislative level: ''Don't Ask, Don't Tell'', ENDA, partner immigration, hate crimes and marriage equality. With a Democratic Congress and president, which of those issues do you believe should be prioritized?

- How do you believe the landscape will change for GLBT federal workers under the new administration? Will Obama's pledge to extend domestic-partner benefits to federal workers come through?

And, the one I'm really interested in:

- Will Congress be able to pass a trans-inclusive ENDA?

Not a surprise in one sense...only 3 of the 7 executive directors that answered any of the questions for this survey were quoted answering that particular ENDA question at all -- and 1 of those 3 quoted as answering that question was Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE).

I'll hazard a guess as to why only 3 of 7 were quoted: My guess would be that the 4 of the 7 orgs that didn't answer that question either on their survey because they either didn't want to be on record on this subject, or didn't have very positive thoughts on the subject.

Of course, 1 of the 7 organizations whose executive director's answered questions for MW but didn't have an answer for the ENDA question was the soon to be the soon ex-executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, Patrick  Sammon. So, there's no surprise that there's no trans-positive statement coming from him -- I don't recall ever seeing a trans-positive statement from his organization.

Call me a today's pessimist on a fully inclusive ENDA for the 111th Congress. I hope it's just my angst over the No On Prop 8 campaign failing to win on election day that's fueling today's pessimism on my part -- hopefully, I'll be more optimistic on ENDA during 2009/2010's Congress.