It is with great sadness, and, I must admit, some anger...I write this blog today...a blog I wish like hell I did not feel like I had to write, but here we go...again. I can only hope what I say here doesn’t go against some GODLY RULE here somewhere...which, in this case, would serve to shut me down. So, to begin, I am going to say up front...that I do NOT THINK that asking Democratic elected officials...or the Party itself...to actually stand up for what they SAY they believe — is an attack against The Democratic Party...or any Democratic Officials. This is where I am afraid I will run into some GODLY RULE and be shut down...because Goddess knows, NOBODY wants to hear things from the Trans Perspective. So, let me start with a quote directly out of the National Democratic Party Platform:
Protecting Americans’ Civil Rights Democrats are committed to ending discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, language, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability status.
and one more:
Protecting LGBTQ+ Rights Democrats applaud this year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that made clear that employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity violates the law, but we know we still have work to do to ensure LGBTQ+ people are treated equally under the law and in our society. We will fight to enact the Equality Act and at last outlaw discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in housing, public accommodations, access to credit, education, jury service, and federal programs. We will work to ensure LGBTQ+ people are not discriminated against when seeking to adopt or foster children, protect LGBTQ+ children from bullying and assault, and guarantee transgender students’ access to facilities based on their gender identity. (BOLDING MINE)
Now, I will also post the Preamble to the North Carolina Democratic Party’s Plan Of Organization:
North Carolina Democratic Party Plan of Organization As Amended February 29, 2020 PREAMBLE We, the members of the North Carolina Democratic Party, in order to make more effective the principles of our Party, to embrace and serve all peoples of our Party without regard to race, age, gender, color, creed, national origin, religion, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, gender identity, economic status, or physical disability (hereinafter referred to as “status”), to insure the blessings of liberty and equal opportunity, and to work together for the welfare and happiness of all citizens, do hereby adopt and establish this Plan of Organization. (BOLDING IN PREAMBLE IS MINE)
Seems pretty clear the Democratic Party purports to support transgender people...and our rights to live with dignity...without discrimination or interference...right? If only the reality matched the words!! Recently, in the COVID Relief Act, Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, cosponsored by Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina...introduced an Amendment, which, fortunately, did not pass. Amendment 952 would have prevented transgender students from playing on school sports teams that match their identified and lived gender. By the way, Mississippi, separately, passed such a law...but this would have made it nationwide. AND SENATOR JOE MANCHIN (D-SUPPOSEDLY) VOTED FOR THE AMENDMENT!! Now, firstly, this Amendment has NOTHING to do with COVID relief...so I don’t want to hear GOP whining about things Democrats put into the bill...when they try to hide a direct attack against my community into a must-pass bill! Of course, for an Amendment to get incorporated into a bill like that, it takes 60 votes...and this was never going to get sixty votes. So….WHY would Joe Manchin vote for such an Amendment, particularly when he has stated allyship with my community in the past?? For the very reason that he knew it was not going to pass...and he could use it to play kabuki theatre in West Virginia!! Now, I have just about HAD IT...with politicians who believe my community’s civil rights to live our lives with dignity, and without undue interference or discrimination — are negotiable or expendable in the name of political expediency...or anything else for that matter! It gets worse. The National Democratic Party has done NOTHING to address this vote by Senator Manchin...to essentially toss overboard, a community that is a core constituency of the Democratic Party coalition, and a community the Party purports to support!! NOT A PEEP out of anyone! And that is what makes it worse. Can you just IMAGINE….if a Democratic Senator were to vote for something to make the lives of immigrants more difficult...or to make the lives of BLM more difficult? It would take NO TIME AT ALL for the Party to speak out against that….but we’ll never know, because no Democratic elected official would even THINK of doing something like that!! So...it would seem...ONLY US “ICKY TRANS” are expendable. Yeah, the Party supports us...until they have to actually stick their neck out...then we get tossed overboard, with nary a blink of an eye. As soon as it becomes politically expedient...for elected officials in “tough” Districts or states...we trans are tossed overboard — and nobody says a word! Now, for full disclosure, I am a Party Official of the NC Democratic Party. I am the Chair of the Transgender Political Caucus of the NCDP (the first such Caucus in the nation recognized by a statewide major political Party) Now...ask yourself...how am I...as the Chair of the Trans Caucus...to speak to my trans friends who are Unaffiliated (many of them are) and ask them to join the Democratic Party….when they see what Joe Manchin just did...and they see the lack of response to that action from the Party? When they see that we are expendable? When they see that the Party gives a “pass” to legislators in “tough” Districts or states...to actively attack our community? To that end, I am asking the Party to issue an appropriate response. And this is where bad gets even worse. This incident occurred AFTER my Precinct Organizational Meeting...and so, of course, I did not advance a Resolution on it through my own Precinct. By the way, I was re-elected Chair — and at the end of my term in 2023, I will have served five years in this capacity. I was also the first openly-trans Precinct Chair in the history of Wake County, NC when I was first elected in 2018, to fill the unexpired term of my predecessor. I was then elected for my own full term in 2019, and again, just a couple weeks ago. SO...I wrote a Resolution about this, and asked other Precincts in my County...who did not yet have their Meetings...to advance the Resolution through their Precincts...so that it would be on the agenda at County Convention...and was refused. Because they do not want to speak up against Joe Manchin! But apparently, attacking my community in order to play kabuki theatre is just fine!! My Resolution appears below:
Resolution: Reaffirmation of Commitment to Transgender Rights WHEREAS, Transgender people are, as a community, a valued member of the Democratic Party coalition and WHEREAS, this is affirmed in the Preamble to the NCDP POO as well as the National Party Platform and WHEREAS, transgender people and their rights have historically been sacrificed in the name of political expediency and WHEREAS, Amendment 952 to the COVID Relief Act, which, if passed, would have created a nationwide ban on transgender participation in school sports in their identified and lived gender and WHEREAS, Sen. Joe Manchin, who has publicly claimed allyship with the LGBTQ+ community in the past, nevertheless voted for this Amendment and WHEREAS, this is a direct attack on the rights of the transgender community that the State and National Party holds to affirm and support, BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the NC Democratic Party publicly issue a statement strongly urging Sen. Manchin to support and affirm transgender people's rights in the future, and a statement further affirming the Party's support of the rights of transgender people to live their lives without interference or discrimination BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the NC Democratic Party will urge the National Democratic Party to make similar statements.
Resolution: Reaffirmation of Commitment to Transgender Rights
WHEREAS, Transgender people are, as a community, a valued member of the Democratic Party coalition and
WHEREAS, this is affirmed in the Preamble to the NCDP POO as well as the National Party Platform and
WHEREAS, transgender people and their rights have historically been sacrificed in the name of political expediency and
WHEREAS, Amendment 952 to the COVID Relief Act, which, if passed, would have created a nationwide ban on transgender participation in school sports in their identified and lived gender and
WHEREAS, Sen. Joe Manchin, who has publicly claimed allyship with the LGBTQ+ community in the past, nevertheless voted for this Amendment and
WHEREAS, this is a direct attack on the rights of the transgender community that the State and National Party holds to affirm and support,
BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the NC Democratic Party publicly issue a statement strongly urging Sen. Manchin to support and affirm transgender people's rights in the future, and a statement further affirming the Party's support of the rights of transgender people to live their lives without interference or discrimination
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the NC Democratic Party will urge the National Democratic Party to make similar statements.
In effect...all I wish here...is to hold my Party accountable to stand behind us...as they state they do in their very foundational documents!! And I have asked them to reaffirm their commitment to the rights of transgender people. Yet, my Party has refused. And so...I am left to stand alone, once again. It isn’t the first time I have had to do this, and I doubt it will be my last...but I shall have to stand alone, at County Convention, and bring this Resolution from the floor. The very fact that I have to do that….to be heard at all...speaks to the necessity of the Resolution’s passage. ANY OTHER MINORITY...would not have to go through this! Nobody in our Party would THINK to vote for, say, a law allowing motorists to run over BLM protesters...or a law allowing ICE to detain immigrants indefinitely...and if any ever DID...they would be immediately called out for it. But for the trans….nothing! And you all still wonder WHY I feel like nobody TRULY cares about us trans… I only hope this is not my last Diary, because I may have broken some rule about not criticizing Democrats...but, again, I contend that holding my Party accountable, and asking that they live by the words in their own foundational documents, concerning support for my community...does not constitute an attack!
UPDATE: Since I posted this, The Wake County Democratic Party, Precinct 16-09 (Garner High) decided to go ahead and pass my Resolution, meaning it will now appear on the Agenda, so I will no longer be required to introduce it from the floor. I am grateful for the support of this Precinct in this matter...perhaps there is some hope!!
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