14 Transgender DNC Delegates Is Progress, But Work Remains For Full Inclusion
With progress made, more work remains to ensure full inclusion of transgender community
This week’s 2012 Democratic National Convention proved to be a monumentally historic event for the LGBT community and the Democratic Party itself. The party platform, approved Tuesday, includes a marriage equality plank that reaffirms President Barack Obama‘s commitment to legalize same-sex marriage and combat employment discrimination against LGBT individuals. This comes almost a year after the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and several months after President Obama became the first sitting president to publicly state he is in support of same-sex marriage.
The inclusion of LGBT delegates from each state in the convention, including individuals identifying as transgender, proved to be one of the most thrilling and crucial components of the week. Following the 2008 convention, organizers passed new affirmative action rules for delegate selection in order to foster a diverse and accurate reflection of the American population. The new rules resulted in the largest LGBT delegation any convention has ever seen.
North Carolina sent its first transgender delegate in history, Janice Covington, to represent the state at this year’s convention. A victory of this magnitude cannot be overstated, particularly after North Carolinians voted to approve Amendment One — banning same-sex marriage in their constitution — Â in May. This legislation prohibited same-sex couples from receiving full marriage rights, restricting marriage between a man and a woman as the only legal union recognized in the state, and even removed legal recognition from civil unions for heterosexuals. In all, 14 transgender individuals served as delegates for their respective states at this convention.
Due largely to the progress gained by the gay and lesbian movement over the past decades, transgender individuals are slowly beginning to gain visibility as citizens are educated about non-socially normative ways of being and knowing. We can understand the extreme marginalization and social stigmas attached to transgender individuals by considering the less-than-human perception of gays and lesbians throughout the early and mid-20th century. Transgender people, too, share a history of marginalization with gays and lesbians that place them as one of the most vulnerable groups in our country.
However, individuals within the framework of the gay and lesbian movement often discount this shared disenfranchisement. In fact, I’ve had many friends that identify as gay and lesbian but embody a blatant transphobia, claiming that “our” movement is distinct and separate from “theirs.” This is extremely problematic and troubling.
So much of the rhetoric within the DNC has constructed distinct images of the “American Dream” between political parties. That is, Republicans build themselves to the “top” purely for themselves, abandoning everyone once they accomplish their personal vision of success. Democrats are portrayed as not forgetting the shoulders they stood on to get to the “top,” and helping others build themselves up after achieving success. This metaphor, while problematic, fits well within the context of inclusion of transgender individuals in the gay and lesbian movement. That is, individuals within normative society have come to understand transgender people through the lens of non-normative sexualities. While identifying as transgender doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with sexuality, the extreme marginalization gays and lesbians experienced in the past from the privileged dominant comes from the same place and the same frame of mind as transphobia.
“Transcending gender” is a very personal and complicated experience, and yet transgender individuals constantly find themselves having to put their identity into discourse for others. They are expected to compartmentalize who they are and why they are into categories, when their identity itself is a transcendence of rigid identity categories. After all, if lesbian, gay, and bisexual people don’t expect to validate why they live their lives differently than the dominant majority, why should we ever demand that explanation from anyone else?
The visibility of transgender individuals within the political process is one of the most important steps to imagining a world where ìequalityî is a real and attainable ideal. The 14 transgender delegates that attended the DNC embodied a historic moment and laid the foundation for what will be a long road to social inclusion and full legal protection. It is indeed a cause for celebration. However, it is also a reminder for gays and lesbian to not forget our fight for full inclusion and legal protection of transgender individuals merely because we are finally beginning to experience legal inclusion ourselves.
Democratic National Convention coverage provided by The New Civil Rights Movement and QNotes.
James Nichols is a contributing writer at QNotes. Established in 1986, QNotes is the leading LGBT community newspaper of North Carolina based in Charlotte.
Image:Â A rainbow flag hanging on a railing inside Time Warner Cable Arena stands out among the sea of red, white and blue. Photo Credit: David Lari/QNotes.
Make The New Civil Rights Movement your Democratic National Committee 2012 convention headquarters — read all our DNC 2012 articles here!
Enjoy this piece?
… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.
NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.
Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.
 |
Donald Trump says the day he enters the Oval Office for a second term he will end anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students implemented by the Biden administration.
Serving up a scattershot series of complaints with the hosts from the Philadelphia-based right-wing talk radio show “Kayal and Company” on Friday, Trump compared LGBTQ+ protections to a “cuckoo’s nest.”
“A lot of things don’t make sense, having to do with what they’re doing, from the border to all of the men playing in women’s sports. I mean, the world is like a cuckoo’s nest right now with what they do,” Trump declared.
One of the hosts alleged President Joe Biden has engaged in “manipulation” of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. She claimed parents now have to “pinch some pennies” to be able to afford private Christian schools for their children, to remove them from the enhancements that go into effect this summer.
“Many schools are grappling with what they’re going to do,” she said, “because as of August 1, as you know, because of Biden’s manipulation of Title IX, these kids, the school boards, have no choice, they’re meeting right now they, many of them perplexed, and they don’t know what to do, Mr. President, because they’re so upset over this that at August 1 a biological boy can change in a locker room.”
READ MORE: ‘Rejection of Trump’: 1 in 5 Indiana GOP Voters Just Cast Their Ballot for Nikki Haley
Trump replied, “It’s crazy. Crazy.”
“We’re going to end it on day one,” Trump vowed. “We’re going to change it on day one. It’s going to be changed. We’re going to end it. That’s right.”
“The whole thing is crazy. Look, it’s like men playing in women’s sports. It’s like open borders for the world to come in. Send all their prisoners. We’ll take as many as you can give us. Send all their people from mental institutions.”
“We’ll get that changed. Tell your people not to worry about it. It’ll be signed on day one. It will be terminated,” Trump promised, vowing to end the LGBTQ+ protections which include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.
On his first day in office, President Biden implemented “the most far-reaching of any federal protections yet” for LGBTQ+ people, according to NPR.
In an explainer on the new expanded rules, Ms. Magazine reports “The 2024 regulations prohibit discrimination not only on the basis of sex, but also on the basis of sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”
According to GLAAD, which is tracking “the Biden administration’s executive orders, legislative support, speeches and nominations that affect LGBTQ people and rights,” President Biden has made 337 “moves” in 1206 days.
Listen to a short clip below or at this link.
ICYMI: @realDonaldTrump joined @NickKayal & @DawnStensland sharing his perspective on Title IX…
Watch below or listen on @Audacy pic.twitter.com/wzx0QxKPJ7
— Talk Radio 1210 WPHT (@1210WPHT) May 10, 2024
READ MORE: Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict
A Fox News panel discussing the Trump New York criminal trial debated whether or not the indicted ex-president could attack the judge’s daughter, with former Bush 43 press secretary Ari Fleischer insisting he should, and claiming doing so would not violate the terms of the gag order.
“President Trump needs to stop calling the judge ‘conflicted.’ He needs to explain why he’s conflicted,” Fleischer said Friday to a panel that included former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. “Every day of the trial he goes in there, he says, ‘the judge is conflicted, conflicted bigger than I’ve ever seen anywhere in my life.’ He doesn’t explain how or why. He needs to say that the judge’s daughter works for a Democratic political consulting firm that does anti-Trump business. He needs to explain it. Otherwise, it’s just an assertion with no proof. And the President if he’s going to say it, back it up. Explain.”
“I think that’s a violation of the gag order, is it not?” a Fox panelist replied.
“No, he can criticize the judge,” McEnany responded.
READ MORE: Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict
“Not the judge but the family,” the panelist added.
“But when he says the judge is conflicted, you can still explain how and why, and I think comply with a gag,” Fleischer insisted.
The panelists then agreed Donald Trump has been “measured” in his remarks.
National security attorney Brad Moss weighed in on social media, posting the relevant portion of the gag order and writing that Fleischer “effectively recommends Trump violate the terms of the gag order.”
The gag order in part reads: “Defendant is directed to refrain from” … “Making or directing others to make public statements about (1) counsel in the case other than the District Attorney, (2) members of the court’s staff and the District Attorney’s staff, or (3) the family members of any counsel, staff member, the Court or the District Attorney, if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with, or to cause others to materially interfere with, counsel’s or staffs work in this criminal case, or with the knowledge that such interference is likely to result.”
Despite Trump’s repeated attacks, an ethics panel last year cleared Judge Juan Merchan of any issues surrounding his daughter’s work.
On Monday, Judge Merchan warned Trump he may throw him in jail if he violates the gag order again.
Watch below or at this link.
Fleischer: Trump needs to talk about Judge Merchan’s daughter.
McDowell: I think that violates the gag order
Kayleigh: No, he can criticize the judge pic.twitter.com/CLgNxNpg6B
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 10, 2024
READ MORE: ‘Undisguised Corruption’: Critics Slam Trump for ‘Selling the White House’ to Big Oil
A federal appeals court panel of three judges has upheld the criminal contempt of Congress conviction of Steve Bannon, the far-right provocateur and former Trump chief strategist and senior White House advisor. Legal experts say he can appeal but ultimately he will he headed to prison.
Bannon had refused to comply with a subpoena lawfully-issued by the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.
“Bannon was sentenced to four months in jail in 2022 by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols after a jury convicted him of two counts of contempt of Congress,” Politico reports Friday. “But Nichols, a Trump appointee, agreed to postpone the jail term while Bannon appealed the decision, agreeing that the complex mix of laws that govern executive privilege and testimonial immunity for White House aides could be overturned by higher courts.”
The appeals court panel includes judges appointed by President Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden, according to CNN’s Zachary Cohen.
In their ruling the judges wrote: “Public accounts indicated that Bannon had predicted on a January 5, 2021 podcast that ‘all hell [wa]s going to break loose’ the next day,” and noted, “In addition to the podcast prediction, Bannon had reportedly participated in discussions in late 2020 and early 2021 about efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.”
READ MORE: House Ethics Committee Extends Investigation Into ‘Ultra MAGA’ Congressman
Politico noted the “three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Bannon’s argument, saying the former aide and prominent podcaster had no legal rationale for his blanket refusal to appeal before the Jan. 6 committee — and that long-standing case law.”
Bannon is a peddler of conspiracy theories whose podcast “was crowned the top peddler of false, misleading and unsubstantiated statements among political podcasts,” according to The New York Times, citing a Brookings study.
“Bannon is unlikely to have to report to prison immediately,” NBC News reports.
Legal experts weighed in on the question of prison for Bannon.
READ MORE: ‘Undisguised Corruption’: Critics Slam Trump for ‘Selling the White House’ to Big Oil
“And now it’s time for Bannon to be given a date to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence,” remarked MSNBC and NBC News legal analyst Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor.
“Bannon is effectively out of appeals,” observed professor of law and MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance, former U.S. Attorney. “He can delay a little bit longer, asking for the full court to review the decision en banc & asking SCOTUS to hear his case on cert, but neither one of those things will happen. Bannon is going to prison.”
Professor of law and former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter remarked, “it’s slammer time.”
‘On Day One’: Trump Vows to End Protections for LGBTQ Students
Ari Fleischer Offers Donald Trump Advice Attorney Says ‘Effectively’ Violates Gag Order
Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict
House Ethics Committee Extends Investigation Into ‘Ultra MAGA’ Congressman
‘Literally Willing to Take Bribes’: Report of Trump Promise to Big Oil Fuels Concerns
News3 days ago‘Literally Willing to Take Bribes’: Report of Trump Promise to Big Oil Fuels Concerns
News2 days agoHouse Ethics Committee Extends Investigation Into ‘Ultra MAGA’ Congressman
News2 days agoBannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict
News2 days ago‘On Day One’: Trump Vows to End Protections for LGBTQ Students
News2 days agoAri Fleischer Offers Donald Trump Advice Attorney Says ‘Effectively’ Violates Gag Order