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14 Transgender DNC Delegates Is Progress, But Work Remains For Full Inclusion

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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 —  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: 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!

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‘Disgraceful’: ICE Slammed After Allegedly Pepper-Spraying US Congresswoman

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U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) is accusing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents of pepper-spraying her in her face while she was at a local Tucson, Arizona restaurant.

Rep. Grijalva in a video on social media said she saw about 40 mostly-masked ICE agents at a restaurant she frequents weekly.

The agents were “in several vehicles that the community had stopped right here, right in the middle of the street, because they were afraid that they were taking people without due process, without any kind of notice.”

READ MORE: Warning Signs Flash as Trump Slump Raises Fears of 2018 Blue Wave Rerun: Conservative

She said that the community was “protecting their people” when she was “sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent,” and “pushed around by others when I literally was not being aggressive.”

“I was asking for clarification, which is my right as a member of Congress,” she continued. “So, once I introduced myself, once I did, I assumed that it would be a little calmer, but there was literally only one person that was trying to speak to me in any kind of civil tone, and everyone else was being rude and disrespectful, and I just can only imagine if they’re going to treat me like that, how they’re treating everybody else.”

Congresswoman Grijalva said she saw “people directly sprayed,” including “members of our press” and staff members.

She blasted President Donald Trump, saying that he “has no regard for any due process, the rule of law, the Constitution — they’re literally disappearing people from the streets.”

Critics slammed the agents’ action.

READ MORE: Trump: Democrats Are Plotting ‘Total Obliteration’ of Supreme Court

U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) wrote that Rep. Grijalva “was doing her job, standing up for her community.”

“Pepper-spraying a sitting member of Congress is disgraceful, unacceptable, and absolutely not what we voted for. Period,” he added.

“This is unacceptable and outrageous,” observed Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. “Enforcing the rule [of] law does not mean pepper spraying a member of Congress for simply asking questions. Effective law enforcement requires restraint and accountability, not unchecked aggression.”

The Bulwark’s Sam Stein noted, “quite the beginning for Grijalva, who wasn’t seated for weeks, [cast] the decisive vote to get the Epstein files, and now has apparently been pepper sprayed in the face by immigration agents.”

Also calling the action “outrageous,” U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) wrote: “We are Members of Congress with oversight authority of ICE. Rep Grijalva was completely within her rights to stand up for her constituents. ICE is completely lawless.”

“First they tackle a sitting Senator,” noted U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY). “Now they’re pepper spraying a Representative. It’s clear ICE is spinning out of control. We will hold the agency accountable.”

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

 

Image via Reuters 

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Warning Signs Flash as Trump Slump Raises Fears of 2018 Blue Wave Rerun: Conservative

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A well-known conservative commentator has a warning for the Republican Party: take action now or face a repeat of the 2018 midterms when the GOP lost 41 House seats in a landslide. And this time, he says, the Senate could go to the Democrats as well.

Award-winning writer and journalist Bernard Goldberg reminded readers at The Hill that in 2018, during President Donald Trump’s first term, “Republicans got walloped … and a good chunk of that had President Trump’s name written all over it.”

Trump’s “approval ratings were in the low 40s, and independents — the folks who usually decide elections — had seen enough. They broke hard for the Democrats,” Goldberg noted. “Now here we are, staring down 2026, and you can almost hear history clearing its throat, getting ready to repeat itself.”

READ MORE: Trump: Democrats Are Plotting ‘Total Obliteration’ of Supreme Court

Goldberg noted that Trump’s approval rating is currently the lowest it’s been this term.

“Among Republicans, his support dropped from 91 percent right after the 2024 election to 84 percent last month. Among independents, it cratered — from 42 percent to just 25 percent.”

“If the trend continues,” he warned, “Republicans could be headed for another blue wave — and this time, it could wash away not just the House majority, but control of the Senate too.”

Why?

“It’s the economy — still,” he wrote.

“Trump is out there saying the economy is humming. Biden said the same thing before him. But voters didn’t buy it then, and they’re not buying it now. Why? Because it’s not GDP numbers that matter. It’s affordability,” Goldberg noted.

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

That’s a word that President Trump continues to call a “con job,” while his own administration tries to claim he is focused on.

He pointed to a Karl Rove Wall Street Journal column and wrote: “The Republicans may have ‘avoided disaster’ in Tennessee, but the result should be a wake-up call for Republicans. He’s right.”

Goldberg asked: “will anyone in the Republican Party actually pick up the phone?”

“Because if Republicans don’t wake up — and fast — they’re going to find out the hard way what happens when you keep rerunning the same movie and expecting a different ending. To lose in 2026, all they have to do is nothing. And right now, that’s pretty much what they’re doing.”

READ MORE: Trump Urges Judge Aileen Cannon to Keep Jack Smith Report Secret

 

 

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Trump: Democrats Are Plotting ‘Total Obliteration’ of Supreme Court

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President Donald Trump is claiming that the top priority of Democrats is the “total obliteration” of the U.S. Supreme Court. His remarks came just hours after SCOTUS gave Republicans a 6-3 win along partisan lines, in the form of approving Texas’s redrawn mid-decade congressional maps that could help add five GOP-held seats to the U.S. House of Representatives. A lower court had ruled the redrawn Texas maps were likely racially biased.

Although there are different ways to measure, one study by Court Accountability this fall found that the Supreme Court has ruled in Trump’s favor 90% of the time.

“Most of these wins for the president came from the court’s ‘shadow docket’ slate of opinions — where the court has typically, in the past, only ruled on administrative measures,” according to Truthout. “However, in recent years, the Supreme Court has been making announcements on cases, issuing injunctions or allowances of actions to remain in place, that have the same effect, essentially, as a final decision.”

READ MORE: White House Touts Trump’s ‘Track Record’ on Affordability

On Friday, the president declared that the “Democrats number one policy push is the complete and total OBLITERATION of our great United States Supreme Court.”

“They will do this on their very first day in office, through the simple Termination of the Filibuster, SHOULD THEY WIN THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS,” he wrote.

Trump has strongly advocated for Republicans to eliminate the Senate filibuster.

“The Radical Left Democrats are looking at 21 Justices, with immediate ascension,” he wrote, claiming that Democrats would more than double the current size of the court.

“This would be terrible for our Country. Fear not, however, Republicans will not let it, or any of their other catastrophic policies, happen. Our Country is now in very good hands. MAGA!!!”

Some court reform advocates have suggested the Supreme Court be expanded to 13 justices, one for each of the thirteen U.S. Courts of Appeals.

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

 

Image via Reuters 

 

 

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