The House State Government Committee will hold the hearing at noon Thursday, Oct. 4 in Room CL 2017 of the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, Fifth Avenue at Bigelow Boulevard.
“More and more people inside and outside of the Capitol building understand that being gay or transgendered has nothing to do with your ability to fix a car or computer, to show up on time and to do a good day’s work,” Frankel said. “It’s important to note that this legislation would also protect heterosexual people from being fired based on their sexual orientation or their gender identity or expression. This legislation would protect everyone.”
(There are at least a dozen gay women in Pittsburgh who don't know that at all, but I digress).
Later that same day,
Town Hall Meeting Oct. 4th (Thursday) at 7:00pm
To discuss The Federal Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) and PA House Bill 1400 (amends PA's Human Relations Act to prohibit discrimination on the basic of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression).
With Mara Keisling, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality
Dining Room B on the first floor of the William Pitt Union (corner of 5th ave and Bigelow Blvd, across from the Cathedral of Learning)
Both ENDA and House Bill 1400 will aid in stopping discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. Mara will discuss what's happening at both levels and to gather support for the activities being conducted in PA and at the federal level.
Mara is the founding Executive Director of NCTE. A Pennsylvania native, Mara came to Washington after co-chairing the Pennsylvania Gender Rights Coalition. Mara is a transgender-identified woman who also identifies as a parent and a Pennsylvanian. She is a graduate of Penn State University and did her graduate work at Harvard University in American Government. She has served on the board of Directors of Common Roads, an LGBTQ Youth Group, and on the steering committee of the Statewide Pennsylvania Rights Coalition. Mara has almost twenty-five years of professional experience in social marketing and opinion research.
This is courtesy of Dr. Emilia Lombardi from the University of Pittsburgh. So you can make an attempt to attend either and be part of a constructive move forward for our entire community.
For the past 24 hours, I've mulled over the best approach to this post updating you about the discrimination experienced by Jessi Seams, a local transwoman, when she attempted to audition for a women's variety show. This week, the City Paper's feature article is thoughtful exploration of this specific incident in the context of larger debates over gender identity, trans-inclusion and the LGBTQ community.
A prominent local gay male told me he was unhappy the story was being published because it aired "the dirty laundry" of the community. While I get where he is coming from, this is problematic thinking, even dysfunctional -- the problem isn't that we have dirty laundry, it is that people know we have it. That perspective doesn't help those who are oppressed within our community. Well, now the readers of the City Paper know that all is not right in the land of the homos. Surprise!
I'm struggling to find the right words. I am very angry with some of the women in the local lesbian/queer women's community. Angry and disappointed at their narrow-minded, bigotry and amazed at the vitriol they spew in Jessi's direction. These chicks have mounted a self-righteous attack based on the supposition that Jessi wants to have her cake (live part-time as a man) and eat it, too (live part-time as a woman). They are so absolutely fucking terrified that anyone even associated with a penis might invade their woman only space that they've elevated this one particular transwoman into some sort of spy for the patriarchy (h/t to Jess Snodgrass).
It all comes down to these particular lesbians and their circle of small-minded cohorts having the privilege of self-determination (as lesbians) while women such as Jessi and her male-born counterparts do not. Period.
Here are a few examples:
We'll call this one "Double Amen"
I'm curious...I read the article in the City Paper and Emilia is quoted as saying,
"You're Jessi, period," Lombardi says, gazing at her. "She's my girlfriend."
However, Jessi does not live as a woman at work or even around his own family according to the article.
So, my question is this....If you say someone is your girlfriend during the "night hours" or when you're in a bar, etc...yet they live as a man when they are at work and when they are around their own family, are they then considered your boyfriend?
Just curious is all....
That is probably the most ridiculous and disrespectful statement I've read all week. If this sensibility reflects the CTN fan base, perhaps Jessi is better off (as are the rest of us).
In another stunning example of uncritical thought, one woman thinks the City Paper and Jessi are *creating* fissures in the local gay community. In one long rant, she condemns Jessi for taking advantage of the economic benefits of being male in her work life, demonstrates total ignorance of the reality of life as a transwoman or transman, and continues to blindly defend CTN without even remotely addressing the very real questions many, many women have been asking. She does make use of lots of hyperbole. At least, I think this is hyperbole.
Furthermore, the consequences are deadly. United we stand, divided we fall.
For example, I have never seen a trans-janitor at any Celebrate the Night event! This kind of slanderous attack puts the ONLY women-centered, non-smoking, non-alcoholic event in the city at risk.
However, s/he has chosen to slander the community that I hold dear in attempt to elevate her own position and that is inexcusable
It is preposterous to claim that these fissures around gender identity and inclusion have just somehow appeared in what was previously a harmonious, united community. I guess if you dwell in the land of white, middle-class gay male and lesbian privilege, perhaps it was. One needs only take a look at the composition of the board of our own community center to recognize that inclusiveness is not our strong suit. For a lot of reasons that are much bigger than the current individuals serving on that board. I used to be one of them and making those types of institutional changes wasn't an easy challenge to tackle. I left so I have to shoulder some of the responsibility for not achieving institutional change.
So what do you think? Does Jessi get to determine her own gender-identity? Should CTN conduct background checks on performers? Would your own history on the Internet stand up to scrutiny? Could you, perhaps, be found less worthy because you don't conform to rigid norms of behavior, sexual or otherwise?
More importantly, of course, can Pittsburgh's LGBTQ community successfully navigate the fallout from illuminating our failure to include transwomen and transmen in our institutions, social and otherwise? We can't even admit it! We can't even admit the possibility of it!
I just truly do not understand how lesbians who have lived partially closeted at work, with their family (extended or not), in the bowling league, at church, or wherever --- how can these very lesbians be so damn judgmental of Jessi living part of her life as a man. How can they not see any parallel?
I'm perplexed. I'm angry. I'm frustrated. I've been invited to participate in a podcast discussion on the topic and I'm looking forward to exploring these issues in a context where people can at least muster up the respect to use appropriate pronouns. I suppose I shouldn't condemn people for being disrespectful when I myself have contemplated slowly strangling any lesbian who ever again whines about the demise of Bloomers, CJ's or any other lesbian bar all the while hoping a new woman-only establishment would magically fall from the sky and not require female-born female loving patrons to buy anything other than a free-refill coke to be financially viable. Strangling in a purely hypothetical sense, of course. Ledcat does not approve, being a fan of Bloomers herself.
That being said, if you still want to hang out and eat Asian food with Jessi, Emilia and some other cool chicks a week from Saturday, email me and I'll give you the specifics. It won't be a lesbian owned establishment, but the food is great and cheap.
Forbes ranked Pittsburgh low on the list of places good for a singles scene. I read this little article, including the sidebar profiles and thought "whine, whine, whine." On a bright note, they even included a token homo in their list.
What really gets me about all this whining is the sense of entitlement -- the expectation that if you sit back and wait (like a good girl) -- the wonderful world of exciting dates and social connections will magically flow to your feet.
I know it is difficult to meet someone decent, kind and trustworthy. But there's only so many bars you can crawl out of before it must occur to you that you've turned over all those rocks and it is time to move on. Life is not like "The Bachelor" where the beauteous babes are paid to fawn all over you.
When I got fed up with being single and meeting a series of unhealthy people, I made a New Years Resolution to try one new lesbian activity each month. I figured it would get me out of the house, expose me to new people and expand my circle of friends. The only rule is that I had to try something new each month. At my first event (lesbian potluck), I met someone. It didn't work out, but it was a promising start. I tried lesbian brunches, PFLAG meetings, volunteer orientation sessions, IT teams, more potlucks, picnics, church services and it was all great. Except for the Cajun dancing in Homestead which sent me home in tears, clutching the comfort pint of Ben and Jerrys, but we can't win them all ...
In June, I went to a women's discussion group at the Gay & Lesbian Community Center and that's where I met Ledcat. The rest is ourstory. Along the way, I accumulated quite an assortment of great friends.
My point is that a lively social life is something you MAKE, not something you are given. If the places where you spend your time aren't meeting your social needs, then you can either blame the place or move onto something new.
Worst Pittsburgh dating hang-up: Men don't approach women anymore. "I can't seem to find a man who understands the concept of picking me up at the door, taking me to dinner, a concert, or a museum. I would love to have a date who doesn't call me and say, 'Meet me at Bar Louie around 10.' "
Well, if you spend your time with the men who do that, how are the other men gonna stand a chance? Just don't go. Do something else and hold out for someone who meets your expectations. OR offer to pick him up and take him to a museum. Sheesh.
I like this guy.
Worst Pittsburgh dating hang-up: "When someone says they're not finding the right kind of people that's because we're all spoiled. People are used to immediate gratification and if we don't get it, we go home and watch the Steelers. ... If we found the right person right away, it would be too easy and we'd think something was wrong with them."
This was my favorite comment.
Why isn't Pittsburgh a good place for singles? "It's young everywhere you go," she says. "And if it's [an] older [crowd], it's way too old. When all you keep hearing is, 'You've got great teeth. You have really beautiful teeth,' it's just too old."
Teeth. Reminds me of when my fomer neighbor wanted me to go with her to some Holiday Inn bar because the old men would buy us dinner and all the drinks we wanted. Ick, ick, ick.
My biggest hang up is people thinking there's some theme bar god up in the sky that's going to drop a club right into Pittsburgh that meets your exact expectations. The lesbian they interviewed was rather articulate, but she longs for a nice LGBT bar/club that isn't a hole in the wall. Sounds reasonable ... but there was such a place called True on the Northside. It was predominantly male, but women have to show and spend their money to be customers. The owner isn't going to toss out the gays to make ways for the lesbians.
I hear this "lesbian bar" stuff all the time. Lesbian bars do not appear to be financially sustainable in Pittsburgh or else there would be one. I wouldn't go b/c I don't like bars, but I'd be fine if one opened. It would certainly stop a lot of whining about the good old days when we had "Bloomers" and such nostalgia. While I appreciate the sense of loss, for those of us under 40 it starts to get a little tiring hearing this over and over and over.
There are plenty of places to go to have nice conversation with other people -- it is the bar theme that seems to get people hung up. You can't have it all. Do some volunteer work, make a few friends, have lunch and expand your horizons. Go to church and sign up for a committee.
I think Pittsburgh is a good place to be single because there are so many affordable activities to pursue, activities which create the opportunity to expand your social network.
You could even go Cajun dancing. I'll have the Ben & Jerry's in the freezer for ya.
ps: while I appreciate someone taking a cab rather than driving drunk, I have to say it made me laugh out loud when people said public transportation should be expanded to give them the opportunity to hook up with their latest drunken conquest ... now that's the kind of thinking that's gonna revolutionalize the City ...
Some satisfactory news on the civil liberties front here in Pittsburgh - the City Police have reached an accord with the Pittsburgh Organizing Group and individuals participating in the "End War Fast" protest outside of the Oakland military recruiting bastion. These groups had previously filed a lawsuit against the City claiming police officers were violating their First Amendment rights to free speech.
Today comes word (courtesy of the PG) the two have brokered an accord (fancy term) that identifies two specific areas for the protestors along Forbes Avenue. So the fast can proceed free of police harassment.
I'm still wondering if the expense of allowing the permit for the fast in the first place would have saved us some tax dollars.
Apparently, the police were concerned about Port Authority buses mowing down pedestrians b/c pedestrians are just that stupid:
Police Cmdr. Kathy Degler of the Squirrel Hill station said one of the major concerns was that there is a bus lane right next to the sidewalk where the protesters have gathered.
"The buses come flying out that lane," she said. "We don't want pedestrians to feel the need to avoid the protesters by going out in the street."
My sources tell me that there has always been plenty of room for pedestrians to pass by the protestors. Ignoring things they don't want to see is an American speciality - things like poverty, infant mortality, hunger, homelessness, injustice, etc. What should cause more fear - a young man fasting with some anti-war signs or a well-fed man in camoflague bribing poor young adults to throw themselves into the war machine for a few thousand dollars?
Maybe Commander Degler could focus some attention on the side-by-side gigunda strollers that block sidewalks throughout Squirrel Hill and Oakland. If anyone is going to make me throw myself into the bus lane, it would be an oblivious yuppy mama and her trifecta of WASP offspring plowing down Forbes Avenue for a Starbucks fix and some shopping on Craig Street. Offspring that will nev-ah set foot in public schools or a military training facility (maybe not even a Giant Eagle).
Seriously, Degler's excuse is pathetic and just another attempt to undermine the purposefulness of these men and women by portraying them as unruly, pedestrian hating children who need a good tasering to keep them in line. What Degler doesn't address is the refusal of her muckety mucks to issue a permit and get things started on the right foot (or the left foot?). Of course she doesn't.
The point, however, is that the protestors should be free to proceed with their fast in peace. And that's a good thing.
It was one thing to lose political battles a few years ago, back when war skeptics were in the minority. It's somehow worse to know that most Americans now agree with us, yet we still can't get anything changed. Before, the political system was against us, but at least we could believe that it worked. Now we no longer have even that illusion.
Years of large-scale marches have changed nothing. Voting seems to have only made things worse: Democrats took control of Congress last year thanks to concerns about the war, and the result was more troops in Iraq.
I got depressed just reading these paragraphs.
You'd almost call the situation intolerable, if it didn't seem so easy to tolerate. Except for those with loved ones in the military, the war asks for nothing but our complacence as we go about our daily lives. "It is one thing to endure abuses and to carry on in spite of them," writes Garret Keizer in the current Harper's magazine. "It is quite another thing to carry on to the point of abetting the abuse."
Are we enabling the war? Do you feel complacent? I've been reading some novels set in Kabul and Tehran under less than peaceful times and it has given me pause at how easy it can be to just shut your mind down to something you believe you cannot tolerate. It is easy to delude myself that my day to day existance hasn't changed. Except it has b/c I know something and that knowledge changes my reality. It forces me to blog about this stuff that has nothing to do with the LGBTQ community, even when I know I'll be criticized by the protestors for not going far enough and by whacknuts for supporting terrorism.
Is it enough? Nope. Do I feel content b/c "hey I blog"? Nope. I feel angry and frustrated and disheartened everytime the military recruiters show up at an event I'm attending. But I can't say my existance hasn't changed.
So while the rest of us prove there's almost nothing we can't stomach, Butler has stopped eating. At this point, there may be simply nothing left to do. Keizer himself proposes that Americans go on a general strike, refusing to come to work on Election Day this November. When the only way to support the war is to go about your daily routine, perhaps withdrawing from that routine is the only way to oppose it.
I have my doubts. But as Butler talks in the late-afternoon sun, he doesn't seem at all dispirited. Maybe it's just the light-headedness that comes from not eating, but he seems less downtrodden than the people who mutter at him as they pass by. He's the one who has gone two weeks without eating. So why is it the rest of us who seem anemic?
I doubt a general strike would work and end up disproportionately hurting those least likely to bear it (and already bearing the greater amount of death and dismemberment to their children) -- working poor families.
Do you think the anti-war movement is going to grow? We participated in the March in 2005, but then I discovered my foot was broken so my doctor said no more marches for me. I could still go and be supportive, but I don't. Why not? I haven't been down to the fasting site, mostly because everytime I think about it I'm with Ledcat and she can't go with me b/c of her job.
So what do you do to shake up the complacency?
(I know this is sort of rambly and disjointed so thanks for bearing with me. We are out of caffeine and I have given up drinking pop ...)
Again, nothing to do with the gay. Still, I think it is interesting.
I'm bringing in the PA Resources Council to give a presentation to my consumers and during our planning chats, I told them that I had several recycling questions which I was invited to submit. More on that in another post somewhere down the road.
ANYWAY, I'm dwadling over the list during my lunch and can't get past "Why aren't there any large blue bags for recycling made out of recycled materials?" The only large bags we can find are Hefty newish bags which seems completely ridiculous to use for recycling. Rather than wait for an answer, I called the Co-op. They have large trash bags made from recycled materials that are biodegradable, but they are not blue. Hmmm. So I suggested they investigate blue bags. Then I called Whole Foods. Whole Foods also has biodegradable recycled bags that are also not blue. However, the Whole Foods guy told me -- no one ever told me this before -- that I can tie a blue bag around the neck of the large bag which holds my recycling. I did not know that. It still seems like a waste of a bag.
Then, I asked him if blue bags were available. He told me that he's going to ask his manager about it b/c he gets multiple calls EVERY WEEK about this very issue.
So I am on the cutting edge of recycling innovation. Yeah, baby. I made two phone calls and got results. Well, I got two people to tell me that they might possibly consider taking action on something I suggested, but whatever. It made lunch so much more interesting than leftover Chicken Tikka Masala alone. Even with jasmine rice and string cheese.
Anyway, pick up the phone and ask your recycling questions. Get those answers. Be the change.
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