Dear Human Rights Campaign Board and Staff:
As transgender rights leaders, many of whom have worked with you and stood by HRC for many years, we call upon you to show the leadership that this moment—and your commitment to a unified LGBT community—demands.
Our allies in Congress have announced their intention to cut transgender people from ENDA. Across the country, LGBT groups and individuals have expressed their outrage and dismay at this shocking development. The failure of HRC to publicly state its opposition to a non-inclusive bill will undermine more than a decade of incredibly hard work, healing, and consensus-building in our community. We understand there are many times when progress requires incremental strategies. This is different. This is about a foundational principle of community identity and unity that has been more than a decade in the making. No amount of rhetoric about incremental gains or political pragmatism will make up for the catastrophic rift that HRC's failure to publicly oppose a non-inclusive bill will re-open within our community.
Let us be clear, a generic statement of support for transgender people and your best efforts in support of an inclusive bill are not sufficient now. We are asking for an unequivocal statement that HRC will oppose this new strategy
and any bill that is not inclusive.
**Affiliations listed are for identification purposes only. Please note that many LGBT organizations do not permit individual staff members to sign public letters or statements. Please also note that the window of opportunity for joining this letter was very short. For both of these reasons, this is by no means an exhaustive list of trans rights leaders who share these views. Mara Keisling, Executive Director, National Center for Transgender Equality
Donna Rose, HRC Board Member
Jennifer Levi, Senior Staff Attorney, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders
Shannon Minter, Legal Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights
Evan Wolfson, Executive Director, Freedom to MarryLee Swislow, Executive Director, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders
Kate Kendell, Executive Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights
Phyllis Frye, former Executive Director, International Conference on Transgender Law & Employment Policy
Grace Sterling Stowell, Executive Director, Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth ( BAGLY, Inc. ) , Vice-Chair, Massachusetts Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth
Chai Feldblum, Professor of Law, Georgetown University
Nan Hunter, Professor Law, Washington D.C.
Nancy D. Polikoff, Professor of Law, Washington College of Law American University
Arthur S. Leonard, Professor of Law, New York Law School
Julie Greenberg, Professor of Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Theresa Spark, President, San Francisco Police Commission
Dana Beyer, HRC Board of Governors, Equality MD
Joanne Herman, Boston, Board Member of Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD); and Board Member of Point Foundation (the national LGBT scholarship fund)
Paisley Currah, Professor, City University of New York; Director, Transgender Law and Policy Institute
Kylar Broadus, Board Member, National Black Justice Coalition; Board Member, Transgender Law and Policy Institute
Diego M. Sanchez, Director of Public Relations and External Affairs, AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, Inc.
Masen Davis, Executive Director, Transgender Law Center
Cecilia Chung, Deputy Director, Transgender Law Center
Kristina Wertz, Legal Director, Transgender Law Center
Chris Daley, former Executive Director of the Transgender Law Center
Rebecca Rolfe, Interim Executive Director, SF LGBT Community Center
Cat Turner, Southern Comfort Conference 2007 Conference Chair
Cianán Russell, Chair, Indiana Transgender Rights Advocacy Alliance
Denise Leclair, Executive Director, International Foundation for Gender Education
Kelley Winters, Ph.D., Founder, GID Reform Advocates, Keystone, CO
Arlene Istar Lev, LCSW, CASAC Choices Counseling and Consulting, Albany New York Treasurer, Steering Committee, Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC)
Meredith Bacon, Omaha, Nebraska, NCTE Board Chair
Charlie Anders, other magazine, San Francisco, California
Alyson Meiselman, Chair, Legal Issues Committee, World Professional
Association For Transgender Health, Inc.
Nancy Nangeroni, Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition
Gordene MacKenzie, Merrimack College director of Women's and Gender Studies
List, and a related Oct. 2 News Release, continued at www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Letter-to-HRC-Continued/16211.html .
