[Vision2020] Equality JUST for Gays and Lesbians??

[Donovan Arnold]

Melissa,

You wrote, "Why leave bisexual folks out of the mix? 
They may or may not have same sex partners, but still
face discrimination both in and outside of the gay and
lesbian community. And let us not forget the
transgender folks that live in our community."

I think when the law is worded to say "regardless of
sexual orientation", that covers all three of them.

Likewise, "regardless of gender", covers all three of
them as well. 

And yes, I agree that bisexuals and transgendered
individuals deserve equal protection and rights under
the law.

However, I do disagree that we should not hold our
elected officials accountable for their inactions and
allowing discrimination to continue. 

That is not say that I dislike them, or that I do not
understand that sometimes it cannot get done because
of the political realities of the situation. 

But, in this instance, the city council can grant
equal rights and protections, right now it can. It may
not be able to in January, but it can before. Further,
they said they would. Maybe I am stupid for thinking
elected individuals will do what they said they would,
but I can at least voice my concern and opinion, which
is what I am doing. 

And thanks for your comments.  

Donovan J Arnold 

  

--- Melissa Hendrickson <hend5953 at uidaho.edu> wrote:
> Visionaries-
> 
> I agree that there are measures that should be
> passed in our fair city to curb discrimination, yes,
> curb no law will ever end all discrimination.  But
> why just gay and lesbian folks?  Why leave bisexual
> folks out of the mix?  They may or may not have same
> sex partners, but still face discrimination both in
> and outside of the gay and lesbian community. 
> 
> And let us not forget the transgender folks that
> live in our community.  As a person who identifies
> as trans, I can tell you that discrimination happens
> on a daily basis for myself and other trans
> identified folks. Trans issues are often ignored by
> the large gay rights organizations, they all have
> added trans issues to their list of things to fight
> for, but those issues often take a back seat to
> other issues. 
> 
> I would love to see a measure passed by the city
> council to fight discrimination in Moscow, but lets
> not leave out the 'B' and the 'T' of GLBT
> "community."  A group over at WSU started a trans
> ally group on campus a couple semesters ago, this
> summer there is a group working on starting a
> similar group on the UI campus. My main focus for
> this group is to educate the community at UI and
> Moscow about trans issues, if any of the city
> council or folks on vision 2020 would like to help
> with the project or participate in a training
> session let me know.  (For those of you planning to
> send me nasty email off the list, be warned I will
> post it back to the list to share your lovely words
> with the rest of the list.)  
> 
> Instead of pointing fingers and saying that some
> people aren't doing enough for one group, we all
> need to realize that everbody has different ideals
> and passions that they strive to promote.  There are
> liberals and dare I say some conservatives in this
> community that do a lot of work for GLBT rights,
> their voices may not be heard on vision 2020, but
> that does not mean that the work isn't being done. 
> 
> I could go on but I won't, I think I will go back
> into my lurker mode for a while.
> 
> Mo  
> 
>
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