It was just a few months ago that gay organizations vowed public support for transgendered people for the first time in the political arena. Few believed it would actually happen though. Even Congressmen warned gay organizations not to include us as it would have little chance of passing.
"Statement by Matt Foreman, Executive Director of theNational Gay and Lesbian Task Force
"This is truly a historic moment - the introduction of the first major piece of federal legislation that explicitly seeks to protect transgender people. We have worked for many years to see this day and we thank the bill's Democratic and Republican sponsors, led by Barney Frank, for making it a reality. We look forward to working with them and our friends, allies and heroes in the transgender community to push this bill forward.
Given the pervasive nature of hate violence against transgender people, any hate crimes bill that fails to specifically include transgender people would be deeply flawed, both morally and from a law enforcement perspective. We hope the Senate will now update its bill with the new House language so that we can support it as well."
What's changed: "A 1997 survey conducted by GenderPAC found that 59 percent of transgender people reported being the victim of harassment or violence. According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs 11 percent of the 2,384 victims of anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender hate crimes recorded in 2003 identified as transgender".
So it finally clear that both gay and transgendered share a common pain as well as large lists of member victims. http://gender.org/remember/about/core.html
I urge you to write to your Congressman and urge them to support this bill. Include any particular personal experiences you've had that shows this bill is needed.
Laura