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Pen Points
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Transgender Equality from 2 Sides: Sylvia Rivera & HRC
Since May, I've been the food director at the Metropolitan Community Church food pantry. My girlfriend Julia is my assistant and my computer person (because I still don't know a damn thing about these new modern contraptions of yours!). We have also been rather busy with the resurrection of Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries and are planning protests around the trail of Amanda Milan's assassins. So between the jobs and politics, you know how frantic it is. One of our main goals right now is to destroy the Human Rights Campaign, because I'm tired of sitting on the back of the bumper. It's not even the back of the bus anymore -- it's the back of the bumper. The bitch on wheels is back. Revolutionary love, Sylvia Rivera July 4, 2001 http://www.soundportraits.org/on-air/remembering_stonewall/update.php3 HRC Mourns the Death of Transgender Activist Sylvia Rivera Original Stonewall Protester was a Pioneer of the GLBT Liberation Movement, Says HRC Press Release: Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2002 Washington--The Human Rights Campaign mourned today the death of Sylvia Rivera, a pioneer of the gay liberation movement and one of the original protesters who stood up to police at the Stonewall Inn in late June 1969. Rivera, a noted transgender activist, left an enduring imprint on the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender movement and for decades played a key role in moving the cause forward, says HRC. "We are deeply saddened by the passing of Sylvia Rivera, a brave pioneer who helped pave the way for future generations of GLBT Americans," said Elizabeth Birch, HRC's executive director. "At HRC we are thankful for the indelible mark she left behind and the historic role that she played in our movement's history. We are proud to honor her enduring legacy." Rivera, 50, died yesterday at St. Vincent's Manhattan Hospital from liver cancer. A resident of Brooklyn, N.Y., Rivera worked at the Metropolitan Community Church where she was coordinator of the food pantry. Julia Murray, Rivera's partner, was with her at the time of her death. In Stonewall [Dutton/Plume, 1994], author Martin Duberman recounts the pivotal role Rivera played in the confrontation at the Stonewall Inn, which is credited with kicking off the modern GLBT movement. According to the book, on the morning of June 28, 1969 -- the day Stonewall Inn patrons fended off police in a raid of the bar -- Rivera shouted to her partner, "I'm not missing a minute of this -- it's the revolution!" Does Dana Rivers' Name Ring A Bell?
For those of you who might not remember, Dana Rivers was a California school teacher who changed her gender from male to female. The immediate reaction to this change by the Board of Education was to fire Ms. Rivers with prejudice for daring to center her inner gender with her physical one. Undeterred, Ms. Rivers sought legal representation to sue her employers for wrongful termination. The internet is strewn even today with discussion postings by Ms. Rivers begging for legal representation for her civil suit. She was turned down by the NGLTF, Lambda Legal Defense and a host of California GLB organizations. Finally, after being turned down by the local chapter of the ACLU, one lawyer member of the ACLU agreed to help her on a contingency basis. They sued the School Board for wrongful termination and won the case. Hooray? The case won national attention and Ms. Rivers got her 15 minutes of fame, having appeared for 60 Minutes, 20/20 and several other news organizations who ran her bio and her comments. Her gentility and charm won an overwhelming support from all communities including the straight one. In jumps Lambda Legal Defense and all the GLB community groups from across the country. Scores of pictures appeared in nearly all GLB media of important Gay and Lesbian leaders with their arm around Ms. Rivers' shoulder in a show of support. This should sadden and anger anyone who has followed the struggle of transgenders for even a hint of support from the GLB community. Even the buzzword, "Lesbigay" purposely avoids transgendered people, until it benefits their community at a time of their own choosing. Mr. Buckcub, in a couple of things you're right. First, you're correct in saying that the GLB community has learned how to play politics. We play it like Trent Lott in many cases. It isn't a worthy cause unless we say it is. When it's worthy, we embrace it like an attack on Family Values is taken by the Republicans. Public opinion is embraced by the GLB community and we support transgendered rights because we want to hog the spotlight for our own issues. In our opinion if it isn't worthy then it's merely an attempt to take our resources away and "tax" our limited supply of compassion. Having known many great transgendered people and seen them run over by my own community when laws were pressed to legislation, by my reckoning, the transgendered community is due a "tax" refund by us. We've used them at our convenience for far too long. The second issue you're right about, Mr. Buckcub, is that transgendered issues have little relevance to GLB issues. Most GLB's are far too interested in their own personal interests for transgendered people. Transgendered people seek the equality of all people. GLB's can go to work or play and peek from a closet door about their life and loves. Unfortunately, a good many transgendered people stick out like a sore thumb for several years after beginning hormone therapy so closets aren't an option for those seriously seeking to change genders. Our community blames them for being silly idioms of the gender they're trying to represent. It takes bravery to face a day in the open where every transgendered person must dread overhearing the question by little children, "Mommy, is that a man or a woman?" So, Mr. Buckcub, when you say their issues have little relevance to the GLB community, you're right. Most of my own lesbian community hides at their jobs, from their relatives and straight friends but shout from the rafters for equal rights as long as no one they know finds out. Transgendered people don't have that luxury. In my opinion they are far braver than the GLB community and certainly braver than you are. The GLB community has no right to be bigoted toward any group. Are we to decide that saving our own asses means using the transgendered community when it suits us but when important legislation is pending, such as NYAGRA, that we cut them loose to save ourselves? I never thought that I would see the day when my own people allow the brutality we've suffered from homophobes to be transferred to another minority group to keep it away from us. There are many out there who will not allow this to happen. I have to believe it because if there aren't any others out there like me then what the hell have I been fighting for all these years? I have one question for you, Mr. Buckcub? How does it feel to be the Jesse Helms of the New York GLB Community? Stephanie Donald Matthew Shepard: An Inaccurate Portrayal
Neither of these injuries could have occured in the scene shown, being on the wrong side of the head. Towards the end of the movie we see a brief scuffle, only hinting at the desperate escape attempt Matt made before he was tied to the fence with a wire. A wire, not a rope as shown. The discovering police officer reported that she had trouble cutting it off as it was embedded in his flesh. Neither did they show his blood-covered face with the streaks washed clean by his tears. The scene in Marrakesh was glossed over so much that even one reviewer missed that fact that it was a multiple rape, calling it a 'beating'. That was surely a major factor in the depression from which he suffered thereafter, and which may have contributed to his being there at the Fireside Inn that fatal night. There was little mention of his friends and lovers; completely absent is his time with Lewis Macenze before he moved to Denver. A letter I received from Lewis starts off: i was heading home from rehersal at like 2am when i ran into him. we started talking and ended up walking to the gas station together for milk and cigarettes. by nov we were together (nov 2 was our 3 yr anv) Most painfully absent is the current romance: they had a telephone affair and were scheduled to meet the first time that weekend, Gay Pride Day. Instead they met in the hospital where Matt lay dying. What they should have left out is Matt's younger brother, Logan. He is still alive and I believe at risk because of his relation to Matt. The less said of him the better. On my website The Matthew Shepard Historical Archives http://www.true-words/matthewshepard there is a picture of a friend mourning at the fence. I believe this was Romaine, one of those he asked to join him that night, but everyone was too busy with studies. Matt was depressed and lonely; he needed a break. If only we could change it he might even now be upon a course of helping the world to become a better place as he intended. Well he has done that, but at much too high a price. The day Matt died, I stuck a toe out of the closet, and was immediately threatened with a bashing. Instead I have created a number of web sites, written some poems, and am now engaged in writing The Journal - Diary of a Teen Suicide, also on True-words.com. I also run an MSN chat 'Stop Teen Suicide' where I try to advise desperate kids. Although there have been many more gruesome murders since then, the Shepard murder was the pivitol point in raising the public awareness of the plight of gays, due in no little part to the efforts of Judy Shepard and the HRC, and MTV's anti-hate campaign. With the many loud advertisements interrupting the movie, often at insensitive moments, The Matthew Shepard Story smacks more of profit-making than social consiousness. Don't let these movies pass unseen by your straight friends, or even those borderline cases we all know. More public knowledge of the details can only help. My memorial to Matthew: http://home.earthlink.net/~kxaani/clouds.shtml
Eric Williams, |
Stonewall-Era Activists Jack Nichols and Sylvia Rivera 
Actor Joshua Jackson starred in HBO's Matthew Shepard pic The Laramie Project 
© 1997-2002 BEI