[Blog/Commentary] [USA] Then Maybe All Real Energy Should Be Focused on Trans Needs Instead of Gay Wants
Stephanie Stevens
Then Maybe All Real Energy Should Be Focused on Trans Needs Instead of Gay Wants
February 3, 2012
Posted by Katrina Rose
Post Poll Shows Marylanders Split on Marriage Equality, Supporters
Looking for Votes
<http://metroweekly.com/poliglot/2012/02/post-poll-shows-marylanders-sp.html>
But, I guess focusing on the real needs of people who don’t already
have a right of legal redress when excluded from the machinations of
the economy wouldn’t give those who do already have a right of legal
redress when excluded from the machinations of the economy a chance to
get their Republican on
<http://www.gaycitynews.com/articles/2012/02/01/gay_city_news/news/doc4f29849f2de78939655884.txt>
.
The four Republican New York state senators who voted for same-sex
marriage last June are reaping a windfall from gay, liberal, and some
conservative donors who support marriage equality, but virtually none
of that money is flowing to the Democrats who provided the
overwhelming majority of the votes for the bill — including those who,
like the GOP supporters, switched their votes to yes or who live in
highly contested districts.
What’s more, $100,000 of the money given to these four Republicans
has already been passed through by them to the New York Senate
Republican Campaign Committee to support anti-gay senators and help
preserve the one-vote Republican majority.
Among the GOP senators, Roy McDonald of Saratoga pulled in
$447,000 since voting for marriage equality, “27 times more than he
had raised in the same period in 2009,” according to the New York
Times. Similar amounts were donated to Republicans Mark Grisanti of
Buffalo ($325,000), James Alesi of East Rochester ($400,000), and
Stephen Saland of Poughkeepsie ($425,000).
The Times did not note that Democrats are getting stiffed.
Democrat Senator Joe Addabbo, who represents conservative Howard Beach
and switched his vote from no to yes, raised just 36,000 in the same
period. Shirley Huntley of Jamaica, Queens, who also made a crucial
switch to yes despite her strong religious misgivings about same-sex
marriage, raised $7,500
“I’m disappointed, obviously,” said Democratic Senator Tony
Avella, who raised $46,245 since his yes vote from conservative
northern Queens. “I defeated someone who would have defeated marriage
equality, and I made it a big issue in my campaign. I would appreciate
the same amount of support.”
He beat anti-gay 40-year incumbent Frank Padavan in 2010.
“I got them to the spot where Republican votes made a difference,”
Avella said.
And, of course, to the point where trans lives mattered even less than
they already did.
[Photo <http://bit.ly/xcMFHy> ]
Oh, but wait…
The money shot has yet to come.
Wait for it…
Brian Ellner, who led the Human Rights Campaign’s marriage
equality effort in New York, was part of a group of 20 people who put
together a fundraiser for the four pro-equality Republican senators.
He did not respond to an email seeking comment on why no Democrats
were included, but Fred Sainz, vice president for communications for
the group, which is non-partisan like Pride Agenda, said, “It is
especially important that Republicans are seen as being able to defend
themselves” after supporting the LGBT community. “I don’t believe that
there was any ill will intended against the Democrats who voted for
it. It was more of a mistake of the mind than of the heart.”
SPLAT!
Gee, Fred…
Where did you get that last one – from Mitt Romney’s cliché factory
nestled in the Shanghai suburbs and staffed by slave laborers?
Or… <http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/award-for-workplace-equality-innovation-2011-goldman-sachs>
Goldman Sachs received the HRC Award for Workplace Equality
Innovation in 2011.
Veteran gay activist Allen Roskoff, president of the LGBT Jim
Owles Liberal Democratic Club, said, “The Republican Party is going to
use this gay money to run against our friends in the Senate. Where’s
the logic in that? We are rewarding a party that gave us minimal
support.”
…
The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), which has
passed the Assembly four times, has been blocked by the
Republican-controlled Senate and did not pass when Democrats had
narrow control two years ago.
“We can’t do that without a strong, Democratic majority,”
[Assemblyman Daniel] O’Donnell said of GENDA.
Because gay marriage was all that actually mattered then and GENDA
actually does not matter now.
But what about Washington?
What about it? No one begrudges dealing with the issue of gay
marriage where those who will benefit from it don’t have the residual
ability to discriminate against trans people. Washington did the
moral thing by dealing with the reality-based economic needs of all
LGBT individual human beings first and then moving to the wants of
those non-heterosexuals who might happen to be in relationships and
might happen to want to solemnize those relationships. No one is born
in a relationship. We are all born individuals.
Gay marriage was all that actually mattered in New York then and GENDA
actually does not matter now.
Are the trans people in Maryland – and the non-trans people there who
aren’t shills for Marriage Derangement Syndrome – paying attention?