NTAC, TG ORGANIZATIONS CONVENE AT NGLTF'S TRANSGENDER AGENDA MEETING
By Vanessa Edwards Foster
Gender various group leaders, and supporting organization heads met at the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force sponsored and hosted National Transgender Agenda Meeting. The Feb. 11 meeting, co-sponsored by PFLAG and HRC, brought together individuals from various organizations such as LLEGO (the national Latino LGBT organization), Lambda Legal group, the Gay / Lesbian Medical Assn., National Youth Advocacy Coalition, the Columbia University School of Public Health, the City University of New York, Family Pride Center, the Harry Benjamin Society and the ACLU's National Office. Also attending was legal expert Chai Feldblum from the Georgetown University Law Center. Gender groups were obviously well represented: NYAGRA (from New York), the Intersex Society of North America, FTM International, TGAIN (Texas Gender Advocacy & Information Network) and most notably NTAC (the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition) were all in attendance. Curiously though,GenderPAC was missing in action on this discussion.
NTAC had the largest presence in the room and on the phones, with a total of ten members participating. Monica Roberts, Sarah Fox, Ph.D., Michael Gray, Chelsea Goodwin, Rusty Mae Moore and Vanessa Edwards Foster all made the trip to NGLTF's Washington, while YoseAntonio Lewis, Katrina C. Rose, Deni Scott and Dawn Wilson participated via phone. A wide number of topics were covered in the four-hour conference: Intersexed gender mutilation, transgender youth issues, health concerns, minority and recent immigrant transgender representation, reforming of gender identity disorder, and private sector education and coalition building. Obviously a large portion of the meeting dealt with legislation - especially pertinent to employment non-discrimination. From the polled sentiment, it was obvious that employment was the key issue among transgender.
The logistics of the phone conference calls were the only kinks in the entire presentation. The meeting was overwhelmingly well received, and many came away with a sense of laying groundwork for dynamic future. The usual time constraints were minimized by facilitator Deb Kolodny's deft adherence to the agenda and movement of the discussion. Most encouraging was the sense that virtually all participants were pretty much on the same page. Feelings from the meeting were positive. "the meeting was a very good start to build alliances and learn more about what others are doing and just how many strong allies the trans communities have," said NTAC's Monica Roberts. For the most part everybody played together well." However, it wasn't totally devoid of conflict. "There was a tense moment when Nancy Buermeyer brought up the friction between NTAC and HRC," Roberts added. "Michael Gray was quick to move to reduce tensions and offer an olive branch for reconciliation." "We got their attention," opined Sarah Fox, "and I think they realize we are a force with which they must negotiate. "I'm not so sure the needs of the transgender community and the needs of HRC are necessarily in conflict, Fox continued. "I don't think HRC is interested in excluding us from legislation, so much as keeping their contributors happy.
There may be ways to do this and to advance transgender rights at the same time. I sincerely hope so, anyway!" However, the NTAC team "did splendidly!" stated Fox. "We were extremely cohesive and well coordinated, and we played off of each other like a tightly choreographed ballet company." Overall, the meeting was truly a success. NGLTF Executive Director, Kerry Lobel (ever so humbly), said it was "a great statement a sentiment echoed by one of the other co-sponsors, Cynthia Newcomer on PFLAG National. The National Transgender Agenda Meeting was, in fact, so well received that a decision was made to convene another similar meeting in the coming months. NGLTF Political Director, Rebecca Isaacs, gave her blessing - and an underwriting commitment from NGLTF - to proceed with plans for another conference.
The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force as a group, and individually Kerry and Rebecca, and especially Legal Director, Blake Cornish and staffer Eleni Zulia deserve major kudos for having the vision, and putting forth a tremendous effort to make it happen. It was a truly laudable effort from an organization renown for its commitment and integrity. The contacts made and shared from the various organizations are a wonderful beginning to what is hoped will be a true, broad based coalescing of the national efforts. We've laid the first few important bricks in the groundwork needed to proceed and now we move on to the next level.
Chelsea Goodwin, and Rusty Moore participated in this meeting
