Ashley Love's Senate Hearing Testimony On The Unjust HB 235 Compromise (Written & Audio)

Below is my written testimony each Maryland Senator recieved yesterday at the Senate Judicial Committee hearing regarding the Gender Identity "Anti-Discrimination" Bill HB 235. I was able to read most of it in the two minutes allotted, and then the Senators decided to have me stay after my time slot to ask further questions, after which I explained more about Tyra Hunter's sad story, explained what public accommodation were in depth (they are not just restrooms as the far right likes to propagate to spread fear), explained how the gay establishment is responsible for problematic (mis)education regarding the "transgender coalition" by failing to make a distinction between transsexual and intersex people from transvestites and cross-dressers, gay people don’t own TS/TG people, and that's high time that TS/TG/IS people represent themselves!

Here is the AUDIO link of the hearing. My testimony starts at 1:28:00 http://mlis.state.md.us/mgaweb/senatecmtaudio.aspx



Ashley Love's Testimony at Maryland's Senate Judicial Committee Hearing On HB 235

April 7th, 2011

HB 235 without public accommodations protections has no merit. We ask that you either amend the bill to include these lifesaving and constitutional protections, or vote against it.

I live in New York; however, I have spent time in Maryland, & visit the DC/Md. area frequently.

I was born w/ a rare birth challenge where my chromosomes & anatomy were diverse; I was born intersex, which later transpired into a transsexual medical condition. To be born female & male wasn’t my choice; yet I am all woman gender, woman mind, woman essence, woman spirit. My birth condition is natural & innocent, yet growing up I realized many in society were handicapped to such a crippling degree that they couldn’t accept my community’s diversity. Their ignorance turned into fear, which turned to hatred, & sometimes even violence, & some women I personally knew have been victims of a hate crime.

This misguided fear of diversity has led to the basic human rights for my community in this country being denied. HB 235 has stripped out PA protections. This is unacceptable for any American.

HB 235 as written says that my community is not worthy of protections in public accommodations protections. The civil rights movement was founded on the issues of public accommodations, yet here we are decades later still fighting for them. Prior versions of this bill in previous session originally included PA protections, but due to misinformation and transphobia, they were taken out.

People, such as Tyra Hunter, a transgender woman, have died due to no PA protections. Homeless transsexual women have been denied access to shelters due to no PA protections. Some friends and I were denied service at a restaurant due us being different. People in my community are even denied public transportation, and access to hospitals.

Today some people in court have spread misinformation about my community. A woman who was born w/a transsexual and/or intersex condition is not the same thing as a man who is cross dressing for a lifestyle or amusement. Yet that is precisely what the far right likes to propagate. This propaganda is meant to confuse the public about our medical condition or birth challenge, and their fear mongering is responsible for the marginalization, mis-education and destitution that plague my community.

Also, the gay and lesbian community is not the same thing as the transsexual and intersex community. The gay’s issue is about sexual orientation, where the transsexual issue is about seeking medical treatment to correct our birth challenge, and intersex people need to be protected as infants from malpractice. Many transsexual and transgender Marylanders disagree with how the gay and lesbian community has been misrepresenting their community. It’s time for the transsexual, transgender and intersex coalition to represent themselves, because we have different needs then the gay, lesbian and bisexual community, and our rights many times get devalued, left behind or appropriated under their control.

The only two trans organizations in Maryland, Trans United and Trans Maryland, oppose the LGBT group Equality Maryland’s approval of HB 235 stripping away PA protections. We ask you to listen to the people that this bill affects. We aren’t owned by the gay & lesbian community. We own our voice.

In my opinion, America is the greatest country on Earth. Sadly, one part that we fall embarrassingly and dangerously short is the failure to protect transsexual, transgender and intersex Americans.

I ask that you amend HB 235, or vote against it. I invite every elected official in this court to open your mind, embrace and celebrate diversity, and to not allow us to be treated as 2nd class citizens.

Trans Maryland's Education Rally at The Supreme Court Exposed the Gay & Lesbian Community Using the TS/TG Community as a Political Bargaining Chip

Washington Blade photo by Michael Key

Trans Maryland’s education rally Tuesday night was such an inspiring moment, as a crowd of human rights activists marched to The Supreme Court to show solidarity with their transsexual and transgender brothers and sisters in Maryland whose basic civil rights are being denied. Around 35 people attended, and members of Get Equal DC and the International Foundation for Gender Education showed up to support. Half of the attendees were not Marylanders, but since this dangerous bill could affect us all if passed, we stood in solidarity with them.

Washington Blade photo by Michael Key

The education rally was a huge success. I learned a lot when Trans Maryland’s Media Director, Jenna Fischetti spoke to the crowd about why HB235 needs to be purposed in its original format. Denise Leclaire, Executive Director of International Foundation for Gender Education also spoke.

Jenna Fischetti told SheWired.com after the rally:

“Trans Maryland is overwhelmed by the support and solidarity shown by our local and national peers and allies this evening. We wish to thank them all. We marched up 1st Street, past The Cannon House Building, on our way to the Capitol Grounds across from the Supreme Court. The destination was 1st and Maryland. In exercising our 1st Amendment rights, We members of Maryland’s transsexual and transgender communities made a statement that We Own Our Voices, that House Bill 235 in the Maryland House of Delegates needs to be amended, and that going forward, it is OUR community’s responsibly, in conjunction with supportive allies when needed, to educate our legislators and the population as a whole.”

Trans Maryland hosted this education rally to draw attention to the butchered HB 235 bill which has had public accommodations protections deleted. As usual, the gay and lesbian media was silencing or misrepresenting many of Maryland’s TS/TG community’s points of view, and portraying this issue just how Equality Maryland would advise them to. Yet due to Trans Maryland’s education rally, the gay media was pressured to actually tell the other side of the coin, something one would think most responsible journalists and news sources would do, yet in the land of LGB”T” media, that’s hardly the case when it comes to TS/TG issues.

Transsexual and transgender people need these rights immensely, and the gay and lesbian leadership via Equality Maryland had no right to do a backroom deal that chopped away these lifesaving protections.

The butchered version of HB 235 is not only unconstitutional, but absurd. If the bill is passed in its compromised form, a transsexual woman may gain the protection to keep her job as a nurse at a Maryland hospital, but she could be denied emergency room care in the same hospital she is employed at if the staff were transphobic. For instance, Tyra Hunter was refused care for serious injuries by EMS worker Adrian Williams, and later by the physician. As a result, she died. Without public accommodations protections, this bill has no merit.

Jenna Fischetti emailed Trans Forming Media today and wrote:

"I felt honored to be in the presence of real voices, speaking out for themselves without the filter of privileged peers or shell organizations, cold and callus to our needs seeking to delete and censor us. It is our experience which must carry the message to potential allies and legislators. The responsibility is on us"

If you say "LGBT", then actually mean it. If you don't sincerely mean it, then do us all a favor and just say "LGB", this way, the TS/TG/IS can be represented accurately and fairly. We are not property of Gay Inc, nor political bargaining chips of state and national gay “equality” organizations. (Thanks to Robyn Webb of Maryland for making such a cool sign!)

Cathy Brennan, a former associate of Equality Maryland/Free State Justice, and who had a significant part a decade ago in preventing TS/TG Marylanders from anti-discrimination protections, was not too happy about Trans Maryland’s rally.

She posted in the comment section of my previous blog:

"...I've never seen a more hapless bunch of activists…"

I did not know why a simple education rally would provoke Cathy Brennan to engage in such immature and unprofessional behavior. I was also curious if she even knew what “hapless” meant.

I replied:

"FACT CHECKING: Hi Cathy, I’ve noticed you on numerous social networking sites or blogs engaging in your trademark name calling. It’s interesting to see you finally make your way to Trans Forming Media.

So, we are now “hapless” according to your latest rant?. Do you know what “hapless” even means?

Hapless: 1) pathetic 2) dependent 3) victim-like

1) PATHETIC:
If we were so pathetic, we would not have mobilized, stood up and marched to The Supreme Court and rally to be heard

2) DEPENDENT:
No, we are not “dependent”. In fact, it’s because we are choosing to be INDEPENDENT and not be treated as unwanted stepchildren and property of Gay Inc , and actually speak and represent ourselves, that has you, Equality Maryland and many who seek to keep us colonized in a fit (Just like how Equality Maryland cancelled their transgender working group)

3) VICTIM-LIKE:
If we were victims we would roll over and let this tainted bill go forward in its problematic form. If we had victim mentality we would believe we were only good enough for the crumbs you and your cohorts believe we deserve. So no, Trans Maryland standing up to discrimination means they are not victim-like, but that they are REFUSING to behave like victims

I hope you have appreciated English class today; it’s the first time I had to teach one on my blog. Don’t be late to class next week, where we will be discussing transphobia in the gay and lesbian community."