Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
Make sure to set your clocks ahead an hour tonight, unless, of course, you’re in Wisconsin, where you need to set them back 100 years.
No, really: 1911 saw the WI passage of the first Worker’s Comp laws, but it wasn’t until 1959 that WI was one of the first states to pass collective bargaining laws.
Here are some of my other favorites of the day:
(Photo via Daily Kos & courtesy of Mark E Anderson who managed to get my stripey-hatted head in a shot, ha.)
Bilerico has had a couple of good pieces about the connections between how what’s going on in Madison connects to LGBT political organizing.
Susan Raffo’s recent piece mentions the history, references queer historian Allan Bérubé:
In 1919, the labor movement’s successful fight for a 40-hour workweek bought us the time and the space to start coming together as queer people; to come together and take a deep breath and just plain notice ourselves. And in the noticing, we started to ask questions and in asking those questions, to dream of how things could be different. That’s what economic justice creates for us. It creates lives where there is the space to talk to each other, to feel like we can turn our gazes away from making sure there is enough food and a place to sleep and instead begin to act on our dreams.
Caitlin Breedlove commented recently on the unusual alliance she’s experiencing as a queer Madisonian in the midst of what is often white working class organizing:
I believe that in Wisconsin I am in the midst of many working class white people who voted conservative in the November elections based on rights to their guns, or because they don’t like the idea of gays getting married, or because they don’t like that Obama is Black. I am standing next to them in struggle. This is an unusual position for me. I am standing with them as I am watching parts of them being transformed. Many of these people have realized their guns are not as important as having a job, a house, decent public schools for their kids, or healthcare. They are figuring out that, as Michael Moore said from the Madison Capitol this weekend: “America is not broke…the country is awash in cash…it is just that the wealth is not in our hands.” Many of my comrades here have said that it is amazing how many people realize this fight is about capitalism and corporate greed.
Her larger point, about the reclaiming of public space as essential to LGBT people, immigrants, & the working class, is vital information. Our public sector has been under attack for a few decades now by people who want none of us to be empowered in the way our government treats us:
She points to the fact that the Capitol occupation is very much about reclaiming public space. As LGBTQ people, we are systematically pushed out of public space – discouraged from being ourselves at our workplaces, our kids’ schools, at the grocery store, and in our local and state governments. Why do so few of us run for public office? Why are so many of our activists who do not work in LGBTQ-specific areas closeted? Because we have been sent a clear message: public space is not our space. We are not “the Public.”
We are not the only community sent this message.
Immigrants are told something similar every time we open our mouths and speak a language that is not English. The systems of our towns are set up so that on every street, every bus, and every glittering downtown poor people are sent the same message: you do not belong here, this place is not for you.
This week people in Madison are saying that class warfare is real, it needs to be faced head on, and to do that we must reclaim public space. This month, people all over the Middle East are saying this, and so much more. Are we ready to recognize that this struggle (like so many struggles) is our struggle?
I can’t imagine a message that queer people have heard over & over again but her “you do not belong here, this place is not for you.” We know exactly what that means, and we know exactly how it feels, and the queer movement has for years resisted being told where and when we get to exist and have our lives be visible. Without public spaces, without the people’s insistence on government accountability and the right to assembly, both of which are being denied in the state capital of Wisconsin, queer organizing will also be shut out.
Please, queerios, pay attention to what’s happening here. The right to bargain collectively is not just about economics, nor about work. It’s about the right to BE counted as persons and citizens: We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it is a little more like We’re here, get used to it just now.
The Republican Senators of Wisconsin pulled an unprecedented and undeniably shitty move tonight:
In a surprise move late Wednesday, Senate Republicans used a series of parliamentary maneuvers to overcome a three-week stalemate with Democrats and pass an amended version of the governor’s controversial budget repair bill.With a crowd of protesters chanting outside their chambers, Senators approved Gov. Scott Walker’s bill, which would strip most collective bargaining rights from public employees. The new bill removes fiscal elements of the proposal but still curbs collective bargaining and increases employee payments in pension and health benefits. The changes would amount to an approximate 8 percent pay cut for public workers.
We’ll be in Madison on Saturday, no doubt.
From the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF):
We are happy to announce that the city of New York has adopted a new policy designed to ensure that transgender people have equal access to marriage licenses. The policy was adopted as part of an agreement to resolve threatened legal action involving a transgender couple. The couple wishes to remain private and we refer to them as Jane and John.
Jane and John are both transgender. They are an opposite-sex couple who have been in a relationship for over a decade. In Dec. 2009, they attempted to marry in the Bronx. They fulfilled all of the requirements for receiving a marriage license in New York City and presented their government-issued photo identification – the only identification required by the City Clerk’s office. Rather than issuing the marriage license, the City Clerk refused and instead demanded that Jane and John produce their birth certificates before they could be married – something not required of other marriage license applicants.
Under the terms of the new policy, issued on Feb. 7, 2011, once a marriage license applicant produces the required photo ID, the City Clerk may not request additional proof of sex. Moreover, City Clerk employees are forbidden from considering the applicant’s appearance or preconceived notions related to gender expression when deciding whether to issue a marriage license.
“Transgender people are challenged all the time about their status as men and women,” said TLDEF executive director Michael Silverman. “Our clients are legally entitled to marry and were denied that right just because they are transgender. We applaud the City Clerk’s office for adopting this policy and for taking steps to ensure that this does not happen again.”
In addition to the adoption of the new policy, the agreement to resolve the couple’s claims calls for the City Clerk to apologize to Jane and John, to institute training for all City Clerk employees on issues relating to gender identity and gender expression, and to ensure that Jane and John are free to marry at a time and place of their choosing.
For more about this new policy, read up at TLDEF’s site.
Are you out as a feminist? Daniel Craig is.
It IS Women’s History Month, so we’ll be hearing only from the ladies this month. That said, I’m not sure Ms. Faithfull would want to be called a lady, either.
Still, “Working Class Hero” is a classic (and hereby dedicated to the ongoing protests in Madison). It’s been covered by Green Day, too.
And then there’s “Why’d Ya Do It?” which is probably the angriest song ever: “why’d you betray my little oyster for such a low bid” is one of the nastiest, most poetic accusations ever put to music.
Yikes. Barbed Wire Pussy, indeed.
Genderqueer Chicago is working on a campaign to make bathrooms in Chicago trans-friendly:
CHICAGO–In an unprecedented effort to make the city of Chicago safer for transgender individuals, Genderqueer Chicago, a local youth group, launched the “T-Friendly Bathroom Initiative,” a grassroots project that challenges business owners to recognize and protect gender identity in their public restrooms, according to a press release.
This year, more than 500 businesses and organizations will be asked to sign a pledge that commits them to allowing gender-variant customers to use the bathrooms they choose. Businesses that sign the pledge will receive window decals that gender-variant people can easily identify as trans-friendly.
It sounds like a very cool plan; I hope to see this idea transfer to other cities. Maybe there will be a day when Safe 2 Pee isn’t needed — imagine!
I’ve known other (trans) women in roller derbies before, but I’m happy to see an official policy by a women’s organization siding in favor of inclusion. Bethany Johnson said:
“We’ve yet to send out a formal press release regarding this, but we are very proud of the diversity represented by our league and we’re glad that our league can be one of the leagues to formally create a policy allowing transwomen skaters . . . For The Chicago Outfit, I think that having this policy is another step for our league to show how open and accepting of women from all walks of life we are. This policy also hopefully will help to continue the legitimization of transwomen athletes in this sport in other leagues throughout the country.”
Although “allows” really chafes, even if the person who said it is trans herself.
I thought this blog needed a lighter moment, so here is Maru trying on wigs:
There’s a trans woman running for mayor of Amarillo, TX.
Today Sandra Dunn announced her intentions to run for Amarillo mayor. The mother of two was not always known as Sandra and this is not her first time running for public office. She ran for city and county commissioner when she was known as Fred Dunaway.
I’m probably going to be taken to task for this, but as far as I’m concerned, she’s still their father, no? What they call her has nothing to do with it: that’s their own business. But she did contribute the sperm. They could at least use “parent”. It’d be one thing if this person were stealthy, but she’s open & out as trans.
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