|
Peter Rosenstein is a D.C.-based gay rights activist and can be reached via this publication.
|
|
|  |
|
|
| | |
|
|
| | |
HOME > VIEWPOINT > EDITORIAL
By: PETER ROSENSTEIN COMMENTS
 
continued...
of the protests concerning how and why transgender people, even straight transgender people who have changed their birth certificates, are impacted by Proposition 8 and similar legislation. Some young people rallying in the crowd don’t understand what it means to be transgender and what their needs are any more than the average member of Congress does.
If we look at the voting patterns regarding Prop 8, we see many divides. They are not just ethnic and racial but within those communities we see the same patterns we see in many communities regarding gay and lesbian issues. It is young vs. old — the same generational divide we see on so many issues.
We need to look at winning our fight the same way we would look at winning a campaign. I just read the GLBT issue section on the Obama web site, www.change.gov. It is a great list of all our issues that Obama supports, marriage equality not among them, but the only one that had a timeline on it was “Promoting AIDS Prevention,” which he wants to accomplish in his first year. I am not criticizing him for this but merely stating a fact and questioning what that may mean to us as a community.
I see it as a clarion call to begin discussing how we see our agenda moving forward both on the state and national levels. It is also a mandate for us to make sure we can secure the votes in Congress for any legislation that we ask the president to push. That will require us to find a way to harness this incredible energy if we are to succeed.
|
