Jul 04, 2008  GWEN SMITH | COMMENTS     

CONGRESS HEARD about transgender issues last week. It was not the first time trans issues were discussed in D.C., of course. Transgender people and their allies have been taking part in organized Lobby Days for well over a decade, and the issue of transgender rights has come up — in one form or another — for decades.

I’m sure if you did the research, you’d find at least 50 years of references in the congressional record, stretching back to Christine Jorgensen’s initial return to the United States in 1953.

It’s not that the topic was broached that is important here. What stands out is that last week’s hearing marks the first substantive hearing expressively on transgender workplace discrimination. 

Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), a longtime supporter of transgender rights, spoke. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who supports us when it’s politically expedient, also took the microphone. Shannon Minter — fresh from his big California marriage victory — was there, as were many others from across the country. It was a big deal, and a big, big step for the transgender community.

The meeting was, essentially, in support of transgender rights in the workplace at a federal level, and helped lay the groundwork for another go at an Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which has been bouncing around Congress for many years and has yet to pass. For those who somehow missed it, a trans-inclusive ENDA had its transgender protections stripped out of it late last year when it hit the House floor. I won’t rehash all the issues surrounding this, except to note how darkly humorous it was when I read the Human Rights Campaign’s press release touting this recent congressional hearing.

WILL WE SEE a trans-inclusive ENDA pass now that we’ve had this hearing? 

In the short term, no. This may have changed some minds, but no one is going to vote on a transgender rights bill in the midst of an election year. Perhaps, depending on whom our next president is, we’ll see a vote then. Will we again see transgender rights stripped from such a bill? Maybe. Will transgender people continue to see difficulties in the workplace? Certainly.

Most transgender people have faced workplace difficulties. I lost a job due to my transgender status and have had to fight my way into the workplace since. A decade since my transition, I still face challenges related to workplace discrimination — and others have had it far worse than I.

Women, minorities, the disabled and others still face challenges in the workplace. Legal protections alone do not solve the problem and no law causes discrimination to not happen in the first place — it only allows for recourse in case it does occur.

But this meeting generated two things of great value. For one, it is a step toward protections, and those protections can and will help all transgender or gender- variant people. Even though there will likely be challenges, employment protections would be a great win for all of us.

Secondly, that we had such a meeting is a testament to the hard work of many who have come before. Our community has had to go from being somewhere out on the fringe of a fringe to a group that merits a Congressional hearing. This does not occur without a lot of blood, sweat, toil and tears from many people. The groundwork began decades ago, perhaps as far back as Jorgensen, but certainly as early as Stonewall.

IT SEEMS fitting that such a meeting would happen so close to the anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion. We’ve grown in all facets of life, going from invisibility to a known group. Even the word “transgender” was all but unknown when ENDA was introduced, while a non-inclusive bill today illicited heated response from all quarters.

Knowing what the climate was for transgender people just five years ago, shows how fast we are moving — imagine how unlikely such an event would have been in that period between 9-11 and the Iraq war, let alone in the years before. We still have a long way to go until we see true equality, but we should not forget that we’ve made great strides.

Something encouraging happened on Capitol Hill last week. Now it is up to all of us to turn it into something that will last.