David Mixner Blog

Tim Scofield: Does the LGBT Community Need a National Museum?
By David Mixner
Copyright By David Mixner
Oct 5 2010
http://www.davidmixner.com/2010/10/tim-scofield-does-the-lgbt-community-need-a-national-museum.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DavidMixnerCom+%28DavidMixner.com%29


Let me begin by saying that I am not an activist. To be an activist, one must act and rarely look back; one must promote the now; one must be the future. More importantly, to be an activist, one cannot be a reflectionist. During a time when the LGBT community so eagerly needs the same rights as every other American, reflectionist are, quite literally, a thing of the past.

But I am a reflectionist, a word, I admit, not found in any dictionary or thesaurus, but one that, nevertheless, describes who I am. A reflectionist is not one to shy away from or resist change. Rather, the word implies the practice of simple discipline based on the idea that having a greater understanding of the past can shape a better future for all. Doing so, however, means taking the time to stop, listen, learn, think and reflect.

In 2007, I launched a nonprofit organization with the sole purpose of establishing a national museum for the LGBT community in Washington, DC. Since that day, my reflectionistic nature has kicked into overdrive. I’ve sat with Frank Kameny on several occasions and listened to his reflections on experiences as one of our community’s great surviving activists, surrounded by layers upon layers of papers, ephemeral objects and artifacts scattered about his home in Washington, DC. I’ve also met with the truest of rebel rousers who witnessed the tension that finally broke at the Stonewall Inn during one unforgettable summer’s night in 1969. Events and items of their past, our past, stack piles high from floor to ceiling in small studio apartments across New York City.

Now and then, time would stop altogether, like when I found myself in downtown Ashville, North Carolina inside a rare bookstore holding a page from the original manuscript of Tennessee Williams’ famed novel A Street Car Named Desire. Scribbled on top of the page read, “To my dearest Pedro.” Signed Tennessee Williams. Mere artifacts can stop time — objects that belong to us, to the community. Objects that one-day should be put on display in a museum that we can call our own.

I’ve traveled to Delaware to visit Kay Lahusen, the lifetime partner of gay rights activist Barbara Gettings. I’ve listened to her stories and flipped through her photographs that capture the earliest days of our movement as well as the lifelong journey of two devoted lovers. I’ve heard her speak of a large box that sits in the attic at the community center in Philadelphia, a box containing the original “gay” booth from the 1972 APA convention that helped activists like Barbara and Frank promote the idea that being gay was not an illness. The APA overturned their ruling on homosexuality the very next year. Time stops when I realize that this artifact is not safe and is at risk of being lost forevermore.

I’ve traveled to Casper, Wyoming to see – first hand – the meaning of Matthew. I’ve held in my hands his childhood toys, his Cub Scout badges, his collection of political campaign buttons, and I’ve read through the boxes of letters from the mothers, fathers, sons, daughters; the gay and straight; the confused and angry; and the people who didn’t understand why Matthew had to die because he wasn’t afraid to be true to himself. Time stops when I hold back the tears, when I reflect and ask: ‘Why?’

As I travel the country meeting our leaders, our heroes, and sometimes our adversaries, I remind myself that I am not an activist. I am on a journey in search of our past in hope that, one day, each one of us can stop, listen, learn, think and reflect, if only for a moment, on what it was that propelled us to act in the first place. As a reflectionist, I cannot fight for our cause. I can only listen, record the stories of our past, and help to ensure that our artifacts and our history remain safe for future generations.

I can only continue in my effort to build a central location in Washington, DC where the work of the activist and the lessons of the past will never be forgotten.

Tim Scofield (photograph on left) is founder of The Velvet Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization committed to establishing a National Museum of American LGBT History and Culture in Washington, DC. The museum will serve as a forum for the identification, study, and dissemination of the social, historical, and cultural contributions of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community — and its relation within the larger society — through collections, exhibitions, research, publications, and other public programs.






Cynthia Nixon: Fight Back New Yorkers!
By David Mixner
Copyright By David Mixner
Oct 6 2010
http://www.davidmixner.com/2010/10/cynthia-nixon-fight-back-new-yorkers.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DavidMixnerCom+%28DavidMixner.com%29


A year and a half ago my girlfriend Christine and I got engaged. With a ring and everything. Only problem is: no gay marriage in NY state, where we live.

So my fiancée and I headed up to Albany to ask members of the state senate to pass the marriage equality bill. We sat with half a dozen senators—men and women, Republicans and Democrats, members from upstate and downstate—looked them in the eye and explained why marriage equality meant so much to our family. Some offered opposing points of view, some expressed political insecurities, and some just sat and listened. All of them were respectful. None of them conveyed any concern that there would be consequences if they did not vote for the bill.

While I didn’t realize it at the time, this was troubling.

As a community, LGBT people have supported candidates in state legislatures for years. We’ve worked hard to elect men and women who would not only support our equality, but would be vocal advocates. We’ve made great strides in New York—there are many passionate advocates in the state senate who truly want a New York where LGBT citizens are treated equally. But what we learned on December 2, 2009 is that it’s not enough.

Just as important as making sure that we elect champions of equality—that we have the capacity to support and reward those who stand with us (we’ve been very loyal to our friends—no one has ever lost their seat due to a "yes" vote on marriage equality), we need to also make it clear that we have the power and determination to kick out of office those who vote against our rights. In other words: in order for the carrot to be effective, we also need the stick.

That’s where the importance—no, the necessity—of Fight Back comes in. Last year we watched as several champions of equality in the New York State Senate stood up and made passionately eloquent arguments in support of our equality. We then painfully watched as a silent majority of Senators—37 of the 38 no votes said nothing, to be exact—sat in their chairs and simply uttered “no” when the vote was taken. It never occurred to these senators that voting against the rights of LGBT people came with political consequences, and that’s a real problem.

That started to change on March 16, 2010 when Fight Back spent more than $100,000 to make sure Hiram Monserrate did not return to the Senate. Monserrate was the quintessential example to set: here was a guy who had at one time promised to support marriage equality. Yet, when the time came to vote, he decided that his political allegiance to Ruben Diaz was more important than the rights of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. At the end of election night, Monserrate went down by a vote of 67 to 27 percent and our message was delivered: our community is ready to step into the ring against those who stand in the way of our rights.

Since the March election, we have built significant support and extensively researched the political landscape in New York. In order to be effective, we need to play where we think we can win. When we spend $100,000 or $200,000 or even $300,000 in a race, we want to know that it will make the difference in taking out an anti-equality state senator.

As Fight Back prepares to announce our list of general election targets, we will need the support of every New Yorker who wants LGBT equality—gay or straight. Not only will we together fundamentally change the way that legislators in Albany think about our issues, we will demonstrate to elected officials across the country that we are ready to go to battle, if necessary. I urge you to channel your anger into action and donate what you can today. Be a part of this historic effort.

I plan to go back to Albany after elections--but this time when we sit down with those senators and ask for their votes, I know a little alarm bell will go off in their heads. It will warn them that if they decide to once again block equality, they do so at their own peril. And when that happens, we will have changed the way our community is viewed--no longer as a supplicant for our basic rights but as a power to be reckoned with.





Michael Silverman: New York City Birth Certificate Policy Hurts Transgender People
By David Mixner
Copyright By David Mixner
Oct 8 2010
http://www.davidmixner.com/2010/10/michael-silverman-new-york-city-birth-certificate-policy-hurts-transgender-people.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DavidMixnerCom+%28DavidMixner.com%29



If you’ve never experienced a disconnect between the information contained on your ID and who you actually are, it can be hard to grasp just how difficult such a situation can be. Imagine being male and by some fluke your passport, driver’s license or birth certificate was marked with a letter “F,” for female. Try boarding a plane or opening a bank account with such a document. At best, you’d be interrogated about your identity; at worst, you’d be completely turned away.

Imagine applying for work with those documents and filling out Form I-9, an Employment Eligibility Verification. How would your new employer react to the revelation that you might not be exactly the person he or she thought you were? Again, at best you could expect a significant invasion of your privacy; at worst, you’d lose the job.

If you’re transgender, these are some of the everyday realities of living with identification that doesn’t match who you are. At the federal, state and local level, government agencies place tremendous obstacles in the path of transgender people who are simply trying to obtain accurate, up-to-date identification documents.

In many cases, government agencies require that transgender people have certain forms of surgical intervention in order to change the sex designation on their identification. New York City’s requirement that transgender people have “convertive surgery” in order to correct their birth certificates is one such requirement. But the plain fact is that most transgender people just haven’t had these kinds of surgeries. Most can’t afford it because public and private insurance plans often discriminatorily exclude such care. Many others don’t want surgery, and for some, it’s medically ill-advised due to other health conditions. Government requirements notwithstanding, transitioning is not a one-size-fits-all process, and the surgery requirement that government agencies impose bears no relationship to the lived experience of most transgender people. Nor does it bear any rational relationship to any government interest. It serves to do one thing only: deny transgender people the identification documents they need to avoid marginalization and to lead full, productive and equal lives.

We’ve fought this issue in New York before and we’re going to continue to fight it. In 2006, we worked with the New York City Department of Health and other advocates to come up with updated policies and procedures for changing the sex designation on birth certificates for transgender people. In October 2006, the Board of Health actually proposed an amendment to the Health Code that would have removed the code’s “convertive surgery” requirement. But in the end the Board of Health turned lily-livered.

While the Health Commissioner recognized that corrected birth certificates would “make it easier for transgender people to live, work and travel,” the Board nevertheless claimed that the proposal would have “broader societal ramifications than anticipated.”. The Board also cited then-“forthcoming” federal regulations that it believed would impact its ability to amend City law to ease the requirements for amending birth certificates.

When those federal regulations did come out in 2008, they established that the feds would not dictate local policies, leaving the City free to make its own policy. But rather than the City taking the lead, we’ve seen the federal government leapfrog ahead on this issue, introducing new policy guidelines on changing the sex marker on passports. As of June 10, 2010, when passport applicants present a doctor’s certification that they have undergone “appropriate clinical treatment,” their passports will be updated to accurately reflect their sex. Sex reassignment surgery is no longer required to change the sex designation on a U.S. passport. Whatever concerns New York City officials feared might result from transgender people having accurate identification documents have been rendered moot by the federal government’s own action in allowing federal documents to be amended without requiring surgery.

Far from being a historical document filed away somewhere, birth certificates and other identity documents must be produced in many situations. Getting through life with inaccurate or inconsistent identity documents is a bureaucratic nightmare with far-reaching consequences. Without IDs that accurately reflect who they are, transgender people are simply unable to live, work and participate fully in society.

That’s a situation that has to change and over the coming months, we’ll be doing all we can to see that happens. If New York City truly wants to ensure that transgender people are not discriminated against in the areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations as the law requires, it needs to follow the federal government’s lead, instead of coming up with excuses to avoid doing so. The transgender community’s ability to live freely and equally depends upon it.

Michael Silverman is the Executive Director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York.