The Dallas Montgomery / Howard County Principles
PRINCIPLES
The
following eight guiding principles underlie our call to action. In order to achieve full civil rights now, we
avow:
1. Full
civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals must be
enacted now. Delay and excuses are no
longer acceptable.
2. We
will not leave any part of our community behind.
3.
Separate is never equal.
4.
Religious beliefs are not a basis upon which to affirm or deny civil rights.
5. The
establishment and guardianship of full civil rights is a non-partisan issue.
6.
Individual involvement and grassroots action are paramount to success and must
be encouraged.
7.
Success is measured by the civil rights we all achieve, not by words, access or
money raised.
8.
Those who seek our support are expected to commit to these principles.
Who are
these “authors”?
You can
find out here
Anyone
look familiar?
Dr Dana
Beyer, Executive Director, Gender Rights Maryland, former Vice President of
Equality Maryland, and supporter of last years failed Gender Identity Anti
Discrimination Bill, HB 235 which promoted a national fervor due to its lack of
public accommodations protections.
Lisa M.
Polyak, Acting Chair, Equality Maryland, Inc. Board of Directors promoter of HB
235
HB 235
fortunately never became law.
PRINCIPLES
1. Full
civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals must be
enacted now. Delay and excuses are no
longer acceptable.
Full is
defined as complete; entire; maximum. HB 235 was certainly not that. Of course,
there were excuses given for the delay.
Such as, “public accommodations needed to be removed for movement
through committee”, “All civil rights are incremental”, “We’ll come back for
you next year” (even though EQMD imploded immediately after the close of last
ssession) etc.
2. We
will not leave any part of our community behind.
See HB
235….
3.
Separate is never equal.
The
notion that “less than full protections now” can create equality must me
smashed. It is a falsehood which leads to more members of the transgender
community suffering dire consequences. See Transgender Day of Remembrance.
6.
Individual involvement and grassroots action are paramount to success and must
be encouraged.
The
premise that just hiring a lobbyist at $20,000 a month will solve this issue is
plain laughable. The entire trans community must work in the field and from the
same play book in order to achieve success. The effort must include grassroots
activism and personal commitments of the most precious commodity we need, man-hours. The truth is GRMD does not have the assets to do this sort of work, nor do they have the credibility with those who do and have done this level of work. Partnering would be a wise choice.
7.
Success is measured by the civil rights we all achieve, not by words, access or
money raised.
See
Principle 6
8.
Those who seek our support are expected to commit to these principles.
Equality
Maryland, Gender Rights Maryland, are both of you willing to check your egos at
the door and actively partner with the American American trans community in
Baltimore City and Prince George’s county?
Equality Maryland
holds biweekly working groups seeking this in Baltimore City
To form a broad coalition of Transgender Marylanders and their allies who are capable of working together by honoring each other’s opinions to find common ground across differences for the purposes of doing collective work that will better the lives of transgender and gender diverse people in Maryland through education, outreach, advocacy and, policy change.
Gender
Rights Maryland held one “town hall” in suburban Howard
County , a 2 ½ hour bus ride from Baltimore City
All of
us want a full bill. On this there is not disagreement. However, there are some
who believe a Les Trois Perdants, a sort of con man’s short con, can produce a
referendum proof passage for gender identity protections. This approach is not
only dangerous; it is not supported by the trans community as evidenced by the
reactions at GRMD’s weak sales pitch.
Mark my
words; if those of privilege have their way, a Three Bill Monte is coming to a
General Assembly near you soon!
