After 31 years, the NY State Senate allowed a vote on SONDA and it passed.
I'm sad to see this betrayal of the transgender community, who need protection as much as anyone. After watching the Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA) coddle Republicans like Pataki and Giuliani, I can say that I am even more disappointed in them than ever. I once really respected Matt Foreman, the executive director. I have marched with him, while he was head of the Anti-Violence Project, in some scary neighborhoods of this city. This statement is very depressing:
Foreman estimated that 75 percent of transgender people in the state live in New York City -- where a city law already protects them against discrimination."It's totally unfair for all these downstate people to be saying, 'All you upstate gays can wait"' for an anti-gay discrimination bill, said Foreman.
He said establishment of protection against discrimination for homosexuals was a historic step for gays and lesbians rights advocates, who plan to propose a sweeping change of the state's human rights laws next year.
"You really can't be advancing things like domestic partnership rights when, if you go to your employer and say, 'I have a domestic partner,' they can fire you because you're gay," Foreman said.
Now that it has passed, I know ESPA isn't going to use any of its budget or political capital to have them added. They will work on things like domestic partner benefits and other things that mostly benefit middle class (and up) gays, while the queens -- the kind of people who started the Stonewall uprising -- can flee to NYC if they're unlucky enough to live anywhere else.
I always hoped the queer community could be better than this, but we're as likely to jettison the weakest -- and least "mainstream" -- people as anyone.
