Nothing Says Patriot Like Hiding... Your Children

That ever popular bastion of Jesus freedom, WorldNetDaily, is hiding a Transgender Partriot! In their "Letter of the Week" they showcase the anonymous patriot. She starts out by saying

"First, before I begin, I just want to let you know that I support WND and the work you do primarily as it relates to the illegal-alien invasion and the North American Union. My feedback below doesn't change that."

Then goes on to say:

I feel badly that the "T" is almost always associated with the LGB as well. I often times do not agree with their politics. In fact, I almost never do. I'm very patriotic, and their politics cannot typically be characterized as patriotic.

The rest of the post is an appeal to right wing conservatives to see us as separate from the GLB community. While I don't agree with the writer, I can understand the reasoning behind it. I'm getting rather tired of our community being treated as third rate within the larger G and L community on one end and being used as morality bait by religious conservatives on the other. Acclaimed transgender radio host and National Center for Transgender Equality Advisory Board member, Nancy Nangerioni writes:

"Ethan told me that he is being asked by a member of congress for stories of transgender persons who work successfully with children, in order to counter accusations from the opposition – mostly Republicans, I expect – that transgenders are pedophiles."

Why are we being targeted? The Bible doesn't mention transgender people at all.

"Last night I lay awake while this infuriating accusation rolled around my brain. I have never heard of a case of a transgender person being convicted of child molestation. I HAVE heard of Catholic priests and heterosexual men and – oh yes – Republican Congressmen being convicted as such. But never a transgender person. So why are we being asked to mount a defense against such accusation? Why are we presumed to be dangerous to children in the face of absolutely no evidence that we present any danger whatsoever to young persons?"

The answer is simple. It's our alignment with gays and lesbians that causes our community the most grief with the conservative Christians. What do we get for this grief? We have to protest to be included into ENDA and hate crimes legislation, we get short changed in the Corporate Equality Index, and we can't even get the head of the largest GLBT organization to ask the Democratic Party's Presidential hopefuls more than one question about transgender issues (but they could ask 22 questions about marriage)!

I support marriage equality for gays and lesbians. But marriage equality is the number one issue with these equality groups, to the expense of our issues and our families. Is HRC working on the repeal of the Real ID act? Are they advocating against the "no match" letters that will out transgender Americans in the workplace? How about birth certificate issues? These issues are not being addressed in any substantial way, but they sure can address the bark beetle!!

Would we be better off in the long run to disassociate ourselves from the GLB community? It's times like these I wonder.

cross posted from Transadvocate.com