I know snow when I see it. I saw it this morning. No big deal. It was kind of nostalgic. The good news is that things are slowly coming together here at our new house. The process of making this happen with my son has actually been kind of fun.
Early this summer I was approached by a couple of students from Harvard about creating a Case Study article featuring transgender workplace issues in the Harvard Business Review. They did an amazing job of pulling things together, and the results of their efforts will be published in Decembers edition of HBR.
A preview of the article is available on the HBR website (see it here). For an institution such as Harvard to provide this kind of recognition is a significant achievement. Congratulations to all who participated and helped make this happen.
Dr. Phil was his usual buffoonish self today on a show titled “Gender Confused Kids” (see preview here). He has become little more than a bald Jerry Springer with a superiority complex. What kind of show on transgender kids features a spokesperson from Focus on the Family?? Anyway, if you really want to see the kind of people who watch his show take the time to visit the message board. Ugh.
The Human Rights Campaign has found a new role for Associate Director of Diversity Allyson Robinson. They’re using her as an interviewer in an effort to provide a more in-depth explanation/justification of HRC’s fatally compromised Congressional Scorecard. I can think of a dozen tough questions that would have been far more informative (and fun) than the ones that were asked (read it here).
During this puffsicle ”interview” Allison Herwitt describes the Scorecard as a tool. A hammer is a tool, too, but when you threaten to hit someone in the head with it it becomes a weapon. That’s how they wielded the scorecard during ENDA last year. It was used to threaten and arm-twist legislators to vote their the Non-Inclusive version of ENDA despite the fact that the entire rest of the GLBT community was urging them to do otherwise. The 7 legislators who would not bow to the pressure and voted against it on principle caused HRC to go back to the drawing board after the fact to find a way to make it look as though they had been part of this all along. Otherwise, the scorecard would look like the ineffectual propaganda that it is.
It was also used to manage the board to get them to support the non-inclusive version. None of this after the fact it’s-a-90-but-it’s-really-100 stuff was on the table at the time. The way Joe sold it was that if a legislator voted against HRC’s position they would be penalized – end of story – and although there were many board members who supported full-inclusion they couldn’t imagine punishing our “friends” who voted FOR a pro-gay bill, even though it wasn’t the bill we all wanted. Some on the call questioned whether or not special considerations could somehow be made but Joe was adamant that to provide some sort of concession it would compromise the Scorecard – that it needed “teeth”. Joe got his way, there are no teeth, and the Scorecard has been compromised.
“Character and Integrity”? You be the judge.
I’ll be in Washington DC this weekend as one of the keynotes for the Reaching Out MBA Conference and I expect part of my comments will be about “Character and Integrity”. I’ve been to this conference three or four other times but this is my first time there as a participant. I’ve been doing lots of speaking to university students – it’s something I really enjoy.
Next week I’m speaking at the University of Connecticut. I smiled when I saw the title of my talk: The Final Frontier: Confessions of a Transgender Warrior.
I’m also thankful that this will be my last “busy” weekend for several weeks. Just in time for the Holidays. Phew.
That damn Dr (Moron) Phil and his show, and not to mention the idiots that were on the message board. I don’t know why I get so upset with uneducated people. I just wish there was a way they could either drink some potion or take a pill which would educate them not be be idiots. Oh well I guess I am one to for arguing with them.
Good night
Shauna
“The Human Rights Campaign has found a new role for Associate Director of Diversity Allyson Robinson. They’re using her as an interviewer in an effort to provide a more in-depth explanation/justification of HRC’s fatally compromised Congressional Scorecard. ”
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Damn. That was rather like a comedy duo with two straight men. All set-up and no punchline. But congrats – you foreshadowed it well with the buffoon comment.
Good Lord Herwitt’s a disaster.
“The seven Members who voted against ENDA because it was not inclusive are among the strongest supporters of LGBT rights in Congress. ”
“All seven are founding members of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus.”
And that’s why we penalised them for voting their conscience – voting for something she says is “the goal we share”. Why punish them for supporting a goal you share? Some might find that…… at the kindest assessment, counterintuitive
HRC had over a year to adjust their scorecard so as not to penalise these Congress Members for supporting transgender equality. That they didn’t tells you what their true goal was – to punish them. The intent of the scorecard is to rate Members of Congress on LGBT issues and so “to assist the LGBT community in assessing the relative support or non-support of Members of Congress.” Or, to put it bluntly – whether you should vote for them, work on their campaigns or donate to their campaign. The higher the number – the greater degree of support they can expect to receive.
So – they wished to punish these members for supporting transgender equality when HRC wanted to jettison it. But – as they point out – the scorecard isn’t just about the past – it’s used to effect future behavior. They’re sending a strong message that they don’t want them to do this in the future. If transgender people get excised from the bill next time – they damn well better get in line.
Besides the institutional hissy fit this represents – it’s a huge slap in the face to the Democratic Party before the election. HRC found a way to craft a scorecard that only penalises democrats who are exceptional on LGBT rights.
And it’s a huge slap in the face to the man who will be the next President. Sen. Obama has made his support for an inclusive bill clear, going so far as to commit to an exeutive order banning discrimination based upon gender identity & expression in the interim before ENDA comes up again.
Whoo-Hoo! That’s some damn fine police work there, Lou.
[...] Much For Any Neo-Legitimacy for the Scampaign Kathy pointed me to a post on Donna Rose’s blog which contains a somewhat oblique comment about the Rhode Island Avenue Cesspoolof [...]
Could it be that HRC isn’t TRULY trans-inclusive? Is there any doubt? And heaven forbid that someone doubt the integrity of their “Corporate Equality Index” that is more of a listing of their financial contributors and prospective contributors than it is a list of trans inclusive employers. Propaganda, just like their ’scorecard.’
Damn straight they’re not trans inclusive. It’s almost unbelievable when HRC lobbies against a trans inclusive ENDA and blackmailing right-minded politicians with their ’scorecard’ at the same time espousing that they are fighting for trans rights. I wonder how many of their corporate sponsors and political allies are aware of what they’re doing.
So what should we do? Well, we shouldn’t go in front of congress and ask for our rights, we should demand them! We shouldn’t have to ‘educate’ politicians before they stop their discriminatory unconstitutional practices. Did Blacks, Asians, Latinos and Women have to ‘educate’ congress before the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1964 was passed?
It’s discrimination plain and simple.
Hopefully Kathy is right about Obama.
I think we’ve been trodden on long enough.
Jillian Barfield
TJobBank
I tried to post the “Dr. Phil” show was trolling for TV ratings by putting two extreme points of view together on that show and letting them have at it with the gender different children and their parents caught in the middle of that clash. The only ones who really benefited from this would have been the P_show with a TV rating bump at the expense and emotional trauma of the gender differnt children and parents. Indeed, the P_show has become another “J_Springer” tabloid TV program and not much more. one has to wonder why Oprah got this clown started… It appears to me that these programs of exploitation is all about $$$$$$$.. at the expense of the various individuals and groups they take advantage of.