CALLING US OUT: The LGBT community looks inward for 2013

There’s no shortage of things we want to change about the world, each other and ourselves. We’re full of suggestions about what we think is right, and wrong, with the LGBT community – especially when Pride season comes around.

But New Year’s is the official time of transition and resolution, so what better time to channel that energy and find room for growth? Let’s get it all on the table and call ourselves out.

Our own resolution: Find more things to celebrate about ourselves and each other. Change starts with the individual – not with quiet complaints but with real effort and voices from us, and you – and besides, what’s the point of fixing something you’d rather walk away from than stay and love?

We have community leaders, thought leaders and folks on the street telling us how they plan to make 2013 their best year yet. We asked: What’s your New Year’s resolution, and what resolution should the LGBT community have as a whole?

What would your answer be?

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Marriage isn’t our finish line

Will we stay and fight until we’re all free?

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Essays by Jace Woodrum, Nita Mosby Henry
and Cristina Aguilar
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A renewed focus on trans equality

By Jace Woodrum
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Our community is facing a groundbreaking 2013. The months ahead of us could change our lives forever – from the passage of civil unions to the hopeful death of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act.

Never before has there been so much momentum for change – history-making change that was unthinkable just a few years ago.

My hope for 2013 is not for this change to happen (because I believe it will) – it’s for unity in the face of such incredible change.

My hope for 2013 is that we welcome this change together – as the victories they are –while realizing that full equality for our entire community must still be advanced.

My hope for 2013 is that we will see the coming change as a turning point in our movement – not as the end of our movement.

Even after every person can stand up in front of family and friends and marry the one they love with full recognition from all the states and the federal government, work remains.

Work remains to achieve full equality for transgender Coloradans who face injustice at every turn – at work, at the doctor’s office, at school, at restaurants and other public accommodations, and at the hands of our government and its institutions.

According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey:

90 percent of transgender people report experiencing harassment, mistreatment or discrimination at work.

19 percent have experienced homelessness at some point in their lives—because of their gender identity or expression.

Transgender or gender non-conforming students report alarming rates of harassment (78 percent), physical assault (35 percent), and sexual violence (12 percent) in school.

53 percent of transgender people report being verbally harassed or disrespected in a place of public accommodation, including hotels, restaurants, buses, airports, and government agencies.

22 percent of transgender people who have interacted with police reported harassment by police, with much higher rates reported by people of color.

16 percent of trans people who had been to jail or prison reported being physically assaulted, and 15 percent reported being sexually assaulted.

50 percent of transgender people report having to teach their medical providers about transgender care.

41 percent of transgender people report attempting suicide, compared to 1.6 percent of the general population.

Think we will have achieved equality for our community after we secure marriage for same-sex couples? Think again. This data underscores the incredible amount of work that remains – for all of us in the LGBT community.

And so I’m asking you: please don’t give up before the job is done.

Resolve yourself – I mean, it is New Year’s after all – to sticking around long after we’ve won marriage.

For decades, your transgender brothers and sisters have been fighting alongside you. At Capitol buildings, ballot boxes, and courtrooms across the country, we’ve celebrated victories with you, and we’ve mourned losses with you. Like you, we’ve given time, energy, and dollars to ensure that marriage equality becomes the law of the land.

Now, as we move closer and closer to our inevitable victory in the marriage fight, your transgender brothers and sisters need you to stick around.

Stick around to advocate for trans-inclusive healthcare and economic justice. Stick around to lobby for stronger anti-discrimination laws. Stick around to organize an end to the violence that transgender people suffer, at the hands of others and at our own hands.

In 2013 and beyond, stick around and keep fighting until the work is done. As Emma Lazarus once said, “Until we are all free, we are none of us free.”

Jace Woodrum is the Deputy Director of One Colorado, the state’s leading LGBT advocacy organization. He’s also a trans guy, a husband, and a puppy parent.
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Honor our overlapping identities

By Nita Mosby Henry
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I believe we have to change our perspective about how knowledgeable we think we are about diversity. I believe whenever you get a group of people together who get categorized as diverse (like the LGBT community typically does), we somehow begin to act as if we have mastery of being inclusive. The reality is we still have a ways to go in understanding how to be inclusive within the LGBT community. Everybody is not the same – nor do they want to be.

Everyone wants their diversity, whatever that might be, to be recognized and acknowledged. We have to remember that. Our LGBT identity is not always the only identity that we want recognized. I am just as proud of being a Black, 50 year-old, female, mother as I am being a part of the LGBT community. My New Year’s Resolution recommendation would be to Honor Inclusion … for real.

Nita Mosby Henry is the Executive Director of the Career Service Authority – the City of Denver’s Human Resources Agency. She is a member of the One Colorado Board of Directors and the Tony Grampas Youth Services Board and is the founder of Girlz Pushing the Button.
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End prejudice, racism and discrimination

By Cristina Aguilar
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It is my wish that as an LGBT community, we come closer together and move farther away from racism, oppression and discrimination in 2013. This resolution is an invitation to the community that I hope we can adopt and make meaning of together. In a world that is increasingly filled with tragic events and natural disasters, we can no longer allow hatred and racism in spaces that already need healing. The LGBT movement is such a space. I write this raw, fresh on the heels of the latest mass shooting in Newtown, CT and am deeply reflective on what is happening to our nation and our communities. I’m concerned about cracks in our collective spaces and see in this darkness an opportunity to create light in our communities.

I believe in the power we have to unite and heal and I believe there is always light to be found in our humanity. My dedication is motivated and driven by who I am – an activist, a healer and a dreamer. I co-founded One Colorado’s People of Color Caucus because I wanted to see bridges built, not burnt; I wanted to see LGBTs of all ethnicities and class sharing spaces, discourse, meaningful friendships and relationships. Moreover, I wanted to see our entire LGBT community sharing victories, realizing that in order for us to have true “wins,” we need to be standing together and to be consistent – not only demanding equality, but also promoting it.

Statewide and nationally, we are on the brink of many victories that will impact many aspects of our diverse LGBT community. For our community as a whole, we have already seen marriage equality victories in other states and relationship recognition is ever closer here in Colorado. For our Latino community, we have seen immigration reform move high on the priorities list nationally and within our own state. The new healthcare law cuts across many segments of our LGBT population, with new opportunities for socio-economically disadvantaged, transgender, seniors and women. We have so much to celebrate and, yet, in the darker corners of our community, we are still struggling with setbacks caused by racism, discrimination, and oppression.

As a queer Latina, I want to see equality for us as LGBTs as much as I do for our many marginalized communities. I believe we cannot say we have advanced until we all have advanced together. As LGBTs we have a common struggle. I hope we use the awareness of that struggle to understand the struggles of our diverse brothers and sisters — many of whom are also LGBT. Justice for all is not lip service. It is a real and powerful concept. From our political process to social interactions at bars, we should ensure there is a seat for everyone, with a sincere welcome for the diversity of our LGBT community. We need to champion diverse perspectives and experiences in our community boards and commissions. Conversely-it is important for minority spaces to be welcoming and inviting to all. When invitations are extended to share space, it is so important for those invites to be acknowledged and acted on – even if it is uncomfortable.

Why does this matter? As we near a large success for LGBT equality by way of relationship recognition, I fear we will achieve this and forget about the inequities that persist for women, communities of color, and transgender people within our movement. We cannot stand by and idly let this happen. We must lift each other up and leave no part of our community behind. This is where true opportunities lie for our collective community. There will be many opportunities for us to be a part of intersectional work as our state legislature takes up issues that cross through our LGBT community. It will be important for us to have presence not just at the rallies for civil unions, but also at the rallies for tuition equity for Colorado’s undocumented students. It will be equally important to be advocating for equitable implementation of the affordable care act for transgender people and other marginalized communities. Stepping back is not an option anymore. When we step away from opportunities to stand with or be an allied voice for others, we allow oppression to persist. As LGBT’s we know what it means to be oppressed. We can’t let this happen to the additionally marginalized among us.

Can you imagine a world where we don’t just say we are “One” but we truly embody what it means to be “One” LGBT movement, challenging racism, discrimination, and oppression; holding each other accountable, and collectively moving towards a world that embodies justice for all? Can you imagine the healing possibilities and the future we can create with a unified definition of equality and community? I see beauty and hope for this possibility and a myriad of options to make it happen in 2013.

Cristina Aguilar is Deputy Director for Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR), the state’s only Reproductive Justice organization. She co-founded the People of Color Caucus, a racial justice LGBT focus group, within statewide LGBT advocacy organization, One Colorado and serves as vice chair of Denver’s GLBT commission.