A Dahl’s House

Today at 6 p.m. Eastern Steve Stanton’s fate will be decided, so if you haven’t done any of the things listed on the savestaton.com site, do them now.

Non-stop work has kept from posting the last two weeks, but I’m finally getting a chance to catch up.

I’d volunteered to join Transgender San Francisco’s speakers’ bureau and I did my first outreach engagement talking to a local PFLAG group. Fortunately, I shared the podium with TGSF’s president, Allison, who has done a number of Trans 101 sessions, including for the local police departments, so I didn’t have to wing it entirely.

There were about two dozen people at PFLAG meeting, with at least a half-dozen with children or relatives who are trans, mostly on the FTM side. (Which makes sense, given that it’s not uncommon for FTMs to have spent time in the lesbian communities.) Needless to say, it was a receptive audience and Allison and I were told we gave one of the better presentations they’d had.

Last week, one of my best CD friends, Erica, came out the visit. Even though things were really crazed, I took the time to go meet her for dinner up in SF. (You can read her account of things.) Aside from it always being lovely to spend time with Erica, it was also a good mental break from work as well.

Thankfully, I’ve handed off the project (mostly—since I suspect there will be revisions in the offing) and headed off to Vegas (yeah, baby Vegas!) for a few days of play and a few days of attending a conference. I won’t be going out in femme. Mostly, I’m just a bit worn down and don’t feel like it. But also it’s one of the trade-offs of going in-house. Running my own consultancy, I was prepared to deal with the consequences if I was spotted en femme, but since I’m now “representing” my employer among my professional peers that changes things. But maybe some other trip.

Standard disclaimer: Going out of the house was right for me, it may or may not be right for you. If you’ve got no desire to leave the house, that’s fine, I’m not trying to push you out the door. But for those who’ve been yearning to do so, I just want to let you the world may not be as scary a place as you think.

The St. Petersberg Times has a lengthy article about former Largo city manager Steve Stanton’s life-long struggle
to cope with his transsexuality, which like Zoe on “All My Children” will hopefully help bring about better understanding and compassion from the general public.

For those of you who missed Friday’s “All My Children,” here’s a compilation of the “Zoe visits a trans support group” scenes.

The reaction at the AMC discussion forums at Soap Central, was overwhelming positive. Hopefully the episode opened a few eyes and a few hearts.

Had a nice weekend going down to visit my Mom for her birthday. While I was there, we saw an excellent exhibition of Ansel Adams’ photos, which I highly recommend seeing if you’re in the Orange County area this spring.

On the flight home, I was reading the wonderful “Butch is a Noun,” which caught the eye of the woman sitting next to me. Turns out she was a med student who’s planning to go into psychiatry, so she was interested in learning about a variety of people’s experiences. Which in turn led me to also recommend “She’s Not the Man I Married,” and in turn to mention that I crossdress and do some Trans 101. We had a nice discussion and I could see the lightbulbs going on in her head. An added bonus was that it turned out she hates flying, so our talk took her mind off that.

So hopefully it’ll lead to one more person in the psychiatric community who’s got a more realistic picture of what trans people are like.

Turns out it looks like Zoe’s visit to the celebrity all-star support group will span two shows after all, so reset those Tivos. Best-guess is that the hour-long original taping, featuring unscripted tales-from-the-heart from a variety of trans people, will probably cut edited down to about five minutes per show. But we’ll find out.

Turns out Zoe’s visit to the all-star celebrity trans support group has been pushed back to March 9. But in the meantime we’ve got a nice cast photo and blurb from GLAAD.

Top row, left to right: Brigitte, Jenny Boylan, Andy Marra, Eden “Bianca” Riegel, and Betty Crow. Bottom row, left to right: Tommy, Jeffrey “Zarf/Zoe” Carlson, June, and David Harrison.

By now you’ve probably heard about the Largo, Fla. city manager who’s being fired less than a week after being outed about his plans to transition.* One news story summed it up all too well:

Steve Stanton professed his love for the city and asked the people of Largo to support his decision to undergo a sex change and allow him to keep his $140,000-a-year job as city manager. To his sorrow, the answer came back no.

The answer wasn’t just no, it was a witch hunt, with a local Pharisee declaring: “If Jesus was here tonight, I can guarantee you he’d want him terminated.” Really?! Last I heard, Jesus was the sort of guy who comforted society’s outcasts, who urged us to love one another, and who had no patience for fuckwits who pride themselves in their self-righteousness.

Meanwhile on local blogs, usually anonymous posters claimed that Stanton had fired several city employees for things related to their private life. I don’t know the truth of those claims, but those weren’t what the commission considered. Nor Stanton’s performance.

Instead there was the “it’s disruptive” argument. Then there was the “it’s not the sex change, it’s the deception” argument—made by the very same people who would’ve have accused Stanton of “flaunting” his trans-ness had he been open about it.

End result, after a show trial, the commission voted 5-2 to begin the legal process of firing Stanton after 14 years on the job. Kudos to Mayor Pat Gerard and Commissioner Rodney Woods for standing up to the mob.

Local columnist Howard Troxler dissected the hipocrisy of it all far better than I can.

(Speaking of hipocrisy, while I appreciate the St. Petersburg Times’ telling the commission to judge Stanton on his skills not his gender and later chiding the commission for bowing to prejudice, they conveniently forgot to mention their own role in outing Stanton. One of their reporters got wind of Stanton’s plans to come out in June so his teenage son could be out of town and shielded from the publicity, but decided to not only short-circuit those plans but ran the story before Stanton could tell his son.)

As Stanton ponders his next moves, the commission better start checking their lawsuit insurance coverage, since the firing violated the city’s own 2003 Discrimination and Harassment Prohibition policy “specifically prohibits bias, prejudice, intimidation, coercion and harassment by any City employee at the work place, during business trips, or at City functions. The new policy mandates treating all human beings with respect regardless of race, religion, national origin, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression.” Plus as, outlined in Dr. Jillian Todd Weiss’ Transgender Workplace Diversity blog, there’s federal, state and local laws potentially protecting Stanton from dismissal on the basis of gender identity.

But don’t just get angry, get active. You can call or write to the Large commissioners. (Although apparently they’ve received so much email that it’s starting to bounce.) Be sure to let Mayor Gerard and Commissioner Woods know we appreciate their courage and to let the others know that hate is not a civic value. You can support Equality Florida or the National Center for Lesbian Rights’ Transgender Law Center, which is reportedly representing Stanton. And you can help lobby your local member of Congress for a trans-inclusive anti-discrimination employment law. (If you can’t make it to Washington, D.C. in May, you can instead visit your representative in your home state during the week of April 9-13 when they’re in their home district office for Spring recess.) Last but not least, the Largo commissioners will be up for re-election sooner or later. Consider sending a donation to vote in someone who’s ready to goven as if it’s the 21th century not the Dark Ages.

* Stanton has said he preferred to be referred to as “he” until he transitions, so I’m doing so here.