Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Legislature / Politics / Woods Gays and Lesbians Fan Out Across State Capitol
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 10:14 AM
"The most important thing is to bring your loved ones with you as you talk to your legislators," Tennessee Equality Project president Chris Sanders told the roughly 100 people at the meeting. "Take the love you have for the people in your arms and let it transform this awful political environment we have."
OK, let us know how that works out for you. Surprisingly, the Tennessee Equality Project has discovered one bill that gays can support. It would add gender identity to the definition of a hate crime. At least two transgendered women have been killed in Tennessee in the recent past. Of course, this bill has absolutely no chance of passing.
Before sending his soldiers across the street to Legislative Plaza, Sanders added: "No one from New York or California is coming to rescue us. We are the army that has been sent to do this work."
Sanders recognizes the political difficulties of this situation, but says the mere presence of gay people among their elected representatives is a positive. Except for a couple of guys with chartreuse Mohawks, everyone in the group looked, um, normal. And that's a big surprise to many lawmakers.
"It does position us down the road for positive legislation," Sanders says. "When we first started this, a lot of lawmakers said, 'Hell, we don't have any gay people in our district.' I'm serious. We don't hear that as much anymore."
Comments (3)
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Please also take note of the Birth Certificate bill that TEP and TTGPAC are both supporting. This will make a huge difference in the everyday lives of Tennesseans, to the point that it could keep them from being a victim of a hate crime.
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As one of the "couple of guys with chartreuse Mohawks" I would like to say that we looked perfectly normal. We were two citizens of the State of Tennessee who were on Capitol Hill exercising our right, some might even say our duty, to voice our opinions and concerns to our elected representatives about upcoming legislation that concerns us. In the United States of America nothing could be more normal. Yes we are punks and our hair style isn't terribly common. We are also well educated, gainfully employed, and active in our church and community. No one should fear standing up for issues they hold near and dear to their hearts because some random reporter might criticize the way they look, or the style or condition of their clothing, or the size of the tires on their wheelchair, or any other reason.
By the way, my mohawk is blue/green. My partner's is purple, you might want to take better notes.
