Campaign Puts The "T" Back in "LGBT" (New Haven Independent)
Monday, February 9, 2009
By: Melinda Tuhus

Now that they've brought same-sex marriage to Connecticut, advocates took on a new mission to a downtown town hall meeting: protecting transgender civil rights. Three dozen people attended the meeting Saturday in the main library branch's community room, sponsored by Love Makes a Family (LMF), the organization that's been working for a decade for gay rights in Connecticut.

When they had an opportunity to comment on where the group should focus its considerable energy and skill this year, participants favored a bill to codify in law the same-sex marriage right they won last year through the State Supreme Court. They also called for a repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA, that defines marriage as between one man and one woman and therefore denies same-sex couples many important rights, including spousal Social Security death benefits, tax benefits and veterans benefits.

But most of all they supported putting the “T” back in the fight for “LGBT” rights, which stands for “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.”

“1 Queer Bill At A Time”

Anne Stanback, executive director of LMF, noted the transgender community supported same-sex couples in their fight for marriage equality. The larger GLB community needs to now support a bill to add “gender identity or expression” to the state’s non-discrimination law covering employment, education, housing, public accommodation or credit, she said. She said that at the legislature, “There was a sense that they could work on only one queer bill at a time… and marriage came first, so the trans bill has been more on the back burner.”

This is the fourth year the bill has been introduced in the General Assembly. It has already been raised in the Judiciary Committee.

A flyer with questions and answers regarding “An act concerning discrimination” was available at the meeting. It said the bill authorizes the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO) “to investigate complaints of discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression and order appropriate remedies if such discrimination is found.” (It’s unclear how Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s budget-cutting proposal to eliminate the CHRO, along with many other state commissions, might affect this proposed legislation.)

Personal Testimony

Meeting organizers asked Tony Ferraiolo to come and tell the story of his successful transition at work from female to male.

He said he had been “an angry lesbian” who supervised 30 people at Madison Company in Branford. When he decided to transition to male about four years ago, his employer was supportive. He said he was out for surgery and when he came back to work, he did just that — went back to work, with no reference to his new identity, which was in any case obvious.

“I’m much happier and I’m a better worker because I’m comfortable in my body,” he said.

The comment reflected the range of changes that individuals undergo when they change their gender identity, including surgery that is sometimes less drastic than a complete sex change; hormone treatment; and counseling.

Stratford resident Don Arsenault was at the meeting supporting his child, who was born a boy.

“My child, Rose, knows who she is,” said Arsenault, “but it’s been a scary journey for both of us. In the beginning, Rose first came out as gay and joined a support group. And yet, all of a sudden even in the support group, when the trans part came in, Rose still felt alone. And I was stunned. How could people who know what it’s like to be ostracized, still ostracized somebody else? We all do it, but it was very hard. It’s all about saying we want to have the right to be who we are.”

Scott said, “The ways in which gay and lesbian and queer identities are intertwined with gender non-conformity has a long history and a rich life in the gay community.” He said for the latter to separate itself disavows much of what the gay community has historically included.

Christopher Coleman of Milford agreed, reminding people that this year is the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion the first time that a large group of gays physically fought back against police abuse. “Maybe the word transgender didn’t exist back then,” he said, “but there still were people who were transgender, whether they were drag queens or living their lives as women, they fought side by side with gays and lesbians.”

Shelter “Fear & Pain”

Sara Warfield said a number of transgender people come to the homeless shelter where she works, where they are assigned a bed based on their biological gender, not their gender identity.

A man identifying as a woman would be placed in the men’s wing, for instance. That creates fear and personal pain, she said.

“Can we get social services to recognize gender identity?” she wondered.Ferraiolo runs a support group for trans teens — called Translation — that meets every three weeks. (Pictured are five who came to the Saturday meeting; Rose is second from left.) He said right now the group has an equal number of youth who identify as males and as females. 

Love Makes a Family is part of the statewide Anti-Discrimination Coalition, which is holding a lobby day April 7 at the Legislative Office Building to push for passage of the trans rights bill.