LGL to sign letter to transgender roundtable and i got a new coat

in its first collective smoov move LGL has voted unanimously to ENDORSE THE COMMUNITY LETTER TO THE TRANSGENDER ROUND TABLE.

PRETTY COOL RIGHT.

what's that you ask?

the transgender roundtable is an annual meeting, first proposed 3 years ago by the gay and lesbian advocates and defenders (GLAD) to replace the "LGBT litigators roundtable" - which is a very exclusive, "lawyers only" elite meeting organized by lambda legal, GLAD, the national center for lesbian rights (NCLR) and the ACLU, where legal issues that are seen as particularly urgent (mostly marriage) are discussed. basically it's like a backroom members-only group - where lawyers set the policies for the national gay and lesbian agenda. and the transgender roundtable is trying to replicate this structure. so this year, silvia rivera law project (SRLP) and several other super rad community-based legal and direct services orgs are officially protesting - in the form of a letter that challenges the exclusivity of this processs and demands an alternative structure that is more accountable. i could go on about the fuckedupness of how this structure plays out in terms of squashing important voices of the actual community - but lets just say DRAMA IS DEEP.

here's a quote from the letter:

We are writing to you about an issue that we think is of great importance to the developing movement(s) for trans liberation.  We are writing because we are organizations and individuals concerned with ensuring that trans movements are developed in ways that center racial and economic justice and the leadership of poor people and people of color.  We come to this work with a critique of how as lesbian and gay rights has developed over the last 30 years, it has centered the experiences and leadership of white upper class people and its agenda has come to focus on narrow legal equality gains that have little to offer the people who face the worst consequences of homophobia.  We believe that part of why that has occurred is that the movement professionalized, and the agenda increasingly was produced in backroom meetings by executive directors, lawyers and funders, with communities facing the worst marginalization (POC, people with disabilities, poor people, immigrants, criminalized people) unrepresented in those discussions. We want to stop the replication of these mistakes in emerging trans activism.

basically by signing the letter LGL is coming out in solidarity with these demands. it was a pretty cool experience to put our first consensus decision into effect... because our core members comprise a diverse group who don't all neceassrily share "critiques" or even politics, part of our project is about working to all get on the same page together. therefore in signing to letter, we are committing to educating ourselves about the background of its contents - such as what is the lgbt roundtable and what does it have to do with the history of the lgbt movement? why don't we want only lawyers deciding on how the national trans movemet is shaped? etc. in other wordz so that not just saying our org is in solidarity - but that WE as individiuals moving towards more solidarity with each other.

I GOT A NEW COAT. GIFT FROM REN'YO <3 THE OTHER NIGHT AT DA CLUB. PERSONAL SHOPPING SPREADING WEALTH. IT MAKES MANY COOL SHAPES. AAAAND THE DESIGNER IS CALLED "TRASTEVERINE." get itt? TRANSVESTITE. yeauh.