Good As You

My prediction:

- ENDA passes. Minus the transgenda bits.
- Bush vetos it.
- Nowhere near enough votes to override the veto, because this is going to be party-line.

Alternate scenario:
- It never makes it to a vote. Opponents use various tricks, manipulations and stalling tactics to prevent it leaving comittee.

There’s no point in denying it at this point, we’ve been stabbed in the back by Democrats Frank and Pelosi. And now, while the Congressional Democrats are twisting the knife, their shills and apologists are scuttling out of the way, afraid they’ll be caught in the backlash of this outrageous betrayal. They’ve all but stopped shouting that it’s a ‘transjacking’ and using gaybashing terms like ‘mad tranny disease’. As soon as they stopped gloating they began a mad dash to cover their asses. It won’t work; nobody makes steel plated diapers.

The replacement of the real ENDA by the counterfeit, toothless Democratic version was a shocking and revealing wake up call for tens of thousands who assumed the Democrats were their friends.

Without notice, debate or dialogue Frank and Pelosi unilaterally stripped some of the most important provisions of the real ENDA. Their deceit was matched by the antidemocratic arrogance of their refusal to consult, listen or discuss it with the movement. They understood from the first that their bogus ENDA would ignite a firestorm of opposition and decided to ignore GLBT opinion on the question. http://www.glad.org/ and http://www.lambdalegal.org/enda-we-can-do-better.html and http://www.civilrights.org/issues/glbt/enda.html
To our credit the overwhelming majority of GLBT activists, leaders and thinkers repudiated the Democrats and their quisling shills. The Democrats watched slack jawed as the opposition to their betrayal provoked a massive and determined rejection.

The days when Democrats could take us for granted are over. We’re in the same boat as tens of millions of working people, antiwar activists, environmentalists, and minorities. We have to build an independent voice to express the political will of the GLBT communities.
That summarizes the politics of the debate, but it has another side, a human dimension that should inform and guide our debate, even if the Democrats and their hacks ’ try to conceal and ignore it.

Gwyn Abrujo was murdered, as are many others every year, because she was transgendered. TransActive Education & Advocacy, a group supporting youth of all genders in Portland, Oregon reported two days ago that “Ian, a 16-year old transgender boy committed suicide yesterday. As sad as the death of any child can be at any time, in any way, the loss of this child, in this way at this time is particularly painful for many of us.”

Ian saw that Frank, Pelosi and their apologists getting ready to throw him under the bus.
The crime of the Democrats is their attempt to write off the lives of transsexuals, to trade them for party loyalty. For thirty pieces of silver they’re making it easier for the bosses who make a mint underpaying us. That’s despicable.

The crime of their apologists is their sudden fondness for the acronym GLB and their use of hate language like “freak” “tranny” “transjacking” and “mad tranny disease”. Those people are writing themselves out of the movement. Good Riddance!