HRC obviously thinks they can just write a check
to fix the damage they have done to the TG/TS communities.

I also think MTPC should take the high road and
return the money with a short note

Thanks but no thinks; you people have already done enough damage, take your money and don't come back until you stop being hypocrites .

Take care
Sue

While I don't like the idea of a trans org taking money from HRC on an emotional level, at the same time I also think HRC should pony up bigtime to help undo the damage it has done to the national fight for transgender rights, and Mass., where the gay and lesbian orgs are turning their backs on us, is an excellent place to start.

Well said, Rebecca.

Fuck no!

Do you honestly think that with the $25K grant the MTPC is going to do something like hold a town hall meeting that openly challenges and explores HRC's transphobic practices? Will it talk openly about transphobia within the mainstream GLBT movement? Will they feel comfortable joining a grassroots coalition that protests against its own sponsor? Will they confront transphobic employers or politicians that have saddled up with HRC? No. They will effectively be silenced, and the direction of their work will be shaped by HRC, which is the last organization we want determining how we organize.

I think Suzanne Pharr really addresses this well in her brief piece, Funding Our Radical Work. I highly recommend it as a quick introduction to some of her thinking and some of the critiques of a privatized social justice movement that are being made by activists around the world. In her article, Suzanne mentions the NCADV's rejection of a $600,000 grant from the Department of Justice because it restricted references to lesbianism, development of an analysis racism, etc. Clearly there is precedent for rejecting grants that would radically alter or undermine your work.

Now I can’t say for sure whether this grant to MTPC will come with any restrictions, although an educated guess says that it will, but the power dynamic alone that rises from being funded by HRC is enough to effectively stop true radical work from being done by MTPC. The simple fact is that HRC will never, ever fund work that will challenge the status quo and it’s position at the top.

Nick I think if MTPC heard from enough of us they would think twice about using those funds and would most likely send them back.

If we were to apply enough pressure to any group that accepts money from HRC we could make them awfully lonely and give them pause to re-think their position. If MTPC takes the money it is at the very least a symbolic turning of the cheek and implies the TG/TS community in part is for sale and at a low price.

HRC's paying $25K for silence? That sounds pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things, and honestly I'd never expect trans people ever to shut up just for some cash. At least not the ones I know.

Could we consider the possibility that HRC's board genuinely wants to help out a local effort related to LGBT equality? Just askin'.

I don't know if anyone ever advanced the idea that HRC is actually transphobic - just opportunistic and lazy and'll turn their backs on someone as the wind changes directions. If someone did, then I missed it.

I told Becky last night on her show that maybe I'm just more cynical than she. Maybe I'm more naive now. Funny how the world works!

Nick~ I think it's kosher if the money's like sex at a bathhouse - NSA. Even if they're trying to buy silence, that's all they're being: trying.

OK, I need to get rid of that QAF joke-writer I have chained up over here....

I don't know if anyone ever advanced the idea that HRC is actually transphobic - just opportunistic and lazy and'll turn their backs on someone as the wind changes directions. If someone did, then I missed it.

Yes, HRC is transphobic. They are not just lazy or opportunistic. Consider that idea officially advanced, although I’m certainly not the first one to do so.

And if I was in the MTPC, I'd take the money, and continue to criticise the HRC's past actions…

That’s assuming that MTPC ever criticized HRC’s actions. I don’t know anything about them so I can’t say with confidence that the work they are currently doing challenges the queer power hierarchy in any way.

I’m glad that everyone agrees the grant should be NSA, but I think it’s a little naïve to think that just because a grant does not come with written restrictions that it is coming completely NSA. In fact, I’m a little shocked that anyone who has worked in the nonprofit world would even suggest otherwise. Grants are cyclical, which means that MTPC is going to want to stay in HRC’s favor and continue to bring in the big dollars. And HRC’s influence can be very subtle. I know of specific cases where HRC has threatened to withdraw funding from organizations if they did not drop the ‘queer’ from LGBTQ in their literature. That’s just one small example of the kind of behind the scenes work that HRC is doing to manipulate and undermine queer liberation through its funding.

This is not the first time that HRC has given funding to help support local/state level. For a number of years HRC has provided funds and staff support to help advance state level issues in a variety of states including MA, PA, CA, IA, MI, AZ, OR, DE, ME, LA, NM etc. So I don't really understand the brouhaha around the grant to MTPC.

What good would it do for MTPC to refuse funding that it obviously needs in order to continue its work?

It may make some people feel good to say "screw you" to HRC, but then MTPC would be out $25,000. That $25,000 would go much further in advancing trans rights than the feeling of political smugness that would come from telling HRC no.

Sorry to keep driving this point home, but this is NOT about political smugness, Michael. It's about who gets to control our radical work (assuming MTPC is doing radical work), and how they control it.

I find it insulting that you would trivialize my arguements (or anyone else's) by suggesting this is a nothing more than a petty matter of pride. If you're not going to approach the conversation by at least trying to understand the REAL reasons some of us are hesitant about this grant, then what's the point??

Sidenote: It'd be pretty cool to have someone from MTPC guest blog about the topic. I mean it'd be pretty interesting I think. I imagine they had at least some internal dialogue about the whole thing.

Nick,

For me, its not all that important to be seen as radical. I am more interested in answering the question at the end of the day, what steps forward have been made in advancing LGBT civil rights. I am not involved in MTPC's work so I am in no way attempting to speak for them or tell them how they should operate.

If its more important for you to get the emotional payoff that will result from telling HRC to shove their $25,000 grant, that's fine. But, that would do nothing to provide MTPC with some of the resources that they need to grow and become more effective.

I did not trivialize anyone's arguments or reasons for asking questions about MTPC's acceptance of the grant from HRC. And, you can't deny that there are serious egos on display on all sides.

I am sure that there was much conversation among the stakeholders in MTPC about accepting a grant from HRC and we should respect the result of that conversation.

HRC is not perfect no is any other LGBT organization. They did the right thing by helping MTPC.

You are right -- there are lots of egos coming into play, and I want to acknowledge that. However, you are continuing to trivialize valid arguments for rejecting such grants when you say:

If its more important for you to get the emotional payoff that will result from telling HRC to shove their $25,000 grant, that's fine.

This statement still positions my argument as one of emotions or pride, and I’ve made it clear that is NOT why I think MTPC should reject funding from HRC.

In fact, all of your wording is entirely dismissive. When you say that you have no interest in being seen as radical you are implying that I am only interested in appearing radical. As if I was nothing more than a child going through a rebel phase. Notice that you didn’t say that you have no interest in being radical.

When I say ‘radical work' I am talking about the work of ending trans/queer oppression and overturning the systems that keep it in place. In my opinion that is radical work. And I do think that HRC is oppositional to this radical work, because it will never challenge the underlying cause of such violence. It will always reinforce, and be reinforced by, the status quo.