Misspoke - To speak mistakenly, inappropriately, or rashly.

Within the definition of the word misspoke, there is an implication of innocence. The organizations that work the Hill for GLBT issues knew as early as April of 2007 that gender identity would most likely be removed from ENDA. I reported on this development in May when I lobbied with the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC). At the time I spoke with Christopher Johnson from the HRC about what had happened when we lobbied. With all the talk between the Hill and the HRC, how are we supposed to believe that Solmonese went down to the largest transgender conference and said this:

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Those words sound very scripted, measured, and well thought out. They don't come off to me as a misstatement. It doesn't seem like he just made a slip of the tongue.

The failings of HRC shouldn't be seen as a failure on the part of the transgender community, but as a failure on part of the GLBT community. Sir Jesse McNulty said:

'They're called the Human Rights Campaign, and that's more than just gays and lesbians,' he said. 'Butch lesbians and feminine men face the same discrimination we do. It's not OK what they did.'

That's what needs to be hammered home. The language of the fully GLBT inclusive HR 2015 protected gender variant (diesel dykes, sissy boys, genderqueers, etc.) people of ANY sexual orientation. The definition of gender identity in the inclusive bill is as follows:

The term `gender identity' means the gender-related identity, appearance, or mannerisms or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, with or without regard to the individual's designated sex at birth.

Removal of this language ENDA effectively stripped away any protections based on a person's variant gender identity. ENDA, as written in HR 3685, will only protect those gays and lesbians fired because of who they have sexual relations with, not their appearance. If you're fired because you're too nelly or you're too butch, you're out of luck.

One quote from Jamie Roberts stood out to me.

It looks like [HRC] is working toward [a trans-inclusive bill] for 2011, assuming a friendly Democrat got into the White House,

That's just isn't going to happen. 2011 will be the start of an election cycle. There is no way that a GENDA type bill (like HR 3686) will be voted on during an election cycle. The best time to pass any GLBT related legislation is in the the first or second year of a Democratic administration (or directly after the second term, which would be 2013, at the earliest).

During Barack Obama's visits to Indianapolis, I thought about what I'd say if I was able to speak with him. I planned on saying "when the topic of ENDA comes up, please keep in mind that for gender variant people, losing a job is very often a death sentence." It was for Alice Johnston, and many other unnamed gender variant people.

I personally don't care if Joe Solmonese is sorry for his dishonesty at Southern Comfort. I'm not looking for a friend, a pal, or a bowling buddy. I don't want parsed words. I don't want empty rhetoric. What I want is to be able to trust an organization that says in its mission statement that it will work to protect me, actually follows through with that advocacy. What I want is to be able to trust in what the leader of such an organization says. I'm not sure how I or any other gender variant person can do that with Joe Solmonese. When I hear him parse words, I hear the old favorites ringing in my head, "the check is in the mail", "I'm from the government and I'm here to help", or "I'll still respect you in the morning"....