ANNOUNCEMENT
For Immediate Release
Please distribute to your members
and/or publish
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GENDER FREEDOM INTERNATIONAL
First Annual Lobby Days
Washington, DC May 25 - 27, 1999
(Immediately Following GenderPAC Lobby Days)
Contact:
Sarah Fox, Ph.D.
President,
Gender Freedom International
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
For more details:
http://www.gender.org/gfi
[Columbus, OH; April 13, 1999] On Tuesday evening, May
25, a small group of transgender activists will meet in a hotel
room, launching into motion a new organization, Gender
Freedom International (GFI). GFI is the first US-based
organization dedicated to promoting international
transgender human rights. GFI's objective is to work
cooperatively with other international human rights
organizations to leverage governmental reforms abroad by
influencing US foreign policy.
Why should transgender activists in the US be concerned with
conditions abroad? By most accounts, transgendered people
in the United States live terrible lives, enjoying basic human
rights in only a few scattered regions. They are undoubtedly
the most viciously and relentlessly persecuted minority in
American society, living their lives in fear and dealing with
hate crimes, denial of services, and employment
discrimination on a regular and frequent basis. However life
for a transperson in the US is remarkably good, compared to
life for many transpeople abroad.
Here in the US, transpeople read horrible stories
about how a sister in a far-away state has fallen to another
transgender murder, and they worry for thier own safety,
suspicious that the police probably will not protect them as well
as they should. However in Argentina or Honduras, for instance,
a transperson worries about whether she will be beaten and
arrested that night. When she is beaten and arrested, as is the
case for most "transvestites" on most nights, her friends worry
about whether they will see her again or whether she will be
the next "transvestite" to be "disappeared" by government
forces.
Here in the US, transpeople may worry about
whether they can afford needed medical care (without
employment protections, insurance coverage, or consumer
protections). A Columbian transperson must worry about
whether she will have enough money to bribe her way out of
trumped-up military/police confrontation or whether she will
become one of many thousand murdered each year, perhaps
being gunned down by Army submachine guns.
Here in the US, a transgendered person faces the reality that
she could easily find herself unable to put food on the table
through any other means than prostitution, and if she is
arrested as a prostitute, she will probably be punished
severely with a long prison term, during which time she will
probably be denied necessary medications. In Chile, a
transgendered person might be arrested and jailed simply for
being in a night club at the wrong time, and while in prison,
her captors may willfully infect her with HIV using a
hypodermic needle they know is contaminated with the virus,
essentially sentencing her a long, agonizing death for her
"crime."
These sorts of stories have become all too prevalent. How
many times must we hear stories like those of the Argentinian
transwoman who bled to death from a police officer's gunshot
to her penis or the Brazilian transwomen who were
humiliated, stripped, and ordered to swim to their deaths?
While there are organizations doing a fine job fighting for
human rights abroad, few organizations are devoted to GLBT
human rights specifically. Those organizations are
overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem, and while
they are making significant progress, they need help. Until
now there were no US-based international human rights
organizations dedicated specifically to transgendered
individuals, who are the most visible and therefore the most
ruthlessly persecuted GLBT people by most of the more
oppressive foreign governments. That is the purpose for
Gender Freedom International.
GFI's war on human rights abuses will be waged
altruistically. None of GFI's activists will benefit personally,
except from the satisfaction that they are fighting for what is
right. No US lives will be bettered by GFI efforts, but
conditions for millions of transpeople worldwide may be
improved slightly. If GFI can save but a single person from
being beaten, raped, and exterminated by government forces,
then our efforts will have paid off well.
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STRATEGY:
Every year, by Congressional mandate, the US State
Department submits to the International Affairs Committee of
the House of Representatives a report on human rights abuses
in 194 foreign countries. Lawmakers then consult this
document when considering foreign policy issues, including
foreign aid and trade status. These factors are often used to
leverage human rights reforms in foreign countries.
Currently the State Department's reporting of abuses against
GLBT persons is spotty, as discussed in a recent article in the
Washington Blade. Organizations such as the International
Lesbian and Gay Association (IGLA), the International Gay
and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), and
Amnesty International are trying to tighten up the reporting
process, either by working with data collection by US
Embassies or by working directly with Congress and the State
Department. This effort can be furthered with help from
GFI's transgender activists, who as representatives of
arguably the most heavily targeted population in many
countries, can probably speak more persuasively than anyone
about these atrocities. While our Congress may not campaign
for human rights reforms solely on behalf of transgendered
people, GFI will help add weight to the long lists of human
rights abuses in many countries, thus helping to influence
reforms.
Tightening the reporting process involves several factors.
First, transgender and GLBT organizations in foreign
countries must ensure that abuses are reported to US
Embassies. The existence and involvement of such
organizations is realistically beyond GFI's sphere of
influence. US Embassy personnel, under direction from the
State Department, must also be vigilant for anti-transgender
human rights abuses reported by the various media in the
countries they serve. Finally, the State Department must
obtain much of its information from active research. Once
the data are collected, the State Department must decide to
include them in its annual report.
Historically, the State Department has failed to collect or has
broadly omitted much of the GLBT-related data because of
lack of direction from Congress, citing that these data might
be too controversial. Even though Congress has often ordered
the State Department to address specific types of human
rights abuses, it has never done so for abuses against
transgender or even GLBT people, and State Department
officials maintain that they will not focus on such issues until
ordered to do so.
GFI's approaches on this years Lobby Days will be two-fold.
First, GFI will lobby the State Department to reconsider the
"controversial" nature of reporting GLBT human rights
abuses. Second, GFI will lobby the International Relations
Committee of the US House of Representatives to order the
State Department to report these abuses. Representatives
from the International Operations and Human Rights
Subommittee (which receives the State Department report)
will be the primary focus of this lobbying event.
GFI's future endeavors may include lobbying US ambassadors
(via direct mail, email, and telephone), lobbying US
companies that are considering doing business in certain
countries, and publishing media advisories through
investment venues, so as to alert potential shareholders of the
foreign interests of various US companies.
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PARTICULARS:
GFI's First Annual Lobby Days will commence at the close of
GenderPAC's Fourth Annual Lobby Days. Participants will
include mostly GenderPAC lobbyists who will be staying in
Washington a day or two extra for GFI's activities. GFI
lobbyists must pay for their own lodging, food, and
transportation. GFI will help coordinate roommates but
offers no guarantees as to snoring or other obnoxious habits.
Lobby materials will be paid for by a generous grant from the
"Your President's Anemic Bank Account Fund." Donations
to that fund will be gratefully accepted.
LOCATION: The Holiday Inn on the Hill, 415 New Jersey
Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001, (800)638-1116,
(202)638-1616. This location is conveniently located and is
the same location used for GenderPAC activities.
SCHEDULE:
TUESDAY -- organizing
-- 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM -- 1st organizational meeting
-- adoption of bylaws
-- election of officers
-- discussion of battle plan
-- distribution of literature
-- 7:00 to whenever
-- partying with the other GPAC folks
-- perhaps *some* discussion of GFI over dinner ;-)
WEDNESDAY -- lobbying (in order of importance)
-- Reps already pushing for more comprehensive
State Dept. reporting to Congress
-- Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA)
-- Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA)
-- Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)
-- State Dept. officials
-- Reps in Int'l Operations and Human Rights Subommittee
(subcommittee of Int'l Relations Committee)
(16 Reps. in all)
-- Other Reps. in the International Relations Committee
(30 Reps. in all)
THURSDAY -- clean-up operations
Note: Those able to stay an extra day will visit
offices not visited on Wed.
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REGISTRATION:
Please fill out the following pregistration form and email it
back to me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Preregistering will ensure
that you have adequate materials, which will be mailed to you
prior to your trip to Washington.
* Optional, but necessary for mailing of materials prior to
lobbying trip.
**Optional
Name:
Email address:
*Postal address:
**Telephone:
Days that you can attend:
___ Tuesday -- organization meeting
___ Wednesday -- lobbying
___ Thursday -- lobbying
Rooming: Please fill out if you want help finding a
roommate.
Number of roommates desired (total) ______
Number of roommates already found ______
___ I already have a room reserved at the
_____________________ (hotel/motel)
___ I'm willing to share a double bed.
___ I smoke.
___ I want nonsmoking roommates.
___ Either smoking or nonsmoking roommates
are fine.
___ You may pass my name and email address
to prospective roommates
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