Change We Can Believe In
Submitted by Barbara on Mon, 01/19/2009 - 2:06pm
When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note — Dr. Martin Luther King, August 28, 1963
At a time of economic crisis, when too many promissory notes are in default, Dr. King can be satisfied that at least one of these notes is as sound as a Chinese Yuan. One day after we mark the life’s work of a civil rights pioneer, the “White’s Only” sign is being permanently sandblasted from the most significant real estate in Washington, DC. Gone are the demarcations between the front and back of the bus, and the silent hostility based on skin colors. Still, In a world that requires a common enemy, racism lingers in the stories that energize us as human beings.
Yes, racism is likely to continue in some deep outposts of ignorance. Even here in the land of the “enlightened” sensitivity is just too big a word for some to spell. Just this weekend a part of me gasped when I saw a Seattle-area big box home improvement store banner a “Martin Luther King Paint Event.” (Is this targeted at people of color?) Yes, the burning crosses and “separate but equal” facilities have gone the way of burning witches at the stake, but you have to wonder if even the Obama family could move into certain gated communities here in the Pacific Northwest.
Fortunately, mankind now has other kinks to satisfy its need to form orders in terms of superiority. As Hillary Clinton puts it, there are now 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling. The time will come when even those of female persuasion will have a chance at leading the free world. There might even be a future White House that will contain a Gay, Jewish master of the house, and his male spouse.
Regrettably, our own gender identity community is slowly moving out of its self-imposed fog and into the public eye. We are slithering from figures of public jocularity to objects of serious oppression. In other words, gender identity is getting a serious look beyond our own families and friends, and coming out to the world isn't even as much fun as coming out to family.
Instead of promissory notes, we are treated with the reverence of a union organizer at a Wal-Mart management meeting. Sensitivity is just another word for “move on, nothing to respect here.” Yes, we have made baby steps on the road to general understanding of gender identity. But, for every baby step, there is a burp and a diaper change. Today’s most obvious example is Olympia’s new directive that changing a driver’s license gender marker must now include at least an “attempt” to change the marker on a birth certificate. In decades past, those of us “creating change” were able to tender our most public identity document with confidence. We didn’t even consider in our original therapy sessions (which were needed for a marker change back then) whether or not we would one day have a chance at the surgery table. Still, the state would humor us with a gender marker as it would humor those of us who claimed a weight that no one could believe in.
On the other hand, changes in birth certificates, a public record that government agencies consider chiseled in rock, require at the very least a statement of surgery. Now, in the Post-Patriot Act era, the state of Washington wants us to sport the gender equivalent of a “colored” marker in the all-important formative pre-surgical years of our transition.
On the standup comedy stage I make fun of California’s action to ban “trans-fats.” “No trans-fats” are served here,” I noticed in big letters at every restaurant entrance, and on every menu on a recent trip to the Golden State. To me, it felt as insulting as if it said “no coloreds.” After all, California already closes its highway borders to fruits and vegetables (with little success). As someone who has lost 90 pounds in recent years, I note that I am doing all I can to eliminate half of my “trans-fat” identity. Still, I wonder if instead I should start my own civil disobedience for those of us faced with gender and avoirdupois challenges.
I don’t think America’s civil rights pioneers would have stood in the way of “trans-fats.” Or, for that matter, a driver’s license change that no one can believe in.