Trans-inclusive work is literally a fight for our lives, including for those who are so hidden that we don't know their need until it's too late. Remember Lawrence (Larry) King and Gwen Araujo? The horrific murders of two teenagers, black and Latina respectively, gripped our hearts. King's was about gender expression, and Araujo's was about gender identity. These were my people even though I never got to meet them.
Others of my people, LGBTQQI family members and allies, will be inside and outside of the Westin St. Francis Hotel on Saturday, July 26. While that night hosts the Human Rights Campaign's San Francisco dinner and a gathering of community members outside, it illuminates a need and punctuates an opportunity for people to seize or squander. The need is for mutually respectful listening and reconciliation, and the opportunity follows: to reconnect great minds to secure jobs, lives, and families.
My part of our LGBTQQI and ally family feels residual pain from gender identity and expression being removed from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and I have adrenaline about that, too. The real hurt shouldn't be understated or overdrawn. Still, I believe our whole community is driven to move forward. I hope we choose to advance as partners, or we benefit those against us. I work with and need HRC, the National Center for Transgender Equality, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for their different expertise.
I'm one transguy, outside of HRC, working directly and candidly with HRC, to help it expand and fortify how it serves us. On HRC's Business Council, I'm probing to reshape the Corporate Equality Index so that we can know if employers are equipped to hire us. Today's CEI shrouds that, and until the day when there is an ENDA with gender identity and expression, it won't be possible otherwise.
I remain optimistic and stay closely involved with HRC because it is a leader dedicated to including gender identity and expression, and resolution to each obstacle I see feels familiar in three ways.
First, my parents divorced when I was a teenager, so I've navigated family events where some relatives are in one place and others are nearby. You might have, too.
Second, as a high school and college athlete, I learned early and well that when champions err or aren't winning, they focus and fight harder. They don't stop.
Third, I personally worked to introduce one of the most successful and later the most deplorable products ever by one company in one decade: Diet Coke, a delightful victory, and New Coke, a nightmarish mistake. Daily complaint calls uniformly disavowed connection to a formerly trusted brand. Outrage came quickly and fiercely, and people felt angry and betrayed. Finger-pointing, theory-raising, and storytelling followed that confirmed the adage about rumors: "Those who know don't talk, and those who talk don't know." Many people felt that the company would not recover, and that by infuriating so many customers, there could never be resolution, reconciliation, or trust.
Fast-forward to today, and we all know that while the blunder is still recalled, it's been resolved. That happened when the company listened and committed to do what leaders do: make things right.
Coca-Cola used its leadership, size, and strength to set a course that quenched more thirsts because that's what leading soft drink companies do. The hurt was real, but healing followed when Coca-Cola (Classic) returned, restoring the world's most-recognized trademark.
When the dust settled, the company president Don Keough finally spoke, addressing the avalanche of rumors. He said, "The truth is, we're not that dumb and we're not that smart." It was brilliant, honest, and wonderfully Don Keough.
Saving lives and advancing equality is what leading civil rights organizations do, including HRC. Until we are shown a bridge to close a gap that is felt today, we can still seize the suggestion from Congressman Barney Frank. He urged us to meet, engage, and educate our elected officials. Many of us do that so that Congress will know that we're human, and we need their support. Frank also delivered engaging, disarming, and inspired testimony at the June 26 congressional hearing on transgender employment non-discrimination. I think having his powerful voice speak about our employment helps, too.
Some people have jobs, and others don't. Perhaps if people with jobs have banked vacation time, they can dedicate 25 percent of it to lobby legislators for the T in LGBT in district or D.C. offices of members of Congress.
At the HRC dinner, I will talk of our community's gaps and glory, and I will seize the chance to secure personal commitment to us from people I would never have reached otherwise. Our lives are too precious and these opportunities too few to squander.
Diego M. Sanchez is director of public relations for AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts and AIDS Action Council in Washington, D.C. He is also the first transgender person appointed by the Democratic National Committee to the platform committee, and testified at the congressional hearing on transgender employment issues.