Is the U.S. finally going to pass federal civil rights laws for transpeople?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Those words start the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence. But unfortunately, for its transgender citizens, they have rung hollow.

Ever since Christine Jorgensen stepped off the plane in New York from Denmark into the glare of popping flashbulbs and whirring newsreel cameras in February 1953, transpeople in the United States have been battling to have our human rights respected and protected.

We’ve watched in envy as our transgender brothers and sisters have garnered increasing acceptance in Thailand, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, France, Spain, Great Britain and various other countries complete with legal rulings, new laws and policy changes that facilitate the integration of transgender people into their societies.

Even countries that are considered as repressive by American politicians on human rights issues such as China and Cuba have made giant strides in treating the transgender people within their borders with dignity and respect.

It leads those of us who were born in or are naturalized citizens of the United States to ask the valid question- when is my home country going to do the same?

Much of the problem here in the States has been anti-civil rights conservative Republican governments in power over the last 40 years, fundamentalist religious opposition, medical critics of transsexuals such as Dr. Paul McHugh and anti-transgender Haterade being uttered and published since 1979 from radical feminists such as Janice Raymond.

We’ve also had opposition to our inclusion in proposed civil rights legislation such as ENDA (the Employment and Non Discrimination Act) from our supposed gay and lesbian allies, with the most egregiously blatant example of it being cut out of ENDA in 2007 with the weak excuse that the bill wouldn’t pass with transgender people in it.

What made the betrayal more galling was the Human Rights Campaign’s President Joe Solmonese reneged on a promise made at our largest transgender convention, the Southern Comfort Conference, to fight any non-inclusive ENDA bill.

The US transgender community has been over the last 50 plus years in the uncomfortable position of fighting a multifront war just to be respected. The anti-transgender religious rhetoric combined with superstitious ignorance of transgender issues has contributed to an alarming rise in anti-transgender hate crimes, with almost 70% of the victims being transgender persons of color.

To our credit, we’ve fought tooth and nail over those last five decades to be heard and have managed to pass civil rights legislation at the local and state levels in over 190 jurisdictions. But once again US transpeople are coming under fierce attack by religious fundamentalists trying to use fear and deceptively worded referendums to roll back those hard won gains.

Despite these setbacks, we have believed that as Dr. King so eloquently stated, the arc of the moral universe would begin to bend towards justice for US transgender people. The election of President Barack Obama, who is in favor of passing an inclusive ENDA, combined with larger Democratic congressional majorities last November has allowed us to dare hope that once the inclusive ENDA is introduced later this year, passed and signed into law, we in the States can proudly add our nation to the list of countries that protect the civil rights of its transgender citizens.

We need to know that the ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ sentence in the Declaration of independence and the ‘We the people’ line in the US Constitution applies to transgender people as well.