Obama Holds First-Ever Transgender Conference
Last Wednesday, Barack Obama offered his long-form Certificate of Live Birth, saying, “We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We’ve got better stuff to do.” He added, “We’re not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers.” Two days later, he gave his idea of a dignified use of presidential time and resources as the Office of Public Engagement (OPE) headed by his closest advisor, Valerie Jarrett, held the first-ever White House conference devoted exclusively to transgender concerns. Among the transgender activists present at the super-secret gathering was the president of an organization that is lobbying the government to pay for sex-change operations, allow open military service and top-secret security clearances for trannies, and develop “transgender-specific needle exchange programs” for those who abuse intravenous drugs. The activists state although this was the first time the federal government invited them to discuss their agenda, it will not be the last; the next steps are already planned. And the Obama administration is already churning out significant regulations catering to cross-dressers – and silencing their critics.
Transgender, Not Transparency
The nation’s leading homosexual newspaper, The Washington Blade, reported all that was known about the first-ever meeting last week – which was not much. Shin Inouye, a White House spokesperson, confirmed the meeting was scheduled to take place at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building but nothing else. Just like the recent National Action Network summit with Al Sharpton, a bevy of White House celebrities were set to attend, but the White House would not say who they are. Inouye told The Blade, “OPE routinely holds meetings with various stakeholders to discuss various policy issues. Friday’s meeting, like most OPE meetings, will be closed press and off the record.” Inouye would not even state which “transgender” activists would attend, instead telling reporters to search the White House visitor records once they are released. (A Congressional committee scheduled hearings this morning on the enormous gaps in White House visitor logs.)
Nancy Goldstein at The Daily Beast noted the meeting’s air-tight secrecy:
It would be easier to evaluate Friday’s meeting if the public had access to certain basic facts. Like which activists and leaders were invited, or which staffers actually attended. Or what was on the agenda. Or whether it was a “listening” meeting, where members of the administration simply gather to hear a group’s concerns, or an “action” meeting that lays out steps toward change. Or what anyone said, or decided. About anything.
Some transgender people are not happy about the development, saying this sort of access is insufficient. However, the Blade reported the identity of one activist present on Friday – and that person puts the radical nature of the meeting, and the White House, into perspective.
Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) told the Blade the White House had sent an invitation. According to the biography posted online “Mara,” who became a “woman” in 2000, is “a transgender-identified woman and a parent…She is a founding board member of the Stonewall Democracy Fund, and has served on the board of Directors of Common Roads, an LGBTQ Youth Group, and on the steering committee of the Statewide Pennsylvania Rights Coalition.”
Mara has had trouble overcoming the vicious discrimination – or gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. Mara implored the LGBs to see themselves as one big family:
In addition to identifying as trans, I identify as a lesbian. There are a lot of gay men who later identify as transgender; there are a lot of lesbians who identify as transgender and vice versa. So the overlaps in our community are really big.
When not trying to change the minds of sexual minorities, Mara agitates to change the ancient teachings of the Christian faith. Mara initiated another first, the Transgender Religious Summit, from January 19-21, 2007, in Berkeley, California. One attendee summarized their goals and beliefs:
[W]e must overcome the theological barriers that traditional thinking erects. We do have a rich heritage in our past. People we now call TG existed in most aboriginal communities around the world. We were revered in many. It was only the influence of European explorers in enforcing their religious dogma that has buried aboriginal spiritual traditions. Our ‘two-spirited’ nature is indeed a gift from God. As such we need to use the Bible/Torah creatively to transform rejection into acceptance.
Now Mara has the ear of the president’s closest advisors.
Mara explained last week there would be no compromise nor separation from among NCTE’s issues at the OPE meeting. Mara told The Blade, “We’re going to say, ‘Here’s our agenda.’” That agenda is more extreme and offensive than most Americans could imagine.
Quotas, Set-Asides, and Security Clearances for Cross-Dressers
NCTE demands the Defense Department “allow transgender people to serve openly.” However, the government must “respect gender identity in determining who is required to register with the Selective Service.” Don’t want to be drafted? Declare yourself a woman. This is made easier, as NCTE demands no surgery or hormonal treatment be required to reclassify one’s sex (not “gender”); each person could change as often as he liked. Yet NCTE believes none of this personal turmoil and potential for blackmail should bar transgender people from access to the nation’s most sensitive secrets: “The FBI and other agencies responsible for security clearances and other background checks” must adopt a “policy that security clearances will not be denied or revoked as a result of transgender status.”
The agenda will prove costly in dollars, as well as national security. Among its financial demands:
Medicare, Medicaid, and ObamaCare must pay for sex-change operations. (According to one activist, the cost would total “$15,000 to $60,000 for male-to-female genital reconstruction surgery, or the $30,000 to $150,000 for female-to-male genital reconstruction surgery”);
The IRS must include “transition-related care” under “medical deductions”;
“The National Institutes of Health (NIH) should fund research on the efficacy of various transition-related treatments”;
In an apparent admission that transgender people have a higher rate of intravenous drug use, they insist, “Congress should repeal the federal ban on needle exchange and authorize the development of transgender-specific needle exchange programs”; and
The government must “provide coverage for medically necessary transition-related care “ – that is, sex-change operations – “for federal employees and their partners and dependents.”
NCTE knows a man wearing a dress has a difficult time getting or keeping a job; somehow employers believe their presence causes a disturbance in the workplace. For NCTE, that’s too bad. “The President should issue an Executive Order that prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.” Further, “The Office of Federal Contract Compliance should include transgender people under the definition of “minority.” That would make transgender people eligible for Affirmative Action.
NCTE would pry our open borders wider yet. “The Centers for Disease Control should eliminate the ban on immigration by individuals who have HIV/AIDS,” and the government should grant equal immigration rights for transgender “spouses.” In fact, Obama has taken the first step in this direction. On February 9, the State Department expanded the J-1 visa so the “same-sex partners” of foreign diplomats can live and work in the United States, a privilege previously reserved to traditional married couples. This author wrote in March that the radical Left could use this change as a legal precedent to expand immigration “rights” to virtually anyone.
No Freedom of Conscience, Anywhere in the World
Perhaps the most chilling aspect of this extremist organization’s agenda is the desire to crush any opposition to the concept that cross-dressers afflicted with gender confusion are anything other than a praiseworthy norm. NCTE demands HHS rescind conscience clauses that allow doctors not to treat transgender people “based on the providers’ personal beliefs.”
NCTE’s immigration proposals assert the U.S. State Department “should require the use of the Yogyakarta Principles on the application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity.” The Yogyakarta Principles were published in March 2007 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This little-known document – which states, “The Yogyakarta Principles affirm binding international legal standards with which all States [nations] must comply” – makes for chilling reading.
Principle 25 commands the world’s governments to take “all appropriate measures to eliminate prejudices and stereotypes regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.” Principle 21 ominously states “that the expression, practice, and promotion of different opinions, convictions, and beliefs with regard to issues of sexual orientation and gender identity” must not be exercised “in a manner incompatible with human rights.” Nations must also “Ensure in particular that notions of public order, public morality, public health, and public security are not employed” to prevent LGBT people from marching or protesting. The document later explains this must include “training and awareness-raising programmes, including measures aimed at teachers and students at all levels of public education, at professional bodies, and at potential violators of human rights, to promote respect for and adherence to international human rights standards in accordance with these Principles, as well as to counter discriminatory attitudes based on sexual orientation or gender identity.” (Emphases added.) This sounds very much like the document requires government-sponsored re-education to erase all moral objections to homosexuality or transgender status. In fact, the Obama administration has initiated such a program for U.S. soldiers, in Afghanistan and around the world. Through its “anti-bullying” and “safe schools” programs, it is undermining the morality of public school children.
Principle 27 calls on the state to protect “human rights defenders” (LGBT activists) from “de facto or de jure discrimination.” Conversely, Affirmative Action for LGBTs “shall not be deemed to be discriminatory.” They must be given the option of “serving in the police and military.” LGBT prisoners must be held in “places of detention appropriate to their sexual orientation and gender identity” and granted “conjugal visits…on an equal basis.” Federal policies recognise the diversity of family forms, including those not defined by descent or marriage.” Principle 24, “The Right to Found a Family,” demands government action to ensure “access to adoption or assisted procreation (including donor insemination), without discrimination.” Similarly, “a child who is capable of forming personal views” must be able to “exercise the right to express those views openly” – even if the choice violates the most deeply held beliefs of his parents.
Principle 29, “Accountability,” warns, “There should be no immunity for perpetrators of human rights violations related to sexual orientation or gender identity.”
NCTE is endorsing a document that calls on the government to force left-wing ethical and (im)moral concepts on its citizens under the threat of force.
And Barack Obama believes this is a mainstream organization worthy of a meeting with the U.S. government.
Nor will it be a one-time affair. Coming out (no pun intended) of the meeting, NCTE announced this was just the beginning. On May 13, “the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will hold its first-ever hearing to specifically address the civil rights of LGBT people.” NCTE is gathering transgender stories for the commission’s consumption. “We recommend submitting stories to Alec Deull, staff member for Commissioner Roberta Achtenberg, at deullusccr@gmail.com . We encourage you to also send a copy to us at NCTE@TransEquality.org .”
Perhaps our readers will take the opportunity to contact Commissioner Achtenberg’s staffer and politely but firmly express how they feel about NCTE’s agenda for our nation, and whether it deserves an additional millisecond of her time.