Op-ed: I Stand With Obama Heckler Jennicet Gutierrez

[Guest Carla_Davis]

Op-ed: I Stand With Obama Heckler Jennicet Gutierrez

There once was a time when disruption was seen as revolutionary — like in the ACT UP days — but now many LGBT people think we should play nice. Jennicet Gutierrez and this writer are not those people.

http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/06/26/op-ed-i-stand-obama-heckler-jennicet-gutierrez

Hugs,

Carla

[Carolyn Marie]

I respectfully disagree with the author. Gutierrez was an invited guest, one of many, and her right to interrupt others was apparently based on the presumption that her POV, her issue, her demands, were more important than those of anyone else, including the person who invited her. That demonstrates arrogance and rudeness. There was a time and place for her to make her point, and I'm pretty sure she would have been given that time.

Some of you may recall the Republican who yelled out "liar" in the House Chambers as the President gave a State of the Union address a few years ago. He was roundly criticized, and rightly so, and apologized. He was rude too, but thought that he had the same right as Gutierrez. She should do the right thing too, and apologize. Maybe she would even get an invite to discuss the matter with the President.

Carolyn Marie

[VickySGV]

I won't go into the whole list, but the largest number of positive actions toward Trans* folks from the U.S. Government has come from quiet negotiations and reasoning with senior civil service personnel, not from in front of the media clobber the politician actions. I am happy to know several of those negotiators who have made improvements in the Department Of State passport changes, the current ease of changing Social Security names and genders. Some improvement in certain areas of even the Veterans Affairs, where I am aware from a personal newsletter that things are moving, albeit slowly. The TSA goal to be respectful of Trans* people, and more. None of those positive accomplishments resulted from a verbal confrontation with a politician.

I agree with Carolyn Marie's position here.

[Guest Charlotte J.]

Hecklers are not all the same. Equating Joe Wilson's outburst of "You lie!" with Jennicet Guiterrez's calling out Obama on his administration's mistreatment of trans immigrants is problematic. Joe Wilson shouted "You lie!" at the President because Wilson apparently believed that Obamacare would give illegal immigrants insurance. He was wrong about that, and, actually Obamacare denied 115,000 insurance as of Sept. 30 2014 "because they didn't respond to the government's requests to verify their U.S. citizenship or lawful immigration status." So Wilson's outburst was misinformed, and it was motivated by Wilson's desire to deny undocumented immigrants healthcare. Guiterrez's heckling--which appears to me to have been more measured, disciplined, and purposeful than Wilson's outburst--is motivated by her commitment to ensuring that immigrant trans* women are not misgendered, are not put in living situations where they are in danger, and are not mistreated and abused by government authorities.

Different people use different tactics to draw attention to their causes. Sometimes tactics that work for one group are not available or not as effective for a more marginalized group. And it can be difficult for those of us who are conditioned by privilege--in this case, white privilege--to shift our perspectives in a way that allows us to comprehend where a less privileged group or individual is coming from. Not only where they are "coming from", but where they are stuck. When you're stuck, sometimes you decide to take unconventional actions. Sometimes those actions might meet with mainstream disapproval. And you know that. And it weighs on you. But you take those actions anyway, because you know that you must.

Those of us with trans* identities know a bit about being stuck, deciding to take unconventional actions, being met with disapproval, the weight of that disapproval, and the decision to take action in spite of that disapproval, but I think we sometimes fail to see how difficult other sets of oppressions can be... due to privileges that we might have that are unrelated to being trans*.