Adventures In Genderland: Part Six

 

Part Six: The Board Wars

by Cathryn Platine

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So why did I re-involve myself in NTAC?  Two words, Aurora Lipscomb.  I was still reading many of the political email lists, although not participating and was no longer active in the Ohio political arena as well.  "Mary Ann" Horton posted about a case where supportive parents of a gender variant child were just ordered to turn the child over to Franklin County (Ohio) Children's Services and had arranged to do so at a local television station.  "Mary Ann" was trying to organize a demonstration at the station protesting while the event was taking place.  I decided to go and find out what exactly was going on. When I arrived, I found very few "protesters" and in fact was told that the idea had been scrapped at the last minute.  I saw a terrified young girl being manhandled by burly males from Children's services, lots of confusion, a distraught mother, indignant father and a transsexual attorney all surrounded by a general confusion.  After the representatives of Children's Services took the frightened child away, the reporters took the parents into a studio and interviewed them, I followed.  "Mary Ann" then announced she was going to be interviewed as well as a "community representative" and I made an impulsive decision to volunteer as well rather than let Horton's non-transsexual and somewhat bizarre views be the only ones heard.  The case became national almost overnight.

Having been in phone and email contact with Dawn Wilson and Anne Casebeer, both of whom were encouraging me to take the board seat vacated by Michael Grey, I had already planned a weekend visit to Louisville when the Lipcomb story broke.  Two days after the turnover of Aurora I was at Dawn and Anne's 'ole Kentucky home.  At that time Dawn, acting as chair, appointed me to the board seat and made me the "official" NTAC contact on the case along with Sarah Fox and Sue Davis, my appointment to the board to be confirmed at the upcoming board meeting at Southern Comfort.  I came back from Louisville and gathered as much information and made as many contacts about the case as I could.  I also contacted Sherry Lipscomb and arranged to meet with her personally.

The trip to Kentucky was interesting to say the least.  Dawn had arranged to host a fund raiser for a local candidate three days after my arrival in the name of NTAC.  When I got to their house I found it, to put it mildly, a mess.  Trash all over the yard, a living room with no furniture or decor, only a table and china sideboard in the dining area and a kitchen filled with dirty dishes, leftovers and dead beer bottles.  I rested the night then started a cleaning blitz.  I had Dawn take me to the local thrift store and bought a few items to get some decor in the living room area, cleaned the yard, washed dishes, hauled up and cleaned serving dishes from Anne's collection in the basement (where she lived) and went with Dawn to buy an assortment of wines, cheeses, breads and wine glasses.  I spent a bloody fortune which was supposed to be applied towards a life membership in NTAC since the glasses and unused wine, cheese, etc., were to be used at Southern Comfort for the reception planned there as well.  I was determined that if NTAC was to be involved in this campaign, we'd put forth the best image possible.  The place looked as good as possible by the time of the reception for Ms. Jordan.

Sarah Fox offered assistance from the beginning of the Aurora case in getting the whole thing into emergency mediation with a trans-sympathic mediator.  No small feat, but one of her attorneys from her divorce was now in charge of setting mediation for Franklin County, including children's services and she and Sarah were on very good terms.  Randi Barnabee and the other attorneys in the case were informed, it offered a quick resolution to a bad situation but would have ended the media circus that had already started so Sarah's offer was ignored.  Sarah refused to have further involvement after that.  Susan Davis announced that I was closer to the case and therefore should be the main NTAC contact. A month later, when the case got even worse, I learned from Sherry she had never even been informed this was offered or possible!  Aurora wasn't returned to her mother until the summer of 2002, just short of two years later.  During those two years she was subjected to a level of brainwashing and conditioning that would have done the North Koreans proud during the Korean War.  The case still hasn't ended.  Sherry and I are still close.

Suddenly I was back in politics with a vengeance.  I met several times with Sherry and quickly discovered the case was much more convoluted and complicated than anyone else knew.  Attempts to set Randi Barnabee in contact with the best trans-legal minds and resources were mostly ignored.  Paul Lipscomb was a total nutcase and abusive, my introduction to him was his trying to bash down the door when Sherry, her mother, her best friend and I were talking.  Sherry and I quickly became friends and stay so to this day. My quiet life underwent an instant transformation.  I had been planning a wienee roast for Sarah's upcoming surgery, now had to arrange and pay for a trip to Atlanta for the Southern Comfort Conference, the interview about the case filmed the night of the legal kidnapping of Aurora aired a week later and I lost several job assignments as a result.  As the "official" contact on the case, everyone and their sister was calling or writing me for information I now dared not release.  As a result of our rapidly growing friendship and in order to let her meet Sarah and others, I invited Sherry to Sarah's wienee roast.  That had an interesting result, to say the least.  The local television personality who had been most supportive of trans-issues in general and this case in particular, needed to interview Sherry and the only available time was during the roast.  She was allowed to attend with a single cameraman with the promise that nothing from the roast would be broadcast.  The interview was done in my living room, the cameraman, who did not know the nature of the occasion somewhat freaked when he was told after asking why he was the only male there.  Several guests had to be reassured, after arriving and seeing the television van, that they would not be filmed.

I kept Anne and Dawn apprised of the need for NTAC to keep a low profile on the case by phone, wrote the board list simply that the case was much more involved than anyone outside realized and most understood.  Most except Yosenio Lewis who kept badgering me for more information.  Mr. Lewis was the vice-chair of NTAC and I thought Dawn was keeping him up to speed on the events and in any case, had promised Sherry not to discuss details other than to Dawn and Anne specifically.  Randi Barnabee had forced Sherry to reconcile with Paul (they were separated prior to the events), who had been abusing both her and Aurora and that was blowing apart, vastly complicating the whole mess.  Randi was also the one behind the media circus and had arranged that the taking of Aurora be at a television station.  Had any of this been made public at the time, the odds of Sherry ever seeing her child again would have dropped to zero.

Putting myself into debt, I made it to Southern Comfort.  Up to now I had avoided these types of "conventions", attending one did nothing to change my mind.  The board meeting was several hours long, I did finally get to put a face to a lot of names and my reception by the other board members was welcoming.........all except for Yosenio, who was very cool, even somewhat hostile, towards me.  My confirmation to the board took place in the first few minutes.  I did get a lot of praise for my representation of NTAC in the Aurora case and felt my acceptance as one of the board was genuine.  I was wrong.  At this board meeting, Yosenio also announced that he was sending "board" packets to all the board members about their duties, fund raising etc.  As an aside, he added that if you didn't get one, that meant he didn't feel you were worthy of being on the board.  I never did get one.  I later learned from another board member that Yosenio held a grudge against me for my "attack transie" questions of Donna Redwing more than a year ago as one of the Tranflakes.  That he, himself was a transflake and knew the script was written ahead of time by others and had given his own thumbs up, makes this hypocritical in the extreme.  I also later learned that he considered most of the board as "amateurs and liabilities" and wanted to "clean house" and replace most of the board with his handpicked choices.  Among those choices, Michelle Stiener (who had trolled the list all that summer), Alex Goodrum, Monica Helms, Courtney Sharp, Diane Tanner, Roz Manley, Sylvia Rivera and Pauline Park.  Among those he wanted gone, myself, Chelsea Goodwin, Dr. Rusty Moore, Katrina Rose and Angela Brightfeather.  He wanted Dawn out as chair.  Another name soon added to his list of "wants" was Lynne Jefferies (later Jeniffer Jefferies) who was about to make an appearance.

Sarah Fox had attempted for years to make inroads with Columbus Stonewall, led by Jeff Redfield.  Remember that "anonymous" gay man who objected to my castration joke?  That was Jeff.  It took enormous pressure to get Stonewall Columbus just to add "T".  It took $3000 dollars ($2000 from Horton and a matching $1000 from the Gill Foundation) to get trans added to the mission statement.  Sarah was the only transsexual on the Stonewall Board, she finally resigned in June in disgust at the total disregard and open sabotage of any other political group with a trans connection in the state as well as their insistence on doing "hag drag" sporting events as fund raisers.  The June Columbus Pride Parade had looked like a HRC event more than anything else with their equal sign logo literally everywhere you turned.  For the first time in years, almost none of the local transsexuals took part in it.  The last straw was an announcement that they had opened a new board seat for transgendered, specifying we were neither female or male!  Three years of educational outreach and they still wouldn't even recognize that trans people have a gender!  Sarah and I discussed this new development and I agreed to write an open letter to Stonewall protesting their treatment of transpeople with her input.  As had always been my habit, I posted it to the NTAC list as well.  I considered it a "no-brainer", since Vanessa, Dawn, Anne and others were well aware of the ongoing battles we'd had with Jeff Redfield and Stonewall Columbus.

The next day Lynne Jefferies joined the list and immediately announced that she had personally saved the bridge to Stonewall I had just burned.  She followed up with a laundry list of how wonderful she was and that she was a major activist in Ohio with close ties to Jeff!  That her skills as a professional spin-doctor were just what NTAC needed (she surely did demonstrate her skills at this as will become clear!)  None of us from Ohio had ever heard of her before this, and remember Sarah was on the Stonewall Board for well over than a year!  Lynne's follow up posts told us she was on good terms with HRC Columbus and each one contained more and more snide snipes at Sarah and myself for being unable to get along with Jeff along with accusations that Sarah was supposed to contact her when she first got involved with Stonewall at Jeff's request.  That last proved to be a major distortion of the facts after Sarah and I later dug up all the information we could.  For a couple of weeks, discussion on this continued on the list with my silence.  During this time, a new list for NTAC dues paying members only, was added and a disclaimer added to the bottom of the NTAC list emails.  While I was silent on the list, I was attempting to contact Lynne by phone and finally we did talk.  She claimed intimate knowledge of the Aurora case, close friendship with Jeff and continued baiting both myself and Sarah on the list afterwards.  Sarah posted several times about the accuracy of my letter and responded to Lynne's comments.  I did not.  During this twenty day period, I posted twice to the NTAC list and once to NTAC-members.  The NTAC list posts were one saying Happy Birthday to Dawn and Chelsea and the other a comment on a thread about Barney Frank and transwomen in showers at work.  The single NTAC-members list post was my immediate, respectful reply to Lynne warning her about Jeff Redfields' past history with trans issues.  During this time, Yo Lewis, Vanessa and Chris Stinson were all in private email with Lynne and apparently wanted her to join the board!

Finally Lynne posted an "announcement" by Jeff Redfield about Meral Crane speaking at the upcoming Ohio NOW conference.  A gay man announcing a women's organizational event.  A lively discussion about Meral Cranes credentials began by various people familiar with her "program".  After several of the posters ask me to comment, I finally did.  I had also been writing on the board list (closed, private, board members only list) about my growing concerns about Lynne's apparent ties to HRC.  Lynne almost immediately responded with a masterfully condescending put-down of my ability to get along with these folks and closed with I should not go to the NOW conference, that she could do a better job of representing NTAC.  Apparently my response was what she'd been waiting for.  Susan Bader, president of Columbus NOW, was on very good terms with both Sarah and myself and was one of the folks almost always at the It's Time Ohio meetings.  I was livid.  Lynne had been baiting Sarah and myself on the list for nearly a month, smoozing up to the board, shamelessly promoting herself, had admitted she was aware of Sarah's and Sue Davis and my own activist work but never contacted any of us, and now was telling me I wasn't good enough to represent NTAC at a NOW convention when I'd been a NOW member for several years.  I wrote a blistering reply, but mindful of the board concerns about flames, didn't send it.  I rewrote it later that day when I was calmer, but still not trusting my judgement on that, called Anne Casebeer to get her take on Lynne's post and see if she saw the same level of insult in it I did and whether or not my reply was too harsh.  My concerns were both that as a list moderator, I needed to address this before it went further and as a board member, I had just been insulted.  Anne agreed with me that the level of insult in Lynne's post was not just my perception and that my response was extremely measured and even given the provocation.

Having thus bent over backwards not to over-react and crosschecking with another board member to make sure, I sent my response.  What followed was nothing short of astonishing!  I had "officially" been on the board just under a month after having to be convinced to join it at all and initially refusing.  Lynne issued a very very nasty flame at me to which I did not respond, Yo Lewis posted another true flame the next day aimed directly at Sarah and myself after Lynne posted an "apology" to the list for her flame and a "tearful" goodbye aimed at making Sarah and I look like a couple of bullies who just ran her off.  Off list she wrote to Dawn, Anne and myself bragging she could have done even more damage.  Joann Roberts wrote the membership list with a threat to withdraw the TG fund support. (not the first time she'd done this, it was how she was controlling the board)  Dawn announced that I must apologize to Lynne on the list, which I did although it galled me no end.  I got an email from Chris Stinson thanking me for doing so and saying that under the same circumstances he didn't think he would have been able to do so.   I got a phone call from Dawn the following night telling me I had just been suspended from the board for three months after an "executive board" meeting.  The Executive Board being Yo, Chris Stinson, Dawn and Anne.  Mind you, there never was such a group set up in the charter, no one had ever heard of it before and the board of NTAC was large to prevent take-overs by a small group of individuals!  Dawn tried to convince me that it was the best she could do since Chris and Yo both demanded my being thrown out of NTAC altogether.  In short, it was a major set up by Yo and Joann Roberts aided by Chris Stinson to get rid of me.

Having done nothing wrong and being illegally suspended anyway, I wrote my resignation to the board.  Apparently after I resigned, Chris put forth a motion to have me removed on the board list.  I cannot confirm that because Yo had me off the board list within minutes of my resignation.  He also set all the lists except NTAC, which was still owned by Sarah,  to moderation and personally killed my resignation post to the membership list.  I was then removed from the membership list even though I was one of the few board members who had actually paid the dues and then some up to that point.  A month later, in response to Yo Lewis' constant demands that she be at every possible GLBT event without any means of paying for it and having just lost her job for being absent too many times, Dawn resigned as chair and announced she was leaving all involvement with NTAC.  Yo now had his wish and was in total control of NTAC.

As a postscript to all this, about a month after my resignation Sarah and I discovered that Lynne had indeed been working closely with Jeff Redfield, was put in charge of sponsorship of the Pride event and was personally responsible for the fact that it looked more like an HRC event than a Pride one.  Sarah had never been informed of this or Lynne's presence even though she was on the Stonewall board this entire period.  Lynne rejoined the list two months later, now as Jennifer Jefferies, crying about having been denied her name change by a Franklin county magistrate.  The supreme irony is that when Sarah had run into difficulty with her own name change, she had arranged for pro-bono (free) expert legal representation for the next time this happened in Franklin county, since it was in clear violation of Ohio law. Jefferies' case would have been exactly what they were waiting for.
 

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Open Letter to the Board of Stonewall Columbus

To the Board of Stonewall Columbus,

It is past time that the issues of trans-inclusion at Stonewall Columbus
be addressed.  While it is a seemingly nice gesture adding a
"transgender board seat" specifically for transgendered people who
identify as neither male nor female, this is actually a further
indication that Stonewall Columbus doesn't "get it" when it comes to
trans issues.

Dr. Sarah Fox just resigned her seat on the Stonewall Board because of
the lip service only nature of Stonewall's inclusion of transfolks.  She
made it quite clear, for example, that the continued support and
outright sponsorship of hag drag sporting events is a direct slap in the
face of transsexual women yet the board chose to ignore her over and
over. One board member went so far as attacking the statistical models
she used in a survey she conducted at her own considerable expense of
time and energy to show that level of insult perceived by transwomen.
Dr. Fox is a respected internationally known researcher who's
statistical modeling is above reproach.  She bent so far to the pro drag
event side in her wording of survey questions as to seriously annoy some
of us.  She did so as to remove any possibility of bias in her survey.
That survey still showed that transsexual women overwhelmingly found
drag sporting events insulting and demeaning.   While most transsexuals
I know have no problem with drag shows, myself included, hag drag
sporting events, or bearded men in dresses done as "humour" is an open
and direct insult to womanhood in general and very pointedly to
transsexual women who all too often are taunted with being "men in
dresses".  Over the past several years, I personally, have discussed
these types of events with literally hundreds and hundreds of
transsexual woman and not a single one didn't find the concept insulting
in the extreme.  Most used the same analogy of minstrel show blackface.
Stonewall's financial gain from these events is so small as to be nearly
undetectable in the annual budget, yet Stonewall steadfastly refuses to
see deadly insult to an entire group of the GLBT community, transsexual
women, as a problem.

Dr. Fox also has had to repeatedly remind the board that It's Time
Ohio was a statewide TBLG (the reversal of the order deliberate)
organization when they repeatedly did not include ITOh in listings of
relevant groups in the state during their meetings.  Again, she was
continually ignored.  She headed up EBAH 2000 GLBT lobby event only to
have the representatives of Stonewall even deny it was taking place.  As
a direct result of Stonewall director Jeff Redfield's actions, no one
from central Ohio took part in that event besides Dr. Fox even though
the event was otherwise successful with wide support from other parts of
the state.  This is the "support" of trans-activism Stonewall has shown
to date.  Deliberate slaps in the face and outright sabotage of
transwoman led GLBT events and organizations.

I personally took great offense at the announcement of the new
transgender, not male, not female, seat.  I, and most transpeople I
know, have a decided gender/sexual identity.  This pushing and shoving
of transpeople into a third category is the justification for excluding
us from womyn only space, of denying the femaleness and maleness of
transwomen and transmen, of denying even our basic humanity.  Knowing
Stonewall's history of choosing to openly insult transwomen with drag
sporting events in the clear knowledge that we see it that way, this
announcement was a further indication of the level of misunderstanding
between G and L and Trans in Columbus.  I never felt as unwelcome at a
local Pride event as I did this year.  Apparently I was not alone as I
did not see hardly any of the other local transsexuals who have been
there in years past.  If I had not known differently, I would have
assumed that this year's Pride was an HRC event.  That was all I saw
anywhere I looked.  HRC has actively campaigned against transgendered
civil rights for more than five years now.  This is not an accusation,
it is a fact.  I myself have sat in congressional offices and been told
about the pre-lobby visits by HRC representatives prior to transgender
Lobby Days events.  I listened when both congressmen and legislative
assistants told me the clear message of those visits was to ignore the
"trannys" and their requests for inclusion in basic civil rights bills.
This is not a subject open to debate, I and others were there, heard and
have spread the word.  Imagine how I felt, knowing HRC is the avowed
enemy of trans-civil rights, that HRC head Elizabeth Birch announced
last year that transgendered people would NEVER be included in ENDA
(Employment Non-discrimination Act), to be confronted at every turn of
the Columbus Pride with a bright blue and yellow equal sign.  At being
told by an HRC worker that the very meetings I attended with
congressional members never happened.  Now you would have me believe I
am welcome?

From the beginnings of the very movement your group is named after,
elements of the gay and lesbian community have attempted to erase the
identity of transpeople while taking it for themselves.  Stonewall was
"drag" bar!  The revolt you even named yourself after was started by a
transwoman, Sylvia Rivera.  Janice Raymond called transsexual women
"agents of the patriarchy" and claimed we (transwomen) mutilate our
bodies to "infiltrate" womynspace.  her report to congress about
transsexuals (a total work of fiction by someone with no understanding
of us at all and her own personal axe to grind) was used as the basis to
lump transsexuals with pedophiles in our exclusion from the Americans
with Disabilities Act.  This past year alone has seen the attempted
co-oping of the very identity of the transwoman lover of Pvt. Barry
Winchell, Calperia Addams, into a "gay man" (she is a transsexual woman
who happens to be pre-operative) and the hate speech of Jim Fouratt at
the nation's largest Pride event calling transsexual women, "gay men in
denial".  Lesbian activists have attempted the co-oping of Brandon
Teena's identity as a transman into a butch lesbian after the success of
"Boys Don't Cry". Last year Lizzy Birch, head of HRC, announced in
Chicago in no uncertain terms that transgendered people will never be
included in ENDA.  Transsexual women continue to be told they are not
welcome at events such as the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival because
they are not women.  This is only the tip of an iceberg of total
misinterpretation of transpeople's identities by those who should be our
natural allies.

Gays and lesbians all to often "know" all about trans-issues and so they
refuse over and over again to listen to us.  A recent conversation with
your own director, Jeff Redfield, had him getting indignant with me when
I asked if he knew the definition of a term relating to transpeople, yet
the conversation indicated clearly to me that he did not.  This is
always been the problem.  Our issues overlap.  We bear the brunt of
homophobia way out of proportion because we are identifiable as
different, as gender transgressors, yet the GLB community repeatedly
attempts to erase our very existence and even tell us they know us
better than we know ourselves.  Even our proud history is taken and
claimed as yours by gay male historians who name transgendered
individuals throughout history as "gay" when no such identity even
existed at the time, the only evidence of "gayness" being their very
gender transgressions, their transgenderedness!

Brandon Teena was a transman...a female to male transsexual, not a butch
lesbian.

Calpernia Addams is a transwoman...a male to female transsexual, not a
gay man who does drag 24/7

Almost all transgendered people KNOW which box to check when asked sex.
Very few of us identify as some mysterious "third gender"

Gender identity and sexual orientation are NOT related.  This one cannot
be restated enough. It forms the core of misunderstanding between Trans
and G and L groups all the time.

Gender and sexual identity in transsexuals is NOT related to birth
genitalia.  Further, sexing of transsexual individuals by those outside
our own community is insulting and demeaning.  Our identities are not
subject to debate anymore than yours are.

Transsexual women are not "gay men in denial",  We are women.
Transsexual men are not "lesbians in denial" they are men.  Transsexual
women are not agents of the patriarchy send to infiltrate womyn only
space.  No one, I repeat, no one, pays a higher price for her womanhood
than a transsexual woman.  It's far past time that was understood.

Transgender is a slippery term even within the trans-community.  There
has never been consensus on it's meaning among us, yet Jeff Redfield, a
gay man, knows exactly what this and other equally slippery trans terms
mean.  What's wrong with this picture?  Third gender identity is very
very very uncommon in the trans-community, yet once again, this is the
trans-identity you decide to have on your board, this what you decide to
call transgender.

You clearly don't "get it".  I personally would never consider a
position that forced me to denounce my womanhood.  I know no other
transwoman or transman who would.

Cathryn Platine,
woman of transsexual background,
board member, National Transgender Advocacy Coalition,
founding member, Midwest Transsexual Alliance,
former president, Crystal Club,
former chair, It's Time Ohio,
founder, First Church of the Goddess (a reclaiming church of
trans-clergy)
****************Below is the announcement referred to********************

> NEWS RELEASE
>
> For Immediate Release
> Contact: Jeff Redfield - Executive Director, Stonewall Columbus
>                 (614) 299-7764
>
> Stonewall Columbus adds Transgender Seat on Board of Trustees
>
> September 21, 2000
>
> Columbus, OH - In its continued support of transgender individuals, the
> Stonewall Columbus Board of Trustees added a twenty-first seat designated
> for a transgender individual.  The seat was added by a unanimous vote at the
> Board meeting on September 20.
>
> Only an individual who identifies as transgender may fill this seat.  This
> measure is to insure that at least one individual is on the board who has an
> understanding of transgender experiences and a commitment to the issues
> specific to those experiences.  Some current members of the Board do
> self-identify as transgendered but occupy either male or female seats. This
> seat allows for individuals who find that the male or female designation is
> not reflective of their identity, or who feel that their identity as
> transgendered is more primary than their biological sex.  If other
> transgender individuals were selected for the Board, they would fill either
> a male or female seat as he or she self identifies.
>
> In 1999, Stonewall Columbus added transgender to its mission statement
> officially proclaiming its commitment to transgendered individuals in
> central Ohio.
>
> Stonewall Columbus is currently seeking individuals to fill this new seat on
> the Board.  Like all Board seats, it is a three-year commitment and the term
> of the position is through September 2003.  Those interested in applying for
> the position should submit a letter of intent and a resume or vita to Cheryl
> Carter, Stonewall Nominations Committee Chair, 751 Northwest Blvd.,
> Columbus, OH 43212.

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Reply to the NOW thread on NTAC list

I really didn't want to comment on all this.

I do find it problematic that three names spell trouble in River City
(Columbus) when it comes to trans-issues are all in the forefront on
this list suddenly.  Jeff Redfield, who is about as much a friend to the
trans-community as Lizzy Birch or Barney the Purple Congresscritter.  M.
A. Horton, well known to many of us at this point and the main reason I
didn't renew my NOW membership.  Meral Crane.......what to say about
Meral Crane?  Well, the last time I commented on Meral Crane on a
national list (TGS-Pflag)I was outted via an anonymous phone call to my
work supervisor later losing that job, and I was forced out of the chair
of It's Time Ohio all within two weeks!  My sanity was openly questioned
on local emails lists and my name generally slandered on a national
level.  Granted, there were other factors at work with the ITOh chair at
the time, but they all involved machinations of another member of the
Columbus gang of three and just coincidentally enough also involved
Meral Crane being invited as THE speaker at the EQUAL conference here in
Columbus at the time and which had been hidden from me.  Just months
before all this, I  had been asked to arrange the trans-education part
of the UU Church gay and lesbian INTERWEAVE conference and had my own
therapist (very very capable and knowledgeable speaker) talk to the
group instead of Meral.  Afterwards the church and various members of
the church GLBT, This Way Out group received numerous phone calls and
letters that were characterized by them as harassment because Meral
wasn't the main speaker! I know this because they all complained about
it me, loudly.  Little wonder she is the ball of wax here, her shock
troops have made sure of that.  For years her "people" have openly
insulted those of us who avoided her group for transitional needs and
told everyone they could reach that Meral was the ONLY route to hormones
and SRS in central Ohio, something totally false and they knew it and
were called on for repeatedly.  Back then Meral herself told her group
to shun me because I wasn't a "real" transsexual before she knew I was a
major player in the local political scene.  In the past several years
Dr. Fox and myself have largely been cut out of all invitations to speak
on the subject of transsexuality despite that fact that we have been the
best known nationally figures in this area and have both been the only
ones at various hearings at a State level politically.

The Columbus NOW event was announced by Jeff Redfield, presumably
arranged by M.A. Horton, and features Meral Crane as main speaker and
Sarah and I hear about it only here onlist..........that is comment
enough.

I have tried to avoid contact with and commentary on these three for
several years since they literally destroyed my local reputation and cut
me off from virtually all contact with other transsexuals in this area.
This was from having been someone called the "Godmother of the local
trans-community" not long before all this.  I find it infuriating that
at a time when I finally am able to reconnect with some locals, these
three once again are suddenly in the forefront of local trans politics.
A therapist who invites speakers to her group and then CHARGES them and
about whom I've personally heard so many horror stories as to make my
blood run cold. One who calls herself the "Central Ohio Gender Dysphoria
Association" and likes to leave an uncorrected assumption that she has a
doctorate and  who charged in excess of 500 bucks before you could even
see her in the past.  A gay man who has actively acted to cut out and
negate local political involvement by politically active transfolks for
years and dresses up in hag drag twice a year for local sporting events
knowing the level of insult that is to local transsexuals in order to
say "F**k You" to the straights.  A local crossdresser who worships the
therapist who in return makes comment after comment of a negative nature
about crossdressers.  One who practically single handedly destroyed It's
Time America with his flip flop workplace gender presentation agenda and
interfered in the Kentucky Fairness Campaign after his agenda nearly
derailed it and who routinely cut other individuals off local and
national email lists he controled in order to silence them and then lied
about it.   Gee, I'm overjoyed to see these names pop up again and
again.

I don't get off work until 7am the morning of that event, but I shall
try to be there sans sleep anyway.

Oh, a final note, the president of Columbus NOW, Susan Bader, _IS_ a
friend of the community, had been an active and willing helpmate in ITOh
for years and in no way should be slammed for any of this.   That I
personally know of her level of commitment to betterment of
transgendered people is the single bright light in all this and the
reason I will go without as much fear in my heart of a debacle.

 Cathy Platine
       @)-'--.--'
"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people"

The Infamous "Flame" response

Excuse me Lynne??????

Do you know Susan Bader?, I do and have a good working relationship with
her as does Sue Davis and Sarah Fox.  She is the president of Columbus
NOW.  Did you even know that the vice president of the NOW chapter is a
crossdresser?  How dare you presume to tell me to "it may be in your
best interest to give this one a rest"?  That almost sounds like a
threat.  Been there, done that and I don't respond well to threats.  I'm
sorry, but it seems to me that you are deliberately attempting to
provoke me for whatever reason.  Since I don't even know you and
invested a two hour phone call in trying to defuse all this before it
got out of hand, I am somewhat mystified as to your motives here.

Like I tried to tell you last night, the local situation is one hellva
lot more complicated than you realize.  As for your "increasing role as
an activist in Central Ohio"  I was very surprised that you never once
thought in your almost year long local activist career to seek out any
of the three individuals who have been actively working in this state
for many many years or attended a single ITOh meeting.  ITOh was active
up until Sept. of this year and well known to anyone in tune with
central Ohio transpolitics including especially your beloved Jeff
Redfield, but then he did try to deny our existence.   hmmmm.

Dr. Fox is a internationally recognized researcher and was co-chair of
EBAH 2000 not to mention an original transflakes as was myself and was a
Stonewall board member, the only transgendered one.   Sue Davis was the
chair of the only state T inclusive civil rights organization and I am
well known and a member of the board of NTAC and you even admitted to me
that you knew of both Sarah and myself and had heard good things and yet
none of us heard from you (other than our brief non political encounter
on SRS issues) prior to the last couple of weeks.

My "blistering letter to Redfield and the Board of Stonewall Columbus"
 was no more or less than calling an organization on trying to play the
HRC game locally and who's T inclusion has clearly and demonstratively
been lip service only bought and paid for.  Dr. Fox confirmed every word
and was ON THE FREAKIN' BOARD OF STONEWALL.  Stonewall's record speaks
for itself as does Redfield's, like HRC they claim public support for
and yet work privately against trans issues.

Lynne, I strongly suggest you meet with the other players here IN PERSON
before you issue any more "suggestions" on who should attend what.  I'm
sorry, but I have ignored up to now the veiled and treacle coated
insults directed at Dr. Fox and myself in your posts to this list and
the members one, but that last one was over the top.  One must almost
suspect some sort of unspoken agenda in the face of your continuing to
ignore the situation here in central Ohio over and over and your
continued attempts at baiting me personally.

As for an "engraved invitation", honey, the last time I checked, Jeff
Redfield was ED of Stonewall, a gay man and not even a member of NOW.  I
expect nothing from him because I know better.  As a known speaker on
trans issues who has testified before a state subcommittee on womens
issues as was Dr. Fox, I reasonably would have expected some contact on
this event.  My ability to share a platform with someone I dislike and
distrust without blowing it is an established one.  M. A. Horton and I
shared a stage interview on channel 4 over the Lipscomb case.  I've
spoken at the same events as Meral Crane more than once as an equal.
Your comments were insulting and out of line.  But then you don't know
me, do you?

  Cathy Platine
       @)-'--.--'
"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people"