Date: Sat, 23 Mar 1996 15:40:16 -0500
Subject: Other Names in the TransNews... Urvashi Vaid, N.O.W.
From: riki@pipeline.com (Riki Anne Wilchins)

URVASHI VAID FUMBLES TS ISSUES 
 
Contact: Filisa Vistima Foundation, (503)231-9554 
 
[Portland, Oregon] 
Lesbian author/activist Urvashi Vaid was upexpectedly confronted  
on trans-issues when she spoke the evening of Monday, March 18,  
1996 to a crowd of approximately 100 at Reed College in Portland, OR.  
 
After several references to "gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender"  
issues, approximately half-way into her two-hour talk Vaid denounced  
the murder of transexual male Brandon Teena by saying, ""discrimination  
on the basis of gender nonconformity -- such as the young lesbian in  
Nebraska who passed as a man and was murdered." 
 
In addition, during the question-and-answer period following Vaid's  
presentation, referring to the recent reissuing of  
"The Transsexual [sic] Empire: the Making of a She-Male", a book  
virulently hostile to transpeople, transactivist  
Margaret Deirdre O'Hartigan asked Vaid, "When are you, personally,  
going to denounce the hate-literature of lesbian-feminist Janice Raymond?" 

 
Answered Vaid, "I'm not going to denounce 20-year-old radical feminism,"  
to which O'Hartigan rebutted, "Raymond's book was re-issued in 1994 --  and
not 
a single national gay or lesbian organization has denounced it as the 
hate-literature it is."  Vaid did not respond. 
 
Prior to Vaid's presentation, Portland transactivists distributed leaflets 

denouncing the anti-Gender Identity Disorder campaign of the National  
Center for Lesbian Rights and other national gay and lesbian organizations.

The controversial campaign has been vigorously supported by some in the  
transcommunity while equally attacked by others. 
__________________________________________________________________ 
 
TG MENACE RAISES ISSUE OF TRANSINCLUSION WITH N.O.W. 
 
Contact: Shirley Bushnell, Shirley@earthlink.net 
 
[LOS ANGELES, CA - March 22] 
In anticipation of the National Organization of Women's April 14 
"Fight the Right" march for "lesbian, gay, and bi rights," Transgender  
Menace (So-Cal) spoketrans Shirley Bushnell took up the  
issue of transinclusion from this platform with NOW leadership.   
 
Assured transpeople would be included, Bushnell was surprised and  
dismayed to find that a March 8th flier for the march referred only to  
"gender and sexual orientation."  Menace members promptly convened to  
leaflet a March 13 NOW meeting at UCLA, raising the issue of trans- 
exclusion from the march platform. 
 
Following the leafletting, NOW leaders Rosemary Dempsey and Kim 
Ward confirmed to Menace representatives that transgendered rights  
were indeed part of NOW's march platform, and pledged to correct the 
omission in future NOW postings and literature. 
 
Stating that she had had previous experiences with the Menace,  
Dempsey said she was well aware of the importance of transinclusion. 
The march is expected to be a very large event, with over 750,000  
in attendance. 
[END]