It was standing room only inside the L-Train March 22, when nearly 80 people crowded into the downtown theater to discuss issues pertaining specifically to the transgender community. The meeting was inspired by a recent act of transphobia at the Bishop Tavern, which made international news and was mostly amicable, but there were a few tense moments, especially surrounding fears of discrimination in healthcare emergencies.
“One incident brought you here,” Trans*Action Florida (formerly Transgender FORGE) Executive Director Michael Keeffe told the crowd. “But for others, we're here for the thousands of other incidents of transphobia.”
The town hall meeting featured Equality Florida Executive Director Nadine Smith, Tampa Bay Business Guild President Mariruth Kennedy, Stonewall Democrats' Beth Fountain and Jake Kottmeier from the King of Peace Metropolitan Community Church. Several guest speakers spoke before the meeting, including Dr. Kathleen Farrell, a gender therapist who has served the Tampa Bay area since 1985. Farrell began by showing headlines from various newspapers throughout the world highlighting news involving transgender people. One read “Half man gets breasts, and guess who's paying the bill?”
“These headlines should make us outraged,” Farrell said. “We need to have people objecting every time we see these things in the paper.”
She also cited a story about a transgender elected official in Brazil, which the paper cited as “male by birth, female by choice.”
“Does this seem like a choice to anyone in here?” Farrell asked.
Keeffe asked the panel several questions and wanted to know how each organization represented valued inclusion of the transgender community.
“I don't think we can just say it's “the right thing to do,'” said Kennedy. “Inclusion just makes sense from a business perspective. If an organization like the Tampa Bay Business Guild isn't accepting or affirming, how can the rest of the community at large be? We have prejudice in our own community, and that's why I am actively recruiting a transgender person for our board.”
Smith echoed Kennedy's sentiments, saying that if the community adopts a “we'll come for you later” mentality when it comes to equality ordinances and laws, it gives other groups to jettison a specific group and view them as outcasts.
“We have one thing, at the end of the day, in our arsenal,” Smith said. “We are all born with certain inalienable rights”we are born equal. But it's important to remember that when a group does finally find its voice, we tend to yell.”
And that, Smith added, isn't always received well.
A theme of understanding and participation permeated the meeting, with leaders from each organization inviting the transgender community to actively participate or enroll so that representation could grow.
“Tell your story and share the human face of the issues,” Kottmeier told the crowd.
Fountain echoed his statement.
“To make your time come, you have to make your time come,” she said. “Once someone knows they know someone in the transgender community, their point of view changes. But that's a responsibility you must take on yourself.”
The meeting ended on a high note, with St. Petersburg City Councilman Steve Kornell addressing the crowd briefly and sharing some hopeful news about the future of the city.
“I have asked for gender reassignment surgery to be included in the city's benefit package,” Kornell said to applause. “And I am working on getting gender identity and expression included in our human rights ordinance.”
Keeffe was happy with the turnout and the execution of the meeting, saying that the support shown by the transgender and LGBT community at large made him hopeful.
