Letters: Fight for LGBT rights isn’t over

Re “‘They’re just looking for their place in the world,’” Column, Jan. 12

The subheadline for Robin Abcarian’s piece reads: “The fight for gay rights has essentially been won. So why is anyone concerned about extending legal protections to transgender minors?”

Later in the column, Abcarian writes: “Same-sex marriage is legal in 17 states and it’s probably just a matter of time before it is legal in all 50.”

This statement might give readers the impression that it is no longer necessary to work for equality and justice on this issue. But what about the other 33 states where these rights are denied? Try telling that to the countless couples who would like to be married tomorrow but cannot be.

Paul Burton

Redlands

I am a 58-year-old trans woman in a burned-out factory town in northern Michigan. This week, I will speak for the second time in support of a proposed county ordinance to ban gender-identity and sexual-orientation discrimination.

The first time I spoke was last week; I was alone, but my side won the first round of voting. This week, I don’t know how things will turn out, but I will be there again.

I say this because Abcarian’s column reminds me how far we’ve come. Don’t get sentimental, because it isn’t very far. But we will get there, because most of us in the trans community know deep in our hearts that we are each other’s Sherpa, and we climb these mountains together one step at a time.

Charin Hudson Davenport

Bay City, Mich.

When will activist Frank Schubert — who is leading a campaign to overturn California’s new law allowing transgender students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms meant for whichever gender they identify with — realize that his misguided attempts to alter the inevitable march this state is finally making toward full equality for all of its citizens are mean-spirited, baked in half-truths, and now more than ever fall on deaf ears?

Instead of having his organization spend energy, time and money trying to beat down transgender schoolchildren (who no doubt have plenty of challenges in their lives already), why doesn’t Schubert pour his efforts into something a bit more meaningful?

Say, like the war on poverty?

Mary Ann Curtis

Corona del Mar

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