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Monday, 05 May 2008 21:12
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 African American Delegate Makes History
by Jacob Anderson-Minshall
It’s beginning to look like the Democrats might not have an official nominee before their August 25th national convention. That could bestow unprecedented power to delegates to determine the party’s official candidate. When party bigwigs meet in Denver, they’ll share the room with two transgender activists. The first, Diego Sanchez was appointed by the DNC chairman himself—Howard Dean. The second, Marisa Richmond, is the party’s first openly transgender African-American delegate.
Earlier this spring, Richmond became the first openly transgender person to win an election in Tennessee, securing the position of Davidson County Democratic Committeewoman. Although proud of that accomplishment, Richmond acknowledges a caveat: “There are at least three transgender people I know of that have been elected to public office. [But] they’re not out, or they don’t live full time [in their preferred gender].”
Thrilled with her numbers, Richmond brags, “I ended up getting more votes than any of the presidential candidates in the [Tennessee] primary. I got two hundred more votes than Barak Obama!”
The forty-something Richmond, who transitioned from male to female in 2001, hopes to parlay her current position into greater roles. “I’m hoping that one-day when a seat opens up, I’ll be every body’s natural first choice.”
Since becoming a delegate, Richmond says, everyone wants to know if she’s super.
“No, I was elected as an at-large delegate. There’s four categories of delegates; the super delegates, those are like the governor, members of congress; those sort of prominent positions. I’m definitely not there.”
Still, once they reach the convention, Richmond explains, all delegates “have the same vote. Obviously [super delegates] are more prominent; if the governor says, ‘I want to do this,’ then chances are he’s going to have a lot of play. Whereas if I get up and…say ‘let’s do this’ then I’ve got to be very persuasive.”
Some critics contend US’s delegate system takes voting power from the populace, but Richmond disagrees. “Except for the super delegates, the remaining…are all allocated based on the results of the Tennessee primary…so it’s a reflection of the will of the voters. Even when you look at the super delegates—the governor was elected, the members of congress were all elected.”
It’s important for trans people to become delegates, Richmond asserts, because they’ll end up interacting with “movers and shakers. These are prominent people in federal, state and local politics [who] are going to have influence at all three levels of government. We’re going to be interacting with these people and educating them about the transgender community, and helping them overcome the myths and stereotypes they have about us.”
One of the messages Richmond hopes to convey is that trans people are “part of society: we contribute in every respect. At the same time, we’re victims of discrimination because of our differences. We’re victims of very violent and brutal hate crimes and that’s just inexcusable. We need the people who are responsible in our society to know that.”
Encouraging other trans people to get involved in politics, Richmond maintains, “What happens is all these levels of government affect our lives. I’ve had people say, ‘[My bosses] don’t know about me, they’re never going to know about me, so why should I care about employment protections?’ Because they might find out about it and, especially in a state like Tennessee…they can fire you. You need to have some protections and you need to stand up for yourself.”
Standing up for others as well, Richmond recently confronted the city of Memphis about a gay child who was reportedly outed by a school administrator. “That’s inexcusable! Our GLBT youth should be safe in schools. So many of us are driven out of schools and we end up on the streets, unemployed. We end up—in some cases—in sex work; where we are vulnerable to hate crimes and HIV-AIDS.”
Richmond, who worked on Ted Kennedy’s 1980 presidential campaign, has been attracted to politics since she saw President Kennedy, at four. “I’ve been fascinated with politics ever since. My mom was one of the organizers of the business boycotts in support of the sit-ins, way back in 1960; so I came from a background of activism.”
With TTPC, Richmond has also lobbied for an alteration to Tennessee law that bans gender changes on birth certificates. Unfortunately, Richmond laments, legislation to change that law was perverted by an amendment establishing new categories of gender—M2F and F2M—for use on transgender birth certificates. “Although we often argue that gender is a spectrum and not binary,” Richmond maintains, “we don’t necessarily want that on documents [so] we pulled the bill.”
Part of last year’s United ENDA coalition, TTPC is also active at local levels, reflecting Richmond’s contention, “States are probably the easiest place to begin doing a lot of grassroots organizing. State legislatures are stepping-stones to Congress…[but] it’s much easier for us to do trans 101 at the local level…[then] wait until they get to Washington and then try to schedule a meeting.”
A proponent of coalition building, Richmond argues, “If we’re going to change people’s minds we’ve got to reach out to them…work with them and get them comfortable with us. I’ve encouraged people to…reach out beyond the GLBT community to educate people in other communities, make sure they understand who you are and what you’re about, so they can get over their myths, and their fears and their stereotypes.”
When not lobbying, Richmond molds the minds of future generations as a history professor at Middle Tennessee State University.
“One of the things I say to my classes…about the ways in which this nation has discriminated against people…I challenge them, ‘What are your grandchildren going to say a hundred years from now? What are they going to think about your generation? Who are you…treating badly now that’s going to have them shaking their heads?’”
Trans author Jacob Anderson-Minshall co-writes the Blind Eye mystery series with his wife.
© 2008 Jacob Anderson-Minshall
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