It even made the evening news. Yes, Milwaukee’s LGBT community came into the local (and national) spotlight last week when its Milwaukee Pride Parade Board of Directors (no relation to Milwaukee Pride, Inc., producer of PrideFest) announced it would rescind the honorary title of Parade Grand Marshall it had bestowed on Miriam Ben-Shalom just a short time before. Ben-Shalom seemed a logical choice to honor. The lesbian rights advocate has a long history of activism, especially in the fight for gays in the military.
But it seemed someone had done some after-the-fact fact checking and discovered transphobic posts on Ben-Shalom’s Facebook page. Although not posted by Ben-Shalom herself, the Pride Parade board deemed its decision to recognize her ill advised. In a polite and apologetic letter, they explained their mission of inclusion didn’t “mesh” with Ben-Shalom’s apparent affiliations and summarily stripped her of the rank. Fortunately, their action took place before the Pride Parade announced its Grand Marshall.
Ben-Shalom’s response was swift. In a public letter (it began with an untraditional salutation “To you bunch of Moral reprobates,”) she cited her belief in the abolition of gender roles so people “can just be” and would not feel the need to surgically change their bodies. She went on to identify as PERF, a Penis Exclusionary Radical Feminist. In her subsequent TV segment interview, however, Ben-Shalom explained she was not transphobic. Her argument, especially regarding the current bathroom debate, centered on the issue of women’s privacy and safety. Those concerns are understandable. But it seems the opposition to trans rights has deeper roots. And, as the Pride Parade acknowledged in its defense of its action, although everyone has a right to their beliefs, the Parade is about inclusion.
Of course, the Pride Parade should have vetted their candidate long before making their choice. To be fair, in these heady days of LGBT progress, we often blithely believe our community is united and our goals universally shared. We are simply naïve to the notion some among us have very different agendas and opinions. Currently, the struggle of those long-neglected Ts has come to the fore. Most of us support them. So the Pride Parade board approached a well-known activist and pioneer, presuming she would be the perfect candidate to represent our greater community’s ongoing struggle. But no one thought to ask how she felt regarding transgender issues and thus put themselves in an awkward predicament.
Today’s political discourse has devolved into angry schoolyard name calling and vitriol. Unfortunately, when this episode went public it did so as well. Many blogs (like Stop Trans Chauvinism 2.0) and other social media commentaries in support of Ben-Shalom were embarrassing at best. I don’t know if any of their authors are knowledgeable health care professionals or otherwise informed, but it does not serve our community to use abusive and disparaging catch phrases like “men in dresses” when referring to transwomen.
The Pride Parade coincidently released its statement regarding Ben-Shalom on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, May 4, and May 17 is International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. There’s a sad irony in that.
