Salon.com > CeCe McDonald http://www.salon.com Sat, 18 May 2013 11:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 What took Biden so long on trans discrimination? http://www.salon.com/2012/10/31/if_trans_discrimination_is_the_civil_rights_issue_of_our_time_why_is_biden_just_mentioning_it_now/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/31/if_trans_discrimination_is_the_civil_rights_issue_of_our_time_why_is_biden_just_mentioning_it_now/#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:37:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13058824 Vice President Joe Biden called transgender discrimination "the civil rights issue of our time" to a woman outside a campaign office in Sarasota, Fla. Tuesday.  Although his comment was largely inaudible to pool reporters, his interlocutor later said she had described the abuse faced by her trans friends:

Linda Carragher Bourne of Sarasota said her daughter was Miss Trans New England and asked if he would help them. "A lot of my friends are being killed, and they don't have the civil rights yet. These guys are gonna make it happen," she told the pool.

Biden has been a vocal supporter of LGBT rights -- notably endorsing same-sex marriage before the president. Many will welcome Biden's comment about transgender rights. Bourne took to Facebook to elatedly recount here interaction with him: "It was a miraculous (to me) and magical moment in time... He’s in our corner, friends!!!" [sic.]

However, other trans allies and advocates reacted to Biden more critically. One trans activist acquaintance of mine took to Facebook to comment, "Oh, Fuck off Joe Biden," and was followed up by a fellow commenter noting, "You mean Uncle Joe doesn't have the right invested in him by White Male Privilege to tell marginalized communities what 'the Civil Rights Issue is of our time' [is]?"

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