HRC viewed from overseas

Gay City News is running an op-ed piece today about the HRC by Yoav Sivan, a resident of Tel Aviv who has lived in the US, entitled "Changing America, and Changing Itself".

It needs to be read, but here are some selected excerpts to whet your appetite:

HRC is stuck in an obstinate rut.

As a gay activist in Israel who works closely with other LGBT activists around the world, I can assure HRC that we're all familiar with, and indeed disgusted that, America's most powerful LGBT organization could be either so incompetent or so vicious toward the transgender community.

LGBT activists outside America look to a country like Spain, which in former generations was a stronghold of the Catholic Church, and is now a beacon of LGBT rights.

HRC can't even get a law passed that would outlaw discrimination against a human being based on gender identity? Thousands of us around the world are in disbelief.

If we end up with a Democratic majority in Congress and a Democratic president in November, what excuse will HRC and Barney Frank use then to exclude transgender folks from ENDA? It would seem that everyone is watching and waiting for that answer, both here and elsewhere.