LQBTQ activism has left trans people behind

If one point was made clear in the article, “Looking back on decade of marriage equality,” June 20, it is that the transgender community has been left behind by establishment LGBTQ organizations. Ten years after marriage equality, transgender people in the Empire State are still suffering from disproportionate levels of housing insecurity and unemployment.

The notion that marriage equality moved the ball on the transgender rights movement is offensive. If anything, it was transgender and gender-fluid people who unknowingly moved the ball on marriage equality. It was outcasts of their own communities, homeless sex workers and street kids who revolted against heavy-handed police only for cisgender gays to reap the benefits of our fight for liberation.

Transgender people still remember our exclusion from Pride marches. We still remember the ways in which cisgender gays supported the removal of gender identity language from anti-discrimination bills because it created a more palatable version for the Legislature.

Despite some legislative progress, the socioeconomic status of transgender and gender-nonconforming people, particularly people of color, remains low. What transgender and gender-nonconforming people people need is for prominent LGBTQ organizations to put as much energy and resources as they put into passing marriage equality toward eradicating homelessness and providing access to employment for our community.

Elisa Crespo New York City Executive director, NEW Pride Agenda