Chicago: Trans activist leaves group over HRC donation
A Chicago transgender activist has left her volunteer post because the organisation she worked for accepted funding from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
According to OutQ News, June LaTrobe resigned last week from the Chicago-based LGBT support group ‘Centre On Halsted’ after HRC, America’s largest LGBT campaign organisation, made a donation to the centre of £250 (£150).
HRC has had a long and complicated history with America’s trans community, particularly when it supported a version of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that only protected people based on their sexual orientation and not gender identity or expression.
An HRC spokesperson told the Windy City Times that the organisation is proud of the work it does with transgender people, and is trying to become more inclusive.
However, Ms LaTrobe claimed it was another example of HRC trying to “buy” its way into the trans community and said: “Locally, they have not been involved in anything in terms of supporting the trans community.”
Centre On Halsted held a Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR) event yesterday as scheduled.
TdoR will be marked in the UK on Tuesday 20 November.
