Letter: Education needed on identity issues

In your letter from Jane Clare Pawling entitled "Burden of 'Homocentrism', published in BTL, Nov. 22, she states,"It should be sufficient to prohibit job-discrimination on the basis of simply being "gay" — that one word, by itself, without definition or elaboration, includes all of the LGBT community." While I agree with her view that by leaving out the words gender-identity out of ENDA (Employment Non Discrimination Act) that certain femme straight men and/or butch straight women are not covered, her statement that the word gay covers trans people is way off the mark, which just shows that we need more education outside and inside the community.
While there are some trans people that identify as gay, there are many that don't. Just like there are trans-women that identify as straight when with a man and gay when with a woman.
We not only need further education about GLBT issues in the mainstream, but within our community as well.
{ITAL Sincerely,
Brianna Austin
New York, NY
via email}