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Representation: Trans Activism In Michigan Lame Duck

BY AJ TRAGER

SAGINAW – Over the past decade she has fought for her life, added her name to become an elected official and now fights to be a Michigan citizen with full rights.
Charin Davenport grew up in the Bay City area in the little town of Essexville. She's lived in Washington D.C., California, New York and many other states, but she now calls Saginaw home. This past November, Davenport submitted her name on the ballot for Delta College Board of Trustees. Even though she lost the election, Davenport remains thoroughly engaged in political advocacy work, particularly in the realm of trans rights.
"I wanted to be as obvious that I was transgender as I could. That this is me. I'm not doing it for attention. I am not doing it because I am afraid that people will find out that I'm trans, but I wanted them to know it," Davenport states.
After spending 32 years away from her home state, Davenport now teaches English, Composition and Literature part-time, as the first openly transgender professor at Delta College and Saginaw Valley. She has spent much of her free time in the past few months working towards getting gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation protections added to the Michigan's Civil Rights Act: the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA).
"It took us forever to get Elliott-Larsen passed in 1974. If we have to wait another 40 years before we get another shot, I will never in my life know what it is like to have full citizenship. It breaks me heart. Makes me so mad," Davenport says with emotion. "Just that little victory would be the biggest thing ever."
The Michigan House Commerce Committee heard testimony on Dec. 3 from business owners, faith leaders and lawmakers on gender and sexual orientation inclusions to ELCRA, but the LGBT voice wasn't fully represented. Most importantly, trans voices – the group that could potentially be left out of protections – were not heard from.
"I've spoken to other trans folks who feel the same way; that there are some wonderful allies and they will back us up and go to bat for us, but the thing is that trans people need to speak for trans people," she said. "As a community we need to make sure we do everything we can that, when the question is asked about our community, we are the ones responding and in front of the microphone. It's important to me."
The English professor is no stranger to struggle. In 2004, Davenport was diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation, an abnormality in the blood vessels of her brain that caused her to have 14 brain surgeries in a year's time to save her life. Today she is healthy, but civil rights issues are on the forefront of her mind.
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), described by many as the "freedom to discriminate" bill, is working its way through the Michigan legislature. The Michigan House passed the bill and the state now looks to the Senate for passage or dismissal before it lands on Gov. Snyder's desk to be signed into law.
"What I'm afraid of is that people will feel less emboldened to be allied and more emboldened to be antagonistic or even freer to express hate," Davenport pressed. "If that becomes OK, the next line that you trip over is using passion as a defense for physical violence. That scares the crap out of me. RFRA sounds like the laws that they passed in the south to justify slavery."
RFRA is described by ACLU LGBT project attorney Jay Kaplan as a bill that "could and would allow religion to be used to discriminate against LGBT people, allowing people or businesses to deny employment, housing or services based on their religious views." This bill will affirm that the Michigan Legislature is not interested in granting full protections to all its citizens, especially the trans community which has been continuously left out of protections and updated civil rights amendments.
So how does the trans community fight statewide discrimination? Davenport believes the answer is representation in daily life and in elected positions.
"I spent many of my early years trying to hide. It's hard work because there are a lot of trans people, maybe most, who don't want others to know. So how do you ask them to be politically involved?" Davenport questioned.
"If we could get people in elected positions, facing delegates, winning relatively small elections, the next step would come from the people who are getting elected to those positions being the people that the local community knows and trusts. We have to get that trust. And from there, I really want seats in Lansing."
In the meantime, she turns to the faces in the capitol that she can trust, including Rep. Dan Kildee and his aide Mitchell Rivard, the latter recently appointed vice president of the LGBT Congressional Staff Association, a group that works to advance the interests of openly LGBT congressional staffers as well as advocate for current LGBT issues before Congress. Davenport would like to see a grassroots strategy and has begun plans for a transgender forum by trans individuals for the trans community.
"We have a core of a community that we've really never had before. We need to do things like be elected to boards and committees – do what we can. If your local group is having a meeting, go and represent. Get people used to seeing us in City Hall or the County Chambers."

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