Parking Rights
Pauline Park is fighting for transgender rights
By Kevin Allison
New York Blade
Friday, July 18, 2003

Late one night, years ago, Pauline Park squeezed onto an E train to Queens in a burgundy gown. A man shoved past, selling batteries. When he saw Park, he was disgusted. “If you’re a man, dress like a man!” he yelled. He went on insulting her.

“People were laughing at me. Middle-aged white people, laughing right at me,” Park recalls. “But it bothered me for about 10 seconds and I just moved on.” She pauses in reflection and says, “It’s about maintaining my dignity.”

Since the Supreme Court struck down sodomy laws, dignity for the gay community is here. But it’s still easier for some than for others.

This month, Park celebrates the anniversary of her two greatest achievements as an activist: the founding of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA); and the passage of the city’s transgender rights bill. But there are still too many incidents like the one on the subway for Park to remember.

Even with a PhD in political science, training as a classical pianist and being a self-taught expert on J.R.R. Tolkien, she feels happy just to walk down the street in peace. Park is transgendered.

In her case, that means no surgery and no hormones. But it means more to her than cross-dressing. Park sees no incongruity between the male body she inhabits and the female identity she embraces.

Relaxing in her Jackson Heights apartment, surrounded by books from all over the world, Park sips on spring water, reminiscing on how she got to this anniversary. She’s a petite Korean American, utterly comfortable with herself barefoot in a floral summer one-piece. Park has shoulder-length black hair and stunning eyes.

Her big, expressive face may not always “pass” as a woman’s; but the most striking thing about Park is her voice. Soft and soothing, it’s a voice made for lullabies.

“When I was a young child, I use to have constant dreams, always with the same premise,” she says laughing. “I was alone at night in a big department store in the women’s section. And I got to try on all the clothing that I wanted to.”

Park is particularly proud of her work in helping to pass New York City’s transgender rights bill. “That really took countless hours of work to pass. I started on it in January of ’99,” she says. On April 24, 2002, the City Council did approve a landmark bill to protect the rights of the transgendered. The Mayor signed it on April 30, when it became Local Law 3 of 2002.

This month also marks the fifth anniversary of her founding NYAGRA. “When I first started dressing, I remember this one taxi driver I met and he felt he had to remain a closeted cross-dresser.” The memory brings sorrow to Park’s voice. “He was older, late ‘50s, very masculine features and he was very, very sad about it. It really brought home to me that the mass of transgendered people live lives of quiet desperation. So I started having ideas about what eventually became NYAGRA, a group to be a voice for the voiceless.”

Park herself was voiceless for years. An adopted son of Christian fundamentalists in Milwaukee, she hid from the world behind stacks of books in libraries.

Things got less lonely in college with gay groups and coming out. Cross-dressing was the long-dreamt-of leap taken when Park was living in London in the early ‘80s at the age of 22. She lost friends over it and found the switch just as nerve-racking as exhilarating.

Expressing her ‘masculine’ side“I think that ironically there are more of what you might call ‘masculine’ traits that I’ve finally been able to express having come out as a transgendered woman,” she says. “There’s room now for this side of me who is the firebrand, the fiery activist who goes out to get things done.”

That’s not to say the little dreamer she once was, the contemplative kid playing Bach on the piano, is lost. “There’s still a side of me that’s philosophical. I sometimes find myself having two reactions at the same time, and I don’t feel they’re in conflict. It’s more of a conversation.”

It’s clear that conversation is Park’s forte. She speaks lovingly and often of “intellectual companionship,” and finds inspiration in “The Lord of the Rings.”

“There are two kinds of power,” she explains. “One is the power of dominion over others, symbolized by the ring. But there’s also spiritual power, which is enhanced when it’s shared. That’s the true spirit of community. People think, ‘Well my voice doesn’t count.’ But I think we showed with the transgender rights bill that a small number of people acting on a just cause can accomplish great things.”

A statewide transgender rights bill is her next conquest, as well as the Dignity for All Students bill to protect kids from harassment at school. Is it getting easier being herself in public these days? Park is optimistic as ever.

“Just a week ago I was walking down the street past a construction site and one of the men just standing around goes, ‘That’s a man! That’s a Chinese man!’ And I just smiled to myself. I thought, ‘Well mister, you’re wrong on both counts!’”

This article originally appeared in the New York Blade on 18 July 2003.

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More than 2,000 people rallied for equal rights in front of the capitol building in Albany.

New Yorkers Lobby Albany for Equality and Justice Day in Record Numbers
Constituents urge lawmakers to pass three key bills this session
By Kat Long
New York Blade
5.1.2009

Riding the momentum of recent victories for gay equality in Iowa, Vermont, Washington D.C. and other states, Empire State Pride Agenda sponsored its annual Equality and Justice Day in Albany on April 28. Pride Agenda, the statewide LGBT civil rights advocacy group, organized the daylong series of meetings with state legislators as well as a noontime rally at the foot of the capitol building. More than 2,000 New Yorkers from all corners of the state took part—the largest turnout in the event’s history. The number presented a huge increase from the first E&J Day, when 400 people participated.

“We were very strategic in identifying the districts where we wanted to make sure we had a good attendance, and we had conference calls prior to E&J Day with the individuals who had signed up to come, so we could talk to them about just how important their stories were going to be,” said Alan Van Capelle, Pride Agenda’s executive director. “Those districts included places on Long Island and in the North Country and western and central New York, so that [support] literally came from around the state.”

The day’s program was focused on having small groups of constituents meet with their elected Senators and Assemblymembers to tell their personal stories, with an emphasis on the difference pro-gay laws could make in their lives.

Three major pieces of legislation of concern to LGBT New Yorkers have a chance of passage in this legislative session, which ends June 22: the marriage equality bill re-introduced by Gov. David Paterson last month; the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA); and the Dignity for All Students Act. (See related articles in this issue for analyses of each bill).

“Anytime we’ve won something from Albany it’s because we’ve told our stories to legislators,” Van Capelle said. “The biggest goal we had to was to get as many people together to tell their stories to our elected officials.”

The groups of amateur lobbyists included heads of major labor unions, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, and everyone in between, Van Capelle said, which showed a depth and breadth of participation that hadn’t been seen in previous years.

For some E&J Day participants, it was their first chance to meet face-to-face with their elected representatives and make a personal investment in the democratic process. For others, this year offered a chance to lobby with the wind at their backs.

Pauline Park, chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA), told the Blade this was her eleventh year of lobbying in the capitol. She personally met with legislative directors for Senators Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn), Joseph Addabbo, Jr. (D-Queens) and Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens), the latter from her own district.

“I felt it was especially important, as the chair of a statewide transgender advocacy organization, to meet with centrist Democrats who have not yet taken a clear position on legislation important to our community,” Park said. “It is precisely with Addabbo, Kruger and a few other moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans that we will find the votes to bring marriage, GENDA, and Dignity bills to the floor of the Senate and get them passed.”

Based on her meetings, Park felt that the Dignity for All Students Act would be the easiest of the three to pass, “as it is difficult for even the most homophobic or transgenderphobic politician to argue that kids should be subject to bullying in school.” She also had high hopes for GENDA based on polls that suggested most New Yorkers support laws banning discrimination, but felt marriage equality could be the biggest hurdle, based on feedback from legislators.

Van Capelle said that while we as voters have no control over which bills come up for votes first, it’s our responsibility to work the legislation we want to see made into law.

“This is a unique moment in our movement that did not happen by accident. We’ve worked for this moment, and we saw the fruits of it on Tuesday.”

He added, however, that E&J Day 2009 was the “starting point, not the finish line.”

This article originally appeared in the New York Blade on 1 May 2009; the Blade is now defunct.

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Trans Health Fair Debuts at Center

By Brett Krutzsch
New York Blade
Friday, June 01, 2007

Robert Eads, a female to male transsexual, died from ovarian cancer after being turned away by more than two dozen physicians who worried that taking him on as a patient might harm their practices. A documentary released in 2001, “Southern Comfort,” chronicles Eads’ struggles to navigate the health care system as a transgender individual.

“Transgender people, like Robert, face a tremendous amount of discrimination in the mainstream health care system,” said Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF). “And, as a result, many of them have checked out of the system.” In an effort to meet the health care needs of transgender individuals, various community organizations have joined together with St. Vincent’s Hospital to sponsor New York’s first-ever Transgender Health Fair.

From 5:30–8 p.m., Wednesday, June 6, at the LGBT Center in Manhattan, transgender men and women will have the opportunity to get free health screenings for cholesterol, diabetes, blood pressure, and more.  Information will be provided about hormone therapy, smoking cessation, nutrition and mental health. Individuals will also learn about health insurance opportunities and how to enroll in Medicaid.

“This is a historic event,” said Pauline Park, chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights and Advocacy (NYAGRA). Park, who is one of the key organizers of the event, hopes the health fair will “signal to the transgender community that our partnership with St. Vincent’s is a trans-affirming one.” According to Park, “Many transgender people don’t have health insurance, and many don’t go to the doctor because they fear discrimination because of past incidents.” Park hopes the health fair will show that resources are available to transgender men and women, and that crucial partnerships are being formed with St. Vincent’s health care providers.

“Transgender people are one of the most marginalized communities in the health care system,” said Dr. Dennis Greenbaum, chair of St. Vincent’s Department of Medicine. “It is essential that they have access to the same respectful, high quality care that all people expect.”

Park said that transgender individuals face three major impediments when trying to obtain medical care: intentional discrimination (i.e. being told “we don’t serve people like you”), inadvertent/unintentional discrimination (i.e. not having the proper resources to serve the transgender population) and institutional discrimination (i.e. only asking for male/female on in-take forms or not providing gender-neutral bathrooms).

Silverman, who is also instrumental in organizing the health fair, said, “We have transgender people all of the time who complain they are called the wrong name, or pronoun, or just made fun of” when seeking medical attention.  “I’m currently working with two transgender people who went to a local emergency room, and some security and maintenance workers referred to them as faggots,” Silverman said. “It shocks the conscience that this is what transgender people face.” Silverman and Park both maintain that the medical establishment needs to become better informed of the existence and needs of transgender people. Male-to-female transsexuals have a high rate of HIV infection, according to Silverman. And all transgender individuals have unique health issues.

“The health fair will provide information that transgender people often don’t get,” Park said. For example, information will be given to individuals who identify as female but who also should be getting routine prostate exams.  Advice and information about hormone therapy will also be available at the health fair. The issues can become tricky, as Park notes: “If you get estrogen-based hormones and your legal sex is male, most insurance companies won’t cover it even though they cover estrogen for post-menopausal women.” The health fair may not be able to change the insurance industry, but it will provide people with more options and access to transgender-friendly care.  Hopefully, the transgender health fair will connect a traditionally disenfranchised group with necessary services and treatments. “The real point of the health fair,” Silverman said, “is to show people that there are providers for the transgender community.”  The Transgender Health Fair 5:30–8 pm., Wednesday, June 6, at the LGBT Center, 208 W. 13th St., in Manhattan.

This article originally appeared in the New York Blade on 1 June 2007; the Blade is now defunct.

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