David Inoue
Growing up in the 1980s, as any JACL staff who has had the misfortune of riding in the car when I am driving will tell you, I listen to a pretty steady stream of music from the era. While not as widely popular at the time, groups like Depeche Mode have found a wider audience, though ironically, my own love of their more recent music has declined. The contrast with Depeche Mode’s stadium tour sellouts is the group Erasure, who continue to seek “A Little Respect” while in Depeche Mode’s shadow over the entire ’80s synthpop genre. But what comes to mind in particular today from my numerous mix tapes is one of Erasure’s songs, “When I Needed You.”
If you are not familiar with the group, Erasure is a duo, with Vince Clarke, former songwriter for Depeche Mode and the straightlaced half who stands nearly still behind his synthesizers and computer playing the background music, and Andy Bell, the vocalist for all songs. To call Bell flamboyant would be an understatement.
Attending my first Erasure concert was pretty shocking for someone growing up in the Midwest and attending a Catholic high school. Bell made his homosexuality almost as much a part of his stage presence as the music.
While many artists lived with the ambiguity of whether they were gay or not, Bell reveled in being out. And yet, he revealed many years later his years of HIV+ status after having kept that hidden for many years. So, even for someone so out, there remained a guardedness.
In the Erasure song “When I Needed You,” the lyrics ask “Where, Where were you? When I needed you most, when I needed a friend?”
Thirty years ago, JACL was groundbreaking as one of the first non-LGBTQ+ organizations to support gay marriage. While we have come a long way as a nation in our acceptance of the LGB part of LGBTQ+, many seem to be struggling with the TQ+ parts of the community.
I admit that I am often challenged to use the correct pronouns for individuals. But for some, it goes beyond the challenge of properly recognizing individuals for how they identify. Some have unfortunately chosen to simply refuse to recognize an individual’s identity and their core essence.
As a Christian, it pains me to see that many of those who take this stance do so because they believe it is their faith that leads them to do so. But I think I understand where it might come from. In the first creation story, humans are created with dominion over the Earth, including the power to call things by name. In that same way, these Christians believe they can “name” how others identify to conform to their world view. It is not only a power play, but one rooted in the Bible in an incredibly demeaning way.
We have seen the anti-trans hatred play itself out in attempts to legislate a person’s gender, which sports they can play, which bathrooms they can use and what medical care they can access. Again, these are attempts to name what people can or cannot do and how they must act.
At the Paris Olympics, it came to the point of accusations that a nontransgender woman boxer was in fact a man. These were accusations with no factual foundation but used to create fear of transgender individuals, when ironically there were no such athletes even present to be feared. Transgenderism has become a new scarlet letter.
It is because of these increasing attacks on transgender athletes, students, parents, children, neighbors and friends that JACL will be holding a Virtual Symposium: “Trans Allyship: Learn, Grow, Act” on Sept. 28 from 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. PDT. The program will be to help people such as me, in my own ignorance, to better understand the community and its members.
As JACL, beyond building this understanding, we also want to be able to act in support as true allies. How can we shape policy nationally and locally? So much of what is happening to target the trans community is taking place at the local school boards, city council meetings and state legislatures where we rely on our chapters and individual members to take action.
I hope that you will join me on Sept. 28 with our partners from Okaeri and PFLAG to study together what we as allies need to know about the trans community and its members to better support and work with them to create an inclusive and welcoming organization that will act in true support.
We can join together in these first steps so that in the future, should someone ask, “Where were you when the trans community needed you most?” We can hopefully answer that we were right there with them.
For more information and to register, please visit https://www.okaeri.org/trans-symposium.
David Inoue is executive director of the JACL. He is based in the organization’s Washington, D.C., office.
