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Marsha C. Botzer

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Marsha C. Botzer is a Seattle based activist and non-profit administrator who has been working in the Transgender rights movement since the mid-1970s.[1][2][3] Botzer is a trans woman herself.[2] She founded Ingersoll Gender Center in Seattle in 1977, making it the oldest non-profit organization working in the space of transgender rights.[4]

She has served on the boards of organizations such as Pride Foundation, Safe Schools Coalition, Lambert House, and Seattle Counseling Service.[5][6] Botzer was also an early member of Hands Off Washington and a founding member of Equality Washington, as well as Out in Front Leadership Project.[5]

Career

Foundation and Development of Ingersoll Gender Center

See also: Ingersoll Gender Center

Botzer has cited a problem of joblessness and underemployment of transgender people as being the reasons for founding Ingersoll Gender Center.[7] Getting the word out about the organization to a marginalized group before the internet posed a challenge. Botzer has said that in the face of this she would tuck Ingersoll Center business cards between the pages of books in the Seattle Public Library's small collection of books on the subject of gender.[8] Over the course of the late-20th century, Botzer made over 100 trips accompanying transgender residents of Seattle to Trinidad, Colorado where they sought gender confirmation surgery.[8] She even introduced the doctor there, Dr. Stanley Biber, to Dr. Marci Bowers who succeeded him at his practice in Trinidad after he retired.[8]

Involvement with Public Policy

In a 2018 interview with the South Seattle Emerald, Botzer said that just over a decade after founding Ingersoll Gender Center, she felt the community she had worked to build had reached a solid foundation and she had the confidence to focus her efforts more on political and social change.[9] The first phase of this politcal activism, according to Botzer, was to reach out to organizations focusing on gay, lesbian, and bisexual issues to advocate that transgender issues should be discussed in the same spaces as issues of sexuality.[9]

Botzer was co-chair of The National LGBTQ Task Force from 2005-6 and then again from 2009-10.[5] In 2008 she served as a national co-chair of the Barack Obama Pride Campaign.[5] In 2009 she was on the leadership committee for the Equality Across America march in Washington, D.C. and spoke at the rally.[5][10]

Having already worked on a national and international level, Botzer first gained a formalized role in local Seattle politics in 2015 when she was appointed to a task force under Mayor Ed Murray centered on LGTBQ issues.[11] This task force got a law passed that requires all single-occupancy restrooms to be gender-neutral.[11] The law applies to both City operated restrooms and privately owned places of public accommodation.[11]

In 2019, Botzer was appointed to a King County Council task force focused on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Inclusion.[12] In January 2020, Washington state created the LGBTQ Commission via legislation. codifying the state task force that had existed in prior years. Botzer was an inaugural commissioner.[13]

In 2021 the Seattle Police Department was banned from participating in Capitol Hill Seattle Pride's march, and some gay cops said that they felt excluded from the Pride event. Botzer suggested a potential strategy to create solidarity between police and the LGBT community would be for the police department to hire more transgender cops, which she argued would reduce the accounts of police violence against transgender people.[14] After the election of Bruce Harrell as Mayor of Seattle, Botzer was appointed to his administration's transition team; Botzer was a member of the group dedicated to "labor and workforce".[15]

Education and Outreach Work

Throughout the 1990s and early 21st Century Botzer has served on the boards of many organizations working in the space of human rights related to gender identity and sexuality. She has also founded several such organizations. Since 2011 Botzer has been on the faculty of the.Los Angeles LGBT Center's Emerging Leaders Project.[5] In 2012, Botzer was on the board of directors for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health during the development of Version 7 of the Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People.[5][16]

Botzer co-authored a research paper published in the International Journal of Transgender Health in 2010 that proposes changes to the DSM-5 for diagnoses related to transgenderism.[17]

Controversies

Racism Allegations at Ingersoll Gender Center

See also: Ingersoll Gender Center

Support of Israel

See also: Israeli–Palestinian conflict and LGBT in Israel

In 2015, Tel Aviv celebrated its 40th Pride in an event organized by A Wider Bridge, an American LGTBQ organization that works to bridge the gap between North American and Israeli LGBTQ communities.[18] The drew figures to attend from more than a dozen countries, and among them was Marsha Botzer and then Mayor of Seattle Ed Murray, an openly gay man.[18] Members of Seattle's Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement accused Botzer and Murray of pinkwashing human rights violations of Palestinians by highlighting Israel's high standard of human rights enjoyed by LGTBQ Israelis.[18] Before leaving for the trip, the protesters demanded that Murray cancel it, but he did not capitulate and included a statement in his address at the event defending his choice.[18]

A legislative hearing held during the conference was the first time the Israeli legislative body ever took up the topic of transgender issues.[19] Botzer gave a talk of personal testimony during this hearing.[19][20] She told the press afterward that this presentation was different than the times she had spoken before any U.S. legislature; the difference was the reception and open emotion of the legislators.[19] Botzer said that she did not give into the calls for boycott because she wanted to see the country for herself.[19]

Awards

References

  1. ^ "About Us". Ingersoll Gender Center. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  2. ^ a b Constant, Paul; Graves, Jen; Herz, Ansel; Holden, Dominic; Madrid, Cienna; Minard, Anna. "The Smartest People in Seattle Politics". The Stranger. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  3. ^ "The 21 Most Lesbianish Cities in the US: The Autostraddle Guide". Autostraddle. 2012-01-24. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  4. ^ Editor (2021-04-17). "Current and Former Staff Call Out Anti-Blackness at Ingersoll Gender Center". South Seattle Emerald. Retrieved 2022-01-10. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Marsha Botzer: Ingersoll Gender Center, Hands Off Washington, National Lesbian and Gay Task Force - Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project". depts.washington.edu. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  6. ^ a b c d "Lunch with LT Leaders: Marsha Botzer, LT'98". Leadership Tomorrow. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  7. ^ Turnbull, Lornet; Times, The Seattle (2013-07-01). "Overshadowed by gay and lesbian compatriots, the transgender community is fighting for acceptance - Las Vegas Sun Newspaper". lasvegassun.com. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  8. ^ a b c "New book highlights Seattle's role in transgender movement". The Seattle Times. 2021-04-15. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  9. ^ a b Editor (2018-11-12). "Trans Awareness Week: Marsha Botzer Discusses the Past and Present of Gender Activism". South Seattle Emerald. Retrieved 2022-01-11. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  10. ^ "National Equality Rally | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  11. ^ a b c jseattle (2015-06-25). "Seattle, where 'restrooms are available and safe for all'". CHS Capitol Hill Seattle. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  12. ^ "County Council Confirms Members of Task Force focused on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation". King County. June 26, 2019. Retrieved Jan 10, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ^ birth; documentary, he's lived in Seattle since 2000 He's also a film producer who would like you to check out the Jinkx Monsoon; time, "Drag Becomes Him" now available on Amazon com In his spare; Movies, He Gets Slightly Obsessive About His Love for Old; Theater, Challenging; "otters"; vodka; chocolate; "I. "Governor Inslee Announces 15 For New LGBTQ Commission | Seattle Gay Scene | Your Daily Gay In Seattle". Retrieved 2022-01-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ "Rantz: Gay cops rail against Seattle pride ban as groups push them 'back in closet'". MyNorthwest.com. 2021-06-01. Retrieved 2022-01-10.
  15. ^ "Mayor-Elect Bruce Harrell Announces Transition Team And Structure". The Seattle Medium. 2021-11-17. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  16. ^ "Standards of Care - WPATH World Professional Association for Transgender Health". www.wpath.org. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  17. ^ Corneil, Trevor; Eisfeld, Justus; Botzer, Marsha (2010-04-01). "Proposed Changes to Diagnoses Related to Gender Identity in the DSM: A World Professional Association for Transgender Health Consensus Paper Regarding the Potential Impact on Access to Health Care for Transgender Persons". International Journal of Transgenderism. 12: 107–114. doi:10.1080/15532739.2010.509205.
  18. ^ a b c d Miller, Robert Nagler (2015-06-26). "Proud to be a part of Pride in Israel and a historic confab". J. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  19. ^ a b c d "State of the Gay Nation: Israel". Tablet Magazine. 2015-06-23. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  20. ^ "Israeli Trans Rights and 'Pinkwashing' - A Disconnect Grounded in Bad Faith". HuffPost. 2015-06-22. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  21. ^ a b c d "Commissioners | Washington State LGBTQ Commission". lgbtq.wa.gov. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
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