My Position On Transgender Orientation

When discussing injustices, it is pivotal--for the sake of true progressive social change--to include all oppressed groups into the dialogue. Transgender People tend to be heavily misrepresented and demonized. Because of transphobia, there

American society today is not any different from the past, except today people are apt to discuss everything publicly on various social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram just to name a few. Transgender persons happen to be one of those subjects that have become the hot topic of the new normal. Nowadays there are blogs, tweets, and pictures posted online of people’s transition “coming out.” Like the past, society is still tough when it comes to judging each other. Although transgender might not have had a recognized community in the past, it is prevalent that society is becoming more accepting of their community, and aware of issues their community faces. In this essay the names, nouns, or pronouns used will be in accordance to the individual’s preference.

Transgender issues cover a a multitude of spheres: discrimination (at school, in the workplace, when looking for housing), violence, suicide, and identification through legal documents to name a few. Transgender individuals deal with greater struggles than that of cisgender individuals, or those who identity as the gender which they were assigned at birth. Perhaps one of the greatest struggles transgender individuals have to deal with is acceptance, whether it be acceptance from others or acceptance of themselves. Cisgender individuals, or those who identify with the gender identity given at birth, do not have to worry that their gender identity will be accepted; society has already dictated it to be ‘normal’ and ‘acceptable’ (“Definitions of Terms”). Trans individuals are not afforded this luxury.

According to Jonathan Alexander’s chapter “ Transgender Rhetorics: Sex and Gender” he notes that “acknowledging the presence of the transgendered is useful not only for understanding those who are differently gendered or whose presentation … falls outside our ‘norms,’ but also for helping us interrogate the constructs of gender that we often take for granted as ‘natural’” (Alexander, 2008, pg. 130). Ways that the cisgendered public attempts to normalize gender roles is through literature where “male authors… depict a young woman as frightened and helpless, and the female authors… poke fun of the muscle-bound idiocy of a “macho” man”( Alexander, p. 137). The idea as the female being weak and terrified and the man as muscular moron help to reaffirm the cycle of “gender tied narrations” that are tied to society’s dominant public. This is important because society’s cisnormative narrative teaches that gender expressions have strict guidelines that are “innate” in us at birth. These instincts dictate a lot about an individual; however, the recognition of transgender individuals cause the cisgendered to think that “gender is not necessarily an essential and natural given, but rather a sociocultural construct whose repeated performances—as masculinity and femininity” (p. 131). The transgendered attempt to create a discourse to disrupt these social categories and show that there is more to one’s identity than what is socially constructed and self

Over the past few years, the issues faced by people who identify as transgender (gender dysphoric) have gained momentum in the media. From Caitlyn Jenner to which bathroom to use, transgender people have made a lot of progress in addressing

In the late 1950’s to mid-1960’s, the transgender community faced discrimination such as physical and verbal harassment, denial of social spaces, and alienation in the media. This matters to us today because transgender individuals are still existing and are a part of our human population today. The community is also still struggling to find their representation in the media and in society. The transgender community is still facing a wide array of types of discrimination, from nasty looks to denied access of education. Gender identity should not be taken into consideration when determining another person’s worthiness of respect.

Oppression is prolonged unjust and cruel treatment. The LGBT community has faced oppression for a very long time. Transgender individuals face oppression in a different way and are often overlooked by LGBT groups because they are finding themselves in a different way. Transgender people are treated cruel and even murdered because of their choices and decisions. These individuals are facing oppression based on themselves but also in ways such as poverty. With discrimination comes the difficulty to keep a job and a safe work environment. This group is one of the main groups forgotten about and misunderstood. Instead of facing oppression for one reason these individuals face cruel treatment just walking down the street. It is impossible

Within the past couple of years, LGBT issues have been showing up more in our daily lives than ever before. Taking a closer look at the T in LGBT, there have been stories and articles about transgender individuals and this has triggered a large variety of emotions and opinions from people all over the world. Someone who is transgender is an individual who identifies as a gender that does not match the gender that is assigned to him or her at birth. One of the biggest stories that brought transgender individuals into the mainstream spotlight was the announcement that Bruce Jenner, an Olympic gold metal winner, is trans gender. This was broadcast to millions of people as he told his story in an emotional interview with Diane Sawyer. Laverne Cox, a transgender woman, has had a predominant role in the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black” for the past 3 seasons and has also helped spread awareness about the trans community. With all of these stories being seen by more and more people, there have been some that haven’t been very accepting of the transgender community. Transphobia can lead to aggression towards trans individuals, causing abuse that may cause physical and emotional damage. Trans individuals are being policed by not only society, but also by institutions.

Grant et al. (2011) explain on the Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey that 19% of their sample reported being refused medical care due to their transgender or gender non-conforming status, with even higher numbers among people of color in the survey. In addition, the survey indicated that 50% of the sample reported having to teach their medical providers about transgender

In a lot of places around the world more and more people are coming out as “Transgender.” The term transgender means that the person’s gender identity does not correspond with the gender they were assigned as having at birth. From personally having a transgender boyfriend I have since realized that these people experience a lot of discrimination in and from society. Many people simply just do not understand what the term transgender means and they see it as someone just “wants to be a man” or “wants to be a woman.” While there may be people who present it this way, it is more so that the individual just “feels” different, and “feels” as if they are “in the wrong body.” Some people experience this feeling at a young age as my boyfriend did in his elementary age. We live in a world who put these people down for being who they truly are, and no human being wants or needs that.

While discrimination is pervasive for the majority of transgender people, the intersection of anti-transgender bias and persistent, structural racism is especially severe. People of color in general fare worse than White transgender people, with African American transgender individuals faring far worse than all other transgender populations. Many transgender people are also the targets of hate crimes. They are also the victims of subtle discrimination—which includes everything from glances or glares of disapproval or discomfort to invasive questions about their body parts (Bassichi, Lee, & Spade, 2011). Discrimination laws and hate crimes laws encourage us to understand oppression as something that happens when individuals use bias to deny

Discrimination has been a problem for many years, from the slaving of African Americans dating back to 1619, to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) individuals being shot in the streets a few weeks ago. However one specific group of people, transgendered people have been targeted for decades, yet they haven’t had the mass media coverage as other discrimination issues have. Focusing on their physical abuse, and psychological impact and the substance abuse from the discrimination they face; I hope to highlight these issues and show that they need help fighting this discrimination as well, and this isn’t just an individual problem but the bigger society’s issue.

Coming out as a transgender, identifying with a gender expression that differs from the assigned sex, has proven to be quite difficult through the ages. While the acceptance of transgender people has grown significantly higher throughout the years, people’s stance on them are still quite divided, and the uphill battle for transgender rights has proven this. Just giving transgenders the right to simply go to the bathroom they identify with has shown to be controversial according to the TIME cover Battle of the Bathroom. The TIME magazine makes sure to note the problem defiantly “far more than public facilities” (Scherer par. 9). Transgender rights are a problem that Jamison Green, president for World Professional Association for Transgender Health, thoroughly addresses in a report written by Alan Greenblatt for CQ Researcher. Jamison Green’s specific purpose in that report is to justify why transgender people deserve basic human rights like everybody else, as shown in society, through his use of facts, qualifiers, figurative language, counterarguments, and appeals to logic and values.

For the topic of the argumentative essay assignment, I will be presenting my stance on transgenderism. As a result of all the controversy surrounding the transformation of Bruce Jenner to Kaitlyn Jenner, it is evident that the transgendered theme is one that is growing in the present day culture. With coming out of Bruce Jenner and a new reality TV series featuring a transgendered girl, I found myself very intrigued with subject. Therefore, there are several areas of transgenderism that I hope to explore during the assignment, which include: scientific research or proof that a person is born with the wrong gender, transgender law pertaining to if the transgendered are legally required to disclose their original assigned gender, and the psychiatric

The social issue that I chose which affects society today is transgender inequality. These issues are more recently gaining attention and becoming a prevalent topic of inequality within our country. A transgender person is someone whose gender identity, gender expression or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth. As more and more transgender people share their stories in the media, the social problems that arise from these stories are discrimination within their everyday lives. They suffer from scrutiny and judgment from their peers, and thus many hide their gender identity from family and society. This social injustice can be as simple as a glance or staring, or offensive comments and questions to violent hate crimes. Transgender people are prone to violence and harassment, and often not feeling safe in any aspect of society. They are fired from jobs, denied medical insurance, and being murdered left and right solely for being transgender. “A staggering 41% of respondents reported attempting suicide compared to 1.6% of the general population, with rates rising for those who lost a job due to bias (55%), were harassed/bullied in school (51%), had low household income, or were the victim of physical assault (61%) or sexual assault (64%)” (National Center for Transgender Equality). The structure of this paper will consist of adding all the research that was gathered over the semester, news articles and peer