Reflection Paper On Transgender

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.

Since the beginning of their existence and in today’s society, the community of LGBT workers are not being treated fairly or getting their fair share that they deserve in the workplace. They are victims to high rates of workplace discrimination. Instead of being judged as workers and what they bring to their jobs and how they work, they are being judged by their sexual preferences and appearance. Being a gay or transgender worker causes them to be mistreated, not judged for the actual workers they are, and most importantly, halts a majority of them in better career and job opportunities. Although under federal law it is illegal to fire someone who is either gay or transgender, they are still either being denied employment or being terminated from their jobs because of their gender category or sexual orientation.

Regarding access to healthcare, transgender individuals often face the most obstructive barriers when attempting to receive care. Whether they are seeking access to hormones, therapy, general health services, reproductive healthcare, or specialty healthcare, transgender patients typically cannot get what they need without jumping through many hoops or hiding their identities. This occurs especially so in cases of intersecting identities -- where an individual is not just transgender, but is transgender and a person of color, disabled, gay, indigenous, undocumented, poor, etc. These intersecting identities interact in multifaceted ways to produce even more barriers for trans individuals seeking healthcare due to healthcare provider bias, insurance requirements, and doctors’ general unwillingness to help coupled with inaccessibility founded on racism, transphobia, homophobia, mental illness stigmatization, etc.

Although, an employee’s sexual orientation/identity isn’t a visible characteristic, it should be considered an important of diversity management. Bower and Blackmon (2003) states that managing diversity, particularly when it comes to sexual orientation diversity, may be just as significant as managing visible diversity (as cited in Ozeren, 2014, p. 1203). Research of those who identify as LGB (not T), indicates that they’re a sizeable population. Gates (2015) states that “it is generally thought that between 8.2 to 8.7 million United States citizens identity as LGB citizens (transgender number are less well-known), or between 3.5 to 3.7 percent of the population” (as cited in Shrader, 2016, p. 181). For my term paper, I will explore the following questions: How is the U.S. currently responding to complaints filled by LGBT employees? What is the government doing to improve policies, laws, initiatives or statutes to protect this population? I will answer these question by performing

Kidd and Witten define the term transgender vaguely, stating it “describe[s] people who transcend the conventional boundaries of gender, irrespective of physical status or sexual orientation” (Kidd & Witten, 2007, p. 36). This term is a reference for the ‘other gender’ that is not particularly male or female. Currently, within the American society, there is a growing awareness of individuals who are transgender. Much of this awareness comes from LGBT movements and

The United States is a divided society. We like to categorize ourselves according to political affiliation, race, and religion. We are members of the middle, low-income, or wealthy classes. We choose what seats to sit in during a football game according to the team we are rooting for. It is oddly comforting to know that you belong. All too often, however, transgender youth are denied that sense of ubelonging because they defy society’s categories of male and female. The gender binary divides society into two separate, unequivocal categories that marginalizes transgender youth and directly impacts their emotional health and well-being. Society’s collective response of demeaning, shaming, and violence further increases the divide.

Using the framework set out by Netting, Kettner, McMurty, and Thomas’ Social Work Macro Practice this paper seeks to systematically analyze and inform the reader about the discriminatory North Carolina laws regarding gender-marker changes. This paper will first describe the population and related need for binary transgender people, either transitioning from male-to-female or female-to-male, second examine the relationship between the need and the population, and conclude with a brief description of general changes.

According to Michael Bronski’s, Ann Pellegrini’s and Michael Amico’s book “You Can Tell Just by Looking” federal anti-discrimination laws do not protect trans-gendered people or other LGBT members. Transgendered people can lose their jobs just because of their gender identity in 34 of the 50 states. According to the APA, the National Gay and Lesbian Task force did a study that a vast majority of the 6500 hundred surveyed

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.

Throughout the past decades sex and gender have remained in major taboos and impacts within the transgender communities. Indeed, after participating in a Transgender Panel Discussion at Fresno State University, reading articles like Meet the Muxes, class discussions and the conclusion for all four sources lead to words like exclusion, discrimination, and oppressions because those define the lives of transgender, Muxes, and that for following their gender identities become the target for judgement and for countless . However, I never imagined that I could put myself in the shoes of these diverse identities until I visualized the challenges that fill their lives everyday for simply

No one would have ever predicted that Donald Trump would win the 2016 Presidential Election. No one would have ever believed that a person as racist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic as Donald Trump would ever be allowed to get as near as he did to the White House—but he did. Now, we all find ourselves justifiably concerned for not only our own well being, but also of the well being of other groups that have been targeted time and time again, not only by Donald Trump himself, but also by the entire Republican platform. While it is well known that some of the groups who have fallen victim of endless discrimination include racial and ethnic minorities via the constant threat of deportation and/or policies that allow for racial profiling, other groups include the LBGTQ community. However, according to the article, “President Trump is a disaster for transgender people” written by Samantha Allen, given the fact that both Trump and his Vice President, Mike Pence, appear to favor the Religious Freedom Act, repealing Obama Care, and allowing HIV preventative inaction, I argue, and with great reason, that those who will be severely targeted and affected by their political and religious stances will be the entire transgender and transsexual community—a fear that I once assumed was a thing of the past.

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

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.

Transgender Discrimination and Their Effects in a Societal Group Perspective, and the Implications on the Affected Groups

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