Manal David
14 July 2016
PAX 212
Professor Havens
The Transgender Movement
The transgender community is one that I have not fully researched and explored in my lifetime, I have seen many protest and movements on social media but never took it upon myself to research the significance of the transgender community or how it impacts my life and the lives around me. I have many people close to me that have transitioned and are apart of this amazing community and I feel that in some ways I owe them to do my research and understand this community in a better light. Throughout this paper I will be discussing the transgender community and what that entails. I will speak about a few issues that the trans community faces on a regular basis and then narrowing in on two specific issues: Sexual Assault against transgender individuals and the bathroom controversy. Before I speak about the issues facing the transgender community, I believe it will be beneficial to define some important terminology to get us as a society to understand differences between gender, sex, etc. According to GLADD-Transgender Terminology website, Gender Identity is defined as “One’s internal, deeply held sense of one’s gender. For transgender people, their own internal gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth.” When learning new terms we need to differentiate the differences between gender and sex. Sex is defined as “The classification of people as male or female. At birth infants
In a recent podcast regarding a transgender high school student being forced to change in the nurse’s office instead of in the locker room with other students addressed the controversy regarding the treatment of members of our society who identify as LGBTQ. Throughout the podcast, multiple individuals have voiced support for the school’s decision to isolate the transgender student when changing. Do to the opinions voiced in the podcast regarding this case, I realized that the treatment of the high school student is only one example of the existing discrimination towards those who identify as LGBTQ. As such, I intend to explore the controversy of LGBTQ and our obligations that we have as members of the same society. Throughout this paper, I
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.
Sex and gender seems to be the primary focus in trying to determine the identity of transgender. Before any form of cohesion can take place to discuss transgender, the biological aspect must first be noted. Origin identification for each individual is biologically identified as male or female, and at times intersex. "Our gender includes a complex mix of beliefs, behaviors, and characteristics. How do you act, talk, and behave like a woman or man? Are you feminine or masculine, both, or neither? These are questions that help us get to the core of our gender and gender identity ("Gender and Gender Identity at a Glance," 2014)". According to society, an individual's sex identity is normally assigned at birth, thus, as a transgender, one will identify him/her self as an expression, i.e., masculine, feminine, male or female, opposite of his/her biological identity. " Some people, for example, may have been born with a penis,
Sex is biological, determined by factors such as how many chromosomes a person has and genitalia. Gender is the state of being male or female, it is a social construct. Transgender is a person who identifies or expresses a gender identify that differs from the one that corresponds to the person’s sex at birth. Also, a hermaphrodite, is a person having both male or female organs or other sexual characteristics are faced with nature of gender, sexual identity, and what makes up one’s sense of self. A person’s ability to make a choice is defined by the amount of control over the situation. Therefore, one’s gender is a choice.
Being accepted as a transgender in today's society is not only a continued struggle but it has also become another defining statistic that continue to raise hate crime rates nationwide. The excitement and bold move granted by the government to pass a law that allowed individuals of the same sex to be married appeared to break through needed to secure gay and lesbians place in the world. With this life changing event, the hinges on the revolving door appeared to strong enough for the LGBT(Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender) to conquer another hidden secret; life as a transgender.
When discussing transgendered people it is important to understand the difference between sex, and gender. “Sex is assigned at birth, refers to one’s biological status as either male or female, and is associated primarily with physical attributes such as chromosomes, hormone prevalence, and external and internal anatomy,” (APA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns Office). Sex is mainly important for medical reasons. A person can change their sex, through surgery and hormone therapy. “Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for boys and men or girls and women” (APA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns Office). Gender and sex can coincide or they can be in conflict with each other. Someone whose gender identity matches the sex they are born with is called cisgendered. Cis- is a latin prefix, meaning “on this side”. Contrarily, trans- is a prefix meaning on the “other side of”. A person who is transgender expresses
Across America there are a select group of people that are faced with the challenge of choosing between the labels “Men” and “Women”. These particular labels are what separate who can use what restroom. Some want to use the men’s restroom, but fear there might be consequences that come along with it. Others want to use the women’s restroom, but are worried about possibly being assaulted. One might question why would there be consequences toward a man for using the men’s restroom, and a possible assault toward a woman for using the women’s restroom? This is where the term Transgender comes in. Transgender refers to those “who claim a gender or expression different from the one assigned at their birth”. Transgender individuals can be gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, and a number of other things. The distress of being bothered in the restroom leads many transgender individuals avoiding them altogether. If transgender individuals continue to use the restrooms that match their biological gender and not a form of a gender neutral restroom, some transgender individuals can face the dangers of harassment, consequences, and possible assault.
After discussing what the discrimination against transgender people is, the article offers a look into the side of those who support laws to protect the rights of transgenders and those who oppose those same laws, giving the audience plenty of insight into both sides of the issue. Lastly, the article concludes with how the transgender community faces everyday challenges that are sure to continue through time
The Lesbian Gay Queer Transgender community, also known as LGBT, has existed since the beginning of human civilization. Sexuality between homo-sapiens has always been a complex spectrum between pleasure and reproduction. Many have viewed heterosexuality as natures primary view of sexuality, but cultures have differed in this view and practice. The Greeks viewed sexuality as a spectrum free to interpretation, subjective to those perpetuating LGBT identities. Aristocrats, philosophers, and emperors all partook in homosexuality, transgender cross-dressing, and were not always hyper masculine but equally queer. Homophobia was a pressured idea in many middle eastern cultures, as religions observe heterosexuality as true righteousness or holiness.
Addressing the issue of transgendered people in a community that has been a key element for the various movements and social groups that fight for the rights of the minority in recent decades is also to address the issue of the paradigms on which citizenship is based and built, have had special relevance when dealing with the sexual rights of people. All human beings regardless of their sex, religion or sexual orientation have the right to the recognition and respect of their sexual and gender identity.
In the article entitled, "Understanding the Transgender Community", the author states that transgender community is different and unique society, in which it faces difficult challenges and rejection. Transgender people who experience a mismatch between their gender identity and their actual gender. According to lots of surveys, transgender community is increasing lately; moreover, some transgender people identify as females, or males, and others identify as genderqueer, nonbinary, and agender. As a part of the transition, some take hormones and have surgeries. In addition, some of them have courage to be in this particular society others don’t. Being a part from this unique community, transgender people face many difficulties. There isn’t
There’s a gender in your brain and gender in your body. For 99 percent of people, those features are in alignment. For transgender individuals, they’re mismatched. It’s not complicated…Although many people would disagree, I think the transgender community should have the right to use the restroom of the gender they identify with or have an alternate choice. Some people may argue that it would be a dangerous liability, but try walking a mile in the shoes of a person who is transgender. Some people may even agree to the idea of having gender neutral restrooms. The dangers of a person of the opposite sex using the restroom they prefer are very obvious, but is every person out to cause danger to other people in the restroom?
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
The main topic of the paper will be discussing about the LGBT community or, also known as the GLBT community, which is defined as a group of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders. The LGBT community organizes a lot of support and movement for civil rights all around the world, for example, parades.
Gender is not based on physical attributes. Sex is the word that should be used when speaking about biological characteristics. So, based on the definition of gender by LeVay, gender identity is one’s personal attitude towards being more male or female.