Trans Community Surveillance

Activist and professor Dean Spade, in his book Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law, condemns current law policies surrounding discrimination and hate crimes against transgender and gender non-conforming populations. Spade proposes a critical trans politics that is superior to the equal rights efforts of gay and lesbian activists up to this point in United States history. Instead of desiring to be included in a law enforcement system that oppresses the people it claims to protect, proponents of Spade’s critical trans politics argue that the entire system, along with all related systems of policing and regulation, need to be either fundamentally

Imagine, you go to work in your dress shoes, black suit, buzz-cut hair, red power tie, and nobody pays you a second look. But, the second you get home, you kick off your shoes, and don high-heels, the suit is replaced with a dress, your short wig is taken off, and you let your long curls fall, and your tie is in the closet, with a necklace in its place. Such hiding of true feelings is not an unheard concept in the transgender world. Millions of transgender people will never express their true feelings in their lifetime. This is similar to The Intruder by Andre Dubus, Kenneth Girard a

In Susan Stryker’s (De)Subjugated Knowledges, she culminates a history of academic attention to transgender studies; tracking the field’s movement from abnormal psychology to its contemporary form of self-analysis and discourse (by which I mean that rather than being discussed by those outside of the trans community, transgender voices are now leading their own academic discussions). At a basic level, Stryker defines transgender studies as that which:

The article starts off defining the term transgender, and different circumstances where others attempted to ‘normalize’ the homosexual and transgender movements. The article states that transgender people “are deeply troubled individuals who need professional help, not societal approval or affirmation.” (Traditional Values Coalition 1). The article continues, showing instances where the transgender movement won “major political victor[ies]” (Traditional Values Coalition 2), such as California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000 which protected transgender children at public schools. The coalition states that the media is helping the transgender movement by portraying transgender people as “misunderstood and persecuted” (Traditional

Scholars have been critical of the medical establishment’s and state’s involvement in constructing and policing of transgender identity. These kinds of pressing issues have occupied the small existing literature. There is not much information and studying what is being done on transgender in traditional areas, family studies research, such as their dating behavior and formation of intimate relationships in adulthood. There is little research on the issues around being parents, their children’s experiences with having transgendered parents, as well as relationships in the family as a whole, and relationships in work and school.

Criticism was raised of the UK’s treatment of transsexuals and its refusal to protect private information in the public domain without a clear necessity. The House of Lords and the ECJ used their jurisdiction to override UK legislation forcing public bodies to protect transsexual peoples information. This applied to England, Wales and Scotland but as yet has not been adopted by the Northern Ireland

Elizabeth Blevins quoted Neil Carpathios in an article saying “’ [Stacey Waite] dares to explore and write about the often complicated terrain of gender, sexuality and societal perceptions of the self, the body and desire.’” Waite is slowly helping everyone break away from the idea that gender is a solid tangible concept. In “The Kind of Man I am at the DMV” written by Stacey Waite, traditional gender roles are being challenged by explaining that transgender people are the same as everyone else and pointing out the ignorance that some have towards less commonly recognized genders.

In her book “Gender Outlaw: On Men, Woman, and the Rest of us,” Kate Bornstein goes over a lot of the major issues regarding gender awareness and identity politics. She talks about the ideas of labeling ones self, understanding gender differences, how people view laws, behaviors, and the medical and scientific privilege that make transitioning challenging for a lot of people. Bornstein touches on many of the issues today that affect trans people. She includes poetry, pictures, quotes, essays, and a play to raise questions and discuss the idea of gender. This is a great book to introduce and discuss the issues that affect the lives of trans people as they navigate and explore the lines that define gender.

This essay will critically analyze the various forms of oppression that are set out through Audrey Lorde’s concept of the “mythical norm” as discussed by Barbara Perry. Through the “mythical norm”, it can be seen that oppressions exists through the forms of racism and sexism which are exhibited through many scholarly texts and articles. Racism can be seen as a means of privilege and power that is given to individuals who coincide with the criteria of societies norm. In this case, these individuals consist of white, heterosexual, male beings who unknowingly oppress their racialized counterparts. Oppression can also be seen through the form of sexism. Sexism looks at the injustice and inequality of male dominance over female, which results to men being more privileged and advantaged in society over women who are disadvantaged. Therefore, privilege and power is obtained by those who coincide with the concept of the “mythical norm”, leaving minority groups who do not coincide with this conception oppressed through the forms of racism and sexism.

The reading in this assignment made me understand and appreciate the lives of others. Transgender are just like you and me. They have the same goals and inspirations. However, their hardships are more drastic then normal. I got the chance to be educated on trans 101 with this assignment. I have taken so much away from these readings. It has helped me be more understand of what transgender go through. Having the opportunity to have the two articles side by side to make my notes and analyzing. Finding the connections between the two and disconnect from society to transgender communities.

Many changes have happened differencing the past years, one of the many things is Transgender (relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their gender given at birth) Inequality. It’s now a big thing including the LGBT community (stands for a grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) in the 21st century. The population consists of 115, 000 to 450,000 people. All those human beings who have been fighting for their rights in this country and all over the world, who try to be accepted for who they really are, those who should not be hiding their identity from others because of the discrimination most people give to them every time they come out of the shadows. They should not be afraid to go onto daily tasks and have the confidence of being themselves.

However, the minority individuals now do not even have the ability to realize those harmful effects; in another word, identity liberalism has not been pushed to the phase in which the aforementioned threats from difference and the related conflicts are worth too many concerns. Lilla’s argument is predicated by minority groups with enough power and representation, the justification of which is missing in the article. In the current phase, the under-representation of minority groups is the much more serious problem. This under-representation, in the perspective of gender inequality, is illustrated by Audre Lorde: “what does it mean in personal and political terms when even the two Black women who did present here were literally found at the last hour?” (Lorde 22). If the minority groups get no representation, how can the white Americans feel challenge and threat; if differences do not show up, how can the exclusiveness of individual groups be broken and passed across? Therefore, the unity matters only if the differences

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

In conducting this investigation, the author utilized “a larger ethno- graphic study…of self-identified trans people of color in the USA… (along with) 31 formal interviews, (and) hundreds of hours of informal interviews” (5). The interviewees were 12 trans women and 19 trans men, aging from 21-52, ethnically diverse and all with some “college education” (5). The topics

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.