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Transgender Identity Legislation

Decent Essays

Solutions
The system in place in the United States is a deeply flawed one. The gatekeeping, stigma, and accessibility issues each reinforce each other, compounding the overall problem to the point where it makes existing nearly impossible. Other countries across the globe have started to find solutions to these issues through legislation that recognizes an individual's’ right to self determine their gender identity, along with the affordability and the legal protection to fully pursue that identity. I believe the first steps that must be taken to bring the United States into the 21st century is to stop persecution of transgender people. Bathroom laws, like the one in Virginia that was struck down in 2017, place transgender people directly in danger and disallow them from existing in public spaces. It leaves them with absolutely no room to …show more content…

This system empowers people across the gender spectrum, allowing for variance of gender identities outside of the gender binary, such as those who identify as genderqueer, genderfluid, or gender non-conforming, to self-identify. Additionally it allows healthcare providers to actually provide care instead of keeping people from care.
Dismantling of the paternal gatekeeping system is necessary to help de-pathologize and destigmatize transgender identities, but official legislation that offers universal protections against discrimination for all gender and sexuality identities is also a critical step in this process, something the US has yet to do. Institutionalized discrimination leads the way for bias motivated violence according to the Anti-Defamation League’s pyramid of hate, which shows the compounding relationship of biases and violence (Anti-Defamation League, 2018). If we do nothing than we are complicit in the violence that

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