Humans have established their own rights in society for many, many years now. However, because some humans differ from the norms that are built in society, they are shunned and denied their rights until they conform to society’s norms. There has been numerous groups of people who have been denied their rights in America. African Americans, immigrants, Native Americans, and gays have been isolated simply because that is the way that they were born into this world and others do not find them “normal”. There is another group that has also been mistreated though; people who identify themselves as transgendered. A good portion of society is unknowingly misinformed about these kinds of people.
When an individual identifies themselves as
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These kind of people want to and will try to make someone’s life as hard as possible simply because they see this subject differently. The simple, daily task of using the bathroom is a breeze for any typical person. Unfortunately, this task comes across as a intimidating adversary to a trans person simply because one can be conflicted with which restroom to use. For many trans people, entering a gender-specific bathroom can be a source of stress and anxiety, because using the restroom can mean very real health and safety concerns. Harassment of trans people in and around gender-specific bathrooms can range from denial of use to police intervention to verbal threats and physical assault.
According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey conducted in 2011 that received responses from more than 6, 000 trans people, it was found that over half (53%) of them have claimed to have experience harassment not only at/in bathrooms, but other public accommodations as well such as hotels and restaurants and 10% of trans people have reported to have been physically attacked while at these facilities. (Tash par.1) These people are discriminated against almost every single place they travel to. No human being deserves to be treated this way as everyone is built relatively the same.
Surprisingly, this issue is not only limited to adults. There are children who must encounter these problems as well. In January of 2013, a first-grader Coy Mathis
This has not been the case with the seventeen school districts who have reported zero problems with transgenders involved in inappropriate behaviours ( Percelay, 2015). This will ironically have the reverse effect of placing Transgender men in women's restroom and transgender women in male restrooms, it is very clear who are likely to be victimised under these circumstances. Why the hate and stigma of individuals yearning for a place to belong, after all, they are human beings too and should be protected like the general
Most don’t explicitly look into the complexity of a transgender person’s life and all the questions or problems one might face: Do I use the men’s or the women’s bathroom? Is it appropriate to use this locker room? Those are only two of the many questions a transgender person might run into on a daily basis because of how others would see the situation, how the people who may have a sneaking suspicion that the woman they saw go into the ladies’ bathroom isn’t actually female by their definition, or how it could also seem strange to see that same person go into the mens’ bathroom. These all lead to dysphoria in any person’s situation in public places due to the fact that many choose to taunt or mock the person; however, with the help of Title IX these questions could start to vanish from the thoughts of many transgender students which Blad exemplifies with a quote in her article:
Some people feel as if transgender individuals should use the bathrooms of their gender identity. While others feel as if they are being discriminated. In Katy Steinmetz argument she pinpoints all of the examples on how transgender people are affected by the bathroom policies. While
Legal discrimination is alive and well in the United States. All over the country, groups of people are being forced into situations that are converse to the very nature of their being, subject to extreme violence and hatred. The very narrow minded view of how the country sees sex and gender, as exhibited by the media, is causing immense harm to many American citizens, as the idea of a binary gender system and long-standing sexist views has contributed to the segregation of bathrooms under the thin veil of protection. Bathroom facilities should no longer be segregated by gender to prevent transgender-based discrimination, therefore decreasing the prominence of depression associated with transgender people because a binary view of gender is flawed.
In the media today, we hear of football players, celebrities and even pupils who are divulging that they are either homosexual or bisexual. In the TV show, House, one of the main characters, “Thirteen”, is a bisexual woman and nobody in the show treats her differently. However, there is one member group of the LGBT is still being represented poorly by the media. According to GLAAD, they are being depicted as villains, sex workers, and are still victims of offensive jokes. A friend I interviewed even claimed that people like her are the most looked down-trodden affiliates of the LGBT! This group is called transgendered. They are one of the most misunderstood and least respected groups in America today.
Restroom tolerance is important for transgender people. Tolerance for transgenders within the bathrooms is a constant struggle. Transgender men and women fight for their voice to be heard. They want everyone to be treated both equally and tolerantly. Employees Caught In the Crossfire in the “Bathroom Wars” written by Adam Hamel explains how many business are having to change their bathroom policies so that they offer more tolerance to those who are in the transgender community.
Transgenders are being categorized as being mentally ill. Though transgender counseling exists it only focuses on pathology and diagnosis. Transgenders are also severely at risk of hate crimes. In the United States alone, there are 321 transgender hate crimes per year. Transgender hate crimes can be compared to Muslims post-9/11. There’s no law to protect them from these hate crimes and nothing is ever really done to show them that they have rights too. There’s no law protecting them with employment right’s either. Due to discrimination they are vulnerable and led to no job, homelessness, suicide and even no health care. ( Anneliese A. Singh, Danica G. Hays, and Laurel S. Watson 20)
Recently, the issue of allowing transgender people access to public facilities according to the gender they identify with has caused much debate throughout the United States. The bathroom bill seeks to control access to public facilities of transgender individuals, based on the gender they were assigned at birth. In 2015, bills were passed stating entering a bathroom not assigned to a person at birth was a crime. Surrounded by misconception, the bill does “not legalize harassment, stalking, violence, or sexual assault.” Since the bill arose, there have not been a rise in violence or other incidents in the states protecting the transgender rights (Transgender Equality). The bill simply states if one is living as a woman, to use the women’s restroom,
Transgender and gender nonconforming people also experienced harassment in public settings. In a 2015 survey, transgender people in primary and secondary school experienced a form of mistreatment. 54% were verbally harassed, 24%physically attacked, and 13% sexually assaulted. Furthermore, 17% had to experience discrimination which them resulted to leave school. Although the laws do not encourage these actions, they display the acceptance if referring to transgender people as lower class citizens. To first understand the reason why so many people in the LGBTQ+ are getting harassed, it is crucial to understand the history behind
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
Nearly 80% of transgender people report that they were harassed while 35% said that they were physically assaulted at school. Transgender people are also frequent targets of hate speech, Hate crime, Bullying, physical and psychological violence, Between 2008 and 2016 there have been over 2,000 reported murders cases in 65 countries across the globe. In the U.S at least 25 transgender people were killed in 2017. 30% of transgender youth reported a history of at least one suicide attempt, and nearly 42% reported that they had attempted self - harm. According to the national center for transgender equality research, transgender people with supportive families are for less likely to
In this Paper Jody Herman talk about minority stress framework and the data from a survey conducted that explains the experiences that transgender and gender non- conforming have has in public restrooms. Over half of the people that were surveyed reported that they were denied access, verbally
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.
Americans are often seen as a beacon of freedom but are the people truly free? The citizens of America are entitled to their rights, such as freedom of speech and freedom of choice but when it comes to their sexuality or gender identity, their freedoms are limited whether by law or by a person’s opinion. Although there are rights that are law, it does not mean the people would obey the laws accordingly. Discrimination and harassment against transgender and people of a different sexuality is common among people under the age of 25. Studies shows that about 49 percent of transgender people under the age of 25 have attempted suicide because they were harassed (Ford). Transgender people are allowed the same basic rights as other citizens, but
It's easy for people to hate what they don't understand. Imagine if you were learning how to play the guitar, and no matter how many times you practice and study the right chords, you just can't seem to grasp the concept, and there is nothing wrong with that. Plenty of people happen to have this mindset when it comes to transgender people. There is this constant debate concerning transgender men and women and their rights. In some cases, they are expected to abide by certain requirements in order to full change their gender and aren't granted the right to use the bathroom based on their gender identity.