The PBS LGBT news show, "In The Life" did a segment on the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality report on Transgender Americans' lives, Injustice At Every Turn.
It's a good moment in the fight against Transgender discrimination, particularly in light of the recent horrifying attack on a transgender woman in Baltimore.
Continued education is key.
One thought, I'd like to share as a cisgender gay male is that while our communities are in an LGBT coalition, it's important to acknowledge—so that we may better address—the gulf in public education that exists. The public education work on the LGB part of the LGBT far surpasses that of the T.
And acknowledge that being Trans is not as easily understood topic as being gay. That is, it is now relatively simple for most Americans to understand that LGB people feel a different attraction than heterosexuals do. And that has been reaffirmed over and over in the pop culture landscape that many LGB (although clearly not all) relationships are not all that different from straight relationships. It's transitioned into even popular comedy as,
GAY AGENDA
- Gym
- Work
- Laundry
- Dinner
- Dishes
- Glee
- Bedtime
Most Americans now recognize this as a comedic spoof of the idea LGB Americans are some strange otherworldly apparitions whose routines are completely alien to both God and man.
But an understanding of gender expression is much more complicated than that of orientation. And it bumps up against a great deal of ingrained beliefs that people still carry around with them about gender. It challenges people to think outside the general simplistic understanding that "You got a Y chromosome, you're a boy, you got an X chromosome, you're a girl."
Clearly there is much more to gender expression than that. An illustration of late includes conservatives going ape-shit over a picture of a 5-year old boy with pink toenails. Nothing in the biology of chromosomes dictates girls paint their nails pink and boys must not.
But somehow, the thought of a 5-year old boy with pink toenails seemed so dangerous, so scary, so thoroughly at odds with everything that is Holy that not only did Fox treat this as a serious news story, but shamefully, so did NBC and CNN. Thank God for Jon Stewart and his friends being a voice of both mockery and reason shaming the media hysteria. But, this tempest in a teapot demonstrates what a truly hot-button issue any blurring of gender-roles actually is to the general public. Even 50 years after the feminist movement began the process of overtly challenging ingrained societal attitudes, we're still having ridiculous discussions about even the most picayune and innocuous departures from traditional gender expression.
We've moved significantly beyond the widely held belief 40 years ago that a gay man is just someone who hangs out at a rest stop and cruises for anonymous sex with strangers. But make no mistake, before "The Real World," before "Melrose Place," before "Ellen," that was exactly what most Americans thought. That our lives were sad, lonely, sick. It was believed in the 1970s it was impossible for a gay person to achieve and thrive and be happy and feel love. (And lesbians didn't exist except in pulp fiction novels.)
Gone are the days when Fox News can stir up two days media hysteria over a gay man or lesbian being elected to the US House of Representatives, or the mayor of Houston.
Our task is to help America have a similar evolution on their understanding of Trans Americans. To move them beyond knee-jerk hysteria that the catchphrase "bathroom bills" generates. And the reality is far too many have not yet. Baltimore sadly illustrates who are the real victims in bathroom disputes.
The most vehement voices of hate resonate far too often and far too widely because people's understanding of Trans issues and Trans people is far too limited right now. The idea of gender could exist on a spectrum, or being malleable is something that is deeply disturbing and scary to many people on a purely visceral level.
David Beckham, superstar athlete, husband, father,
foppish fingernail painter.
And yet, gender does exist on a spectrum. And it is malleable. And that's no big deal. And we see examples of this everyday. And we need to work to desensitize people to this nonsensical fear and hysteria that somehow society will crumble if boys cease to "be boys" and girls refuse to "act like girls."
I know many people have criticisms of the major gay orgs and that includes National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality and I certainly would not argue they are not above critique.
But let us recognize and praise these orgs for this effort. They have absolutely risen to the task of what a major advocacy org should be doing with their funding and their resources. They've financed the gathering of facts, and real world examples, and hard data. They have produced an exhaustive and valuable report.
And now the report is reaping benefits, like inducing PBS to produce this segment. In it, they've found in my (cisgendered male) opinion, appropriate and charismatic voices to speak proudly on behalf of the Trans community. And to say, in just a simple declarative sentence that Trans Americans are just simply human beings, not so different from anyone else and they would like to work and contribute no different than anyone else. And far too often they are not allowed to, due to rampant ignorance and hate.
I would encourage everyone to share this video with their friends and family.
Our task at the grassroots is to embrace and utilize the tools these groups have provided to educate ourselves and to go out into the community and continue to educate our progressive friends—gay, lesbian, straight, bisexual, cisgendered and other—why it's important to pass these non-discrimination protection bills, like ENDA on the Federal level and New York's GENDA bill. And the report provides the hard data on why it must be done.
It is incumbent we all stand up for the right of every American to live their lives free of the fear and reality of hate, discrimination, violence.