Transgender Persons in the News

Transgender persons are more and more often in the news-although not often in an encouraging or affirming context. In fact, Google provides me with a daily Transgender News feed.  On April 5, 2012, The Vancouver Sun reported that Jenna Talackova has known she was female since age 4, although she was born male.  She has been in the news in March and April of 2012 because she was banned from the Miss Universe pageant because she wasn’t born female (Woo & Hoekstra, 2012). On March 26, 2012, CBS News reported that a 70 year old man in New York wanted a new birth certificate issued to reflect that he had become a man, not the one that currently existed representing his birth as female. Louis Birney’s case highlights the inadequacies in our system for responding to transgender persons, as lawyers and courts had to become involved in order to help him get his new birth certificate (Peltz, 2012). In general, trans* persons who opt out of hormone therapy and sexual alignment surgery (“no ho, no op trans”) struggle with having their gender identity represented in their government identification.  Fortunately, Illinois and Alaska have now adopted policies allowing trans* persons to receive identification with their gender identity reflected rather than their birth sex even without sexual realignment surgery (Cannes, 2012c).  Gay Star News reported, on March 26, 2012, that activists are protesting a German court decision to institutionalize an 11-year-old transgender child (Jenkin, 2012). On March 29, 2012, Care2 Causes reported that a transgender teacher in New Mexico was forced to quit her job because parents complained about her gender identity (Cannes, 2012). Transgender persons are gaining more legal rights, however.  LGBTQNation reported on March 27, 2012, that a six-year battle to over turn a Wisconsin anti-transgender law had ended with a ruling in favor of transgender persons incarcerated in Wisconsin (Levasseur, 2012).  According to Cannes (2012b), Oxford University – known for its adherence to strict codes of dress – has adopted a new policy that allows trans* persons to dress according to their gender identity rather than their sex.  Also, a prominent lawyer in Australia, Heather Stokes, has transitioned while maintaining her high profile clients and conducting trials (Broverman, 2012).

Despite the seemingly negative outlook on transgender persons and issues presented by the news, strides toward understanding and equality are coming from the trans* advocacy community.  Sometimes our best advocates are our parents.  In Germany, a father has taken to wearing skirts on occasion to show support for his dress-loving son (Garcia, 2012).  The children’s book 10,000 Dresses helps parents, children and teachers explore issues of gender difference.  On Facebook, we participate actively and openly in a Facebook Transgender Alliance through which we share news, articles, and personal experiences with each other in order to advocate for ourselves and for others in similar situations.  Through the Alliance, I have been privileged to participate in discussion related to sexual alignment surgery, hormone treatment, socialization, perceived and actual phobia and bullying, and best practices for educating the public.  The Alliance has provided me a safe space in which to explore ideas about myself and others similar to me in order to be a more effective researcher and advocate for the transgender community.