An excerpt from Chapter 2 of my dissertation - On Trans* Persons

Writing about transgender persons in English is not easy. Our language reinforces a male/female binary and is often created by people of power without regard to how words may marginalize the Other. Valentine (2000) describes how and why he made certain decisions in writing about transgender persons: “I use ‘transgender’ both as a noun and an adjective (as opposed to ‘transgendered’) following the usage of some study participants who object to the ‘ed’ suffix, arguing that ‘transgendered’ carries a similar (and negative) connotation to the construction ‘colored’ in speaking about people of color” (p. ix).  Valentine further discusses the multifaceted ways that pronouns can be used in describing transgender persons.  Third person (non)gendered pronouns are hir and s/he.  Also gendered pronouns can be alternated.  The third person plural (they/them) may be the choice of the transgender person. Finally, gendered pronouns can be used based on the gender choice of a person.

Valentine (2000) describes the term ‘transgender’ as one which “has been used to oppose psychiatric theories of non-normative gender, and which is increasingly used…to describe people whose gender expression defies ascribed gender roles and identities” (p. 2).  The American Psychological Association is preparing to release its fifth edition of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).  In the current fourth edition, transgender persons should be diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder, indicating that transgenderism is considered by the mental health profession to be wrong and correctable.  In the new fifth edition, APA has proposed a new diagnostic category to replace Gender Identity Disorder.  The proposal stands, closed for public comment, at Gender Dysphoria.  During the five-year process of revising the DSM, transgender advocates and transgender persons have lobbied APA in order to remove such labels from the DSM in order to provide equity and acceptance in society for transgender persons (Leff, 2012).  The Transgender Education Network of Texas applauds the APA for their forward thinking and references an article of August 16, 2012, which states “The American Psychiatric Association advocates for removal of barriers to care for gender transition treatment and for the protection of civil rights for transgender and gender variant individuals” (personal communication).

In the United States, the murder of Brandon Teena in Nebraska in 1993 became a battle cry for transgender rights.  Brandon was born female but lived as a male.  He is the subject of two films honored by GLAAD – The Brandon Teena Story and Boys Don’t Cry.  The films accurately portray what it is like to be female-bodied yet male/masculine in lifestyle.  According to these biopics of Brandon, two men in the small community where Brandon lived discovered that he was born female; they brutally raped him and later shot him to death because they had fear and hatred of his transgender identity.  GLAAD has continued to work for the rights of transgender persons through the lens of Brandon Teena’s life and death.  Recently, GLAAD called the Omaha World Herald to task over their poor representation of Brandon in a report of his murderer’s appeal 17 years after Brandon’s death.  The Herald referred to Brandon as a woman and used the wrong pronouns in their coverage (Bass, 2011).

The 2012 Summer Olympics seemed to avoid transgender issues; but one young man competes for the US Track and Field Team in Hammer Throw.  He fell just short of qualifying for this summer’s Olympic Games in London.  Keelin Godsey is male but competes in Women’s Hammer Throw.  Keelin was born female and lives male; he has chosen the “no ho, no op” (no hormones, no operations) path for his transgender experience (Wellner, 2012).  After the stir Caster Smenya’s gender caused in the Beijing Olympics of 2008, one can only imagine the difficulty the media would have had with Keelin had he qualified for and competed in London.

The process Chaz Bono has gone through in coming out as a man has been highly publicized because of his famous parents Sonny and Cher; however, the majority of trans* persons deal with everyday struggles similar to those faced by cisgender persons.  For example, choosing a college that is the best fit is a regular part of the trans* life.  Recently, The Advocate published a listing of the top-ten trans* friendly colleges, as rated by Campus Pride, in the United States.  Beemyn and Windmeyer (2012) report that only about 10% of United States colleges and universities include trans* protection in their non-discrimination policies.  The ten colleges and universities recognized in Beemyn and Windmeyer’s report include Ithaca College, NY; New York University, NY; Princeton University, NJ; University of California, Los Angeles, CA; University of California, Riverside, CA; University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; University of Oregon, Eugene, OR; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; and University of Vermont, Burlington, VT.

While research and publication related to transgender studies and persons is limited (non-existent in the field of educational leadership), some key social science scholars have provided a foundational literature base in the study of transgender persons and issues.  Perhaps the best-known author/activist in transgender studies is Leslie Feinberg, whose novel Stone Butch Blues has been integral to gender studies since its publication in 1993.  Feinberg also published the critical work Transgender Warriors telling the history of transgender persons in our world and TransLiberation providing insight into trans* activism.  Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle (2006) published The Transgender Studies Reader through Routledge in which they collected 50 essays by authors in the trans* rights community, including Leslie Feinberg, related to topics of medical care, mental health issues, intersections of difference, and ethics.  Finally, Genny Beemyn, of The Stonewall Center of The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, writes and speaks about trans* experience and for trans* rights.  Her recent book (with Sue Rankin (Beemyn and Rankin, 2011)) The Lives of Transgender People is the first empirical study on transgender persons in the United States.  In Shannon Minter’s foreword to Beemyn and Rankin’s treatise, Minter states “This groundbreaking study by Genny Beemyn and Sue Rankin is the first to examine the full diversity of the transgender community – not only those who are transsexual but also the growing number of individuals who identify their genders in nonbinary ways” (Kindle Location 41).  For this work, Beemyn and Rankin surveyed 3,474 people and conducted interviews with 419 of their survey respondents.  One of the most important results of Beemyn and Rankin’s study is their approach to determining who qualifies as transgender.  This study includes not just post-surgical MTF and FTM persons but also people who no longer identify as trans* because their transition is complete, those who cross-dress, those who identify as genderqueer, androgynous, bigender, third gender, transgender, and others who identify their gender in non-binary ways.  Beemyn and Rankin begin with “People who do not identify entirely or at all with the gender assigned to them at birth have steadily achieved greater recognition over the past century” (Kindle Location 177).  Important statistical results from the Beemyn and Rankin survey include frequencies with which trans* persons exhibit varying demographic characteristics.  More than three-fourths of the participants were assigned male as their birth sex.  1,211 participants identified their gender as transgender or other and gave a variety of labels to further describe that non-binary gender identity (Kindle Location 533).  Approximately 70 percent of the participants were between 23 and 52 years old (Kindle Location 598).  David Valentine (2007) published his dissertation in book form in Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category.  While this work is not as comprehensive as Beemyn and Rankin’s recent study, it does provide a solid foundation for transgender studies in its self-representation as “a critical ethnographic exploration of the origins, meanings, and consequences of the emergence and institutionalization of the category transgender in the United States since the early 1990s” (Kindle Location 108).  Valentine’s ethnography is based on his immersion in the trans* community of New York City over an 18-month period.  Valentine provides useful information on language related to trans* persons but his experiences and way of seeing embody the social justice work that trans* activists and advocates work for.  Valentine concludes “Like my trusty bicycle, on these nights transgender is a useful way of getting around, or going from one thing to another, of framing a set of diverse moments and social practices in time and space as an entity” (Kindle Location 2961).

For References, see:

References