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Pride London, 3 July 2010.

Transgender activism is generally determined to achieve antidiscrimination regarding housing, employment, and public accommodations, full access to education, health care, and appropriate identification documents, and open military service for trans individuals. This is by no means an exhaustive list. As social conditions evolve and public consciousness is raised, other concerns and issues emerge. As LGBT social movements gain momentum, it is important to recognize, for example, that not every Gay and Lesbian community recognizes the rights and needs of trans individuals.

Statistics of Oppression

In a survey conducted by [[National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay]] and Lesbian Task Force, called Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, respondents reported that 90% of them had experienced discrimination and harassment in the work place and at school. The trans community experiences rates of unemployment that are double the national average. Additionally, one out of every twelve trans women, and one out of every eight trans women of color, are violently murdered (the nature of these crimes is often perpetrated in such a way that attempts to dehumanize the victim). (For more details refer to Transgender inequality).

History of the Movement

Identifying the boundaries of a trans movement has been a matter of some debate. Conventionally, evidence of a codified political identity emerges in 1952, when Virginia Prince, a male crossdresser, along with others, launched Transvestia: The Journal of the American Society for Equality in Dress. This publication is considered by some to be the beginning of the transgender rights movement in the United States. In 1969, transgender and transsexual people played an integral part in the Stonewall Riots, including Sylvia Rae Rivera, a transsexual who was an instigator in the uprising. Rivera continued to be an advocate for transgender rights until her death in 2002. After Stonewall, awareness of transexuality grew considerably. Support groups for male cross-dressers were common in the 1970s and 80s. In the 1980s female to male (FTM) transsexuality became common. Contrary to these sociohistorical boundaries, Leslie Feinberg explodes the boundaries of trans activism by extending the history of the movement back to antiquity, and broadening the community to form partnerships with all people who are oppressed by the apparatus of capitalism. According to Feinberg,

As trans people, we have a history of resistance of which we should be proud. Trans warriors stood up to the slave-owners, the feudal landlords, and the capitalist bosses. Today, as trans warriors we are joining the movement for a just society in greater and greater numbers. By raising the demands of our trans movement within the larger struggle for change, we are educating people about our oppression, winning allies, and shaping the society we’re trying to bring into being.

In 1992 Leslie Feinberg printed and circulated a pamphlet titled, “Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come”. Feinberg’s pamphlet begins by calling on the trans community to compose their own definitions, invoking language as a tool that unites people divided by oppression. From here, Feinberg traces the emergence of oppression imposed by the ruling class by means of institutions. These institutions, run by the elite, enforce a gender binary at the expense of communal societies that encouraged liberal gender expression. Women were devalued and effeminacy was disparaged to promote patriarchal economic privilege. According to Feinberg, the gender binary is a contrivance of Western civilization. Having acknowledged this, Feinberg encourages all humans to reclaim the natural continuum of gender expression that identifies trans individuals as sacred. Feinberg concludes by empowering the working class to liberate themselves from the ruling class, which can be achieved by directing the labor of marginalized groups towards the common goal of revolution.

Key Events

Drawn while on the Great Plains, among the Sac and Fox Indians, the sketch depicts a ceremonial dance to celebrate the two-spirit person. George Catlin (1796-1872), Dance to the Berdache.

In 1820s Rocky Mountains, a raid on a village of the Crow Indian tribe resulted in the death of a young man, and his sister, Pine Leaf, vowed that she would never marry until after she had killed a hundred of her enemies. Pine Leaf was recognized by her tribe as berdache or two-spirit, a gender-variant individual who was often regarded with deep spiritual connections and tribal authority. She served on numerous war parties, and legend has it that one man, Jim Beckwourth, a former slave, asked for her hand in marriage. She immediately declined, but upon being pressed further she responded that she would marry him just as soon as the pine leaves turn yellow.

On December 31, 1993, a trans man Brandon Teena was murdered in Nebraska along with two of his friends. This murder was documented in the 1999 movie Boys Don't Cry starring Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena. In 2005, the movie Transamerica told the story of a male to female transsexual preparing for gender reassignment surgery and traveling across the United States with her bisexual son.

Transgender Day of Remembrance, an annual ceremony to commemorate those who lost their lives due to their gender identity, was first held in 1999 following the murder of Rita Hester in 1998. The "Remembering our Dead" web project was also set up in 1999.

In June of 2012, CeCe McDonald, was wrongfully imprisoned for having defended herself against neo-nazi attackers with a pair of scissors, which resulted in the death of one of her assailants. Her story was publicized by a GLAAD Media Award winning article in Ebony.com. Laverne Cox, openly trans actress on Orange Is the New Black, launched a campaign to raise consciousness of cruel prison conditions for incarcerated trans individuals and rallied to free CeCe. After serving for 19 months, she was released January 2014.

Left OUT Party Two signs summarize the feelings of protestors.

On March 26-27, 2013, LGBT activists gathered at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. to support marriage equality, but in the midst of these demonstrations one speaker was asked to edit their proceedings to conceal their trans identity, and the trans community was asked to lower their pride flags. This incident follows years of tension between activist groups, namely Human Rights Campaign and the trans community, because the trans community is often neglected or blatantly excluded from events and political consideration. The incident resulted in a backlash and public criticism by the trans community. In response, activists groups apologized for the incident, and in 2014 HRC promised to energize efforts for promoting trans rights.

In March of 2014 RuPaul’s Drag Race offended the trans community with a number of slurs, such as the phrase “You’ve got she-male” and “tranny,” as well as a segment that exploited trans issues and made a spectacle of passing. Trans activists asked RuPaul to redirect the show in a manner that is respectful of the trans community. This call for sensitivity was met with resistance as the issue was reframed as the result of people’s hypersensitivity and the unfair policing of language. Less than a decade prior to this incident, Leslie Feinberg explains in the landmark publication, which mentions RuPaul in the title, Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to RuPaul, that “being ‘politically correct’ means using language that respects other peoples’ oppressions and wounds.” Two weeks later, Logo producers issued an apology. Since then, past contestants, Carmen Carrera and Monica Beverly-Hills have come out publicly about their ongoing struggles for acceptance and the damage that is perpetuated by oppressive terminology and insensitive use of pronouns.

In Florida of March of 2015, Representative Frank Artiles (R-Miami) proposed House Bill 583, which would ensure that individuals who enter public facilities such as bathrooms or locker rooms designated for those who are of the “other biological sex” could be jailed for up to 60 days. Artiles claims that it was proposed for the sake of public safety. Essentially, the bill would make it illegal for trans individuals to use public facilities.

2014 Achievements

September 10: The Root ranks Laverne Cox number five of the 100 most influential African-Americans.

September 5: HRC President issues formal apology to the Trans Community.

June 5: New York State Modernizes Policy Around Gender Markers on Birth Certificates.

May 30: Federal Board Overturns Medicare Exclusion of Transition-Related Care.

April 29: U.S. Department of Education [clarifies] that the federal Title IX law prohibits discrimination against transgender students.

April 8: declared "'National Equal Pay Day.' President Obama's actions reaffirm executive authority to help end pervasive discrimination among federal contractors and highlights the need to extend similar protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans.”

April 1: Social Security Admin Clarifies Benefits Applications for Trans People and their Spouses

March 27: Maryland is poised to join 17 states plus DC and Puerto Rico in explicitly banning workplace discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression in employment, housing, credit, and public accommodations.”

February 13: Facebook Opens Gender Options for Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Users

February 4: Janet Mock's Redefining Realness officially released.

January 30: Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposes new rule that prohibits discrimination based on gender.

References

Category:Activism Category:LGBT history Category:Transgender and transsexual culture Category:Transgender rights