Transgender inequality
Transgender inequality is the unequal protection received by transgender people in work, school, and society in general. Transgender people regularly face transphobic harassment. Ultimately, one of the largest reasons that transgender people face inequality is due to a lack of public understanding of transgender people.
Anti-transgender stigma leads to employment discrimination, exclusion from healthcare, and increased risks of poverty and homelessness, which in turn correspond to greater risks of fatal violence. Abuse and murder of transgender people is pervasive; in November 2021, "2021 was the deadliest year...of anti-transgender violence in the United States." Those who have died as a result of transphobia are commonly remembered on Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Transgender and transgender inequality definitions
Common misconceptions
A common misconception is that a transgender person is therefore gay. However, being transgender focuses on gender identity and not sexual orientation. A transgender person may identify with any sexual orientation. Another important misconception is that individuals who crossdress are transgender. However, many crossdressers are comfortable with their assigned sex at birth. Even though individuals who participate in crossdressing are officially under the Transgender Umbrella, most do not identify as transgender.The status of transgender identity as a mental disorder is widely disputed. Many transgender people experience gender dysphoria, which is a disconnect between one's assigned gender at birth and the gender which the individual identifies with.
Transgender inequality in society
Several recent studies - from Trans Equality - have shown that transgender individuals face discrimination within their own family units and schools, in employment and housing, within government settings, through hate crimes, and under the justice and legal systems. From a young age, children are often brought up in heteronormative settings within their own homes and in school. Parents oftentimes respond quite negatively when their children cross gender barriers, prompting transgender youth to run away. As a result, homeless transgender youth are more likely to turn to drug dealing, car theft, and sexual exploitation. According to the Human Rights Campaign, less than 43% of gender-expansive youth said they could turn to an adult in their family if they were worried or sad. In education, transgender individuals also describe discrimination from peers. Transgender youth are three times more likely to be excluded by peers because they are "different." A survey of National Center of Transgender Equality states, "Those who expressed a transgender identity or gender non-conformity while in grades K-12 reported alarming rates of harassment, physical assault and sexual violence ; harassment was so severe that it led almost one-sixth to leave a school in K-12 settings or in higher education."Transgender individuals also face discrimination in employment and housing and within government settings. Transgender individuals face double the unemployment, and 90% of those employed face discrimination within their own jobs. The 1994 Employment Non-Discrimination Act does not protect transgender individuals from employment discrimination. Essentially 26% of transgender individuals had lost a job because of their transgender or non-conforming gender status. The NCTE states, "Respondents who had lost a job due to bias also experienced ruinous consequences such as four times the rate of homelessness." Transgender individuals are also oftentimes discriminated within government settings through healthcare policies and government-issued IDs. Healthcare policies do not recognize transgender identities as a physical disability. Rather, it is oftentimes characterized as a mental disability, providing transgender individuals with insufficient care: Healthcare policies do not address the pre- and post-operative needs of those individuals who elect to go through sex-change operations. In addition, transgender individuals are disproportionately affected by HIV-AIDS and are more likely to do drugs or alcohol. Although transgender individuals are more at risk health-wise, 19% of the respondents have described being refused medical care and 50% described their medical care was postponed because of their gender status. Transgender individuals also face discrimination when it comes to government-issued IDs. Only one-fifth of the respondents stated that they were able to update all their identification documents. 41% of the respondents live without a driver's license that matches their gender identity.
Transgender individuals are disproportionately affected by hate crimes, and some could argue the current justice and legal system are not equipped to manage such crimes. Transgender individuals are at risk for hate crime, yet transgender individuals are less likely to report transphobic violence because of their distrust for the police. According to the NCTE, "One-fifth of respondents who have interacted with police, reported harassment by police, with much higher rates reported by people of color." Overall, transgender individuals face discrimination by government agencies. NCTE also reports, "One fifth were denied equal treatment by a government agency or official; 29% reported police harassment or disrespect; and 12% had been denied equal treatment or harassed by judges or court officials."
High levels of stress have been caused by exclusion, discrimination, and lack of validation, and barriers to accessing healthcare have been created by social stigma and economic inequality, resulting in adverse mental health effects.
Timeline
Transgender, while a fairly new term, does not describe a new phenomenon. In North America, many Native American cultures had identifications for transgender people, being people whose gender identity does not match up with their biological sex. Sabine Lang, in her research, defines non-binary people as women-men and men-women, and discusses how different Native American tribes had designations for this and had transgender people integrated and integral to society. From the Navajo to the Shoshoni to the Pueblo de Zuni, there were different definitions and characterizations of what we now know to be transgender people. The Navajo described both men and women who did not identify as their birth sex as being "nádleehé, 'someone who is in a constant process of change," while the Shoshoni entitled it "tianna wa'ippi," which is a combination of the word for man and the word for women, which was used interchangeably for both the biologically male and female. For those who were men-women or women-men, it was considered to be a spiritual journey if one was to renounce their born gender and assume the other. According to Lang, unlike in current United States culture, these third-gender designations were not seen as deviant, or strange. Lang further highlights how many tribes considered relationships heterosexual as long as the gender identity lined up as so: in this case, the gender identity was what indicated heterosexual relationships, rather than biological sex. However, in tribes such as the Navajo and Shoshoni, Lang discusses how it would be seen as "unthinkable" and borderline "incestuous," respectively, for two transgender people to be in a sexual relationship. While transgender people in Native American cultures were largely accepted, Lang discusses that when Europeans came over and colonized, they brought with them oppressive ideas on gender non-conformists, and began to influence Native cultures to do the sameSome Native American tribes had third gender roles including transgender people. When French people colonized the Americas, they deemed gender-nonconforming people "berdaches," often a term for a man who takes a receptive role in homosexual intercourse. for a man trying to pass as a woman, or "passing women," a term for those assigned female at birth who took masculine roles and possibly masculine clothing.
Transgender people have been facing inequality and discrimination since before the 1800s. Much inequality has stemmed from the terms used to refer to transgender people.
Legal measures against non-binary people began to be implemented in the mid-nineteenth century. Laws began to prohibit and make it illegal for anyone to dress in a manner opposed to their biological sex. The current legal institutions that exist today similarly act in a way that discriminates against transgender people, according to Susan Stryker. She illustrates how there exists a lack of accountability to those aggressors who victimize the transgender community, and there is a lack of legal possibility to prosecute aggressions against transgender people or to give adequate rights to transgender people. Transgender people, not fitting entirely into the binary of "male" or "female," are not covered by Sex Discrimination laws. Stryker argues that this means that they are largely unprotected when they are attacked in one way or another for being transgender, and it further alienates them from our definition of humanity, making them an "other," unrecognized by lawful protections and only seen as outsiders or deviants. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 does not include transgender as a "physical impairment," and excludes them explicitly alongside arsonists and molesters. While there are sometimes state, city, or county laws that protect the transgender community, federal laws largely overlook them. Even though President Obama passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009, this does not serve to remedy the many issues of the justice system in its unjust treatment transgender people. Judges are still able to exercise personal bias in many rulings that strongly effect transgender people, and it can greatly disenfranchise them within the United States. One thing that has been used by some to gain rights is the designation of transgender as a psychological disorder, known as Gender Identity Disorder. A young girl called Pat Doe, advocating for her own right to wear clothing that matched with her gender identity, was able to gain a favorable outcome in court by using GID to better articulate her argument. While some in the transgender community are critical of labeling themselves as having a psychological disorder, others like Doe have used it to gain what others can't otherwise on a legal level. Some continue to say that it is harmful as it continues to other transgender people, as well as its requirement of "significant distress". Johnson points out that it excludes those people who are comfortable with their gender identity, and thus does not protect them in legal matters when this otherwise could be used in order to gain legal recognition. This psychological designation also creates a paradox, which would prohibit the steps for remedying this disorder. Stephen Whittle wrote the following description in his own work: "if you are distressed enough to qualify for surgery, your mental reasoning has been impaired to the point where you probably cannot give informed consent. But if you are not that distressed, you will not be offered the surgery to which you are able to consent".
The term "transvestite" originated in 1910 from the German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld. At that time, it was used in a similar fashion to "transsexual," a word that was not coined until the late 1940s. The term "transgender" was first used in 1971.
In the past, people have been arrested or forced into insane asylums for being transgender.
The first public trials for transvestite behavior involved Ernest Boulton and Fred Park. Both were arrested in 1870 for indecent behavior, as a result of dressing in clothing of the opposite sex.
The first modern sex reassignment surgery was performed by Dr Felix Abraham: a mastectomy on a trans man in 1926.
As a result of the laws against cross-dressing, transsexual people sought out doctors who could change their gender to the gender which aligned with their inner identity.
The 1950s saw some of the first transgender-positive organizations and publications. These helped transgender people deal with the inequality they faced along with day-to-day issues they encountered.
The 1966 case of Anonymous v. Weiner dealt with a transsexual person who had undergone a sex reassignment surgery and wanted to change the name and sex on the birth certificate. The court ruled against allowing a transgender person to change their original sex cited on their birth certificate to match the reassigned gender. It ruled that the only time the sex on a birth certificate could be changed was when an error had been made when recording it at birth.
Over the last decade, more than one person per month has died due to transgender-based hate or prejudice.
Transgender people who are going through divorce, inheritance battles or custody disputes are vulnerable to legal challenges. This is because the validity of their marriages is often called into question due to inconsistent laws regulating transgender equality.
A tremendous inconsistency in the US is that some states recognize a transgender person's gender transition while other states do not. Laws vary from state to state concerning the requirements for changing the gender on birth certificates and other identity documents. Laws also vary concerning whether a state will accept such identity documents as conclusive with respect to one's gender identity.
In August 2013, Gov. Jerry Brown passed a bill allowing transgender students in California public schools to participate in sex-segregated programs and use gender separate facilities, such as restrooms, according to their self-perceived gender.