Big News if You Want to Get Married or Get Sex Reassignment Surgery

This morning I awoke to two major pieces of news, receiving multiple email announcements about each. The California Supreme Court ruled that the ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. And the Ontario Heath Minister announced that Ontario’s provincial health care will resume covering Sex Reassignment Surgery. I guess that means if you want to get married you can go to California, and if you want SRS you can marry a Canadian.

Both of these are tremendous and huge stories that indicate a major shift in our rights, but I couldn’t help noticing a difference in who was talking about which one.

My inbox was full of emails discussing the marriage case from PFLAG, the Family Equality Council, COLAGE, Lambda Legal, the Stonewall Democrats, Basic Rights Oregon, and two from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

And I had a few emails notifying me of Canada’s shift in policy from a friend, another activist, another friend.

Why weren’t any of the organizations commenting on Canada’s news? I went to my favorite queer blog, The Bilerico Project, and saw half a dozen posts on California’s Supreme Court ruling, but none on the SRS coverage in Canada. As a regular reader, I shot the editor off a email in case they hadn’t heard, and while promising to cover it tomorrow, I was told that no one’s going to talk about anything but California’s marriage ruling today.

That made explicit that which all these organizational press releases only implied, SRS is not as big as marriage.

With all the talk about trans people being “less acceptable” and “behind” the gay and lesbian movement, you’d think that this would be bigger news. I mean, the GOVERNMENT IS PAYING FOR SEX REASSIGNMENT SURGERY! Doesn’t that completely blow out of the water the assumption that trans people are too freaky to be included in a non-discrimination bill? That’s gotta be at least as big as one more population being granted marriage rights in one more state.

Granted, it is Canada, so I’d expect the news to cover it less in the United States, but still, do you remember how big a deal it was (for US folks) when Canada legalized marriage? The reality is that all our LGBT organizations, even the ones making big strides in trans-inclusiveness, even the ones I wholeheartedly support, are just not tapped into trans news, don’t make trans news a priority, or perhaps just don’t think trans news is as big as gay and lesbian news. It’s a result of having the T added on at the end of the acronym. The organizations may support trans rights, but for the most part they weren’t founded on that idea.

It’s the legacy of being an institutional afterthought.

Survivors of Domestic Violence Workers

A friend of mine jokingly suggested I start a group with that name, after she found out that I was the second person she knew who’s abuser had worked for a domestic violence agency. Talking about this issue with her, as well as learning about her other friend’s experience, led me to seriously question the way in which domestic violence agencies respond upon hearing from a survivor that their abuser is among that agencies staff or volunteers.

I hadn’t much thought of this as anything beyond an individual issue, but now that I am thinking about it, I find it unconscionable that any domestic violence agency wouldn’t have a plan for this circumstance. Especially because it only furthers the “it couldn’t happen here” mentality that is common in many abusive situations.

When I realized that my relationship was abusive, my partner was interning at the Bradley Angle House in Portland. It was something he had been working toward for a while. When I confronted him, his first thoughts were about them finding out, and he made it very, very clear to me that he didn’t want me to talk with them about it.

I eventually did, but I was terrified that he’d find out. I called a few times, making absolutely certain to be anonymous, not identify him or myself, and just find out how they would want to repsond. I got tossed from person to person until I was given a phone number of who I should talk to. But unfortunately, that person was never at their desk. I called 2-3 times a day for a week before I got through. We talked for ten minutes before I had to go. But when I called back again I couldn’t get through. That time I left my phone number, but I never recieved a call back.

The friend of a friend I mentioned had an abuser who was on the board of a major national domestic violence agency. They wrote a letter to the board explaining the circumstances and why they might not want that person on their board, but they never recieved a response.

In both cases, these agencies dropped the ball. It makes me wonder how often does this happens? How do other agencies respond to this issue? Does anyone have a plan or a guide for how to deal with it? I don’t think that someone should immediately be excommunicated when it appears that they have been abusive, but the ignore-it-untill-it-goes-away approach that I’ve encountered is shameful.

LGBT is not just a fancy new term for ‘the gays.’

I’ve been noticing a pattern these days.  It seems like a lot of folks have gotten the memo that the politically correct thing to do these days is to include lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people when talking about gay rights.  However, in many cases this seems to be a tokenistic attempt at best.

My local state representative came to talk to one of my organizations and he gave a speech ending in a call for rights for “everyone regardless of whether they are gay, lesbian, or bisexual.” 
A member of the audience called our “or transgender.”
But he couldn’t hear all the way across the room and said, “or… what?”
“transgender”
“what?”
“transgender.”
“Oh, yes, or if your heterosexual too.”
“No, transgender.”
“Oh, transgender.”

After that embarrassing exchange, the next time I heard him speak he didn’t forget to include the T in LGBT.  But I seriously doubt how much his agenda has expanded to include trans people.  While he’s gotten rather good at saying LGBT, I’ve never heard him talk about trans issues or trans people specifically.

I might expect something like this from a random straight cisgender democrat.  However, I most certainly did not expect it from the opening plenary of Creating Change, the largest annual conference of LGBTQ activists.  I must say that the other plenary sessions discussed trans issues in detail (including Matt Foreman’s State of the Movement Address, which went to great lengths to show the need for gender identity in ENDA), however, the opening plenary fell into the same trap as my local representative. 

The word transgender was mentioned maybe four or five times the entire evening, and only as the end of the string “Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.”  From the content of the speeches, I wondered if the speakers knew that trans people are anything other than one of those confusing new sexual orientations the kids keep coming up with like pansexual, omnisexual, or heteroflexible.

Now I wouldn’t be complaining so much about a simple use of language if it didn’t make so much of a difference.  A few times the speakers discussed “gay and lesbian” rights and I found myself wondering, “Didn’t we go through this in the 90’s, bisexuals are a part of the movement too.”  Yet forgetting about bisexuals and forgetting about trans people have entirely different policy implications.

If someone forgets (or maybe purposefully leaves out) bisexuals, it’s pretty unlikely that any resulting policy regarding sexual orientation would leave bi people out.  I doubt we’ll be seeing a bisexual-exclusive ENDA anytime soon.  But we’ve seen from experience that some folks are all too happy to leave gender identity behind when the opportunity comes up.

If people aren’t talking about gender identity and trans people, and I mean more than mentioning those words without displaying any understanding of what they mean, then we’re in trouble.  Including the ‘T’ must be more than remembering that we’re a part of the coalition, it must be remembered that we have distinct needs and issues that must be addressed.

Forgetting to discuss those distinct needs and issues not only corrupts our attempts at policy reform, but also degrades the accessibility and usefulness of our community resources.  Four or five years ago was the first time I was trying to help a trans friend getting out of an abusive relationship.  While searching for any information on the topic I had to wade through a sea of resources for “LGBT” people in abusive relationships.  Webpage after webpage, pamphlet after pamphlet, there was never ANY information usefully to trans people.  They just took their same-sex abuse pamphlet and stamped the word transgender on top of it.

There are some resources specifically on abuse for trans people, but it’s buried in the thousands of so-called LGBT resources which are in reality only addressing same-sex abuse.  That makes it incredibly difficult to find that needed information.  And giving one of those “LGBT” pamphlets to a trans person experiencing abuse is going to be about as useful as giving a pamphlet designed for straight women to a gay man.

We need to shift this thinking.  The same way activists demanded that the ‘B’ and the ‘T’ become a part of our organizations names and language, we must demand that both are more than just letters.  Representing trans people in word means nothing if we are not represented in action.

Top LGB issues versus Top Trans Issues

People are always discussing the priorities of the LGBTQ movement. A few years ago it was all about whether or not marriage was an effective use of our resources – as it was clearly taking away resources from other endeavors. But more recently the question has been turned to where trans people fit into these priorities.

After the betrayal of ENDA, many people were left wondering if trans folk should even be involved in LGBTQ organizations or if we should just focus on trans-specific organizations. Many non-trans activists claimed that there hasn’t been enough trans education. It’s not hard to see that trans people have been incredibly involved in activism, but there is some truth that as volunteers for LGBTQ organizations, we’ve been putting much of our energy into projects focused more on sexual orientation than on gender identity.

This leads me to question my own activities. Should I view the energy I put into supporting domestic partnership rights in Oregon just as energy that I could have been putting into trans education? Should I think of the fundraisers I helped out with (and my own donations) just as money that could have been going to support trans rights? I don’t think so.

I’m proud to work with LGBTQ organizations, and I see them putting time, energy, and resources into trans issues. Yet I can’t help but notice that even in the organizations I support, the issues that are most important to me and the other trans people I know barely get acknowledged.

It seems that trans issues aren’t really a part of setting the agenda. It is set based on what the gay, lesbian, and sometimes bisexual communities need, and only after the issues are laid out are trans people fit into it. Some of the big issues being fought for these days are relationship recognition, non-discrimination, don’t ask don’t tell, and adoption. When applicable, trans people are brought into this agenda, but only as an afterthought and in some cases the issue – or the solution being sought – just doesn’t really impact the trans community. I could talk about how well our organizations are incorporating trans perspectives into these issues, but for now, let me focus on what some of the big issues I see impacting the trans community are.

Non-Discrimination. Discrimination in the areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations has a tremendous impact on the trans community. And leave many people with few economic resources.

Health Care. In many cases, trans folk have a hard time getting employment that provides healthcare. But even when insurance is available, transgender exclusion clauses deny coverage to important and necessary trans healthcare needs. In some cases, those clauses are used to deny almost anything, such as my allergy test when I also talked with my doc about my medical history and medications, or the trans woman who was refused coverage for an arm she broke while playing in a lesbian softball league under the logic that she wouldn’t have been in the league if she hadn’t transitioned. Many LGBTQ organizations find themselves unable to even provide trans-inclusive health insurance to their own employees.

Sex Work. Many trans people are not in sex work, but given the discrimination in employment and health care and the ability to do much of this work without documentation, many trans people are. Even those not in sex work may still have to deal with trans-profiling (both from police and johns) that labels all trans woman as sex workers. Lack of access to support systems or law enforcement create the dangerous working conditions responsible for much the of anti-trans murders each year. These are not characteristics inherent to sex work and reforms can and should be undergone to make sex work safer.

Police Brutality and Prisoner Rights. While many trans people are incarcerated for survival crimes, others might have to face harassment from law enforcement for being homeless, for participating in peace protests, or for a speeding ticket. No matter what the reason, trans people deserve fair treatment. Having inaccurate gender documentation can lead to anything from harassment, to assault, to rape, to denial of medical treatment, and death. Due to trans-profiling, trans women sex workers are often targeted for harsher treatment than their non-trans counterparts and being raped by police officers is not uncommon. In several of the unsolved murders of trans people, the victims’ friends and community suspect police involvement. Giving more power to law enforcement in the form of hate crimes legislation will do little to stop perpetrators who are law enforcement officials themselves.

Gender Documentation. The standards for when and how to change your gender documentation vary wildly from governmental agency to agency. And in many cases the standards are set so high that only a small fraction of the trans community will ever be able to meet them. The inability to obtain accurate identification and documentation is one of the aggravating factors that make each of the above issues more dangerous.

Access to Shelters. Trans people who are experiencing homelessness or domestic violence often find themselves turned away from support services that are unwilling to support trans people or willing to tolerate trans people only if they are able to endure misgendering and a hostile environment.  This can be devastating at a time when help is needed most.

Community Support. Many trans people come out with a feeling of isolation and loneliness. Combined with internalized transphobia and a society (and sometimes even an LGB community) that tells us we are freaks creates circumstances where depression and suicide happen all too frequently. A lot of individual time and energy is put into vital support activity. Yet most of the time this work is not organized and not acknowledged.

I don’t claim this is the comprehensive list of trans needs, but it’s what I could come up with for now.  Looking back over this list, how many issues are being dealt with by most LGBTQ organizations? One? Maybe two?

I’m beginning to see a shift. More and more LGBTQ organizations are putting “transgender issues” on their list of priorities, but there needs to be more. “Transgender issues” by itself says nothing, and ignores how some of the other things on the list (such as non-discrimination) are trans issues too. This is a nod toward inclusion, but to really have inclusion trans needs must be considered from the beginning of the planning process and the issues most important to trans people need to be represented.