by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
One key thing about being a transgender person today is simply being able to exist. Taken to its most extreme, this refers to those who murder us, who attempt to erase us from the earth with over-the-top acts of violence.
Yet violence and murder are not the only way to erase our existence. Transgender people have, for decades, had to deal with our non-existence in the great world at large. We were kept out of "polite society," and relegated to talk shows and tabloids. By and large, we still are.
Consider, for example, recent acts by the Texas State Board of Education. The board has gotten a lot of press recently for slanting a lot of their textbooks to the right. This is a fairly big issue before Texas buys such a large share of school books, therefor many textbook companies provide the Texas State Board of Education approved curriculum to other states as well.
Most news stories on this have focused on the replacement of Thomas Jefferson by Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin, or the replacement of the word "capitalism" with the softer euphemism "free enterprise." Some have also pointed out the desire to include the Black Panthers as a subtle attempt to discredit civil rights struggles, or trying to lessen the involvement of racism in the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
But one that was lost on all but the most thorough of reporters was a change to a high school sociology course. Specifically, this course discussed the difference between sex and gender. By a 9 to 6 vote, sociology students will not learn that there is a difference between the two.
Why, you may ask? Board member Barbara Cargill, a Republican representing The Woodlands, spearheaded this change, fearing this would lead students toward "transvestites, transsexuals and who knows what else." She added, "This is very, very inappropriate for high school students."
So rather than even discuss this in the source of a sociology course, students are expected to pretend there is no difference? Does that make "who knows what else" go away, or does it simply breed ignorance? Yet again, it erases those of us who do live in the liminal spaces between sex and gender.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., buried amongst all the struggles over health care reform, was a bit from Barney Frank on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. This bill has been bouncing around congress since the early 1990s and – for as long as it has been around – the inclusion of transgender people has been in flux.
For nearly two decades transgender people have been promised support, only to have it yanked back like Lucy pulling away her football from Charlie Brown. Now there seems a new wrinkle.
Frank has said that ENDA is on track for passage in the house, but suspects there are a number of hurdles yet. The biggest that he sees? You guessed it.
"There continues to be concerns on the part of many members about the transgender issue, particularly about the question of places where people are without their clothes – showers, bathrooms, locker rooms, etc.," said Frank. "We still have this issue about what happens when people who present themselves as one sex but have the physical characteristics of the other sex."
Without digging into too much history, this has long been one of Frank's arguments against including transgender people at all, and muddies up some of his lawmaking history even before his career in Congress. There are times, indeed, when I wonder just what is it that causes him, personally, to be so concerned about disrobed transgender people – but I digress.
What many – myself included – have speculated is that this could mean, yet again, that transgender people will be written out of the bill in order to get it to the floor or, barring that, such provisions will be worded to limit them to the use of post-operative transsexuals versus transgender people at large.
Finally, in my own mailbox the other day was my census form. Prior to its arrival, I did read up on an actual piece of paperwork on filling out the form for transgender people, as well as a great many discussions about the inclusion of LGBT people on the form.
When I filled it out for me and my spouse, I did indeed list us as married, and both as female. At the same time, I did not feel that this was somehow "making my voice heard" as a bixesual transwoman. It was all factually correct, but said little about the nature of our existence.
So I also included a "Queer The Census" sticker on the back of the envelope, with "bisexual" and "transgender" checked off. I knew, however, that that was a largely meaningless gesture, would not actually be included anywhere and would not change any future census form.
Nevertheless, I exist. I want people like me to be included, for our issues to be in textbooks and for our rights to be protected. By not counting us, by not protecting our rights with the same care as non-transgender citizens and by not including even the basic framework for our existence in an appropriate textbook, we do not wink out of existence like Tinkerbell – but we may as well have. They erase us as well as anything, and it's time to stand up and be counted.
Don't let yourself be erased. Transgender Day of Visibility is March 31, celebrated worldwide with events, rallies and political efforts in support of the transgender community. Visit http://www.transgendermichigan.org for event information in your area.
