Visibility is a double-edged sword
Thursday May 17, 2007
"Transgender" is the new "gay".
Major social justice movements travel along a common path, and since sexual orientation is so much further ahead, the spotlight has begun to shift to those of us who fall under the "T" in the alphabet soup of human sexuality. (The longest relevant acronym I can remember right now is GLBTQIQA+SOFFA, which is so long I can't even get Firefox to display it all as a single acronym.
) This is not to say that sexual orientation is no longer a matter of public interest, as evidenced by the long-running fight for marriage equality. Rather, we trans folk are gradually working our way into the cumulative awareness of the public, moving into a position held by the GLB crowd a few decades ago. That is a mixed blessing, but before I explain why, indulge me while I dip into my personal take on the history of transgender awareness. (Caveat emptor, as I am neither a sociologist nor a cultural historian.)
The path to social justice begins with a joke. Seriously! As a culture (or perhaps, more broadly, as a species), we tend to be amused by the unfamiliar. As long as it is believed to be harmless, that which is different is funny, and transgressing gender norms is no exception. I suspect that visual gags and punchlines based on cross-gender behavior or appearance are at least as old as theater itself, and quite possibly as old as the telling of jokes. In relatively recent history, the age-old comedic standby can be found in cinema, radio and television, from their earliest offerings through to the present. Interestingly, these jokes don't tend to be derisive at all. They aim for good-natured chuckles about truly improbable events (e.g. Shaggy drinking a potion and sprouting feminine features in a "Scooby Doo" movie or a man in a car commercial transforming his male friend into an attractive woman to decorate his new ride) rather than ridiculing any real group. (Some people assume that I will find such jokes offensive, but I am typically laughing right along with the crowd. After all, if you can't laugh at yourself, maybe you aren't that funny who can you laugh at?)
The second stage is when mockery and vilification kick in. As the entertainment industry picked up on the fact that there really are transgender people, some of the jokes took an ugly turn. Certain television shows presented trans folk in a very unflattering light, and the spectacles that resulted were so potent that they helped shape our cultural view of the subject for well over a decade. Transgender characters also began to appear in works of fiction, but usually as a way to introduce plot twists (e.g. "The Crying Game"). Various television shows began to use transgender characters for shock value, and in most cases they were portrayed as crime victims, mentally deranged criminals or evil deceivers out to prey on unwitting "normal folk".
Awareness of transgender people continued to spread, and non-trans people wanted to learn more. Thus began the education stage, which is where we are today. Television shows with news or educational programming started running special segments about being transgender and human interest programs started interviewing trans individuals. Early efforts often ended up being negative - either through lingering discomfort or naive ignorance - but progress was rapid. Educational segments addressing transgender issues have become quite common over the last few years, and two particularly good shows about transgender youth aired within the last month ("Born in the Wrong Body" on MSNBC and "Understanding Transgender Children" on ABC's 20/20). We also have more high-profile trans individuals going public, such as the previously mentioned Christine Daniels at the LA Times and Alexis Arquette showing up on Entertainment Tonight.
So why is all of this attention a double-edged sword? The positive side is fairly self-evident: we fear what we don't understand and reject what we fear, so educating the public about being transgender will improve acceptance. That, in turn, will reduce violent crime and unemployment and lead to better housing and educational opportunities, increased access to basic medical care... all of the usual goals for a disenfranchised minority group.
The negative side is less obvious. The thing is, there are plenty of transgender people living in their identified gender who don't stand out as being transgender. Not all trans people have that luxury, and some don't even want it, but there are a lot of trans men and women out in the world who look, sound, act and live just like non-trans men and women. In fact, odds are that you have at least seen - perhaps even known - a trans person without realizing it. Hardly surprising, since most transgender people just want to be seen as who they are and live thoroughly normal lives. Unfortunately, it can be very difficult to live a "normal life" if people know that your anatomical birth gender doesn't match the way you live. Some of the trans people who choose to physically transition and end up not looking obviously transgender do not, under any circumstances, want people to know what they have been through. We refer to it as "living stealth", and it is not about "fooling" people, but rather fixing a birth defect and then putting it behind you so you can move on. The catch is, as the public becomes more aware of trans people, it becomes more difficult for trans people to choose stealth. Every time a special on transgender people airs on television or shows up in a newspaper, there is a chance that some happy, stealthy trans person somewhere will be unwillingly "outed" to friends who did not know - and have absolutely no need to know - about their past.
Does that mean that educating the public is a bad thing? Definitely not! Equal rights secured by genuine understanding and acceptance are fundamentally preferable to rights secured through anonymity, in my opinion. The latter can be lost far too easily, whereas the former is virtually irrevocable. At the same time, however, trans people who choose to live stealth have every right to do so; they have just as much right to privacy about their medical past as any other person. So if you know somebody who you think might be transgender and start to feel curious, don't ask. They will tell you if they want you to know. 
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Posted by Lily McBeth on May 18, 2007 at 03:25 AM PDT #