Society far from accepting transgender

It is human nature to react negatively to ideas and peoples that do not conform with the norm of society. Any time a small group of people do, act, or think differently, they are initially regarded with suspicion, misunderstanding, and oftentimes, hate. Human nature’s reaction to transgender people is much the same.

A lot of the negative reactions stem from misunderstanding and negative rumors about transgenders.
Many people question whether transsexualism is a mental disorder or a birth defect. Current medical research supports the theory that transsexualism is in fact a genetic birth defect.

Acoording to Dr. Carl Bushong, a transgender specialist, scientists have determined that the SRY gene, a portion of the XX female chromosome or XY male chromosome, is responsible for gender, and believe that it is a small portion of the SRY gene which determines gender identity.

The SRY gene, which is present in males, encodes for the gene that determines whether or not an organism will have testis, and therefore be male. In a transgender individual, the SRY gene is mutated, and therefore produces male genitalia in females or female genitalia in males.

While the actual portion of the SRY gene which controls these factors has not yet been found, scientists are very close to discovering it. If in fact the SRY gene is discovered, the theory that transsexualism is a birth defect could be scientifically proven.

Although transgender people have been around since the beginning of time, much like any other human condition, it is only recently that a medicinal procedure has been available to help transgenders become the sex that they want to be.

Transsexuality was first diagnosed in the 19th century. The first person to work in the field was Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a gay physician. He devoted his studies to the fields of gender and sex and was the first person to coin the terms, transvestism and transsexualism. According to the Hirschfeld Foundation’s records, in the 1910s, Hirschfeld began to explore the idea of a surgical solution, and reported that the first complete male-to-female Sexual Reassignment Surgery, SRS, occurred in 1931.

However, long before Hirschfeld’s discoveries, genital mutilation and the changing of appearances in accordance with transsexuality has been practiced. As early as 1479 BC, the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Hastshepsut, who was a woman, had to change her gender in order to rule Egypt as a pharaoh.

The process of SRS was first completed in the U.S. in 1958, by a group of UCLA doctors, on an intersexual woman named Agnes.
Male to female sex reassignment involves the surgical construction of a vagina, and facial feminization surgery along with breast augmentation. For female to male surgeries, the procedure is more complicated, as techniques are still unrefined and typically produce ill functioning genitalia. Therefore, most female to male surgeries only include removal of breasts and the shaping of a male contoured chest. Aside from the difficulties associated with the surgery and hormone replacement, many transgender people are attacked by people within their communities and workplace for being different.

According to  hatecrime.org, an online website that documents hate crimes within the U.S., in 2002 crimes committed due to bias against a person’s sexual orientation represented 16.7 percent of overall reported hate crime incidents, the highest figures seen yet. Although the rise in hate crimes could be attributed to the fact that many more people are “coming out” in public, it does not lessen the hatred many people feel.

According to an annual report done by a gender advocacy group in Illinois, in a nation of 50 states, only six states – California, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico and Vermont – and the District of Columbia have extended their hate crimes laws to cover crimes motivated by gender. Thirteen states have laws prohibiting discrimination based on “gender identity or expression” in employment, another half-dozen—including Maryland—have legislation pending and almost 100 cities have ordinances on the subject. California law also permits employees to dress consistently with their gender identity. These laws cover about 37 percent of the U.S. population.

Therefore, California, Maryland, D.C. and these other states have become a safe haven for transgender people, resulting in large areas in these states where the concentration of transgender people is greater than in any other place.

Transgender people are not often accepted by any religious group, although that does not stop many of them from continuing to follow whatever faith they believe in.

For many people, the issue of transgender is too controversial to even touch. For example, FCPS policy only states that “issues of sexuality should be dealt with candidly,” and most teachers maintain a no approach policy, staying silent on the topics of sexuality.

In Maryland however, the topic of transgender is being openly debated. In November of 2007, Montgomery County, MD  proposed legislation for the county that would amend the County Code and sections of County law to “prohibit discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations, cable television service and taxicab service on the basis of gender identity.”

Concerned parents and adults, strengthened by support from the national organization, Citizens for a Responsible Government, protested against the bill because of the clause “public accommodations” which they took to include public restrooms and locker rooms. The CRG argued that the passage of the bill could mean that transgender people could be allowed to use public restrooms and locker rooms of their opposite biological sex. It was argued that if the bill was passed, virtually anyone who claimed to be transgender could use either the men’s or woman’s facilities. However, not specifying what these accommodations are, operators of these facilities will be able to continue to designate who can use them.

In the same month this year, a federal bill dealing with transgender was also being debated on the House floor.

On November 7, the House of Representatives passed bill HR 3685, a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that does not include protections based on gender identity.

Many people, including Democratic U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, the only openly gay woman in Congress, had pushed for a revision that would include protection for trangender people as well. According to Baldwin’s official website, the amendment that she had proposed to EDNA would have extended fair employment practices under federal law to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. Without the passing of that amendment, the limited EDNA will allow transgender workers to suffer discrimination at work with no protection or recourse.

Many Congressmen initially voted against adding the transgender amendment because they thought that the bill wouldn’t pass with the addition. Although American society has widely started to accept the gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals that EDNA seeks to protect, transgender people still remain misunderstood and foreign.

The transgender debate exemplifies not only the issue of identity that some people struggle with, but also the overall problems society has with accepting anyone that is different from what is considered normal. Although many gay and lesbian individuals have slowly started to become accepted in American society, transgender people still seem to have a long way to go. It will be a test not only for transgender people, but a test for the American public as well, to see how readily we will accept people from all walks of life.