Transgender Discrimination: The Mirror Has Two Faces

Photograph By Kathryn Parker

By Meghan Chavalier

March 25, 2009

What are you a boy or a girl? How many times have transgender individuals been asked this question? Personally I've heard it more than few times in my life.

When people ask this question, I'm not sure they realize that this is a form of discrimination. To ask someone what gender they are is not only insulting, but downright rude.

The transgender community has been dealing with discrimination for a very long time.

It doesn't just come from the general public, it comes from the government also.

 

Some states in the USA have no problem identifying a transgender person on their personal identification as the gender they identify with, but many do. I have had female on my drivers license for many years through the State of California but recently I went to change it over in the State of Indiana and they told me if I did it, they would change the gender status back to male. Even though I am considered female with the Social Security Department and my taxes are paid as a female they still wanted to change the status back to male. Needless to say, I kept my California license.

I'm not sure what some states expect transgender people to do. Can you imagine a male to female or female to male transgender person having to use a public restroom that is designed strictly to what's between their legs?

Doctors are another problem when it comes to transgender discrimination. There are still many doctors in this country who refuse to see transgender patients. There are many plastic surgeons who refuse to work on transgender patients. Doctors bedside manners have definitely changed over the years, and not for the better. You would think that choosing a profession in the medical field would mean coming into contact will all different kinds of people, but many doctors are still stuck in the prehistoric era and refuse to join the rest of us in 2009.

Know this, you shouldn't be refused medical attention because of your gender status and if you are ever refused medical attention for this reason, you have every right to sue the doctor and report them to the AMA.

I remember a time, years ago, when Fredericks of Hollywood on Hollywood Boulevard in California used to make transgender people try on clothes in the first stall in the changing rooms because they "assumed" that just because we were living our lives in the gender we feel we were born into, that we were perverts and they wanted to make sure that we weren't looking under or over the stalls at the women changing in the stalls next to us. They never thought for one moment that we might just be there to buy clothing, instead jumping to the conclusion that we were sexual deviants.

Let's talk about the names we're called shall we? Must we continue this idiotic terminology to describe male to female transgender individuals? Shemales, He-Shes, Lady Boys, Shims, it's so ridiculous. When you call a male to female transgender woman a shemale or a he-she you are not recognizing the gender she chooses to live in, rather putting her somewhere in the middle of the road and it's degrading. There's a little something known as RESPECT, and it's about time the general public started to show some.

 

The laws in this country have got to change. Transgender people MUST be recognized as the gender they associate with. If you feel you were born male, then you should have male on your personal identification regardless of what's between your legs. If you feel you were born female, the same thing goes.

Discrimination against a person for living in the gender they identify with is unacceptable from the general public or our government.

If the laws of this country are meant to protect ALL PEOPLE then it's time that the laws are followed.

If you've never been transgender, how could you possibly know what if feels like? If you've never been discriminated against because you're different than other people, then how the hell can you understand what we're going through?

I have been transgender my whole life. I have lived in the gender I identify with for over 20 years. I have lived and worked as a female for over 20 years. I don't remember a time when I ever felt like a male so why should the government be allowed to tell me otherwise?

The transgender community needs to come together and march in Washington D.C. We need to come together to make sure that laws are passed so transgender individuals who are coming out now, don't need to go through the same red tape that so many of us have gone through in our lives. We need to make our government understand that being transgender is not a lifestyle, it's our life. Being transgender is something we live and breath everyday. We didn't just wake up one morning and suddenly decide that we were born into the wrong gender. We WERE born into the wrong gender and we're just trying to make it right so that we can fully function as mentally healthy human beings.

It's about being allowed to be exactly who you are inside and out, and nothing more.

Be proud of who you are and never let people make you feel otherwise.