THE CUTTING EDGE-December, 21, 2012
By Barbara F.
Anderson, Ph, D., LCSW
The Transgender
Law Center’s Legal Director was featured on ABC’s public affairs show,
"Beyond the Headlines,” on Nov. 18, 2012.
The focus of the show was the “widespread discrimination faced by transgender
people,” especially, employment and
health challenges. Statistics were cited
indicating that trans people face unemployment at twice the national rate. Also mentioned was San Francisco’s Health
Commission which voted to establish a program that includes SRS as part of the
City’s universal health care plan, making San Francisco the first city in the
US to approve such a measure.
Along the same lines, the ACLU issued a paper, Discrimination Against Transgender People,
(undated) but viewed on Dec. 10, 2012. It
speaks of the organization’s commitment
to trans people who meet “a wide variety of discriminatory barriers to full
equality. They sometimes face
difficulties meeting their basic needs (getting a job, housing, or health care)
or in having their gender identity respected (like in the simple act of going
to a public restroom).” The article goes
on to note that trans people “face a range of legal issues that LGB people
rarely do: identity documents not reflective of one’s gender, sex-segregated
public restrooms and other facilities, dress codes that perpetuate traditional
gender norms, and barriers to access to appropriate health care.” The ACLU believes that “the struggles against
anti-LGB and anti-transgender
discrimination are best waged collaboratively.
Much of the discrimination faced by transgender people comes from the
same place as does anti-gay discrimination:
LGBT people challenge society’s norms on how men and women ‘should’ act
(in their gender expression and in the relationships they form). Truly eliminating LGBT discrimination depends
on eradicating gender stereotypes, and fighting gender identity discrimination
does that directly.”
“Gabrielle Ludwig, Transgender
Basketball Player, Makes Championship Game Debut” is the headline in the
online, HuffPost Gay Voices article, Dec. 2012. Fifty year old, m-t-f Ludwig,
is a twice divorced mother of 3 who made news after playing on a California
junior college basketball team. She last
played college basketball in 1980, more that 20 years before she
transitioned. “Though decades older than
some of her teammates (and at 6ft 8in, substantially taller),” she was praised
by her coach as being “the most dangerous player in the state.” Her
statement to USA Today follows: “If they
see me as a normal person and we are not the bogeyman and love life and raise
kids just like you, maybe some of this mystery of who these people are will be
taken away and there can be more blending into society. People are afraid of what they don’t know. I am willing to put myself out there. It was not like that before. It was just about playing basketball. It’s about more because I see an injustice.”
