Why Include the T?

FROM OF COUNSEL VOL. 6, NO. 1
(FEBRUARY 2010)

"How many transgender people are there?" I'm often asked this question by people inside and outside of the LGBT community, and by reporters, scholars, students and attorneys. They want to know how many people we are talking about when we refer to the letter "T" in the LGBT. Sometimes, the underlying sentiment is, "Why are we focusing on such a small population of people who seem to have such different issues than us?"

While some estimates have been made about how many transgender people are in the U.S., there is no definitive answer. The U.S. Census has yet to include more than two options for gender on its survey. Until it does, my answer to that question depends on the definition of "transgender." According to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Reference Guide, the term "transgender" is defined in part as "an umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth." Gender identity is one's internal sense of gender. Gender expression is the external manifestation of one's gender identity. According to this definition, transgender people may include transsexuals, cross-dressers, and gender-variant people, including effeminate men, masculine women, and anyone else whose gender expression does not fit the stereotypical norm. There may be more of us than you might think.

Many of us, at some point in our lives, have not felt "man" or "woman" enough and can relate to the challenges of fitting into rigid gender roles. Everyone has a gender identity. Each day, we all make choices about how we express our gender, such as how to wear our hair, what body parts to accent, what clothes to wear, and how we walk and talk. Gender identity is a fundamental aspect of our personhood; it's essential to how we define ourselves and how we relate to others in the world. If our gender identity happens to match the sex that a doctor assigned to us at birth, we might take it for granted each day. For individuals whose gender identity or expression differs, the world can be unforgiving.

Historically, transgender people have been at the forefront of the events that sparked the LGBT rights movement more than 40 years ago. In 1966, transgender people fought back against police harassment in the San Francisco Tenderloin District at the Compton Cafeteria Riot. The 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, the celebrated origin of our modern day movement, started when police targeted the visibly gender-nonconforming patrons and attempted to arrest them for not having sufficient articles of clothing to match their gender, according to the cross-dressing laws in effect at the time. Transgender people fought back and sparked a movement heard around the world. Thus, to understand the landscape of our movement today, it is essential to see how gender non-conformity has consistently played a part in our fight for LGBT rights. In his article, "Do Transsexuals Dream of Gay Rights?" in the book Transgender Rights, attorney Shannon Minter wrote, "The question that calls for an explanation is not whether transgender people can justify their claims to gay rights, but rather how did a movement launched by bull daggers, drag queens, and transsexuals in 1969 end up viewing transgender people as outsiders less than thirty years later?"

Transgender people are often the most visible and therefore most marginalized part of our community, particularly those individuals who face multiple oppressions of class and race. These individuals are on the front lines, fighting for everyone's right – gay, lesbian, bisexual, straight – to be free from harmful gender stereotypes and to define one’s own personal sense of self and expression of that self.

When a 10-year-old is teased with anti-gay slurs on a playground, is it because of who he chooses to love, or rather, because of how he expresses his gender? The oppression that gay, lesbian and bisexual people face on the basis of sexual orientation stems largely from the notion that an attraction to someone of the same sex does not fit the stereotype of what it means to be a "man" or a "woman." In other words, homophobia is rooted in the enforcement of rigid gender stereotypes.

The legal battles Lambda Legal fights on behalf of transgender people are human rights issues: the right to a job, the right to adequate health care, the right to safety in schools, the right to walk down the street without being a target of arrest, the right to exist. Many of the challenges transgender people face center on the notion that gender identity is not a lifestyle choice, but rather, a fundamental aspect of a person’s self. Gay, lesbian and bisexual people face similar challenges with regard to sexual orientation. The discrimination and rampant violence that many transgender people face on a daily basis is not the result of a choice they are making; it is the result of widespread ignorance about the diversity of human expression.

According to the November 2009 preliminary results of a joint survey conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, transgender people face twice the rate of unemployment of the population as a whole; near-universal harassment on the job (97 percent); significant housing instability (19 percent homeless); and twice the rate of poverty of the general population.

Discrimination against transgender people is often blatant, outrageous, and unchecked. For example, when our client, Vandy Beth Glenn, a legislative editor for the Georgia General Assembly's Office of Legislative Counsel, informed her employer of two years of her plans to proceed with her transition from male to female, her employer fired her on the spot. Lambda Legal brought a federal lawsuit against Georgia General Assembly officials on behalf of Glenn, asserting, among other claims, that her firing violated the Constitution's equal protection guarantee because it treated her differently due to her nonconformity with gender stereotypes. During discovery, the General Assembly's Legislative Counsel, Sewell Brumby, admitted that he viewed Glenn's gender transition as immoral and as something that would make other employees uncomfortable and this is why he decided to fire her. In June 2009, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia denied the defendant's motion to dismiss. In his deposition, he stated, "It's not something that I enjoy thinking about, and I think it would have been unsettling to have a constant reminder to think about something I don't like to think about." The matter is still pending.

Lack of understanding of transgender people's lives can extend even to the courtroom. For example, Lambda Legal submitted an amicus brief last year in a case that challenged a New York City Civil Court's requirement that transgender people submit medical evidence of the need for their name changes. According to New York law, a court must grant a name change if an applicant meets certain statutory requirements to prevent fraud and provide notice to interested parties. In In the Matter of the Application of Leah Uri Winn-Ritzenberg for Leave to Change His/Her Name to Olin Yuri Winn-Ritzenberg, a case brought by the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, a transgender man met these statutory requirements. The court, however, denied his petition, stating that he failed to provide medical documentation for the "need" for his name change in the form of a letter from a social worker, therapist, psychiatrist, or doctor.

Lambda Legal's amicus brief argued that this requirement implicates equal protection concerns and violates substantive due process by requiring only transgender people to provide this extra-statutory proof. In striking down the requirement, the appellate court stated, "[t]here is no sound basis in law or policy to engraft upon the statutory provisions an additional requirement that a transgender[ ]-petitioner present medical substantiation for the desired name change."

With each transgender legal victory in the courts, Lambda Legal makes the case for equality and takes a stand against an oppression that affects us all. As with any civil rights work, we must understand the intersections of the multiple oppressions that affect our lives and tailor our strategies to fit our entire community. By standing together we have the strength to not only change the policies that govern our lives, but also change the way in which we understand each other.

Why include the T? Because gender identity and expression are intrinsic elements in the fight for human rights. Together we will prevail.