Why am i ok with gay people but not trans

Note: This blog contains language and terms that may have changed in meaning over time, as well as some now considered slurs; they are used in their historical context in this blog. To fully serve the LGBTQ community and make America truly representative, we need to start by examining the prejudices within our community.

Both political organizing and the LGBTQ community began with people who today may identify as transgender. However, trans women and men are often neglected by those who set political priorities of our community, if not treated with outright hostility and prejudice.

This blog will focus on historical and ongoing prejudice towards transgender men and women by cisgender gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals. Attitudes towards transgender folks from both queer and cishet 1 people are reflected in the lack of transgender elected officials.

Almost 80 percent of out officials are white, 57 percent are gay, and 59 percent are male. Transgender men and women are thus severely underrepresented, with one trans woman in a state legislature, Danica Roem, and eight more in local positions, totaling 1. Additionally, Roem and others in this count, such as Minneapolis city councilmembers Andrea Jenkins and Phillipe Cunningham, were elected just last year.

Inthe year of the Stonewall Uprising, hardly anyone knew or identified with the term transgender. However, individuals who would come to identify as trans were already living their lives as their authentic selves, such as Christine Jorgensenwho became famous in the early s for her reassignment surgery.

Gay liberation activists such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera referred to themselves as gay, among a variety of other terms, indicating a fluidity and lack of focus on labels. It is evident that the lines between the different identities today known as LGBTQ were blurred and not fixed.

Pinpointing discrimination in the past between the groups would seem to be difficult, but in reality, Rivera and Johnson themselves remarked about how they felt they did not fit into the then-newly emerging gay rights movement. They felt that, as drag queens and transvestites, they were being ignored by a movement they helped get started.

Another perspective, from Miss Major Griffin-Gracyprominent transgender activist and Stonewall veteran, further describes the mainstream gay rights movement as one why am i ok with gay people but not trans shuts out transgender folks and people of color. I think if they could eradicate us, they would.

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, from the film about her life Major! Transphobia directed at trans women sometimes originates from radical lesbian feminists. This work and others by similarly-minded authors are widely held as bigoted and transphobic. What does it have to do with how we elect out officials?

The same middle to upper class, white, gay, cisgender men that are criticized as being too dominant in the LGBTQ community today were tone-policing liberation activists in the 70s. This power dynamic maintains itself to this day, and challenging it is key to liberation of all oppressed people.

I reached out to Brianna Titonea trans candidate for the Colorado State House of Representatives, asked her to give a statement about discrimination against transgender folks from cisgender queer folks. She had this to say:. When a trans person is running for office, if you claim to be LGBTQ and say you truly support the community, you should be bringing them to the table and elevating their voices because that is being truly inclusive and striving to bring us closer to equality.

If they fail to do that, I question the statements some make about claiming to be support. Put your money where your mouth is. Thank you to Brianna Titone for her statement.

The Global Divide on Homosexuality Persists

She added her voice to this blog and I am very grateful. Our community includes many identities, and in the current political climate it is crucial to uplift all identities who are a part of our family. Victory Institute recently added, under the research section of our website, a report about political participation of LGBTQ individuals in the….

Logan Graves. This article is tagged in Research.