In 1993, Brandon Teena was raped, beaten and murdered. In 2002, Gwen Araujo was murdered by four men during a party. And this year, Angie Zapata was bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher by her date. They were all murdered for being transgender. Although a spirit of change has swept through the United States this election season, some things simply haven’t changed.
Transgenders, an umbrella term for those who do not fit the gender binary of male and female, including those who feel that they were born into the wrong sex and those who don’t believe they should have to choose one sex, have long been marginalized by society at large. Despite a president-elect promising change, including promises of equality for gays and lesbians, there is no mention of any change for transgendered people.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, the largest civil rights organization working for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, transgender individuals in the U.S. have a 1-in-12 chance of being killed compared to everyone else, who have a 1-in-18,000 chance. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs estimates 20 percent of LGBT people murdered from 1995 to 1998 were transgender. There are also assaults to account for, along with crimes that weren’t reported. Underreporting is serious, given that 40 percent of all police-initiated violence toward LGBT people is toward transgenders, that same report found.
Transgender individuals who are sentenced to serve time in prison face harassment by opposite-gendered cell mates. Simply stated: You do not put a woman in a man’s prison, and you certainly do not put those at high risk for assault and discrimination in a hostile environment.
Transgender people also face workplace discrimination, as in the case of Diane Schroer, whose job offer was rescinded after her future employers learned of her planned gender transition. Attached to such discrimination is poverty. According to surveys, unemployment rates among transgenders vary from city to city, ranging from 29 percent in Washington from 1998 to 2000 to about 70 percent in San Francisco in 1999. According to the Washington Transgender Needs Assessment Study, of those transgenders who are living in Washington and are making money, 33 percent make less than $10,000 and 20 percent lack stable housing. Tied with this economic issue is the problem of health, as necessary yet expensive procedures and medication are out of reach for many transgender youth, leading them to dangerous alternatives, including finding unpleasant means to obtaining money.
I can go on about these issues and many others, but there are already far too many pointing to the fact that transgender individuals are highly ignored. Transgender people are treated as less than second-class citizens in a country that values individual freedom of choice: Freedom of choosing our religion and freedom of choosing who we vote for, yet not freedom to be who we are and who we want to be.
If it is time for change, let’s change.
The Pride Alliance at the university attempts to be at the forefront of such a statement this week, as it observes Transgender Day of Remembrance (Nov. 20), on not only one day, but all week long. Starting on Monday, the Pride Alliance will hold a public discussion about the epidemic of homelessness among LGBT youth. On Tuesday, the Pride Alliance will show Cruel and Unusual, a film exploring trans-women in prison. And on Thursday, the Pride Alliance will be outside of the Stamp Student Union to answer any questions you may have on transgenderism and transgender rights. It is a small step from a small group on the campus to make visible these invisible lives, but at least it’s a start toward equality, which of course is nothing without the “T.”
Eric Nguyen is the director of communication for the Pride Alliance at the university. He can be reached at ericnguyen09@gmail.com
