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Trans Words

November 5, 2007

Vanessa Sheridan of Apple Valley, MN writes:

I read your recent article about transsexual characters in the media with great interest. While it’s often helpful to raise the profile of transgender persons throughout society, and while newspaper/media-related articles like yours can be useful in that regard, I would like to point out
a few nuances that are significant in terms of how the general public can more effectively recognize and understand the realities of the transgender phenomenon.

I am a business diversity consultant, corporate trainer, and a transgender subject matter expert for ProGroup, Inc., a leading international diversity consulting organization. I am also the published author of two books on the transgender phenomenon, both of which were finalists for national literary awards. My latest full-length manuscript, on the topic of transgender in the workplace, is currently being prepared for publication. I’m telling you all this to establish my credibility and make you aware that I know whereof I speak when it comes to transgender issues.

Historically, transgender characters on television have been portrayed as either prostitutes or punchlines. That stereotype is (achingly) slowly beginning to change, but the titillation/abnormal sexuality factor is still present and, unfortunately, shows no signs of abating anytime soon. For a variety of reasons, people are intrigued and often simultaneously repelled by/sexually attracted to transgender persons. Television has discovered the potential marketing opportunities relative to that intrigue, and the medium (as with print and other media sources) has a tendency to sensationalize the lives of transpeople. (Jerry Springer, anyone?) While I understand the motive of the media (which is always profit-driven), I also look askance at the way in which transpersons are generally portrayed. Your article points out some prime examples of the stereotyping and inaccuracies that too often occur when transgender characters are presented on television shows.

In many of the television show plots/scenarios you described, the transgender person was always a sex object. (Of course, sex is a main area of interest in most tv shows these days, so that’s not necessarily a new idea.) Shows like “Ugly Betty,” “Entourage,” “Dirty Sexy Money,” “Big Shots,” and “There’s Something About Miriam” all place their focus on the sexuality of transgender persons and on the capacity of that sexuality to potentially titillate audiences, thereby driving ratings. It’s objectification, pure and simple, and that’s not healthy for either transgender persons or for the larger society. (Of course, the health of society is hardly a concern for the media conglomerates that create and air such programs—as we know, it’s always about ratings, money, profits, and power, and the well-being of society be hanged.)

In addition, you mentioned “The Riches,” a show in which the youngest son of a family of grifters prefers to dress as a girl. However, you described this young person as a “more normal depiction of a transsexual life.” I sincerely hope that was an honest mistake on your part, since the wearing of clothing of the opposite gender is in no way a primary indication of transsexuality. There are many, many transgender persons who wear the clothing of the opposite sex but who are not at all transsexual. Just for the sake of clarification, a pre-operative transsexual is a person whose internal gender identity is incompatible with their external body and/or other physical characteristics. Generally, the primary transsexual wants to correct what they deem to be a mistake of nature. This is usually achieved through a medically-supervised process that involves assessment and diagnosis of transsexuality, extensive psychotherapy, hormone replacement therapy, the real life test (in which the transperson must live full-time in the role of the opposite sex for anywhere from one to three years) and, finally, sexual reassignment surgeries. As you might surmise, this is a lengthy and expensive process that can take years to complete. For these and other reasons, many transsexual persons do not complete the entire process. Some don’t even begin it!

One of the major misunderstandings that many people have regarding the transgender phenomenon is the notion that all transpeople are transsexual. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fact is, most transgender persons are NOT transsexual, nor do they seek or desire a sex change. For most transpersons, this is about the personal expression of an internal gender identity. That identity is at the core of who the individual transperson is, and it’s the motivating factor for all transgender behaviors.

Stereotypical media portrayals of transgender people as overly sexualized beings does a disservice to the millions of hardworking, productive transpersons who are contributing to society in a myriad of ways. We’re not all hookers, we’re not all tramps or sluts, we’re not all wackos or perverts, we’re not all defined by our sexuality, and most of us are not all that interesting or newsworthy. In fact, we’re your neighbors, your co-workers, your family members, and your friends. We’re everywhere, and we as a group would appreciate not being labeled or portrayed as sexual deviants or as pathetic clowns. Despite the efforts of the media to sensationalize our lives, we deserve respect and dignity because we are intrinsically valuable human beings who happen to be gender variant.

I hope you find some of this information to be helpful. I realize that your article was not intended to be an in-depth analysis of the transgender phenomenon—it was simply a review of some of the transgender themes that are occurring on television these days. Insofar as it went, your article appeared to achieve its purpose. However, I believe it’s important to couch such articles in their proper context and to use appropriate terminology when referring to a group of people who have traditionally been oppressed and disenfranchised within the larger society. As a transgender person, a professional diversity consultant, and a concerned citizen, I wanted to share these thoughts with you.

Poll: 70 percent of LGBTs support noninclusive ENDA

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

According to a new poll, 70 percent of LGBT Americans prefer passing an Employment Nondiscrimination Act that does not include transgender people over not passing the bill at all.

The poll, commissioned by the Human Rights Campaign and conducted on October 26, surveyed 500 members of the LGBT community across the country.

A version of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), which does not include job protections for transgender Americans, was voted out of the House of Representative rules committee Monday night, and voting on the bill is very likely on Wednesday.

Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) may offer her amendment to add transgender protections to the bill. If she does, it will be debated, but will likely be pulled from the floor without a vote as soon as the debate ends.

HRC president Joe Solmonese said the poll numbers weren’t immediately obvious to him or to the organization before they conducted the polling.

"There were so many people out there speaking so emphatically about where the entire community was that I thought maybe we should get a sense of it, and that's why we did the poll," he said.

"So it was surprising to me, but I think it really speaks to the fact that there's a big, diverse community of GLBT Americans all across the country.". . .

Genderqueer

The term "genderqueer" began to be commonly used at the turn of the twenty-first century by youth who feel that their gender identities and/or gender expressions do not correspond to the gender assigned to them at birth, but who do not want to transition to the "opposite" gender. Characterizing themselves as neither female nor male, as both, or as somewhere in between, genderqueers challenge binary constructions of gender and traditional images of transgender people.

Genderqueers use a wide variety of terms to describe themselves, including transboi, boydyke, third gendered, bi-gendered, multi-gendered, androgyne, and gender bender. Sometimes they refuse to attach a label to their gender identities at all, feeling that no one word or phrase can adequately capture the complexities of how they experience gender. . . .

Why Is The Catholic Church Hatin' On Transpeople?

Monday, November 05, 2007

TransGriot post by Monica Roberts

In October 1953 a Cuban newspaper conducted an interview with Father Hilario Chaurrondo. At the time he was a blunt, outspoken, down to earth and very popular priest known throughout the island for his prison advocacy and other work that kept him close to the grittier aspects of life in pre-Castro Cuba.

I read this eye-opening snippet of the article in the book Christine Jorgenson-A Personal Autobiography. This particular chapter in the book covers Christine's visit to Havana to perform at the Tropicana. Here's what Father Chaurrondo had to say about Christine.

"I am familiar with the Cristina Jorgenson case right from its very beginnings. I have followed it in the press and have read her memoirs. Very interesting-very. These are the things which leave us bewildered by the progress of the days we live in.

A doubt came into our mind. Should we ask him or not? Well, when all is considered, Father Chaurrondo is considered a "man of the world".

"Father, you are aware that Cristina is legally a woman with all the rights and attributes inherent in such a social condition. Would you be disposed to give your blessing to Cristina marry a man in church?"

Father Chaurrondo doesn't flinch and he replies as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"If her application for a Catholic ceremony carries with it all the presiquites and prior dispensations of the Archbishop, I would say yes."

"Would Cristina's case involve special dispensations?"

"No. Only the normal procedure. Just as for any other woman. As far as we are concerned, Cristina is a woman since she has been so designated by the United States, where they know what they are doing."

"And the Archbishop's dispensation?"

"Cristina is an alien resident, and in such cases certain requirements have to be met for reasons of diocese and parish. I repeat, Cristina's case calls for no special treatment. I can marry Cristina Jorgenson in the church once the usual and current regulations have been complied with. The procedure will be no different with her than with any other woman."

Father Chaurrondo is clear, frank, simple and definite. Cristina Jorgenson can be married by the Church.

"Look my son, we priests nowadays have seriously to study the realities of life. We're not like the priests of sixty years ago, or as I was when I first began."

Chaurrondo's voice softened at memory of those first years of his priesthood.

"The secret of confession is inviolable, otherwise I would tell you stories of Cristinas and Cristinos of every color under the sun. At the beginning my soul grieved and sorrowed at the horror and shame. Now it's different. I read Maranon (Gregorio Maranon, a famous Spanish endocrinologist) and even dig football. Times change, but the eternal truths are immutable."

...we take our leave of Father Hilario Chaurrondo who remains behind in the yard before his Church of Mercy, smiling in his own kindly, jolly way which somehow makes him seem Don Camillo himself.

We carry the news with us like a bomb. A Catholic prelate in Cuba is the first representative of any church, religion or sect ever to make such a clear pronouncement on the Cristina Jorgenson case. It remains to be seen what the reactions to his statements will be amongst the Catholic congregations, not only in Cuba but throughout the world.

****

How prophetic the closing paragraph in that 1953 artcle was.

Fast forward to January 2003.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- After years of study, the Vatican's doctrinal congregation has sent church leaders a confidential document concluding that "sex-change" procedures do not change a person's gender in the eyes of the church.

Consequently, the document instructs bishops never to alter the sex listed in parish baptismal records and says Catholics who have undergone "sex-change" procedures are not eligible to marry, be ordained to the priesthood or enter religious life, according to a source familiar with the text.

That document mentioned was completed in 2000 and was credited to Jesuit Father Urbano Navarrete of Spain (far left in this photo with Pope John Paul II) who is a retired canon law professor at Rome's Gregorian University. . . .