MarieDelta
Feb 25, 2010, 3:09 PM
Great article. Well written.
Selected quotes:
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?"
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.
...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.
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.
Anyways good read.
Complete article is here:http://www.lambdalegal.org/news/of-counsel/oc_201002_why-include-t.html#break
Selected quotes:
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?"
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.
...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.
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.
Anyways good read.
Complete article is here:http://www.lambdalegal.org/news/of-counsel/oc_201002_why-include-t.html#break