#transmiami

History of the trans community has always been up in the air? Where did it come from? Who started it?

What does it mean to be a transgender? Is it possible that one can be born that way or is it a life choice? There’s a chance that we’ll never know the true answer due to it dealing with just an individual’s feelings. As humans we all process and learn things differently so therefore one person’s reasoning might differentiate from another’s. Some believe that they were born in the wrong body and others choose to no longer identify with the sex they were given at birth for personal reasons but regardless of the reasoning’s behind becoming a different sex, the topic has always been taboo in America.

The first time a majority of Americans became familiar with sex reassignment surgery was when Christine Jorgensen (born as George William Jorgensen Jr.), a former soldier of World War II, underwent operations to begin his transformation to become a female. She was a trail blazer in transgender community and became an advocate for those who felt that they were assigned the wrong sex at birth. Fast forward to today, the transgender community now have multiple advocates such as Lavern Cox, Chaz Bono, Caitlyn Jenner and Kate Bornstein, an author, performer and gender theorist who’s dedicated her life to educating and helping society in understanding gender fluidity.

Kate was born as Albert Bornstein but quickly understood that she wasn’t like other little boys. She didn’t share anything but an anatomy and an attraction to females with them and therefor felt as if her only other option was to be female. As an adult she lived her life as the sex that she was assigned at birth up until 1986. By then she’d already been married and divorced with a daughter who’d become estrange after her decision to become a woman.

Kate’s decision wasn’t based on the need to become a woman but her desire to push the limit of sex assignment being just male and female. As a result, she dedicated her post surgery life to writing gender theory books, play writing and traveling around the world for workshops. She became an advocate for minority groups in America despite dealing with her own demons. In 1989 she created a theater production: Hidden: A Gender about her own life. Following that she edited an anthology: Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation and The anthology won Lambda Literary and Publishing Triangle Awards in 2011.

In 2016, at least 15 states have considered “bathroom bills” similar to the legislation recently enacted in North Carolina, which blocks transgender people from using bathrooms that don’t correspond to the sex listed on their birth certificates. Opponents of these proposals have argued that the real motivation isn’t restroom protocol; it’s part of an ugly attempt by social conservatives to score a victory against a surging LGBT movement.

There is a huge misunderstanding between gender and sex. Gender is what it is to be psychologically male or female and sex is what it is to be biologically male or female. This bill only allows a person who identifies as a male to use a male restroom and who identifies as a female to use the female restroom. It does not permit crossdressers, perverts or pedophiles from using whatever bathroom they choose.

A transgender woman is a woman who happens to have the anatomy of a man. The person using the bathroom is a person who thoroughly identifies as a woman. Furthermore woman’s bathrooms have door and stalls so the only way to know someone has the anatomy of a male is if you are looking. It is said that this can be unsafe for woman and children. A transgender woman said “the legislators introducing these bills to ban anti-LGBT legislation claim that they are about public safety. But it’s important to know that in the 18 states that have laws and ordinances protecting transgender people from discrimination, there have been no increases in public safety incidences. Why? Because there are still laws in every state making it illegal for anyone to enter a restroom to harm or harass people, or invade their privacy. Protecting LGBT people from discrimination doesn’t change that!”’

A transgender woman and a crossdressing man are two different things. A transgender person is someone whose gender identity is a major part of their true identity. A crossdresser is someone who is doing the act of wearing opposite sex clothes, but is not the same as their gender identity. Gender identity is at the core of who we are. No person should be discriminated against based on their denser identity. That is why we support transgender accommodation rights.