Umbrella Or A Pyramid?

How do you define “Transgender” as inclusive or exclusive? Do you look at it as an umbrella where anyone who crosses the gender norms or do you look at it as just those of us who are on the transition track?

'We are not drag queens': For transgender people in 2019, a conflicted reality of breakthroughs, barriers
USA Today
By Susan Miller
November 19, 2019

2019 is the year Ash Penn, a passionate transgender resident of Spartanburg, South Carolina, was able to “come out as a whole” and feel the warm embrace of acceptance.
[…]
“There is a mix of incredible opportunities and advancement and also increased regression and hostility,” said Ineke Mushovic, executive director of the Movement Advancement Project, a think tank that researches LGBTQ issues.

The visibility of trans people as backbones of communities has been remarkable in the past year, said Taylor Brown of advocacy group Lambda Legal. “We are people doing normal things. We are not drag queens. We aren’t doing this part-time.”

For me this sends up red flags! Especially coming from a Lambda Legal advocate.

“We are not drag queens” I say yes we are, we are also crossdressers, we are also post-ops, we are anyone who crosses the gender norms.

And it puts a spotlight on the community’s presence, particularly in rural areas. “Trans people are ordinary people who mow the lawn, do the dishes, walk the dog – and want to have a normal life,” Mushovic said.

That is true not just for those who have transitioned but also for drag queens and crossdressers.

This is the section of the Connecticut law that protects us here, the definition of gender identity and expression says,

(21) "Gender identity or expression" means a person's gender-related identity, appearance or behavior, whether or not that gender-related identity, appearance or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with the person's physiology or assigned sex at birth, which gender-related identity can be shown by providing evidence including, but not limited to, medical history, care or treatment of the gender-related identity, consistent and uniform assertion of the gender-related identity or any other evidence that the gender-related identity is sincerely held, part of a person's core identity or not being asserted for an improper purpose. [The bold print is my emphasis.]

Notice that nowhere does it say anything about transitioning, medical intervention, surgery, or anything  that limits the law to just those who transitioned or are transitioning.

I was at the meeting when we were planning on introducing the bill to the legislature and one thing that everyone sitting around the table agreed upon was that this bill had to be inclusive. It had to cover crossdressers, drag queens and kings, and even non-trans people. Yes, it even covers people who are not trans, it covers people who have been perceived as trans.

How did this shift in definition come about?

I think in part because of activists like me. We always talked about the “trans community” and never really defined what we meant. Also it is in part because the press didn’t do its homework. Here we were talking about “trans” meaning the umbrella term while the press heard “trans” as meaning those who transitioned or are planning on transitioning.

I think that also there are trans people who want to be dissociated from crossdressers and drag queens… “I’m not like them, they are JUST crossdressers.” I think it is the result of internalized transphobia.

What do you think?
(This is a poll I did earlier)

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