Transgender Movement

The transgender movement is a loose affiliation of people who identify as transgender and others who support issues of concern to transgendered people. This nonformal affiliation began in earnest in the late 20th century as an offshoot of the burgeoning lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) movement. Activists within the transgender movement agitate for political, economic, and medical rights and campaign against sex and gender-identification discrimination. While the transgender community is recognized as a part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQQ) community, the transgender movement is distinct from the greater LGBTQQ community in that it questions gender role identification and does not assume any sexual preference.

Transgenderism braids together both medical and sociocultural definitions. Traditional medical literature defines transgenderism, also known as transexism and gender identification disorder, as a mismatch between the external appearance of genitalia (i.e., the biological sex) and the self-recognition of maleness or femaleness, gender or gender identity. Colloquially, the term transgender refers to a person who feels he or she belongs to the opposite gender or belongs to both or neither traditional genders. This may include transvestites (men with “feminine” appearance), women with “masculine” appearance, hermaphrodites, intersexed people, drag kings and queens, anyone who questions his or her gender identity, and anyone whose gender identity is questioned.

The transgender movement mobilizes resources to engender political and legal changes within society. The movement addresses such issues as civil rights, sex discrimination (including concerns of police brutality and workplace inequities), and insurance rights (e.g., insurance coverage for sexual reassignment surgeries). Additionally, the movement brings to light questions about the fluidity of gender boundaries and the right of people to choose their gender identity.

The modern transgender movement was initiated by two events in the late 1960s and the publication of two books more than 20 years later. In 1966, the police were called to remove several patrons at the Compton Cafeteria in the Tenderloin in San Francisco. The cafeteria catered to, and the neighborhood was home to, people marginalized from the greater society due to sexual variances, including male-to-female, pre- and post-operative transgendered persons, and drag queens, all frequent victims of legal discrimination. The community's response to the police action was immediate and militant, resulting in a small riot and several arrests. In 1969 in New York City, the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a bar in Greenwich Village that catered to a similar population. A crowd of angry drag queens, butch dykes, and other transgendered individuals confronted the police, sparking the Stonewall Riot, which formally initiated the gay rights movement. Although in both riots, members of the transgendered community were identified only within the context of the gay community and not identified as a separate entity, the gay rights movement has always honored the transgendered community as the true heroes of the riots.

Pat Califia, a transgender theorist, published Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism in 1987. Later, in 1993, author and activist Leslie Feinberg published Stone Butch Blues. The books, one nonfiction and one nominally fiction, painted pictures of the oppression and marginalization faced by members of the transgendered community. These books opened a dialogue within the LGB community that addressed [Page 1390]questions of gender assignment, gender identity, sexuality, discrimination, and distrust. These books forced the recognition that the transgendered community was part of the LGB community only by dint of its sexual “otherness.” Thus, the LGB community (soon to be renamed the LGBT community), itself marginalized, acknowledged the further marginalization and differing needs of the transgendered community.

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