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Discrimination

Discrimination is defined as the unjust mistreatment of a person or group of persons on the basis of perceived differences such as race, gender, sex, class, ability, and/or sexual orientation. This entry addresses the social, political, and legal domains of discrimination that trans people face in the United States. It also addresses the ways in which social, political, and legal discrimination are entangled. Further complicating the matter is the fact that trans people belong to many other relational classifications such as race. Racism and transphobia can often overlap. As a consequence, trans Black women and trans youth of color are disproportionately affected by discrimination. Thus, discrimination against trans people takes many forms, from the highest levels of representative government to everyday encounters in the public sphere.

Alienation and Social Belonging

Discrimination against trans people is based on a number of persistent social biases. These biases are based on assumptions about the linkages between biological and cultural norms governing sex, gender, and gender identity. These are in part due to the prominent role that the medical sciences have played in establishing the notion that sex and gender are complementary binaries, and male and female correspond to man and woman. This two-sex model is often used as “evidence” for institutional and individual convictions that biology is the body’s destiny. In other words, the medical “norm” has long held that the sex assigned at birth should govern the gender and gender identity of any given individual into adulthood. Many activists call this set of beliefs cisnormativity (from cisgender, or non-trans). Transphobia is an outgrowth of cisnormative values that organize beliefs about the body. This often questioned and problematized view, in turn, has contributed to the persistence and pervasiveness of transphobia, which in turn has severe and negative effects on trans people themselves.

Transphobia, which can take the form of alienation and ostracism, contribute to shame on the part of trans people, which can have traumatic consequences. For example, bullied trans youth are at elevated risk for suicide as compared with their cis peers. Trans of color communities feel the effects of this ostracism even more. Racism has had a profound impact on American history and continues to do so. Trans women of color are subject to disproportionately higher rates of sexual abuse, relational violence, and homicide. Many reports have indicated that nearly 30 Black trans women have been killed every year since 2016. Consider the following narrative as an example of how social discrimination alters perceptions of self-worth:

A gender nonnormative teen lives in Albuquerque, NM. Attending high school and identifying as a boy, ze identifies with girls. Ze’s best friend is a lesbian activist on campus. Ze’s gender as a boy had rarely been raised in terms of identity talk. Ze wasn’t aware of the activism around trans issues. Ze wears blouses, makeup, nail polish, glitter, and has a hairdo others insist is for girls. These practices lent themselves to a sense of reliable self-knowledge and a material aesthetic that enhanced well-being. But they also attracted violent retaliation. Ze was bullied in and out of class. In one dramatic scene ze had a free weight thrown at them during lunch in the quad—the weight missed by a few inches. Then there are the words like “faggot” and “he-she” that injured—but more as a result of signaling the threat of violence than the sting of the words themselves. Teachers rarely intervened and, at one point, even told the teen to leave the classroom because ze was dressed in a long gown. The gown was disruptive. Through all this the teen did not complain to their family. With few outlets ze decided to repress these desires about expression and used cutting, burning, and other forms of self-harm to establish a sense of durability.

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