Born This Way
by Ching Ho Pang (Leo)
Everyone has a gender; it is a thing affects everything in our lives. It affects how we act like and look like every day. However, have you ever thought about what is gender? Gender is the thing that describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine (Nobelius). Today, most of the countries define gender base on the physical and genetic sexuality at birth. There is at least one transgender person, whose self-gender identity is different from the assigned gender sex at birth, in each 100 people (NCTE). Under the rules of our society, there are at least 70 million people living in the world without their identity. Lost of identity also comes with life-threatening discrimination and inequities to them. To solve this serious problem and to improve the harmony of the society, gender’s definition should be redefined to include transgender and not only base on the physical sexuality at birth.
Before everything else, the most important question is: what is transgender? From the definition of Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, transgender is the state of one's self gender identity not matching one's assigned sex which based on physical sexuality at birth (GLAAD). To be easier to imagine, I would use a simple example. Imagine that your name is Tom. One day, while you are sleeping, someone assigns “Peter” as your name. After that, everyone starts calling you “Peter” while you can never remove the label of it which has been assigned to you. That is a case similar to transgender people. However, you will just be called a wrong name in this case; the transgender people would face discrimination, inequalities and different serious problems everyday that harm them physically and mentally.
Transgender people are facing many problems. From the research on transgender youth and life-threatening behaviors, transgender youth would have a 4-times higher risk in attempting life-threatening behaviors (Grossman). It is mainly because of the experiences of past parental verbal and physical abuse. As many families still have the traditional idea of binary sex catalog, seeking parental consent could put the youth at risk for exposing their gender identity or lead to harm. Most of the discussions between the transgender youth and their parents have also transformed into verbal fights and arguments. Moreover, because of the unacceptable and traditional thinking sharped from the media, transgender youth would experience victimization from their peers, and negative parental reactions to their gender nonconforming expression. Besides, transgender people are not equally protected from the law:
While Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or its amendments do not provide protection from discrimination for individuals based on sexual orientation, transgender, or transvestites, there are a growing number of state, cities, and counties with transgender explicit nondiscrimination laws (Trotter 55).
Therefore, they are not actually enjoying the same basic rights as others, like health cares and discrimination protection in schools and workplaces. Furthermore, as there are only male and female identities on the ID cards, and there are only male and female’s washrooms, many transgender people have faced serious insults and discrimination in the public. These serious insults happen almost every day in their life and it has caused severe mental stress on them, which would lead them to have emotional disorders and depressions. In the interview with Angelique Davis, a professor of law and gender in Seattle University, she mentioned that it is important for us as a society to examine why we need to have gender designated in so many areas of our lives. She said,
For example, why not have non-gendered bathrooms? Do we really need our sex on our driver's licenses? I think that this is something that is not needed in many areas and instead of focusing on binary sex and gender categories, society needs to start to recognize that not all people fit neatly into them (Davis).
Besides discrimination, they are also facing unequally in the public utilities and services. Nearly half of the transgender people have refused to be provided regular care from medical providers (Redman). What are their faults that cause them to face these serious inequalities and discrimination? Is it wrong for their humanity born in a different way from their physical body? People do not really realize the serious problems that transgender people are facing just because we are lucky. We are lucky that our self-gender identities match with our physical sexuality. However, what would you feel if you are one of the 70 millions transgender people? If one of your family members or friends is a transgender person, what would you feel when you saw them face different serious insults and discrimination every day? What will you feel if you are a transgender woman, but you are called as a “man” and you still need to go to the men’s washrooms? The problems that the transgender people are facing are not just some emotional harmfulness; it is some problems and inequalities that would seriously endanger their lives, like health cares and life-threatening behaviors which are caused by the ongoing discrimination.
As we could see that the system of our society is killing the transgender people, why shouldn’t we change it? From a real court case that had rejected self-identification as a proper indicator of legal sex, the Kansas Supreme Court had to determine whether a male-to-female transsexual could be declared legal wife. Although the court had extensive scientific evidence to support that she had already finished the whole transsexual process, it chose to use the Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary's definitions of male and female. According to the definition, female is defined as “designating or of the sex that produces ova and bears offspring: opposed to male.” Considering this reason, the court had denied her female identity (Greenberg). Should we determine a female by whether she produces ova or not? A male-to-female transgender person who has changed everything into a female was determined as a male just because she does not produce ova and bear offspring? Is that fair and make sense to you? According to the NASW Code of Ethics, social worker are obligated “to serve oppressed and vulnerable populations, eliminate discrimination based on sex, and seek social change to ensure the well-being of all people” (Burdge 245). As the transgender population clearly fits into this category, they should enjoy the same rights and benefits as others. Although most of the courts have rejected self-identification as a proper indicator of legal sex, there are still some courts that have accepted. They have considered more on medical and scientific advances, rather than relying on historical, dictionary, and religious definitions of male and female. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that denying transgender people’s marriage rights has violated the European Convention on human Rights (Greenberg). In the technologically advanced twenty-first century, most of the people labeled themselves as “open-minded” with “critical thinking.” Therefore, should we still determine people’s gender by history or dictionary, but not medical and scientific evidences? Should we care the dead words and rules, but not the alive humanity?
The mass media has also affected and misled the public on the idea of gender. Have you ever seen a transgender person in a mainstream television show? Even I am a television-and-movies lovers, my answer is no. Since we were a kid, the mass media has already shaped how a gender should look and live. For examples, men must be brave and working hard outside to earn money, while women must be cooking and looking after the children. The image of male and female shaped by the mass media would be normal and those people who acting differently would be abnormal. Why cannot a woman act as masculine or a man act as feminine? People should have the freedom to choose how they act like. Also, the mass media is building the clear binary sex category through long-term social construction. The information we have received every day through mass media has restricted that there are only two genders in the world: male and female while male should act as masculine while female should act as feminine. This either/or fallacy from the mass media has misled us into a restricted norm and thinking. What the mass media is doing is to build up a clear binary sex category and keep the transgender people in secret.
Even as activists work to unmoor legal gender from the confines of the sex gender system and its attendant assumptions--that sex is binary and biologically transparent, that gender maps easily and predictably onto sex--they have framed their arguments in terms intelligible to those outside the ‘gender community’ by strategically deploying the language of identity (Currah 24).
Even there are transgender people or GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) characters in the television shows, like Greek and Grey’s Anatomy, they would be described and shaped as ridiculing characters; they would have a sexually lifestyle and never be normal. For example, the male-to-female transgender characters would be shaped ugly, they would have beards, and they would act like a man wearing dresses. By making fun of them, making them straight and vilifying them, the media has given the audience the feeling that they are different from “normal” people and they are minority. “To share such a secret is to invite ridicule and rejection; to keep such a secret condemns one to a life of loneliness and isolation” (Money). To redefine the gender’s definition to include transgender people and help them escaping from discrimination, society must acknowledge the fact of the existence of transgender people; however, the mass media has blocked the road for the society to understand the truth. The mass media has ignored the facts and reinforced the perception that transgender people are unacceptable by clinging to the binary sex category and misleading the images of transgender people.
Some people argue that the way to solve the problems of transgender people is to deny the process of transsexual. Transgender people are not having mental disorder; they are having the problem of self-identification. It is like a girl got a male body mistakenly. Therefore, that is not a disease and there is nothing wrong for them. By denying the process of transgender, there would be no more transsexual people. However, transgender is not based on whether they have done the transsexual process or not. Transgender is meaning their self-gender identity is not matching the assigned sex. Therefore, as they are having the problem on self-identification, they would have to face a really heavy mental stress on their identity. They would not able to survive and have a normal life. Also, many babies are born with both sexualities. For the intersex babies, their parents or doctors would determine what gender to raise them as. The decision made before the babies really know what gender they are has limited the choice and right on how to be raise for them. Once the decision is made, it becomes a one-way road. Even the intersex individuals know what gender they are one day and do not conform to their self-perception given by their parents or doctors, they can never get back the gender identify which they lost before they were born. Moreover, because of the pressure to conform to the traditional gender stereotypes and expectation, they have to face myriad of problems just because they want to get back their real gender identity. Therefore, if gender is determined at birth, it is taking away a basic right of human. “Gender” should be redefined that it should not only base on the physical sexuality of the person at birth. It should give the right for the people to make their own and personal decision when they have insufficient self-knowledge.
On the other hand, 92% of the transgender people have identified by others as gay or bisexual (Bockting 688). Transgender people surely know what sex that they are born with. What they believed strongly is that they are born in a wrong body. For examples, a man strongly believed that he is a woman with the proof from psychology doctors; his behavior is feminine; he has also done the surgery to turn him into a woman. However, with the definition of gender today, which is determined at birth, all of her legal documents still show that she is a man. It would cause her many serious and unnecessary problems. The definition of a man's body or a woman's body is just defined by human. The definition of gender should not only base on the physical body, but also the person's believe. Alex Bertie was a 16-years-old “girl” living in United Kingdom; she found out that she was actually a boy since she was a little kid. Alex has posted many videos on the Internet that talk about the problems that transgender people are suffering and how should gender be redefined. In one of his video, he just cried hardly because he could not handle how his classmates treat him. He mentioned that some people feel sad when they look at the mirror because they are fat. However, they cannot compare the sadness that he is facing when he look at the mirror and realize that he is missing the real gender identity in his mind. In the conclusion of the video, he said,
I just don’t want my gender o hurt me anymore. I just want to be happy with who I am. I don’t even care if I born as a most ugly, poorest, and fattest guy in the world; it would still be better than this. I just want everyone to be happy; love yourself and don’t take gender identity for granted. If you know you are female and have a female body, good for you. There are many people like me out there; we don’t see ourselves like we are (Alex).
If you are Alex, what is your feeling? I believe that the only feeling that come from your heart is nonsense and helpless. It is just like a person lost his identity in the society.
Many people who oppose transgender people are because of the elements of religion. In an interview with the church’s public affair staff, Dallin H. Oaks, who is the fifth most senior apostle among the ranks of the LDS Church, opposed transgender strongly. He mentioned that with the power of Jesus Christ, we should deal with everything that we are born with, including disfigurements and other incapacities.
We do not accept the fact that conditions that prevent people from attaining their eternal destiny were born into them without any ability to control. Through the power and mercy of Jesus Christ we will have the strength to do all things. That includes resisting temptation. That includes dealing with things that we’re born with, including disfigurements, or mental or physical incapacities. None of these stand in the way of our attaining our eternal destiny. The same may be said of a susceptibility or inclination to one behavior or another which if yielded to would prevent us from achieving our eternal destiny (Oaks).
However, “as much as people like to divide themselves into nature or nurture camps, what genes actually do in the brain reflects the interaction between hereditary and environmental information” (Robinson). As gender is affected from both hereditary and environmental information, it is not a thing we can deal with and be restricted what we are born with. Moreover, free will is one of the most important and basic dogmas. That means we are free to choose our activity and behavior and make different choices. Free will is depending on the ability that the people have to accomplish it. In the past, people did not have the technology to accomplish the process of transgender. However, based on the advanced technology today, people already had the free will and ability to transgender. Also, the word “transgender” is never appeared on bible because of the lack of technology development. Therefore, “transgender” is a thing that the bible never restricted or allowed. As Jesus Christ never mention about “transgender," we cannot say anything to restrict it because of religion. In the interviews with some Christians, most of their attitudes are positive towards transgender people. Professor Angelique Davis is born in a traditional Christian family, but she disagrees with Oaks. She said, “Personally, based upon my beliefs as a Christian, I believe transgender people are people just like everyone else. Therefore, they are just as important, valued, special, etc., as any other person.” Moreover, the bible has also told us that, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). The “we” in the bible means the one in our body who thinks; “we” is not meaning the dead empty shell of the body. Also, as we are all one in Christ Jesus, why should not the gender’s definition include transgender people? Transgender people just don’t agree with the gender identity that was assigned to them at birth, but they are still one in Christ Jesus; they should not face different discrimination and inequality.
I still remember the silly question that I have asked in the orientation day of the Needle Exchange Program: “As my topic is about homosexuality and transgender, are there any of these kinds of people here?” I have even heard a similar question from a girl that went to the same orientation day. Because of the media, we have already been living in a world with a traditional binary sex category for a long time. “Gender” should never be restricted from the traditional binary sex category that is sharped by the media and the government. In the Needle Exchange Program, I have saw a “woman” acting more like a “man” than me, a “man” wearing a dress with long hair, and more and more different people. The only thing that is the same is the smiles on the faces of all the staffs. No matter what gender they are in, the staffs would interact with them with a warmhearted and friendly attitude. When I ask the staffs in the program about transgender people, they told me that when we treat other people, we should see and focus on the hearts of them. The key of communication is to feel others’ hearts; when we try to feel and share what’s in others’ hearts, gender, race, age are never the things we should be focusing on.
In the world that almost everyone is talking about freedoms and rights, there are 70 millions transgender people living without their identities, facing serious life-threatening discrimination and difficulties in their everyday life; 70 million people are not enjoying the same rights, benefits, and even basic protections as others. In the needle exchange program, we strengthen the importance of equality and the program welcomes different people no matter what genders they are. What I saw in the program is human nature. The needle exchange program is designed for human, because it cares what people need and what they are facing; it is not caring the dead rules and definitions from the law or dictionary; it cares about the real and alive human beings. The meaning and definition of gender is just a dead thing that the media and government have shaped for us. Love, freedom and rights should never be restricted through the gender category that has been fixed on the paper. To protect and give back the basic rights to the transgender people, we should redefine the gender’s definition to include them and should not be restricted on the physical sexuality at birth. No matter what religions, they told people to do right things. I also believed that none of the religions would agree people to lose their own identities and face unfair discrimination every day. When we mean a human, we mean the person inside his body. Besides the physical body is born this way, the humanity inside the body is also born this way. Should we ignore this problem just because we are not born this way? In the song Born This Way from Lady GaGa: “No matter gay, straight, or bi, lesbian, transgendered life. I’m on the right track baby, I was born this way.”
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