The Challenges Faced by the Transgender Community
The term “transgender” is used to describe individuals who do not exclusively identify as either feminine or male and hence depart from the identity that was assigned to them at birth. The transgender community is diverse with several forms of identification, including gender, genderqueer, and nonbinary. The majority of people typically want medical aid, taking hormones to help them determine their sex, while some want to accept the label of transgender outwardly. Many people have been secretive about their gender presentation and sexual orientation for a long time because it was viewed as sinful and out of this world until the last century. The rise of human rights activist has seen most of them declaring openly about their fear of stigmatization though some live with the fear of coming out and facing criticism (Stryker, 2017).
Stigma and Harassment
By the virtue of being different from other people, these transgender individuals face a myriad of challenges from the society and people who consider them evil. For example, they face stigma and harassment from people. The American society is a place where the issue of inclusivity is highly regarded, regardless of people’s identity, race and gender (Ender & Matthews, 2016). Unfortunately, the transgender individuals still find themselves being stigmatized in that upon realization of their transgender identity, they face ridicule and rejection from close friends, relatives and the society at large. The lesbians and gays who met condemnation for a long while have gradually been assimilated into the community without much stigma, but the transgender seems far from getting to this point. They are at times considered suffering from mental illnesses, and sexual predators. They also face harassment regarding physical assault, bullying, condemnation and acts of violence directed towards them.
Anti-Transgender Violence
They are also the victims of anti-transgender violence from strangers, partners and the society. There have been reported cases of stabbing, shooting, burning, strangling and violent killings of transgender individuals and especially women. The transgender individuals face challenges in protecting themselves from such acts of crime because the police too express bias while attending to such people who even harass them sexually. They are therefore reluctant to getting assistance from the police because of denial of equal services by the law enforcers (Ender & Matthews, 2016).
Healthcare Access
The transgender individuals face challenges when seeking and accessing healthcare. They are often mishandled in healthcare institution by staff who are insensitive and those who lack the competency to deal with transgender people. The individuals occasionally find it difficult to get the hospitals to access the services because, in many instances, the diseases that affect them due to their sexual orientation differs from the other members of the society. They prefer self-medicating and avoid the hospitals because they do not want their identity revealed. In the health care centers, they also face discrimination and bias regarding receiving essential services (Stryker, 2017).
Identity Documents
They also face an issue of identity documents because, without documents, it makes it difficult for them to access the necessary services regarding their lives, like, transport, housing, emergency services and school among other services that allow one to function in the society. Many states cause the problem in the U.S that always require medical transition documents and expensive fees to acquire new documents which are not always affordable to every member of the transgender community. In the case of transport, the united states have no provision for the visa and driving licenses for the third gender. It requires one to be either male or female. Thus the transgender community is denied the right travel if their documents read otherwise other than single or female (Ender & Matthews, 2016).
Discrimination in Military and Workplace
In addition, the transgender community in the USA has been denied the right to serve in the military despite their abilities and merit. This move is against the one in the previous administration that allowed them to serve in the military. Those already in the military are subjects to vulnerability while others opt to quit due to the non-conducive working environment(Stryker, 2017). They also lack the legal protection from the federal government to enable them to deal with the discrimination that comes with their identity especially in places of work. Few states forbid discrimination that is based on gender identity in various departments denying them the rights to equal opportunities and hence lack representation from the lawmakers to participate in legal duties. They are legislators who are against the transgender community such that they are passing laws that will see the prohibition of transgender individuals from accessing the public utilities like the bathrooms and using the religious inclinations to rubber stamp the discrimination of the transgender community (Safer & Hembree, 2016).
Financial Challenges and Poverty
As a result of lacking the opportunities to access essential services and equal opportunities often subjects this community to poverty due to lack of employment. The transgender community, especially those of color live in deplorable conditions lacking the necessary means of survival in addition to the stigma that comes with the identity. To survive, one maybe forced to engage in illegal activities. Such activities may endanger their lives regarding facing possible arrests, being killed and a higher risk of acquiring the sexually transmitted diseases (Stryker, 2017).
Progress and Efforts Towards Equality
America has always been associated with the provision of opportunity for all religions, origins, races but it has, however, in some instances broken these promises and denying some groups of people thus, discrimination of some sort existed amongst the Americans. The federal government, however, has continued its efforts in providing an inclusive environment for all its citizens thus, measures to safeguard the rights of the transgender community have been evident, and some are underway. The human rights activists have also been in the forefront to fight for the rights of this community to ensure that they live like the other ordinary citizens (Ender & Matthews, 2016).
Legislative Actions and Legal Protection
For instance, the federal government, through the department of education and the equal employment opportunity commission are contemplating on coming up with measures to ensure there are non-discriminative laws that allow the transgender community to work wherever their qualifications befits. The Congress too has passed legislative laws that prohibit the discrimination by the contractors in the year 2014 and 2015 the marriage equality (Stryker, 2017). The student non-discrimination act exists to ensure that the public schools did not discriminate students based on a gender identity or the sexual orientation. This has gone a long way in providing the students with gender identity issues are protected and are given an equal opportunity to acquire education just like the other students. The act also ensures that the transgender community is protected from bullying by other students and teachers in the school environment. The bill is also supposed to provide quality education to all without discriminating so that they can equip them with the necessities to pursue further higher education (Safer & Hembree, 2016).
Transgender Equality Task Force
The transgender equality task force was introduced to the Congress to ensure that it brings the required awareness to the members of the Congress regarding the transgender community and the challenges that they face. It was further to help the members of the congress come up with the necessary legislations to ensure the protection of the transgender community from the violence and discrimination from the society (Stryker, 2017).
Government Support and Awareness Campaigns
The government is in the process of passing a bill that will allow the gender recognition for the transgender individuals without the evaluations by the judicial, medical or even the psychiatric. It will also provide for the access to free voluntary transitional health care. Also, the government passed the affordable care act, which forbids the discrimination based on transgender status in the healthcare facilities that have been funded by the federal government. It also prohibits the insurance companies from denying cover to transgender individuals (Safer & Hembree, 2016).
Additionally, the many civil society groups have run a massive campaign across the world to create awareness about the transgender community and the various obstacles they face in their daily operations. They also aim at appealing to people to accept the individuals with gender identity issues without discrimination (Stryker, 2017).
References
Stryker, S. (2017). Transgender History: The Roots of Today’s Revolution. Seal Press.
Ender, M. G., Rohall, D. E., & Matthews, M. D. (2016).Cadet and Civilian Undergraduate Attitudes toward Transgender People: A Research Note. Armed Forces & Society, 42(2), 427-435.
Safer, J. D., Coleman, E., &Hembree, W. (2016). There is reason for optimism: an introduction to the special issue on research needs in transgender health and medicine. Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Obesity, 23(2), 165-167.
