I imagine (or at least hope) that if I asked you, you would say that you support the rights of transgendered people, value their participation in and contributions to society, and value them as people. But how many of you could really swear that you have never looked (or stared) a little longer than normal at someone who was transgendered? Stared because that man was wearing makeup or a skirt, or commented to yourself and others that the girl in your class "dresses like a man"? Have you ever felt uncomfortable because you could not tell if an individual identified as a man or a woman?
Discrimination and prejudice against individuals who are not cisgendered is rampant, and an important sociological issue. A cisgendered individual has "a match between the gender they were assigned at birth, their bodies, and their personal identity," (from Wikipedia's article on cisgenderism).
So here's a question for you: How are the people in Jose's life treating him now that he is no longer Josefina? What about society?
Let's look at some statistics. Between 2 and 5% of the population identify as transgendered, and yet only 16 states plus the District of Columbia have laws which prohibit discrimination based on transgendered status. Here's a fact sheet (which I pulled my above stats from): http://www.transgenderlaw.org/resources/transfactsheet.pdf.
If we look in the news recently, the convicted Wikileaks leaker, Bradley Manning, has recently announced that he identifies as a female and from this point forward, would like to be known as Chelsey Manning. Although she will be imprisioned, she intends to seek gender reassignment surgery, which is currently against the policy of the prison she will be held in. Not only was there a slew of insults and degrading comments about the transgendered community following her announcement, but also within the transgendered community, there was disappointment about the announcement because they felt having a convicted 'traitor' (though many would disagree that she did anything wrong) brought further negative light upon them. It's a very fascinating story, and I encourage you to read some of the articles. Here are the links:
If you read those three articles, you'll see that gender reassignment surgery can be of major importance for transgendered individuals. Transgendered individuals don't arbitrarily choose to go from male to female or from female to male. They feel, often from a very young age, that they have been born into the wrong body, and who they are does not match their physical attributes. I'll bring up something that really put it in perspective for me.
In one of Professor Kiburi's classes, we watched a documentary on transgendered children and their families (those of you in Soc 30A may watch it this quarter). What does it tell you when a toddler tries to cut off his genitalia with toe nail clippers because "it doesn't belong there?" What does it tell you when a six or seven year old is considering suicide because they cannot bear to live in a body that does not match who they really are on the inside?
Transgendered individuals are not unnatural. Someone who was born a biological male but identifies as a female is no less of a woman than I, who was biologically born a female. Think of all the ads and such on the internet nowadays proclaiming that "real women have curves." Yes, some women have wonderfully curvacious bodies and should feel proud and comfortable in them. But curves do not make someone a woman. There are women who are naturally extremely skinny - and they are no less of a "real woman." So, to be a real woman, or a real man, it doesn't matter what genitalia you were born with or what you look like. What matters is who you feel that you are and identify as. A major problem with our society is that we place too much importance on what's on the outside, and not who the person really is.
To conclude, I'd like to ask this of you. Be loving to those around you, and don't judge. If you recall Professor Kiburi's friend, who recently committed suicide, hopefully you can understand that even if in the end we cannot prevent or control the outcome, we should always be there to support and love the people around us, especially those who are having a harder time than the rest of us because society has not learned to accept them.
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First photo (Jose was once Josefine) is my own (though the artwork in it is not).
Statistic graphics from:
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