Transgender Awareness

The Williams Institute estimates that 1.4 million Trans people live in the U.S. — though this number is likely larger due to survey respondents concealing their identities due to stigma and fear.

As our country’s views on same-sex couples evolved, especially after gay marriage was legalized, religious conservatives shifted their focus to Trans individuals, increasingly attacking them with hateful legislation, rhetoric, and violence.

Over 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in the U.S. during the 2023 legislative session, with 233 targeting LGBTQ+ students, and the majority of those focused squarely on Trans youth.

On November 13 we recognized the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which kicked off Transgender Awareness Week, November 13-19.

In order to be aware, we must make a conscious decision to be informed.

Stigma and discrimination have devastating effects on the lives of queer, in particular Trans, individuals. CDC data has shown that, while five percent of straight youth report attempting suicide within the year, that number more than quadruples for gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth — 23 percent. In a survey by The Trevor Project, a full 28.8 percent of Trans and nonbinary youth reported attempting suicide within the year.

Additionally, 37 percent of Trans/nonbinary students reported being physically threatened or harmed, shown to triple suicide risk.

One third reported parental rejection, shown to increase suicide risk eightfold.

The term Transgender describes individuals whose internal sense of self includes a gender identity different from their assigned sex at birth.

This is separate from sexual orientation, which describes an individual’s romantic attraction to others.
A Trans woman may be attracted to women, considering herself a lesbian, while another may be attracted to men and consider herself heterosexual — and so on across other combinations of gender and sexual orientation.

The AMA and all credible medical/psychological organizations have repeatedly asserted that sexual orientation and gender identity are not psychological or medical disorders — and that accepting and affirming both optimizes quality of life.

Our obsession with categorizing folks has always marginalized outliers, and Trans individuals are no exception.

In the 1500s European colonizers documented gender non-conformance observed in indigenous populations, and scholars have referenced the “gendercide” that followed.

In 1629 the Virginia Court in Williamsburg forced a gender non-conforming individual to wear a mix of men’s and women’s clothing.

In the late 1600s Massachusetts criminalized cross-dressing.

The Nazis targeted LGBTQ+ individuals relentlessly, as I’ve noted in previous weeks. Magnus Hirschfield, German sexologist and physician who oversaw the first modern gender affirmation surgeries, and author of The Transvestites — which said society needed to adapt to the sex characteristics and erotic desires of individuals, not the other way around — was called “the most dangerous Jew in Germany” by Hitler himself.

The majority of documentation of Trans existence, at least prior to the age of video and electronic records, is found in court records of individuals being criminally tried for dressing or behaving in ways that challenged gender-based expectations. The rest has been, largely, erased from history.

Gender and sexual orientation are complex, personal, and individual. It is well-established that attempts to force an individual to change either do not work — legally or through the physical and emotional torture of “conversion therapy.”

As we intentionally center the experiences of Trans individuals this week, let’s all take some time to learn, reflect, and grow.

I highly recommend reading the following: bit.ly/FCNP1123ta, bit.ly/FCNP1123tr, and bit.ly/FCNP1123tv.

Transgender Remembrance

Below are the Trans individuals whose lives were violently cut short in 2023. Listed are their names, ages, and dates/locations of death.

• London Price, 26, 10/23/2023, Miami, FL
• Lisa Love, 35, 10/17/2023, Chicago, IL
• A’nee Johnson, 30, 10/14/2023, Washington, D.C.
• Dominic Dupree, 25, 10/13/2023, Chicago, IL
• Chyna Long, 30, 10/8/2023, Milwaukee, WI
• YOKO, 30, 9/19/2023, New Orleans, LA
• Sherlyn Marjorie, 35, 9/17/2023, Albuquerque, NM
• Thomas “Tom-Tom” Robertson, 28, 8/17/2023, Calumet City, IN
• Luis Angel Diaz Castro, 22, 8/12/2023, San Juan, PR
• DeVonnie J’Rae Johnson, 28, 8/7/2023, Los Angeles, CA
• Camdyn Rider, 21, 7/21/2023, Winter Park, FL
• Jacob Williamson, 18, 6/30/2023, Monroe, SC
• Chanell Perez Ortiz, 29, 6/25/2023, Carolina, PR
• Ashia Davis, 34, 6/2/2023, Highland Park, MI
• Banko Brown, 24, 4/27/2023, San Francisco, CA
• Koko Da Doll, 35, 4/18/2023, Atlanta, GA
• Ashley Burton, 37, 4/11/2023, Atlanta, GA
• Ta’Siyah Woodland, 18, 3/24/2023, St. Mary’s County, MD
• Cashay Ashanti Henderson, 31, 2/26/2023, Milwaukee, WI
• Zachee Imanitwitaho, 26, 2/3/2023, Louisville, KY
• Unique Banks, 21, 1/23/2023, Chicago, IL
• Maria Jose Rivera Rivera, 22, 1/21/2023, Houston, TX
• Tortuguita, 26, 1/18/2023, Atlanta, GA
• KC Johnson, 27, 1/14/2023, Wilmington, NC
• Jasmine “Star” Mack, 36, 1/7/2023, Washington, D.C.