When we talk about gender equality, we talk about males and females. When we think about building bathrooms in a new building, we think about males and females. When a pregnant woman finds out the sex of her baby, she considers whether her child will be male or female. The rules are changing. Everything is changing.
Recently, the gay community has succeeded in their efforts to influence government legislation and court rulings, and now, temporarily, at least, gay marriage is legal. Prior to this success, the gay community opened it’s doors to include the transgender community in its pursuit to achieve equality. The acceptance of gay men and women is still in progress, but now there is legal proof of gradual acceptance and understanding. American society will now once again face adapting to a social change. America must strive to understand and grant equality to transgender community.
A transgender person is someone’s whose given biological sex assignment does not match their gender identification. This is not the want to be the opposite gender but “gender dysphoria,” the unwavering belief that their given sex was not the gender they were meant to identify with. Society fears the transgender community because cisgender people, those who believe their sex matches their gender, have a difficult time comprehending this gender dysphoria. Additionally, “65% of Americans said they have a close friend or family member who is homosexual, while 9% said they have one who is transgender,” according to surveys. Such a small percentage of transgender people and those who know transgender people makes this subculture somewhat alien to a society that has only ever known of two dominant genders. While is it understandable that cisgender people have trouble comprehending the gender identification of transgender people, change must still happen. Isn’t that what America is all about? Working tirelessly to fight to accept the cultures of certain communities?
Cisgender people have privileges that seem ordinary. They do not have to worry about which bathroom to use or worry about being questioned when they enter one. They do not have to worry about admittance to gender-exclusive events or universities. Discrimination occurs when a transgender person enters a gender exclusive space. It is clear that the cisgender community has a deep fear of gender not simply being a two answer multiple choice question.
History proves that society must gradually learn to accept this alien idea of nonbinary genders, that is, not male or female. Gender is no longer just male or female, and society is gradually breaking away from its binary options for gender identification. The trans community is striving to tackle gender stereotypes. They do not conform to traditional gender roles. This idea of nonconformity to such roles actually sounds liberating. Men no longer have to be sporty and muscular and women no longer have to be tall and skinny with the proper assets. While it seems liberating, it is clear that this idea is rejected. Nonbinary genders threaten to break the traditional rules of identity, but we have all grown up with the “be who you are” mentality. We must not be hypocritical. We must not be judgemental. We must accept that if we are allowed to be who we are, people who are different deserve the same thing. While society will be uncomfortable with this change for awhile, transgender people have spent most of their lives being uncomfortable. LGBT will change all of the rules of modern society; however, it is capable of this change.
