Why 'Surviving Transphobia' matters

Surviving transphobia is what we have to do.

An overview from Surviving Transphobia. ed. Laura A. Jacobs. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2023.

Why is this book important? Jacobs writes in an introduction dated June 2022:

"Legislative and physical transphobia have spiked since the 2016 election and the subsequent attempts to undo all pro-LGBTQIA+ regulation, transgender and gender nonbinary protections first. The New York Times article '‘Transgender’ Could be Defined Out of Existence Under Trump Administration' documented that regime's strategy to classify gender by chromosomes alone, denying gender identity altogether, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s so-called 'How to Spot a Trans Woman' memo was disturbingly reminiscent of Nazi propaganda."

Jacobs continues:

"Since President Biden’s inauguration, those states plus others have continued this brutal campaign through a similar pattern: define mental health and medical care to transgender and gender nonbinary youth as child abuse, then criminalize supportive doctors, nurses, psychotherapists, teachers, clergy, and school coaches. Threaten severe fines, loss of professional licenses, incarceration. Demand all mandated reporters inform on anyone who provides assistance or face the same punishments themselves. List parents as sex offenders. Have 36 states draft laws in 2021 alone to limit trans participation in sports, despite clear research documenting that we have no special advantage and that participation in team sports provides exercise, yields better grades, and leads to improved self-esteem.

They have also renewed calls for anti-trans 'bathroom bills' citing 'the need to protect women and children,' though these manufactured arguments are just thinly veiled bigotry. The opposite is more accurate; trans people are regularly victims of violence in public bathrooms, and there have been more accounts of cisgender male conservative lawmakers committing misconduct in bathrooms than of trans people. But still they would limit our access, knowing that if we cannot pee in public, we cannot be in public."

The first essay, "Recognizing the Existential," is by Jamison Green, who says that transphobia is rising today and that it isn't merely an illusion due to trans people's increased visibility:

"I’m very uneasy about the steady rise in antagonism being fueled by religious and right-wing extremism in the United States and elsewhere. Even before 2016, trans people had disproportionately suffered from violence, unemployment, poverty, lack of access to healthcare, racial and socioeconomic disparities, the transphobic policies of biased institutions, and the legislative assaults from governmental entities. Now it’s worse."

M. Dru Levasseur says in "Your Authenticity Is Your Power — Tales from a Trans Lawyer":

“According to LGBTQ Funder, trans communities receive only three cents to every hundred dollars spent on overall LGBTQ issues. Meanwhile, anti-trans groups are well-organized, well-funded, and fueled by hate and public ignorance.”

Some of the problems are within health research and the providing of healthcare. Asa Radix says in “A Call for Trans Providers and Researchers":

"...nearly half of trans medical students were misnamed or misgendered during placement interviews. This is blatant discrimination, creating a hierarchy of safety and opportunity in which trans medical students are inherently disempowered and viewed with skepticism whatever the setting, and where trans patients are the modern ‘Hottentot Venuses,’ objects to be examined and subject to the will of the providers.

* * *

We have no need for a test to determine if someone is 'genuinely' trans, nor for a scale to document 'how trans' someone is. Someone’s word is enough. Thankfully, many of these proposals fail because they lack willing participants. Often, I will be asked to refer people; however, we need not contribute to research so divorced from our realities."

Everything in this book is important for cis and trans readers alike to be aware of and think about. Not everyone has the same experience. Understanding that diversity is part of understanding the challenges that trans people face, which for any individual may be predictable or not.

I write my own essays about transphobia, but if you want a very clear overview from a variety of voices, you should check out Surviving Transphobia.