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Zach Shippy
Christy Bowman
December 8, 2017
UF 200
Achieving Transgender Equality in the Age of Media
In today’s day and age, it’s important to be tolerable and understanding of those different
than us. It seems like now more than ever, certain groups and minorities are facing an even
harder time to be recognized and accepted. One such group that has been facing these issues is
the transgender community. For many, living as a transperson means being misunderstood and
often discriminated against by their peers. Prejudice and stigma are rampant, and while visibility
for the trans community has been growing in popular culture, especially within the last decade,
there is still much to be done (Brown). The lack of representation of transgender men and
women in todays society is part of a systemic issue of ignorance of trans issues. This ignorance
trickles down and creates prejudices that society tends to feel. Besides discrimination in every
day life, and similarly to other members of the LGBT community, these prejudices have
manifested themselves in numerous different anti-transgender bills that have been put forward in
politics to put transgender rights as secondary and to stifle their voice within the community. The
struggles that the transgender community faces are not theirs alone, the implications of anti-trans
legislation and discrimination affect everyone regardless of their opinion of transpeople. Many
people and organizations, such as Laverne Cox and the American Civil Liberties Union, are
stepping forward and working with the transgender community to voice their issues and bring
visibility to their cause. With help from individuals and organizations such as this, perhaps soon
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we can live in a world where no one is looked at differently or thought twice about for being a
transgender man or woman.
To have a better grasp and understanding of the issues that the transgender community
faces, it’s important to understand what exactly it means to be transgender. For someone who is
born a transgender male or female, their gender identity does not match the biological body they
were born with. Their gender identity is how they view themselves internally, their sense of
being. However, someone doesn’t have to only identify as a man or woman to be transgender.
It’s almost an umbrella term for anyone with gender identity issues (Transgender FAQ). This can
be a difficult concept for some to understand. Most people who are born identify perfectly fine
with their biological gender. This is important because this is a prime example of a reason why
humans have prejudices against each other, a lack of knowledge and understanding. It’s easier
for people to discriminate against something that they can’t personally relate to (Beneras).
Similarly, to other minority groups, members of the trans community face extremely high
rates of discrimination and other types of mistreatment. 10% of respondents to the 2015 U.S.
Transgender survey reported having a family member act violently towards them. Over half of
transpeople in school, kindergarten through twelfth grade, had reported being verbally harassed
while 24% were physically attacked. Bullying and harassment at school, unfortunately, are fairly
common. But for boys and girls who identify as transgender, their rates are even higher. 17% of
transgender students reported changing schools because of continued harassment. In the
workplace, 30% of transgender men and women have reported mistreatment such as being
denied promotions or workplace harassment, including sexual harassment. These hardships in
school and the workplace have led to severe economic consequences as well, with 29% of
surveyors reporting living in poverty compared to the national average of 14%. The reason for
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the poverty rate could be the employment rate among the trans community is 15%. The national
average was 5% when the survey was conducted (Transgender Survey). The correlation between
discrimination among transpeople and the economic crisis they are in is undeniable.
When considering prejudices against transgender men and women and the discrimination
they face, it’s important to talk about how they’re represented in the media and popular culture.
It’s also important to consider that how they have been viewed in the media might perpetrate
some of these prejudices and stereotypes.
People are highly susceptible to what they watch on television and take in ideas that they
see portrayed without even realizing they’re doing so (Bulik). In the case of transpeople and the
LGBT community at large, oftentimes they’re portrayed in a humorous way, such as a man
dressing as a woman or an overly flamboyant man or masculine acting woman. This undermines
