Discrimination Against Transgendered People Gender & Sexuality Term Paper

Discrimination Against Transgendered People

Gender & Sexuality

In many wester societies and cultures, the gender and sexual spectrums are narrow. One can be male or female, not neither, not both, and not something in between. One can be masculine or feminine, not neither, not both, and not something in between. These are typically the mainstream beliefs regarding sexual and gender identity. The fact is, in more countries around the world, people are coming to terms with and gaining awareness about the fact that the gender and sexual spectrums are far more dynamic than we have been taught to believe. There are intersexed people, formally called hermaphrodites, who are born with female and male genitalia. There are transsexuals and homosexuals, and there are transgender people. There are even types of heterosexual people who exist that do not fall within the very narrow acceptable forms of gender and sexual identities. There are many people who fall outside of what is the normative or mainstream gender and sexual identities. Just as people who fall outside of the economic, social, and cultural mainstreams experience prejudice and discrimination, so do the people who fall outside of normal and mainstream sexual and gender identities. The focus of this paper will be regarding some types of sexual and gender discrimination that transgender people face in everyday life, and in specific contexts, such as the workplace and school. The paper argues that sexual and gender discrimination run rampant around the world, and there is a necessity for interventions to diminish the amount and intensity of discrimination transgender people face daily.

The term transgender has, for the most part, been created by and used by the people who make up this category. They have chosen to define themselves and apply it as they see it. This is very powerful, as for example, disabled people did not define themselves as disabled, and the terminology in that community is a very sensitive topic. Transgender means that the how one identifies does match one's assigned sex. One's assigned sex likely comes from one's body parts and society overall. A transgender man may identify as a heterosexual male and have been born with a traditionally female body. This person would like identify as transgender. Transgender people are people who physically and internally fall outside or normative assigned gender and sexual identities.

Sexual identity and gender identity is an important aspect to each person, whether they fall within the normative spectrum of identity or not. Dietert and Dentice comment directly regarding the lifelong, culturally pervasive importance and influence of sexual and gender identities. They compare gender and sexuality to things such as race, in terms of them all being social constructions, and how identification with or displacement outside of such labels inform a person's entire life experience:

…social structures dictate who we are and what roles we are expected to perform... [including] prescribed values, norms, and beliefs guide societal expectations. Arguably, gender identity…