Transgender 101

                             by Joanne Herman
                             writer, speaker, educator

 
About me: 
Mutual Transformation - in March/April 2007 Dartmouth College Alumni Magazine. 
My Speaker's Bio. Also, reflections on the first five years of living in my true gender.

My columns on Advocate.com: 
The basics in one quick read (if you only read one column, read this one).
What you can and can't say to transgender person.
The Transgender 101 series.
Advanced transgender topics.

Columns by subject:
Basics (read first)
Corporate acceptance
Deception?
Discrimination
Female-to-male (FTM) procedures
Feminism and trans people
Identification, changing
Intersex
LGBT board participation
Male-to-female (MTF) procedures 		Mental illness?
Prevalence
Regret?
Religion
Sexism and trans people
Stealth
Success stories
Subgroups under the trans umbrella
Television portrayals
What you can and can't say

What it means to be trans - the basics
LGBT leadership just went on record in a big way by insisting that ENDA should be trans-inclusive. Maybe now it's important to know what "transgender" really means.


My Transgender 101 series columns from 2006

Intro) Transamerica gets real
As the Advocate put it: "In this first installment of The Advocate’s exclusive new series, the author talks about how her wife, her gay male friends, and the movie Transamerica inspired her to reach out to you, our readers, to answer all your questions about being transgender, whether you were afraid to ask or not."

1) What's in a trans name?
Transsexual? Cross-dresser? Gender-queer? Under the “transgender” umbrella are a range of people who deal with gender identity and gender expression in nontraditional ways. A primer on who’s who. 

2) The surgery you never wanted
Born somewhere between male and female, intersex people face unique gender identity issues, especially if “normalizing” surgeries were imposed on them at a young age. 

3) There are more of us than you think
The "official count" of the country's transgender population dramatically underestimates its size and composition.

4) Out of one closet and into another
Many transgender people choose to live “stealth”—never admitting to being transgender—because of safety concerns, societal stigma, and prejudice.

5) The trans catch-22
In order to get “treated” for being transsexual—meaning hormones and, perhaps, surgery—you first have to be diagnosed. But calling trans people sick creates the same stigma gay people faced for decades.

6) The wonders of the female hormone
For male-to-female transsexuals, estrogen can deliver soft skin, sensuous curves, and a profound sense of harmony—but it’s no magic bullet.

7) The visible man
Female-to-male transgender people find that supervised testosterone therapy can work wonders, although surgical choices are more complicated.

8) "Transgender? You're fired!"
Or worse—you may be murdered. Transgender people may face discrimination on the job, in housing, or even in trying to pee. Some turn to legal proceedings to establish their rights. Some never get the chance to fight back. 

 9) Forced out: A real ID problem for trans people
Changing one’s name and gender marker privately can be tricky if you're transgender, and a new law designed to thwart terrorists is about to make it a lot trickier.

 10) Please don't call me "tranny"
Not sure what is “politically correct” when speaking with a transgender person? Here's a primer on what to say.

 11) Corporate dominoes
The remarkable progress in corporate America's embrace and support of its transgender workers shows the U.S. competitive spirit is alive and well--and helping boost the T part of the LGBT rainbow.

 12) Transgender success stories
Varying degrees of “stealth” have allowed many transgender people to be quite successful in spite of the challenges. 


Advanced transgender topics

Transsexual regret
When you know someone who's undergone sex-reassignment surgery, the possibility of regret may feel like the proverbial elephant in the room. But what is the prevalence of regret, and why does regret occur?

Trans not on board(s)
Most gay and lesbian organizations have become LGBT organizations in recent years. If their missions now include transgender people, why don’t their boards?

Transgender deceiver
Former Largo, Fla., city manager Steve Stanton attended a conference at city expense and dressed as a woman for two seminars without telling the city. Was he deceiving the citizens of Largo or just being incredibly prudent?

Jesus, the transgender terminator?
Some citizens of Largo, Fla., cited religious grounds for the dismissal of Susan Stanton, the transgender city manager. Would Jesus really have terminated her employment? This and other transgender tales from the Bible.

Empires that won't fall
A short film was recently pulled from San Francisco's Frameline film festival because it was said to reinforce transphobic stereotypes articulated in Janice Raymond's 1979 book Transsexual Empire. The question is, How has her oversimplified thinking survived?

A big year on the small screen
While a lot of work remains to be done, the 2006–2007 television season saw some important milestones for transgender people.

Why the Bailey controversy won't die soon
To focus on the overzealous response of some trans activists is to miss the bigger picture -- that transsexuals are fed up with non-trans "experts" claiming to know us better than we do.


Also - Transgender 101 on NECN
                    


Back to the Transgender 101 series columns
Back to Advanced transgender topics

::: Copyright 2006-2008 Joanne Herman / Photo: Marilyn Humphries Photography :::