Posted on 06/28/2006 9:23:30 AM PDT by Mr. Brightside
Today: June 28, 2006 at 3:16:29 PDT
Transgender Community Finds Acceptance
By LISA LEFF
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A clash between police and patrons of an all-night diner here 40 years ago was once a forgotten footnote in history. For members of the transgender community, though, it was the start of their slow march toward widespread acceptance.
Sparked by the riot, San Francisco activists started their own civil rights movement - three years before the more famous clashes at New York City's Stonewall Inn.
A dedication this month of a granite anniversary marker at the site of the Compton's Cafeteria riot drew a pair of city supervisors, the district attorney and the police chief. The California Assembly and Mayor Gavin Newsom sent proclamations.
"Trans has `become part of polite society," said historian and transgender activist Susan Stryker, who spent years investigating the riot and making it into a documentary called "Screaming Queens."
"You can't be openly anti-trans the way you could before," she said.
"Transgender" is an umbrella term that came into common usage a decade ago and covers cross-dressers, transsexuals and others whose outward appearance doesn't match their gender at birth.
While not every city is ready to celebrate their contributions, San Francisco - which in 2001 extended its health insurance to cover sex reassignment surgeries for municipal employees - is no longer alone in left field. Across the nation, one of America's most maligned minority groups is quickly winning rights and recognition it began to demand only recently.
In the last two years, New Mexico, Illinois and California have updated their anti-discrimination laws to protect transgender home buyers and renters; colleges in Vermont and Iowa have dedicated "gender neutral" dorm rooms; and corporations have adopted policies for helping employees stay on the job during sex changes.
The change has been especially obvious this month as U.S. cities observe gay pride events. Although so-called "drag queens" have been a visible part of pride marches since the 1970s, gay and lesbian groups were long afraid to embrace transgender causes for fear of being tainted by the more extreme prejudice they provoked, said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
"There was a time when nobody wanted to even mention transgender issues or have transgender people accompany you on lobbying visits to members of your state assembly because that was pushing the envelope too far," Foreman said.
But gender identity still raises thorny questions for gay activists. For example, should women who were born as men be admitted to lesbian events? But the annual pride party has become much more transgender inclusive, said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington, D.C.
This month, transgender people were chosen as grand marshals for pride parades in Albuquerque, N.M., and Seattle, while Boston and Houston joined New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco in making trans-specific entertainment part of the official pride festivities.
Observing the range of lawyers, entertainers and openly transgender professionals who were on hand as the sidewalk plaque marking 1966's Compton's Cafeteria riot was installed, Stryker was struck by how much had changed in the last 40 years.
"Back then, you couldn't be out as trans without huge costs," she said. "To see all these people honoring a bunch of drag queens who rioted against the cops is amazing."
FWIW, a quick Google search for "Lisa Leff gay" showed 51,600 hits. She seems to write almost exclusively about the issue.
If you're sorry, why post?
Or as the Brits would say...."poof piece".
Wow. That took balls.
Do you need the obligatory "Barf Alert" ?
This month, transgender people were chosen as grand marshals for pride parades in Albuquerque, N.M., and Seattle, while Boston and Houston joined New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco in making trans-specific entertainment part of the official pride festivities.It's about time, that's all I can say. How have we survived without this. It's really long overdue. Just think of all the grand marshals of all the parades all over America, and only now are some of them transgender people.
Whew! I get to scratch that off my list of world's biggest unsolved problems.
Transgenders are now accepted------by other fruits and nuts. They are a joke to anyone but themselves.
A pathetic joke. Sometimes pitied sometimes laughed at but accepted>. Hardly.
THAT would've made everything okay!
Yeah, if they were "so accepted" there would be at least ONE study or poll (even from some obscure organization) supporting the title.
You would find out how "accepted" they are when the high school football coach comes back one fall as a woman and wants to hand out towels in the girls locker room.
Yep, it sure as hell is.
But really, all this attention to the transgendered only ticks off the transpecies activists who aren't getting nearly as much attention.
I can empathize with these people because I think I am Trans-Racial.
Everytime I visit the casino I feel something inside me that tells me I am Indian and deserve a piece of the pie.
I think you've got something there. These people's assertion that they are really a female in a male body, or vice-versa, cannot be challenged, so why should yours that you're really an Indian inside that paleface exterior?
When do the Hermaphrodite Clowns get their own section in the Boston Marathon?
I can't believe that in thirty years this is not even going to be an issue. The whole homosexuality thing I predict will be completely accepted. I don't know why I have that feeling but I really do. It is upsetting as a christian.
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