I heard a recently discussion that some transgender people feel far less patriotic toward the Good ‘Ol US of A since beginning their journey down this new adventure in life.  I have heard it coming from transsexuals and others who live full-time in a cross-gender life, but not so much from crossdressers and others who cross the gender lines temporarily.  Why would transsexuals feel this way?

Dictionary.com’s definition of Patriotism is:

“noun: devoted love, support, and defense of one’s country; national loyalty.”

“Devoted love, support, and defense of one’s country?”  I have noticed that transsexuals who have served their country in the military don’t seem to have as much of an issue with their patriotism, and in many cases, are more patriotic than the average American.  I served eight years in the Navy and I am very proud of the service to my country, as I am with all the family members who also served.  I even have a memorial to my father with models of four jets he worked on when he was in the Air Force.  In a year, my mother will give me the flag that was on his coffin, and I will display it proudly.

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Why would some trans people feel a loss of patriotism after starting their lives down the correct path?  Could it be all of the things this country has done and continues to do to show us how little they care about us?  “Can I get a Hallelujah and a big Duh here?”  Ya think?  Here are some of the things I have seen over the years that have made me even question my patriotism.

Violence:

Year by year, violence toward trans people continues to get worse and worse.  The Remember Our Dead list doesn’t stop growing, with more than half coming from the US each year.  Other forms of physical violence and rape are also disproportionately higher in our community then in other minorities.  Only young African American men seem to have as much or more violence then transgender people.  In the trans community, People of Color have faced a higher percentage of violence and the ROD list reflects this.  This feeling of constant danger can cause people to wish they lived someplace else, so it affects their patriotism.

Federal Hate Crimes Legislation:

According to the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE,) eleven states have their own form of hate crimes legislation that covers gender expression and gender identity.  On the federal level, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (LLEHCPA,) HR 1592, passed the House, but in the Senate, their version, bill S 1105, was attached to an arm forces appropriation bill to get it to the President’s desk.  However, this changed the appropriation bill, which meant it had to go back to the House for approval.  LLEHCPA was then removed from the appropriations bill, thus ending its journey.

The difference between the federal hate crimes bill and a state hate crimes law is that the federal law will NOT increase sentences.  LLEHCPA will add “gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability” to the existing protected class list, which already includes race, color, religion, and national origin.  This would allow federal money to go to local law enforcement agencies to help investigate a hate crime.  It would also mean that separate stats would be collected on crimes against LGBT people and would show the numbers of those crimes committed in the US.

The most important reason to pass a federal hate crimes law is to tell the American people that if you hate this group of people and commit crimes against them, it will no longer be tolerated.  Since Congress had been so cavalier in trying to pass LLEHCPA and then letting it die so easily, it sent a message that LGBT people are not important enough to add to the existing federal hate crimes legislation.  The United States of American is okay with its citizens hating LGBT people and harming them.  They could easily be saying, “We don’t think they are worthy enough to care what happens to them.”  One begins to question why they should be patriotic toward a county who feels that way about them.

Federal Employment Non-Discrimination:

Here is another area where transgender people have questioned their patriotism.  According to NCTE, thirteen states and the District of Columbia have passed nondiscrimination laws that protect people based on their gender identity and gender expression.  This leaves 63% of the American population not covered.  Many of those remaining states will never pass their own nondiscrimination law, so their citizens are depending on the federal government for this.  As we saw in 2007, Congress was more than willing to throw transgender and gender variant people under the bus when it came to this law.

I was well on my way to working toward becoming a delegate to the Democratic National Committee’s 2008 Convention in Denver when the vote for ENDA took place in October, 2007.  As soon as I got word that a majority of supposedly supportive Democrats voted for the non-inclusive law, I stopped supporting the Democratic Party.  I was not very happy that the party I gave money to and worked for to elect their candidates told me in no uncertain terms that I was not worthy to be considered equal to other Americans.  To a veteran, that is a huge slap in the face.  Veterans Day came up shortly after that and I refused to march in the Atlanta Veterans Day Parade or participate in any activities.  My patriotism suffered its biggest blow in my life.

I wasn’t the only one.  There was a rumor that if the non-inclusive ENDA passed, some transgender people planned on seeking asylum at the Dutch Embassy in DC because of the discriminatory actions of this country.  They wanted to embarrass the US, but nothing every came of it, or at least not yet.  Besides, the current administration would have cared less if a bunch of “tranny freaks” left the country.

Transgender Veterans Discrimination in the VA:

This is a subject I have written about several times recently, since the White Paper Report on the Transgender Veterans Survey was published.  I don’t need to go into detail once again on the amount and kinds of discrimination transgender veterans have faced in VA medical facilities.  When a person gives four, ten, twenty, or thirty years of their life to serve this country in the military, one would think that they have earned the right to be treated with respect and equally with other veterans.  It’s no wonder some transgender veterans question their patriotism when they held up their end of the contract, but the country doesn’t hold up theirs.

Over and over again, transgender people indirectly get the message that this country doesn’t want them as citizens.  Yet, they still take our tax money.  Sometimes the message comes from the very allies we hoped would be there for us no matter what.  Sometimes it comes from Congress in the form of being excluded from legislation.  We hear it from law enforcement agencies, employers, co-workers, family members, the medical profession, insurance companies and even the people on the streets.  We hear this so much that not a day goes by that some transgender person in this country questions why they still live here.  Some actually do leave.

As for me, I was born here, my family has been here since before the Revolutionary War, many family members in our history served in this country’s military and all my family lives here today.  The ENDA disaster was the closest time in my life where I questioned my patriotism.  I decided that my love for this country and the pride I have for what I did in the Navy cannot be dampened any longer by an uncaring Congress, an administration that has promoted hate and a population that refused to be educated.  I will continue working toward fixing the problems of this country, or die trying.

The year was 1993.  Clinton was President.  Gay, lesbian and bisexual people felt they finally had a friend in the White House.  And, even though transgender people officially started the gay movement at the Stonewall Inn in 1969, they only began finding their voices in the equal rights movement in the early 1990’s.  They had very little visibility and vertically no credibility.  We weren’t on anyone’s radar.

In that year, President Clinton wanted to fulfill a promise by making the US military safe for people, regardless of their sexual orientation, but it didn’t turn out the way people wanted.  The now infamous Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law came into affect and it did not protect people in the military based on their sexual orientation, if that orientation was something other than straight.  The law gave commanders a chance to hunt down gay, lesbian and bisexual service member in order to weed them out.  Transgender military people didn’t ask to be included, but included they were.

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Shortly after that, a new LGB organization, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN,) formed for the express purpose of legally helping military personnel who have been targeted under DADT.  They did a great job and helped thousands, but, if a transgender person came to them, they could not help because they had no one who had any knowledge about their issue.  Yet, trans people were targeted because the military thought they were gay.

My first experience with dealing with SLDN was back in 1999 when Private Barry Winchell was murdered at Ft. Campbell, KY.  I just happen to catch a news story and when they showed Calpernia Addams, they called her Winchell’s “Drag Queen lover.”  Even before Calpernia had any surgeries, one could easily tell she was a transsexual woman.

I called the club where Calpernia worked, but she had to call me back later.  In our conversation, it came to light that the SLDN leaders at that time wanted to portray her as a “gay man” so they could push the problems with DADT.  She told me that Barry was attracted to her femininity and not anything else about her.  Barry Winchell was killed because he was dating a trans woman, BUT that somehow made him “gay” in the eyes of the other soldiers and in the eyes of SLDN back then.

In January 2003, the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) was formed to address the problems facing transgender veterans in the VA, but to also do what we could to help transgender service members who had problems while serving.  We quickly came out saying that we opposed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to show our support for our gay, lesbian and bisexual brothers and sisters in arms.  We had also heard stories of trans people being targeted under the law, so opposing it made sense as far as our mission was concerned.

After a short time, TAVA started getting requests to provide legal help because some trans services members were being targeted under DADT.  The new people in charge of SLDN were more supportive, but pointed out that they still had no person in their ranks to take on this issue, even though these trans service members were accused of being gay.  Later that changed when SLDN hired a transgender lawyer who not only began helping trans service members, but educated SLDN on the issues.

As time went on, the reasons for DADT lost all of their logic.  Prominent high-ranking military people publicly came out opposing it, while polls showed Americans overwhelmingly supported its repeal.  All of Europe allowed their LGB people to serve openly and even some allowed trans people to serve openly.  The days of DADA were numbered.

SLDN saw that the conversation about DADA had ramped up tremendously and a new law was about to be introduced, the Military Readiness Enhancement Act (MREA) that was designed to repeal DADT.  The law only had the words “sexual orientation” because that was the only words DADT used.  SLDN realized they needed to speak to the transgender community to ensure them that the way the law was written was specifically to repeal DADT and not to exclude transgender people on purpose.  Adding the words “gender expression and gender identity” into MREA made no sense and would confuse Congress people.

In 2006, SLDN, TAVA and National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) had a conversation about this very issue.  SLDN didn’t want to get angry calls and E-mails from transgender people when MREA was introduced and it only had the words “sexual orientation” in it.  They wanted us to assure transgender people that the reason we were not mentioned in MREA was because DADT had nothing to do with “gender identity or gender expression.”

In theory, they were correct about this, but in practice, the military continued targeting transgender people for being gay.  In that meeting, I agreed to go along with SLDN’s strategy, as did NCTE, because their logic was that if passed, MREA would help transgender people as well.  The one person in the meeting who didn’t want us to go along with this was TAVA’s Vice President, Angela Brightfeather.  She felt something was wrong but couldn’t put her finger on it.  She, like the rest of us, knew transgender people had been targeted under DADT, but we had no proof.

All of SLDN’s Action Alerts and press releases stated that “gay, lesbian and bisexual service members are being adversely affected by DADT.”  They knew that transgender service members were being affected.  TAVA knew it, too, but we kept our mouths shut so as not to rock the boat.  Little did we know what the future held for us.

Fast forward to 2008 and TAVA began their Transgender Veterans Survey that lasted until May 1, 2008.  The raw data from the survey made it absolutely clear that transgender people were being targeted just as much as LGB service members, with trans men being questioned about their sexual orientation at twice the rate as trans women.  At that point, TAVA’s stance changed on inclusion in MREA.

When Memorial Day came up, several people wrote articles on how much DADT has hurt our country’s readiness by discharging many critical people needed in a time of war.  The Department of Defense raised the age limit to the middle 40s.  Criminals of all kinds were allowed to serve.  People who could not get along socially and those with low aptitude scores were accepted, as long as they were straight.  All the articles kept saying, DADT affects gay, lesbian and bisexual service members.  I don’t know how many times I responded to these articles using the data from the survey, but no one listened.

That all changed when the most prestigious institution in the country, The Palm Center, published the White Paper Report on the Transgender Veterans Survey.  They lent credibility to our claims that transgender people can no longer be left out of the DADT discussion.

Here’s what The Palm Center wrote in the “Research Implications and Recommendations” section at the end of the White Paper Report:

“Survey responses make clear that transgender service members are negatively affected by the current DADT policy, even though the policy does not directly apply to them.  Transgender and other service members expressing non-traditional gender identities are often perceived as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, thus increasing the likelihood that they will be investigated under DADT.  DADT targets these service members regardless of their actual sexual orientation.”

So, what happens next?  SLDN is faced with a situation on continuing to show its support for transgender service members without damaging the integrity of MREA.  The TAVA survey has been read by Congress people already, so it is no longer a secret.  SLDN may start getting tough questions about transgender service members, which was not TAVA’s intention.

We know there are solutions to help them in answering these questions and TAVA is ready to sit down and talk with them to work out those solutions.  I am sure that conversation will be happening very soon, when the DNC Convention hoopla has calmed down.  What ideas TAVA has is not for this article.  When we have made a coordinated decision with SLDN on how to approach this new issue, everyone else will know.  We want to take a unified direction that will help all service members and not hurt any of them.

Over the last ten years, I have been privileged to be invited to speak in front of psychology classes, sociology classes, human sexuality classes and social work classes at various universities and junior colleges, both in Arizona and Georgia. It seems that when they reach the subject of transsexuality, it helps the students to better understand if they have a live subject to grill. One of the first things I tell them when I start my presentation is, “I’m not afraid of the questions you ask me, as long as you aren’t afraid of the answers I give you.” It let’s the students know that every question is fair game.

Over the course of the years, I have developed visual aids to help in explaining various aspects of the human condition related to the subject matter. One of the things I would tell them is that Gender Identity, Gender Expression, Sexual Orientation and Physical Sex are four completely individual and separate aspects to a person’s life. Each is represented by a line and a person can fall any place on those lines.

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As time went on, I made some adjustments to the categories so they would better reflect the lives that transsexuals lead and the changes they face along the way. I changed “Physical Sex” to “Body Presentation,” to reflect how the transsexual appears without clothes on, as opposed to “Gender Expression,” which reflects how a person presents themselves to the world with clothes on.

I also changed “Sexual Orientation” to “Sexual Attraction,” because in the case of many transsexuals, they don’t stop finding the same sex attractive, even though they have changed their body and documents to live in the gender opposite of their birth. In my case, I never stopped finding women attractive, so I went from a heterosexual man to a lesbian. Only society’s labels for me changed. Here is the basic chart:

The next two charts show where the “average” straight men and women fall on these lines. Notice that women are allowed to express themselves with styles of dress that give them more flexibility on how they want to look, whereas men are confined to a much stricter selection. (I placed the word “average” in quotations, because I don’t really like using that word, but I have to here for a clearer explanation.)

The next two charts show that gay men and lesbian women appear to have a broader range in expressing themselves when it comes to an outward appearance. This also covers body language. The charts don’t reflect the “average” gay man or lesbian women, but are designed show that within the gay and lesbian population, there can be a larger variety of how the men and women identify or express themselves then in the straight population. As an Lose Weight Exercise, people reading this may wish to figure out where they fall on each line.

The next eight charts are more complicated, because they reflect the experiences of some transsexual people. On the next two charts, they reflect children who have a Gender Identity different from their biological sex. As you can see, many of the parents force the child to present as their biological sex, which can cause problems in later years. However, there have been a growing number of parents who understand when their child says they are not a girl or a boy. This can be attributed to the increase of exposure on television and in the news about transsexuality.

With the next two charts, we see how a transsexual falls on the lines just before starting their transition. For sake of clarification, I’m going to say that when a transsexual “starts transition,” it means when they start living full time, but many will use other points in their life for when they start. Like everything else, it is up to the individual. For some people, these charts can represent a period of years, while for others, it could mean weeks or just days. There is a lot of variation in this.

Notice that on these charts, the Body Presentation is slightly off from the end. This reflects the changes transsexuals start making to their body that may not be evident to others. The men may start taking testosterone grow body hair and start bulking up. The women may start electrolysis, shave their body hair and develop breasts if they started on hormones. How far off the end their body becomes depends on how long they stretch out the pre-transition process. For transsexuals, sexual attraction can fall anywhere on that line.

I would also like to note that for most MtF crossdressers, their chart would look similar to the MtF transsexual chart shown here, with the exception that their identity will be at the other end of the scale, or slightly off that end, and they would more then likely be attracted to women.

Just after starting transition, in the next charts, we see that the body changes of transsexuals make them much further away from the end on the Body Presentation line, but their Gender Expression has very little variation. In the early stages, many wish to present closer to the gender stereotypes to reflect the new direction in their life. Again, I have to keep emphasizing that this does NOT reflect all transsexuals. How individuals fall on these lines vary drastically.

The last set of charts show trans men and women once they have settled into their lives. The reason why the men’s Body Presentation is further from the end then with the women is that a large majority opt not to have any form of bottom surgery. There are many reasons why the women are not right at the end. This can be things like lack of hips and waist, larger hands, height, Adam’s apple, plus not all of them get bottom surgery. Yet, there are so many who look nearly perfect that the “average” MtFs overall fall closer to the end.

These charts can be useful if ever any of you stand in front of college students, giving them an overview of transsexuality. The great thing about the human race is that people can fall anywhere on those lines. I recall one time where a college student challenged my linier thinking for gender and suggested that these categories should be placed on a sphere. I think he is absolutely right, but I’ll let him create the next generation presentation for this subject.