Transgender Equality | Teen Ink

Transgender Equality

June 6, 2015
By Edith Mendoza BRONZE, Reno, Nevada
Edith Mendoza BRONZE, Reno, Nevada
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Many people have heard of the series “Orange is the New Black”. Yet, not many people know that Laverne Cox from the show is actually a trans- women. She is an advocate for the transgender community. She speaks of a time of her life that she was bullied and she also speaks about how Tran’s people are treated and the statistics on who gets bullied more or who gets in trouble. These are some of the things that have happened to trans genders because of the discrimination against them .Some of the things that have happened are that Tran’s people lose their homes, get bullied not only by peers but by teachers or professors, they lose their children, and some even get incarcerated for being transgender. Transgender people are not allowed to use the rest room that they identify themselves as.


According to the National Center of Transgender Equality and national LGBTQ “63% of their participants had experienced serious acts of discrimination. And out of that 63%, 23% of them had experienced disastrous level of discrimination”. (transequality.org). In addition 16% of the adults that participated said that they had been in jail or in prison before. Transgender people, especially poor people and people of color, reported that they were disrespected, that they were arrested because of discrimination and that they were physically and sexually assaulted by officers. (transequality.org).The people we are supposed to trust to protect us are physically and sexually assaulting people, as well as arresting for assumptions that are made. Some officers abuse of their authority and arrest and detain anyone they please.


In the state of Nevada the bathroom bill was rejected. On April 21st the bill was put to vote. This bill would allow transgender people to use the restroom which they would identify themselves as “Assembly members voted against AB 375 on a mainly party-line, 22-20 vote on Tuesday night. Five Assembly Republicans and all Democrats voted against the measure” (Rylie Snyder) because of this the schools have to provide facilities for transgender or intersexual people.” The legislator of Arizona wanted to make it illegal for Tran’s people to use the opposite sex bathroom without proper paper work.”(Lexie Cannes). That is silly because they would have to make people carry their papers or something that is able prove that they are really female or male. They would have to have people put in restrooms to check papers to make sure that they are the gender they say. Many may not have considered the thought of what if someone forgot their papers what would they use as proof of their gender, they probably would have to hold it or try to prove it somehow if it’s urgent.


There are states that have passed laws that prohibit discrimination against transgender people. These states include Nevada, California, and the District of Columbia, New Mexico, Organ and many more (aclu.org). There are laws that protect students from harassment in public schools in some states example California. In other states they have laws that protect students from harassment in both public and private school example Nevada. (aclu.org).


At the end transgender equality is one of those things that is hard to get. Many laws have been looked at to protect the rights of Transgender people. Many have tried to fight and work against the laws that are not being put in place. At the end it’s something transgender people or people who believe in the fact that transgender people should be treated as anyone else with respect and dignity should do.


The author's comments:

I had to write this piece as a writing assingment. I couldn't decicide what to write it on. My sister told me to write about something that can make a change.


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