Transgender issues get greater respect—but anatomy remains destiny
By Julie Hollar
"The consequences of media's fixation extend beyond dehumanizing and disrespectful interrogations; as transgender lawyer and activist Dean Spade told Extra!, such reporting reinforces the idea that "trans people's genitals are our defining characteristic, which is possibly the single most discriminatory belief reflected in law and policy harming trans people." Many transgender people can't afford the expensive surgeries, and others don't want to undergo them for a variety of reasons, but the widespread misconception that transgender people are defined by their anatomy puts serious roadblocks in their efforts to secure basic rights.
Changing one's gender designation on official documents like a driver's license or birth certificate—a critical step for getting a job or simply getting by on a daily basis without facing discrimination or the need to regularly explain and justify one's identity—almost always requires "proof" in the form of surgery. In prisons and jails, inmates are usually put into sex-segregated facilities based on their anatomy, not on their gender identity—which puts some transwomen in male facilities, greatly increasing their risk of experiencing rape and violence at the hands of guards and other inmates. Similar problematic rules exist in other sex-segregated facilities like shelters and mental health facilities.
They're serious problems for the transgender community, and they exist because of deeply ingrained misconceptions—misconceptions that instead of correcting, media perpetuate.
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