This Is the Way to Achieve Trans Rights

http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/12/03/way-achieve-trans-rights

The Advocate.com
By Jillian Weiss
December 03 2015 4:30 AM EST

Everyone who reads a newspaper or magazine knows transgender people are moving out of the shadows and toward equality by leaps and bounds. But three breaking developments in recent weeks demonstrate the breathtaking speed of this movement on the federal level. Congress, the Justice Department, and a highly respected federal judge, Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York, have taken significant action to support transgender rights. These victories illustrate, once again, that our biggest wins are happening on the federal level and in the federal courts, outside of legislation that can't pass nor win at the ballot box. The defeat of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance is the most recent example of legislative failure.
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I have a question . ..

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Yes, it has to be at the Federal level.  Americans, if left to their own devices, will choose the status quo every time including the status quo to discriminate and treat minorities poorly.  History bears this out with many examples.

QuoteAmericans, if left to their own devices, will choose the status quo every time...

It's worse than that, Deborah. Americans, given the choice, would take away rights bestowed upon anyone by SCOTUS. Example: State legislatures inserting themselves between women and their doctors. Rowe v. Wade is settled law, but the loonies can't help themselves.

Quote from: diane 2606 on December 03, 2015, 10:24:13 AM
It's worse than that, Deborah. Americans, given the choice, would take away rights bestowed upon anyone by SCOTUS. Example: State legislatures inserting themselves between women and their doctors. Rowe v. Wade is settled law, but the loonies can't help themselves.

Some Americans would and it is more centered in some cultural areas than others. Don't forget all the Americans that voted for marriage equality and the aggregate polls seem to indicate that if it had been put to a national vote, it would  have passed. But the court took care of all that. States have way too much power over human rights in my opinion. The feds protect better.

Hearts and minds are changing, demographics are on our side.

I'm a little skeptical / pessimistic about the long-term effectiveness of judicial action.

Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.  However, there was little legislative backup, and abortion rights have been under attack ever since, and those attacks have been gaining ground to the point that abortion is effectively outlawed in much of the USA -- at least for the people who aren't rich enough to bypass all the obstacles.  (People with money were always able to get them on demand, laws or no laws.)

We have to see judicial action as merely the first step towards achieving trans rights.  The long-term goal has to be normalizing the existence and humanity of trans people to the point that most cis people see restrictions on people based on whether they're trans as being just as bizarre as placing restrictions on people based on whether they're redheads.

Normalization is huge. For that we owe a lot to the media and entertainment. They don't always get it right but they do help a lot.