Why the Umbrella Failed
Filed By Mercedes Allen | June 17, 2011 9:30 AM
http://www.bilerico.com/2011/06/why_the_umbrella_failed.phpWhile writing "The Death of the 'Transgender' Umbrella," it became necessary to clarify something in my own mind. The language is changing, yes, but the aspect of the word "transgender" that had especially changed was also the thing that seemed to make it most valuable: its use as an umbrella concept.
While it's true that the specific words we use are ultimately irrelevant to how human rights protections are encoded in law, the way we're framing our issues currently does, in fact, set us up for serious conflict between binary-identified and non-binary trans people when addressing issues of legal documentation and accommodation. It also spawns confusion and misunderstanding when the general public is faced with multiple narratives and tries to figure out how to parse them into a single entity. We need to recognize - and sooner rather than later - how couching transsexual and gender diverse issues under a single umbrella creates an expectation of a single narrative with a single solution to all associated challenges.
