From invisibility to stability: Transgender organizing for the masses
Briarpatch Magazine
By Mandy Van Deven
January/February 2010
http://briarpatchmagazine.com/from-invisibility-to-stability-transgender-organizing-for-the-masses/Transgender and gender nonconforming people are just beginning to shed the cloak of invisibility that has shrouded their participation in social and political life. The success of productions featuring middle-class transgender people, like the film Transamerica and the television show The L Word, is opening the door to public conversations that had previously been relegated to academic departments of women's and queer studies. These popular portrayals are not always politically correct, but they do help to foster the development of an active and visible transgender citizenry working for public recognition of equal rights. Unfortunately, however, transgender visibility seems to be stalled along class lines, a problematic development that advances the rights of a privileged few at the expense of community-oriented movement building.
