Conditions Affecting And Effecting The Transgender Community

The following article aptly describes many of the conditions affecting the entire Transgender community. Transgender people are marginalized by the state, by institutions and by supposed all inclusive organizations throughout much of society.

Equality for the Transgender world community will be achieved through education, legislation and litigation.

On a wet night this October, more than 200 students filed into a transformed Lerner Party Space. Screens had been hung in front of the windows and, beneath darkened house lights, glowsticks and pink ribbons added flashes of color. Some partygoers raved to pulsing music on an impromptu stage on the dance floor while others lounged on couches scattered across the room. With most clothing only optional—“Drag, underwear, or whatever makes you feel sexy” was the dress code—the scent of bodies filled the air.

This was GenderFuck, the crowning event of Queer Awareness Month’s Trans Week and the brainchild of Miranda Elliot, CC ’10 and co-chair of Queer Awareness Month 2009 committee. Elliot proposed the ideas for Trans Week and GenderFuck two years ago after noticing a lack of transgender-focused campus programming. “A lot of trans people I know here say that they feel like the only trans person here, so I wanted to help change that,” she said.

Elliot’s interest in the issue also led her to co-found the University’s first transgender advocacy group, GendeRevolution, which sought to fill the gaps between existing campus queer support and the needs of the transgender community. Soon after followed a partnership with QuAM, opening the door for the incorporation of events like Trans Week and GenderFuck, beginning in 2008. “Before we existed there wasn’t a group that was specifically dedicated to transsexual identity and advocacy,” says Liz Lamoste, CC ’10 and a board member of GendeRevolution. “You could say, ‘Well, trans is covered in every queer group,’ but we know that’s not the case.” Though transgender issues may have found expression within the campus queer community through the voice of GendeRevolution, Elliot and others say the work of transgender activism is just beginning....

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