Beyond the “B” & the “T”: Legal & Cultural Intersections of Queer & Trans People in the Movement for Social Justice
Dylan Vade & Aline Carton
Objectives:
- to promote meaningful dialogue on issues specifically relating to bisexual and/or queer and/or trans people’s lives
- to begin to develop a framework for analyzing and integrating these issues into the legal debates beyond the simplistic addition of a “B” or a “T” when characterizing LGBT communities
- to begin to recognize that such a meaningful analysis and incorporation would not only be more inclusive but would also advance legal arguments and strategies for LGBT and queer people’s liberation
People are different. People have many, many different genders. There are feminine women , masculine women, sporty women, androgynous women, feminine men, butch men, just to start. There are sissy ftm's (female to male transgender people), masculine ftm's, butch mtf's (male to female transgender people), glamorous feminine mtf's, and many more. And, then there are those who identify as neither women nor men, those who identify as third gender, fourth gender, no gender, bigender, shinjuku boy, boi, grrl, boy-girl, papi, dyke-fag, fairy, elf girl,glitterboy, and many more. The world does not consist of two genders, but millions - a gender galaxy.
The law, unfortunately, often has a hard time recognizing the enormous and beautiful gender galaxy. Transgender people who identify as female or male frequently have their gender reduced to one physical attribute. Often, being a woman or man boils down to genitalia, of the 'correct' size and heterosexually functioning. And, being a man or woman are the only options. With one exception, transgender people who do not identify as female or male are utterly invisible in the law, not even recognized as existing. This lack of recognition of self identified gender and the existence of the gender galaxy means that transgender people often lack protections and so get their children taken away, get fired for being themselves, get evicted, get expelled from school, get denied health care, get arrested for using the bathroom - just to name a few.
People are different. People have many, many different sexualities. There are lesbians, gays, gay men, homosexuals, homos, dykes, heterosexuals, heteros, straights, bi’s, bisexuals, gay-bi’s, dyke-bi’s to name a few. Then there are also omnisexuals, pansexuals, bisexuals, queers, butches, femmes, asexuals, or folks who don’t identify as anything at all. Similarly to gender identity, the world does not consist of two kinds of sexualities, but millions – a sexuality galaxy.
When the law addresses issues of sexuality in the narrow contexts of heterosexuality and homosexuality, it trivializes the myriad of sexualities that exist in between or outside of those commonly understood dichotomized definitions and fails to truly address the heart if the matter- freedom to love and be. This binary sexuality paradigm does not exclusively exist in the legal world. It permeates throughout most major institutions of our society such as education, religion, medicine, media, government and as well as with in “the community” itself. People who do not identify as heterosexual/straight or homosexual/gay/lesbian generally have their sexual orientation and gender identity defined by outsiders based on who they are currently partnered with and what they look like rather than their own self-identification. For example, when a biological woman is with a biological man, she must be straight; when she’s with a biological woman she must a lesbian. So what happens if she’s with a biologically female, female to male trans person or if she is herself is biologically male, male to female trans person with a female to male trans person. What are the sexual orientations here? Sounds complicated? It is, but also reflects the lives of many people who comprise LGBT communities.
One of our problems while advancing legal theories for equal rights in this arena is that we are often forced to confine the discussion to the homosexuality v. heterosexuality, nature v. nurture, conduct v. identity. Meanwhile, we fail to meaningfully address and analyze the full spectrum of sexuality and gender identity which has been the very basis of determining sexual orientation and our legal rights. The question is, by eliminating this binary confinement in our communities and sub-cultures can we advance legal theories that are more inclusive and to the benefit of all non-heterosexual and traditionally gendered people lives?