The Current Wave - Susan Stryker

Transgender History Chapter 5, The Current Wave, by Susan Stryker

In chapter 5 of her novel, The Current Wave, Susan Stryker demonstrates the emergence of transgender communities from the very beginning. The transgender communities and the public attention given to them, according to Stryker, began as early as 1960s. Despite its gradual growth in recognition by the public and their solid place in society, the trans community emerges as an important part of the larger society in the 1990s due to various contributing factors such as the spread of AIDS and the rise of feminism.

Starting in the 1960s, small organizations started to spring in order to promote and protect their identity as a transgender. Although the growth of these organizations seemed to be staggering, this didn’t stop them from carrying out their jobs through the bleakest times for transgender activism in the 1970s and 1980s. For instance, a transgender community based in Boston brought forth the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) in 1987. Its major focus was on the needs and interests on MTF cross-dressers, but it also aimed at increasing the general transgender constituency. In addition, small scale, self-financed, homegrown resources such as the J2PC foundation (established by Jude Patton and Joanna Clark in California) awoke as a result of various historical factors such as the end of the Cold War, rise of feminism and development of internet. These organizations, more than anything else, worked on enhancing social justice for trans people and communities.

Among the prominent activists were female writers who would redefine and reshape the public perspective toward trans people such as Leslie Feinberg and Sandy Stone. Leslie Feinberg, who had been transitioning from female to male in the 1980s, attempted to define and occupy the space between the two conventional genders. By doing so, and using other kinds of means, she also instigated the social and political gender-specific oppressions. Another influential female activist promoting transgender communities was Sandy Stone who through her popular novel, The Empire Strikes Back, gave the nascent transgender movement intellectual and political dimensions and agenda.

In the midst of the active participation of various organizations and trans community activists, feminism was on the rise. The discussion regarding feminism and power of women also opened rooms for the expansion of transgender feminism in the 1990s through which (although discussions on trans communities were limited) the idea and philosophy behind trans-gender communities grew dramatically along with others. For instance, Judith Butler suggests the idea of ‘gender performativity’ through her book, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. This feminist assertion can be related to the rather radical idea of gender identity which states that gender should not be defined by two distinct groups but based on the different kinds of acts that people ‘perform’. Since no two people act identically, expressing identity gender-related characteristics, every individual is different in terms of his/her gender identity and therefore, trans people are as natural as heterosexual and cissexual individual. This iconoclastic idea of indistinct and undefinable gender roles that sprang from feminism had an unexpected influential impact on the growth of trans-related ideas and communities as well.

Feminism was not the only factor that grabbed the public’s attention in the 1990s. The wide spread of AIDS epidemic also played a crucial role in sparkling  major discussions about trans people and their communities that were vulnerable to the disease. If not acted upon, these people would act as carriers of the disease to the entire population. First of all and most importantly, trans people, compared to the rest of the population, specially lacked access to healthcare system and suffered social stigma, survival prostitution and were given fewer educational resources due to discrimination. Recognizing the devastating effects that these factors would bring to the larger, more ‘normal’ world, AIDS funding entities directed money and various forms of financial resources to the trans communities as a prevention and harm-reduction strategy. This attention and resources given to the trans communities aided them in creating new kinds of alliance politics which disregarded the discriminations against ‘race and gender, class and nationality and citizenship and sexual orientation. ‘

It is tremendously intriguing and rather impressive to see different social uprisings and ideas are inter-connected and further aid each other in amassing attention and expanding each group’s interests hand in hand. Despite such a struggle that trans communities have been through and the paramount efforts of innumerable activists, I personally feel, based on my present life, that they have not justly been recognized and caught the public’s attention. The idea that each and every individual is different, regardless of what their socially labeled gender is, in their fundamental gender identity is something that everyone should realize by reflecting deeply on themselves.

Overcoming Obstacles As an African-American Transgender Woman – Anonymous

This article written by an African American woman reveals the story of her painful journey as a transgender. Her life before transition, she says, was a very unhappy one. She would always be in pursuit of her real identity, what her subconscious told her she was. She was perceived to be gay (because everyone thought she was a boy and she liked guys) and on the inside, she felt extremely uncomfortable and out of her natural place/body therefore, miserable. She indicates that she felt as if she was living a lie and that she wanted to find out who she really was.

She claims that deciding to be a transgender was something more fearful than coming out as gay or lesbian because society has rarely seen a transgender come out. It seems that her race, skin-color, economic status and family’s religious beliefs complicated, if not prevented, her decision to transition.  According to the author, in an African American Christian community which she was born and brought up in, changing one’s gender (being a transgender) was something completely illogical and defying what God had naturally provided. This fact, as the author speculates with definite certainty, would have resulted in vehement disapproval from her entire family. As a result, the author has no one to turn to and no one to understand her situation. The author proves to be a strong female individual even though she has ‘no hiding place’ and eventually does go through the transition despite all the disadvantages and ruinous consequences that it would bring. In the end, she admits that the transition, against all down-sides, was worth it and that she was finally happy.

I think that this piece of writing gives a perfect insight into life of transsexuals and how difficult it is to live as one, especially an African American transgender. I learned that one does not suffer just because he/she is a transgender, but also because of other aspects of his/her identity such as being an African American and a Christian in this case. I think that the last heart-felt statement of the author is very true – ‘Transgender people, live free and be true to yourselves, and always remember that education is the key, because knowledge is power.’ I believe that she means that through learning, people are empowered and they grow strong enough to take confident steps in life and do what’s right.

The strength that the author exhibits is admirable and the candid personal account and the advice of the author, invaluable.