TRANSGENDER
Tragic Trans? Nope!

The American series “Transparent” makes the subject gender identity now also popular in Germany. In America, the debate is far more. A visit to the transgender center in Queens, New York.
By Claudia Steinberg
Die Zeit
9 April 2015

A rainbow flag between Isabel’s Hair Salon and the mini supermarket shows the way to Pride House: the center for queers and transsexuals on 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens. There sits on voluminous sofas and office chairs a group of transsexuals, lesbians and bisexuals. The atmosphere is relaxed. Until a woman of indeterminate age dressed in black with a glamorous Chinese shawl draped around her shoulders, takes her place. Pauline Park is the founder and director of Pride House. The group discussion includes dramatic tales of family disputes and unease with their assigned gender identity that feels wrong.

Everyone has known for a long time about Laura’s attempted suicide. Gene reported on the visit of his beloved grandmother from China and how she did not understand the transformation of her granddaughter into a boy and the difficulty she was having accepting his new gender identity. Dylan is computer programmer and longs for acceptance from his ex-wife and his children as he contemplates his transition. June wants to find a new job as a woman, but her doctorate and all her excellent work experience is under her male name.

Since the debates of the 1970s, gays have been able to integrate into the mainstream, leaving transgendered  individuals as an exotic community of outsiders. Their stories of redemption still have entertainment value in a way that the story of a gay couple with a dog and a house in the suburbs has lost. Meanwhile transgender has become the new hot topic, even among the general public, as a civil rights issue, as glamor factor, as a television series. In universities, transgender is challenging gender boundaries under the flag of queer studies. In October of last year, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called for the ability to change one’s gender on birth certificates without sex reassignment surgery. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has demanded that health insurance companies pay for sex change operations. The New York City jail, Rikers Island, one of the largest prisons in the world, set up a special department for transsexual inmates because prisons are dangerous places where they often have to endure violence and sexual attacks. Ten years ago a film like “TransAmerica” – in which heroine Bree transitions from man to woman – was still exceptional. Beginning this week, you can go to Amazon.com to find a German-language version of the series “Transparent” (as in, a parent who is transsexual); it has already won a Golden Globe award and has a good chance of attaining cult status.

The writer and director of “Transparent,” Jill Soloway, was inspired by the gender metamorphosis of her own father to create a funny and empathetic call for gender freedom: As Mort’s three daughters are grown up, he risks his coming-out and suddenly comes through the door as a woman with a long hair, in high heels and in a pretty dress. The astonishment is great, especially since Papa Mort surprises his daughter in an intimate embrace with her girlfriend. The series celebrates not just “the birth of a new mother from the female I of the Father,” but also “boygirl, girlboy, macho princess and officer slutty sweet bear,” encouraging them to affirm the identity of their choice. With this anti-dualistic conception, Soloway has wiped away the stereotype of the tragic tranny, the audience of millions demonstrating the possibilities of bold self-determination.

Pauline Park has situated her Pride House in one of the most ethnically diverse places in the world: In the school kitty corner, 84 languages are spoken. At Pride House, there are clients from Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Each year, the site provides approximately 6,000 interactions with residents from throughout Queens, New York’s second largest borough in population. Pride House has a database of lawyers and doctors accumulated over the course of two decades from whom transsexuals can hope for respectful behavior, working with psychotherapists or psychiatrists together. Immigration and health care are the most important issues. Pride House provides HIV tests, distributes 50,000 condoms a month, and helps homeless clients to find accommodation. “Transsexual teens often end up on the street,” says Park.

Pauline Park’s compassion for people like Laura or Gene is based on her own complicated biography. In 1960, American adoptive parents took two malnourished twins from Seoul. The boys were only eight months old and were the only non-white children in their elementary school. They found themselves in a Christian fundamentalist Republican family. In the first semester of her philosophy degree at the University of Wisconsin, to Park came out as gay. But that was only half the story. The other half came to light when Park took a scholarship to London and there increasingly appeared as a woman. She calls it the most liberating experience of her lives: “For the first time, I presented myself as I saw myself.” Finally, there was her reading of Michel Foucault, through which Park freed herself from the burden of supposedly inauthentic Korean identity and the sex/gender binary, unmasked as a social construct. “I started to accept me as” a male-bodied woman “and as Korean adoptee.”

At home in the sexual and cultural ambiguity, Pauline Park makes a radical theorist and activist who is at loggerheads with the “transgender establishment” in America and the “classic transsexual transition narrative.”

Page 2/2: The gender identity disorder still has the status of a mental illness

After conducting hundreds of training sessions and workshops at universities, hospitals, government agencies and companies Pauline Park is very familiar with all the prejudices that circulate about transsexuals. “Most participants expect me to tell them something about hormones and surgery. But while I begin by talking about that, I focus on trying to explain how many barriers a transsexual must overcome in a hospital visit.” Since 9/11, almost every public building has required showing an identity card. If one’s ID is in a male name, but the person appears as a woman, she will not be able to get beyond the guards. The next hurdle is the form on which you have to check ‘male’ or ‘female.’ If the patient Joanna is sitting in the waiting room, but the name John is called, it can expose her to astonished glances.

The linear transformation from male to female and vice versa is presented to the public on countless talk shows, from Oprah Winfrey to Barbara Walters – with guests who talk about being trapped in the wrong body and want to corrected that state of affairs through hormones and surgery. A change in legal sex designation can actually reinforce the sex/gender binary if it is based on the disease model of transsexuality. In 1974, homosexuality was removed from the diagnostic manual of mental disorders, which instantly ‘cured’ millions of gays. At the same time, the American Psychiatric Association introduced the diagnosis of gender identity disorder, which was recently changed to gender dysphoria, but which retains its status as a mental illness. Consequently, all transgendered individuals are still considered mentally ill.

Park conceded that the dissonance between the assigned gender identity and internal feeling, especially coupled with transgenderphobia, can lead to depression. But that would implicate a diseased society rather than the individual. She wants more than a few crumbs from the table at the Department of Health and isn’t willing to accept them at the cost of pathologizing the community. She regards transgender identity rather like left-handedness, with transsexualism as a natural variant of the dominant gender identity, not a form of deviance. Whoever would like sex reassignment surgery should have the opportunity to get it, says Park. But in contrast to the traditional transgender discourse only a tiny minority would undergo these serious interventions. The majority is situated on some point in the wide spectrum between masculine and feminine. A subversive concept that can result in open conflict in the choice of a public toilet in New York as elsewhere.

NB: This article appeared in the 9 April 2015 issue of Die Zeit under the title, “Tragische Transe? Nö!.” The original German text is below. The above English translation is mine. ~Pauline Park

TRANSGENDER
Tragische Transe? Nö!

Die amerikanische Serie “Transparent” macht das Thema Geschlechtsidentität jetzt auch in Deutschland populär. In Amerika ist die Diskussion längst weiter. Ein Besuch im Transgender-Zentrum in Queens, New York.

Von Claudia Steinberg
Die Zeit
9 April 2015

Eine Regenbogenflagge zwischen Isabels Haarsalon und dem Minisupermarkt zeigt den Weg nach Pride House: ins Zentrum für Queers und Transsexuelle auf der 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens. Dort sitzt auf voluminösen Sofas und Bürostühlen eine Gruppe von Transsexuellen, Lesben und Bisexuellen. Die Atmosphäre ist ausgelassen. Bis eine schwarz gekleidete Dame unbestimmten Alters, glamourös einen chinesischen Schal um die Schultern drapiert, Platz nimmt. Pauline Park ist die Gründerin und Direktorin von Pride House. Sie weiß, gleich wird die Stimmung abstürzen, mit dramatischen Erzählungen von Familienstreit, dem Aufflammen von Unbehagen an der zugewiesenen Geschlechtsidentität, die sich falsch anfühlt.

Alle wissen längst um Lauras Selbstmordabsichten. Gene berichtet vom Besuch seiner geliebten Oma aus China, die über die Verwandlung ihrer Enkelin in einen Jungen so verzweifelt war wie er über ihre Unfähigkeit, seine neue Identität zu akzeptieren. Dylan ist Computerprogrammiererin und sehnt sich nach einer “Rückwärtskompatibilität” mit der Ehefrau und den Kindern aus ihrem früheren Leben als Mann. Ihre Kollegin June sollte sich bei der Suche nach einem neuen Job einfach als Frau vorstellen, findet Dylan – doch Junes Doktortitel und ihre ganze exzellente Berufserfahrung laufen unter ihrem Männernamen.

Seit sich die Schwulen nach den Debatten der siebziger Jahre in den Mainstream eingliedern konnten, sind Transgender-Individuen als exotischer Rest der Außenseitergemeinde übrig geblieben. Ihre Erlösungsgeschichten besitzen noch immer jenen Unterhaltungsfaktor, den ein schwules Paar mit Hund und Haus in der Vorstadt längst verloren hat. Inzwischen ist Transgender das neue heiße Thema, es ist sogar in der breiten Öffentlichkeit angekommen, als Bürgerrechtsproblematik, als Glamour-Faktor, als Fernsehserie. An den Universitäten rüttelt es unter der Flagge von Queer Studies an den Geschlechtergrenzen. Im Oktober des vergangenen Jahres plädierte der New Yorker Bürgermeister Bill de Blasio für die Möglichkeit, das Geschlecht auf Geburtsurkunden ohne operative Umwandlung ändern zu können. Der New Yorker Gouverneur Andrew Cuomo hat verlangt, dass Krankenversicherungen für Geschlechtsumwandlungen aufkommen. Das New Yorker Gefängnis Rikers Island, eine der größten Strafanstalten der Welt, richtet eine Sonderabteilung für transsexuelle Häftlinge ein, weil Gefängnisse für sie zu den gefährlichsten Orten zählen, wo sie oft Gewalttätigkeit und sexuelle Attacken erdulden müssen. Vor zehn Jahren war ein Film wie Transamerika mit seiner vom Mann zur Frau transformierten Heldin Bree noch eine Ausnahme. Von dieser Woche an kann man über Amazon auch auf Deutsch die Serie Transparent sehen (parent wie Eltern und trans wie transsexuell), sie ist schon ausgezeichnet mit dem Golden Globe und hat beste Aussichten auf einen Kultstatus.

Die Autorin und Regisseurin von Transparent, Jill Soloway, hat sich von der Gendermetamorphose ihres eigenen Vaters zu einem witzigen und empathischen Aufruf für die Geschlechterfreiheit inspirieren lassen: Als Morts drei Töchter erwachsen sind, wagt er sein Coming-out und kommt plötzlich als Frau mit langer Haarmähne, auf Stöckelschuhen und im hübschen Kleid durch die Tür. Das Erstaunen ist groß, zumal Papa Mort dabei seine Tochter in inniger Umarmung mit ihrer Freundin überrascht. Die Serie soll nicht nur “die Geburt einer neuen Mutter aus dem weiblichen Ich des Vaters” feiern, sondern auch “boygirl, girlboy, macho princess and officer sweet slutty bear” zur Identität ihrer Wahl ermutigen. Mit dieser antidualistischen Auffassung hat Soloway das Klischee der tragischen Transe mit Schwung hinweggewischt und einem Millionenpublikum die Möglichkeiten kühner Selbstbestimmung vorgeführt.

Dieser Artikel stammt aus der ZEIT Nr. 15 vom 9.4.2015.

Dieser Artikel stammt aus der ZEIT Nr. 15 vom 9.4.2015.  |  Die aktuelle ZEIT können Sie am Kiosk oder hier erwerben.

Pauline Park hat ihr Pride House an einem der ethnisch vielfältigsten Orte der Welt angesiedelt: In der Schule schräg gegenüber werden 84 Sprachen gesprochen. Im Pride House erscheinen Klienten aus Kolumbien, Ecuador, Mexiko, China, Indien, Pakistan, Bangladesch oder von den Philippinen. Die Einrichtung verzeichnet jedes Jahr rund 6000 Interaktionen mit Bewohnern aus ganz Queens, New Yorks zweitgrößtem Stadtteil. Pride House hat in zwei Jahrzehnten einen Katalog von Rechtsanwälten und Medizinern angesammelt, bei denen Transsexuelle auf respektvollen Umgang hoffen können, man arbeitet mit Psychotherapeuten oder Psychiatern zusammen. Immigration und medizinische Versorgung sind die wichtigsten Themen. Pride House vermittelt HIV-Tests, verteilt pro Monat 50.000 Kondome oder hilft obdachlosen Klienten, eine Unterkunft zu finden. “Gerade transsexuelle Teenager enden oft auf der Straße”, sagt Park.

Pauline Parks Mitgefühl für Menschen wie Laura oder Gene ist in ihrer eigenen komplizierten Biografie begründet. Im Jahr 1960 nahmen amerikanische Adoptiveltern zwei unterernährte Zwillingsbrüder aus Seoul in Empfang. Die Jungen waren erst acht Monate alt und wuchsen nun auf als die einzigen nicht weißen Kinder der Umgebung. Sie waren in einer christlich fundamentalistischen, republikanischen Familie gelandet. Im ersten Semester ihres Philosophiestudiums an der University of Wisconsin offenbarte sich Park als schwul. Doch das war nur die halbe Wahrheit. Die andere Hälfte kam zum Vorschein, als Park mit einem Stipendium nach London zog und dort immer häufiger als Frau auftrat. Sie nennt es die befreiendste Erfahrung ihres Lebens: “Zum ersten Mal präsentierte ich mich so, wie ich mich sah.” Schließlich war es die Lektüre von Michel Foucault, die Park von dem vermeintlichen Fluch einer inauthentischen koreanischen Identität befreite und die binäre Geschlechtsbestimmung als gesellschaftliches Konstrukt entlarvte. “Ich begann, mich als ›körperlich männliche Frau‹ und als koreanisches Adoptivkind zu akzeptieren.”

Dass sie sich in der geschlechtlichen und kulturellen Ambiguität so beheimatet fühlt, macht Pauline Park zu einer radikalen Theoretikerin und Aktivistin, die mit dem “Transgender-Establishment” Amerikas und seiner “klassischen Version der Geschlechtsumwandlung” auf Kriegsfuß steht.

Seite 2/2: Die Geschlechtsidentitätsstörung hat immer noch den Status einer Geisteskrankheit

Nach Hunderten von Schulungen und Workshops an Universitäten, in Kliniken, Regierungsstellen und Unternehmen ist Pauline Park bestens mit allen Vorurteilen vertraut, die über Transsexuelle kursieren. “Die meisten Teilnehmer erwarten, dass ich ihnen etwas über Hormone und Operationen erzähle. Aber das Thema berühre ich kaum. Ich versuche zu erklären, wie viele Barrieren ein Transsexueller etwa bei einem Krankenhausbesuch überwinden muss”. Seit dem 11. September verlangt nahezu jedes öffentliche Gebäude das Vorzeigen eines Ausweises. Wenn der auf einen männlichen Namen lautet, die Person jedoch als Frau erscheint, wird sie möglicherweise nicht über den Wachtposten hinauskommen. Die nächste Hürde ist das Formular, auf dem man “männlich” oder “weiblich” ankreuzen muss. Wenn die Patientin Joanna im Warteraum sitzt, aber als John aufgerufen wird, ist sie verwunderten Blicken ausgesetzt.

Die lineare Transformation vom Mann zur Frau und umgekehrt wurde der Öffentlichkeit in zahllosen Talkshows von Oprah Winfrey bis Barbara Walters nahegebracht – mit Gästen, die sich im falschen Körper eingesperrt fühlten und diesen Missstand mit Hormonen und Operationen behoben. Mit der Umkehrung der genitalen Vorzeichen bleibt aber nicht nur die Weltordnung der polaren Geschlechtsidentität erhalten, sondern die Transsexualität weiterhin dem Krankheitsmodell verhaftet. 1974 wurde die Homosexualität aus dem diagnostischen Handbuch psychischer Störungen gestrichen, das führte mit einem Streich zur “Heilung” von Millionen von Schwulen. Gleichzeitig definierte aber die American Psychiatric Association eine gender identity disorder, Geschlechtsidentitätsstörung, die zur gender dysphoria abgemildert wurde, ohne jedoch ihren Status als Geisteskrankheit zu verlieren. Demzufolge wären alle Transgender-Individuen geisteskrank.

Park konzediert, dass die Dissonanz zwischen der zugewiesenen Geschlechtsidentität und der eigenen Empfindung, vor allem aber Transgender-Phobie zu Depressionen führen kann. Das wäre allerdings eher eine Krankheit der Gesellschaft als eine des Individuums. Sie will mehr als ein paar Brotkrumen vom Bankett des Gesundheitsministeriums um den Preis der Pathologisierung eines Zustands, den sie als so natürlich betrachtet wie Linkshändigkeit. Transsexualität ist für sie eine Varianz der dominanten Geschlechtsidentität, keine Devianz. Wer eine operative Geschlechtsumwandlung wünsche, sollte die Gelegenheit dazu haben, meint Park. Doch im Unterschied zum klassischen Transgender-Diskurs wolle sich nur eine winzige Minorität diesen gravierenden Eingriffen unterziehen. Die Mehrheit siedele sich einfach an irgendeinem Punkt auf dem breiten Spektrum zwischen maskulin und feminin an. Ein subversives Konzept, das bekanntlich schon bei der Wahl einer öffentlichen Toilette Konflikte eröffnen kann, in New York wie überall.

In der Serie “Transparent” wählen “MaPa” (Jeffrey Tambor” und seine Töchter die Damentoilette.

The post Tragic Trans? Nope! (Die Zeit, 4.11.15) appeared first on Pauline Park.

As a transsexual, Justine Nicholas said she often feels like Nora in the last act of Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House.” This sense of isolation was only compounded after a security guard in Midtown demanded that she prove her gender after she walked out of a women’s restroom.

“I was born as an insider,” Nicholas, 46, said. “I lived the first 43 years of my life as a white heterosexual male and while I wasn’t fabulously wealthy, nobody questioned what restroom I used when I walked in.”

Nicholas, a teacher at the City University of New York, was among more than 60 activists, officials and legal experts at a forum at New York University on Tuesday, April 19, that discussed the implementation of law that amended the city’s Human Rights Law to include gender identity and expression as a protected category. The New York City Council overwhelmingly passed Local Law 3, which protects transgendered New Yorkers from housing, employment and public accommodation discrimination, in April 2002; Mayor Michael Bloomberg quickly signed it into law. The city’s Commission on Human Rights adopted these guidelines in December.

Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, said these guidelines and amendments establish an important legal precedent. “There haven’t been many guidelines for gender identity and expression,” he said. “But when we added gender identity and expression to the city Human Rights Law, it was somewhat of a novelty under civil rights law.”

The TLDEF announced earlier this month that it had reached a settlement under the amended HRL after Nicholas and Pauline Park, co-chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy, filed complaints with the CHR. They alleged security guards did not allow them to access public restrooms. The settlements (the first since Local Law 3 took effect) constitute an important success, Silverman said: “Having success in cases like those is pressing some hot buttons.”

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Lesbian & Gay Task Force, described the impact of Local Law 3 as “tremendous” and added that other municipalities across the country are looking at it as a model. “This is a monumental step forward,” Foreman said. “When you do something like this it affects 8 million people. And other cities look to New York and say, “If New York can do it then we can do it also.”

Councilmember Bill Perkins (D-Harlem), who sponsored the bill, said it was part of an ongoing civil rights struggle for the transgendered. “We are not talking just about human rights but a civil rights movement,” he said. “One of the most important things we have learned is that laws don’t change attitudes.”

Sen. Tom Duane (D-West Side) and Assemblymember Dick Gottfried (D-Hell’s Kitchen) have reintroduced a bill in Albany last week that seeks to extend legal protections to transgendered people statewide. NYAGRA, the Empire State Pride Agenda and a number of other gay advocacy groups have endorsed the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act. Gottfried said he hopes the bill will expand protections outlined in the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act. “The experience of transgender individuals and the discrimination they face is unique,” Gottfried said. “It should be specifically identified and unambiguously rejected in our state’s civil rights laws.”

Despite these ongoing legislative and legal efforts, CHR Deputy Commissioner Avery Mehlman said he is concerned that many transgendered New Yorkers are simply unaware that they are protected under the law. “When we speak with the transgender community we see discrimination everywhere,” he said. “But we don’t see the numbers coming down to the agency to file a complaint.”

But Nicholas said this was a first step: “The fact that such a law was passed caused people to realize that their own consciousness needs to be raised.”

This article originally appeared in the 22 April 2005 issue of the New York Blade News, which is now defunct.

The post City implements trans rights (NY Blade, 4.22.05) appeared first on Pauline Park.

City Needs to Start Enforcing Transgender Rights Bill
By Pauline Park
Gay City News
29 April 2004

Two years ago this month, the New York City Council passed Int. No. 24, amending the city’s human rights law to add gender identity and expression, thereby extending protection from discrimination to transsexual, transgendered, and gender-variant people throughout the five boroughs.

I still remember vividly the euphoria we felt as we sat in the gallery of the City Council chambers on April 24 as the Council passed the bill by an overwhelming margin of 45-5.

After Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed the bill into law on April 30, the New York City Commission on Human Rights convened a working group––made up of members of its staff as well as transgender activists including me and my co-chair at the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA), Moonhawk River Stone––to draft guidelines for implementing this civil rights statute.

By the time of our most recent meeting––in May 2003––we had reached consensus on broadly conceived yet meticulously detailed guidelines that could well be a model for other cities to emulate. But a year after completion of the draft, the Commission has yet to approve it.

I was reminded of the importance of implementing the law by a disturbing personal incident I suffered on April 19. That morning, I joined John Won, Jih-Fei Cheng, and Alain Dang from Gay Asian & Pacific Islander Men of New York and Riley Snorton from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in a meeting with Details magazine about the “Gay or Asian?” feature that caused a storm of public protest due to its insensitivity about race and sexuality. After the meeting, we lunched in the food court on the lower level of the Manhattan Mall on Sixth Avenue and 33rd Street. Before sitting down to lunch, I availed myself of the women’s room, without incident. But after eating, upon emerging from the women’s room a second time, I was stopped by a female security guard demanding to know, “Are you a woman or a man?” Advantage Security, a private firm hired by the mall, has an office only yards from both restrooms, and the security guards were apparently using the big glass window on the security station to engage in surveillance of the restrooms.

Startled by the question, I was alarmed as a pack of security guards––all powerfully built men towering over me––circled me in a physically threatening manner. What I found disturbing was their use of physical intimidation as part of their attempt to interrogate me about my gender identity, their menacing posture suggesting the potential for violence. From the lead security guard’s comments, I strongly suspected that this incident might have been part of a persistent pattern of harassment of gender-variant individuals using the restrooms at the mall.

It is important to recognize that bathrooms are not just an issue for transitioning and post-operative transsexuals; they are an issue for all transgendered and gender-variant people. There are women with butch haircuts who are challenged every time they go into the women’s room, and gender-queer folk who find it difficult to use either restroom without being hassled or harassed.

The only difference between me and any other transgendered person being harassed by this private security outfit was that I was well aware of my rights, having coordinated the campaign for the very transgender rights law that they very well may have violated. Despite the risk to my personal safety, I decided to challenge what appeared to be their discriminatory intent regarding access to a public accommodation. But neither the female security guard nor the head of security, whom I asked to see, seemed aware that this incident may have constituted a violation of city human rights law.

I was struck that the incident at the Manhattan Mall occurred only five days before the second anniversary of the passage of Int. No. 24, reinforcing what I already knew––that the law’s enactment would be a hollow victory for the transgender community unless the Commission began implementing it seriously and enforcing it rigorously.

The working group’s last meeting at the Commission took place nearly a full year ago, last May 12. Commission staff informed us that the Commissioner for Human Rights, Patricia Gatling, had “concerns” about the draft guidelines, but I cannot understand why, a full year after the working group completed them, she still has yet to schedule a meeting with us to discuss those concerns. Since last May, I have made repeated calls to the Commission inquiring about the status of the guidelines without having received any substantive response.

When I joined the working group two years ago, I assumed that the Commission was committed to implementation of the law; but the pattern of delay suggests that the Commission is not serious about implementing the transgender rights law. It may even be possible that Commissioner Gatling is deliberately delaying implementation so as to impede effective enforcement of the statute.

Meanwhile, there may well be countless incidents of discrimination occurring that might have been prevented had these guidelines been issued in a timely manner. As the incident at the Manhattan Mall clearly illustrates, employers, landlords, and other providers of public accommodations are woefully ignorant of the transgender rights law. Many may not even be aware that it is now illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender identity or expression, and I strongly suspect that most have no idea how to modify their own operations––through staff training and other initiatives––in order to comply with the law’s provisions.

It is now time –– well past time, in fact –– for the Commission to approve and adopt broadly conceived guidelines to implement the transgender rights law and to undertake an aggressive campaign to inform and educate New York City agencies as well as private employers, landlords, and others about the provisions of the statute.

I would encourage all those who support implementation of this legislation to demand action from the Commission. You can phone the Commissioner Gatling at 212 306 5070 or e-mail her via the web at http://nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mailchr.html.

To protest the gender-policing of restrooms and the harassment of transgendered and gender-variant people at the Manhattan Mall, call the management at 212 465 0500.

Transgendered and gender-variant people in this city continue to face pervasive discrimination, and those thrown out of jobs or apartments––or simply restrooms in shopping malls––do not have the luxury of time while waiting for implementation of this non-discrimination statute. Only the most rigorous enforcement of this law will help reduce such discrimination, but responsibility for such enforcement rests with the Commission, as does responsibility for the unconscionable delay in the law’s implementation.

Pauline Park is co-chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (nyagra.com). In her capacity as coordinator of the work group on gender-based discrimination that included the six City Councilmembers who took the lead on Int. No. 24, Park led the campaign for passage of the measure. She also serves on the board of directors of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (transgenderlegal.org).

This op-ed originally appeared in the 29 April 2004 issue of Gay City News. In December 2004, the New York City Commission on Human Rights adopted guidelines for implementation of the transgender rights law, with language drawn in part from the settlement of my discrimination case against Advantage Security.

The post City Needs to Start Enforcing Transgender Rights Bill (GCN, 4.29.04) appeared first on Pauline Park.

Trans Health Fair Debuts at Center

By Brett Krutzsch
New York Blade
Friday, June 01, 2007

Robert Eads, a female to male transsexual, died from ovarian cancer after being turned away by more than two dozen physicians who worried that taking him on as a patient might harm their practices. A documentary released in 2001, “Southern Comfort,” chronicles Eads’ struggles to navigate the health care system as a transgender individual.

“Transgender people, like Robert, face a tremendous amount of discrimination in the mainstream health care system,” said Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF). “And, as a result, many of them have checked out of the system.” In an effort to meet the health care needs of transgender individuals, various community organizations have joined together with St. Vincent’s Hospital to sponsor New York’s first-ever Transgender Health Fair.

From 5:30–8 p.m., Wednesday, June 6, at the LGBT Center in Manhattan, transgender men and women will have the opportunity to get free health screenings for cholesterol, diabetes, blood pressure, and more.  Information will be provided about hormone therapy, smoking cessation, nutrition and mental health. Individuals will also learn about health insurance opportunities and how to enroll in Medicaid.

“This is a historic event,” said Pauline Park, chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights and Advocacy (NYAGRA). Park, who is one of the key organizers of the event, hopes the health fair will “signal to the transgender community that our partnership with St. Vincent’s is a trans-affirming one.” According to Park, “Many transgender people don’t have health insurance, and many don’t go to the doctor because they fear discrimination because of past incidents.” Park hopes the health fair will show that resources are available to transgender men and women, and that crucial partnerships are being formed with St. Vincent’s health care providers.

“Transgender people are one of the most marginalized communities in the health care system,” said Dr. Dennis Greenbaum, chair of St. Vincent’s Department of Medicine. “It is essential that they have access to the same respectful, high quality care that all people expect.”

Park said that transgender individuals face three major impediments when trying to obtain medical care: intentional discrimination (i.e. being told “we don’t serve people like you”), inadvertent/unintentional discrimination (i.e. not having the proper resources to serve the transgender population) and institutional discrimination (i.e. only asking for male/female on in-take forms or not providing gender-neutral bathrooms).

Silverman, who is also instrumental in organizing the health fair, said, “We have transgender people all of the time who complain they are called the wrong name, or pronoun, or just made fun of” when seeking medical attention.  “I’m currently working with two transgender people who went to a local emergency room, and some security and maintenance workers referred to them as faggots,” Silverman said. “It shocks the conscience that this is what transgender people face.” Silverman and Park both maintain that the medical establishment needs to become better informed of the existence and needs of transgender people. Male-to-female transsexuals have a high rate of HIV infection, according to Silverman. And all transgender individuals have unique health issues.

“The health fair will provide information that transgender people often don’t get,” Park said. For example, information will be given to individuals who identify as female but who also should be getting routine prostate exams.  Advice and information about hormone therapy will also be available at the health fair. The issues can become tricky, as Park notes: “If you get estrogen-based hormones and your legal sex is male, most insurance companies won’t cover it even though they cover estrogen for post-menopausal women.” The health fair may not be able to change the insurance industry, but it will provide people with more options and access to transgender-friendly care.  Hopefully, the transgender health fair will connect a traditionally disenfranchised group with necessary services and treatments. “The real point of the health fair,” Silverman said, “is to show people that there are providers for the transgender community.”  The Transgender Health Fair 5:30–8 pm., Wednesday, June 6, at the LGBT Center, 208 W. 13th St., in Manhattan.

This article originally appeared in the New York Blade on 1 June 2007; the Blade is now defunct.

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