by shamanic
John and Andrew: I think the very vibrant transgender culture growing in America is a generational thing. I'm trying to avoid saying, "You're too old", and actually John, I have no idea how old you are, but... yeah, I suspect it's something that's grown up while you've been comfortably aging with your buddies.
As for ENDA... It would be fantastic if it passed, but we've made such amazing advances without an employment non-discrimination act that I'm kind of ambivalent. Certainly outside of the big cities it has more currency than here in Atlanta, but I guess I'm of the opinion that if we're going to prohibit workplace discrimination, we oughta include as many people as possible.
Besides, isn't gender already a protected class in federal law? I would think that an enterprising lawyer with an aggrieved client could pretty easily establish case law that incorporates transfolk into existing protections based on gender.
What really skews the chart is "genderqueer". I have a bio-female friend who recently started on T*, identifies as male, has selected a new gender-appropriate name, and for the time being anyway is firmly and pleasantly in the genderqueer camp. Is he trans? Will she be protected under an ENDA-with-a-T if he doesn't label himself as transgender? Should she be?
I do know this: the coming out I did was way easier and required no medical intervention. It was a huge deal to me at the time, but thank God all I had to do was tell people I liked girls.
*That's testosterone. Sorry. We're all so gay we've started abbreviating everything.
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