Organize! Now!
After almost three years of being out as a transgender female, I have watched our small part of the world as it struggles to be accepted by the cis society. One observation has rocketed to the top of my list.
We need to create a national organization of transgender persons.
If such an organization exists, I have not heard about it. We have a few websites and a number of small, local support groups. That seems to be about it for coming together to solve our problems.
Why should we do this?
- Pressure groups work. A lot of the change in modern American society comes from one pressure group or another lobbying, protesting, and striving to bring about that change. We may not always agree with that change, but we cannot deny its effectiveness.Look at PETA. Whether or not you agree with all of their positions, they get results.
- A national transgender group would have many more resources to work for positive change than any local group. It would be big enough to attract significant media attention. It would be a much more effective lobbying organization than anything we currently have, including groups like PFLAG.
- Transgender persons would be much more visible if we organized on a national level. We need to make the general public realize that we exist and will not suddenly disappear.
- Transgender persons could do a better job of supporting each other if we had the resources that a national organization could collect.
Now let’s look at some of the issues that a new national transgender organization would raise.
The first question is which people should be allowed to be members. I would suggest that full membership should be limited to transgender persons who are living full-time in their new gender. In other words, these people need to be reasonably sure they are out and will stay that way. People who are questioning their gender identity and transgender allies could be offered a level of associate membership.
We would need to be very careful about setting the agenda for this organization. It would tempt many transgender persons to advocate a radical agenda that demanded every single item on their wish list. This would be a horrible mistake, and would be likely to create even worse problems for transgender persons than we now deal with. One of our main goals should be to offer an olive branch to the general world. Yes, we want to be treated fairly. But we also should try as much as possible not to offend the general public. We do not need to parade around in public spaces with our birth-sex genital regions exposed for all. We will have much more success if we try to persuade rather than demand and shock.
Clearly, there are some potential problems with having transgender persons join a national organization.
The most obvious one is that all of our names would be in a single database of members. Hostile government organizations would be tempted to do almost anything to get their hands on such a list. Intelligence agencies might try to steal the list. District attorneys might try to subpoena the list. We have seen many examples over the years of government officials using their power to harass groups with which they disagree. It is a real risk. Some transgender persons might choose not to join such a national organization for that reason alone. However, I still believe that the benefits outweigh the risks.
Another problem is that a national organization may be seen as stepping on the toes of the various local support groups that do vital work in helping transgender persons survive in our nasty world. This need not be the case. In the ideal environment, the national organization would work with the local support groups and would focus on doing the work that is more efficiently done at the national level. The local support groups could go on doing their current jobs.
Before anyone accuses me of trying to take over the transgender world, let me assure everyone that I am not campaigning to start or run this organization. I am most definitely not a politician. Other people can do that more effectively than me.
A national association of transgender persons could give our people greater visibility and more clout to bring about the changes we want to see while reassuring the general public that we wish to be a valued and important member of the national community. It could also provide more ways to give support to all of us.
Let us stand up for ourselves. It is time.
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Category: Transgender Opinion
About the Author (Author Profile)
Michelle L. Rogers is a transgender female from Chattanooga, TN. She has been out as trans female since October 2018. She is retired from the computer industry and is the author of the book Trans Right.Subscribe
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You had me until you said “that full membership should be limited to transgender persons who are living full-time in their new gender”. I’m two spirit, living the gendered life that is me. Watch how you slice and dice our people as we don’t need and us vs them mentality.