This past year saw a diverse number of events in which gender variance made news. The rollercoaster ride shuttled between extremes of bigotry and enlightenment at a breakneck pace.

ENDA

Federal legislators attempted to make some civil rights strides, despite being under the shadow of a probable veto. One such bill sparked a debate that spilled out in ripple effect through the GLBT community even beyond American borders. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) became noteworthy because transgender people were dropped from the bill at the eleventh hour, before it was taken to a vote. The bill’s sponsor, Barney Frank, argued that there would not be enough votes to pass the bill if it included transgender people, and that incremental progress was better than nothing. The transgender community feared, meanwhile, that “incremental progress” would mean that (as has happened often in the past) they would be left behind indefinitely.

Most significantly, the debate raised a number of sub-debates about transgender peoples’ place in the GLBT community. Some highlights:

• AmericaBlog’s John Aravosis wrote on Salon.com: “I don’t think the T was added because there was a groundswell of demand in the gay community that we add T to LGB. I think it happened through pressure, organizational fiat, shame, and osmosis,” an argument which forgets that transsexuals were among those who touched off the Stonewall riots and the beginning of the gay rights movement, and were even politically active before then, such as at Compton’s Cafeteria (1966).

• Susan Stryker pointed out that there was a definite overlap in need between issues of sexual orientation and gender identity due to societal emphasis on “heteronormativity, the idea that whatever straight people do is really what’s what, and that whatever anybody else does is deviant to some degree. To want to have sex with somebody of the same gender violates heteronormative expectations of gender behavior as much as it does heteronormative expectations of sexual behavior.”

• Lambda Legal wrote, following a reading of the non-inclusive version of ENDA, “We fear that defence counsel will argue, and some courts may rule, that a lesbian, gay or bisexual plaintiff was ’really‘ being discriminated against based on gender nonconformity…in just the same sort of ways that courts have treated national origin discrimination as ’only‘ language discrimination that is not prohibited, race discrimination as ’only‘ hairstyle discrimination that is not prohibited, and sex discrimination as ’only‘ pregnancy discrimination that at the time was not prohibited.”

But ENDA’s legacy to date is not in the legislation that passed congress and seems likely to die when it reached the President, but in an overwhelming groundswell of support for the transgender community, both in America and further into the Western world. With one notable exception, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and multi-inclusive organizations all across the United States (plus some additional non-official support from organizations such as the National Organization of Women) – banded together in virtual unanimity: employment protection that did not include transgender people was simply not good enough, and selective inclusions were no longer an acceptable political tactic. The 368 organizations that formed UnitedENDA.org sent a strong message about the validity of the transgender community as part of the gay community as a whole.

Incidentally, the single exception was the Human Rights Campaign, which has had a long history of transgender exclusion. One HRC President, Elizabeth Birch declared that transgender inclusion in the then-fledgling ENDA would happen “over my dead body.” The HRC has since embarked on its “Project Win-Back,” enlisting spokespeople such as Susan Stanton, in an attempt to regain the veneer of being transgender-supporting.

More Trouble In The South

• In Riverdale City, Georgia, incumbent transgender Councilmember Michelle Bruce was sued by opponents who claimed that she defrauded the public by identifying herself as a woman. The judge tossed the lawsuit out, but the accompanying press coverage was enough to cause Bruce to lose her re-election bid.

• Three state representatives made headlines when they made comments during a debate on the house floor in which they compared trans individuals to animals, among other things.

• 2007 saw a dramatic movement on both sides of the border among schools and universities to develop transgender-friendly policies and gender-neutral housing and washrooms. Fearmongers likewise retaliated, especially regarding washroom accommodations, raising the specter of young boys and girls peeing together and/or harassing each other – even in those cases in which the “gender neutral” washrooms would be single-stall, with locking door. Safe2pee.org emerged as a cataloguing resource of gender-neutral washrooms everywhere.

• The State of California opened a Pandora’s box of controversy with Senate Bill 777, which adapted the Education Code to accommodate already-existing anti-discrimination laws and policies regarding transgender students. Following a massive petition and political action, opposing lawyers for Advocates for Faith and Freedom and the Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit in San Diego in order to prevent the legislation from taking effect. Equality California and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network then filed a counter-motion to defend SB 777 and other statutes that prohibit discrimination and harassment in public schools.

The Media Goes Trans?

The year saw an explosion of transgender representation on television, particularly on the ABC network. Returning characters on Ugly Betty and The L Word were joined by new characters on All My Children, The Riches, Dirty Sexy Money, Big Shots and Entourage. But there was much more:

• Barbara Walters brought the struggles of transgender children to light in a 20/20 news special entitled “My Secret Self.”

• MSNBC followed with “Born In The Wrong Body,” which also focused on transgender youths and was tied in with a Newsweek special on “Rethinking Gender.”

• Oprah Winfrey and Larry King both ran several episodes on transgender people and related issues, lending a sympathetic ear.

• Quizzically, the news program 60 Minutes aired a dubious news item that focused on discredited author J. Michael Bailey and his latest researches, which try to reinforce stereotypes of gay men as effeminate and transsexuals as being misguided gay men, by equating the two in a number of behavioural studies.

• In the music world, rock band The Cliks released their debut album, launching out female-to-male frontman Lucas Silviera into the spotlight.

• Catherine Crouch’s short film, The Gendercator, which predicts a future in which women undergo gender transition as a “cure” for lesbianism, raised controversy and was eventually pulled from the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival because of concerns of transphobia.

Closets Are For Clothes

The following people came out in the transgender world, or were outted:

• Julie Nemecek (formerly John), an ordained Baptist pastor and professor, was fired from her job at Spring Arbor University in Michigan after obtaining her legal name change. She had been employed by the private Christian university for 16 years.

• Susan (formerly Steven) Stanton, the city manager of Largo, Florida for 14 years, made news after it was leaked that she planned to soon begin living as Susan Stanton. Despite Mayor Pat Gerard’s support, the city commission voted to terminate her employment.

• Los Angeles Times sportswriter Mike Penner announced that he would be returning from vacation in “yet a new incarnation, as Christine [Daniels].”

• Ann Gordon, a pastor at St. John’s United Methodist Church of Baltimore City, made a decision to change gender from female to male, changing his name to Drew Phoenix. During the annual conference, Phoenix was reinstated and Bishop John Schol stated that The Book of Discipline did not prohibit transgender clergy from serving in the pulpit.

• Olympic pole vaulter Yvonne Buschbaum quit athletics in order to begin hormone replacement therapy to become a man, boldly saying “I am aware of the fact that transsexuality is a fringe issue, and I do not want to be responsible for it remaining on the fringe.” The 27-year-old German athlete added that a recent injury had contributed to her decision.

• Paul Schum, principal of Bethlehem High School in Bardstown, PA was charged with prostitution-related offences after police found him dressed in women’s clothing, including fake breasts and fishnet stockings, while on the way to a Halloween party. Though he was later cleared, the school board accepted his resignation.

It’s Not Just About Transgender People Anymore

2007 saw a number of instances in which non-transgender persons were affected by issues of gender expression.

• In Washington DC, Virginia Grace Soto, born biologically female, was deemed to be transgender based on what were assumed to be masculine features. She was housed with male inmates for several days before the error was corrected (despite having been strip-searched).

• Khadijah Farmer, a lesbian who had just participated in the New York gay Pride parade was ejected from Caliente Cab Company by a bouncer who refused to look at her identification. This occurred after someone complained that a man was in the ladies’ room. She later sued the popular Greenwich Village restaurant.

• An official at the at Treorchy register office accidentally entered newborn Ieuan James Jones’ gender as female rather than male, sparking a dispute which eventually involved the local MP. The event drew attention to some remaining difficulties in permanently changing gender markers on birth certificates in the U.K.

The Canadian Connection

• A federal human rights tribunal ruled the Canadian Forces discriminated against transwoman Micheline Montreuil when they dismissed her application to become a grievance officer with the Forces in 2003.

• On December 12, possibly inspired by the ENDA debate in the south, NDP MP Bill Siksay introduced private member’s bills in the House of Commons to add gender identity and gender expression to the hate propaganda section of the Criminal Code, and to add them as prohibited grounds of discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act.

• Ironically, the aforementioned bills were introduced by the NDP at roughly the same time that the party ejected Micheline Montreuil from candidacy in Quebec, claiming that she was not a team player. Meanwhile, she countered that the action was the result of other candidates’ complaints of association with the well-known transgender activist.

Into 2008

With the riotous ride of 2007, it’s hard to know what the general direction will be for transgender and overlapping gay and lesbian issues this year. Positive media still appears likely, with development in even the usually-tawdry world of reality TV – transgender activist Calpernia Addams is set to appear in Transamerican Love Story, and promises to show more dignity and taste in the treatment of transgender people than has historically happened in that genre. But still, the ENDA debate is not over, and closer to home some have asked whether EGALE Canada will take up the same supportive and determined stance as its American counterparts.