Transgender individuals face a multitude of unique obstacles in their daily lives. It’s an argument that holds troubling conditions that needs to be addressed. It is not uncommon for transgender to include youth to face condemnation from family members, co-workers and friends after they come out as well as society. They struggle to get the vital resources, like financial support and healthcare access seems almost impossible to get. At times they even struggle with it being revoked.
Furthermore, transgender individuals are often subject to trafficking, mistreatment, discrimination, violence, and bullying. Not just physically but mentally as well. There is also the reality the position transgender has of being a target for human traffickers. Many transgender people are the targets of hate crimes. They are also the victims of subtle discrimination—which includes everything from glances or glares of disapproval or discomfort to invasive questions about their body parts and where they are in their process of change.
The claims takers in this subject is many different people on both spectrums. Some against and some for. The claims takers are the transgender themselves like Ru Paul, who advocate for transgenders and that LGBT community. The other spectrum are the political powerhouses that are retracting bills for such things as bathroom use and military enlistment.
The power of politics, media and society on this topic according to Joes Best model warrants the condition to be troublesome. I believe also that all 6 stages of the natural history model are present. The public reaction to these human beings and the choice they have made to be free in their own skin is a big issue as well as the battle of lawmakers trying to establish equality for this group of people. Being that this is a unexcepted topic in society, the media is a big factor when it comes to passing a law, a riot or an incident of a bathroom use causes great chaos in the media.
The media seems to escalate the societal topic and has a great influence on what direction something can go. Lisa Miller article gave some great insight and statistics on what the transgender community goes through. Just to quote one aspect of her data she states “Respondents, on average, report 3.20 types of events of major discrimination and 2.47 types of events of everyday discrimination.” (Miller pg 7). Her research and statistics show not only the discrimination, but the suicidal rates of this community are high. The amount of abuse and bulling they go through for trying to be comply with society seems to be one that could go on for years to come.
Joes Best model shows many areas of what his perspective is, but for the name and the position issues of his framework is what I found useful. The name framework is the stigma that comes with “trans-gender” The label itself gives a reason for this community to be attacked. It coins the condition of the problem and the problems it creates for a continuous attack on this community. The position issues on both sides of the coin. Some for and some against this movement for many different views and aspects. Be it religion, personal opinion and upbringing, this community is one that will continue to have an unending social problem process throughout time from generations to generations if you believe in it or not, this could be a constant roller coaster of change through presidents, lawmakers and societies opinions.
Anti-discrimination laws in most U.S. cities and states do not protect transgender people from discrimination based on gender identity or gender expression because of this transgender people throughout the united states and other countries, face discrimination in nearly every aspect of their lives and perceives to be on ongoing social problem for decades to come. The other final part of the natural history model is public reaction that I find as probably the biggest of them all in this topic. The opinion of the public and its voice of supporting the claims makers fight for change in what they are representing. The voice of many can cause a movement. They will either support the troubled condition or boycott it.