Organizing for Transgender Rights , livre ebook

Organizing for Transgender Rights
SUNY series in Queer Politics and Cultures

Cynthia Burack and Jyl J. Josephson, editors
Organizing for Transgender Rights
Collective Action, Group Development, and the Rise of a New Social Movement
ANTHONY J. NOWNES
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2019 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Nownes, Anthony J., author.
Title: Organizing for transgender rights : collective action, group development, and the rise of a new social movement / Anthony J. Nownes.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2019] | Series: SUNY series in queer politics and cultures | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018014129 | ISBN 9781438473017 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438473024 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Transgender people—United States. | Pressure groups—United States. | Human rights—United States.
Classification: LCC HQ77.95.U6 N69 2019 | DDC 306.76/80973—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018014129
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Contents
List of Tables and Figures
Preface
1 Introduction: Organizing for Transgender Rights in the United States
2 A Brief History of Transgender Rights Organizing in the United States
3 The Crucial Role of Grievances and Interactions
4 Interactions, Learning, and Connections
5 Overcoming the Collective-Action Problem
6 A Return to Context: Population Ecology and Political Opportunity Structure
7 The Role of Collective Identity
8 Conclusion: The Formation of Transgender Rights Interest Groups in the United States
Appendix A The Questionnaire Protocol
Appendix B Data and Methods
Notes
References
Index
Tables and Figures Table 1.1 The interview subjects Table 2.1 List of nationally active transgender rights advocacy groups in the United States, 1964–2016 Table 2.2 List of extant state and local transgender rights interest groups in the United States (and their founding dates), 2016 Table 6.1 Poisson regression results: foundings of nationally active transgender rights interest groups in the United States, 1964–2016 Table 6.2 Poisson regression results: foundings of nationally active transgender rights interest groups in the United States, 1965–2016 Table 7.1 Groups in the population of nationally active transgender rights interest groups founded after 2005 Figure 2.1 The number of nationally active transgender rights interest groups (1964–2016) and LG/LGB/LGBT rights groups (1964–2007) in the United States Figure 2.2 The founding dates of extant state and local transgender rights interest groups in the United States, 1978–2015 Figure 6.1 The number and foundings of nationally active transgender rights interest groups in the United States, 1964–2016
Preface
I f I have learned anything about transgender politics in the United States, it is due largely to my conversations with the transgender activists I interviewed for this book. And since this book is about them and not me, I will keep this preface short. Believe me when I say their words are more informative than mine ever could be. It is popular in some circles, especially in media, to assert that we are living in a “transgender moment.” In some sense this may be true, as transgender rights issues are “front and center” in American politics in a way they never have been before. But talk of a “transgender moment” sometimes obscures the fact that transgender people have always existed in America, and always will. Moreover, for a transgender person, it goes without saying that every moment is a “transgender moment.”
I started studying transgender rights interest groups several years ago primarily because I thought they could teach us a great deal about interest-group politics in general, especially about how oppressed and marginalized people organize to get a seat at the proverbial political table. But by the time I was done with this book, I had learned so much more. Specifically, I learned more than I ever could have imagined about things that America is supposed to be about—the freedom to be left alone, the ability to control your own body and your own destiny, and the ability to appeal to representative government if your rights are trampled. On the one hand, what I learned did not always make me feel good about my country. America, sadly, has not always lived up to its alleged ideals. On the other hand, the stories I heard from transgender rights activists—some transgender people themselves, others not—were transcendent. “Inspiring” is almost too banal a word to use here, which is why I chose the word “transcendent.” I will not bore you with a list of clichés about the strength and resolve and impressiveness of these people. It must suffice at this point for me to say that virtually without exception, the people I describe in this book typically display more strength and radiate more dignity in one day than I’ve been able to muster over a period of years.
I want to acknowledge my limitless debt to the people who made this book possible, my respondents. Most of them are named in the pages that follow. Without demeaning the contribution of any of my respondents (they were, without exception, patient, gracious, and informative), I will single out a few for mention. First, thank you Dallas Denny, University of Tennessee graduate and transgender rights pioneer. You read everything I ever sent you, you tolerated a lot of dumb questions, and you even availed me of your formidable copy-editing skills (at no charge!). Your website is a treasure trove of information about the movement you helped develop, and you continue to fight the good fight, for which so many of us are grateful. Second, thank you Riki Wilchins, another transgender rights pioneer and gracious confidante. You too answered any and all of my questions, you responded to late night emails, and you even showed me some of your own work, which deserves a wider audience than mine does to be sure. Third, thank you Tony Barreto-Neto, transgender rights pioneer, musician, early LGB rights activist, peacemaker, and police officer. I am proud to call you my friend (do not worry, scholarly distance dissolved only after this project was complete); many of your words serve as advice to me every day even if you did not mean them that way.
Finally, thank you to the most important person in my life, Elsa M. Nownes. Yes, it is a cliché to thank your spouse. But how could I not thank someone who somewhat regularly during the course of my research for this book uttered phrases such as, “Well that’s interesting,” “Hmmm, tell me more,” and “Really, that’s amazing!”
1

Introduction
Organizing for Transgender Rights in the United States
I n 2013, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) updated its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (today known as DSM-5 ), replacing the term “gender identity disorder” with “gender dysphoria” (Beredjick 2012). This change did not receive as much attention as the APA’s landmark reclassification of homosexuality in 1973, but it was significant nonetheless. A year later, the Department of Justice announced that discrimination on the basis of gender identity constituted sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it would no longer stop Medicare from covering gender reassignment surgery (McLaughlin 2015). And, by the end of 2016, twenty states, the District of Columbia, and hundreds of local jurisdictions in states without statewide protections (including Atlanta, Miami, and New Orleans), had laws on the books banning employment discrimination on the grounds of gender identity (Transgender Law Center n.d.). In short, in recent years, gender-variant people—including those we now call transgender people—have won public policy victories that seemed unwinnable just a few short years ago.
What accounts for these victories? While the answer to this question is undeniably multifarious, one answer lies in the rise of transgender rights interest groups in the United States . Transgender rights interest groups and the other components of the larger movement have worked tirelessly over the years to advance the cause of transgender rights in the United States. And, in some cases, they have been successful. How did these groups manage to mobilize in the face of substantial barriers to formation and survival? And how did transgender rights advocacy groups go from virtually nonexistent in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s to more numerous in the 2000s and 2010s? These are the questions I address in this book. I hope that answering them can help us understand more about how other oppressed and marginalized people can overcome the barriers to collective action and form viable organizations to represent their interests.
The Rise of Transgender Rights Advocacy
A precurs