Member-only story
Transgender? No, it’s Too Soon, They Say
But it is always too soon for human rights!
The right of transgender folks, of LGBTQ folks, of all humans to bodily autonomy seemed so secure several years ago. The right of people to be recognized as our authentic selves was broadly accepted, in everyday life and within legal frameworks. Unfortunately, around the world we see this being reversed. In Hungary and Poland, in the U.K., and now in the United States, the arc of the moral universe is bent so far that it has doubled back on itself.
We trans folks are exactly where we were 50 years ago. “Don’t ask. Don’t tell. Try your best to pass as a straight heterosexual cisgender person.” We are told to wait, that it is not our time.
The Time Is Always Right To Do What Is Right
— Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
We led the protests and were on the front line at the “gay liberation” riots in 1959, at in 1966, and at in 1969. We were told to wait, it is not our time. The gay community pushed back, seeing transgender people as “not liberated” for seeking to secure access to competent and respectful legal and medical services. In contrast, the gay liberation movement sought to free their community from being seen as a medical or psychological problem.
