Title: Transgender Rights Author: Eds: Paisley Currah, Richard M. Juang, Shannon Pri Publisher: University of Minnesota Press Publish Date: 2006 Pages: 337 Genres:: Transgendered/Transsexual, Compilation, Gender Studies, Non-Fiction Reviewer: J. Henry

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“The idea of gender equality includes transgender people…” or at least it should. The authors of the compiled essays in Transgender Rights reveal that the law (especially in regards to hate crimes) does not seem to include people who are transgender. Instead, transgender people have to hire lawyers to defend their choice to live as an FTM (female to male) or MTF (male to female).

Divided into three parts: Law, History, and Politics, the essays offer a detailed look at the negligence of society in regard to the human rights of the transgender. The information is compelling, as transgender rights are not as vocalized as, say, the current fight for the constitutional right for gay marriage in the United States. Those who are transgender are fighting to simply be recognized as human beings. As the gender identity of some transgender people is neither male nor female, this only encourages the courts to exclude them because they are not specifically referenced. While there are states that have decided that transgender people do have rights under civil laws, it is still something that is up for debate in most of the country.

Transgender Rights provides a clear background of cases where there have been discrepancies in the law, and looks at the reasons why transgender people have been somewhat excluded in the fight for gay rights. The contributing authors range from civil liberties lawyers, transgender activists, law professors, and of course, transgender men and women. It includes detailed, personal experiences, such as the story of Kylar Broadus, who was subject to opposition in the workplace and eventual dismissal. And while it’s nice to know that “transgender people increasingly are receiving support and assistance during their on-job transitions,” we have to be mindful that discrimination still runs rampant, and that there is still for many that stupefaction of who or “what” a transgender person is. It isn’t until murder becomes a consequence for being oneself (such cases mentioned are those of Brandon Teena and Gwen Araujo) that justice may be found. Even then, the murder of a transgender person may not be considered a hate crime.

In the essay “Transgender Communities” by Dallas Denny, we learn that in the 1950s there was a club for cross-dressing men, but only those who dressed in women’s clothing merely for fun or stimulation. Transgender people were denied access, because the club worried that they presented cross-dressing in a negative light. The book explains that after Stonewall, many gay men and women wanted identification outside of the stereotypes, and some considered MTF or FTM to be promoting myths that they were trying to disassociate themselves from.

The essay “Compliance is Gendered” gives us another look at the discrimination transgender people have suffered. The lawyer Dean Spade details the experiences of two of his clients who felt forced into lives of crime because no one seemed to sympathize or accept their situations. As was the story of MTF Bianca: Bianca was expelled from school, abandoned by her family, and ridiculed at an office when trying to use a women’s restroom. She turned to prostitution and had to attain her hormone medication illegally just to ensure she would not be accosted on the streets. Because those around her would not identify her as a woman, Bianca felt unsafe and out of place everywhere she went.

The essays in Transgender Rights are scholarly but accessible, and would be particularly engaging to human rights activists. It offers a thorough history lesson on the struggle of a frequently shunned faction of our society. Sadly, there is not a lot of information about any recent triumphs of the LGBT movement, and that may be because they are few and far between.