Transgender Acceptance in US Society

This report defines the transgender acceptance in the US society. It discusses the struggles and discrimination faced by transgender individuals in various aspects of life. The report also highlights the legal protection and rights provided to transgender individuals in the US.

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The sexual issues affect a person’s ability to function sexually. There are various sexual
issues which cause relationship problems. This report defines the transgender acceptance in the
US society. Transgender is the people whose identity differs from the assigned sex. They are
even called transsexual. For instance, a transgender person is identified as a female even though
having been born with male genitalia. Around 700,000 grown-ups in the US are identified as
transgender. Being transgender means diverse things to diverse people. The transgender does not
fit male and female completely but falls completely outside these categories. The sex and gender
are 2 different completely things. An individual’s sex is referred to the genetic status either male
or female. The fortitude of a person’s sex is subject to on physical features like chromosomes,
reproductive anatomy, and sex hormones. On the added side, gender deals with the anticipated
behaviors, roles, and activities linked with diverse sexes. It influences how people act and feel
about themselves.
According to Meerwijk & Sevelius, 2017, the transgender humans struggle to accomplish
basic human rights. As per a survey, almost 80% of transgender reported that they were harassed
in schools whereas 35% were physically assaulted (Meerwijk & Sevelius, 2017). In the U.S, the
unemployment rate of transgender people is 3 times higher than the national average. There is no
gender identity protection is provided to the 30 out of the 50 states. The transgender employees
can be fired anytime in these states because of their gender identity. Almost 90% of the
respondents experience harassment, mistreatment or discrimination on the job. People even hide
their gender identity in order to avoid these incidents. It is because these people feel that they are
discriminated because of their gender identity while looking for a job. Although the visibility of
the trans people is progressively increasing they still face discrimination from the authorities,

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health care providers and housing agencies (Poteat, German & Kerrigan, 2013). The trans people
are rejected by the families, neighbors, and others which makes them susceptible to the
homelessness. As per Sullivan, 2014, trans people face widespread job along with housing
discrimination (Sullivan, 2014). They do not even get accessibility to the medically
recommended healthcare in the US society. More than half of the transgender in the US has
reported that they are being stressed at a homeless lodging by residents and nearly a quarter is
sexually stricken. The trans people are often targets of hate speech, crime, bullying, and physical
violence. It can be evaluated from the 80% of the murdered trans people in the US are women
(Buist & Stone, 2014). The political attacks on the transgender community have increased on
both state and federal level.
According to Yadegarfard, Meinhold-Bergmann & Ho, 2014, the US society is becoming
tolerant towards transgender individuals and protects such people from discrimination
(Yadegarfard, Meinhold-Bergmann & Ho, 2014). The country has approved a policy in which
transgender people are not essential to endure genital surgery in order to apprise legal
identification documents comprising birth certificates. It is believed that 69% of the respondents
disbelieve that they should be permissible to undergo surgery so that their body can match with
the identity. Whereas 61% of defendants believe that transgender people should be permissible to
serve in the military. As per the opinion of Koken, Bimbi & Parsons, 2009, the transgender in the
US face discrimination within the family, schools, companies, housing, government settings and
legal systems (Koken, Bimbi & Parsons, 2009). It is against the law to treat transgender unfairly.
The people who are transgender are secure from discrimination by law. The sex judgment act
makes illegal if a person is treated less favorably than any other person in a similar situation. It

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is due to the gender-related distinctiveness, arrival, gesture or other gender-related characteristics
of a person. The transgender rights in the US enjoy legal appreciation and defense under both
federal and territory laws. The necessities of the gender recognition of the transgender depend
on the jurisdiction. As per Wester, McDonough, White, Vogel & Taylor, 2010, the transgender
have all the work rights like job advertisements, jobs, apprenticeships, and traineeships are open
to them. The transgender has the right to apply for them. There is nothing in the US society
which can prevent them from applying for a job, apprenticeship or traineeship (Wester,
McDonough, White, Vogel & Taylor, 2010). They also have the right to training, promotion and
work benefits as equal to other employees. The transgender should also be accessed on the basis
of the merit in the same way as other applicants. They have the same right to training, promotion
and other benefits. For instance, a manager cannot refuse to promote a transgender because
people will not respect them as a supervisor. If a person is a recognized transgender than that
person has the right to be treated as that gender. A person can wear the clothes as per the
identified gender. The transgender also has the right not to be harassed by the managers or staff
at work just because of their gender. A person is also cannot be terminated for being transgender.
A person is liable to dismiss for the unlawful reasons only like poor work performance, medical
reasons, and serious misbehavior (Burgess, 2009). All these reasons make a person no longer to
do job idleness. The systematic strategies also have been adopted to reduce the violence against
the transgender to facilitate legal and policy reform to remove criminality and general advocacy
regarding issues faced by them. The right to health is also being provided to the transgender by
educating the health care sector regarding gender identity.

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Being transgender no more categorized as a mental disease rather it is a sign of progress
in a community. The transgender people have a problem in retrieving health care just because of
deprived knowledge about healthcare providers, judgment, financial barriers, and socioeconomic
barriers. The transgender people in US society are being accepted enough in but some people do
not think their struggles are real. 80% of people do not think that they can be transgender. They
consider that someone’s gender is determined by their assigned sex at birth. From the current
scenario of the US society, it can be assumed that there are still battles to fight in trans gender’s
visibility and acceptance.

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References
Buist, C. L., & Stone, C. (2014). Transgender victims and offenders: Failures of the United
States criminal justice system and the necessity of queer criminology. Critical
criminology, 22(1), 35-47.
Burgess, W. C. (2009). Internal and external stress factors associated with the identity
development of transgender and gender variant youth. In Social work practice with
transgender and gender variant youth (pp. 67-78). Routledge.
Koken, J. A., Bimbi, D. S., & Parsons, J. T. (2009). Experiences of familial acceptance–rejection
among transwomen of color. Journal of Family Psychology, 23(6), 853.
Meerwijk, E. L., & Sevelius, J. M. (2017). Transgender population size in the United States: a
meta-regression of population-based probability samples. American journal of public
health, 107(2), e1-e8.
Poteat, T., German, D., & Kerrigan, D. (2013). Managing uncertainty: A grounded theory of
stigma in transgender health care encounters. Social Science & Medicine, 84, 22-29.
Sullivan, K. M. (2014). Acceptance in the domestic environment: The experience of senior
housing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender seniors. Journal of Gerontological
Social Work, 57(2-4), 235-250.
Wester, S. R., McDonough, T. A., White, M., Vogel, D. L., & Taylor, L. (2010). Using gender
role conflict theory in counseling male‐to‐female transgender individuals. Journal of
Counseling & Development, 88(2), 214-219.

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Yadegarfard, M., Meinhold-Bergmann, M. E., & Ho, R. (2014). Family rejection, social
isolation, and loneliness as predictors of negative health outcomes (depression, suicidal
ideation, and sexual risk behavior) among Thai male-to-female transgender
adolescents. Journal of LGBT youth, 11(4), 347-363.