What Can The “T” Learn From The “LGB” When It Comes To Fighting The Good Fight?

What is going on with trans rights and social acceptance, and what can activists learn from the LGB liberation fight to turn things around?

By Paul Gallant

Though the 2SLGBTQI+ community is bound together through many common interests – centred on broadening ideas and policies around sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression – the progress of these varied interests has been frustratingly uneven.

The struggle for homosexual and bisexual rights and social acceptance – issues concerning sex, love and family for people who are attracted to those of the same gender – has been one of the most successful social movements in modern history, particularly in Europe and the Americas. Seen as immoral and/or a mental disorder until the mid-20th century, homosexuality has increasingly been seen as “normal.” So far in the 21st century, 38 countries have legally recognized equal marriage – and many more countries have legally enshrined other rights, such as civil-partnership registration and protection from discrimination. There have been hiccups and backlashes, of course, and every culture moves at its own speed. In Russia and Uganda, for example, the response to queers being more self-actualizing has been the enactment of more oppressive laws. But on the whole, the move towards equality been a stunning global triumph.

The US has had a bumpier ride than other rich countries, but it also has some of the best stats to prove my point. A 1977 Gallop poll found that only 56 per cent of Americans thought gay and lesbian people should have equal rights in terms of job opportunities, and just 43 per cent thought homosexual relationships between consenting adults should be legal. By 2019, those numbers were 93 per cent and 83 per cent, respectively.

All that being said, what is going on with trans rights and social acceptance – how is the T in 2SLGBTQI+ doing?

Transgender people have made great progress in many rich countries, notably Canada and northern Europe, where medical care, legal recognition and social acceptance have been rapidly expanding. In 1922, German trans pioneer Dora Richter became the first known person to undergo gender-affirming surgery and to be allowed to legally change her name. One hundred years later, trans people in 37 countries can legally change their names. And in more than 21 countries, people can determine their own gender identity without medical or judicial requirements, a shift in thinking that started being implemented as policy in Argentina in 2012, just 13 years ago. Three countries now recognize a non-binary gender, though the term “non-binary” only started to be widely used in this century.

Yet compared to same-gender issues, trans issues are less of a priority in much of the world. More worryingly, there have been anti-trans legislative moves and court rulings in United States and the United Kingdom, often reversing existing pro-trans policies. A Pew study conducted earlier this year suggests Americans are growing cooler to trans rights. About 66 per cent of those surveyed said trans athletes should be required to compete on teams that match their sex assigned at birth, and 56 per cent want to ban healthcare professionals from providing minors with care related to gender transitions.

Trans activism does not map exactly onto LGB activism, but there are certain strategies that can be replicated. There are also obstacles that LGB activists have not had to deal with.

• Trans identity and gender nonconformity have probably been around for as long as homosexuality – that is to say, since early human history. But as a widespread movement, trans issues feel relatively new. That’s partly because aspects of it, such as gender-affirming surgery, are tied to medical practices and technologies that are still evolving. Attitudes towards trans people today are probably equivalent to attitudes towards gay and lesbian people in, let’s say, the 1970s. You can argue that in today’s accelerated culture, trans people shouldn’t have to wait 30 or 40 years for broad acceptance. But much societal evolution comes not from people changing their mind, but from older, more conservative people dying out and being replaced by a more open-minded generation. It’s often a waiting game. Rightly or wrongly, equal marriage has been considered the “five-star” right, the culmination of our success. But marriage did not seem possible or even a priority until the late 1990s, 30 years after the 1969 Stonewall uprising.

• As I mentioned, the term “non-binary” has only been used for about 25 years, and the term that preceded it, “genderqueer,” was only coined in the mid-1990s. It’s hard to imagine lawmakers using “genderqueer,” which has a counterculture vibe. I remember arguments in the early 2000s over whether it should be “transexual” or “transsexual,” and whether “transgender” was different. The language used to describe something matters. Trans advocates, their critics and those on the sidelines have not been speaking the same language. They often don’t agree on basic definitions. Even when there are rhetorical successes, our fragmented media world makes it harder for those successes to take hold and move the debate forward. LGB activism has worked best when things were boiled down to something almost banal, like “love is love.” It sounds simplistic, but the adoption of “trans” to mean transsexual and/or transgender has helped the cause. “Non-binary” has a nice bureaucrat-friendly ring to it, but to mainstream society it can feel like a twist that arrived just as society was settling on “trans.” Though activists and allies are conscientious of mentioning “bisexual” and “lesbian,” it’s “gay” that has become shorthand for people who don’t care so much. Thus, the impact of “Yep, I’m gay,” when Ellen DeGeneres, a lesbian, appeared on the cover of TIME magazine in 1997. There’s no such thing as too dumbed down.

• Not only do the terms have to be simple, so do the ideas. And the ideas should be rolled out in stages. The LGB movement, though spread across the globe, was, by the 1970s, relatively focused on a couple of key arguments. “Our personal lives are none of your business” was easy to understand: one’s sex and love life should not reflect on one’s work and public life, and what consenting adults do in their bed or away from prying eyes should not be a concern of the law. Even straight people could relate to that. Once this “privacy matters” argument was largely accepted, it was easier to ask for our relationships to be accepted as “normal” and then “equal.” There was a decades-long shift that flowed from “Leave us alone” to “Don’t hate us” to “We’re as good as you” to “We’re equal.”

• LGB rights have been, relatively speaking, a light lift for the average straight person. Sure, governments, bureaucrats and HR departments had to make changes; forms and contracts had to drop words like “wife” and “husband”; wedding cake makers were asked to put same-gender couples on the top of their works of art; and church leaders had to decide what to sanction or forbid. Fortunately, once those decisions are made, they usually stay made. The average straight person doesn’t have to do much to meet our expectations except avoid physically attacking us and being openly rude. As the saying goes, “If you don’t approve of gay marriage, don’t get gay married.” LGB people set a relatively low bar when it comes to everyday behaviour. The LGB issues that are still most “live” are the ones that affect everyday life, such as what’s taught in schools.

• In the 1980s and ’90s, it was thought that three to five per cent of the population was gay or lesbian, though those stats are higher and fuzzier now, with 7.1 per cent of Americans identifying more broadly as LGBT. More specifically, an estimated 0.6 per cent of Americans identify as trans. Regardless, there are many more LGB people than T people. Part of the success of LGB activism was as simple as people coming out to friends, family and colleagues. Straight people’s ability to put a name and face to “homosexuality” helped the cause. Media representation also helps, and certainly there is trans and non-binary representation these days in the entertainment industry. But the personal touch is most effective. That’s why politicians still campaign door-to-door. The small number of trans people in society makes it much more difficult to change attitudes.

You could argue that gay, lesbian and bi activists have always failed to present a simplified, unified front, and that there’s a lack of resolution that lasts until this day. Also, activists have too often failed to always be likeable. Though there was Will & Grace, Elton John and Lily Tomlin, there have also been street protests, riots and extreme tactics by HIV/AIDS activists. There’s been the “We’re just like you” faction versus the “We’re rebels who don’t need your permission to do our own thing (a.k.a. Mind your own business)” faction. But I’d argue that the tension between these two strategies – nice and nasty – has actually been helpful. In liberal Western society, most straight people see same-gender marriage as the equivalent of straight marriage, but will also cut queers some slack for having open relationships and our racy humour. We are the same, but also different.

Trans activism should, I think, embrace this tension. “Mind your own business,” for example, can work for young trans people and their parents when it comes to accessing gender-affirming health care; it has certainly worked for adults seeking gender-affirming health care. There’s also a “We’re just like you” way to sell ungendered washrooms as a greater public good, one that’s as beneficial for parents, caregivers and anyone who wants more toilet privacy as it is for trans and non-binary people.

In the case of elite athletic competition, though, there are potential losers who think it’s very much their business – elite sports are the “my religious beliefs oblige me to condemn homosexuality” of trans activism. This marginal yet high-profile issue has unfortunately become a defining one in the court of public opinion. Not unlike how the smear of pedophilia hurt LGB activism up until, I’d say, the late 1990s, the issue of “taking advantage” will be a major hurdle for trans activists. Perhaps only more science and more research can overcome it.

Yet when you’re on the right side of history, you’ve got to believe that time is also on your side, setbacks be damned. Though the debates are often annoying and painful, they are what will drive change.

PAUL GALLANT is a Toronto-based writer and editor who writes about travel, innovation, city building, social issues (particularly LGBT issues) and business for a variety of national and international publications. He’s done time as lead editor at the loop magazine in Vancouver as well as Xtra and fab in Toronto. His debut novel, Still More Stubborn Stars, published by Acorn Press, is out now.