Transgender Acceptance In Modern World Essay Example

Research from 2016 suggests that there are roughly 1.4 million people that identify as transgender in America alone. As more research and studies are slowly developed people learn more and more about trans people scientifically speaking. However not so many people are fond of transgender people openly comfortable with their preferred gender and pronouns, which can cause tensions to rise and unfortunate reactions. Trans people face unfair discrimination everywhere because they are not typically welcomes in schools, they are victims to harassment through legislative bills, and they are also discriminated against in their preferred sport.

Trans students don’t receive equal rights in a school setting, and even if they do the school system might face harassment for it as Loundon County Public soon learned. "Loudoun County Public Schools was one of more than 200 school systems throughout Virginia considering revised guidelines for transgender students, after the state government passed a law in 2020 requiring them to do so to help protect students against harassment.” (Natanson). In schools across America, the struggle for transgender accpetance and protection is coming to light as new laws across each state and school district emerge. "Republicans across the country have proposed more than 117 pieces of transgender legislation this year. About 30 measures limit access to gender-affirming medical care, impacting an estimated 45,100 transgender children, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law" (Wax-thibodeaux). In more Democratic states the push for new transgender policies was quick and reassuring. Adding gender neutral bathrooms, the options to change a students name online if they pleased, and encouraging teachers to learn and use students preferred pronouns are new things added to schools to make transgender youth more comfortable. In the South, however, the conversation is difficult and hard to agree upon. In Virginia, Loudoun County Public Schools were considering revising their transgender student guidelines in order to protect trans kids. However, this has spurred pushback, and arguments began to rise within the community. Some believe kids are ‘too young to know’ whether or not they are trans, some even go as far to say trans people aren’t real, or are ‘sick’ and need to be fixed. Acceptance of transgender students in school is something America struggles with, schools have to tear down years of stigma, as well as personal beliefs to help protect kids. 

As American society progresses and seems to be pushing forward in our social ways, some lawmakers are making it particularly difficult for trans people and their rights to progress. These laws and bills that have been circulating around congress for years, restricts trangender rights in the name of protecting ‘real’ people, or people who do not identify as trans. "The year has been a tough one in many ways for transgender people. Anti-transgender legislation brewed in state legislatures, including at least 75 bills that would block trans youths' participation in sports and 40 that would deny youths gender-affirming medical care, according to the Equality Federation and the Movement Advancement Project, which track state laws" (Miller). Not allowing someone to receive medical care related to one's gender based on laws seems obscured and out-of-date. However, it is an unfortunate reality that instead of supporting trans youth through bills that should help them, we are instead damaging them further. President Biden, in his term thus far, has signed executive orders that would help all members of the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) community. (Schmidt) Some states have more of these bills than others, but no state should be legally allowed to discriminate against trans people. 

Sports can be a creative and active outlet for many people, and taking away that opportunity because of your preferred gender is an issue many transgender people face. If someone who was born a male and now identifies as female wants to continue playing sports but in the groups of females, some states have passed laws to prevent this. “Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi signed a bill Thursday to bar transgender women and girls from competing in women’s sports, a move Idaho made last year and one that has been recently considered by lawmakers in two dozen other states” (Brassil). Instead of letting people play sports by their preferred gender, they are forced to play by their sex, male or female genitalia, even if they are on hormone treatment. However, some legislative bills are being passed to support trans people, when it comes to the topic of sports and how there could be an unfair advantage. In an article written by Inzef Stepman, “In Connecticut, two biologically male athletes won a combined 15 girls state championship races, allegedly taking opportunities for further competition and scholarships from female runners in June 2019. Alaska's Equal Rights Commission opened an investigation into a women's shelter after it turned away a biological male in September 2019. H.R. 5 would impose the most extreme form of these laws on the whole country.” Throughout the article Stepman continues to write about different trans women who have won competitions in the women's category even though they are biological males and have an advantage against other players. The acceptance of trans people in sports comes slowly, and is a little more difficult for people and state legislatures to manage. 

Transgender acceptance has come slowly, and in some places it hasn’t come at all. Being trans can be very difficult in many countries, and even in the United States it still is frowned upon to identify as transgender. With various bills, laws, and court cases, the political world on how we view trans people legally has been created. However, some of these laws are just various ways to make discrimination against trans people illegal. No matter where trans people go, they will face discrimination, maybe a little less in some places and maybe more in others, but trying to understand transgender people and their needs can make life a little easier for them.