Transgender People

Transgender People

By Alexander Banos

 

Introduction

One major social issue that I researched is the transgender people. A transgender person is someone who has a different gender identity from the assigned sex at birth. Being a transgender is independent from sexual orientation, which people may identify themselves as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual.

Research

According to "Transgender Research in the 21st Century: A Selective Critical Review From a Neurocognitive Perspective", "Gender dysphoria describes the psychological distress caused by identifying with the sex opposite to the one assigned at birth. In recent years, much progress has been made in characterizing the needs of transgender persons wishing to transition to their preferred gender, thus helping to optimize care." Prevalence rates of people identifying as transgender and searching for help with transition have been rising steeply since 2000 across Western countries; the current U.S. estimate is 0.6%. As stated in the stats, "Anxiety and depression are frequently observed both before and after transition, although there is some decrease afterward. Recent research has identified autistic traits in some transgender persons." Forty percent of transgender persons endorse suicidality, and the rate of self-injurious behavior and suicide are markedly higher than in the general population. Individual factors contributing to mental health in transgender persons include community attitudes, societal acceptance, and post-transition physical attractiveness.

Personal Statement

The reason that I chose this topic for the Civic Engagement project is because I felt interested in knowing people that were born as boys that became girls or people born as girls became boys. I don't really have anyone in my family that happened to be transgender. I know that I've watched documentaries on YouTube on transgender children. People that I know that are transgender are Josie Romero from Tucson AZ and Chris Mary from Toms River NJ. For Josie, her life began being born as a boy, under the name as Joseph Romero in 2001. At the age of 5, he started acting like a girl. In the video, she stated that she will decide whether to go back to being a boy or stay as a girl by taking puberty blockers to keep her voice from getting deep. Chris on the other hand, was born as a girl named Grace, became a boy in seventh grade. My first reaction to the documentary was the state of being shocked. I can't imagine the reason why both kids changed their sexes.

Here is the YouTube video of the transgender children documentary that I first watched:





Evidence from People

As I researched this topic, I found several celebrities online that are transgender. Here are a few of them that I found with a personal history behind them:

Name: Caitlyn Jenner
Age: 68
Caitlyn Jenner is a retired Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete as well as an American television personality. She was originally born as Bruce Jenner. In October 28, 1949. In 2015, Jenner announced on the cover of Vanity Fair that she wished to be called Caitlyn. Jenner was interviewed  in 20/20 by Diane Sawyer in 2015. Here is a piece of the interview that expresses her background history:

"Bruce Jenner is... I would say I've always been very confused with my gender identity since I was this big. I tried to explain it, because I've had all my kids sitting in that chair. And I've tried to explain it to them this way. God's looking down, making little Bruce, okay? He's looking down, he says, "Okay, what are we going to do with this one?" Make him a smart kid, very determined, and he gave me all of these wonderful qualities. And at the end, when he's just finishing, he goes, "Wait a second, we gotta to give him something. Everybody has stuff in their life that they have to deal with you know? What are we gonna give him?" God looks down and chuckles a little bit and goes, "Hey, let's give him the soul of a female and let's see how he deals with that." You know? So here I am stuck. And I hate the word, girl stuck in a guy's body, I hate that terminology."





Name: Amanda Lepore
Age: 50
Amanda Lepore is a fashion and photography model, actress, and singer. She is a famous role model for fashion scenes for decades, which she has worked with David LaChapelle and Terry Richardson. She was originally born as Armand Lepore in November 21, 1967. Ever since her mother, diagnosed with schizophrenia, spent most of her life in a mental institution, he as a boy started dressing up as a girl. She wrote "Ever since I can first remember, I knew I was a girl. I couldn't understand why my parents were dressing me up in boys clothing. I thought they were insane." She just wanted attention from her mother since most of her childhood life was spent without her mother.

Name: Chaz Bono
Age: 49
Chaz Bono is a writer, musician, as well as an LGBTQ advocate. He is the son of two famous pop stars Sonny and Cher. He has written two different, semi-autobiographical books about coming out, and is the subject of a documentary called Becoming Chaz. He was born in March 4, 1969, originally as a girl. At age 18, she came up to her parents informing her being a lesbian. She wrote "as a child, I always felt there was something different about me. I'd look at other girls my age and feel perplexed by their obvious interest in the latest fashion, which boy in class was the cutest, and who looked the most like cover girl Christie Brinkley. When I was 13, I finally found a name for exactly how I was different. I realized I was gay."



References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29050504
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV8b8hsQups&t=1901s
https://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-famous-transgender-people/famous-gay-and-lesbian?var=6&utm_expid=16418821-392.lsOpfJzUQlqASOnl6bIBPA.1&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3D%26esrc%3Ds%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D1%26ved%3D0ahUKEwja_9yQhsfaAhUC-58KHRGZBKMQFggpMAA%26url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.ranker.com%252Flist%252Flist-of-famous-transgender-people%252Ffamous-gay-and-lesbian%26usg%3DAOvVaw0WQkBzNAfux12Cp9uPUR0x
https://www.bustle.com/articles/78832-transcript-of-bruce-jenner-coming-out-as-transgender-will-only-make-you-respect-jenner-more
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caitlyn_Jenner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Lepore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaz_Bono