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G.4.a. Transgender Issues and Activism Globally

Volume Two -> G. LGBT: Campaigns for Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Rights -> G.4. Minorities within LGBT -> G.4.a. Transgender Issues and Activism Globally

Trans people often experience extreme dangers and difficulties, and their particular problems tend to be peripheral to campaigns for gays and lesbians, although transnational organizations like IGLHRC and ILGA do take up trans cases and support initiatives like the Transgender Day of Remembrance on 1st December for those murdered (the 16th annual remembrance was held in 2014).

But there are now groups and projects which focus on trans people. Transgender Europe monitors and lobbies organizations like the EU and the Council of Europe and national governments and launched the Trans Murder Monitoring project, see: http://www.tgeu.org.

The Trans Awareness Project (a poster and digital media campaign challenging stereotypes and promoting respect for people of all genders) is sponsored by the University of Minnesota, see: http://www.transawareness.org. A new dedicated journal on trans issues is Transgender Studies Quarterly: http://tsq.dukejournals.org.

Despite continuing violence and prejudice, public perceptions of trans people are being challenged in social media, and sometimes in films and TV, and a few governments have begun to recognize trans legally, for example in marriage laws or issuing passports. Support groups as are also burgeoning. See:

  • New Internationalist, The transgender revolution New Internationalist, 01/10/2015 covering a range of issues and including a list of organizations and resources.
Arkles, Gabriel ; Gehi, Pooja ; Redfield, Elana, The Role of Lawyers in Trans Liberation: Building a Transformative Movement for Social Change, Seattle Journal for Social Justice, Vol. 8, issue 2 (summer), 2010, pp. 578-641

Broad, K.L., GLB +T?: Gender/Sexuality Movements and Transgender Collective Identity (De)Constructions, International Jorunal of Sexuality and Gender Studies, Vol. 7, issue 4 (October), 2002, pp. 341-364

Brossi, Lionel ; Landa, María Inés ; de Zarate, Amalia Ortíz, The Intersex Movement: Empowering Through New Technologies, International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, Vol. 2, issue 22 (Special Issue), 2012, pp. 64-75

Feinberg, Leslie, Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue, Boston MA, Beacon Press, 1998, pp. 147

Collection of speeches by Feinberg (poet and grassroots activist in US) covering range of issues including health care reform and infant genital mutilation.
Hines, Sally, TransForming Gender: Transgender Practices of Identity, Intimacy and Care, Chicago IL, University of Chicago Press, Policy Press, 2007, pp. 232

Drawing on interviews with transgender people charts impact of changing legislation in UK. Primarily about individual experience and social context, but there is a chapter on: ‘Transgender Care Networks, Social Movements and Citizenship’.
Liminalis, Intersex and Transgender in Movement!, Issue 3, Liminalis, 2009

Includes article on ‘Intersex and Transgender Activism in South Africa’ and interviews with activists from Africa, Latin America and Europe discussing situation of trans people, forms of organization and role transnational organizations in these regions.
Moreno, Aluminé, The Politics of Visibility and the GLTTTBI Movement in Argentina, Feminist Review, Vol. 89, issue 1, 2008, pp. 138-143

Motmans, Joz, We Can’t Have Men Giving Birth! (But We Do). The Impact of the Belgian Transgender Movement on the Well-Being of Transgender Persons in Belgium, In Woodward; Bonvin; Renom, Transforming Gendered Well-Being in Europe (F.3.a. General, Regional and National Studies), Aldershot, Ashgate,

Silva de Assis, C., Transgendering the media: Trans Media Watch and the struggle over representations of transgender in the British media, Utrecht, University of Utrecht, Faculty of Humanities Theses, 2014, pp. 100

Stone, Amy, Transgender Movement, In Snow; Della Porta; Klandermans; McAdam, The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements (1.a. Transnational and Continent-wide Movements and Networks), Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell,

Examines evolution of US transgender movement from 1960s as it challenged violence, demanded legal recognition and resisted employment discrimination, poverty and media misrepresentation.