I DO Believe in Trannies!

Pride Fever

L is for lesbians tying the knot. G is for gay couples who are finally called a “family.” B is for my big fat bisexual college experience (‘cause everybody has one!) and T is for…

Well, we don’t talk about the T.

LGB_. It’s not just because “transgender” doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as easily as the other labels; it’s that gay activism has left the taboo T in the dust.

When a local transgender woman, Lateisha Green, was murdered in 2008, activist groups like the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund were up in arms. Green’s murderer, Dwight DeLee, is the only person charged with a hate crime in New York and only the second person in the United States to be charged with a hate crime against a transgender person. (Read more here.)

But it seemed like only a couple weeks after the trial, the T left our minds again, and the gays and lesbians resumed their spots as the forerunners of the LGBT movement.

This past summer, the ArtRage Gallery on Hawley Avenue in Syracuse featured an LGBT-themed exhibit, that fell victim to an act of intolerance. After someone scribbled a homophobic message across one of the windows, the Associate Director of the LGBT Resource Center, Amit Taneja, and over 200 others responded by posting pictures holding signs with reaffirming messages of pride. This gave rise to a wall of photos measuring about 25 by 10 feet, Taneja said. The Schine Student Center will feature that exhibit, called the Faces of Pride, throughout October. (Full story here.) I love seeing the smiling faces and signs, most of which say “Proud Ally,” “Proud Queer,” or “Proud Lesbian,” but the silence of the missing sign speaks volumes. Guess the T missed the boat again.

I blame the lack of transgender media attention. Although America’s Next Top Model featured a transgender, documentaries about transgender experiences are few and far between. Gays find positive messages of hope and acceptance all over television, but transgender people do not. Without positive role models, homophobic messages garner more power.

Our society must stop being critical of people who don’t fit into the artificial male/female binary. I cringe when reading about South African runner Caster Semenya needing to prove she’s a woman because she looks too masculine. I only hope this doesn’t mark the beginning of some mass transgender athlete witch-hunt.

Everyone needs a voice. We need to make transgender issues more identifiable on our campus and in our community. It’s time to clap our hands shout, “I do believe in trannies!”

Anyone identifying as transgender can seek both local recognition and support by joining TransCuse, the Syracuse University LGBT Resource Center’s bi-weekly discussion group. For more information, contact lgbt@syr.edu. Image courtesy of sfgate.com

Meghan Russell is a regular web contributor to Pride Fever