Exploring Differences: A Research Project on the Transgender Community

What societal issues does the transgender community face?

The Human Rights Campaign (founded in 1980), describes the societal issues that the transgender community faces in their everyday lives. Although there are laws in place in the United States that prevent discrimination based on gender identity, these laws often leave out transgenders. Trans people are discriminated against when it comes to public restrooms, healthcare coverage, legal document changes, and laws that are created based on religious beliefs (The Human Rights Campaign, n.d.).

Cisgender individuals have never had to fight to use the bathroom in a public place. There are two bathrooms, male and female. Transgender individuals struggle to find a bathroom they belong in. If they go to the bathroom they identify themselves with, they are accused of being in the wrong bathroom. If they go to the bathroom of their birth sex, not only are they accused of being in the wrong bathroom again, they are subjected to discrimination for having to once again identify as a gender they no longer associate themselves with. Also, non-binary individuals face a similar crisis. Non-binary individuals do not identify with male or female, therefore how can they subject themselves to binary bathrooms? Transgender rights need to be protected when it comes to using the bathroom of their choice. People should be permitted to use whichever bathroom they feel the most comfortable and safest in (National Center for Transgender Equality, 2016). Ryan stated that he still uses the women's restroom because that's where he feels the safest. He mentioned that men's bathrooms are constantly revolting, always smelling bad and lacking maintenance. Ryan's choice is one that should be more accepted by society as a whole (Haag, 2021).

Transgender individuals often have trouble when it comes to obtaining efficient healthcare that has reliable coverage. Being transgender has sadly become a political issue, causing disagreement on whether transgender rights should be covered when it comes to medical care. Since transgender individuals are generally at a higher risk for both physical and mental issues throughout their lives, it's important to have appropriate medical coverage. Transgender patients, when not denied medical treatment entirely, are sometimes physically and verbally abused by a provider. These statistics are worse for transgender people of color. A chart by the Center for American Progress (Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles, Williams Institute, 2021), reveals that two out of three transgender adults are concerned that health evaluations will be discriminitory based on sexuality and/or gender identity. Half of transgender adults recorded having been discriminated against with a health provider (Medina, 2021).