(no subject)
Social Pressures for Transgenders
I need to preface this paper with saying that I don’t support discrimination of any type, whether for gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation. I hadn’t really given a lot of thought as to why I felt this way, other than to think any other way felt wrong. During the time frame of this class I happened to meet an individual through my job with the Sheriff’s Department. This individual helped me gain an understanding as to why I felt that discrimination and hate of a person based on those reason alone is wrong.
For the purposes of this paper we will call him Roger. Roger was coming into my office to get some of his property back. The case we were holding his property on was a prostitution case that the DA and declined to file charges on. In doing further research I found out the Roger was a male to female transgender individual. He was a minor and his file broke my heart.
Roger had been in and out of our detention facilities since he was 13 for various gang related crimes, selling drugs, stealing cars, etc. From 15 on his booking photos became more and more feminine as Roger started making the transformation. Buying cheap hormones from Mexico lead to him having an infection that left him in the medical facility at the juvenile hall for three months. In Roger’s file they had the transcribed interviews with our gang detectives. In those transcriptions it was shown that Roger joined the gangs to try and prove he was a man, a strong “normal” man. That Roger’s father had supported the activity because he thought it proved his son was “normal.” Roger knew at the age of 13 that there was something different about him. That he wasn’t not society’s “normal,” so he participated in nefarious activities to try and prove he could be. When Roger’s family found out that he was interested in going through with a sex change they disowned him. At sixteen Roger found himself out on the street trying to survive.
In reading the DA’s file I discovered the reason charges were not filed. Roger had been meeting someone for a first date. Roger did not feel safe letting the person know that was picking him up where he lived, so he arranged to be picked up in a public place. When his date was picking him up, they were detained and questioned. Rather than admit to dating a transgender individual, Roger’s date stated he was picking up a prostitute. In the end Roger was not charged with prostitution, but the date was.
Unfortunately when it came time for Roger to come pick up his property my coworkers showed a complete lack of understanding and a strong bias. I requested supervisor approval that I be the only person to process Roger’s request when he came in so that he would not face further embarrassment and the hands of my coworkers crude behavior.
Roger’s story is not uncommon. It is a shame that he has had to go through his life in secrecy for fear of his family. To end up initiated into a gang for the sole purpose of trying to prove to the world and to himself that he could be normal. And here I’ve written the whole paper calling him “him” instead of “her.” I’m sure she prefers her.