Abstract
A description of gender by Jacobs, Thomas and Lang (1997) of the word gender was that gender refers to cultural ideologies, rules and the behavior expected of individuals of varied psychological characteristics (p.2). Gender identity is the subjective view that one has in relations to an attributed gender. Gender role is the expected public exhibit of gender identity which shows the expected believes of how girls and boys are to behave (Diamond, 2002). On the other hand, transgender is a termed used to describe people who do not conform to the gender identity imposed on them at birth by the society thus violating what the society believes to be man or woman (Stryker, 2008). The transsexuals are persons whose physical body does not match their gender identity. Transsexuals sometimes change their physique to that of the opposite gender and portray behavior similar to that of their experienced gender identity. Adults of such nature are described as having gender identity disorders.
Suicide and social depression suicide has been described to have a close relationship with social mistreatment (Clement et.al, 2008). There has been a major growth of the gap in addressing social acts such as suicide, healthcare barriers and contracting of HIV/AIDS through to poor social services that are linked with transgender (Kenagy, 2005). From Kenagy’s research which involved 182 transgender men and women, 67.5% of them were identified to have had unprotected sex within 12 months to the research conducted. The research sample was comprised of people of color. Approximately 60% of these people of color in the research group had no doctor and another 28% having been denied medical care. Therefore, a lot has to change in the society’s perspective of the transgender population in order to allow them to live without discrimination and fear of it, in order to live a productive and enjoyable life.
The literature on minority transsexuals is limited as little research has been conducted on this. Materials available deal more on European-American, and the Anglo White transsexuals (Winter, 2002). The population that identifies most with the transsexual issues is the very poor urban population that is also prone to HIV infection and has a history of substance abuse. They are often identified as “she-male” in popular youthful culture. A high percentage of the transgender are from the African-American population as reported by Garofalo et al. (2006) from San Francisco. Within their communities, they live squalidly with a high rate of unemployment, homelessness, poor access to health care, incarceration. Most of the transgender youth are in the sex workers industry as suggested by the pornographic website found in the internet. The rate of HIV prevalence among the transgender African-Americans is high as confirmed by Herbst et. al. (2008). the transsexuals experience a high rate of anxiety, depression, histories of sexual and physical abuse through the study of contextual factors that are related to high risk sexual behaviors, prostitution and unprotected sex. In order to make money, this individuals are have to have unprotected sex as demanded by their clients or rather in order to feel closer to their sexual partners thus feeling more female.
In defining transsexualism, American Psychiatric Association (follw up 2002), defined it as the aspiration of individuals to belong to the opposite sex and change the body structure to match with the preferred sex by undergoing a surgery and hormone treatment. In many instances, the complexity of SRS-sexual realignment surgery and severe discriminatory consequences has encouraged the creation of many support programs internationally. The care provide for transsexuals in Brazil was standardized in 1997 by the Federal Council of Medicine (Conselho Federal de Medicina, 1997). Treatment using the SRS has led to considerably positive effect on the patients from different dimensions of their lives including family relationships, sexual relationships and partnership. Before surgery patients reported difficulty in maintaining relationships as the transsexuals have preferences of maintaining their relationships with heterosexuals. This was in particular difficult due to the fact that their partners had to understand their situation and accept them as they were.
Although the medical innovation on transgender issues has progressed substantively in the last 40 years, their human right protection has lagged considerably. It was not until twenty years ago when some consideration was given to the transgender by the European Parliament for comprehensive recognition of the transgender identity. The western nations have had a rather slow progression in the implementation of regulations that seeks to safeguard the transgender population. However, thee introduction of laws by the European convention was of much assistance in the fight against discrimination against transgender. In sharp contrast, the American society has over a long period of time not formulated laws to protect the transgender up to recently.
Over the years, health insurance has been required to cover the transgender. Lately, in 2012, the city of Seattle has made sure that their insurance coverage has included the transgender therefore treating it LGBT citizens equally. Seattle earned the highest index achievements in 2012, thereby setting a good example for the entire country.
Almost all institutions and systems of the United States have been implicated by the discriminatory issues mentions in this research. Institutions are failing to provide support for the transgender and the transsexuals; instead, they have continually subjected these persons to mistreatment and common place disrespect making their life difficult and unbearable. Homelessness, unemployment and ill health are the consequences of these discriminatory behaviors. Action and decisive action for this matter should be taken in order to safeguard humanity of the transsexuals. Laws and legislation should be passed to protect these groups of people so that they can also experience a world of peace and tranquility from that of violence, discrimination and abuse.
Reference
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