Transgender Rights & Liberties in America

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Society has everchanging belief systems as generations come and go, becoming much more tolerant and open-minded in modern times; however, transgender people have always lived in fear of others due to heavy discrimination by ignorant people. The transgender population have had to suffer at the hands of others who will never understand the concept of being born the one gender while their mind and soul contained the characteristics of the other. Robberies, beatings and even murders have plagued trans people for centuries and continue to do so today. In a country that takes undying pride in freedom and liberty, this "American experience" is not held by everyone, especially minorities. The United States of America should extend the civil rights and civil liberties that are granted to men and women to all gender identities, most notably transgender people, who have suffered the most hate from others for far too long.

The twentieth century was huge for the feminist movement, fighting for protection against sex discrimination, sexual harassment, equal pay, equal education, etc. A big win for women was in 1996 when the Supreme Court declared all-male schools unconstitutional, most notably the Virginia Military Institute who claimed that women were not physically developed enough to withstand their rigid training procedures (Lowi 131). Taking this situation and applying it to transgender people rather than women, we come to a similar controversy that has been in the public eye since the early 2010s. The recent discussions of whether transgender people should be allowed to enter the military service of the United States has been argued with multiple points of view. In his presidency, Obama did what he could to assist the trans population against discrimination; on the contrary, in 2017, President Donald Trump posted that "transgender people would be barred from military service" on Twitter without consulting his administration or any other governmental figures. Following this, the military announced, "that transgender enlistments would be allowed in 2018" (Lowi 132). This shows the importance of electing a president who supports the entirety of the American population is very high and is a civil duty of American citizens to ensure that the chosen president has everyone's best interests in mind.

Another popular dispute with transgender people in the center is that of bathroom use. More conservative states do not have many unisex bathrooms and the male and female designated bathrooms still reign the most favored. This can pose a massive problem to trans people. Do they enter the restroom consistent with their designated gender at birth, or do they face discrimination and possible hatred or violence by entering the bathroom with the gender they identify with? Trans people who have not had an operation or a sex assignment change and still appear as their gender at birth face a higher chance of discrimination when using public restrooms. If they enter the bathroom with which they identify, they risk being shooed out. If they enter the bathroom with the gender at birth, then fear rules their decisions and they cannot express their identities freely as other Americans have the privilege to do. This controversy is highlighted in detail when North Carolina issued a law in 2016 forcing transgender people to use the bathrooms aligned with the gender on their birth certificate; in fact, when the Department of Justice declared this unconstitutional and a violation of the Civil Rights Act, North Carolina fought back with lawsuits. Eventually, North Carolina lost this legal battle, for the better, but made American history and shined the spotlight on the massive problem of gender identity discrimination (Lowi 132).

This concept of unwavering freedom to all American citizens should not be as controversial as it is today. Everyone comes from the same species and everyone should be treated equally in social settings, political settings, career settings, and so on. If civil rights and civil liberties continue to be granted to a portion of the American population and not all of the population, then America will never be the "free" society it has always claimed to be since establishment and will continue to become the very thing the founders escaped from centuries ago.