Why Our Government Can't Take The Heat

The New Issue: Trans Politics

marsattacks.jpg
“Meltdown”. That’s one word a friend used when describing the trans-centric squabbling over the ENDA. Politicians, lobbyists and journalists have been debating over whether or not transgendered people should be included under ENDA, which could forbid discrimination based on perceived or actual sexual orientation and gender identity. A test vote showed that the majority of politicians objected to the trans-inclusion. Under such pressure, openly gay Representative Barney Frank, who co-sponsored the inclusive ENDA draft, slipped into acquiescence. To keep the bill above water, Frank effectively split ENDA in two: one version protecting gays and another for trans folk. They’re now floating alone in an ocean of inequality.

Our government – and much of our culture – deny transgenders their rights because, quite frankly, they can’t understand the trans’s existence. Our culture does not have mechanisms to deal with “gender deviants.” Trannies are a threat to our nation’s very foundations. The Alliance Defense Fund’s Doug Napier said the law will “strike at the very heart of our American liberties.” He must be using the word “liberties” liberally. Napier’s not alone, of course. Millions of people – gay and straight – simply cannot muster the imagination to consider trans folk equal. What’s more, we have no use for trans people. And, as contributor Dan Avery and editor Andrew Belonsky assert, the American stonewall against trans rights goes much further than 1974 – and even our borders. “Trans” populations exist all over the world and crop up in seemingly unlikely locales, like Iran.

While President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad contends Iran’s gay-free, even he can’t deny the visible presence of transgender people in Iran. Mukhannathun, or “effeminate ones,” have been a part of Islamic culture since the days of Muhammad. And, unlike the gays – who are allegedly mentioned in the story of Job – there’s no religious law restricting Mukhannathun. Though not integrated into Iranian culture, Mukhannathun definitely lived a parallel existence in Iran.

When Khomeini and his revolutionaries took power in 1979, however, that all changed. Still accepted in Iranian culture – unlike “gays” – Mukhannathun became subjects of governmental intervention. One’s no longer given the choice of whether or not you undergo a sex-change. If the government deems it necessary, it’s done. A 26-year named Sayeh tells Bimarz that most of the surgeries are applied to men and not under the most sympathetic circumstances:

They would not give us (transsexuals) jobs in Iran. They would tell me to get a sex change and get a new identification card…only after I get the new ID I can go and get a job.

Left and right, on a daily bases, they perform sex change operations on people without even paying proper attention to each case and yet they are so proud that they are a country which allows people to have sex changes. They perform all these operations improperly and incomplete. Out of all the people they operate on, only a few remain healthy. How many of these patients do not become psychotic? How many do not commit suicide? How many can live a normal life after the operation? Most of them don’t even get the chance of finding a companion. They are transsexuals and their past will always haunt them.

Once the operation’s complete, the women aren’t only taunted for their “trans” status, but also must adopt the legal limitations placed on women. Their movement’s restricted and they’re ordered to wear the hijab. Muslim clerics have been known to encourage gay men and lesbians to have sex-change operations in order to assimilate into “normal” society. When examined against the broader patriarchy of Iranian society, plitical encouragement of Mukhannathun simply perpetuates preexisted gender norms. Yes, Mukhannathun are continually oppressed, but they are given a role in society. As one can imagine, female-to-male post-operatives enjoy more freedom than when they were women.

In a 2005 piece for the UK’s The Independent, Caroline Mangez interviewed a then-30 year old FTM, Milad, who told her:

I know because I’ve experienced both worlds: as a man in Iran I have more freedom and choice than as a woman. I never used to go to the mosque, either. I did not want to have to wear a chador. Now I can pray in boxer shorts if I feel like it, and I never miss prayers.

Newly minted women suffer under an oppressive regime. Men, meanwhile, thrive. The ancient Mukhannathun social group adjusted – or was assimilated – into a broader political culture. They were given meaning, albeit archaic. And sex-changes become the torturous “cure all” for same-sex desire.

The Balkans have a similar social concept for trans citizens. Women who wish to be men are more than welcome to dress and live as men, who are called “sworn virgins”. As in Iran, these gender bending women assimilate into male society. In fact, their existence has been written into unofficial social norms, known as the Kanun. Jolique explains:

The Kanun is not a religious document (Kanun followers may be Christian, Muslim, etc.), but is sacred nonetheless.

A sworn virgin is called such because she swears–takes a vow under the law of the Kanun–to become a man. From the day she takes this vow (which is sometimes at a very early age), she becomes a man: she dresses like one, acts like one, walks like one, works like one, talks like one, and her family and community treat her as one.

These sworn virgins are afforded all the rights as men, including membership in all men’s clubs and hold masculine offices. There are, however, downsides to living as men, like obligatory battles against social rivals.

The Iranian and Balkans examples emphasize an assimilationist take on transgender living. Not all cultures, however, support such rigid gender roles. Take, for example, American Indians and “two-spirit people”. This group transcend Western concepts of sexuality and gender. Their social roles weren’t linked to their sexual partners. Via NY Times:

In tribal tradition, when children exhibited interest in activities not associated with their gender…they were singled out as inhabited by dual spirits… “It was never about sexuality, ” [University of Vermont assistant professor Brian Joseph] Gilley added. “It was about your role in the community.”

Unfortunately, the introduction of Western and Christian ideals pushed two-spirits to the fringes. Under new sexual norms, two-spirits lost the peers’ reverence and have formed far more isolationist clusters. It’s under that same ideal that we live. And, as difficult as it may be to face, we share more similarities with the Iranians than with the American Indians.

Constructionist debates aside, “trans” Americans and Iranians – among others – live within the same linear parameters. Sexuality and gender flow along the same lines: girl/boy. In both contexts, gender and sexuality are viewed through distinctly religious lenses. The United States and Iran both have conservative activists who rail against the perversion of God or Allah-approved sexual roles. The Iranian context differs, however, because of an explicit mention – and tacit acceptance – of Mukhannathun. A Hadith collection called Sunan Abu-Dawud Book 41, Number 4910 reads:

A hermaphrodite (mukhannath) who had dyed his hands and feet with henna was brought to the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him). He asked: What is the matter with this man? He was told: Apostle of Allah! he affects women’s get-up. So he ordered regarding him and he was banished to an-Naqi’. The people said: Apostle of Allah! should we not kill him? He said: I have been prohibited from killing people who pray. AbuUsamah said: Naqi’ is a region near Medina and not a Baqi’.

It’s this phrase that persuaded the revolutionaries to accept Mukhannathun.

In America, meanwhile, most teachings of the Bible tell people that Eve came from Adam’s rib. This myth ignores another interpretation. God created man and woman together. Genesis 1:27 reads:

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

It’s implied that man and women were “birthed” at the same time. Such a translation, however, doesn’t suit patriarchal structures that came to dominate Western, Christian conservatism.

This conservative culture can’t fathom the idea of a “third gender”. There’s man and there’s woman – period. These models were further institutionalized with the help of scienstists and politicians. It’s a familiar story: Victorian era doctors poked, prodded and merged gender and sexuality. Police, preachers and politicians colluded with this “good” doctors and reinforced the preexisting, freshly examined gender roles – and their complementary sexual partners.

When gay rights emerged, conservatives emphasized the sexual in homosexual. The gays and their unproductive sins were an insult to the Bible’s and our leader’s prescriptions. The long road of gay rights surely isn’t over, but we’ve come a long way. This week, The Senate voted to pass a comprehensive hate crime law. Trans people are included in that bill because, regardless of gender choice, we all bleed the same. We do not, however, pee the same.

The stalled ENDA has now birthed a nearly identical clone: GENDA. GENDA addresses some of the conservative’s biggest concerns: toilets and changing rooms. Transgender people, they think, will change their identities on the daily. Men will become women and vice versa, but not necessarily permanently. If they can “switch back and forth”, then what’s to stop transgender people – or any people – from using ENDA laws to catch a peek between the stalls? ENDA will help perverts get off. Such theories fueled two anti-trans actions in two different states, Washington and Utah.

Had the United States – and other Western cultures – not created such a concrete link between gender and sexuality, we would have one bill rather than two. As gays flourish under American democracy, our transgendered allies are being left in the cold. It’s hard to fault the politicians, though, because our culture simply lacks the political imagination to envision equality.

Don't forget to share:

Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...

We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated