Advocacy

Each of the groups introduced to us through this second blog post assignment have different goals and agendas due to their various foci on issues regarding gender, sex, and gender and sexual identity. However, all of them seek to make a difference by making educational resources available to those who are struggling with the issues they outline or those who are seeking to understand and know more about LGBTI experience. They all recognize that change can occur only with full disclosure (this applies to medical full disclosure as well as open, direct discourse about gender, sexual identity, and sexual orientation) and the availability of the resources individuals need to better understand themselves, the institutions they must operate within (and through an understanding of the way those institutions operate come to an understanding of how they may also be changed), and resources for others who may not be facing the same oppression or medical problems to be able to understand and sympathize with their experiences. 

GenderPac has helped over 200 major corporations add gender identity and expression to their non-discrimination policies. They initiated “National Gender Lobby Day.” They advocated for gender protections in ENDA. As members of the Hate Crimes Coalition they advocated for gender protections in the federal hate crimes bill. They have provided support for student leaders who wanted their colleges to address gender identity and expression in their anti-bullying policies. They made reports on gender-based violence to document “the underreported tide of violence against the predominantly Black and Latina/o transgender and gay youth. And they even focused on masculinity and the challenges faced by young men of color.

GenderPAC’s argument that “Discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity at some level are all discrimination based on stereotypes about what is or is not appropriate for men and women” has helped to build “broader coalitions and bring gender issues into the mainstream.” While GenderPac is no longer an advocacy organization,  their work continues through ChoiceUSA. GenderPac sought to raise awareness of the need for legal and societal protections for members of the LGBTI community. They refused to allow bullying and hate crimes to be underreported or unquestioned. By raising awareness of discrimination and by expanding their coverage of these issues to include masculinity and the special challenges of gender and sexual identity within racial and cultural contexts they were totally inclusive and sensitive to the very different problems which face members of different cross-sections of our society. Their emphasis on the idea that discrimination "based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity" is "based on stereotypes about what is or is not appropriate for men and women" helps make the issue of protections for members of the LGBTI (protections which are readily available for those who do not self-identify as members of the LGBTI community) seem more sensible, just, and less threatening for those who might consider them as such. Even in their most basic definitions of discrimination, they sought to emphasize that the reasons that people discriminate against others are not "facts" or "truths" but rather socially constructed stereotypes based in fear and hate. That kind of language and awareness is crucial to changing the face of discrimination protection and acceptance and tolerance in our society. 

The Intersex Society of North America is “devoted to systemic change to end shame, secrecy, and unwanted genital surgeries for people born with an anatomy that someone decided is not standard for male or female.”

They argue that intersexuality is a problem of “stigma and trauma, not gender.” That surgery is not the answer to parents’ distress about the fact that their child is intersex. That “professional mental health care is essential.” That “honest, complete disclosure is good medicine.” And that all children should “be assigned as boy or girl, without early surgery.” Again, they present the idea that intersexuality is a problem because of the "systemic" issues which result in shame and secrecy. The true problem, according to the ISNA is "stigma" not the inability of an intersex individual to "fit" into the gender binary of our society. The organization seeks to raise awareness of the issues concerning DSDs and the options available to patients and their families so that individuals don't rush into what are often damaging and traumatic "medical solutions" to their situations.

As an organization, they work to “advocate for patients and families who felt they had been harmed by their experience with the health care system” and to be a “resource for clinicians, parents, and affected individuals who require basic information about disorders of sex development )DSDs) and for how to improve the health care and overall well-being of people with DSDs. “

They put together a Consensus Statement which includes the following: “Progress in patient-centered care” to encourage psycghological support for patients and families struggling with DSDs. And that “genital exams and medical photography should be limited.” They also argue that “care should be more focused on addressing stigma not solely on gender assignment and genital appearance.” They recommend “no vaginoplasty in children, clitoroplasty only in more ‘severe’ cases, and no vaginal dilation before puberty.” It stresses that “functional outcome of genital surgeries” “not just cosmetic appearance.” They also are attempting to get rid of misleading language to ”help clinicians move away from the almost exclusive focus on gender and genitals to the real medical problems people with DSD face.

The ISNA has met with some resistance in implementing these ideas however so in 2007, they “sponsored and convened a national group of health care and advocacy professionals to establish a nonprofit organization charged with making sure the new ideas about appropriate care are known and implemented across the country.” Accord Alliance began operating in 2008 and they seek to “improve the way health care is made available and delivered” so that “people receive the services and support they need to lead happy, healthy lives.” The organization is also focused on changing perceptions and language so that individuals can find greater self-acceptance, tolerance in wider society and answers to their questions and problems that don't discount and discredit their sex as abberant. 

Gender Education and Advocacy is “a national organization focused on the needs, issues, and concerns of gender variant people in human society.” They support LGBTI Health Summits. They raise awareness about dangerous cosmetic procedures such as “silicone use.” They draw attention to and raise awareness about crimes against LGBTI individuals.  They include articles which help others to understand aspects of the LGBTI community and the struggles of individuals within it. And they seek to inform people about medical conditions which specifically affect members of the LGBTI community and which would otherwise maybe remain obscure or unknown to them. They post articles about societal and medical concerns which directly impact members of the LGBTI community and also provide resources for legal, medical, and cosmetic interests, LGBTI individuals may have. As a whole. they also help to raise awareness of issues which affect LGBTI individuals because of a dearth of acceptance, tolerance, and policies which include their distinctive needs in our society. I found the article on the new airport security scanners especially interesting because I'd never thought of them from the perspective of a transgendered individual. Many people claimed serious problems with the new full body imaging scanners because they violated privacy and might be misused in ways which violated those who were subjected to them but I'd never considered the problems they might pose for a transgendered individual. Firstly, there is the problem of being "escorted" through the search by a member of your own sex. If your sex is at odds with the way you are presenting or identifying that is difficult to explain to a security guard (and one shouldn't have to). And if the security scan shows an "anomaly" such as a prosthesis or bound breasts what kind of ridicule, discrimination, and unnecessary searches and profiling might they then be subject to? This website provides members of the LGBTI community resources for dealing with discriminatory problems and other issues which pertain to their specific subset of society and also raise awareness for those who do not have those same concerns to better understand their experiences. This understanding allows for an avenue to change which would make society and its institutions less hostile and prejudiced against the LGBTI community and ways in which their needs and desires can be accommodated so that their dignity and rights are preserved.