The new ordinance passed by Gainesville would be a huge step forward for the LGBTQ community because it advocates equality, fairness, and the rights of transgender and gender variant people. The idea behind this law is that it provides more security and acceptance of them. Schilt provided an example of a commercial where a young girl enters a bathroom, and an old man follows her in. It is unfair for the media to portray transgenders as a raggedy and creepy old man trying to harass a child as an argument to oppose this law because this type of exploitation is why the mistreatment of transgender men and women continues to exist. With each new policy created to support transgenders, come with protest because people often associate transgender rights with sexual predators, seen in examples such as the commercial used in this article. This policy was created to provide transgenders with a space that everyone has the right to have, without being abused and looked at as an anomaly. However, people are viewing this as a policy that allows those who are perceived as men to be able to legally enter a women-only space. This sort of argument not only further supports the discrimination against transgenders, but also reinforces the inequality.

I believe creating these policies is beneficial to transgender people, and I also agree with the idea that this reinforces gender inequality. However, instead of focusing on the rights of transgender people, it is transitioning the focus to women being taken advantage of, that they are weak, and that men are aggressive and rapists. There is already a stigma with being a transgender person, and arguments like these accompany them with more misconceptions and generate fear. It seems as though those who oppose transgender-support policies do not have any proper argument as to why they are opposing because it mainly leads back to bathroom access. What about other sex-segregated settings such as housing, military, sports teams, social fraternities and sororities? Now the same argument can only be loosely applied to those, or not at all.

Nelson starts this book off with the idea that the meaning of a phrase or sentence depends on the person that says it. She explains this idea with the example of the Argo, and how it’s different because it has been reconstructed over time, but it is still the Argo. One passage Nelson made that struck me was when she mentioned that it is not enough to just introduce new words and define its meaning, but also be attentive in the many ways those words can be used in different contexts. If those words can be used in different context, each with a different meaning, it would be ridiculous to contain sexuality and gender to a binary system. These hetero-normative aspects of a relationship and how it should be has been imposed on our society for too long. It is difficult to understand why so many have fought for their freedom, and yet they are still limited. People should be able to choose to be seen or act a certain way, without having to conform to any traditional roles. The idea of feeling real is associated with aliveness, a sensation that makes one want to live. I think that if a person finds pleasure in aligning themselves with an identity that does not fall under the norm, that identity should still be accepted and not ridiculed or rejected because it provides that person with a sense of aliveness and stability.

Hi! My legal name is Yinan, but everyone calls me Jacqueline. I went to Baruch College and transferred over second semester of my sophomore year when I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do exactly, but I knew I wanted to be in healthcare or other similar fields. Now, I’m a senior and my major is Clinical Psychology.