ABSTRACT
In the past two decades, there has been an increased visibility of trans (i.e., transgender, transsexual, and gender non-conforming) people in the media. This visibility has been immensely important in shifting social stigma and changing repressive laws. Although still marginalized and misunderstood, trans people have become an organized political community demanding inclusion and civil rights (Denny, 2006; Lev, 2006b). The focus has been on questions of legal identities, child-custody issues, access to public facilities, and a near-prurient curiosity toward medical treatments and surgeries. Within contemporary Western culture, the advent of synthetic hormones, surgical reassignment surgeries, and changes within the social climate—both technological and political—have forged a trans liberation movement (Denny, 2006; Lev, 2006b; Shapiro, 2010), similar in scope and vision to the civil rights, women’s, and gay and lesbian movements that preceded it. Indeed, trans liberation has reframed what was once seen as mental health disturbances in trans individuals as the sequellae of oppression.
