African American transsexuality

African American transsexuality is transsexualism that occurs within the African American community. Though gender variance has been prevalent in the community throughout American history, the medicalized concept of [...] reassignment surgery was not documented among African Americans until the mid-20th century.

Clinical reports of transsexualism in this community have been questioned by critics who feel racism affects the observations made.

African American transsexual people can face multiple kinds of prejudice, not only from non-Black and non-trans people, but also from within the transsexual and African American communities.

History

A 1953 Jet article noted that nightclub shake dancer Charles Robert Brown was "the first Negro 'transvestite' in history to transform his [...]," but nurse and jazz singer Delisa Newton was later billed as "the first Negro [...]-change" in 1966.

Community leaders have begun grassroots movements to help underserved populations. Notable leaders include conference organizers Monica Roberts, Elder Joshua A. Holiday, Dawn Josephine Wilson, Alexis Whitman, and Louis James “L.J.” Irving Mitchell. Female-to-male Alexander John Goodrum founded TGNet Arizona and was director until his death. Other prominent activists include Chanel Tresvant in Los Angeles and Earline Budd in Washington DC. In 2002, Lorrainne Sade Baskerville of Chicago won a case against the DuSable Museum of African-American History after the museum canceled its agreement to rent facility space for transGENESIS fundraiser. In 2004, Valerie Spencer participated in the all-transgender performance of The Vagina Monologues. Other notable artists include musician Jordana LeSense of 1.8.7 and author Pamela Hayes. In 2006, Monica Roberts won the Trinity Award from the International Foundation for Gender Education joining Dawn Wilson and Marisa Richmond, previous African American recipients.

Clinical reports

Clinical reports consistently include data about African American transsexual people. According to historian Joanne Meyerowitz, in a group of letters from applicants for [...] reassignment where they identified their race voluntarily, 103 reported themselves as white, and 13 as African Americans.

Depending on the operational definition of "transsexual" used, transsexual people of color are sometimes lumped in with reports on transgender people, especially in reports on epidemiology. Psychologist J. Michael Bailey was criticized for claiming in his 2003 book The Man Who Would Be Queen "about 60 percent of homosexual transsexuals and drag queens we studied were Latina or black," about three times the ratio in his studies of "ordinary gay men."

African American transsexuality in society

[...] and gender roles

[...] roles in African American culture are delineated differently than in non-Black culture. Black people of either gender do these things to only slightly different extents. . The gender roles used to define what behavior constitutes GID are often specific to the majority culture of the United States. African American men have more leeway to wear bright clothing that might be considered flamboyantly homosexual if worn by men of other races. Male clergy sporting bright suits, well groomed hair, and manicured nails are allowed. . Young black men can wear their hair in long braids or let it grow big and natural, similar to female styles. Black women can wear very short hair styles. Only the most sharply dimorphic clothing would be considered crossdressing.

African American male-to-female transsexual people have been observed engaging in behavior similar to non-African American counterparts, such as growing or simulating long hair, wearing certain clothes, color coordinated outfits, the wearing of jewelry etc.

African American men and women are also accustomed to filling all the roles within a household. . From providing the daily bread to preparing the daily meat. Eventhough African American culture values aggressiveness and actions that would seem exclusively manly in men it is never the less matriarchal and somewhat matrilineial.

Religious and cultural perspectives

African Americans are often described as conservative in terms of religion. Because of religious influences, transsexual people are sometimes seen as flagrantly gay and a traitor to their race for failing to reproduce. They are considered to have lost their standing as black people due to their gender history.

African-American male-to-female transsexual people will be seen as extremely gay males if they like men, and it is not necessarily considered a threat to their own heterosexuality for males to express interest in them. This attitude is born of the situational [...] behavior that many African Americans have had in prison. A black person who is "on the down-low" with their non heterosexuality will be tolerated if not accepted by the community because they are at least fulfilling their reproductive obligations to the race.

See also

• Down-low
• Men who have [...] with men

External links and further reading

• Transsistahs-Transbrothas discussion group
• Transsistahs-Transbrothas Defying Gravity Conference
• Marcus Rene Van (2002). Junk Box Warriors directed by Preeti AK Mistry
• http://www.transfamilydefyinggravity.net/
• http://www.transfamilydefyinggravity.net/Family.htm
• http://www.lambdalegal.org/cgi-bin/iowa/cases/record?record=154
• http://jasmynecannick.typepad.com/jasmynecannickcom/
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transwritersofcolor/
• http://transgriot.blogspot.com/