The last decade has been one of great progress for the transgender community. There are many who are just beginning to learn, and understand, what it means to be transgender. What is clear is that many people within the LGBT community are on the same journey of discovery. That is why San Diego LGBT Weekly has dedicated this week’s magazine to the transgender community and the new pinnacle they have reached in their fight for equality.
LGBT Weekly has always recognized the importance of the transgender struggle within the greater LGBT civil rights movement. That’s why we have provided a forum for the transgender community that is anchored by Autumn Sandeen in her column Trans Progressive. From the name of our publication, to the selection of editorial, LGBT Weekly understands that the transgender community deserves its rightful place at the table.
While many within the LGBT community have been helpful in the transgender struggle to gain recognition within our broader civil rights struggle, no one has done more than the transgender community themselves. The transgender struggle is a classic American tale, one in which the human spirit triumphs over adversity. The same struggle that describes the story of women, African Americans, Latinos, Asians, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the disabled in America.
One of the wonderful aspects of America is that the struggle of an oppressed group to acceptance is always shorter than the oppressed group that preceded them. The African American’s struggle has been longer than that of women. The women’s struggle longer than that of LGB Americans. And now the LGB struggle longer than that of transgender Americans. Martin Luther King said it best, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
By no means is the struggle over for any of these groups, which we were painfully reminded of last week with the massacre of African Americans in South Carolina. That fact is also prevalent in the transgender civil rights fight. In 2015, nine transgender Americans have been murdered. Unfortunately, history tells us that in any fight for civil rights there are casualties. What is critically important is to ensure that those whose lives are taken are not forgotten and are honored by the community.
Take this opportunity to learn about and discover the transgender community. While LGBT Weekly cannot begin to address the complexity and depth of the transgender community in a single issue, we hope to start a broader conversation about what’s next in the LGBT civil rights movement; transgender forward.
With the expected positive marriage equality ruling from the Supreme Court in the next week, the next frontier is transgender equality. The transgender community has not been waiting for the broader LGBT community to advance their equality, but they can sure use the great minds that helped mold our great civil rights victories. Are you ready to help?
