For your Final Paper, you may choose any topic directly related to the class. The paper is to help you delve more deeply into a theoretical question, issue, or aspect of an issue that you find particularly interesting in the context of the class. To make sure a topic is appropriate for the Final Paper for this class, please schedule an appointment with me. You should be working on the Final Paper throughout the semester. Please see the syllabus for due dates for your paper abstract and preliminary bibliography. The Final Paper should be approximately 10 pages long (excluding the bibliography), double-spaced, and in 12-point font. It should be properly structured and referenced. During the semester, our class will have a presentation from the librarian to help you identify the sources you need for your paper. We will also have some time set aside in class for questions and answers about the Final Paper. I encourage you to make use of my office hours to get guidance on your paper. The Final Paper is worth 40% of the final grade for the class.
The detailed instruction for the final paper is in the audio file.
Please write in your own words. Please write a beautiful, perfect, interesting, and critical essay!
Please refer to all the files(video/audio/articles) that I have uploaded. Please also refer to all the files that I have sent via email since it was too huge to upload. You must use all the sources that I have provided for this paper.
You can use quotes to support your evidence, idea, fact, and opinion. Make sure to write in your own words. Please make sure that the flow of sentence must be great. Please write a detailed, creative, interesting, and strong essay on the topic with the great thesis statement and an interesting title. The thesis statement must be argumentative, creative, interesting, debatable, well-expressed (it must show what you are going to write about in the following body paragraphs), and thoughtful. Please write as much credible, correct, and interesting information/fact about the topic as possible. Please remove irrelevant information and add new information as per the corrections. Please add specific information needed on the following prompt. Please use proper citation with the correct format.
What I would do is start doing a database search on the topic and then branch out to a broader internet search. You can go to google scholar or one of the many journal databases on the library website(http://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/az.php) — All Subjects: LGBT Studies
Sources:
https://www.missmajorfilm.com/
https://www.aclu.org/other/rights-lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgendered-people
https://www.hrc.org/resources/understanding-the-transgender-community
https://www.hrc.org/resources/hrc-issue-brief-hiv-aids-and-the-lgbt-community
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSOGc3K9rHU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8gKdAOQyyI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pnf36-MDLY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx_ANYRvRJc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W1vns8dc8o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2DVkcCbetA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYGjZLwLTAw
In-Class Film: Screaming Queens – The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria – Transgender Genre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmR3KQ9K-Zk
In-Class Film: Major! (please refer to the videos I have sent via email)
Class Reader: The Routledge Queer Studies Reader (please click “Google Preview”)
MAJOR! explores the life and campaigns of Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a formerly incarcerated Black transgender elder and activist who has been fighting for the rights of trans women of color for over 40 years. Miss Major is a veteran of the Stonewall Rebellion and a survivor of Attica State Prison, a former sex worker, an elder, and a community leader and human rights activist. She is simply “Mama” to many in her community. Her personal story and activism for transgender civil rights intersects LGBT struggles for justice and equality from the 1960s to today. At the center of her activism is her fierce advocacy for her girls, trans women of color who have survived police brutality and incarceration in men’s jails and prisons.
While filming MAJOR! we amassed an incredible library of interviews with Miss Major & the women in her community. There was far more truth & wisdom imparted in these interviews than we could fit in the final film, so we’ve created a series of shorts called MAJORettes: Excerpts of interviews not included in the final cut highlighting issues like activism, aging, health care access, & the impact of the prison industrial complex on trans lives.
· Ten states, the District of Columbia, many municipalities and hundreds of businesses and universities now ban employment discrimination.
· “Domestic Partnership” programs exist in dozens of municipalities and hundreds of private institutions, including many of the country’s largest corporations and universities.
· Sodomy laws, typically used to justify discrimination against gay people, once existed nationwide; they are now on the books in only 18 states and Puerto Rico.
But the increased empowerment of LGBT people has brought about even more open and virulent anti-gay hostility:
· Although unrelated to an individual’s ability, sexual orientation can still be the basis for employment decisions in both the public and private sectors in most states and municipalities.
· Violent hate crimes, such as the 1998 murder of Wyoming student Matthew Shepherd, depict a grisly backlash against LGBTs or people perceived to be gay.
· LGBT students and teachers face daily harassment and discrimination in the schools, and LGBT student groups in high schools and colleges still face roadblocks.
Transgender people come from all walks of life. We are dads and moms, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters. We are your coworkers, and your neighbors. We are 7-year-old children and 70-year-old grandparents. We are a diverse community, representing all racial and ethnic backgrounds, as well as faith backgrounds.
The word “transgender” – or trans – is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned to us at birth. Although the word “transgender” and our modern definition of it only came into use in the late 20th century, people who would fit under this definition have existed in every culture throughout recorded history.
Despite the increased visibility of transgender celebrities like actress Laverne Cox or writer Janet Mock, many Americans still don’t personally know anyone who is transgender – but the number who do is growing rapidly. According to a 2016 survey by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, commissioned by the Human Rights Campaign, 35 percent of likely voters in the United States “personally know or work with someone who is transgender.” That’s more than double the 17 percent who answered yes when asked the same question in 2014.
What does it mean to be transgender?
The transgender community is incredibly diverse. Some transgender people identify as male or female, and some identify as genderqueer, nonbinary, agender, or somewhere else on or outside of the spectrum of what we understand gender to be. Some of us take hormones and have surgery as part of our transition, and some don’t. Some choose to openly identify as transgender, while others simply identify as men or women. For more information on questions you may have about transgender people, check out our Transgender FAQ.
In the HRC Foundation’s 2012 survey of LGBTQ youth, about 10 percent of respondents identified themselves either as “transgender” or as “other gender,” and wrote in identities like “genderqueer,” “gender-fluid” or “androgynous.” This suggests that a larger portion of this generation’s youth are identifying somewhere on the broad transgender spectrum. In many ways, transgender people are just like cisgender (non-transgender) people; but because of the social stigma surrounding our transgender identity, our community faces a unique set of challenges.
What challenges do transgender people face?
While the visibility of transgender people is increasing in popular culture and daily life, we still face severe discrimination, stigma and systemic inequality. Some of the specific issues facing the transgender community are:
· Lack of legal protection– While the federal government’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Education have recently taken steps to include transgender people under existing non-discrimination protections, there is still no comprehensive non-discrimination law that includes gender identity. According to the Human Rights Campaign’s 2014 State Equality Index, only 18 states and the District of Columbia prohibit employment and housing discrimination based on gender identity; only 17 states and the District of Columbia prohibit discrimination based on gender identity in public accommodations; and only 15 states and the District of Columbia prohibit discrimination based on gender identity in education. Moreover, state legislatures across the country are debating – and in some cases passing – legislation specifically designed to prohibit transgender people from accessing public bathrooms that correspond with our gender identity, or creating exemptions based on religious beliefs that would allow discrimination against LGBTQ people.
· Poverty– In too many cases, this lack of legal protection translates into unemployment for transgender people. The National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS) found that 15 percent of respondents were living in severe poverty (making less than $10,000/year). For transgender people of color, those rates were even higher, with 34 percent of Black and 28 percent of Latina/o respondents reporting a household income of less than $10,000 a year. As anyone who has experienced poverty or unemployment understands, being unable to afford basic living necessities can result in homelessness or lead people to engage in underground economies like drug sales or survival sex work, which can put people at increased risk for violence and arrest.
· Harassment and stigma– The LGBTQ community still faces considerable stigma based on over a century of being characterized as mentally ill, socially deviant and sexually predatory. While these flawed views have faded in recent years for lesbians and gay men, transgender people are still often met with ridicule from a society that does not understand us. This stigma plays out in a variety of contexts – leaving us vulnerable to lawmakers who attempt to leverage anti-transgender stigma to score cheap political points; to family, friends or coworkers who reject transgender people upon learning about our transgender identities; and to people who harass, bully and commit serious violence against transgender people.
· Anti-transgender violence– At least 13 transgender women were murdered in 2014, and 2015 is on track to see even higher numbers. These women were stabbed, shot, strangled, burned; killed violently by intimate partners or strangers. According to the 2013 National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) report on hate violence against lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and HIV-affected (LGBTQH) communities, 72 percent of the victims of LGBTQ or HIV-motivated hate violence homicides in 2013 were transgender women, and 67 percent were transgender women of color. Transgender people have few options for protecting ourselves from violence or seeking justice. The NTDS found that 22 percent of transgender people who had interacted with police experienced bias-based harassment from police, with transgender people of color reporting much higher rates. Six percent reported physical assault; 2 percent reported sexual assault by police; and 20 percent reported having been denied equal service by law enforcement. Nearly half of the transgender people surveyed in the study said that they were uncomfortable turning to police for help.
· Barriers to healthcare– Data collection on health disparities among transgender people is very limited, but the data we do have reveal a healthcare system that is not meeting the needs of the transgender community. In a 2012 needs assessment by the Washington D.C. Trans Coalition, 44 percent of those who identified health as one of their top priorities said that access to transgender-sensitive healthcare was their most significant need. Beyond facing barriers to obtaining medically-necessary health services and encountering medical professionals who lacked transgender health care competency, the NTDS found that almost 20 percent of respondents had been refused medical care outright because of bias.
· Identity Documents – The widespread lack of accurate identity documents among transgender people can have an impact on every area of their lives, including access to emergency housing or other public services. To be clear, without identification, one cannot travel, register for school or access many services that are essential to function in society. Many states require evidence of medical transition – which can be prohibitively expensive and is not something that all transgender people want – as well as fees for processing new identity documents, which may make them unaffordable for some members of the transgender community. The NTDS found that among those respondents who have already transitioned, 33 percent had not been able to update any of their identity documents to match their affirmed gender.
While advocates continue working to remedy these disparities, change cannot come too soon for transgender people. Visibility – especially positive images of transgender people in the media and society – continues to make a critical difference for us; but visibility is not enough and comes with real risks to our safety, especially for those of us who are part of other marginalized communities. That is why the Human Rights Campaign is committed to continuing to support and advocate for the transgender community, so that the transgender Americans who are and will become your friends, neighbors, coworkers and family members have an equal chance to succeed and thrive.