Transgender disenfranchisement in the United States
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Transgender disenfranchisement is the prevention by bureaucratic, institutional and social barriers, of
transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
individuals from
voting Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holde ...
or participating in other aspects of civic life. Transgender people may be disenfranchised if the sex indicated on their identification documents (which some states require voters to provide) does not match their gender presentation, and they may be unable to update necessary
identity document An identity document (also called ID or colloquially as papers) is any documentation, document that may be used to prove a person's identity. If issued in a small, standard credit card size form, it is usually called an identity card (IC, ID c ...
s because some governments require individuals to undergo sex reassignment surgery first, which many cannot afford, are not medical candidates for, or do not want.Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
"Groundbreaking Report Reflects Persistent Discrimination Against Transgender Community"
''
GLAAD GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals ...
'', USA, February 4, 2011. Retrieved on 2011-02-24.
Transgender individuals identifying outside the gender binary of male and female ( non-binary) are even more frequently disenfranchised. This may be due to a lack of legal recognition for other genders, high fees, complex legal processes, and requirements for medical transition steps that many non-binary individuals cannot have or do not want especially since many such medical procedures are specifically for binary transgender individuals (such as sex reassignment surgery).


Obtaining and updating documents

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey finds that only 21% of people who identify as transgender have been able to update all of their IDs and records to reflect their gender; 33% have not updated any IDs. A 2018 study found that 78,300 transgender people in just eight U.S. states might be disenfranchised because of photo ID laws. There are bureaucratic as well as social obstacles to updating identification documents. Many policies were enacted at a time when it was assumed that in order for transition from one gender to another to be complete, a person had to undergo sex reassignment surgery. However, modern health experts' current understanding is that transitions are an individualized process that can involve a variety of steps, sometimes involving surgery, but often not. As of 2019,
GLAD Glad may refer to: *Glad (Norse mythology), a horse ridden by the gods in Norse mythology People *Emil Glad (1929–2009), Croatian actor *Ingrid Kristine Glad (born 1965), Norwegian statistician *John Glad (1941–2015), an American academic, ...
is running the "Pop-Up ID Project," which provides free legal representation to transgender residents of the six New England states for the purpose of updating their documents.


Utility bill

In accordance with the
Help America Vote Act The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (), or HAVA, is a United States federal law which passed in the House 357-48 and 92-2 in the Senate and was signed into law by President Bush on October 29, 2002.United States Department of Justice Civil Rights ...
, some states allow voters to use two forms of identification that only list name and address, such as a utility bill, which alleviates the issue of having to change one's gender on a document.


Birth certificate

While birth certificates can be used as voter identification in non-photo identification states, birth certificate laws are established at the state level and commonly require that the individual undergo surgery in order for the gender on the document to be updated. Some states even make it mandatory that transgender people acquire a court order in order to change the gender on their birth certificate, which presents even more financial obstacles. The first case to deal with legal recognition of transgender identity in the United States was ''In re Anonymous v. Weiner'' in 1966. A post-operative male-to-female
trans woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and so ...
applied for a change of sex on her birth certificate through the Bureau of Vital Statistics in the
New York City Health Department The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is the department of the government of New York City responsible for public health along with issuing birth certificates, dog licenses, and conducting restaurant inspection and enforcem ...
. The Bureau turned to the Board of Health who then called on a committee on public health of the
New York Academy of Medicine The New York Academy of Medicine (the Academy) is a health policy and advocacy organization founded in 1847 by a group of leading New York metropolitan area physicians as a voice for the medical profession in medical practice and public health ...
to make a recommendation. The application was ultimately denied and the Board of Health stated that "an individual born one sex cannot be changed for the reasons proposed by the request which was made to us. Sex can be changed where there is an error, of course, but not when there is a later attempt to change psychological orientation of the patient and including such surgery as goes with it." As of March 2018, surgery is a prerequisite for changing one's gender marker on birth certificates issued by 25 states. Those states are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Virginia and West Virginia. The remaining states either may change the birth certificate without proof of surgery or will not change the birth certificate at all.


Presenting identity documents

The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy estimated that by requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID at the polls, nine states may have disenfranchised over 25,000 transgender people in the November 2012 presidential election, The report estimated that there are 88,000 eligible transgender voters in these nine strict photo ID states, of whom approximately 25,000 do not have identification or records that reflect their gender. because poll workers are unlikely to have training on how to handle transgender people, and may erroneously suspect
voter fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...
. Transgender individuals may also be discouraged from voting under these circumstances because of prior experiences with presenting identification that does not accurately reflect their gender: 40% percent of transgender people reported being harassed in situations where they presented gender incongruent identification, while 15% reported being asked to leave the venue where the identification had been presented, and 3% reported being assaulted or attacked as a result of presenting their ID. Additionally, 22% percent reported being denied equal treatment or being verbally harassed by government officials.


Felon disenfranchisement and transgender incarceration

Transgender people lack employment discrimination protection, and face high rates of homelessness and harassment. 16% of transgender people have reported being incarcerated at some point in their lives, compared to 2.7% of the general American population. while 38% reported harassment during police interactions.


See also

* Disenfranchisement *
Felony disenfranchisement in the United States Felony disenfranchisement in the United States is the suspension or withdrawal of voting rights due to the conviction of a criminal offense. The actual class of crimes that results in disenfranchisement vary between jurisdictions, but most commonly ...
*
History of violence against LGBT people in the United States The history of violence against LGBT people in the United States is made up of assaults on gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender individuals ( LGBT), legal responses to such violence, and hate crime statistics in the United States of A ...
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LGBT people in prison Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people face difficulties in prison such as increased vulnerability to sexual assault, other kinds of violence, and trouble accessing necessary medical care. While much of the available dat ...
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Transgender inequality Transgender inequality is the unequal protection received by transgender people in work, school, and society in general. Transgender people regularly face transphobic harassment. Ultimately, one of the largest reasons that transgender people fac ...
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Transgender rights in the United States In the United States, the rights of transgender people vary considerably by jurisdiction. By the end of 2021, at least 130 bills had been introduced in 33 states to restrict the rights of transgender people. In 2022, over 230 anti-transgender b ...
*
Transphobia Transphobia is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger tow ...
* Transphobia in the United States * Voter ID laws in the United States * Voter suppression in the United States


References


External links

* {{LGBT in the United States Discrimination against LGBT people in the United States History of voting rights in the United States Transgender rights in the United States Discrimination against transgender people Electoral restrictions Voter suppression