Women’s experiences in the LGBTQ+ community

Women’s Experiences in the LGBTQ+ Community Podcast

Our project aims to explore the problems faced within the LGBTQ+ community, in particular women and more minority subsets within their demographic. Women, especially those who are part of further discriminated minorities, face higher levels of discrimination than cisgender white gay men, who are often the face of pride movements despite a now more privileged place in society.

The History of LGBTQ+ discrimination

Discrimination against those in the LGBTQ+ community in America has existed since its formation. It was institutional from after the American Revolution onwards, though several same-sex relationships existed even if they couldn’t get married in the 18th and 19th century^[i]. Despite this, there was no form of civil activism or resistance till the early 20th century, though little is known about these initial underground groups^[ii]

Post American Revolution, some states considered “sodomy” a crime and cross-dressing was seen as a felony which was punishable by corporal punishment or imprisonment.^[iii] The sodomy laws began as a blanket ban which included heterosexual couples, but this was then modified in some states to specify same-sex sodomy.

The HIV/AIDS crisis also increased homophobia across the United States due to the victims being largely homosexual or bisexual men. It led to an increase of right-wing attacks on gay people.^[iv] American journalist Randy Shilts, author of “And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic” writes that Ronald Reagan and his administration delayed dealing with the crisis due to homophobia which led to the disease infecting hundreds of thousands before any reaction.^[v]

The Stonewall Riots were a number of spontaneous demonstrations by the LGBTQ+ community in response to a police raid in Stonewall Inn in New York and is believed to be a watershed event in the fight for LGBT rights in the US.^[vi] Transgender women and lesbians, especially women of colour, despite being at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots, were increasingly written out of history.^[vii] The most prominent example of women being ignored in the history of Stonewall is Marsha P. Johnson, who was a very important figure in the Stonewall riots. As a black transgender woman of colour, however, she was written out of the narrative at the time.^[viii]

Useful website: Stonewall: A riot that changed millions of lives

The Struggles Faced by Transgender Women

Analysis of the hate crimes and violence faced by transgender women proves difficult when it comes to official statistics. Transgender women risk being placed in male prisons due to their biological sex, meaning they are recorded as male and can be lost in the system when researching anti-transgender actions, and face hate-incited violence both in there and in the outside world. In the case of Kelly McAllister in 2002, she found herself housed with a “with a larger male inmate who brutally raped her”, despite informing authorities of her transgender status. In a “large-scale study of sexual assault in California prisons”, fifty-nine percent of transgender women were found to have been sexually assaulted, versus only four percent reported for cisgender men.^[ix] Many deceased transgender people will also be misgendered after their death, and therefore officially registered as cisgender in any obituaries and other such records. Furthermore, data analysis itself for transgender deaths is a recent development, spearheaded by the Human Rights Campaign and beginning only in 2013.^[x]

In cases where women’s transgender statuses are recognised, that in itself can be used as a weapon against them, known as the ‘trans panic’ defence, a term stemming from the earlier recognised ‘gay panic’ defence. Ignoring their gender identity and therefore believing them to be male, cisgender men see transgender women as men trying to trick them into homosexual acts. This often leads to violent actions to affirm their masculinity, which can escalate to the death of the transgender women in question. Their killer’s defence then relies on asserting that they were “provoked” by transgender women daring to present as convincingly feminine.^[xi] In the 2013 killing of African-American transgender woman Islan Nettles, her killer was not even charged with hate crime, after saying that he “just didn’t want to be fooled”.^[xii]

Pictured: Victim of Anti-Transgender Violence, Islan Nettles

Useful Source: Transgender Subsection of the Human Rights Campaign Website

POC Women vs White Women

Women of colour within the LGBTQ+ community also experience an increased level of discrimination and difficulty, especially when compared to the experiences of white women in the community. This is because they are often subjected to a combination of both homophobia and transphobia from their ethnic community, and racism from within the LGBTQ+ community. This makes it difficult for them to fit into either group and thus struggle to establish their identities, given that race, sexuality and gender make up a large part of this. Activist and scholar Kimerlé Crenshaw developed the theory of intersectionality, which helps us understand how different components of a person’s social and political identities combine together to create unique types of discrimination.^[xiii]

Lack of representation in the media is a key issue. This is unsurprising given that representation of women, people of colour and LGBTQ+ people in general in the media is very poor. Hollywood executives often claim that increased diversity, especially that of non-white gay and transgender women, would hurt box-office sales. However, given that American audiences are increasingly diverse, there is actually increased demand for more diverse film and television.^[xiv]

Nonetheless there has been some improvements, such as Netflix’s ‘Orange is the New Black’ which managed to garner both critical acclaim and mainstream popularity whilst featuring a diverse, majority female cast and portraying a variety of lesbian and bisexual relationships. It is clear that representation in media is important, as it increases normalisation, thus increasing education on the matter. Therefore, it is evident that intersectionality plays a key part in LGBTQ+ women’s identity, and that belonging to multiple marginalised groups can exacerbate the struggles that come from each one.

Pictured: Netflix’s Orange is the New Black Cast

Useful Sources:

https://collectiveliberation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Lorde_The_Masters_Tools.pdf

https://gal-dem.com/inspiring-lgbt-woc/

Issues with Bisexuality in the LGBTQ+ Community

Bisexuality often has the reputation of being the “invisible minority.” Confusion with a sexuality not at either extreme of the spectrum for heterosexuality or homosexuality has led to a negative stigma around bisexuality as a concept. For the average bisexual woman in America in the early 2000’s, it wasn’t unusual to hear disparaging remarks, such as “slutty”, “greedy” or “untrustworthy”, when they reveal their sexuality in the workplace or even their social circles.

Faith Cheltenham, an activist and co-founder of “#Bi-Week”, has recounted her experience with being sexually harassed by her colleagues and even some of her friends after coming out.^[i] In turn, statistically, when it comes to violence from their partners, bisexual women tend to experience higher rates of assault/harassment than lesbian or heterosexual women. In a report from GLAAD, 61% of bisexual women say they have experienced sexual assault and/or harassment from their partners.^[ii]

Unsurprisingly, given its reputation as a made up sexuality, at the start of the century bisexuality was mostly a punchline in television. With Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw, most Americans saw bisexual representation as “a layover on the way to Gaytown” — a pit stop for homosexuality.^[iii] Nowadays, however, shows such as Brooklyn Nine Nine, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Jane the Virgin feature bisexuality, importantly with women coming out on their own terms and with their own storylines.

Although the current situation for bisexual Americans is far from perfect, it has certainly progressed. While both women and men face discrimination for bisexuality in both the queer community and non-queer spaces, such as their families or workplace, negative stigmas around bisexuality are being challenged. Victories for bisexual rights have progressed along with the LGBTQ+ rights movement as a whole, and show the progression of American values.

Useful Source: GLAAD’s section on Bisexuality

The Conclusion of Our Report

The LGBTQ+ experience is varied, as shown by our findings. This is the case especially for women, who encounter more prejudice from the outset due to societal issues relating primarily to women. Bisexual women, transgender women and women of colour all face their own unique struggles, and combinations of the three will have to cope with even more. Cisgender women will not have to deal with being put into the wrong prison institution, and white women will not need to cope with extra struggles with their racial community’s prejudices. The addition of various factors on top of a preliminary feminist struggle, namely within the LGBTQ+ community, can mean that some women within this group have far more to face.

Bibliography

• Brockell, Gillian, The transgender women at Stonewall were pushed out of the gay rights movement. Now they are getting a statue in New York (2019) <https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/06/12/transgender-women-heart-stonewall-riots-are-getting-statue-new-york/> [accessed 8 April 2020].
• Carter, David, Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked The Gay Revolution (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005).
• Crenshaw, Kimberle, “Mapping The Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, And Violence Against Women Of Color”, Stanford Law Review, 43 (1991) <https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039>
• Fenstermaker, Sarah and Jenness, Valerie ‘Forty Years after Brownmiller: Prisons for Men, Transgender Inmates, and the Rape of the Feminine’, Gender & Society, 30:1 (2016), pp. 14-29.
• “The History Of Sodomy Laws In The United States – Introduction”, Org <http://www.glapn.org/sodomylaws/sensibilities/introduction.htm> [Accessed 1 April 2020].
• Human Rights Campaign, Addressing Anti-Transgender Violence: Exploring Realities, Challenges and Solutions (2015) <https://www.hrc.org/resources/addressing-anti-transgender-violence-exploring-realities-challenges-and-sol> [accessed 28 March 2020].
• Hunt, Darnell, Ana-Christina Ramón, and Michael Tran, “Hollywood Diversity Report”, ucla.edu, 2019 <https://socialsciences.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/UCLA-Hollywood-Diversity-Report-2019-2-21-2019.pdf> [Accessed 2 April 2020]
• Kaplan, Sarah, “The Improbable, 200-Year-Old Story Of One Of America’s First Same-Sex ‘Marriages’”, Washington Post, 2015 <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/03/20/the-improbable-story-of-one-of-americas-first-same-sex-marriages-from-over-200-years-ago/> [Accessed 9 April 2020].
• McKinley Jr., James C. Man Sentenced to 12 Years in Beating Death of Transgender Woman (2016) <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/20/nyregion/man-sentenced-to-12-years-in-beating-death-of-transgender-woman.html> [accessed 28 March 2020].
• Mitchum, Preston, Workplace Discrimination Series: Faith Cheltenham (2013) <https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/lgbtq-rights/news/2013/08/27/73032/workplace-discrimination-series-faith-cheltenham/> [accessed 8 April 2020].
• Movement Advancement Project, BiNet USA, and Bisexual Resource Center, Understanding Issues Facing Bisexual Americans (2014).
• Panfil, Vanessa R. and Wodda, Aimee ‘Don’t Talk to Me about Deception: The Necessary Erosion of the Trans Panic Defense’, Albany Law Review, 78:3 (2015), pp. 927-971.
• Shilts, Randy, And The Band Played On: Politics, People, And The AIDS Epidemic (New York, NY: Griffin, 2007).
• “The Suppression Of Lesbian And Gay History”, Co.Uk, <http://rictornorton.co.uk/suppress.htm> [Accessed 30 March 2020].
• “The Stonewall Uprising: 50 Years Of LGBT History”, Stonewall, 2019 <https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/news/stonewall-uprising-50-years-lgbt-history> [Accessed 2 April 2020].

^[i] Sarah Kaplan, “The Improbable, 200-Year-Old Story Of One Of America’s First Same-Sex ‘Marriages’”, Washington Post, 2015 <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/03/20/the-improbable-story-of-one-of-americas-first-same-sex-marriages-from-over-200-years-ago/> [Accessed 9 April 2020].

^[ii] “The Suppression Of Lesbian And Gay History”, Rictornorton.Co.Uk, <http://rictornorton.co.uk/suppress.htm> [Accessed 30 March 2020].

^[iii] “The History Of Sodomy Laws In The United States – Introduction”, Glapn.Org <http://www.glapn.org/sodomylaws/sensibilities/introduction.htm> [Accessed 1 April 2020].

^[iv] Randy Shilts, And The Band Played On: Politics, People, And The AIDS Epidemic (New York, NY: Griffin, 2007).

^[v] Shilts, pp.174-182.

^[vi] David Carter, Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked The Gay Revolution (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005), p. 151-154.

^[vii] “The Stonewall Uprising: 50 Years Of LGBT History”, Stonewall, 2019 <https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/news/stonewall-uprising-50-years-lgbt-history> [Accessed 2 April 2020].

^[viii] Gillian Brockell, The transgender women at Stonewall were pushed out of the gay rights movement. Now they are getting a statue in New York (2019) <https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/06/12/transgender-women-heart-stonewall-riots-are-getting-statue-new-york/> [accessed 8 April 2020].

^[ix] Sarah Fenstermaker and Valerie Jenness, ‘Forty Years after Brownmiller: Prisons for Men, Transgender Inmates, and the Rape of the Feminine’, Gender & Society, 30:1 (2016), pp. 14-29 (p. 16).

^[x] Human Rights Campaign, Addressing Anti-Transgender Violence:  Exploring Realities, Challenges and Solutions (2015) <https://www.hrc.org/resources/addressing-anti-transgender-violence-exploring-realities-challenges-and-sol> [accessed 28 March 2020].

^[xi] Vanessa R. Panfil and Aimee Wodda, ‘Don’t Talk to Me about Deception: The Necessary Erosion of the Trans Panic Defense’, Albany Law Review, 78:3 (2015), pp. 927-971 (p. 936).

^[xii] James C. McKinley Jr., Man Sentenced to 12 Years in Beating Death of Transgender Woman (2016) <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/20/nyregion/man-sentenced-to-12-years-in-beating-death-of-transgender-woman.html> [accessed 28 March 2020].

^{[xiii] Kimberle Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, And Violence Against Women of Color”, Stanford Law Review, 43.6 (1991), pp. 1241-1299 (p. 1241) <https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039>.}

^{[xiv]  Darnell Hunt, Ana-Christina Ramón and Michael Tran, “Hollywood Diversity Report”, Socialsciences.Ucla.Edu, 2019 <https://socialsciences.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/UCLA-Hollywood-Diversity-Report-2019-2-21-2019.pdf> [Accessed 2 April 2020].}

^[xv] Preston Mitchum, Workplace Discrimination Series: Faith Cheltenham (2013) <https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/lgbtq-rights/news/2013/08/27/73032/workplace-discrimination-series-faith-cheltenham/> [accessed 8 April 2020].

^[xvi] Movement Advancement Project, BiNet USA, and Bisexual Resource Center, Understanding Issues Facing Bisexual Americans (2014).

^[xvii] Ibid.