Transgender Community in Vancouver BC

Vancouver Pride Parade 2013

Transgender

When thinking about transgender, we have to remember that gender is separate from a person’s biological sex. A transgender person may feel that they are born into the wrong sex, making them want to change their true gender.

However, it is also important to point out that a transgender person may also identify as having a non-binary gender, which is a term that can be used to "describe any gender identity which does not fit within the binary of male and female". Therefore, hormone therapy or gender reassignment surgery is not necessarily a sought out path for all transgender identifying individuals.

History of Transgender People

Trans history is commonly assumed to be a recent social phenomenon, but throughout eons, transgender people and their history have almost been invisible. Dating back centuries, men in leadership roles who were trans, did not want to be seen showing feminine characteristics, so they had to hide their femininity or risk being victims of male aggression. Women, on the other hand, had been oppressed by patriarchal control and thus were scared to show their masculinity in fear of serve punishment. It is only recently that Trans-sexuality has had a place within popular culture while struggling for equality within dominate society. Discourses about transgender people still play a major role in trans acceptance, but more transgender men and women are starting to come forth and embrace their true identity as times start to change.

Transgender Community In Vancouver B.C.

The community according to Kosenko (2011) transgender people belong to a transgender community that is comprised of heterogeneous individuals who decided to transcend or cross over the gender binary. Within Vancouver, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community is significantly present on Davie Street in the West End and Commercial Drive in Grandview. These areas have become “queer,” meaning that they have been adopted into a queer community. Living in a queer community creates a sense of belonging and solidarity amongst like-minded individuals. Every year in Vancouver, events like the pride march and the out games take place as a show of the support for this diverse and vibrant community.

Although Vancouver is home to the largest LGBTQ community in Western Canada – It still fosters institutional racism, and unreliable stereotypes about members of the LGBTQ, specifically transgender people. Vancouver plays host to a lot of problems like the “evacuation of sex workers from Davie Street to the downtown Eastside in the ‘80s,” and AIDS.

Being a part of a community is so important when society fails to fully accept differences. When one lives among people who can sympathize and relate to their own personal experience it is more manageable to combat homophobia and transphobia.

Trans friendly spaces in Vancouver

While Vancouver is known to be an LGBT friendly city, there are few spaces available that are dedicated to trans people, where resources are readily available.

Big Bro's Barbershop

An important part of the trans community in Vancouver are spaces that are trans friendly and also have specialized gender affirming products and services. The only place like this in Vancouver, and indeed one of the few in Canada, is Big Bros Barbershop in East Vancouver. The queer/trans owned company offers Barber and Beauty Services, Gender Affirmation Products, Transition Mentoring and Resources as well as a safe space for the LGBTQ2SIA+ community. Run by staff and volunteers, Big Bro's aims to be inclusive and accessible, offering low-cost haircuts and second-hand products. Jesse Anderson, a queer, femme-identified transgender man, and the owner, founder, and barber of Big Bro's says there is not enough dedicated trans spaces in Vancouver.

Big Bro's Barbershop

Transphobia

Transphobia is the intense dislike or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people Transphobia increases harassment as prejudice views turn into discrimination. Many trans people feel isolated and “approximately 62% experience depression – some have given up, and studies have found that 32% of transsexual people had attempted suicide.”

• Transphobia and its relation to sex work: Within society there is a damaging perception about transgenders as sex workers, yet no one ever questions the foundations that got them there. During the 1980’s Davie Street in Vancouver BC was becoming a “queer community,” This area pushed sex work to unsafe margins of Vancouver, to the downtown eastside where it becomes incredibly unsafe for selling sex. This puts transgender workers at a higher risk of being raped, beaten, kidnapped, or murdered.

After The Davie Business Association was successful at banning sex workers from the West End in July 1984, sex workers moved to Mount Pleasant, and then to the Downtown Eastside. Jamie Lee Hamilton states, “Once…the eviction, as we call it, occurred, three trans-women in the Mount Pleasant area were picked up and murdered and put in shallow graves out in the Mission area.” Since then this has become an ongoing situation for the trans community, as members are murdered continuously worldwide.

The push of trans sex workers to the downtown east side displaced them from their sense of community as a result of transphobia. Transgender people have a significantly harder time finding jobs and thus are forced into the dangerous life of sex work.

Forms Of Violence

The “Other” External forms of violence:

Kosenko (2011) states, “Transgender individuals face violence and discrimination at the hands of those who disapprove of expressions of gender that fall outside the dominant gender system.’’ From the second we enter this world we are assigned a biological sex, but as we grow society reinforces our gender. Those who do not fit into the dominant belief system or go against the grain can be at risk of bullying, exclusion, labeling, and become marginalized.

• "Roller Girl", a trans-women in Vancouver BC was discriminated against by the Vancouver Police on March 2015. Police arrested Angela and refused to acknowledge her as a woman as they continued to call her by her legal name Jeffery; even after she had given her name as Angela at the scene.

The "Self” Internal forms of violence:

This form of violence is self-directed. When exposed to high levels of discrimination and oppression, an individual may begin to direct their behavior in a self-destructive manner, which could lead to suicide.

High suicide rates are linked to high levels of depression, which has an effect on self-acceptance of self-perception. Researchers at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada found that 35% of trans people seriously considered suicide over 12 months and 11% tried to kill themselves. 1 in ever 9 trans children attempt suicide.

Portrayals in the Media

Trans Media Watch (2009) states, the media plays a huge part in “othering” transgender people, and placing them into a sub-category within our society. Language used to talk about the transgender community centers around mockery, misinformation, and creating a fearful view for society to absorb.

• GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) found that since 2002, at least 40% of the time transgender characters were cast in a “victim” role; transgender characters were cast as killers or villains in at least 21% of the storyline; 20% of transgender characters were cast as sex workers.

• Fox News went out of its way to try and smear a California Law that was promoting equality within schools for Transgenders. The news broadcast lacked credible commentary from experts and professionals - due to this lack of accurate information (that was being broadcasted nationwide) commentators openly shared their transphobic views with millions of people.

These portrayals vilifies, delegitimizes, and disenfranchises the entire transgender community because it adds to the stereotype, which transcends into real life suffering within the Transgender community. Narratives in the media lack foundation within its information about transgenders and their involvement in sex work. The media neglects to educate society about transgender people and the leading causes as to why transgenders choose to become sex workers.

Taking back the Narrative

"My death has to mean something" 

Leelah Alcorn was a transgender teenage who took her own life trying to take back the narrative about being transgender. Before she died she had set her Tumblr to post “my death had to mean something,” and it did. The creation of #reallivetransadult was created on twitter where transgender people could talk about their own suffering.

Alcorn’s death created a public space where people like her could take back the narrative and have transgenders talk about transgenders, rather than an “outsider.” As tragic as her death may be, the fact that transgenders are taking back their own narrative within media and literature creates a new perception of them as a community and create a sense of lovingness of transgender within and outside of the LGBTQ.

Action Towards Acceptance

Vancouver has already taken action to create a sense of lovingness within its schools. The Vancouver School Board revised its anti-homophobic policy to better incorporate transgender acceptance within school environments. Topics that were addressed were washrooms/change-room accessibility, proper use of pronouns, access to physical education and sports, as well as a commitment by schools to reduce or eliminate sex-segregated activities.

Although education is only one solution to promote acceptance and lovingness of transgender people, it is a crucial place to start because, “Providing a thorough grounding in transgender subjects offers an opportunity to reach out to students early, before children develop attitudes that will be difficult to reverse in adulthood. Instead of learning that transness is alien, frightening, and unacceptable, children could be learning that it’s just a normal variation and facet of human identity, and they could be bringing that forward into the way they interact with the world."

Rainbow Crosswalk at Davie & Bute Street

Davie & Bute Street Rainbow Crosswalk

In 2013, a rainbow-coloured crosswalk was installed on the corner of Davie Street and Bute Street in Downtown Vancouver. The establishment of this crosswalk was part of Pride Week, and was created as a method of displaying Vancouver's acceptance of its LGBTQ community.