Roots of Change: NSRC overview of Transgender Global Dialogues 

The rise of the Transgender movement since the early 1990s has brought into focus the needs and rights of a whole new category of people and the difficulties they face in being accepted by society. While no one knows for sure the number of people who are Transgender and precisely how the increasing visibility of this population is related to broader issues of sexual and reproductive rights and health in our time, there can be no doubt that the need for understand, research, and public sexual literacy is very great. It was in this context that the National Sexuality Resource Center convened a meeting of Transgender rights advocates in April 2008.

Bringing Trans-activists together

"Beginning A Global Dialogue on Transgender Rights: A Meeting of the Global Dialogue on Sexual Health and Well Being" (the Global Dialogue on Sexual Health and Well Being is comprised of the Africa Regional Sexuality Resource Centre, Latin American Center on Sexuality and Human Rights, and The South and Southeast Asia Resource Centre on Sexuality/TARSHI). The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in New York graciously hosted the approximately 30 transgender and human rights activists from these four regions. They were invited to present about the state of transgender rights within their respective regions. NSRC called the meeting with the intention of beginning to create a stronger cross cultural understanding of the issues and barriers at stake in transgender activism and in order to see how an international dialogue and agenda for action might begin to be forged.

Lessons Learned

Here are several important lessons learned from the meeting: 1) there is a great deal of difference across each region in what transgender means ; 2) this variation can and does impede greater international cohesion and action; 3) there seems to be a global similarity across cultures in the respect of fear of and anxiety over gender ambiguity; 4) and the USA and Canada need to begin to attend international human rights meetings as there is a general perception that they do not act as international players. "In over 10 years of my transgender activism, this is the first meeting to actually bring transgender people together from all around the world and give us the primary voice to lead ourselves rather than always being led by others." -Pauline Park, U.S.-based activist. Chair of Board at NYAGRA New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy.

Next Steps

NSRC was very pleased to disseminate the USA paper in both executive summary and final form. However, the authors Jamison Green, Paisley Currah and Susan Stryker wish to caution and reinforce that this paper is only meant as the beginning of a dialogue and is not meant to speak on behalf of all US transgender activists. It is their hope and ours that this work can serve as a starting place...to spark a global, active wave of participation—one that brings heretofore unheard transgender voices to the surface for the sake of greater cross cultural understanding and effective action and policy....one that creates conditions whereby transgender people are given the ability to lead in a way that they are not currently provided.

NSRC thanked the authors, the activists, the Task Force and the Ford Foundation and in particular, Dr Barbara Klugman and Dr Dorinda Welle, who made this meeting possible. Working with allies and other centers in the field we look toward a new online, global conversation to emerge—which is why we are issuing the paper now, in honor of the International Day of Transgender Visibility, March 31st.

Please join the conversation!