Sociologists for Trans Justice

By Baker A. Rogers originally published on Ms. Magazine on March 13, 2020 - https://msmagazine.com/2020/03/13/welcome-to-the-danger-zone-trans-equality-in-southeastern-u-s/?fbclid=IwAR3X5GQAVGqbpnK7oD__UIUnNrdDnaOcdXj8kGdAle4sf1yT8d3yyVNbepw Welcome to the Danger Zone: Trans Equality in Southeastern U.S. 3/13/2020  by  BAKER ROGERS Although LGBTQ+ people have experienced increased acceptance and visibility over the past decade, the Southern U.S. continues to lag behind the rest of the country in terms of supporting LGBTQ+ people. Nevertheless, over a third of all queer people in the U.S. live in the Southeast.  ( Nathan Rupert  / Creative Commons) Overall, the South is a unique geographic location—both in reality and in the national imagination. People continue to believe the region is uniformly closed-minded and conservative—religiously, politically and socially.  Many have written the South off as backwards and, therefore, given up hope for progressive change ...

Since June of 2016 when then-Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced that transgender persons would be welcome to serve openly in the U.S. armed forces, at least 1,500 service members have come out as transgender. On an early July morning in 2017, aiming to throw his base a bone, President Donald Trump tweeted that transgender individuals would not be permitted to serve, in any capacity, in the U.S. military. As a result, on April 12th, 2019, the Trump Administration’s prohibition on the military service of transgender people went into effect, reversing a move by the U.S. military toward inclusion. The announcement that trans people would be able to serve followed as a logical extension of a 2011 event that increased military inclusion: the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” At one point, the concern that formed the center of arguments against the open service of gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals was that their presence would negatively impact unit cohesion. This claim wa...