Trans Translated
Queens activists are fighting for, and winning, the rights of the City's Transgendered
By Juliet Werner

The "T" in LGBTQ

Melissa Sklarz grew up in Long Island and currently resides in Woodside. However, she only came to feel truly at home once she discovered a sense of belonging within the transgendered community.

Professor William Leap

"My mother thought I was insane," Sklarz said. "Nothing felt natural to me…I was a varsity athlete in high school. I was very, very conflicted."

After falling into substance abuse and homelessness, Sklarz eventually identified as transgendered.

"Once upon a time they were 'gender different,'" Sklarz said of transgendered people. "There were a lot of different labels. The term was invented 20 years ago to bring people together to create a common cultural identity. Transgender is a cultural term that brings people together."

The term transgender can be applied to anyone who has tendencies that diverge from the normative gender roles. It is an umbrella term of sorts that includes transsexuals, cross-dressers, drag queens, drag kings, transvestites, etc. Transgender, however, does not imply sexual orientation.

"When the gays got their civil rights in 1980s, it didn't include language for transgendered people," Sklarz said. "In 2002 we were able to utilize gay law to protect transgender people in New York City … We were so used to [Rudy] Giuliani and Peter Vallone who had no interest in us. But when Bloomberg took over it became very simple. We expected years of hardship and it became very easy."

With the support of Mayor Mike Bloomberg, the City Council amended the Human Rights Law to include transgender people thereby protecting them from discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression in the realms of employment, housing and public accommodations.

However, transgender-inclusive anti-discrimination legislation does not exist at the federal level, and Sklarz is determined to continue the fight.

"[Congressman Joseph] Crowley and I have had numerous conversations," Sklarz said. "I'm looking forward to having him as a powerful ally."

Drag Queens of Queens

Candy Samples has just over a week to rehearse for her next show. Now a proud Astoria resident, she studied acting at Emerson College in Boston, where she met the other two members of her group: Gender Offenders.

Gender Offenders formed in earnest in 2006 when the group of friends decided they wanted to present drag shows that offered a social and political message. Their latest production, "Porn in the U.S.A: Red, White and Boobs," playing at Manhattan's Duplex Cabaret Theater on June 7, includes a combination of burlesque, music and sketches.

Gender Offenders perform socially relevent drag shows.

"This is not how we live by day," Samples said. "I'm sitting here wearing a starched shirt and I'm an executive assistant at a nonprofit. It's like the Justice Leagues; we're each our own superhero."

Candy said Gender Offenders' sketches attempt to address issues that affect everyone, not just the LGBTQ community. Everything from marriage to the rice shortage gets stage time.

"In the whole queer community, drag artists are silenced," she said. "They're pretty, they're nice to look at, they can lip sync, etc. We have something we want to say at the same time."

"It feels great to perform to a Queens crowd," Chic said. "I have lived in Astoria for seven years now and have performed at various venues all over NYC, including local gay Astoria hotspot, Albatross Bar, and at Queen's Pride. Audiences are always very supportive and appreciative of the work I do with Gender Offenders and in solo performance."

Discrimination in Queens

But Queens is by no means a haven for transgendered people. Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, said his office is being bombarded with calls from transgenders in Queens who are being harassed by small business owners. The majority of incidents are occurring in Jackson Heights, according to Silverman, who is further investigating the case.

Transgendered people face discrimination with health care system.

Earlier this month, TLDEF won a major case on behalf of Khadijah Farmer. Last June, following the Gay Pride Parade, a bouncer kicked Farmer out of the ladies' room of Caliente Cab Company, a West Village restaurant, because she looked too much like a man.

Although Farmer identifies as a woman, the case brought up several contentious aspects of gender expression. Silverman said he was overjoyed with the settlement, which will pay Farmer $35,000 and force the restaurant to change its workplace policies.

"People are routinely harassed and abused when they fail to conform to expectations about gender, especially in places like restrooms," Silverman said. "Today's settlement marks a step forward in ensuring that people have equal access to public accommodations like restrooms and restaurants without regard to their gender identity or expression."

A Major Leap

William Leap, professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology at American University in Washington D.C., organizes the annual Lavender Languages and Linguistics Conference. According to Leap, this year's conference highlighted a shift in how academics discuss and understand transgendered identity.

"There was a time when people talked about transgendered female as being trapped inside a male body," Leap said. "People were trying to bring the body into alignment with the inner soul or being or whatever. That's really passé at this point. Your body type really has nothing to do with who you are as a gendered or sexual person."

More and more transgendered people are coming to view the medical community as manipulative.

"The answer is not surgery," Leap said. "The answer is behavior. That's the way the theory is going."