By T’Neil Gooden
In a time of questions and uncertainty, Erin Reed, an American journalist and transgender rights activist, spoke with Brooklyn College students on March 18 in the Tanger Auditorium Library about the past and current history of trans rights. The panel was a collaboration between The Wolfe Institute, the Women’s and Gender Studies program, The Women’s Center, the BC chapter of Professional Staff Congress, the LGBTQ+ Resource Center, and We Stand Against Hate at BC.
Reed spoke about trans history from over 4,500 years ago to today. Authors, activists, and historians who lived during all the historical periods that we have learned from our classes all have transgender individuals whose stories are only told by those who truly took the time to learn their names.
“We’ve always been here […] Transgender people have always been here,” Reed told the audience.
Reed spoke about one woman in particular who had a ratifying reaction when telling her parents she was a girl instead of a boy at nine years old.
“Lucy Anderson told her parents at the age of nine years old, in the late 1800s, that she was a girl and not a boy, despite being assigned male at birth,” Reed said. “Her parents didn’t know what to do, so they brought her to a doctor. And the doctor, very progressive for the time, apparently said, let her be. She’s not hurting anyone. She seems healthy. Let her be herself. And so they did.”
Along with Lucy Anderson, students learned about the history behind the Magnus-Hirschfeld Institute of Sexology, and what this institute has done for transgender individuals for over 90 years.
“That institute did the first 30 years of research into trans and queer people. These would have been the first people to get hormone therapy. Some of the first surgeries occurred at that institute. And people who went to that institute could obtain legal documents,” Reed told the audience. “They could have helped with our transition, they get to access clothing. It was such a foundational place for transgender people and our history. So we have always been here. But just as we have always been here, we’ve always had to fight for our right to exist.”
Reed told students about Stonewall and the history behind the books that were burned in the riots.
“While a lot of people know the general story about Stonewall, you know, they were raiding queer clubs, a lot of people don’t know that the reason why they were raiding queer clubs is because they were looking for people that were not dressed as their assigned sex at birth,” Reed said. “And these were called female impersonation laws or three articles of clothing policies, where if you weren’t wearing three articles of clothing that match your assigned sex at birth, you could be arrested and charged under those policies.”
Reed continued to explain how these rules led to people who are transgender fighting back during Stonewall.
“That’s why trans people were among the top people that were fighting back at Stonewall. The leaders of Stonewall were trans in many ways. And that’s how we got pride. And so we’ve always had to fight for our right to exist,” Reed explained.
Reed continued to amplify how Stonewall’s events led to even more movements for trans rights.
“This would go out through history in the 1980s with the AIDS and HIV advocacy in the 1990s with the X-gay movement and conversion therapy, and in the early 2000s with fighting for the right to marry,” Reed said.
After transitioning from trans history, Reed went into the rights gay individuals received and the current state of experience for transgender people.
“This history then came to a point in 2015 where gay people were given the right to marry by the Supreme Court in the Obergefell versus Hodges case, which I might add is under threat right now,” Reed told the audience. “And while this was a major moment for LGBTQ history, it was also the beginning of the modern reactionary movement against LGBTQ people.”
Reed continued to touch on the subject of bills that have gone against transgender individuals. Students shook their heads as they listened to what trans people face today.
“There are more anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ bills proposed this year than any other year in history. And we are only three months in. And so we have two tension points that are sort of holding place right there. And as I said, LGBTQ people are up across the board. It’s not just Gen Z, millennials seem to increase as well,” Reed said.
While emphasizing the ridicule trans people are facing, Reed stressed the importance of having representation of trans people in our everyday lives.
“There’s so many studies around how representation increases acceptance and how representation and seeing just mere exposure to an LGBTQ person or a transgender person can help you accept LGBTQ people and transgender people as well,” Reed said. “And so we have people like Michaela Rodriguez, who won best actress of the Golden Globes, Laverne Cox from Orange is the New Black, Conor Schaeffer, Elliot Page, Amy Schneider went on an absolute terror in Jeopardy.”
Reed spoke about her wife being one of the first transgender elected officials, Zoe Zephyr, along with Sarah McBride being the first transgender congresswoman. Reed then brought attention to how there has been additional resources to trans healthcare.
“Informed consent hormone therapy, which are clinics that will believe that you are trans and they will help you with your medical transition. And they’re not meant to gatekeep, you know, people who don’t have tens of thousands of dollars out of transitioning,” Reed said. Reed has an informed consent map that she updates when new centers are made for people to access hormone therapy easily.
As Reed spoke about transgender rights, she was updated in the middle of her speech that, “A court just overturned the Ohio gender-affirming care ban. That’s good,” Eric told the audience. This statement was joined with an applause by audience members.
Reed then spoke to the audience about the importance of having trans individuals in government spaces and how that could change the outcome of all the bills and bans that are happening within our current government.
Reed wants individuals to leave the lecture with the understanding that, “If you’re going to go off into the world and you’re not LGBTQ yourself, you’re going to be working with LGBTQ people. They are going to be your friends, your colleagues, your peers. And so it requires learning,” Reed said.
Students who want to learn more about transgender rights and activism can go to the LGBTQ+ Resource Center in the Student Center and Erin Reed’s Page, Erin In The Morning.