Final Pop Culture

Brandon Ma
English Composition ll

Finding your own identity

In the early 1900’s, there has not been much acceptance to individuals who identify as LGBTQ in our communities. Everyone has their own journey in what they want to achieve and become later in life, and shouldn’t assume how others think and act in finding their own identity.
Here we are in 2019, it’s more acceptable as compared to the 1900’s but its hard for people coming out to society as their safety is still a factor. People should express for who they are without opinions of others that impacts their life.

According to the TV show “I am Jazz”, the focus of this documentary revolves around this transgender child from male to female at a very young age. It is very slice of life, but outside the TV show, she’s an advocate for trans rights. This reality show can target any audience who is curious to learn about the community out there and what a transgender individual will go through everyday. Such as waking up everyday and looking at themselves in the mirror, and say how their body doesn’t match with their psychology. These symptoms often lead to depression and anxiety, and worst case scenario is suicide.

For a person growing up at a very young age can be very shocking when they explain it to their parents. For example for Jazz said,”the moment she was able to speak, she told her parents that she was transgender”. Telling her only family, her brothers and especially her parents was really tough. They feared what will happen if they allowed Jazz to dress up the way she likes and get bullied at school. Or fall into deep depression and commit suicide. When coming out to everyone, it is a very hard topic to discuss at a very young age. Jazz’s parents may believe they might’ve nurtured them in a way that affected their perspective in life. While there are some researchers that say its the nature, down the biological psychology.

Even though there is more acceptance compared back to the 1900’s, but there is still some anti-trans people who despise trans individuals. Jazz and her mother “ decided confront an anti-trans group that has been targeting the family. In this auditorium with intensity in the air, one of the audience came and said “you should be discussing these things with your parents” like they haven’t discussed at all to begin with. Another thing he asked was “what bathroom do you use” which can be sounded offensive. Jazz said she uses the female bathroom because she identify as a female,however , this individual spoke his opinion saying “it’s a sick thing basically”. This showed how there will always be people who will in doubt hate transgender people by speaking out their opinions. This influences can change how a transgender person will come out because of threats they may receive. Some even argue the question , “ When is it a good time to transition as suppose you’re only a child”, because the brain of an infant hasn’t fully matured to think logically. This controversial topic led to people believing, that these parents are trying to brainwashing their child into doing something that changes their psychologically and physiologically.
It can also be hard for people who may not be transgender, and your sexual attraction can be homosexual relationships. Coming out to your most supportive family members and even friends can be challenging. Depending on your ethnicity it can be viewed as shameful act because of expectations the family. This can lead to individuals to not be supported by their family and often be depression. Eventually, keeping these emotions in will later on continue to make your life more miserable. Especially millennial will not understand the terms of LGBT, and it can be even harder for them to understand what a child will go through.

In the 21st century, there is a lot of hate and discrimination in our society. Such when Trump was campaigning for presidency in 2016. In his term, Trump’s administration has announced a plan to thin out the terms of gender to the biological male and female characteristics. This caused the LGBTQ community to question what will happen to them, and started protesting. This can be very drastic to individuals, this can mean removal of LGBTQ centers that offers healthcare, therapy, programs, and etc. For the millions of people in the United States will no longer be comfortable for they express themselves. If the term was justified, people of the LGBTQ community would not be safe because of the violence against LGBTQ individuals.This type of violence against the LGBTQ wouldn’t be considered an hate crime and can be viewed as crime.There are also people who are still not public about their identity because of the dangers that are imposed by these changes as increase to discrimination towards these individuals.

Another action that Trump has done in the past was by removing everyone who identify as transgender to resign from the military. According to Independent, “The administration had also attempted to ban transgender individuals from serving in the US military, but was blocked by several federal judges and opposition from military leaders” (Sampathkumar). This impacted individuals who are passionate to serve their country, but now they can’t. This is also a good reason that we have balanced of powers, thus people who are public about their identity will not be shamed for who they identify as. This shows Trump revisions into the regulations, however, it is not being enforced by every departments of the military. While there are higher powers in our society, everyone should be able to express freely without discrimination.

While not going too deep into my story, I went through this process. My parents thought it was a phase and ignored it and thought it was normal for every child to have, eventually this feeling every time I would try to forget about it. Having the feeling of anxiety and nervousness emotions held in for so many years that it became unbearable as time continued as if nothing has changed everyday I would wake up. I never had a consistent therapist that also helped me in my journey, and this often led me to having no one to talk to. I always feared telling my parents what I believe in, and worried what their next steps was. There is still tension about this topic because of that it’s not often discussed between my family.

As we move into the future, there are still many people hiding their identity even today to their parents or friends because of uncertainty if they will be accepted. Now after Trump has proposed this new identification, people would have to be even more cautious because that shows how our society is moving forward today in our era. However New York City is a great place to be in, New York City wouldn’t enforce these changes because of its democratic standpoint. New York City has even “pushed for the rights for a person to use a single-sex bathroom that aligns with their expressed gender identity, established by the Obama administration” according to Independent. There has been implementation that individuals are treated equally in our schools, such as the implementation of unisex bathrooms, dorms, programs that are individual sex, and more. Everyone should be able to express themselves their gender identity and/or sexual orientation freely without the toxicity holding them back.

Works Cited
Green, Erica L., et al. “’Transgender’ Could Be Defined Out of Existence Under Trump Administration.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 Oct. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/10/21/us/politics/transgender-trump-administration-sex-definition.html.
Hobbs, Allegra. “Threat to Roll Back Trans Rights Sparks Action.” Am New York, Am New York, 23 Oct. 2018, www.amny.com/news/transgender-rights-nyc-trump-1.22354107.
Sampathkumar, Mythili New York @MythiliSk. “Trump Administration Considers Elimination of Transgender Recognition.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 21 Oct.2018,www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-transgender-rights-lgbtq-gender-identity-bathrooms-military-education-a8595131.html.