Issues of Transgendered Asian Americans

[Name of the Author]

[Name of the Institute]Issues of Transgendered Asian Americans

Introduction

In the era of 21st century, the passing time has changed the status of dignity of gay, lesbians and the transgender. The essay covers the issues that are being faced by the Asian American gays and lesbians, additionally in the sex industry and the sex trade. The trend has been changed drastically after the events of Nazism and the persecutions of Hitler. It was started off when the gay movement was started and was marked in the history as the 'Pink Triangle' for the gays and the 'Black Triangle' for the lesbians. Therefore, to discuss the current issues that they are facing, it is important to highlight the brief background from the past. So, we can have the clear understanding about the reasons for the latest issues.

Discussions

Thus, to understand the root reasons for the current issue to the gays, lesbians and transgender, it is important to discuss the history first.

Histories of Lesbian and Gay Movements in the United States

The Postwar Period

The years from 1950 to 1969 can be best understood under the reformist flag of homophile activism and could be best characterized by the slogan from the era: “We are just like everyone else.” At the time, most of the sociological, psychological and medical, and legal studies saw the term homosexuality as a form of deviance or pathology. The political powers of the cold war period saw homosexuality as threatening to the state as communism (most notable here is U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy's so-called witch hunts, hauling people up before the House Committee on Un-American Activities between 1934 and 1975). But it was also the time when Alfred Kinsey published his reports on the sexual behavior of Americans (in 1948 and 1954), which showed what was actually happening in the bedrooms of Americans—and it was not as puritan as the official discourses about it suggested. It was also a time when the first gay (e.g., the Mattachine Society [MS]) and lesbian (Daughters of Bilitis [DoB]) organizations appeared. The actual word used by the activists of the time was homophile, which reveals the major goals and attitudes of homosexual people of the time. The term was coined by activists to downplay the sexual aspect (homosexuality) of sexual identity, thus attempting to erase the difference and put more stress on the sameness with the heterosexual majority. Homophile organizations hoped for assimilation by using nonaggressive methods and accepting social norms (of gender, class, and race). (Adam, Duyvendak.et.al.1999) 

This aspect is also present in the adoption of an expert-system approach: attempting to depathologize homosexuality by convincing so-called experts (lawyers, doctors, and government officials) of the normality of homosexual people. Experts would then, by the token of their expertise, influence and change society. (Adam.1997)

Overall, the profile of the homophile movement of the 1950s and 1960s could be generally summarized as assimilationist, characterized by a rather tame approach (by today's standards), involving the liberal pledge of sameness and acceptance of rigid gender ...