Locating the transgender other: alterity in 21st century America

Abstract

Discussions directed toward amending past stigmatizations associated with transgender identity have expanded in the 21st-century. Contemporary debates concerning the sociocultural pariah of mid-20th-century America have swung wide the doors of denounced identity. As this has happened, a more extensive text has emerged concerning the notion of alterity. Designators of non-binary gender expanded during the middle of the last century and grew to include ideas of anti-nationalism, civil disruption, and sexual perversion. A plethora of politically motivated social agendas resulted in scholarship that did not keep up with contemporary realities. Perpetrated distortions of the 'trans-other' have disaffiliated more than 1.5 million American citizens. Dramatic increases in 'hate crimes' and a striking disparity in transgender suicide rates present a worrisome illustration of trans-alterity. This treatise centers on how the location of transgender Story has shifted and revealed new ways of discussing gender distinctiveness. There is an opportunity for a scholarship to develop that incorporates the history of trans-exclusion with contemporary advances in technology. Stories of the trans-subject are instantly communicated, and knowledge of the past acts to eliminate transgender alterity. The art of telling stories is an underutilized tool of scholarship. Trans-emergence is a story about contemporary reality and recording knowledge about the history of a marginalized culture. By looking back, it is possible to see a future that does not merely re-theorize or restate a call for inclusion but informs scholars that society is experiencing a 'Transgender Renaissance.'