Erasure

Content Warning: Anti-transgender policies, suicide

 

Erasure is a process enacted through the misclassification and/or exclusion of trans and other gender non-conforming people from records, research, and systems used by government and healthcare. Erasure takes many forms including misidentifying historical figures to actively denying the existence of the modern transgender community. Erasure harms the transgender community by erasing us from view and further pushing the narrative that there are only two genders.

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Gabby Omoni Hartemann, a transgender nonbinary archaeologist, begins the op-ed “Stop Erasing Transgender Stories from History” with a story about Lourival Bezerra de Sá, a transgender man who died in 2019. His death was notable because of how authorities and news media portrayed him as a liar, as a woman who had pretended to be a man. 

 

Repeatedly, people suggest that there is no history of transgender people and that this confirms that we do not belong in society now. However, history is rife with examples of transgender individuals. Furthermore, many different cultures have social views that include more than two genders or sexes. Transgender people are not seen as pervasive elements in every society because we are a minority. 

 

Consider the actions taken to erase transgender people and our lives. If they were directed at any other minority, would you feel differently? If the government said that we could not use the word Hispanic in research studies, would you be concerned?

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According to Viviane Namaste in their book "Invisible Lives", there are three main forms of erasure:

1. The reduction of transness to a figural existence, rather than a person's "embodied identity" (referring to distorted representations of transgender people).

2. The exclusion of trans people, such that they are "made invisible".

3. The nullification of transness, so that trans life is conceptually rendered impossible.

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Consider how these three forms of erasure are being pursued today:

1. Conservatives lie and fabricate "evidence" to oppose gender-affirming care, restrict us from participating in sports, and remove our history from the classroom. 

   • Trump executive order tries to limit access to gender-affirming care, stopped by Federal judges

   • Trump executive order tries to ban trans women from participation in sports

   • Trump order tries to remove transgender service people from the military

2. The Trump administration has banned certain words (including transgender and other gender-identity related terminology) from research; trying to pretend that we do not exist. They try to remove us from spaces and visibility such as pushing us out of women's sports and public bathrooms.

   • Trump executive order seeks to remove "gender ideology" and "equity ideology" from K-12 schools

   • Trump Orders Women's History Museum to Remove Trans People or Lose Funding

   • Trump officials scrub transgender health data from federal websites

   • U.S. Park Service Strikes Transgender References from Stonewall Website

3. Radical conservatives in the U.S. government are trying to deny us the right to legally change our names or gender markers on identification; and to restrict and prohibit us from accessing gender-affirming care.

   • The State Department is Blocking New Passports for Trans Americans

 

What are the Consequences of Erasure?

• Misunderstanding of transgender people and issues. 

• Portrayal of transness as a youth fad, which can lead to ignoring older trans individuals (for example, a college implementing name change forms for students only).

• Suicide rates amongst transgender people are exceedingly high. According to researchers, state and anti-transgender laws increase the frequency of suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary youth by up to 72%.

• ACLU: The Human Toll of Trumps Anti Trans Crusade