By Molly O’Neill
Regardless of your answer to this question, take a trip to the Brooks Museum this week to view the exhibition “On Christopher Street” by photographer Mark Seigler. This series focuses on the lives and history of transgender and queer people who found a home on Christopher Street in New York. The street is a beacon for members of the LGTBQIA2+ community as it was home to Stonewall Inn which is where the Stonewall riots of 1969 took place. Mark Seigler’s Transgender portrait’s capture the significance of this place, the photos are all in black and white and paired with a video from various LGTBQIA2+ persons who were able to share their story of transition. The Brook’s website puts it best in saying that, ”[t]hese portraits remind us that Christopher Street is more than just a physical place – it is a feeling, an idea, that redefines notions of home and community. It encourages us to experience it and bring it with us. At a time when trans and queer rights are again at the political forefront, it is increasingly important to create and foster our own Christopher Streets.” This sentiment of creating our own Christopher Street is especially needed in the Southern United States where the question of gender identity is not so easily brought up in daily conversation.
Looking at the political aspects of this work one can’t help but acknowledge the struggle for proper medical care which many transgender patients are often denied. There is a major disconnect in the medical field between doctors and transgender patients with many legal, economic, and social barriers prohibiting transgender patients, and more specifically youth, from receiving proper treatment. Healthcare providers are unwilling to cover fees and many parents refuse to support their children with the transition process which, in places like Georgia and about 20 other states in the US, renders these youth powerless until they reach a mature age.
The regulation of our bodies as a form of oppression is nothing new to women, but transgender and non-binary bodies are often left out of this conversation. Especially with the new legislation in Texas this month, tensions are high, and it is very easy to lump blame and hatred onto men. One doctor even mentions altering their vocabulary to use gender neutral terms for reproductive organs and stresses the importance of transgender representation within medical settings. What we must note is that women are not the only people with uteruses or ovaries. We are all fighting for these rights together.
So, whether reading this as a member of the LGTBQIA2+ community or as an ally I urge you to consider how to make the spaces you are in a reflection of the sanctuary many people found at Christopher Street. Should you wish to know more about this exhibit, there will be a guided tour held by Joel Parsons, a Professor of Art and Chair of the Gender and Sexualities program at Rhodes. The tour will take place October 20th at 6:30 pm and the link to register is below. There will also be a Trans Visibility event held this weekend, October 2nd, from 10am to 5pm.
Visibility event:
Guided Tour:
NYT article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/28/health/transgender-health-care.html
Brooks Website:
https://www.brooksmuseum.org/christopherstreet