Houston's Fight for Trans Equality

On June 22, 1980, according to the City of Houston’s Code of Ordinances at the time, I committed a crime.

What was the crime I committed that I fortunately didn’t get arrested for? I went to the Talent Night at Studio 13 in Montrose dressed as my true self.

It was the first time my then just-graduated-from-high-school teen self had been out of the house dressed en femme. But had the HPD vice squad raided Studio 13 that night, I would have been arrested and charged with a violation of Section 28.42-4 of the Code of Ordinances.

Section 28.42-4 prohibited a person from “appearing in public dressed with the intent to disguise his or her sex as that of the opposite sex.”

Translation: I would have been arrested for crossdressing.

That ordinance was passed in 1861, and had its roots in the wave of anti-crossdressing laws that got enacted back then. An 1848 Columbus, Ohio, law forbade a person from appearing in public “in a dress not belonging to his or her sex.” In the decade that followed, Houston and 40 other U.S. cities passed similar ordinances and laws, along with several states.

Those anti-crossdressing ordinances were used by police to enforce the gender binary. They were also used to harass our trans and gender-nonconforming siblings, as well as the gay and lesbian community.

The Houston ordinance was used to harass not only drag performers and trans people, but also butch lesbians. If you were a cisgender woman wearing fly-front jeans, you would be arrested by HPD vice officers for doing so. It’s why, for much of the ’70s, Houston department stores sold women’s and girls’ jeans with zippers on the hips.

HPD had been under the odious ten-year reign of police chief Herman Short since 1964. Short was a George Wallace supporter and an alleged Klan sympathizer who was reviled by Houston’s Black community. Short also turned his vice squad officers loose on Houston’s TBLGQ community, and their preferred method of harassment was the use of Section 28.42-4 to justify their raids on gay and lesbian bars.

If a drag queen was either not on stage or on their way to the dressing room when vice officers raided a club, they were arrested. When they raided Houston’s lesbian bars, they were targeting peeps wearing fly-front jeans.

In the Houston TBLGQ community, sentiment was growing to overturn the repressive anti-crossdressing ordinance, especially after trans woman Annette “Toni” Mayes was repeatedly harassed by HPD vice officers in 1972.

The 25-year-old Mayes was trying to adhere to the standard of the time for transitioning: living openly as the target gender for two years prior to gender-confirmation surgery.

Because 1970s fashion was blurring the lines between what was considered masculine and feminine clothing, crossdressing ordinances were under attack in the federal court system. Houston City Council, fearful that Section 28.42-4 would be overturned, decided to revise it in June 1972 with language outlawing anyone who appeared “on any public street, sidewalk, alley or public thoroughfare with the intent to disguise one’s gender as that of the opposite gender.”

Mayes eventually got tired of the constant HPD harassment, and in December 1972 filed a $200,000 federal lawsuit against HPD. The lawsuit made it all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Mayes unfortunately lost. While the lawsuit didn’t have the desired result of overturning Houston’s anti-crossdressing ordinance, it did get HPD to stop harassing Mayes until she had her January 1974 gender-confirmation surgery (GCS) in Galveston.

After Mayes’ successful surgery, she retired from the Houston trans-rights fight to focus on living her life. She passed away in November 2007, just weeks shy of her 60th birthday.

Phyllis Frye, a Texas A&M engineering grad, then entered the Houston trans rights picture as she began her transition in September 1976. Justifiably fearful that she would also be harassed and arrested by HPD like Mayes had been, Frye picked up where Mayes and the Tumblebugs had left off in the quest to kill the unjust anti-crossdressing ordinance.

It’s easy to recognize that transgender and gender-nonbinary people have gained greater social visibility over the past several years. Even before Laverne Cox became the first trans person on the cover of Time magazine in 2014, the national conversation about the “T” in LGBTQ was heating up.

Television shows like Transparent garnered critical acclaim throughout its five-season run, and created opportunities for broader discussions about gender identity. More recently, the hit television show Pose became the first scripted television series to the tell stories of African-American and Latinx trans women from the ballroom community. The groundbreaking production prominently features the work of trans women of color behind the camera, with show producer Janet Mock becoming the first Black trans woman to write and direct a television series.

Legislative Progress

Not too long ago, discriminatory state legislation in the guise of “bathroom bills” was being proposed at alarming rates throughout the country, attempting to force trans people to use bathrooms according to the gender assigned at birth and narrowly defining gender as a binary construct. The offensive arguments in favor of these bills included suggestions that trans women represent a danger in women’s bathrooms. Fortunately, most of the proposed bills failed to become law, and many states even adopted anti-discrimination laws in response.

Although notable for the amount of media attention received, bathroom bills represent only one aspect in the fight for trans rights. For example, obtaining identity documents such as birth certificates, state identification cards, or driver licenses consistent with a preferred name and gender identity can be particularly challenging in some states. Additionally, improving equal access to education, fair housing, employment, and healthcare have remained core issues in the trans equality movement.

An Epidemic of Anti-Trans Violence

Despite greater visibility and the appearance of increased social acceptance, trans and gender-nonconforming persons remain at a heightened risk to become victims of violence. According to the 2015 US Transgender Survey (USTS), sponsored by the National Center for Transgender Equality, 10 percent of trans persons who are out to their immediate family reported being the victim of violence at the hands of a family member because of their gender identity, and 8 percent were kicked out of the home because they were trans.

The Human Rights Campaign reported at least 27 deaths of trans or gender-nonconforming people in the U.S. in 2019. Unfortunately, 2020 has already seen 22 deaths. Black trans women are particularly at risk, and disproportionately represented among victims. It is also important to note that some of the trans and gender-nonconforming victims may not be accurately counted due to victim misgendering in police reports.

Discrimination: An Everyday Occurrence

For many, simply accessing the most basic elements of life can become difficult in the face of extreme prejudice and transphobia. Trans people disproportionately report social stressors such as violence, discrimination, and the lingering effects of childhood abuse. In fact, discrimination often prevents trans people from obtaining education, housing, healthcare, and legal protections.

In schools, trans students are more likely to experience mistreatment, including verbal harassment, physical attacks, and sexual assault. One study found that nearly 20 percent of trans students experience such severe mistreatment that they choose to leave school.

Workplace discrimination is common for trans persons, with 30 percent of employed trans persons reporting workplace mistreatment, being fired, or being denied promotions because of their gender identity. On June 15, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court extended the scope of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by ruling that “an employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or trans defies the law.” For trans workers, this legal interpretation represents an important milestone in the fight for equality.

According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, as many as 1 in 4 trans persons have been denied equal treatment in healthcare settings, which results in nearly 1 out of 3 trans people either delaying or not seeking needed healthcare.

Discrimination Leads to Poverty

Economic hardship is a sad reality for many trans individuals. Nearly one-third of trans Americans have experienced homelessness at some point in their lives, and nearly one-third are now living in poverty (in comparison to 12 percent of the general population). According to the 2019 UCLA School of Law Williams Institute study LGBT Poverty in the United States, the poverty rate is 40 to 50 percent among trans people of color. This is likely due to significantly higher unemployment rates among trans folks, as well as the compounded stigma of racial and ethnic identity.

The mental-health consequences of life at these extreme margins can be quite alarming. Trans people are more likely to experience psychological distress, report suicidal thoughts at chological distress, report suicidal thoughts at some point in their lives, or to actually make a suicide attempt.

Get Involved in Making Trans Lives Matter

The fight for trans rights must become a more prominent part in the fight for LGBTQ equality. We should ask ourselves what more we can do to personally support the trans and gendernonconforming community. Here are several ways to get involved:

• Watching Pose does not equate to being a trans ally. It’s easy (and convenient) for queer people to celebrate the fabulous ballroom and drag scenes featuring trans and gender-nonconforming persons. But pause to think about the day-to-day lives of these performers who so frequently provide us with entertainment. It is important to interrogate the line between support and exploitation.

• Be informed about the status of transrights work. Organizations such as the National Center for Transgender Equality (transequality.org/know-your-rights) and the American Civil Liberties Union (aclu.org/ issues/lgbt-rights/transgender-rights) provide up-to-date information about local and national efforts to fight trans discrimination.

• Think globally, act locally. There are numerous organizations in Houston that focus on securing trans rights, promoting physical safety, and supporting our trans neighbors with employment, housing, medical, and legal assistance. How might you support these organizations through a donation of time, talent, or money? When possible, consider supporting trans-owned businesses and entrepreneurs.

• It is important to be a vocal advocate in schools and in the workplace, given the discrimination that trans and gender-nonconforming persons will most likely experience. How can you promote safety, or help to generate a more diverse and representative applicant pool? What training is necessary for managers or interview committees to reduce bias in hiring or promotions? To escape poverty, access to employment is essential.

• Speak out against violence perpetrated against trans people. This is a time to leverage our privilege and collective voice to lobby City Council members and local law enforcement to increase protection of the gender-nonconforming community and prosecution of those who would harm them.

Although it may feel daunting, joining the fight begins with one simple act. What will you do today to advance trans equality?

Daryl Shorter, MD, is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and is board certified in both general and addiction psychiatry. His clinical practice focuses on veteran care, and he lectures widely on LGBTQ mental health.