Wedding Cakes Iced in Transgender Oppression

The reality is that right now in the majority of America it is legal to discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community. In most of the country one can readily fire or evict a member of the LGBTQ+ community for no other reason except that characteristic of their being. There are other characteristics, intrinsic ones such as race or sex, and chosen ones, such as religion, that are protected but not sexuality or gender expression. We talk about the issues around the new forms of Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, but what these really do is make the already legal discrimination easier, as the burden of proving that the discrimination should not be allowed is placed on the victim. They also make the fact that such discrimination is legal a known reality, they enfranchise those who otherwise would not realize that they could discriminate.

 

The fight for this has primarily been around providing goods and services to gay weddings, be it cakes, flowers, photography, or in the most recent case of note pizza. The reality is that gay couples are not actually finding it difficult to obtain bakers, florist, photographers, or caterers to provide services for their weddings. They might find set backs and inconveniences, which they should in no way face, and the reality is that any service provider who alleges to provide to the general public should provide to the general public, but the actual fall out from these acts of discrimination are minor. Again, this does not mean they should be ignored or discounted but that they need to be recognized for the small reality, both in scope and numbers, that they are.

The reality, however, is that the focus on bakers not providing cakes for weddings distracts us from a larger reality, both in scope and numbers, that is predominately ignored. The number of cases, at least where the issue has come to court, of wedding vendors denying services to a same gender couple is, as far as I can tell, under twenty five in the last decade. Each one gets a lot of publicity from both sides and is touted as the reason why we must have various protections, be they for religious groups or the LGBTQ+ community. Compare this, however, to the fact that since 2008 over one hundred transgender individuals have been violently murdered in the United States. Seven transgendered women have been violently murdered since the start of 2015, while there have been no cases filed about wedding vendors failing to provide services to same gender couples in that same time.

I honestly do not understand why the focus of these discussions continues to be around wedding vendors. These acts of discrimination are miniscule in relationship to the violent hate crimes committed against the transgender community. The majority of hate crimes that end in murder against the LGBTQ+ community in America are Transgender Women of Color. More transgender women were murdered in 2012 than reported cases of wedding vendors denying same gender couples services up to that point in American history, a total of about eleven by the end of 2013. The core reality is that hate crimes against our community, specifically targeting the most vulnerable of our members, has been occurring for decades but the non-discrimination ordinances and laws that would send a clear message about the status of LGBTQ+ individuals is for the most part breached in regards to wedding vendors providing services to, by and large, the least vulnerable of our community.

We are now facing a reality where we have marriage equality in states where there are no non-discrimination laws. The effect of this is that those members of the LGBTQ+ community who can readily navigate around discrimination have access to the privileges and responsibilities they need to normalize into the predominant norms of our culture, with the small chance of having to find another wedding vendor. In the midst of this the animosity to passing non-discrimination ordinances and legislation, which in the end always crumbles into nasty rants portraying transgender individuals as sexual predators, is greater than ever. This is the price of how we have engaged LGBTQ+ rights in this country, seeking first the more rarified protections allowed to some by marriage, while placing aside the need for basic protections for all of the community. The west coast and the north east have, for the most part, a functioning reality for the entire community, but those of us in the fly over zone are left in the lurch outside of isolated islands of municipal ordinances. 

Nationally, and in the vast majority of states, our laws tell our citizens that it is perfectly acceptable to discriminate against members of the LGBTQ+ community, even if they can legally marry. This adds to a general milieu that enfranchises hate crimes against the most vulnerable in the community. The horror is that we are struggling to bring about non-discrimination legislation in a way that does not confront the very real harm, and murder, of our members. We are allowing the discussion perpetuate itself in the petty realm of wedding cakes and not confronting the true horror of our society and the tide of transgender blood.

It might be argued that the realm of wedding cakes, no matter how petty, is a palatable realm in which we can get said legislation passed. The reality, however, is that the point of struggles for equality before the law is to confront society with the actual horrors they are perpetuating and to make those abuses of individuals society considers palatable no longer palatable. The goal is to lift up those individuals we now leave destitute to a place of basic recognition; to not only change the law but alter the cultural and societal fabric in which our laws are grounded. If we do not consistently require ourselves, our neighbors, and our legislators to fully confront the horrors they are allowing to perpetuate then we are, in fact, aiding in their perpetuation.