Deterioration of Privacy and Effects on Transpeople (reporting back from Creating Change, pt. 2)

One of the panels that I attended at NGLTF's annual Creating Change conference was entitled, "Deterioration of Privacy and Effects on Transpeople." On the panel were Mara Keisling (Executive Director, Nation Center for Transgender Equality, Washington DC), Dean Spade (Sylvia Rivera Law Project, New York, NY), and a third presenter whose name I've forgotten (I think it was someone from the National Center for Lesbian Rights, San Francisco, CA, but no guarantees).

The focus of the panel was the recently passed Real ID Act.

The Real ID Act was passed by Congress and signed into law last May by George W. Bush. In the wake of 9/11, the push for a new national identity card had gained some momentum, along with anti-immigration sentiment in Congress. Real ID addressed several issues. It contained provisions that would make it easier to build a wall between Mexico and the United States, and it would make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to gain amnesty by claiming persecution abroad. But the major provision was the requirement that all state driver's licenses meet new federal standards, at least for anyone needing identification for federal benefits, airplane rides, or access to federal offices. From Seattle Weekly

To look at its specific language, check out the approved House version and the Congressional version

While many argue against Real ID based on the logistical difficulties and exorbitant costs of its implementation, this panel was focused on how in addition to these shortcomings, Real ID is particularly bad policy for transpeople based on privacy rights.

To be sure, this so-called "anti-terrorist" measure is very much about surveillance and making it more difficult for the average person (and even more so for those of us who aren't average) to obtain identity documents, as well as make more stringent the process of applying for asylum in the U.S. In this regard, the panel did a great job of pointing out how for transpeople, such legislation becomes particularly burdensome since there is no one place/way to change one's legal gender with the government [each kind of identity document (e.g., social security card, birth certificate, etc.) has its own standards].

While the panel did a good job of pointing out how poor people's privacy rights are similar tread upon, I do wish that they had more specifically discussed parallels experienced by immigrants, too. Spade alluded to these connections when he said that "no one is illegal," a popular retort to the use of the phrase "illegal alien/immigrant" instead of "undocumented immigrant." Even better, however, would have been some discussion, or at least acknowledgement of the situation faced by immigrant transpeople when it comes to struggles of documentation on various levels.

In any case, I bring this all up now not only because I should have written about this long ago, but because of a recent (related) incident. One of the examples Keisling cited during the panel presentation in order to illustrate the increasing surveillance and concomitant lack of privacy in the U.S. is the popularity of the "bonus/club card" phenomenon (whereby you sign-up to receive a "discount" card whenever you present it at checkout).

I don't take issue with the fact that these "bonus cards" do indeed allow for corporations (the government, and whomever else accesses this information) to track what we purchase and how often. (I do wonder, though, why the strategy of filling out fake information isn't discussed since these cards, unlike credit cards, do not require approval and are made available instantly to the applicant.)

In any case, in the mail the other day, I received a flyer welcoming me to the neighborhood (I've recently moved and filed a change of address form with the United States Post Office, which I'm assuming then led to this offer) and offering a free $10 gift card to a nearby shopping mall. It was a good gimmick--I had never been to this mall, but for $10, I was certainly willing to check it out, and that's exactly what I did.

Long story short, the mall wasn't all that, but I did have $10 burning a hole in my pocket, so I took a look around. Originally, I was going to use the money to get a free lunch. Feeling guilty about playing into the system that Keisling so adamantly felt imposed on transpeople's privacy, I couldn't bring myself to use it to eat. In fact, I felt so guilty that I wandered around much longer than I had expected to. In the end, I used it at the mall's bookstore. I still feel guilty (what'd you expect, I'm Catholic, remember?). But, if I hadn't gone, I wouldn't have found Toni Lester's (ed.) Gender Nonconformity, Race, and Sexuality: Charting the Connections Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003. ISBN 0-299-18144-8