March 2014 – Transgender Issues Data Analysis

10. Its √ √ 11. Homophobia √ √ √ √

3. March 2014 – Transgender Issues

Transgender is an umbrella term that describes someone whose gender identity or expression does not match the gender they were “assigned at birth” – a phrase that recognizes how sex and gender are given to individuals at birth, rather than being innate or unchangeable qualities. The identity and terminology is not only the problem, the community also suffered from several other problems, one of the most critical one is housing and homelessness. They could experience homelessness at some time in their lives because of discrimination and family rejection. As a result, an estimated 20-40 of the more than 1.6 million homeless youth in the United States are LGBT. 87 Datum 5: “From homeless to hopeful: How a trans woman of color found her path.” Datum 6: “Trans woman allegedly barred from Selena tribute: „Nobody wants to see a male person dress up like a girl‟.” Seven Building Tasks of discourse on data 5 and 6 are analyzed and elaborated as to be seen below. The significance task of these tweets to the general population can be seen from the use of the adjective “homeless” targeting the issue that 87 Housing and Homelessness on National Center for Transgender Equality, cited from http:transequality.orgIssueshomelessness.html , Accessed on April 16, 2014. homelessness is one of the biggest problems suffered by the members of LGBT community. The rejection they might receive from family or other members of community because of their sexuality gives them a sense of alienation. In response to this, shelter homes and counseling practices are provided for these “rejected” members of society all over the world, sometimes even free of charge, because now they are seen not as equal adherents which share the same amount of obligations and rights as other fellow citizens. Furthermore, the adjectival phrase “barred from ” also signifies this issue of rejection as it means the community is repressed from their freedom of expression represented by the aversion afflicted by a single personality, a “trans woman” who is having trouble in the pursue of the continuation of her career in a tribute to “Selena” in reference to Selena Quintanilla Perez, a famous Latin American singer who was a great contributor of the society, especially minors. Furthermore, the adjective “hopeful” and the noun phrase “trans woman of color” signify the positive aspiration of the smallest part of the society and even within the LGBT community itself for a better bearing. In the activity task, the use of the adjective “hopeful” conveys the encouragement of life aspirations regardless who the reader might be and what status they hold in society as it is seen from the nou n phrase “trans woman of color ” which proceeded the adjective. This delivers a sense where even the smallest and most repressed part of minorities deserves to be given the chance on the continuation of self-actualization represented by the verb phrase “dress up” to achieve their goals in life as reflected by the verb “found” and this circumstance is perfectly captured and enacted by The Huffington Post ‟s Gay Voices HuffPostGay as an actualization of portrayal of self-help stories in accordance with News om and Wollert‟s news principal elements, the audience element in particular. 88 Moreover, the news aggregator enacts the action of informing that there is an existence of repulsive reaction concerning the issue of transgender with the use of the verb phrase “ wants to see ” in representation of the refusal by the public actualized by the adjectival phrase “barred from ”. The identity enacted by The Huffington Post ‟s Gay Voices HuffPostGay is an apprehender of the issue of transgender, an information-providing news institution with the consideration of its favoritism on its leaning towards one particular view. The apprehension part is displayed by the obvious usage of the noun phrases “male person”, “trans woman” and the more detailed “trans woman of color” showing the news aggregator‟s concern and understanding of the issue not only in the surface, but also in the deeper level as shown by the appropriate use of the terminology. The units “how”, “homeless”, and “hopeful” shows the information-providing nature as it represents its aspiration on sharing the content it has achieved in the betterment of the apprehension on this particular issue. That process of betterment is taken with the appropriate 88 Newsom and Wollert, op. cit., p. 11. amount of consideration alongside its meticulous attention to its objectivity shown by the use of the adverb “allegedly” which identified as a prevention of a direct and explicit representation of the accusation on the refusal and rejection from the general population. From the relationship task, The Huffington Post ‟s Gay Voices HuffPostGay intents to have taken the decision on familiarizing itself in the eye of its audience with the linguistic units “how”, “path”, “nobody”, “girl” which are commonly used by public throughout the day. The interesting fact is the displays of the specified personal noun “Selena” as if its audience is all familiar with the discussed figure without giving more hints in order to make a determination. This also means the news aggregator has a strong belief on its attempted relationship with its audience as relatively strong; therefore, there is not a need to do such extended action. The allotment of social good, the understanding of transgender issue as the politics task in this case, the use of all these linguistic units concerning the issu es suffered by “trans woman” and more specifically “trans woman of color” including the issue of rejection by their closest relatives and the community they reside in reflected by the use of the clause “ nobody wants to see ” as the least severe case to the issue of attempted action of blocking and even sabotaging the execution of individual desire on expressing themselves as seen from the adjectival phrase “allegedly barred from”. The most severe case which is covered by this task is, of course, the issue of dereliction caused by the absence of housing benefits, a complex issue involving a number of stakeholders displayed by the adjective “homeless”. The understanding of the issue concerning transgender does not only depend on the share of negative matters, as can be seen from the use of the noun “path” as it is a statement of defense that the members of the trans community are not entirely involve in negatively-stereotyped states, but also have a fair share of self- improvement. The connection task enacted by the Twitter account can be seen from the use of the adverb “how” and the adverbial phrase “from homeless to hopeful ” as it intends to connect the issues of refusal and rejection a transgender person experienced day to day in the society. Furthermore, the adjectival phrase “barred from ” displays the actualization of this sort of repulsive attitudes towards the community, or as in these tweets represented by the use of the term “trans woman” and the more specific “trans woman of color”. Though the society is aware of the issue, as can be seen from the use of the noun phrase “male person”, they are represented as still holding the particular attitude which relevant to the blockade to the trans community from achievements, shown by the word “path” and the use of the specific personal noun “Selena” as they are the attempted approach to their aspired goals. From the sign systems and knowledge task, The Huffington Post ‟s Gay Voices HuffPostGay had taken use of the most familiar and austere linguistic units; the prepositions “from” and “to”, the adverb “how”, the nouns “path”, “ nobody ” and “girl”, the verb “found”, and the phrases “barred from ” and “ dress up ” . Although it uses the more understandable linguistic units to ease its audience when reading, it still has a sensible consideration on setting a deep understanding on the issue by the use of specific terminology such as “male person”, “trans woman”, and “trans woman of color” to address and eventually correct the confusion of their use in daily basis by the society with such which has a high possibility as displayed by the politically correct adverb “allegedly”. The identification of the analyzed building tasks above can be seen from the table below. Table 3.3 Identification of Building Tasks of Data 5 6 No. Indicators Building Task Signi fi cance A ct iv it y Ident it ies R el at ionsh ip Poli ti cs C onn ec ti ons Sign s y st em s and kn ow ledge 1. From √ √ 2. homeless √ √ √ √ 3. to √ √ 4. hopeful √ √ √ √ 5. how √ √ √ 6. trans woman of color √ √ √ √ √ √ 7. found √ √ 8. path √ √ 9. trans woman √ √ √ √ √ 10. allegedly √ √ √ 11. barred from √ √ √ √ √ 12. Selena √ √ √ 13. nobody √ √ √ 14. wants to see √ √ 15. male person √ √ √ 16. dress up √ √ 17. girl √ √

4. April 2014 – American Evangelical Pastor Scott Lively