In recent years, gender-variant people—including those we now call transgender people—have won public policy victories that had previously seemed unwinnable: the American Psychiatric Association replaced the term ‘gender identity disorder’ with ‘gender dysphoria’ in the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the Department of Justice announced that discrimination on the basis of gender identity constituted sex discrimination, and the Department of Health and Human Services decided that it would no longer stop Medicare from covering gender reassignment surgery. What accounts for these and other victories?
Anthony J. Nownes argues that a large part of the answer lies in the rise of transgender rights interest groups in the United States. Drawing on firsthand accounts from the founders and leaders of these groups,
Organizing for Transgender Rights not only addresses how these groups mobilized and survived but also illuminates a path to further social change. Nownes shows how oppressed and marginalized people can overcome the barriers to collective action and form viable organizations to represent their interests even when their government continues to be hostile and does not.
Table of Content
List of Tables and Figures
Preface
1. Introduction: Organizing for Transgender Rights in the United States
2. A Brief History of Transgender Rights Organizing in the United States
3. The Crucial Role of Grievances and Interactions
4. Interactions, Learning, and Connections
5. Overcoming the Collective-Action Problem
6. A Return to Context: Population Ecology and Political Opportunity Structure
7. The Role of Collective Identity
8. Conclusion: The Formation of Transgender Rights Interest Groups in the United States
Appendix A The Questionnaire Protocol
Appendix B Data and Methods
Notes
References
Index
About the author
Anthony J. Nownes is Professor of Political Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is the author of
Interest Groups in American Politics: Pressure and Power, Second Edition and
Total Lobbying: What Lobbyists Want (and How They Try to Get It).
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