I'm baffled by the marginalization of transgenders even in places where you might expect some concern, such as social services.
Case in point; have you ever gone in for free HIV testing? They can't tell you what appoximate percentage of Tg providers are HIV positive. They have no idea because the trangender category is lumped in with gay.
Part of the problem may be, as was suggested to me by a tester, a reluctance on the part of Tg providers to seek out health care. But, more telling I think, is the fact that free testing is doled out in percentages. Gay men get the lion's share followed by lesbians, straight men, and straight women. Transgender aren't even alloted a quota. What's up with that? How can you get information about a population of people if you don't even acknowledge them as a separate category?
The dreaded debate, concerning which sexual category the men who are attracted to TGs should fall into, also comes into play in the HIV testing questionaire. Just as on the message board, we get to categorize ourselves. Therefore, we are not acknowledged as a separate group worthy of definition.
Maybe there should be a separate category for both transgender and the men who love them in order to accurately gauge the extent of HIV infection in both populations.
Interesting topic. I can see why we're not catergorized... You see what happens when that thread pops up from time to time...LOL
This quota system if it even exists is riddled with holes. If gay men receive the 'lion's share' how is gayness determined? If I am straight and want a free test alotted to a gay man how do they tell If I am gay or not? Am I expected to screw another guy in front of witnesses to qualify? Truthfully transsexuals are a marginal percentage of the population, making far less than 1%. You might as well add a category for the special population of Samoans with six fingered dwarfism.
The purpose of asking questions is to gather information on populations known or suspected to be at risk.
The information you give them is given anonymously. They know if you are gay because you tell them you are, if that is how you define yourself.
The testers depend on your honesty in order to gather accurate information, not to deny you a test. If it was found that six-fingered Samoan dwarves were at risk, they could be targeted for informational campaigns and offered a larger quota of tests.
-- Modified on 7/3/2005 12:19:48 PM
Hiv statistics generated by sexual identification population statistics is worthless as the existence of hiv is common knowledge as are it's common transfer methods. You need to develop a statistical test determining ignorant populations before creating an effective informational campaign. If gay men are most responsible for new hiv cases it may not be out of ignorance of hiv's existence, but rather out of simply not caring about engaging in behaviors that promote infection and this is applicable to any sexual identity population. Informational campaigns in that case are lost on that particular population and poor use of limited resources.
The existence of HIV and its transfer methods are common knowledge because of informational campaigns targeted toward at-risk populations. Those campaigns are targeted more accurately by gathering information about sexual behavior among various segments of human society. Then those limited resources won't be wasted.
By the way, are you saying we should just throw up our hands and not waste our time on unsafe sex practitioners and bug chasers?
I doubt the accuracy of the method used to gather statistics if the proceedure is as you described. Statistic gathering and targeting an at-risk population only becomes a self fulfilling disporportionate number over time as you only make the method used to sample the at-risk populations available to those populations you consider at-risk already. If you target gay males as an at-risk population for 'informational campaigns' regarding free testing, naturally you will get a disporportionate number of gay testees versus straight testees. This being the case, you will not be able to accurately analyze changes in the trends of infected populations. Anytime the government is involved in a project it becomes political and hence becomes a waste of resources.
"By the way, are you saying we should just throw up our hands and not waste our time on unsafe sex practitioners and bug chasers?"
Absolutely.