“There’s been an explosion in awareness about us….But, with all this visibility, people think we are a fad. You know, we’re something that’s come about overnight. Well – it was a bloody long night!” [Audience applause]
– Christine Burnes, Trans Elder Panel, Moving Trans History Forward conference, University of Victoria (2018)
Transgender Studies is still considered an “emerging” field in 2021, after facing decades of silence within and outside of academia and mainstream publishing.
Even the relatively simple question about how many people identify as transgender in the United States can only be answered speculatively: the first and largest survey about trans* lives was conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality only six years ago in 2015. Previous studies avoided the question of gender identity entirely, and the topic was historically left out of large-scale studies collecting the kinds of demographic data that define funding, government resources, and targeted outreach to individual populations/communities.
Perhaps due in part to this backdrop of silence, as Christine Burnes marvels in the quote above, gender non-conformity is often seen as a “fad” or a “phase,” something that one will grow out of. In 2021, the concept of gender fluidity is often seen as a youth-lead phenomenon, particularly in mainstream media (“How a generation is redefining the meaning of gender” – Time Magazine, 2014). In a funny way, the ageist perception of a “youth-lead” gender phenomenon dilutes the radical potential of gender (tying it to a youthful moment), and also hides the decades-long activism of queer elders who got us to this point.
Transgender and gender non-conforming older adults face a level of widespread invisibility that is hard to imagine. The title of a 2014 article from 
the Journal of Gerontological Social Work – “‘They just don’t have a clue’: Transgender aging and implications for social work” – gives a sense of the ignorance within the medical community. Similarly, LGBTQ advocacy group Lamda Legal observes: “In a 2011 study among 6,450 transgender adults of all ages, nearly one-fifth reported being refused care outright by medical providers, with even higher rates for transgender people of color. Fifty percent said they had to take it upon themselves to teach their medical providers about transgender care. “ (Know your Rights: Transgender Seniors, Lamda Legal, 2021).
The difficulties that transgender and gender non-conforming older adults face are not unique: in a way, they mirror the rigidity of gender roles and expectations in society at large. And as with all forms of ageism, show evidence of a disturbing sense of hostility towards our future selves.
Transgender historian and theorist Susan Stryker highlights the power and potential of re-imagining yourself, which can create new ways of seeing, and re/visioning the wider world. To bring Queer Studies more closely into alignment with aging, we must meditate on the alignments therein, and embrace the full potential of ourselves.
“To make that gender transition, you confront the possibilities and potentials and terrors and dangers of what it means to radically transform…People are capable of remaking themselves and the world around them; the trans experience captures this perfectly. “It’s like saying – ‘This is possible. Look at me.’”
