The Transexual Menace, or The Menace, was a

transgender rights A transgender person is someone whose gender identity is inconsistent or not culturally associated with the sex they were assigned at birth and also with the gender role that is associated with that sex. They may have, or may intend to establi ...

activist organization founded in New York City in 1993. It was the first

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

group of its kind, and grew to be a national organisation with 24 chapters.

History and activities

The group was founded in 1993 by transgender activists including

Riki Wilchins Riki Anne Wilchins (born 1952) is an American activist whose work has focused on the impact of gender norms. Background Wilchins founded the first national transgender advocacy group (GenderPAC). Their analysis and work broadened over time to ...

and

Denise Norris Denise A. Norris is an American transgender activist who co-founded the transgender rights activist organisation, The Transexual Menace with Riki Wilchins in 1993. In 2012, she received the Stonewall Spirit of Pride Award from the Stonewall Natio ...

, in response to the exclusion of transgender people from lesbian, gay, and bisexual

Pride marches A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The events som ...

Media attention

The Transexual Menace organized groups of demonstrators outside courthouses during trials involving anti-transgender crimes, for instance in the rape and murder of

Brandon Teena Brandon Teena (December 12, 1972 – December 31, 1993) was an American trans man who was raped and later, along with Phillip DeVine and Lisa Lambert, murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska by John Lotter and Tom Nissen.Note: – as Brandon Teena was n ...

. The movement became the subject of iconic

gay liberation The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoffman, 2007, pp.xi-xiii. ...

filmmaker

Rosa von Praunheim Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky (born Holger Radtke; 25 November 1942), known professionally as Rosa von Praunheim, is a German film director, author, painter and one of the most famous gay rights activists in the German-speaking world. In ov ...

's documentary "''Transexual Menace"''.

T-shirts

The trademark image for the Transexual Menace was a Goth-styled black T-shirt with the group's name in blood-dripping red letters. The Menace T-shirts were designed by Wilchins and Wilchins‘ then partner Montine Jordan, with a design emulating the ''

Rocky Horror Picture Show ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' is a 1975 Musical film, musical comedy horror film by 20th Century Fox, produced by Lou Adler and Michael White (producer), Michael White and directed by Jim Sharman. The screenplay was written by Sharman an ...

'' logo. The T-shirts were significant in that they allowed transgender visibility at a time when passing as cis was highly encouraged and desired. As described by Wilchins in the book ''TRANS/gressive'', "If you passed s cis you were safe. But pulling on the T-shirt screwed all of that forever". Pictures are available o
the Pittsburgh chapter's T-shirts
an
the Texas chapter's T-shirts

Esquire interview and response

''Esquire'' approached the group to do a piece about transgender activism. It was published under the title "The Third Sex - Now the men who have decided they are actually women are on the march. Welcome to the transgender revolution" on April 1, 1995. The Menace members were angry and the group immediately picketed ''Esquires offices; eventually the writer of the story came down to apologise. In her book ''TRANS/gressive'', Riki Wilchins describes the incident as reflective of the climate at the time, with "

friendly fire In military terminology, friendly fire or fratricide is an attack by belligerent or neutral forces on friendly troops while attempting to attack enemy/hostile targets. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while eng ...

" coming from people or institutions that were not even actively hostile.

The Gay Games

The Menace protested

trans women A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and so ...

's exclusion from the

Gay Games The Gay Games is a worldwide sport and cultural event that promotes acceptance of sexual diversity, featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) athletes, artists and other individuals. Founded as the Gay Olympics, it was starte ...

. Wilchins describes how trans women, unlike the other participants, had to "jump through a series of demeaning hoops" including providing medical records, a hormone test and a full gender verification regime. Six members of the NYC chapter crashed the board meeting of the Gay Games and instantiated a change of these regulations. The transgender-exclusionary regulations were re-instated four years later.

References