The Transexual Menace
{{short description|Trans rights organization}}
{{Infobox organization
| image =
| caption =
| motto =
| formation = 1993
| extinction =
| type = Direct Action
| status =
| purpose = Transgender rights
| headquarters =
| name = The Transexual Menace
| abbreviation =
| region_served =
| website = {{URL|transexualmenace.org}}
}}
The Transexual Menace, or The Menace, is a transgender rights activist organization founded in New York City in 1993. It was the first direct action group of its kind, and grew to be a national organisation with 24 chapters. After a period of dormancy, The Menace returned in 2025 as a response to transphobic policies made by President Donald Trump and other politicians.{{cite web |author1=The Transsexual Menace |title=Anyone in NYC want to hold a direct action at the NY Times? 🤬🪧😡 |url=https://bsky.app/profile/transexualmenace.bsky.social/post/3lfkjmvxtbs27 |website=Bluesky |access-date=February 24, 2025 |date=January 12, 2025}}{{cite web |last1=Van-Dieman |first1=Valorie |last2=Fournet |first2=Simon Feisthauer |title=Reclaiming Our History, Transexual Menace Roars Back to Life at Stonewall |url=https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/reclaiming-our-history-transexual-menace-roars-back-to-life-stonewall |website=Assigned Media |access-date=February 24, 2025 |date=February 24, 2025}}
History and activities
The group was founded in 1993 by transgender activists including Riki Wilchins and Denise Norris, in response to the exclusion of transgender people from lesbian, gay, and bisexual Pride marches.{{Cite news|url=https://www.marriageequality.org/board_denise_norris|title=Denise Norris - Andes, NY|work=MEUSA|access-date=2018-04-15}}
= Media attention =
{{See also|Trans bashing|List of murdered transgender people}}
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. The movement became the subject of iconic gay liberation filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim's documentary "Transexual Menace".{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KLRuDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT128|title=Transgender History|last=Stryker|first=Susan|date=2009-01-07|publisher=Da Capo Press|isbn=9780786741366|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/mrcvault/videographies/transexual-menace|title=Transexual Menace {{!}} UC Berkeley Library|website=www.lib.berkeley.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-04-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171111001926/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/mrcvault/videographies/transexual-menace|archive-date=November 11, 2017|url-status=dead}}
= 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 Norris, with a design emulating the Rocky Horror Picture Show 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 [as cis], you were safe. But pulling on the T-shirt screwed all of that forever".{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3AImDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT61|title=TRANS/gressive: How Transgender Activists Took on Gay Rights, Feminism, the Media & Congress… and Won!|last=Wilchins|first=Riki|date=2017-05-31|publisher=Riverdale Avenue Books LLC|isbn=9781626013674|language=en}}
Pictures are available of the Pittsburgh chapter's T-shirts {{cite web |title=The Transexual Menace: Pittsburgh |url=https://wearinggayhistory.com/items/show/1334 |website=Wearing Gay History |access-date=February 24, 2025}} and the Texas chapter's T-shirts.{{cite web |title=The Transexual Menace: Texas |url=https://wearinggayhistory.com/items/show/2340 |website=Wearing Gay History |access-date=February 24, 2025}}
= 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.{{Cite web |url=https://classic.esquire.com/article/1995/4/1/the-third-sex |title=The Third Sex |last=Taylor |first=John |website=Esquire Classic |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191021112638/https://classic.esquire.com/article/1995/4/1/the-third-sex |language=en-US |access-date=2019-10-25|archive-date=2019-10-21 }}
The Menace members were angry and the group immediately picketed Esquire's 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" coming from people or institutions that were not even actively hostile.
= The Gay Games =
{{See also|Transgender people in sports}}
The Menace protested trans women's exclusion from the Gay Games. 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.
2025 revival
Denise Norris decided to revive the Transsexual Menace in January 2025, following transphobic executive orders by President Donald Trump. The revival started on the group's official Bluesky account.
See also
References
{{reflist}}
{{LGBTQ|history=yes}}{{LGBT in New York}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Transsexual Menace, The}}
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Category:Transgender rights in the United States
Category:LGBTQ in New York (state)
Category:Transgender organizations in the United States
Category:1993 establishments in New York (state)
Category:LGBTQ political advocacy groups in the United States