Transgender tipping point

Front cover of a June 2014 issue of Time magazine, featuring a full-body photo of Laverne Cox. Cox is wearing a blue dress and is standing in a white background.
Front cover of a May 2014 issue of Time magazine, featuring a full-body photo of Laverne Cox by Peter Hapak.

The "transgender tipping point" refers to the moment of popular awareness of transgender people in the year 2014. The phrase was coined in the title of a cover article in the May 2014 issue of Time magazine, written by Katy Steinmetz.[1] The cover of the issue featured a full-body portrait of transgender actress Laverne Cox.[2] The cover article, titled "The Transgender Tipping Point", describes how the year initiated a new era of the popular awareness of transgender people,[3] discusses the transgender rights movement more generally, and contains quotes from an interview with Cox.[4] One year before the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States, Steinmetz argues in her article that the transgender rights movement would represent a new era in social progress.[5]

Laurie Penny of the New Statesman attributed the increase of transgender visibility to the coming out of various transgender celebrities and the ability of social media to connect previously isolated individuals into forming communities.[6] Although the increased visibility generated support among the general public, some have argued that the increase also triggered a vehement backlash against transgender people and the movement for transgender rights.[7][8][9] In 2024, Jude Doyle of Xtra Magazine argued that transgender rights had in fact significantly diminished in the ten years since the "tipping point".[9]

  1. ^ Zottola 2021, p. 160.
  2. ^ Fischer 2019, p. 1.
  3. ^ Abeni, Cleis (2015-10-06). "Zackary Drucker and Hari Nef Push Beyond 'Trans Tipping Point' on Good Cover". The Advocate. Archived from the original on 2024-06-08. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  4. ^ Steinmetz, Katy (2014-05-29). "The Transgender Tipping Point". Time. Vol. 183, no. 22. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  5. ^ Rascouët-Paz, Anna (2024-03-29). "Time Magazine Published This 'Transgender Tipping Point' Cover in 2014?". Snopes. Archived from the original on 2024-09-06. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  6. ^ Penny, Laurie (2014-06-24). "Laurie Penny on trans rights: What the "transgender tipping point" really means". New Statesman. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  7. ^ Gill-Peterson, Jules (2021-03-31). "This Anti-Trans Moment Demands More Than Representation". Them. Archived from the original on 2023-06-03. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  8. ^ Vaid-Menon, Alok (2015-10-13). "Greater transgender visibility hasn't helped nonbinary people – like me". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  9. ^ a b Doyle, Jude Ellison S. (2024-05-30). "10 years since the 'transgender tipping point'". Xtra Magazine. ISSN 0829-3384. Retrieved 2024-11-10.