Transgender Americans are entitled to the blessings of liberty, too

I just returned from vacation in France. As a transgender woman, I was amazed by the complete absence of transphobia. I was treated with dignity by every French person I met. It was always “madame” or “mademoiselle.” Nobody stared, pointed, or asked barbed questions—little cruelties that are now everyday occurrences at home. The only transphobia I experienced came from other Americans. It seems to me that the French live by their revolutionary ideals of “Liber