Is There a Law That States How We Should Dress?

Today’s film was very interesting. I never knew San Francisco had had such an important role in the transgender community. In class we’ve read a lot about violence against transgender people, but seeing it is a very different experience. We saw how the police would search for transgender people and lock them up for “impersonating a female.” This made me wonder, is there a law against dressing like the opposite sex? Is there a distinct way the law says we’re supposed to dress? Can people be locked up for dressing like a girl, but being a boy now?

            There was a short clip in the film of a TV show where the host said, “all these charming ladies are breaking the law,” were they breaking the law, or a societal law? I think often people assume that normality is a law. When something is out of the ordinary people jump to the conclusion that this person has committed a felony and they can be persecuted, but I definitely don’t feel that the ladies of the Tenderloin district were breaking any laws. These women were just trying to be who they are and instead of being left alone, the police would come and beat them up. Why would the police waste their time fighting these women, instead of finding crooks off the streets? Maybe because they thought of themselves as manly men and thought it was weird to be transgender.  Or maybe because they were too lazy to fight real crime. Or maybe they were just trying to get rid of a minority. There are so many possibilities, but I think the most obvious was because to them, transgender people aren’t normal and hence breaking the law.