By Rebecca Do
Disclaimer: This article contains depictions of suicide
Bills and legislation targeting trans youth and gender expression are running rampant in the House.
Out of our 50 states (and five territories), less than 30 of them have sought to ban conversion therapy. Texas passed a “Public Health” law (HB 3082) that supported the “right” for a “pharmacy, pharmacist or pharmacy technician decision to not dispense or sell a drug according to religious belief or moral conviction.” Tennessee most recently became the first state to explicitly ban drag shows in public spaces in March (though recently halted by a federal judge). Iowa just passed a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors.
America— land of the free, home of the brave, turned into an autocratic, dystopian nightmare for all the trans children living in it, overnight.
In many American schools, some trans kids lack the ability to use toilet facilities due to the lack of comfort they feel using the ones designated toward a specific gender (maybe because it is assumed that cis children are the only ones in said facilities… as upheld by urinals and menstrual product dispensers).
There are so many ways that this legislation will backfire. There are so many ways that this legislation will harm trans and gender-non-conforming youth.
In the past year alone, more than 50% of trans and non-binary youth have considered killing themselves, according to The Trevor Project. And I fear, that if more of these types of laws are advanced, that we will eventually cause trans kids to kill themselves. We will lead them down a winding road so twisted and sadistic in which they feel like they have no choice.
But nobody wakes up one day and decides to kill themselves over an integral part of their identity. It’s the way that people treat them that drives them toward the idea in the first place.
Eden Knight, a Saudi Arabian transgender woman living in the United States, left her suicide message on TwitLonger.
She says, in her final paragraph, “I wanted to be a leader for people like me, but that wasn’t written to happen. I hope that the world gets better for us. I hope our people get old. I hope we get to see our kids grow up to fight for us. I hope for trans rights world wide.”
It is a heavy, devastating read but I truly do believe that everyone should read it if they are able to. There’s so much she needed to say and so many things she could have done.
But the burden of fighting for trans rights cannot fall on her. We need to be the ones to pick up the pieces of this broken country and fix the way we’re making trans people feel and the things we are driving them to do.
And it’s not just Eden.
There are so many names that need to be said. There are so many stories that need to be told. These trans kids do not get the chance to grow old because society thinks that they are the problem. These trans kids will never feel comfortable in this country unless we do something about it.
You’re looking at that sentence with a blank expression. You’ve probably seen that phrase so many times. “What can we even do about it? It’s not like we’re holding some sort of unprecedented and exceptional power that’ll get politicians to listen to us?”
Some steps that the “average person” can take in combating this are:
- Tracking legislation: The Track Trans Legislation website tracks all signed, pending, and prevented anti-trans laws. It is filtered by state and bill type, including but not limited to drag performance, public facilities, youth athletics and healthcare. By tracking legislation, you can see which laws are pending and familiarize yourself with states unsafe for trans people, and legislation you can condemn for our next step,
- Writing to your Congresspeople: Though Michelle Steel (Fountain Valley’s representative), hasn’t been vocal on this topic, you can find any representative through house.gov.
America is declining into the very fascism that we fought against as they are trying to eradicate the very concept of being trans from the country. Trans people will continue to persist even if awful politicians try to make legislation around their existence under the guise of protecting Americans. They will continue to live and breathe in spite. They will continue to matter.
