The wave of conservative legislation targeting transgender and gender non-conforming youth is as alarming as it is overwhelming. It’s hard to keep up with all the state-level assaults on our community’s very existence.
Some of the biggest anti-trans headlines have gone to Florida and Texas, but dozens of state legislatures are carrying water for the JK Rowlings of the world.
Vague anti-trans legislative schemes seem intended to serve as fodder for private litigation for conservative parents while having a chilling effect on any discussion or acknowledgment of the lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ people, history, and art.
In fact, Trevor Project CEO Amit Paley warned, on CNN, the Florida “Don’t Say Gay” bill, “would effectively erase entire chapters of history, literature, and critical health information in schools.”
The White House denounced the legislation because it’s “designed to target and attack the kids who need support the most – LGBTQI+ students, who are already vulnerable to bullying and violence just for being themselves.”
Florida
Thirty-one words at the heart of the controversy in Florida’s Senate Bill 1834 and House Bill 1557:
“A school district may not encourage classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.”
The Don’t Say Gay bill relies on private enforcement, similar to Texas’ SB 8 abortion ban. School districts even suspected of violating this vague regulation are subject to increasingly expensive legal fees.
Supporters claim to advance parental rights and Forbes Education Senior Contributor Evan Gerstmann indicated, “The biggest problem is lack of trust. Rightly or wrongly, parents believe that educators want to keep them out of the loop when it comes to issues of sexuality and gender.”
While I appreciate Gertsmann’s attempt to dive in on legitimate concerns of individuals on opposite sides of this debate, he loses credibility on this issue when he asks, “Reasonable people can believe that the earliest grades are not the appropriate time to discuss sexuality or gender identity, so why the vehement opposition?”
Let’s unpack the cisgender, heteronormative privilege on display in the very premise of Gerstmann’s inquiry.
Assuming that gender identity is not an age-appropriate topic for eight-year-olds is illogical and transphobic in the context in the world we live in.
We live in a world of gender reveal parties for children who aren’t even born and gender binary stereotypes of assigning pink to girls and blue to boys. By the time students walks onto the school campus, they have already been assigned a gender, told what pronouns to use, and likely had some level of coercion in their clothing and fashion to align with gender stereotypes.
Developmentally, language acquisition experts indicate that children begin to understand and use pronouns between 35 and 46 months old. By the time a child is four, they are using he, she, and they pronouns and understanding how the people around them use and define these pronouns.
So, it doesn’t seem like these topics are inappropriate for children, but we know how certain people feel about data and science.
Arizona
This week, in Arizona, AZ HB2161 passed out of the Senate Education Committee, along with advancement in bills to ban trans girls from girls’ sports and to prohibit certain gender care for minors.
Speaking out against the wave of conservative legislation was Tami Stass, executive director of Arizona Trans Youth and Parents Organization (AZTYPO), state plainly, “Dear Legislature, this is none of your business.”
Texas
In Texas, our community is fighting back to stop Governor Greg Abbot from directing the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to criminally investigate parents who give their children access to medical professionals who perform medically necessary gender-affirming care.
Despite decades of doctors and medical organizations providing gender-affirming care to youth, including transgender youth this is the political cycle state lawmakers have chosen to weaponize the care of a loving parent helps provide to their child.
The Trevor Project indicated a 150% increase in crisis contacts from LGBTQ youth in Texas in 2020 and 2021. Regardless of the ultimate constitutionality or enforceability of these actions, they are having a serious emotional and mental toll on our own youth.
National Trends
Georgia, Tennessee, Indiana, Oklahoma and Kansas are considering similar laws, according to Forbes. “There is no separating any of these things,” Mary Emily O’Hara, the rapid response manager at LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, stressed. “What we’re seeing here is anti-LGBTQ groups, on a national level, making schools the new battleground across the board, across various kinds of school policies and various forms of legislation.”
Iowa recently became the second state this year to ban trans students from sports and the Human Rights Campaign indicated that a record 26 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were signed into law in 2021. Actually, “Arizona, Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, New Hampshire and South Dakota introduced at least nine measures that target trans and nonbinary youths” in the first week of 2022.
Resistance
Track state legislation targeting our community online at Freedom for All Americans.
The Trevor Project indicated a 150% increase in crisis contacts from LGBTQ youth in Texas in 2020 and 2021. Support their work by donating or volunteering.
Be out, be gay, be queer, be trans, be non-binary, be you! You never know when someone might see you being yourself and you’ll have accidentally shared with them the license to do the same.
Celebrate! In a world that continues to tell us no, celebration is a political act.
Locally save these dates:
March 26: Transgender Day of Visibility Picnic in North County San Diego
April 8: Transgender Day of Empowerment Virtual Celebration and Student Scholarship Announcements
