The Devil is alive in the United States, and it lives in right wing, Republican driven state legislators. According to an article written by Matt Loffman for PBS, the Human Rights Campaign has identified 30 state legislators who proposed more than 115 bills targeting Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, and Non-Binary rights in their states. Everything from participation in sports to accessing medical care has been attacked. According to a poll conducted by PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist fewer than 3 in 10 people support any anti-Trans legislation, yet the Republic legislators continue to introduce and vote for all of them. It is hard to understand why these Republicans are voted into office over and over when they obviously do not reflect the wishes of their constituents.
Transgender youth are a prime target for hateful laws mainly targeting healthcare, sports in school, and updating identity documents to match their current name and gender identity. There are 3 states, Arizona, Arkansas, and Alabama where laws specifically ban access to appropriate and necessary healthcare for Trans youth, even though these best practices are approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association. In Alabama the law makes it a felony crime for physicians to administer medical transition care for youth. Let’s take a look at where states stand on the issue.
There are currently 18 states that have passed laws banning Transgender children from participating in school sports. Mainly this affects K through 12 students. So, if there is a Transgender girl wanting to play on the girls volleyball team she would not be allowed according to these laws. These laws create a road to hate and bullying in schools and communities as well as causing extreme harm to the Trans, Gender Non-Conforming, and Non-Binary youth. We know that these youth have a hard enough time with harassment by teachers, school staff, and other students without adding another layer of discrimination so basic as participating in sports.
The states with presently the worst anti-Transgender legislation are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. Big surprise there, right?
The following states have the highest risk of passing extreme anti-Trans legislation: Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia. Think twice before you move there.
States presently with a low risk of anti-Trans legislation are: Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Rhode Island. But really, we need to keep a close watch on these states.
If you are looking for the safest states in the country to live in, they are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Washington D.C. These are the most liberal states in America.
Oklahoma, Texas, and Tennessee do not have specific laws to ban appropriate medical care for Trans youth, but state officials have tried to force investigations into families of Trans youth under the guise of child abuse. Most of these kinds of actions have been stopped by Federal Judges or have been put on hold but the initial push by such people as Governor Gregg Abbott of Texas to enforce these kinds of actions has caused much harm to Trans, Gender Non-Conforming, and Non-Binary youth and their families. It was reported that the Department of Child Protective Services received a letter from the Governor to begin investigating these families and report any affirming healthcare as child abuse. They are basically terrorizing parents and children with no legal standing to do so. The Texas Supreme Court initially stopped the investigations, but soon rescinded it. They also noted that the Governor had no authority to order these investigations.
Notice that there are no states listed from the south with any type of protections for LGBTQ people. The South typically has the worst political and social agendas. While some of these southern states have huge political issues to deal with such as unemployment, education, voting rights, and severe racial equity problems, they choose instead to focus on Trans and Gender Non-Conforming people. They are highly conservative Christian states and I believe are using the Trans community to create a very emotional religious issue using lies and misdirection such as characterizing youth under the Trans umbrella as pedophiles, groomers, perverts, mentally ill, abominations, and more. These bad actors get folks all stirred up about things that actually don’t happen. The people from these states only listen to the rhetoric spewed by politicians and the right-wing Christian actors. When this happens, the politicians can ignore the real problems their states have. I believe the ignorance and the lack of critical thinking abilities by so many people in our country allows the corrupt right to create maelstroms of hate and violence and direct attention away from what they, as politicians, are really up to.
These same practices are also seen in many midwestern and mountain states. Many of our midwestern and mountain states may not be very safe places for the LGBTQ Community either. According to the Williams Institute most of these states have no laws discriminating against LGBTQ people, they also do not have laws protecting them. Issues like employment discrimination, right to marry, education, access to healthcare, etc. have a greater impact on LGBTQ people in these states. There is also a greater concentration of Black and Latinx people in these regions as well as the south that are highly impacted by the quality of life for our LGBTQ folks of color. It is a sad state of affairs when there are only 10 states out of 50 that are rated with the highest quality of protections for LGBTQ people.
This anti-Trans wave of hate and violence is fueled in large part by the Republican agenda as well as far right extremists like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and conservative Christian based personalities. The rise in anti-Transgender laws and focused hate has risen ten-fold in the United States. The Armed Conflict and Location and Event Data Project says there are 12 times as many anti-LGBTQ incidents in 2021 as there were in 2020. How can Transgender, Non-Binary and Gender Non-Conforming people even begin to feel safe anymore?
GLAAD, an LGBTQ advocacy non-profit, has identified 124 protests and threats against Drag Queen events alone in 2022. It seems no one in the LGBTQ community is safe from the right-wing extremists.
A Human Rights Campaign press release from March 24 ,2022 noted that two Republican governors had vetoed anti-Transgender legislation, Governor Spencer Cox from Utah and Governor Eric Holcomb from Indiana. Governor Cox wrote a letter explaining why he vetoed the bill and I quote, “Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few. I don’t understand what they are going through or why they feel the way they do, but I want them to live.”
So far nothing more has been heard about Governor Holcomb’s stance, but less than a year after the Human Rights Campaign press release, on January 28 CNN and NPR reported that Governor Cox climbed down from his principled position by signing a vastly harsher bill into law that prohibits health care providers from “providing a hormonal transgender treatment to new patients who were not diagnosed with gender dysphoria before a certain date” and prohibits them from “performing sex characteristic surgical procedures on a minor for the purpose of effectuating a sex change.”
Governor Cox said regarding this political hypocrisy, “While not a perfect bill, we are grateful for Sen. (Michael) Kennedy’s more nuanced and thoughtful approach to this terribly divisive issue. More and more experts, states and countries around the world are pausing these permanent and life-altering treatments for new patients until more and better research can help determine the long-term consequences. We will continue to push the Legislature for additional resources to organizations that work to help this important Utah community,” he added. “While we understand our words will be of little comfort to those who disagree with us, we sincerely hope that we can treat our Transgender families with more love and respect as we work to better understand the science and consequences behind these procedures.”
Since I live in a state that is one of the top safe havens for Transgender people like myself it sometimes is too easy to get complacent about the rights we have in California. Elections happen, and new politicians take office. There is a “never say never” component to our lives, especially around politics. I ask that we all be vigilant, that we all stay focused and aware of the hate that rears its vicious head in our own and nearby neighborhoods. I am sure no one saw Hitler as a threat at first. Find ways to help and support our community in other states and be a part of the process to ensure all people are treated fairly, equally and respectfully under the law. We all have the power to elect responsible, intelligent, moral people to be our elected officials. Never forget that and never let others forget it.
