The Urgency of Transgender Advocacy
There is a cabal of creepy little freaks roaming the hallways of our political system right now with the single-minded goal of eradicating transgender, intersex, and non-binary people from the fabric of our society. It won’t work, as trans people — and LGBTQ people as a whole — have a long history of surviving individual and systemic forms of danger, but it is going to be gruesome.
What these people and institutions are doing is cruel and dangerous, and amounts to what is basically a collective hallucination about the level of power trans people hold in our country. The people who are (and have been) pushing trans panic right now are lying when they say they are trying to protect American children. The only thing they are protecting is their right to a closed and simple mind.
The liberty and safety of trans people is going to get materially worse and worse in our country and it is essential that they are not alone in their fight for survival. It is imperative that cisgender, heterosexual — anyone who is not the specific target of these policies and bigotry — take responsibility for protecting trans and queer people now. Read what trans people have to say, join a protest or organize your own, and speak up in their defense privately, publicly, and regularly.
Figure out how to support the trans people in your life, and go do it. It should scare Americans of all identities that our government is attempting to forcefully eradicate trans people through policies that deny them gender affirmation both in the medical realm and through legal documents. They’ll come for you next.
Anti-trans policies emerging as one of the top priorities of this Trump administration once again reveals the right’s creepy obsession with sorting people into one gender box or the other. It’s loser shit that has a minimal impact on the lives of everyday Americans. Yet my friends who don’t feel they are confined to boy! or girl! are stuck in a state of fear with few allies because even the liberals can be close-minded, too.
Before writing this piece, I asked my friend Sandy if he feels safe expressing anger right now. His thoughts are more complex than a yes or a no, but this point felt particularly salient to me: “What my anger is worth is bound up in my humanity's worth.”
Anger, I think, is a form of emotional privilege for cisgender people at this moment. And it’s one that should be expressed loudly and consistently despite the feeling of hopelessness that benefits fascism.
Right now, I am angry. I’m angry on behalf of trans and non-binary people, but I’m also angry on my own behalf. A lot of MY friends are scared out of their minds right now. The people in MY life are being villainized because of some distorted reality disguised as a political power play. I carry concern about what the future looks like for my friends’ children who identify as non-binary.
As a cisgender person, I can’t personally experience the fear and horror that the government is forcing on trans people right now. But this is personal to me. This is not a “trans person problem.” This is an everyone problem — but it’s largely trans people who are advocating for themselves right now.
Currently, the role that trans people are being assigned in our country is one that paints them as big scary villains who want to disrupt the social norms. They are allegedly the harbinger of a big slippery slope where gender constructs are dismantled and the whole world is upside-down. In reality, the only slippery slope we’re on is one where the political bigotry extends to broader sects of our society.
This whole thing, I have to say, really overestimates the power that trans people have in this country (basically none). It also makes trans adults seem like weird freaks who want everyone to subscribe to their manner of living. I think that’s called “projection.”
It infuriates me that the government’s plan to demolish the concept of gender fluidity and expression is to try to plug up the pipeline by denying children access to sports, gender-affirming medical care, and general safety and acceptance in their communities. It’s harmful, yes, but it’s also just plain weird.
Consigning literal children to gender constructs only makes their worlds and perspectives smaller, but I guess that works in the favor of the powerful people who want to create close-minded losers like themselves. It is pathetic, punitive action disguised as protection.
This whole constructed narrative about children and gender identity (let alone the weird shit about trans people in bathrooms) is just a useful talking point to convince the most gullible people in America that their path to safety is through submitting right-wing votes. It’s a lie. Trans people are not the predators here, they are the prey.
While this whole cruel apparatus is constructed on a bunch of lies, the machines of bigotry are in motion. It is imperative that trans people are not the only ones advocating for their right to exist and identify as they so choose. They have the most to lose and the least amount of power. This should be an easy one: Stand up for others, or stand for nothing at all.