Hello Fellow Netizens!
First, I want to wish everyone a Happy Pride Month! With all the festivities happening throughout the country, the LGBTQIA+ community has every right to express their presence and celebrate how far they have come in advancing equality throughout the world. However, I would be remiss to point out that the community continues to face battles ahead and that they should not be complacent in their political obligations to promote the rights of their fellow members. This, after all, is the point of Pride; its roots lie in activism and policy advancement that promotes the rights and freedoms for the LGBTQIA+ community. One group in particular needs all the support it needs given our current sociopolitical climate, and that is the trans community.
Current Crisis
Today, the trans community faces attacks from multiple fronts. Hate crime statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) noted a 40% increase in incidents of hate crimes against trans individuals between 2021 and 2022. This year so far, there have been at least 16 recorded murders of trans/gender expressing individuals; they were overwhelmingly people of color and more than half were killed with a gun.
In addition, anti-trans legislation has grown in number over the past decade throughout the country as seen in the graphic below. There has been a notable shift after 2020, with a significant number of bills that were put forth focused on issues of sports, healthcare, and education.
Let’s look closer at these issues, shall we?
Sports, Healthcare and Education
Sports
When looking at the progression on anti-trans legislation within the arena of sports, one must start in the state of Idaho. Idaho lawmaker Barbara Ehardt, a Republican and long-time basketball coach, expressed concern about trans girls participating in women’s sports. She believed that biology gave trans athletes an “unfair advantage” over girls who were born female at birth. Ehardt pushed for legislation that would ameliorate her (and her constituents’) fears, leading to the passage of HB 500 in 2020. This bill prevents any school or any institution of higher learning from allowing trans girls and women to compete in any of their sports teams. Since then, multiple states have followed Idaho’s example leading to the surge in bills on this issue that continue to this day.
As a responsible author, I would like to address the concept of unfair biological advantage from an objective point of view. One article reviewing this issue identified testosterone as the only marker separating men and women when it comes to differences in athletic performance. Testosterone can influence a person’s body structure and composition in two stages: during puberty and after. Any change during puberty is usually permanent with high testosterone leading to larger physical statures, while individuals with high testosterone after puberty usually see changes in muscle, fat or red blood cell count. This leads me to two important points:
- Prior to puberty, boys and girls are at near equal levels of athletic performance barring other congenital physiological factors. Without the interference of testosterone, children at this stage (regardless of what gender they identify as) play without any hormonal advantages between each other.
- For trans women who start on hormone therapy after puberty, there may be valid concerns that of physiological advantage given the permanent changes testosterone provides them before having started on hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Data on this topic is limited, however, so more research needs to be done to assess whether there is an significant advantage between trans women in this category and their cis counterparts.
Healthcare
Currently, 25 states have passed laws restricting access for gender-affirming care for youths under the age of 18 according to data from the Human Rights Campaign (see map below for more information). Critics of gender-affirming care believe that hormone therapy, surgery or puberty could lead to irreversible damage for children, with one Southern Attorney General comparing some of these treatments as “child mutilation”.
What these concerns fail to address are the mental health consequences associated with delayed gender affirming care for trans youth. The American Psychological Association has a list of evidence-backed discussion points on the debate, and cited studies that showed improved mental health outcomes for children who are able to receive gender affirming care. One important item to highlight is the significant reduction in depression and suicide attempts by youth. One study found a 60% reduction in the odds of developing moderate or severe depression and a 73% lower odds of suicidality over a 12-month follow-up for trans youth who received gender affirming care.
Education
In our educational system, children are ideally taught the important skills and information they need to succeed in the world. Trans children have the added challenge of navigating their identities and learning about how they should express themselves to their peers and superiors. Anti-trans bills on this topic revolve on pronoun use, gender identity education and how schools should treat students that do not conform with traditional social norms of gender expression. For example, Idaho recently passed HR 538 which protect public employees who refuse to acknowledge another person’s preferred pronouns or gender identity. This applies to school teachers, who are now able to discriminate against trans or gender-nonconforming students unless they have parental input.
Why bills like HR 538 matter lies on the mental health effects misgendering has on children; one study found that there are associated increases in stress and adverse psychological outcomes associated with misgendering. One can only imagine how it may make a person feel devalued and unseen if their identities are not acknowledged by their peers. This makes bills like HR 538 so dangerous as it legalizes the bullying and discrimination of minors in the public school system, a place where all children should feel safe and included.
Pride in Practice
Learning all of this, what should you as a fellow Netizen do to address these issues above? Here are some items to consider:
- Educate yourself: Advocacy starts with learning. While much of the conversation today around trans issues comes from main stream news media, we should diversify our sources of information on these topics. Medical journals, public health resources, and members of the trans community are some great resources to start.
- Look at the bills being passed on your local/state legislatures very carefully. Read and understand the implications for these bills. The same scrutiny for bills apply for any political figure running for office as well. Most politicians are usually are open about their stance on LGBTQIA+ issues given the current partisan nature of our country. Once you identify any bill or figure as being anti-trans or anti-LGBTQIA+…
- USE YOUR VOICE AND VOTE! Talk to your friends, coworkers, and loved ones about what you have learned! You would be surprised to find out how little some people know about issues constantly being shown in main stream news media. Also, I will repeat this theme in multiple articles but your vote matters! You may not think so, but voting in local or state legislation has more impact than you may realize in your day-to-day living experience.
I encourage all of you to celebrate Pride as it was originally intended decades ago: be politically active and stand firm in protecting our fellow LGBTQIA+ Americans!
Until next time, Fellow Netizens!
Featured Image: Photo by Alexander Grey: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-s-hand-forming-heart-3802075/
Disclaimer: This article reflects the author’s own opinions and statements. They do not reflect the opinions or stances of any organization affiliated with the author
