The State of Being Trans in America

Hey all! Sorry to have been quiet lately. I was under a big deadline to launch my art site, and am prepping three different shows right now, with rehearsals right around the corner, so I’ve been swamped with work. I’ve also just been overwhelmed with the incredible acts of transphobia that seem to be the GOP’s lifeblood, so every time I start to write, another shitty transphobic event happens that tops the last one!

Shit is pretty bad, ya’ll… (emphasis mine)

Florida Legislature Sends Extreme Gender-Affirming Care Ban to Governor’s Desk

Even among the crowded field of extreme and damaging bans on best practice, age-appropriate health care, this bill stands out as particularly mean-spirited. SB 254 is an extreme, unprecedented attack on transgender people, their health care, and the families and health care providers who care for them.

SB 254 would give Florida the unprecedented ability to strip parental rights from parents who support their transgender children. This bill would penalize providers by inflicting criminal penalties (including felony penalties) on providers who give gender-affirming care; it would take licenses away from those providers; and it would prohibit Medicare from covering gender-affirming care for transgender youth or adults. It would also forbid public funds, including those of a public university, public hospital, city or county, and Medicare, from being used to provide benefits that include gender-affirming care – for transgender people of all ages. And – uniquely – it allows the state to use gender-affirming care or the “risk” of such care for a child as a reason to give Florida family courts exceptional jurisdiction to set aside another state’s custody determination.

This bill is really damn scary. It legalizes kidnapping trans children from supportive parents, discriminating against transgender adults by threatening providers, and also will allow the state to take away kids from their parents if one of their parents is transgender or supports transgender rights because that could put the child at “risk” of gender-affirming care.

Horrifying.

Elsewhere, we have shit like this:

Zooey Zephyr, Montana’s lone transgender representative  was censured by the Republican-run Montana legislature. They forbid her from entering the House chamber, so she decided to work from this public bench outside of the chamber. This is her on April 27:

A few days later, those women snickering in the top photo took over the bench, forcing Zephyr to work standing up at the nearby lunch counter. They have been identified as family members of the same lawmakers who censured Zephyr.

These photos really say it all.

The women on that bench represent a culture of hate, a society that has stigmatized trans people over generations.

For them, barring Zooey Zephyr from the chamber and gallery was not enough.

They took the bench too. https://t.co/a2WyOGbYE6

— Melectabuzz ⚡️ (@feminitude) May 1, 2023

A lot of people are noting the similarities…

same vibes pic.twitter.com/hWwzxqLnRw

— platibus (@the_platibus) May 1, 2023

But, in a sign that people are not all terrible assholes, a group of folks in Helena who are remote workers have been going to the Capitol in order to hold the bench for Zephyr. They call themselves the Blue Bench Brigade.

This. Is. Awesome. 💙#BlueBenchBrigade @ZoAndBehold https://t.co/1MtIJyNoyI

— Momma Bird 🐣🌻 (@picklepants715) May 2, 2023

“I don’t do well with bullying, and I decided instead of just kind of staying at home and fuming about this, that I was going to come in and at the very least, just tell Zooey that I support her and admire her bravery,” said Kurt Fehlig, one of three people holding down the bench around noon Tuesday.

“We’re keeping the bench for Zooey. So we can’t move,” said Tom Snell.

FUCK YES. THIS IS HOW YOU SHOW ALLYSHIP!!! 

Zooey herself is being incredibly positive and resilient about the whole thing:

Some folks showed up early this morning and sat on the public benches near the entrance to the House, so Seat 31 has moved.

I’m up and ready to work. Plus, I hear stand desks are all the rage these days. pic.twitter.com/Nu8TEo50FJ

— Rep. Zooey Zephyr (@ZoAndBehold) May 1, 2023

On a personal note, this kind of behavior is pretty common in the lives of trans people, and it manifests in both small and big ways. I’ve also been quiet because I have been dealing with some bullies of my own in a space that is supposed to be a safe haven for me. I have been a member of a recovery group the last three years, which voted last spring to change from a Women’s meeting to a Women’s Plus meeting, so that the nonbinary people and trans women who were in the group felt included, and to indicate to newcomers who might be trans that the group was a safe place to get sober.

This effort has been under attack now for the last few months as some of the older women in the group have been talking about needing a safe space for “women” (read: cis-women) and spreading disinformation that could have been pulled straight from JK Rowling’s twitter feed. This weekend there will be a big meeting to decide whether or not this group that I have called home is going to choose to exclude me and other trans folks or not.

What I plan to say is that the purpose of that group is to help as many people as it can. Having a more inclusive name to the group harms no one, it just asks that everyone make space for one another. It can be a little uncomfortable, but we will all benefit from it in the long run. To intentionally close the group to trans folks is to make us into a political issue, rather than recognizing that we are people who are just trying to be in community with others we relate to.

I also have a lot of thoughts of how it has become culturally acceptable on reneging on trans people when it becomes uncomfortable. The biggest example lately was the harm Budweiser did to the trans community by cratering to right-wing hatred, pulling their partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, and quiet-firing the employees responsible for it. When a large institution shows that bowing to transphobia is acceptable given a certain threshold of discomfort or pressure, they give other institutions and individuals permission to do the same, which ripples out across culture. Trans people are human beings, not a political issue, and we should reject efforts to make us one.

Back to the grindstone! Happy Friday

The Blue Bench BrigadePost + Comments (102)

I am not going to be in solidarity with a person who calls me an “it.” Period. No matter how many times she votes democrat.

Some light midnight reading for folks who are acting like all of this is brand new from “Women-Identified Women” by Emma Heaney.

I’m going to bed.

In response to the comment section on my last postPost + Comments (244)

@micahvalentine

#transdayofvisibility

♬ original sound – Micah Valentine

Hey folks, the last 2 weeks have been a mess as I’ve been having some crazy unexpected health issues. I wound up in the ER Monday, and have just been recovering the last few days. I really hate hospitals (who doesn’t!), but they grate on me even more because I always get serially misgendered, which can be exhausting.

So imagine my surprise that the nurse who helped me get into a wheelchair immediately clocked from listening to my roomate that I use they/them pronouns, without anything needing to be said, and just shifted to using them.

Then the doctor, who was a really sweet woman, also asked me what name and pronouns I wanted to use, and also turned to my partner to ask him. Really just easy and such a cool thing to do.

Also had a very funny moment with a male orderly who thought he was in the wrong room when he came looking for “Eddie,” and then I think overcorrected when he realized I was trans and immediately started calling me “sir.” It was very cute, especially since he had to gurney me around for like 10 minutes, and every time we hit any bump or closed door, he was like “Sorry about that, sir.” Everyone should get to be “sir” sometimes, whatever “sir” is for them.

I like to share these little stories because it was all so easy when usually navigating healthcare stuff as a trans person is so tough. I didn’t care that a few of the orderlies misgendered me because I don’t really expect otherwise, but I felt so much better taken care of that folks were actually looking out for someone like me. Learning how to pay just a little extra attention isn’t the hell republicans or neoliberals think it’s going to be, and their fear that someone is going to lose it at them if they mess up a pronoun (unless they’re doing it willfully) is just silly. Part of navigating the world as a trans person is expecting that people will need some grace and patience. If you do your best, that’s usually pretty clear to folks, and it’s just so easy to correct yourself, and move along.

On the other hand, I was also called a “he/she/it” this week by my partner’s ex, who likes to beat her chest publicly about how she’s such a good liberal feminist, but shits all over trans people privately whenever she gets the chance. I have a theory that there is a certain kind of (usually white) woman who is so obsessed with her victimhood at the hands of men, that the idea that a person might have a more challenging gender experience (see: trans folks and BIPOC women), threatens her. I think a lot of the reactionary “women’s rights” activists emerge from the angry disbelief that someone might have it worse than them.

Also, I’m really into this content creator lately, and definitely encourage you to watch some of their videos.

@micahvalentine

Replying to @cmoth17

♬ original sound – Micah Valentine

@micahvalentine

Replying to @lolbtwily

♬ original sound – Micah Valentine

“it’s just basic biology!”Post + Comments (145)