Welcome to #TransTuesday. No exclamation point this week, because I’m fucking pissed. I feel like I’ve said all this before but considering this week I HAVE to say it again. Read it. Share it. Please. Today’s topic: TRANS RIGHTS 2 aka HELP US aka 35 FUCKS (I counted).
I’m so mad I don’t even know where to start. Tomorrow, March 31, is Transgender Day of Visibility. It’s a day to celebrate trans people, but it’s also a day to take notice of all the discrimination we face, so I guess that’s what I’m going to do. Fucking AGAIN.
If you’re unclear about what’s brought this on, have a look at this first of its kind legislation that passed in Arkansas this week:
I’ve written so many trans tuesdays now, and I’d like to point out to you how many times I felt forced by events in the world to post about something I hadn’t fucking intended to.
I felt forced to talk about a show I loved making me feel dehumanized and BAD REPRESENTATION.
I felt forced to talk about TERFs due to the words of a certain billionaire children’s author.
September 29, 2020, just days before the most important election in US history, I felt compelled to impress upon you just what was at stake for trans people in TRANS POLITICS.
I had to talk about the outright lies and hatred leveled at trans kids.
I talked about being misgendered in person, and how it fucked me up, in MISGENDERING AND PASSING.
And on March 2, 2021, I had to talk about TRANS RIGHTS because of all the new legislation popping up against us.
I hope you’re maybe starting to understand the war that Republicans and society are waging against us, a group of people who want nothing more than to simply exist as ourselves like every fucking cisgender person does.
You think all of that’s bad? It fucking is, but the reality is worse. If I counted correctly there are presently FORTY-NINE FUCKING PIECES OF LEGISLATION in this country aimed at hurting transgender people.
https://freedomforallamericans.org/legislative-tracker/anti-transgender-legislation/
Where the fuck is all this coming from? It’s no surprise there was a large uptick in all of this right around the election, and a surge afterward. It’s punitive. It’s vindictive. It’s bigots who are angry the election repudiated their bigotry and guess who’s the easiest target to hurt?
And that’s not fucking hyperbole. Most of the legislation aimed at hurting trans people has… startlingly similar language. Like most of them were almost copy/pasted, implying the same people are behind them. And well WHAT DO YOU FUCKING KNOW.
https://www.them.us/story/hate-group-reportedly-behind-2021-anti-trans-bills
I will remind you, again, how FUCKING BULLSHIT it all is. ALL OF IT. If, ****IF**** Republicans were legitimately concerned about women’s sports (we all know they’re not, because they don’t give a fuck about them otherwise)…
…you would WANT trans kids to get the fucking healthcare they need because it would STOP PUBERTY and ERASE all the fucking “advantages” you’re fucking going on about!
You don’t want trans kids to have “advantages,” but you also don’t want them to get the care that would prevent the “advantages” you goddamn fucking disingenuous hypocrites. They just don’t want trans people to exist.
You want a deep dive into how those SPORTS “advantages” are COMPLETE FUCKING BULLSHIT anyway? Have a read.
And to wit, cis ladies in sports aren’t even asking for this!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/megan-rapinoe-says-laws-banning-transgender-athletes-are-political-assaults-on-lgbtq-community/ar-BB1f5Gr1
Trans women have been able to compete in women’s Olympic events since 2004 and have medaled ZERO FUCKING TIMES. Get the fuck out of here with your fucking bullshit you unrepentant ass goblins.
I don’t want to keep talking about this shit. Being trans is full of joy and wonder and knowledge and fascination and I want to share all those parts of the journey so much, but this fucking country doesn’t want to just let us live our fucking lives in peace.
Do you know what this is going to do to trans kids? Do you know? CIS PEOPLE, LISTEN THE FUCK UP. You are men and women who’ve always felt like men and women, at home in your bodies, everything was fine. Now go back to puberty in your heads.
Cis guys, we’re not going to allow you to go through male puberty. We are going to force estrogen into your system. It will stop your voice from deepening, stop facial and body hair from growing. Oh, and you’re gonna GROW SOME FUCKING TITS.
Cis ladies, I’m sorry, absolutely no boobs for you. Instead your jaw and shoulders will widen, you’ll grow a beard, your voice will deepen, your body hair will thicken.
Imagine yourself in that body. Imagine seeing yourself in that body in the mirror every fucking day. Imagine how awful you’d feel, how miserable you be, when everyone in the world treated you as the gender you now appear as.
If you think depression, anxiety, overwhelming loneliness, disassociation from the world, and far far worse might creep up with a lifetime of this, YOU ARE FUCKING RIGHT THEY DO.
And sorry, those changes are mostly irreversible. You’re gonna be that way for life. You good? ARE YOU FUCKING GOOD WITH THAT? You want to be forced to go through body changes to appear as another gender?
Because that is what you’re doing by denying trans kids access to life-saving healthcare. You are FORCING them to undergo the wrong puberty.
You are FORCING them into bodies that emotionally wound them. You are forcing them into
more difficult lives if they have to transition after going through the wrong puberty. This was in my post on trans kids but I’m gonna fuckin’ repeat it:
NO TRANS KIDS ARE GETTING SURGERY. NO TRANS KIDS ARE GETTING HORMONES. **ALL** they get is medication that blocks the hormones their body makes, postponing puberty. If they change their minds later, they stop taking the blockers and NO HARM IS DONE.
They then go through puberty based on the hormones their body makes. That’s it. THAT IS FUCKING IT. It just stalls puberty so they don’t go through the torture of the wrong body until they’re old enough to decide if they want to transition or not.
I would like you to watch this video. It’s 18 minutes long. Please watch it. PLEASE FUCKING WATCH IT. And then come back and tell me you want that sweet, adorable child to have to grow a beard.
https://www.them.us/story/aclu-film-series-transgender
I was a trans kid. I didn’t know it, but I was, because that’s what being trans IS. You don’t suddenly become trans, you discover you are. It’s how we’re born. I know the awful pain and sorrow and lonely existence it brings to be forced into the wrong body.
You can’t stop trans kids from being trans. You can’t force them to be cisgender any more than I could force YOU to suddenly want to change YOUR gender. You know it doesn’t fucking work like that. All this does is hurt people. A LOT.
Kai doesn’t deserve that. NO KID DESERVES THAT, trans or otherwise. Kai needs YOU. Trans kids need YOU. So do all of us trans adults. Because nobody involves us in these laws. Nobody asks us, consults us, or CARES what we think.
It’s you. IT’S ON YOU. You have got to fucking speak up. You DO have trans people in your life, even if you don’t know it yet. Maybe they’re not ready to be out, maybe it’s not safe for them to be out, maybe they don’t trust YOU to tell you the truth.
You can fix that fucking last one by letting the world know, LOUDLY, that you stand with us. Call out these bullshit laws when you see them. Say it’s not okay! We NEED YOUR VOICES.
If they’re not ready to be out, that’s fine. Everyone has to figure that out for themselves. But if it’s not safe to be out? Like the prevalence of laws attempting to use eugenics to commit genocide against us (strong words, but apt) are doing?
YOU CAN HELP FIX THAT TOO. Look at this map again. Do you live in one of these states? Go to the link, look at the laws trying to pass in those states. CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES AND LET THEM KNOW THIS IS NOT FUCKING OKAY.
https://freedomforallamericans.org/legislative-tracker/anti-transgender-legislation
In the immediate, if you want to help fight this specific horrid nonsense in Arkansas, here’s an option for you:
https://twitter.com/chasestrangio/status/1376245089723367425?s=20
We’re under attack nationwide. We need our cis allies. I need you. All the trans people in your life need you. The trans people too afraid to come out need you. Kai needs you. ALL TRANS KIDS NEED YOU. Please don’t let them down. HELP US. Please.
Tilly Bridges, end transmission.
tillysbridges@gmail.com