Rally against anti-trans legislation.
Happy Tuesday and welcome back to the Anti-Racism Daily. This week, hearings are scheduled in South Dakota, Kansas, Tennessee, and South Carolina to act on anti-trans legislation that will disproportionately impact trans women and girls. Amplify the work of state and federal organizers fighting for their rights.
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Nicole
TAKE ACTION
Sign up to phone bank with NEAT, the National Equality Action Team, to defend trans youth in key states.
Review the anti-trans legislation by state on the ACLU’s tracker. Then, contact your local legislators and urge them to block anti-trans bills from passing. Find your state representatives here.
Donate to trans-led organizations in your community. To make a donation that will be distributed to local orgs, donate to the Trans Justice Funding Project.
Action items inspired by the work of Chase Strangio, deputy director of transgender justice for the ACLU.
GET EDUCATED
By Nicole Cardoza (she/her)
Right now, there are over 50 pieces of anti-trans legislation under consideration in states across the U.S. All are designed to strip away the limited rights and protections that currently exist for transgender people (LGBTQ+ Nation). Seventeen states are all considering bills that would ban transgender girls and women from school sports this year, and some of the bills also ban transgender boys and men. These states are Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas.
In addition, 15 pieces of legislation designed to prevent transgender youth from receiving gender-affirming healthcare. Like HB 1/SB 10 in Alabama, these bills seek to impose criminal penalties on medical professionals and parents that offer transgender youth medical care. Arizona’s SB1511 wants to make it a Class 2 felony – punishable with up to 12 years in prison (Human Rights Watch).
Together, this legislation drafted in 2021 is a coordinated attack against trans rights, which activists feared after the Trump administration’s continued attacks on the trans community and growing anti-trans sentiment. Although President Biden signed an executive order to protect LGTBQ+ people in federally funded spaces, including education, it’s insufficient to ban state legislation on this topic (them).
These bills don’t necessarily reflect the sentiment of each state’s voter base. The Human Rights Campaign and Hart Research Group conducted a study across ten swing states on LGBTQ+ rights. They found that 87% of total respondents believe transgender people should have equal access to medical care, with many states breaking 90% support. They were also asked to prioritize banning transgender people from participating in sports against other policy issues. This issue came in dead last, and only 1-3% of respondents prioritized the issue (Los Angeles Blade).
In fact, much of this legislation has been drafted not by legislators, but Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian nonprofit organization that aims to protect "religious freedom, sanctity of life, and marriage and family" (Southern Poverty Law Center). As Nico Lang reports for them, the ADF has been fighting against equal rights for queer and transgender people for years. The organization has lobbied in favor of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Colorado, Idaho, and South Carolina and advocated for the use of “religious freedoms” to justify discrimination against LGBTQ+ people (them).
This is also happening in a time of rampant violence against the trans community, particularly the Black trans community. And many of these deaths were directly caused by police brutality; the criminal justice system disproportionately impacts the Black trans community (Vox). This is exacerbated by the systemic injustices that the Black trans community experiences, including unprecedented unemployment rates, high levels of houselessness, and low household incomes (Harvard Civil Rights). The Human Rights Watch noted a 43% increase in the formation of anti-LGBTQ hate groups in 2019.
This legislation is yet another form of policing the health and safety of trans youth, particularly trans women, for it’s important to emphasize how gender influences these harmful narratives. A common refrain from proponents of this legislation is that it’s necessary to protect women in sport because people assigned male at birth are “inherently” better at sports, purporting the notion that “women are weak and in need of protection.” It also insinuates that trans women athletes have an unfair advantage (this has been proven untrue). Throughout history, women’s protection, particularly white women, has been used to justify unnecessary harm against other marginalized communities (Washington Post). And more generally, the government continuously tries to control women’s bodies (Institute for Women’s Policy Research).
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These bills cloak transmisogyny in inflammatory language and scare tactics that distract from the policies’ discriminatory intent. Notably, many do not lay out restrictions for transgender boys and men, focusing solely on regulating women’s bodies.Excerpt from Fair Play: The Importance of Sports Participation for Transgender Youth by the Center for American Progress (CAP), via them.
As hearings unfold this week, I urge you to take direct action on this legislation right now, even if it doesn’t affect your state. And, more broadly, continue to amplify and advocate for the needs of the trans community, particularly trans youth.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
A series of anti-trans legislation is being discussed in state legislators across the U.S. this week.
This legislation is a part of the violence and discrimination that trans communities experience on behalf of our government, particularly trans communities of color and the Black trans community.
This is especially harmful for trans women and girls, who experience added discrimination because of stereotypes about the role of gender in society
RELATED ISSUES
11/20/2020 | Honor Transgender Day of Remembrance.
6/13/2020 | Center Black trans lives.
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