Where You Wouldn’t Expect It

Sometimes I am surprise where I find support for trans-people. in the ultra-conservative state of Utah for example,

Op-ed: Utah’s transgender youth need our protectionSalt Lake Tribune
By Megan Thomas
First Published Dec 27 2014

Social norms in Utah are immensely impacted by its conservative religious culture that insists upon strict adherence to binary gender roles, sex-segregated groups, anti-LGBQTI precepts and a sexist organizational hierarchy.

Despite the family-centered values of our community, these conservative ideals have historically oppressed and suppressed its transgender children, resulting in death, neglect, or chronic gender identity dysphoria. A medically treatable condition, gender identity dysphoria is characterized by hopeless, lonely, obsessive reconciling of one’s inner self and one’s public self, often leading to depression and suicide. It should come as no surprise, then, that Utah’s teen suicide rate is among the highest in the country.
[…]
Transgender youth face even more challenges than the rest of the community upon "coming out." Utah youth are frequently subjected to conversion therapy, excommunicated from their church, alienated from their communities, and kicked out of their homes. Many who are not kicked out of their homes commit suicide or run away to escape persecution from their families and persistent bullying at school, from which the state offers no protection. As a result, nearly half of Utah’s one thousand homeless youth are transgender.

What is amazing is that the newspaper published the editorial.