You Got To See Both Sides… Not!

Sometimes there is only one side. Down in Texas they say you have to teach both sides of the Holocaust, there is only one side. The Holocaust is not debatable!

Not a 'two-sides issue': Transgender people exist. Why is there a debate over whether they should have rights?
USA Today
By Susan Miller
November 18, 2021


In the U.S., 1.4 million adults identify as transgender.
[…]
For a transgender person to feel like their very existence is being debated – or denied – is devastating, says Jay Brown, a senior vice president with the Human Rights Campaign.

“It is very dehumanizing,” he said. “Like you are standing there as a person and you exist and people are talking about you as if you don’t.”

The transgender community “for a long time has been a go-to source for fearmongering when it comes to politics,” he said. “A lot of folks still don’t know us. And in the absence of knowing us there are misunderstandings, doubts and confusion. Some of that is at play and being politicized.”
[…]
The focus on trans youths by some elected officials has been particularly troublesome, said Brown, who recalls the same “scare tactics” that targeted young people coming out as gay and lesbian in earlier years.

“Most of us now believe that gay kids exist,” he said. “We have got to catch up to the reality that trans kids do exist, too.”
[…]
Putting transgender youths in the crosshairs has real-life consequences on the mental health of those already grappling with high rates of discrimination and bullying, Paley said. “Words and actions matter, especially from those in positions of power. We urge all adults with large platforms to consider the weight of their words.”

But the thing is those who are denying our existence want us back in the closet. They don’t care that it causes pain and increase suicidal idealizations, they are glad that it does.

It is just like Holocaust denials they know it happened but they just want to cause pain in the Jewish community. And it is the same people who deny the Holocaust and us.

The trans community can't stop reading horrific news. There's a way to turn away.
USA Today
By David Oliver
November 18, 2021


The transgender community faces a barrage of negative headlines daily. Between anti-transgender legislation and people claiming transgender people don't exist at every turn, you can't miss them.

Negative headline after negative headline can take its toll on anyone. But statistics show the transgender community – specifically transgender youth – is particularly vulnerable to a lack of acceptance, with higher rates of suicide attempts than their lesbian, gay and bisexual peers, according to The Trevor Project.
[…]
Brady-Davis adds: "I don't think people see the fullness of the humanity of trans folks. And so that's what I try to do, particularly in, in my work, and sometimes we have the right to tune out what, the world is always saying about us."

If you can't turn away try taking deep breaths and feeling your body to stay present.

I know that I have to say enough to the news sometimes, it just get too oppressive to see all the hate out there.

But don't let the idea of sweeping change deter you from trying to make a small difference, too. "So often, people are always looking for the big victory," Brady-Davis says. "They're looking for the splashy byline. And I think it's about celebrating the small victories, helping someone navigate getting a job, helping someone find housing. There are tangible things that we can assist and help and build community."

We need to support each other, reach out and touch someone’s life and see the different it will make, just letting them know that they are not alone is powerful.

When I was an intern for my MSW my field instructor asked me who was my lifeline. At first I didn’t understand what she meant, then I realized what she was asking was whose shoulder do you cry on. I told her that he was my old brother, but I am not going to be doing therapy but community organizing. If you want to organize a protest I’m you person. But I did need a shoulder to lean on.

We all need a shoulder to lean on.

But sometimes no one is there to lean on.

Transgender Students Need Adult Support in School. Is It Slipping?
Ed Week
By Sarah D. Sparks
November 17, 2021


Acceptance and support from teachers and administrators can be crucial to transgender students’ mental health and engagement in school, but there are signs that a backlash against these students has deepened since the pandemic.

Transgender students, who make up nearly 1 in 50 U.S. high school students, have been among the most isolated groups during the pandemic, and they returned to campus this year amid a new wave of anti-transgender legislation. While before the pandemic, proposed and enacted legislative restrictions focused on students’ use of single-sex facilities like restrooms, more than 90 bills introduced in the last few years have focused on limiting their participation in single-sex sports and extracurricular activities.

A new, nationally representative survey suggests these ongoing debates may be eroding support for transgender students among the adults at their schools. In the survey conducted in October and November, less than 41 percent of educators and school and district administrators told the EdWeek Research Center that transgender students should be allowed to use the bathroom or locker room that aligns with the gender with which they identify, as opposed to the sex assigned at birth. That’s down from 51 percent of these key school staff members who said they supported transgender students in an EdWeek Research Center survey in 2017, during the first wave of so-called “bathroom bills.”

More than 59 percent of school staff respondents in the October EdWeek Research Center survey said students should use restrooms and locker rooms aligned with the sex identified at birth. The Northeast was the only region where a majority of school staff supported transgender students using the school restrooms and locker rooms aligned to their current identified gender.

With more state passing draconian laws that prevent teachers from helping us, banning LGBTQ clubs in schools. Laws banning healthcare for us. Laws banning teachers from discussing LGBTQ issues in class we are feeling more pain.

Even when district policies support transgender students, individual teachers vary considerably in how they behave toward them. Loudon County, Va., public schools, for example, settled a lawsuit this week to reinstate an elementary school gym teacher who was suspended for refusing to acknowledge a transgender student’s chosen pronouns. Teachers and librarians in Texas and other states have also ended up on both sides of conservative efforts to ban books that include references to LGBT children or issues.

As “Religious Freedom” becomes the buzz word for discrimination more teachers are using that to discriminate against us. I just don’t understand how a teacher can do their job if they create pain in their students when they don’t follow school policy, but they can’t be fired because it is their “religious freedom.” Can you imagine if they used the “N” word in class and claimed it was their religion belief to use it. What an uproar that would create but it is okay for them to do it to us.

There is no debate.

We are here and we demand our right to exist.