The Good Old Days

Everyone always talks about the “Good ‘ld Days” but were they better back then when I first started coming out around the turn of the century.

You know it is hard to say mainly because the Tale of Two Cities” says in the beginning…

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

That was true in Dickens times and true now. Here in Connecticut it was the best of times, the CHRO (Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities) just ruled on Jane Doe find that we were covered by the Connecticut non-discrimination statutes.

There were trans people in the news and they were portrayed as humans, and not low life living in the gutters. The outlook was rosy and trending in the right direction.

We could get married by a loophole… as long as our birth certificates showed were the opposite gender of our marriage partner we were legally married. Or if you were already married our marriages were still legal! So we could work the system and be in a same-sex marriage.

We could change our legal documents in most of the states, you see at that time even the Republicans were behind changing our birth certificates because we could become productive members of society with the change!

But then there was a climate change… as the spotlight focused on us.

First they started with “Men in the women’s bathroom” but that lie didn’t stick.

They went back and tweaked it a little and in Massachusetts there was a question on the ballot, Question 3, that granted us our rights (As if human rights should be voted on.) was soundly passed by over two thirds of the voters.

Now they are back again for a dip at the well. Their slogan this time is about defending women, but it seems to be gaining traction.

So over the twenty-four years I have seen the climate change from welcoming to down right hostile. Designed to give the wrong image of us, they still believe that this is all a choice and that somehow we have brainwashed the APA, AMA, AAP, and all the other medical profession associations into defending us.

So what does all this boil down to?

There is a candidate who wants to:
Strip us of our healthcare,
Take away all our legal protections,
Make it a criminal offense for doctors to treat trans youth, and
Forbid birth certificate changes.

There is another candidate who voted for bills that:
Require doctors to treat us,
Require insurance to cover us,
Granted us the rights that all others already have,
Allowed us to change our legal documents, like passports, and birth certificates.