Spot The Differences!

[Essay]

The color of their skin.

A wheelchair.

A white cane.

Some differences are immediately visible, and because we can see them, we rarely question whether they exist. Yet many aspects of a person's identity leave no obvious physical clue. Because there is no visible marker, some people assume that being transgender is simply a choice rather than a natural part of who someone is.

And like all forms of discrimination it separates them into “the others” they are “not like us” once people are seen as "the others"—different, unfamiliar, or somehow less authentic. The result is the same: distance replaces empathy, suspicion replaces understanding, and prejudice becomes easier to justify.

During the 1930s in Germany… the Jews, the Roma, the disabled, the gays and us, the trans people were all persecuted because they were different.

Now we are, many of the same laws passed back in the 30s are now being passed against the trans community. History shows that discrimination rarely begins with violence. It begins with language, with suspicion, with laws that single out one group as different, and with the belief that some people deserve fewer rights than others. Trump has used 'transgender insanity,' 'men masquerading as women,' and other terms meant to dehumanize us.

The problem lies in the people. In their prejudices. Those prejudices can be encouraged, exploited, and molded by those seeking power. Once fear takes hold, it becomes easier to convince ordinary people that "the others" are responsible for society's problems, and easier still to accept discrimination against them.

But the problem with all this, is that it is easily recognized. People are against undocumented immigrants. But now they are seeing the brutality they are saying, “Wait not so fast? What’s going on here?”

The same thing is happening with trans people. In Kansas they took back all the trans drivers licenses out of ~2,024,000 there were only ~1,700 trans people. And people stopped and thought, “Why is this a problem.” When people in Connecticut learned that only about dozen out of ~100,000 high school student-athletes in Connecticut who participate in sports each year about a dozen are trans.

People are starting to question all these anti-trans laws.

Look at all the times we came to a vote on referendums… in the Massachusetts 2018 referendum (Question 3) we won! And in Anchorage, Alaska (2018) we won! But now a new crop of questions is showing up on ballots. In Arizona, Colorado, and in Washington we are once again on the ballot… will prejudices win out? Or will the voters see it for what it is, an attempt to marginalize an already marginalized community?

[/Essay]