[Essay]
I’m a trans woman. I transitioned back at the turn of the century and there were never any problems.
The state is very accepting, I changed my federal documentation with no problems… but now!
It seems to me that the current administration, dating back to Trump's first term, has attacked trans people. Why?
As far as I can tell, there haven’t been more than a handful of trans people who committed any rapes… there have been more Republican legislators arrested than trans people.
We have been around since the dawn of time; there are some who even say we are in the Bible. They forget Renée Richards, Christine Jorgensen; they forget Lili Elbe, whom the film The Danish Girl made famous.
There are records from when the 2nd President of the United States [John Adams] was involved in a case where a trans person (Note: we do not know how M. Gray identified; I will use male pronouns) was hit by M. Pitt in 1771. The jury's verdict ultimately drew a sharp line: even though cross-dressing violated colonial law, that law didn't give someone the legal right to track the person down and crack them over the head with a cane. How do you think that case would turn out now?
But all that changed with Trump… like all authoritarians, they need a target! And all through modern history, we are “it” for dictators and would-be dictators. Currently, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is attacking all LGBTQ+ people, Putin has passed anti-LGBTQ+ laws, and Viktor Orbán, the former strongman in Hungary, went after us. We are the low-hanging fruit that is easy pickings, and
Trump has followed in their footsteps.
This is not the first time Republicans have gone after the LGBTQ+ community. Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450 in 1953, which officially banned gay men and lesbians from federal employment, labeling them as "sexual perverts" unfit for government service.
In 1950, Senator McCarthy held hearings about us during what later became known as the Lavender Scare, but their attacks on us didn’t end there. Along came Anita Bryant and her "Save Our Children" campaign! The campaign gathered momentum with state legislatures passing anti-LGBT laws, but it fizzed when it met Harvey Milk.
But this time, their crusade of hate is backed by billionaires’ money and Trump’s hatred of us. Trump is a predator; he devours people. I believe that the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community are personal with him, I believe he sees himself as a "hypermale," and LGBTQ+ people feel like an attack on his manhood!
How do we counter that coordinated crusade of hate against us and our communities?
The Fourteenth Amendment! The Equal Protection Clause. That is our weapon!
Republicans and far-right conservatives think one day we wake up and say: “Gee, I want to be trans! It must be so fun to be beaten up and discriminated against, that sounds like it will be so much fun!”
We have to gather all the evidence we can find to prove that we are covered under the 14th Amendment.
“A lie doesn't become truth, wrong doesn't become right, and evil doesn't become good, just because it's accepted by a majority.” — Booker T. Washington
[/Essay]
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