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Trans and GNC people show us a centuries-old lesson in how to bend and not break.
As you read this, we find ourselves in the middle of Transgender Awareness Week (Nov. 12-19).
#TransWeek is a time for all to prioritize learning from trans individuals and their allies, and work to take action against the discrimination and violence that the trans community so often faces.
On Nov. 20, many will gather to memorialize those who are no longer with us as a result of transphobia and hate on International Trans Day of Remembrance.
Being treated differently for just being myself is all too real for trans people like me in Missouri.
I constantly feel people’s fears and hate. Yet, I have instead chosen to cultivate joy.
It’s not easy.
Sixty-five percent of transgender youth have seriously considered suicide within the last year, and more than two out of every five transgender and gender non-conforming (GNC) people have attempted to end their lives. These dire conditions and suicides are the result of family, social and societal pressure to fit into fixed, binary norms that deny everyone their authentic self.
Too many of these suicide attempts succeed and then fly under their radar as acceptable, or “just another day in America.” In Missouri, we lost a dear member of the St. Louis TGNC community this summer and have lost multiple young people in the Kansas City metro area this year.
A recent internal memo from the Trump-Pence administration revealed that they have begun working quickly to roll back the definition of gender as binary, unchangeable and only determined by strict genetic, biological testing.
While this may seem like an arbitrary shift in a few words, it is actually a deeply worrisome regulatory move that will have horrifying and far-reaching consequences for all people, trans or otherwise.
With this move, the administration is ultimately seeking to invalidate people like me – and all transgender, intersex, and non-binary people who simply exist in ways the fixed gender binary of male/female cannot contain or fully describe.
It is no coincidence that Trans Lifeline, an all trans-staffed suicide hotline, received four times the normal amount of total callers the day after the memo was released.
The fight to be legally recognized is not new to the Trans and GNC community. It is, however, overwhelmingly new to most people existing outside of the community.
In the U.S., a whopping 84 percent of people report never having knowingly met an openly transgender, non-binary or gender non-conforming person. This means that most also do not realize that the majority of transgender people are constantly discriminated against just for being who we are, whether we’re at the doctor’s office, in school or at work.
As we work to learn from trans individuals and take action against the discrimination and violence that the trans community so often faces, during #TransWeek and beyond, we must continually educate the public, the media, and lawmakers. We must explain why anti-transgender and anti-LGBTQ policies are harmful, and make it clear that the TGNC community will no longer wait to have the rights the Constitution affords us.
Though Missouri has protections for sex-based discrimination, it does not explicitly include trans people and those with non-binary gender identities. Trans Missourians are often fired, kicked out of their apartments, and denied healthcare because of who we are. It isn’t always safe to advocate for ourselves. We need allies – those friends, family members and neighbors who love us – to come out against people and policies that continue to discriminate.
To support allies in their active work to make space for trans people in their lives, we created a Trans Ally Toolkit. Doing any of the toolkit’s 30+ action steps can save someone’s life.
As Chase Strangio, brilliant ACLU staff attorney and trans man wrote in Teen Vogue, “Our opponents are emboldened by the growing power they have in the executive and judicial branches of our federal government. We are already fighting them in court and we must also fight their power with our power in the streets, in state and local government, and with collective action and resistance.”
To our allies: as you grow in your allyship, we implore you to take guidance directly from us - the TGNC community - as often as possible.
To my fellow trans and GNC Missourians: we have the right to exist and to fully participate in public life. We deserve a safe life with our families, at work, at school - everywhere. Nothing can change our inherent right to be.
To all: no matter what happens next, know that we will not accept a world where people are pushed to live in darkness and fear. Join us in resistance.
Now is the time to lean in to the joyous places in your life, for love is the most hated act of resistance. Let us join together to fight not only for ourselves, but for everyone’s right to control their body and their futures.
Upcoming Related Event
Trans Dinner of Repass and Remembrance - Friday, Nov 17, 6:30-8:30p
Kansas City Anti-Violence Project - Passages Room
4050 Pennsylvania Ave, Kansas City, MO 64111