Transgender youth in America are often forced to live as something they are not. Obviously, they must fight to be perceived not as their assigned sex, but even more than that, trans youth are forced to fill a role they do not fit by politicians and activists. We can become an innocent lamb led astray by our corrupt society, or a wolf in sheep’s clothing preying on good Christian values. Debates over our civil rights aren’t really about whether the legislature is valid- it's about whether we are valid.
This has become extremely apparent amidst discussion of Texas governor Greg Abbott’s anti-trans resolution, which tells the department of family and protective services to investigate parents of trans youth for child abuse. This controversial ruling defines the administration of various sex-changing procedures, including surgeries, hormone therapy, and puberty blockers as child abuse. Rather than discuss the actual legal jargon of this resolution, opposition and support alike have shifted focus to the ideas surrounding it. Can trans youth make their own decisions? How far can the state reach? What exactly motivates a transition? These questions often end up being answered cisgender people, ignoring the people actually affected by the bill. This, however, is nothing new- our nation has a long, long history of dehumanizing trans voices.
This history starts quite recently- The first recorded American court case dealing with trans rights dates back to 1966, Mtr. of Anonymous v. Weiner in which a transgender woman requested her birth certificate changed to reflect her medical transition. Unsurprisingly, she lost, and it took another decade for a court to grant trans people a birth certificate change. The first major trans rights ruling took place less than a decade ago, in the 2016 case Grimm v Gloucester, in which trans student Gavin Grimm argued that Gloucester school district violated his rights by banning him from the bathroom of his gender identity. The court ruled that this was indeed a violation of Grimm’s rights which set a legal precedent that protects trans teens. Because of this case, trans youth must be recognized as their preferred gender to a reasonable extent. Since Abbott’s bill expressly condemns this treatment, it either voids or is voided by the Gloucester case.
By this reasoning, we should be hearing a lot of arguments about Glenn v Gloucester to try and invalidate Abbott- but we don’t. We also don’t hear much about a supreme court ruling that protects trans Americans. In 2020, the supreme court ruled that civil rights bill title IX extended its protection to gender identity, meaning transphobic discrimination is illegal. A big reason why these cases are rarely brought up is how little publicity they earned- Glenn v Gloucestor never reached the supreme court and was largely overshadowed by the 2016 election news. The one trans case that managed to reach the supreme court is younger than the Covid-19 lockdown, so a lot of the technical definitions aren’t worked out. It took over two centuries for our nation to provide the most basic protection for trans citizens, so it’s not surprising that trans issues are so controversial.
Because of this, trans rights discussions are used as a superficial “wedge issue” by many, especially conservatives who love to paint a picture of some evil trans agenda infiltrating our nation. Only 30% of Americans report knowing a transgender person, and politicians take advantage of this to spread misinformation and scare-tactics with little resistance. The lack of personal trans awareness makes it hard to evoke empathy for trans issues, which is why resolutions like Abbott’s are even possible- Americans simply don’t care about people they don’t know. Even supporters of trans people are often ignorant, which means transgender issues are viewed through a cisgender worldview. The real reason this debate centers around values is because so few people are aware of the facts.
The problem isn’t what people are debating about the bill. It’s how they debate those issues. The people deciding what rights trans people deserve have no experience with being trans themselves, and often don’t know anyone who does- they just have some narrative, ideal, or theoretical. But the trans experience isn’t something that can be turned into a single ideal, because there is no one way to be trans. This bill debates trans youth particularly, and with how rapidly society is changing, we ought to be putting those with the most experience at the forefront of these discussions. Yes, youth are still making sense of the world, but that doesn’t mean others should make sense of it for them.
So, Instead of looking at Abbott’s resolution through your eyes, look at it through the eyes of those it is affecting the most. Us. Look at it through our eyes, listen to our voices. We, the trans youth of America, just want you to listen. The time for us to speak is long overdue.
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