Showing Solidarity to our Trans Community

Trans Solidarity

Our transgender siblings more than ever need the support of the LGBTQ+ community and its allies - learn how to combat anti-trans talking points and show others that when the trans community wins, we all win.

“I don’t hate trans people I just don’t see why their rights are something I should fight for. ”

overall strategy: When trans rights are violated - American citizens are violated. Today it is trans people because they are an easy target and a small population. Standing up for smaller group of people will make conservatives more warry about eventually going after shutting down the right of people including you. Fight for others before there is no one to fight for you!

• Upon first glance, it seems as though the “trans debate” fits within the usual black or white debate.
• People saying they oppose “the trans agenda,” “trans ideology,” “transgenderism,” suggests that they’re targeting a political program. This works to dehumanize their needs and hide the fact they are trying to eliminate people’s rights to live as a trans person.
• "Radley Balko remarked, no one would interpret “we have to eradicate Judaism” as anything short of a call to harm Jews themselves in a profound way. The agenda language thus obscures that the attacks are fundamentally aimed at the very idea of being trans." - Alan Elrod
• The gender queer movement is especially opposed by conservatives because when gender and sex become dissected and approached from a nuanced perspective - it makes it harder for the patriarchy to subjugate and control women.

“I personally don’t believe in transgenderism, I don’t have any issues with transgender people existing I just don’t support the movement”

overall strategy: This is NOT a fight for complete assymilation of LGBTQ+ culture - we need to band together to fight for the protection of our rights and prevent government from eroding away our personal liberties and freedoms.

• Rights in a free society necessarily invite questions of competing claims and what exactly we owe one another. If you pledge loyalty to a government, follow the laws and pay taxes, what should you receive in return? This answer has changed over time to accommodate new philosophies and standards of living.
• People of good will sincerely and earnestly can debate when children should be given gender-reaffirming care or what the fair parameters for trans participation in sports competitions are.
• Current republican oppositions does not want a thoughtful debate about trans rights in American society; their view is that those identifying as trans should have no place in public life whatsoever.
• This eliminationist stance takes two broad approaches: biological and moral to support its cause. And these same tactics could be used to eliminate women’s rights (fetal personhood establishment barring women of childbearing age from activities ) or worker’s rights (calling US citizens lazy and that’s why we need to hire HB1 Visa workers for cheap).
• Trans people are not fighting to indoctrinate and convince more people to be trans, they are fighting legislation which prevents their ability to exist in the same spaces as the public.

"Non-binary doesn’t make sense to me, there’s an XX and XY chromosome. Sure there are some biological anomalies but isn’t everyone just a male or female?"

<p> overall strategy: It’s time to open people’s eyes to newer developments in biology. One’s high school bio 101 isn’t necessarily the full story of the complex understanding of sex. If the person is open minded, share scientific articles and stories to discuss.

• The main argument is that “sex” (biological traits, primarily reproductive organs and chromosomes, used to assign a person as male, female, or intersex at birth ) is very clear to define. Men have penises and women have vaginas. There are chromosomes that provide the hormones needed for sexual maturity. But the study of intersex individuals who at birth present a different genotype or phenotype from the binary system has been studied since the 1950s. Additionally, many people who are assigned a binary gender at birth can develop secondary sex characteristics different from their AGAB (e.g. men with “man boobs” or women with dark facial hair).
• It is not possible for medical professionals to accurately assign a gender identity to someone based on their genotypes and phenotypes because the spectrum of traits doesn’t always provide a clear indication of a person’s gender identity.
• Science shows us gender is not as simple as republican law makers pretend it is. YES this is a big change from what many of us learned growing up - but America was founded in the enlightenment period which values logic and reasoning over emotional rhetoric. If we don’t hold fast to our values now they will not protect our other rights and freedoms later.

“I just worry that some people would use these laws to hurt ‘actual women’. I don’t want someone with a penis coming into a locker room and hurting girls.”

overall strategy: We cannot ignore the reality that comes with the genuine fear of violence towards women. The key is not diminishing their concern - but redirecting them to proven and effective strategies to helping women.

• 2018 Study in the Sexuality and Research Social Policy Journal analyzed public records in MA after these laws passed and found the frequency and number of criminal incidents in private gendered spaces were NOT impacted by new political movements to ban transgender people from these spaces.
• The media often demonizes trans people by painting them as an other (non human, demon, parasite, etc.) in order to convince the public that these individuals have a higher propensity towards crimes and spread fear to favor conservative ideology.
• Media is not being accurate in it’s protrayal of sexual violence and trans people. Trans individuals are 4 times more likely to be victimized compared to cisgender people.

Educational Media

Hashtag Ruthless Productions: humorous, yet ruthless, chapter-by-chapter media analysis podcasts with a queer and trans focus, hosted by Jessie Blount and Lark Malakai Grey, two nerds who love shouting about intersectionality and also making lots of jokes about sexual tension.

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Trans Voting Rights

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Press Kits/Talking Points

• School board toolkit for book ban discussions

Myth vs. Fact

Myth: Being trans is just what's trendy for kids these days.

Fact: Trans kids are most at risk - 82% of trans youth have considered suicide at some point. Kids who come out today do so at risk to their safety.

Myth: Parents are mutilating their children by allowing them to get surgery at such a young and impressionable age.

Fact: Medical professionals understand the seriousness of gender reassignment surgery, and this is why the standards of care for trans youth recommends not providing any gentital surgery until adulthood. The most common medical treatment for youth is hormone blockers which simply block the onset of natural puberty and do not provide permanent results.

<h4>Sources

• Transgender people over four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime
• Measuring Intersex Populations
• Eliminate Eliminationism from the Trans Question
• Protecting democracy requires protecting trans and nonbinary people
• GLAAD Social Media Safety Index