Decompiling Oppression #89
Sam McVeety
This Pride Month, I want to draw attention to the maelstrom of anti-trans legislation that has surfaced over the past few months. Please note that this is a pretty heavy update, and some of the content may be triggering. Since last March, things have gotten steadily worse, with nearly triple the number of bills signed into law so far in 2023. Most of this is happening at the state level, where it can be harder to keep track of, amid the constant posturing and rhetoric. To be sure, though, there's a huge difference between picking a fight with Disney and causing direct harm to children's lives, despite these topics often sharing space in print.
Without paying close attention, it can also be tempting to write these actions off as merely symbolic, given the flimsy legal standing that many of them rest on (perhaps less so, post Dobbs). However, reassuring oneself that "oh, that won't sustain a court challenge" is small comfort for the people who are directly affected by these laws. An injunction from Tennessee rejects the state's ban on drag performances on First Amendment grounds, but not every federal judge is going to issue an injunction, and each of these laws has significant potential for harm.
In sports, anti-trans bills muster rhetoric that recalls the racial caricature of violent threats to white womanhood. Proponents of these laws portray trans people as threatening and superhuman ("to have a transgender seven foot one inch male that was competing against her...") to justify assaultive measures to verify one's "true" gender.
Many of the laws targeting youth are designed to take effect immediately, creating instant consequences for people who have already transitioned. The removal of medical access will forcibly de-transition them, with all the attendant trauma. Here again (and we've talked about this before in the context of surgery), trans people face morally-freighted gatekeeping for regimens like hormone treatments, even though they are approved in a cisgendered context for "legitimate" medical needs.
There's a nuance here worth naming, as well. The medical establishment has caused harm to trans people in the past (and still does, in some contexts) and is an important ally in some of these challenges. The duality of interacting with organizations and structures that once denied the existence of trans people and now argue for their protection creates a complex consciousness to hold.
Over in Montana, the state is essentially trying to erase trans people from existence (in addition to Indigenous conceptions of gender), with a recent bill to define the word “sex” in state law to mean only "male or female". Regardless of whether the legal intention is to perform an end-run around Bostock and its holding that trans people are eligible for sex discrimination claims, the violence of denying someone's very existence is staggering. It is, unfortunately, fully consistent with the silencing of Rep. Zooey Zephyr.
In carceral settings, deadly consequences are on the table. Texas is considering two bills to mandate housing prisoners with the sex they were assigned at birth. The language specifically disallows any modifications of birth certificates (except for "scrivener or clerical error"). Even with minimal sponsorship and no scheduled floor vote, it's still horrifying that these are being considered, especially when one of every six trans people and one of every two Black trans people have been to prison.
It's important to state the consequences of these bluntly: people will die. As Emily St. James writes:
Affirming trans children’s genders reduces their risk of attempting suicide; the use of puberty blockers in trans kids is safe ... If these laws go into effect, many in the trans community believe they will enable a mass murder — and, yes, that is what it will be — that no one will ever be able to count or quantify. These measures will create deaths that look like individual tragedies (which they will be) but never be understood as part of a massacre created by uncaring, even evil laws (which they will also be).
These are hard truths to hold. And, it's crucial that we don't look away. Finding ways to push back against this tide, even if they are small, are meaningful. Acts of resistance matter, whether those are housing projects or community gatherings.
Here are this week's invitations:
Personal: What is something that you personally can do to support the rights of trans people to be visible and to flourish?
Communal: How do we identify and dismantle gatekeeping practices within our own communities?
Solidarity: Support Lavender Rights Project and their work to elevate the power, autonomy, and leadership of the Black intersex & gender diverse community through intersectional legal and social services.
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