As a lifelong organizer and community advocate, I know how easy it is to ignore issues that aren’t in the news 24/7. There’s so much happening in the world right now — reading the latest headlines can quickly become overwhelming. Things that aren’t pushed out in news alerts or our social media feeds are understandably relegated to the sidelines, making it that much harder to share valuable information with the people who need it most. After many years, COVID-19 is no longer the top story on the evening news, or even regularly mentioned, but it’s an issue we need to make sure isn’t sidelined, especially for the LGBTQ+ community.
When the pandemic was at the forefront of our minds, so many of us took action. There was a time when people were stepping up to protect themselves and their communities. In fact, the LGBTQ+ community’s vaccination and booster rates were among the highest in the nation when vaccines first became available.
Even though COVID-related hospitalizations have more than doubled since this past July, with tens of thousands of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations reported every week, less than 20 percent of adults in the U.S. have received their updated vaccine since September. And, a recent study published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine found that over half the people that had COVID continue to have lingering symptoms three years later. The World Health Organization warned us that COVID would never be fully eradicated, and they were right.
As we jump into the holidays and the thick of winter, with visits to see family and friends, we should consider their health, and ours, one of the best gifts we can give. This means doing our part and getting the updated COVID-19 booster as part of our seasonal vaccines and wellness appointments.
Despite the data and guidance from the CDC, there are multiple factors at play right now that may indirectly discourage the updated vaccine — whether that’s politics, wanting to “move on,” or just lack of information. On the political end, the LGBTQ+ community is more than familiar with how basic health education can be twisted and warped by extremists. Information about COVID and the updated vaccines can be unclear and not easily available unless you search for it. Understandably, most Americans have moved on from the pandemic — so we need to make sure people have the information they need to stay safe and healthy.
For starters, as of September 2023, updated 2023-2024 versions of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Novavax vaccines are available, FDA approved, and CDC-recommended to everyone over the age of six months. These updated vaccines are available at no cost, even if you do not have health insurance, and it can be scheduled at the same time as your flu shot. Vaccine protection for COVID-19 fades overtime, and the current updated vaccines better target many of the COVID-19 variants and strains currently circulating. So, getting an updated shot is important even if you have already been vaccinated before, similar to the annual flu shot.
LGBTQ+ people are particularly impacted by COVID-19, and we don’t want to exacerbate our risk by skipping our yearly vaccination. Half of our community already report having an ongoing health condition that requires regular monitoring, medical care, or medication. We also, unfortunately, have higher rates of tobacco usage and are more likely to live with chronic diseases like HIV and asthma — increasing the risk of severe illness from COVID. On top of these issues, we’re more likely to lack health coverage or the resources to see a doctor, both of which are critical in the case of a severe infection. This is an instance where we can prevent a health crisis from happening by scheduling our updated COVID shot.
Don’t start the new year with COVID, get your updated shot and encourage your friends and family to do the same. Speak to your health care provider, or find a vaccine provider at Vaccines.gov, and get vaccinated!
Kelley Robinson is the president of the Human Rights Campaign.
The National Hockey League banned players from wearing themed jerseysduring warm-ups, but they didn’t say anything about wearing them before warm-ups.
That’s the loophole that the New Jersey Devils are exploiting as the organization marks its LGBTQ+ Pride night on Thursday. The team announced ahead of their game against the Edmonton Oilers that the specially-designed jerseys would be “worn during player arrivals,” in an apparent bypass of the league’s new policies.
NHL teams added LGBTQ+ Pride to their seasonal theme nights in recent years, which also include events such as Black History, military appreciation, and Hockey Fights Cancer. On these nights, players would wear jerseys corresponding with the theme while they warmed up, which would later be auctioned off with the proceeds going to related charities.
Just seven players refused to wear pride jerseys last year, citing their own personal beliefs. Some teams responded to the PR backlash by taking the choice away from players and removing Pride jerseys entirely. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the league’s Board of Governors decided to nix themed jerseys entirely at the end of the 2022-2023 season, with Bettman calling them a “distraction.”
NHL players are now forbidden from wearing themed gear during warm-ups, with players who break the rules getting threatened with fines. No player so far has actually been penalized for disobeying the policy, including Travis Dermott, who donned rainbow Pride tape before the league reversed its ban on that specific item.
Proceeds for the Devils’ Pride jersey auction will go to Hyacinth, New Jersey’s largest and first HIV/AIDs service provider. The jersey was designed by local artist, Kathryn Kennedy of Kearny, New Jersey, who said that the abstract style represents “coming out” within the LGBTQ+ community.
“These theme nights let people who are a part of their respective communities know that they’re seen, heard, and welcome,” she said in a statement. “It’s a huge honor to be involved with the Devils’ Pride Night, and my hope is that I’ve created something that helps others feel accepted and appreciated.”
Cricket Australia has confirmed that it has no plans to bow to anti-trans rhetoric and exclude transgender athletes from competing in the division that aligns with their gender.
Following in the footsteps of other global sports federations like the International Swimming Federation, World Rugby, World Athletics, and World Cycling, the ICC announced last month that any athlete who had been through male puberty would not be permitted to compete in the international women’s game.
The decision was yet another blow to the few transgender athletes who have repeatedly been blocked from competing in their sport from community to elite levels.
In response to the ICC’s policy change, Cricket Australia has now pledged to keep domestic competitions inclusive of trans athletes.
Speaking to Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, Hockley said: “We were really proud in 2019 to put out a leading set of transgender guidelines, both for the community and for elite cricket, and they were based absolutely on the philosophy of inclusion.
“The ICC guidelines go a bit further in terms of it takes quite a scientific approach. We’ve expressed that we think that inclusion is the priority, so we will continue to work with the ICC to express our views.”
Cricket Australia’s transgender guidelines state that transgender women may compete in elite-level domestic women’s competitions if they have maintained testosterone levels of less than 10 nanograms per deciliter for 12 months before being nominated for a team.
Meanwhile, community-level women’s competitions are even more inclusive, and simply require transgender athletes wishing to compete to demonstrate a “commitment that their gender identity is consistent with a gender identity in other aspects of everyday life.”
Hockley noted that, for now, there are no transgender cricketers in Australia hoping to play at an international level, so the ICC’s decision has no direct impact on Australian Cricket.
But that won’t stop Cricket Australia from pushing for more inclusive policies from the ICC.
“I think we need to be really inclusive and we also need to be very mindful of player wellbeing and mental health considerations as well,” he said.
Although Hockley suggests that the ICC’s policy change was based more in science than in inclusivity, there is little-to-no scientific evidence to back up their stance.
That’s despite a lack of scientific evidence to support the claim that transgender women would have an athletic advantage over cisgender women.
For example, a 2023 report from the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport determined that, if existing rules are followed, trans women who have begun testosterone suppression do not have any biomedical advantage over cisgender women in elite sport.
The report also found “strong evidence” that “elite sport policy is made within transmisogynist, misogynoir, racist, geopolitical cultural norms”.
Similarly, a 2017 study from Sports Medicine concluded that there was “no direct or consistent research suggesting transgender female individuals have an athletic advantage at any stage of transition, and therefore, competitive sports politics that place restrictions on transgender people need to be considered and potentially revised.”
There’s a common misconception from cis folks (primarily those outside the LGBTQ+ community) that butch lesbians and trans masculine folks are the same – or at least two sides of the same coin. It cannot be stated firmly enough that this isn’t a simple or fundamental truth. Trans-masc people aren’t women who happen to be masculine, and butch lesbians aren’t automatically trying to be men. They’re two separate identities.
Aside from the transphobic tendency to see both groups of people as “women trying to be men,” I think the misconception is rooted in the idea that your level of masculine presentation determines your gender.
Gender identity and gender performance are like cake and icing – the inside isn’t automatically the same flavor as the outside.
When you’re nonbinary and genderfluid like I am, things get more complicated. The inside and the outside are constantly changing. If you don’t embrace it, you’ll become the world’s most stressed-out baker, or you’ll end up settling for something that feels “right enough.”
I spent years trying to pin down a consistent inner gender and outer presentation. From high school on, I tried on every identity I came across, waiting for something to finally feel like me. Even when I finally figured out that nonbinary was the best way to describe myself, I was still frustrated. While presenting as androgynous sometimes felt right, there were also times it didn’t.
I had done all of this work for all of those years and still didn’t feel at home in my body or identity.
I wish I could say I figured out the solution to my problem all at once. It was a painfully slow evolution, spurred by spending time with other trans folks and falling in love with someone who truly understood the nuances of my identity.
Eventually, I realized I was just trying to shove myself into another box. Instead of embracing the freedom of being outside the binary, I was trying to make myself fit within the identity itself, down to the archetypal image of a thin, white, androgynous person with short hair.
A consistent gender presentation (or icing flavor, if you will) just wasn’t going to happen for me. Instead, I would start picking up and putting on whatever bits and pieces of labels felt good. It was like sticker bombing my water bottle or sewing patches on my jacket – a completely customizable experience, drawn only from my own tastes and desires.
I found that I actually really enjoyed using he/him pronouns, and I gleefully updated my private profiles to show my pronouns were he/they (I still go by just they/them in a professional context – it’s easier this way).
That’s how I came to realize I could both be trans masc and a butch lesbian – two things I previously thought to be incongruent. I used to hate being seen as butch because I thought it invalidated my identity as a trans masculine nonbinary person. I thought it meant I wasn’t passing well enough.
But embracing it, allowing myself to have it all, brings me unique euphoria. Recently, I added the (sometimes) controversial identity of femboy into the mix as well. All of these things aren’t the same, but I live in the places where they overlap. They are different ways for me to engage with my femininity, masculinity, and androgyny all at once. It’s how I find the joy of being trans.
To me, being trans masculine means letting previously hidden parts of me run wild. It means being the dad friend, daydreaming about my eventual sea-horse-themed baby shower, and eagerly anticipating the time in my life that I’ll be celebrated on Father’s Day.
Being butch is a similar but different feeling. It’s the same warm embrace of masculinity, while at the same time relishing in the butch/femme dynamic my girlfriend and I share. It’s finding euphoria in a carabiner of keys dangling from my belt loop and not criticizing the way my unbound chest looks in a tank top and flannel.
In identifying as a butch he/him lesbian, I sometimes run into TERFs. These are “trans-exclusionary radical feminists” that think nonbinary and trans masculine people cannot be lesbians because they aren’t woman. I’ve had folks tell me that I shouldn’t be on dating platforms like HER because my pronouns and overlapping trans masculine identity isn’t what they’re looking for and makes them uncomfortable. To that, I say, swipe left if you can’t handle it.
Transphobic rhetoric aside, I’d argue that personally, my love is inherently sapphic. As someone with a deep love for women and nonbinary people and a general romantic disinterest in men, I see myself as a sapphic bisexual, regardless of my ever-shifting gender identity.
As for being a femboy, this allows me to engage with my masculine identity while embracing my femininity. It’s aligning myself with people who identify as men in one way or another, but it doesn’t close the door to all things “girly.” It allows me to enjoy being feminine and admire my natural features without giving myself dysphoria.
Butch and trans masc will never inherently be the same. However, there are those of us who dance all over these lines with glee. We wear each identity like a new layer in a gaudy but industrious outfit, relishing in the confused looks of gender (and fashion) purists.
The entire point of gender is nuance. I’m nonbinary because I can’t fit into any box, no matter how expansive. I’m dancing all over the lines, and my arms are open, welcoming anyone who wants to join me.
Gender can be a battlefield or a playground. I choose the latter. There is no possible way for me to both accept myself and follow a strict set of rules for my gender.
I don’t write this to defend myself. I don’t owe anyone an explanation. Instead, I write this to invite you to broaden your understanding of the true joy of being trans and to encourage you to embrace it yourself.
Opponents of Connecticut’s policy letting transgender girls compete in girls high school sports will get a second chance to challenge it in court, an appeals court ruled Friday, which revived the case without weighing in on its merits.
Both sides called it a win. The American Civil Liberties Union said it welcomes a chance to defend the rights of the two transgender high school track runners it represents. The Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the four cisgender athletes who brought the lawsuit, also said it looks forward to seeking a ruling on the case’s merits.
In a rare full meeting of all active judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, judges found the cisgender runners have standing to sue and have described injuries that might qualify for monetary damages. The runners also seek to alter certain athletic records, alleging they were deprived of honors and opportunities at elite track-and-field events because they say “male athletes” were permitted to compete against them.
The case had been dismissed by a Connecticut judge in 2021, and that decision was affirmed by three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit a year ago.
At least 20 states have approved a version of a blanket ban on transgender athletes playing on K-12 and collegiate sports teams statewide, but a Biden administration proposal to forbid such outright bans is set to be finalized by March after two delays and much pushback. As proposed, the rule announced in April would establish that blanket bans would violate Title IX, the landmark gender-equity legislation enacted in 1972.
Under the proposal, it would be much more difficult for schools to ban, for example, a transgender girl in elementary school from playing on a girls basketball team. But it would also leave room for schools to develop policies that prohibit trans athletes from playing on more competitive teams if those policies are designed to ensure fairness or prevent sports-related injuries.
In a statement Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU Foundation of Connecticut cast the ruling as a victory for the two runners they represent — Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller — noting that the 2nd Circuit wrote that the transgender runners have an “ongoing interest in litigating against any alteration of their public athletic records.”
Roger Brooks, a lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom, said the decision was a victory “not only for the women who have been deprived of medals, potential scholarships, and other athletic opportunities, but for all female athletes across the country.”
In 2020, the Alliance sued on behalf of four athletes — Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell, Alanna Smith, and Ashley Nicoletti — over a Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference policy that allows transgender girls to compete in girls’ athletic events.
Three of 15 judges who heard arguments earlier this year fully dissented on Friday, while five other judges dissented to portions of the majority ruling.
In a dissent to the majority ruling, Circuit Judge Denny Chin noted that three of the cisgender athletes alleged that only one track event in their high school careers were affected by the participation of transgender athletes while a fourth athlete alleged that four championship races were affected.
In a footnote, Chin wrote that all four plaintiffs currently compete on collegiate track-and-field teams, some after being awarded scholarships, while neither of the transgender athletes who intervened in the case have competed since high school.
And he pointed out that no one was able to cite any precedent in which a sports governing body retroactively stripped an athlete of accomplishments when the athlete complied with all existing rules and did not cheat or take an illegal substance.
“It is not the business of the federal courts to grant such relief,” Chin said.
Florida officials temporarily barred a transgender student from participating in any of her high school’s sports teams, saying the teenager violated state law by playing on the girls volleyball team.
In a letter sent Tuesday to the unnamed student’s school, Monarch High School in Coconut Creek, officials from the Florida High School Athletic Association said the trans teenager was “declared ineligible to represent any member school” and therefore barred from competing on any school sports team for just under a year.
Officials also placed the South Florida high school on probation for 11 months, fined it $16,500 and mandated that its staff undergo a series of compliance trainings.
The state’s penalties come just a few weeks after the high school’s principal and several other school officials were reassigned after county officials opened an investigation into “allegations of improper student participation in sports,” flagged by an anonymous tipster.
A spokesperson for Broward County Public Schools confirmed Wednesday that the district received the Florida High School Athletic Association’s letter and that its investigation into the matter is ongoing.
Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group which is serving as the trans student’s legal representation, condemned the state’s action’s in a statement Tuesday.
“Today’s determination by the Florida High School Athletics Association does not change the fact that the law preventing transgender girls from playing sports with their peers is unconstitutionally rooted in anti-transgender bias, and the Association’s claim to ensure equal opportunities for student athletes rings hollow,” Jason Starr, a litigation strategist at the HRC, said in the statement. “The reckless indifference to the wellbeing of our client and her family, and all transgender students across the State, will not be ignored.”
Through the HRC, the trans student and her parents, Jessica and Gary Norton, declined to comment. The student’s mother did, however, issue a statement last week suggesting county officials outed her daughter by launching the investigation.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, signed a law in 2021 barring trans girls and women from competing on female sports teams in public schools. About half of the country’s states have similar laws restricting trans athletes’ ability to participate in school sports. A representative for the Florida governor’s office directed NBC News’ request for comment to the state’s Education Department.
The department did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment, but in a social media post Tuesday, Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. commended the association’s decision to penalize the high school and the trans athlete and the state law that led to those actions.
“Thanks to @GovRonDeSantis, Florida passed legislation to protect girls’ sports and we will not tolerate any school that violates this law,” he said in a post on X. “We applaud the swift action taken by the @FHSAA to ensure there are serious consequences for this illegal behavior.”
The trans student at the center of Monarch High School’s sports controversy and her parents filed a suit over the sports law in 2021 against DeSantis, the Broward County School Board and several other Florida officials. The family argued that the state law violated Title IX, a landmark civil rights law that prevents sex-based discrimination at both public and private schools that receive funding from the federal government. A federal judge denied the family’s challenge to the law last month.
Becky Pepper-Jackson, 13, a transgender teen at the center of a legal battle over transgender participation in West Virginia sports, after a hearing in Richmond, Va., on Friday. Shuran Huang for NBC News
Becky Pepper-Jackson, 13, sat in a courtroom Friday morning while lawyers argued over a law in her home state of West Virginia that would ban her from running on the girls’ cross-country and track teams at her middle school.
The hearing in front of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals was the most recent update in her more than two-year legal battle, which began in May 2021, when she was 11, a month after West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed a bill that bars transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams in middle school, high school and college.
The appeals court will decide whether the law will take effect, and its decision could also start a chain of events that could land Becky’s case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Becky has been allowed to run on her school’s cross country team and throw discus and shot put on the track and field team since the appeals court reinstated a previous injunction against the law in February. The state of West Virginia appealed that verdict to the Supreme Court, which in April rejected reinstating the ban during the lawsuit.
Becky’s mom, Heather, said Becky will often stay late at track and field practice. Sometimes she’ll even practice discus and shot put in their backyard in the rain.
“She likes to do the best in everything, be it algebra or running or shot put or discus,” Heather said. “She tries to excel in everything that she does, just like any other kid.”
Becky said she’s continued her fight after all this time because she loves playing sports.
“I want to keep going because this is something I love to do, and I’m not just going to give it up,” she said. “This is something I truly love, and I’m not going to give up for anything.”
‘It shouldn’t be that hard to be a kid’
Running has always been a family sport for Becky. She has run with her mom and her two brothers since she was a small child, though her running routine has changed slightly since one of her brothers went to high school and Heather is waiting on a knee replacement.
In the meantime, Becky, who is in eighth grade, has thrown herself into discus and shot put. She said she does two types of training for it. Sometimes, she works on her form while throwing lighter or bigger discs or spheres. Most of the time, she said she and her teammates go into what’s called “the pit,” and they get to throw with the high school students. She said she likes how discus and shot put are “polar opposites.”
“With shot put, it’s more like just throw it really hard and hope for the best. You have to be really aggressive,” Becky said. “But in discus, it’s very graceful and all about speed instead, which is what I like best about it.”
West Virginia was among the first states to restrict some or all trans student athletes from playing on school sports teams consistent with their gender identities. Just days after Justice signed the bill in April 2021, he was unable to provide an example of a trans student athlete in the state trying to gain an unfair advantage.
Rather, Justice relied on his experience as a sports coach to justify the law. “I coach a girls’ basketball team, and I can tell you that we all know what an absolute advantage boys would have playing against girls,” he told MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle at the time.
Heather said she and Becky decided to file the lawsuit because, “if she didn’t start the fight, who’s going to?”
She said their lives haven’t changed much over the last two years, though they are more aware of their surroundings when they’re out in public, since their photos are online and some people might recognize them.
“At school, her friends still treat her exactly the same, her teachers treat her exactly the same,” Heather said. “She’s just a regular kid that just wants to play, so that hasn’t changed at all.”
Ahead of the hearing Friday, Heather said they were hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.
“We don’t like to be in the spotlight,” Heather said. “We’re just country people from West Virginia, so it’s a little overwhelming. I’m nervous for her, because I know what joy she gets from doing her sports, and every kid needs sports. It’s just a moral foundation they need to get. They learn responsibility, they learn camaraderie, they learn that people depend on them. And I see how much fun she has.”
In the last three years, 23 states in addition to West Virginia have passed similar restrictions on trans student athletes, with many of their supporters making arguments similar to Justice — that trans girls have an inherent advantage over cisgender girls, or those who aren’t transgender. Courts have temporarily blocked laws in West Virginia, Idaho and Arizona. A court has also permanently blocked Montana’s law as it applies to colleges, but not for K-12 schools.
Becky said it’s been “disappointing” to watch state after state pass trans athlete restrictions during her lawsuit. Heather said she gets upset “because it seems to be the issue du jour.”
“Politicians are out there fighting for votes, and they just jump on a bandwagon without ever researching it for themselves, when if people would just do their own research, the biology and the science is out there to prove what we’re looking for,” Heather said. “We just want to be accepted, and she just wants to be a kid. It shouldn’t be that hard to be a kid.”
An ‘equal and fair playing field’
The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, which are representing Becky, argue that West Virginia’s law is discriminatory and violates Title IX, a federal law that protects students from sex-based discrimination, and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
During Friday’s hearing in front of the 4th Circuit, Becky’s lawyer, Joshua Block of the ACLU, said Becky has received puberty-blocking medication, which has prevented her from going through testosterone-driven puberty and receiving any potential physical advantage. West Virginia’s law, he argued, “goes out of its way to select criteria that do not create athletic advantage but do a perfect job of accomplishing the function of excluding transgender students based on their transgender status.”
The law “could have been drafted to actually adopt criteria that are relevant to athletic performance, but it doesn’t,” Block argued. “It picks criteria that define being transgender.”
Lindsay See, the solicitor general for West Virginia, argued that the district court, in ruling in favor of the law, “got it right that sports is a uniquely strong case for differences rooted in biology and call for sex-based distinctions to help ensure an equal and fair playing field.”
See also noted that experts for both the state and the plaintiff established that there is at least a slight inherent physical difference between trans girls and cisgender girls even prior to puberty. This, See argued, justifies the law. However, Block argued in rebuttal that the state’s expert conceded that any differences before puberty are “minimal.”
Block estimated that the court could release its decision in the next three to six months.
“We really hope that the judges were able to recognize this for what it was, which was discrimination against trans girls solely based on the fact that they’re trans,” he said in a phone call after Friday’s hearing.
Regardless of how the court decides, an appeal is almost guaranteed. Whichever party does appeal will have the opportunity to appeal to the entire 4th Circuit or to the Supreme Court. The ACLU is also litigating a similar law in Idaho and is awaiting a decision from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Depending on the outcome, that case could also be appealed to the high court.
One of the 4th Circuit judges acknowledged the stakes of the outcome at the end of Friday’s hearing.
“I want to thank all counsel for their arguments today, realizing we’re probably only a waystation on the way to the Supreme Court,” Judge G. Steven Agee said.
enjoy living in Kansas. Specifically, Lawrence, Kansas, where I can attend a watercolor painting class at the local plant shop on Wednesday, the weekly drag show on Thursday, and a vintage clothing pop-up on Friday. But despite the beauty of the rolling Flint Hills, there is something ugly happening in the place I call home. Growing hostility towards the transgender and non-binary community is being codified through policies and perpetuated through violence that threatens our basic human rights.
Rights activists see such rollbacks of hard-fought progress spreading across the US, and we’re bracing for new attacks that will test the country’s purported commitment to equality. The fight is the most grueling for those of us who are from Black and other marginalized communities.
In the last year, violence claimed the lives of at least 25 transgender and gender non-conforming people in the US, with violence disproportionately affecting Black transgender women. These numbers are most likely underrepresented, as attacks against the LGBTQ+ community often go undocumented.
Black and Brown trans people should be able to live as their most authentic self without fear of transphobic violence and discrimination.
To add to the growing animus, some states chose to attack transgender rights through legislation rather than protect them. This past June, the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, declared a state of emergency after more than 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in 41 states. Hundreds of these bills specifically targeted transgender people.
Some of these anti-LGBTQ+ bills would limit the ability to update gender information on identity documents like driver’s licenses and birth certificates, weaken nondiscrimination laws and protections in employment, and restrict free speech and expression through book and drag performance bans. State bills also attempt to restrict access to medically necessary health care including bans on gender-affirming care for trans youth, prohibit access to public accommodations like public bathrooms, and prevent trans students from participating in school activities like sports. While introducing a bill doesn’t mean it will pass, 84 of these draconian measures made it out of committee and have been signed into law.
Even the introduction of these bills perpetuates harmful stigmas and allows misinformation to spread. I have witnessed how harmful the introduction of these bills has been on members of the trans community I am a part of. In Kansas, 14 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced and four were passed into law in the last legislative session. During that time, my trans friends and peers pleaded with conservative lawmakers to respect their dignity and protect their autonomy over their own bodies. Medical experts testified that the mere act of introducing these bills causes great harm to the mental health of transgender people across the state.
One bill, misnamed the Women’s Bill of Rights though it limits protections for transgender women, passed and went into effect on July 1st. In response, LGBTQ+ activists in Lawrence refused to rest until the City Commission enacted a sanctuary city ordinance, increasing protections for trans people. Despite the immense fear transgender people were feeling in this moment, their message rang loud and clear: LGBTQ+ people have the right to live without fear, and we are not going anywhere.
Make no mistake, allowing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation to be passed sends a message that legitimizes homophobic and transphobic sentiment.
There are some hopeful signs. Legislation to outlaw the LGBTQ+ panic defense was introduced in nine states as well as in the US House and Senate this year. Under that defense, people charged with violent crime against LGBTQ+ people can get a reduced sentence or evade criminal liability by stating that the victim’s real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity prompted the violent act.
As violence against the LGBTQ+ community continues to increase, it is important now more than ever for lawmakers in statehouses across the country and for the federal government to strengthen protections for trans people and especially for the most vulnerable members of this community—Black and Brown trans women. Lawmakers should be recognizing and protecting LGBTQ+ people’s equal dignity under the law. Legislators should support active efforts to quell discrimination, like Kansas’s HB 2178, and codify LGBTQ+ protections. The US Government should also meet its human rights obligations to respond to foreseeable threats to life and bodily integrity, and to address patterns of violence targeting the LGBTQ+ community.
While activists continue to fight for LGBTQ+ liberation, I am reminded to celebrate the small wins. I remain hopeful when I see young LGBTQ+ people organizing and exercising their right to protest in the name of egalitarianism. They remind me that pride is not something solely limited to the month of June, but a badge of honor we always carry with us.
Bria Nelson is a Researcher and Advocate on Racial Justice and Equity Issues with the Human Rights Watch U.S. Program. Bria is an attorney and concentrates their research on racial justice and equity issues across the U.S., with a particular focus on reparations for enslavement and its legacies.
As a movement lawyer, Bria has also worked to mobilize response and advocacy after the public murder of George Floyd, including undergoing an intensive fellowship training program with Law for Black Lives, an organization focused on grounding movements in Black queer feminism, abolition, and anticapitalism.
Don’t touch that hot stove! Don’t pull the dog’s tail! Don’t say bad words! Tell a kid that they can’t do something and what’s the normal response? Do it. Why? Because your parents, the commanders of your universe, told you not to not to do it (which is the simultaneous birthplace of both your curiosity and independence). Don’t they remember being a kid — and that delicious wanting to know what’s on the other side of “Don’t?”
One of my greatest joys as an author is to inspire kids to read. Books were my curiosity creators and my independence days, dreaming up entire universes of imagination and possibility, all within this hand-held, human-made wonder.
But being told “Don’t read that book.” Or better yet, ban it. Huh? Why?
You — the book banners of the world— have now unleashed one of the oldest unintentional human marketing schemes since the dawn of kids. The “Don’t.” You have done the one thing you can’t do to kids — make something mysterious or forbidden. And now they want to read the book you have banned. I’m sure this was not your intention but, nonetheless, you have unleashed the good intentions behind the power of “Don’t.” Because if the book you’re banning contains forbidden or mysterious information that adults don’t want you to read, it must be worth reading. Taboo sells.
So, to all book banners, thank you.
Banning books? The Greatest Marketing Scheme to get Kids to Read Books Again . . .
Book banners: You are now in the marketing business. Your motto should be, “Books your parents don’t want you to read.” Brilliant. That will seal the deal. Why did “1984” become a bestseller again? Because it was banned again.
And all those obscure books you’re ferreting out to ban? Now you’re really helping to put them on the map, and even making them bestsellers again. Some are books that maybe a few kids might have read, if at all. Now kids — and parents — want to read them because you say not to read them. Brilliant marketing and marvelous adult logic.
The 10-Million Pound Elephant in the Room is the Internet. If you’re scared of the books in the library, you should be horrified at the Internet. You think that banning books about identity, sexuality, racism, slavery, or finger painting is going to stop a kid from wanting to know — if they want to know more? Nope. Now they can turn to your worst nightmare — the Internet. Because most likely what they’ll encounter on the web is absolutely everything you don’t want them to see or hear in the most graphic ways you can and can’t imagine. If nature abhors a vacuum, then curiosity abhors knowledge that’s locked up.
By banning a book, you are choosing to decide my own — and everyone else’s — reading destiny. Freedom is not about taking one’s choice away. It’s about allowing more choices. It’s trusting us to figure it out all on our very own. And the liberty to choose what to read — or not.
Taking away a book that’s offensive offends me. Books are easy to bully. You can find anything in any book you want to be offended by and that’s the ultimate slippery slope of book banning. Heck, you can even be offended by “The Cat in the Hat” or “Winnie the Pooh” if you’re so inclined. But fundamentally when you ban a book, you take away my freedom to be offended by something I may want to read — or not. And that’s offensive.
What are we teaching our kids? Fear. Fear is what we teach our kids when we don’t want them to know. Banning books is about banning knowledge. And when we don’t trust them with knowledge, we lose our ability — and respect to talk. Because fear loves secrecy. It thrives on lack of communication — the worst thing you can do with kids who are trying to figure out the world. It’s so much better to talk with them about ideas that they’re curious about because they’ll find out anyway — and maybe not in a responsible, mature way.
What should we teach our kids? Trust. Let’s trust our kids to explore. To be curious. And give them the freedom to be curious. That’s the most powerful form of liberty for kids.
Our job as parents is to teach our kids where knowledge fits into their world. How to question it and how to use it — or not use it. The freedom to learn, to question, to comprehend, to converse, and to do it over and over again is one of the greatest legacies that books continue to give the world, and nobody can take that liberty and legacy away from us.
Carew Papritz is the award-winning author of the bestselling inspirational book, ‘The Legacy Letters.’ Through his innovative literacy efforts to inspire kids to read, Papriz has created the ‘I Love to Read’ and ‘First-Ever Book Signings’ through his ‘CarewTube’ video series.
As the Trans Day of Remembrance (TDoR) draws near, members of the LGBTQ+ community are preparing to memorialize those members of our community who were taken from us much too soon as a result of violence and discrimination. When we think about our deceased siblings, we experience a wide range of feelings, from sorrow to fortitude and everything in between. But there is one facet of this battle that is typically disregarded: the predicament of our transgender brothers and sisters who are currently behind bars.
When I think about TDoR, I am reminded of the hostility and violence that transgender people face on a daily basis. Incarcerated trans folks are subjected to the same political and systemic cruelty.
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As a transgender woman who was recently imprisoned and housed with men, I have a unique perspective on the difficulties experienced by those who must navigate the complexity of the correctional system while also coping with the harsh reality of being transgender.
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In my time spent in prison, I was forced to adjust to an atmosphere that did not correspond with who I am. I was a trans woman who lived with guys and was attempting to navigate a world that did not acknowledge or comprehend my gender. I was trying to find my place. My everyday struggles were both physical and emotional. Every day was a challenge since there was a glaring lack of acceptance and comprehension on the part of both the inmates and the prison staff.
Transgender people are already overrepresented in the correctional system for a variety of reasons, including prejudice, a lack of access to affirming healthcare, and economic disadvantages. What’s more, the criminal justice system does not adequately accommodate their medical needs. The lack of access to qualified medical treatment and healthcare that affirms gender identity is a major cause for concern. Hormone therapy is a lifeline for many transgender people, and yet in prison, it is frequently denied or delayed.
Once individuals enter a correctional facility, they are often placed in an unwelcoming setting, which makes them even more susceptible to being physically or sexually assaulted. The horrific events that individuals go through when they are detained can be traumatic, and there is frequently neither an accessible treatment nor remedy.
Isolation from the larger LGBTQ+ community is one of the most upsetting elements of being incarcerated as a transgender person. It’s also one of the most common. It is a profound feeling of isolation, and it is challenging to articulate this loneliness to those who could provide support, empathy, and understanding. Not only are there physical walls surrounding you, but there are also emotional and psychological barriers that sometimes feel impossible to overcome.
As we observe TDoR, the experiences of our trans siblings behind bars serve as a glaring reminder of the urgent need for changes to be made in the legal system in this country. The fight for the rights of transgender people does not cease when they are brought into custody; their stories need to be heard.
It’s possible that the harsh reality of life inside a correctional facility will make the already widespread mental health issues that transgender people face even worse. Transgender people who are incarcerated may struggle with challenges like depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The trauma of incarceration is made worse when there is a lack of knowledge and empathy for the particular issues that the inmates are dealing with.
While we commemorate those who were killed as a result of violence and discrimination on TDoR, we also have a responsibility to find those who are still being mistreated and provide assistance to them. Their mental wounds are quite real, as, of course, are the physical risks they face. Their narratives are significant, their lives have value, and it is imperative that their voices be heard.
Finding the courage to advocate for myself and other transgender inmates while I was incarcerated was a lifeline for me. Finding that confidence was a challenge. The road leading to change is not an easy one, but it is one that is well worth traveling. There are groups and individuals who are working persistently to reform the criminal justice system, meet the special needs of incarcerated trans people, and provide support for those who these issues have impacted. Supporting, advocating for, and speaking out in favor of this cause is something we can all do if we work together.
It is not merely an act of sentimentality to remember imprisoned transgender folks. Rather, it is a call to action. We have the ability to work together to build a society that is more inclusive and just, one in which every trans person, regardless of their circumstances, has the opportunity to live with dignity, respect, and safety. Let us, in the spirit of TDoR, fight toward a future where the voices of our transgender siblings who are currently incarcerated will no longer be silenced, and where their lives will be cherished and safeguarded.
Let us honor those we’ve lost by making it our mission to make sure that nobody else has to experience these injustices.