Transgender / Transsexual

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Woman who fled to the US in search of a better life is sixth trans person killed in US in 2022

A woman who fled Honduras to Texas in search of a better life has become the sixth trans person killed in the US in 2022.

Paloma Vázquez, a spirited activist who sought refuge from transphobic violence, herself became the latest victim of what experts have described as an “epidemic of violence”.

The 29-year-old with big dreams of a life without fear was shot to death in her southwest Houston Apartment on Dunlap and Clarewood street on 26 February.

According to the Houston Police Department, the door to the property was unlocked with no signs of forced entry when officers arrived at around 8pm. She was discovered by her boyfriend and appeared to have been deceased since the morning.

Vázquez had emigrated to Texas some six months ago, her friends recalled in conversations with ABC 13. She was “very excited about decorating,” one recalled, having only recently moved into her new apartment.

“As most trans women who are here from Latin America, they are here because they are scared of being killed in their own country,” the friend, Gia Pacheco, said.

“Whenever a trans person is killed, they are killed because they are trans.”

According to Sin Violencia LGBTI, a regional information network, more than 1,100 trans and non-binary people were killed in Latin America from 2014 to 2020. At least 208 LGBT+ people were slain in Honduras.

But beyond graphs and spreadsheets, the victims of such anti-LGBT+ violence are people, wrote Ana Andrea Molina, the founder of Organización Latina de Trans en Texas of which Vázquez was a member. And that must never be forgotten.

“Our hearts are mourning the loss of another fellow transgender whose light was extinguished in an aggressive and hateful way,” she said.

“Our pain and sorrow should be a call to our community to unite and find the killer.”

The Houston-based group organised a memorial event for Vázquez on 3 March outside Houston City Hall.

With Texan politicians ‘determined to attack’ trans people, homicide rates flare

In the US and less than three months into the year, at least six trans, non-binary and gender-conforming people have been violently killed, according to the Human Rights Campaign which has been monitoring the wave of brutality since 2013.

But documenting the violence is one riddled with difficulties, given that two-thirds of trans homicide cases are misgendered and deadnamed in police and press reports, the HRC found. Meaning that the HRC’s tally is likely even higher.

It comes after last year’s record-breaking death tally of at least 57, many of them Black trans women. The record continues to climb even months after the year’s end, as more victims’ deaths are discovered by grassroots activists combing through local news reports and talking to relatives.

To be trans in America, activists warn, is to juggle survival with day-to-day living.

Struggling with higher levels of homelessness, poverty and unemployment, trans people also face higher risk; three-fourths of confirmed homicides against trans folk have involved a gun, according to the Transgender Homicide Tracker.

Texas is, according to Montrose Grace Place, a non-profit that supports queer homeless people, “one of the deadliest places in America for trans women”. And in the Lone Star State, among dozens of others, trans people are also facing legislative attacks against them.

Only days before Vázquez was killed, Texas governor Greg Abbott launched an attack against trans youth, comparing gender-affirming healthcare options to “child abuse“.

He went on to send a chilling directive to the state’s child protection agencyto investigate the parents and guardians of trans youth for such misconduct, touching off fear and frustration among the trans community.

“We’ve already recorded nine cases of fatal violence in Texas since last year, with the latest recorded only last month,” said Tori Cooper, who helms the HRC’s Transgender Justice Initiative, in a statement.

“With politicians in Texas determined to attack the transgender community, we must call on our allies to stand up and speak out.”

According to the Trans Formation Project, a legislative tracker, there are more than a dozen proposed laws targeting trans youth in statehouse dockets.

“They are killing us,” Molina wrote on Facebook. “Today was Paloma, maybe tomorrow it will be me.”

In 2022, the community has so far mourned: Amariey Lej, Duval Princess, Cypress Ramos, Naomie Skinner and Matthew Angelo.

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Utah governor Spencer Cox promises to veto ‘insidious’ trans sports ban

Governor Spencer Cox has promised to veto a trans sports ban that was passed through in the last hours of the Utah legislative session. 

State lawmakers debated and passed House Bill 11 (HB 11) on Friday (4 March) night, just before the end of the Utah Legislature’s 2022 general session. The proposed legislation would prohibit trans girls who want to compete in school sports teams corresponding with their gender identity. 

After an hour of debate, the Senate passed the bill with a 16-13 vote, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. The House approved the legislation a few minutes later with a 46-29 vote, and several Republicans joined Democrats to vote against the bill. 

The legislation now heads to Cox’s desk, and the Republican governor has promised to veto the bill immediately. 

In a news conference after the vote, Cox said he was “stunned” after lawmakers quickly passed an amended version of the bill that included a full ban on trans girls competing in girls sports leagues. 

A previous version of the bill sought to create a commission that would have determined the eligibility of individual students, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. But this part of the bill was scrapped on Friday in favour of an outright ban instead. 

“I was as stunned as most members of the Senate were,” Cox said. “Some of the worst decisions get made at the last minute.”

He also directly addressed trans youth in the state who might have been listening to the debate, telling them that everything is “going to be okay”. 

“We’re going to work through this,” Cox said. “We’re going to find a good path, and there are a lot of people that really love and care about them.”

Equality Utah welcomed Cox’s promise to veto the anti-trans bill and thanked him for “protesting transgender children”. 

“With your veto, HB 11 is dead,” Equality Utah tweeted. “We are in tears. Thank you to every lawmaker, Democrat and Republican who voted against this insidious ban.”

Republican senator Daniel Thatcher teared up in an emotional speech opposing the trans sports ban during the floor debate on Friday. 

He said was disappointed that his fellow lawmakers voted to pass the bill and worried about the message it would send to trans youth, Deseret News reported. 

“Kids who just want to be loved, who just want to be seen, who just want to live,” Thatcher said. “I want them to know that I’m sorry that I couldn’t do more.”

He added: “I want them to know that we’re changing, and we are learning, and we are growing.”

Without Cox’s approval, it seems unlikely that Utah will join the 11 other states that have passed a trans sports ban into law. 

Iowa is the latest state to pass through such legislation after governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill banning trans athletes Thursday (3 March). 

Utah lawmakers could override the governor’s veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers. However, it would be unlikely to happen in Utah as some Republicans have vocally opposed the ban, the Associated Press reported. 

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Majority of teachers have trans pupils and are ‘crying out’ for help to support them, UK study finds

The majority of teachers have a trans pupil in their class, with many saying they would like more help with how to support them, a new study has found.

Research by LGBT+ young people’s charity Just Like Us found that 55 per cent of teachers in England have at least one pupil who has come out as transgender, and 78 per cent say they would like more resources supporting them.

The study, which surveyed 6,394 teachers across England, also said that 87 per cent of secondary school teachers have had at least one trans student.

“Trans young people across the country are in schools with teachers who are crying out for the right resources to support them,” said Dominic Arnall, chief executive of Just Like Us.

Arnall added that a “small but vocal” anti-trans population can make it tough for students to grow up as trans, and that teachers with positive resources can make all the difference.

He added: “While we understand some might feel nervous about this there is really no reason to be. 

“You don’t need to be an expert in gender to support trans young people. 

“With a small but vocal minority of anti-trans individuals, it’s often a tough and terrifying time for young people growing up trans, so it’s very encouraging to see that the majority of their teachers want to support their pupils to be themselves and feel safe while learning, and we will do everything we can to help them with that journey.”

Isaac, a 22-year-old ambassador for Just Like Us, said: “I’m a transgender man who went to a girl’s school.

“I think the main obstacle to providing that support for trans young people is hesitance, for fear of getting it wrong. But I feel so much better when I know that a teacher is trying, even if they get it wrong sometimes, than if they don’t want to try at all.

“It sets an example for the young peers of trans pupils as future allies.”

Despite this positive study, there is a long way to go for trans equality in UK schools, with the recent news that a leading group of girls’ schools has updated its admissions policy to exclude trans girls from being admitted as students.

The ban by Girls Day School Trust, a group of 25 independent schools in England and Wales, was implemented because, the group claims, to let trans girls become pupils would jeopardise the schools’ status as single-sex.

A spokesperson for the Trans Legal Project said: “Our strong view is that admitting a trans girl does not jeopardise the single-sex status of a girl’s school and the GDST is wrong about this.”

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Alabama lawmakers advance transgender students bathroom ban

Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday night approved legislation that would bar transgender students from using school bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.

The bill mandates K-12 schools require students to use multi-person restrooms and locker rooms that match the sex on their original birth certificate. The Alabama House of Representatives voted 74-24 for the bill after two hours of contentious debate where Republicans said it would address an ongoing problem in public schools but opponents said it targets trans youth to score political points. The bill now moves to the Alabama Senate.

“Right now, you’ve got males who are dressing up as females, who are identifying themselves as females, and wanting to use the female bathrooms,” Republican Rep. Scott Stadthagen of Hartselle told lawmakers.

Stadthagen said some schools are now being asked to accommodate transgender students who request to use the bathrooms that align with their gender identity. He said the bill is also about protecting girls’ privacy and safety.

“All you are doing is demonizing an already vulnerable population. It’s all under the guise of protecting children just to win cheap political points. That’s all it is,” Rep. Neil Rafferty, a Democrat from Birmingham, said during debate on the bill.

Rafferty said schools in his Birmingham district have handled accommodations for transgender student, “without targeting vulnerable youth that are already having issues with suicide, mental illness, bullying.”

Stadthagen, in urging support for the bill, cited sexual assaults that have happened in school bathrooms. But opposing lawmakers challenged him to name any bathroom assault where a transgender individual was the attacker.

“How many of those cases involved a transgender woman?” Rep. Merika Coleman, a Democrat from Pleasant Grove, asked. Stadthagen replied he didn’t know.

Similar policies in other states have resulted in litigation. The U.S. Supreme Court last year rejected a Virginia school board’s appeal to reinstate its transgender bathroom ban, handing a victory to transgender rights groups and a former high school student who fought in court for six years to overturn the ban.

The full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was scheduled to hear oral arguments Tuesday in the case of a transgender student in Florida who was blocked from using the boy’s bathroom.

Republicans who spoke in favor of the bill said teachers and parents in their districts have expressed discomfort over transgender students using bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

Rep. Andrew Sorrell, a Republican from Muscle Shoals, said there is a transgender student using the girl’s bathroom at a high school in his district. Sorrell said he would not let his now infant daughter attend that school in the future without this bill.

“I think this is such a commonsense bill. I understand and appreciate that you are trying to protect our daughters,” Sorrell told Stadthagen.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, condemned the passage of the bill.

“Today, the Alabama State House of Representatives took steps to discriminate against transgender students who deserve the fundamental human dignity of being able to use the bathroom without being discriminated against or humiliated,” Human Rights Campaign Alabama State Director Carmarion D. Anderson-Harvey said in a statement.

The Alabama bill is the second targeting LGBTQ youths to advance in legislative committee this year. A Senate committee last week advanced a bill that would outlaw the use of puberty-blockers, hormonal treatments and surgery to assist transgender youth 18 and younger in their gender transition.

Last year, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law a bill to block transgender girls from playing on female sports teams at public schools.

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In transgender people, GOP candidates find latest ‘wedge issue’

Dr. Mehmet Oz leans in to ask a little girl, “Do you remember when your parents thought you were a boy?”

The question was but a few seconds of a full 2010 episode of “The Dr. Oz Show” that focused on the experience of raising transgender children. But the clip now appears in an attack ad aired by a super PAC supporting one of his Republican primary opponents in the crowded and high-stakes race for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania.

Another campaign ad, from Republican U.S. Senate candidate Vicky Hartzler in Missouri, targets transgender people in sports and has her referring to an NCAA athlete — Ivy League championship-winning University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas — by her deadname and saying “women’s sports are for women, not men pretending to be women.”

And on Wednesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who is running for re-election, ordered the state’s child welfare agency to investigate reports of gender-confirming care for kids as abuse.

Derision and disparagement of transgender people, and even of those perceived as their allies, are proliferating on the airwaves and in statehouses across the country as 2022 election campaigns heat up. It’s a classic strategy of finding a “wedge issue” that motivates a political base, political observers say.

“They are just weaponizing the fact that most everyday Americans don’t yet realize that they know someone who is transgender,” said Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “It is easy to fall for a myth about a group of people you don’t know, and that’s just human. … It’s just really unfortunate to now see a group of politicians try to use that to their own advantage.”

Republicans use it because public opinion is on their side, said Neil Newhouse, a veteran Republican pollster.

The idea of restricting transgender athletes resonates with parents of high school athletes, motivates the Republican base, and carries swing voters by 2 to 1, Newhouse said.

In a primary, a Republican candidate can use it to establish their conservative credentials and to come out first or forcefully enough to own the issue, Newhouse said. Or it can be used to push a rival to the left, he said.

Asked for comment on the ad, which does not mention sports, Oz’s campaign — using inaccurate terminology to describe transgender women — said only that the celebrity surgeon doesn’t believe that “biological males should compete in women’s sports.”

The efforts to make political hay of transgender and other LGBTQ people extend well beyond just campaign ads.

At least 10 states have banned transgender athletes from participating in sports in a way that is consistent with their gender identity.

Indiana is poised to be the 11th, although federal courts have blocked laws in Idaho and West Virginia. And then there are states that are banning or investigating gender-confirming treatment, such as Texas.

The narrative of transgender people as a threat has strong parallels to bathroom-use and same-sex marriage bans and can be traced to Anita Bryant’s “Save Our Children” campaign in 1977, said Andrew Proctor, an associate professor of politics at Wake Forest University who studies and teaches LGBTQ politics.

The political framing is often around protecting girls, which is probably designed to broaden its appeal, Proctor and others said.

“It’s good messaging. Who doesn’t want to protect children?” said Don Haider-Markel, a University of Kansas political science professor.

Although examples like Lia Thomas are few across the country, Hartzler — who cites her experience as a high school athlete and coach — said in an interview that the issue of trans athletes is ad-worthy in a Senate race because it is a “representation of the wokeness that is being inflicted upon us from all sides and has gone beyond common sense.”

A spokesperson for University of Pennsylvania athletics said Thomas would not comment on the ad.

The NCAA in January adopted a sport-by-sport approach for transgender athletes to document testosterone levels before championship selections. For high school sports, states have a hodgepodge of policies.

In Pennsylvania, the TV ad from the super PAC supporting Republican David McCormick tries to characterize Oz as a “Republican in Name Only,” or not conservative enough.

The super PAC, Honor Pennsylvania, has received millions of dollars from conservative billionaire Ken Griffin.

The ad rips a few seconds from the episode and presents it without the context of a show that looked at transgender children from a measured standpoint, with input from a pediatrician and their parents on the kids’ newfound happiness.

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The clip in the attack ad stops after Oz gently asks the girl, from a military family, if she remembers when her parents thought she was a boy. The full episode continues:

“A little bit,” the girl answers.

“Talk to me about that a little bit,” Oz says. “What do you remember?”

The girl’s mother, sitting next to her, says: “Like, how did it make you feel when I used to take you and get your hair cut at the barber shop on base?”

“It made me very angry,” Josie answers.

“You did not like your hair cut,” the mother says. “Why not?”

Josie answers: “Because I’m a girl, not a boy.”

A political consultant to Honor Pennsylvania did not return messages asking how that makes Oz not conservative enough. A McCormick campaign spokesperson did not return messages asking whether McCormick agrees with the ad’s attack.

Josie and her mother could not be located for comment on being featured years later in a political attack ad.

“I think it’s incredibly sad when a political leader finds that the only way that they can get themselves elected to office is by attacking vulnerable children and their parents,” said Lisa Middleton, the transgender mayor of Palm Springs, California. “Of all the issues that are before us in this world and this country today … to make it more difficult for a transgender child and their parents to navigate their life to adulthood is irresponsible. It’s un-American.”

Republicans aren’t the only party that uses wedge issues — Democrats often cast the wealthy in a negative light for political gain.

But the GOP’s targeting of transgender people may have a shelf life, just as both parties’ efforts against same-sex marriage shifted along with public opinion, said Paul Goren, a political psychology professor at the University of Minnesota. If it doesn’t pay off with electoral wins, he said, then Republicans will move on.

In Texas, Abbott’s letter came just a week before the state’s Republican primary, the nation’s first for the 2022 cycle. It aligns with a recent legal opinion from state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican who is also running for re-election, that is directed at gender-confirming treatments incorporating puberty blockers and hormone therapy.

An Arkansas law banning such treatments for anyone under 18 years old has been blocked by a federal judge, while other states are considering similar legislation.

Pushback in Texas is coming from civil liberties groups, medical professionals and district attorneys in some counties.

Kimberly Shappley, a Texas nurse and mother of an 11-year-old transgender girl, Kai, said she was distraught and had begun looking for a job in another state. The family has already been on edge for years over efforts to prevent transgender children from using public bathrooms that match their identity, she said.

“As the parent of a trans kid, I can tell you that our close-knit community is just a wreck,” Shappley said on a video news conference organized by the American Civil Liberties Union. “It’s just been a lot of tears. It’s been a lot of, ‘Do we have our documents in order? Do we have our plan in place? Is this the time we have to move?’”

But it’s hard to know where to go, she said.

“The whole United States is on fire with anti-trans legislation. It’s not just Texas,” Shappley said. “What is the safe place that you think trans kids can live right now? Because there’s not that many left.”

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Latina woman who ‘shined brightly’ and ‘loved everyone’ is third trans person killed in US in 2022

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A beloved trans Latina woman allegedly killed in Lubbock, Texas, has become 2022’s third victim of an unceasing “epidemic of violence” in the US.

Cypress Ramos, a 21-year-old who could always be found smiling and cheering on her friends, was found dead in a storage unit on the morning of 12 February.

She died of blunt force trauma to the head after being struck by an unspecified hard object, according to the murder warrant for 32-year-old Allan Montemayor, who has been charged for Ramos’ murder, KCBD reported.

Ramos was found inside a locked container in the 2700 block of North Frankford Avenue after a fire was reported by a neighbour. Lubbock Fire Rescue put out the blaze only to discover a “dead body” inside at 11.30am.

As police arrived at the storage unit, officers elsewhere were dispatched to Montemayor who told cops he “f**ked up” and that there was a body in a storage unit set on fire.

Surveillance footage showed Montemayor’s pickup truck parked outside the unit. Both he and Ramos entered the unit – one hour and 20 minutes later, only he left and drove away.

When pressed by police about what took place inside, the warrant said he simply “shrugged and stated: ‘Isn’t it apparent?’” He alleged that Ramos has set a fire before coming at him with a bat and, “at this point, it was either me or [her],” Montemayor added, misgendering the victim.

Montemayor later told detectives that he believed a “song” had compelled Ramos to launch an attack against him in the unit. He also said, however, that the same song gave him instructions to kill the victim.

Lubbock County Sheriff investigators said that Montemayor had blood on his legs as well as his pants, said Ramos’ friend, drag queen Camilla Urbina, to KCBD.

“He tried to burn my friend, literally,” she alleged. “Like burn, burn them up.”

“There was blood on his pants, I believe that something else happened. And the truth will come out. And you will pay, promise.”

Montemayor is currently in the Lubbock County Detention Center where he is held on a $500,000 bond for a charge of murder.

Cypress Ramos was ‘always smiling’ and ‘loved everyone,’ friends say

According to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT+ campaign group that has been monitoring trans homicide rates since 2013, Ramos is “at least” the third trans, non-binary or gender non-conforming person violently killed in 2022.

It comes after last year’s record-breaking death tally of at least 56, many of them Black trans women, an already dizzyingly high figure that has continued to climb as more homicide cases emerge months after 2021 came to an end.

HRC has long warned that its own count is likely inaccurate, given that three-fourths of trans victims are misgendered and deadnamed by the police and press.

The American Medical Association has warned of an “epidemic of violence” against trans Americans – a statement repeated by president Joe Biden. The latest victim of this wave of violence, Ramos, was to those who knew her a “friend, a sister, a daughter”.

“Cypress was always smiling,” a friend of Ramos told Equality Texas in a statement on Saturday (19 February). “She was so tiny, so it felt like my arms wrapped around her three times.

“She just loved everyone,” the friend said before Equality Texas added: “A bright light like Cypress deserved to shine bright for much longer.”

The state-level advocacy group said a candlelight vigil in honour of Ramos’ life was held later that day at Tim Cole Memorial Park.

“Cypress Ramos’ death was an awful end to such a young life,” Tori Cooper, who leads HRC’s Transgender Justice Initiative, said in a statement.

“Her story highlights how trans women of colour are still devalued in our society.

“We must all work to end the epidemic of violence against transgender and non-binary people. May justice be served in this case.”

In 2022, the community has so far mourned: Amariey Lej and Duval Princess.

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Sen. Rick Scott’s GOP manifesto denies existence of transgender people

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., laid out a conservative blueprint this week for a GOP takeover of Congress, and included in his “11-Point Plan to Rescue America” are a number of proposals that would limit the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. 

The document outlines Republican policy objectives on everything from the economy to abortion, but the point that caused the most alarm to LGBTQ advocates was in a section titled “Gender, Life, Science.” 

“Men and women are biologically different, ‘male and female He created them,'” Scott wrote. “Facts are facts, the earth is round, the sun is hot, there are two genders, and abortion stops a beating heart. To say otherwise is to deny science.”

In this section, Scott — who served as Florida’s governor from 2011 to 2019 — called for nationwide bans on government forms that “include questions about ‘gender identity’ or ‘sexual preference’”; gender-affirming procedures on minors; and transgender women and girls participating on female sports teams. 

“We will protect women’s sports by banning biological males from competing,” the policy outline states. “It is hugely unfair and would erase many of the gains women have made in athletics over the last 50 years.”

Scott’s proposals echo the ongoing nationwide push of anti-LGBTQ legislation by state lawmakers.

So far this year, conservative state lawmakers have filed more than 170 anti-LGBTQ bills — already surpassing last year’s 139 total — according to Freedom for All Americans. The majority of the bills target transgender minors’ ability to receive gender-affirming health care or participate in sports. 

In the eighth point of Scott’s plan, labeled simply “Family,” he called out the “radical left” for seeking to “devalue and redefine the traditional family,” using language associated with activists opposed to same-sex marriage.

LGBTQ advocates slammed Scott’s proposals.

Brandon Wolf, the press secretary for advocacy group Equality Florida, said that Scott’s manifesto was “affirmation of what we’ve been trying to warn folks about.”

“What is happening in Florida isn’t isolated,” Wolf told NBC News. “It’s a test market for a national strategy by the extreme right to legislate this country back to 1960, mire us in culture wars and decimate the progress we’ve won.”

Scott, a first-term senator who is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is not the only Republican to preview how the GOP would pursue anti-LGBTQ legislation should it regain power in Washington. 

Last month, former President Donald Trump said he would ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports nationwide if he were re-elected.

“We will ban men from participating in women’s sports,” Trump said during a rally in Conroe, Texas. “So ridiculous.”

Aside from how the GOP should navigate LGBTQ rights, Scott’s manifesto called for Republicans to “eliminate racial politics in America,” finish building a southern border wall and name it after Trump, and battle “the new religion of wokeness.”

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Meet the trans folk who found acceptance after embracing their surgery scars

While having surgery is not a requirement of being transgender and not everyone medically transitions (perhaps out of choice, due to financial situations, or other reasons), undergoing surgical procedures can be a big step in some trans folks’ transitions.

After surgery comes a healing process, and not just the physical kind, as trans people start a new chapter in their lives with new mental and emotional challenges. However, for some, accepting their scars from surgery is a major aspect of accepting who they are as a person.

Let’s meet three trans people who found power in learning to love their scars.

Lara
Lara Provided

Lara

Lara realized she did not identify as masculine when she was a toddler, however, they were forced by family members and religious pressures to hide their identity until they turned 30. 

While coming out is still an ongoing process for Lara with other relatives and friends, she decided to have bottom surgery to affirm her feminine identity.

“I refused to get any surgeries until I came to terms with who I am and the body I was born with. I didn’t want to undergo surgery than still have the same issues with myself on the inside as before, since surgery only solves some of the challenges of being trans. The real challenge is loving and accepting who you are on the inside,” they say.

Lara shares that the biggest benefit from her surgery is that she can’t produce testosterone anymore.

“I had to come to terms with the fact that I would depend on injecting hormones for the rest of my life rather than feel the way I did with the wrong, naturally occurring, chemicals in my body. I had to accept that there was nothing wrong with me. There was something wrong with the way my body produced chemicals.”

Following on from their surgery, Lara says their scars have healed largely, but she can still feel them.

She says they are a constant reminder that she was able to become their whole, true self.

“The decision to have surgery changed my entire life. I’m reminded of that decision every time I trace my fingers over my scars, and it makes me feel validated. It allows me to move through my days with more clarity and purpose.”

When asked their advice for other trans folk learning to accept their bodies post-surgery, Lara wants everyone to know that self-love is the key.

“Scars from gender-affirming surgeries are a mark of self love. Let your scars be a permanent reminder to love yourself and your identity.”

Faye
Faye

Faye

Faye also had an emotional experience when she saw her scars for the first time after surgery.

“The first time I looked down and saw my scars after surgery, I thought they were so beautiful that I cried. I felt proud and sexy because they symbolized the fact that I took charge of a bad situation and did everything I could to ensure that I would live a long, healthy life. They prove I’m a warrior.”

She feels like she saved her own life by choosing to transition and live as her authentic self, and Faye wants the world to accept trans scars and how they mark a chapter in someone’s life.

“We need to show our real skin so others can see what that looks like. We need to show our scars because they are simply part of being human, and mine just add to the tapestry of my life,” Faye says.

She continues to assure others that, while others may see your scars and judge you, how you feel inside is what matters most.

“Only you know what you’ve been through and how much stronger you’re becoming because of it. If you want to talk about your scars and your journey, that’s fine. You are allowed to show them off.”

However, Faye also highlights how surgery isn’t just one thing, since representations of trans people in the media tend to focus on the surgical aspects of transitioning, especially bottom surgery.

“Surgery can be incredibly affirming for people like me who wish to have it. But, it’s important to remember that hormonal transitions are also valid medical options and can produce results that alleviate dysphoria.

“But, ultimately, having or not having surgery doesn’t make anyone’s experience more or less valid. Surgery simply changes the body in which you experience your gender, not your gender itself. So, to any other trans people, I remind you that your gender is valid, regardless of whether you want to have surgery.”

Ethan
Ethan

Ethan

Finally, we meet Ethan, who came out as transgender in the summer of 2016. He first recognized that he was trans in his teenage years, but coming out was a journey, especially to his parents.

“Admittedly, it took both of my parents quite some time to adjust, to move through their own phases of processing and understanding, and eventually settling in a place of support and acceptance. With that, of course, came many a time of still using my birth name, or female pronouns which was impossibly hard to cope with. But, I knew they needed time and space to let the new reality become familiar territory,” he shares.

Fortunately, his family unit is now stronger than ever and he has fiercely supportive friends who are quick to correct others and advocate on Ethan’s behalf when he isn’t present.

“I had top surgery in 2019, but that in itself is quite a broad and all-encompassing term for any of the chest masculinizing surgeries transmasculine folks undergo. I had a double incision, bilateral mastectomy, with free nipple grafts.”

Ethan says his initial focus of importance when he came out was to start testosterone and effectively go through a second puberty. He wanted the world to see him the way he was on the inside.

However, once that started to kick in and the discomfort began to lessen around his image, he felt overwhelming dysphoria around his chest. Therefore, chest surgery and no longer needing to wear a binder to compress the tissue and give a flatter appearance in clothes was really important for Ethan.

He says having surgery solidified the comfort he had found in his identity, and he felt immediate relief post-op that he struggles to describe with words.

Following surgery, Ethan has been on a journey with his scars, since he initially experienced pain and frustration that his body wasn’t healing quickly as his incisions popped open.

“This means now that parts of my scars are thicker and more raised than perhaps they would have been. For at least a year or more that really got me down. I desperately wanted my scars to heal and fade to be barely noticeable so that they didn’t ‘out’ me. However, chest surgery has been a wholly liberating and genuinely life-changing process,” he shares.

Ethan does admit that surgery isn’t a “fix,” and there are still aspects of his body where he doesn’t feel comfortable, but he has developed a happy relationship with his scars.

“There are days where they itch and are tight, and that’s frustrating. But, there is comfort in sitting massaging them with creams to help with the long term fading and settling that scar tissue does over many years. I never once have felt ashamed of my scars.”

He says scars tell a story, and his are a story of strength and ownership as he began living as himself.

“Scars come in many colors, shapes, sizes, and body locations, and that’s something to celebrate.”

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Two Additional Trans Americans Determined to have Been Killed in 2021

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Two more violent deaths of transgender Americans have just been reported, both from December, bringing 2021’s total to 53. It was already by far the nation’s deadliest year on record for trans people.

Za’niyah Williams, a 21-year-old Black trans woman, died after a hit-and-run car crash in Houston December 20, TransGriot reports. She remained unidentified for some time and was misgendered by police and media outlets. But her loved ones have come forward to identify her.

“You were loved and will always be a part of me!” a cousin wrote on social media. “Fly high you beautiful butterfly.” A friend posted that Williams was “a very sweet and smart young lady and always ripped the runway when she dressed up.”

“Za’niyah Williams was a bright soul who at 21 years old had the world in front of her,” Tori Cooper, the Human Rights Campaign’s director of community engagement for its Transgender Justice Initiative, said in a press release. “It is horrific that her life was taken from her by an unknown assailant who drove off without a care. She was also misgendered in initial reports until she was identified by her mother. We must create a society that respects Black trans women and all transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people. Although we honor them in death, they deserve to live, and they deserve justice for the crimes that too often end their lives.”

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office asks that anyone with information call (713) 221-6000 and reference case number #2112-07879.

In Albuquerque, N.M., white trans woman Nikki Turietta, 31, was found shot to death December 31, TV station KOB reports. She was found in her home, shot in the head. Turietta was also initially misgendered by media.

Jen Struck, Turietta’s aunt, described her as “a character” and “just completely free spirit.” Turietta had grown up in Albuquerque and had returned there a few years ago after traveling all over the U.S. and internationally, Struck told KOB. Turietta had just celebrated the holidays with her family.

“We’re just all in shock,” Struck said. “I don’t think it’s really set in for some of us yet.” Violent crime has been rising in Albuquerque, with a record 114 homicides in 2021.

Turietta’s death remains under investigation by Albuquerque police. “We want justice,” Struck said. “We’re desperate for answers. We want to know what happened. Somebody’s got to know something. They didn’t commit suicide.”

“It is horrific that on the last day of 2021, yet another transgender person was killed in what has been a record year for fatal violence against transgender and gender-nonconforming people,” Cooper said. “This violence has been unceasing, but so too must our efforts to combat it never stop. We must commit to creating a safe and affirming culture for transgender and gender-nonconforming people.”

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South Dakota House of Representatives passes first anti-Trans bill of 2022

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The South Dakota House of Representatives passed two anti-Transgender bills Tuesday. HB 1005, which would restrict Trans students from using bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity, and SB 46, which would restrict Trans women and girls from playing on school sports teams that match their gender identity.

HB 1005 is now headed to the South Dakota Senate and SB 46 is headed to Republican Governor Kristi Noem’s desk, where it is expected to be signed into law and become the first anti-Trans bill enacted in 2022 by a state.

Senate Bill 46 was authored and submitted to the legislature by Noem. The hasty passage of this bill comes after a historically bad 2021 session that saw a record number of anti-Trans bills introduced and passed across the country. Last month, South Dakotans gathered for six concurrent rallies across the state in protest of this legislation and other anti-transgender bills introduced this year.

In 2021, after issuing a style-and-form veto of an anti-trans sports ban bill, Noem issued two executive orders that effectively implemented the policy articulated in the vetoed legislation.

“The votes today by House lawmakers are shameful,” said Jett Jonelis, ACLU of South Dakota advocacy manager. “Senate Bill 46 and House Bill 1005 reinforce the incorrect notion that transgender students are not entitled to the same dignity and respect as all students.”

On Senate Bill 46: 

“Senate Bill 46 not only discriminates against trans women and girls in ways that compromise their health, social and emotional development, and safety, but also it violates federal constitutional guarantees of equal protection,” Jonelis said. “It perpetuates harmful myths about transgender people and reduces trans students to political pawns. Our lawmakers should be focused on protecting South Dakota’s youth by creating safe and welcoming environments rather than launching baseless attacks to score political points.”

On House Bill 1005:

“Transgender people, whether people know it or not, are already using the bathrooms and communal facilities they have a right to – and doing so without incident,” Jonelis said. “If House Bill 1005 is enacted, transgender people will have to make the impossible decision of breaking the law or revealing their private medical information – not to mention the obvious risk of harassment and violence that comes with forcing transgender people into the facilitates that do not match their gender identity. It is quite clear whose privacy and very lives are really at risk if our legislators continue to succumb to anti-trans fear and hatred and give it state sanction like this.” 

“This early on in 2022, a year when we as a nation are facing unprecedented obstacles, it’s as heartbreaking as it is infuriating to see South Dakota lawmakers put such effort into attacking transgender youth. Bills like these are unnecessary and cruel, and we know the ugly rhetoric surrounding them is having a real impact on the mental health and wellbeing of one of our most marginalized groups of young people,” said Sam Ames, Director of Advocacy and Government Affairs at The Trevor Project.

“The Trevor Project’s research has found that transgender and nonbinary youth who reported experiencing discrimination based on their gender identity over something as basic as using the bathroom had nearly double the odds of attempting suicide in the past year compared to those who did not. Lawmakers should be focusing on the real issues facing these young people and fostering spaces where everyone can be safe, not making life harder than it already is for the transgender and nonbinary youth of South Dakota.”

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