Transgenderism Under Attack

Nicholas Evans, News Section Editor

Transgenderism – the umbrella term for expressing oneself or completely identifying with the opposite sex assigned at birth – is being purged on a national scale in the form of recently passed bills in states across the country.

One example is that the state of Tennessee has effectively criminalized public transgenderism (that is, wearing stereotypical clothing of the opposite sex) for any minor in an area with other minors; students in a school setting do fall under this crime. In the same bill, public drag performances in places like parks are completely prohibited, and any performer must obtain a permit should they perform in any other area. Lastly, and probably the most egregious, gender-affirming medication is banned for use from any minor, including hormones and surgery. Any minor already on hormones risks up to a felony charge. 

Elsewhere, the state senate of Idaho passed bill 1100, which prohibits a person from using the bathroom of the gender they identify as, effectively restricting a person to only use the assigned bathroom according to biology given to them. Paradoxically, the same bill also restricts the use of gender-neutral bathrooms, and any person that needs such a facility must seek permission from a building employee- something unheard of in most parts of the union.

Anti-trans rhetoric goes deeper than legislation: open transphobia is becoming increasingly socially acceptable. Social media plays a significant role, but there is also widespread commentary bashing trans-participation in sports, refusal to teach positive LGBTQ rhetoric in schools, and outright promoting egregious stereotypes.

Beyond social media, states are combatting the transgender movement as a whole, which was loudly vocalized during this month’s Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC for short. In a speech during the event, host of the conservative talk-show ‘The Daily Wire’ Michael Knowles deliberately called for the “[eradication of] transgenderism from public life entirely- the whole preposterous ideology, at every level,” a sentence the host claims has been somehow misinterpreted.

More recently, the suspect in the recent Nashville elementary school shooting identified as Transfem, sparking widespread hate over the group as a whole given three transgender shooters out of 2,800 mass shootings since 9/11. Around 0.107% of recent mass shootings were done by a non cis-gender individual, a staggering statistic that transphobes have chosen to ignore, contrary to their ‘one bad apple’ rhetoric towards police reform. 

Hate against all marginalized groups in the United States is becoming increasingly more publicly acceptable, not to mention the increasing instances of hate crimes and suicide rates for these communities. 

To the same end, the United States is investigating the circumstances over the suicide of Saudi-American transfem citizen Eden Knight. Knight immigrated to the U.S. for school- coming out as transgender during college, and was subsequently ostracized by her family who refused to renew her H-4 immigrant visa. She was approached last fall by fixers promising they’d repair her relationship with her family and make sure she was safely brought home. The two fixers convinced Knight to go to D.C. to fly home; However, before the plane ride, they held her in a hotel, committing currently unknown acts to force her to ‘detransition.’ When she was back with her parents, she was effectively held hostage, and they barred her from having money or her hormone therapy. Earlier this year, she learned her own parents hired the fixers and had planned everything, and she committed suicide with a powerful note on March 12th. Her story has gone untold by American media.

It is on all of us to normalize LGBTQ+ people everywhere and to work toward a more accepting society for the future.