#us politics transphobia

[batboyblog]

I don't like to scare people, but this is scary and vert threatening. Trump on his webpage posted a video where he personally promised to ban all trans healthcare as a day 1 priority of his Presidency.

If you're trans, if you have a trans loved one, if you care about human rights in the US, you! can stop him, each of us have to have hard conversations with our loved ones and talk to everyone in our lives make sure they know and understand the stakes understand that not voting or worse a vote for Trump is a vote against us, against our lives.

make sure you're ready to vote and everyone you know is ready to vote, and where ever you are there's a way for you to volunteer to reach voters in swing states, trust know and believe you can make all the difference

These are your RIGHTS! lets fight like hell for them.

[shamebats]

[useless-englandfacts]

for those thinking it was all too good to be true: labour deciding to permanently keep the tories' ban on puberty blockers for under 18s

[telumendils]

i really want to emphasize the fact that many of these recent bills aimed at denying trans minors gender-affirming care have special exceptions built in to allow for nonessential surgeries on intersex children. they want to make sure doctors can continue pressuring parents into putting their intersex kids through procedures that have no evidence of benefits and are well known to cause harm (cw on these articles for discussions of intersex medical abuse/trauma).

these bills are not designed to protect children, they're designed to eradicate sex and gender diversity. they want to force both trans and intersex people into their binary little boxes and it will do immense harm to both groups.

[reasonsforhope]

!!!! And here's a source!

Thanks so much for posting about this, OP

More from the article:

"At 2:27 p.m. on Friday, March 8, the Florida Legislature adjourned sine die. With this adjournment, 21 of 22 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were effectively killed, leaving an anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in education bill as the lone piece of legislation to pass this session. This session featured some of the most severe bills ever proposed against transgender individuals, all of these bills are now officially dead. LGBTQ+ activists in the state now have the rest of 2024 to regroup, with hopes that the November general election will yield results against a legislature that has spent two years targeting transgender individuals in every aspect of life.

The bills that have failed include H599, a bill that would have expanded "Don't Say Gay" policies to the workplace. It proposed banning government employees and any business with government contracts from sharing pronouns. Furthermore, it aimed to prohibit all nonprofits in the state from requiring education and training on LGBTQ+ issues—a significant issue for LGBTQ+ nonprofits, which would have been unable to operate within the state. That bill is now dead.

Another bill that died is H1639, a measure that would have mandated transgender individuals to have driver's license sex markers matching their sex assigned at birth. It also aimed to penalize insurance providers offering gender-affirming care coverage and would have required health insurance plans to cover conversion therapy for transgender individuals. Although this bill did not pass, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has reinterpreted certain provisions that already exist, effectively banning changes to driver's license gender markers in the state and threatening individuals with accurate markers with charges of criminal fraud. However, challenging an administrative action is simpler than challenging a law enacted by the legislature, and such actions can also be reversed by future administrations.

Further bills that made headlines which died include:

A ban on Pride flags in schools and government buildings.

A “bill of rights” for student organizations to exclude transgender people.

A bill that would end legal recognition of trans people in the state.

A bill that would exempt rejection of transgender youth from child abuse provisions.

A bill that would make calling someone racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic be treated as defamation.

...This is the first time in three years where the bills targeting LGBTQ+ people, and trans people in particular, seem to be losing steam, according to local organizers.

“The momentum is undeniably shifting against extremism,” Nadine Smith of Equality Florida said in a press release, “Extremist groups are collapsing amidst multiple scandals. Parents are mobilizing on behalf of their kids and to stop the dismantling of public education. We will build on this momentum and redouble our commitment to the fight. Together, we can put power back in the hands of the people.”"

-via Erin in the Morning, March 8, 2024

21 of 22 anti-LGBTQ+ bills dead in the Florida Legislature!!!

[creature-wizard]

Reminder that Project 2025 is a thing; basically, if a Republican presidential candidate is elected next year, they have every intention of instating a full-on fascist government. Among many other horrible things, Project 2025 intends to criminalize anything trans-related as pornographic, and imprison anyone putting out such "pornography."

We really, really gotta do whatever we can to make sure a Republican candidate isn't elected. I know we're probably gonna be faced with shitty choices yet again (and how I wish it wasn't so), but we cannot afford to let this happen.

[michaelmilkers]

literally on my fucking knees begging and pleading for cis allies to stop saying things like “no trans kid is getting surgery” “no trans kids are transitioning” “trans kids just take reversible puberty blockers until they’re older” because these statements are not only demonstrably false, therefore giving transphobes an open window to completely debunk your argument and boost their own (”if it’s not happening why do you care if it’s made illegal?”), but you are not helping us or protecting us and our rights. you are hurting us.

i started hormones when i was 14 because psychological and reversible medical treatment did not ease my dysphoria enough to improve my quality of life! me, my family, and my doctor(s) decided that hormones would be the best next step to help me, so that’s what we did! trans kids DO take hormones, and they DO occasionally get surgery, and that is COMPLETELY FINE!! because preventing a family from accessing what they and care providers decide is the best healthcare for a child is CRUEL AND UNETHICAL.

multiple studies show trans people who are forced to wait until late adolescence or adulthood to medically transition have worse mental health than both their immediate peers and continuing on into adulthood.

if i hadn’t started HRT when i did i would have flunked out of school or killed myself before i turned 18. trans kids have a right to access best practice medical care, whatever that may be for them.

[the-cimmerians]

Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the first transgender woman elected to Montana's legislature, attended a Montana House of Representatives session to oppose an anti-transgender bill that would remove references to transgender individuals from more than 40 sections of state code. The bill, which would define sex in a way that excludes trans people, was one of over a dozen heard this year. The previous day, her strong speech against the gender affirming care ban the state had passed led to the Montana Freedom Caucus calling for her censure while intentionally and repeatedly misgendering her. When she punched in, they refused to recognize her to speak, and instead moved forward to pass the bill.

Tensions flared on the House Floor when the entire Democratic Caucus rose to demand that she be permitted to speak. In a strikingly undemocratic move, Republican House Speaker Regier declined to allow it, asserting that he could refuse to allow anyone to speak at his discretion. When Minority Leader Abbott objected, they moved to a packed rules committee meeting, which upheld the ruling. Following that, the Speaker stated it was his intent to no longer allow Representative Zephyr to speak moving forward.

[reasonsforhope]

"Georgia Republicans bundled over a dozen measures that targeted the state’s transgender residents into omnibus packages in a desperate attempt to get them passed. In a stunning defeat for the GOP, every single one of them failed.

Legislators gutted bills that had passed through committee and instead stuffed them full of their anti-LGBTQ+ wishlist items.

Bills that would ban transgender students from playing on teams aligned with their gender identity, ban transgender students from bathrooms aligned with their gender identity, opt parents into notification for every book a student checks out of the library, bar sex education before sixth grade, make all sex-ed classes opt-in and expand obscenity laws to make it easier to ban books with LGBTQ+ content all failed.

“MAGA politicians in Georgia tried it all in service to their anti-LGBTQ+ agenda,” said Human Rights Campaign Georgia State Director Bentley Hudgins, “including silencing debate and gutting unrelated, popular bills that had bipartisan support to ram through policies that would have put young LGBTQ+ Georgians in harm’s way. They failed.”

“It’s undeniable that the tides are shifting, both here in Georgia and across the nation,” Georgia Equality executive director Jeff Graham added. “Anti-LGBTQ actors are losing their political power, and more and more Georgians who know and love LGBTQ people are standing up against their baseless fear-mongering.”

In Florida recently, nearly two dozen anti-LGBTQ+ bills were defeated in the wake of Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s (R) presidential campaign implosion, dozens of measures in Virginia were tabled [Note: In the US, "tabled" means "shelved" or "taken out of consideration - the opposite of its meaning in the UK and other places], and Ohio’s governor backed off his attempt to restrict gender-affirming care access for transgender adults and minors. 

Meanwhile, in D.C., Democrats successfully excised 50 anti-LGBTQ+ provisions in the two budget bills passed and signed by President Joe Biden to fund the federal government.

Even Fox News has been forced to acknowledge transgender issues are among the lowest-priority concerns among voters."

-via LGBTQ Nation, April 1, 2024

[batboyblog]

Nancy Mace went to an event on foster care at the capital, a former foster kid and now advocate on the subject, who is trans shook her hand and told her that lots of trans kids are in foster care and need her support too.

Congresswoman Mace called the cops and claimed he assaulted her and is wearing her arm in a sling.

what a weird hateful woman.

[lylahammar]

btw this is a downer but important: project 2025 plans to criminalize pornography, and defines all queer affirming content as such, so a lot of trans creators might have to delete a lot of videos in the future in order to protect themselves. Natalie Wynn (Contrapoints) posted on Patreon about how this is a threat to her career, and she might have to take down a lot of her channel. If you have any comfort content that's made by queer (especially trans) creators, now is a good time to download it for your personal use just in case.

[liyazaki]

via the Arkansas Advocate

it’s official: in Arkansas, library staff may now be charged with a Class D felony for providing books to their communities that are deemed “obscene”.

in Florida, school librarians and teachers can be criminally charged for checking out books to kids that dare to touch on LGBTQ topics & gender identity, thanks to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

book censorship in the US is at such an all-time high, book sanctuaries are popping up all over the country.

library staff aren’t physically safe, either. just over the past couple months, threats against libraries and their staff resulted in the temporary closure of “five public library systems due to bomb and shooting threats," ALA. active shooter trainings have become the new norm for me.

the censorship myself and my colleagues have been watching unfold over the last several years has felt like watching a slow-motion car crash.

but this bill? this feels like a death knell for my profession.

via Teen Vogue

when I was a confused queer kid growing up in an ultra-religious household, the library was my refuge. when I asked hard questions, librarians listened and gave me the tools I needed to answer them. in many ways, libraries saved my life. it's why I became a librarian.

I can't believe I'm living in times where future generations of kids may not have access to the same refuge I did, but it's happening.

if you live in the US and you care about protecting open, equitable access to information, please check out the American Library Association for anti-censorship resources in your state, info on contacting your representatives, etc.

you can also report censorship you see in your community and ALA will investigate (1-800-545-2433, ext. 4266; oif@ala.org).

I know this isn't my usual content, but libraries are standing on the edge of a horrifying precipice- one we can't escape on our own.

libraries are free society's canary in the coal mine, and all the alarms are singing. when libraries fall, nations usually aren't far behind.

this matters- and we need help.

[werewolfbarista]

hi i don't know if anybody's posted about this because it just happened last night, but the texas dps quietly decided to start making what is effectively a database of trans people as of just last night as per ken paxton's request. which is obviously a horrible idea

i don't really know how to do politics or what all to tag this as but let's not let this go quietly yeah?? id assume the next course of action would be to storm your reps and paxton's inboxes. maybe also the dps?? idk someone who knows this stuff better should help give a clearer idea of where to go from here if that's cool

[politijohn]

Source

Source

[agendercryptidlev]

Testosterone is not a bad hormone.

It is not something that "poisons confused girls" it does not "make you dangerous" you are not going to become angry and violent if you take it. Testosterone saves lives, it makes people more able to love themselves and extend that love to others.

Like all forms of HRT Testosterone is for many people necessary healthcare that needs to be protected. Currently, the state of Florida is fighting to ban HRT for those who need it, which will leave so many without access to testosterone. No one should be forced onto HRT, and no one should be forced off of it or prevented from trying it if it is what they may need to feel comfortable in their body.

Unlike estrogen, testosterone is a controlled substance. Trans people are already at a disadvantage in the Floridian legal system, and transmasculine people possessing testosterone without a prescription may face up to 7 years of jail time. This ban will force transmasculine Floridians to either detransition or risk jail time.

It is more important than ever to stand up for our trans brothers in Florida and to destigmatize testosterone and instead see it for what it is: life saving medicine.

[faelapis]

trump might actually ban being trans in public and all transition care, period. but please tell me how you’re just “concerned about fairness in women’s sports” or whatever