A Rip Tide of Hate

Myths About and Threats To Trans Americans

This seems to be the trans moment in American society.

Looking to the left, you would think we have made remarkable progress in the recognition, acceptance and integration of the estimated 1.3 million trans people Americans. Read the postings in “them” for joyful support for trans-world. Check out the stylings of Billy Porter (he/him). Listen to the articulate discussion of trans nature and trans dress from Alok (they/them); it will blow your mind. Portland, Oregon, where I live, turned out major media coverage on the death of the city’s most famous drag queen, Darcelle XV (she/her); national media picked it up (drag performers, BTW, do not necessarily call themselves trans). We are all hanging new names and pronouns in Zoom rooms.

Thanks for reading Sheathed Sword! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

From this perspective, trans Americans look like they are finally beginning to catch up with gay and lesbian Americans, being fully included in American society and culture. My brother, who is gay and has lived in Mexico since 1964, is blown away by the legal and social changes for gay and lesbian Americans in this country since he left.

But look to the right, where a rip tide of authoritarianism is taking the trans community into a land of fear, hatred, prejudice and authoritarianism. Republicans have seized on gender diversity as the magic wand that will carry them to control of the Senate and the White House.

State legislatures dominated by the Republican Party (28 states) have introduced over 400 pieces of anti-trans legislation in the past year. Thirty such statutes have been passed. The bills  prohibit teaching about gender identity in schools, eliminate readings on gender, deny trans children from participation on sport teams that coincide with their chosen gender, prohibit their use of bathrooms, and forbid teachers from calling trans kids by their chosen names and pronouns. (Trans Americans have felt unsafe in schools for a long time, as I did when I was a teenager.) 

In some states, the statutes prohibit children from obtaining gender affirming care, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or gender-affirming surgery, putting nearly 150,000 trans-gender youth (half of the national total) at risk. Some statues criminalize providing such care, subjecting medical professionals to the risk of jail time. The attack on trans people has led to violence: 32 trans Americans were killed in 2022. 

Make no mistake. This rip tide threatens the lives and safety of children and many adults.  It is an effort to unleash prejudice and scare the American people. It is about freedom - family freedom and personal freedom. The assault is being led by political forces that would institute authoritarian regimentation across the country. 

That this hateful attack is done in the name of “parental rights” is laughable and seriously Orwellian, since the statutes would actually deny the parents of trans children the right to support and help them and deny them access to education and understanding they need to have healthy lives. In the name of “protecting” parental freedom, children and their parents are repressed. In the name of “child protection,” thousands of trans teenagers will be deprived of the mental and pharmacological resources they need be fully “free” just the way they are. Freedom, in the case of trans rights and support, means repression, jail, risk of suicide and more. 

As a trans person, I am mystified about the extent of the fear being generated.  The attack on trans Americans is being fed by myths about what it means to be trans. There is so much inaccurate and deliberately false information about this that it is hard to know where to start.  A recent poll of trans people by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Washington Post shatters these myths.

MYTH: Trans people are very unhappy people. 

FACT:  Trans people are happier after their transition. It is true that trans people report higher levels of sadness before they transition. But, according to the WP/KFF poll, among those who present themselves differently from their gender assigned at birth, 78% say that living as a different gender made them more satisfied with their lives; more than 40% say they are “a lot” more satisfied. As one respondent put it: “The worst day I’ve ever had as a trans person is still better than the best days I had pre-transition….At the end of the day, not living authentically was terrible, and I would rather live authentically than hide a version of myself to appease people I don’t even know.” Certainly works for me.

MYTH: Trans people are binary: they are either people born male who call themselves female or the reverse.

FACT: Trans is a spectrum of how people view their gender. Many younger trans people are opting out of the binary – man or woman - altogether.  A significant number of trans Americans prefer to use the terms “non-binary” (40%) or “gender non-conforming” (22%), while “trans woman” - born male, define themselves as a woman (22%) or “trans man” (12%) lag behind. (“Gender fluid” does it for me.)

MYTH: Trans people get their bodies modified. They change their bodies from one gender to the other, take hormones, undergo gender-affirming surgery to change a penis to a vagina or the reverse, change their names, and dress like men (f they were born female) or women (f they were born male).

FACT: Most people who identify as trans do nothing to change their bodies. Two thirds of trans people in the poll change the clothing they wear as well as hairstyle or grooming habits. Under a third have taken hormones. A quarter legally changed their names.  Only 16% have had gender-affirming surgery to change their appearance. In fact, 30% physically present as a different gender all of the time, 20% most of the time. But 34 percent present as a different gender only some of the time, and 16% reported that they never physically present as a gender different from their sex assigned at birth. As the same respondent said: “When I go to the grocery store, I get ‘he,’ ‘she’ and ‘they’on a daily basis. I have decided that that’s where I want to be. I want to live in this androgynous space.”

MYTH: Trans people get harassed a lot, even beaten up and worse.

FACT: Tragically, this is not a myth. Nearly 2/3 of those polled reported that they “sometimes” or “frequently” feel discriminated against because of their gender identity or gender expression. And 64% say they have been verbally attacked because of their gender identity, gender expression or sexual identity, while 25% say they have been physically attacked.

Trans world, like the broader world of Queer (also referred to as LGTBQAI+) America brings one face to face with the reality that the “binary” is a fiction. There is no “normal” with respect to either gender or sexuality; mostly these are social constructs. Or all of us are normal. Anyone born male, as I was, who integrates and expresses their feminine, is on the continuum of gender, though only some would call themselves “trans.” Anyone born female who expresses and integrates their masculine is on the continuum; they would choose their own gender term. Some of us identify as both or neither, living life with the fluidity that is true to human nature. Being out as Queer or trans is not aberrant behavior.

There is a huge educational task to undertake here, since the idea that the world is binary is a very powerful, socially dominant meme. Even many well-intentioned white middle class cis-gendered heterosexual adults who support Queer or trans people in their midst seem to feel like this is a life expression that is a bit off, a deviation from some kind of norm, but one to be supported.

For trans people, the idea that one needs to be “accepted” or “tolerated” can come across as patronizing. It is also very isolating. The real and serious challenge to all of us today is that a vocal small minority are making a big deal out of trans denial, fear and hatred for political reasons. From this point of view, the aberrant behavior must be repressed, silenced, even killed.

The rip tide is a serious threat to freedom and a denial of human reality. It needs to be contested. 

For more information, among many sources, see:

Human Rights Campaign at https://www.hrc.org

Williams Institute at https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu

American Civil Liberties Union at https://www.aclu.org/legislative-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights

Track Trans Legislation at https://www.tracktranslegislation.com

Equality Federation at https://www.equalityfederation.org/what-we-do

National Center for Transgender Equality at https://transequality.org

Thanks for reading Sheathed Sword! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.