A February article from the New York Times opened with the following anecdote:
“In the 1980 disaster spoof “Airplane!,” there’s a great running gag by Lloyd Bridges, who plays a control-tower supervisor. As trouble rears its head, he mutters, “Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking” (and lights up a cigarette). Later, when the situation has grown even more dire (and absurd), he laments, “Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines” (and swallows a handful of pills with a glass of milk). Finally, at the climax, he declares, “Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffin’ glue!” and — well, you get the idea.”
This metaphor is able to sum up perfectly the attitudes of the queer community during the reign of the current political administration.
The Trump administration came out to say that they plan on rolling back a rule issued by the Obama administration that prevents doctors, hospitals and health insurance companies from discriminating against transgender people. This will jeopardize not only the health of trans people, but also what little gains the community has made regarding access to medical and transition-related care, something that many insurers have denied coverage for in the past.
This rollback on a, quite frankly, vital ruling just adds to the long list of moves Trump’s administration has made to deny trans people rights. Sure, you could argue that sex discrimination, which is forbidden very plainly in the Affordable Care Act, applies only in a binary sense regarding “biological sex,” but that relies upon an excruciatingly narrow and legally incorrect definition of the word “sex” which jeopardizes legal protections for queer individuals.
The administration claims to be protecting the health care officials that have religious or moral objections to performing gender reassignment procedures, but that is, in all honesty, a load of garbage. If you have any sort of qualms about the types of people you are performing medical procedures on, or you have “moral objections” to the procedures you are performing, you should not be a doctor. This is an occurrence that is becoming more common with conservative Christian and Catholic doctors around the country.
This is about making the dignity of certain human beings illegal.
On February 20, Ryan T. Anderson, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, released a book that suggests transgender people are crazy and that what they (we) deserve at every turn is scorn and malice, as well as belittlement. The books, so lovingly titled “When Harry became Sally,” attacks transgender people while conveniently leaving them out of the argument. Yes, because what every trans person absolutely loves is when cis people act like they are the experts on our life experiences. Transphobic people are more than happy to ignore heaps of scientific evidence and actual reality in order to advance their agenda to exclude and ridicule trans people at every available opportunity.
Reader, I implore you, reach out to the trans people in your lives. They’re there. We exist, I promise. Make the effort to educate yourself and check your cis privilege. Fight back against transphobia, and use your voice in your position of power to speak up when needed. That being said, don’t act like you know more than trans people about their lives and experiences.