Trans Formations Project Newsletter ∙ 10/21/22
At time of writing, it is October 21st, 2022. And as such, new bills have begun to be proposed and the midterm elections (November 8th) are very, very fast approaching! Act accordingly.
As a reminder, if you are concerned about ongoing efforts to roll back trans youth rights in schools in Virginia, there’s still time to take action before the period for public comment on Youngkin’s policy closes. The advocacy group Equality Virginia also maintains a social media toolkit you can peruse! While initially the comments were overwhelmingly in opposition to the policy, many of the more recent comments appear to be supportive of the transphobic policy of dubious legality–so make sure you don’t let them eat up all the airspace!
Further: there’s an urgent update out of Florida. Rather than wait until 2023 as initial reports suggested they might, Florida Republicans have rescheduled to October 28th the board of medicine meeting to set rules on transgender healthcare that would ban all medical care whatsoever for minors–even if medically necessary, or reversible. In other words: one week from today. The meeting is public, and scheduled for 8AM at the Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport. See some organizing for a protest here.
The meeting agenda is studded with anti-trans figures. Some of these experts have admitted a near-complete lack of expertise on trans youth before a federal judge (e.g., James Cantor), while others have recently had their expertise seriously questioned even when Judges refused to place an injunction upon Florida’s legally disputed Medicaid rules for trans health care access. The formerly publicly available meeting agenda (it has since been removed from the Florida Department of Health website—we managed to track down the PDF but be warned it is massive) contains numerous documents from religious associations such as the Catholic Medical Association with a stated aim of forcing all trans youth through conversion therapy, as well as documents from known hate groups, discredited psychoanalysts, and other such figures. It’s essentially a who’s-who of scientific transphobia.
With the urgent things out of the way, let’s talk about…
The Thing(s) We Won This Week
First, some good news out of California: despite efforts by right-wing transphobic groups to stop it, California is officially the first state to function as a sanctuary for trans people and their families fleeing the blatant attempts at criminalization in other states. That this win was needed at all makes it a bit hollow, but it is a win in the current climate. Further, Washington DC has introduced a similar policy and passed it through legislation.
What the Heck Happened This Week ?!
The centerpiece of anti-trans legislation this week is a national bill introduced and cosigned by 30 Republicans that aims to ban queer and trans people from all forms of public life. This is not hyperbole and this is not a drill. The GOP claims that they have introduced a bill that will block federal funding for any events containing “sexually-oriented material” that are accessible to children under 10. The bill in question, misleadingly named the “Stop the sexualization of children act,” however, takes a very broad definition of what counts as “sexually-oriented material.”
It defines “any topic involving gender identity, gender dysphoria, transgenderism, sexual orientation, or related topics,” as inherently sexually-oriented material.
In practice, this means that any and all of the following could be construed as sexual under the bill’s parameters:
A gay 4th grade teacher has a picture of himself, his husband, and their kids on his desk.
A substitute teacher introduces themselves with their pronouns.
A community center that receives federal funding has a movie night for kids, except the movie is Pixar’s Onward, and it has a throwaway line from one woman about having a girlfriend.
A trans person employed by an organization that receives federal funding exists, and an 8-year old just happens to see them at their job.
A trans ER nurse at a hospital receiving federal funding provides treatment to a 9-year old child that saves that child’s life.
No one in their right mind would describe any of those as sexual–but by simply categorizing queer identities as inherently corrupting to minors, this bill would allow any and all of the above to be actionable offenses worthy of yanked federal funding and–worse–legal action. The bill provides language allowing parents to bring a case for injunctive financial payments if they can prove any of the above happened. Hypothetically, if you’re a trans ER nurse and you save a 9-year old’s life, but their parents are transphobic, they can then sue you for saving their child’s life and get rich off you losing for doing your job. In other words, not only is this a national “Don’t Say Gay” bill, it goes further than the state-level don’t say gay bills as an attempt to simply remove queer and trans people from public life, and deputizing private bigots to enforce it for money.
Meanwhile, in Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton is once again invoking extralegal action to harm queer and trans people. Paxton has directed police departments and district attorneys to investigate and prosecute drag events that admit minors, even if the event in question is just a brunch with a costume show and, in the words of one such police department, “no laws were broken.” This should not, however, be taken as a hilarious failure on Paxton’s part to leverage extralegal force: it’s a clear statement of intent. Paxton has stated that if it’s not illegal now, he wants to make it illegal in 2023, stating, “What’s more, in 2023, the Texas Legislature should amend the Texas Penal Code to expressly prohibit this kind of grossly sexual conduct and empower my Office to prosecute when district and county attorneys refuse.” So, eyes on Texas and other red states.
Florida, not content to just deny gender affirmative care, has now instituted a statewide rule that requires parents to be notified if trans students use the correct bathroom.
Lastly, in Arkansas, the landmark legal battle over its ban on gender affirmative care has continued in earnest and has been ongoing for the last three days. While the next steps will occur in November, the proceedings should be attended to, because this case will set the groundwork for future battles against Red state policies. A live thread of one of the hearing days can be found here. It must be noted that the Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, and her team of attorneys, are playing dirty: they have disregarded patient privacy to subpoena therapists for their private treatment notes of trans patients. Keep eyes on this trial–it will set a precedent, one way or the other.