The first sphere fueling this moral panic is ideological. Why are trans people the target of so much hate right now? This political effort has been paired with a cultural and rhetorical effort to dehumanize and villainize us and target institutions that support us, whether going after a beer company for featuring a trans woman in an ad or calling in bomb threats to children’s hospitals that work with trans youth. They do not view trans people as legitimate. The people behind these bills are transparent that they want to “eradicate transgenderism” from public life entirely. Participants in a Trans Youth Prom pose for a photo in front of the supreme court last month. So to turn this marginalized group into the main character of conservative nightmares is very daunting. We are four times as likely to experience violence as cisgender people. We’re overrepresented in our nation’s shelters, prisons and foster care system. Trans people are significantly more likely to experience poverty, homelessness and hunger. It’s not as if trans people had achieved social and legal equality before this started. This has transformed the reality of transgender life in this country. What is the impact of all of this on trans folks in the US? Most alarmingly, we’ve seen efforts in Texas and Florida to empower states to remove trans youth from their parents’ custody. There are bills forcing teachers to out students they perceive to be trans. There are restrictions on drag performances, which are a proxy for attacking gender nonconformity and fluidity. There are efforts to restrict trans people from having their stories heard at libraries and in schools. There are bills restricting trans people’s participation in sports and which bathrooms they can use. Twenty states have now banned the healthcare that many transgender youth need to live. It’s hard to overstate how grave this is for trans folks.
If you didn’t know anything else about the US, you’d presume there is an army of transgender people who are swiftly taking over the country. Nearly 500 pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation were introduced this year. The Guardian spoke with Branstetter, 34, who works for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project and Women’s Rights Project, about the forces driving these anti-trans bills, the “upside-down” media coverage, and what she thinks it will take to defeat this escalating discrimination.Ĭan you give an overview of how attacks on trans rights have increased so far this year? Photograph: Courtesy of Gillian Branstetter
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