In Texas, families of transgender children were under attack by a right-wing Christian governor and attorney general around March 2022. The state had initiated “child abuse” investigations into parents who supported their transgender children’s right to age-appropriate, gender-affirming care. This was part of a broader trend of escalating attacks on trans people’s rights, including restroom bills and college sports bans, as well as restrictions on care for minors.
Katie Laird, one of the parents I spoke with, warned that the focus would eventually shift from trans children to all trans people, and then to the broader LGBTQ community. Another family expressed their determination to draw a line in the sand, standing against these attacks.
However, the US has not effectively countered these attacks on the rights of trans people and their families. Laird’s prediction came true when Florida, in June of the previous year, banned gender-affirming treatment for trans minors and imposed stringent new requirements on the majority of transgender adults. These included bans on receiving estrogen prescriptions through telehealth visits or from nurse practitioners, even though such medical care is routine and does not typically require constant monitoring.
The situation for transgender Americans has worsened as 2024 approaches, with states like Ohio implementing absurd and expensive regulations, such as requiring a bioethicist on the treatment team for trans individuals. Florida lawmakers are considering measures to deny transgender Floridians the right to have drivers’ licenses that reflect their correct gender and a broad “lewd grooming” law that could outlaw any public life of LGBTQ people.
As journalist and transgender rights activist Erin Reed noted, there were 125 bills targeting the transgender community filed early in the year, more than double the number from the same period the previous year.
As a transgender American woman, I am horrified and frightened by these developments, though not surprised. The upcoming national election in November is likely to further motivate Republicans to pursue their policies of moral panic. Unfortunately, media outlets like The New York Times have contributed to the right-wing moral panic, failing to provide positive representation for trans people.
On the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection, President Joe Biden’s administration launched campaign ads warning that democracy is at risk, which is undoubtedly true. However, for significant victories in November, the Democrats should emphasize reproductive rights as well.
Beyond the basic definition of democracy, politics is about the preservation of pluralism and the coexistence of diverse groups and individuals. The attacks on LGBTQ and particularly transgender Americans are part of a broader authoritarian attack on pluralism. This hostility is not new; it echoes the early actions of the Nazis in Weimar Germany against Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science, which provided safe haven for the gay underground and conducted some of the first successful transgender sex-change operations.
The current attacks on transgender Americans have reached a level of concern for all who value democracy. It’s crucial for American liberals to recognize that defending sexual and gender minorities is essential in the fight for democracy in any meaningful sense.
