The Utah Senate has approved HB0257. Outside of the Title IX and mixed toilet construction sections, this bill negatively impacts my trans community, both legally and socially. It is designated as protecting women’s protection.
I sit around feeling extremely depressed as we pass laws that harm my community once more.
Since 2018, I’ve been working on transgender-related regulations while volunteering in my community for many years. A significant part of me is just worn out. The rights and treatments that we have enjoyed for years are being taken away by the bills we see every month, and no one else has been harmed as a result. But each day, we are the ones who are negatively impacted.
I see my companions who make significant contributions to our state and our corporations throughout the year. I encounter families whose transgender children are flourishing in their sincerity and the acceptance of the family. What makes my heart expand is this. Utahns as a whole can become content and successful.
Then there is a act like this one, which is extremely difficult. I have had many associates relocate to different states in the last year since a ban on health care for transgender children was passed. And I have observed as we have lost our children and our people. Very soon, lives are cut short.
I work to educate people because I am aware that many people don’t understand my community. Some people believe that this is a decision. Studies have shown that being transgender is inherent. We were all born with this amazing people. As far back as we can realize, we have these memories of our identity. This is us being wholly and proudly us; it’s not an ideology or a disease.
We need those who make law and policy to become ready to wait, listen, and understand in order to truly understand our group, which is the challenging part of having the willingness to teach. Legislators need to understand that these actions can be extremely harmful. Second, do no harm, as the medical society advises. Instead, over the course of these years, our society feels as though it has been erased. Being removed officially, psychologically, and politically.
People’s hearts and minds change once they get to know us. Despite the fact that we are a small area, you might not be aware that most people have met one of us. I am aware that our identities do not fit preconceptions, and that is precisely the point. We frequently disagree because of myths that surround us that are untrue.
I want my community to thrive in addition to surviving. Isn’t that what Utah is meant to provide for us? Despite the abundance of grace in my community, we are frequently misunderstood.
Utah’s acceptance of the gay and lesbian communities took years, and today, 72% of Utahns support marriage justice.
Can we simply learn by opening our hearts? May we stop ejecting a community for decades just to come to accept them afterward?
Mrs. Robbins:
Mrs. Robbins is active in the LGBTQ+ community and is an advisor to Equality Utah on Transgender legislative and policy efforts.
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