#anti trans legislation

[arlh0e]

The situation with the Owasso Public School district and the Owasso Police Department regarding the death of Nex Benedict is nothing short of fucking rage provoking.

A 16 year old non-binary child was brutally beaten in their high school’s bathroom (which they were forced to use because of Oklahoma legislation requiring that trans students use the restrooms coinciding with the gender assigned to them at birth) by THREE girls for over two minutes before other students and a singular school faculty member managed to pull these girls off of them.

They had their head repeatedly smashed into the floor. For over two minutes. Their face was covered in cuts and bruises and they were unable to walk without assistance following this attack.

Nex was suspended for several days for engaging in a “fight”. (Btw 3 to 1 is NOT a fight, thats called getting jumped.)

After seeing the schools nurse, Nex was denied the option to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance as it was deemed “unnecessary” but it was suggested that a guardian took them to get checked out if they were concerned about Nex’s injuries.

Nex was then taken to the hospital where they were discharged, but were then rushed back to said hospital the next morning, where they were pronounced dead.

The Owasso Public School district has stated that because Nex died the following morning and not the night of the attack, that the attack is unrelated and did not cause the death of this child.

The Owasso Police Department claims that they cannot release the autopsy report to the public but that “A complete autopsy was performed and indicated that the decedent did not die as a result of trauma.” It has been implied that Nex died of natural causes or from an underlying medical condition. Less than 24 hours after having their head brutally and repeatedly smashed into a bathroom floor for over 2 minutes.

I don’t know about you guys, but I personally am beyond sick and fucking tired of watching republican politicians be so loud about how they’re “protecting children” and then turning their backs on trans kids and believing what is probably the laziest cover up of a non-binary child being brutally beaten to death while they were AT SCHOOL.

And what makes this even worse is that according to the Benedict family, Nex had been telling them about how they were being bullied at school and that they felt unsafe. They had told the school that they were being bullied and they felt unsafe. The school had been given every opportunity to neutralize the problem and prevent this very situation and chose to do nothing, and that negligence caused the death of a student. And they have the audacity to claim that Nex’s blood is not on their hands and that they “do not tollerate violence or bullying of any kind” and “are taking the situation very seriously”.

Nex Benedict was brutally beaten to death in a school bathroom and Oklahoma schools, law enforcement, and legislative officials are doing nothing about it.

Nex Benedict. Say their fucking name.

Attached is the link to the go fund me started by Nex’s mother. Warning, in the description, They are deadnamed and misgendered, however this was remedied in an edit lower down on the page, where their mother states that they will be addressed properly on their headstone.

[genderqueerpositivity]

South Carolina just released a new law that goes beyond trans youth and instead would ban transgender people up to the age of 21 from receiving gender affirming care. It would criminalize doctors from providing gender affirming care for trans youth as well. It doesn’t stop there though. The bill would also ban informed consent hormone therapy, the most common form of hormone therapy for all transgender adults, and would require psychiatrists to sign off on gender affirming care - a model of care that has been outdated since the 1990s. It bans public funds for gender affirming care. It bans comprehensive health programs from encouraging transition for trans students. Lastly, it forces teachers to out students who they even suspect are trans to their parents. This is an absolutely devastating bill, and if it is allowed to go through, it would dramatically harm many trans youth in the state.

[junkyardromeo]

IMPORTANT:

if you live in south carolina, please take a second to fill out this form to try and stop the house from passing an anti-trans healthcare bill. if you don’t live in south carolina, PLEASE reblog this so that it can reach as many south carolinians as possible. thank you.

[liberaljane]

Anti-Trans Legislation Kills

[Digital illustration of a Black trans women wearing a dress made of words describing anti-trans legislation. Bills included are, “gender-affirming care bans, insurance coverage bans, drag bans, misgendering, uneducated medical professionals, youth sports bans, book bans, dead naming, stigma, and workplace discrimination.’ Text reads, ‘anti-trans legislation kills.’]

[transformationsproject]

It's not too late to stop these and other hateful anti-trans bills from passing into law. YOU can go to http://transformationsproject.org/ to learn more and contact your representatives!

[pondpossum]

if you're transgender or you care about transgender people and you live in the US, you need to vote.

all those 1000+ anti trans legislation that have been introduced these past three years have not stopped, and they aren't going to just stop. they might not affect you now, but they will if republicans win the presidency and the majority in the house and senate. federal laws will be passed. that is their goal. their goal is to eradicate us.

it is February of 2024, and there have already been 495 anti trans bills considered. there were 588 total in 2023. this cannot go under the radar.

talk about this. VOTE this November.

do not be complicit in your eradication

[commiepinkofag]

The 'Kids Online Safety Act' [KOSA] continues to move forward

Microsoft now endorses this legislation, which will likely help garner political support. Help counter this bill!

HELP STOP KOSA

Contact your representatives

KOSA is a bipartisan bill introduced to censor content on the internet deemed 'inappropriate' for minors. This bill is intended to target the LGBTQIA+ community and otherwise cause harm to minors.

Access to any supportive resources like queer-youth support groups, suicide hotlines, and important health information can be targeted.

[date-a-jew-suggestions]

Missouri was my home, and I can’t go back because I’m trans.

Before the rest, I want to clarify: I do not get my hrt through a Missouri healthcare provider. This will not impact my medical transition, and I am so very lucky to not have to worry about that. Many, many transgender people living in Missouri do not have that luxury. However, I am hurt, and I am scared. I was not intending to move back to Missouri, because I am a lot happier where I am now. However, I’m very scared about the precedent that this sets. Missouri is the first state to pass legislation that restricts access to medical transition not only for minors, but for ADULTS. I would be very surprised if this was where their anti trans legislation stopped. Based on how they seem to be leading the charge against transgender rights in this regard, it seems very likely to me that within the next few years, trans peoples rights to public spaces in Missouri will be legally restricted. If this happens, I will not be able to visit about half of my family members.

The rest of this post is me coming to terms with that.

I flew to my home city, St. Louis Missouri for Pesach recently. I was so excited to spend the holiday with my family. Several members of my family were unable to get off work/school on the actual holiday, so I flew home on Easter weekend and we had our Seder on Easter. This is because in the USA, Easter and Christmas are federal holidays that get automatic off days, unlike Jewish holidays. The Seder happened at my grandma’s house and my entire extended family was invited, as is our family tradition. I had a lovely weekend with my family.

While I was visiting, I stayed in my grandparents house. Growing up I spent nearly every weekend there. My grandparents have always done their best to make me feel at home there. I have countless memories at that house of Shabbat with my grandma, playing games with my cousins and sister, climbing the big tree in the backyard, play dates with friends, doing all sorts of arts and crafts projects with my grandma, teaching myself to use a sewing machine on the living room floor, playing d&d in the basement, and big extended family gatherings for every Pesach, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur every year. It is one of the places that makes me feel the safest out of any place on earth. I would consider it my backup home. And as always, our Passover Seder was amazing.

This trip home coincided with my parents selling the house I lived in until I was 18. This has been in the works for a long time, so it did not come as a surprise to me. Even so, both my grandma and grandpa reassured me repeatedly throughout the weekend that I would always have a home at their house. That I could always come back, to visit or stay as long as I need. That this place would always be my home.

One of the things I did while I was staying there was make sure I had copies of all of the family records that my grandma had saved. Things like family trees, Ellis Island immigration records, death certificates, writings of long deceased relatives. I want to preserve as much of our family history as I can, because too much Jewish history has been destroyed by those who hate us. I already knew that my family has lived in the same city in Missouri practically since they immigrated, I think it’s something like 4 generations. Looking through these documents and reading things the previous generation of my family has written was fascinating and deeply moving to me. It cemented in my mind the fact that my family history is completely intertwined with the St. Louis Jewish community.

And of course, the synagogue I belonged to growing up is in Missouri. Where I spent the high holy days, where I was bat mitzvah’d, where I went to hebrew school every week. My Hebrew school teachers. My rabbis. I’ll be visiting it soon for my cousins Bat Mitzvah, and I’m hoping I might get a chance the day after to sit and talk with my rabbis. I feel like I need to say goodbye to them.

I can’t go back to any of these things. It has taken me a long time to write this post because this is so painful for me. I love my family so very dearly, and I have a big family. My cousins were like extra siblings to me growing up, I’m close with all of my second cousins and their partners and kids, my aunts and uncles, my great aunts and uncles, and my great grandparents when they were alive. I don’t go back to St Louis for the city, I go back for them. My grandparents have lived in St. Louis for their entire lives, and they aren’t going to move. Nor do I want them to have to, they’re so happy there. They have carved out a very comfortable and safe place for their family and friends. It’s just not a place I will be welcomed in for much longer, and that is out of our control. They will travel to visit me once in a while, but I know that me not being able to visit Missouri would drastically cut down on the time I can spend with them. And realistically, they are getting old. I don’t know how much longer cross country travel will be safe and feasible for them.

My family took a long time to get on board with my transition, largely because they were lied to by politicians and mental health “professionals” who were unqualified to treat transgender patients. I don’t want to spend too much time talking about that. To me what matters is that they unconditionally support me as a trans man now, and even though they were misinformed and said and did things that hurt me, they have always loved me. And they have made an incredible and effective effort to not only apologize for the harm they caused, but to change the way they treated me in order to express that love. My grandpa, previously the most old fashioned, socially conservative, and transphobic member of my family, will now call me to say things like “the other day this meshuggenah tried to tell me trans people are dangerous, I told him my grandson is transgender and to shut the fuck up. You shoulda seen the look on his face.” My grandma and mom both flew across the country with me to help me prepare for and recover from my top surgery. I could not have asked for better people to care for me post op.

Despite how supportive they are now, it’s only fairly recently that I’ve repaired my relationship with my family enough to enjoy spending long periods of time with them. It is still hard for me to talk to certain family members because I am trans. But the last few trips home have been the first times in a long time I have had a wonderful time with my family, which is something I missed and needed for so long.

I think that is going to be taken away again very soon. And it’s being pushed by the very same people who lied to my family and drove a wedge between us in the first place. This time it is out of our control.

To say I’m heartbroken would be an understatement. It’s hard for me to even conceptualize the concept that my ability to see my family is being slowly taken from me by the Christian zealots in our government. It feels like just now that I’ve been fully accepted and embraced, I’m being forced out again. And once again, it is under the guise of protecting people like me. They expect me to believe that this is for my own good. That all of the bullying and abuse and dysphoria I was forced to endure for my entire childhood was for my own good, because g-d forbid I be transgender and happy.

I had to move across the country to escape unsafe living conditions caused by white Anglo Saxon Christians, and now I’m uncertain of my ability to visit the family members I left behind. Ironically, this is a very Jewish experience. I imagine this is a much smaller version of the pain my ancestors felt when they immigrated to America and left their family behind in Russia and Poland. In a way, this experience connects me to my Jewish heritage in a profoundly painful way.

This was a long and rambly post. I’m just hurting a lot right now, and I needed to talk. Thank you to anyone who read this far.

[smoov-criminal]

the Missouri emergency order banning gender affirming care for adults is so sinister, and the way it directly affects disabled queer people is very intentional. it requires at least 3 years of medically documented severe gender dysphoria, 18 months of what is effectively conversion therapy, and screening for autism and pretty much any mental health issue. this means that if you're autistic, or have depression or anxiety, you are automatically barred from receiving gender affirming care. it also requires yearly medical exams for 15 years, and if any "adverse effects" comes up in those exams they'll cut you off. i don't think i have to say how harmful that will be to physically disabled folks.

this is quite literally a trans genocide, especially affecting disabled trans people. they want us to completely cease to exist. don't forget us in these conversations

[genderqueerpositivity]

The implications of this bill for transgender teachers and students in South Carolina are profound. Teachers would be forced to change their titles to those of their assigned sex at birth. Likewise, teachers would be forced to “out” themselves as transgender if they wished to stay in compliance with the law.

Moreover, students would receive instruction portraying transgender identity as “incorrect” or “false,” severely impacting transgender students’ well-being.

When responding to the bill, a local pediatrician, Dr. Michael O’Brien, offered the bill’s sponsor his insight into the bill, stating that it is a “cruel bill designed specifically to harm trans South Carolinians” and offering to discuss the bill with him.

Representative Pace responded by telling him that it is “cruel” to affirm transgender people and that instead, he should “repent” and hope that the “lord shows [him] mercy.”

This is not the first time Representative Pace has weaponized the powers of the state against transgender people. Previously, Representative Pace announced that his caucus successfully shut down the Medical University of South Carolina’s gender clinic for trans youth.

[mxshr0mz]

What I've seen people fail to mention is that Nex, after regaining consciousness, went to the nurse’s office who then refused to call an ambulance. Their death is also due to the negligence of the school.

[bi-trans-alliance]

If you haven't been speaking out, speak out.

[mistymonster]

We live in some scary times & with the recent Alabama anti-trans youth healthcare ban getting through I wanted to share a resource. If the ban goes into effect then the Southern Trans Youth Emergency Project is going to do emergency grants to help trans kids in alabama find the healthcare they need. They already do this for multiple states in the south, so if you live in a state with a trans youth healthcare ban and have to travel across state lines for care- check in with these people. They will try to help you.

And if you have any money to spare, they could always use the help.

[cryptidfagswag]

what a fucked up world we're living in. there's so much to touch on but. a generation of trans and queer kids were growing up with the hope of a better world for them, they were growing up and things were looking up and now we're headed for fucking rock bottom again. trans kids are waking up every day to another suicide, another death because their whole fucking world is against them. when. when will we matter, when will our lives mean as much as yours. WE are your children, WE are bettering your world, WE are the future. trans and queer kids are the ones making a difference in this hellhole. we are not the problem, we are not a danger, we are just trying to survive in a world that hates us so fucking much for something we can't control. you kill your children en masse like this, you don't have the audacity to do it yourself. round us up in a fucking corral and kill us all off, that's more humane than forcing us into suffering and conformity. you don't have the fucking guts to kill children directly, how do you have the guts to do it like this. fucking tell me. fucking tell me we'll get to live, fucking tell me we'll get to smile, fucking tell me nobody else has to die. cause god I'll keep fighting, and so will every other trans person, but fuck we need hope.