Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama all are advancing bills that "define sex" to exclude transgender people from any legal recognition of their gender.
It's hard living in a country that likes to scapegoat minority populations when their politicians fail to do anything positive for their constituents beyond using the law as a weapon to demonize and bring violence to those who can barely if at all fight back.
These moves are straight out of their White Supremacy Playbook, which they've been refining ever since the Restoration period, now defining "sex" just as they did with Whiteness over time.
Biden refusing to even address the calls for him to utilize the real ID act to help trans people is such a disappointment. And he had the audacity to repeat his empty claim of "having our backs" in the state of the union
These bills are cruel, discriminatory, and need to be fought in court (and hopefully they will be). Andrea Long Chu recently wrote an article in New York Magazine which is relevant to this issue; in her article she argues for the weakness of “gender identity” as a concept to base trans rights on, and this weakness has allowed anti-trans activists to seize the momentum. Instead, Chu argues that a much stronger argument is that trans people, through medical interventions, are actually changing their biological sex - a much more definitive thing to base rights on. This is why bathroom bills and legal recognition bills are so absurdly cruel. If you’ve had medical intervention as a trans individual - especially SRS surgery - then you are a new biological sex in most, or all, of the ways that functionally matter to society, and therefore need to be recognized legally as such.
If sex/gender is to be based on "reproductive capacity", does that mean that anyone who has neither impregnated nor been impregnated is somehow neutered?
I'm starting to feel like they want to know who they need to round up and keep pregnant, versus who they want to round up and deport, versus who they want to round up and disappear either into death or forced labor in private prisons. Since I've had a hysterectomy I'm assuming I'll get murdered but that might be overly optimistic. This shit is terrifying. They can try to disappear your gender but you'll still be here so why do they care so fucking much? I don't understand this need for private demographic information constantly from the party that "hates" "big government".
The Real ID might not be a total solution, but it would give the weight of federal law to such arguments. I'm particularly concerned about how traveling into or through such anti-trans states would affect someone who has changed their gender marker on other states' documents, such as my NM driver's license. Would I be in violation of the law for trying to use it as ID in these hate states? PS... I think it's "Jackson", Mississippi, not Jacksonville.
The states mentioned in Erin’s article are among the bottom dwellers in nearly every ranked survey of the 50 states with regard to practically any social outcome or quality of life criterion. So while it’s sad and disgraceful to see these states pursue this path, it’s hardly surprising.
These loathsome legislators presume to 'define sex' when they cannot define 'love your neighbor' or show a decent respect or common decency itself. They rule with cruelty, fear and lies they learned in church. They kill children like Nex Benedict.
I guess I have something to worry about for next year, when Texas will inevitably join their Southern Gulf brethren of stripping me and mine of our basic civil rights and dignity.
We may be adding South Carolina to that list following Missouri. HB 4624 now on the senate floor in SC after passing in the house despite mine and others who have petitioned our legislators to condemn this bill as a human rights violation, endangering children and locking out many adults presently in their treatments. Please we must not let another state follow suit. I beg all to please petition your legislators to protect the rights of Americans and save our children from these needless laws that put American children and many adults in harms way.
It's hard living in a country that likes to scapegoat minority populations when their politicians fail to do anything positive for their constituents beyond using the law as a weapon to demonize and bring violence to those who can barely if at all fight back.
These moves are straight out of their White Supremacy Playbook, which they've been refining ever since the Restoration period, now defining "sex" just as they did with Whiteness over time.
And yet, they wonder why many people consider southern states backwards and uneducated. Neil Young was right about Alabama back in 1973.
Biden refusing to even address the calls for him to utilize the real ID act to help trans people is such a disappointment. And he had the audacity to repeat his empty claim of "having our backs" in the state of the union
These bills are cruel, discriminatory, and need to be fought in court (and hopefully they will be). Andrea Long Chu recently wrote an article in New York Magazine which is relevant to this issue; in her article she argues for the weakness of “gender identity” as a concept to base trans rights on, and this weakness has allowed anti-trans activists to seize the momentum. Instead, Chu argues that a much stronger argument is that trans people, through medical interventions, are actually changing their biological sex - a much more definitive thing to base rights on. This is why bathroom bills and legal recognition bills are so absurdly cruel. If you’ve had medical intervention as a trans individual - especially SRS surgery - then you are a new biological sex in most, or all, of the ways that functionally matter to society, and therefore need to be recognized legally as such.
If sex/gender is to be based on "reproductive capacity", does that mean that anyone who has neither impregnated nor been impregnated is somehow neutered?
I'm starting to feel like they want to know who they need to round up and keep pregnant, versus who they want to round up and deport, versus who they want to round up and disappear either into death or forced labor in private prisons. Since I've had a hysterectomy I'm assuming I'll get murdered but that might be overly optimistic. This shit is terrifying. They can try to disappear your gender but you'll still be here so why do they care so fucking much? I don't understand this need for private demographic information constantly from the party that "hates" "big government".
Includes the state where my transphobic parents live. Even less likely I will ever visit them now.
The Real ID might not be a total solution, but it would give the weight of federal law to such arguments. I'm particularly concerned about how traveling into or through such anti-trans states would affect someone who has changed their gender marker on other states' documents, such as my NM driver's license. Would I be in violation of the law for trying to use it as ID in these hate states? PS... I think it's "Jackson", Mississippi, not Jacksonville.
The states mentioned in Erin’s article are among the bottom dwellers in nearly every ranked survey of the 50 states with regard to practically any social outcome or quality of life criterion. So while it’s sad and disgraceful to see these states pursue this path, it’s hardly surprising.
The haters paused to take a deep breath...
...and now everything blows again.
These loathsome legislators presume to 'define sex' when they cannot define 'love your neighbor' or show a decent respect or common decency itself. They rule with cruelty, fear and lies they learned in church. They kill children like Nex Benedict.
I guess I have something to worry about for next year, when Texas will inevitably join their Southern Gulf brethren of stripping me and mine of our basic civil rights and dignity.
We may be adding South Carolina to that list following Missouri. HB 4624 now on the senate floor in SC after passing in the house despite mine and others who have petitioned our legislators to condemn this bill as a human rights violation, endangering children and locking out many adults presently in their treatments. Please we must not let another state follow suit. I beg all to please petition your legislators to protect the rights of Americans and save our children from these needless laws that put American children and many adults in harms way.
Politicians in these states just doing what's best for their poverty stricken constituents. Seriously, how does this legislation benefit anyone ?
One of my moms lives in Alabama. Which is actually an improvement, as she moved from Florida.