What Trans People can do as we arrive towards Inauguration Day, and beyond
Its been rough, but we need to get back on the saddle and fight.
As I am currently writing this, we are about a week out from the inauguration of Donald Trump as president. And I am sure the majority of y’all have seen the utterly repugnant shit he has spouted towards trans individuals. I don’t think I need to elaborate on the things he said. So, I decided to write about the things that we as a community can to do to prepare for the long haul.
1. We make our voices heard.
This first one, at least to me, isn’t an act of preparation, per se but an act of soft resistance.
Now, I feel like the main reason that the Republicans are attacking us is because they feel we are a minority who cant stand up for themselves. To them, we are the boogeyman. An enemy that they cant understand and are therefore trying to erase. An enemy that does not die, that keeps on reminding you of its presence, and it must be erased in order to maintain the “status quo”. Now, with this, I am not trying spark any revolutionary embers, or have someone blow up. But that’s what the fact of the matter is. So what exactly can we do?
Use ya First Amendment rights, and look to the past for inspiration.
What do I mean, exactly?
Lets look at Stonewall as an example. The climate that we are currently going towards is, at least in my opinion, a direct parallel to the conditions for gay rights back then. We were treated like boogeymen, we had laws passed against us and public opinion towards us was not good. But what did our elders do? THEY FOUGHT!
(sorry for the caps)
They fought and fought, making their presence known and refusing to be taken down. They saw the conditions that they were in, the incredibly hostile environment, and when it bubbled over, they rioted.
In my opinion, we are witnessing repeated history.
For the last three or so years, we have been witnessing a spike in LGBTQ hate crimes, especially in the last 2 years. We have constantly seen Republicans spew constant dog whistles, and just overall hatred. For example:
Men in women’s sports
Those stupid ads that Trump ran during the campaign
Stoking the flames of trans violence and intentionally misgendering trans people who were murdered (that one isn’t as mainstream, but is still pretty big)
Transgenderism, that whole stupid fucking ideology
etc.
Hell ,even some Democrats are throwing us under the bus, like Seth Moulton did. We have seen since November that both sides don’t like us. We need to show that we are here, and are just trying to exist. Because at the end of the day, that’s all we want. To just be respected and treated like humans.
2. Stock up on HRT, or learn how to make it.
This is a point that has been regurgitated many times by many members of the community and I feel like this is a point that I needed to state, so apologies for the suspected plagiarism.
Now, I am not saying that there is going to be an outright ban of HRT, but to be prepared for anything, because, as we saw during the first Trump run, this administration is bipolar. As in, you can never definitively pin down what they are going to do beyond a shadow of a doubt. However, this is an exception. We have seen the things that this administration have said about trans people, HRT, etc. and can make a guess as to what they are looking to do. Whether or not they will do it, or the legality of those actions, is a question in an of itself. But, I feel that we as a community need to be prepared in the event of any laws on HRT coming on the books.
3. Stand up for our younger trans kids, or those who cant fight.
This last section is a bit personal to me, as I am writing from a first hand experience. We have especially seen that these, for lack of a better word, hateful people targeting teens with their ire. They’ve made laws banning trans women and girls in sports over a perceived biological advantage (which is bullshit),they have shat so many bathroom laws out the ass, its not even funny, etc. I feel that now, at this point, it falls on the elders in the community to stand up for, not only the kids, but also the people who cant fight. These elders are already standing up for us, going onto the frontlines, and fighting on our behalf. Now, more than ever, especially with the inauguration on the horizon, I feel that it is high time for the Allies in the community to stand up for us. No more “Allies” who will say that they stand up for us, only to sell us out and switch sides.
I mean real, true, Allies that will, through the highest of high’s and lowest of lows, will stick through it with us.