Seemingly every day now, we hear about a new and hateful anti-trans bill being introduced in a conservative state. There’s the infamous North Dakota attempt to legally tie pronouns to people’s assumed DNA, numerous bills to bar trans girls from girls’ school sports and, of course, several attempts to ban transition care for trans youths.
Fighting every new bill is a tremendous undertaking for organizers. Every time a bill is introduced, it means planning another rally or organizing a witness list for a public hearing. To help the organizing process, several prominent social media accounts dedicate much of their time to tracking each individual bill, and the American Civil Liberties Union also has a helpful tracker. But every proposed law serves only to sow panic among this country’s trans communities. Many trans Americans have fallen into a near-hopeless mental place, with some considering fleeing the country.
Do we need tens of thousands of retweets because one red-state legislator proposed something horrific?
Thankfully, most anti-LGBTQ bills don’t end up passing, as a Human Rights Campaign report published last week showed. Of the 315 anti-LGBTQ bills that were introduced last year, just 29 ended up becoming law. Most common among the passed laws were bills attacking trans youth: In the last three years, 18 states banned trans girls from girls’ sports, and four states banned transition care for trans youths.
But it’s worth wondering whether hyper-focusing on every new bill does more harm than good. Yes, it’s important to remain informed and to organize a collective response, but do we need tens of thousands of retweets because one red-state legislator proposed something horrific?
First, it’s easy to see how proposing a more extreme bill would make a less extreme version seem like a compromise. This year, we’ve seen states begin to extend proposals to ban trans youth health care to include some adults. A bill in Missouri would ban transition…
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