Recently, news broke that President Donald Trump would shut down the government if the Democrats did not approve of an appropriations bill that would, among other things, strip federal funding from gender-affirming care completely, regardless of age. Prominent voices from within the trans community and outside it are pleading with the Democratic leadership not to cave on an issue that will endanger the lives of millions of Americans, a well-founded concern when one considers that the Democratic leadership has caved to prevent government shutdowns in the past few months. If this comes to pass, the Democratic Party and its leadership will be forsaking any claim to righteousness that they have not already lost, namely through their intransigence on the issue of Palestine and their refusal to endorse candidates who have criticized our country’s foreign policy.
Talking heads of all backgrounds are brought out of the woodwork to speak on the supposed transgender menace. Conservatives are quick to blame the trans community for every new mass shooting, evidence of a true sickness that pervades our culture. Even California Gov. Gavin Newsom decried the presence of transgender women in women’s sports as “deeply unfair.” As we have become more visible, so too has the target on our back become larger. Our presence in this country is a threat to the tyrants and the tyrants in waiting. We may be a small fraction of the population, but it is what we represent that makes us such a tantalizing target: that the world is not always simple, or easy to understand, let alone control.
Even if our country throws us to the wolves, we will continue to live. We will not go quietly into the night. We will continue to assert our rights as human beings to live in peace and happiness.
Our only crime is to exist, and they will never forgive us for it.
Sadie Lopez-Reiss
Florence