just a guy trying to find his way

It’s a makeshift set-up: a gray, box-sized recording booth and a desk that sits in the corner of a living room. Beauty — outfitted in a tank top, black winter skully hat, and painted-on cat whiskers — helps Diamond recite her lines before she enters the booth’s orange incandescence and gets to work. With Swatts stationed at a laptop, the elastic instrumental starts and Diamond, in her cat-ear headband, sings the hook: “If I do it once / You better believe it boy, I can do it twice.” 

When she finishes, Swatts partially lifts his cap and scratches his head before chiming in with some direction: “I feel like that was just a sound check. I really want to hear you go in.” With a nod, she performs the song again and then once more.

a small list of resources for the moment: 

trans people who are in a serious situation, such as being suicidal, or being abused, etc. can contact the trevor project. they have a lifeline that is 1-866-488-7386 and an online chat room.

the trans 100 is a list provided by GLAAD of inspiring trans americans.

we happy trans is a website that provides happy trans stories!

a longer list of resources from GLAAD can be found here

trans housing network

mermaids.org.uk is a website that provides individual and family support for young people with differing gender identities. 

trans law center (TLC)

Trans Youth Family Allies

gender justice league ( specifically for advocating for gender equality within the LGBT+ community)

With more visibility comes more understanding. These statistics will get better as trans people become more visible in society.

More great info at Trans Student Educational Resources.

Last year, the Family Research Council laid out a five point plan to legislate transgender people out of existence by making the legal, medical, and social climate too hostile for anyone to transition in.

1. States and the federal government should not allow legal gender marker changes.

2. Transgender people should not have any legal protections against discrimination, nor should anyone be forced to respect their identity.

3. Transgender people should not be legally allowed to use facilities in accordance with their gender identity.

4. Medical coverage related to transition should not be provided by the government, or any other entity.

5. Transgender people should not be allowed to serve in the military.

Stop for a moment here, and imagine a world where you can’t get an accurate government ID. A world where you can’t vote, can’t drive without risking arrest, and can’t get a job. You cannot prove that you are who you are, because no one will believe your ID is real.You will never be treated as your correct gender by any government agency. What ID you have will constantly out you as transgender, inviting discrimination. Perfectly legal discrimination, if part two of their plan succeeds.

Sadly, the FRC really does want to try and legislate trans people out of existence. That’s one of their major priorities these days, and they’re using their resources to fuel it.

They are actively attempting to eliminate legal protections, healthcare access, and fuel moral panic. That much is clear. They, to borrow a certain famous TERF’s words, want to morally mandate us out of existence, and that starts at the legal/political level, much like it did back then when they worked to strip trans people of healthcare access and legal rights and made us out to be sexual predators. It’s deja vu from decades ago, but with a more organized and connected set of supporters, and with a stranglehold on widespread media coverage to support their cause, and not just far right media, either.

And, in such a future scenario where they succeed, any trans person who doesn’t appear normatively like their assigned gender, who might use a different name and different labels, and have different needs, well, that could invite serious hell. And it would open potential to be denied housing, voting access, shelter, transportation, etc. and discrimination in hiring and within workplaces.

Brynn can be a little hyperbolic in her language in some of her articles, but she really was pretty blunt and honest here.

This is the next wave socially approved political transphobia. We’ll see if our allies show up to help this time around, or if we’ll be on our own for this round. But I think the vast majority of trans people older than their teens saw this coming, we knew it’d get worse before it got better. Doesn’t make the prospect of thousands dead and suffering any easier to swallow, but that’s the reality of it. These political pushes will have real consequences on trans people.

The slight silver lining here is that some countries are better about this than USA. I have hopes that Canada won’t slip like my southern neighbours are, and I’d like to think that Australia (despite your country’s very spotty track record on trans stuff) won’t venture down as dark of a path.

But I do think a lot of transphobic groups are paying close attention to the USA right now, to see if their tactics work, if they can gain traction, so tha they might use them in places outside of the USA.