Trans Rights in Jeopardy
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Follow
The Transgender Pride Flag flies on the Foreign Office building in London on Transgender Day of Remembrance, 20 November 2017, a moment to remember all those trans people around the world who have lost their lives because of who they are. The FCO is committed to tackling prejudice, violence, and discrimination against LGBT people globally.
The rights of transgender people have been under fire for many years. Although transgender people have been around since the beginning of time, it’s still unnecessarily hard for some people to respect and understand them.
Trans rights have made drastic steps in the right direction, but the fact that their existence is still up for discussion proves there is more work to do.
A big topic of debate has been whether or not transgender people should be able to perform in the sport of the sex that they transitioned to.
According to USA Today as recently as two days ago, Mississippi Republican Governor Tate Reeves signed a bill that bans transgender athletes from competing on girl’s or women’s sports teams. Governor Reeves said his reasoning behind this is, “the bill will protect young girls from being forced to compete with biological males for athletic opportunities.”
Not only do these lawmakers want to take away sports for trans youth, but they also want to take away basic gender-confirming health care. According to freedom for americans.org, a bill has been introduced, and is looking to be passed in Missouri that does just that.
Section 4 of this bill proposes, “A healthcare provider may not perform gender transition procedures on a minor to treat gender dysphoria. remove any otherwise healthy or non diseased body part or tissue of a minor to treat gender dysphoria.”
The health care that is provided to trans youth is life-saving, to take it away is negligent and discriminatory. Not allowing trans youth to access hormones and surgeries is detrimental to their mental and physical health. These bills are immensely irresponsible.
After really doing my research on these propositions, I have been racking my brain trying to figure out why trans people playing sports, or having basic health care affects these lawmakers so much. I know none of them are playing youth sports and they definitely aren’t opening their pockets for gender-conforming health care. These bills clearly show that these lawmakers’ motivations are blatantly discriminatory and transphobic.
