Trans people to MAGA Congress: Why you so obsessed with me?

By Jennifer Pike Bailey

It’s a tale as old as time. When the going gets tough for Republicans in Congress — when they have no answers to soaring gas prices from Trump’s illegal war with Iran, rampant corruption, or spiking health premiums — they can’t help but fall back on their favorite strategy: Fearmongering. And unfortunately, the transgender community is still the scapegoat du jour.

This week, MAGA politicians on both sides of the Capitol are tripping over themselves to attack trans people. They will vote on at least two anti-trans bills in the House of Representatives and hold a high-profile hearing vilifying gender affirming care in the Senate.

The House will kick things off on Wednesday by voting on H.R. 2616, a national Don’t Say LGBTQ+ bill, which would try to erase transgender kids from our nation’s schools.

This legislation would prohibit schools across the country from “teach[ing] or advanc[ing] concepts relating to gender ideology,” which would prohibit discussing gender identity, using students’ correct names and pronouns, having books with trans characters, or even acknowledging the existence of trans people in the classroom. It would also force schools to out students to their parents if the teacher or student took certain steps to affirm their identity.

But here’s the thing: Transgender students have always existed and will always exist.

Policies that denigrate trans youth don’t succeed in erasing these students, they just make their lives immeasurably harder. It’s the job of schools to keep youth safe. And as we’ve seen, LGBTQ+ students are in physical danger when harmful policies are implemented. Recent FBI data shows that in states that have passed these types of laws, anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in schools have quadrupled.

All young people—including LGBTQ+ students—who are accepted by the adults in their lives have much better outcomes for mental health and other metrics. Data from NIH shows that if a transgender kid has just one accepting adult in their life, their rate of attempted suicide drops by one-third. This bill is forbidding teachers and other school staff from being that supportive person who could make all the difference in a kid’s life.

But, of course, MAGA politicians won’t stop there. As soon as they are done trying to erase transgender people from schools, the House will move on to trying to erase transgender women from American history.

A little backstory: For years, advocates have been working towards establishing the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, which culminated in a carefully negotiated, bipartisan piece of legislation to finally get this project over the finish line. But at the 11th hour, during the Committee markup, Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) insisted on an amendment prohibiting the museum from including any experience of transgender women.

Ironically, the very next section of the bill requires the museum to reflect “an equal representation of the diversity of the political viewpoints and authentic experiences held by women in the United States, accurately and comprehensively representing the varied cultures, histories, events, and values held by such women.” The Democratic Women’s Caucus—who wholeheartedly assert that trans women are women—reversed course and now oppose the bill.

So instead of actually getting something real done, Republicans are in effect torpedoing their own bill just so they can, again, poke at trans people.

If that wasn’t enough, all you’d need to do is walk across the Capitol to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which, instead of trying to address the high costs of health care, will be holding a hearing to attack best practice health care for transgender youth under the guise of “protecting” trans kids.

Vilifying a small percentage of young people isn’t protecting them.

Taking away kids’ access to medically necessary health care isn’t protecting them. Ignoring the very real problems that kids in America face—gun violence, lack of education funding, online safety, climate change—isn’t protecting them.

These actions are not about protecting kids. No, they are about politics.

This is about a few powerful politicians hoping that if they can run a few more anti-trans ads in November, then maybe they can scare people enough into voting for them. (Side note—all the data shows that this doesn’t work.)

Opponents of LGBTQ+ equality are creating a lot of noise, and the only way to stop them is to be louder. We need phone calls, emails, letters to every Member of Congress telling them to stop these attacks. And then we need to show up at the ballot box.

Our opponents are making their voices heard. Will you step up to do the same?

Act now: hrc.im/hr2616