Your Anti - LGBTQ+ Bills Won’t Erase Us
Click HERE to stay up to date on recent anti-trans bills.
It’s 2023 and there are over 500 anti LGBTQ bills across 41 states being pushed in the United States. I am officially terrified to be living in this country as a trans person.
There are bills attacking trans youth and trying to prevent trans students from participating in school activities, forcing teachers to out students, censoring information regarding LGBTQ+ people and issues, etc. There are bills trying to keep trans people from using public restrooms and locker rooms. There are bills targeting access to medically-necessary health care for trans people. These bills ban health care for trans youth and block funding to medical centers that offer gender-affirming care. They even go as far as making it a felony for healthcare providers to give gender-affirming care to minors. There are bills trying to weaken nondiscrimination laws to allow employers, businesses, and hospitals to turn away LGBTQ+ people. There are bills banning drag performances and restricting how and when LGBTQ+ people can be themselves. The list goes on. Michael Knowles, a far right commenter announced from the Conservative Political Action Conference stage that “transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.” THEY WANT TO CALL FOR A TRANS GENOCIDE IN AMERICA. Your anti-trans bills can’t erase us no matter how hard you try. We exist and we will fight back.
I want these photos to be a part of that fight. If there’s one thing I can do for my community it’s raise awareness with my artwork. That’s why I create and post what I do. My goal as a trans artist is to use my artwork to speak up for my community. This is an attack on our lives and our right to exist. I printed as many anti-LGBTQ+ bills as I could that have been introduced just this year and taped them all over my backdrop. This photoshoot is dedicated to fighting back against all of the anti-trans bills being introduced in the United States. People need to see that our community exists and that we deserve to have the same rights as anyone else in this country.
The number of anti-trans bills has officially reached its highest this year and it’s only March. According to the Human Rights Campaign, “In 2022, politicians in statehouses across the country introduced 315 discriminatory anti-LGBTQ+ bills and 29 passed into law.” This year, we need to fight even harder against these bills.
There are currently:
91 Gender Affirming Care Bans
39 Sports Bans
44 Don’t Say Gay/Forcing Outing Bills
27 Drag Bans
12 Defining Trans People Out Of Law
Plus many including trans bathroom bans, birth certificate change bans, and forced misgendering.
The words “Transgenderism must be eradicated” and calling it a “preposterous ideology at every level,” are used with serious intent. Los Angeles Times states “Had he said, “Judaism must be eradicated,” or had he proclaimed an “all or nothing” solution for homosexuality, nobody would mistake the murderous intent of such a message.” We are being publicly attacked by the conservative party. This is a demand for trans genocide.
It started with bans on bathrooms saying trans women are going to assault people in public restrooms, which by the way, there is absolutely no evidence to support. Then it made its way into schools trying to keep trans youth from participating in activities and now spread into restricting healthcare for trans youth.
One of the worst bills being pushed through Florida wants to make it legal for the state to take trans children away from their families and take children away from supportive trans parents (Senate Bill 254). Parents would be charged with a felony for supporting their trans kids getting gender-affirming care. South Carolina introduced a bill prohibiting anyone under the age of 18 from undergoing gender reassignment medical treatment including alleviating symptoms of gender dysphoria (Senate Bill 243). House Bill 41 and Senate Bill 250 would bar physicians from providing minors with gender affirming care and would ban insurance companies from covering such treatment. SB 250 would also revoke the licenses of health care professionals who provide such treatment. This is treatment that saves children’s lives and we’re putting a ban on it now? Data indicates that 82% of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide, with suicidality highest among transgender youth (Pub Med). Without any way of getting treatment, these numbers will just continue to increase.
Another bill in Montana prohibits punishing students who purposely misgender or deadname their transgender peers who are already struggling with acceptance (House Bill 361). There are bills prohibiting the use of non-binary as a gender marker on ID’s (Senate Bill 554). Other bills in Virginia prohibit schools from changing a child’s given name (House Bill 1434) and make schools alert the parents if they suspect a kid is trans (House Bill 1707). House Bill 1541 and House Bill 1155 would require schools to notify parents of any gender affirming resources provided to their child and monitor their “students’ mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being.” This essentially would require district employees to disclose some students’ sexual orientation or gender identity to their parents when the students may not feel safe sharing that personal information. HB 1541 would enable parents to sue districts if teachers don’t comply.
They want to force sex designation for school activities and sports aiming to keep trans girls from playing on the girls team (Senate Bill 911). Some even force an invasive genital examination for CHILDREN to prove their sex.
House Bills 643, 708 and 1266 and Senate Bill 476 seek to reclassify bars or businesses that host drag shows as “sexually oriented businesses,” a category that includes adult movie theaters and sex shops. Drag is not about sex. It’s about art. It’s about expressing yourself as who you are. These bills are meant to end drag performances and any displays of gender non-conformity as a whole, not protect kids.
A bill in Arkansas would criminalize using a public bathroom, locker room or shower room, of the opposite sex "while knowing a minor of the opposite sex is present" passed through a Senate committee (Senate Bill 270). When will this stop? Will they continue banning us from public places simply because of our gender? Kids do not need to fear trans people. There is no need to keep minors “safe” from trans people because WE ARE NOT THE ISSUE.
If you’re interested in looking more into the bills being passed in your area, feel free to click this link to track your own state.
These bans and laws are supposedly being put into place to “protect kids” when they are in fact being put into place to target trans people. Queer people are not the issue here. If you look into the numbers, the leading cause of death amongst children in this country is not drag shows. It’s firearms. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Kids need to be protected from guns, not from queer people.
Now this is where I ask you… step into our fight. It’s not likely this kind of content will reach those with privilege but if it does, this is when we need you most. So to our allies, and any cis people reading this, we need you. We can’t fight this on our own.
To those in my trans community, stay strong. You are not alone, we are in this together. We will never be eradicated.
Sign petition in support of rejecting all Anti - LGBTQ+ bills!
Sign petition to Let Trans Kids Play!
Sign Human Rights Petition to Stop Targeting LGBTQ+ Youth
Sign petitions to Protect Trans Rights in Every State
