Dear friends,
This extraordinary article about experiencing the pandemic captures our collective unease as we try to navigate through a period of normlessness, hoping to arrive at a familiar shore.
Transitions are always challenging, whether we are starting or leaving jobs, heading out the door for the day, or leaving for college. When we are in the midst of dramatic social and political changes, on top of the havoc wrought by Covid, we are navigating without maps.
Listen to “Wait, Do You Have the Map?” from This American Life.
Lena, who is the trans-est person I know — they changed their job, their name, the gender on their passport, and moved to a new city, all in the space of a few months last year — often muses on how long it will be until they stop encountering people who are totally baffled by trans-ness.
We spend a lot of time educating people about pronouns and how not to act weird around trans people. I like an educational project and I am always reminding Lena that this takes time.
But Marjorie Taylor Greene may be out of reach for me. In a think-of-the-children moment, she recently told members of the Georgia legislature, incorrectly, that many young people who receive gender-affirming surgery regret it. (Apologies: I cannot find my source!).
the prevalence of regret is 1%.
The data above is for all ages; the reality is that few minors receive gender-affirming surgery.
What struck me, however, is that Greene urged legislators to pass a law that would also deny hormone treatments and puberty-blockers to young people. If the concern is that young people will regret surgery — a reasonable concern — then why deny them life-saving alternatives?
In the words of Georgia Senator Kim Jackson of Stone Mountain:
[P]uberty blockers are life saving drugs for trans children who are already at a higher risk of committing suicide. So when we deny them that medical opportunity to have, you know, puberty stopped while they're kind of sorting things out, while they're figuring things out, if we deny them that lifesaving drug, then we put our kids at risk of self-harm.
The assault on the rights of trans people in the US is well underway. In addition to the hundreds of bills introduced in state legislatures to restrict everything from drag queen story hour to bathroom access to health care, there is a new bill in Congress to create a ban on trans people serving in the US military; the proposed ban is more extreme than the one introduced by the last president and reversed by Biden.
The media has played a role in amplifying misinformation about trans people and gender-affirming care, and the New York Times is among the news outlets that have abetted anti-trans politicians.
Public outcry about the paper’s coverage comes after more than a year of irresponsible, biased front page news and opinion pieces about transgender people. A number of these pieces have been cited by politicians to justify discriminatory bans and criminalizing efforts against best practices, consensus-based healthcare for trans youth. A number of harmful opinion pieces, written by non-LGBTQ essayists, spread harmful misinformation about transgender people and do not include their voices or accurately reflect their realities.
Tell the New York Times to stop spreading misinformation about trans people! This quick action is from GLAAD.
[Economists warn that policymakers’ inertia and the resulting reliance on employers to administer paid leave and child care is creating two distinct workplaces for women — and risks exacerbating racial and gender inequality for decades to come.
Benefits like paid leave and child care affect not only caregivers’ ability to manage work-life balance but their lifetime earning potential: Studies have repeatedly shown that having access to paid leave and child care leaves women free to rack up the
promotions and raises that enable them to support themselves and their families.
Let Congress know your legislative priorities for this year! This quick action is from Moms Rising.
As always, we work the issues on the state and local levels whenever we can. You can join the monthly call this Wednesday to learn more about taking action in Albany with the NY Caring Majority. And you can take action from home:
Tell Governor Hochul that we owe a living wage to home care workers!
Sometimes transit is just about getting ourselves and our stuff from here to there, which is also potentially treacherous.
Call on Secretary Buttigieg to strengthen transportation regulations. Tell your story if you were left stranded by an airline in the past year.
Be brave and look both ways before crossing.
with love,
L