Image: A figure wearing a shirt and a name tag: “Transgender.” (Shutterstock)
The Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, the most drastic move yet in a governmentwide effort to roll back recognition and protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law. – NYT, 10/21/2018
I read this last night and my blood ran cold. I am writing to beg you, dear readers, to act today to let our lawmakers know that this re-definition of gender is evil, is not in the best interests of the United States, and that it must not happen.
If such a rule goes forward, it would be permission for physical attacks on people whose gender doesn’t fit into a tidy male-female paradigm. It will be encouragement for bullies to beat them up, and it will prevent many of them access to appropriate health care. It will create vast, horrible legal messes for those who have already corrected their legal papers to reflect who they actually are.
That includes a lot of people in my life, beloved to me.
THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT HURTING ANYONE. They are good citizens. They pay taxes, they vote, they do the best they can to pay their own way in the world (quite a trick, when one faces so much discrimination.) They are American troops, they are veterans of foreign wars, they are contributing members of our society.
Even if they weren’t all those things, they are human beings, made in the image of God, children of God, and they deserve to be treated with dignity.
No one will be better off if our government decides to put them all in the straightjacket of a strict binary gender system. It will not improve your life, and it sure as heck won’t improve mine. It will just torment people who haven’t done anything wrong. It will please some ignorant bigots, and it will give joy to some who think cruelty is fun.
What to do? Here are some suggestions:
- Contact your elected representatives and let them know you think that anti-trans legislation or executive orders are NOT the American way.
- Give money to trans rights organizations.
- Transgender Law Center
- Freedom for All Americans
- National Center for Transgender Equality
- Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund
- Trans Life Line (a hotline on which trans people help trans people)
- The Sylvia Rivera Law Project
- The TransWomen of Color Collective
- Gender Spectrum
- Trans-Tech Social Enterprise
- The Trans Justice Funding Project
- National Center for Lesbian Rights (working for trans civil rights since 2001)
- Trans Youth (TRUTH) Program
- TGI Justice Project
- Trans Student Educational Resources
- Immigration Equality and Action Fund
- Learn about the organizations above, and encourage your friends to support them.
- Write letters to the editor of your local paper.
- Write an op-ed for a publication you read.
- Contact state officials to push for state-level protections for vulnerable trans people
- Read books by trans authors. (Here’s where you can find some. Also another list.)
- If there is a trans person in your life, reach out, listen to them, ask how you can support them.
By the way, if you are thinking that fifteen organizations means that transgender people don’t need your support, you are mistaken. Most of those outfits run on shoestrings and provide legal and other support without which people will die.
If you are thinking, “But bathrooms! Rabbi, danger!” please read my post on that subject.
Please, please, choose at least a few of the action items above and do what you can.
Thank you, for whatever you do.
Thank you very much for this.
Thank you for reading, and for helping to spread the word. It’s actually selfish on my part – this is about individuals in my life whom I love, as well as basic human rights.
Thanks, R. Ruth, for putting your reputation behind this issue. I’m 100% behind you, & I’ve already taken several actions in support.
Thank you, Maureen! I appreciate your action.
Thank you, Rabbi Ruth, for writing about this. I/ too, had my blood running cold when I read this abominable news.
I have many trans friends. You aren’t being selfish; you’re being compassionate to people who deserve equal rights. Period.
Thank you, Pamela. This is one of those moments for “not standing by while our neighbor bleeds.”
Rabbi, thanks so much for this statement and for providing a list of things to do.
Thank you, Sherlock. I hope the list is helpful and that we are able to make a difference.