When I was 11 years old I told myself I was a girl. It was definitive by then. However I distinctly remember questioning it as early as 1st grade. At that time I was merely seven years old. I went through the indoctrination that I was supposed to be a boy. I lived by those phony gender roles pretending to be something I am not. I attempted suicide multiple times over the course of my life.
I had no support. I didn’t even have a word for how I felt. There was *a* word for us back then but it’s one I detest thus I chose not to utter it even to this day. Mark my words our attitude towards trans kids has not changed. I heard them being called freaks of nature, faggots and the worst was when my brother-in-law called a trans girl a “boy who cut *its* dick off,” that sentiment stuck with me. The disgust they have towards us has always been there. I remember directing that disgust inwardly towards myself. I have an adopted daughter who is closeted that I regularly hear her doing the same thing. Self loathing is detrimental to our survival. Yet we all have to face it at some point.
Recently the governor of Texas, or a slime ball walking around wearing his face rather, issued a declaration directing state agencies to report parents who pursue gender-affirming care for their trans kids to be reported for child abuse. They actually want to remove trans children from their homes and place them in foster care. This is by far the most egregious assault on trans rights in my lifetime. How the hell did we get here? Well for starters we let the LGB push us away to fend for ourselves. This is what happens when we stop standing together in unity. We lost our strength in numbers. We lost the gay and lesbian wolves that fought these battles before us for their right to exist. Losing their support opened the door for bigots to come after us. When they discovered they couldn’t take on the adults they shifted their focus to the children.
First it was sports. Separating trans kids from their teammates in a legal maneuver that would make Adolf Hitler proud. They tried, and failed, to ban trans kids from using their correct bathrooms. Now they see us in our weakened state and are going for the kill. Mark my words trans youth are going to die over this. I wanted to kill myself because I was disgusted knowing I was a “freak” and that was long before the leaders of my state were actively trying to cause me real harm. I can’t imagine what trans kids today are facing. Disgusting isn’t the right word. It’s beyond fascism we’ve entered into the real of terrorism. We are terrorizing trans kids while we demonize the few who actually have loving, supportive parents. This is not an assault it is flat out terrorism.
I am not saying the super gay’s are entirely to blame. I am saying by giving credence to their silly banner you fueled their hatred while legitimizing their cause. The blood of the trans kids who end their lives over this hopeless situation are as much on your hands as the repugnant ones who are pushing for these policies. Even more so because the trans community depended on you to stand with us, and instead you walked away. You allowed sexual preference come between us. You let rhetoric divide us when we should have stood together.
Nobody was saying a gay person had to be attracted to a trans man, all we wanted was to treat the transman with the same dignity you give a cisgendered man. But now because you sided with the terrorists who want to do us harm, the same ones who tried to push you to suicide in your youth, we are in this weakened vulnerable state where we now face extinction at the hands of our oppressors. Now I am not saying this is *all* your fault but you better well bear some of the blame. You could repair the harm by standing with us now, joining us in our most desperate hour, or you could turn a blind eye, bury your head in the sand and be thankful you won the victories you did while you watch us burn to death in the slaughter.
We need to stand together. I will stand with the trans kids as we are led off to the slaughter. I will stand up and fight for our youth. I will do what I can to protect trans kids by the goddess because I already fought for my right to live and now I have to fight for the next generation for their right to exist. We are all fighting the same war yet we allowed ourselves to be divided and look what it got us! The first trans kid who takes their own life their blood is on YOUR hands, anyone who used the hashtag super gay. Their blood is on you.
Stephanie Bri 