As transgender as I have been my whole life

Patrick Kuklinski returns to write about the looming threat trans people face under the incoming Trump administration. They previously wrote about the “Don’t Say Climate Change” bill in Florida and one of the many recent assaults on the rights and dignity of trans people there.

It smelled like death

You would think that by now we would have heard of all the different ways in which the police can enact suffering and violence against citizens right? There certainly can’t be anything much worse they could do to us just beyond the scope of our imaginations right? Well fuck me

Welcome to Hell WorldLuke O’Neil

The true intent was always oppression

The latest assault on the rights and dignity of trans people in Florida

Welcome to Hell WorldLuke O’Neil

You'll need to be a paid subscriber to read this piece in full. Thank you for your support.

As transgender as I have been my whole life

by Patrick Kuklinski

Despite being only a tiny fraction of the population (1.14%, or 3 million people), transgender people have seemingly become the face of the “far left” in America, regardless of their political views or whether or not they’ve tried to make a voice for themselves. As a trans person myself, I’ve watched our public perception take a nosedive since Trump’s first presidency. After his reelection, my neighbor felt confident enough to inform everyone else in our neighborhood that I’m transgender. Of course she used less than politically correct language, and her intention was to make others know I’m “untrustworthy” for my grand crime of…something? While there will always be old coots who get up in arms easily, I can’t help but feel that Trump’s win helped embolden her attitude. Far right politicians, particularly the incoming Trump administration, have worked hard to fuel the idea that transgender people are inherently predatory and nefarious. “Kamala is for they/them, Donald Trump is for you” was the tagline used by Trump’s campaign that made their point jarringly clear. 

Nonbinary and transgender people in America are without a doubt the new other. Whether or not people even know a trans person in their community, many are worried about the mythological presence of a trans woman creeping on young girls in the bathroom. That’s despite there being no documented correlation between trans-inclusive bathroom policies and bathroom safety. This fearmongering has led to a rise in support for restrictive policies that won’t just hurt trans people, but will restrict cis people’s freedoms, too. It should be enough to just want to protect trans rights, but it seems as a country we’ve already proven that time and time again we will fail trans folks unless there’s an incentive to do otherwise.