We cannot all be eradicated
by Patrick Kuklinski.
The last few months have delivered a sort of grim vindication about what many of us have said has been coming for years. The Trump administration has acted to brutally undercut every minority group in the country as quickly as possible. Most notably of late with the inhumane, and illegal for what that’s still worth, treatment of immigrants or anyone who even appears like a “foreigner.” Far too many still see these abuses as justifiable, or even desirable, because they don’t consider the administration’s targets as American enough, or American at all. They aren’t one of “us.”
I’d say it won’t be long before citizens too are being treated this way, but in fact it’s already started. Particularly for minority groups who were born and raised as Americans and yet are still being treated like presumed criminals.
There’s no reason that someone cannot be transgender and American at once. Transgender Americans pay taxes, go to work, have kids, and live our lives. Thousands of us were enlisted in the U.S. military prior to the resurgence of Trump’s military ban. The perception that trans people spend all day simply Being Transgender – engaging in activities like converting young people into the nefarious Transgender Cult and creeping in women’s bathrooms – is blatantly false.
Despite rationally knowing that, like everyone else, we’re just fucking people, the right is still willing to turn on us simply because we’ve done something they don’t understand or agree with. Far-right talking heads know we pose no threat to other Americans, but given that many transgender folks believe in wild fantasies like free healthcare, living wages, and a shot at a decent life for everyone, it makes sense to kick us while we’re down, before we can grow to have a voice.
Democrats who claim to have championed our rights have done exactly the same thing, only less directly. Gavin Newsom turned heads when he called transgender athletes participating in womens’ sports “deeply unfair.” It’s a shame, but we knew it’s what a lot of Democrats were thinking anyway. No amount of pronouns in your work email signature, posts on Trans Day of Visibility, or other virtue signaling “activism” has changed the reality that you do not want to see us or what we’re going through unless it happens to be convenient for you.
The warfare against innocent people who have done nothing but go about their lives is absolutely insane. Earlier this year, I made the mistake of moving to Upstate New York in an attempt to free myself from the high rent and unaffordable cost of living in New Hampshire. I found myself equally as broke there, only now my neighbors were running a hate campaign against me. People I had never met were accusing me of being a pedophile and abusing animals. I took the hint and packed up and left, even though I knew I’d be running back to the same financial hardships from before.
When I came back to New Hampshire half a year after I’d left, it felt like I’d missed some kind of drastic shift in the atmosphere. The queer cafe I used to work at was looking for new ownership after consistent protests from Proud Boys dressed in full Nazi garb. My trans friends who had thought about building lives here were now worried about their safety. Kelly Ayotte was elected in a state with a rampant opioid problem, homeless people sleeping on the steps of the State House, and a severe housing crisis, and thought that the best course of action was to first dismantle the rights of a minority group. Ironically, most trans New Hampshire residents I know weren’t born here, but moved here for what they thought was safety, much like myself (a North Carolina native). Trans people were just removed from discrimination protection here – not that it matters much when essentially that’s already happened nationwide. And, for whatever reason, the state has decided to wage war on a kid who just wants to play sports with her friends. A federal judge ruled that two parents “protecting children” by wearing pink bands labeled “XX” to high school girls’ soccer games with a transgender player could not continue harassing the trans player, who’s still a minor. Pam Bondi plans to change that and make picking on a literal child OK. The irony of Melania Trump’s failed “Be Best” anti-bullying campaign attempting to make a weak resurgence while her husband advocates for the destruction of anyone he disagrees with doesn’t bring me much joy; it’s more like a slap in the face after you’ve just gotten to your feet after losing a fight.
Trans people have been here, and will continue being here, even if the U.S. government plasters the “LGB” acronym on official websites, removes mentions of Marsha P. Johnson from Stonewall’s webpage, and fights tooth and nail to make our lives hell. So too will trans people in the U.K. who are undergoing their own onslaught right now from politicians of all kinds. Removing our right to go to the bathroom, making our prescriptions almost impossible to afford, and denying us housing and job opportunities will not kill us all off. Sure, a lot of us will suffer, and we will certainly continue losing trans individuals both to suicide and to hate crimes that rarely stay in the news for longer than a few days. But we cannot all be eradicated, and when the regime the U.S. is under eventually falls, we’ll still be standing.
Patrick Kuklinski is a longtime writer and transgender man living in New Hampshire with his found family and many pets. You can find him at @todaysbird on Tumblr.
He most recently wrote for Hell World on the latest assaults on the rights and dignity of trans people in Florida.
Luke O’Neil