The Power of Defiance in the Age of Trans Bans

We can’t keep begging our political system for the ‘right’ to exist

Photo by Kadir Celep on Unsplash

Bans on healthcare for trans youth are passing throughout the country. So are bans on trans participation in youth sports, and the acknowledgment of queer people’s existence in classrooms. Until now, I haven’t had the will to write about any of it. Hell, for weeks I could barely bring myself to read very much about these statutes.

In a social-media-driven, advertiser-funded political world where bearing witness is treated as a moral obligation, failing to post (or consume enough posts) about pressing issues can feel like an abdication of duty. Shouldn’t I be making myself more and more worried, despite how psychologically overwhelming that might be? It sometimes feels like my own terror has made me “useless” in the fight to protect trans children.

Tweet by user NoraReed: “people always do this thing where they’re like ‘YOU DON’T GET TO LOG OFF. YOU DON”T GET TO LOOK AWAY FROM THIS’ like you can purge the sin of privilege by wearing the hair shirt of witness even if that puts you in a position where you’re too tired to do anything real.”

If it were a few years ago, I would be rattling the conventional political alarm bells: calling my state representatives, calling on behalf of concerned voters who can’t use the phone, signing petitions, disseminating information, penning passionate essays, and begging desperately for others…