Transgender Rights and Protections
18 states across the U.S. have put into legislation bans on transgender youth, more specifically girls and women, in sports competitions. Louisiana has become the 18th state to follow suit in these bans with state bill 44. State bill 44 directly prohibits transgender youth from competing in sports that are consistent with their gender identity. Many are shocked that Louisiana Governor, John Bell Edwards, didn’t veto this bill as he did a similar bill one year prior, stating that the bill was discriminatory.
This bill is yet another direct attack on the transgender community and the numbers prove it. A recent study conducted by The Trevor Project found that 42% of transgender youth heavily contemplated taking their own lives and an astounding 94% said that recent politics have greatly affected their mental health. The bills that are popping up all across the country have a serious impact on the well-being of the youth in this country, and not many people are using their power to protect these kids. The group of people who are cut-throat pro-life advocates is the same people who are antagonizing, harassing, and violating transgender kids to the brink of suicide simply because they don’t look on the pitied how they feel on the inside.
The senior counsel for the human rights campaign, Cathryn Oakley, says that trying to push the anti-transgender agenda solves no problem that we have in this country and does nothing but harm people. I completely agree with this statement because what does a transgender woman competing in the same game as a bunch of other women have to do with someone who is not competing and would not compete regardless of whether the transgender woman is there or not. This is a huge invasion of privacy and one of the largest acts of nationwide, federal-level discrimination this country has seen since the civil rights movement of 1964.
In 2021 alone, there was a total of 320 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in legislation, and 147 of those bills across 34 states directly target transgender people. Approximately 75 of that 147 anti-transgender bills specifically target transgender youth. As of 2022, there have been 25 anti-transgender bills with state bill 44 in Louisiana being the 25th bill. These bills, especially state bill 44 in Louisiana, will affect children as young as kindergarten and trail all the way to the collegiate level. This includes but is not limited to genetic testing, genital exams, and birth certificate verification. Some colleges such as Louisiana State University have put out statements against these anti-transgender bans, and the governor himself has condemned them, even though he did not veto state bill 44.
One may ask why some conservatives in this country say “to each their own” when it comes to gun control, but when asked about gay marriage, transgender men and women, or women’s reproductive rights, they say that those specific individuals should not be able to have a say in what happens whether that is abortion, sports participation, or matrimony.