Yale Psychiatry Grand Rounds: "From History to Headlines: Trans Rights and Resistance in the Modern Rainbow Scare"

February 23, 2024

"From History to Headlines: Trans Rights and Resistance in the Modern Rainbow Scare"

Speaker: Erin Reed, Independent Journalist

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ID: 11351
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00:03There we go.
00:04Get a accept recording right here.
00:06Hi, everybody. Thank you so
00:07much for the introduction.
00:08Again, my name is Aaron Reed.
00:09I have been tracking LGBTQ legislation
00:11for the better part of five years now.
00:14I remember whenever I first started
00:16looking at all of the legislation and laws
00:18targeting the queer and trans community,
00:21it was very few.
00:22There were like three or four of them,
00:23and it was in sports.
00:25And it was just something that
00:26was not as common as we see today.
00:28And that's really swung in
00:30a very different direction.
00:31And I've been sort of at the
00:32front lines of where a lot of
00:34these fights have been happening.
00:35And so today, I want to talk to you
00:38all about how to contextualize this.
00:40Like, where does this all come from?
00:42Where where do we as trans people come from?
00:44And why are we currently in this sort
00:47of wave of legislation, misinformation,
00:50what's going on right now?
00:52And so I hope,
00:53I hope to bring you from the history
00:55to the modern headlines that we
00:57see today and everybody can leave
00:59today with a better understanding
01:01of where we were and where we stand.
01:03So first of all,
01:05it's very important to note that
01:07we do have a history.
01:09Trans people have always been here.
01:12We are as old as humanity itself.
01:14We are part of what it means to be human.
01:17The very first named human author
01:20in Hey Dwana, you can see up there,
01:23that's her she.
01:24This is the very first time that
01:26symbols were placed on the clay
01:28tablets and somebody decided to
01:30sign their name.
01:31So they're like,
01:32I wrote this.
01:33This person was writing about a
01:35priesthood of transgender priests,
01:37priestesses and 3rd gender people.
01:39So we are literally as old as
01:40what it means to write a book.
01:42I'm going to now Fast forward 2000 years
01:46into the future and yet still 2000 years ago.
01:51And in ancient Rome,
01:53we actually had a transgender Empress.
01:55Her name is Ella Goblis and this isn't
01:58something you often hear about in school.
02:01But what she did is she
02:03basically told her entire staff,
02:05she told everybody in the in in Rome,
02:07I am the Queen of Rome.
02:08You will refer to me as such.
02:10She wore feminine garb.
02:11She very famously offered vast sums of
02:14wealth to any physician in Rome that
02:16could give her gender affirming care.
02:19And as a trans person that is still the case.
02:23I'm now going to Fast forward
02:251300 more years and I'm going
02:27to talk about Elegopolis,
02:28or I'm going to talk about
02:30Kalonimus being Kalonimus.
02:31Kalonimus was a Jewish poet and
02:33we don't know how Kalonimus would
02:35identify today if they were around,
02:38But we do have them to think for
02:40the very first written description
02:42of gender dysphoria.
02:43In their poetry,
02:44they have this one very long sort
02:47of poem where they talk about
02:49how they wish they had been born
02:50a woman and how they were very
02:52upset with God for being put on
02:53this earth as they are today.
02:55And how they hoped that,
02:56you know,
02:56this was their lot in life that they were,
02:58this was part of of their lot to suffer,
03:00unfortunately.
03:00And they sort of wrote this
03:02very beautiful and poignant just
03:05writing about gender dysphoria.
03:07And while it wasn't called that back then,
03:09and you wouldn't,
03:10they wouldn't have recognized it back then.
03:11Today,
03:12like we can read that and thank
03:14them to know that this,
03:15this has always existed.
03:16We've always, as human beings,
03:18I've had people that feel this.
03:20I'm going to go to the bottom left
03:23and you see this person right here.
03:24This is a black trans woman.
03:26Her name is Lucy Anderson.
03:28And today we often hear about,
03:31you know, trans youth.
03:32Like, this is a new thing, right?
03:34OK, so maybe trans people aren't new,
03:35but trans youth are somehow new.
03:37And that's also not the case because Lucy
03:42Anderson transitioned as a kid in 1896,
03:44and she essentially went to her,
03:47her parents when she was like 8 years old.
03:49She talked to her parents and she said,
03:50I'm a girl, like,
03:51you have to understand that I'm a girl.
03:52And so her parents brought her to the
03:55physician in town and the doctor said
03:57there's nothing wrong with her, let her be.
03:59This seems to be working for her.
04:00She seems to be happy.
04:02And so they did.
04:03They let her grow up and she
04:05eventually moved to a California town.
04:08She ran a hotel there.
04:09She became the town's best
04:11known chef and socialite.
04:13She threw the best parties in town,
04:16and eventually one of the cops
04:19discovered her assigned sex at birth.
04:21And so they they took her to jail.
04:24But the banker in town and like
04:26a bunch of the townspeople,
04:27marched down to the jail cell to
04:30demand that she be released because
04:31they had a party to throw that night
04:34and they needed their best cook.
04:35And so they did.
04:36They they rescued her.
04:37They took her out of jail.
04:38And she eventually,
04:39like she had run into the law a few more
04:41times over her assigned sex at birth.
04:43Eventually she moved to,
04:44I believe it was San Francisco,
04:47and she married her husband.
04:49She lived a long life and passed
04:51away quietly in the 1950s.
04:53So we have always been here.
04:57Even trans youth have always been here.
04:58In the bottom right,
05:00you're going to see a picture of 1928 Berlin.
05:04This is a group of transgender
05:06women in the Club El Dorado,
05:09and this was actually a a queer
05:11club in Berlin in the 1920s.
05:13And these people here,
05:14they would have been attendees of the
05:16Magnus Hirschfeld Institute of Sexology.
05:18This was the first institute that
05:21researched LGBTQ people and trans
05:23people and they sort of were trying
05:25to figure out the very initial ways
05:28that hormone therapy would work,
05:29how psychology would work
05:31around trans people.
05:32Very famously,
05:33Magus Herschfeld gave transvestite passes.
05:36Back then they didn't really make
05:38any distinction between transgender,
05:39transsexual, transvestite.
05:40But they had transvestite passes
05:42where essentially if they were
05:44moving around the general public in
05:46Berlin and they were questioned,
05:47Magus Herschfeld was like just
05:49take them to me because I'm sort
05:51of semi government because it
05:52was a sponsored institute.
05:53And so they were allowed essentially
05:55to have updated gender markers.
05:56In a way they were able to go into all
05:58the places that women were able to go in.
06:00And same with the trans men back then.
06:02So we have always been here,
06:07but just as we have always been here, we
06:09have always faced struggles and difficulties.
06:13So I spoke about Magnes
06:15Horscheltz in to do sexology.
06:16It was the 1st 30 years of, you know,
06:19trans research and LGBTQ research.
06:22In 1933, fascism rose in Germany.
06:26And very famously you might remember this
06:29picture up here in your history books.
06:32It's a big pile of books that are burning.
06:34It's often, you know, used by people on the
06:36left and the right to say like free speech,
06:38we can't burn books and all that fun stuff.
06:40What you'll never hear is what books
06:42they are burning in that picture.
06:44Those books right there are the
06:461st 30 years into trans research.
06:48That is Magnus Hersfeld's Institute
06:50of Sexology.
06:50That is right in front of it.
06:52You can actually visit Germany today,
06:54and there's a little plaque in
06:56the square where that happened.
06:57And it's all about like this was one of
07:00the very first places that was targeted
07:03in the rise of fascism in Germany.
07:05So just as we have always been here,
07:07we've always had to sort of deal
07:09with the fight for our existence.
07:11In the 1960s,
07:12drag bands were a really common thing.
07:15You know,
07:15we had a lot of queer bars that
07:17were being raided because people
07:19were wearing clothing that didn't
07:21match their assigned sex at birth.
07:23There's actually this thing called
07:24three articles of clothing laws.
07:25So if you were not wearing three
07:26articles of clothing that match
07:28your assigned sex at birth,
07:29that's how they could arrest you.
07:29And so they would like, they'd be like,
07:31OK, if you're a cisgender woman
07:33and you're wearing,
07:34like, AT shirt or jeans,
07:36like, sorry,
07:36you're basically dressing as the other sex.
07:39And so you could be thrown in jail.
07:41That's that's actually how they justified
07:43some of the raids into the Stonewall Inn.
07:45And in 1969,
07:48trans transit,
07:49queer people and LGBTQ people had enough
07:51and they stood up against it and they had
07:53to fight for their own right to exist.
07:55In the 1980s, we saw another sort
07:59of moral panic around gay people,
08:01and it was with the AIDS and HIV crisis
08:04and people didn't research our medical care.
08:08You know, people,
08:08people stepped away from the important
08:10research that needed to be done.
08:12And it wasn't until the group Act Up
08:14formed and really stood in the streets,
08:16in the buildings and the churches,
08:18everywhere, and demanded that
08:20our lives were worth saving,
08:22that our healthcare was worth protecting.
08:25And so they did.
08:27They succeeded and they finally
08:28got research done in the 1990s.
08:30Many of you might remember
08:31the gay marriage fight,
08:33the late 1990s, early 2000s.
08:35And very similarly,
08:36you'll see a picture at the bottom
08:38right or at the bottom right up there,
08:41middle right.
08:42That is the Exodus International.
08:44This is the ex gay movement and
08:47they would take these people,
08:48this group of people right here,
08:50they would bring them from
08:52state to state going into
08:53the legislatures and saying being
08:55gay is a choice. It's temporary.
08:56We shouldn't let kids do it.
08:58We shouldn't.
08:59We shouldn't allow GSA clubs in our schools.
09:01We shouldn't allow gay marriage.
09:03Being gay is not something that we should,
09:05you know, support with rights.
09:08Sound familiar?
09:09I mean, you know, we see,
09:11we see similar things today with the
09:13sort of political detransition movement
09:14where they take the same group and you
09:17see them from state to state to state.
09:19And then of course we had the
09:21gay marriage fight 2002 to 2673,
09:23or 70% of people opposed
09:24gay marriage back then.
09:26That has swung now in the opposite direction,
09:2870% of people support gay marriage.
09:30But back then 34 states had
09:31passed gay marriage bans.
09:33It seemed just as bleak
09:34then as it does today,
09:35if not more so because these
09:37were constitutional amendments.
09:38As somebody that tracks legislation,
09:40at least most of the laws that we're
09:42seeing right now are just laws.
09:43These were amending the state constitutions.
09:45And so that's what we saw.
09:47So we're going
09:49to, we're going to shift gears a little bit.
09:50We're going to talk about
09:52what happened since.
09:53So we had a big ruling,
09:54Supreme Court ruling in 2015,
09:56Obergefell versus Hodges.
09:57Gay people have the right to marry.
10:00And I think a lot of people
10:02saw this as our big victory.
10:04You know, we stepped back, we won.
10:06We we finally got the right to marry.
10:08Except the other side didn't do that.
10:11The people that were targeting
10:14the right to marry didn't do that.
10:15LGBTQ people didn't do that.
10:17We have now,
10:18We actually have like early e-mail
10:20leaks of the same groups that were
10:22involved in the current fight against
10:24trans healthcare and trans bathroom
10:26access and more they planned,
10:27They got together immediately after
10:29this decision and they're like,
10:30OK, we need to plan,
10:30what are we going to go after next?
10:32And trans people were their next target.
10:362016. We get the bathroom
10:38band in North Carolina.
10:39This was their first attempt.
10:40They were like, OK,
10:41we're just going to move from gay people.
10:42We're going to trans people,
10:43we're going to pass the bathroom
10:44band in North Carolina.
10:45And they're like, this is going to work.
10:46It's going to be great.
10:47It didn't. It was an unmitigated
10:50disaster for North Carolina.
10:53PayPal pulled out.
10:53Deutsche Bank pulled out.
10:54The NBA All Star Game pulled out.
10:57By the time it came time to
10:59defend this law in court,
11:01the North Carolina State government,
11:03they were like,
11:03we don't want anything to do with it.
11:04Just overturn it.
11:05Please take it away from us.
11:07You know,
11:07we we saw trans men going into
11:09bathrooms with big beards taking
11:10pictures of themselves saying
11:11this is what you're doing.
11:13And suddenly people realized,
11:14oh God,
11:15there's way more trans people
11:16than I thought and they don't
11:17always look like I think they do.
11:18For
11:22four years not much happened.
11:25This is, this is the only thing
11:26that happened after that because it
11:28set back the anti trans movement.
11:29There was no state legislation
11:31that passed for four years in 2018.
11:34We see the Trump memos that
11:37banned trans participation in the
11:39military and also affected a lot
11:40of other areas of government.
11:42So for instance we saw a trans asylum
11:45seekers returned away at the border.
11:47There were a few that lost
11:48their lives because of that.
11:50They were fleeing anti trans countries.
11:55And then we get to 2019 and
11:58the modern rainbow scare.
12:00So before we talk about the laws,
12:03let's talk about like, why we're here,
12:04what's going on right now #1
12:07Trans and queer people are more
12:09visible now than ever before.
12:11We're coming out more.
12:13And it's not just trans people.
12:14You know, we often hear about how trans,
12:17there's there's like a 500%
12:19increase in trans people.
12:20Would you would you often don't hear about
12:22though is that this is across the board.
12:24Lesbian people are coming out,
12:25gay people are coming out,
12:26bisexual people are coming out.
12:27Identification as LGBTQ is higher than ever.
12:31And so why is that?
12:32Why is that happening?
12:33So one theory that has been
12:35forwarded in places like the New
12:37York Times as well as legislatures
12:39are this is a mass social contagion.
12:41This is where we're catching the gay,
12:43we're catching the trans from one another.
12:46Alternatively,
12:46we have some other examples
12:48in history to look at.
12:50In the early 1900s there was.
12:53If you had asked,
12:54polled or surveyed how many people
12:55use their left hand exclusively
12:57or were left-handed,
12:57you would have caught 3% was the number 3.5.
13:02By 1950 that shot up to 13%.
13:06What happened? It wasn't that you know.
13:08All the left handers were suddenly
13:10spreading the left-handed contagion to
13:12one another that that isn't what happened.
13:14What actually happened was that they
13:16started making left-handed desks,
13:18made left-handed tools.
13:19Teachers allowed you to use your left hand.
13:22I actually was really interesting
13:23in doing the research for this.
13:24I discovered an old parents rights group
13:28around left handedness from the 1930s.
13:31I'm telling you,
13:32this stuff comes back it all.
13:33It comes full circle.
13:34And like,
13:35you had one group of people that were like,
13:36let kids be kids and use their left hand.
13:37And the others were like,
13:39you're raising them to be miscreants.
13:40And,
13:40you know,
13:41left handedness is unnatural
13:42and they're learning it from,
13:44from people that are in their families.
13:47They would tie their left hand
13:48behind their back and force them to
13:49right there with their right hand.
13:50That was a very common thing,
13:52also linked to,
13:52like causing stuttering and
13:53stuff that had similar There's
13:55medical research around this.
13:56There are fights over this.
14:00Meanwhile, we finally get visibility.
14:03We get trans and queer celebrities.
14:05We see Elliot Page from Umbrella Academy,
14:07Michaela Rodriguez, who won Best Actress,
14:09the Golden Globes, Hunter,
14:10Shafer and euphoria Laverne Cox,
14:12Orange is the New Black.
14:13We've got makeup influencer.
14:14We've got Amy Schneider,
14:16who went on a tear on Jeopardy.
14:19Love her.
14:21Let me explain why this is important.
14:23OK, 'cause, like,
14:24this is this is really cool.
14:25Imagine you're a trans kid in 2022.
14:28Whenever Amy Schneider is going on her
14:30big run and you have a family who who you
14:35don't know if you can come out to them,
14:37a lot of families would sit
14:39around and watch Jeopardy.
14:39That was a very common family tradition.
14:41It's been family tradition
14:42for a lot of families.
14:43You as a trans teenager can watch how
14:46your family reacts to Amy Schneider.
14:48If they're cheering her on and they're
14:50gendering her correctly and they're
14:51like saying good things about her,
14:53then you know that like,
14:54you might be safe.
14:55And if not,
14:55if there's using slurs or something,
14:57then you can know that you
14:59might need to keep yourself safe
15:01and not necessarily come out.
15:03And so just that is is huge.
15:05And then on top of that,
15:06like here's a trans person showing
15:08that you can be trans and you
15:11can be successful and you can be
15:13smart and you can do cool things.
15:16It's really important.
15:18Representation matters.
15:20So we get that, we get representation,
15:24we get increased coming out.
15:26There becomes a major shift in
15:28medical care for trans people.
15:31So prior to or prior to 2013,
15:36we're talking like old versions of W
15:38Path and old standards of care for Transcare.
15:41It was very hard to transition medically.
15:46The difficulties were astronomical.
15:48I remember whenever I first sort of
15:53came out as trans for my first time,
15:55it was among a very small group of people.
15:57I never publicly came out,
15:58but it was, it was in 1999.
16:00It was 1213 years old.
16:02But I remember looking up what it
16:06would take to actually transition.
16:07And I was in conservative South Louisiana,
16:09rural Louisiana, and I gave up.
16:11Like, I knew that, like, OK,
16:13so this is not an option at all.
16:15I'm just going to drop this and like
16:17never tell anybody and it would become
16:18my little secret thing in the background.
16:21Back then,
16:21there were maybe like 6 to 12 therapists
16:24that would offer you letters,
16:25almost all of them.
16:26You would have to show them that
16:28you had 20 to $40,000 saved up in
16:31your bank and earmarked for surgery.
16:33If you didn't, then you would.
16:35You wouldn't get through the front door.
16:37If you didn't dress in a
16:39very stereotypical fashion,
16:40you wouldn't get through the front door.
16:42There were therapists, mini stories of this.
16:43There were people who transitioned in
16:451980s and 1990s who if they didn't,
16:48if they showed up in jeans and AT shirt,
16:50oh you're you're not actually trans.
16:52And so they would get get
16:54gatekeep gate kept out of care.
16:56We also saw heavy gatekeeping
16:57on non binary people.
16:59We saw heavy gatekeeping on trans men
17:02if you didn't love the right person.
17:05So if you, for instance,
17:06were a trans woman and you were
17:09interested in other women,
17:10then they would say, oh,
17:12this is just the fetish for
17:13you and so you're not going
17:15to be allowed to transition.
17:16And so this was, this was a major
17:18issue back then that shifted.
17:20We saw a major shift.
17:21We saw informed consent in W Path seven
17:23and eight informed consent hormone
17:25therapy clinics which allow you to
17:28obtain care through a different process.
17:30It does not require the 203040
17:33hours of expensive therapy visits.
17:36You get a very basic screening at
17:37the beginning for other psychological
17:39issues and then you can start care,
17:41have your hormone therapy levels
17:43monitored and you're care guided.
17:45This is mainly for adults or
17:48age of medical majority.
17:50And this shifted things because now
17:51all of a sudden the huge unhoused
17:53population of trans people could
17:55suddenly get care at local clinics.
17:57You had people that did not have
17:5920 to $40,000 that could suddenly
18:01get care at clinics and people were
18:03able to transition and we saw these
18:05clinics open up around the United States.
18:10Meanwhile, we get a major case in Texas.
18:12So I don't know if any of you remember this,
18:14but Luna Younger was a trans girl
18:16and Texas is now a trans girl.
18:17In California.
18:18She there was a big custody battle.
18:21Her dad wanted to detransition,
18:22Her mom wanted her to,
18:24wanted to allow her to transition
18:26and this went to court in Texas.
18:29They ruled in favor of Luna Younger's mother.
18:32Luna Younger's mother got custody.
18:35It blew up.
18:35This is kind of like the modern genesis
18:37of the medical bands that we see.
18:39We didn't hear about medical
18:40bands until Luna Younger's case.
18:42It wasn't a big issue in the news,
18:44but right wing media jumped on this
18:45and they were like, look at this.
18:47Luna Younger's father is being
18:48having his kid taken from him.
18:51And so she did end up moving
18:54to California with her mom.
18:55Luna Younger's father was able to
18:57have the right to deny medical care
19:00for her until that shifted whenever
19:03he didn't pay his child support.
19:06And so now his mom,
19:07now her mom has full testity
19:09and is living in California.
19:13So we talked about Obergefell.
19:16We talked about, like transitioning
19:17and the medical care that's changing.
19:19We suddenly get laws.
19:20We get our first big Supreme
19:22Court ruling on trans issues,
19:24Bostick versus Clayton County.
19:25And this was decided 63.
19:27So this was actually a really big
19:30decision in favor of transgender rights.
19:33This person that you see in
19:34that wheelchair right there,
19:36that's Amy Stevens.
19:37And unfortunately she passed away before
19:41she could see the result of her case.
19:43But we have her to thank for so many of
19:45the rulings in favor of trans people,
19:47in favor of gender affirming care,
19:48in favor of of books against
19:51drag bands and more.
19:53And Neil Gorsuch wrote this opinion.
19:55So this wasn't written by like a
19:57liberal justice or anything like that.
19:59Who basically said constitutionally
20:00you cannot discriminate on the basis
20:02of sex or gender identity without also
20:04discriminating on the basis of sex.
20:08So now we get to the bills.
20:10What's happening right now?
20:122021 hits We had a massive
20:14onslaught of Bills 100.
20:15It appears that they were coordinated by
20:17Focus in the Family of the American Heritage,
20:20the Heritage Foundation and
20:22the Alliance Spending Freedom.
20:23All of the bills that came out that
20:26year were in joined in part in the UK.
20:29We get a decision in a medical case,
20:30Tavistock versus Bell.
20:32And this medical case right here
20:34stated that clinics could not prescribe
20:37puberty blockers to trans youth,
20:39that trans youth can't consent
20:40to medical care.
20:41That was the idea.
20:43This decision was overturned.
20:45This decision is still cited as being in
20:48effect by many people in the court hearings.
20:51It's not still in effect in the UK.
20:52You can transition in the UK as a
20:54trans youth.
20:55That being said,
20:56the wait lists are exceptionally long,
20:5910 years.
20:59For you now to transition in the United
21:02Kingdom as as a youth on the wait list,
21:04you can it's you can't because it's 10 years.
21:07So they're they're only seeing 50
21:09people a year right now.
21:13We start to get increasingly
21:15eliminationist rhetoric around trans care.
21:17So you see, Matt Walsh state
21:19that there should be an end
21:21to legal recognition entirely.
21:23Charlie Kirk says that men should take trans
21:26people out like we did in the 50s and 60s.
21:28Candace Owens calls us demons.
21:30Michael Knowles gets in front
21:32of CPAC and says that we must
21:35eradicate transgenderism.
21:36We start getting really
21:37scary language coming up.
21:44And so in the last two years,
21:48it's what I've been tracking 1000
21:50anti LGBTQ bills, 1000 of them.
21:52I've read every one of them,
21:53they're all along.
21:54But you know it's interesting because
21:57whenever you read them you can you can
21:58almost like if if you can read them
22:00and you'll see this is the same bill,
22:02same bill, same bill, same bill,
22:03same bill because they're being copied
22:05and pasted across the United States.
22:06And these bills Target Healthcare.
22:08Sports don't say gay bills,
22:10they target drag right to bully.
22:11So there's several bills
22:12that basically say that,
22:14you know if you're another student
22:15you can call a transmitted by their
22:17old name and pronouns and you
22:18can't get in any trouble for it.
22:19You can just like tease them
22:20with that constantly.
22:21You can't get in any trouble for it.
22:23Religious right to discriminate
22:25in healthcare.
22:25This is a this is a really
22:26big one right now actually,
22:28and it could impact some of you,
22:29you know in the future.
22:31In several states they've given
22:33a religious right to deny trans
22:36people healthcare.
22:36And what this means is,
22:37you know,
22:38they're they're selling it as Oh well,
22:39you know if you go in a surgeon
22:41shouldn't be required to perform
22:42gender reassignment surgery,
22:43which I don't think any as as a trans person,
22:45I don't want somebody performing
22:47gender reassignment surgery who
22:49is like against trans people
22:51like that won't go well.
22:53What this actually means is that
22:55let's think I'm a trans woman
22:56and I go to the doctor.
22:58The intake nurse allows me to get in.
23:00I get to the to the nurse,
23:01I I talk to the doctor,
23:03I talk to my therapist.
23:04Everybody signs off on care.
23:06I I go to file my insurance claim.
23:09Maybe there is a desk worker at
23:11the insurance company that is
23:13religiously opposed to care.
23:14They can be like,
23:15I'm not going to sign this,
23:16maybe it's a cashier at the pharmacy.
23:18The people who sponsored this bill were
23:19questioned about this and they said,
23:21well, yeah,
23:21I think we do want those protections.
23:23So if you're a cashier at a pharmacy,
23:24or if you're a pharmacist and
23:26I as a trans person,
23:27have gone to so many people and
23:28got into my care, signed off on,
23:30you can say no, Sorry, too bad.
23:33An intake nurse can say no,
23:35I'm not going to intake you.
23:36That's what we see right now.
23:39We see criminal bathroom bands,
23:41bathroom bands that would throw me in
23:43jail for using the same bathroom that
23:44I used here, adult care bands and more.
23:48We also get poor media coverage.
23:50On the left.
23:51We see more transgender
23:52children seek medical care if
23:53families confront many unknowns.
23:54And it looks like a kid
23:56taking ecstasy like this is,
23:57this is the kind of picture that
23:59they used in the old, you know,
24:011990s club drug rave stuff.
24:03You see like the brace like
24:04they they really tried
24:05to play this up at at Reuters.
24:07And then on the right,
24:08Pamela Paul really recently
24:10published a 4500 Word essay on
24:13trans kids and detransitioning,
24:16which I had the distinct pleasure
24:18of taking down and demolishing,
24:21got into a little spat with Pamela Paul.
24:24She kept publishing in the New York Times.
24:25We published on our own outlets.
24:27And yeah, that happens.
24:29So you can read my article I I
24:31wrote a really good review of the
24:33inaccuracies and misinformation
24:35in the Pamela Paul article
24:39and the organizations
24:40behind the bands we see.
24:41The American Principles Project,
24:42the Alliance Defending Freedom
24:44are writing all the bills.
24:45SEGM Genspecht, another one,
24:47the American College of Pediatricians.
24:49If you ever see in the news,
24:51you see on like Fox News where they're like,
24:52hey everybody, the American College
24:54of Pediatricians has just announced
24:56that gender affirming care is bad.
24:58That is not the American
24:59Academy of Pediatrics.
25:00It's the American College of Pediatricians.
25:03They specifically called
25:04themselves the American College of
25:06Pediatricians to confuse everybody.
25:07They do this in the legislative
25:08hearings and they stand up like,
25:10I'm representing the physicians.
25:11I'm from the American
25:12College of Pediatricians.
25:13And you then realize that this is
25:15actually a group that splintered
25:17off from the AAP because the AAP
25:19released an article saying that
25:21that gay families are just as
25:24healthy as straight families.
25:26And this group was like and so they left.
25:29It's maybe a group of 2 to 500 people
25:32compared to like even lower I'm seeing.
25:35And so they this is a common
25:37tactic that we see
25:40and this is all causing an issue.
25:42There is an internal migration crisis
25:44in the United States right now.
25:45It's one that doesn't get
25:47talked about very much.
25:48I've been able to report on it and it's
25:50it's getting picked up a little bit.
25:52130 to 260,000 trans people have
25:55already left their home state
25:57according to data for progress,
25:59and there are an additional 1,000,000
26:01trans people that are considering moving.
26:04So we have a lot of people that are
26:06fleeing their home states right now.
26:08If you look at that 130 to 260,000,
26:11a lot of those people are also leaving
26:13with family members and so could
26:15be two to three times that size.
26:17This puts this up against some of
26:19the biggest migration events in U.S.
26:21history. You talk about the Dust Bowl,
26:22you talk about a lot of the migration events.
26:24There are a lot of people that are moving.
26:25And in fact, you know, I, I,
26:27I know I've talked to a few of you.
26:29You see them in your own communities
26:30right now.
26:30Like you can see trans kids,
26:33trans parents of trans kids,
26:34trans people that have left Florida
26:36that have fled.
26:37So
26:39let's look at the laws themselves.
26:41What do these laws do?
26:43So I'm going to highlight some of
26:44the biggest offenders and sort
26:46of talk about them real quick.
26:47In Florida, we see a bathroom band that
26:49says that if you are using a bathroom that
26:51is not of your assigned sex at birth,
26:53you can be charged with trespassing
26:55and jailed for up to a year.
26:57We see adult care restrictions.
26:58This was a big one because up until Florida,
27:01we didn't get adult care restrictions.
27:04Florida said that nurse practitioners
27:05can no longer can no longer prescribe any
27:08hormone therapy in in the state of Florida.
27:10Not even if you're operating under
27:12a physician's license like that,
27:13you just can't.
27:13And so this shut down all the Planned
27:16Parenthood prescriptions in Florida.
27:18And many trans people get our get
27:19care at Planned Parenthood because
27:20there's a lot of us, and honestly,
27:22there's not enough doctors to
27:25prescribe to monitor our care.
27:27We got a travel advisory.
27:28And then very recently,
27:30the DMV stated that if you are
27:32taught misrepresenting your gender
27:33on your driver's license,
27:35you could be criminally charged with fraud.
27:37And so that's a new thing.
27:39It's the first state to threaten to take
27:42away trans people's driver's licenses.
27:44In Texas,
27:45we get a letter that starts a child abuse
27:47investigation for the parents of trans youth.
27:49I know a few people have fled Texas
27:51and moved here because of this.
27:53And this essentially was you.
27:55You could go out and take the kids
27:57out of the families and like,
27:58say we we consider being trans child abuse.
28:01Now this was, this was overturned
28:03in court or blocking court,
28:05at least for now,
28:06and that's still ongoing.
28:08Meanwhile,
28:08very important for everybody here,
28:10Just 'cause you think you're in like
28:11a safe state doesn't mean you're
28:12going to not get touched by this.
28:16Attorney General Ken Paxton is sending
28:18letters to gender affirming care clinics
28:21across the country stating that if you treat
28:24anybody who has a Texas driver's license,
28:26you treat anybody who has come from Texas,
28:29we own them. You have to give,
28:31you have to give our medical records.
28:33And so he's basically,
28:34he's using a long arm of the law statute.
28:37It's most likely unconstitutional,
28:38but this is going to get fought in court.
28:40And he, he just subpoenaed
28:42Seattle Children's Hospital.
28:43He subpoenaed a care clinic in Georgia,
28:47and we learned that he's
28:48got about a dozen more out,
28:50and he's just sending them out rapidly.
28:52They're also doing this for abortion as well.
28:53They're sending these sort of
28:56letters to abortion clinics,
28:58drag bans, book bans.
28:59We see a lot of bans on books.
29:02I just talked to a library in Alabama that
29:04has to put red stickers on their LGBTQ books,
29:06even if there's like nothing
29:07sexual in there at all.
29:08It's just two dads or something
29:10got a red sticker on them.
29:11And in terms of drag bans,
29:13this is this one's really interesting
29:15because they define drag as using
29:16elaborate makeup or clothing to
29:18signify gender while performing.
29:19Congratulations, you just banned glam rock.
29:22You just banned Dolly Parton.
29:24You just banned banned pro wrestling.
29:26You just banned the Dallas
29:28Cowboys cheerleading squad.
29:29That's not how it's enforced though,
29:31unfortunately or fortunately.
29:32Instead,
29:32the very first person to be impacted
29:36by a drag ban was not a drag artist,
29:38It was a transgender public
29:40speaker in a library doing very
29:42similar to what I'm doing today.
29:44She was talking about trans history
29:46in a Montana library and she
29:48was kicked out of the library.
29:49She was banned from speaking
29:51there because they considered her
29:52to be covered by the drag ban.
29:57Now, things are not bad everywhere.
30:00There are some places where
30:02things are getting better.
30:04We see a list of states here.
30:05These are all states that have
30:07safe state laws, slash shield laws,
30:09slash refugee laws.
30:10They're called something
30:10different in each state.
30:11And what these say is that say you're
30:14kin Paxton and you send me a subpoena
30:16at Seattle Children's Hospital.
30:18Well, Washington state has a law
30:19that you can't share information on
30:21trans people across state lines and
30:23that is currently basically held up
30:25that subpoena in court in Washington
30:27and Seattle Children's Hospital,
30:29Seattle Children's Hospital said, look,
30:30I can't file do this because I'm going
30:32to be against the law in my own state.
30:34You got to file here in
30:36Washington state instead.
30:38And so this is protect a lot of people.
30:39Connecticut was one of the first states.
30:41It might have been the first state.
30:42It was either that or California
30:44that passed one of these policies
30:45and it was amazing whenever they did.
30:48So we do have protections
30:49in Connecticut as well.
30:52Meanwhile, there are only four states,
30:55but there are states that have started to
30:57or five states that protect healthcare,
30:59that actually mandate that insurance,
31:02private insurance, cover all trans care.
31:04So we're not just talking about,
31:05we're not just talking about like
31:07bottom surgery and chest surgery.
31:09We're actually talking about
31:10like hair removal voice therapy.
31:12In Maryland, there's a really
31:14strong trans voice therapy program
31:16that is covered by insurance now
31:17and it's really good to see. So
31:22we're going to go over a few more maps.
31:23These are a map of the sports
31:24bands in the United States.
31:25Georgia looks like they're
31:27about to pass one potentially.
31:29And if your state is in beige,
31:30there is no sports band.
31:32So these are bans on participation in
31:34sports according to your gender identity.
31:36And while this was a contentious topic
31:38and continues to be a contentious topic
31:40on things like swimming and track,
31:42we also see that these sports
31:44bands affect other things.
31:45Let me give you a list of sports that
31:47trans people have been kicked out
31:48from or banned from or targeted in.
31:50Darts, billiards, competitive Irish dancing.
31:55That was one. That was really.
31:58Recently there was a trans girl in Texas
32:00that won and she got sent to nationals.
32:01Thankfully,
32:02the competitive Irish dancing world
32:04voted to allow her to continue to dance.
32:07We see fishing.
32:07I promise you that if you hang a a bottle
32:10of estrogen at the end of your rod,
32:12you're not going to catch any fish.
32:14We see chess that was a really big one.
32:18FIDE,
32:19the world International Institute
32:21of Chess has released that trans
32:23women have no right to compete
32:25in the women's category of chess.
32:27And so beauty pageants that's
32:28another one that we saw in Italy.
32:29They banned all trans women
32:31from beauty pageants.
32:32And so you know we sports are
32:35sort of like a broad category here
32:37and there's no there's no nuance
32:39here for for these bills.
32:40There's no talking about like
32:42what is allowed what's not or like
32:44what the that requirements are.
32:46We also see don't say gay bills.
32:48So these ban either classroom
32:50instruction or discussion.
32:51These are two different words that
32:52are often used in the bills of gay
32:54and trans people, LGBTQ people.
32:56And how is this weaponized?
32:58Well we do see in Florida a teacher
32:59was fired for showing a Disney
33:01movie with a gay character in it.
33:02In Georgia there was a teacher that
33:04read a book called My Shadow is
33:06Purple about a kid with a purple
33:07shadow and dressed a little gender
33:09non conforming and they took this
33:11book and they like it looked like
33:12something right out of To Kill a Mockingbird.
33:14They had like you know they walked up
33:16and down the panel of of like this.
33:18This group of people that were
33:19sitting there like looking at this
33:21book and lawyer was raising it up as
33:23the teacher sat on like the witness
33:25stand and you know they fired her.
33:27We saw a teacher fired in South Carolina
33:29for mentioning that she had a wife.
33:30We saw kids pulled out of Montana
33:32classroom because the teacher
33:33mentioned that she had a wife as well.
33:35So these bills basically mandate that
33:37you can't talk about these things
33:38now if you're in a green state,
33:40a state that's in green here,
33:42they mandate that LGBTQ history
33:43is taught in schools.
33:48These are the gender affirming care
33:49bans in the United States right now.
33:51If you if the state is in dark orange,
33:53then they ban all gender
33:55affirming care for trans youth.
33:57Arizona only bans surgery.
33:58It's one of the few that that's
34:00kind of a little bit strange.
34:02A few of these have some nuance to them.
34:04So, like, West Virginia's bill is one
34:05of the really weird ones that like,
34:07has an exception for severe dysphoria,
34:09and so that one that has actually
34:10managed to be used to continue
34:12to provide care there.
34:13There's a bill moving in South Carolina
34:15that's probably about to go into effect.
34:16We'll see what happens.
34:20This one usually surprises people.
34:21This is the trans panic defense
34:23and the gay panic defense,
34:25and this is a really hard topic,
34:27but it's one that we have to contend with.
34:30If your state is in beige,
34:32it is possible to get away
34:34with murder of a trans person.
34:36Let me explain how this works.
34:39Let's say I'm a trans girl and I go
34:41to college 19 years old and I go to
34:44a fraternity party and a boy kisses
34:46me and then discovers that I'm trans
34:49and in a fit of rage takes my life.
34:52This has been used before.
34:53They will, they will say you
34:55lied about your gender identity.
34:57I was driven to temporary insanity.
34:59I should be given a lesser penalty
35:01or I should be let go completely.
35:03You there's you can Wikipedia
35:04the trans and gay panic defense.
35:06It's been used successfully many times
35:10and green You can't do it.
35:11Your state cannot do it.
35:12Massachusetts somehow has not
35:14passed their their ban yet,
35:15and they need to do so for some weird reason.
35:19It just hasn't passed yet.
35:20There. This is a map that I make,
35:23so I track all the laws.
35:24I follow everything.
35:25And if you see your state in dark red here,
35:28that is a place where some of the
35:30worst adult care restrictions or
35:31adult bathroom bans are in place.
35:33That's where your drag bans are in place.
35:35This is where we've seen a lot
35:37of targeting of trans adults.
35:39There's bills that end all legal
35:41recognition for trans people in the law.
35:44Florida is in a different color.
35:45It's in black because it's a special case.
35:48That is,
35:49it's dangerous to travel in because
35:51if you travel through Florida and
35:52you go to the bathroom that isn't
35:53of your assigned sex at birth,
35:55you could get arrested.
35:56And so many trans people will not
35:58travel to Florida right now because
35:59if you have a conference there,
36:01this law covers conference centers.
36:03Meanwhile, if your state is in dark blue,
36:05there are strong protections
36:06for trans people there.
36:08They are protecting your
36:09right to get medical care.
36:11They're protecting your right
36:12against discrimination and more.
36:14And this one is for youth.
36:15So this last map right here is for adults.
36:17This map here is for youth.
36:18And unfortunately,
36:19whenever I first started this map,
36:20this map right here looks like this one you,
36:23it was a lot less, lot less dark red.
36:25But for youth,
36:26a lot of the worst laws have already
36:29passed and so we're going to close
36:31off with with the last section.
36:32This is going to be,
36:33I think for some hope and like some
36:35advocacy here because it's important
36:36to recognize that there is still hope.
36:38If you are in a state and you want to know,
36:40like, how can I,
36:41how can I fight back, How can I,
36:43how can I make a contribution?
36:46Look at LGBT orgs are key.
36:47These are the people that are
36:49getting people out or helping
36:50people locally in the hard states.
36:52Show your expertise.
36:53I know there's a lot of people
36:55here that are experts in medicine,
36:57psychology and more.
36:58It's important, even if you think
37:00that you can't change their minds,
37:02you can give the rationale in those
37:04hearings that then get used in court.
37:06And we've seen this.
37:07We've seen this numerous times.
37:08They're like you were told this
37:10by a medical expert.
37:12You clearly didn't like your your
37:14response to that medical expert was,
37:16oh, I don't care.
37:18And then, like,
37:19it's clear that you're that you're being
37:20driven by like some sort of animosity.
37:22Like there have been statements in these
37:25hearings that have overturned bans,
37:27advising rights groups.
37:28That's really important, helping them out,
37:30being there for the parents,
37:32you know,
37:32being there to help the parents
37:34learn about their trans youth.
37:36If they come to you and ask questions,
37:38volunteer time. A quality federation
37:40is a great organization that you
37:43can look up your local LGBT orgs.
37:45Another thing that I actually
37:47borrow from my fiance Zoe is the
37:49difference between symbols in action.
37:51So a lot of us are active in spaces where we
37:54might ask for a rainbow flag to be put up.
37:56That's great. It's really good.
37:57If like a rainbow flag,
37:58that shows that you are a safe person.
38:01You have to back those symbols by action,
38:03though.
38:03If you show somebody that you are safe,
38:06you got to actually be safe.
38:07We see a lot that like rainbow
38:09flags are put up and then you know,
38:11concerns are blown aside or somebody
38:14doesn't follow through with showing
38:16that they are actually a safe space.
38:19And so like this is,
38:20this is a big issue in city
38:22council's where they'll paint pride,
38:23pride, crosswalks.
38:24But then they won't have like a civil
38:26rights navigator for whenever a trans
38:28person does get discriminated against.
38:33Activism outside of the box is important.
38:34So in Florida, this person right here,
38:38Lindsay Sparrow, I've gotten to speak
38:39to him a few times. He's amazing.
38:42He knew that the Florida Standards of
38:44Care that they would develop there,
38:46they're like an alternate standards of care
38:48that were taken down by Yale physicians.
38:50By the way, the Florida Standards of Care,
38:54they had the Board of Medicine
38:56and the Board of Medicine was
38:57handpicked by Governor DeSantis.
38:59They're actually in the lawsuit
39:00that's currently open right now.
39:02Before the Standards of
39:04Care were even developed,
39:05there were PowerPoint slides that were
39:07passed around that said it outlined
39:09exactly what the Standards of care
39:11would say Before they did any research.
39:13It was like we're the standards
39:14of care are going to ban care.
39:16That's what we're going to find and then
39:17we can go publicly and ban the care.
39:20This is before they hired research people.
39:21This is before like they did any of the
39:23literature reviews or anything like that.
39:25So they had an end goal in mind.
39:27Lindsay Sparrow,
39:27he knew that there was no way
39:29you're going to change their minds.
39:30It's literally just a hand
39:32picked kangaroo court.
39:33You know you're not going
39:34to get anything here.
39:35And so he instead of appealing to them,
39:37he took out his testosterone vial and
39:40injected himself right in front of them,
39:42turned around, raised his first.
39:43It was a very powerful moment.
39:44It got reported on CNNBC.
39:47It was really strong.
39:49Meanwhile, in Iowa,
39:50University of Iowa,
39:51we saw the Iowa Marching Band
39:54come out and play the Iowa fight
39:57songs during Matt Walsh's speech.
40:00Where Matt Walsh was talking
40:02about ending trans,
40:03you know,
40:04care and refusing trans people
40:07identities and such.
40:09But also it's important to talk
40:11about actors and through joy.
40:12And I want to I want to emphasize that
40:14activism does not always look like activism.
40:16It's not going out there and
40:17like fighting in the court.
40:18It's not fighting in the street.
40:19It's not doing all that stuff.
40:20Some some of the best activism you
40:22will ever see comes by living an
40:24authentic and happy life and doing
40:26things that paint you as a person,
40:28as a whole person.
40:30I was last year,
40:32I got a message from my girl in Louisiana.
40:34I'm from Louisiana, as I said before,
40:36who said, hey Erin, I love your your stuff.
40:38I read your stuff every day.
40:40And I just wanted to let you know,
40:41I'm 17 years old,
40:41I go to this Louisiana high school and
40:43this is 20 minutes from where I grew up,
40:44where I was relentlessly bullied.
40:45Back then,
40:46she's like and I just wanted to let you
40:48know he's nominated to the homecoming court.
40:49And I cried because it was like,
40:52here's this girl who is trans in Louisiana,
40:56where I grew up.
40:57Not only is she accepted,
40:59but she celebrated.
40:59Like this is her picture of
41:01her dad driving her around the
41:03football stadium and she's waving
41:05to everybody. That's how change happens,
41:06that that activism is more than I
41:09could ever do with a news article.
41:10On the right, we we see a a a video game
41:13called Celeste made by a trans woman.
41:15Like whenever you play a video game and
41:18you love the video game and then all of
41:20a sudden you learn at the very end, oh,
41:21and by the way, a trans person made this.
41:24Like, you can connect with people
41:26in a very different way than if you
41:28just come out and say activism,
41:30activism, activism, trans, trans,
41:31trans, like this.
41:32We have musicians right now that are
41:35incredible, that are making amazing
41:36music that oh by the way are also trans.
41:38We have people that are doing amazing
41:41tech work that by the way are also trans.
41:44And so you know Wendy Carlos was the one of
41:48the inventors of the modern synthesizer.
41:50And Kim Patras is often said to be like
41:52the first trans Grammy Award winner.
41:54She she's actually not in the 1970s,
41:57Wendy Carlos one she she was
42:00privately transitioned already.
42:02She transitioned from male to
42:04female and then whenever it came,
42:05came time to accept the award she had to like
42:08glue on some fake sideburns and and she like,
42:10you know, she had pictures taken of herself.
42:13It's really funny if you ever look
42:15up Wendy Carlos's pictures.
42:16So that is a way that you can
42:19progress things.
42:20Next steps for all of you.
42:22If you're a data nerd,
42:24and I know some of you might be Legis,
42:26scan.com is always interesting.
42:27You can search for all of the bills that
42:29are that have any particular words.
42:30So you can search biological sex
42:32and find all the trans bills.
42:34If you go to Erin in the morning,
42:36which is my site,
42:37I keep up with all of the legislation
42:39and the breaking news every single day.
42:41Look, local, local,
42:42local work is really important.
42:44Work in your own communities.
42:45Change your media diet.
42:47You know prior to
42:502011 or so, any representation of
42:52trans people in the media was we are
42:54either the victim or perpetrator
42:56of a crime or the **** of a joke.
42:58I don't know how many of you
42:59remember Saturday Night Live.
43:00There was the it's pat sketch and the
43:02entire sketch was here's a gross gender
43:05non conforming person like that's a
43:06lot of us are carrying that with us.
43:08And you know, as a trans person myself,
43:09I carried that with me whenever
43:11I first transitioned.
43:12And so change your media diet.
43:13You know, fellow trans creators,
43:15listen to music by trans musicians.
43:17There's a lot of them out there
43:19right now that read works, books,
43:21literature by trans people.
43:23I think it's important to,
43:24like, reframe things.
43:25Watch Amy Schneider on Jeopardy,
43:27get to know your state
43:29level reps speak to them.
43:30Stay active in your professional
43:32societies and organizations.
43:33I spoke at the AMA student
43:35chapter in Washington,
43:36DC very recently and there's a lot
43:38of this going on there as well.
43:40People are staying active and
43:42like trans people that are part
43:44of the AMA student chapter,
43:45are talking about these issues
43:47now very heavily.
43:49Speak up for queer and trans
43:50people in your life and urge for
43:53positive legislation and that's it.
43:55I am going to open the floor for questions.
43:57I will.
43:58I would love to talk to all
43:59of you about all of this.