Thread by @AlexPetrovnia

I'm mostly known for my science history threads, but today I want to talk about something a bit more personal. I want to talk about the anti-trans legislative crisis in the United States. 🧵

It's the 1st of February, and already there are more than 75 bills being considered that would limit trans rights in the US.

These bills are heinous, ranging from sports bills to bills that seek to make gender affirming social changes (such as preferred names or pronouns) classified as child abuse. There are bills that would mandate outing trans children to their parents.

There are bills that seek to ban all trans-affirming medical care, including puberty blockers, for minors, or even some that ban this care up to age 21.
A prior thread of mine on puberty blockers can be found here:

https://twitter.com/AlexPetrovnia/status/1458166576792887301?s=20&t=BzLFjtNNy1CcFb95LZ57-w

Even the bills that seem "mild", such as the bills that ban trans girls from playing girls sports, have incredibly dark implications. If sports are to be segregated by "biological sex", how is "biological sex" to be determined?

Some of these bills specify that "biological sex" must be determined by chromosomes or hormonal levels. That would require costly doctors appointments, functionally placing an affluence limit on who can participate in school athletics.

Even worse, many of these laws only apply these restrictions to girls' athletics, placing a cost barrier only on women and girls' participation in school sports.

Some of these bills specify that "biological sex" must be determined based on genitalia. Some specify that examinations of genitalia must be performed by a doctor, but most do not. If this were to pass into law, how are genital examinations of children by schools to be conducted?

It is not an exaggeration to say that these bills, created from fearmongering about trans youth, especially trans women, will be catastrophically harmful to youth, and particularly girls, as a whole.

Many other bills seek to ban trans-affirming medical care, therapies or even trans-positive messaging from being applied to minors, despite all reputable research showing that early intervention for trans children leads to markedly improved outcomes.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

These outcomes are specifically improved when it comes to suicide rates, which are catastrophically high in the trans community. These laws, if passed, will kill trans youth. publications.aap.org/pediatrics/art…

Living, breathing trans people are becoming political pawns in a culture war, and almost no one is coming to our aid. Make no mistake, trans people are suffering. Trans people are dying. Kids are dying. And these bills, if passed, will have a death toll.

This is the second year of bills like these, and the second year of every trans person I know yelling for someone, anyone to care. Last year, 20 of these bills PASSED INTO LAW. Yet no one is panicking but trans people. Where are the allies? Where are the reasonable people?

Last year I realized that almost no one was tracking these bills or drawing sufficient attention to them. So I started tracking them myself, on this twitter account. Soon, people wanted to help me. So many trans people felt that no one else cared, and wanted to make an impact.

These efforts have coalesced into a small, volunteer run nonprofit that is dedicated to tracking and educating about this crisis. Because throughout all the attacks on trans youth, we are not helpless, we just need help. Allies, YOU can be the difference here.

All of these hateful bills are at the state level, meaning that state representatives are those to contact. If you live in one of the states marked in red, YOUR state is considering anti-trans legislation RIGHT NOW.

My nonprofit, the Trans Formations Project, has a website where we track all anti-trans legislation in the United States, tell you exactly which representatives to contact, and provide contact information for those representatives, all in the same place.
transformationsproject.org

You can also follow @StepUp4Trans for daily updates and news about hateful legislation in the United States.
These representatives think they can eliminate trans people without anyone noticing, but we MUST prove them wrong. Please take notice. Please speak up.

If you are able and would like to support my organization's work, please consider donating to our gofundme for operational costs, here: gofund.me/fb9080ad

Together, we can make a safer world for trans youth. Together, we can fight these hateful, unnecessary bills. Together, we can make a difference. Together, we can #StepUpForTransKids.

If you are interested in volunteering with us, feel free to DM @StepUp4Trans to learn more about how to join our organization!