It feels frustrating, alarming, and sad, and scary that this still needs to be said in 2023, but here we go, once again, for the record:
Trans. Rights. Are. Human. Rights.
Some so-called “leaders” throughout the country have decided that the transgender community makes an easy target as political pawns in their hate-filled culture wars. Which is why it is more important than ever for the LGBTQ+ community and our allies to stand up boldly on behalf of our transgender family. Allies like Senators Megan Hunt and Machaela Cavanaugh of Nebraska, whose courageous stand in the legislature led to every single bill being filibustered until an insidious proposal blocking gender-affirming healthcare for youth is dropped.
They know as well as we do: There is no LGB without the T.
Do not for a second delude yourself into thinking that this attack on the transgender community is “not your fight.” These zealots have no love for cis-identified gays and lesbians, either. Already your favorite drag queens are being targeted in places like Tennessee and Arizona. Legislators in Iowa this year proposed a ban on same-sex marriage. And Florida’s now infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law has spawned copycat legislation in more than a dozen other states.
They are coming for all of us.
Second, and more importantly, it is incumbent and imperative for us to stand up for the transgender community because it is simply the right thing to do. We’ll say it again for the folks in the back: Trans Rights Are HUMAN Rights.
Intersectionality is more than just an intellectual buzzword when it comes to our civil rights movement. It means that an attack on reproductive autonomy is an attack on Trans men and Bisexual women, for example. It means that Black LGBTQ+ Lives Matter, too.
It means that human beings are delightfully diverse, and that we are fortunate to be growing in our understanding and experience of the nuanced, socialized, and evolving nature of gender identity and expression.
For us at the Leonard Litz LGBTQ+ Foundation, it means whether you identify as transgender, gender nonconforming, nonbinary, or anywhere on the rainbow spectrum, we stand with you. Today, Tomorrow, and Always.
When we fight together, we win.