Trigger warning: Suicide – if you or someone you know is considering suicide go to https://translifeline.org/ or call US(877)565-8860 CAN(877)330-6366.
Non-transgender specific suicide hotline: (800)273-8255
This past Sunday, FINA, the world governing body for competitive swimming, banned all transgender women from competing if they did not fully transition before the age of 12. Which is absurd on so many different levels I hardly know where to begin.
First off, how do these cisgender people define fully transitioned? Because even I, a transgender woman, cannot give an exact answer because there is no one answer! Everyone transitions differently because everybody is different. I know that seems simple but it is a very important point. Many cis people think we all have surgery because genitals are all politicians love to talk about as if they are the most important thing about our transition. Don’t get me wrong, having bottom surgery was one of the most life-changing and life-affirming events in my life but it is in no way the completion of my transition. I don’t think I will ever fully transition, I don’t think it’s possible as I continue to grow and change throughout my life. How does one draw a line saying that before this you’re still transitioning but after you are not? I can tell you from personal experience that having a penis and then not having a penis did not affect my athletic ability nor did it make me any more or less a woman in the eyes of the world. Additionally, not every trans person wants to have surgery or can have a surgery they would like. What good comes from making such a limited definition of man or woman?
And then there’s the arbitrary age of 12 years old. Even in places where children are allowed to take puberty blockers to prevent going through an irreversible bodily change before starting hormone replacement therapy, that’s nowhere near the end of transition, it’s merely a wonderful early step toward living their authentic life. In republican led states across the US, bills are being proposed and laws being enacted that prohibit doctors from giving the lifesaving healthcare until adulthood under threat of felony, the same exact healthcare that FINA says must occur before the age of 12 to be allowed to compete. While FINA’s new rule doesn’t force states or other organizations to follow suit many will in order to either be in compliance with or just because it’s simpler to use an existing rule than come up with their own.
In recent years, the legislative assault on transgender rights and healthcare has increased in the number of bills introduced as well as the cruelty and severity of them. This is a relentless attack on our very right to exist which mirrors 1930s Germany where new laws were enacted that regulated and limited where and how Jews could live, work, and interact with the world. Like the Jews in Nazi Germany, we transgender people are nothing more but pawns in a sick game for republicans and conservatives to blame for the country’s woes and problems to rally their base. While these rules and laws are not going to make sport more fair or the lives of the broader population safer or better, they will have the unspoken effect of further othering us, making OUR lives more dangerous, less authentic, and sadly shorter as more transgender people see suicide as the only escape from the pain of being forced to live a life that is not their truth.
Just this morning, the global governing body for Rugby banned transgender women from competing until further notice and rumors are that World Athletics is going to do the same in the next few days for running competitions and the UCI already has similar restrictions.
So what’s next for us? We could sit idly by and watch our rights continue to disappear at an ever increasing rate or we could remember that this month is Pride month and remember what Pride is. Pride is not a month where corporations who donate to politicians who write these very laws to sell rainbow colored products and pretend for 30 days that they actually care about us. No, Pride is about us taking to the streets to demand to be treated with the dignity and respect that all people deserve. Pride is about showing the world we are here and won’t be invisible again. They cannot put us back in the closet. We will not go away.
I am so sorry this is happening. And you’re right-our country is moving backwards instead of forwards, in so many areas. I don’t want you or anyone to go back in the closet and/or go away. Whatever you, my beautiful daughter, or anyone in the LGBTQ+ needs I will do whatever I can to support you and effect change to recognize & exercise your rights.