There’s a transgender flag safety-pinned to the flap of my Speedo backpack. It’s resided there for four years now, battered by the everyday wear and tear of my busy schedule. I think I acquired it from a UNI Proud tabling event, but it’s been there so long that now I can’t really remember. In my mind, it’s a very casual sign of solidarity to transgender Panthers. But as our world, and our state grows increasingly hostile towards transgender Iowans, the battered little flag on my backpack has started to mean a little more.
I often find myself contemplating the discrimination that transgender people face in their everyday lives, and how that discrimination can vary from state to state. With the Iowa legislature recently repealing civil rights for transgender Iowans, I think of how unwelcoming our state has become, and in turn, how unwelcome our families will become. In a first of its kind study completed by the Trevor Project, they reported that anti-transgender legislation can cause a 72% increase in suicide attempts amongst transgender and non-binary youth. Those crafting this legislation may think they’re doing something, or somebody justice. But from a different lens, this legislation could be a death sentence. I find myself in what’s now an outrageous belief that if you’re discriminating, or repealing civil rights protections for a class of people, that should be viewed as a bad thing.
Transgender Iowans are not new threads in the fabric of our society. They have always existed. Which is another layer to why I find this uproar surrounding transgender Iowans so asinine. You can legislate about what rights transgender people can and cannot have – that will not prevent them from existing, and it will not undo the threads of history that transgender Iowans have woven. Transgender Iowans will always exist, whether the state and federal governments might not want them to.
While control of justice for transgender Iowans at the state level might be farther out of reach, we can choose acceptance in our day-to-day lives. We can choose to do the very simple thing of accepting and moving forward. Wouldn’t our lives be so much easier if we did that? I think often about the transgender youth in Iowa who face the harsh reality of not being accepted by their family, some finding themselves homeless because of it. I think often of those who will never get the healthcare they deserve, or denied jobs because of who they are. I think of how discrimination takes legislative form in our state and haunts household dining rooms like an unwelcome ghost.
Legislators and family members can argue semantics, whether they’re citing the Bible, or the argument that they want to “protect women,” it all boils down to discrimination. It’s very cut and dry, at least in my mind. I’m not religious, but I know that one of the fundamental teachings of the Bible is acceptance of those around you, and loving people despite not fully understanding them. I’ve seen people argue that legislating away transgender civil rights protections is “good” for women, but I know that if one transgender woman loses her civil rights, it can also happen to lesbian women, Black women and cis women.
I’ve found that even people that I thought to be progressive can share some ideals that I find to be counterintuitive, especially when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights, specifically regarding transgender rights. In Iowa, homophobia and transphobia seeps into everyday conversations, especially regarding what people think is or isn’t okay to be teaching in schools or talking to children about.
No matter how difficult the Iowa legislature makes it to be a transgender Iowan, they will still be here. Transgender Iowans will still go to the same restaurants you do, check out books at the public library like you do, inspect produce at the grocery store like you do. Transgender Iowans will still sit across the table from you at family dinner, even if you don’t accept them for who they are.
No matter how difficult life becomes for transgender Iowans – they are still Iowans. They will still be here. As long as there are transgender Iowans to uplift, support and fight for, we will still be here. We are not going away. It is easier to open your arms and your mind to those who are different than you than to shut them out, dehumanize them and attempt to legislate them into non-existence. Acceptance will always be easier than hate.
