Everyone has a stereotype about them, no matter who they are, but have your stereotypes ever been so enforced that the government wants to erase you? 

Transgender people are suffering because there was been a recent wave of transphobic legislation that has been pushing the narrative that trans-people are predators and they only transition to pry into children’s lives. Many people are starting to believe these stereotypes and are actively trying to prevent transgender-ism from existing in the future. 

Recently, the people trying to prevent transgender-ism are people in power such as Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas and Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia.  They are trying to “protect the children” by taking away their right to gender-affirming healthcare. 

Bills have been introduced in many places throughout the United States to make people go to their assigned sex at birth, require parent notification, and to ban drag shows.  This legislation has been introduced by using the excuse that it’s to “save” children from being manipulated into an LBGTQ+ “lifestyle.” This can be seen on translegislation.com.

Even former presidents have been threatening to do this. According to Vox.com, “Former President Trump announced earlier this year that, if reelected, he would ‘stop’ gender-affirming care for minors, which he said was ‘child abuse’ and ‘child sexual mutilation.’ He also said he would bar federal agencies from working to ‘promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age.’”

This means that if reelected, Trump will make these transphobic bills come into action and the United States will no longer be a safe space for transgenders.

Most of these threats have not become law. But some of them have, and many more of them will. According to PBS.org, “So far in this year’s legislative session, state lawmakers have introduced 434 bills that restrict fundamentals like health care, education and the freedom of expression for LGBTQ+ people, and are concentrated across Southern states, according to analysis from the American Civil Liberties Union. Most bills have advanced to committee and nearly two dozen have passed into law. That overall tally is up from last year, according to the Human Rights Campaign, when 315 bills were introduced.”

However now, the number of bills introduced has grown to 556. On translegislation.com, it shows that 80 bills were passed, 372 are active, and 104 failed. In our state of California, one bill was introduced saying that if a student were to tell a teacher they were transgender, the teacher would have to inform the student’s parents.

If this bill is passed, it could lead to an increase in child abuse cases as some parent’s can be transphobic and try to “fix” their child through things such as conversion therapy.

No one deserves to go through this. And in the so-called “Sweet Land of Liberty,” this is contradictory. Being transgender should not take away your rights; especially in a country that stands for freedom. If we allow this to happen, we will be regressing, not progressing.