It was Monday, Oct. 22. I just finished voting on the first day of early voting. I waited in line in Coppell for quite some time, and when I walked out to the car with my new wife, Katie, the line was even longer than when we walked in.
I’ve been waiting six years to tell Ted Cruz, “You’re fired.” I even cried a little on the ride home. It’s been a tough week.
The day before — Sunday, Oct. 21 — the New York Times had published an article reporting that the Trump administration plans to change federal civil rights law to include a definition of a person’s sex as “a person’s status as male or female, based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth.”
Essentially, if this ridiculous notion goes into effect, the government of the United States of America would effectively stop recognizing the very possibility of a person being transgender.
Me and my vagina would be rendered invisible.
The Family Research Council, Mike Pence, The Heritage Foundation and others like them have been wanting to erase us for years, and it looks like this is their best chance.
When I read that article, I became physically ill. I’m not going down without a fight, but I’m exhausted from having to fight all the time. For everything.
So I have something to say to those who hate us and are working so hard to erase us: Transgender people exist. Get over it.
It’s one small part of who we are. The fact that we are under this kind of scrutiny and are being targeted this way is mystifying to me. For one, there aren’t that many of us, so why worry about us so much?
We don’t cause a ruckus. We really don’t. We are a pretty well-behaved lot over all. Many of us are terrified at even being ourselves in public. We are FAR more likely to be the victim of a crime than we are to perpetrate one.
So why the fuss?
Well, for one, we are an easy target. We can’t even unite the LGBTQ community behind us, let alone the rest of America. So attacking us doesn’t seem to carry any political risk at all.
The evangelical Christians hate us more than they do Obamacare — and they REALLY hate that. I mean, ya just can’t have low-income people have access to medical care! That’s just crazy!
Seriously though, what happens once this latest revocation of civil rights becomes the next step in this totalitarian regime? Goose-stepping taught in basic training?
Trump wants a simpler time, when there were only two genders — male or female — and those were immutable. Fixed. Doc takes a peek between your legs, slaps your butt and you are what he says you are.
Doctors aren’t always right. I’m evidence of that. So are more a million other people.
And you can’t legislate us out of existence. You can’t ignore us out of existence. We exist, and we aren’t going anywhere … well, except maybe Canada, if the internet posts I see are any indication.
My biggest fear is that this latest bit of evangelical ass-kissing is going to cost lives. I’ve seen a really large uptick on social media of the letters “KMS” from trans people. It’s an option that I sure hope they don’t use, because KMS = Kill MySelf.
We can’t allow our precious trans brothers and sisters to lose hope.
Another ridiculous byproduct of this scientifically-debunked idea of a strict and immutable gender binary is using genetic testing to settle gender disputes. So fasten your seatbelts, butch lesbians. The government might not believe you, so you may be hauled in for genetic testing, just to make sure! And just to be safe, I’d test any guy under 5-foot-6.
Also, men with tiny hands — that’s a dead giveaway. Hear that Mr. President? We want to see the test results! But look on the bright side: You might be able to play from the ladies’ tees on your next round of golf!
The problem with the whole idea of genetic testing is that there aren’t two genetic buckets. There are variations. Always have been. Besides, humans, being self aware, can’t be sorted like monkfish into separate barrels.
Gender doesn’t live between the legs; it lives between the ears.
But convincing the heretics at the Family Research Council that differences in gender identity in humans are natural and confirmed by science is like teaching a pig to sing. It wastes your time, and annoys the pig. Hell, they want you to believe the earth is 6,000 years old and climate Change is something Al Gore invented right after the internet.
So ignore us at your peril. We aren’t going away. We will challenge you in court; we will remain visible, and we will never give up. We WILL prove you wrong.
This is who we are. You don’t have any idea how tough transgender people are, how brave or determined we are. Look at what we go through to live authentic lives, how hard we fought.
You want to take that away from us then pretend we don’t exist? As we say in Texas, you mess with the bull, you’ll get
the horns.
Leslie McMurray, a transgender woman, is a former radio DJ who lives and works in Dallas. She recently married her wife, Katie Sprinkle. Read more of her blogs at lesliemichelle44.wordpress.com.
