We’ve made gains in the U.S., but we have so far to go
Congratulations to Gavin Grimm. If you don’t know that name, you should, especially if you give a damn about transgender rights and the attack on trans kids in this country. Grimm sued his Virginia school district because he wasn’t allowed to use the boys’ restroom. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled in Grimm’s favor. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case, which means that the 4th Circuit court’s ruling stands.
According to The Washington Post, both Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said they would have taken the case. Seeing as they are two of the most conservative justices on the bench, and considering that the Supreme Court has a conservative majority, it is likely that things would not have gone Grimm’s way had the court taken up the case
So, while this turn of events is a relief in many ways, it’s only a partial victory. The 4th Circuit doesn’t cover the whole country, so there are plenty of places insisting that kids can only use the restroom that matches their assigned sex at birth.
And then there’s the fact that Gavin Grimm was a high school student when his case began. A kid. A kid who never should have had to fight this fight. A kid who became a very public face of transgender rights during a particularly hostile time in this country.
The most intimate details of Grimm’s life and body have been the subject of a national debate. That is insane. And it’s wrong.
Elsewhere in the world, police in Turkey are violently shutting down a Pride march in Istanbul. The event had been banned and the reason given was COVID-19, according to the BBC. That’s a good reason to ban a large gathering.
But the BBC also reports that Pride has been banned in Istanbul since 2015. So this year’s ban was probably not a simple public health measure.
Homosexuality isn’t illegal in Turkey. But according to the Al-Monitor, Pride events have been banned “amid an escalating campaign to criminalize Turkey’s remarkably resilient gay community.”
Meanwhile, the Hungarian parliament banned any discussion of LGBTQ issues in schools.
Al Jazeera reports that those under the age of 18 “cannot be shown any content that encourages gender change or homosexuality. This also applies to advertisements.”
According to ABC News, “The law is ostensibly designed to crack down on pedophilia, but critics argue amendments to it make a dangerous link between homosexuality and the abuse of minors.”
Hmm, where have I heard that before? Oh, I know: Right here in the United States, from U.S. lawmakers who say we need to dehumanize trans people in order to protect women and children from sexual predators. As if all trans people fall into this category.
It’s likely no surprise to hear that Hungary is not a great place when it comes to LGBTQ rights. Long before Hungary banned LGBTQ discussions in school, the country had outlawed marriage equality and limited adoptions only to heterosexuals.
So, it’s tempting for many to point to places like Turkey and Hungary and say, “See? Things in the U.S. aren’t so bad. Quit yer complaining.” In fact, this was the reasoning the Log Cabin Republicans used to endorse Donald Trump.
But what is more evident than ever in the U.S. is that we aren’t actually much different from places where homosexuality is criminalized and punished. One of our two major parties is extremely hostile toward LGBTQ people and has only become more hostile as the country as a whole has become more accepting. Republicans see what’s happening in Turkey and Hungary as progress.
This, of course, should surprise no one. Republicans are an extremist party, not a governing party. They haven’t been interested in governing for a long time, but they lost all credibility after the Jan. 6 insurrection, which they encouraged and now act like was no big deal.
And they still worship at the altar of Trump. Not in my lifetime have we ever had a president so utterly incompetent, corrupt and anti-democracy. But there are people still claiming that Trump, the most unpopular president in ages, actually won the election and will somehow be magically re-instated.
It’s lunatic thinking. But these are the same people who see Gavin Grimm, Black Lives Matter and people being allowed to vote as the real threats to the United States.
So, no. I don’t look at other countries where LGBTQ people have it worse and think the U.S. is doing great by comparison.
A lot has happened in my lifetime in the realm of LGBTQ rights. We’ve made some truly amazing gains. The fact that I have a legal marriage certificate is one of them.
But we have so much further to go.
And not only am I not dead yet, but there are also many more young people like Gavin Grimm who will keep pressing forward.
D’Anne Witkowski is a writer living in Michigan with her wife and son. She has been writing about LGBTQ politics for nearly two decades. Follow her on Twitter @MamaDWitkowski.
Your articles always start out coherently and then devolve into some sort of insane diatribe, like a person plagued by hallucinations of a spirit lifted from the pages of Dickens or Poe.
The whole transgender issue if highly complicated but you act as though all of the psychological and social issues that surround it would magically disappear if it weren’t for those “darn conservatives”.
You are disingenuous, intellectually dishonest and highly biased . You never discuss how a large majority of people who manage to transition at a young age later regret that decision – often quite soon afterward. You never discuss how high the suicide rate is among these people. You never discuss how many of these people were often abused (either mentally, or sexually) as a child and that there may be a very serious underlying reason why they feel they need to be “something else” in order to be happy or even survive. These people need psychological help, not new genitalia. And that goes for people who simply “identify” as the opposite sex, but clearly aren’t. They still have a chance to be helped.
There’s a reason we don’t allow young children to drink or carry a gun or drive a car or vote. They do not have the maturity or emotional intelligence to handle these things responsibly. They are not equipped with enough life experience to make wise decisions involving theses things – and a wrong decision could be irreversibly life altering, or even life ending – not just for them, but for others as well.
“Teaching” grade-schoolers to question their sexual preference (before they even have one) or their gender is unacceptable. It has no place in schools.
Children have enough things to worry about growing up – sex, and sexual identity isn’t one of them. Public schools have become indoctrination camps. Period. Instead of learning valuable information that will take them through life, they being fed a bunch of “woke” bullshit that only serves to confuse them more and see themselves as inherently flawed. That’s child abuse.
Mark my words – this issue of pushing transgenderism onto children will backfire and set the gay community back 50 years; and people like you will be to blame. Most conservatives I know have no problem with gay people in general. But this agenda of indoctrinating children will be the thing that convinces them that the gay have an “agenda” and are dangerous (and I would agree… the ones that do, are).
Then you have the audacity to bring up the lie of January 6th. Seriously? Someone should slap the shit out of you every time you repeat that tripe. We have video of the incident, remember? We have video of the capitol police escorting people into the building; holding the door open for people; talking to them calmly and giving instructions – telling them it’s perfectly okay to have a look around. The only people who damaged anything were John Sullivan along with his ANTIFA and BLM goons. He was stupid enough to record himself before, during and after the incident – or have you not seen any of that? I’m surprised you didn’t drag Brian Sicknick into the conversation. And now we’re learning that the FBI had agents, informants, and provocateurs in the crowd. And who shot Ashli Babbitt? Do you research anything before you speak?
The only people who still even pretend to believe there was an insurrection carried out by Trump supporters are radical leftist Democrats, the mainstream media and the stark-raving mad, alcoholic lunatic Nancy Pelosi (and of course, shills like you). By the way, why hasn’t ANYONE been charged with insurrection yet? Why don’t the capital police release ALL security video of the incident? They could so easily prove to everyone that yes, indeed, violent Trump supporters stormed the building. Oh, that’s right… because it didn’t actually happen.
Of course, when BLM/ANTIFA actually set fire to capital buildings and police headquarters elsewhere in the country, you and the media think nothing of it. “It’s OKAY when WE do it”. Hypocrites and liars.