A New Hell – Transgender in a Red State

 

One of the myths that refuses to die among religious fundamentalists in this country is that LGBTQ+ behavior is a choice, often foisted on children by predatory adults (a classic in conspiracy theories like QAnon), not a genetic reality. Perhaps nature has some answers, although clearly the animal kingdom does not have medical and surgical options for transgender transformation. It is thus far easier to measure same-sex coupling in the wild. There has been significant research in this arena of late. According to the July journal of Nature Ecology and Evolution, field studies “suggest that same-sex behavior is not only natural in the animal kingdom, it can also be socially advantageous… Scientists have observed same-sex sexual behavior among more than 1,500 animal species, including penguins, giraffes and elephants…

“The study ‘puts to rest the doubts of same-sex behavior occurring naturally in nature,’ said senior author Vincent Savolainen, a biology researcher at Imperial College London … To find out, he and his colleagues visited a colony of about 1,700 free-range rhesus macaques living on a wildlife preserve in Puerto Rico. The colony has been monitored for the last 67 years, providing researchers with a comprehensive family tree of the primates.

“The researchers defined same-sex behavior as the act of mounting because it was the most frequent — and most identifiable — form of sexual contact. Although it occurs in both male and female macaques, it is much more frequent in males… Over three years, the study team observed 236 males who belonged to two distinct social groups within the colony. During that time, they documented 1,739 instances of mounting — 722 involving male-female pairs and 1,017 involving same-sex pairs. The research team had expected to catch some same-sex couples in action, and Savolainen said he wasn’t surprised their pairings outnumbered those of male-female couples.

“Among male macaques, same-sex sexual behavior isn’t necessarily about sex, but more about social interaction. Male macaques mounted each other after grooming, eating, fighting, playing and resting as well as while traveling, according to the study. The activity could be a way to strengthen bonds between males, making them more likely to form alliances and ultimately gain access to more females, the researchers said.” Gina Errico, writing for the July 24th LA Times. OK, this one characteristic in the list of LGBTQ+ behavior that has become the target of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ led litany of red state statutes and judicial challenges aimed at eliminating what he calls “woke” practices, as part of his “culture wars” to force America into what he believes are necessary traditional American values.

With the above as an introduction, I would like to drill down on what it is like to be transgender person in a red state with anti-trans-treatment/restroom legislation. As in most red states. Aside from parents not knowing where to turn for their children who were undergoing now-banned medical treatment for what the parents and the children fully acknowledge is an unambiguous transition reality, just being an adult in such states has moved into “unbearable and filled with fear.” Writing for the July 24th Los Angeles Times, Jaweed Kaleem explores his harsh reality in DeSantis’ home state: “As a transgender woman in a state where the governor declared war on ‘transgender ideology,’ Violet Rin felt her image of Florida as an idyll fading. She became a near recluse, doubtful that much outside was worth the risks.

“Then she got a message from the clinic where she obtained her estrogen prescriptions… A new state law restricting who could give medical care to transitioning adults ‘went into effect immediately,’ it said. ‘We will not be able to provide care for transgender patients’… Rin had called Florida home for nearly all of her 27 years. But now she felt like the state wanted to destroy her… Would she join the nearly 1 in 10 transgender individuals in the U.S. who have left their neighborhoods or states because of new laws restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ people? An additional 4 in 10 have considered a move, according to a recent survey by the left-leaning think tank Data for Progress.

“The American battle over transgender rights has focused on minors and their access to puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries. Florida, along with 19 other Republican-led states, banned those treatments for people younger than 18. But it went a step further than most by also targeting transgender adults.

“That’s led many people to ration or stockpile estrogen or testosterone, turn to the black market or raise money to flee to states with recently passed ‘trans sanctuary’ protections… ‘This is where I grew up, where I went to school, where my family lives,’ said Rin, who was raised in Middleburg, an unincorporated community of 12,000 outside Jacksonville.

“Her embrace of her identity as a transgender woman coincided with Florida lawmakers’ targeting of a community that, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA, numbers 111,000, or about 0.5% of the state’s 22 million residents… This spring Gov. Ron DeSantis, a 2024 presidential hopeful, signed the most extreme laws in the nation focusing on transgender people, praising the legislation as the means for the state to ‘remain a refuge of sanity.’” Indeed, DeSantis’ use of the word “freedom” and holding Florida out as the “model for America” is a form of draconian autocracy, where the state inserts itself into the minutia of individual lives, violating privacy at unprecedented levels. It seems that “freedom” only means “freedom from woke” and what evangelicals consider unacceptable personal traits that really are not hurting anyone.

Red state legislatures and rulings from a very rightwing Supreme Court have taken away women’s rights to control their own bodies as well as LGBTQ+ individuals from simply being themselves and having access to now-banned medical care. Discrimination against LGBTQ+ has now been sanctioned by the Supreme Court as long as the discriminating party has a religious basis for that bias. Where is the American value of individual liberty? How does the GOP, which has long argued against governmental intrusion into our daily lives, justify a spate of laws and conservative judicial appointments that have triggered the greatest government intrusion into individual lives in our history. Autocracy is never pretty.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the resounding hypocrisy of the MAGA GOP continues to defy our Constitution as it was intended apply and has reached levels of anti-democratic mandates that threaten to unravel our entire political system.