Aquil Starks JrThe phrase, “Ignorance is bliss,” only applies to cisgendered heterosexual people. The state of ignorance allows for those not to realize what is surrounding them, some might not even care. Some may ask, “Why?”But if you had to be aware of something that has nothing to do with yourself, would you care?
Now, take those who suffer from gender dysphoria. Mayo Clinic defines gender dysphoria as, “feeling of discomfort or distress that might occur in people whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth or sex-related physical characteristics.” When individuals who suffer from gender dysphoria exist in a binary world, critical thought is one of the first things that become second nature. Trans men and women, and those who do not fit the binary have to learn quickly how to access the world in a way that does not put them at risk. Risk that can ultimately mean death for some.
Texas Senate Bill 1646 had its first hearing on April 12, 2021. This bill would create a system in which supportive parents of trans children would be, “consenting to or assisting in the administering or supplying of, a puberty suppression prescription drug or cross-sex hormone to a child.” Amber Briggle spoke out against the Texas Bill. She is one of many trans parents in Texas pleading for their children’s lives. “When my son was four years old, he asked me if scientists could turn him into a boy,” Briggle said to the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs.“I only knew that he wasn’t like most girls his age and that something inside him was hurting,” Briggle said. “Like many of you, I thought he was asking for surgery, and I freaked out.”
Arkansas last week became the first state in the U.S. to, “prohibit physicians from providing gender-affirming treatment for trans people under the age of 18.”
The GOP deciding what is best for trans children and their parents is concerning. It is worrisome when those who are making those decisions have never been in these children’s shoes. Most of them are white men. White men who benefit from their gender thanks to the patriarchy, the color of their skin, and white imperialism. Critical thought is not something of their caliber to understand, it’s an afterthought.
To put this in better context, white men do not have barriers against them in relation to restricting them of their basic human rights. No one is telling them to change the way they dress, smell, or physically change their appearance to fit into society. It’s them making those decisions. Decisions that affect those who do not fit the binary. They never have to question if their existence will have them in immediate danger. Danger that is irreversible, but reinforced by the binaries.
Kristina Olson of the University of Washington launched a study in 2013 in relation to trans children. It studied more than 300 trans children in the United States and 200 of their cisgendered siblings and or unrelated cisgendered children. The ages ranged from 3-12 and the results concluded that trans kids have a strong basis of who they are and exist in society.
Gender is one the first things that become aware within a child’s framework of socialization in society. The naysayers who despise these studies don’t fully contextualize that kids have the power of the critical thinking they possess.
"early sex assignment and parental rearing based on that sex assignment do not always define how a child identifies or expresses gender later" https://t.co/XQVbgmH3rO pic.twitter.com/cmmyhZrvIw
— David Schmitt (@PsychoSchmitt) November 18, 2019
The Seattle Times reported that trans children gender transition does not affect their sense of being. In other words, if anything it is the transphobia that cause them to internalize hatred for themselves. “Trans kids are showing strong identities and preferences that are different from their assigned sex,” said Prof. Selin Gülgöz to Forbes. She is the assistant professor of Developmental Psychology at Fordham University and lead author of the UW study. “There is almost no difference between these trans and cisgender kids of the same gender identity — both in how, and the extent to which, they identify with their gender or express that gender.”
Critical thought is something one would have to experience to fully understand. There are levels, and these individuals who sit and make these decisions lack in those areas. Would they trade in their privileges to gain insight on what it is like to be the other?
When attempting to educate yourself, there has to be a sense of challenging old beliefs. Most conservative whites do not want to go against that. What are they conserving? These beliefs that they want to protect only center around them and no one else. Beliefs which can be traced back to colonialism that began the journey of what is now the United States. The racism that built this country and the binaries (misogyny) that uphold these individuals. These are the harmful ideologies that are in the back of the white minds in the GOP. Why try to stop something you never critically thought about?
John Starcks
Myles Walker
Milaka Saddler
“Why try to stop something you never critically thought about?” I think because it goes against being the person God made them. A man will always be a man. To say otherwise is a total slap in the face of God and every real woman He created. He made a woman with traits that are different from a male. No male will ever possess those traits, so it’s impossible for a man to be a woman. God will judge us harshly for perpetrating this on our children
This is such a tired argument and has no factual basis. It’s almost as if you didn’t read the post at all. TRANS CHILDREN WILL EXIST REGARDLESS OF THE ENVIRONMENT THEY ARE IN. There is no “trans agenda” but there definitely is a transphobic one.