{"id":57420,"date":"2023-04-01T11:35:46","date_gmt":"2023-04-01T18:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=57420"},"modified":"2023-04-18T11:36:26","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T18:36:26","slug":"transgender-community-fears-wave-of-retaliatory-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=57420","title":{"rendered":"Transgender Community Fears Wave of Retaliatory Attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Sunita Sohrabji<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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March 31 is Transgender Day of Visibility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Stella Tice, 22, began her transition 16 months ago. (photo courtesy of Stella Tice)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Physical violence and verbal abuse are the norm for many transgender youths. This week, as news emerges that 28-year Audrey Hale \u2014 who killed six people, including three 9-year-old students at Nashville, Tennessee\u2019s Covenant School \u2014 was transgender, the LGBTQIA community fears it will be targeted for retaliatory attacks.<\/p>\n

Susan Maasch, director of the Trans Youth Equality Foundation in Portland, Maine, told Ethnic Media Services: \u201cWe were called yesterday by a man who was screaming at us. \u2018What are you going to do with your donations? Are you going to use them to train kids to kill Christian children?\u2019 This was very scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got scared children, scared families, scared organizations who are afraid of being targeted, but there\u2019s no support,\u201d she said. Maasch said she called the FBI to report the hateful phone call but could not get past a receptionist. \u201cI will talk to local police, but I\u2019m not sure what will come of that. The response just isn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FBI and the Justice Department did a briefing this week with organizations who support transgender youth, advising them how to keep safe during a possible uptick in violence against the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a terrible, scary, and intimidating time for transgender people and their loved ones,\u201d said Maasch. \u201cThe fact that this shooter was transgender is going to be used and abused by politicians and others.\u201d<\/p>\n

She noted the current climate of hostility in many states, which are demonizing trans individuals via legislation and rhetoric. \u201cThese are right-wing attacks by uninformed people. There\u2019s a sense of going backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kids in red states are having a particularly rough time, said Maasch, noting that few resources are available to them.<\/p>\n

Maasch spoke of the need for gender affirming care, noting there is no cure for body dysphoria.\u00a0\u201cIf you don\u2019t treat, that\u2019s when you get into danger. Some children go dark when you try to will away their gender. They begin to lose hope, and become depressed and anxious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gender affirming care is on the chopping block in 11 states, including \u2014 most recently \u2014 Iowa and Kentucky. Other states which ban gender affirming care for minors include: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah.<\/p>\n

The US Department of Health and Human Services defines gender affirming care as patient-centered treatment which aligns individuals\u2019 outward, physical traits with their gender identity. \u201cGender diverse adolescents, in particular, face significant health. disparities compared to their cisgender peers,\u201d notes HHS.<\/p>\n

Maasch encouraged children who are struggling with gender identity to reach out to her organization\u00a0TYEF<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0The Trevor Project<\/a>, which has a good track record of supporting transgender youth. Trusted individuals, including older siblings or an aunt, can also be a source of support, she said.<\/p>\n

Physical violence is the norm for many transgender youth. Last June, a transgender student in Kalama, Washington was kicked repeatedly by another student wearing steel-toed boots, and had to be hospitalized. A transgender teen in Pompano Beach, Florida has been savagely attacked twice. The teen was kicked, beaten and spat upon relentlessly, the first time when they were in 6th<\/sup>\u00a0grade.<\/p>\n

In March, eight students savagely beat a transgender student on a Tulsa, Oklahoma school bus.<\/p>\n

Stella Tice spent much of her young life trying to fit into the norms of the gender to which she was assigned at birth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always felt I was different from everyone else,\u201d Tice, 22, told EMS. \u201cThe early stages of dysphoria hit especially hard during puberty. I didn\u2019t have any language or knowledge to express it,\u201d said Tice, who grew up in rural Klamath Falls, Oregon, and attended church every Sunday with her family, as well as a religious youth group every Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

Tice says she was bullied a lot in school. But she never told high school administrators or even her parents about what she was experiencing. \u201cIt made me uncomfortable to share my feelings because I was worried about being ridiculed by my peers.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 16 months ago, with the support of her partner, Tice began transitioning into a woman. Telling her parents was initially difficult. \u201cIt was a rough start, but they definitely did a lot of learning. I come from a very tight-knit family. And they didn\u2019t want to lose me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tice\u2019s older brother turned out to be one of her strongest supporters. \u201c\u2019Wherever you end up, you have my support 100 percent,\u2019 he told me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tice and her partner live in Eugene, Oregon, which has a large LGBTQIA community, so the young woman was able to access the support she needed during her transitioning process.<\/p>\n

Tice urged trans youth to turn to sub-Reditts, Twitch transgender streamers, and TikTok transgender content creators, to get a sense of community and support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know this is a cliche, but it will and does get better,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BySunita Sohrabji Mar 31, 2023 March...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57421,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57420\/revisions\/57421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}