Its taken me a minute to articulate how I feel about the election results. While I have my initial reaction articulated, I’m sure I’ll say more in the coming days, weeks, months, and years.
Before the election I didn’t know a single transgender person who does not have an emergency exit plan out of Idaho. Now my transgender friends are developing emergency exit plans out of the USA, because moving states may not be enough anymore. I can tell that this extends beyond my friend group, because The Trevor Project – a crisis hotline for Queer people – saw a 700% increase in calls because of the election results.
I was visiting with family last week and they said if politics get bad enough I might have to bind my chest and cut my hair – essentially saying that I would be forced to detransition. I flatly said I would rather die as myself than live as someone I’m not. The transgender community has the phrase “Death Before Detransition” to articulate this sentiment. This is a very real possibility for transgender people, and many people’s plan seems to be:
- Live life as normal
- Move states
- Move countries
- Be killed by the state/commit suicide
You might think I am being an alarmist, but the conservative manifesto, “Project 2025” (pg 38/922), plainly calls for a coordinated effort to define anything that talks about the transgender experience as pornography, which they want to illegalize. This would essentially illegalize transgender people talking about their lived experiences, and if we break this law we could be arrested and thrown in prison and forced to detransition. Even me making this post would qualify me for arrest. This call for mass arrest is just one step away from mass extermination.
I will NOT go back in the closet! I am a transgender woman! Give me liberty or give me death!