Graphic by Kelly Doherty (She/Her)
**Content warning: transphobia, trans genocide**
To cis queers everywhere,
Did the fight end for you in 2015, when gay marriage became federally recognized?
Your silence on the escalating genocide against trans people, because that is what is happening, speaks volumes.
Where were you when the first bathroom bills passed? Playing a game for an intellectual property that was created by a transphobe and justifying it with nostalgia?
Where were you when they started denying healthcare to trans kids and trans adults alike? Minding your own business because none of those fights involved you?
Just this month, the vile government of Tennessee passed House Bill 1369, stating that, “Any policy or law or judicial interpretation, purporting to define marriage as anything other than the historical institution and legal contract between one man and one woman, is contrary to the public policy of this state and shall be void and unenforceable in Tennessee.”
Did you know that the fight against trans people had long led up to this, the denial of our choice and right to marry whoever we want to? We warned you.
Most of you have spent all your waking hours actively ignoring the plight of our trans siblings, in denial that these bad things are not happening and believing that we are overblowing these anti-trans bills because it only affects people in those states.
Forty-one out of 50 states are trying to pass or have already passed anti-trans legislation. Did you know there are only nine states that haven’t tried to pass anti-queer legislation?
Some of you have pulled your support altogether, claiming that our trans brothers and sisters are erasing gays and lesbians because God forbid our notions of sexuality go beyond what lies in our pants. Some of you have gone so far as to create and join hate groups against us, actively working with alt-right pundits and conservatives who want you as dead as the rest of us, calling transness a “cult.” You do the work for them, while claiming that your queerness is superior.
But none of you bothered to make the connection between anti-trans groups calling transness “evil” or “the devil’s work” in thousands of emails planning our downfall to rhetoric levied against gayness or lesbianism. As if the fascist right could warm up to you because you are “normal.” They will turn on you as soon as they pass the anti-trans legislation some of you co-wrote into existence.
Will you co-write your death with those same fascists as well?
Or will you be like Senator Machaela Cavanaugh, who has tirelessly filibustered for weeks against anti-trans bills in Nebraska?
Or Jamie Lee Curtis, who openly supports her trans daughter along with the many other amazing trans parents who do, too?
Will you be like Rick Riordan, creating positive representation for trans and gender non-conforming children?
We need you to stand with us. The cisgender people of the community with the trans and nonbinary folks that are stuck in the ire of fascists. To help us ensure the safety and livelihoods of trans children and adults alike. To stop our genocide.
Sincerely,
Judah C (and the Trans Community)
Credits:
Author: Judah C (They/Them)
Artist: Kelly Doherty (She/Her)
Copy Editors: Min Kim (They/Them), Bella (She/They)