{"id":264410,"date":"2023-05-19T23:26:03","date_gmt":"2023-05-20T06:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/?p=264410"},"modified":"2023-05-19T23:27:08","modified_gmt":"2023-05-20T06:27:08","slug":"us-politician-a-fight-transgender-equality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/us-politician-a-fight-transgender-equality\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Us Be, Politicians &#8211; A Fight For Transgender Equality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Looking at US today, a cultural war between conservative and liberal ideologies has been brewing. One side argues that limiting equal access for transgender people is imperative to protect the culture and children of the United States. The other side of the political spectrum believes everyone is entitled to fundamental rights, regardless of orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, or socio-economic situation. The focus has now shifted towards rights for the transgender community.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In a recent media briefing hosted by <a href=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ethnic Media Services<\/a>, experts and advocates share<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>insights on the need for pushback on bills targeted towards the transgender community. More specifically, GOP-led states such as Texas and Florida, where conservative politicians are setting a precedent for a new wave of legislation working against the transgender community.<\/p>\n<p><b>Speakers<\/b><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_264412\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-264412\" style=\"width: 542px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-264412\" src=\"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Speakers.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"542\" height=\"157\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Speakers.jpg 542w, https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Speakers-300x87.jpg 300w, https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Speakers-150x43.jpg 150w, https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Speakers-400x116.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 542px) 100vw, 542px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-264412\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L-R) Gene Wu, Texas State Representative, D-Houston; Sailor Jones, Associate Director, Common Cause North Carolina; Nadine Smith, Executive Director, Equality Florida; Susan Maasch, Founder, Trans Youth Equality Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><b><\/b><b>Gene Wu<\/b>, Texas State Representative, D-Houston<\/li>\n<li><b><\/b><b>Sailor Jones<\/b>, Associate Director, Common Cause North Carolina<\/li>\n<li><b><\/b><b>Nadine Smith<\/b>, Executive Director, Equality Florida<\/li>\n<li><b><\/b><b>Susan<\/b> <b>Maasch<\/b>, Founder, Trans Youth Equality Foundation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>In states like California and Washington, many celebrate cultural differences and accept people from all backgrounds with any identity they wish to define themselves. However, go to states like Texas, Florida, and North Carolina, the narrative changes. Experts cry foul as they analyze the actions of GOP-led governing bodies targeting the transgender community.<\/p>\n<p>Starting with Texas, Democratic Representative Gene Wu speaks on the political landscape of transgender rights in Texas. According to Rep. Gene Wu, \u201cRepublicans have carefully navigated and narrated a story. The background of well, we\u2019re just protecting the kids.\u201d With this narrative, Texas lawmakers have presented 57 bills, the most of any state in the nation. The result? An increase in suicide rates amongst transgender youth. Wu highlights the irony: \u201c We&#8217;re protecting the kids right? Even though the kids have come to us and testify, we don&#8217;t want your protection, and your protection makes us want to kill ourselves.\u201d Rep. Wu concludes with the following message to his colleagues, \u201cLeave people the hell alone\u2026 It\u2019s no one\u2019s business who I sleep with, who I love. It\u2019s none of your business how I modify my body.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We are aware of the anti-LGBTQ narrative spearheaded by Florida Gov. Ron De Santis. The \u2018Don\u2019t Say Gay\u2019 bill has caused a ruckus between Gov. De Santis and Disney. Nadine Smith underscores the meaning behind these attacks on the whole community. \u201cThey needed a new target. They needed something else that they could whip people into a frenzy with. \u201cPerhaps the most chilling overreach of government power is a dangerous ban on life-saving medical care for trans youth.\u201d This, alongside a bill to restrict bathroom usage based on gender identity, are all tactics to limit \u201cthe ability of trans people to be in public space.\u201d Smith entails that the fight for rights is bigger than equality for the transgender community. \u201cWe are fighting over the definition of freedom, and we are fighting over the definition of democracy. And everybody has a stake in that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A similar scenario in North Carolina portrayed by Sailor Jones. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing a lot of the same things that Representative Wu is seeing in Texas and Nadine has seen in Florida right here in the Tar Heel State.\u201d For example, North Carolina also had a similar bathroom bill In 2016, sparking a national debate on transgender rights. Jones notes, \u201cIt also set off a boycott by business and even celebrities to the State of North Carolina that helped ultimately blunt the types of bills we\u2019re seeing today.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>These new legislations have led to the transgender community resorting to drastic measures. Susan Maasch describes the situation as heartbreaking. \u201cThey\u2019re leaving their families, their friends, all their relatives. Some of them have lived in these states for generations and they are leaving everything that they know and doing it, you know, almost in the dark of night \u2013 fleeing really, in Uhaul trucks and cars, and whatever they can take with them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With the United States seemingly so divided about the transgender community, the cultural disconnect between politicians and progressive individuals is only getting stronger. We have yet to see how this would play out at the Federal level and how these actions may impact the upcoming U.S. elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Looking at US today, a cultural war between conservative and liberal ideologies has been brewing. One side argues that limiting equal access for transgender people is imperative to protect the culture and children of the United States. The other side of the political spectrum believes everyone is entitled to fundamental rights, regardless of orientation, gender&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/us-politician-a-fight-transgender-equality\/\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":264411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,45351,72,1848,4786],"tags":[43541,5209,60750,5210,2839,60747,60744,60746,60749,60745,60748,60752,3847,60751,60743,6049],"class_list":["post-264410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-youth","category-current-affairs","category-gen-z","category-politics-current-affairs","category-society","category-u-s-news","tag-common-cause","tag-ems","tag-equality-florida","tag-ethnic-media-services","tag-florida","tag-gene-wu","tag-lgbtq-equality","tag-love-is-love","tag-nadine-smith","tag-protect-trans-kids","tag-sailor-jones","tag-susan-maasch","tag-texas","tag-trans-youth-equality-foundation","tag-transgender-rights","tag-us-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}