Transitics has uncovered that South Dakota is quietly preparing to implement a ban on gender marker changes ‘soon.’ Trans residents must act now to update their licenses before it’s too late.
Very well researched and civil exercise with the FOIA Request. They always find excuses for some sensitive things but you do get hot of the grill juicy stuff from personnel whose job is to prepare and respond with requested information who are non-bias. The trans representation Congress members are growing faster at the state level but only one at the federal level so far so progress is being made in the right direction in those areas. I talked to someone about it and they said they just don’t understand not that they hated trans people. I have had strangers who brought it up about how trans people are being attacked and don’t like it and do understand.
That feels a bit reductive...South Dakota has almost a million people which means, assuming 1% of the population is trans, there's at least 10,000 trans people that call the state home. Like, I know there aren't that many people there, but my heart still breaks for them...
It will as you have stated, either sadistically or smugly, have a devastating effect on the 2 trans people in South Dakota. But it will also have a down stream effect that will touch the other thousands of gender non confirming people in other red states, as those states continue to dismantle what rights we have and follow this regressive policy.
My original comment was meant neither "sadistically or smugly". Recently West Virginia took a case banning trans girls from participating in sports to the Supreme Court. While the language was written in the plural "girls," it really only affected one girl. That West Virginia law affected one 15 year-old girl playing high school sports with her friends. The same holds true for the other red states whose laws affected less than five trans girls throughout their state.
It is time we make the public aware of just how few individuals are affected by these baseless and Draconian laws that are being passed simply to take attention away from all the other problems this administration is creating.
Just so there is no confusion with statistics, like how many “women” are getting diagnosed with prostate cancer, or how many murders are committed by “women” why don’t states use T- M to F or vice versa. It’s not that hard. Identify and biology are two different things. Nothing wrong with being Trans but to claim a biological reality that is false is a mind fuck and pisses people off. It would be better for all if being trans was not such a divisive issue. Ending sexism and sex role stereotypes would help. Loving and accepting our bodies could become a revolutionary act. And if we’re going to be “kind” we need to include all people. Lesbians for one. Erasure of a group of people is hardly kind. Unless, of course, the erasure of biological women is the goal.
Kendra, your words are ill-considered and dangerous. I’ll extend the courtesy of assuming they aren’t intentionally malicious. I don’t ask you to change your stated beliefs that trans women are divisive, dangerous, liars, and not really women. I do, however, ask that you would question your own motives and sources of information.
What is it that makes you believe trans people are so uniquely dangerous that, unlike any other minority group, we must be explicitly singled out for a marker on our state documentation? Why do you think that trans women — “women,” as you have so charmingly written it — are committing so very many murders that we throw off the statistics of women in general, of whom we are a tiny minority? Have you ever actually taken the time to inquire of a trans woman *why* we say we are women, rather than assuming it must be in bad faith or ignorance?
You must know as well as I do that governments which identify and track members of minority populations — especially when that population is openly viewed by both political elites and by the dominant religious group as disgusting! — have a dark history.
I’d guess from your words that you consider yourself a feminist; if so, then we are very much not your enemies. If you were to try speaking to us without the preconceived hostility, you might find we have more in common than you now believe.
You’re right! I wouldn’t have said any of that to you; I was talking to someone who might not’ve wholly strangled that little voice in their head saying “maybe I’m wrong; maybe I really am hurting people.”
To you, I’d say instead that I wish you a peaceful and joyful life.
That person has a history of leaving extremely hateful comments on my articles; I thought I had banned her but I guess not. Anyways, she's banned now. Sorry about that!
Kendra, perhaps you should sit with us, talk with us, and get to know us. We are your allies. We look to erase no one. In fact, the powers that currently be would like to erase us.
Kendra, I'm an older trans person. For decades, it was my desire simply to live my life, quietly, unobtrusively, and privately. I "woodworked" (or "faded into the woodwork") like so many transpeople do. It was not an attempt to erase anyone. I just wanted to live authentically.
You might not understand why a trans person is trans, just like many people might not understand why you, I presume, are lesbian. Neither of us chose to be these things. We were born that way. We know it innately, and scientific research backs up what we have always known about ourselves. In both our cases, it's between our ears, not between our legs. And those biological processes that make our brains sexual and gendered (relating to hormones, not karyotype) occur during fetal development.
The ONLY reason trans people are now out, conspicuous, and in everyone's face is that we've been dragged out in the open for public shaming and bullying. The government will no longer let us live our quiet, peaceful lives. It demands that our transness be disclosed on all our identification, similar to the big letter "J" stamped in the passports of Jewish people in 1930's/1940's Germany. Increasingly, there is no place for us to hide.
You may long for a world in which gender doesn't matter - in which we can just be whatever people we happen to be. However, the real world doesn't work that way. Society is cis-heteronormative. It values and embraces the traditional binaries and tries to flush out (and punish) all the outlaws like us.
Make no mistake: LGBTQ people (all of us) are being erased. Don't forget the "don't say gay" laws. Don't forget the drag bans. These and other similar laws impact trans people, too.
Nobody is erasing women, though. It's worse than that. This same movement that is oppressing trans people is seeking to shoehorn women into traditional societal roles. The trans sports bans, for instance, aren't about just trans people. Now they're trying to go after women's athletics in general, arguing that women's athleticism diminishes fertility. And they're coming after all aspects of Title IX, which is not really about sports, but rather education. They want women at home, making babies, cooking, cleaning, and raising the children, the way they think their god intended.
Please don't fall for all the lies and spin. We should all stand together, or else they will pick us all off one by one.
Very well researched and civil exercise with the FOIA Request. They always find excuses for some sensitive things but you do get hot of the grill juicy stuff from personnel whose job is to prepare and respond with requested information who are non-bias. The trans representation Congress members are growing faster at the state level but only one at the federal level so far so progress is being made in the right direction in those areas. I talked to someone about it and they said they just don’t understand not that they hated trans people. I have had strangers who brought it up about how trans people are being attacked and don’t like it and do understand.
Thank you for your reporting on this!
This is a really impressive piece of investigative journalism, Aleksandra!
This will have a devastating effect on the 2 trans people in South Dakota.
That feels a bit reductive...South Dakota has almost a million people which means, assuming 1% of the population is trans, there's at least 10,000 trans people that call the state home. Like, I know there aren't that many people there, but my heart still breaks for them...
It will as you have stated, either sadistically or smugly, have a devastating effect on the 2 trans people in South Dakota. But it will also have a down stream effect that will touch the other thousands of gender non confirming people in other red states, as those states continue to dismantle what rights we have and follow this regressive policy.
My original comment was meant neither "sadistically or smugly". Recently West Virginia took a case banning trans girls from participating in sports to the Supreme Court. While the language was written in the plural "girls," it really only affected one girl. That West Virginia law affected one 15 year-old girl playing high school sports with her friends. The same holds true for the other red states whose laws affected less than five trans girls throughout their state.
It is time we make the public aware of just how few individuals are affected by these baseless and Draconian laws that are being passed simply to take attention away from all the other problems this administration is creating.
There’s like 20 people in South Dakota
Just so there is no confusion with statistics, like how many “women” are getting diagnosed with prostate cancer, or how many murders are committed by “women” why don’t states use T- M to F or vice versa. It’s not that hard. Identify and biology are two different things. Nothing wrong with being Trans but to claim a biological reality that is false is a mind fuck and pisses people off. It would be better for all if being trans was not such a divisive issue. Ending sexism and sex role stereotypes would help. Loving and accepting our bodies could become a revolutionary act. And if we’re going to be “kind” we need to include all people. Lesbians for one. Erasure of a group of people is hardly kind. Unless, of course, the erasure of biological women is the goal.
Kendra, your words are ill-considered and dangerous. I’ll extend the courtesy of assuming they aren’t intentionally malicious. I don’t ask you to change your stated beliefs that trans women are divisive, dangerous, liars, and not really women. I do, however, ask that you would question your own motives and sources of information.
What is it that makes you believe trans people are so uniquely dangerous that, unlike any other minority group, we must be explicitly singled out for a marker on our state documentation? Why do you think that trans women — “women,” as you have so charmingly written it — are committing so very many murders that we throw off the statistics of women in general, of whom we are a tiny minority? Have you ever actually taken the time to inquire of a trans woman *why* we say we are women, rather than assuming it must be in bad faith or ignorance?
You must know as well as I do that governments which identify and track members of minority populations — especially when that population is openly viewed by both political elites and by the dominant religious group as disgusting! — have a dark history.
I’d guess from your words that you consider yourself a feminist; if so, then we are very much not your enemies. If you were to try speaking to us without the preconceived hostility, you might find we have more in common than you now believe.
You’re right! I wouldn’t have said any of that to you; I was talking to someone who might not’ve wholly strangled that little voice in their head saying “maybe I’m wrong; maybe I really am hurting people.”
To you, I’d say instead that I wish you a peaceful and joyful life.
That person has a history of leaving extremely hateful comments on my articles; I thought I had banned her but I guess not. Anyways, she's banned now. Sorry about that!
Forcing a specific marginalized group to identify on their documents that they are part of that marginalized group is a deeply problematic idea
Kendra, perhaps you should sit with us, talk with us, and get to know us. We are your allies. We look to erase no one. In fact, the powers that currently be would like to erase us.
Kendra, I'm an older trans person. For decades, it was my desire simply to live my life, quietly, unobtrusively, and privately. I "woodworked" (or "faded into the woodwork") like so many transpeople do. It was not an attempt to erase anyone. I just wanted to live authentically.
You might not understand why a trans person is trans, just like many people might not understand why you, I presume, are lesbian. Neither of us chose to be these things. We were born that way. We know it innately, and scientific research backs up what we have always known about ourselves. In both our cases, it's between our ears, not between our legs. And those biological processes that make our brains sexual and gendered (relating to hormones, not karyotype) occur during fetal development.
The ONLY reason trans people are now out, conspicuous, and in everyone's face is that we've been dragged out in the open for public shaming and bullying. The government will no longer let us live our quiet, peaceful lives. It demands that our transness be disclosed on all our identification, similar to the big letter "J" stamped in the passports of Jewish people in 1930's/1940's Germany. Increasingly, there is no place for us to hide.
You may long for a world in which gender doesn't matter - in which we can just be whatever people we happen to be. However, the real world doesn't work that way. Society is cis-heteronormative. It values and embraces the traditional binaries and tries to flush out (and punish) all the outlaws like us.
Make no mistake: LGBTQ people (all of us) are being erased. Don't forget the "don't say gay" laws. Don't forget the drag bans. These and other similar laws impact trans people, too.
Nobody is erasing women, though. It's worse than that. This same movement that is oppressing trans people is seeking to shoehorn women into traditional societal roles. The trans sports bans, for instance, aren't about just trans people. Now they're trying to go after women's athletics in general, arguing that women's athleticism diminishes fertility. And they're coming after all aspects of Title IX, which is not really about sports, but rather education. They want women at home, making babies, cooking, cleaning, and raising the children, the way they think their god intended.
Please don't fall for all the lies and spin. We should all stand together, or else they will pick us all off one by one.