The Race for Rights

While Pride 2021 comes to an end and the world prepares for the biggest global sports competition, the Olympics, the battle for our trans family rages on. In the last few months, laws banning trans kids and adults from playing athletics has crashed over the nation like a phobic tidal wave, though the epicenter of its genesis has yet to be found. In spite of the lack of scientific evidence supporting these widely accepted beliefs, the residue of an anti-science, anti-LGBT+, anti-common sense presidential administration dusts the shoulders of state lawmakers and they have waged a war on the contents of trans people’s pants.

On the heels of a disastrous year filled with death, racism, a tumultuous and stressful election, and a wavering economy came the surge of conservative lawmakers taking on the battle of trans children in school sports. Following suit came policies aimed at college levels and even some challenges to the Olympic policies in place. As it currently stands, eight states including South Dakota, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia, Montana, Alabama, and Florida have passed some version of a trans athlete ban in answer to a question that hadn’t even been asked. Many of these states have little to no record of trans athletes attempting to play school sports with their identified genders; there was no big bang moment, no looming threat, no catalyst that moved their hands in signing these bills. More than likely, as is the way of most politicians, it was a distraction to divert attention from other issues, say perhaps unfettered mass shootings, failed attempts to challenge the election and overthrowing Congress, abuses against black and latinx people alike, but this distraction is unbelievably detrimental to the trans community, and steeped in lies.

The LGBT+ community historically has grappled with higher levels of mental illness and suicidal ideation, and the trans community makes up a much larger portion, with nearly 10 times the rate (approximately 41%) of suicide attempts of non-trans individuals. Twenty to 30% of the LGBT+ community abuses substances as a form of self-medication compared to 9% of non-LGBT+ individuals, and nearly half the trans population struggles with depression. While all these issues may stem from different root causes for each individual, one could easily argue that these roots intertwine to form the web of societal failings: lack of support from family, friends, and their community, religious ostracization, lack of access to proper care, overall exclusion, hate crimes, etc. In short, every moment of a trans’ person’s life where they feel different, rejected, judged, abnormal, less than, unworthy, inhuman are moments that could inevitably lead to crippling despair and even death.

It can be difficult to wrap our heads around the ignorance, the fear, the hatred that surrounds people just trying to live their own lives, but the reality of the world is that hate is parasitic and eternal. It doesn’t evolve, it doesn’t slow, it doesn’t grow smaller, it simply moves from one host to another until some superficial enlightenment forces it out of its cozy niche, then it finds a new ill-fated pariah to leech off of. We’ve jumped from races and ethnic groups, economic casts, nationalities, genders, colorism, people with disabilities, sizeism, ageism, religion, and ultimately sexual orientation. While no one can argue that these groups are now free of hate, it has lessened even marginally with them over time as acceptance has grown. Unfortunately in the ebb and flow of its current, hate’s latest target happens to be trans people. And it’s hitting them hard.

Though the focus of this piece lands on athletics, the scope of the attack on trans people hasn’t narrowed to sports. Previously, laws were introduced to stop trans people from using their appropriate bathrooms. Other recent laws have been proposed to deny gender affirming treatments to trans people, including hormone blockers, hormone replacement therapy, and gender reassignment surgery. Some protective laws have been put in place to require school staff to address children by their identified names and pronouns and allow them to use appropriate restrooms and locker rooms. But even as recent this week, a school board meeting discussing trans protective policies erupted into chaos in Virginia as ignorant parents, falling victim to lies, propaganda, and disinformation fought against the well-being and safety of these children. As former state senator Dick Black said, “it is absurd and immoral for teachers to call boys girls and girls boys. You’re making teachers lie to students.” It’s ironic that individuals so concerned with telling the truth use misguiding rhetoric and bald-faced lies to push their own agendas. Cries of perversion, claims that bathrooms and locker rooms will be infiltrated by perverts who pretend to be whatever gender on a whim just to sneak a peek at innocent patrons, confused individuals who don’t know what they want and therefore shouldn’t have access to affirming procedures because they’ll just change their minds later and regret it. Even claims that allowing our children to be whomever they are is just plain child abuse. And as sensationalism goes, the bigots eat it up, regarding the science as a liberal fairy tale. And such is the case with sports.

In hasty judgments that we all sometimes fall victim to, it’s easy to jump to baseless conclusions that seem common sense but really have no scientific backing. It’s easy to assume that a woman who was born a biological male would hold a sexually dimorphic advantage over their cisgender female competitors. It’s easy to worry that the playing field would no longer be level with trans women who are typically biologically stronger and faster. It’s easy, but it’s untrue. Though studies specifically on trans athletes are still fairly new by scientific standards, those that have already been conducted have consistently found that pre-pubescent trans children playing sports have absolutely no advantage, as the onset of puberty has yet to take any considerably hold on their physique or abilities. Additionally, post-pubescent and adult trans individuals who take hormone blockers/hormone replacement therapy have shown no biological advantage after one to two years of consistent treatment; instead they experienced a lessening of muscle, stamina, and bone density, placing them physically on par with cisgender female athletes and making for fair play.

The International Olympic Committee recognized these facts as presented by the scientific community and first made provisions to allow trans athletes to compete in 2004. At the time they established three requirements to ensure the status of trans athletes: 1) They must have had full gender reassignment surgeries, 2) They must be legally recognized in their country as their identified gender, and 3) They must have been under the treatment of HRTs for approximately 2 years. They revised these requirements in 2015 for many logistical reasons. Requiring healthy individuals to undergo risky surgeries proved unethical, especially when many trans and non-binary people choose to retain their biological genitalia. They also found that in many conservative countries, being legally recognized as one’s identified gender is unlikely. The requirements as they stand now is that an individual must maintain their identified gender for four years and they must be on HRTs for at least one year, with appropriately maintained testosterone levels (all restrictions apply solely to male to female transgender athletes. Female to male athletes have no limitations).

Though the adult world and some professional sports circles have adjusted and made allowances for these athletes’ existence and abilities, children and adolescents continue to fight for the right to play. The bridge between childhood sports and competing in the professional realm is all but blocked for kids who can’t play where they belong, who feel out of place and awkward. As such, they are less likely to pursue these activities that could provide them the self-esteem, the self-worth, the societal affirmation they require to avoid the statistics of mental illnesses, substance abuse, and suicide attempts that lie ahead. However school boards continue to fight to protect the delicate sensibilities of the privileged white, cisgender, heterosexual, Christian children under their charge, sacrificing the minority yet again, their lives be damned.

As a gay, biracial woman, I know firsthand the struggles that come with various degrees of minority status and intersectionality, and feel the pain of others facing the same. Sadly, I encountered many other minorities who fell into ranks in the attack on our trans family, people who undoubtedly have been victims of discrimination themselves, but saw no fault with reciprocating the hate to others. One black cisgender lesbian argued to me on a gay Facebook page that she is a professional boxer and she absolutely could not fathom having to spar with a man, therefore trans women should not be allowed in sports. Even after presenting empirical evidence, many other LGBT+ people in this thread disregarded the science and doubled down in their ignorance. It was altogether frustrating and heartbreaking that there are so many battles science can’t win, even in our own circles. As the world progresses and breakwaters slowly build to protect our various social groups, it is our responsibility to protect others who are still out in open water.

Every proposal, every bill, every law signed into place is screaming in the faces of trans people you are not right. You are not okay. You are not normal. You are not human. And you don’t deserve to be treated as such. It’s time we found our voices and screamed love even louder.

Good luck to all athletes in the Tokyo Olympics.

Special shout out to my Sports Wife, Megan Rapinoe and the rest of the USWNT team. LFG.

Exorcise the Gay Away!

June is LGBT pride month, which essentially means there will be a month long drought of rainbow décor and glitter in craft stores everywhere that will make the California water shortage look like Waterworld. And they certainly have something to celebrate: gaybugs have made immense amounts of progress in the last year, really within the last few months, given that the majority of states that had bans on gay marriage were challenged and the bans were overturned. It would appear that the scales have finally tipped in favor of the human rights movement, though the progress treads dangerously close to the borderline, and the percentages of proponents and opponents are sometimes varied by a few points. Public opinion obviously shifts depending on where you stand in the hemispheres of America, as seen in this unpleasant video on ABC's WhatWould You Do. There are still those who think it’s a sin, there are still those who think it’s disgusting. Most importantly, there are still those who think it’s a choice with a cure.

Conversion Therapy, once known as Gay Aversion Therapy, has lost popularity in mainstream mental health services gradually since homosexuality was eliminated as a mental disorder in the DSM in 1973. Prior to that, aversion therapies ranged from talk therapy and prayer to catatonia-inducing medications, shock treatment, and even lobotomies. Being gay was viewed as an unnatural diversion from the evolutionary, biological, spiritual, and moral norm; a disease that must be treated and cured alongside polio and leprosy. But even as early as the 1920s, individuals were starting to recognize the folly in this belief. One being Sigmund Freud, who was never really a particular favorite of mine, but scored bonus points with me when I uncovered this quote about conversion: “’in general to undertake to convert a fully developed homosexual into a heterosexual does not offer much more prospect of success than the reverse.’ Success meant making heterosexual feeling possible, not eliminating homosexual feelings.” And so many of these therapies focused on the latter; shock that was administered in pairings with “inappropriate visual stimuli”, if successful, only created a negative association to homosexual feelings. Heterosexual feelings were never fostered, and most “cured” gays were expected to live the life of a celibate or fake orgasms with their heterosexual partners. Documentaries focusing on these so-called ex-gays usually depicted men with plastered smiles on their faces, perched on a couch next to their wife, holding a bouncing baby, and seething with self-hatred and distaste for life. Some of these men eventually “regressed” back to their homosexual lifestyles once they found self-acceptance.

But these issues were from decades and even centuries ago, right? We’re no longer plagued with such ignorance. The American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, the American Medical Association have all unanimously spoken out against the practice of gay conversion therapies citing the damage that it can create and the principal of the Hippocratic Oath: Do No Harm. Conversion therapy feeds into guilt and shame, which causes depression and suicidal ideations. So why is it that only recently some states are beginning to adopt bans against this harmful treatment?

Just one year ago in 2013, Governor Jerry Brown determined that it was illegal for mental health providers to administer conversion therapy to minors identifying as LGBT given that many of them were being forced into treatment by overzealous parents. New Jersey has a similar law, which means no more straightening camps, no more trivial therapy sessions, and no more private lashings (sadly, this does not apply to religious organizations such as pastors or priests, who are not licensed mental health professionals and always seem to think they can do whatever the hell they want anyways). Illinois is on its way to passing a conversion ban, as was New York, but unfortunately, ongoing passage of these protective legislations has hit obstacles.

As New York prepared passage, they were stalled because these so called ex-gays ventured out to a few meet and greets with law makers, trying to perpetuate the image that there is nothing wrong with degrading and denying your true self. Though I can’t call it a surprise, Texas has also jumped on the bandwagon as earlier this week the Republic party unveiled its anti-gay platform. In addition to claims of gays being the devil and “tearing at the fabric of society,” they argued that they “recognize the legitimacy and value of counseling which offers reparative therapy and treatment to patients who are seeking escape from the homosexual lifestyle. No laws or executive orders shall be imposed to limit or restrict access to this type of therapy.” Likewise, in spite of the excess of medical and mental health associations noted above who are against conversion, and being one of the first states to ban conversion therapy for minors, the California Association of Marriage Therapists took a subtle stance against bans as well. While acknowledging that there is nothing wrong with being gay, CAMFT refused to go so far as to speak out against conversion therapy, stating, “CAMFT acknowledges that current cultural prejudice about same-sex sexual orientation compels some clients to seek out sexual orientation change due to personal, family, or religious conflicts, or to better fit into some cultural and religious norms[…] CAMFT advises mental health professionals that do provide assistance to those who seek sexual orientation change, to do so by utilizing affirmative multi-culturally competent and client-centered approaches that recognize the negative impact of social stigma on sexual minorities and balance ethical principles of beneficence and non-maleficence (sic), justice, and respect for people’s rights and dignity.”

So yes, we know that being gay causes distress in homosexual individuals. They are constantly faced with adversity, discrimination, bullying, humiliation, and weekly if not daily reminders that their lifestyle is not moral, that they are Hell-bound, that they are dirty and second-class citizens. They are not afforded the same protections and rights as heterosexuals. They have been beaten, they have been shamed, they have been spit on and knocked down. But in what other circumstance would a mental health professional tell someone to change themselves to reduce stress from an outside source? “So your husband berates and beats you? Well let’s teach you how to stop being annoying and getting in his way.” “Oh your mom’s an alcoholic and it bothers you? Well, we’ll teach you to be a better child so she will stop drinking.” “Someone called you the N-word and burned a cross in your front yard? Well let’s start painting your skin white, and then no one will bother you.” “Oh it’s hard to be gay in today’s society? Well then, let’s straighten you out!” The responsibility of change needs to shift away from the client and out into the world.

The cornerstones of therapy are self-efficacy, self-esteem, and self-acceptance. When a gay child is distressed or depressed, it is not reflective of some innate internal struggle. It is the crushing dissonance this world has implanted in their small minds. And it grows with them; it consumes them. It is the mental health professional’s responsibility to challenge and destroy these distortions, to strengthen the client, to stand against social stigmas. As a lesbian, I can tell you, being gay is not a walk in paradise, and yes, life got hard, but I got stronger to survive it. I can’t and won’t be fixed; I’m not broken. As a mental health professional, I can tell you it’s not my job to fix anyone else who’s not broken either.