The needle finishes its jet of ink: queer joy is engraved behind my thigh in order to continue the fight against transphobia, to raise the voice – and this, even without speaking. We are not used to seeing this joy, especially not in this season of transphobic bills. Queer joy for me has a punk essence, since we are in the realm of rarity, of the counter-current. People ask me if it hurts to get a tattoo. Yes, a little, a little pain, but never such an intense pain as having to count our dead regularly or dreading a transphobic bill.
I say “season” because I still want it to be temporary. It would cost nothing if we changed our minds about these bills. Rather, tens of thousands of lives would be spared. So far, over 400 anti-2SLGBTQIA+ bills have sprung up since last January in the US, and counting.
I’ve been crying non-stop for ten minutes. I feel bad for our trans children who live in this climate of terror. In Florida, Bill SB 254 will allow the state ” to take temporary custody of children who may be receiving gender-affirming care now or in the future “. Basically, it will be possible to steal a trans child from his parents. We are legalizing kidnapping, we are legalizing transphobia. No, it’s not here, I agree. You do not dream. I too had to re-read this atrocious decision based on the fear of the other several times. They want us either in the shadows or dead. We are being declared a war, literally.
This climate in the United States contaminates the world. I find it very difficult to understand this campaign of dehumanization and I would like not to have to make this sordid parallel with the Nazis and their hate propaganda against the Jews, because we know the sad result…
It is also difficult to understand why people are asked to stop “exposing children to trans people” on the pretext that they could be encouraged to become trans. It turns out that all my life I grew up surrounded by cisgender people, teachers, classmates and even parents, and you know, I didn’t become cisgender.
Webster Barnaby, a Republican, compared us to mutants (X-Men), and I don’t know if you know, but in the 1990s animated series, these mutants are hunted down and imprisoned on the grounds that they are who they are are. He later apologized, but still.
I would like your voices to rise in a choir that finally soothes our tears, I would like to see and hear more allies denouncing these injustices in the media. Alone, we will not succeed. It is about human beings and the future of society. I wish I could talk about something else, but when we are in a campaign of dehumanization against us, I can only express a nameless anger now. A scream goes up my spine when I come across news like this or when I hear people on the right here incorporating ideologies from our sad neighbors.
I call on those who love us, say it loud and clear, spread information about these unjust and violent laws. Denounce transphobia. Be proud to know trans people. Tell them, listen to them. Support trans artists. Do not minimize our fear, it is legitimate. If you only knew how much news like this from Florida bruises our hearts already bruised by injustice.
In an interview in the magazine AdvocatePedro Pascal (The Last of Us, The Mandalorian) does refer to his trans sister as “one of the most powerful people he knows,” and I think she’s a great example of an ally.
It’s no longer a secret that transphobia can even kill. But no matter how much we are killed, our dead survive in the rage of those still alive.
We are people full of love and we ask for nothing more than to be able to exist in complete serenity. It’s time we stopped surviving. We have existed since the dawn of time, we deserve to continue to live in broad daylight.