By Sunita Sohrabji. Ethnic Media Services.
A school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, in which the suspect was identified as transgender, has created a wave of fear in the transgender community, who feel vulnerable to attacks. March 31 is Transgender Day of Visibility.
Physical violence and verbal abuse are the norm for many transgender youth. This week, when news broke that 28-year-old Audrey Hale, who killed six people, including three 9-year-old students at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, was transgender, the LGBTQIA community began to fear for itself.
Susan Maasch, director of the Trans Youth Equality Foundation in Portland, Maine, told EMS: “Yesterday we got a call from a man who was yelling at us. ‘What are you going to do with your donations? Are you going to use them to train kids to kill Christian kids?’ This was very scary.”
"We have scared children, scared families, scared organizations that fear being attacked, but there is no support," he said.
Maasch said he called the FBI to report the hateful phone call, but was unable to get through to a receptionist. “I will talk to local law enforcement, but I’m not sure what will come of that. The answer is just not there.”
The FBI and the Justice Department held a briefing this week with organizations that support transgender youth, advising them on how to stay safe during a potential surge in violence against the community.
“This is a terrible, scary and intimidating time for transgender people and their loved ones,” Maasch stressed. “The fact that this shooter was transgender will be used and abused by politicians and others.”
She pointed to the current climate of hostility in many states, which are demonizing trans people through legislation and rhetoric. “These are right-wing attacks from uninformed people. There is a sense of going backwards.”
Children in red states are having a particularly difficult time, Maasch said, noting that there are few resources available to them.
Maasch spoke of the need for gender-affirming care, noting that there is no cure for body dysphoria. “If you don’t treat it, that’s when you put yourself in danger. Some kids go dark when you try to erase their gender. They start to lose hope and become depressed and anxious.”
She encouraged children struggling with gender identity to reach out to their organization TYEF or The Trevor Project, which has a good track record of supporting transgender youth. Trusted people, including older siblings or an aunt, can also be a source of support, Maasch explained.
Stella Tice spent much of her young life trying to conform to the masculine norms of the gender she was assigned at birth.
“I always felt like I was different from everyone else,” Tice, 22, told Ethnic Media Services in an interview. “The early stages of dysphoria hit especially hard during puberty. I didn’t have any language or knowledge to express it,” said Tice, who grew up in rural Klamath Falls, Oregon, and attended church every Sunday with her family, as well as a religious youth group every Wednesday night.
Tice said she was bullied a lot at school. But she never told high school administrators or even her parents what she was experiencing. “I was uncomfortable sharing my feelings because I was worried about being ridiculed by my peers.”
About 16 months ago, with the support of her partner, Tice began transitioning to female. Telling her parents was initially difficult. “It was a rough start, but they definitely learned a lot. I come from a very close-knit family. And they didn’t want to lose me.”
Tice’s older brother turned out to be one of his staunchest supporters. “Wherever you end up, you have my 100 percent support,” he told me.
Tice and her partner live in Eugene, Oregon, which has a large LGBTQIA community, so the young woman was able to access the support she needed during her transition process.
She was also able to lean on gender-affirming care, which is in danger of dying out in 11 states, including, most recently, Iowa and Kentucky. Other states that ban gender-affirming care for minors include: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah.
Tice urged trans youth to turn to sub-Redits, transgender Twitch streamers and transgender TikTok content creators for a sense of community and support.
"I know this is a cliché, but it will get better and better," he said.
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
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