Why is there such a focus on changing policy to ban transgender people from sports, bathrooms, and schools when we have so much more to worry about?
We’re in a time as a country where we have to face house insecurity, worsening mental health crisis, mass shootings, a fragile economy and the ongoing impacts of climate change, but lawmakers are focusing disproportionate amounts of energy into policing the lives of transgender people.
In 2024 alone, over 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced across the country, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Many of these bills aimed to restrict access to gender-affirming care and school sports.
These policies claim to protect children or maintain “fairness,” but they do far more harm than good. There are major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, that have repeatedly spoken out against such legislation, emphasizing that it creates a stigma and puts already vulnerable groups of people at a higher risk of depression, anxiety, and suicide.
These legislative efforts don’t care about the individual; they don’t see transgender people as real people; they see them as a threat. In many of these states that are pushing anti-trans bills, constituents list access to healthcare, education funding and job opportunities as top concerns yet time and tax dollars continue to be spent debating which volleyball team a teenage girl is allowed to play in at school.
No one but the homophobes is benefiting from these policies. This is a strategic destruction to galvanize voting bases ahead of elections while continuing to make transgender individuals unsafe and under attack.
If we really want to improve society, let’s stop wasting time on policing individuals and think about the country as a whole.
