AMY GOODMAN: So, can you talk about the legislation that is being introduced around the country right now, the anti-trans legislation?
CHASE STRANGIO: Yeah. So, the bill in South Dakota is typical of one of two bills that we’re seeing this year that have been introduced in over a dozen states. The bills are both the bills targeting young people through the criminalization or other bans on access to healthcare, including bills that propose intervening through Child Protective Services for parents who support their trans young people. So, imagine how important it is to have parental support. We’re actually seeing proposals to make that support itself potentially a reason to remove a child from a home. So that is another way that we’re talking about incredibly dangerous interventions in the survival of trans young people.
And the second type of bill that we’re also seeing in about eight or nine states are bills that would bar trans athletes from participating in scholastic athletics consistent with who they are. And those bills, like so many bills we’ve seen in the past, are fundamentally connected to controlling the bodies of all people. For example, some of these bills talk about how if any girl is “disputed” as a girl, they have to bring in medical documentation of their internal and external reproductive organs, their chromosomes and their naturally occurring hormone levels. I mean, that is going to be an unbelievable amount of the policing of the bodies of all young women and girls. And so, we’re talking about legislation that will have a sweeping impact across the country, not just on trans young people, but on any young person who doesn’t fit very specific norms of gender. And this is just the beginning of session, so I expect we’re going to see a lot more.
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