If you had the power to change one law, what would it be and why?

That’s a quote from a movie I’ve never seen, “They Live,” but the boys I went to HSPVA with had seen it a million times and that’s the only line I know. But Arnold Schwartzenegger plays some kind of badass (as per his usual except my favorite, Kindergarten Cop). So, basically it means nothing to me in the context of the movie, but the frustration I feel with the American government so much of the time. Because I love intelligence, that annoyance runs the gamut from local to global.

I don’t like what we’re doing in Israel because I think no good can come of it. I think that every state not having Medicaid expansion is a crime. I think the way we treat soldiers when they come home from war is atrocious. I am starting to feel the burn in terms of groceries, because of course I spend most of my money on food. I know that in time, this will become the new normal because of course things can’t cost the same as they did when I was 25. I probably just sound like an old person, but it is the price of progress.

“Progress.”

It’s hard to choose what one law I could use to really make a difference, because there are so many playing fields. So, I think I’ll go local on this one. I would make it illegal anywhere in the United States to deny a trans child their medication.

People are making this a bigger problem than it is by a large margin. The debate is that these parents are either making their children do this to themselves for attention, or they’re monsters for believing their child and taking them to get evaluated.

I have come out as queer.

I have come out as nonbinary (but don’t care about pronouns, call me how the spirit moves you, I guess….).

I have told everyone that I have cerebral palsy, autism, and bipolar…… and that they’re all connected.

I have told the world that I’m poly to make it easier for other poly people to say something, because I didn’t plan it out. Zac just told me he had other partners and I thought, “can you really imagine giving a shit about that? You’re a writer. You don’t even notice when you’re home, much less someone else.”

In short, I have told people a lot of scary things, just throwing it out there and expecting them to keep up. I learned that from Aaron Sorkin. Never talk down to an audience, they’re smarter than you think they are. My dad was the same way as a pastor, and I started preaching as a layperson about the time The West Wing was in its second or third season.  I learned a lot about how to say things like Aaron Sorkin, that the music of the dialogue matters. That the reason he doesn’t let actors change even a comma is because he’s not listening to the words. He’s listening to the beat. To him, it looks as bad as coming in half a measure early on a rap track.

Therefore, I know how to say something loud and clear. Your entire body shakes in fear if you are not secure in that connection, and sometimes even still. Because I’ve had to say these things, I know how scary it is to tell someone you’re trans in a global sort of way. Everyone’s coming out experience is different, and it feels like trans kids are being treated now like gay kids were 30 years ago.

Your behavior didn’t change, you just found new kids to hate.

Meanwhile, the AMA and the APA opinions are entirely left out of the equation. Think about it. Really think.

Why would you ever come out as trans if you didn’t really need it? If a doctor prescribes medication, why is it your right to take it away? This is not about them. This is about you. We as a whole ass community are tired of straight people making our existence dependent on their comfort level. I will no longer kowtow to “that’s just how he is.” To me, it’s “I lived through the entire Civil Rights movement and I didn’t learn a damn thing.”

Statistics show that we have a hard enough time keeping trans kids alive in this country, and there’s a whole lot of people complicit in that problem.

I particularly hate the shot of Max Klinger on M*A*S*H* as proof that there’s always been trans women in the military. I get the joke, but it’s not funny. Being female was not part of Klinger’s identity. He was trying to get a Section 8……. because obviously acting like a woman is so crazy. Plus, he went back to his gender appropriate clothes when he realized he actually wanted to stay.

No trans person has ever gotten back into their old gender’s clothes and thought, “yeah. I could do this.” Body dysmorphia is real and it’s deep. It’s why trans kids kill themselves in large part, because their family keeps making them be who they’re not so that the trans kid can’t take up any room in the house, judged on every action that looks too feminine or too masculine.

Especially in conservative households, this is early and often. Kids don’t see an escape.

Because it a lot of households, their support system is the doctor that to them hung the moon because they didn’t say “you’re fucked up.” They said, “there’s lots of words to describe what you’re feeling. Let’s make you feel better.” Puberty blockers are temporary so that surgery is a long way away off. They’ve had years of living as their real gender before that’s even on the table.

What puberty blockers do is keep their sexuality from changing their bodies even more into the gender they don’t want, making surgery harder, like for an enlarged Adam’s Apple. As a singer, having it shaved feels really fucking dangerous.

So, it’s a lot. A lot they need to talk about with the doctor they’re not allowed to see.

We can do better than this. We are better people than this.

:::stares in Texan:::

Somewhere you got lost along the way with the queer community. You’ve got the “y’all are welcome” down. “All y’all?” Gonna need some work….. and you know EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN.

The clue phone is ringing, because the call is coming from inside the house.