 dystopian time. We've been following the situation in Arkansas where the Republican legislature, they passed a bill banning gender affirming care for trans youth, which is medically necessary. And this law was horrible. So there was a lot of pressure exerted on the governor to veto that bill. And nobody thought that he would actually do that because he previously signed a bill into law banning trans athletes in high school from participating in school sports. So we thought there's no way that this is going to happen. But he did. He actually got pressure, vetoed the bill, and he went on Tucker Carlson. Tucker Carlson was grilling him about this. It was a disgusting segment. But there's a bit of an update to the story. So after he vetoed that bill, well, the Republican legislature overrode his veto and the law banning gender affirming care for trans youth was set to go into effect on the 28th of this month. But we got an intervention here at least temporarily. And this is really good news. So this is from NPR and OPB. A federal judge blocks Arkansas ban on trans youth treatments just in the nick of time. So let me read a little bit of the story before we discuss. So a federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked enforcement of Arkansas ban on gender affirming treatment for transgender youth while a lawsuit challenging the prohibition proceeds. The American civil liberties union filed a lawsuit in May asking US District Judge J. Moody and Little Rock to strike down the law that made Arkansas the first state to forbid doctors from providing gender confirming hormone treatment at puberty blockers or sex reassignment surgery to anyone under 18 years old or from referencing them to other providers for such treatment. The ACLU sought the preliminary injection while its lawsuit proceeded to pull this care midstream from these patients or minors would cause irreparable harm Moody said. And there's a really great vice documentary about a bill being pushed in Mississippi that's relatively similar. There's some differences though. So the law had been set to take effect July 28th. So at least for now there's a pause on this. But I just want to kick it over to the panel thoughts on this. I have a huge problem with all of this. This is a major civil liberties problem. I just want to say the idea when I was reading this and we see this in other ways but the bottom line is they don't like trans people and they don't like trans people and they don't want to support this and that's what it's about. Now they're going to try to sell it like it's some sort of like we're doing it in the best interest of the children because if they're not 18 they could change their minds and this isn't safe. That's a bunch of crap. So it's taking what is really a parent's right away from a parent because as far as I know anybody that's a minor had to get their parental consent. There's a lot of steps you have to jump through. It's not like you just go in as a minor and your doctor starts giving you hormones. So you already need parental consent. So the idea that they're trying to interfere with that I find infuriating. Like regardless of what the issue is and they're only doing it let make no mistake because they don't like trans people. That's really what this is. It's we're just becoming a pawn. It's a political pawn. That's what it ends up feeling like we're just a political pawn to continue. It seems like abortion is a political pawn a lot of the times and then we had gay rights and now that that's not the hot topic that's not the hot thing to use as a pawn. It's us and it's horrifying. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be able to avoid the surgery for example that I had to get post-18 or just simply knowing about trans issues but we're going backwards instead and it's horrifying. Yeah there was a portion of time after marriage equality became the law of the land with Obergefell. There was like this huge shift with the LGBTQ plus community towards really trying to have more visibility for trans people and trans rights and then that optimism that I felt like five six years ago has diminished because we absolutely are going backwards as Lumie said and I want to draw everyone's attention to the fact that just in 2021 there have been more anti-trans bills passed or introduced into legislations across the country than the last six years. So this is as Lumie said it is a political ploy and what's really nefarious about this whole situation is that this is being done under the guise of protecting trans youth. So everyone everyone knows that like oh it's hurting them and as as the doctor said who was quoted in here it's irreparable damage. The rate of suicidality among trans youth is so high in comparison with their cis peers and to think that they would be denied this treatment or in Mississippi for example in the event that law passed it would have criminalized doctors who tried to treat trans youth. It's just the fact that this is this is the political football that Republicans are using now is incredibly disgusting and disingenuous and it's not just in the United States in the United Kingdom perhaps the situation might be even worse. Cab I'm not sure if you have any personal stories to share any more insight into this but could you talk a little bit about the situation in in the UK. Yeah I was just looking up something because I remember this. So a transgender woman actually fled to New Zealand as a refugee and got granted residency because they said being transgendered in the UK is so dangerous because there's a gaming channel called Easy Allies and one of their personalities just came out as trans and they were talking about the healthcare they received to become trans and as bad as it is what you're saying right there the experience they described was something I've never heard about in in the UK it was so sensitive and so nice and I will say in the US it's obviously really bad and what it feels like is this culture war that is just ripping stuff straight from the 1980s about gay people like you know the trans bathroom stuff is like oh you don't you don't want to use the same bathroom as X, Y and Z because they might rape you essentially they said the exact same stuff about gay people in the 1980s and 1990s it's actually taking that language and using it again it feels like the exact same thing now in in the UK what's even worse is that Tony Blair you know awful awful person has become more influential in labour again because of Keir Starmer these more centrist labour people taking power and he told them don't get involved with trans rights it's just cultural war like no one cares about that you're just going to alienate voters and stuff even though I was looking at some polling data before which is quite surprising considering we demonise trans people in the UK so much is that a lot of people are actually supportive of trans identity there's other issues which are kind of like hit or miss but largely the British public are now it's just very frustrating that we can't even get a left-wing party to talk about these things and it's it's a stereotype that's true white liberal women are some of the worst trans folks in the UK obviously JK Rowling you know about but every guardian columnist and stuff like that they're all writing these awful articles so like I feel really bad for people in the UK because at least in the US yeah I know it's awful because you have these absolute zealots in the republican party the christian right who are like uncompromising and I just made a video before I came on about the new civil war in the republican party because they're having a fight over do they accept transgender republicans and the religious rights say no it's like degeneracy whereas the more like I guess people who aren't as religious are saying if they're a conservative who cares and now in the in the UK we don't have that debate anywhere it's actually like don't talk about it it will just alienate the voters and because of this push because Manchester and traditionally working class areas went to the Tories for the first time it's like this perspective that or perception that these guys who labour lost are inherently like racist or bigoted so the way you win them back is don't talk about that stuff because they think the like la luni left under Corbin who did talk about all this stuff rights of minorities rights of refugees trans people like really great stuff that was too alienating rather than looking at the bigger problem it was just this complete overwhelming demonization by the press so I would say at least in America you have like visibility for trans rights and trans issues and just Joe Biden saying this I know it doesn't mean much coming from someone like him but Joe Biden talking about transgender rights is like absolutely huge like and that's where I think in America you can build on that because imagine how many old people who love Joe Biden are being exposed to this stuff for the first time we're in the UK we can't even get a 50 year old labour leader to even acknowledge this stuff so like I feel like in the US it's a massive uphill battle and it's part of the culture war but like hopefully because we've seen the success with the gay rights movement eventually I'm not saying it's like type of equality but you got there in the end where it's more accepted so I'm hoping with America especially just this acknowledgement for at least one major political party of these people and the issues faced them is really going to help the fight for trans rights we're in the UK I don't really know where we go because our left wing part is being totally destroyed from the inside it literally feels like some sort like of mi6 plot to eradicate the labour party that's how disastrous it's going so yeah it is doom and gloom everywhere but I feel like I'm a bit more hopeful about America in general despite like the vicious backlash was it like 30 different states passing or trying to pass laws against trans people like it's pretty pretty crazy I read in that article it's an absurd amount yeah yeah at least dozens not all of them have passed and the reason why there was so much fear around these laws is because well like with the United States there's always this domino effect where one state does something other states tend to follow suit because you know then all of the controversy kind of diminishes a little bit so you know with with Arkansas being the first when we all thought Mississippi was going to be the first it's like okay this is now law they did it and now you know that state is going to bear the brunt of the backlash and now other states will follow suit with a little to no controversy and there's a lot going on in the media so it doesn't get covered and it's frustrating like I'm glad that you brought that up cab about the you know the labor party not wanting to touch it because that actually is an area of optimism for me that the Democratic Party for the most part I think they need to fight harder for trans issue for trans rights and LGBTQ plus generally speaking they should be fighting way harder to push the equality act I mean the fact that it's still just kind of thrown under the bus and still you know this this controversial thing is really frustrating but you know it is so super nefarious that the Republican Party chose to capitalize on this issue and and what's what they're doing is they're they're truly preying on people's ignorance because there's this assumption that well you know trans non-binary people they just all of a sudden came out of nowhere when they've always existed but now they have heightened visibility so you know now that people are becoming aware and less ignorant and they know somebody who's trans or non-binary you know they're they're seizing this opportunity and for me part of my optimism and perhaps a little bit of naivete was thinking well you know what since you know we're all part of the LGBTQ plus community these issues like you kind of use the same logic right but it's it's not that simple so for me for example conversations that I've had with family members about uh being gay I I'm now having to rehab those conversations about transgender issues and and non-binary and it's it's really frustrating to me but at the same time it's part of the process that is you can't avoid it but when you have also you know policymakers trying to use this group as a weapon which is the most marginalized um in society at least when it pertains to trans and non-binary youth it's it's just morally apprehensible um I wanted to give Amy a chance to jump in here yeah there's um in my state and my home state of West Virginia there was a law that passed it's not just medical treatment but it's also denying trans kids the right to compete in sports and taking away their livelihood on top of denying them rights to um medical uh treatments I think is the reason why this is going to be irreparable and irreversible there's no other way that you could really attack a trans kid by making their life in school even more difficult if they can't even try to forge friendships or find some sense of camaraderie in a sports team that might you know not be bigoted or would accept them and making it as difficult for trans children is absolutely it's morally bankrupt it it is criminal especially because of course I'm going to bring this back to housing the amount of of uh of experience if experience hatred that trans kids uh witness or experience in their home leads to a higher rate of homelessness so yeah when kids are kind of kicked out of their own home and what services are available to them through outreach programs with homeless programs that does help them to maintain control of their identity and offers them affirming treatments that the state is then denying to them then what options are available recourse are you leaving them and how is this going to be to the detriment of their entire uh mental health down the line especially whenever you're in such a tender age where your your brain is still very much developing there are plenty of empirical analyses that have been conducted and research that has been conducted that shows that there is a long-term effect that you experience as a child if you are trans and you are subjected to homelessness among other things so just kind of taking that one step further into the equation and and uh gain the the risks that these children experience and that the state is only making it worse for them by imposing this violence onto them is absolutely like you said morally reprehensible