 there's a so lot going on and what really is calling me to course is this latest bill from Oklahoma that would ban gender-affirming care up until the age of 26 for years we've been hearing from anti-trans pundits and politicians that this is about children is about protecting the children but I think with this Oklahoma law reveals is that it's never been about the children it's always been about scapegoating trans people stigmatizing us in criminalizing our existence making us not exist and we have pundits from anti-trans pundits and politicians on television every single day saying horrible things about trans people on the Internet saying horrible things about trans people things that are leading to bomb threats in the Boston Children's Hospital. The higher I check the founder of lives of tick tock took credit for that bomb threat and also I'm I'm I'm posted proudly on Tucker Carlson that she's communicated with Ron DeSantis is administration and that her work her anti-trans propaganda work led directly to the don't say gay bill so the way we talk about trans people and with trans people in the media has an effect on these policies a lot of the ways in which we're seeing trans people we talked about on the Internet in the news those exact ways are finding them there. That language is finding its way into legislation. So I wanted to come on today for all those people who have the best of intentions and want to support trans people don't know the right language don't know how to talk about it are scared to say the wrong thing. We need the right language to combat this they've anti-trans folks have been setting the agenda and how we talk about this and we take back the narrative and we do it right away because it is what is it January 19th and they're already been 151 bills targeting trans and LGBTQ people introduced in state legislatures just this year alone 151 it's January 19th. You just watched actress Laverne Cox succinctly explain how odious figures with large platforms ranging from Republican politicians to Twitter influencers they're not just controlling the narrative with respect to trans issues they're outright influencing legislation that is being passed. And if we keep allowing them to monopolize discourse things are only going to continue to get worse for trans Americans. So what we need to do is recenter the conversation and Laverne Cox specifically explains how that can be done. Let's listen. So if you want to sort of get if you have to get an education to some of these folks who are using the wrong language and saying the wrong things what would it be. And I'm not language for these first of all I'm not into censoring. But it's for understanding if we are interested in the humanity of trans people and understanding that we exist what I would first of all say to all the people there's so many wonderful pundits and politicians who say well gender-affirming care for children that's something that we should debate right children don't know and I would actually disagree. I would actually say hashtag it's none of your business if you are a parent with a trans child. It is your business. I think the American Medical Association American Academy of Pediatrics the Interkin Society have developed wonderful protocols that have worked for treating trans children and parents who have are dealing with that can go and get that information if your parent of a trans child. It's your business if you're not it's none of your business what adults do with their bodies is none of their business where this is America it should be about freedom bodily autonomy. I'm firmly instantially pro-choice and we should have a right to do with our bodies what we want to in America and even for children that's their parents. Business is their doctor's business it is not a legislator's business who has doesn't know anything about it. So what I would suggest when because whenever we're debating whether trans folks should have access to health care we're objectifying them when we see senators in Supreme Court confirmations talking about mutilating children, we're objectifying children talking about children shouldn't tell you but just disgusting and when we objectify we dehumanize and that is what this whole project has been about not making trans people real people human beings who exist. I exist there's no trans question I'm not a question I exist here there I have a material reality lived experiences and trans people have always existed and we're not going to stop existing if people don't teach about us. So we should have acceptance it is our business if we're discriminated against in health care and employment and housing which many of these people want to do that is our business if we believe in liberty and justice for all Americans. What people do with their bodies is none of our business. Yeah, every single thing that she said there is 100% spot on this is about freedom this is about liberty. I don't know why in 2023 Republicans still monopolize words like freedom and liberty when the policies that they produce year after year in state after state are antithetical to freedom and liberty everything that they do essentially restricts freedom and liberty from a personal standpoint with regard to bodily autonomy to an economic standpoint they are against freedom and liberty so to continue to let them pretend as if they're the ones with this monopoly on freedom and liberty it's completely bogus. This is something that I can no longer take them seriously about they claim that they care about genitals of trans youth getting mutilated but where's the outrage for circumcision as of 2010 more than 50% of newborn infants are being subjected to a surgery that they're unable to personally consent to yet Republicans are fixated on trans youth and falsely claiming that they're the ones who are getting their genitals mutilated or removed. This isn't about these specific issues and we need to stop pretending as if they're actually concerned this is about bigotry and as Laverne pointed out you know they'll claim this is about protecting children but yet you see increasingly more bills being proposed that ban transitioning for adults so this is really about the children then how do you explain that well it's because their goal is very clear their goal is to erase trans people out of existence and they are going to do that by any means necessary either by legally erasing them out of existence or preventing them from transitioning which will increase the rate of suicidality thus leading to more deaths any way that they can get trans people out of society is what they're going to do even if they know that that causes harm and we've got to stop pretending as if they just are ignorant and they don't know they want trans people to die that is the goal of Republicans some of them perhaps are just ambivalent towards trans death trans deaths and don't care if trans people die if trans youth die but a lot of them are vicious enough that they want to inflict as much pain and suffering on this community as possible because they believe that their existence is illegitimate and that is the point that Laverne Cox I think is trying to drive home here and so it's what we all need to grapple with now I want to point you to an article published back in May of 2022 by out front magazine written by Vienna Austin and they argue that these anti-trans laws are tantamount to attempted genocide and I think that this is a really important conversation to have I've debated with myself about whether or not it's appropriate to use the G word because I don't want anyone to accuse me of being hyperbolic and my advocacy of trans people I don't want people to say no I don't think that it rises to genocide we're talking about simple bigotry here it's common this is a civil rights issue so in order to determine whether or not this is attempted genocide against the trans community we have to first understand what is a genocide now we're going to go to the UN's criteria here this is from the convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide and this is the criteria as laid out by the UN A. killing members of the group B. causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group C. deliberately inflicting upon the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part D. imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group and E. forcibly transferring children of the group to another group so now that you know the criteria we're going to go to Vienna's article because they're going to tie specific policies specific anti-trans policies to this criteria for genocide as laid out by the UN and as you're going to see they make a very compelling case here they write puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy the topics of these policies have been shown to drastically reduce the horrifically high suicide rate of transgender youths saving lives to block trans youth from such a treatment manufactures a higher suicide rate and best manufactures more suicides more deaths within the transgender community specifically amongst youth this flagrantly violate sections A B and C of the aforementioned definition this policy produces conditions for trans youth via lack of access to life-saving health care that cause mass mental distress in the form of suicidality and depression which itself leads to drastically more suicides and suicide attempts a prevalently proposed enforcement for such policies as is the case with the aforementioned policy of Texas governor Greg Abbott is to treat the providing of such vital health care as child abuse had it not been overturned the directive would have likely resulted in child services departments removing transgender children from affirming homes and families providing gender affirming health care and placing them into non affirming ones which do not this enforcement would additionally meet and violate section E of the aforementioned definition of genocide albeit in a unique way so let's be very clear these anti-trans policies that are being produced by Republican controlled legislators across the country are going to kill trans people trans youth and they know about this we need to stop pretending as if it's possible to educate them and if they were no longer ignorant they wouldn't propose such harmful policies they know exactly what they're doing their goal is to kill trans people and the reason why it's so important for us to have a sober analysis and really acknowledge what their intent is here is because then and only then in my opinion we're going to be able to actually address it with the urgency that is needed now Laverne Cox in this next clip that I'm going to play for you doesn't specifically say the word genocide but she explains how all of these issues anti-Semitism you know sexism transphobia they're all interrelated and the Nazis also targeted LGBTQ plus people and in fact that was one of the first acts that they did so let's listen people should know that one of the first things that the Nazis did I think it was in 1933 was they burned Magnus Hirschfield's gender for sexuality Magnus Hirschfield was studying trans people LGBTQ people Lily Elby who the Danish girl the film Danish girl was about she had her first gender-forming procedure at Magnus Hirschfield the Nazi's burned it down all of this research and there were LGBTQ people in concentration camps stamped with pink triangles so in this moment of a rise of anti-Semitism we see this ride this documented rise in anti-trans legislation and rhetoric these are not a coincidence so we as we fight anti-Semitism as we fight for reproductive rights we have to fight for trans rights as well and they're on TV every day we need to be more vociferous we need to be more engaged in this and I know trans people are a small part of the population but it is not unrelated to everything else that is happening this is about justice and bodily autonomy for everybody it's about freedom we're Americans we should be about freedom she is exactly correct here so it's time to treat this threat with the seriousness that it deserves we're no longer just talking about bigotry or prejudice or discrimination we're in much darker more dangerous territory where an entire group of human beings in the United States are existentially threatened and so that was the main takeaway at least for me from this interview with Laverne Cox she's just trying to get people to understand that now is the time to get involved you don't have to know all of the language but you do need to arm yourself with the information needed to push back you do need to know the intent behind these bills and that these lawmakers know exactly what they're doing we can't shock everything up to ignorance maybe in some cases we can but ultimately there's enough information out there there's enough long-term studies of trans youth out there to where if somebody is genuinely curious about trans people they would know that gender-affirming care is indeed medically necessary for trans youth but the thing is that they don't care and the goal is to prevent trans people from existing