The following blog is created on the basis of data points and relevant information provided by Maria Thomas, Beyond Do No Harm Fellow at Interrupting Criminalization, Gabriel Arkles, Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Jessica Kant, Black and Pink, Massachusetts, and informed by feedback and suggestions from the Beyond Do No Harm Coalition members and partners. You can read more here.
In discussing reproductive rights, the subject of intersectionality comes up often. That’s because reproductive rights don’t just impact people with uteruses – they impact all of us. Today, we’re looking at the intersection of Trans Rights, Reproductive Rights, and how current legislation is impacting our communities, especially the criminalization of parents of Trans kids and the children themselves. We’ll also talk about how we can continue to advocate and support trans people as we resist the criminalization of gender-affirming care.
Who Wins When We Lose
It’s no secret that when governments increase their control and surveillance over its citizens, especially in spaces like reproductive health care, we know that it is us who loses as they continue to win through possession of power. Laws like the anti-abortion bill from our home state of Texas, SB 8, allow government entities to gather private information of abortion-havers as a means of seeking criminalization charges against these individuals. The same can be said for the efforts behind laws like SB 12 and SB 14 from Texas as well, which are dedicated to limiting access to necessary health care and targeting trans individuals for simply existing.
Fuel for Fire: A Trans-Eliminationist Agenda
Who provides the fuel for this fiery, trans-eliminationist agenda? Where does the hateful energy come from? Right-wing extremists, of course. Political Research Associates indicate that these anti-trans and anti-abortion legislation are being pushed out by an alliance of both the secular and economic right, the Christian right and the racist and xenophobic right, as a means to cover more ground with more ferocity than before.
Our known recurring antagonizers are cut from the same cloth, weaved together by a transphobic, homophobic and white supremacist thread. Organizations such as the Family Research Council, the Heritage Foundation, Family Policy Alliance and more are behind the curtain, working cranks and gears to turn their fighting machine. Using their power, these organizations are radicalizing “gender critical” feminists, also known as TERFs, into reverent supporters of their fundamentalist agenda, spending thousands upon thousands of dollars to infiltrate and fracture progressive movements.
A Tangled Web of Criminalization and YT Supremacy
The fight for trans and reproductive justice are fights for bodily autonomy, gender justice and self-determination – all elements that challenge and undermine the power structures and institutions that right wing extremist groups rely on to succeed. Many states are actively working to and have succeeded in passing abortion bans in tandem with trans health bans. This ensures that trans people who are able to birth will not be able to get an abortion if they do become pregnant. These efforts, deemed pronatalist efforts (policies and practices that push for higher birth rates) are rooted in the white supremacist, xenophobic and anti-immigrant agendas.
Our trans youth are not JUST the white, abled, middle-class US citizens with concrete support systems, most often from their biological families pictured in mainstream media. They’re also people from communities of color, immigrant communities, disabled communities, and members of the poor and working class, populations that are disproportionately impacted by anti-trans and anti-abortion legislation. This imbalance of impact is due to the pre-existing cyclical conditions these communities face in the form of state-created vulnerability to criminalization, child removal and early death. These populations will continue to suffer and face defeat due to increased control, while their white counterparts – though they will endure some suffering, to be sure – will continue to have more opportunities to safely evade laws and still obtain access to their necessary care, without risk of arrest or child removal. These efforts are all a part of the larger agenda to use reproductive politics as a means of division, control and in turn eliminate Black, Indigenous, other people of color, immigrant, disabled and poor and working-class people by any means necessary.
Health, Healing and the Criminalization of Medical Care Sites
Despite increased efforts to add surveillance and means of control through reporting and similar antagonistic tactics, trans and gender-affirming care is recommended by all major credible medical and nursing associations as life-saving care. More than 20 medical organizations joined an amicus brief against Governor Abott in Texas, defending transgender adolescents in which they state that denying gender-affirming care to adolescents who need it would permanently impact their health in harmful ways. The laws that require health care professionals to put themselves at risk of censure by continuing to provide life-saving care to transgender individuals are, simply put – bad laws.
Legislation that is built on hate and bigotry, rather than informed medical science, can, does and will lead to systemic failures within our medical institutions. Continued criminalization, arrests and incarceration only accelerate poor health and accelerate rates of premature death, a diametric opposition to public health principles and healing justice.
#DefundPolice: Divesting From the Carceral State
Plain and simple: If we care about trans liberation and the protection of abortion-havers in our communities, then we must divest from the carceral state. The criminalization of gender-affirming care and reproductive health care is a direct consequence of funding the prison-industrial complex instead of communities. Adding criminalization laws counteracts our work and in essence paves the way for continued restrictions and removal of safe access for all. These laws are a direct result of and will continue to lead to more funding for surveillance and policing, and therefore more incarceration and less life-affirming efforts.
How We Can Help: Advocacy and Resistance
As we continue the fight against anti-trans and anti-abortion legislation, here are a few tenets to help guide your efforts moving forward and through this battlefield we call equitable access for all.
May Your Movements be Strong and Steadfast with Solidarity
It’s up to us as abolitionists and defund organizers to continue fighting against the criminalization of Black and Indigenous trans youth and other trans people of color, trans people with disabilities and all people who are capable of receiving abortions. We must expand our nomenclature around protecting these individuals by divesting from using phrases that are cis-centric and exclusionary of nonbinary, Two Spirit people or trans men. We must also ensure that our efforts are sustainable, both in strength and in growth in the fight against harmful bigotry.
Move Discourse, Move Information
Reject anti-trans rhetoric and avoid disinformation, two elements that spread panic and negatively impact efforts to inform communities on their rights and access to helpful information. Seek out organizations such as TX Trans Kids for frequently updated materials such as Know Your Rights (KYR) materials, Calls to Action(CTAs) and more created by the Texas trans coalition.
Provide a Caring, Strong Defense In Your Community
Normalize resounding support, acceptance and love of trans people as well as abortion-havers. Follow their lead on how best to support them and their needs. Support trans people updating identification documents, gaining access to health care, as well as sharing emotions, financial and informational resources. Support and defend trans people and communities in places with heightened criminalization of trans existence – aka, all of Texas. In essence, follow the lead of trans people on how best to support them.
Conclusion
We’re grateful to do this work in and on behalf of everyone in our community who benefits from access to reproductive health care, including our trans community. We hope these words reach you in ways that re-instill your passion to continue fighting for reproductive rights for everyone. We’ll keep fighting to make reproductive rights a reality for all.
