24 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | VIEWS
Qsaltlake.com |
Issue 334 |
APRIL, 2022
guest editorial
Utah’s 11th-hour antitrans legislative bomb BY SUE ROBBINS
This year,
the Utah legislative session has been particularly brutal for the transgender community. While a bill banning health care for transgender youth was once again discussed, it received little attention due to the high visibility of a bill impacting transgender participation in sports. The fact that removing healthcare from an individual gets little attention speaks to the times we are in with country-wide attacks against the transgender community. The sports bill traces back to last year. In 2021, Rep. Kera Birkeland unveiled her bill and started the path that took us to this point. The first bill was a complete ban for transgender girls. We engaged with the sponsor on this bill, but there was little negotiation to be realized in this effort. There was a lot of work and testimony which completely revolved around defeating the bill. With sports, medical, and other bills introduced across the country, there was a sense of being under attack, and they were directly targeting our youth. The sports bill passed through the House and then reached the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. At this hearing, the voices strongly supported the transgender community, including representatives from major medical organizations, Silicon Slopes, and universities. At the end of the testimonies, a surprising end to the discussion happened when the committee voted to adjourn, which basically tabled the bill. This gave us a sense of relief as we had protected our youth this time, knowing that the discussion wasn’t going away and more work lay ahead. During committee, I regularly said that I would commit to meeting throughout the year to help with the understanding of how this effort impacts us. I also said it might take three years as there was much on which to work. We know that education is a slow path. So, starting in July, we met on four occasions with
large groups that included the sponsor and various government officials. We educated, gave stories, and offered up possible paths forward in each meeting. Those that have talked with people who don’t understand our community can likely relate. These meetings were very hard on me. The development of strategy was a lot of work, but being in meetings and hearing people misgender and de-humanize you, even if from a position of ignorance, is a lot to work through so that you can keep offering up more education in a manner that it is accepted and not shutting down others from listening. This is the hard part of activism. Two days before a November Interim Health and Human Services committee meeting, we received a draft from the sponsor, which stated that transgender girls could participate if they had changed their birth certificate and had been on hormone therapy for a year. If a transgender boy was taking testosterone, they would immediately be able to compete in boys’ sports. The last part is not something that is actually a problem for us, but its presence feeds the narrative that testosterone makes us stronger, bigger, faster. This bill was the first revision submitted to the 2022 legislative general session, but it didn’t last long. This was right as Lia Thomas, a Pennsylvania State swimmer, started to have success winning meets and setting conference records. I am so happy for Lia realizing goals from some long, hard work, some of which was done while attending college and also while transitioning. Throughout the discussions on sports bills, I stated that as long as we aren’t noticed, there isn’t an issue. Once we start to be successful, efforts are developed to take that success away and make us invisible again. With Lia’s success, this triggered that direction again. We met with the sponsor, along with others involved, and discussed possibilities to pull the wording back to be less damaging. A commission became the standard narrative, and while we then
worked to make it be more medically-based to be appropriate, it was first filled with sports-related people and statisticians. Again, we are being judged on the dimensions of our bodies. The lack of understanding of transgender bodies had us being held separately. Through our discussions, we were able to get a doctor added who had experience treating transgender individuals and a general therapist that we requested have transgender affirming experience. We were rejected. This set a theme that we would have little impact on significant items. We asked for privacy considerations for the youth, and that is one area that we were able to impact. At this point, the bill passed the House and was assigned to the Senate Business and Labor committee. We remained opposed to the bill due to the commission’s construction, the manner they were selected, and a horrible and hurtful list of physical characteristics that the youth would be judged on, among other considerations. The bill passed committee on a 3–2 vote, with the two against appearing to be concerned about its constitutionality. In our final meeting, one that was held with the governor and lt. governor, there was discussion on removing the characteristics and at that point, we were left waiting to see what the final presentation to the Senate would be. Our expectation was that the characteristics would be removed and potentially Middle School would no longer be impacted, a request from the Utah High School Athletics Association, who was charged with administering the process and was PHOTO: TROY WILLIAMS
