Why Trans People Fear A Repeat Of This Atrocity 80 Years Ago Today
archived 20 Feb 2022 12:35:45 UTC
On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which mandated the forced relocation of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans. More than two-thirds of these people were native-born American citizens. They were forced to leave their homes and businesses and move to internment camps operated by the U.S. military, where they were confined. Although one-third were released by the end of 1943, it was not until January 1945 that the Executive Order was finally rescinded.
Across the nation in 2022, Republican-led state legislatures are again considering, passing and enacting restrictions on the rights of Americans, except these happen to be transgender Americans.
Just as FDR signed E.O. 9066 to protect “the public,” these lawmakers claim to be protecting “women’s sports” and “fairness.” But they disregard what advocates say is the real impact of these anti-trans bills and laws.
A quick check of the headlines reveals this impact:
State legislatures in Kentucky, Indiana and Iowaall passed anti-trans sports bills this past week. Alabama Republicans passed a bill banning transgender students from using public school bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
After signing the 10th anti-trans bill in the U.S. into law, Gov. Kristi Noem (R, S.D.) was asked why she thinks 90% of LGBTQ+ youth in South Dakota are diagnosed with anxiety or depression. “I don’t know,” she said. “That makes me sad, and we should figure it out.”
A spokesperson for the White House responded on Twitter.
Noem chose not to respond to the direct accusation except to claim in a tweet, “We believe in fairness” and to attack the Biden administration for inflation, gas prices and more.
And despite a fair and balanced report in The New York Times examining the issue of transgender inclusion in sports, opponents have come out swinging and attacking out trans college swimmer Lia Thomas of the University of Pennsylvania. She, along with an out trans man from Yale, have been competing this week at the Ivy League swimming championships at Harvard. Despite new, restrictive rules issued by USA Swimming, the NCAA has not blocked Thomas from competing this week or next month at nationals.
ESPN’s Tony Reali, host of the sports network’s Around the Horn, made what is perhaps the most reasoned response by any cisgender journalist to the controversy, and tweeted it
On top of all this, Florida’s House passed a new version of HB 1557 Thursday, which critics have derided as the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill. According to the Tampa Bay Times, the bill’s language prohibits “classroom instruction” on sexual orientation or gender identity for students in kindergarten through third grade, and in older grades in a way that is “not appropriate” for students. It ties the definition of “age-appropriate” and “developmentally appropriate” to state standards.
The American Bar Association is the latest organization to issue a condemnation of the bill, warning of the potential for “undermining current protection for LGBTQ students” that “could expose them to risks to their physical, emotional, and psychological well-being that may prove greater than any adverse parental response.”
In a letter to Florida lawmakers, the ABA cited research by The Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning young people, which serves 1.8 million youth annually and works to provide all LGBTQ young people a bright future for themselves. It is the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ young people, and researchers there have been doing research on the impact of bigotry on youth for years.
Their latest finding, released Thursday, uses data from The Trevor Project’s 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, to examine eating disorders among LGBTQ youth, including which particular subgroups of LGBTQ youth report the highest rates of eating disorders and how eating disorders relate to suicide aŕempts among LGBTQ youth.
According to the research, LGBTQ youth who have been diagnosed with an eating disorder reported nearly four times greater odds of attempting suicide in the past year compared to those who never had, or suspected they had, an eating disorder.
Overall, 9% of LGBTQ youth reported that they had been diagnosed with an eating disorder. An additional 29% of LGBTQ reported that they haven’t been medically diagnosed, but suspect they might have an eating disorder.
LGBTQ youth who are Native/Indigenous (12%) or Multiracial (10%) reported the highest rates of being diagnosed with an eating disorder, with an additional one in three (33%) of both groups suspecting they have an eating disorder.
Black LGBTQ youth suspected they had an eating disorder at four times the rate of actually being diagnosed.
“The strong relationship observed between eating disorders and suicide risk among LGBTQ youth underscores the need to create more inclusive, non-judgmental environments in which young people can feel comfortable discussing these experiences,” said Dr. Amy Green, vice president of research for The Trevor Project. “Encouraging open, honest conversations around both eating disorders and mental health will help reduce stigma and improve suicide prevention efforts.
“Health care providers working with youth should routinely assess their risk for these potential mental health concerns and be cognizant of the ways the presentation of symptoms and underlying causes may vary based on gender identity and race/ethnicity.”
The organization stated this is especially relevant as National Eating Disorder Awareness Week begins Monday, Feb. 21—as the group works to illuminate the disproportionate impact that disordered eating has on the health and well-being of LGBTQ youth in the U.S.
Eating disorders, thoughts of suicide, the inability to use the bathroom that matches one’s authentic identity, the ban on competing as your true self and not being able to give everything you have to win because someone sees you as “other,” or “less than;” These are not that dissimilar to the oppression of 80 years ago when American citizens were rounded-up and moved far from home because of who they were. As philosopher George Sanatayana warned us: We are condemned to repeat history if we do not learn from it.
More information on the research cited above is available online at The Trevor Project by clicking here.
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