The Trans Scare
Back in the 40’s and 50’s, this country was stuck on McCarthy-ism and the Red Scare. Senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin used fear and speculation to target people he deemed “un-American.” His targeting was centered on, but not limited to people or groups he viewed as communist. Although the actual arrests which resulted were only a few hundred, he did manage to destroy a great many lives on this crusade. For instance, it’s estimated that between 10 and 12 thousand people lost their jobs from his unsubstantiated accusations. Over 300 Hollywood actors were blackballed. Institutions and businesses were forced to oust people and denounce any affiliations, and the list goes on of the awful effects. The Trans Scare we’ve been currently seeing is the exact same sort of unjustified persecution.
Having lived in Wisconsin my entire life, I’ve known about the awful government overreach and unjustified vilification done by Joe McCarthy. I’ve seen the parallels between then and now for months. Erin Reed came out with an article yesterday, highlighting the mirrored persecution we’ve been experiencing as trans people. Her entire article is linked below and I encourage you to read it; to begin to grasp the scope of damage this fascist regime has fraught on me and my community.
This Trump government has continued to attack and abuse the Trans community since the first day Mr. Trump retook the presidency. One of the very first executive orders he signed was to discredit and delegitimize us, along with the use of insults and gaslighting through false information and hateful, malicious intent. Subsequent venomous executive orders have followed, along with intimidating the caregivers and healthcare institutions who care for us. Lawsuits, subpoenas, threatening of complete funding cuts if caregivers don’t abandon trans people or hand over our medical records to the government. It’s a lot to unpack every day, as this has been the way things go literally every day since January 20, 2025.
There’s no questioning the distraction of targeting the current power holders do when we bring up the issue with people around us, but there’s a few more things here that go on. A really big one is how I see people dismiss the very real danger being caused by all of this. We know this is authoritarian playbook protocol; target an unfavorable minority and blame them for all the weakness and shortcomings actually being done by the authoritarians. But a lot of the conversations I’ve had about this have usually ended here. What doesn’t get talked about nearly enough is how we learn to cope with this ongoing draconian crusade against us, or in some very sad cases, how we don’t learn to cope and instead give up.
I’ve spoken to trans people, care providers, activists, and allies from across the nation over the past 18+ months. Some stories have been encouraging: counselors and doctors refusing to give up medical records, trans sisters in southern red states standing up in defiance to push back through protests, or the leaders of some blue states continuing to defend us against it all. Other accounts have been a sobering reality: care being denied, drivers licenses being revoked, getting harassed for using the bathroom, access to prescribed medication being cut off, having to move out of their state, or even so far as leaving the country.
There is of course, those we’ve lost too.
We are humans, same as you. We bleed when cut, laugh when happy, cry when sad, same as you. We also die, same as you. There are a few sisters of mine who haven’t made it through this. More still who I’ve heard about through friends. There was a trans sister who came up to me at an event and had said she knew of 22 trans people who’d ended their lives in the last year and a half. I had just met her, but immediately hugged her. This is real, people.
This isn’t just about trans people. The detriment this administration is causing to EVERYONE is immense. Trans people are in their crosshairs, but we’re not the end goal here. From the closure of the Strait of Hormuz tanking the world petroleum reserves, to the screw worm attacking Texas cattle and jeopardizing the beef industry; to tariffs driving up the cost of everything, and healthcare being priced out of reach for millions, this administration is already doing its best to bend the citizens to break. They will not stop until every last drop of blood, sweat, and tears has been wrung out of this country and converted to dollars. We’ve seen the ‘profit over people’ actions they’ve continued to choose. The genuine harms they’ve enacted through new oppressive laws or by molesting the verbiage of protection laws to actually use them as tools to destroy those they were meant to protect. It’s absolutely infuriating, and is a genuine big part of why I’ve risen to run for Congress.
It’s been my hope that by writing this today, you could have some idea of what it feels like when the monsters running our country take notice of you. It’s not a feeling I wish on anyone and I will do absolutely everything I can to make sure that it never happens to anyone ever again.
Some of us choose to fight when we’re stepped on.
This Kat will be at the front, and she’s gonna fight like hell.
Erin’s Article:
