Dear Dartmouth community,
Over the past few months, there has been a tide of new anti-transgender legislation in states across the nation. We are writing today to publicly condemn this trend and to ask for your support. Here are the recent anti-trans bills throughout the country:
North Carolina recently passed the now-infamous HB2, which bans trans people from entering the correct bathrooms and removes both gender identity and sexual orientation (among other things) from anti-discrimination clauses anywhere in the state. Some advocacy groups have sued the state, arguing that HB2 violates the Fourteenth Amendment and Title IX. See here for more stories.
Mississippi recently passed a “religious freedom” bill. This style of law grants permission for businesses and public employees to discriminate against LGBTQIA+ people. The bill is unique in that unlike other “religious freedom” bills, it does not use euphemisms and openly attacks queer and trans people. The bill also extends amazingly far to allow other forms of discrimination (7). Some have called it the most powerful anti-LGBT bill in the United States.
Tennessee is in the process of passing another anti-trans “bathroom bill.” They had initially rejected the bill, but after North Carolina passed HB2, legislators are attempting to revive it. The Tennessee congress also just passed a bill allowing counselors to refuse service to patients on religious grounds, although the governor hasn’t signed it yet. If passed, it would be the only bill of its kind in the country.
Several other states also have anti-trans bills in the works. Michigan is about to introduce another anti-trans “bathroom bill,” this one aimed at students. Kansas is considering a bill that would pay a $2,500 bounty to any student who reported a trans person using the “ wrong” bathroom. The bill would endanger transgender students.
Even this list only includes recent legislation and doesn’t address pre-existing legal structures for discrimination. This legalized discrimination increases the potential for violence against the community--as always, such concerns about violence should center populations that are already disproportionately at risk for violence, like trans women of color. It specifically targets trans and non-binary people’s safety and their right to fulfill such basic human needs as a space to use the bathroom.
These acts of violence, these violations of the queer community’s mere existence tell trans people around the country that they are not welcome here, that they are not considered people here, that their existence is a threat to be dealt with. Trans people are being denied the right to live with dignity. Especially for people in North Carolina, Kansas, Tennessee, Michigan, and Mississippi, these bills can very easily make people feel isolated, alone, and invisible.
We are sending this message in the hopes that the Dartmouth community as a whole can stand in solidarity with trans people in these states and find ways to lend support. We challenge you to join us in getting your organizations and groups to send this letter of support out to campus again, spreading it widely, to condemn this legislation. Please also call these state legislatures to express your support for trans people.
This Friday (April 15), the Weekly Tea at the CGSE Office will be dedicated to creating space for anyone who wants to come talk and decompress with regards to these issues. We will have tea, cookies, crafts, and frozen hot chocolate. If you need a space to exist in safely, please consider coming by the CGSE Office (in the Choates) at 3pm this Friday.
Yours in solidarity,
The LGBTQIA+ Leadership Board
Alexander Weinstein
Gustavo A. Mercado Muńiz
Storm Avery Mata
Pei-Yun Chu
Kevin Bui
Katherine McAvoy
Justin G. Maffett
If you need support of any kind, please contact the resources below. [log in to unmask] http://www.dartmouth.edu/~chd/appointments/