The History Behind New Waves of Anti-Trans Legislation
Notes from America with Kai Wright
WNYC Studios
4.4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2023
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
State lawmakers across the country are introducing new waves of legislation targeting the transgender community. What’s behind this movement?
To answer this question, we first turn to history. Host Kai Wright speaks with Imara Jones, founder of TransLash Media and host of the podcast The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Equality. Jones shares the national picture of this surge in anti-trans legislation and centers this political moment in religious history. Then, Henry Seaton, the transgender justice advocate for the ACLU of Tennessee shares stories from those impacted by the state’s new law banning gender-affirming care for minors and drag performances in certain public places.
Companion listening for this episode:
Roe Is Gone. What Now? (6/27/2022)
Host Kai Wright and listeners react to the recent SCOTUS decisions, including the fall of Roe v. Wade. Plus, a reflection on the significance of LGBT Pride in a scary political time for the community.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to America, where if you're any kind of different that they don't agree with, |
| 0:06.5 | you don't get rights at all. |
| 0:07.8 | A procedure that should only be between the minor, their doctor, and the parent, is now |
| 0:13.4 | being controlled by the government. |
| 0:15.7 | Transphobia is very scary. |
| 0:17.9 | As a parent of not one, but two trans children, I am terrified. |
| 0:22.4 | I never post videos of my kids because transphobia is scary. |
| 0:25.9 | Transgenderism must be eradicated from public life in the past. |
| 0:31.2 | To my friends and family that like to tell me, I want to see it from both sides. |
| 0:35.1 | This is the other side, complete eradication, we call that genocide in history. |
| 0:40.0 | Thank you. |
| 0:41.0 | It is our job to not let this happen. |
| 0:44.4 | So get your friends to vote, organize protests across the country. |
| 0:48.0 | I will make videos on it. |
| 0:49.5 | Please stay. |
| 0:50.5 | It's hard, but please stay. |
| 0:55.9 | It's Notes from America, I'm Kai Wright, and welcome to the show. |
| 1:14.8 | My first real full-time job as a reporter was at an LGBT community newspaper back in the |
| 1:21.2 | mid-1990s. |
| 1:23.0 | That is a lifetime ago on just about any political issue, but truly on some of the debates I was |
| 1:28.0 | covering, then there was one really big story in particular back then that seems like |
| 1:33.5 | a report from Mars today. |
... |
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