Greetings, Senator X,
As a constituent, I'm writing to ask you to oppose LB 574 and LB 575.
LB 574 Bans Gender Affirming Care and LB 575 Bans Trans Youth from Participating in Sports Consistent with their Gender Identity.
I’m also asking you to oppose LB 371 Prohibit Youth under 21 from Attending Drag Shows and any other anti-trans or anti-gay bill. I’m sending this via ACLU site and via email to ensure you get this important message.
I’ll try to keep this brief and provide information from sources other than my own life and strong emotions.
Simply put, all 3 of these bills, (and any other anti-trans anti-gay etc. bills or resolutions) are discrimination (which is illegal), as well as shameful and ignorant. Not only do I have a transgender niece, but I've met and cared for a number of other nonbinary and LGBTQ+ people in my life. Even if I didn’t know anyone nonbinary or LGBTQ+, I would never approve of the hatred, discrimination, and stripping of civil and human rights for people who are simply living their lives.
In reference to LB 574 to Ban Gender Affirming Care. This bill, if passed, would have extreme negative effects that could increase suicides among youth, among many other drawbacks. According to the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry: “It is well documented that TGNB [transgender, and nonbinary minors] adolescents and young adults experience anxiety and depression, as well as suicidal ideation, at a much higher rate than their cisgender peers. According to The Trevor Project’s 2020 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, 54 percent of young people who identified as transgender or nonbinary reported having seriously considered suicide in the last year, and 29 percent have made an attempt to end their lives. In contrast, numerous research studies have found that gender-affirming care leads to improved mental health among TGNB youth.” https://www.columbiapsychiatry.org/news/gender-affirming-care-saves-lives
I notice your name on LB 575 to ban transgender youth from participating in sports with their gender. I do not know your reasoning, but I implore you to remove your name and support from this bill. People do NOT undergo changes in gender assignment to get a leg up on competition. Look at what discrimination they already face - lawmakers trying to ban them from sports, for one. People don't willingly try to make their life harder, but creating laws like this DOES make their lives harder.
Also, the bill is faulty as far as science goes. People try to claim that a person is either biologically female or male, but that’s simply not true. Nature doesn’t work in binaries, even if people like labels. You’ve likely heard by now that a number of people are born intersex. According to Planned Parenthood, “Intersex is a general term used for a variety of situations in which a person is born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit the boxes of “female” or “male.” … Being intersex is a naturally occurring variation in humans, and it isn’t a medical problem … Being intersex is also more common than most people realize. It’s hard to know exactly how many people are intersex, but estimates suggest that about 1-2 in 100 people born in the U.S. are intersex.” https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/gender-identity/sex-gender-identity
In addition, think of the civil right infringements and personal violations you’d be putting upon students to prove their biological sex in order to play a sport. In fact, many years ago, they stopped testing Olympic athletes. An article from 2000 from the Yale School of Medicine reported: “"In reality, gender verification tests are difficult, expensive, and potentially inaccurate," said Myron Genel, M.D., a pediatric endocrinologist at the Yale School of Medicine and co-author of a commentary on gender testing published in the September 27 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. "Furthermore, these tests fail to exclude all potential impostors, are discriminatory against women with disorders of sexual development, and may have shattering consequences for athletes who 'fail' a test."” https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/decision-to-abolish-gender-testing-at-sydney-olympics-supported-by-yale-physician/
Who are you really protecting when you are forcing high school athletes to undergo gender testing to play a sport? You’re catering to the fear and ignorance of a certain group of people who do not look to science and reality for guidance. They spend so much time fearful of a boogeyman that they don’t even realize that their own children will negatively suffer. And all in the name of ‘sports.’ Why should schools have that level of genetic information on their students? They shouldn’t. The possible repercussions of this bill have not been investigated in the slightest and this would be foolish and discriminatory to implement. Again, please remove your name and support from this bill.
In reference to LB 371 Prohibit Youth under 21 from Attending Drag Shows, I don’t really have an article to refer to and I can’t even begin to explain how absolutely ridiculous this bill is. If a person doesn’t want to go to a drag show, or doesn’t want their child to see someone in a costume, they don’t have to attend. But this bill is so poorly thought out that theater could be illegal. Not able to wear makeup? All the men I know in theater have worn makeup. Male newscasters wear makeup on TV and in films. Why are people so obsessed about the gender of clothing and makeup and general appearance? It wasn’t that long ago that it was illegal for women to wear pants. In a country that’s supposed to be free, certain people are zealously over-involved in the idea of what other people do with their freedom.
I have a feeling that the people that created and support this bill have never been to a drag show. They are living in fear of the things they don’t know and have created strange ideas that are far from reality. I myself have attended drag events while under age 21 and you know what it did to me? It taught me how to love and support people, to have a good time, let people enjoy themselves. It taught me how creative people can get when they come up with their costumes and how important it is to express oneself, have an outlet.
Creating laws that ban people from attending events like this gives the false impression that there’s something wrong with it. Even without such laws, there’ve been too many attacks on gay clubs that leave people dead and lives shattered. Drag shows don’t do that. Hatred, misinformation, ignorance, and terrorists do that. LB 371 feeds into that and it should be struck down. People should be able to congregate safely in places that want them to feel unashamed of who they are. Everyone deserves that.
As far as Drag Story Hour goes, one of the events certain people are so fearful about, I think it sounds like so much fun. If I had kids, I would take them to enjoy someone wearing a fun outfit who wants to read them. I’d love for my child to learn to not judge someone on something as frivolous as what they wear, or who they love. I’d love for my child to learn to think beyond limits and labels and restrictions from narrow minds. Youth should be encouraged to explore, to dream, to imagine. Drag Story Hour is one of many options that can do that for children and it should be any guardian’s right to let their child attend something like that. Otherwise, where is our freedom? Why are our lives and freedoms becoming restrictive and narrow because of someone else’s fear and misconceptions?
The people who live their lives in fear have threatened violence upon events like these, events that have children present. Those people should be ashamed (and prosecuted). They claim they care about kids' safety, but they clearly don’t. They are the dangerous people, not someone in a costume reading to a group of kids.
The fact is, many people in this world, in this state are LGBTQ+ and they have finally achieved some level of legal protection. We shouldn’t be regressing to a time of less rights. Banning youth from being around people in drag is dumb dumb dumb. It’s hatred. It’s government overreach. It’s discrimination. It’s teaching self-hatred as well. Too many children grow up in homes that use religion as a weapon, and it’s the children that suffer. I know that happens in X County, in Nebraska and all over the country and the world, and it makes me sick. I’m worried for kids that get the message that there’s something wrong with them or people like them, when the REAL problem is the number of ignorant people who feel comfortable spewing hatred, lies, and creating dangerous legislation that violates our rights. You have a chance to do something positive, even if some of your other constituents want you to act from fear and ignorance. You can oppose all of these hateful, discriminatory, poorly-constructed bills.
If you haven’t been in contact with people in the LGBTQ+ community in Nebraska, I highly encourage you to reach out and meet them. A group called “Out Nebraska” recently hosted a Drag Story Hour, after a previous event had to be postponed due to hateful threats. https://linktr.ee/outnebraska Another group in the Panhandle works to serve LGBTQ youth in more rural areas, something that I wish existed in our own county. https://www.panhandleequality.org/about-us
Although I didn’t manage to keep this message short, I hope it has helped you see that LB 574, LB 575, and LB 371 are dangerous, poorly planned, and should be opposed. Likewise any other anti-trans, anti-gay bills that are out there or come up in the future. I encourage you to read some of those links above, learn from LGBTQ+ Nebraskans, join with the Senators defending trans rights, and perhaps even talk to your fellow Senators about these concerns to get them to oppose these bills as well.
I am asking you to stand up and protect the rights of trans kids so that every single trans kid in Nebraska feels like, and knows, that they belong here. Stop government overreach and protect trans youth.
Sincerely,
