Trans people belong here. No matter what this government tries to argue, Trans people belong here. A recent report sounded the alarm about genocide occurring in the Trans community due to the actions of this government that are being carried out locally and nationally. The reports cautioned that a genocide is occurring against the Trans community, who have come under attack in recent weeks, from being denied healthcare access to even having their driver’s license cancelled.
The report warned that if action is not taken, Trans people will continue to face severe, even violent attacks in the future while the government seeks their erasure and removes protections for Trans people, which allows for harm against the community to go unpunished.
One way that the Trans community is coming under attack is through the proposed Save Act. The act, intended to keep Republicans in power, would mandate local enforcement and the review of people’s passports and Social Security cards to prove their identity.
If passed, the Save Act would require people’s current names to match the names on their birth certificates and passports. This obviously means Trans individuals will have to overcome additional obstacles and hurdles to register to vote if their current legal government name is not the same name they had when they were born.
While this impacts many people, including women who have been married, people who have been divorced, artists, and people with multiple Last names, it will have an even more disproportionate effect on our Trans siblings.
What’s even worse, the current administration is trying to adjust the Save Act to move beyond the ballot box. The White House is trying to mandate the Save Act not only to ban Trans people from accessing restrooms, but also to reduce the availability of medical access to gender affirming care.
The Save Act continues to be a piece of the salami strategy that this administration is using to control our bodies, reduce our liberties, and limit our freedoms. With this legislation, the Save Act seeks to create barriers to our ability to engage in the electoral process by imposing extra steps and costs to register to vote, while also regulating how we access care and accommodations, and community access in public spaces.
Make no mistake, the Save Act is intended and designed to cause harm for our queer and Trans community in addition to the harm it’s designed to cause women.
Recently, the head of Palantir stated that his company is designed to reduce the impact of women in the electoral spaces. This admission highlights the threat to reduce the ability of Trans women to be able to speak up and speak out against the policies that impact their daily lives.
It is upon all of us to understand that the targeting of the Trans community is creating a process by which all of our rights in liberty will become obsolete under this administration.
If one piece of legislation can automatically deny thousands of people ID, then another legislation can automatically deny millions of people the right to move freely within this country. We must fully understand that when one legislation is introduced to assist in the consolidation of power, we the people will always lose.
Right now, the Save Act is specifically aimed at limiting the way people access the ballot box while creating specialized harm for our Transgender siblings. We must understand what is happening and act up against it.