On the Line: Lives, Rights, and Quality of Existence - by Kira Mcclure

There are some in the United States today, who believe that we live in a modern, and progressive society. One where the civil rights struggles of the past have been won, and reactionary prejudice is on its way out of the societal mainstream. While this mindset is certainly comforting and palatable to the majority, it is unfortunately far removed from the pragmatic reality of our country today.

Racism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, and many other breeds of foul prejudice run rampant in society today, both subtly and out in the open. As a transgender person, and member of the broader LGBT+ Umbrella, I go through every day knowing that there is a dedicated movement against people like me. Because of this, I have had a vested interest in keeping track of the various trends and positions on transgender rights within the state of Arizona. Unfortunately, the current outlook is far from ideal. Not only are transgender individuals at risk of their rights being violated by transphobic individuals, but in the state legislature by mainstream political politicians as well.

Individual prejudice, by its very nature, is hard to measure in concrete terms. Sure, there are indicators, red flags, and dog whistles to look out for. But for every individual who is mask-off in their hatred, there are many more who practice it subtly.

Individual transphobia can come in many different forms. Sometimes, it comes in the form of derogatory comments and targeted harassment. Other times, it comes in the form of slashed car tires and physical assault. Maybe your boss writes you up for uniform noncompliance, or a police officer decides that your safety isn’t worth his time.

Ask anyone in the transgender community, and you will find countless stories of how they have personally been impacted by this, especially within the realms of economic and employment equity. It is a generally accepted reality that one must conceal their true gender identity from their employer and coworkers until they are absolutely certain that they won’t react negatively. And even then, the tolerance of an environment can change almost at a moment's notice.

And when that happens, the process of inevitable termination is almost inevitable. As mentioned previously, the process is rarely direct. Now, most prejudiced people are aware that they can only be so direct in their hatred. The more blatant one is, the better of a case they are handing to the opposing lawyer in the inevitable wrongful termination suit. So, they try to craft the ideal set of termination circumstances. Sometimes, it comes in the form of weaponized allocation of hours; cutting someone's hours to nonviable levels, or scheduling them to work beyond their availability. Other times, as alluded to previously they face unwarranted or harsher write-ups over infractions than their cis-normative peers. The end goal is always to create enough plausible deniability over the termination so that the person being fired doesn’t have any recourse.

All these actions, both big and small, foster an atmosphere of normalized trans-phobia. To put it simply, it turns transgender individuals into an “other”; a deviation from the norm. Human beings have a nasty tendency to do horrible things once they think another person is an “other”. As this process continues, and more and more people adopt these attitudes, it can inevitably lead to increased attempts to implement transphobic policy at the state level.

It is no secret, that the conservative political bloc in Arizona has rarely been an ally of the LGBT community. However, starting in the latter half of the 2010s, more and more emphasis has been placed on targeting the transgender community. Whether it be the hysteria over allowing transgender people to use their preferred bathrooms, the belief that teaching the concept of gender identity is a form of grooming, or the calls to ban all forms of transgender healthcare, it has become more and more apparent that the community has become one of their main targets.

When gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake decided to change her platform to appeal to the radical far-right demographic in Arizona, one of the first things she did was to distance herself from her previous support of transgender individuals. She went from supporting transgender youth to stating that their existence is a calculated attempt to mess with god’s creation. She is running on the promise that, as governor, she would do everything within her power to crack down on the transgender population (Kaczynski and Steck).

Kari Lake’s platform as governor is merely a continuation of the precedent set by other elected officials aligned with the Arizona Republican Party. Doug Ducey, who is still the current governor at the time of writing, has a mixed, but transphobic-leaning record on signing anti-LGBT bills into law (Levesque, "Arizona governor Doug Ducey"). Two of this year’s major anti-transgender pieces of legislation, Senate Bill 1045 and Senate Bill 1046, were both authored by state representative and paragon of the Arizona far-right Wendy Rogers (Levesque, "Arizona lawmaker"). Unfortunately, both of the bills were signed into law, setting a dangerous precedent going into the next half of the midterms and beyond ("Legislature passes 2 bills").

I will admit, it can be hard to write about issues like this sometimes. As someone who is trans myself, I have a well-versed understanding of the prejudice that exists towards individuals like me within society. However, at the same time, there is part of me that doesn’t want to dwell on it too much. It is really hard to sleep easy at night knowing that the belief that you are inherently invalid and a harmful scourge that needs to be wiped out is a politically viable position of political standing. I think a lot of cis-normative people don’t really want to think about it either. However, the only way to solve a problem is to recognize how severe of a situation it is. When lives, rights, and quality of existence are on the line, freezing like a deer in the headlights will lead to nothing but sorrow and suffering in the long run.

Works Cited:

The Associated Press. “Arizona Legislature Passes 2 Bills to Curb Transgender Rights.” NPR, NPR, 24 Mar. 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/03/24/10886...sgender-rights.

Kaczynski, Andrew, and Em Steck. “Trump-Backed Kari Lake Posted Support for Transgender Youth, Asked about Abortion in the Case of Birth Defects in 2015 and 2016 Posts | CNN Politics.” CNN, Cable News Network, 14 July 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/14/polit...uth/index.html.

Levesque, Brody. “Arizona Governor Doug Ducey Refuses to Say Trans People Exist.” Los Angeles Blade: LGBTQ News, Rights, Politics, Entertainment, Los Angeles Blade, 2 Apr. 2022, https://www.losangelesblade.com/2022...-people-exist/.

Levesque, Brody. “Arizona Lawmaker Proposes Two Anti-Trans Bills for 2022.” Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News, Washington Blade, 31 Dec. 2021, https://www.washingtonblade.com/2021...ills-for-2022/.