How Transphobia Threatens Cancer & Other Treatments
It’s Trans Visibility Day, and this year has seen unprecedented attacks against the Trans community. Already abhorrible, the damage extends far beyond it.
Hello, friends! Last week, we talked about how protests the world over have been working towards creating change for the better. Since then, they have met with some successes, like the LA educators union we talked about getting a contract (I’d credit the New York Times author, but they’ve got me paywalled so I can’t check them), but there’s still far more to go
Also: Happy Trans Day Of Visibility. This article is, well, it just so happens that this is the day I was planning to write this article. I’d forgotten about the holiday, but in a way that makes it all the more pointed. It’s coming from a Queer guy, myself, so we’re starting from the “Trans people are valid and Transphobia is bad” perspective, and expanding to how bigotry leads to secondary repercussions outside of the deliberately targeted. That said, if I haven’t been clear this far in, this will not be the happiest of articles, so please keep that in mind should you decide to continue reading.
Also-also: I know there was a big indictment that dropped on Thursday, and I’m as happy as you are that in the face of such a crime spree there’s at least the slightest glimmer of accountability. But this week I’d planned to talk about something very different. And, so, I shall.
How Transphobia Will Destroy Our Medical System.
Florida and other (it must be stressed: Republican-run) states are continuing to float and pass bigoted legislation prohibiting, among other things, various standard-of-care medical resources for Trans people. One bill in particular, HB1421, as explored by Tori Otten of The New Republic, is written in such a way that it may - in the ignoble pursuit of persecuting Trans people just trying to live their lives - deny Floridians access to a number of Cancer treatments.
A non-summative list includes, but is not limited to:
- Mastectomies for breast cancer.
- Hormone treatments for prostate cancer.
- Any surgical procedure that would “alter primary or secondary sex characteristics,” such as hysterectomies.
Unlike a lot of articles for The Progressive Cafe where I break down the details of an issue, I don’t need to spell this one out. But, briefly, in one convoluted sentence, I will summarize:
In the pursuit of preventing Trans people from changing themselves in a way that they think their God really really cares about (or whatever), they are willing to outright murder - by way of state-enforced refusal to allow medical care - thousands of people who get cancer.
I know more than one person who has needed serious surgery that changed their “sex characteristics,” and while they’re all important, one of them I’ll just say is extremely close to me. They’d be dead if they didn’t receive the medical care they did. If the government stepped in and said, “You cannot provide this health care because our deity says so,” well, that would be murder.
“Unintended” Consequences Are All Too Commonly Deliberate.
Now, this neglectfulness towards peoples’ health is sadly nothing new to recent memory. Since the overturning of Roe V. Wade’s right to abortion (by a bunch of perjurers who claimed it was settled law to get on the Supreme Court…), the news is overwhelmed by stories of people being denied equal access to health care and suffering disastrous results. As reported by Vanessa Etienne People, Texan Influencer Marlena Stell was forced to carry a dead fetus for weeks.Elizabeth Cohen and John Bonifeld of CNN reported on another Texas woman who nearly died because she was denied abortive healthcare.
While there have been the occasional outcries of “This isn’t what I meant!!!! (Katie Camero, Buzzfeed News)” as if their batshit legislation did not have easily predicted consequences, by and large little appears to have changed. And, now, the same “unintended” consequences are going to hit unintended targets even harder.
But that’s just it. These people just don’t care. To religious fundamentalists, what’s really the harm done? There’s no “blasphemy” of a person having surgery that changes their “God-given” form. Sure, they suffer and die, but that’s the price of getting to ascend to the heavens and meet their deity. Never mind if those people might - say - not believe in the afterlife. They’re wrong, after all!
So What Are Our Solutions?
Normally, I like to end The Progressive Cafe with suggestions for improvement. Sadly, today I’ve got little else to say, other than that this whole thing pisses me off, but it needs to be addressed. So allow me to vent at ways this entire situation was screwed up.
We need(ed, in 2021, first order of business when we controlled things) to reshape the Supreme Court to un-stack it from when MItch McConnell changed the rules twice in order to steal two seats on it. Sadly, thanks largely to Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, that never happened.
Failing that, we needed a Federal-level abortion guarantee in legislation. We didn’t get that, either, thanks to the same two do-nothing useful idiots.
Failing that, we need some kind of a miracle: We need to vote out Republican leaders in these states which are heavily gerrymandered, such as Wisconsin, which has an election for its Supreme Court’s swing-vote on April 4th (Zach Montellaro and Megan Messerly, Politico). This may be easier in some places than others, but given that Fascists like Ron “I’m not going to enforce the Constitution” DeSantis won re-election recently in spite of their extremist stances, that isn’t a solution we can expect to work nation-wide. (Mariana Alfaro and Hanna Knowles, Washington Post)
Another miracle would be for someone harmed by these bans to sue, and for the case to work its way quickly up to the Supreme Court and, eventually, for the court to rule against the oppressive legislation. Not impossible, but a miracle nonetheless.
And, so, that’s where we are: Furious that this fight needs to continue, but ready to fight it.
Thank you for reading The Progressive Cafe. If this article has helped you, please consider signing up for our mailing list. This article is by Jesse Pohlman, a sci-fi/fantasy author from Long Island, New York, whose website you can check out here.