Holding the Good and the Bad in Both Hands
Passports, marriage, and how we make room for both
Well, here we are again, my friends. As I said in the victories compilation last week, there would be more fantastic victories and more heavy moments to come. These things coexist with each other. They do not cancel each other out. They do not make one or the other meaningless. They must exist in tandem. I’m going to start with the good news, but as is the special case when there is some particularly bad queer news, I want to ground some of that hurt and fear in the facts of the case, and then where we go from here.
I also have a few quick announcements of things I’m very excited about!
Next Tuesday from 12-1 EST, Spencer Macnaughton from Uncloseted Media and I are going live!! If you’ve heard me talk about news sources I trust to give me deep dive reporting without leaning into fearmongering unnecessarily, you know that Uncloseted is way up there on the top of the list. We’re going to be having a whole conversation focused on, well, conversations! We’ll be chatting about new strategies for actually getting through to the people you are talking to.
In two weeks, I’m hosting my annual “Home for the Holidays” event! Every year, we gather together to talk about strategies for difficult conversations, mental health, boundaries, and allyship at family gatherings. It’s always a ton of fun! RSVP here. Even if you aren’t sure if you can attend live, there will be a recording!
Last week, my episode on the Relationscapes podcast finally dropped and I am SO excited about it!! We talked about my book, trans joy, how to support trans kids, and how to move away from the “grieving” narratives. Here’s a little sneak peek, too!
Okay, let’s get into the news now!
Starting with the Good News.
As I am surely not the first to report, the Supreme Court has declined to hear Kim Davis’ crackpot case to overturn marriage equality. All folks who were well steeped in the legal world knew that this case never really posed a threat to marriage equality, but it is still a significant relief for many.
Here’s a post I wrote about the case a few months ago with some more details:
It is still worth highlighting an incredibly potent action item from the amount of stress this case brought to us, which is court reform. The fact that we were so worried about this case because we understand the Supreme Court to have many powerful and unaccountable people in the pocket of the religious right is a major concern. While Kim Davis wasn’t the right vehicle for it, they’ve made it clear that the LGBTQ community and most of our rights are in their crosshairs. If you’re fired up about the Supreme Court, me too! Check out these organizations to learn more about court reform:
Alliance for Justice https://afj.org/
Demand Justice https://demandjustice.org/action-center/
The Brennan Center for Justice https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/strengthen-our-courts
Another win I’d like to highlight is the latest impact report from the Trevor project, which I’m actually incredibly excited about. Though civic engagement is falling among the general population with the rise of defeatism and overwhelm, it’s on the rise in LGBTQ+ youth! The kids get it: It’s not time to give up yet. A few quick hits from the report:
While voter registration is only 58% of young adults aged 18-24 nationwide, among LGBTQ+ youth registration is at 80%
60% of LGBTQ+ youth last year felt a sense of motivation to take political action, and a huge proportion of those young people have chosen to do so, whether by testifying at their state capital, volunteering in their communities, or even starting their own nonprofits!
Unfortunately, the study also found that increased civic engagement had a potential correlation with increased feelings of anxiety. As a recovering over-involved teenager myself, I’m not surprised to hear this. If you have a youth advocate in your life, here are a few ideas to better show up for them:
Read the book “American Teenager” by Nico Lang to get a better sense of what it’s like to be a trans young person right now
Encourage them to take breaks, and remind them that they don’t have to martyr themselves for the movement. Telling them stories of historical queer rights advocates who took a break may help.
Help introduce them to trans and queer adults who look like them to fight against feelings of impermanence that may drive them not to care about burnout
Get involved with them, and then develop shared rituals of calming and healing post-action
Make plans that allow you both to reconnect with and center your joy!
If you want to check out the whole study, you can do so here!
Also, with a surprise twist in the eleventh hour of ballot counting, Katie Wilson has pulled ahead and won the race for Seattle’s mayor! This means that this year’s election season brought not one but TWO major victories for young progressives with bold visions for the future. Hopefully, this inspires more people to run on unashamedly progressive platforms next year! (NBC)
Across the pond in what seems to be a UK-driven (though internationally meaningful) effort for trans awareness week, over 60,000 cisgender women have signed an open letter standing with trans women. The letter is titled “not in our name”. Check out the full letter on PinkNews!
What About Passports?
Okay, time to talk about some of the bad news. This week, we received a supreme court ruling on the ***preliminary injunction*** in the case brought against the Trump administration’s ban on changing gender markers on passports. So what actually happened?
What changed?
The Supreme Court said that the Trump administration is allowed to enforce their ban on issuing NEW and RENEWED passports with X markers or changed gender markers while the lower courts hear the actual merits of the case.
At this time, no new passports will be issued with updated gender markers for transgender people. If you applied before the ruling and haven’t gotten your passport back yet, it is unclear at this time what the status of your application is. Reach out to a local legal organization or to your local passport office.
What stays the same?
Passports with accurate gender markers, including X markers, are still valid and accepted for travel as long as they are not expired.
Birth certificates and other state-level IDs remain unchanged. If you have a realID with an updated gender marker, this is still completely valid, and you can still apply to change your realID if your state allows it.
State-level laws about name and gender marker changes are also unimpacted.
Your identity is still yours. Access to affirming and accurate documents has waxed and waned for this community for decades, but the federal government is not the arbiter of your identity. Check out this article from trans lawyer Chase Strangio for more important reminders.
What Could Change?
There is much uncertainty about how things will progress from here. For additional legal guidance and an updated FAQ, I recommend bookmarking this page from Lambda Legal: https://lambdalegal.org/tgnc-checklist-under-trump/
Lambda Legal is also hosting a webinar next tuesday (right after my live with Spencer!) at 1pm EST titled “The State of Trans Rights” which will review key threats, and strategies for action. I’ll be attending and I recommend you do so, too! https://www.lambdalegal.org/webinar
What can I do?
Tell your trans friends you love them, ask them if there’s anything you can do to support them or offer specific things you can do to lift them up.
There isn’t much we can do to impact this specific issue while we wait for the full case to move through the courts. BUT that doesn’t mean that we can’t be contributing to positive change for our trans loved ones (and selves!)
Volunteer to help expand queer book access at the QT library in Boston https://qtlibrary.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fb055bf50804e50407a32a23f&id=6b974b1245&e=70ebb3b03b
Join the PFLAG Fighting for our Pride campaign, and pledge to attend a local government meeting! https://pflag.org/fightingforourpride//
Reach out to a local mutual aid network and ask how you can give time, resources, or love back in to your community
Learn more about what it takes to run for local office (yes, you!)
https://runforsomething.net/
See if any of your local LGBTQ+ groups are running deep canvassing campaigns, and sign up to get trained and participate!
Okay, that’s all the news that’s fit to print! I’m off to trounce around in the woods for the weekend to get some writing done for my National Novel Writing Month Challenge (not affiliated with the organization), so I’ll catch you all on the flip side.
Remember, the wins and the losses will continue to coexist. They are both important. They are both meaningful. We are allowed to be angry. We are allowed to grieve. We are allowed to be exhausted. But we must keep coming home to joy. We will make it through this.
All my love,
Ben
Important to have that balance. Thank you for your coverage!
Ben, you are a treasure.