Welcome to trans rights weekly! There is plenty of news this week, so let’s not dilly-dally.

Department Of Justice

The DoJ has thrown it’s hat into the ring in a Connecticut battle over transgender athletes in schools. This started early last February, when three cisgender student athletes filed a lawsuit claiming that the policy allowing transgender athletes to participate on the sports team matching their identity violates Title IX. Title IX is the piece of federal law that requires equal representation of boy’s and girl’s sports in schools.

Supposedly, allowing transgender athletes who were born male but are women to participate in women’s sports is unfair to biological women because biological men are naturally stronger and more talented.

First of all, the belief that men are as a rule better than women in athletics is a sexist and not entirely factual one. Secondly, the personal safety and comfort of students is more important than who comes in second in a race. Transgender athletes participating in the league for their birth sex can face harassment and abuse.

Finally, think about this: if we are going off of natural advantages, shouldn’t we have all tall and strong women in one league with men and all small and weak men in a league with women? If reading that sentence made you uncomfortable, you’re not alone. This lawsuit is simply a transphobic assault.

The students are suing because they lost races to transgender athletes in track events. The two students they lost to, both talented athletes, gave a strong defense of their rights.

Now the DoJ is entering the arena. AG Barr has signed a statement in interest, arguing against the rights of transgender students. His department states that Connecticut’s policy doesn’t let schools account for physiological differences. This is despite the fact that Title IX says nothing about physiology. Title IX’s definition of sex has historically been vague, a fact recognized by many courts and departments including the DoJ, and there is no biology-only definition of sex anywhere in the law.

At the time title IX was written, ‘sex’ could refer to sex or gender, and there is no reason to believe it was specifying biology exclusively.

The ACLU says that this is the US federal government saying that trans women do not have protection under federal law.

India

The Prime Minister of India announced a 3 week long lockdown for all 1.3 billion Indians. This is of course a reasonable and necessary response to the coronavirus pandemic, but the damage to transgender people living in India could be massive.

About 2 million trans people live in India, and although government has supported them in recent years they still face systematic discrimination. Like in many south-southeast asian nations, trans people are either forced into the service economy as performers or sex workers or forced onto the streets to beg.

The little sparse income available to trans Indians has been all but wiped out because of the lockdown. Compounding this is a housing problem. Despite government efforts on the contrary, housing discrimination for trans people is rampant in India.

Not all trans people in India are sex workers or beggars, but nearly all of them have to face this kind of institutional transphobia. Take Adam Harry, India’s first transgender pilot. After years of painful work and countless documents from a range of medical specialists, he got approved to fly. And then he got suspended for six months because of his gender dysphoria diagnosis.

Hong Kong

Here’s a short, uplifting story. A trans man in Hong Kong, named Marrz Balaoro, is standing up for LGBT rights. Same-sex marriage is not legal in Hong Kong, but, as a pastor, Balaoro has been performing ‘holy unions’ for same-sex couples.

He was arrested, but, as the ceremonies were just blessings, and not legally weddings, the charges were dropped. Last year he filed a judicial review case in the High Court, arguing for the rights to openly perform marriage ceremonies. His argument is founded on freedom of religion.

The Court rejected his case, but he has vowed to keep on performing ceremonies and fighting for marriage equality.

Rosario Dawson

Accusations from last October have been brought up again, alleging that the family of Rosario Dawson, who is an actress and girlfriend of Cory Booker of all people, is guilty of harassment and assault.

Apparently, the family hired a woman to work as a handyman a few years ago, and then invited her to move into their new house as a permanent worker.

This worker came out as a trans man soon after. His name is Dedrek Finley.

After he came out, the family would constantly, purposely misgender him. Rosario Dawson told him “you’re a grown woman”. February of last year, he was evicted, but refused to move out as there were no legal grounds. April of last year, the family forcibly removed him from the house through and assaulted him. Rosario’s mother climbed on top of him and punched him, saying “you’re not so much of a man now,” and Rosario supposedly held him down. They even threatened to kill his cat.

These have been dragged up again after Dawson was cast in season 2 of the show The Mandalorian.

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