Welcome to the first edition of Trans Rights Weekly. Despite the name, I don’t expect to write one of these every week. The idea for this series is simple: to give a short-ish overview of the successes and setbacks for the trans community. Focus will be put on American events as I am from America, but I hope to cover any significant event from anywhere on the globe.

A lot has gone on already this year, so let’s dive right into it. Today we’re going over four things: Poland’s ‘anti-LGBT zones’, Indonesia’s war on it’s LGBT population, the failure of South Dakota’s transphobic bill, and the murder of Alexa Luciano.

Poland

We start with the most recent development, Poland’s expanding war on LGBT rights. The Central European nation is governed by the far right wing Law and Justice Party (known as PiS). They won a second term in the majority in 2019, but just barely. PiS is facing some worrying numbers in their next election, and one of their core promises is to stop LGBT rights from decaying their so-called ‘family values’. This is not like the Republicans here in America; these people do not have a moderate wing pushing back on it’s worst tendencies.

Just over a year ago the new mayor of Warsaw announced a Charter to support LGBT citizens, and a month later local governments were passing resolutions against ‘LGBT propaganda’. LGBT rights have been a hot button in Poland for a while, and it’s only getting worse.

For example, the town of Ryki passed a resolution stating: “In relation to the aggressive homosexual propaganda, promoted and conducted as part of the ideological war by leftist-liberal political circles and ‘LGBT’ groups, which are threatening our fundamental norms and the values of our social and national life, our council adopts the declaration ‘Powiat Rycki free of gender ideology and LGBT”. This is concerning, but not every resolution is this incendiary. However, that may not be a good thing. Other measures being taken aren’t as directly anti-LGBT, but resolutions like Ryki’s aren’t really enforceable. Things like the Municipal Charter of Family Rights, however, can legally cut off organizations that support the rights of LGBT people from government grants and access.

Here is a map to visualize all this: green areas had resolutions rejected, yellow ones are experiencing ‘lobbying activities’, and red areas are where these have been passed.

Indonesia

If Poland is enacting concerning legislation, Indonesia is downright terrifying. The Indonesian government, once again under the guise of protecting ‘family values’, has introduced legislation to send LGBT citizens to ‘rehabilitation’.

Indonesia has been on the forefront of discrimination for years (back in 2017 they raided the homes of 12 suspected lesbians). But this is a new-ish development. In the past, Indonesia was pretty progressive. The 1945 constitution guaranteed a secular government, and historically Indonesia went along with the broader Polynesian acceptance of trans women; it is only recently that the nation’s LGBT credentials have been put into question.

This bill in particular, the ‘Family Resilience Bill’, is all kinds of awful. Aside from enacting a gross, national violation of the human rights of LGBT people, it would also force women to stay at home to ‘fulfill the rights of the husband and children according to religious norms’. The anti-LGBT rhetoric would be funny if it was not so terrifying; it’s completely absurd. Governmental officials have done everything from hold mass exorcisms of lesbians to blaming earthquakes on LGBT rights.

The bill itself may not pass on a national level. It is facing massive backlash from international groups and Indonesian feminist organizations. The damage of this bill comes in the precedent it sets. Already, several dozen local Family Resilience Bills have been proposed.

South Dakota

Early this year the South Dakota house voted to pass a bill that would punish healthcare workers who medically treat transgender youth. This bill would make prescribing surgeries and hormone treatments a felony, leaving no room for the doctor to make a decision. While it would still be blatantly transphobic, it would at least make more sense if it just banned surgeries. But HRT, too? Puberty is a very critical time for a trans person, and if they’re lucky enough to realize who they are early enough they can stop themselves from going through the wrong puberty altogether. This bill categorically denied trans youth that right. Even in a situation where a youth would be facing severe dysphoria and considering suicide, a doctor could not intervene.

The bill did make one exception: intersex people. It did not criminalize intersex genital mutilation, allowing doctors to continue the process of making newborns’ genitals look ‘normal’ long before they are old enough to make that decision.

Luckily, the bill was killed in a senate committee a month later. The committee that killed it voted against 5-2, and actually has a republican majority. Initially it was amended to remove criminal charges for doctors, instead allowing patients to sue after the fact, but was killed soon after anyway. The fact that the bill passed the house is concerning, but it was quickly killed (funnily enough, the committee killed it by moving the vote to the day after the Senate adjourned).

While it could technically get resurrected, the bill is most likely completely dead. What isn’t dead are all of the other bills. So far there have been dozens of anti-trans bills proposed across the country.

One notable bill is in Florida; it’s called the ‘Vulnerable Child Protection Act’. This abhorrent piece of legislation would make the maximum punishment for even just prescribing hormone treatment to minors fifteen years in prison and a ten thousand dollar fine.

Despite the fact that gender-affirming treatment is best practice according to pediatricians, many states are still trying to classify it as child abuse.

Puerto Rico

Warning: While the other sections of the article dealt with some heavy topics, this last part will involve descriptions of disturbing hate crimes and should be read with caution.

Near the end of February, the police were called to a McDonald’s in Puerto Rico. They questioned a local homeless woman, named Alexa Luciano, after reports that she was spying on women in the bathroom. The police quickly decided that that was a lie, and let her go.

Photos of this circulated on social media with lies and exaggeration, and that night Alexa was caught in the headlights of a car and was shot and killed. Her murder was filmed and posted on social media, and laughing can be heard in the background.

Alexa was transgender, and this was a hate crime. Early local coverage referred to Alexa as a ‘man in a black skirt’. Her death received national coverage for a day or too, but unlike the murders of young black men by police that triggered a national movement, no one cared enough to make a fuss. One Reggaeton artist wore a shirt on a late night show in protest, Elizabeth Warren made a statement, the governor called it a hate crime, and that was that.

This is nothing new in Puerto Rico. Conservative Christians on the island have been pushing against the rights of LGBT people for decades. Back in the eighties, there was a serial killer that targeted gay men. In 2009, a gender non-conforming teen was decapitated, dismembered, and set on fire. His murderer claimed he had picked him up for sex and panicked after finding out he was male.

The death of Alexa is just the latest in a long epidemic of anti-trans violence across Puerto Rico and America, and when governments try to legislate against LGBT people they encourage more and more violence. This is all linked together. If we want to stop the violence we must strike down hate-filled legislation with speed and fury wherever it may appear. That is how we send the message that we are done dying.