Our message to transgender youth and their families
You are always welcome, you are always wanted, and you will always belong at PFLAG. We love you.
If you experience distress or depression while the public debate over your dignity takes place in the state legislature, PFLAG is here to support you.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, there is help available. Please contact:
Trevor Project: 866-488-7386
Trans Life Line: 877-565-8860
If you experience distress or depression while the public debate over your dignity takes place in the state legislature, PFLAG is here to support you.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, there is help available. Please contact:
Trevor Project: 866-488-7386
Trans Life Line: 877-565-8860
An Anthem to the Outcasts
| {textAt_0_0:text default="Value"} | {textAt_0_1:text default="Value"} | {textAt_0_2:text default="Value"} | {textAt_0_3:text default="Value"} |
Arkansas Passes Bill To Ban Gender-Affirming Care For Trans Youth
How Trans Kids And Their Parents Decide When To Start Medical Transition
Endocrine Care for Transgender Children & Adolescents
From a national perspective, legislation filed this week mark the 80th, 81st, and 82nd anti-transgender bill introduced in the 2021 state legislative session, surpassing the 2020 total of 79 and marking the highest number of anti-transgender bills in history. The anti-transgender legislation filed in the last two days include South Carolina HB 4047 (an anti-transgender medical care ban), Texas SB 1311 (an anti-transgender medical care ban), and Michigan SB 218 (an anti-transgender sports ban).
The legislative fight to pass discriminatory anti-transgender legislation this year has been fast and furious, led by national groups aiming to stymie LGBTQ progress. Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David said these bills are not addressing any real problem, and they’re not being requested by constituents. Rather, this effort is being driven by national far-right organizations attempting to score political points by sowing fear and hate.
The legislative fight to pass discriminatory anti-transgender legislation this year has been fast and furious, led by national groups aiming to stymie LGBTQ progress. Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David said these bills are not addressing any real problem, and they’re not being requested by constituents. Rather, this effort is being driven by national far-right organizations attempting to score political points by sowing fear and hate.
Wave Of Bills To Block Trans Athletes Has No Basis In Science, Researcher Says
Often missing from the culture-war aspect of the debate is a focus on the type of questions that Dr. Eric Vilain has spent much of his career researching. Vilain, a pediatrician and geneticist who studies sex differences in athletes, says there are no good faith reasons to limit transgender women's participation in sports, especially at the high school level. Vilain has advised both the International Olympic Committee and the NCAA, and says these laws generally aren't based in scientific evidence, but rather "target women who have either a different biology or ... simply look different."
Often missing from the culture-war aspect of the debate is a focus on the type of questions that Dr. Eric Vilain has spent much of his career researching. Vilain, a pediatrician and geneticist who studies sex differences in athletes, says there are no good faith reasons to limit transgender women's participation in sports, especially at the high school level. Vilain has advised both the International Olympic Committee and the NCAA, and says these laws generally aren't based in scientific evidence, but rather "target women who have either a different biology or ... simply look different."
Consider This from NPR
APRIL 2, 2021 'It Hurts People': How Trans Youth Are Being Targeted By State Legislation
Bills under consideration in dozens of states target trans youth by focusing on two things: health care and sports. Some bills have already become law in states including South Dakota, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and Alabama.
APRIL 2, 2021 'It Hurts People': How Trans Youth Are Being Targeted By State Legislation
Bills under consideration in dozens of states target trans youth by focusing on two things: health care and sports. Some bills have already become law in states including South Dakota, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and Alabama.
LINK: American Academy of Pediatrics Speaks Out Against Bills Harming Transgender Youth
LINK: The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) Responds to Efforts to ban Evidence-Based Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth
LINK: ON THE TEAM: Equal Opportunity For Transgender Student Athletes
LINK: Resources for Advocates for Transgender Youth Participating in Sports
LINK: GOP seizes on women’s sports as unlikely wedge issue
Read some history on how the Republican leaders developed a strategy to target transgender youth participation in sports.
LINK: Transgender Children, Pawns in the GOP Culture War: How the GOP search for a wedge issue evolved into a nationwide effort to ban transgender youth from participating in women's sports.
“It starts to look like the project is not about protecting women and girls in sport but rather stopping young people from being trans at all.”
Lawmakers can't cite local examples of problems with transgender girls in sports. Of over 20 states introducing bills, in almost every case, sponsors are unable to cite an instance in their own state where trans participation has caused issues. Lawmakers can't cite local examples of trans girls in sports (apnews.com)
Many of the proposed bills introduced in state legislatures have been connected to the right-wing group Alliance Defending Freedom, which has drafted some or all of the legal language used in them, provided testimony in favor of anti-trans measures from purported experts in state legislatures, and conducted public relations campaigns to promote the bills, most of them with common features and even titles, like the Save Women’s Sports Act. and attack the federal Equality Act.
When asked for other examples of complaints about middle or high school transgender athletes, Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Policy Alliance, cited two: One involved a Hawaii woman who coaches track and filed a complaint last year over a trans girl competing in girls’ volleyball and track. The other involved a cisgender girl in Alaska who defeated a trans sprinter in 2016, then appeared in a Family Policy Alliance video saying the trans girl’s third-place finish was unfair to runners who were further behind.
LINK: The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) Responds to Efforts to ban Evidence-Based Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth
LINK: ON THE TEAM: Equal Opportunity For Transgender Student Athletes
LINK: Resources for Advocates for Transgender Youth Participating in Sports
LINK: GOP seizes on women’s sports as unlikely wedge issue
Read some history on how the Republican leaders developed a strategy to target transgender youth participation in sports.
LINK: Transgender Children, Pawns in the GOP Culture War: How the GOP search for a wedge issue evolved into a nationwide effort to ban transgender youth from participating in women's sports.
“It starts to look like the project is not about protecting women and girls in sport but rather stopping young people from being trans at all.”
Lawmakers can't cite local examples of problems with transgender girls in sports. Of over 20 states introducing bills, in almost every case, sponsors are unable to cite an instance in their own state where trans participation has caused issues. Lawmakers can't cite local examples of trans girls in sports (apnews.com)
Many of the proposed bills introduced in state legislatures have been connected to the right-wing group Alliance Defending Freedom, which has drafted some or all of the legal language used in them, provided testimony in favor of anti-trans measures from purported experts in state legislatures, and conducted public relations campaigns to promote the bills, most of them with common features and even titles, like the Save Women’s Sports Act. and attack the federal Equality Act.
When asked for other examples of complaints about middle or high school transgender athletes, Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Policy Alliance, cited two: One involved a Hawaii woman who coaches track and filed a complaint last year over a trans girl competing in girls’ volleyball and track. The other involved a cisgender girl in Alaska who defeated a trans sprinter in 2016, then appeared in a Family Policy Alliance video saying the trans girl’s third-place finish was unfair to runners who were further behind.
Federal Judge Orders Alliance Defending Freedom Attorneys to Refer to Stop Misgendering Transgender Women Athletes and to Stop Referring to Them as Males. Referring to these individuals as “transgender females” is consistent with science, common practice and perhaps human decency. To refer to them as “males,” period, is not accurate, certainly not as accurate, and I think it’s needlessly provocative.
Here is an account of the exchange between the judge and ADF’s lead attorney Roger Brooks:
Judge Chatigny: I don’t think we should be referring to the proposed intervenors as “male athletes.” I understand that you prefer to use those words, but they’re very provocative, and I think needlessly so. I don’t think that you surrender any legitimate interest or position if you refer to them as transgender females. That is what the case is about. This isn’t a case involving males who have decided that they want to run in girls’ events. This is a case about girls who say that transgender girls should not be allowed to run in girls’ events.
ADF lead attorney Roger Brooks responded that he could not “comply with that direction consistent with vigorous representation of the position that my clients are putting forward here.”
JC: What I’m saying is you must refer to them as “transgender females” rather than as “males.” Again, that’s the more accurate terminology, and I think that it fully protects your client’s legitimate interests. Referring to these individuals as “transgender females” is consistent with science, common practice and perhaps human decency. To refer to them as “males,” period, is not accurate, certainly not as accurate, and I think it’s needlessly provocative. I don’t think that you surrender any legitimate interest or position if you refer to them as transgender females. That is what the case is about. This isn’t a case involving males who have decided that they want to run in girls’ events. This is a case about girls who say that transgender girls should not be allowed to run in girls’ events. So going forward, we will not refer to the proposed intervenors as “males”; understood?
www.outsports.com/2020/5/12/21256444/judge-adf-christian-hate-group-transgender-conne
Here is an account of the exchange between the judge and ADF’s lead attorney Roger Brooks:
Judge Chatigny: I don’t think we should be referring to the proposed intervenors as “male athletes.” I understand that you prefer to use those words, but they’re very provocative, and I think needlessly so. I don’t think that you surrender any legitimate interest or position if you refer to them as transgender females. That is what the case is about. This isn’t a case involving males who have decided that they want to run in girls’ events. This is a case about girls who say that transgender girls should not be allowed to run in girls’ events.
ADF lead attorney Roger Brooks responded that he could not “comply with that direction consistent with vigorous representation of the position that my clients are putting forward here.”
JC: What I’m saying is you must refer to them as “transgender females” rather than as “males.” Again, that’s the more accurate terminology, and I think that it fully protects your client’s legitimate interests. Referring to these individuals as “transgender females” is consistent with science, common practice and perhaps human decency. To refer to them as “males,” period, is not accurate, certainly not as accurate, and I think it’s needlessly provocative. I don’t think that you surrender any legitimate interest or position if you refer to them as transgender females. That is what the case is about. This isn’t a case involving males who have decided that they want to run in girls’ events. This is a case about girls who say that transgender girls should not be allowed to run in girls’ events. So going forward, we will not refer to the proposed intervenors as “males”; understood?
www.outsports.com/2020/5/12/21256444/judge-adf-christian-hate-group-transgender-conne
176 Women Athletes Sign Amicus Brief Supporting Transgender and Intersex Athletes Participation in Women's Sports
BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE 176 ATHLETES IN WOMEN’S SPORTS, THE WOMEN’S SPORTS FOUNDATION, AND ATHLETE ALLY IN SUPPORT OF TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN SPORTS
| athletes_in_womens_sports_amicus_brief_hecox_v._little.pdf |
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION, AND 10 ADDITIONAL HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATIONS IN SUPPORT OF APPELLEES (in Idaho legislation) file BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE
| amicus-2020-hecox-medical-v-bradley-little-nos-20-35813-20-35815.pdf |
More than 500 student-athletes sent a letter to NCAA President Mark Emmert and the NCAA Board of Governors calling for the institution to uphold its nondiscrimination policy and publicly refuse to host championships in states with bans against trans athletes.
500+ Student Athletes to NCAA Leadership: Speak Out for Trans Athletes
500+ Student Athletes to NCAA Leadership: Speak Out for Trans Athletes
On the Eve of Final Four Tournament, NCAA President Mark Emmert Speaks Out Against Anti-Trans Sports Bills In States, Reinforces NCAA Will Hold Championship In Locations “Free of Discrimination” Read article here
These bills are coded in the language of fairness. And yet they are being considered and passed in many States across the U.S during the Pandemic. Given that knowledge, do you believe fairness is what is being protected here, or potentially something else?
This Bill has to be viewed in the context of what we are seeing in legislative houses across the country. Let's not be ignorant. This is part of a larger anti-transgender agenda. Let's not deceive ourselves that it's anything other than that.
The bill's justifications largely rely on scare tactics, stereotypes, and unwarranted claims that transgender women have a physiological advantage over cisgender women—despite a complete lack of evidence that transgender sports participation has had any measurable impact on the success of cisgender athletes. Transgender athletes have been competing openly for decades, with multiple state high school athletic associations, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and several professional and amateur sports leagues allowing transgender athletes to participate in accordance with their gender identity as early as 2004. In that time, women’s—and men’s—sports have continued undeterred.
This Bill has to be viewed in the context of what we are seeing in legislative houses across the country. Let's not be ignorant. This is part of a larger anti-transgender agenda. Let's not deceive ourselves that it's anything other than that.
The bill's justifications largely rely on scare tactics, stereotypes, and unwarranted claims that transgender women have a physiological advantage over cisgender women—despite a complete lack of evidence that transgender sports participation has had any measurable impact on the success of cisgender athletes. Transgender athletes have been competing openly for decades, with multiple state high school athletic associations, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and several professional and amateur sports leagues allowing transgender athletes to participate in accordance with their gender identity as early as 2004. In that time, women’s—and men’s—sports have continued undeterred.
Three Things Politicians Can Do To Protect Women and Girls in Sports
Attacking trans athletes doesn't protect women and girls in sports. Here are three things they can do.
www.acslaw.org/expertforum/attacking-trans-athletes-doesnt-protect-women-and-girls-in-sports-here-are-three-things-that-do/
www.acslaw.org/expertforum/attacking-trans-athletes-doesnt-protect-women-and-girls-in-sports-here-are-three-things-that-do/
Parents, Families, and Allies Continuing the Work of Founder Jeanne Manford
It's the story of America: of ordinary citizens organizing, agitating and advocating for change; of hope stronger than hate; of love more powerful than any insult or injury; of Americans fighting to build for themselves and their families a nation in which no one is a second-class citizen, in which no one is denied their basic rights, in which all of us are free to live and love as we see fit.
Tonight, somewhere in America, a young person, let's say a young man, will struggle to fall to sleep, wrestling alone with a secret he's held as long as he can remember. Soon, perhaps, he will decide it's time to let that secret out. What happens next depends on him, his family, as well as his friends and his teachers and his community. But it also depends on us -- on the kind of society we engender, the kind of future we build.
October 11, 2009
Remarks by President Obama at Human Rights Campaign Dinner
Walter E. Convention Center, Washington, D.C.
8:10 P.M. EDT
Tonight, somewhere in America, a young person, let's say a young man, will struggle to fall to sleep, wrestling alone with a secret he's held as long as he can remember. Soon, perhaps, he will decide it's time to let that secret out. What happens next depends on him, his family, as well as his friends and his teachers and his community. But it also depends on us -- on the kind of society we engender, the kind of future we build.
October 11, 2009
Remarks by President Obama at Human Rights Campaign Dinner
Walter E. Convention Center, Washington, D.C.
8:10 P.M. EDT