The Trans Bathroom Debate

I Might Move (Back) to Colorado

I’ll never forget my parents

Not letting my sister and I

Go to the public bathroom alone

Anymore

Because Colorado allowed trans people

To use their preferred bathrooms

My mother’s voice full of fear

My father’s with anger

Ready to fight and flight

The trans bathroom debate…

A socially constructed panic

Over a non-existent problem

Trans women aren’t predators

Stalking prey in public bathrooms

Or confused, perverted men

Wearing covert costumes

And pursuing “biological females”

With malicious intent

So, let me get this straight—

Men won’t even wear pink

Or drink soy milk

Because they fear emasculation

And reproach from their fellow men…

But yeah, they’ll toootally

Pretend to be women

To access female spaces

In a culture that normalizes

Sexual violence

In broad daylight with impunity…

Likely story

Trans women are far more likely

To be victims of violence

Than perpetrators

Far more likely to be harassed

Than to do the harassing

Not to mention—

What of trans guys who are forced

To use the women’s restroom??

What about the invisible

And erased people who defy the binary

Who aren’t perceived as a threat?

We may not be thrust into

The same dangerous spotlight

But we also are at odds

With the intersection of transphobic hypocrisy

I miss having full, friendly conversations

In the women’s bathroom

And passing toilet paper under the stalls

Leaning into the mirror

To apply lipstick together

I feel like I’m behind enemy lines

In the men’s room

And it’s true—

A lot of them don’t wash their hands!!

And they splash pee

On the toilet seat and floor

Fucking nasty

The only threat there is Kyle

Spreading covid

And giving his girlfriend a UTI

But this insane obsession

With trans people is turning

Deadlier by the day

Kansas just rushed through a bill

Revoking changed gender licenses

And birth certificates

Also banning us from public restrooms

Potentially giving a green flag for

Private citizens to turn

Fucking bounty hunters

To put a price on our heads

Transvestigate us

And sue us for thousands of dollars!!!

The first time we’re caught

We get off with a warning

The second time a $1,000 fine

For every time after that

More fines

And we would be arrested 

Charged with misdemeanors

And jailed!!!

What was that about “dangerous men” in bathrooms???

This is coinciding with reports

Of trans inmates being forcibly detransitioned

And put through conversion therapy

As a survivor of this so-called “therapy”

That’s a fate worse than death

I’ve already started having nightmares about all this

This bill will directly put my life in danger

I practically live in Kansas

A social worker driving rural roads

Through small towns

Where I already get the evil eye

The last thing I need is some bigot

Feeling emboldened because of this bill

Before blinding swallowing propaganda

Ask who is feeding you the information

Who is labeling a group as an enemy

And why

Sharpen your critical mind

Before making a messy meal of marginalized lives

Trans people want to piss and shit

In peace like everyone else

I’m done asking politely

For an equal piece of the rights pie

Or begging cis people to care

Now Missouri is right on Kansas' heels

Inspired by their success

Sucking up to ignorant conservatives

If both the states I straddle

Make it unsafe for me to exist in public

I'm leaving the Midwest

Suddenly, fleeing these flyover states

For Colorado

Is looking more and more tempting

And isn’t that the cruelest irony

---

Yeah, I was already considering moving back to Colorado, but with this next level of state violence, I’m seriously looking into it.

Colorado is a trans sanctuary state. Meanwhile, Missouri and Kansas are making it their mission to make life as hard as possible for us. They don’t want us. And I don’t want to suffer in fear anymore.

Death before detransition! 🏳️‍⚧