gemini://senders.io/gemlog/2023-04-09-nj-becomes-a-safe-haven.gmi

Over the last year we've seen countless bills proposed and passed across the United States targeting LGBTQIA+ people, primarily the transgender community. These laws affect all people, regardless of cis, or trans, het or queer. Sports bans open the door for cis girls to get inspected, or have their medical records invaded upon to "be sure". We saw not too long after Florida passed laws against trans athletes and legalizing investigations by schools, a cis girl was questioned for beating some other child. It's insane, and it's important we protect all marginalized folks, and respect the freedoms of peoples bodies, and our rights to live our lives as we see fit (especially, when these decisions literally DO NOT AFFECT ANYONE BUT OURSELVES). As they're often the gateway into more strict and invasive laws.

That is not why I am writing this. I am writing for ""good"" news. It is good news. Just not the type of news you WANT to be considered good news. You want something like to be like "thanks, let's hope it doesn't come to this!" rather than "thank GOD!"

My Governor, the Governor of New Jersey, Mr. Phil Murphy, signed the executive order declaring New Jersey as a Safe Haven for Queer folk. This follows Minnesota, whose Governor did the very same thing this time last month, following the lead of California who has this concept in law late last year - effective January 1st, 2023.

I've attached above the full text, in gemtext for anyone who wishes to read it. I'll also include in the links section below a substack (sorry) of Erin Reed, who tracks basically all of the activity around trans legislation.

It's horrifying that a state has to put in an EO, or pass into law refugee laws for our own citizens, within our own borders, to protect our own people from extremists in other states. It's horrifying. It's horrifying our government has been undermined to the point where it can come to this. It's horrifying that our people have become so fragmented, have become so susceptible to misinformation, and our government finds itself trying to meet in the middle to where the people who promised to protect us are weakening their stances (re: the Biden admin recent regulation permitting restrictions on trans athletes).

I just want to remind everyone. Trans people are a SLIM SLIM minority. Often in the "10s" for an entire school system. I remember reading one county or school-board even realizing "you're putting into law restrictions that affect literally 1 student".

The Williams Institute at UCLA published a report (mirrored below) of statistics of trans and LGBTQIA+ people in the U.S citing that in New Jersey, there are basically 0.44% (or ~30K) people are transgender - 0.44% that's half a percent.

They report roughly 1.4 million transgender people in the U.S or ~0.58% (I believe >= 18 years old). But what is the most frightening is that the sum total in Texas and Florida (who are at the forefront of these laws) amounts to 225K. Being trans doesn't mean you're in some blue coastal city. We're just regular folks, often stuck in our hometown, scared and afraid.

And it's not like you can just "get up an leave". Amending birth certificates - which please correct me if I am wrong - are always locked to the state you were born in. I cannot "transfer" my certificate to New York. I was born in a hospital in New Jersey, so I have to abide by NJ law when it comes to amending my birth certificate (which is a step in legal name changes and changing your gender marker). So even if you DO get out, you're still subject to these harsh laws when it comes to certain things.

I went off on a bit of thing didn't I... Sorry, when you have lawmakers taking orders from religious groups, extremists, and other hate groups - who are honestly, VERY coordinated, it is very very scary. I am scared. I am safer now, being in a state like New Jersey. But I am scared, for my fellow trans people in these less safe states. I am scared every time a literal politician uses the phrase "transgenderism" and calls us groomers. I am scared because we're moving past simple hate speech, and have been restricting our rights, vilifying us in law, and in some states forcibly detransitioning youth. Which, given the rate of suicide attempts in trans youths who do not receive care, is basically escorting a kid to the ledge. You don't have to be the one to pull the trigger, you're still responsible if you hand the kid the gun (well to these people handing kids guns is actually fine. Its puberty blockers that's the problem).

... remember when we say it's the makings of a genocide, we're not exaggerating. There are stages, and the boxes are being ticked. We're scared. I trust that the world won't let it come to this, that we're better than this, that society will wake up. But how many of us need to die before you come to our defense ...

New Jersey Becomes a Safe Haven

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