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Supports for Trans Youth and Their Families (and a few words for everybody else)

Author: 
Sam Wall

It's been less than a year since I wrote a blog post like this.

In that time, there has been an increased wave of right-wing attacks on trans youth at the state level, trying to ban young trans people from sports, trying to ban trans stories from shelves, trying to revoke your access to medical care, and even threatening to separate trans-supportive parents from their kids for being supportive.

It's unconscionable, inhumane, and it's not slowing down. Whether you're trans yourself, a parent of family member of a trans person or people, have trans friends or just generally care about all trans people, you may be feeling all kinds of ways, from rage to terror, and every last one of those feelings is understandable. I put this blog together to offer resources and supports to help you get through all this in whatever way you can.

Before we talk about anything else, know that if everything going on is weighing on your wellbeing and mental health, there are spaces out there where you can be heard, safe, and affirmed.

Here are a few resources to start with if you need support right now:

Fighting for Your Rights As a Trans Person

I want to make one thing incredibly clear: in a fair world, this would not be your job. There would not be adults using the existence, wellbeing, and literal trans lives, as political game pieces. And in the event they did, the adults around trans youth would rise up en masse and stop them, without being forced to expose those youth and themselves to even more hate, just for asking for a little humanity.

We're not living in that world. And if what you can manage right now is just getting through the day, that's a triumph in and of yourself. When they're trying to erase your existence, continuing to exist is quite the F-you.

If you have the energy for it, you still have the ability to fight back.  Youth in Arizona stopped anti-trans legislation in their state. Trans activists, including young people, helped secure the injunction against the govenor's order in Texas. So, while change may feel impossible at times, there's concrete proof that you can make a difference. Here are two tools to get you started.

For Parents and Guardians

First: thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for providing safe and loving homes for the young people in your lives. I am immensely angry on your behalf that doing the right thing has put you in the crosshairs of anti-trans policies. I can only imagine how frightening it is to think someone might take your child away from you. While the fact that an injuction halted the order in Texas is a relief -- and a sign that similar policies may meet the same fate -- the existence of such an order in the first place is terrifying.

With that in mind, I've compiled some starter resources to help you out if you're in a state where the parents and gaurdians of trans youth are being targeted with accusations of child abuse. These can help you make sense of the laws as they change, give you tools to defend your family, and help you plan for worst-case scenarios.

For Everyone Else

Cis people, if ever there was a time to step up, the time is now. Some of you have been in this fight awhile, others are just learning of it through the latest batch of bigoted bills. Either way, I urge you to find concrete ways that you can help trans youth and their families. Whether what you have to offer is time, energy, money, or something else entirely, the following list has some options to help you get started.

Ways you Can Help