SB49 is Killing Us

To youth reading this:

We see and honor you. We believe in your right to be your full, whole self. We continue to hold space for Queer, Trans, and gender expansive youth both virtually and in person. Know that there are Queer peers here. Know that Trans and Queer folks have always been here and we will always be here. Our Transcestors stand with us. We stand with you. Come hang out with us. 

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Youth OUTright believes we all have a right to the freedom to express one’s gender in its fullness in any and all spaces. We believe that comprehensive, inclusive, and culturally aware consent and sex education are key to supporting the next generation in forming healthy relationships - platonic, romantic, sexual, and even professional. Age-appropriate consent, gender, and sexual education are not a boogieman! We recognize science - which tells us that sex and gender are not binary and never have been! We also understand through lived experience, the harm of erasure, marginalization, and structural and cultural violence. 

SB 49 seeks to harm Queer and Trans young people through policy and cultural shame. A re-do of HB755 from last year, some of the bill’s major restrictions include: (1) mandatory reporting if a child comes out as transgender and gender non-conforming, (2) forcing teachers to make curriculum and lesson plans available for review by parents (3) prohibiting teaching on LGBTQ+ topics in school classroom curriculum from grades K-4. We demand lawmakers take a stand against this discriminatory legislation, which will cause disproportionate harm to the most vulnerable in our communities. SB 49 and policies like it fuel a false moral panic that tends to divide working-class folks along party lines. Politicians are using children's lives as political fodder. It’s reprehensible. It’s vile. 

While disguised as a “Parent’s Bill of Rights”, this legislation would stigmatize already marginalized youth. We know that just the introduction of these kinds of policies to the legislation has a negative impact on the health of our youth. The Trevor Project’s new polling found that 86% of transgender and nonbinary youth say recent debates around anti-trans bills have negatively impacted their mental health.

The censorship of LGBTQIA+ topics in schools is an erasure of identity and culture. LGBTQIA+ families have children. Those children go to school. Those children deserve to feel seen, respected, and celebrated. To prohibit the discussion of one’s own family sets a young person up with the expectations of being othered, excluded, and unwelcome.

The forced outing of a Trans or Queer young person puts the young person at heightened risk if their home is unsupportive or outright abusive. Right now in North Carolina, only 41% of LGBTQ youth identify school as a safe space, with even less young people identifying home as a safe space. (Trevor Project)  If enacted, SB 49 will make schools an increasingly unsafe environment for LGBTQ youth, and may further cut off LGBTQ from the few potentially life-saving supports they have found in their school setting.

46% of LGBTQ youth in North Carolina seriously considered suicide in the past year. This number increased to 53% for transgender and nonbinary youth. (Trevor Project)

In a 2019 Trevor Project study, LGBTQ youth who report having at least one accepting adult were 40% less likely to report a suicide attempt in the past year. If an LGBTQ young person isn’t accepted at home, they often seek support at school. Gender and Sexuality Alliance clubs, Queer and Trans youth-led affinity groups often hosted in schools, save lives.

While LGBT youth only make up 7% of the general youth population, they account for 40% of all youth experiencing homelessness in America. The most frequently cited reason LGBT youth experience homelessness is family rejection due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. Half of all teens get a negative reaction from their parents when they come out to them. More than 1 in 4 are thrown out of their homes. (True Colors United)

There have been hundreds of anti-trans policies submitted across the country in just the last couple of years. This is a coordinated, violent, and politically motivated action. SB49 does not exist in a vacuum. It exists among Trans youth sports bans, Trans healthcare bans, daily harassment, physical violence, and youth-driven to self-harm by a culture that continually marginalizes and violates them.

May 6th 1933, Adolf Hitler burned Magnus Hirschfeld’s libraries. One of the first and largest book burnings of the Nazi’s censorship campaign began with the destruction of the largest collection of transgender medical knowledge. This tactic of censorship comes with a legacy of violence. 

We want all youth to survive and thrive. There is ample lived experience and more than enough tangible data accessible to understand why we must reject policies like SB 49.

Folks reading this today, you can help. We need you to:

Queerly forward, together,

 

Adrian Parra
They/He/She
Executive Director
Youth OUTright WNC

Youth OUTright