[Political Post] Now More Than Ever... · 4:52am Mar 11th, 2022
I know some folks here are probably sick of me talking about politics, and I can respect that. Which is why you can skip this entry as always. However, I really hope that you do not, as this one is especially important.
I'm writing today, because we need to talk about a downright ghoulish trend happening in state legislatures all over the US right now. I realize that most eyes are focused on Ukraine right now - and I've been watching that too, as the last blog post can attest to. But this is a topic that directly affects our fellow Americans, and our fellow bronies.
Just to frame the issue in a context my readers can relate to: I don't think many in this fandom stop to appreciate just how many gay, lesbian, bi, and transgender/enby people have participated or are currently participating in the fandom. The most recent Harmonycon saw its fair share of queerfolk pass through. My Little Pony Twitter is a major hub for LGBT+ bronies. Heck, the Transgender Bronies group on this very site has just shy of a thousand members!
And that brings me to the topic at hand.
In "red states" all over the US right now, there is a coordinated effort to introduce and pass bills that make it harder for transgender people in particular to exist in public. According to the Human Rights Campaign, there are currently over three hundred bills targeting trans people under consideration. It started a couple years ago with the (now ongoing) efforts to force trans people to use the bathroom of their assigned sex, or ban trans girls from participating in women's sports. But just this year, it's escalated to terrifying new levels. Some examples with links follow.
Texas: Last year, a record number of anti-transgender bills - over thirty in all - were introduced into both chambers of the state legislature. These bills were fortunately defeated, and can be read about in detail here.
On February 22, Governor Greg Abbott sent a letter to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services instructing them to begin child abuse investigations against all parents of transgender children receiving gender-affirming care. This was a follow up to an opinion issued by Attorney General Ken Paxton declaring all gender-affirming care to be child abuse, and characterizing sex reassignment procedures as "forced sterilization." The very first case of this kind was opened against a DFPS employee.
While a judge has placed the investigations on hold, and an appeals court has upheld that ruling, that's not going to put a stop to it. Already transgender minors in Texas are being cut off from their hormone prescriptions by pharmacies and providers. There's anecdotes beginning to emerge now of the DFPS opening retroactive investigations into parents of adult transgender people, as well as transgender parents with cisgender children.
Idaho: The Idaho House of Representatives has passed HB 675, which criminalizes providing gender affirming treatments - including hormones and surgical procedures - and makes assisting a minor in receiving said treatments across state lines a felony punishable by life imprisonment. It is currently in the state Senate.
Florida: Florida's legislature has passed a bill that would forbid class instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity completely for students from Kindergarten through Third Grade, and further includes vague language requiring instruction in higher grade levels to be "age-appropriate." The bill empowers parents to sue any school district they suspect of teaching "age-inappropriate" lessons on the subject, in the style of Texas's six-week abortion ban. An amendment to the bill was added that would require teachers and other school faculty to report to parents if a student comes out as LGBT+, but was later withdrawn.
Opponents of the bill have dubbed it a "Don't Say Gay" bill, as it would discourage any lessons about LGBT+ issues in classrooms for fear of attracting a lawsuit. Governor DeSantis has already indicated his support, and is expected to sign it once it reaches his desk.
These are just the most high-profile examples of the crap going down just this year. If you do some digging into what Alabama, Missouri, and other Republican-dominated states are doing, you're going to find some very similar bills under consideration.
Now, you might be wondering, "How does this affect me?" or more likely "Why are you talking about this on an entertainment site for cartoon horses that I use to get AWAY from this stuff?" If so, scroll back up and reread what I said about the LGBT+ members of this fandom. Right now, they are under attack from anti-LGBT groups seeking to legislate them out of existence. Harmonycon? It's located in Dallas. How many transgender bronies are going to want to attend a con in a state that is passing overtly hostile laws toward them?
And they're going to keep escalating. It started with bathrooms and school sports. But they didn't stop there. They never intended to stop there. And they're going to push things to their logical conclusion if cisgender and heterosexual people don't stand up and stand with us.
Right now, queer bronies in this fandom are scared, and I don't blame them one bit. Hell, I'm scared both for myself, since I'm bi, and for my partner, who is themself transgender. And they need to know, now more than ever, that they have a space where they are welcomed.
That's why I want my readers, as well as the mods and admins of this site to let our fellow bronies know that we support their right to exist, and that this is a space they can trust. Affirm to transgender, gay, lesbian, bi, and asexual bronies that they have just as much right to be here as straight and cisgender bronies.
There are other things you can do to help push back against this tidal wave of hate, of course. You can call all your state and local elected officials, tell them that you expect them to stand up for the civil liberties of queerfolk. You can set up a small recurring donation to a local or state level organization dedicated to fighting back against these bills. You can even just reach out to the queerfolk you know personally in your daily life, just to check in with them. Talk to them, take them out to lunch or something. Just let them know you care, and you're thinking about them.
But the thing I put in bold is the simplest and most immediate way we as a community can help. Queerfolk need to know the spaces they share with us will welcome them. It's unfortunate that this hasn't often been the case in this fandom, or even on this very site. But it doesn't have to be that way, and we can change it.
Now more than ever, we need to push back against that crap. I've seen the brony fandom do incredible things when rallying around and raising money for causes it deems worthy. And if the fandom can organize like that, then surely it can stand for the civil liberties of its most vulnerable members as outside forces try to take them away.
I'll be waiting to see if those who speak loudest about freedom of speech when defending hatespeech in the fandom rise to the occasion here. I know the ones who really do care about civil liberties will.
I'm glad that you're trying to bring this to light. I don't live in the USA, but I support LGBT people and hate any sort racism, discrimination, xenophobic stuff, etc. I wish these governors and other people in power tried to be more open minded and let others be themselves and live their lives how they want instead of hating anyone who doesn't think like them and also hating things they don't understand. Because of this, they often make laws that force their beliefs on other people, thinking being in power makes it ok for them to do that. I hope in the future civil liberties become more and more common since I believe each generation becomes more open minded and have less discrimination against what they don't understand. Thanks again for bringing this to light since I didn't know it was like this recently in the USA.
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Thanks for reading bud. Yeah the situation is pretty dire in a lot of parts of the US right now, and it's gonna affect the queerfolk still remaining in this fandom.
It's a shame that any discussion about how this affects them is shut down because "I don't want to think about what's going on in the real world, I just want to read horse stories!" Folks like me don't get that luxury, as public policy can literally be a matter of life or death to us.
That's why we fly pride flags. That's why we write LGBT+ positive fics and draw art of ponies with pride. It's why this side holds an annual Pride and Ponies writing event - which I plan on participating in should it be held again in 2022. We can't afford to let the rest of the world pretend we don't exist, no matter how badly they want to.