In America, around 300,000 kids aged 13-17 identify as transgender, but they seem to make up about 100% of the current news. Whether it’s sports, surgeries, clothes, or bathrooms, there always seems to be some issue being discussed and debated.

But there is one thing many of these issues and complaints have in common: they are mainly centered around students and youth.

 “Horror Stories: transgender Kids At Highest Risk of Suicide & Regret From Body Mutilation”, and “Idaho Passes Law Criminalizing transgender Mutilation of Children” (Infowars), are both examples of headlines using harmful wording to convey even more harmful ideologies.

Believe it or not, there are many worse articles than these also plastered in the news with a clear bias targeting transgender students all over America. 

Articles like this contain not only misused data and statistics but also violent and derogatory language degrading and demeaning the transgender community. 

These cruel statements are the means to an end to taking more and more rights away from our youth and pushing the narrative that transgender individuals are predatory, gross, or just plain confused.

These arguments do more damage than just changing peoples’ perspectives, they have also resulted in more and more anti-transgender legislation being passed.

In fact, 16 states have active laws and policies banning gender-affirming care for those under 18, and around 16 more states are considering laws like these (Human Rights Campaign).

House bills 1421, 1521, and 1423 that just passed in Florida are mandating forced de-transgenderition for minors, limiting adult care, restricting the use of preferred bathrooms, and much more.

This legislation doesn’t only affect transgender kids, but also their cis counterparts as well. This is because when schools ban the teaching of transgender-affirming health, it leaves more and more people susceptible to the misinformation being spread daily.

While many people would see this misinformation and disagree with these brutal statements, it is clear to many that even at Liberty, in a state we don’t have these laws, transgender kids aren’t as accepted as they should be. 

Although we live in Washington, our transgender youth are still struggling in schools to feel safe and be given the rights they are deserving of. Our state anti-discrimination law, known as the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD), explicitly prohibits discrimination because of gender expression or identity. But this doesn’t stop transgender hate from occuring every single day.

As the Liberty community, we need to raise our transgender peers up rather than bring them down.