The Huffington Post’s ever vocal “Queer Voices” section featured a piece last week requesting people not to view transgender identities as comedy anymore.
Author and activist Tory Smith, who prefers the pronoun, said “they” “await[s] the day that transgender identities are no longer used as comedy,” and hopes “pregnant men are no longer seen as irregular, but are recognized and given access to the care they need.”
“While we are as visible as ever, we are also being attacked at an increasing rate,” said Smith. “Every element of our lives are believed to be up for debate.” In fact, 2015 saw transgender rights take center stage as transgenders demanded attention, bringing scrutiny upon themselves.
Smith went on to remark on the discrimination inherent in the so-called “bathroom bills,” saying they “[take] the accountability off those committing rape and put in [sic] on us based on an age-old stereotype.” Smith’s comments are yet another push to normalize the presence of biological men in women’s restrooms, destroying both privacy and the acknowledgement of differences between men and women.
The main theme of HuffPo’s piece was “inclusive health care, particularly reproductive health care” for transgenders.
“I have had the experience of having to decide between traveling 4 hours to find sensitive healthcare or neglect it all together,” Smith remarked
What Smith asserts is lingering discrimination against transgender reproductive rights has “devastating effects on our communities,” says the author. However, even among activists the issue is often crowded out by the abortion debate and basic transgender awareness.
Smith suggests nondiscrimination policies, sex-change services, and up-to-date training about transgender health needs. Psychotherapy to help people who believe they are something they are not was not in the cards.
The Huffington Post frequently spotlights complaints of the LGBT community in the Queer Voices section and elsewhere.
