Fight for Trans Kids' Lives

I’m a huge fan of stand up comedy. Some of my recent favorites include Atsuko Okatsuka (gotta support Asian women comedians, and she’s good and funny and fresh), Gary Gulman (I love how he’s the antithesis of toxic masculinity), and Des Bishop (Des speaks Mandarin really well! And he’s hilarious.) I don’t love serious television. I don’t have great boundaries to distinguish between real life and TV. Whatever happens to the characters feels like it’s happening to me, so you can imagine I don’t love torture scenes or anything that raises the blood pressure. Comedy gives me relief from my own already very serious brain. And who doesn’t love to laugh?

There was one stand up comedy I watched that made me laugh but also made me cry. Like, had to pause the show and bawl kind of cry. It was Mae Martin, another one of my favorite comedians who has been on a gender journey to identifying as trans. They star in an autobiographical comedy series starring Lisa Kudrow (!!), Feel Good, that documents some of that journey. In their Netflix special, Sap, they talk about going on a low dose of testosterone and since then having the best year of their life at 35 year old. They said, “And it’s not like it made me that happy. It’s just that there is an absence of agony.”

This was the line made me pause the show and cry my crocodile ally tears. All trans people are asking for is just an absence of agony. “It’s a low bar, really, and who are we to deny that,” says Mae.

Of course, as we know, the Trump administration is moving to deny just that. They are instituting laws that ban gender affirming care for the most vulnerable young people. It is cruel and unconscionable. I don’t have it within me to be outraged anymore, the first Trump administration took it out of me. These days, I limit political social media consumption, keep up with some of the headlines, just enough to know what and how I can help do the little bit of good that I can.

As someone who has for years advocated for the rights of children, I think this is the moment to stand up and fight for trans kids’ lives. To clear the lowest bar that there is, to give them the dignity of the “absence of agony.” I’ve already donated to a family with trans youth to cover travel expenses in search of gender affirming care. And I’d love to invite you all to join me.

The Campaign for Southern Equality Project has started a Trans Youth Emergency Project that does this work, and I’d love to direct your attention and donations to it. There are also links to get informed about the crisis. If you don’t have the means to help out financially, you can send a message of support and love to trans youth.

My guiding star in how to live life and do justice is to look for the most vulnerable and I believe trans kids occupy that place at this moment. They are young and still developing their beautiful hearts and brains and bodies, they need our protection to give them the best chance to grow into adulthood without agony. Please join me.