ARTICLE/LGBT Issues
‘Trans Day of Visibility’ was recognized on Friday, March 31, 2023, as 167 rallies were held across 49 states and the District of Columbia as part of the National March for Queer and Trans Youth Autonomy. Wyoming was the only state to not have any official rallies. In Kansas, three rallies were held, one in Wichita, one in Lenexa, and one in Topeka at the State Capitol Building.
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly (D) tweeted out her proclamation of ‘Transgender Day of Visibility,’ urging Kansans to join in on the observation.
Governor Laura Kelly @GovLauraKelly
Many people were not pleased with the governor’s tweet, especially after the mass shooting that took place in Nashville, Tennessee where a trans man went to a Christian school and killed three children and three staff members just days prior.
Others Raised concerns about the protection of women or showed general disdain toward the governor.
Roberta Sereno @Roberta_Sereno1
Nevertheless, many tweeted at the Kansas Governor, thanking her for the proclamation.
Transgender Kansas, a charity for transgender people across Kansas who co-hosted the Topeka rally, also tweeted at Governor Kelly, thanking her.
Governor Kelly did not show at the rally in Topeka.
All 167 rallies were in collaboration with Queer Youth Assemble, who hosted the march in Washington D.C. from 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm. At the march in D.C., they read off a “nationwide list of demands” created by “queer and trans youth across the country.” Some of the demands included codifying Title IX to include sexuality, gender identity, and gender expression; designating funding for at least one clearly designated and functioning gender-neutral bathroom at all times, and transition to single-stall and multi-stall gender-neutral bathrooms in schools; and require states to form an LGBTQ+ legislative group to advise lawmakers on legislation that impacts the LGBTQ+ community.
One demand included requiring all practitioners be familiar with and follow the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) standards for trans healthcare. This is particularly concerning as WPATH was outed last year for collaborating with eunuch fetishists (people who get off to the idea or physical action of castration—either their own or someone else’s). In their draft Standards of Care, WPATH referenced the ‘Fiction Archive’ of the Eunuch Archive—a site for those with the eunuch fetish.
In a news report, it states,
“The stories primarily focus on the eroticization of child castration. In some, little boys request the procedures themselves and express gratitude to the adults who perform the operations. In others, children may be forcibly castrated under extreme duress. Some narratives contain violent sexualized depictions of children with stunted puberty being raped by doctors, written in sickening detail.
The report also included finding a password-protected area of the Eunuch Archive. When they got access to it through completing a membership application, they discovered more fictional stories.
“Within the protected fiction archives, there were over 3,000 stories involving minors, including the explicit sexual abuse of children, and ‘minor’ was a specially-curated tag that users could select to easily access stories specifically featuring children.
“The fictional pornography includes themes such as Nazi doctors castrating children, baby boys being fed milk with estrogen in order to be violently sex trafficked as adolescents, and pedophilic fantasies of children who have been castrated to halt their puberty, ‘freezing’ them in a childlike state.”
In Wichita, the rally took place outside Chainlink Gallery Place. Local organizations including The Center of Wichita, Equality Kansas, GLSEN Kansas, Loud Light, M-Care, Trust Women, URGE Kansas, and WSU FOCUS were advertised to be there providing information and resources.
In Topeka, more than 150 people—some younger than 10 years—rallied and marched at the State Capitol, and no one protested the rally, including the Westboro Baptist Church which is located in the city.
Signs at the rally read things like, “MAKE NO MISTAKE THEY ARE KILLING US,” “NONE ARE FREE WHEN OTHERS ARE OPPRESED,” and “PROTECT TRANS CHILDREN”
The rally started with those who helped put the rally on speaking, and afterward, members from the crowd that wanted to were able to go up one by one to give a few words of their own. Most who spoke did not provide their name or only provided their first name, though most provided their pronouns. Many talked about wanting to vote and refusing to go back in the closet—some of whom had only recently come out.
“This is your House,” Representative Tobias Schlingensiepen (D-Topeka) said in his speech. “There is nothing more important than for citizens to feel like they belong…. I belong to those transphilic politicians who want to be trans politicians in the sense that we’re going to change the people in here who are transphobic and turn them into transphilic politicians.”
“Trans youth need to be allowed to transition,” one transgender protestor said in his speech. “It shouldn’t be up to the government if we’re allowed to or not. It needs to be up to us and our medical professionals. Gender affirming care is life saving and without it, I know I wouldn’t be here. Preventing trans youth from transitioning is going to do extreme harm. It’s going to cause trans youth to be more anxious, more depressed, and more suicidal. Trans youth are under attack and we need everyone’s help in fighting back.”
Certain bills highlighted at the rally included SB 12 known as the Kansas child mutilation prevention act which would make it illegal for practitioners to knowingly perform gender reassignment services on people under the age of 21 years. SB 180, known as the Women’s Bill of Rights defines women and girls by their biological sex. This bill passed the House on Wednesday, March 29, 2023 with an 83-41 vote. The other bill was the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act (HB 2238). Which would make it so transgender athletes would have to play against those of their biological sex. This bill was vetoed by Governor Kelly on Friday, March 17, 2023.
Executive Director of Transgender Kansas Justin Brace claimed in his speech that he and two Black trans people he works with received death threats before the rally, and thus, only he showed up.
“We received some papers in the mail threatening us—threatening myself,” Brace explained to The Kansas Constitutional after the rally. “And then, my two Black, trans staff received threats over social media. Unfortunately, this is a regular thing against our organization. We’re always receiving threats, but we’re usually not receiving threats against our lives in this matter. It’s usually just like, ‘we’re going to attack your car’—we have had our cars attacked. But when it comes down to an event, just being threatened to be killed in front of all of our trans siblings, that was a hard stop for us.”
After the rally, the group marched around the Capitol building where they chanted, “Trans lives matter,” “We’re here. We’re queer. We’re not going anywhere,” and “Vote them out.”