Much of the anti-trans legislation being pushed by Republicans across the nation centers on trans girls and trans women participating in girls’ sports, whether that’s at the school, collegiate, or professional level. This angle is certainly meant to stir up outrage and create problems where there are none, and unfortunately, conservatives have found an effective way to get people just as upset and distracted as they’d like them to be. But anti-trans legislation doesn’t begin and end with sports.
For example, the Mississippi state House of Representatives recently passed an insidious bill that would stop incarcerated trans folks from updating their gender or name markers on documents, like state IDs, birth certificates, and driver’s licenses. The bill, HB 1099 (disturbingly called the “Real You Act of 2022”) is an inhumane, pointless act of violence against an already vulnerable population, as covered by the Los Angeles Blade.
The bill, sponsored by Republican Rep. Jeff Hale, passed in the House in an 84-30 vote on Feb. 3, which sends the measure to the state Senate. There’s actually already a related bill, SB 2356, in the Senate, which would bar incarcerated trans folks from updating their legal name.s This bill hasn’t yet been voted on.
In short, if passed into law, state officials would be barred from allowing any name or gender marker updates from incarcerated trans people. The only exception would be if the request was filed by a district attorney, department chaplain, Mississippi Department of Corrections commissioner, or county sheriff on behalf of the person. Again, this creates a problem where there isn’t one—there is no reason an incarcerated person can’t request to have their information updated like anyone else. It’s demeaning and, frankly, pointless.
As one meager glimmer of looking on the bright side, it’s worth mentioning that the original state of the bill was even worse. The original version aimed to prohibit trans minors in the state from legally changing their gender marker as well, but the current version of the bill focuses on incarcerated people only.
That’s a relative win, sure, but we have to remember that incarcerated people (both cisgender and transgender) face an absolute onslaught of injustices every single day. There are real issues incarcerated people face ranging from health care to education to systemic violence… And yet Republicans want to stop a marginalized population from updating their legal information, and why? Cruelty is the point.
It’s especially worth remembering that trans folks are often housed in facilities that do not align with or honor their gender identity, which can expose them to further rates of violence, harassment, and sexual assault. This can be additionally dangerous when we consider that Black trans women are particularly likely to be incarcerated when compared to white trans women—systemic, structural racism is tied up into this, too, potentially opening up more room for violence and abuse against extremely vulnerable populations. After all, if trans folks are literally prohibited from legally updating the relevant information, it’s all the harder for trans folks to be placed in the correct facility.
It’s also worth considering that when it comes to health insurance, many plans require people to have gone through some degree of “formal” transition, involving a paper trail of name changes, related mental health appointments, and so on. Not allowing incarcerated folks to take certain steps may also impact the care and services they receive even after being released from the prison system.
Bills like this are also about systemic erasure. Consider even the name of the bill—the “Real You Act.” The “real” you is not necessarily who you were defined as at birth. It’s not necessarily the gender or sex identified by a physician. It’s not necessarily the name given to you by your parents or guardian.
The “real” you is the person you see yourself as, whether or not people in your life honor or respect that Trying to define “real” as genetic or as assigned at birth is backward and, again, pointless. Trans people aren’t being “fake” or lying about who they are—it’s transphobic folks who are refusing to see the “real” them.
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