If there has been one defining trait of the first month of the Trump administration, it’s bullying. Americans have watched their president turn on some of the country’s most vulnerable populations, including Muslim refugees and travelers and the judges who rule in their favor, as well as undocumented immigrants and the cities that offer them sanctuary. Even the leader of one of the United States’ closest allies has labeled him a bully. Threats against religious and ethnic minorities are on the rise as a result. And last Wednesday, President Donald Trump targeted another vulnerable demographic: transgender children, who already fear for their safety at school. The administration’s decision to rescind federal guidelines protecting transgender students in public schools nationwide didn’t come as a surprise to most advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. Whatever feelings Trump has toward LGBTQ people, most of us assumed he’d owe it to the Christian right that helped put him in the White House to let conservatives target transgender people. On Feb. 22, those fears were confirmed. Harassment and bullying of transgender children is painfully common. Study after study reports that LGBTQ students are at higher risk for bullying, with trans kids bearing the brunt of the abuse. Society’s gender roles are strictly enforced, especially among those assigned male at birth. Children are coerced into proper behavior for their birth-assigned sex role by everyone around them, including parents and other children, and bullies remain an important tool of oppression...
Essay by @transscribe, who resides on Maine's Midcoast, which has been picked up by several newspapers that subscribe to WaPo's distribution service. Burns usually writes for online sites such as Vice, Medium, SheKnows and TheEstablishment.com. And her GoFundMe for GCS is still here (where she also uses the name Katelyn Garrett), with about one-third of the goal met.
