That Benjamin Franklin quote was on my mind when I perused the section of the new Connecticut trans rights law that is troubling to me as trans person of color
POC's wherever we go are subject to being harassed by police even when we're minding our own business. That didn't change because any of us transitioned in either the transmasculine or transfeminine direction.
Black transwomen are already being jacked with in many areas of the country by local law enforcement over the bathroom issue, being arrested for loitering just for standing at a bus stop in some cases as trans Latina Mariah Lopez was a few years ago, or as Kiare Newson in Memphis experienced last month being sexually harassed during a traffic stop..
In Patti Shaw's, Chloe Moore's and Diana Taylor's cases it was simply for being TWB-Trans While Black.Now if you put a requirement in a trans civil rights law that says a transperson must be carrying 'proof' of consistent gender presentation and that 'trans proof' has to be obtained from a gender counselor or SRS surgeon that they either can't afford or are decades from obtaining., you've created a class and race based based separation barrier.
When I started my transition in 1994 I had a carry letter from my gender therapist that I kept on me for two years during the early stages of my transition. Once I morphed into my body, I stopped using it.
One problem I have with the 'your trans papers please' provision of the Connecticut law is that it isn't spelled out how long a transperson must 'prove' themselves to be a 'good transsexual'.
Is it one year? Two years? Five? Ten? Forever?
You've also set up a situation in which a transphobic cop armed with that law could use it to harass POC trans and cis women because she looks like a trans women via whatever subjective criteria they use and they will stop us on that basis ostensibly to look for their 'trans papers'.
As we cis or trans persons of color already are aware of, any interaction with law enforcement has the potential of turning violent or deadly.
That's why a 'your trans papers please' requirement damned sure doesn't work for us and actually makes us more than a little uncomfortable and queasy about what the unintended consequences of the law will be.
But based on past trans POC experience with interactions with law enforcement, not looking forward to the implementation of this new Connecticut law once it's signed..
