I don't have much more to say. To beg for basic dignity while being told how disgusting you are is not unique to the trans experience, but it definitely is, currently, the trans experience. And...
When I learned of her death, I thought of the countless times transgender people have pleaded for our humanity and our rights, and of how often we’ve continued to push for inclusion while clinging to the belief that a brighter future will come—one where we can share in the same basic dignity that Lia asked for. But I also understand the pain she must have carried. It’s a pain familiar to anyone who advocates for transgender people: those moments when hope slips away, when you watch an administration—all the way up to the presidency itself—target you, and when each new policy reminds you how precarious your place is, leaving you braced for the next blow.
It was this same kind of anti-trans hate and harassment that Lia faced. Early this year, the hate site “HeCheated” targeted her directly, listing her diving competitions and later celebrating when her name disappeared from the roster. Sites like HeCheated and SheWon are riddled with inaccuracies and strange logic, often ensnaring both trans and cis athletes in their obsessive attempts to police identity. Their real purpose is harassment, driving coordinated online attacks against anyone they mention.
Every transgender suicide is not just a tragedy, its a murder; it’s the foreseeable consequence of policies designed to make us disappear.
I don't have much more to say. To beg for basic dignity while being told how disgusting you are is not unique to the trans experience, but it definitely is, currently, the trans experience. And it's why I personally do not tolerate the "we must give up on basic human rights for trans people" complaint of the centrists.
Ive lost count of how many times Ive had this conversation: Them: Why are there so many trans people now? Me: Because some of them stopped killing themselves while they were still children....
Ive lost count of how many times Ive had this conversation:
Them: Why are there so many trans people now?
Me: Because some of them stopped killing themselves while they were still children.
Because for a second we had opened our society up to their existence and allowed them to try to be their true selves.
Also, trans people have always been around. Showing up in different cultures in different ways, some open and others undercover but still always existing.
Also, trans people have always been around. Showing up in different cultures in different ways, some open and others undercover but still always existing.
Sure but the people I end up having this conversation with don’t understand that theres any culture besides white christian southern culture. They at least are actually asking the question, and I...
Sure but the people I end up having this conversation with don’t understand that theres any culture besides white christian southern culture.
They at least are actually asking the question, and I like engaging with that on their terms - cause the next question to your point is well, why only other cultures?
To be clear, I didn't say only in "other" cultures and wasn't implying trans folks only show up "elsewhere" by any means. From the Public Universal Friend to Thomas/ine Hall, we can find trans...
To be clear, I didn't say only in "other" cultures and wasn't implying trans folks only show up "elsewhere" by any means. From the Public Universal Friend to Thomas/ine Hall, we can find trans (and intersex and GNC) people in the "United States" since the colonizers named it such (and much earlier on Turtle Island in general in the various ways different tribes identified the category called two spirit)
But yes I take your point. I just like to broaden my response beyond that initial step. The Public Universal Friend was a preacher after all.
Down here, it really wasn’t a thing anyone had ever heard of. Its kind of like meeting a full blood Native American, or someone from Australia. Everyone knows they exist but no one has ever met...
Down here, it really wasn’t a thing anyone had ever heard of. Its kind of like meeting a full blood Native American, or someone from Australia. Everyone knows they exist but no one has ever met one and no one knows anything about what they’re like.
The younger ones like me who venture into the city on occasion have met all kinds of people, but the old folks who retired from working at the textile mill that shut down in the 90s, they’re like, what on Earth is happening to kids these days, so and sos kid has a friend who dresses like a GIRL
When they ask me “why are all these trans people here” they mean like, here, suddenly, in our town where people don’t do that sort of thing.
Around here, trans kids killed themselves before graduating high school. They probably didn’t even know they were trans, just that they felt “wrong”
Suddenly the internet exists and theres trans people all over the world like you’re talking about and theres support and so “suddenly” theres trans kids here, when ten years ago no one even knew what that was.
I’m so thankful for the internet, and for people like you, who can bring everyones attention to the fact that trans people are not alone, theres so many of them. They only feel alone cause they were born here, where people make them feel like they don’t belong.
Yeah though I think there are people if you go back a few generations who probably could have told you about "the two gentlemen" who lived together with a look or "the man who wore a dress but...
Yeah though I think there are people if you go back a few generations who probably could have told you about "the two gentlemen" who lived together with a look or "the man who wore a dress but that's just how he was, he didn't bother no one"
But when people stop seeing "different" people as people they stop caring about them. I'm glad I can help at least.
I don't have much more to say. To beg for basic dignity while being told how disgusting you are is not unique to the trans experience, but it definitely is, currently, the trans experience. And it's why I personally do not tolerate the "we must give up on basic human rights for trans people" complaint of the centrists.
Lia deserved better.
That goes for everyone here too. You are valued and appreciated, and there are many of us that feel that way.
Ive lost count of how many times Ive had this conversation:
Them: Why are there so many trans people now?
Me: Because some of them stopped killing themselves while they were still children.
Because for a second we had opened our society up to their existence and allowed them to try to be their true selves.
Only to swiftly take it away for no reason.
Also, trans people have always been around. Showing up in different cultures in different ways, some open and others undercover but still always existing.
Sure but the people I end up having this conversation with don’t understand that theres any culture besides white christian southern culture.
They at least are actually asking the question, and I like engaging with that on their terms - cause the next question to your point is well, why only other cultures?
To be clear, I didn't say only in "other" cultures and wasn't implying trans folks only show up "elsewhere" by any means. From the Public Universal Friend to Thomas/ine Hall, we can find trans (and intersex and GNC) people in the "United States" since the colonizers named it such (and much earlier on Turtle Island in general in the various ways different tribes identified the category called two spirit)
But yes I take your point. I just like to broaden my response beyond that initial step. The Public Universal Friend was a preacher after all.
Down here, it really wasn’t a thing anyone had ever heard of. Its kind of like meeting a full blood Native American, or someone from Australia. Everyone knows they exist but no one has ever met one and no one knows anything about what they’re like.
The younger ones like me who venture into the city on occasion have met all kinds of people, but the old folks who retired from working at the textile mill that shut down in the 90s, they’re like, what on Earth is happening to kids these days, so and sos kid has a friend who dresses like a GIRL
When they ask me “why are all these trans people here” they mean like, here, suddenly, in our town where people don’t do that sort of thing.
Around here, trans kids killed themselves before graduating high school. They probably didn’t even know they were trans, just that they felt “wrong”
Suddenly the internet exists and theres trans people all over the world like you’re talking about and theres support and so “suddenly” theres trans kids here, when ten years ago no one even knew what that was.
I’m so thankful for the internet, and for people like you, who can bring everyones attention to the fact that trans people are not alone, theres so many of them. They only feel alone cause they were born here, where people make them feel like they don’t belong.
Yeah though I think there are people if you go back a few generations who probably could have told you about "the two gentlemen" who lived together with a look or "the man who wore a dress but that's just how he was, he didn't bother no one"
But when people stop seeing "different" people as people they stop caring about them. I'm glad I can help at least.