Decisions

The Supreme Court ruled in US v. Skrmetti that the state of Tennessee is allowed to ban gender-affirming care for minors. The plain outcome is bad (trans health care bans for minors are legal). The implications are even worse (who's to say you can't ban trans health care for everyone in a given state? What's stopping Congress from trying to enact such a ban nationwide?).

And worst – from a legal perspective – multiple justices outright stated that discrimination against trans people is fine (either because we haven't been discriminated against enough in the past), but the entire majority opinion rests on the notion that trans people are not a "suspect" class in terms of the law, and therefore states only need a "rational basis" for their laws oppressing them.

It's bad, y'all.

There's some pyrrhic fun to be had in cherry-picking the Court's stupider lines of "logic":

Roberts also rebuffed the challengers’ assertion that the Tennessee law, by “encouraging minors to appreciate their sex” and barring medical care “that might encourage minors to become disdainful of their sex,” “enforces a government preference that people conform to expectations about their sex.”

But it's decidedly less than the overwhelming fear and anxiety that arose in me when this was announced.

I'm going to state this very clearly: My first thought was, for my safety, I should leave the country. And I'm stating right now that anyone who does so is making a logical decision to ensure their continued wellbeing.

The executive and legislative branches now have all but full clearance from the Supreme Court to treat trans individuals as sub-citizens. We can have our medical decisions dictated for us by statute, and there's really very little logic stopping them from enacting all sorts of rules that now need only survive rational basis scrutiny – a particularly wishy-washy standard in light of the Court's ignoring or outright inventing facts and precedents to support their desired outcomes.

I’ve read at least one piece that argues against what is described as “catastrophizing.” From the perspective of not wanting people to give up the fight before it’s begun, I absolutely agree. If it’s an exhortation to rally, I’m all for it.

But I don’t want to ignore reality.

The article harkens to Stonewall, Compton and Cooper Donuts, but those are cited as tragic marks on a trail toward the perceived “good” we have it now (or had it before Trump II). There’s an implicit assumption of the notion that arc of history bends toward progress.

That’s not particularly helpful to individuals, or even groups at any given point in time.

We are spoiled, as Americans (and, more broadly, the West) in our political and historical stability post-WWII. We have not seen long periods of want or famine, and life has generally gotten better year-over-year, or at least generation over generation.

We have not (until recently) seen what happens when people collectively are gripped (or engulfed) by fear. Fear of losing what they have, fear of losing their social standing, fear that their lives as they know it are no longer possible.

But we’re seeing it now, especially on the American right. The elderly see that their retirement savings and Social Security payments no longer stretch as far as they once did, or were imagined to. Everyone sees higher prices on every possible item or service, and imagines or lives through the reality of being forced to move for economic reasons, rather than by choice.

Fear is a powerful motivator. When you’re overworked and stressed and concerned about your livelihood, you might not have the inclination or ability to do your research on claims about who’s responsible or plans that promise to fix a nebulous problem.

And there are those who will, who have, taken advantage of that.

So when I hear calls to just fight on, that our victories were forged in defeat, or most damningly:

“I do suspect they knew what we could stand to remember: you can’t burn us all.”

They can certainly fucking try. “You can’t burn us all” is not empirically correct, which is why the term “genocide” exists. And there are certainly those on the right who would certainly take it in the form of a challenge.

I don’t say this to alarm. This doesn’t mean we should give up, or live cowering in fear.

But It is important to be cognizant of the choices we make, to consider the rational possibilities, instead of comforting ourselves in aphorism. To not vilify or try to convince people that fighting for a just future courts no danger in the present.

I believe that staying is definitely a more dangerous move than leaving, at this point. But I also decided to stay, willingly, weighing everything and figuring that this is the better path for me. It is not without concern or worry; it is a decision, and a tough one, nonetheless.