With our political landscape increasingly hostile to transgender rights, this episode featuring Kay Brown and Mia Hutchinson provides a poignant exploration of the ongoing struggles faced by transgender individuals. Kay sets the stage by noting the alarming rise in anti-trans rhetoric and policies under the Trump administration, framing the discussion around the systematic discrimination that has permeated various aspects of society, from healthcare to education. Mia, who serves as the Community Engagement Manager at the Transgender Health and Wellness Center, shares her personal transition story, highlighting the challenges and triumphs she encountered along the way. Her insights offer a window into the lived experiences of many in the transgender community, underscoring the importance of empathy and understanding. Mia speaks passionately about the mission of her organization, which is dedicated to providing gender-affirming care and support for transgender individuals. The center’s services are crucial not only for the TGI community but for anyone in need of assistance with mental health and social services. As the conversation progresses, Mia addresses the legislative landscape affecting transgender rights, especially focusing on Executive Order 14168, which she explains has legally stripped transgender identities of their recognition, leading to a cascade of negative consequences, including cuts to vital funding for housing and healthcare. The discussion also touches upon the ramifications of restrictive laws passed in states like Kansas, which have not only undermined the rights of transgender individuals but have also set a dangerous precedent for other states to follow. The episode concludes with a strong call to action for allies, encouraging them to amplify transgender voices and advocate for equality. Mia emphasizes that the fight for trans rights is intertwined with the broader struggle for human rights, inviting listeners to recognize their role in supporting marginalized communities. This episode is not just a reflection on the current state of transgender rights; it’s an urgent plea for solidarity and action in the face of adversity.

Takeaways:

• The Trump administration's policies have significantly undermined transgender rights, impacting various aspects of life.
• Mia Hutchinson emphasizes the importance of gender-affirming care for mental health and well-being in transgender youth.
• Kansas' recent restrictive laws threaten trans individuals, forcing changes to identification and imposing severe penalties.
• Allies can play a crucial role in advocating for trans rights by using their platforms to amplify marginalized voices.
• Transgender individuals make up about 1% of the population, yet they face disproportionate discrimination and challenges.
• The ongoing legal battles surrounding parental rights and student privacy in schools could set dangerous precedents for trans youth safety.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Transgender Health and Wellness Center

Mentioned in this episode:

Andrea Garcia for Judge

The Riverside County Democratic Party proudly endorses Andrea Garcia for Superior Court Judge, Seat 10

Hello and welcome to Democracy on Fire.

Attacks on transgender individuals are increasing, and today we'll be looking at what Trump and MAGA have done and are doing to enshrine discrimination against transgender people.

Throughout our laws, policies, schools, hospitals, really through all of society.

They are blatantly fanning the flames of transphobia.

My guest is Mia Hutchinson, the Community Engagement Manager at Transgender Health and Wellness Center.

She's a dedicated advocate for the protection and advancement of transgender rights.

She works to expand visibility, safety, and equity for transgender and gender diverse communities.

In addition to her advocacy work, Mia is a Palm Springs based performer who uses her platform to elevate conversations, conversations around trans visibility and community empowerment.

Thank you so much for joining me, Mia.

I'm looking forward to getting your insights.

Yes, thank you so much for having me, Kay.

I really appreciate the opportunity to share this information about what's going on, attacking our community.

Great.

Thank you so much.

I understand that you are a transgender woman.

Tell me a little bit about your experience.

What was it like to go through that transition?

Yeah, I am a trans woman.

My pronouns are she, her.

My experience with transition was fairly positive for the most part.

I did transition a little later in life, but I luckily did start my transition prior to this administration.

So I think that that helped make things a little more easy as far as navigating the insur and medical aspect of transition.

I also do think that at the beginning of my transition, I felt that the social aspect was a lot easier too.

It's intensified with this administration where I do feel like there's a change in the kind of air as far as how you're treated as a trans person.

Tell me about the Transgender Health and Wellness center and your role there.

Who are you serving and what exactly does the center do?

We serve primarily the TGI community, which is transgender diverse or gender non conforming and intersex.

However, our services are available to anybody within the community that may be of need.

Our focus is on gender affirming care as far as hair removal.

So we offer laser and electrolysis.

We also offer mental health services, and that includes some insurance navigation.

So that would be getting letters for surgeries or authorizations for different things.

And then we also have navigators and community health workers which help navigate either insurance, housing, employment, all sorts of social service needs.

And I am the community engagement manager.

I oversee the navigation outreach and community health worker department.

What motivated you to get involved in trans advocacy?

What motivated me was losing my mother.

She passed away and my whole life changed.

So.

So I recognized that I needed to connect to something bigger and more important.

And I really needed community and structure at that time too, because I had lost such a significant family member when I first got started.

I didn't think that it would lead to as much advocacy and as much passion as I have today.

Can you.

Can you explain what transgender identity is and how common is it that someone perceives themselves to be a different gender than what they were assigned at birth?

Yeah, of course.

So transgender identity in general refers to when your gender identity does not match the sex assigned at birth.

Um, transgender also includes, typically, we include TGI as part of that population because so many of us have similar experiences, either socially or medically, and that would be transgender, gender non conforming, or intersex.

A lot of us have to navigate the same medical field or go through the same processes in order to kind of transition our gender.

Trans people only make up about 1% of the population, so we're not a huge, significant portion of the population.

However, we do exist.

We have historically always existed.

I think that medical transition is kind of what we think about nowadays, which is obviously something newer, but.

But the concept of gender non conforming people and intersex bodies, those have existed since the dawn of time.

Let's talk a bit about how the Trump administration is waging war on trans people.

In a presentation I heard you give recently, you listed a number of policy and legal things that were going on.

Let's go through some of those.

Let's talk about the executive order that Trump issued when he first took office.

Yes, absolutely.

And that order essentially erased transgender as a definition and replaced it with gender ideology.

So, in a sense, transgender people no longer exist legally under this executive order.

We are an ideology, and it is now kind of being positioned that that ideology is threatening to the administration and to the powers that be, essentially.

But we've seen that executive order then be taken and pushed further, because now anything that is related to transgender or gender ideology as it's labeled by this administration, is no longer allowed to get federal funding of any sorts.

That's affected our housing funding significantly.

We lost significant amount of money that was not only helping the trans community, but also the CIS population.

Did they cut out money that used to be going to transgender people or LGBTQ people for housing?

Correct.

We have seen federal funding in regards to housing being cut completely.

We've even seen funding for HIV and AIDS related projects get cut significantly.

That also has affected housing significantly when it comes to the LGBT community population.

And unfortunately, it hasn't just stopped at housing.

We see attacks on youth, we're starting to see attacks on or potential risks of loss of medical access.

We're seeing a lot of complications with name and gender changes, passports, all sorts of issues.

So it's not just the housing that this has affected, it's affected trans people's lives significantly.

So you mentioned passports.

Let's just think about that for a moment.

The situation is that now passports cannot or they must be either male or female.

Is my understanding, Is that correct?

Correct.

They must be.

How does that affect people's international travel in particular?

Yeah, so they, they must be either male or female.

So this completely eliminates non binary identifying gender marker, but it also is not just male or female determined by your gender identity.

It is based upon sex assigned at birth.

A lot of people who are requesting name and gender changes after the administration, there's really no way for them to change their sex gender marker at the federal level, whereas previously we were able to update our gender marker with the Social Security Administration, therefore making it a little easier for passports and all of that to be aligned with our gender identity.

The issue now is that particularly if we have trans people that have updated gender markers on their state identification, but their passport does not match, there can be a lot of issues with travel.

We're also seeing people who have previously had their gender marker updated to reflect their gender identity, and now passports have been reissued with their sex assigned at birth.

So that's another kind of issue that's also coming up.

And again, it really limits travel for trans people because it's a safety issue.

When your identification documents do not match, you are at risk of all sorts of issues, from legal to just social safety, being in public, those sorts of things.

I understand that Kansas recently or a few years ago passed a bill that is quite restrictive and does a lot of things that are undesirable from your point of view.

Can you talk a little bit about that bill and what the implications of it are and how that is spreading into other states?

Absolutely.

So Kansas passed SB244, which was a bill that automatically changed trans people's identification, their driver's license, back to their sex assigned at birth.

It revoked their current licenses, which had their correct gender identity on them, and they are being forcibly replaced with sex assigned at birth.

The complication there in this whole thing is of course, by immediately revoking these driver's license, it makes it illegal for them to drive with those licenses.

Additionally, we have worries of voter issues, actually, because you do need identification in order to vote.

So we're kind of seeing it as a larger threat, I think, than just at the level of like not being able to drive.

It's a threat to also travel.

This is taking it another step beyond the passport issue, because if people don't even have a driver's license, it limits their travel even further.

This is something to be taken seriously because this could be replicated in other states that have similar positions on trans rights.

And what kind of penalties were part of that law.

So I do know that that law included a bounty penalty.

So this included some language in there about bathroom usage as well.

So trans people's bathroom usage has been limited.

And if a person knows that a trans person has used the restroom that does not align with their sex assignment birth, they can sued, I believe, for up to $10,000.

So it's really attacking trans people at multiple levels because I think that at the first instance we just see the driver's license issue.

But when you really start to dig through what else is in that law, they're kind of packing it with other anti trans rhetoric.

And so has this law been challenged?

Is it set in stone that it's going to be there?

You know, I believe they are challenging it.

Yes, I'm sure they are challenging it.

Obviously, my complete knowledge of what's going on with that is somewhat limited.

We're really trying to make sure that the this doesn't happen here in California or that we can kind of protect the rights we do have here in California, because as I've said, we've even seen loss of funding that really protects our community.

The last thing that we want to see is further attacks on our rights, which then can really limit access and the life that we all deserve to live.

Right, right, I understand.

The lawsuit, Mirabella Mirabelli vs. Banta, challenges California school policies requiring staff to withhold a student's gender identity from parents unless the student consents.

And that that case is going on right now, but hasn't been totally resolved, but is a very significant one.

They could have national implications on parental notifications, student privacy, how gender identity is handled in the schools.

And, um, and just wondering if you have any comments about that litigation.

Yeah, of course, I Mean these sorts of lawsuits, they, they, they set precedents.

Right?

So when we see when these things are being upheld, then they can be replicated at a larger scale.

The issue with this law, for me as a trans person, is that it significantly impacts the safety of the trans student or gender non conforming student, because the school system does not know necessarily the home life, and when it is law, that it's required reporting gender identity to the family, you're potentially putting that child at risk.

I do think that in this specific case, they should be putting child safety above parental rights purely because we see how many trans youth are verbally, physically, sexually assaulted, even within the family unit.

We see how many trans youth end up unhoused, facing having to travel to different states, even to kind of relocate, find community.

There is more to it than just parental rights, in my opinion.

Parental rights are important.

I completely respect that.

I think that those should be protected.

But I also feel like the individual right of the child and the child safety outweighs the parental right when it comes to gender identity.

Well, there seems to be a lot of efforts at the federal level to undermine gender affirming care for youth, for minors.

There was that series of regulatory actions that the Department of Health and Social Services announced recently to say they were going to outlaw or restrict puberty blockers, hormone therapy, surgical interventions for transgender youth, including cutting off federal funds, Medicaid and Medicare for hospitals that provide gender affirming care to minors, and prohibiting federal dollars from being used for such procedures.

I don't know whether that's taken effect yet.

I know it takes years sometimes for those regulations, but the effects of it may already be being felt as the risk increases to those providers.

How does the gender affirming care impact the lives of youth, and what would be the effects if that were cut off?

Yeah, so gender affirming care, be it youth or adult, is extremely impactful.

So it is a medical care.

It's set by medical professionals.

They have done extensive years and years and years of this, of research, of knowing the right process for gender affirming care.

Essentially, gender affirming care treats gender dysphoria.

And gender dysphoria is something that often trans people experience, which is associated with your body and your sex assigned at birth, not really aligning with your gender identity.

So it causes some, as I say, dysphoria, which is related to issues of, you know, depression, anxiety, stress, all of those things.

So essentially it's a mental health care as well, to make sure that we are taking care of trans People making sure that they can live the fullest lives possible.

Part of that is making sure that they have access to mental health care.

And as trans people, gender affirming care is just part of our medical care process.

We've seen significant improvements in mental health when we have access to gender affirming care.

That is why it exists, because it actually does the job.

Unfortunately, as we know, youth already struggle so much with mental health in regard to depression, stress, anxiety.

Those are very common issues for youth.

Those are very common issues associated with growth in adolescence and that period of life.

How can allies best help support the trans community?

I think the allies can best support the trans community by truly being our voice in maybe situations that we aren't present in.

It's like I said, we're only about 1% of the population, right?

But what do we hear?

Constantly anti trans rhetoric on the news, all this legislation, all these things that are around us.

So, so much talk about transgender identity.

I think that allies, if they could be a voice for trans people, advocate for them, educate other people about what the trans experience is, maybe educate how these laws are affecting the trans community, go to these maybe political rallies or meet politicians, meet people who are running for office and tell them how important trans rights are to you as a cisgendered ally.

Because I will be frank, most trans people do not have access to that world, and they never will.

And it's very important for allies to truly use their privilege, their platform, their.

Their access to better all of us.

Because at the end of the day, this is about trans rights.

But we should be protecting equal rights for all.

That's what should be something that's on all of our minds as Americans.

We should be protecting equal rights.

That's what it's really about.

Our struggle is your struggle.

So if we can get allies to see that, I think that it would do so much for our community, it would heal so much that of the damage that has been done by others.

And I think it would really be that olive branch that our community needs in this time that is so uncertain.

Thank you so much, Mia, for your insights and your comments.

I agree with you.

Our transgender neighbors are just the tip of the spear that Trump and Maga intend to come after.

And they are using discrimination against transgender youth and individuals as a starting point for broader discrimination against all LGBTQ people.

And after that, they'll move on to non white people and non Christians and uppity women and whoever else doesn't agree with them.

So let's not be silent and among those who look back and say, they came for my neighbor and I did nothing.

We need to speak out.

Transgender lives matter.

Transgender individuals should receive equal rights, full rights, and benefits, and be treated with respect and compassion.

Well, thanks for listening and for staying engaged in a moment that demands it.

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