Boiseans protest house bill targeting trans youth

Protestors gathered outside Boise City Hall on Saturday, March 4, to rally against H.B. 71, which would ban minors from getting gender-affirming health care. 

H.B. 71, titled as the Genital Mutilation of a Child Bill, bans all forms of gender-affirming care for minors, including hormone therapy and puberty blockers in Idaho. 

H.B. 71 is just one bill in the recent wave of anti-trans legislation sweeping Idaho and the nation. In the last two months, two other Idaho bills have targeted gender non-conforming individuals. 

The Party For Socialism and Liberation (PSL) held a protest against H.B. 71 to show support for trans youth. Morrighan Nyx, an organizer for the PSL, has been expecting a bill like H.B. 71 ever since a similar bill, H.B. 675, failed last year.

“We’re seeing a campaign like this nationwide passing bills just like this,” Nyx said. “So we had to keep a very close eye on it.”

According to Nyx, the far right is branding the bill as “child mutilation” in order to manufacture fear and outrage as an excuse to target trans people.

“It’s the initiation of conversation about which groups deserve rights, which we’ve seen very similar with the attacks on abortion rights,” Nyx said. “The right wing uses fear mongering and scare tactics to pass more and more restrictive bans until these rights are stripped away completely.”

Nyx believes that this is just one of the first steps to strip away rights of those in the LGBTQ community. Nyx said the key to protecting LGBTQ rights is interconnected with protecting all other minority rights. 

“The rights of women and trans people and LGBTQ people are being attacked all by the same group,” Nyx said. “It’s all by not just the right wing, but the capitalist class.”

For Nyx, a trans woman, the struggle of being targeted by policy makers is something she can empathize with. In her experience, being targeted by such legislation is difficult and emotionally intense.

“These attacks happening all at once are meant to exhaust people, meant to make people feel hopeless,” Nyx said, “But when we fight, we win. If we dare to struggle, we dare to win.”

Nyx encouraged trans youth to get involved in local organizations, such as the PSL, and to get out and protest. The Party for Socialism and Liberation will continue monitoring legislation across the country and organizing protests like the one that took place on March 4.

One protestor, Matthew Bridgeman, a Boise State freshman majoring in Games Interactive Media and Mobile Technology, fears that this bill is only the beginning. 

“It’s a slippery slope towards criminalizing anything they don’t like,” Bridgeman said. 

H.B. 231, also known as the Sexual Explication bill, propagates the trend of criminalizing gender non-conformance by defining drag as sexually explicit, which makes it possible for citizens to sue organizers of events that hire drag performers if the event has children present. 

Gray Kinsley, a local drag performer, joined the drag community after their own failed suicide attempt. 

“They accepted me as their own,” Kinsley said. “I have never felt so welcomed and so supported in a community of people as I had been in the drag community.”

Suicide rates are disproportionately high in trans children comapred to their cisgendered counter parts. According to the Journal of American Medical Association, suicide rates drop 73% when young trans people receive gender-affirming medical care.

This bill would prevent children from receiving gender-affirming care, under the guise of child mutilation. The bill doesn’t just target gender-affirming surgeries, which are already banned for minors, but also all other forms of gender-affirming care. This includes safe and reversible treatments, such as hormone therapy and puberty blockers. 

Kanan Kadin Tuttle, a local 16-year-old activist and trans man, was one of the over 100 protestors who showed up to make their voices heard. 

“It’s not just for me, not just because it would affect my transition and prevent me from living my life how I deserve to live it,” Tuttle said. “I deserve to live it as me. But it would affect all of the trans kids.”

Tuttle and other activists worry this legislation could cause suicide rates to rise among Idaho’s trans youth. According to Tuttle, this legislation could be a devastating blow to those who are already struggling with their gender identity. 

“I was forced to live a life of someone who I’m not. I couldn’t do it, honestly because it’s not a matter of a choice … It’s who I am,” said Tuttle, “(This bill) would hurt children more than it would ever, ever help them.”

Tuttle described how the recent wave of anti-trans sentiment has made him feel unsafe in his own community. According to Tuttle, the knowledge that he has neighbors in support of this bill who hold transphobic beliefs is enough to cause immense anxiety and panic attacks. Tuttle now takes his dog with him when going on walks and tries to stay close to home.

“When the people in power are against you, and you fear for your life,” Tuttle said. “We should be able to walk around our own neighborhood without having to fear for our lives.”

Despite this, Tuttle said seeing pride flags in downtown Boise and seeing the support of others at the protest gives him hope. 

“For any trans kid out there, you’re not alone. We’re gonna get through this,” Tuttle said. “This isn’t the end. And even if you can’t actively fight if you can’t be out here at the rallies, that’s okay. Because you’re fighting for yourself, just by existing and I’m proud of you.”