Transgender: Reactions reflect ignorance, fear

Creepiness and ignorance abound – among those legislators in South Dakota and Virginia who want children to have genital inspections before they play sports (by whom, one wonders) and, closer to home, among those people in Washington state who are confusing the apparent presence or absence of certain body parts with proof positive of indisputable “maleness” or “femaleness.”

It seems as if transgender people have become proxies for larger insecurities about changes now occurring in our society and culture. Thus the fear about “them” and the ignorant assumption that “they” pose a danger to “us” and “ours” lead to talk of policing and patrolling people who are actually at great risk for injury and even death by violence, suicide and murder.

If I were the mother of a transgender child, even an adult child, I would fear every day for my child’s life.

This story was originally published February 25, 2016 at 11:41 AM with the headline "Transgender: Reactions reflect ignorance, fear."