Opinion: Ohio's bills about dehumanizing trans people not 'defending women's rights'

Lalitha Pamidigantam is Advocacy manager for YWCA Columbus. Mallory Golski is civic engagement and advocacy manager at Kaleidoscope Youth Center.

The dehumanization of transgender youth under the guise of “defending women’s rights” is a cowardly political stunt, a shameful attack against an already vulnerable population, and an insulting attempt at meeting the real needs of women and girls —  cisgender and transgender alike.

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For nearly 140 years, YWCA Columbus has been an expert in inclusive womanhood, providing housing and childcare services while advocating for the elimination of racism and empowerment of women.

Kaleidoscope Youth Center (KYC) has nearly 30 years of experience working to provide safer spaces, programming and leadership opportunities so LGBTQIA+ youth can be free to explore who they are, empowered to become their confident, truest selves, and thrive. Today, we are in solidarity against the slew of anti-trans attacks on our community.

We know that any women’s movement that is exclusive of trans women and girls is one that cannot reach full equity. Transgender women are women, and transgender girls are girls, and centering their voices and experiences in our work is paramount to achieving true justice.

Unfortunately, some Ohio legislators would like people to believe otherwise.

In the month of May alone, House Bill 6, which would ban transgender girls and women from competing in school sports, passed out of committee.

House Bill 8, which would require schools to “out” students to their parents and share other personal information — even if doing so could lead to abuse, abandonment and neglect — also received another committee hearing. House Bill 68 —  a bill to ban gender-affirming care for minors — is accompanied by the newest bill introduced to police the bodies of transgender youth, House Bill 183.

Proponents of these bills often falsely invoke the safety and sanctity of preserving girlhood and protecting women’s rights. Yet, our organizations are the ones who protect and preserve the sanctity and needs of all marginalized people. We see the devastating consequences of these extremist policies, which invite further vitriol into already high-risk young LGBTQIA+ lives.

Queer and transgender youth face high levels of depression and anxiety, and nearly one in three LGBTQIA+ youth say their mental health is poor “most of the time” or “always” due to anti-LGBTQ policies or legislation.

Half of transgender and nonbinary youth seriously considered attempting suicide during the past year, and LGBTQIA+ youth are 120% more likely to experience homelessness than their straight and cisgender peers, becoming part of an already overburdened public housing system. And the statistics worsen for BIPOC queer youth.

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In the words of one KYC youth, “There’s a housing crisis, there’s a queer youth housing crisis, and instead of meeting constituencies in vast swaths of these cities and rural spaces, which are actively being disenfranchised by a system that doesn’t support them, we’re focusing our attention on these issues that ultimately achieve nothing and benefit no one.”

The largest demographic of people experiencing homelessness are young people, and this crisis is worsening. Yet, instead of empathy and solutions, we see hatred and ignorance. Just last month, a group of Nazis protested outside of a drag brunch benefitting KYC – the latest in a series of armed outbursts against drag performances in our state.

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Transgender identities aren’t a contagion – transphobia is. And protecting the safety, wellbeing, and housing stability of transgender youth should be a goal shared by us all.

YWCA Columbus and KYC can’t eradicate the hate and disparities we see playing out in real-time alone. Combatting discrimination requires an intersectional perspective and unified approach. Now is the time for cisgender allies to show up.

Transgender young people are not trying to intrude on others’ lives. They simply want — and deserve — the opportunity to safely and authentically live their own. KYC and YWCA Columbus will simultaneously advocate for and continue supporting our youth until this becomes an unequivocal reality.

Lalitha Pamidigantam is advocacy manager for YWCA Columbus, and organization that works to defy the status quo that puts women, people of color, and the marginalized on unequal footing.

Mallory Golski is civic engagement and advocacy manager at Kaleidoscope Youth Center, Ohio’s largest and longest-serving organization solely dedicated to supporting LGBTQIA+ youth and young adults ages 12 to 24.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Discrimination toward transgender people has no place in Ohio.