HRC Request

Bon après-midi tous les membres respectés,

I’m not sure who I need to write to. I, along with countless other numbers of transgender youth, are in immediate danger.

I’m sure you are all aware of this by now. Idaho politicians have drafted and passed a bill through the House — ID HB 675. The bill makes its motives very clear, its purpose exists solely to target and destroy the lives of transgender youth. [You can read it here].

It states that providing and carrying out gender-affirming medical care to those who are transgender, including surgeries and hormonal replacement therapies, is a punishable crime up to the level of a felony. It also states that anyone attempting to get a trans kid out of the state in order to carry out these procedures, and indeed by extension, any trans youth or families attempting to flee the state in search of refuge and safety from this bill is also a felony.

Families of transgender youth, whether supportive or unsupportive, are all fully aware and are familiar with the amount of respect, time, delegation and scope of decisions it takes in order to raise their children. They have been involved, in any healthy way or any other unhealthy way, with the process of communication with their child and are fully aware of the countless hoops the local society has already built in order to disenfranchise the their transgender children from affirming their existence. The mere act of saying that families and children do not know what they are getting into is objectively false. Such statements were heard from the mouths of Republican proponents of the bill, responsible for passing it to the Idaho Senate by a near-party line — all but a single Republican voted in favor, save for only two who were absent.

This is genocidal. Politicians of this manner aim to further the creation of a system that exists solely to destroy the lives of highly substantial numbers of humans, ones who belong to the community they are supposed to draft laws for and are supposed to serve and protect fairly, based on this targeted minority group’s specific and identifiable factors. These Republicans are being led by the misinterpreted values of a religious system, acting solely on personal conviction, emotional manipulation and class privilege. They openly proclaim that one of the reasons they are forwarding this bill is that they view it as an extension of a pro-life argument. They openly proclaim that gender-affirming surgeries are mutilations of God’s creations, that they need to confirm the selective bias that folks’ biological bodies’ development from birth is not a mistake caused by the actions of a Creator, that such a problem exists in the minds and mental illness of a group of diseased people. They seek to define an outgroup so strongly and cast transgender individuals aside in order to rid the society they live in from their very existence. These politicians have not spoken with those in the field of medicine whose very occupation it is to conference with the subjects they intend to harm. They have not spoken with groups responsible for providing voices to the transgender individuals of Idaho. Irresponsible doesn’t even begin to describe the levels of neglect and incompetence prevalent amongst these politicians — one has to look no further than the ultracrepidarian wording throughout the bill to understand that these adults have no idea the depth and scale of what they are proposing. One has to look here alone, in their own wording, to realize that this is an admission that they intend to cause pure violence for their own benefit. They intend to sterilize Idahoan society from both the voices and existence of transgender citizens, in order to create a new generation of “pure” individuals — as Adolf Hitler did with direct action in the 30s, as Reagan did with negligence and force in the 80s. By objective fact, this is genocidal.

I write this to you, the HRC, because I am afraid. I am afraid for lives of my peers, my gay families, my friends, my loved ones... I write because I am scared and lost and I write to you because I am afraid for my own life. In light of your recent support and outward objections to the numerous anti-trans bills and “Don’t Say Gay” bills that have gaining traction in numerous states across the country, I call upon you for your help, for your support, for your action. We have the statistics and we know that denying healthcare for transgender youth raises suicide rates dramatically. This bill harms lives directly, and if it has perchance missed that target, then it instills mental anguish strong enough to continue its goal. This exists to kill people.

If I have written this to members who are not fit to carry out support and change society for the better, I understand. I’m still not really sure who to write this to. As a fellow friend, if this is the case then please direct me to other sources who can help — although I’m sure you all can do your best and I don’t mean to say your actions are meaningless. What you have done for the LGBTQ+ community throughout history is wordlessly, indescribably important. I simply write begging. I don’t know what to do. I am scared for my life, but I am not the only one.

Idaho desperately needs your help!

With love,
Layla Parker