Trump Attempts to Erase Trans History

Speaker 1 [00:00:08] Hey TransLash fam, this is The Mess, Imara’s guide to our political hellscape. And that’s me, Imarra. Well, The Mess has continued beyond the stock market. They’re still going after trans people with everything that they’ve got. It’s been a wide and wide-ranging couple of weeks. So it’s hard to figure out exactly where you’re going to start, but we’ve narrowed it down for you so that you don’t have to sort through all the mess by yourself. And the three topics we’re going to be taking on today are, first, threats from the White House, made real, to pull funding from the yet-to-open American Women’s History Museum at the Smithsonian, if for some reason it celebrates the contributions of trans women. After that, we’ll talk about the Trump administration using its power to force the National Institutes of Health to study detransition and transition regret. And last up, we’ll talk about the assault on teachers. who support trans kids in their classroom. Now, as always, this was recorded before you’re hearing it, so it’s possible that things may have changed by the time that the show gets to your ears. So, now you know why, if indeed it does. And the way things are going, we know that it will. Also, I’m recording not in studio while on the road, so if you hear a slight audio change, now, you know, why. Okay, with that, let’s get messy.

Speaker 2 [00:01:38] President Trump signed an executive order promising to eliminate programs that promote what he calls divisive narratives and improper ideology from the Smithsonian. The president claims there has been a, quote, concerted and widespread effort to rewrite American history. The executive order specifically names the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Women’s History Museum, which is in development. Federal funding for Smithsonian programs that are not in line with the administration’s goals could be cut.

Speaker 1 [00:02:06] That clip was from ABC Local 5 News in Iowa. Now we mentioned at the top of the show that this museum would be a part of the Smithsonian, the nation’s preeminent series of museums covering all types of history and cultures in the United States. Now the executive order not only would target this future museum, but targets the current African American History Museum. covers things like slavery, which according to this particular executive order would be, quote, a divisive narrative, close quote. Now, sadly, the head of that museum has resigned, left his post because he understands that there’s no way to tell American history without talking about divisive narratives and the other thing that they labeled was improper ideology. The same, of course, would be true for the Women’s History Museum. We know that, for example, the National Park Service took down a history of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad and anything mentioning slavery in a negative light and a recounting of the Underground Railroad. Now, that got put back up after a public outcry, but you can see where this is going. And we know that, of course, a part of the divisive ideology would be anything covering the history of trans people in this country. And as you all know, we spent a lot of time this year talking about various figures from trans history in the United States, some of which go back to the 1790s. So it would be really hard to talk holistically about the history of women in the Unites States without talking about trans people and trans women. But we know of course that what authoritarian and regimes with fascist aspirations do is that they immediately try to seize control of history, culture, and education. Why? Because they understand that the narrative about who the country is, is directly related to them being able to implement their vision in the present. So if they are able to erase things that they don’t like about history and move it in the direction that they want to say that there were no quote divisive narratives, there weren’t any of these people in the past, everything was fine, then it allows them to erase people in present, which is what this is about. And we’ll just have to see how far they are able to get. away with this, but it clearly is a worrying sign and just goes to the point that we keep making here over and over that you can’t separate the targeting of trans people from the largest fascist designs that the administration has for the country. And nothing signifies that better than it’s assault on trans women and the history of women in a museum that hasn’t even been officially created yet, but they want to get an early start. and of course, reverse the history as it’s being told in the African-American History Museum Project, both of which are terribly sad. Regardless, all of this is just a museum-mile mess. Next up today is the Trump administration demanding research, and I use that word in quotes, into de-transition and transition regret for trans people. Now, as reported in Nature, you know, Nature Magazine, which likes to cover all things science, like real science, the Trump Administration has directed the National Institutes of Health to scientifically discover something that doesn’t have a basis in scientific fact. That is, quote, transition regret and de-transition. Now, we know that people do de-Transition, but the vast majority of people who do deTransition do so because of social pressures or the inability to earn a living or the ability to be able to live safely where you are. Now, We’re not talking about people who speed up or slow down or change their transitions. People do that all the time, but people who actually commit to de- Transitioning. And we know that it is a relatively small group of people, even though all of those reasons are valid reasons because people are people and get to make their own choices. That’s what we understand fundamentally as trans people. But transition regret is something that essentially really doesn’t exist. People who say that they are satisfied with their transition and their lives have been better as a result of transition, when you survey trans people, are around 90. and in certain surveys, north of 90%, like the vast majority of people feel good about transitioning. So what’s fascinating is that they’re being asked to study something which essentially, if you apply scientific rigor on top of it, is really, really, really hard to discern. But the whole point of this is one, to uplift stories and narratives that undermine the idea that trans people are real. And we went into this in great detail in season two. of the anti-trans hate machine where we studied the way in which pseudoscience and the uplifting of stories, some of which were cultivated with a lot of intent by not necessarily people with the best of intentions, is a part of this entire project. So that’s one of the things that they are doing here. The second thing that they’re doing here is to muddy the idea of what science is, that science can be mucked with people just because of the ideology that they have. and they will probably be looking for people who are willing to give them the answers that they want to have in order to just undermine the idea that science is real. Because the whole point of living in a society in which one person or a small group of people get to drive their for the rest of society is to change the idea of reality. If you can undermine the idea that entire groups of people exist, and if you can undermined the idea that there is an evidence-based approach to learning things, then you get to define what really matters and what reality is, which is what is so disturbing about this. And again, they’re using trans people to do this, but the implications are much, much broader, right? Like attack entire groups of people’s ability to exist and to be seen, attack the idea that there’s evidence- based approach to anything and… you can do anything, you can say anything, you can literally make things up. And this reminds me of the Voltaire quote, which I think about all the time and I’m gonna paraphrase it, but essentially it is, if I can get you to believe absurdities, I can you to commit atrocities. And the way that they are approaching this direction is about getting people to believe in absurdities. And the next step would be to allow them to commit atrocities. And all of this… is just a sickening mess. And last up today is the firing of a Florida teacher who is supporting a trans student in her classroom.

Speaker 3 [00:09:11] Melissa Calhoun, who was a teacher at Satellite High School, won’t have her contract renewed after using a student’s preferred name without parental permission. In a statement the district said, it supports the notion that parents are the primary decision-makers for children and cites a recent Florida law in its decision. Under the Parental Rights and Education law, teachers who use a student preferred name or pronouns without parental permissions can be fired and lose their certification. A Change.org petition asking to reinstate Calhoun has already garnered thousands of signatures.

Speaker 1 [00:09:44] That clip was from Central Florida Public Media. Now, as you heard there, Melissa Calhoun, who was a teacher at Satellite High School in Brevard County in Florida, was dismissed for using the preferred name of a trans student in her class rather than the name assigned at birth. Now, that’s one of the many things about being trans that have been criminalized in Florida. You can’t use… the preferred name, you have to use the name assigned at birth, and that is according to a 2023 law that was passed in Florida. And it’s one of the things that’s showing how we can begin again to further move into a fascist direction in this country when you can remove teachers. This teacher wasn’t disciplined or fined or any of those other things. They were removed for using someone’s preferred name. And that is a clear threat to teachers about the way in which you are prepared to enforce diktats from the state about anything involving the class and classroom. And normally teachers have had a lot of freedom because in order to teach in a democracy, you need to be able to allow teachers to have freedom in their classroom, to be be able teach in certain ways, to read certain students, to understand that every child is different and they need different things in order to be. connected to what they’re learning, and to be connected to the classroom. But that’s not what is being done here. What’s being done is the enforcement of a specific ideology that’s coming from the state in ways that is really, really harsh. Now, I’ve heard about teachers who’ve been targeted for doing this in various ways, but not a teacher who has been fired explicitly for doing so, and that’s because there’s a state law. We also learned that a young person in Florida recently who’s trans, who went to use the bathroom, that was aligned with her gender identity was arrested and could potentially spend time in jail and be prosecuted because of that. And Calhoun’s firing comes on the heels of yet the enforcement of another one of these types of laws in Florida where a university student, Marcy Reitgen, was arrested at the Florida State Capitol for using the bathroom, which aligned with their gender identity and could spend 60 days in jail after being prosecuted for doing so. So when you start to put these pieces together, you’re beginning to see the outlines of how oppression could work, not only in Florida, but across the country against trans people in some very, very specific ways. And it’s clear that this is the vision and the vision that they have. And all of this is even more shocking because Calhoun’s firing, the teacher who supported the trans student in their classroom, her firing is the first in the country where a teacher has been fired for using. a preferred name of a child. So all this continues to show how the clouds are darkening, but the most important thing is for us not to close our eyes, right? For us to be aware of what’s happening, to look at it squarely in the face so that when we see these things moving, we don’t dismiss them as individual incidents. We don’t just turn a blind eye. We understand what’s happened, which allows people to figure out what to do, right, because if you’re not making contact with the reality of the moment, it’s hard to figure out how to navigate and to create an open future for everyone, which is why we spend time on these topics in this show, because even though it’s really hard, we want to keep encouraging people to stay open and to keep our eyes open. And I know that’s why you all are listening. And I that everyone who is listening is sending Melissa Calhoun the best for being the type of ally that is willing to put it on the line. and for sadly having to endure this ABC mess. Well, that’s all we have time for today. Thank you for being a Translash fam subscriber and to stick with this as we were sorting through some very, very, messy and uncomfortable things today. If you like the show, it means so much to me. If you go to Apple Podcast and leave a review, you might just hear me read it out on the show. I’ll be backing your feed in a couple of weeks to sort through all of what comes up between now and then, and we know it’s gonna be more things that we can choose from, but we’ll do our best. I’m your host, Imara Jones. The show is produced by Aubrey Callaway with extra support this week from Rebecca Robinson. Xander Adams is our senior sound engineer and contributing producer. This episode was engineered by Lucy Little. Oliver-Ash Kleine oversees production as the director of podcast at TransLash Media. The show gets to your ears with the help of our social media team, including Morgan Asprey. And of course, this show is made possible by TransLash fam subscribers just like you. Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you soon.