It Is Past Time to Take Trans Persecution Seriously

Trans people are being persecuted in this country, and I need you to say so publicly and act accordingly. In 2025 alone, 126 anti-trans bills were signed into law. Kansas revoked trans residents' driver's licenses. Bills are moving to send trans women to men's prisons. The Lemkin Institute — the organization founded to track genocide — has issued red flag alerts about early-stage genocide against trans people in the United States. This is not a culture war skirmish. It is a systematic campaign to erase a population from public life. Read what trans people themselves are documenting: https://thaliavacha.substack.com/p/we-will-find-you-and-we-will-kill The consequences are already forcing people out of the country. The 2026 White House Counterterrorism Strategy identifies "radically pro-transgender" groups as targets for neutralization. Executive orders now legally deny the existence of trans identity. Trans academics, writers, and advocates are making the same calculation as dissidents in authoritarian states: leave now, or risk indefinite detention. That is not hyperbole. That is the rational conclusion of watching Mahmoud Khalil arrested without a warrant and Rümeysa Öztürk kidnapped off a sidewalk. Name what is happening, introduce or co-sponsor legislation protecting trans people from state-sanctioned discrimination and detention, and oppose any policy that treats gender identity as grounds for targeting by law enforcement or immigration authorities. Silence from elected officials is not neutrality — it is permission.