Politicians’ attacks on minority of LGBT Missourians are an attempt to control us all | Opinion
Kansas City is having a moment. We are about to become the first Midwestern city to host a World Cup match. The New York Times listed us as one of 52 places in the world to visit in 2024. And the eyes of America will be on us as the Chiefs head to their fourth Super Bowl in five years.
But despite all the good news, I am scared for the future of Kansas City for one big reason: legislation in Kansas and Missouri specifically targeting trans and gender-nonconforming people.
Confusion and hatred toward LGBT people is sweeping statehouses across the country. Florida and Utah made the biggest headlines this month with their anti-trans bills, but the epicenter for transphobic legislation in 2024 might be Jefferson City, where seven bills were recently introduced in a single day aiming to restrict public freedoms for transgender people. This contributes to a breathtaking 40-plus anti-trans bills on the 2024 docket. Gov. Mike Parson already signed severe restrictions on gender-affirming care and trans athletes into law in June 2023, sending LGBT Missourians a twisted Pride Month Hallmark card.
Anti-trans hatred is so potent that even Chiefs tight end and America’s boyfriend Travis Kelce took heat last summer simply for appearing in an ad for Bud Light — a brand that merely sent transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney a few cans of beer, as it does for uncountable other social media celebrities.
It is estimated that 0.5% to 1.5% of the total U.S. population identifies as transgender. But members of the Missouri legislature would have you believe that our public bathrooms, schools and athletic fields are absolutely overrun with them. To me, their fears sound like a blissful utopia — but it simply isn’t reality.
Among the legislation proposed in Missouri in 2024 are laws to bar trans students and adults from using restrooms associated with their gender identity, both at schools and in private workplaces. Another bill would eliminate the existence of gender neutral bathrooms in schools. The proposed rules effectively give trans people of all ages nowhere to relieve themselves at school or work, unless they conceal their true gender identity. This is exactly the point: to bully and intimidate trans people into hiding themselves by targeting basic human needs. We all have to go to the restroom.
Another proposed bill would protect health care workers who discriminate against trans patients seeking gender-affirming care — giving legal cover to a pharmacist who doesn’t want to fill a prescription for a trans person, for example. To further restrict civil rights of a population who are lean in numbers and at high risk of violence is at best state-imposed bullying, and at worst a malicious effort to control or eradicate an entire demographic.
But what most upsets me, and should bother anyone reading this, is the absurd effort to control gender expression for all people, trans or cisgender alike.
Think for a moment how trans bathroom or athletic bans must be enforced. A concerned citizen must first identify a trans or gender-nonconforming person in public. The enforceability of such laws is entirely dependent on deputizing our neighbors to inspect one another’s gender expressions, policing the so-called “right way” to present oneself as male or female.
The Star’s editorial board rightly defended Travis Kelce for refusing to bow to hate and appear in that Bud Light ad, but we need more support from our local stars. Missouri legislators want to strip civil rights from trans and nonbinary people. It’s not exaggerating to say this is a crisis moment, and it is no longer enough for this minority of Missourians to speak up for themselves. We need powerful allies.
LGBT Kansas Citians will be rooting for the Chiefs on Sunday, but will America’s team be rooting for us? To quote a song by honorary Kansas Citian Taylor Swift, it’s time to “Speak Now.”
Alex Murfey is a freelance TV producer whose credits include three seasons of the Emmy award-winning “Queer Eye.” A graduate of Bishop Miege High School, he splits his time between Kansas City and Brooklyn, New York.
