New Missouri, Kansas laws affect transgender people’s lives. We need to talk about it | Opinion
On Sept. 26, American Public Square at Jewell will be hosting what may prove to be our most challenging program yet. With our partners at the Johnson County Library and Kansas City PBS, we will bring people together for the program “Exploring Gender and Identities: A conversation about rights and perceptions” in response to recent laws passed in Kansas and Missouri that impact the transgender community.
I am the executive director of American Public Square, an organization with a mission to improve the tone and quality of discourse in our community. We address many difficult issues through our public events — often moderated conversations that bring people together on different sides of the most contested social issues of our time. Just this year, we have hosted programs on topics including cancel culture, abortion and reparations, to name a few.
Our purpose is to hold space for respectful, fact-based dialogue as a means of healing divides. We do this not to change minds, but to deepen one another’s understanding of the very complex set of beliefs we all hold. We create opportunities for the community to come together and engage thoughtfully and respectfully with ideological opponents. Through this, we realize it is not only possible, but a worthy goal that changes us in the process.
We originally set out to host a gender identity program when it became clear that legislators in Kansas and Missouri were swiftly moving to create laws that significantly impact the rights and access of transgender people. Since that time, much of that legislation has been enacted, and people are beginning to feel the real impacts of these political actions.
The climate created by our regional politics is one where many trans people do not feel safe in their daily lives, let alone in a public forum. Planning this program has been a struggle, and it has been emotionally heavy. One of the most difficult things about this topic is that it is hard for most people to talk about, largely because it is deeply complex — medically, psychologically, emotionally and socially.
We have decided to take it on anyway because that’s what we do.
The purpose of this event is not to debate whether transgender people should or do exist. It is an acknowledgment of the real struggles communities are facing when balancing the rights and safety of trans people with the rights and safety of others around us, particularly women and minors.
We will continue to hope that the bills introduced and passed were not ill intended, but are evidence of concerned citizens who are taking action to address what they see as worrying trends. And we see and hear the transgender people and their allies who are feeling increasingly targeted, unsafe and unwelcome in our region, not to mention wearied and bitter at the prospect of another fight for liberties that most Americans take for granted.
On Sept. 26, our hope is that the community will show up, thoughtfully engage with one another — perhaps even those with whom they adamantly disagree — and do the hard work our democracy requires of us to uphold a safe and functioning society.
We all have a role to play. Will you join us for this discussion?