Guns vs. Dresses

One of these things is endangering our boys

image courtesy of Katharine Strange

The school year has only just started, but last Wednesday in Winder, Georgia, it was the last day of school for two students and two teachers who were gunned down in a high school hallway. In the aftermath of the shooting, Georgia governor Brian Kemp repeated what’s come to be a post-shooting mantra for conservative politicians: “Today is not the day for politics or policy.”

I’m struck by what politicians regard as an “emergency.” Just since 2021, ten states have passed “bathroom bills” making it illegal for a person to enter a bathroom that doesn’t align with the sex listed on their birth certificate. Another 16 have bills in process. LGBT advocacy organization, the Movement Advancement Project lists 21 states as having a “negative” rating for trans rights, and another 7 as “low.”

Movement Advancement Project. "Equality Maps: Snapshot: LGBTQ Equality By State." https://www.mapresearch.org/equality-maps/. Accessed 09/09/2024.

It’s baffling but true, there’s more political urgency around trans issues than gun violence. When I visited my home state of Montana this summer, I was struck not only by the ridiculous number of political ads on TV, but how many hailed conservative politicians as the guardians of girls’ sports. (This despite the fact that one of them is running against a woman who’s literally a former Olympian.) Misinformation around gender identity has exploded online. While visiting friends in Canada this summer, one repeated the thoroughly debunked rumor that schools were installing litter boxes for students who identify as cats. Maybe it’s not surprising this urban legend has gained so much traction when more than 20 GOP candidates have repeated it on the campaign trail. This, combined with social panic about “rapid onset gender dysphoria” (hint: not real) has created the perfect wedge issue for conservatives.

I won’t pretend that there’s no controversy around kids undergoing gender transition. Medical transition can have serious side effects, including infertility. And the increasing rate of gender dysphoria diagnoses has some people freaked out. But the facts are that in 2021, out of 72.8 million children in America, 5590 started either puberty blockers or hormone therapy. That’s 0.0077% of American children.

If you want to look only at kids diagnosed with gender dysphoria, the prescription rate for puberty blockers and hormone therapy is less than 15%.

image courtesy of Reuters

For the vast majority of kids who receive a gender dysphoria diagnosis, the focus is on therapy and “social transition”—doing things like changing their name, pronouns, clothing, and hairstyle.

So an issue that affects less than 1% of kids annually takes up most of the political oxygen, while gun violence has become the leading cause of death for Americans under age 18: more than car accidents, poisoning, cancer, and all other diseases.

While school shootings are scary, they are actually quite rare (and thank God for that!) Most gun violence is amongst teenage boys, who are usually shot by someone known to them. This type of violence disproportionately effects Black and brown boys. Another (significant) proportion of teen gun deaths are suicides.

image courtesy of Pew Research Center

Here’s the sad state of our politics, while zero children have been killed by pronouns, many politicians are more scared of boys putting on skirts than by boys shooting each other. This, even though the majority of Americans support stricter gun laws!

image courtesy of Vox

It’s maddening how many years we’ve been doing this dance of massacre→ “thoughts and prayers”→ no legal changes→ next massacre. We desperately need better regulations around gun ownership. But while gun control is a vital step, it’s not a panacea. There need to be big systemic changes around racial and economic inequality. And, I think, we need to talk about boys and masculinity.

How do we decouple the concept of masculinity from violence? How do we help boys find a positive identity, one that celebrates their masculine attributes while not denigrating girls, women, and queer people in the process? How do we help everyone grow into wholeness and maturity?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

BONUS MATERIALS:

• podcast debunking some of the hysteria around healthcare for trans kids. If you have 3 hours and a high snark tolerance, the series is worth a listen. If you just want to hear facts about the rate of medical transition on kids > 18, skip ahead to the 49-minute mark.

• this Onion headline never gets any less true, unfortunately

• ugh.