Panic Profiteers

Hi, I’m Alex Cox, and you’re listening to (well, reading a transcript of) Two Headed Girl.

Heads up: this episode isn’t really intended for queer folks who’ve been online or seen the news in the past three years. You know what’s going on. So listen with care.

For the rest of you, hello! Again I’m Alex Cox, and I'm the co-host of the podcast Two Headed Girl.

My spouse and I usually talk about gender, our minds, and all sorts of transitions, especially around queerness. Initially, we just talked about our own experiences, discussed media, and answered questions from folks.

We almost stopped doing this show, or I should say I wanted to stop doing this show because we can take the online trolls and hate. Still, the amount of real-life harassment was getting to be a bit much, even though we live in a relatively progressive state. By no means have we been put in serious danger that we know of. Just existing with a trans body that can’t pass as the gender you’re assigned at birth means people will yell at you or throw things at you. Again, this was never a huge deal to us because that’s what it’s like for people like us.

You’d be surprised at how Chicago is a relatively small town, and when people startshouting at you by name or start showing up where you live, it starts to wear you down.

Our attitude towards this show has changed. Mattie and I both feel like it’d be cowardly not to talk about the open attack on trans people like us right now all around the U.S.

You’ve probably noticed that trans people have recently become a popular topic of debate.

• In 2023 alone, 447 anti-trans bills have been introduced in 41 states. It’s barely the middle of March. (By the way, as of yesterday, eighteen more bills have been proposed in three more states).
• School boards across the country have been passing ordinances that prevent children from not only talking about their own gender but prevent them from talking about their queer parents.
• Tennessee was the first state (with more to come in the following months) to not just criminalize drag shows but being a “male or female impersonator,” which is intentionally kept vague so that it could be used against anyone who is trans. I guess I won’t be going to visit my family in Nashville any time soon since the penalty is $2,500 or up to a year in prison.
• In multiple states, it’s now illegal for adults and their pediatricians and therapists to administer gender affirming care to their own kids (which rarely, rarely, RARELY includes surgery, but that’s a topic for another episode). In some cases, there’s a bounty of up to $5000 for someone to report that parents support their trans children. If caught, it could mean their kids are taken from their homes and put into foster care—just because their parents support them for who they are.

When we say "protect trans kids," it's not from parents, but from the government.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference, Michael Knowles called for the complete eradication of transgenderism. He and his colleagues, like Matt Walsh, at the Daily Wire (what’s becoming a right-wing media empire) spend every day in front of a camera warning people about the danger of trans people. Donald Trump released a video declaring that under his leadership, he will enforce an executive order to cease gender-affirming care at any age. They can and will take away our bodily autonomy.

There’s so much bluster from Republicans around the country about LGBTQ people being groomers and a danger to society, which is the same rhetoric they used to try to get gay people to stop existing. These people are panic profiteers who have openly started a moral panic to get rid of us.

It didn’t work then, and I hope it doesn’t work now. Violence against us has escalated. Suicide rates have gone up. Community centers and hospitals specifically for queer people are shutting down because of violent retaliation from transphobic organizations.

LGBTQ communities have always taken care of one another. Unlike most marginalized groups, we don’t necessarily have biological families to support us. Instead, we’ve relied on chosen family. These laws wouldn’t just be an eradication of trans people but an eradication of those communities we’ve used to keep each other safe.

Trans people are so tired. We’re used as political pawns, and it’s exhausting for us to be at the center of a culture war that exists to get authoritarian leaders into power.

So right now, we continue to ask our straight and cisgender friend and allies to help us. In fact, we’ve been asking for help for years, but we’ve been told we’re hysterical or overreacting. We need you to tell elected officials, your school board, or your online audience that this must stop.

At this point, I hope you start to take us seriously and understand that this is only the beginning of what so many bigoted, hateful people want to do to us. If they can, they will eliminate us from public life, dead or alive. I know that sounds alarmist, and I don’t want to be the kind of person who says things that cause harm or anxiety, especially in my own corner of the internet.

I hate that I’m posting this. For most people, gender is boring. I much rather talk about computers. GPT-4, the newest cutting-edge tech in AI, launched this week. A new season of Survivor just started (it’s really good, by the way). Everything Everywhere All at Once swept the Oscars last weekend. All of that’s so much more interesting than what’s in strangers’ pants!

Thank you for listening or reading this far. It truly means the world to Mattie and me. You can reach out to us on Instagram at twoheadedgirlfm@gmail.com or visit patreon.com/twoheadedgirl, where you can support the show, and help me save up for top surgery that's not covered by insurance, and might soon be illegal in the state where my surgeon practices. Those of you already financially supporting us have helped us so much. We wouldn't have been able to afford Mattie's surgery or his hormone replacement therapy without you. You give us hope that queer people have a future in this country.

And hey: if you’re trans and you’ve listened this far, hang in there. We’ve got you.