Louisville should do better for trans youth and be a place for them to blossom | Opinion – Yahoo News
On the outside looking in, Louisville passes as an LGBT-friendly city. In 2015, WFPL reported that Louisville, KY was ranked 11th amongst major cities in the country for individuals who identify as LGBTQ+. Just take a look at some notable highlights:
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Historic LGBT Center at University of Louisville
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Two annual Pride celebrations
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Home to robust LGBT organizations (Louisville Youth Group, Fairness Campaign, PFLAG)
Many look to the accomplishments of Louisville to boast about its level of acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals. Pride-centered celebrations, organizations, resources and banners provide an unwavering distraction to local and state issues surrounding the wellbeing of LGBTQ+ individuals.
A 2021 study completed by SafeHome.org reports that Kentucky ties with Mississippi and Montana as 45th in the nation for LGBTQ+ safety. Most startling about this report is that it further highlights how the state (and therefore our city) fails to put forth structural change that supports our trans community.
In Kentucky, we have no laws that ban the exclusion of trans folks in reference to health insurance and we also lack trans youth clinics. This means that our city’s trans youth are left out of the conversation in regard to health care and do not have the resources necessary to support their journey.
As you can most likely remember, receiving health care as a young person can often be confusing, overwhelming and anxiety-inducing. Try doing that in a system where few providers make space to affirm your identity and the needs that come along with that identity.
The lack of community support for trans youth does not stop at the health care system. The 2019 National Climate Survey from the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network reports that nationally, 84% of trans students feel unsafe at school because of their gender.
This means that a sweeping majority of trans youth are left to feel unsafe while receiving an education. As a trans youth, your existence can be deemed as radical, hyper-politicized and quite frankly unwelcome in spaces.
Your history is marginally (if at all) acknowledged and you are taught to exist within social constructs that you are so desperately trying to maneuver and/or escape. Couple that with any racial identity other than white – goodness, things can feel dismal.
I write this piece as someone who would like to urge our community to think outside the binary and to challenge the social constructs where in which we find comfort. Our internalized transphobia is creating a community where youth are harmed, not where they blossom.
Listen to trans youth and leverage your power and influence to center their narrative. Vote and select individuals into power who center the voices of our young people. Back programs that create LGBTQ+ affirming health care. Challenge everything. And when you mess up, have the humility to be held accountable.
I would like to dedicate this opinion piece to Mel Groves.
Ashleigh Hazley is the Senior Manager of Programming with the Muhammad Ali Center.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Trans youth needs safe spaces in Kentucky; 1 should be Louisville | Opinion