This episode is about addressing misinformation, educating, and correcting the record. Right wing media has gone largely unchecked making false claims, distorting statistics, and outright lying primarily about gender-affirming care for trans kids and trans women and girls in sports. The mean-spirited outcry has led to legislators quoting this media and bills becoming very real laws intended to extinguish transgender people. 2021 has seen the highest number of state bills presented and passed in the last 10 years. But the danger of these bills isn’t just for transgender people. These laws potentially affect the privacy and bodily autonomy of all kids, especially girls. //

Chase Strangio is Deputy Director for Transgender Justice with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project and a nationally recognized expert on transgender rights. He has been on the frontlines defending trans rights and tells us what is happening in our nation’s courtrooms. //

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal. //

As always, stay in the love. //

References and Resources:

Long-Term Follow-Up of Transsexual Persons Undergoing Sex Reassignment Surgery: Cohort Study in Sweden:

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016885

// The Trevor Project National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health 2020:

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2020/?section=Introduction

// Legislative Tracker: Anti-Transgender Legislation: https://freedomforallamericans.org/legislative-tracker/anti-transgender-legislation/

// Gavin Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board (Update):

https://www.aclu.org/cases/grimm-v-gloucester-county-school-board

// Contrapoints video titled "Pronouns" published Nov. 2, 2018 on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bbINLWtMKI 

Audio Clips:

Clip 1 Bill Maher August 6, 2021, HBO, speaks to Donna de Varona; Maher misstates that 2021 was the first year trans folks have been able to compete in the Olympics. We have been eligible since 2004.

// Clip 2 The Ben Shapiro Show, July 18, 2021 via YouTube; Shapiro and Neil deGrasse Tyson discuss how the use of "science" can impede freedoms and liberty for some, (7:44-8:04) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w89etN8QqNQ

// Clip 3 Bill Maher August 6, 2021 HBO; Maher conflates sex assigned at birth with gender identity.

// Clip 4 Blaire White's YouTube channel January 10, 2018 titled: "Debate: Ben Shapiro and Blair White.” (10:56-11:06), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbTwoLah2VY

// Clip 5 Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro; Joe Rogan Experience August 2, 2017 via YouTube; Taken from The Joe Rogan Experience 993; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdjdNgvF42o

// Clip 6 Tucker Carlson, Fox News via YouTube, May 25, 2021; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YbRNgBg9Og