MU Oasis hosts rally in response to transgender legislation

By Lauren Hines | April 26, 2022 | Columbia Missourian

A range of cardboard signs advocating for trans youth blocked out the clear blue sky as over 100 people crowded around Speakers Circle on Tuesday. Some students walked past on their way to class as the ones in the center of the circle chanted, “Trans rights are human rights.”

MU Oasis, a transgender support and advocacy group, and Young Democratic Socialists of America hosted the rally, which focused on an amendment to a bill that was passed in the Missouri House of Representatives on Monday limiting the rights of transgender athletes.

Over the past few months, there has been a wave of anti-transgender legislation in a number of states, including Missouri. State lawmakers have been trying to put restrictions on trans people’s access to health care and participation in sports.

“This all may be nothing new,” said May Hall, president of Oasis. “But it is escalating, and it is getting dangerous.”

According to the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ crisis intervention group, 42% of LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. That number is over 50% for transgender and nonbinary youth.

“The statistics do not lie on that, and it’s not because being trans makes you suicidal,” Hall said. “It’s because legislation against these things makes you suicidal.”

Rally organizers and attendees said gender-affirming care, like hormone blockers and counseling, is what’s keeping trans kids alive and safe.

“At this point, it is absolutely suicide prevention for me,” said Fletcher Jackson, current vice president of Oasis. “I want to live. I’m choosing life every morning. It’s awesome.”

If legislation passes limiting access to health care, Hall is worried she won’t have access to hormone replacement therapy and will have to choose between stopping treatment suddenly and having severe health consequences or being forced to medically detransition.

Hall and other organizers were surprised to see the amount of people who attended the rally.

“It was just really comforting to see a whole bunch of people that think like us, and we’re standing up for what is right,” said Truman State University student Rosemary Martin.

Martin and fellow Truman State student Twig Adams drove over an hour from Kirksville to attend the rally. The two students found the event in a Twitter thread of protests against Monday’s amendment.

Rebeka McIntosh, vice president of the Missouri National Education Association, came out to support transgender youth.

“We see you,” McIntosh said. “We love you. We will protect you.”Rally organizers also worried this legislation would cause a domino effect, impacting more people than just trans youth.

“If we’re going to start policing the social transition of children, what does that look like?” Jackson said. “It looks like policing their haircuts, what kind of clothes they wear … Once we allow this level of minute authoritarianism on the way that we dress and express ourselves and the way that we want to cultivate our beings, it sets a horrifying precedent.”

According to the Movement Advancement Project, less than 3.8% of Missouri’s total adult population, or about 180,000 people, are transgender. Because of this small percentage, Oasis members are calling on allies to donate to local LGBTQ resource organization The Center Project or call state and city representatives about recent anti-trans legislation.

“I just want to live in a world — and I and many other people keep fighting for a world — where being trans and the exploration of your identity is the status quo,” Martin said. “Being trans is just you, and no one should be afraid of that.”

Originally published by the Columbia Missourian.