An open letter to Governor Little and any elected official or member of the media that chooses to talk about transgender people without any caveat of respect,
Please be aware that you are inciting violence against good hard working people who live quietly in their communities and wish nothing more than to work hard and contribute to society without fear that they will not only lose their jobs or be evicted from their apartments but that businesses will refuse to serve them and that they will be unsafe in the towns where they grew up. If you need to talk about transgender people in an already charged environment where with each passing week policy is eroding the safety and freedoms of people who do not fit in tidy gender boxes, if you do not intend to see more members of the gay and transgender community in morgues or don’t want to see our parents attending our funerals, show some respect. Start a policy statement with “While I appreciate the challenges faced by transgender people trying to live in a society that has yet to grant them safety, respect, or legal equality, I don’t want to see Idaho tax dollars used for…..” Because, unless you show respect, no one else is going to either and it just further dehumanizes us and puts our lives in danger more than they already are. Every year our community marks the passing of the transgender people murdered in our country because they were transgender. It is a devastating reality we live with and which you can change with policy and with the way you talk about us in public statements. It is your choice, contribute to violence and despair or try with us to fight it.