09x26 - Transgender Rights II

[bunniefuu]

Welcome to "Last Week Tonight"!
I'm John Oliver,

thank you so much for joining us.
It has been a busy week.

The January 6th panel voted
to subpoena Donald Tr*mp,

Alex Jones continued his losing
record in the legal "Info Wars",

and a virtual Mark Zuckerberg
announced that:

"Legs are coming soon!
Are you excited?"

Which sounds less like an update
to a multi-billion-dollar metaverse

and more like a new section
on WikiFeet.

But we're going to begin tonight
with the w*r in Ukraine,

which has seen
a significant escalation.

Russia's punishing m*ssile barrage
this week captured on dash cams

and other cameras
across the country.

The brutal retaliation for the blast
on the bridge

connecting Russia to Crimea

directed by hardline
commander Sergei Surovikin.

It's true. Sergei Surovikin's
appointment was announced

just hours after that bridge expl*si*n,
which does send a real message.

Because he's not only known
for his brutal tactics in Syria,

he's been nicknamed
"General Armageddon".

And no one brings in a guy named
General Armageddon

to do fewer w*r crimes.

Look at the man!
He's somehow terrifying,

while also looking like an angry baby
forced into a fun outfit.

Now, the scale of the retaliation
this week may seem extreme,

but that bridge was a big deal to Putin.

Russia began building it right
after annexing Crimea in 2014,

and Putin celebrated its opening
by proudly driving across it himself.

The Russian state even funded
a rom-com

set during the bridge's construction,

called "The Crimean
Bridge: Made with Love!".

It's basically a bridge-based
"Love Actually".

Just take a quick look
at the trailer.

Beautiful!

Welcome to the Krymskiy Bridge,
the biggest bridge in Russia!

Listen to me. This movie is all
I can think about.

Did I watch all 100 minutes of it
this week on YouTube?

Yes. Am I going to tell you all about it
now? Yes, I am.

Basically, a bunch of characters
meet and fall in love

somewhere near the construction site
of the Crimean Bridge.

This is Varya, a young archaeologist

who's doing archeology
at the beach all the time.

She's romantically pursued
by Viktor, the slick PR man,

and Dima, the young,
beefy construction worker.

During the movie, Dima is A, accused
of arson near the Crimean Bridge,

B, saves a fellow
construction worker

who falls off the Crimean Bridge,

and C, takes control
of a crashing plane

and lands it safely on, you guessed it,
the Crimean Bridge.

Meanwhile, a journalist named Tikhon
arrives to write an article

about the bridge's history,
and he falls in love with Alya,

who's the classic romcom archetype
of "beautiful, shy fishmonger".

Alya, we learn,
was actually orphaned

when her dad dozed off behind the
wheel after spending hours in traffic

that wouldn't have existed if there
had only been a,

say it with me, Crimean Bridge.

The movie ends
with the new bridge completed,

the characters pairing off,

and everyone marching across it
into illegally annexed territory.

This movie is my whole brain now.
I'm warning you,

do not watch it
or it will take over your life.

Putin is clearly very angry
his bridge got blown up.

But his w*r effort is notably
struggling.

There've been reports of thousands
of Russian men leaving the country

to escape the draft,
and stories like this one,

about a man sheltering in Georgia.

Aleksei takes us to the shelter
he now calls home

after driving seven days
from Moscow,

with little more than his guitar.

Ghostbusters.

"Better that than a r*fle", he says.

Who you gonna call?
Ghostbusters!

Now look, if you told me, "A Russian
man traveled seven straight days"

"to cross the border with almost
nothing but his guitar"

"and now he's going to play you
a little something",

my guess as to what that something
was would have been,

in order, sad Russian folk song
his mother used to play at night,

sad Russian folk song his mother used
to play in the morning,

and "Wonderwall".

But it would have taken me infinity
guesses to get to

acoustic "Ghostbusters".

The worry is that,
in Putin's desperation,

he may resort to nuclear weapons,

a worry not assuaged by sights like
this parade of pro-Kremlin supporters

featuring a nuclear m*ssile mascot
walking down the street.

So, it's frankly no wonder Ukraine is
stepping up its calls for outside help.

Zelensky addressed
the G7 this week,

and Ukraine's defense ministry's Twitter
account posted this video,

thanking France for supplying it
with a*tillery, and asking for more.

What a very weird time
to be alive.

That is an appeal for m*llitary aid,

set to Serge Gainsbourg's
"Je T'aime",

and featuring the visuals
of an e-card from JibJab.

And the fact that that came from the
defense ministry's official account

means that someone in
Ukraine got a m*llitary order

of, "Go be horny on Twitter",

and they very much answered
that call.

Look, eight months in, things in Ukraine
are clearly still extremely serious,

and the only thing that we can say
with relative certainty right now

is that whatever Putin does next
will be much like

"The Crimean Bridge:
Made with Love!"

in that it'll be ill-advised, messy,

and something absolutely nobody
but him wanted. And now, this.

And now,
more electrifying small talk

from San Antonio's "Daytime
with Kimberly and Esteban".

Daytime with Kimberly
and Esteban starts now.

Welcome to Daytime, everyone,
happy Thursday! Friday eve.

- Yes, it is.
- Hello, hello.

- Hello. It's echo.
- It is.

Happy Tuesday.

- Another day.
- Where's my tacos?

We're so happy you're choosing
to start your week with us.

True story.

- It's a wonderful Wednesday.
- True story.

Maybe she'll have two!

True story.

- Spring break's still going on.
- True story.

- Y'all, it's a good day.
- True story.

You always put a little flair on it.

I do, well, you know.
Texas is my home country.

True story.

Welcome to Daytime, everyone.
Happy Friday.

We are so happy you are
hanging with us!

True story.

Moving on. Our main story tonight
concerns LGBTQ rights,

something that we've actually gotten
better at discussing,

given that this is how CBS News
covered the existence

of gay people in 1967.

"The h*m*", with CBS News
correspondent Mike Wallace.

There is a growing concern
about h*m* in society,

about their increasing visibility.

This man is 27, college-educated.

He was unable to hold a job

because of his inability to contain
his h*m* inclinations.

Okay, that is a big yikes from me,

from the wildly h*m* language

to the fact that this man's
identity was concealed by placing him

behind a plant, to the title
"The h*m*",

which sounds less like the name
of a news report

and more like how your grandpa
refers to the Fab Five.

Specifically, we're going to talk about
transgender rights.

Now, we actually first talked about
this seven years ago,

and the good news is that, since then,
more people do seem comfortable

coming out as trans and
gender-nonconforming. Which is great!

But, as you have undoubtedly noticed,
in the past few years,

some on the right have truly lost
their minds about trans rights,

perhaps best encapsulated
by their favorite new joke.

My name is J.R. Majewski,

and my pronouns are patriot
and ass-kicker.

My pronouns? Conservative. Patriot.

I'd like to declare something right now.

My pronouns are USA.
How about it, huh?

I'm Ted Cruz, and my pronoun
is kiss my ass.

I do not like that man Ted Cruz,
I do not like his shitty views.

I do not like him saying "ass",
I do not like him serving sass.

I do not like him in a seat,
I do not like him holding meat.

I do not like him when he's smoochin',
I do not like him with Mnuchin.

I hate his stupid pronoun bit.
That man Ted Cruz is full of sh*t.

But look, it is clearly more
than just bad jokes.

This year alone, over 100 anti-trans
bills have been introduced

in state houses, and 12 states
have signed or enacted them,

with all of this happening against
a backdrop of v*olence and threats,

including att*cks and harassment
aimed at hospitals

providing gender-affirming
care to youth.

And frustratingly,
there are many on the left

who seem at best reluctant
to engage on this issue,

and at worst outright hostile to it,

either complaining about
"pronoun police"

or arguing that this issue
will cost Democrats elections.

If you go to the middle of the
country, people would say,

if your conversation during
a presidential election

is about some guy wearing a dress
and whether he, she, or it can go

to the locker room
with their daughter,

that's not a winning formula
for most people.

It? Michael Bloomberg can f*ck all
the way off with that sh*t.

But also, while this fun-sized
billionaire is clearly good

at a lot of things,
like making money, and end of list

maybe don't take advice
on a "winning formula" for elections

from a man who spent over
a billion dollars of his own money

to lose a presidential bid
in just 14 weeks.

But set aside the notion that it
is worth sacrificing protections

for a vulnerable group, to chase
a "winning formula".

Let's also remember that it's not
the left talking about

trans rights non-stop,
it's Republicans,

who see an advantage
in demagoguing this issue.

And to ignore them doing that
is to allow them to have

real, calamitous impacts
on people's lives.

A few years ago, Vice profiled a girl
named Kai Shappley.

And just watch how happy she is,
talking about her hopes for her future,

until she remembers something
that changes her mood.

Mama says I might grow up
to be the president.

What would you change about the world
if you were president?

Let trans people be free and go to
the bathroom they want to go to.

Are you able to use
the girls' bathroom at school?

No, and now they just put security
guards up for the bathroom security.

I hate that.

That is brutal. It is so dark
it's genuinely hard to watch.

Which would also, coincidentally,
be a pretty accurate tagline

for "House of the Dragon".

But the point is,
given what is at stake here,

tonight, let's talk about the latest
round of att*cks on trans rights,

where it's coming from,
and what it's doing.

And before we begin,

we're going to be taking the arguments
behind these anti-trans bills seriously,

because of what they're doing,
but not sincerely,

because so often, they seem to be
based more on political calculation

than on what's actually happening.

A pretty good example of this
is that in recent years,


at "protecting youth sports",

and South Dakota Governor Kristi
Noem even made her state's bill

a centerpiece
of a campaign ad.

In South Dakota,
only girls play girls' sports. Why?

Because of Governor
Kristi Noem's leadership.

Noem has been protecting girls' sports
for years and never backed down.

Now, Governor Noem has a bill
that will give South Dakota

the strongest law in the nation
protecting female sports.

Doing the work, delivering results.
Governor Kristi Noem.

If you'd time-traveled here from the
past and the first thing you saw

was this ad,
you would think two things.

One: wow, the campaign centers
around youth sports,

I guess literally every other problem
in America has been solved.

And two: she is not pulling off
that cowboy hat.

And you would be right,
but only about the hat part.

People like Noem love stoking fear over
the specter of trans athletes,

girls, specifically,
having an unfair advantage,

and taking away scholarship
opportunities.

But there are vanishingly
few examples nationwide

of trans athletes attempting
to compete at all."

And in Noem's state specifically,

the head of their high school sports
association could name

exactly one transgender female athlete
who'd competed,

and who graduated
several years ago.

So, there are more athletes
in this sh*t from Noem's ad

than there are trans girls known to have
competed in South Dakota schools.

But even if there were more,

discriminating against them
would still, obviously, be wrong.

And it would still be weird that state
legislatures were getting involved

in decisions that are usually
made by organizations

governing the sports in question.

And it is worth knowing,
even at the elite level,

conversations around this aren't being
handled with flat out bans.

The IOC has announced that it will set
rules on a sport-by-sport basis,

but working on the general principle

that "no athlete should be excluded
from competition on the assumption"

"of an advantage due to their
gender".

And it is pretty remarkable that a trans
athlete could theoretically compete

in the Olympics,

but not in South Dakota
under-12 soccer

a sport that genuinely only
exists to obliterate parents' weekends.

And states' blunt force approach
has led to absurd situations

like that of Mack Beggs,

who as a Texas high schooler
wanted to wrestle boys,

but was forced by state rules
to wrestle girls.

When he won a state championship,
lawmakers tried to pass a law

that would've made it impossible
for athletes like him to compete.

Which is obviously absurd,

because as one of the wrestlers
Mack actually defeated pointed out,

none of these people seemed
to think through

the reality of Mack's situation.

Do you really honestly think someone
would change their entire gender

just so they would win state?

No, that's not how it works.

Right, this obviously
wasn't an effort to cheat.

Kids aren't plotting deceitful school
sports related cheating schemes

just to get what they want,
you're thinking of Lori Loughlin.

You're confused.

So much of the conversation
around anti-trans laws involves

massively overheated
rhetoric that does not match

the reality of kids' actual situations.

And interestingly,
a lot of it's been fueled

by some of the same players behind
the critical race theory panic,

who, as we discussed in February,

were using it as a wedge issue
to promote school choice.

In fact, one key architect
of the CRT panic,

Christopher Rufo, recently pivoted
to attacking trans rights,

and he has openly discussed
the strategy behind that.

What I'm looking at, and it's just
kind of an ongoing series,

is to take that same system
of reporting,

that same style of reporting
as I did with critical race theory

But now taking a look
at gender ideology.

What's happening right now is,
parents are feeling that,

"this is kind of weird, I'm kind
of uncomfortable with this,"

"but I'm scared to speak out."

And so, we have to give them
the kind of media narrative,

a justification or validation
or substantiation of their concerns

to say, "Hey, this is the kind of thing
they're teaching in schools".

And then we have to give them the
language where they can speak about it

with confidence, directly,

with the requisite level
of aggressiveness

that it's gonna take to say, "Hey, wait
a minute, we have to stop this".

Yeah, he's basically giving people
a script to repeat.

And say what you want
about Chris Rufo,

like, for instance,
that he's a fear-mongering troll,

who looks like what would happen
if someone made the recipe

for Ryan Gosling,
but forgot to add the hotness,

he is very deliberate in how he tries
to influence public opinion.

Rufo suggested
branding the discussion of trans issues

under the umbrella
of "radical gender theory",

and he Tweeted out that conservatives
should start using the phrase

"trans stripper"
in lieu of "drag queen".

"It has a more lurid set of connotations
and shifts the debate to sexualization."

And sure, anything can have a more
lurid and sexual set of connotations

if you just rename it. I'll show you.
Rain? Sky jizz.

There. Much worse. Immersion
blender? Soup vibrator.

Spaghetti sauce? Noodle lube.
See, this works on anything!

But in the conservative playbook,
that tactic is a really big one,

linking discussion of gender identity
to sexual predation

and teachers "grooming students".

A related tactic is arguing that
the rise in kids identifying as trans

is due to social contagion,

that it's just a mass delusion,
a trendy fad

that is rapidly spreading
among young people.

Just listen to Abigail Shrier,
a vocal proponent of that theory,

laying all of this out.

If you want to see brainwash,
check out these young teenagers

who suddenly decide
they're transgender.

They immediately cut off
their families.

They very often drop out of school.

They very often start tattooing
themselves and using dr*gs

and they are creating a world
for themselves that is so healthy,

so built around sexuality,
and they lose all their hobbies.

Their only hobby
is being transgender.

Okay, so there is a lot there,

but let me just address the claim that
trans kids lose all their hobbies.

'Cause I will point out that when
they try to have some,

like, I don't know, school sports,
for example,

a bunch of assh*le adults try
to keep them from doing it.

Shrier sometimes dresses
her argument up

by using the term
"rapid-onset gender dysphoria",

which is total horseshit.

It comes from a study published
by a researcher in 2018,

hypothesizing that some kids identify
as trans due to peer pressure.

But it's worth you knowing, that study
was based on a survey of parents,

not actual trans kids,

and it targeted parents from
organizations dedicated

to opposing trans ideology.
Which is instantly disqualifying.

It's like citing a study claiming
that all postal workers

are terrifying hell-demons
sent to att*ck your family,

but then learning that the researchers
only surveyed anxious dogs.

That's some heavy sampling bias
that clearly skewed your results.

And to be very clear,

there is ample evidence of gender
variance throughout human history,

and as far back as historians
have found evidence of trans people,

they've found trans children.

As for the rapid rise
in kids identifying as trans,

as the writer Julia Serano
has pointed out,

when you look at a chart of
left-handedness among Americans

over the 20th century,

you see a massive spike when
we stopped forcing kids

to write with their right hand,
and then a plateau.

That doesn't mean everyone
became left-handed

or that there was a "rapid
onset southpaw dysphoria".

It means people were free to be
who they f*cking were.

And to the extent that some young
people are just exploring

their gender identity, how exactly
is that a bad thing?

Who the f*ck are they hurting?

Watching the conversation around
this, it is hard not to feel like,

to the extent that there is
any social contagion here,

it is among adults,

who've whipped themselves
into such a frenzy

that they can find themselves
repeating some humiliating nonsense.

Perhaps the stupidest of which
is a new talking point

about what accommodating
children's gender identity has led to.

I even heard from one
person who recently said

that a student identified as a cat
and wanted a litter box.

They think they're a cat, a cat.

They put tails on,

and they demand that they have
a litter box in the school.

We've literally got kids who think
they're cats and dogs

using litter boxes in classrooms.

I'm still hearing from students and
parents.

They believe there is a litter box
in that school.

And when everybody will turn
the other cheek to allegations.

A rumor is just a rumor
until it becomes true.

The fact you seem to genuinely think
that that's happening

is just heartbreakingly stupid.

Because when you think about it
for literally two seconds,

the whole thing falls apart.

For one, if kids were using litter boxes
in class,

a state representative from Minnesota
would not be the one

breaking that news to you.

You would have f*cking heard about it.

If a kid shat in a litterbox
in first period,

it would be the only thing anyone in
that state was talking about by lunch.

Minnesota would change
its state motto to

"Minnesota, the state where
that kid sh*t in a litterbox".

And notably, young people are showing
up in public forums

where adults are fearmongering about
letting trans kids into youth sports

and bathrooms and trying
to talk some sense into them.

I will not let a board full of people
who barely represent me

tell me who I am and what I can do.

Grow up and fix your behavior.

I'm not worried about
a trans person harassing me,

I'm worried about if I'm gonna
fail Spanish in my next class.

I have used these
bathrooms repeatedly

alongside trans people and have
never once felt threatened.

You know who I have felt
threatened by?

The actions of this school board.

You've embarrassed yourselves,
Gardner, and the state of Kansas,

for your lack of knowledge in sex
and gender studies.

You've also highlighted the severely
inadequate sex education

we give our students today.

Yeah, the adults in those rooms
just got humiliated by teenagers,

as we all know, the most brutal
form of humiliation that there is.

And credit to those teenagers
for showing up, and skipping

whatever young people
are doing these days,

like hanging out at the Vape Tok store
or whatever.

I'll be dead soon.

So much of the fear of and arguments
against transgender people seems

to flow from misinformation
and misunderstanding.

And maybe the biggest and most
dangerous area of ignorance

surrounds the concept of
gender-affirming care.

In recent years, four states have
enacted bans or restrictions

on youth access to it,

and over a dozen more have considered
similar legislation this year alone.

And they have been fueled
by a lack of basic knowledge

about what gender-affirming care
actually consists of,

summed up by comments like this.

If a child walked into a doctor's
office and said,

"doc, I want you to cut my fingers off,"
the doc would say:

"You've got some problems, kid.
We need to refer you to a psychiatrist."

If the same child walks into that
doctor's office and says,

"Doc, I want you to cut my uterus
out," the doctor would say:

"Well, you're a wonderful,
brave person. You're so right."

"We do need to cut your uterus out
as soon as possible."

"Let's get this young lady over
to the operating room."

What are you talking about?

Absolutely every bit of that
is unrealistic,

from the fact that no one in
this country has ever been able to have

one conversation with a doctor
without first discussing insurance,

to the notion of a young child using
the term "doc".

Why is the fictional child
in this bullshit scenario using

the same vocabulary
as a chaotic rabbit from the 1940s?

None of this makes any sense.

But to hear some tell it, as soon
as a child declares themselves trans,

there is an immediate, irreversible,
surgical decision undertaken.

And there just isn't!

So, let's break down exactly
what gender-affirming care consists of.

Because, in younger children,

it can mean nothing more
than a social transition,

like calling them by a new name,
or giving them a new haircut

or clothing, or providing them with
psychological or behavioral support.

Because, to be very clear, prepubescent
children are not eligible

for medical interventions.

Now, at the onset of puberty,

an adolescent and their family might
consider puberty blockers,

hormones that delay puberty.

And importantly,
if that treatment is suspended,

then puberty will resume,
meaning that this is reversible.

Think of it like a pause button,

the thing you can't do easily
on the HBO Max app.

Now, the next potential medical
intervention is usually hormone therapy,

which boosts levels of testosterone
or estrogen.

Opponents of gender affirming
care make a lot of alarmist claims,

from saying that it's experimental,
which it's not,

to arguing that it sterilizes people.

For some, in specific situations,
there can be risks to fertility.

But for others, the effect
is anticipated to be reversible,

if the medication is discontinued.

But there is definitely an
informed decision to be made there.

And you will notice that none of what
I've mentioned so far is surgery.

But when it does come to that,
some teens may be eligible,

for instance, for top surgery
or chest masculinization.

But you should know,
not only is that pretty rare,

it would only happen after a team
of medical professionals discussed

all of its risks and benefits with their
patient and their patient's parent,

all of whom would have to sign off.

It is a long, involved process,

even before you get to the fact
that it's also incredibly expensive,

which is why working-class families,
families of color,

and people with less resources
are way less able to access it.

Basically, no kid is casually dropping
into an operating room

because they just decided
to get their uterus removed

with the impulsive recklessness
normally associated with getting bangs.

Because that is an absolutely
ridiculous thing to say.

And the very notion that the state
would suddenly interfere in any of this

is understandably infuriating for both
trans kids and their parents.

Just watch this mom in Arkansas,

where legislators were banning,
among other things,

hormone therapy for young people,
describe what it did for her son,

who suffered from severe depression
before transitioning.

I'd say like a month to two months in,
I started seeing that kid come back,

come out of his shell,
talk to us more, laugh.

What did that feel like as a mom?

It was like, that's it.
This has been the answer all along.

Why would anybody want
to take that away from them?

There's no reason why you should be
butting into my care for my child.

What do you want to say
to these legislators?

f*ck you!

Right.

Because transitioning isn't
taking your kid away from you,

in some cases,
it can be giving you your kid back.

This is not one of those instances
where it is okay

to butt into someone's care
for their child.

This isn't Pig-Pen.

And by the way,
do you need help, Pig Pen?

Blink your filthy eyes
if you need help, Pig-Pen.

So the benefits of providing care
are immense,

and the risks of withholding
it are dire.

A survey of around 28 000 trans
people found that,

of those who wanted hormone therapy
and didn't receive it,


thoughts in a given year.

Which is why the three major
professional associations

of child and adolescent doctors,
psychologists, and psychiatrists

have endorsed gender-affirming care
and condemn efforts to deny it.

And you may have seen or heard
from a small subset of people

who detransitioned.

But it is worth knowing that such cases
are rare and highly individualized.

Studies show an average of just 2%
of people who transition

express regret, and that the vast
majority of those who have opted

to detransition did so not because
of changes in their gender identity,

but due to external factors, such as
stigma and lack of social support.

And look, I could keep reading you
stats and studies.

I do, after all, love doing that.

Or I could just let you watch this
boy talk about what it felt like

to have someone actually see him
for who he was.

Dylan explained how as early as fourth
grade, he'd had confusing feelings

that stretched on until
his teenage years.

I really wanted to cut my
hair, like, really bad.

And so, when I did that,
that felt really good.

And then I held the door
for somebody and they said,

"thank you, sir," and I was,
"yeah, that".

- Just little things?
- Yeah.

That "sir" put words
to how I was feeling.

And I was like,
"yeah, that felt nice".

Yeah, that's incredible. For some,
a haircut is just a routine activity

where you go to your barber,

ask for the "business in the front,
business in the back," and leave.

But for a trans kid, it can be
a life-changing experience.

That boy is currently suing his state's
AG in a trial that starts tomorrow.

And he's not the only trans kid
who's found himself forced

to become an activist.
Remember Kai, from earlier?

She's now 11 years old,

and she went to the Texas
state legislature last year,

to speak out against bills
that would ban doctors

and parents from providing
gender-affirming care to young people.

And she f*cking crushed it there.

Hello, my name is Kai Shappley.

I love ballet, math, science,
and geology.

I spend my free time with my cats,
chickens, FaceTiming my friends,

and dreaming of when
I will finally meet Dolly Parton.

I do not like spending my free time
asking adults to make good choices.

It makes me sad that some politicians
use trans kids like me to get votes

from people who hate me
just because I exist.

God made me.

God loves me for who I am,
and God does not make mistakes.

She's awesome, right?

I wholeheartedly agree with almost
everything she says there.

Though in the interest of fairness,
God does make mistakes.

If he didn't, how would you explain
goblin sharks?

Just look at this f*cking guy.

He looks like an eel wearing a
shark costume that doesn't quite fit.

A sick eel.

Look at this mess,
it looks like he's going…

If God doesn't make mistakes,

how do you justify the existence
of this stupid creep

that looks like a child tried to draw
a Xenomorph from memory?

Again, I support Kai
with my whole heart,

but to say God doesn't make mistakes
is just not true, Kai.

He does, and they look like this.

And look, I'm glad that Kai
is advocating for herself.

But if a child has to be an activist,
we have already failed that child.

Because she should just get to be a kid
and enjoy her life.

And I'm actually glad that you got
to hear her talk about ballet

and FaceTime and Dolly Parton,

because there's something that, too
often, gets left out of these stories,

and that is joy.

While opponents of trans rights will say
these kids are either a menace

or brainwashed,

their defenders will often gravitate
toward the same sad statistics

that I've shown you tonight,
of depression and su1c1de.

And while that is understandable
on one level,

it's the most devastating harm that
can be inflicted by these bills,

it's clearly not the whole story,
which is that when supported,

trans kids can experience full,
vibrant lives.

Because trans people
are not by default unhappier

or more prone to suffering
than everyone else.

That is something
that we are putting on them.

As that boy that you just saw, who
is suing his state AG, will point out,

he's got other teenage-boy stuff
going on, too.

I'm 15. I shouldn't have to do this.

I shouldn't have to sue the state
of Arkansas

because they are trying to tell me
how I can and can't live.

And my collection of hats and my trans
flag that I got for Christmas.

This soft-spoken teenager
is more comfortable in his bedroom.

He's a bearded dragon. Come here.

Surrounded by his fish
and bearded dragon lizards.

And so, he's got a missing foot
and a crooked tail.

And, you know,
he needed an extra bit of love.

Right, Dylan should get to be a kid.

And spend his time
with his collection of hats

and feeding his bearded dragons
whatever the f*ck it is that they eat.

I wouldn't know. I've never owned
a bearded dragon.

I would probably get along great
with that one

because I, too, am a love-starved
pale creature with a lopsided ass.

All the kids we've seen tonight
shouldn't need to be activists.

They should get to dress
how they want,

go to the right bathroom for them,

and play the sports
they want to play. Remember Mack?

When he got to college, he was placed
on the men's wrestling team,

and just look at how happy
that made him.

All I ever wanted to do was wrestle men,
and now that I am,

it's freakin' dope.

It's freakin' dope.

Yeah. It is freakin' dope.
Do you see that joy in his face?

Hold it in your mind going forward.

Not because
the road ahead isn't rough,

but because, as the trans actress
Michaela Jaé Rodriguez points out,

it is important not to lose sight
of what is at the end of it.

When it comes to legislatives
and laws being passed,

we have to constantly stay diligent and
make sure that they don't get passed

and call up as much as we can,

but I think also, while doing so,
we have to live our lives,

and show people how happy we are.

We can't live in the sorrow,

though there is many struggles
when it comes to us.

In the times of adversity
and the times of despair,

I choose hope and joy,

and I let those shower
all over those haters

and people who don't see it fit for us.
And it usually wins.

It has won.

Exactly.
Hope and joy are crucial here.

They are the fuel that powers
the ongoing fight for equality.

And while there is a lot of fear
and uncertainty right now,

it is worth remembering that progress,
while not always linear,

is always possible.

Because we are working toward
the goal of every trans kid knowing

that they are loved, valued,
and indispensable,

as Dolly-Parton-loving,
weird-pet-owning,

freakin' dope individuals,

and never, ever going back
to a point where anyone feels that,

if they appear on TV, they
have to hide behind a f*cking plant.

That is our show.
Thank you so much for watching.

We're off next week,
back October 30th. Good night!