Regarding the recent column by Armstrong Williams, “Armstrong Williams: The rise of transgenderism” (May 8), isn’t a Democracy supposed to protect even its tiniest minority?

The American Medical Association and psychological experts report that gender dysphoria is a real medical and psychological phenomenon. A small minority of people are born intersex. Which bathroom are they supposed to use? It is likely that transgenderism has always been with us. Remember the warriors Joan of Arc and Mulan? The recent forensic analysis of the remains of American Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski revealed that the esteemed general had actually been either female or intersex.

In 1879, the California community where legendary stagecoach driver Charley Parkhurst lived was stunned upon his death to learn that the rough and tumble man they had known as their neighbor for years was revealed in a post-mortem examination to have been a woman (and had given birth earlier in life). No doubt, there is a spectrum of gender identity and conformity (masculinity and femininity), and some individuals have always lived a trans life, though in previous eras (and today in many parts of the world) these people dare not live as their true selves for fear of persecution, imprisonment or even the threat of execution.

In the United States, are we not entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? It seems that those on the political right (including many evangelical Christians) somehow feel threatened by this tiny minority of our neighbors who identify as trans or LGBTQ+.  We frequently hear these right-leaning folks cry out for “Freedom!” yet they feel threatened by the very existence of the tiny trans community they do not even attempt to understand.

In the past two years, more than 100 state laws have been passed limiting the rights of trans youth and individuals to legal recognition, education and health care. It seems to me that trans people, though a tiny minority, have surely been with us forever and that they simply wish to live in peace as their true selves without persecution or judgment. Shouldn’t we let them?

Trans people are often cast as a threat yet it is they who are most often the victim of prejudicial violence (including in a McDonald’s restaurant in Dundalk a few years ago). I wonder how Jesus would call for the persecution of the trans and LGBTQ+ community.  Whatever happened to live and let live and the “golden rule?”

— David Wagenheim, Towson

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