Defending Trans Lives Is a Massachusetts Value

This November, Massachusetts will be the latest state to face the question of civil rights at the ballot box. Nondiscrimination protections that have, since 2016, protected transgender people from discrimination in public places are at risk of being repealed by voters. This vote, and the debates leading up to it, have a very real impact on the lives, and deaths, of transgender people like me.

In addition to being a student at Harvard Divinity School and an occasional civil rights lawyer, I also serve as the executive director of Trans Lifeline, a national suicide prevention organization that includes a crisis and peer support hotline run for trans people, by trans people. I’ve been fortunate enough to live in Massachusetts on and off for the last few years and to call Harvard a second home. From Boston to Greenfield, I’ve seen firsthand how trans people are contributing to the communities, schools, and houses of worship they call home, and I understand them when they tell me they can’t imagine living anywhere else. I’ve also seen the very real lives at risk when we talk about civil rights from a place of fear rather than respect.

One of the extraordinary things about our crisis hotline is that, in addition to providing lifesaving services to trans people, it gives us a real-time barometer of the impact current events are having on the mental health of our people. In the last four months, calls to Trans Lifeline from Massachusetts phone numbers have increased by two to four times, even accounting for nationwide trends. Putting the civil rights of a vulnerable population to a vote has consequences.

Campaign ads that stoke fear about trans people in bathrooms pose a far greater threat to our lives than trans people pose to anyone with whom we share a public accommodation. Trans people — especially trans youth, who are at particularly high risk for mental health impacts — are listening to these messages. Studies indicate that around 40 percent of trans people have attempted suicide, compared with less than 5 percent of the general public. A recent study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that over half of transmasculine youth (trans youth assigned female at birth but who identify as more masculine than feminine) report at least one attempt. The relentless hostility, discrimination, and bullying those kids face may not show up on their faces, but they show up on our hotline.

What’s more, these arguments are demonstrably false. The leading safety experts in the state — including the Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, and others — are all urging voters to vote yes on Question 3. Here at Harvard Divinity School, which has both a trans-inclusive nondiscrimination policy and gender-neutral bathrooms, we’ve been training future faith leaders of many genders side by side for years without incident. While there has been no increase in harassment in bathrooms since the state nondiscrimination law was passed, the absence of public accommodation protections puts trans people at acute risk for harassment there. Repealing this law would not make a single person safer, but it would make some of the most vulnerable lives in Massachusetts even more vulnerable.

At Trans Lifeline, we don’t just see the hard stuff. We also see how resilient the trans community is, how important nondiscrimination protections are to keeping us safe, how lifesaving it is to feel supported by friends and family, and how far even small acts of love, kindness, and respect can go. We see the extraordinary emotional and spiritual resilience of people who refuse to give up their own humanity. We see how much hate trans people face, but we also see what is possible when we are able to live authentic lives with the same safety, privacy, and dignity as everyone else.

I urge all members of the Harvard community to register today and vote yes on 3 this November. Voting yes on 3 preserves the freedom of all Massachusetts residents, including transgender ones, to live their lives free from discrimination. It ensures that dignity and respect continue to be Massachusetts values. And, maybe most importantly, it sends a message to the people calling our hotline that they are welcome in the state they call home.

Sam S. Ames is a master’s student at Harvard Divinity School and the executive director of Trans Lifeline.