Trans

It's better than it used to be.

Very southern here too, mountain region, smallish town.

The local school system is 100% about protecting trans kids, thank whatever gods might answer. Zero tolerance policy for even verbal violence, and strong responses to harassment or social attacks.

The school my kid goes to in particular has a trans staff member, and displays the gamut of flags in the guidance offices. The guidance staff in particular bust their asses to keep students on track and being as restrained as you can get the savages we call teenagers. There's a bible club, but there's a policy to avoid any anti-anything subject matter, and there's an active (if small) lgbtq club.

Compared to when I was growing up in the eighties? Holy fuck are things better.

But I've still had to raise hell a few times at adults outside of school. You still get shitty jokes and snide comments made when people assume you're going to either just not say anything or agree. The ones that just assume you're going to agree with whatever bigotry they spew are the worst, but they're slowly learning to at least keep their mouths shut if they can't say something nice.

But that's still a big change from seeing a trans woman get literally laughed out of a store not twenty years ago. There's enough allies now that will stand up that that kind of bullshit won't end well for the person pulling it.

It ain't perfect, and it ain't great, but it gives me hope that time will show the better parts of humanity here and elsewhere.

Btw, just as a view into the culture from another angle, as small as this town is, there's a pink pistols club, and one of the ranges happily hosts them for the monthly shoots, including when they have a "welcome home" shoot for trans folks. May seem strange to anyone not in the south, or part of the various "armed queer" movements, but there's a sizable amount of shooters vpn the lgbtq community here.

And it actually does help mitigate some of the assholes because there's that point of connection that helps bridge between the nore conservative sorts that aren't full on right wing, which leads to a cushion where they end up being accidental allies via speaking the truth about their experience "shootin with the gays".

That quote, btw, is from my uncle, who says he "Don't mind it a'tall, them gay boys just shoots like anybody, and ain't afeared to borry you some ammo." Mind you, he calls anyone that isn't a lesbian, including trans people of both primary genders "gay boys". He's trying lol.