Kids’ genitals may be next Ohio battlefield

When someone addresses me publicly as a trans woman, I often wonder if its a double-edged sword or a back-handed compliment.

As much as it is true, does it always need to be said? Or will there come a time when it will not matter? I wear the label trans woman, a legacy brought to me by people like Christine Jorgensen, Marsha P. Johnson, and Laverne Cox, as a badge of honor.

Will there come a time when it won’t have to be said? I’m not ashamed of it, it’s part of my history. However, is it my only defining characteristic?

Is it so encompassing that it needs to be stated before my name is used in an article in the news? Does my death or murder seem less important if I happen to be trans?

Why does it seem my self-worth, dreams, ambitions and appearance are subject of more disdain and hate because I am trans?

Do I threaten your sexuality?

Your manhood, because I was assigned male at birth? Something I had no control over before my mind was fully developed. How does me being confident and willing to undergo such scrutiny make you question who you are?

I have spent years building up the courage to say who I am out loud. I spent thousands of dollars to look in a mirror to see my authentic self, because insurance considered the procedures cosmetic.

Only to still be told I am less than.

Less than what?

Ohio is currently considering legislation that would require people like me to submit to an invasive genital exam, and provide proof from a doctor.

We can look at the United States gymnastics team as example of what happens to female athletes when overzealous doctors and coaches having too much access and power over student bodies.

Weaponized genital exams could be the new normal not only for me, but all women.

At any moment your child could be deemed too good, or too much competition by a resentful parent or coach, who could then challenge your child’s gender.

There appear to be no repercussions for false reporting.

Anyone from another parent, a coach, spectator, or even possibly a random activist, could file a complaint, and force an investigation into your child.

There are countless stories about the lengths hyper-competitive parents have gone to eliminate their children’s competition. Once again, I’m being told my body isn’t valid, because someone says it wasn’t “Godgiven.”

I was given life, isn’t the ability to become who I truly am, God-given? But I ask you, is everything about you God-given? Do you dye your hair because the color you were born with is not something you like?

Do you work out because there’s something about your body that you don’t like? Do you wear contacts or glasses because your eyesight isn’t perfect? Because this was the soul I was given just like you.

As a child, I watch the “Fiddler on the Ropes” episode of “The Golden Girls,” in which a Cuban American character was trying to get into Juilliard.

His speech, adapted from Shylock’s in “The Merchant of Venice,” really resonated with me:

“Because I’m Cuban. Hath not a Cuban eyes. Hath not a Cuban hands? Organs, Dimensions? Senses? Affections? Passions? Fed with the same food? Hurt with the same weapons? Subject to the same diseases? Healed by the same means? Warm and cooled by the same winter and summer as you are? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?”

I’ve often wondered how many people heard him give that speech and connected to their own lives as I did as a kid.

Today, that speech could just as easily been said by a trans person. In the end, we’re all human and maybe that should be enough.

June is Pride month, and Pride started as a riot that became a movement.

Fifty-one years and how much progress has really been made since that first brick was thrown? Consider this, my proverbial brick thrown for the trans movement.

Jasmine Nicole Miller is a native Ohioan, activist, writer, and owner of Salon on Second in Dayton. You can find her on social media platforms as Jasmine On A Journey.