Over-reach is cruel

Cruelty in the name of religion toward people who fall along the gender spectrum has to stop. Transgender youth are so bullied by others that in their despair they sometimes end what to them is an unbearable life. Where is the love and care for these young people? New laws passed in Arkansas ban any critical puberty-delaying treatments that could be key to a more successful transition sought by the youth and by their loving, supportive families. What possible harm does such treatment cause to the legislators, the governor, or unrelated Arkansans who assume with ample hubris that they alone are the authorities on such matters? Is the horrid prospect of requiring proof of gender for bathroom use not utterly abusive, as well? It’s hypocritical and perverse! And it is an inherently cruel over-reach.

It is highly ironic that Arkansas’ Republican Party regularly touts its small-government, personal-freedom stance but is ready to impose big government authoritarian invasions into the most intimate parts of many humans’ lives. Republicans do the same for girls and women who have become pregnant via rape or incest when they require proof of the crime in order to get needed treatment— even requiring a pregnant 10-year-old girl whose family member raped her to find a way to report to the police the abuse she has suffered, knowing that such reporting may put her life at further risk of harm by the abuser. Imagine the additional trauma this puts on an already-violated child!

How are these laws doing anything to make society safer? How is the underlying cruelty not crystal-clear to everyone paying attention? And what right do zealots (elected or not) have to impose their personal religious views on others? Science should prevail. Compassion and humanity should, too.

MARY REMMEL WOHLLEB Little Rock