Dave Chappelle, and the Week From Hell for Trans People
This weekend, the National Trans Visibility March takes place, as Texas gets nearer to banning trans teens from sports and Dave Chappelle remains unapologetically transphobic.
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos Getty/Netflix
What a friggin’ mess! This week has been one nasty nightmare after another for transgender people, from the continued attempts by Texas legislators to stop trans teens playing sports, to the Dave Chappelle Netflix controversy. And there was even more if you could bear to look.
A boost, one hopes, will come when trans folks gather in Central Florida this weekend for the National Trans Visibility March, which has so far only been held in Washington, D.C., and virtually, because of the pandemic. Saturday’s march steps off in Orlando for the first time, hopefully giving our embattled community a boost after a bad, bad week.
“Insanity,” Albert Einstein allegedly said, “is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Texas state lawmakers are yet again trying to ban trans student-athletes, despite failing in the regular legislative session and three special sessions. Texas heard the greatest number of anti-trans bills in the country this year, more than 40 bills—triple any other state. And now the Republican majority appears hellbent on pursuing this fourth-times the charm strategy over the emotional, desperate hearing the pleas of hundreds of witnesses on Wednesday, including an 8-year-old trans girl, a 13-year-old trans boy, their moms and other parents of trans kids.
