Transgender ‘Threat’: Are You Kidding Me, Mike Huckabee?

Are you kidding me, Mike Huckabee? The transgender “threat” you speak of is about as realistic as pink unicorns.

As a teacher who works with a range of students in my school’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance, your remarks speak to the perception that those who identify somewhere along the LGBTQ spectrum were somehow recruited. Being transgendered is not a choice; it is an outdated belief to think that it is. For instance, the former Bruce Jenner reported that he had felt like a woman for years, and continues to go through the transition process as Caitlyn Jenner.

It is the belief that there is a transgender “threat” that contributes to the spiking suicide rates among that segment of the population. According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, bias against transgender or nonconforming people has driven, in one way or another, the suicide rates for those individuals higher than the national rate. The only “threat” that can be realized by those who identify as transgender is to themselves; they are more likely to experience homelessness, suicidal ideation or completion, and violence, potentially at the hands of a family member, a partner, or at the hands of law enforcement.

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has made stunning comments that he wished he could have “felt like a woman” during his physical education classes in high school when it came to showering after class. In addition to his implication that young girls are potentially under “threat” by older men feeling like women and using the ladies’ washroom, not only highlights his extreme conservative nature, it underscores his stubborn refusal to accept that it truly does take all types of people to make a world.

By effectively making a joke about being transgendered, Huckabee demonstrates a complete lack of tolerance and empathy for the struggles that this community deals with daily. He implies a comparison between the transgender community and anyone who has some sort of sexual perversion, and by doing so, he only brings attention to what has become a distinct problem in our society. There is a lack of understanding of those who identify as transgendered; it is not a choice, a result of media manipulation, or an offshoot of some sort of sexual perversion. According to www.urbandictionary.com, transgender means “A term referring to when one’s gender and sex are not always or ever equivalent.”

It has been said that gender occurs between the ears while sex occurs between the legs, and that seems to put as fine a point on being transgender as any. It seems to be a sense where the outward physical appearance that one is born with does not agree with how one feels inside, and Huckabee needs to seriously get educated about what being transgender really means if he does not want to lose complete control of his election campaign. Between his support of Josh Duggar and his offensive remarks about being transgender, it would seem he is on a course to full implosion.