I wish this topic weren't still necessary to discuss. We hardly ever discuss that being gay isn't a choice because it's so well accepted in western culture at this point, but somehow trans people frequently get left out of that conversation. Even some otherwise progressive-minded people think that being trans is a choice one makes.

It's just such a basic issue that it baffles me that we're still discussing it. When we look at the suppression going on in many parts of the United States, for instance, it seems on the surface that bigots think there may still be a way to "correct" transness out of trans kids.

But that's the bulk of the issue, isn't it? The argument that transness is a choice or something to be corrected is entirely disingenuous. Bigots know that we can't be changed, but push legislation to harm us because, ultimately, they'd rather we be dead than share space with them.

No matter how transness arises in a person, whether by nature, nurture, or otherwise, bigots simply don't want us to exist. So many people would rather mourn a dead child than create a world in which that child can thrive.

I am entirely done with the discussion over whether transness is or isn't a choice. It simply shouldn't matter. Whether or not trans people make a "choice," we fucking exist, and that should be enough for us to be treated with basic human respect and accommodated within society.

But again, it has never been about choices, it's about our very existence. Bills targeting us are about the eradication of transness and, by proxy, trans people themselves, not some moral highground on the validity of choices we may or may not make in deciding to live our truths.

Cisgender heterosexual people make choices every single day that I don't agree with, but it's not we who are rallying to have their healthcare and basic human rights revoked.