Trans rights are human rights and there is no reason on earth for the Republican Party to keep taking out their hate on transgender people.

The Republican Party is at it again. It’s worse now than during the four years of Donald Trump. You know, the four years where trans people were treated like a third-class citizen in our own country. And for what? No reason whatsoever other than their fragile egos. They lost their battle on gay marriage so they are now taking it out on transgender people of all ages. Right now, there is so much hateful legislation across the country that I feel helpless in ability to have much, if any, impact. All I can do is speak out about trans rights but at the end of the day, it won’t matter in states like Texas and Arkansas. Hate is so strong there that Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, and Ken Paxton may as well just reveal themselves to be Sith Lords. Oh, wait–only two there are, master and apprentice.

I’ve been having a terrible battle with depression going back to Sundance. Not because of Sundance itself but because of transphobic attacks on social media. Throw in the pandemic and I don’t have my usual outlets of being able to hang out with friends either at shul or a dark movie theater. A few weeks later, I decided to check message requests on social media. I rarely do this but waiting for me were even more transphobic attacks related to my call to fire Gina Carano from The Mandalorian. Closer to SXSW, yet even more transphobia to the point that it really crippled my ability to be productive. Trust me when I say that I tried but depression was truly kicking my ass. Even now, I have three interviews this week but depression is kicking my ass.

I should not have to go online and see so much hate. And yet, hatred is the rule of law for the GOP these days. The Texas GOP has pending legislation that would take trans kids out of homes if parents affirm their gender. This is hate, pure and simple. This isn’t the American democracy that I know. It’s something worse. The hatred coming from the Republican Party is the same type of hatred that we saw in Nazi Germany. And I can make this comparison because I lost cousins in the Holocaust. Republicans cannot accept that people are different from them. They need to accept this and just fucking move on.

It’s been one thing to keep turning to comfort viewing because of the pandemic. It’s another to turn to comfort viewing because the transphobic attacks on trans rights are so terrible. This is the reason why it’s been so hard to watch new films. I keep turning to Star Wars, Marvel, and Jurassic Park/Jurassic World because it is comfort viewing. And every time I do so, it means apologizing to publicists for why I didn’t watch a film. It’s not that I don’t want to but because my focus and depression has been so terrible that I keep struggling to get through new films. Take last night, for instance. I should have been paying attention to the film on TV. Instead–because of home viewing providing many distractions during the pandemic, I was calling out Andrew Sullivan for a garbage take on trans rights!

Predominantly Republican legislatures are passing transphobic bigotry as law in every which direction. Arkansas now has one of the worst laws on the books and it affects transgender healthcare. North Carolina has more hateful legislation. Tennessee, Texas, you name it. If it even matters to them, their economies will lose out when it comes to the NCAA postseason tournaments. No more home advantage for Duke or North Carolina if these laws pass. Remember the bathroom bill in 2016? My home state of Kentucky isn’t doing any better in the matter when it comes to hateful legislation.

Trans rights are human rights. Trans Lives Matter. Just let us live in peace!