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portraits-of-america:

     “They make it sound as if it’s an issue of safety for them and their kids, but deep down inside, they just want to tell trans people that they aren’t people, and don’t deserve to be treated with dignity. It’s about taking someone’s humanity. They did it to my relatives when they tried to drive down South and go to the bathroom or get a glass of water. They did it during the civil rights movement, and Jim Crow, when there were different bathrooms and water fountains. To them, it’s about making trans people feel less than human. I hope people start to realize that it speaks about their own morality that they want to legislate a basic bodily function, but if you ask them about their taxes or something else, they would say that the government should stay out of their business.
     “We have a family friend who is a judge and a legal scholar, and he used to say to conservatives, ‘Conserve what?’ I fill in the blank with, ‘A society where certain people have power and control and they can take your humanity.’ They say they are conservative but you can find all these things in their beliefs that speak against small government. You look at them and say, ‘Yeah, you really are conservative. You want to conserve a way of life that’s comfortable for you but not for other people. You want to conserve a way of life that doesn’t make the American Dream possible for everybody, only for those you find amenable.”