If an old man can sit through a hearing on gender affirming care and change his stance, anyone can

For many around the world, the title “Land of the Free” has become more of an ironic joke than any respectful reference to the current United States. In the Trump 2.0. era, there are quite a few reasons as to why “freedom” or “liberty” are not the first nouns that come to mind when one thinks of the nation. Personally, one of those reasons is how repression and bigotry are preferred modes of thinking and acting rather than understanding and a live-and-let-live mentality when it comes to minorities.

Transgender people were particularly scapegoated during Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, and as president, he’s been suppressing their hard-won rights as he promised he would. Thanks to this second Trump administration, trans Americans may reasonably feel that their government no longer supports their right to exist in society, never mind equal treatment under the law.

In a world where televised and online propaganda helps cement beliefs without any reliance on critical reflection, and the POTUS and his lackeys treat the “transgender nonsense” like a scourge upon the Earth, some good-hearted people can be led into thinking that their prejudice rests on some pure incentive like protecting children, using such misleading words as “mutilation” to refer to all forms of gender-affirming care indiscriminately.

However, when these socially conditioned people, like Larry from Wisconsin, are finally compelled to listen to the true stories and empirical sentiments from the mouths of those most affected and the factual information about gender-affirming care is made clear to them, their previously held beliefs can fall apart in real time.

Larry, the floor is yours: Show everyone what it’s like to be a decent human being in under a minute

Larry thought he would be speaking against gender-affirming care at his state legislature hearing, but no one knew – especially not Larry – that he would be going there to restore our faith in humanity. In less than a minute, no less.

His 50 seconds were better employed than the two minutes he was supposedly given to speak his mind against gender-affirming care. But after sitting through the public hearing and listening to the testimonies that came before, Larry changed his mind in the most admirable way possible.

Bill 104, which Larry was supposed to advocate for, was the fourth anti-trans bill in two weeks to be introduced in Wisconsin, and it sought to ban gender-affirming care for the state’s youth. Like others who suffer from transphobia, Larry’s former intolerant opinion stemmed from “his very little knowledge” of the subject. It wouldn’t be a stretch to argue that he likely had never sat down with a transgender person over a cup of coffee before deciding what is and isn’t appropriate care for them.

Science is not a synonym for truth, but it can be the closest thing we have to truth. However, in a world where you can subsidize studies and get results that better befit your agenda, Trump is cherry-picking the science that he wants to be viewed as factual, very much like he does with the issue of climate change – to give his and his billionaire buddies’ environment-harming actions free reign. Trump’s executive order “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” deems that all scientific backing of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health is “junk science,” having ordered a review to be made into the organization’s protocols.  

Throughout history, humans have notoriously dealt poorly with what they cannot understand. Listening to a real human being talk about their real human experience is how one can most effectively demystify any fallacious belief birthed out of a lack of understanding. In a 2022 interview, Noam Chomsky said, in reference to the Trump-shaped Republican Party: “What is unfolding before our eyes is a kind of classical tragedy, the grim conclusion foreordained, the march toward it seemingly inexorable.” The march will be inexorable if ultimately well-intentioned, but misguided people like Larry continue to dwell in their echo chambers without daring to step out, and the rest of us do not sound our voices to dare the Larrys of the world to come out and see the world through a more emcompassingly care-driven perspective.