Is the Statue of Liberty trans?

Only 18 states have banned the “trans panic defense” — in which a defendant accused of murder can claim to have acted in an uncontrollable emotional state upon learning that their eventual victim was trans, and subsequently have a chance of receiving a lighter sentence because of that — as a recognized legal tactic in the United States as of 2023, but let’s get the bottom of a much more pressing issue first; is Lady Liberty trans?

Is the Statue of Liberty trans?

Look, I get it; there’s that whole question of whether or not sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi actually based the face of the Statue of Liberty on that of his brother, despite designing the entire sculpture in the form of a woman, specifically his mother.

But from my observations, Lady Liberty is an inanimate object who is therefore incapable of suffering from gender dysphoria, so there’s a pretty strong chance that she isn’t, in fact, transgender.

I really don’t mean to be a cynic here; I’m not lost on what a possible reveal of Lady Liberty’s canon transness could mean to some trans Americans. But these are not the kinds of questions that should be getting our attention when trans people continue to occupy such a volatile space in our societies; it’s exactly the sort of useless trivia that would get played up to elicit reactionary anger in lieu of actual attempts at compassionate communication, and if that anger continues to be haphazardly fed in this way, it’s trans people who will pay the price.

So instead of googling if Lady Liberty is trans, use that search engine to familiarize yourself with things that do matter; may I suggest the trans panic defense to start?