Dear Editor:

Allow me to add a little bit to my letter (A wave of bigotry, March 13). The primary aim of my letter was to offer public support to the trans community and to offer a historic example of escalating civil rights abuses. Trans-athletes are a small part of this discussion, but have received the most attention, generally focusing on fairness and safety.

Isn't it also unfair to make a transgirl taking puberty blockers compete against cisgendered boys? Puberty blockers are the most common treatment for trans-youth, maintaining a greater level of parity in sports than the public discourse would have you believe. If fairness was such an issue, wouldn't all 10 of the trans-athletes in the NCAA be at the top of their sport? Enforcement is another issue -- isn't it also unfair to submit a particularly tall cisgendered girl to invasive and potentially traumatic inspections every time she wins a competition?

While we are talking about sports, the administration has refused to issue passports reflecting applicants' gender identities, attacked trans healthcare providers, banned trans service members from the military, prevented schools from supporting transitioning students, eliminated protections against spying on LGBTQ+ citizens and civil servants, transferred trans women into men’s prisons, regulated bathroom use and removed information pertaining to trans healthcare from government websites. You can argue that removing webpages and digital documents are not as blatant as book burning, but they are inarguably a form of censorship. Most of these actions are facing litigation, but the administration has already alleged that they retain the right to refuse court orders. In light of this, my story about the Nazi Party othering an already marginalized social group to exert social control and political consolidation seems very poignant.

As an exclamation point to my letter, a significant portion of critical comments were nothing more than openly hostile transphobic rhetoric. This is part of a concerted effort to normalize anti-trans language so the aforementioned repression is more palatable to the general public.

I stand by my letter and I stand in solidarity with the trans community.

Mike Bartles

West Boothbay Harbor