We had known this day was coming for some time. Amidst a tsunami of anti-trans legislation and growing transphobia across the nation, it is not unsurprising that Stanford’s own student-organized neofascist clown car wanted to get in on the action. 

First, we must dispel a few silly myths. Sex is more complicated than a simple binary, and variation in gender identity and expression is common in many cultures across the world. Trans people have always existed. Children know their gender identity, do not transition on a whim, rarely stop, are able to make the decision to transition and have normal levels of stress when allowed to transition. Doctors are not blindly handing out puberty blockers. Trying to convince people not to transition is harmful. Letting trans people use the restroom will not lead to predators harassing women in bathrooms; on the contrary, trans people are the ones who are routinely harassed and assaulted. Letting trans people play sports will benefit teams and athletes. Less than half of a percent of people regret gender-affirming gonadectomy surgeries, and people who detransition most often do so because of societal and familial pressure.

In truth, opposition to trans-inclusive policies is a function of latent transphobia, a disgust at nonconformity that leans towards fascism. Policies that dictate which lives are acceptable and which are condemned to a state of organized abandonment fall neatly in line with the long tradition of eugenics in America. Indeed, calling the recent wave of anti-trans sentiment across the world genocidal is no exaggeration. Gender-affirming care saves lives. Restricting access is an attack on the ability of patients, parents, and physicians to access necessary medical care. Trans rights are fundamentally questions of bodily autonomy, of our right to exist in society as we are and not as we are told to be.

It is at this point we would like to note that writing these letters is exhausting. While news organizations debate our right to exist, while right-wing grifters try to figure out how to interact with us without being hilariously awkward, we have been busy taking care of our own time and time again. We have figured out how to navigate a labyrinthine maze of gatekeeping and malpractice to medically transition. No matter how dire the circumstances have seemed, we have organized, we have protested, we have done it ourselves, we have built a better world together. And we are tired. We don’t actually want to spend our free time writing letters because SCR has decided to screen a documentary that tried to dupe trans people into participating in yet another 90-minute elaboration on the same old transphobic stupidity.

Would you like to know what we mysterious and unknowable transgender beings want instead? We would like to not be murdered for simply existing. We want our gravestones to have our actual names. We want enough food to eat. We want housing. We want to be paid fairly for our labor. We want to be able to go to the doctor. We want to survive. 

No, we want to thrive. We want hormones handed out like skittles. We want to play with our appearance like a cat with a toy. We want piercings and tattoos and blue hair and leather. We want to try out new names every hour. We want to use all the pronouns you’ve heard of, and all the genders you haven’t. We want to be beautiful, we want to be sexy, we want to Chili’s-Awesome-Blossom our way to a happy new vagina, we want to take the big dick. We want to create filth, to be gay and do crimes, to make your favorite characters all trans. We want our parents to love us, and we want our children to dream. We want liberation. We want fully automated luxury gay space communism. We want to be tipsy & free, we want floor length bolshevik dresses, we want all the flowers kneeling. 

Adi Xiyal Mukund is an M.D./Ph.D. student in the Biophysics program and is on staff at QSR.