Annette Bening was among the celebrities, advocates, and lawmakers who delivered rousing speeches in support of transgender rights on the steps of the Supreme Court on Thursday, December 5, as the justices heard oral arguments in United States v. Skrmetti, a landmark case that will likely determine the future of gender-affirming care access nationwide.
“Trans rights is the civil rights issue of our era,” the Oscar nominee and proud mother of trans writer Stephen Ira told the crowd.
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“As a well-meaning parent, I didn’t always know how to support my teenager, my vulnerable teenager, who was just trying to live his truth. But you know what? I learned,” Bening said. “I learned that what these kids and families need is judicious counseling, sound medical advice, and an atmosphere of calm, and love, and acceptance.”
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The Nyad star went on to say that what trans kids and all trans people need is “to be seen and heard.”
She also had a message for folks who may be hostile to or simply unfamiliar with trans issues.
“There is nothing to be frightened of,” Bening insisted. “For people out there who may be hearing this, who haven’t met someone who’s trans, you have. Trans folks are everywhere. They’re your doctors in your emergency rooms, they’re your firefighters, they’re your teachers, your librarians, the store clerks, the clerks in the bookstores. Everywhere in this world trans folks exist, and it is our responsibility to support and love them. There’s nothing to be frightened of. Everyone just wants to live in freedom, safety, and dignity.”
“And for the Supreme Court Justices,” she continued, “I encourage them to talk to their kids, their grandkids, their nieces and nephews. Because I’ll bet if they really sit down and ask them ‘Do you know trans kids around you? Do you have any non-binary friends?’ They’re gonna say, ‘Yes.’ And they’re gonna say that this is part of the beautiful rainbow of human beings everywhere.”
Bening was joined by fellow actors Elliot Page and Ilana Glazer, Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA), Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Ed Markey (D-MA), and others for the rally in support of declaring Tennessee’s anti-trans S.B. 1, which bans gender-affirming care for minors, as unconstitutional.
Elliot Page attends New York Premiere at NewFest Pride ‘Close to You’ at SVA Theatre in New York on June 1, 2024
| Shutterstock
“I know how important it is for all of us to disrupt the narratives that demonize us,” Page said. “No matter how much I publicly speak about my life being transformed for the better because of gender-affirming medical care, too many people ignore my words and instead project their fears onto my self-love.”
Page questioned whether the debate happening at the Supreme Court and in state houses around the country is really about medical care. “The evidence proves that this medical care is safe and effective,” he insisted. “Yet half the states in the country have passed new laws banning families from accessing healthcare that their transgender children need and their doctors prescribe.”
“I think that we all know that they want to ban this care, not because it doesn’t work, but because it does,” Page said.
Glazer used their speech to recognize American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Chase Strangio, who was arguing against the Tennessee law before the Supreme Court on Thursday. Strangio is the first openly transgender lawyer ever to deliver oral arguments before the nation’s highest court.
“No matter what happens in that court today, December 4, 2024, Chase Strangio is an American hero changing the world for the better,” Glazer told the crowd.
They also drew a connection between the Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, striking down the constitutional right to an abortion, and Skrmetti.
“Gender-affirming healthcare and abortion are simply medical treatments, both of which have been politicized to distract Americans from the growing wealth gap,” Glazer said. “As our government slides into an authoritarian framework, girls’ and women’s bodies and trans bodies are exploited as a device for distraction.”
“We are collectively a refutation of everything they say about us,” Strangio said to the assembled crowd following Thursday’s hearing. “And our fight for justice did not begin today. It will not end in June, whatever the court decides.”
“We are in it together,” he added. “I love being trans. I love being with you, and we are going to take care of each other.”
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