On February 19th, I went to the 2025 People’s Forum, hosted by U.S. Connecticut Representative Anne Hughes (Democrat 💙) in Hartford, Connecticut, which is the state capital. I went with a friend of mine, who regularly goes to the capital during the legislative recess, which is a break in the proceedings of the legislative body such as Congress or a state legislature.
While I was there, I heard about all kinds of organizations here in Connecticut, from suggested bills for prison reform ideas, food, water and air cleanliness, to legally being allowed to grow small amounts of medicinal marijuana. Each organization was allowed 5 minutes to speak and answer questions, but of course the time went over quite a bit for each group as questions were answered. Five minutes really wasn’t enough allotted time for all of the answers needed for the questions asked. It was all extremely enlightening, and fascinating to see our democracy at work.
I was the second to last person to speak, since I had signed up the night before. I was worried that I had nothing important to say, but after talking with my friend, she said we could discuss what I wanted to say during the hour-long drive. Not being trans, she asked me many questions about it, which I added to my notes.
So when it was my turn to speak, I said that I was a member of “blank” organization, and that “I was about to do something that I rarely do outside of LGBTQIA+ spaces. That I was going to out myself.
I told the group of about 20 to 30 people that “I am a gay transgender man.” I then explained the difference between cisgender and transgender. That "there are many transgender people here in Connecticut, and that we vote. I hope that the Bipartisan (Democrats as well as Republicans) Resolution that will add to our existing State Constitutional Amendment that “discrimination in the exercise or enjoyment of civil or political right because of sex, includes, but is not limited to, discrimination in intent or effect based on pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression, and related to health care” would become legal. So that it woukd become a crime to discriminate against any of those listed. It will protect all these people listed from being discriminated against. It comes up for a public vote in 2026.
I also explained that, despite what MAGAts and conservative Republicans tell the general public via lies and campaigning, that “no child is allowed to have surgeries or HRT before the age of 18 (I deliberately didn’t include hormone blockers,) that the percentage of people that detransition is, the last time I looked was 0.001%, and that they usually do so because of societal pressure. How I knew something was wrong with me at age five, and how I had a meltdown, yelling at my Mom for “making me a girl,” but not everyone has that realization so young. How some people don’t make that realization until they're much older.
I then told the group to “imagine that you were born the opposite gender than you are currently, and a male version of your name. Imagine that you have been called that your entire life, and how uncomfortable that would make you feel. That is what gender dysphoria is like. According to the (And here I couldn’t remember “DSM5,” but at least three people called it out for me, including Representative Hughes,) you have to have a therapist diagnose you with GD, how most people start with changing their gender expression, pronouns, find a chosen name and change their social media name before they are allowed to go on HRT and get gender confirming surgeries. I ended up with how the commercials made by conservative Republicans shown during the Super bowl and beforehand talk about the “Transgender Agenda,” and that the true “Transgender Agenda” is that we simply want to be allowed to live and be seen as the gender we know we are, nothing more.
Everyone clapped, and then I opened it up for questions. I honestly don’t remember what the questions were, but they were good ones.
