By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
Violet DuMont
Violet DuMont says she fears that "I’m gonna be walking down the street and somebody’s gonna come up and, like, shoot me or something.”
A transgender 10-year-old fears she’ll be murdered for her identity, and other trans children are talking about the negative impacts of anti-trans rhetoric on them.
Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.
CNN interviewed three trans kids and their mothers who traveled from Arizona to speak on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., as the court heard a case Wednesday on health care for trans minors.
When reporter Lucy Kafanov asked 10-year-old Violet DuMont what concerns she has about speaking out, the girl replied, “That I’m gonna be, like, murdered. I’m gonna be walking down the street and somebody’s gonna come up and, like, shoot me or something.”
“That’s a really scary thing to be worrying about at 10 years old,” Kafanov responded.
Violet’s mother, Lucy Callahan-DuMont, said it’s hard to hear her child say that. After Donald Trump was elected president in November, Callahan-DuMont said, Violet asked her three questions: “Are we gonna have to move? Are they gonna take me away from you? Am I not gonna be able to get my medicine?”
Another trans girl, Dylan Heinzer, said Republican anti-trans rhetoric and ads make her feel “like they think we’re puppets that they can play with, and it’s just so wrong.”
Violet DuMont added, “It literally made me feel dead inside. It’s probably, honestly, the worst thing I’ve ever felt. Like politicians say you have the wrong gender, you’re confused, honey. No, My self is a fact, not an opinion, and they don’t get to decide that for me. I get to decide that for myself.”
Regarding gender-affirming care bans like the one in Tennessee that is the subject of the Supreme Court case, Hazel Heinzer, Dylan’s mother, said she doesn’t know what care her children will need in the future, but she believes in bodily autonomy and parental rights. “My kids deserve access to the same lifesaving care that other, cisgender kids are receiving without politicians interfering,” she said.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
The Tennessee law bans administration of puberty blockers and hormone treatment for gender transition for minors but allows this care for cisgender kids for other conditions, such as early-onset puberty. It also bans gender-affirming surgery for trans people under 18, but such surgery is rarely performed on minors anyway, and the lawsuit out of Tennessee is not challenging that portion of the law. Arizona so far has banned surgery only.
Daniel Trujillo, a trans boy, told Kafanov that if politicians really cared about children, “then they would take the time and listen to what they have to say. I think that they would focus on real things, like climate change, instead of using our identities as a pawn just to get votes or just to stay in office.” He and his family have traveled to the Arizona state capitol many times to speak out, and he has repeatedly been disrespected and misgendered, he said.
He added that they came to Washington because “oftentimes, our lives get turned into numbers and trauma stories with no name and no face. Our existence is so beyond that. I play the guitar, I’m in our school’s March for Our Lives club and our Spanish club. Like, I live this very full and vibrant life. When politicians turn us into numbers, a lot of the times they haven’t met trans people, they don’t know trans people, they don’t take the time to introduce themselves to trans people.”
His mother, Lizette Trujillo, said Daniel lobbied for the first time at age 9; he’ll be 18 next August, two months after the Supreme Court’s ruling is expected to come out. “He will have spent a majority of his life defending his existence,” she said. “So I just want Daniel and Violet and Dylan to live in a world that just lets them be and a world where they can be safe. I really worry that the rhetoric has gotten so bad.”
Callahan-DuMont noted the high suicide rate among trans youth, while Lizette Trujillo cited the violence faced by Black and brown trans women.
Violet DuMont said the anti-trans climate has ruined her childhood. As to what might happen under four more years of Trump, who has backed a national ban on gender-affirming care, she said, “I just don’t want to think about what he’s going to do.”
