When 26-year-old transgender author Andrew Joseph White released his third novel, Compound Fractures, a young adult thriller, last fall, it quickly garnered attention from the New York Times, USA Today, and independent newspapers. It became a bestseller.
This book is a story about an autistic transgender boy caught up in an intergenerational feud. He also spoke about President-elect Donald Trump and his influence on the working class of the American South. The novel’s popularity among young readers suggests that modern teenagers are more political than some of the older generation might expect.
The novel became a bestseller in the midst of the 2024 presidential campaign, and in a letter to readers, White wrote about how tough it is to be a young trans* person, although he wished he had given it a different intro. I confessed that I had to. modern America.
Donald Trump on December 22 acknowledged the concerns of AJ White and millions of other LGBTQ people in Gen Z and Alpha. At the AmericaFest conference, Trump promised to “stop the transgender insanity” on his first day in office. He was particularly vocal against the rights of trans* youth and the rights of trans* adults to work with young people.
The election of Donald Trump also raised concerns about censorship in children’s and young adult literature, particularly in public and school libraries.
A new report from PEN America shows that there will be a nearly 200 percent increase in banned books during the 2023-2024 school year, including books about gender and sexuality, as well as books about racism, mental health, substance abuse, and other social issues. Books related to the issue were also included. young people face in their everyday world. Such bans not only make printed books unpalatable to young people who cannot afford to buy them themselves; These could prevent authors from writing new books for younger generations, which would also affect American popular culture.
Republicans across the country have long taken an increasingly authoritarian attitude toward young people. Republicans are trying to attack LGBTQ youth everywhere, erase Those from academia and implementers social media limits.
Even without new laws, being a young person in modern America under any administration is tough. All American citizens under the age of 18 can easily be prevented from expressing their religious and political beliefs, forced to remain in abusive environments, and subjected to drug treatment. institutionalized If their parents say so, they can be removed from the community that supports them without their consent. Youths under the age of 18 can be tried in adult court, but cannot vote or stand for election.
All decisions regarding their rights are made by the older generation.
It is legal to pay young people less for their work and deny them the right to control their property. Young people from unsupportive families are denied any chance of living a normal life until they are 18 or even 21 years old. This is basically the situation in most Western cultures, but American teenagers could begin to change this system with more freedom of information and support.
But now Donald Trump and his supporters are telling everyone that young people don’t have their own gender identity, don’t have the right to bodily autonomy, and shouldn’t be asked about their feelings until they turn 18. trying to make you believe. Young people sought to deny basic knowledge about the complex world around them, as if that knowledge could be magically downloaded into a person’s mind at the age of 18.
These dangerous trends will create a generation accustomed to conforming but less accustomed to thinking for themselves and trusting their emotions. It’s basically a very anti-American, anti-individualist, and authoritarian trend.
This trend could have long-term implications for world politics.
It is no exaggeration to say that no other culture has had as much of a global impact on the way people think around the world as American culture. This is especially true when it comes to LGBTQ issues.
When I was an LGBTQ activist in Russia and Ukraine, my fellow post-Soviet activists talked more about Stonewall and the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco than they did about the persecution of LGBTQ people in the Soviet Union. . From my own experience of becoming interested in LGBTQ blogs and journalism after the collapse of the Soviet Union, I can tell you that the videos, posts, features, and essays on LGBTQ issues that you can find on social media in Ukraine and Russia are often translated directly from English. or based on language created by American LGBTQ activists.
Young LGBTQ people around the world are learning to speak for themselves by watching their fellow influencers on English-language platforms.
As a young transgender person from Ukraine, I knew I was trans* for as long as I could remember, even though I never heard the word trans* until I was a teenager. After reading more about the LGBTQ movement in America, I was able to accept myself for the first time.
For young people in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Lana Waczewski was the first person to give them their first name when they came out to their parents, or the first person who helped them believe they could be transgender. I’ve seen a lot of people. A fulfilling life. People accepted transgender people because there was a transgender person on the Kardashians show. And we need more LGBTQ movies, comics, and books for young people, and more freedom for LGBTQ youth to find their community. These are all likely to come from the US
Americans wonder how often I find myself in situations like that, where young queer Gen Z Tatars living in small, mostly isolated Russian villages, or Gen Z refugees from Iran, feel comfortable talking about Americans. If you knew what you saw, you would wonder. Understand LGBTQ culture and use it to explain your cultural background. American culture, and American online spaces, are very universal.
The same rule works for conservatives.
It is not enough to have a dictator like . Vladimir PutinHis comments reflected the old American anti-LGBTQ conspiracy, that LGBTQ ideas are dangerous to children, or that conservatives around the world are trying to bully those who support LGBTQ rights for young people. They claim that they have begun using “groomer” rhetoric to describe themselves. Trump’s QAnon movement globalized. Not only is it putting LGBTQ youth around the world at risk, it is widening the gap in thinking between different generations.
But LGBTQ youth already know there is something wrong with them, and they need information to help them understand who they are. Americans could provide that through popular culture. It’s worth noting that Gen Z is far better at understanding the power of the internet, and that Gen Z Americans can literally make America greater by helping marginalized people in other countries.
Additionally, LGBTQ youth in America are speaking out about their experiences.
they can say what they need to say. All we need to do is listen. Otherwise, we will end up with a cosmopolitan atmosphere in which new generations will grow up denied their basic right to be themselves and be prevented from learning and thinking independently.
Editor’s note: The author uses trans* to include non-binary and genderqueer people.
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
