Fighting hate……..
After cleaning up the kitchen from dinner this evening, I sat down to read while my spouse watched the end of the Philadelphia/Buffalo football game. My oldest son and his wife were at the game; my son is a Philly fan while his wife is a Buffalo fan, so both of them were excited to be at the game - especially in light of the fact that it was the last regular season game at the Buffalo stadium as they move into their new stadium before the start of the next season. Buffalo is a five hour drive from our home, so they are spending the night and coming home tomorrow.
Anyway, I wasn’t really paying attention to the game, but I did watch the very ending. More importantly, I saw the commercial which came on after the end of the game. It was for the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, which was formerly known as The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. A perfectly good cause, and their point that one in three Jewish Americans has experienced some form of antisemitic hate in 2025 is well taken. Also not surprising in the current political climate that promotes hate and prejudice.
But what the commercial made me think about was if we are seeing commercials about antisemitism, and one in three Jews being subjected to hate, when will we see the same thing about anti-transgender hate?
Statistics show there are about 5.7 million Jews in the USA. This is roughly three times as many as the estimated 1.6 million transgender people in the USA; a number which most researchers believe is well below the true number. And I would suspect that it is probably three in three transgender people who have been subjected to some form of hate in the USA. I know I have had to put up with staring, pointing, laughing, nasty comments, misgendering, and discrimination since I transitioned - and I live in an area that is pretty accepting; an area where I have legal protections and a good support network. Many in our community have it much worse than me. Many suffer physical abuse and violence as is recognized every year during TDOR.
But I don’t see any commercials run by the networks supporting us - especially not during the Sunday NFL broadcasts!