"Together" includes trans people

Last week, a 21-year-old Israeli trans woman committed suicide.

She was a photographer by profession, and a talented one. Pinned on her Facebook profile is the message "If I die from a rocket, make peace in my name." The comments are filled with people paying their respects, despite the cause of her death not being a rocket, and there was a page put up on a memorial site so that people can share pictures, stories, and memories. She was obviously loved and cherished.

In February, a 13-year-old girl put an end to her own life as a result of bullying in school and online. The incident caused a national uproar; every news outlet in the country covered the story, and it sparked discussions about how to better prevent bullying and how to identify warning signs earlier.

The death of the young trans woman was not reported in any news outlets that I could find. I didn’t know her personally; perhaps her family didn’t want it reported widely. I only found out because a non-profit organization in Tel Aviv that she had been involved with put out a message on their announcement channel. There were no national headlines. There was no increased awareness of the challenges that trans people face, in general or in Israel in particular.

The day before Holocaust Memorial Day, the news site Arutz Sheva published an op-ed by the editor of a conservative paper, Itamar Segal, who wrote that transgender people need to be "...removed from the earth, not seen and not found", like bread on Passover.
This was in response to Israeli transgender singer Dana International being chosen to light a torch on Independence Day. Segal calls her a man, states that being transgender is insanity, and calls for the eradication of the concept of being transgender.

I turned on the TV for a few minutes, where the hosts were interviewing a Holocaust survivor. She made one point very clear: That the nation needs unity, or we have lost. She also spoke about the dehumanization that the Jews faced during the Shoah. They were a plague to eradicate.

I was outside walking when the memorial siren went off. As everyone slowed to a stop, the entire country standing silently in remembrance, the "together we will win" flags fluttered in the wind.

Itamar Segal doesn’t seem to have gotten the message about "unity".

Over Passover, I went to the Olamot science fiction and fantasy convention. The event is perhaps the event most heavily populated by LGBTQ+ folks outside of actual pride events; there are pride flags at a huge number of booths, people walk around wrapped in pride flags, there are bathrooms converted to be unisex (in addition to separate for those who prefer that), and you are invited to take a pronouns sticker when you walk in so that people know how to address you. At the same time, it's a popular event for modern Orthodox people; there are spontaneous prayers pulled together at times, and for the Sukkot version of the event there's always a sukkah so that the religious people can have a place to eat. It is, perhaps, one of the most diverse events in the country - and everyone gets along just fine.

Israel is a liberal democracy, and that is one of its greatest strengths. LGBTQ+ people have rights, and Israel recognizes that. I know IDF soldiers who are openly trans and LGBTQ+ students who mingle freely with those wearing a kippah and tzitzit or hijabs, even as other countries slide backwards; I’ve heard the panic and stress of people I know online as the rights and healthcare of their partners or themselves are legislated against, demonized, and the process begun of stripping them away. So far, Israel has had other issues to worry about, and the rights of LGBTQ+ Israelis have until now remained intact. And it needs to stay that way.

Some of my favorite people in the world happen to be transgender. They are kind, intelligent, funny, lovely people. Being trans is just one detail among many, and hardly the most important. I’m privileged to know them and consider them friends. To see and hear people demonize them and call for their eradication is simply unthinkable. Dressing up the dehumanization in a religious metaphor doesn't make it any better.

Unity includes trans people. Together includes trans people. If we allow bigotry and intolerance to fester, if we allow calls for eradication, if dehumanization becomes acceptable... well, we’ve seen where that ends. The only thing we can expect is more deaths, and I, for one, would prefer that we instead make peace, in the name of the young woman who ended her life so early, and make sure that such tragic events happen never again.