Today, the Alabama legislature did something quite expected if you’ve been paying attention to our state’s prioritization of government issues: it sent a bill to Governor Ivey’s desk that nobody asked for, which sought to address a problem that does not exist.

Yet, here we are and your representatives would have you believe that instead of solving real-world problems such as the rising price of groceries, under-funded education, infant mortality, and the retreat of hospitals from rural areas, that what this state really needs to succeed is another law that bullies trans kids and adults. The question is, why?

Years ago, I drove to Montgomery to have breakfast with a newly-elected House Representative and one of the sponsors of a proposed anti-trans sports bill, in an effort to educated him on the subject he then wanted to regulate. To get an understanding of what he knew, I asked him if he’d met any trans athletes. He hadn’t.

I asked him if he had heard of a trans athlete playing sports within his district? No. What about the state? Not there, either. Had he ever met any trans people? Outside of a someone who worked at an advocacy group, I was the first trans person to be face-to-face with this representative. We talked. He listened. I think he understood the stakes. Still, he pushed the bill and it passed into law.

To give some context to the supposed “problem” of trans participation in sports that the bill sought to address, in December, NCAA President Charlie Baker testified before a U.S. Senate committee that in the 1,100 colleges in all 50 states, which enroll more than 530,000 student-athletes, there were less than 10 transgender athletes.

Like I said. Priorities.

The reality is, there are political points to be scored in championing culture war issues that are carpetbagged into our state by national right-wing lobbying groups. Anti-trans and other culture war issues are clout-generating and helpful for any junior politician trying to make a name for themselves.

There are certain people in politics who gravitate towards that value, regardless of harmful outcomes. And there are harmful outcomes – affecting not just trans people.

In yesterday’s committee hearing in the House, Rep. Susan Dubose revisited the sports bill as she advocated for the latest anti-trans bill, the What is a Woman Act, where she repeated the false urgency of why the bill was even needed at all.

The Senate counterpart, sponsored by Sen. April Weaver had already moved forward, while Gov. Ivey had expressed excitement to sign it in her State of the State Address. In Rep. Dubose’s testimony at the committee hearing, she attempted to argue that the bill’s reason for existence was simple: Women are women, men are men. It’s been that way since the Book of Genesis, she said. It’s all just…common sense.

Well, fine. Let’s use a little common sense. Rep. Dubose says her bill, now passed as SB-39, is merely a definitions bill and doesn’t really do anything beyond defining the sexes as a strict reflection of assignment at birth.

But the bill has a sharp edge.

It gives no room for expression, no room for variance of gender, and works like an anchor, holding to concepts that exist in sex stereotypes. It is within SB-39’s implementation where the opportunity for harm exists. SB-39’s definitions are bound to be used to reinforce rules governing State bathrooms, keeping trans men in the women’s bathrooms, where we should now expect to see guys with full beards and muscles?

It’s absurd.

What strikes me, though, is the cruelty of SB-39. It’s just mean. It has only one real purpose: telling transgender people that we do not have a place among you. That our existence does not merit being defined in the State of Alabama. So, then, who is this for? Honestly?

Right, right. The political value.

Last year, I met with Rep. Dubose to discuss her bill. It was an opportunity for her to learn how a strict sex definitions bill could have negative impacts on ID documents. She listened, as I explained how the safety of trans individuals would be impacted by carrying an ID with a gender marker that did not match who they were and how they presented.

I told her how statistics in employment, healthcare, and housing security, are all negatively affected by such a mis-match. To her credit, she listened and then did something that was somewhat surprising. She recognized the harm that could be done and made an amendment to mitigate it.

I don’t know what has changed for her since then. I don’t understand how she could see the harm that her bill would cause last year but ignore it today.

Like bathrooms, the bill does not explicitly target driver’s licenses, though it leaves the door open to be interpreted and implemented in such a way that it affects both.

Her amending language to exclude ID documents, however, is gone. As is, presumably, any consideration for trans people’s safety.

Maybe scoring these political points are, in her mind, worth making our lives worse in Alabama. We are such a small part of the population, after all.

What I do know is this: these efforts to regulate trans existence are not without precedent. As we look back throughout history, there are countless horrible measures of humanity that begin with legislation restricting the lives of marginalized communities. Nothing good comes from these efforts.

There are glaring issues this state is facing that affect the daily lives of people. Trans people existing is not one of them.

Trans people belong. Even in Alabama. Regardless of legislative efforts to say otherwise.

Sydney Duncan currently serves as Senior Counsel at Advocates for Trans Equality (A4TE), where she is engaged in various impact litigation matters affecting the trans community. Prior to her time at A4TE, she was the Attorney Director of the Magic City Legal Center, a pro bono LGBTQ legal program at Birmingham AIDS Outreach in Alabama. Her advocacy work has been featured in Rolling Stone, LGBTQ Nation, NBC News, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Huffington Post, and she has appeared on PBS Newshour. She lives in Mountain Brook, Alabama with her wife and two children.