BGHRA, DDFC, and DDGC Joint Statement and Call to Action in Support of Trans and Nonbinary People

DDGC joined forces with our comrades at BGHRA and DDFC to issue a joint statement and call to action in support of trans and nonbinary people. You can find the complete statement here. Please visit the website to add your name to the statement. Consider reaching out to your scholarly association and ask its leadership team to draft up their own statement and plan for action in support of trans and nonbinary people. 

Below is an excerpt from the statement. 

“The three collectives vehemently condemn the rising transphobia and acts of anti-trans violence in the United States and throughout the world as well as the more than 100 pieces of anti-trans legislation that are being heard in more than 30 states this legislative session, which are a part of the 195+ anti-LGBTQ+ bills currently being considered by states across the country. We further recognize that the number of coordinated legislative attacks against trans people is unprecedented while simultaneously understanding the long historical arch of oppression and violence in which these acts are situated (see for example Gill-Peterson, 2018; Knisely & Paiz, 2021; Malatino, 2020).

We maintain that there is an ethical imperative to uphold the rights and dignity of trans people in schools and, thus, in our broader communities and society. And we maintain that any call for diversity and inclusion (e.g., ACTFL, 2019) must include unequivocal support for trans rights and gender justice. These assertions are particularly poignant for us as scholars, educators, and students of language; our identities --who we are as groups and individuals-- are inseparable from the language we use and from the affordances and constraints we experience in our interactions with others (see Darvin & Norton, 2015; Knisely, 2021a, 2021b; Knisely & Paiz, 2021). To the same degree, our success as language learners and users is measured in and by our successful interactions with others (see for example work by Uju Anya). We believe that a person’s ability to thrive and to succeed should not depend upon the extent to which they do or do not conform to gender norms.”