This past summer, the Human Rights Campaign, a nonprofit LGBTQ+ civil rights organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., declared a national state of emergency citing more than 525 anti-LGBTQ+ measures proposed in 16 states, with 75 bills signed into law. HRC also reports that an epidemic of violence against transgender and gender non-conforming youth and adults is occurring across the country as a consequence. Arkansas’s hate crime law excluded gender identity and sexual orientation two years ago.
Transgender people, in particular, are being targeted across the country. An estimated 462 anti-transgender bills have been filed in 41 state legislatures. According to translegislation.com, the bills seek to block trans people from receiving gender-affirming healthcare, equal access to education, legal recognition, and even the right to publicly exist.
KUAF Public Radio reporter and producer Jacqueline Froelich has been covering anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Arkansas for years. She and her colleagues took on an ambitious multi-media project called the Transgender Experience in Arkansas (TEA) six months ago to tell the stories of trans-Arkansans. The goal of the series is to reduce bias against trans people by putting the spotlight on a culture in Arkansas that has long remained invisible and vastly misunderstood.
“Being able to highlight a culture in Arkansas that has long been hidden and victimized, with the aim to countervail rising hate against trans-Arkansans, has been a privilege,” Froelich, who produced the video series comprised of interviews with seven trans-Arkansans, said. TEA premiered early this year interviewing Ethan Avanzino of Eureka Springs. TEA was filmed in 2023 in KUAF’s Listening Lab in the studios of KUAF by Emerson Alexander, co-hosted by Taylor Johnson and Sophia Nourani. Nourani edits the series.
Finding trans people with the courage to tell their stories publicly was a challenge, according to Froelich.
“But, having been immersed in LGBTQ+ politics for twenty years as a public radio reporter for both my station and NPR. I knew sources who provided leads,” Froelich said. “But I also understood the individuals who agreed to come forward could be at risk for being targeted and expressed this to each of them. Yet the seven guests selected were confident nonetheless – and articulate about what I refer to as their ‘trans epiphanies.’”
TEA features a cross-section of transfolk from teens to adults. Froelich conducted pre-interviews, providing drafts of scripted questions, and sought permission to ask those questions. Guests could also add questions they wished to be asked. Consent from parents was obtained for guests under 18.
Guests were not screened prior to filming the series.
“I am deeply impressed with all our guests, how they expressed themselves and came forward for the series,” Froelich said. “Our second guest, seventeen-year-old June Simmons, describes how she strategically came to terms with her transgender identity. The series, which also includes a gender scholar, is really beautiful. Being transgender is clearly daunting. And, as our series logo suggests, we have only a primitive insight into transgender culture.”
Gay marriage was legalized in 2015 in the United States, and people envisioned a more egalitarian future for people with different sexual orientations. Instead, many have seized on eroding protections.
“Scapegoating, or what’s now referred to as ‘othering’ by dominant cultures has always existed,” Froelich said. “I believe individuals who seek to ‘erase’ trans youth and adults from our culture cleave to popular contemporary religious doctrine that frames LGBTQ+ people as deviant, or worse, as predators. I report on lawmakers in Arkansas who’ve enacted bans against trans-Arkansans, barring them from public accommodations, sports and medical care. And in key cases, I wonder if certain individuals who are politically biased against LGBTQ+ culture internally struggle with their own identities.”
The series, accessed at listeninglabkuaf.com/tea was launched in late January with two episodes being released per month through May. Froelich is also broadcasting audio excerpts of TEA episodes for air on KUAF’s daily news hour, Ozarks at Large.
Feedback about the series from listeners reflects the production goal: to illuminate the lives of trans-Arkansans. Froelich said as several guests reveal, being transgender is not a choice. When sharing their coming out stories, TEA guests articulated a certain relief, able to reckon with and fully embrace their identity, no matter the consequence.
Two years ago, Arkansas banned gender-affirming medical care to trans minors, a measure currently stayed in the courts. Another law blocks trans individuals from participating in public school and college athletics. In 2023, state lawmakers mandated parental approval for Arkansas teachers to address transgender students by their preferred pronouns. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders last year signed a law blocking trans students from using bathrooms that do not align with the sex on their birth certificate. And, a 2023 Arkansas law, under appeal, aims to implicitly block access for minors who patronize public and school libraries to LGBTQ+ and other diverse reading materials.
“Rather than dwell on rising trans oppression and erasure in Arkansas, we asked our TEA guests, which include trans teens, trans adults, a drag queen and drag king, to provide insight into their lives by revealing their trans self-realization, medical integration, and social acculturation,” Froelich said.
TEA is supported entirely by KUAF listener contributions.