Eli Bundy
Eli Bundy, a student in Charleston, delivered this testimony opposing H3477 to the South Carolina House Special Laws Committee on Tuesday, February 23, 2021.
My name is Eli Bundy, I am 16 years old, and I am a student in Charleston, South Carolina. I am also transgender, and I am writing to testify against H3477. This bill does nothing but harm transgender students, and I am both disappointed and unsurprised that young people such as myself are being told by our state legislature that we are not equal to cisgender students, that we do not deserve equal treatment under the law, and that we are a threat to the lives and livelihoods of other students. You are trying to solve a problem that does not exist, and in doing so, you are creating a problem instead of fixing it.
Transgender youth have one of the highest rates of suicide of any demographic. Around 40% of transgender people attempt suicide at least once in their life. Please consider myself and my transgender peers in light of that fact. 40% of people in my situation attempt to take their own lives. Trevor Project, an organization dedicated to providing resources for struggling LGBTQ+ youth, has said that they receive higher volumes of calls to their suicide hotlines when anti-transgender legislation such as H3477 is passed at the state and federal level, and this bill would be doing just that. We see right through your efforts to discriminate against us by disguising this bill as a protection for female athletes, and we refuse to accept your hate and bigotry without a fight.
When you vote on this bill, please consider the lives of transgender youth that you are putting in danger. If you truly wish to support and benefit your constituency instead of using your power to enact legal discrimination, vote against H3477.
Thank you for your time.
Eli has spoken out against anti-trans bills at this year’s Trans & Queer Field day and testified against them at the legislative hearings, too.
“My dream for 2022 is that I don’t have to skip a day of my senior year of high school to defend myself and my friends at the South Carolina state house. I hope that’s not too much to ask.”
–Eli Bundy
Hello, my name is Eli Bundy, I use they/them pronouns, and I’m from Charleston.
I am 16 years old, and next year I’m currently finishing up my junior year of high school. As a trans young person, I speak from direct experience when I say how harmful the wave of anti-transgender bills has been to young people in South Carolina. These bills have attacked our fundamental humanity and told us that we are unequal. They have shown me that the lawmakers elected to represent me either view me as a threat or a political pawn.
I testified at the first hearing against the anti-transgender student athletics bill. In order to do so – in order to stand up for myself and to show lawmakers that transgender youth like me are listening and watching and hurting, I needed to skip class, step outside of my virtual classroom, and dial into a South Carolina subcommittee meeting. I needed to remind these elected officials about the already-high suicide rates of trans and nonbinary young people. I needed to underline that when divisive, transphobic bills like this are discussed, suicide rates and attempts at self harm get even worse.
Watch Eli’s full speech here.
I was one of a few transgender and cisgender kids who met with Rep. Ashley Trantham earlier this year in a private meeting, urging her to listen to our stories and pull support for her anti-transgender bill. We are all transgender teenagers who would be impacted by the bill passing, and so we figured that this would be a powerful teachable moment. We figured that it’s so much easier to demonize someone when you don’t see their face, and so we decided to say, hey, here’s our face.
But when I looked around the room, it just struck me as so ridiculous: We are literally children. Some of the students were even younger than me, and here we were, pleading with a lawmaker to listen to us. The next day, she defended her bill anyway.
I’m glad that it hasn’t passed yet, and I’m so proud of the trans young people who have spoken out. I feel grateful to be able to be so public – because my family is supportive, and because I have a great support system. Not every trans young person is so lucky.
Can we agree, as a state, to stop doing this next year? To stop picking on young people? The students in that room with me and Rep. Trantham should not have to spend their time pleading with lawmakers not to hurt them. They probably have homework to do – trust me.
My dream for 2022 is that I don’t have to skip a day of my senior year of high school to defend myself and my friends at the South Carolina state house. I hope that’s not too much to ask.