Trans Politics, Trans Activism, also 'rolling is this transphobic?' thread

This week I heard The Guardian referred to as TERF daily is that a widespread perspective? I only pick it up for the review sections anyway.

yes - the guardian was/is pretty much the vanguard of UK/anglo terfism along with other british liberal outlets. i think there has been some mild pushback from guardian-US but not enough

(it took explicit right wingers longer to adopt specifically terf rhetoric but they're running with it obsessively now making liberal/terf and christian/tory/fascist transphobia increasingly indistinguishable - not sure how useful such distinctions are except that the right wingers tend to be positions of political power while the liberals are concentrated in media). in the UK at least trans people have almost no defenders in media and politics outside the "hard left" (i.e. semi-mainstream activists and commentators who are slightly to the left of acceptable liberal opinion) and not even reliably there (where it's limited and so often blase that it's hard to shake the feeling of many cis leftists only *opposing* terfs to "own the libs" - a perverse mostly UK-specific phenomenon I think)

i don't follow these issues as much as i should because the coverage is a reliable way to trigger suicidal ideation (an intended effect - sometimes i think spite is keeping me alive)

i think there has been some mild pushback from guardian-US but not enough

they published a letter condemning the uk guardian's transphobia a few years back & are quite pro-trans in their coverage. guardian australia is quite good on trans issues too, neither has any time for even both sides nonsense let alone the fairly aggressive transphobia of the uk guardian. both are very thankfully editorially independent of their parent

now making liberal/terf and christian/tory/fascist transphobia increasingly indistinguishable

yeah it's not particularly useful & hasn't been for years - there's the occasional one who's truly coming at their transphobia from an oldschool radfem perspective and has actual left-wing credentials of some sort but they're so few and far between & are either happy to throw in with the right anyway or are now just spending their time throwing an ineffectual tantrum about how no one at all agrees with them

pretty much every mainstream uk media outlet is fairly transphobic to some degree, the guardian has just been especially pernicious because it's had columnists who've had transphobia as a weird pet issue for decades & are largely responsible for giving transphobia its liberal respectability in the uk

i mean that's the really fucked up thing, for all the performative cruelty on display in tennessee, things are just as bad in the uk right now, maybe worse. in the uk, you don't _need_ to have someone like matt walsh going through all that hue and cry to shut down trans-affirming care, because nobody can get it.

some years ago, i heard an american liberal say that they thought abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare". i've since had opportunity at length to consider the implications of that statement, understand what it looks like in practice.

the state of gender care in the uk today looks, well, a lot like it did 20 years ago, when people in the us looked with envy at the uk as one of the "best countries in the world" when it comes to care. you think you're trans? great, get on the waiting list to be evaluated at a gender identity clinic. it's covered through the nhs. the wait time, last i heard a couple years back (like left, i haven't exactly been keeping close tabs on the ongoing genocide for self-care reasons), was a couple years. that's to be _evaluated_. that doesn't _actually_ get you on hrt.

they're not saying you _can't_ get care, like the republicans are. they just have to be _sure_. they have to be _absolutely sure_ because these drugs are, you know, they're _very dangerous drugs_. i mean we're not talking about aspirin here, we're talking about _chemical castration_.

matt walsh didn't make up that term. that's genuinely how medical experts described HRT a quarter century ago. it was a "real-life test", an _ordeal_ trans people had to go through in order to get The Surgery. you couldn't prescribe it lightly.

i mean that's where the shit-for-brains republicans in tennessee are coming from, that's why they treat _puberty blockers_ as comparable to _genital reconstruction surgery_. that's what they were _taught_. that's what we were all fucking _taught_.

"chemical castration". are you fucking kidding me? spironalactone, that's the bullshit they promote on fox news as being effective against covid. (it's not effective against covid.)

denying trans people care relies on meticulously maintained information control, an _enforced state of ignorance_. what that looks like in the UK, if you're a major media outlet, if you're the Guardian or the BBC, it's really fucking easy. you just Teach the Controversy. Trans people: ordinary people, or harbingers of a sinister plot against women? We report, you decide.

you all remember, that was fox news's slogan. they were _effective_, though! absolutely devastatingly effective. right now fox news are sort of at "iraqi information minister" levels of propaganda, everything is on fire and nobody cares, just say whatever shit will get anyone, anyone at all, to desperately keep hanging on to your every word.

now, how effective would it be if _every major media outlet in the country_ reported exactly like fox news did? that's the only way it works. there can be no alternatives. you want to know about trans people? ok! want to see a serial killer, or a pathetic joke? those are your options. both sides! you get to see both sides of the trans experience!

the fucked up thing is that matt walsh doesn't know how much he's doing to keep us _alive_ right now. how much he's doing to fuel our _rage_. like david byrne said. the burning keeps me alive. all of the shit people like matt walsh is saying now? that was stuff i _believed_, genuinely _believed_ about myself. five years ago, not 25, five years ago.

i don't know what the people who hate us think is going to happen. i had a friend who was at a panel with a republican congressperson talking about some issue related to her job, not a trans issue at all, and the congressman spent the whole hour just staring at her with these burning eyes of hatred. i'm sorry, but that shit is hilarious to me. like, their rage (which is a very, very different thing from my rage) is only going to cause one of us to spontaneously combust, and it's not going to be me. it's gratifying. it really is, sometimes it's the only thing that makes my life worthwhile, how much just _existing_ fucks up these assholes. i don't have to do anything, i don't have to say anything, all i have to do is _exist_ and these dumb motherfuckers get all red in the face. i mean there's always the possibility that one of them might get so mad they shoot me dead on the spot, might go dan white on me, but you know what? nothing i can do about that. you go for it, big man. see how that works out for you.

because before they came along, all of this shit was stuff i was doing _to myself_, and it is so, so much of a relief to be able to offload that burden to utter pieces of shit like them.

and in the uk, it's not like that. in the uk, advocating for anti-trans genocide is _respectable_, just like it used to be. i was listening to this fascinating interview with the author torrey peters on the "gender reveal" podcast, she was talking about her tour promoting her novel _detransition baby_, and she was doing major media outlets in the us, all over the place, and in the uk, it was much more small-press stuff, niche stuff. trans people doing stuff that's... i mean, if i say "zines", i don't mean that as a criticism, i don't mean that it's unprofessional, i mean there's a lot more DIY spirit, that you're dealing with people who are very clearly on the _outside_ of things.

see, the great thing about being in a place like tennessee? it might cost you everything, but it's a lot easier to _get out_ than it is to get out of the uk. i had a couple friends in, not tennessee, but south carolina, and they both did that. they got out, and their lives aren't great, but they're _alive_, they're getting life-saving treatment. they exist. things aren't so easy as that over in the UK.

I self-referred to my local gender identity clinic the other week. I'm expecting to get seen in about 2027

There's also this

https://www.vice.com/en/article/3adva3/liz-truss-scotland-gender-identity

I live in Scotland so this is concerning

Liz Truss, who used to be the Equalities Minister, has been saying that trans women are not women (Sunak also said this during the leadership race). She's either unaware of the fact that legally trans women most definitely are women or she's chosen to disregard it. I think the latter is more likely

Some cracking posts there by the way Kate

paolo, left - either y'all on 77? there's things i have to say that i don't feel totally comfortable saying on a public board.

one recommendation i will make, blanket recommendation to anyone who's questioning: try and get yourself involved in community. local if you have one, online if not. the absolute hardest thing is feeling like you're alone. one of the main reasons i'm doing so poorly right now is because i've had to disengage from community. (also one of the reasons i'm just fuckin' pouring trans mom energy all over this thread, tbh.)

the complicating factor is that not all community is healthy community! turns out fucked up traumatized people tend to form fucked up communities, but people still sometimes cling to the "t4t" utopian ideal where if you put a bunch of us in a room together we'll do great things because we all _understand_ each other. we do _understand_ each other, in ways that cis people don't! it's not enough to make for a healthy community, though.

but you need community. one of the things that i learned very quickly once i transitioned is that nobody does terribly well on their own.

I'm sorry to hear you're not doing so well. And I'm not on 77, what is it?

I'm not super involved in the community but I do have one fairly good trans pal and I know other trans people I can chat to as well, so I'm not totally isolated here

Have noticed recently that disabled toilets in a few places have now got Gender Neutral Toilet notes on the door. So not sure if this is a step in the right direction or a tokenist gesture. Seeing it in the Arts Centre here and wondering now if it was something the LGBTQ collective currently exhibiting insisted on and therefore was necessary for the gallery. Will see if it lasts longer than the exhibition.
Will be a bit creepy if it doesn't.

regular practice is to be all mysterious and not say what 77 is, but fuck it, trans folks suffer enough because nobody told us things that really would have benefited us to know. private board for regulars, subject to mod approval. here's the thread to request access.

Request Access to 77 Borad

Huh, who knew? I'll see if they'll let me in

stevolende re: toilets - this is definitely a good thing. the toilet police are one of the most terrifying things trans people deal with - we're just in here trying to pee but we gotta worry about giving us the third degree about whether we have the right to piss where we're pissing or if we're like trying to be creepers and like no literally we're just trying to pee. that was the one thing i insisted my work do when i transitioned - just put in a couple gender-neutral restrooms.

i guess it's possible for the centre to rip down the signs after the exhibition, if they never want to show work by queer artists again, haha. that's a real good long-term strategy for an arts centre.

its now notably permanent like as of today or since i9 last looked,. an actual solid sign like

piece of paper with message printed replaced by metal sign

Goddammit now a local institution that I really love — a park and nature center — appears to have canceled an all-ages Halloween-themed drag show because the local bigot brigade (most of whom I'm sure have never even been to the place) spread it around social media and peppered them with emails accusing them of enabling pedophiles etc. I'm still trying to get the full story, but this is a place that I would expect/hope to have a little backbone. The trans moral panic is in high gear in Tennessee.

god this is just sickening

literally everybody that rolls over without resistance just enables these groups even further

Exactly what I have been telling some local officials this morning. More than I usually say to them in my reporter role, but I'm not going to just sit back and document the bigotry, the stakes feel too high. We know what happens when vulnerable groups are demonized, it's always bad.

this is a great example of why all queer people have a common interest and a common cause. before bigots started falsely claiming trans people to be pedos and "groomers" they were saying it about cis gay people, and given the slightest excuse they'll say it again. drag isn't at all the same as being trans - there are trans drag queens and drag kings, but there are plenty of cis people who do drag as well - and now "trans panic" is being used as an excuse to erase _them_ as well. bigots don't have _reason_ to know the difference between cis drag queens and trans people - they hate us all. there's no lgb without the t.

and mothra, thanks for working to get the 411 on what's going on here. if we know who to fight, we will fight :)

Absolutely, the trans panic is an updating and narrowcasting of anti-queer panic more broadly, which has become slightly harder to sell politically even in East Tennessee. And I don't mean to imply all drag performers are transgender. But right, the panic doesn't care about those distinctions, it's just using "grooming" and "child abuse" as a cudgel against queer people in general. In the long and sorry tradition of socio-political scapegoating, obviously.

Fuck those people. The overwhelming majority of abusers of children are cis, "straight" men.

i'd put it more directly than that. transphobia is child abuse. promoting "christian values" is child abuse. of course it's a halloween show. christians burned joan of arc at the stake for being queer and then turned around and made her a saint. queerness and "witchcraft" are inseparable. the whole moral panic about that kid who played dungeons and dragons and then disappeared? james dallas egbert iii? he was _queer_. he disappeared trying to get away from his wildly homophobic surroundings. same reason he was playing d&d in the first place. died later of suicide, btw.

i strongly recommend the visual novel "we know the devil". can't recommend it highly enough.

I vividly remember that case. It happened just around the time I started playing D&D. Even then, the prevailing explanation struck me as completely improbable.

it took me surprisingly long for me to figure out how completely queer-coded D&D and role-playing games in general are. i guess if there's any consolation i'm far from alone in that...

https://i.redd.it/trjvcveye5u71.png

Well, sure. RPGs permit you to create a new identity--or explore your existing one.

right, and _yet_ it took _some of us_ 40 fucking years...

oh well.

the "grooming" rhetoric is so fucking backwards and fucked up. nobody ever _told_ me i was trans. i never _told_ anybody else they were trans. it's the prime fucking directive, and we don't have it because of _them_. it's because it's not _necessary_. there's no fucking _point_. sometimes earlier on i used to complain, christ, it was so fucking obvious, why didn't anybody _tell me_, but even then, i knew the answer. if anybody tried, i wouldn't accept it. i'd shoot back with "how do you know that? how can you possibly know that?" the entire basis of queer identity is that you can know yourself better than anybody else can. they're the ones pulling this fucking martin loring shit on people, spending all of this time and effort trying to convince us all that we _can't_ or _shouldn't_ be queer.

all i ever needed for myself, all i ever give to anyone else, is _permission_. as soon as i felt like i was _allowed_ to be queer, i fucking jumped at it, because it is so much better than anything being cishet ever had to offer me. oh, this could break up my marriage, cost me my career, alienate me from my family and friends? i mean, yes, that all sucks, but on the other hand, I GET TO EXIST. colonialist European ideology did a surprisingly successful job for a while coopting us into our own self-erasure, but as that particular strategy is not delivering the results it used to, i'm not entirely surprised that its advocates are taking more... _overt_ measures.

https://t.co/V1BCBZpvpP pic.twitter.com/vRhRzCs5iy

— CozyGuy SantaPost (@PetriClub) November 8, 2022

Mr. Gad "Size Queen" Saad

never heard of this bloke but "He is known for applying evolutionary psychology to marketing and consumer behaviour" is one of the more cursed sentences I've read on wikipedia

the only Gad Sa(a)d that I will acknowledge
https://imgur.com/a/a1PLgtD

also someone smarter than me needs to unpack the power these people invest in the phallus. blood and terf podcast has done some good work on this. I get the sense that he really had to hold himself back from describing the colour of his hypothetical invasive phallus as well

xxp

oops

https://i.imgur.com/HnyXYIf.jpg

who's that

jesus effing christ am I glad I deleted my Twitter account. The stressor of ***being trans*** on there and having this firehose full of shit shoved down your throat every day is just too much. I don't know how other people do it, I really don't.

sometimes it feels good to be hated and feared by all the worst people in the world but then you remember they have actual power

xp

Left, it's actor Josh Gad from when he was feeling sad.

thank you if he's not bad I hope he's less sad now

xp fundamentally they see us as threatening and destabilising on an ontological level as well as socially and politically. their world is absolutely incompatible with one in which we exist; we're an glitch in the system to be eliminated by all means necessary. I hate their world - it's boring and ugly and small and built on torture and blood sacrifice - if I die with it I'll die happy

a lot of this feels like liberalism running up against its contradictions in an endless hall of mirrors, constantly misapprehending its violence as that of others, those unreasonable ones who refuse to respect our way of doing things so have voided the contract so to speak and are excluded from whatever basic rights it was supposed to provide

(how many prominent islamophobes of the past decades have since expanded their repertoire to target trans people too? and I wonder what kathleen stock thinks about the hijab)

people get handwavey about the colonial roots of transphobia (which are real and deep) and I'm no different but so much of this feels like the most basic colonial projection applied to an ostensibly new problem- i.e. we need to murder/enslave/"save" these people because they're savages - for example they don't respect our gender norms and seem to live for things that aren't reducible or conducive to being reduced to a cold instrumental logic - this means they're against god/nature/science/reason and we need to break them as a people - let's say it's for their own good because the real reasons might make us feel bad about what we're doing

Extraordinary this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou_xvXJJk7k

Made it one second into that

not enough money in the world to get me to click that. I know who those people are and they all wish me harm. That's all I need to know.

The interesting thing to take from that video, which may or may not come as a surprise, is the extent to which British TERFdom is being funded by US right wing orgs. Which is relevant because these ppl all claim to be pro-choice, pro-gay rights feminists.

They all suck, no exceptions.

xp, yeah there's very much a blissfully ignorant "I will team with the leopards on this particular topic, but surely they won't turn around and eat my face, right?" going on with UK Terves.

I'm kinda reminded of the allegiance between anti-porn feminists and the Christian Right in America back in the 70s /80s. The issues are obviously very different, but the willingness of such groups to align themselves with the far right is, sadly, nothing new.