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

Ugh, Oklahoma: https://erininthemorn.substack.com/p/oklahoma-could-force-trans-people

A terrifying new bill was released late Wednesday night in Oklahoma that would ban gender affirming care for a huge number people. Oklahoma SB129 would ban gender affirming care under the age of 26 years old. Gen Z would be entirely banned from gender affirming care under this bill. This prospect is terrifying because Gen Z has been the most open about transitioning and a bill like this would medically detransition a huge portion of Oklahoma’s transgender population.

Good article from Parker Molloy on David French's hiring by the NYT: https://www.readtpa.com/p/david-french-nyt-anti-lgbtq

Yeah that is by far the worst thing about French. Well, that and his abortion stance. (The irony if you can call it that is that a lot of French's critics on the right routinely brand him as being pro-LGBTQ because he one time said he didn't think drag queen story hours should be illegal.)

it's good and no criticism of the writer or the piece but it's such a fucking drag that articles like this need to include so much hedging and qualification (whether out of legal or professional necessity or just well earned caution) and will *still* be taken as vile slander and abuse by the enemy, who meanwhile gets endless money and kudos for pissing all over everyone

seems like the nyt is going the guardian route right down to the firing and hiring practices. can't say i'm surprised, the alleged trans-positivity of american liberalism always looked extremely perfunctory and politically opportunistic and internally conflicted from a distance, i'm sure many are as relieved to jettison it as they were their tepid semi-support for BLM

I made the mistake of reading three comments from purportedly gay/lesbian/lib posters on this piece.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/opinion/lgbtq-rights-activism-alabama.html#commentsContainer

hard to tell the conservative trolls from the gay ladder kickers these days

Quite an episode. A Terf gave a speech quoting "The Big Lie".

Some attempts to say the anti-trans activist quoting Mein Kampf is actually criticising Nazism, but she helpfully turns up in the replies to clarify that she was simply giving Hitler appropriate credit for an idea that she believes is correct. https://t.co/mnmlAzwjhu

— Dave (@MediocreDave) January 16, 2023

That so many people believe that Trump won the election is testament to the power of his hypnotic suggestions. He primed them to support him becoming president for life. How he did this is set out in ‘Comply with Me: Trump’s Hypnosis Toolkit Exposed’. pic.twitter.com/g3oBSQugzK

— Lisa Morgan (@futureseeing) November 9, 2020

lol

Didn't pull this out but yeah..

imagine pulling out The Big Lie in an argument and failing to understand that Hitler wasn't talking about himself, he was accusing Jewish people of using "the big lie".

Great idea mentioning Hitler in the first place.

yeah it always goes well

🚨🚨 TONIGHT 🚨🚨

Especially important to turn out if you're cis.

We'll be there throughout. DM us if you want to find us, and let us know if you have any particular welfare needs.

Love and solidarity ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 pic.twitter.com/fYAowCP1qv

— Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants (@lgsmigrants) January 18, 2023

Glasgow is also having a Trans Rights protest on Saturday at 11am at Buchanan Galleries

xposted from the US politics thread, a great piece by Tom Scocca on US media's transphobic turn: https://popula.com/2023/01/29/the-worst-thing-we-read-this-week-why-is-the-new-york-times-so-obsessed-with-trans-kids/

A fabulous piece. I linked it in the politics thread.

yeah I saw that! Hopefully this gets attention. He did a great job of linking it to the earlier media panic over cancel culture (as well as the Times' past bullshit crusades)

The Times has been homophobic going back to the 70s. Jeet Heer dug up some examples of them saying the exact same things about homosexuality that they are now saying about trans issues.

It's especially galling to me because the Times was the first place I ever worked with a trans coworker — Donna Cartwright. She used to come and do overtime shifts in our department sometimes.

https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/zk51vh06v

speaking of the times
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/01/theater/tonys-justin-david-sullivan-and-juliet.html

That's a great Popula article, it really nails Jesse Singal

…you’ll see that mere discomfort with the way you are “supposed” to act or dress as a boy or girl, and a desire to act or dress differently, means you’re trans (if you want to be), even if you don’t have gender dysphoria. Sure enough, a lot of people, particularly young ones, seem to come out as trans much more to make a statement about their desire to transgress gender boundaries than because they are suffering serious anguish at having a (fe)male body or being seen by others as (fe)male.

Some of these people aren't even miserable!

luv 2 tell other people what 2 do

thanks for that pamela paul editorial nyt, you just killed a couple more of my friends

hi btw

Hi Kate. Been pretty depressing over here on Shitty Transphobe Island lately. I didn't want to update this thread just with bad shit so didn't post about it, but Brianna Ghey has been weighing heavy on my mind. Everything sucks.

Turned on the radio the other day and caught a BBC News bit about Sturgeon's resignation. And of course the first of two completely impartial talking heads they spoke is a raving terf. Of fucking course. I wanted to punch my radio.

hi Kate, it is good to see you around again <3

sorry about the world and everything

Tennessee is fast-tracking its ban on gender-affirming care for minors, already passed the state Senate and basically assured to pass the House next week. I covered a rally against that and our criminalizing-drag bill organized earlier this week by our local pride group — it had good turnout, lots of spirit and anger, but at the moment in this state we're decisively headed backward on all LGBTQ rights. Don't see it turning around any time soon. Feels grim.

I was at a vigil in Glasgow for Brianna Ghey tonight and the turn-out was a lot higher than I (or seemingly the organisers) expected. Which is good - it sends out the message of support and love we need to send out - but I can't believe in 2023 we still have to do this stuff, that "let people exist as their authentic selves" is now seen as a political position and not just a basic tenent of human existence.

I'm afraid "let people exist as their authentic selves" has been a political position for a long-ass time. Much too long, I agree.

the murder itself has really fucked up my sense of safety too. I'm not trans, but I am a gay man and I'm not exactly the type who can or even bothers to try to mask it in my mannerisms etc. I've learned when to police myself - to know the kind of environments I'm not welcome in, to know when to adapt my behaviours, even when to deepen my voice and be careful with my language. I know not to walk home alone at night with headphones on because I'm possibly a target. I know to text my friends when I get home. I'm sure women, POC, etc have similar experiences about feeling like potential "targets." Nobody ever actively sits you down to teach you these things - you learn them instinctively, as a measure of precaution to protect yourself. There's direct bigotry, but we live in the shadow of ambient bigotry - the knowledge that the potential to be assaulted and attacked is always present and you can never really be 100% certain it won't happen to you. What has happened to Ghey - ie being attacked, in broad daylight, for simply existing - feels like a confirmation of the possiblity of those worst fears coming true. It's fucking terrifying.

That's not to say this is about me at all - I have so much more privilege than anyone in the trans community has today. But it makes those abstract fears feel so much more real. And if it's messing me up, I can only imagine how awful, how frightening, and how depressing it must be to want to simply exist as a trans individual in a world where your identity is literally attacked to the point of murder.

It’s really been a bad fucking week for it.

I saw this, just now, and this feels like something, even if it isn’t.

For Brianna ❤️

Taken far too young. Our club and town sends our condolences to her loved ones pic.twitter.com/wbwRgzzegG

— Warrington Wolves (@WarringtonRLFC) February 16, 2023

I appreciate people who can form cogent and thoughtful and responsible thoughts about this when I'm just struggling to suppress violent feelings about the british establishment the entire time

This kind of thing is relentless in the British media:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/11/west-busy-woke-rights-combat-russia-life-frontline/

A Ukrainian soldier has warned the West is too busy fighting for transgender and feminist rights when they should be preparing for the threat of Russia invading countries beyond Ukraine.

"Today it’s Ukraine. Tomorrow it’s Poland, Germany. We’ve already destroyed more planes than the British Army has in total and Russia keeps fighting," said Artem, 32, who is just about to join his brigade stationed in Bahkmut.

Adding: "If you will not help Ukraine now, you will fight Russia in five years. If you’re thinking about human rights, transgender, feminists you’re not thinking about your country."

"If you’re thinking about human rights, transgender, feminists you’re not thinking about your country."

is quite the sentence.

Glad to see Artem from Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and the Daily Telegraph agree on that one.

I know the telegraph's rep but wow

The Telegraph has gone completely culture wars batshit in the last few years.

It Is Journalism’s Sacred Duty To Endanger The Lives Of As Many Trans People As Possible https://t.co/e8aZ5CSrhi pic.twitter.com/2wq3dBnI7Q

— The Onion (@TheOnion) February 17, 2023

“ A Ukrainian soldier has warned the West is too busy fighting for transgender and feminist rights“

He will be so relieved when he finds out the West spends no time at all fighting for these

Glinner is absolutely furious about The Onion right now, so job done there.

lol

Man Cries Over Onion

“Man”

The only actual funny thing he’s done in years is “thanks, another man”. I genuinely use that one all the time even though I’m not a man. Classic although not as he intended it.

Actually, I tell a lie. This was funny too.

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

I feel boxedjoy’s post very much, although this part wasn’t my experience:

Nobody ever actively sits you down to teach you these things - you learn them instinctively, as a measure of precaution to protect yourself.

My parents, and the parents of every African-American I know, sat us down at an early age and told us that we were not safe in America and that vigilance was going to be instrumental to our ability to flourish as adults.

I have gotten much more exposure to/information about what happened to Ghey from Twitter than I have from any mainstream US media outlet, which I suppose makes some amount of sense from a regional standpoint combined with the insane number of mass shootings we allow. It’s all terrible though, all of us deserve a much better world than the one we currently have and it’s demoralizing to realize how much some people want things to be like this.

I saw this, from the sister of a trans girl who took her own life after being denied care (the situation in the UK is really horrendous in large part due to constant and vicious lobbying to deny access and also aimed squarely at the rollback of existing rights).

we’re right to name the political conditions of Brianna’s death, and any attempt to paint that as ghoulish or opportunistic is unbelievably cruel. when Alice died my mum was talking about posting her ashes to Rosie Duffield within days

— kate litman (@kate_Iit) February 14, 2023

DJP massively otm, heartbreaking but necessary post

I was at the Brianna vigil on Thursday night outside the department of education and what impressed me was all the young LGBT people I saw there, just these sweet, gawky, nervous kids who were figuring out who they wanted to be and how they wanted to dress, I just wished that when I was 17 I'd known some people like that, the years may have been a bit less lonely. I wouldn't interact with any of them now of course, last thing they need is a middle-age owl man in a suit talking to them, but just seeing them / hearing so many them gave me some hope for the future.

My uni students, many of whom are trans or otherwise queer (art school), give me great hope.

Thanks, all. This thread has lifted me.

Ah, talking of the youth of today - my local started running a casual 'hang out and talk books' book club and half of the members are early-20s queerkids. They're proper adults and that but now that I am super old I feel very protective and proud of them. I also feel like I now have a space where I'm allowed to be queer again, despite always being read as cishet (I am much clearer in my identity as a bi/pan non-binary person these days even if the massive guilt of not being queer enough is still present).