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

There’s a long list of stuff the right has tried to protect your kids from over the decades:

Drugs
Rock lyrics
Mixed race pregnancies
Demonic possession
Liberal professors
Rainbow parties
Choosing to be gay
Mask wearing
Online schooling
The Knockout Game
White slavery at Ikea
Pronouns

Must be hard to remain ever vigilant

there’s also the LGB Alliance/Gays Against Groomers bullshit to try to sell the idea that reasonable gay people understand that trans rights are totally different from gay rights, and it’s just a weird coincidence that you can do find-and-replace for the scare tactics of 30 years ago.

Also of course anyone who knows any actual teenagers in the 2020s knows that they are far and away the most queer-accepting age group on the planet. Both of my kids have many classmates in their Tennessee public schools who are gay, trans or nonbinary (and fwiw my own oldest kid identifies as asexual, which he's found a lot of reassurance in as a guy on the autism spectrum). So the idea that these are the kids being "protected" by a bunch of pearl-clutching Baptists is as funny as it is infuriating.

It does give hope that being said!

When I told my younger son, who was in middle school at the time, about the Florida "Don't Say Gay" bill for elementary schoolers, he snorted and said, "Well those kids are gonna be confused when they get to middle school and a quarter of the kids are gay or trans." (I think he was exaggerating the number, but it showed his sense of things.)

I hoped for one day without thinking about Don't Say Gay

(Not your fault, tips! Florida sucks)

Yeah tipsy every teenager I know is essentially saying "thanks but no thanks about all this alleged 'protection,' and also shut the fuck up about swimming, because no actual young person gives a single shit about your sudden valiant efforts to use the intEgriTy of sPoRts as a Trojan horse for toxic bullshit."

Sorry Aflred! We're not far behind you, our governor totally wants to be DeSantis' bff.

And yeah, on the State of the Teens, a lot of this is anecdotal but I've heard from friends who have exposure to evangelical culture that even there there's a movement of younger Christians against the culture war stuff. But I'm sure there are still plenty of true believers being molded out there.

https://www.theonion.com/the-onion-s-exclusive-interview-with-j-k-rowling-1850141221

They’re pulling zero punches and it’s great.

White slavery at Ikea

i missed this one

This is doomy, per Tannehill's norm (her Twitter bio literally says "Harbinger of doom"). But even if she's hyperbolic, she's not wrong about what's going on. Trans hate is the point of the spear.

Something that is missing from the discussion of all of this is that MTGs rationale for why there should be a "national divorce" is "sick and disgusting woke culture issues." 1/n https://t.co/Q6TwlLBVOG

— Brynn Tannehill (@BrynnTannehill) February 23, 2023

Okay so kinda weird story, but I'm not kidding about this and I am kinda embarrassed 1/?https://t.co/zZmqcwV6zv

— Sophie ✨ From ✨Mars (@sophie_frm_mars) February 27, 2023

Ugh. I love how the offended lady is all self-congratulatory about how well she handled things right up until she thought somebody said the word "penis." Like, "Here I am being all open-minded but the trans weirdo just couldn't help throwing their dick in my face!"

Sorry but anyone who becomes a Tory councillor at age 22 is the biggest weirdo in any story. To be honest though, my main thought on reading that story was why are there so many pubs called The Marquis of Granby?

... mind you, I've only just read the tweet and wtf?!?!?

I’m glad if young tories tell u

Ugh. I love how the offended lady is all self-congratulatory about how well she handled things right up until she thought somebody said the word "penis." Like, "Here I am being all open-minded but the trans weirdo just couldn't help throwing their dick in my face!"

I feel like there is something missing in the story she's telling

You mean like how appearing in the Daily Mail as a victim of the culture wars will get her noticed and help her political career?

yeah I looked at her twitter for a while and the zeal with which she's pursuing this (e.g., @ing JKR) is not surprising but awfully telling

These are the transphobic women calling cis female trans allies handmaids and “pick-me’s” if I’m not mistaken?

lol at the idea that she misheard "wipe my hands on my pants" as "wipe my hands on my penis"

It was apparently "wipe my hands on my jeans," so maybe easier to mis-hear, but COME ON.

It's just so telling of the phobic obsession with trans people's body parts. As if it's trans people walking around thinking about their genitalia all day instead of bigots. (And a direct descendant of the age-old homophobic obsession with how gay and lesbian sexual mechanics. "I don't even know what goes where!" "Who's the man?" etc etc)

Saying you were going to wipe your hands on your pants would elicit some funny looks in the UK!

Even if she had said "wipe my hands on my penis", that's a very weird thing to say but honestly not a very threatening one. Trying to imagine a burly man saying it while indicating his cock and seeing if I would be intimidated, but I keep giggling instead.

The whole thing is so pearls-clutchingly prudish as well. The word "penis" must not be uttered in a women's toilet, ever. IT IS SACRED WOMAN'S SPACE, NO PEEN ALLOWED.

Yeah I always wonder wtf these people do in bathrooms, becz ime it's basically just get in, do your natural excretory business (which is p much the same regardless of your genitals), wash your hands (ideally), and gtfo. Also, as a guy who uses guy bathrooms, guys in bathrooms do not just, like, walk around with their dicks hanging out. That's not a thing. We also don't talk about our dicks. We don't talk much at all in the toilet!

Also, I've been in men's rooms in clubs etc where women were using the toilets. It's not really that big a deal.

At my local Starbucks patrons use the bathrooms indiscriminately, even the MAGA ones.

even the MAGA bathrooms!

I'm going to wipe my hands on my Grande

yeah lots of restaurants and bars in Montreal have non-gendered bathrooms, usually with stalls and a communal sink area: inclusive and saves space for the establishment, is obviously the future, would happily never use another stall-less urinal in my life

and emily. otm, the way UK transphobes fixate on bathrooms and prisons is almost parodically Victorian (no surprise in the US they're trying to make headway with sports)

I mean, if anyone had a penis that was made of fluffy terry cloth...I still wouldn't expect them to use it to dry their hands.

grats to suzy eddie izzard on her new name

Oh dear, how sad, never mind.

https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2023/03/17/52722/graham_linehan_turned_down_%C2%A3200k_to_take_his_name_off_the_father_ted_musical

the 2nd part of that Chortle piece where they speak to him is actually insane; has anyone ever had less self-awareness than GL? He deserves 1000 x more shit than he has already had.

He said: ‘I thought this would be over in a few months and someone would step in. I really did think as soon as people heard what’s been happening to children, all my friends, satirists, comedians, progressives, people who marched against the Iraq war, lesbians, gay men, they’d all come rushing to my aid.

‘And no one turned up. Just no one turned up. All I got was dirty looks, people ghosting me.

‘I have met people, people I’ve worked with — big names — and begged them to become involved. Begged them. Please just say, "Graham Linehan is right," or "Graham Linehan has some important contributions to make on this," anything that makes it sound as though I’m doing this for anything other than recreational cruelty.

‘That’s how I’m portrayed. Like a recreational sadist. And none of them will stand up for me.’

i love it when people _almost_ seem to be self-aware

Probably took offense at being considered merely "recreational."

I'm sure I could Google and find objectionable things about Gov. Tim Walz, but this is good to see and hear.

MN Gov. @Tim_Walz: "The trans community is as terrified as they've ever been. [...] We have to be much more aggressive about making sure that folks are protected." https://t.co/B2cEJIipof pic.twitter.com/C97QWWclK1

— The Hill (@thehill) March 18, 2023

what minnesota is doing is a Very Good Thing. it's a real frustration for me that more people aren't recognizing what trans people are going through... there _are_ trans refugees right now, a _lot_ of trans refugees. trans people are facing genocide, and one of the things that concerns me the most is that most cis people don't seem to be taking it _seriously_. no one gives a thought to having their professional conference in texas or florida, taking a vacation there, _moving_ there. people who, like, have _children_. i mean, what the fuck are they thinking? do they really believe that it couldn't be _their_ child?

every week i see someone new up here in pdx, and a lot of times they're living on the street, because living on the street here is safer than living _anywhere_ in texas or florida or kentucky or... and then i see my co-workers complaining about all the homeless people, about how they don't feel "safe". _they_ don't feel safe? they have the fucking _gall_ to tell me that, to my _face_?

i don't know the practical effect of minnesota's law, but gov. walz's action makes me feel... that at least some cis people fucking _understand_ what we're going through, what the transphobes are _doing_ to us. because i'll tell you i don't get that feeling a lot from democratic party leaders.

Oh that is lovely. Often I don't even open this thread when I see it's been bumped because it's just too grim but it's so nice to see a cis person standing up for us lot like that. Ofc it's depressing that a politician treating us like human beings is very much the exception and noteworthy. Still warms the cockles though

Wouldn't it be great if a politician in the UK was to speak about trans people like that??? It would be amazing, can you imagine??

feeling hard for you paolo :(

Erin Reed has been documenting on twitter the arguments put forth with the various bills going through state legislatures in the US restricting gender-affirming care for trans youth (or in some cases even adults, which is the next goal for them) or denying health care coverage, even private health care, as in Florida today. Her threads have been very moving to read, and it’s all so shocking.

I take back what I said on 77 - Ohio is now as bad as Tennessee et al. : https://thebuckeyeflame.com/2023/03/20/an-ohio-republican-rep-just-introduced-legislation-to-designate-a-new-lgbtq-related-day-and-yes-of-course-its-bad/

^ fuck.

FL also hearing a bill which just added an amendment which would gradually discontinue care to any minor who is already receiving transition drugs

No idea if it passes, and will be challenged in court even so, might even get blocked, but it doesn't matter. The cruelty is the point. Always is and always will be.

All these politicians should receive daily harassment for the rest of their lives

Also I'm so very sorry Eliza :(

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/65051900

There it is - a complete ban on trans women in athletics.

i listened to seb coe on the today programme this morning just totally evading even the soft questions justin webb put to him.

i just read about the iowa laws. my heart is just breaking. it is so hard for me to understand the thought process. it takes a lot of work to draft and pass a bill! they want trans students, probably already bullied, to use the wrong bathroom. can you imagine being one of these students, and setting foot into one of these spaces? how the fuck is that a “safe space”? a bunch of dickhead boys sitting there waiting for you?

"You really don't get that the session is over."

Senator Megan Hunt says they will filibuster everything, even progressive bills put forward, if Nebraska moves forward with its attempt to ban gender affirming care for trans youth.

This is fight.pic.twitter.com/8F0ApJxMZn

— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) March 24, 2023