Ok, I find the premise of the question "changing one's gender" inherently flawed. Trans people are not "changing our gender." Many trans people undergo HRT in order to develop secondary/primary sex characteristics associated with the gender they already are and alleviate distress caused by dysphoria. We are not whimsically choosing our gender of the shelf at Walmart. Language really matters, and this is a consistent problem with mainstream news articles discussing trans people (to say nothing of right-wing propaganda). As long as they control the language, they control the narrative. That needs to change.
Me to. My gender is biological -- everyone's is -- and can not be changed by any known or anticipatable technology . . . and if it could be it would be death of personality.
I am transgender because my biological gender has always been more to the female side of things than male, and, I was born with a male sex.
To resolve that physical circumstance, I have changed my apparent gender and sex with medical technology and by learning many feminine behaviors, roles, expectations -- what is actually socially constructed. Gender is not social constructed, it's significance is.
EDIT: I should add I am not especially "gender conforming", but I do want to be seen to be a gender nonconforming woman . . . don't know if that clears anything up to anyone.
As an ally who struggles to explain to many cis people what it means to be transgender, I found this explanation very helpful. Many (most?) cis people won't understand the difference between biological sex and biological gender without more explanation; many think gender is merely social construct. Can you expand on the biological differences between sex and gender (beyond the discrepancy between some folks' chromosomes and their anatomy) ?
So well written. I am an ally and appreciate you taking the time to post your comment. At my 76 years it is challenging to stay educated and aware. I especially liked "As long as they control the language, they control the narrative. That needs to change."
Thanks so much Shirley for the kind comment. And thank you as well for being an ally and continuing to learn and lend you support. You are very much appreciated!
My own view on the topic (I have many more journal references than the ones given; still working on that book!).
The mainstream view (of which the Gallup pollsters apparently are a part) is toxic, but unfortunately one sees some inconsistency in the trans-centric press (and social media) as well. We should attempt at every opportunity to settle in on preferred language.
I do wonder if some trans-positive people answered "no" to the question for these sorts of reasons? From our perspective, "changing one's gender" would be... conversion therapy. A better phrasing would be "living as a gender other than that assigned at birth".
Yeah, they’re not going to stop short of Christian White Nationalist men. And even then, they’ll scrutinize their own margins. (That’s, of course, if their trajectory continues. Ain’t gonna happen!)
I'm going to push back on this a little bit. I identify as a Democratic Socialist and organize with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). As DSA is not a political party and I live in CA, I am registered "No Party Preference" on the official voter rolls. In surveys, I often mark "Independent" if the only answers are "Democrat" and "Republican." The good surveys follow up with, essentially, "what kind of independent are you?" and I answer accordingly. There are many folks out there with a similar perspective. Hope that made sense!
It more than makes sense! I actually think of this when I make broad statements like I have here - and it's safe to assume that somebody will probably point it out.
In my state, they list you as "no party affiliation" or something like that. It might be" preference" but I think our wording implies membership not just voting preference.
In the sense of being a democratic socialist - small "s" & "d" as I'm talking about my political alignment (which we probably largely share*) rather than any organization - who is not a member of any party?
I'm also an "independent voter".
But, neither you nor I are the kind of independent voter I have in mind
I'm speaking here of a certain kind of "independent freethinker who does their own research rather than listenina to the lamestream media". You know, the one who just doesn't want to admit voting for Trump three times because he has a trans nephew and his wife just lost her health coverage a week after being diagnosed with cancer.
An archetype SO (all too) COMMON in America that I feel that I am on fairly safe ground painting the kind of people who tell TV reporters they're "independent" with one of my broader tar brushes.
*I describe mvself as a democratic socialist because...
"If you're looking at the class picture, I'm standing a bit to the left of Fred with Karl between myself and that Ulyanov kid. But it's really a classless picture now, innit?"
... just isn't that funny to people whose grandmothers weren't 1930s Wobblies.
It more share*) rather than any organization - who is not a member of any party?
I'm also an "independent voter".
But, neither you nor I are the kind of independent voter I have in mind.
I'm speaking here of a certain kind of "independent freethinker who does their own research rather than listening to the lamestream media". You know, the one who just doesn't want to admit voting for Trump three times because he has a trans nephew and his wife just lost her health coverage a week after being diagnosed with cancer.
An archetype SO (all too) COMMON in America that I feel that I am on fairly safe ground painting the kind of people who tell TV reporters they're "independent" with one of my broader tar brushes.
*I describe myself as a democratic socialist, because...
"If you're looking at the class picture, I'm standing a bit to the left of Fred, with Karl between myself and that Ulyanov kid. But it's really a classless picture now, innit?"
... just isn't that funny to people whose grandmothers weren't 1930s Wobblies.
The constant stream of attacks from Donald Trump, Republican politicians, and many red-state legislatures against the LGBTQ+ community is not accidental—it is a deliberate campaign of repetition designed to shape public opinion. By continually introducing restrictive legislation, spreading misinformation, and portraying LGBTQ+ individuals as a threat, they seek to wear down public resistance and normalize discrimination.
One lesson Trump has demonstrated is that repetition is a powerful political tool. When a message is repeated often enough, it can influence perceptions regardless of the facts. Unfortunately, many LGBTQ+ organizations and advocates do not have access to media platforms with comparable reach, leaving them at a significant disadvantage in the battle for public opinion.
The LGBTQ+ community and its allies cannot afford to remain on the defensive. They must continue to organize, educate, vote, challenge harmful policies in the courts, and make their voices heard in every available forum. History has shown that rights can be won, but they can also be eroded when prejudice goes unchallenged. If these attacks are allowed to continue unanswered, the community risks losing hard-fought ground that generations worked to secure.
THANK YOU. My rainbow family includes a T. I am been deeply troubled and upset by those among my domestic community, including a young friend who i.d.s as B and is married to a G, who believe they can ignore the pressure on the T because they're "safe." This young friend suggested that I and others might step back so that he, his brother could win back the goodwill of a straight white guy in, oh, let's say, a red state. So Ezra Klein of him.
Something between 4 - 9% of American "heterosexual" men have sustained periods of intrusive inappropriate sexual thoughts and fantasies involving children.
The psychiatric definition of pedophilia. That's a lot of people who really want to see their vile sexual preference normalized through the scapegoating and targeting of innocent people who are somehow noticeably different in terms of sexuality or gender.
An enormous number of them are very active in right wing religious and political circles.
Anything to deflect suspicion of who the real and very serious danger to children is, keep their hard drives unexamined, and force as many unwanted unaborted unfed disposable children into sex work as possible.
Phew… Lots of great comments! I'm not sure what the answer is, but I do know centrist Dems will never be the solution. We are a diverse community, and there are days I cringe and days I cry. I don't always agree with everyone, and they with me, but we are family and nobody is forgotten and nobody is left behind.
As a community, we need to become much more focused and ferocious. I don't care who comes for us; we have to make them fear our response. I don't call my electeds to beg. I call them, explain the moral imperatives, and tell them I'm prepared to fight against them with everything I have should they try to harm me or mine. My mom was very active in local and state politics and always said that while she wanted to be respected and liked, she wanted her opponents to fear her and know the hell they would pay for assh*ttery.
We as a collective need to remember our roots in protests and, yes, riots. I don't need Republicans or Christian Nationalists to approve of me. I need them to understand that fighting my community is just not something they want to do.
In his 1925 manifesto Mein Kampf, Hitler proposed that a lie told often enough would eventually become "the truth" for most people. We are seeing this born out (yet AGAIN!!). The average citizen has no clear opinion of us, because so few of them actually knows one of us. Thus, a constant drumbeat of "They are evil" begins to sway them. They're still not violently opposed, but arguments that (on the surface) seem to sound logical (e.g. boys in girls bathrooms, big strapping men playing on girls teams) are not a hard concept for them to accept. Our attempts to provide actual scientific evidence to refute those claims get drowned out by people who lay claim to superior knowledge (evangelical ministers, Erica Kirk, J.K. Rowling, etc.). Again, the listener has so little first-hand knowledge that they are easily swayed by people who speak in their vernacular, rather than the strongly scientific pronouncements of psychologists, psychiatrists, endocrinologists, etc. Remember, it wasn't too long ago that left-handed people were deemed spawns of the devil. In MY opinion, we need to be more visible (while simultaneously watching our own security). It's much harder to actually hate someone you know personally. You saw it in Germany. Antisemitism was ubiquitous, but even some NAZI party members would go to some (not all, but some) lengths to help the jewish neighbor, or the jewish employee that they had formed a bond with. Oh, and by the way, respect (not acceptance, but at least respect) for the jews went up after the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Be careful out there, and be prepared.
The Republicans path re the LGBTQ community is vile.
Yet they have adopted a clear (largely even public) strategy. As a puppet organization they are led by a well established, and perhaps well oiled, machine. Their significant religious right funding and a central campaign group count for an awful lot. How to counter that?
I sense our (LGBTQ) communities do not stand as a single voice. There many “interest” groups, and sometimes some of these, are more exclusive than inclusive of our bigger body of beautiful people.
In Julia Serrano’s book “Whipping Girl” and in Joy Ladin’s book “Out of Nature” this story of division within our communities groups is laid bare. The resultant unfolding story (phobia, hate, divisive laws), means that we are a community at risk.
A “Together we stand, divided we fall?” scenario perhaps?
I am new in this community, so please forgive me if I have misread what is out there for our group(s). Any suggestions on moving forward as a group?
Thank you for what you do Erin, you are a remarkable woman.
JoAnne, I'm an old-timer. This is exactly what we argued and fought to achieve back in the 1990's - transgender re-inclusion in the "gay and lesbian" movement. (We actually started the "gay rights movement" and were inclusive of all LGBTQ+++ people, but we were kicked out of our own movement within a few years.)
Many of us worked hard to build coalitions, first with the bisexual movement (eg biNet USA), and then together with the larger gay and lesbian organizations (starting with the Gay and Lesbian Taskforce). I think all LGBTQ activists will tell you that this is our most powerful stance - united, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, and fighting for each other's causes. We made a lot of progress after coming together. It's in recent enough memory that I believe very few LGB people really want to kick us out again.
Remember that LGB folks (should) know they aren't safe. Just before Obergefell, same-sex marriage was the big culture war issue. Now they've watched as the attention comes back to us. However, any LGB person with at least two connected neurons realizes this whole thing is in flux. After all, they are still fighting Drag Queen Story Hour and "Don't say gay" issues.
I don't think we're really in danger of getting dumped again. I think our entire community has wised up to the reality that right wingers hate us all equally. That said, this is a delicate time, so we must be good allies in the fight - which means we show up to fight for them whenever our help is needed.
The underlying message here is abundantly clear: propaganda works.
Which begs the question... where is 𝘰𝘶𝘳 propaganda? Why aren't left-wing groups out there countering this shit with political ads calling out creepy old Republicans for wanting to perform humiliating and invasive genital inspections on 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘴? Or pointing out that conservatives are telling the same lies about trans people now that were directed at gay people when 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 were the culture war targets du jour, and that if it was bullshit then, it's still bullshit now? Or going bullet-point by bullet-point comparing the actions of MAGAts to those of the Nazis, because the parallels have become too obvious to deny if you put the two movements side-by-side?
Instead, we get a chorus of crickets from the left every time the right lies about us, and it always leaves me wondering how the weaselly evil fucks who can't stand up to their own party leader to save their own careers still somehow have more backbone than the majority of our supposed Democratic allies.
Don't get frozen in helplessness. You should do something every day (or without fail at least every week) to improve your situation. Start with your personal (physical and psychological) safety. Get to wherever you are supported and safe.
Then join the fight. Even if you flee like I did, stay in the fight remotely. There's always stuff that can be done virtually, including lobbying.
I think the biggest roadblock we have is that most people have never met a trans person. So, we need to be more visible, as long as we can do this safely. We need to show people that we don't resemble those crazy tropes the right-wingers have for us. They need to understand that all we're trying to do is to live our lives - that we have no "agenda," other than securing legal protections that make us equal to everyone else before the law.
We must continue to lobby the "weak"/unsupportive Democrats and support any primary challenges from progressives who support our rights. Then wherever we get control of government (state and local governments for now), we push hard to preserve and expand our rights.
It's a ton of work, and it will utterly exhaust us. But that is what we must do.
Ok, I find the premise of the question "changing one's gender" inherently flawed. Trans people are not "changing our gender." Many trans people undergo HRT in order to develop secondary/primary sex characteristics associated with the gender they already are and alleviate distress caused by dysphoria. We are not whimsically choosing our gender of the shelf at Walmart. Language really matters, and this is a consistent problem with mainstream news articles discussing trans people (to say nothing of right-wing propaganda). As long as they control the language, they control the narrative. That needs to change.
Me to. My gender is biological -- everyone's is -- and can not be changed by any known or anticipatable technology . . . and if it could be it would be death of personality.
I am transgender because my biological gender has always been more to the female side of things than male, and, I was born with a male sex.
To resolve that physical circumstance, I have changed my apparent gender and sex with medical technology and by learning many feminine behaviors, roles, expectations -- what is actually socially constructed. Gender is not social constructed, it's significance is.
EDIT: I should add I am not especially "gender conforming", but I do want to be seen to be a gender nonconforming woman . . . don't know if that clears anything up to anyone.
As an ally who struggles to explain to many cis people what it means to be transgender, I found this explanation very helpful. Many (most?) cis people won't understand the difference between biological sex and biological gender without more explanation; many think gender is merely social construct. Can you expand on the biological differences between sex and gender (beyond the discrepancy between some folks' chromosomes and their anatomy) ?
I agree. I didn’t change my gender. I changed my body to more closely match my actual gender.
Yep. Ditto, here.
So well written. I am an ally and appreciate you taking the time to post your comment. At my 76 years it is challenging to stay educated and aware. I especially liked "As long as they control the language, they control the narrative. That needs to change."
Thanks so much Shirley for the kind comment. And thank you as well for being an ally and continuing to learn and lend you support. You are very much appreciated!
My own view on the topic (I have many more journal references than the ones given; still working on that book!).
The mainstream view (of which the Gallup pollsters apparently are a part) is toxic, but unfortunately one sees some inconsistency in the trans-centric press (and social media) as well. We should attempt at every opportunity to settle in on preferred language.
https://jaynasheats.substack.com/p/language-is-important-even-in-the
This is an excellent and much needed article Jayna. Thank you for sharing. You make so many crucial points.
Thanks!
Great article, thank you,
I do wonder if some trans-positive people answered "no" to the question for these sorts of reasons? From our perspective, "changing one's gender" would be... conversion therapy. A better phrasing would be "living as a gender other than that assigned at birth".
Well said!
That’s why I prefer saying I’m changing sex, not gender.
First they came …
Yeah, they’re not going to stop short of Christian White Nationalist men. And even then, they’ll scrutinize their own margins. (That’s, of course, if their trajectory continues. Ain’t gonna happen!)
Yeah the "drop the T" folks had to admit they were all cisgender and heterosexual males . . .
The Social Conservative neo-Confederates have murdered the GOP and are wearing it as a skin suit. I hope they have the November they deserve . . .
. . . I hope we have the November we deserve.
To hell with Eugene Vindeman.
Thank you Erin
Nazi didn't stop with just the Jews.
I'm betting all the "independents" that are against LGBT people are really Republicans trying to hide who they are.
All "independent voters" are people who just aren't willing to wear their swastika pins to work yet. There is no "middle ground".
I'm going to push back on this a little bit. I identify as a Democratic Socialist and organize with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). As DSA is not a political party and I live in CA, I am registered "No Party Preference" on the official voter rolls. In surveys, I often mark "Independent" if the only answers are "Democrat" and "Republican." The good surveys follow up with, essentially, "what kind of independent are you?" and I answer accordingly. There are many folks out there with a similar perspective. Hope that made sense!
It more than makes sense! I actually think of this when I make broad statements like I have here - and it's safe to assume that somebody will probably point it out.
In my state, they list you as "no party affiliation" or something like that. It might be" preference" but I think our wording implies membership not just voting preference.
In the sense of being a democratic socialist - small "s" & "d" as I'm talking about my political alignment (which we probably largely share*) rather than any organization - who is not a member of any party?
I'm also an "independent voter".
But, neither you nor I are the kind of independent voter I have in mind
I'm speaking here of a certain kind of "independent freethinker who does their own research rather than listenina to the lamestream media". You know, the one who just doesn't want to admit voting for Trump three times because he has a trans nephew and his wife just lost her health coverage a week after being diagnosed with cancer.
An archetype SO (all too) COMMON in America that I feel that I am on fairly safe ground painting the kind of people who tell TV reporters they're "independent" with one of my broader tar brushes.
*I describe mvself as a democratic socialist because...
"If you're looking at the class picture, I'm standing a bit to the left of Fred with Karl between myself and that Ulyanov kid. But it's really a classless picture now, innit?"
... just isn't that funny to people whose grandmothers weren't 1930s Wobblies.
It more share*) rather than any organization - who is not a member of any party?
I'm also an "independent voter".
But, neither you nor I are the kind of independent voter I have in mind.
I'm speaking here of a certain kind of "independent freethinker who does their own research rather than listening to the lamestream media". You know, the one who just doesn't want to admit voting for Trump three times because he has a trans nephew and his wife just lost her health coverage a week after being diagnosed with cancer.
An archetype SO (all too) COMMON in America that I feel that I am on fairly safe ground painting the kind of people who tell TV reporters they're "independent" with one of my broader tar brushes.
*I describe myself as a democratic socialist, because...
"If you're looking at the class picture, I'm standing a bit to the left of Fred, with Karl between myself and that Ulyanov kid. But it's really a classless picture now, innit?"
... just isn't that funny to people whose grandmothers weren't 1930s Wobblies.
Never Trump-ers who want the Democrats to run a Republican candidate.
The Nazis started by burning down the Institute of Sexual Science. Republicans are LITERALLY following the Nazi playbook. We know how this goes.
THANK YOU for your reporting, we appreciate your incredible work!
The constant stream of attacks from Donald Trump, Republican politicians, and many red-state legislatures against the LGBTQ+ community is not accidental—it is a deliberate campaign of repetition designed to shape public opinion. By continually introducing restrictive legislation, spreading misinformation, and portraying LGBTQ+ individuals as a threat, they seek to wear down public resistance and normalize discrimination.
One lesson Trump has demonstrated is that repetition is a powerful political tool. When a message is repeated often enough, it can influence perceptions regardless of the facts. Unfortunately, many LGBTQ+ organizations and advocates do not have access to media platforms with comparable reach, leaving them at a significant disadvantage in the battle for public opinion.
The LGBTQ+ community and its allies cannot afford to remain on the defensive. They must continue to organize, educate, vote, challenge harmful policies in the courts, and make their voices heard in every available forum. History has shown that rights can be won, but they can also be eroded when prejudice goes unchallenged. If these attacks are allowed to continue unanswered, the community risks losing hard-fought ground that generations worked to secure.
THANK YOU. My rainbow family includes a T. I am been deeply troubled and upset by those among my domestic community, including a young friend who i.d.s as B and is married to a G, who believe they can ignore the pressure on the T because they're "safe." This young friend suggested that I and others might step back so that he, his brother could win back the goodwill of a straight white guy in, oh, let's say, a red state. So Ezra Klein of him.
These sick f**ks are so obsessed with genitals and sex.
Something between 4 - 9% of American "heterosexual" men have sustained periods of intrusive inappropriate sexual thoughts and fantasies involving children.
The psychiatric definition of pedophilia. That's a lot of people who really want to see their vile sexual preference normalized through the scapegoating and targeting of innocent people who are somehow noticeably different in terms of sexuality or gender.
An enormous number of them are very active in right wing religious and political circles.
Anything to deflect suspicion of who the real and very serious danger to children is, keep their hard drives unexamined, and force as many unwanted unaborted unfed disposable children into sex work as possible.
Every accusation is an admission 💯
I am known to award the most grossly hypocritical, obviously-deflecting posts and articles and such anywhere from...
... one...
📽️
... to four projectors...
📽️ 📽️ 📽️ 📽️
... In their comments sections.
Depending on the degree to which the statement or article is an example of so much clear projection it's worthy of Lowe's Cinema 24.
Phew… Lots of great comments! I'm not sure what the answer is, but I do know centrist Dems will never be the solution. We are a diverse community, and there are days I cringe and days I cry. I don't always agree with everyone, and they with me, but we are family and nobody is forgotten and nobody is left behind.
As a community, we need to become much more focused and ferocious. I don't care who comes for us; we have to make them fear our response. I don't call my electeds to beg. I call them, explain the moral imperatives, and tell them I'm prepared to fight against them with everything I have should they try to harm me or mine. My mom was very active in local and state politics and always said that while she wanted to be respected and liked, she wanted her opponents to fear her and know the hell they would pay for assh*ttery.
We as a collective need to remember our roots in protests and, yes, riots. I don't need Republicans or Christian Nationalists to approve of me. I need them to understand that fighting my community is just not something they want to do.
In his 1925 manifesto Mein Kampf, Hitler proposed that a lie told often enough would eventually become "the truth" for most people. We are seeing this born out (yet AGAIN!!). The average citizen has no clear opinion of us, because so few of them actually knows one of us. Thus, a constant drumbeat of "They are evil" begins to sway them. They're still not violently opposed, but arguments that (on the surface) seem to sound logical (e.g. boys in girls bathrooms, big strapping men playing on girls teams) are not a hard concept for them to accept. Our attempts to provide actual scientific evidence to refute those claims get drowned out by people who lay claim to superior knowledge (evangelical ministers, Erica Kirk, J.K. Rowling, etc.). Again, the listener has so little first-hand knowledge that they are easily swayed by people who speak in their vernacular, rather than the strongly scientific pronouncements of psychologists, psychiatrists, endocrinologists, etc. Remember, it wasn't too long ago that left-handed people were deemed spawns of the devil. In MY opinion, we need to be more visible (while simultaneously watching our own security). It's much harder to actually hate someone you know personally. You saw it in Germany. Antisemitism was ubiquitous, but even some NAZI party members would go to some (not all, but some) lengths to help the jewish neighbor, or the jewish employee that they had formed a bond with. Oh, and by the way, respect (not acceptance, but at least respect) for the jews went up after the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Be careful out there, and be prepared.
Note for Erin
The Republicans path re the LGBTQ community is vile.
Yet they have adopted a clear (largely even public) strategy. As a puppet organization they are led by a well established, and perhaps well oiled, machine. Their significant religious right funding and a central campaign group count for an awful lot. How to counter that?
I sense our (LGBTQ) communities do not stand as a single voice. There many “interest” groups, and sometimes some of these, are more exclusive than inclusive of our bigger body of beautiful people.
In Julia Serrano’s book “Whipping Girl” and in Joy Ladin’s book “Out of Nature” this story of division within our communities groups is laid bare. The resultant unfolding story (phobia, hate, divisive laws), means that we are a community at risk.
A “Together we stand, divided we fall?” scenario perhaps?
I am new in this community, so please forgive me if I have misread what is out there for our group(s). Any suggestions on moving forward as a group?
Thank you for what you do Erin, you are a remarkable woman.
JoAnne, I'm an old-timer. This is exactly what we argued and fought to achieve back in the 1990's - transgender re-inclusion in the "gay and lesbian" movement. (We actually started the "gay rights movement" and were inclusive of all LGBTQ+++ people, but we were kicked out of our own movement within a few years.)
Many of us worked hard to build coalitions, first with the bisexual movement (eg biNet USA), and then together with the larger gay and lesbian organizations (starting with the Gay and Lesbian Taskforce). I think all LGBTQ activists will tell you that this is our most powerful stance - united, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, and fighting for each other's causes. We made a lot of progress after coming together. It's in recent enough memory that I believe very few LGB people really want to kick us out again.
Remember that LGB folks (should) know they aren't safe. Just before Obergefell, same-sex marriage was the big culture war issue. Now they've watched as the attention comes back to us. However, any LGB person with at least two connected neurons realizes this whole thing is in flux. After all, they are still fighting Drag Queen Story Hour and "Don't say gay" issues.
I don't think we're really in danger of getting dumped again. I think our entire community has wised up to the reality that right wingers hate us all equally. That said, this is a delicate time, so we must be good allies in the fight - which means we show up to fight for them whenever our help is needed.
The underlying message here is abundantly clear: propaganda works.
Which begs the question... where is 𝘰𝘶𝘳 propaganda? Why aren't left-wing groups out there countering this shit with political ads calling out creepy old Republicans for wanting to perform humiliating and invasive genital inspections on 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘴? Or pointing out that conservatives are telling the same lies about trans people now that were directed at gay people when 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 were the culture war targets du jour, and that if it was bullshit then, it's still bullshit now? Or going bullet-point by bullet-point comparing the actions of MAGAts to those of the Nazis, because the parallels have become too obvious to deny if you put the two movements side-by-side?
Instead, we get a chorus of crickets from the left every time the right lies about us, and it always leaves me wondering how the weaselly evil fucks who can't stand up to their own party leader to save their own careers still somehow have more backbone than the majority of our supposed Democratic allies.
What can we even do at this point? It’s just so hard not to feel hopeless.
Don't get frozen in helplessness. You should do something every day (or without fail at least every week) to improve your situation. Start with your personal (physical and psychological) safety. Get to wherever you are supported and safe.
Then join the fight. Even if you flee like I did, stay in the fight remotely. There's always stuff that can be done virtually, including lobbying.
I think the biggest roadblock we have is that most people have never met a trans person. So, we need to be more visible, as long as we can do this safely. We need to show people that we don't resemble those crazy tropes the right-wingers have for us. They need to understand that all we're trying to do is to live our lives - that we have no "agenda," other than securing legal protections that make us equal to everyone else before the law.
We must continue to lobby the "weak"/unsupportive Democrats and support any primary challenges from progressives who support our rights. Then wherever we get control of government (state and local governments for now), we push hard to preserve and expand our rights.
It's a ton of work, and it will utterly exhaust us. But that is what we must do.
Brilliant reporting, thank you!
Thank you, Erin, for another insightful and illuminating article. I just want to express tremendous gratitude for your excellent work.