The UK's new policy guidance would allow schools to bar social transition, which could mean denial of haircuts, names, and pronouns. US anti-trans activists cheered.
The fact that this regressive, hateful guidance comes at the same time as a pair of school children were convicted for murdering a trans girl (because she was trans!) shows clearly the depth of the depravity and lack of concern of anti-trans politicians and activists in Britain for all gender expansive people.
This is horrible, it's so bad watching all the progress we've made in society begin to all come undone. Even worse when false information is running rampant and people choose to believe it simply because it's what they want the truth to be. Medical literature be damned. I'm at a point where I've given up arguing opponents. The last one insisted the DSM-5 was updated due to 'corrupt big pharma pushing trans acceptance to sell more HRT drugs', despite the fact our medical standards of care have barely changed in decades and all of the drugs were originally designed with cisgender people in mind. It feels as bad as growing up in a toxic Christian community that told me I had a demon in my head corrupting my thoughts every single time I questioned the church on anything at all.
How does one combat all this when the truth isn't enough and people have steeled themselves against change of mind?
Pig-headed stubbornness, a fair amount of courage, acceptance there will be losses as well as wins while never losing sight of the latter, having faith in the adage that "the moral arc of the universe is long, but it does bend toward justice," and finally, "Don't mourn, organize."
In other words, just keep on keepin' on.
It doesn't sound like much, but it's the only thing that has ever worked.
This is breathtakingly dystopian. Horrifying. And yet extremists would like to go even further if they could. It is part of a global war on trans people, and the concomitant horrifying rise of right-wing ideology worldwide. I just hope in the U.S., courts would slow some of the more extreme aspects of this
> This would lead to trans girls being forced, for instance, to cut their hair short.
You know whose hair was also being forced to get cut short? Native Americans and First Nations Canadians in Boarding Schools and Residential Schools in Canada, both which are widely regarded as genocide in both countries (and by the UN).
If I'm making a false equivalence, tell me how. Because if all these anti-trans laws aren't reversed, they will eventually result in mass Transgender suicides.
WHEN THEY SAY: “there is no general duty to allow a child to socially transition.”
THEY MEAN: "There is a general duty to block a child from socially transitioning.”
WHEN THEY SAY: "social transition is not a neutral act"
THEY MEAN: "But actively blocking social transition is a neutral act, totally without a social or political agenda. We mean it. Really. So shut up. "
WHEN THEY SAY: "better information is needed"
THEY MEAN: "Move the goalposts because all available information is against us,. Repeat as needed."
WHEN THEY SAY: "a cautious approach should be taken..."
THEY MEAN: "Don't do it!"
WHEN THEY SAY: "...that complies with legal duties."
THEY MEAN: "Cross us and you're screwed."
WHEN THEY SAY: "a child who is gender questioning ... should be held to the same uniform standards as other children"
THEY MEAN: "The '50s are back!"
WHEN THEY SAY: "schools would not be expected to develop new uniform policies"
THEY MEAN: "Rigidity is righteous and our convenience is more important than your self worth."
Some more, taken from the document but not in Erin's report:
WHEN THEY SAY: "[G]ender identity ideology ... is a contested belief. Many people believe this concept reinforces stereotypes and social norms relating to sex."
THEY MEAN: "But enforcing stereotypical sex-related norms of dress, grooming, self-identification, and behavior on transgender children does not. Of course."
WHEN THEY SAY: "Schools and colleges have statutory duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children."
THEY MEAN: "The 'welfare' of transgender children means being cis."
WHEN THEY SAY: "Schools and colleges should be respectful and tolerant places where bullying is never tolerated"
THEY MEAN: "Deliberate misgendering, social rejection, and the like are not bullying if aimed at transgender children."
WHEN THEY SAY: "Where a child requests action [on] any degree of social transition ... engage parents as a matter of priority."
THEY MEAN: "Be a snitch. The heck with the 'trusted teacher' nonsense we grew up with."
WHEN THEY SAY: "Schools and colleges have legal duties framed by a child’s biological sex."
THEY MEAN: "Biology is destiny."
To sum up:
WHEN THEY SAY : Any of the above (and more)
THEY MEAN: "The world is changing and we're scaaared." ::sniffle::
What is the hedge "from public life?" Mass imprisonment isn't so much less dire than mass execution, so eradication full stop is more than merited. While your story was about the UK, in the USA, prison conditions are dire enough to make it not worth bothering to so sharply distinguish between "mere" imprisonment and execution esp. for trans women with the deadly combination of routine prison rape by HIV+ prisoners orchestrated by far right-wing / theocratic prison guards and denial of healthcare e.g. anti-retrovirals as a matter of course (also extreme heat as per John Oliver). For the UK, someone more knowledgeable than myself about how the civil and criminal penalties for breaking the prohibitions are likely to play out and prison conditions may have to say more.
After this "protecting the children" trial balloon floats, prohibitions on adults will shortly follow, so I'd best figure out some way to be allowed to relocate further afield than the UK. (Ireland is available too in a way, but it's not really better than the rest of the West on these fronts, so I still need to negotiate. I hope Thailand isn't getting hit by this rubbish, and I've heard good things about China and Vietnam too.) Any advice on where good places to run to — hopefully a list, as choices are usually constrained —might be? Or how to respond once we are all outlawed and they send the FBI etc. out to lock us all up? (And revoke all our passports and try to extradite us etc. if we're already out of the country.) Who's a good lawyer or whatever to help make the arrangements to get out?
I'm absolutely hoping that Washington State, in the US, defies Federal demands should Federal laws start to strip away care on a country wide scale, but I'm not holding my breath. I don't have the skills or money to move abroad, and I'm not sure where I'd go. My partner is a trans-femme as well, and she's discussed moving to Spain as a potential option, with a region in particular, Catalonia.
I was recently encourage by what happened at Denny Blaine city park near Seattle. Denny Blaine is a park where the Queer families felt safe to gather and recreate. It is also a park where nudists felt save to recreate nude. A donor agreed to donate $550,000 to put a children's playground at Denny Blaine. Sole reason for the donation was to cause dissension between the nudists, Queers and allies. Seattle Parks said a decision would be made in two weeks. Well the Queer community and nudists showed up in force. The park dept decided not to accept the donation. They also said that they would explore the value the park has to the Queer community. This is a readers digest version. I guess my point is I have faith in the State if Washington.
Also, if there are answers you're unable to give (or would rather not for some reason), where can I go for answers even if it might cost money? For instance, I've as of yet been unable to get lawyers to discuss what to do in the event of a full trans ban going into effect and my passport gets revoked and the theocrats try to extradite after I've successfully fled the country, never mind anything about getting caught within USA borders when the impending full trans ban goes into effect.
These attacks will inevitably broaden to more than just trans people. They're about subjugating anyone who isn't a straight white Christian man.
I'll never understand what's going inside the heads of women like Helen Joyce and the folks of Mumsnet, many of them self-identifying as feminist, who spend so much time policing gender. They're only *allowed* to do any of that because their foremothers in the women's rights movements of the 1960s, and the Suffragettes before that fought against gender-policing. They're willingly putting themselves into the boxes the rest of us are trying to break out of. And they're in for an unpleasant surprise when conservative lawmakers decide those boxes should be more confining and less comfortable.
They may think they're protecting women and girls from trans predators and perverts (we're overwhelmingly neither) and protecting young, impressionable trans men from claiming an identity that they can't see as anything other than a mistake.
These policies will lead to misery and suicide, and the people pushing them know that, but they don't care. Better dead than trans, in their eyes.
Vote them out of office, every single one of them, in any country where they have power.
This clearly contravenes the UK Equality Act and even the proponents of this garbage know it. Conservatism is losing in the West generally and in the UK in particular the Tories are going to get stomped the next election and they know it. A cornered animal fights the hardest and this is what we are seeing.
I get the haters want to direct their hate filled agenda towards the transgender. I doubt they understand that their hate will hit unintended consequences, friends, and family. Now I believe that this may be a good thing in that I do not hear loud voices speaking out in support or pretection of our families. Perhaps if it hits those who choose the pronouns they were given at birth we may see some outrage! My heart hurts when I read the reports and yet I value and appreciate them Erin.
The fact that this regressive, hateful guidance comes at the same time as a pair of school children were convicted for murdering a trans girl (because she was trans!) shows clearly the depth of the depravity and lack of concern of anti-trans politicians and activists in Britain for all gender expansive people.
One amendment: Drop the phrase "in Britain."
This is horrible, it's so bad watching all the progress we've made in society begin to all come undone. Even worse when false information is running rampant and people choose to believe it simply because it's what they want the truth to be. Medical literature be damned. I'm at a point where I've given up arguing opponents. The last one insisted the DSM-5 was updated due to 'corrupt big pharma pushing trans acceptance to sell more HRT drugs', despite the fact our medical standards of care have barely changed in decades and all of the drugs were originally designed with cisgender people in mind. It feels as bad as growing up in a toxic Christian community that told me I had a demon in my head corrupting my thoughts every single time I questioned the church on anything at all.
How does one combat all this when the truth isn't enough and people have steeled themselves against change of mind?
"How does one combat all this"
Pig-headed stubbornness, a fair amount of courage, acceptance there will be losses as well as wins while never losing sight of the latter, having faith in the adage that "the moral arc of the universe is long, but it does bend toward justice," and finally, "Don't mourn, organize."
In other words, just keep on keepin' on.
It doesn't sound like much, but it's the only thing that has ever worked.
This is so very hurtful. I cannot even comprehend the hatred it took to come up with so many ways to damage and torture trans youth.
It’s infuriating that one of the organizations is called Do No Harm, when they are causing maximum harm to trans people.
I relate to your post. It hurts to read it.
This is breathtakingly dystopian. Horrifying. And yet extremists would like to go even further if they could. It is part of a global war on trans people, and the concomitant horrifying rise of right-wing ideology worldwide. I just hope in the U.S., courts would slow some of the more extreme aspects of this
> This would lead to trans girls being forced, for instance, to cut their hair short.
You know whose hair was also being forced to get cut short? Native Americans and First Nations Canadians in Boarding Schools and Residential Schools in Canada, both which are widely regarded as genocide in both countries (and by the UN).
If I'm making a false equivalence, tell me how. Because if all these anti-trans laws aren't reversed, they will eventually result in mass Transgender suicides.
WHEN THEY SAY: “there is no general duty to allow a child to socially transition.”
THEY MEAN: "There is a general duty to block a child from socially transitioning.”
WHEN THEY SAY: "social transition is not a neutral act"
THEY MEAN: "But actively blocking social transition is a neutral act, totally without a social or political agenda. We mean it. Really. So shut up. "
WHEN THEY SAY: "better information is needed"
THEY MEAN: "Move the goalposts because all available information is against us,. Repeat as needed."
WHEN THEY SAY: "a cautious approach should be taken..."
THEY MEAN: "Don't do it!"
WHEN THEY SAY: "...that complies with legal duties."
THEY MEAN: "Cross us and you're screwed."
WHEN THEY SAY: "a child who is gender questioning ... should be held to the same uniform standards as other children"
THEY MEAN: "The '50s are back!"
WHEN THEY SAY: "schools would not be expected to develop new uniform policies"
THEY MEAN: "Rigidity is righteous and our convenience is more important than your self worth."
Some more, taken from the document but not in Erin's report:
WHEN THEY SAY: "[G]ender identity ideology ... is a contested belief. Many people believe this concept reinforces stereotypes and social norms relating to sex."
THEY MEAN: "But enforcing stereotypical sex-related norms of dress, grooming, self-identification, and behavior on transgender children does not. Of course."
WHEN THEY SAY: "Schools and colleges have statutory duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children."
THEY MEAN: "The 'welfare' of transgender children means being cis."
WHEN THEY SAY: "Schools and colleges should be respectful and tolerant places where bullying is never tolerated"
THEY MEAN: "Deliberate misgendering, social rejection, and the like are not bullying if aimed at transgender children."
WHEN THEY SAY: "Where a child requests action [on] any degree of social transition ... engage parents as a matter of priority."
THEY MEAN: "Be a snitch. The heck with the 'trusted teacher' nonsense we grew up with."
WHEN THEY SAY: "Schools and colleges have legal duties framed by a child’s biological sex."
THEY MEAN: "Biology is destiny."
To sum up:
WHEN THEY SAY : Any of the above (and more)
THEY MEAN: "The world is changing and we're scaaared." ::sniffle::
Somebody PLEASE TELL ME how to hit "enter" without skipping a line. I tried shift-enter but it didn't work.
What is the hedge "from public life?" Mass imprisonment isn't so much less dire than mass execution, so eradication full stop is more than merited. While your story was about the UK, in the USA, prison conditions are dire enough to make it not worth bothering to so sharply distinguish between "mere" imprisonment and execution esp. for trans women with the deadly combination of routine prison rape by HIV+ prisoners orchestrated by far right-wing / theocratic prison guards and denial of healthcare e.g. anti-retrovirals as a matter of course (also extreme heat as per John Oliver). For the UK, someone more knowledgeable than myself about how the civil and criminal penalties for breaking the prohibitions are likely to play out and prison conditions may have to say more.
After this "protecting the children" trial balloon floats, prohibitions on adults will shortly follow, so I'd best figure out some way to be allowed to relocate further afield than the UK. (Ireland is available too in a way, but it's not really better than the rest of the West on these fronts, so I still need to negotiate. I hope Thailand isn't getting hit by this rubbish, and I've heard good things about China and Vietnam too.) Any advice on where good places to run to — hopefully a list, as choices are usually constrained —might be? Or how to respond once we are all outlawed and they send the FBI etc. out to lock us all up? (And revoke all our passports and try to extradite us etc. if we're already out of the country.) Who's a good lawyer or whatever to help make the arrangements to get out?
I'm absolutely hoping that Washington State, in the US, defies Federal demands should Federal laws start to strip away care on a country wide scale, but I'm not holding my breath. I don't have the skills or money to move abroad, and I'm not sure where I'd go. My partner is a trans-femme as well, and she's discussed moving to Spain as a potential option, with a region in particular, Catalonia.
I was recently encourage by what happened at Denny Blaine city park near Seattle. Denny Blaine is a park where the Queer families felt safe to gather and recreate. It is also a park where nudists felt save to recreate nude. A donor agreed to donate $550,000 to put a children's playground at Denny Blaine. Sole reason for the donation was to cause dissension between the nudists, Queers and allies. Seattle Parks said a decision would be made in two weeks. Well the Queer community and nudists showed up in force. The park dept decided not to accept the donation. They also said that they would explore the value the park has to the Queer community. This is a readers digest version. I guess my point is I have faith in the State if Washington.
Also, if there are answers you're unable to give (or would rather not for some reason), where can I go for answers even if it might cost money? For instance, I've as of yet been unable to get lawyers to discuss what to do in the event of a full trans ban going into effect and my passport gets revoked and the theocrats try to extradite after I've successfully fled the country, never mind anything about getting caught within USA borders when the impending full trans ban goes into effect.
These attacks will inevitably broaden to more than just trans people. They're about subjugating anyone who isn't a straight white Christian man.
I'll never understand what's going inside the heads of women like Helen Joyce and the folks of Mumsnet, many of them self-identifying as feminist, who spend so much time policing gender. They're only *allowed* to do any of that because their foremothers in the women's rights movements of the 1960s, and the Suffragettes before that fought against gender-policing. They're willingly putting themselves into the boxes the rest of us are trying to break out of. And they're in for an unpleasant surprise when conservative lawmakers decide those boxes should be more confining and less comfortable.
They may think they're protecting women and girls from trans predators and perverts (we're overwhelmingly neither) and protecting young, impressionable trans men from claiming an identity that they can't see as anything other than a mistake.
These policies will lead to misery and suicide, and the people pushing them know that, but they don't care. Better dead than trans, in their eyes.
Vote them out of office, every single one of them, in any country where they have power.
This is utterly asinine. Governments policing clothing choices.
They are coming
This clearly contravenes the UK Equality Act and even the proponents of this garbage know it. Conservatism is losing in the West generally and in the UK in particular the Tories are going to get stomped the next election and they know it. A cornered animal fights the hardest and this is what we are seeing.
I get the haters want to direct their hate filled agenda towards the transgender. I doubt they understand that their hate will hit unintended consequences, friends, and family. Now I believe that this may be a good thing in that I do not hear loud voices speaking out in support or pretection of our families. Perhaps if it hits those who choose the pronouns they were given at birth we may see some outrage! My heart hurts when I read the reports and yet I value and appreciate them Erin.