It's easy for those of who are not trans to think the issue of transgender health care is not important, or that it's getting too much coverage. I think it's getting too much coverage, but only in the sense that most of the coverage is a moral panic specifically ginned up by the Right. Which has led to hundreds of bills in state legislatures to control health care or suppress drag shows.
I haven't posted much if anything about this topic, except for a few tweets in my monthly Twitter round-up, mostly because it seems like a lot of very online people talking to and about each other. But today I saw two tweets almost back to back that made me think it was time.
First was this:
white christian nationalists are coming for every one of us who don’t adhere to their fucked up worldview. trans people are simply the least protected and easiest to destroy so, if you’re not paying attention now, by the time you wake up it’ll be too late.
Ally Maynard @missmayn
I think Ron DeSantis shows this is true with every day that passes. Chip away at the edges of what "most people" don't care about ("CRT," trans people) and then later come for more popularly supported causes. It's similar to a tweet I had included in an earlier month:
you need to vocally oppose transphobia not just because of the harm it does to trans people, but because the right see demonising trans issues as a gateway to attack all manner of people they hate. they wouldn't stop with forcing one group back in the closet
@shaun_vids
And then there was the other tweet I saw today, from @poppy_haze:
one of my favorite "SOCIETY" things is this 2018 cover of the news magazine The Atlantic, where a moral panic about us transgender people is front and center, and in TINY little print in the top right, "We're Not Prepared for the Next Pandemic"
One of the responses to poppy's tweet noted, "Also the cover both misgendered and outed the model" and provided a linked story. In addition to those two facts, the story verifies that the model was 22 years old at the time the photo was taken, and was told the image would be used in "a general, abstract, artistic representation of gender dysphoria in children." Does that image look abstract to you? It looks pretty specific about the model's face to me. (The Atlantic later apologized for the way the cover headline misleads about the person shown on the cover. Not that the vast majority of people who saw the original story know they did that.)
I also recently listened to a "Why Is This Happening?" podcast with a doctor named Izzy Lowell, who runs a clinic in the South specializing in health care for trans patients.
Looking back through the few tweets I have reposted about trans rights and the moral panic, I found these that I think are worth repeating to have them in one place:
From the pages of the New York Times to the legislative hearings across the country to kitchen table conversations — trans people became the endless fixation of those looking for a place for their fear about a changing world of increasing possibility.
Chase Strangio
transphobia has so many people being swept up into right leaning politics. it’s scary to witness. the gateway to conservatism will always be minding/controlling someone else’s business despite someone else having no impact on your ability to live and function.
@shaTIRED
"An NPR analysis of this fast-changing landscape found that over the past two years, state lawmakers introduced at least 306 bills targeting trans people, more than in any previous period. A majority of this legislation, 86%, focuses on trans youth."
David Roberts @drvolts (from November 2022)
1950: Interracial marriage? What’s next; marrying a horse?
2015: Same sex marriage? What’s next; marrying a horse?
2019: A trans person identifying as a woman? What’s next. Identifying as a horse?
They have one argument. It sucks.
@peppercoyote
"Hi, I'm a dude that's spent the past 30 years railing against Title IX, mocking the WNBA, sneering at female soccer stars, and making lesbian jokes about any female athlete. And folks, I'm worried about what the trans movement will do to the purity and sanctity of women's sports."
@RTodKelly
No GOPer gave a shit about trans people one way or the other until they needed a wedge issue to distract people from their current descent. The fact that anyone falls for it is pathetic.
Gail Simone
Trans teens have the *highest suicide rate* of any group of adolescents. And I promise you it’s not because their parents let them use pronouns and supported their transitioning. These kids are vulnerable and there is also a risk of *not* taking their gender identity seriously.
LadyGrey @TWLadyGrey
There's nothing wrong with asking questions. I'm a cis hetero male, i didn't know jack about trans issues. I asked the question, got the answer via a quick google search of studies, and accepted it. The problem is people who "ask questions" they don't want answers to.
Darrell Owens @IDoTheThinking
Whether you support trans people because it's a human rights issue or because of the "first they came for the trans people" rationale... the time is now to take a clear stand on this issue.
We must all hang together or assuredly we will all hang separately.
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