Also, the trans community isn't bullshit.
I mean, we're not a monolith. There are left wing trans people and right wing trans people and activist trans people and politically disinterested trans people and religious trans people and nonreligious trans people. There are all sorts. We don't agree on much. But there is one thing that i think most of us agree on, and it's that we all sometimes get really fucking exhausted hearing the endless firehose of ill-informed opinions about trans people.
Dear lord. What other 0.5% minority attracts this much attention from the peanut gallery? Why does every damn person in the world need to make their opinion known about how parents of the 0.5% should raise their children? Why does everyone need to have a "nuanced conversation" about the 0.5% of sportspeople (or, actually, much less than 0.5%)? Like, is this really one of the big fucking issues of the day? Do we really need to have countless thinkpieces written about whether the 1.5 million Czech Americans should count as real Americans or actually still Czech? Do we need to pose Very Serious questions about whether the couple million people with Celiac disease deserve to be covered by medical insurance? It's just absurd.
And then when you try to be understanding and say "well, i respect that you're not transphobic, but you are still trying to exclude trans people from XYZ space where they currently already exist" then it's like "no, we're not trying to exclude trans people, they can live their lives however they want, we're just saying they should do it in ABC space instead", which, like, is the exact fucking definition of exclusion.
"Yes, here are the toilets for the 99.5%, they're the toilets that you used to pee in, by the way, but now we're making toilets for the 0.5%, and you are banned from the 99.5% toilets, you should go to the 0.5% toilets instead. We're treating you with great fairness and respect."
And people are so, so, so hung up about it. Like, they won't let it go. It seems to disturb them so much that they can't bring themselves to step back and say... Hang on... Who fucking cares? It's America, man. Freedom, man. Don't let the government control my life, man. You do you, man. Live and let live, man. Nope. Can't do that. Gotta legislate. Because... something something pedophilia? Or something something rapists? Or something? Because when it comes down to it, the fear is that trans people are secretly sexual deviants who are preying on children, or violent perverts who are trying to abuse women. And then, well, now there's your phobia, isn't it? That's the literal definition of transphobia.
"Oh, no, but you got it all wrong! I'm not scared of actual trans people, I'm only concerned about the massive flood of violent criminals who would pretend to be trans in order to gain easy access to victims. That's why we can't allow trans people anywhere where women or children might be present. Even one abused child is too many, you see. We can't tolerate any kind of law that might endanger a child. In fact, just to show how much we care about child safety, we taught our kids how to shoot guns, so they can protect themselves from these bands of marauding rapists. Rapists are literally everywhere, you know. But, not in our family. Or our church. Definitely not there."
If you weren't scared, if you weren't trying to be exclusive, you'd just let trans people live. Serious. We don't bite. We're not freaks. We're just like everyone else. That is, mostly boring. And mostly not criminals.
Sigh.
Dear lord. What other 0.5% minority attracts this much attention from the peanut gallery? Why does every damn person in the world need to make their opinion known about how parents of the 0.5% should raise their children? Why does everyone need to have a "nuanced conversation" about the 0.5% of sportspeople (or, actually, much less than 0.5%)? Like, is this really one of the big fucking issues of the day? Do we really need to have countless thinkpieces written about whether the 1.5 million Czech Americans should count as real Americans or actually still Czech? Do we need to pose Very Serious questions about whether the couple million people with Celiac disease deserve to be covered by medical insurance? It's just absurd.
And then when you try to be understanding and say "well, i respect that you're not transphobic, but you are still trying to exclude trans people from XYZ space where they currently already exist" then it's like "no, we're not trying to exclude trans people, they can live their lives however they want, we're just saying they should do it in ABC space instead", which, like, is the exact fucking definition of exclusion.
"Yes, here are the toilets for the 99.5%, they're the toilets that you used to pee in, by the way, but now we're making toilets for the 0.5%, and you are banned from the 99.5% toilets, you should go to the 0.5% toilets instead. We're treating you with great fairness and respect."
And people are so, so, so hung up about it. Like, they won't let it go. It seems to disturb them so much that they can't bring themselves to step back and say... Hang on... Who fucking cares? It's America, man. Freedom, man. Don't let the government control my life, man. You do you, man. Live and let live, man. Nope. Can't do that. Gotta legislate. Because... something something pedophilia? Or something something rapists? Or something? Because when it comes down to it, the fear is that trans people are secretly sexual deviants who are preying on children, or violent perverts who are trying to abuse women. And then, well, now there's your phobia, isn't it? That's the literal definition of transphobia.
"Oh, no, but you got it all wrong! I'm not scared of actual trans people, I'm only concerned about the massive flood of violent criminals who would pretend to be trans in order to gain easy access to victims. That's why we can't allow trans people anywhere where women or children might be present. Even one abused child is too many, you see. We can't tolerate any kind of law that might endanger a child. In fact, just to show how much we care about child safety, we taught our kids how to shoot guns, so they can protect themselves from these bands of marauding rapists. Rapists are literally everywhere, you know. But, not in our family. Or our church. Definitely not there."
If you weren't scared, if you weren't trying to be exclusive, you'd just let trans people live. Serious. We don't bite. We're not freaks. We're just like everyone else. That is, mostly boring. And mostly not criminals.
Sigh.