davehtaylor

NYT, hotdog costume: We’re all trying to find out who did this!

NYT has been pouring gasoline on this fire for years. Yeah, it’s great that someone there was able to publish something exposing the horrors of the Cass Report. But the NYT has no business pretending like they haven’t been a party to this. They have blood on their hands, and are a large part of why trans kids have been targeted by these fucking soulless ghouls

If you were a good parent that your child could trust, and you loved your child unconditionally and they knew that you accepted them for who they were no matter what, this wouldn’t be an issue

“U.S. District Judge John Broomes suggested in his ruling Tuesday that the Biden administration must now consider whether forcing compliance remains “worth the effort.””

YES, yes it fucking is worth it. JFC these ghouls

It’s SO much easier and quicker to say than L-G-B-T-Q-I-A+. When in company that I know its ok with it, I just say “queer community”, but I know not everyone has accepted the reclamation of that word. Which I get. I’m totally good with queer, but hearing the f-slur sets off my fight-or-flight responses

I have such a mess of opinions about Drag Race. I’m glad that it brought the idea of drag to the mainstream so that people understand that drag performers aren’t the kind of monsters that right wingers make them out to be. But in a lot of ways, I feel like it’s done more harm than good to the trans community. With the constant conflation between trans and drag, and also the fact that Ru Paul is a fucking asshole who’s not at all supportive of the trans community, it’s hard to see it in a positive light.

I also just hate reality competition shows, especially in a scene that should be so much more supportive and uplifting and cooperative, rather than competitive.

Some of the pictures people see of the big book burning fests that happened in Germany in the 1930s weren’t generalized events. One of them was the Nazis specifically destroying the works of Magnus Hirschfeld, who ran the Institute for Sexual Research, that studied sexuality and gender issues and provided the earliest instances of gender affirming care. They sacked the institute, destroyed it, and burned all of the material there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Hirschfeld

This is to say: trans people have always been here. And nearly a century later, the destruction of this institute has been widely forgotten.

And people don’t even realize that cis people have it too! My BiL was recently talking about taking Cialis and Testosterone. I have a niece that just got breast implants and other cosmetic procedures. People going through menopause take hormones. Cis children with precocious puberty take puberty blockers so they don’t have to go through that at 8 or 9 years old. And cis people don’t have the self-reflection to realize that these are all gender-affirming care.

Wish I were nearby! Also 80s/90s kid. Linux nerd, software dev. Love writing, art, music, cooking. I’m in Central FL. Scary af here and makes it really hard.

I really wish for a day when exploring one’s gender and sexuality isn’t seen as aberrant or deviant or “sinful”. People need to feel comfortable to find out what’s right for them, who they are, without judgement. We see so much bullshit scaremongering about detransitioning as though it validates the fact that being trans isn’t real, and that’s not the case. Someone exploring, trying a change, and realizing that’s not the right thing is fine! Of course what isn’t fine is how many people detransition due to social pressure. If your entire family disowns you, you lose your job, etc., then that’s really fucking hard to bear, and no one should have to go through that.

The reason xenogenders and transgender genders are not the same is because one is based on our dimorphic sexual physicality, and the other is based on metaphysical invention.

So you’re not only transmedicalist, but somehow also a gender essentialist?

some trans folk can “stop being trans” as a result of their social environment or whatever

This is what evangelicals and terfs claim. But it’s not true. It’s why you cannot convert a trans person, or a gay person from what they are. It’s why the medical community has acknowledged that the best treatment is affirming care. If you believe being trans is a social issue you’re putting trans people into a position to lose their access to medical care.

You took this quote completely out of context and inverted the intended meaning to suit your argument. The statement Ada made was

And hell to take your gatekeeping ever further, even if you’re right, and some trans folk can “stop being trans” as a result of their social environment or whatever, they’re still trans until they’re not.

It’s not gatekeeping

Yes, it is. You are saying that anyone without a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria isn’t trans. You do not get to make that kind of statement.

You are the one erasing others’ experiences

You are the one arguing against trans people’s legitimacy

No one here is saying being trans isn’t real. But *you are when you say that it’s only valid if you have dysphoria.

You also have to think this through: if you believe that you can only really be trans if you have a medical diagnosis, then you have created vast swathes of gatekeepers for being trans: doctors, insurance companies, politicians, governments at every level. In our bigoted, cisheteronormative society, if we say you can only be trans with a diagnosis, and that society doesn’t want trans people to exist, then they can just stop diagnosing people. Doctors can refuse, and decide instead that you’re depressed, bipolar, BPD, etc. instead, and that anyone who thinks they’re trans is just “mentally ill.” Governments can pass laws preventing state run insurances (Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare, etc.) from paying for anything related to dysphoria. They can also pass laws saying private insurances either don’t have to cover it, or that they can’t. I know for a fact this is already happening because I live in Florida. I’m watching this scenario happen right in front of me. You’re taking away the ability for a person to know their own mind and their own body, and their right and ability to understand their own identity, and handing that judgement over to people with a vested interest in denying it.

And I can see why you’d think this would be a path to walk: if we say “a medical diagnosis means we’re objectively, scientifically trans, then the bigots can’t deny it”, but that’s not how things work. That’s just pandering to the oppressors. You will never appease them.

No one is saying that you can just call anyone trans you want, like crossdressers, drag queens, or “attack helicopters” (I honestly can’t believe you even threw that one around). Only the bigots do that.

No one is saying your experience isn’t valid. It’s exactly the opposite. If you feel dysphoria is central to your experience, that’s fine! You’re just as trans as the next trans person, just as valid. But that’s your experience. You don’t get to generalize your experience and then decide that’s the yardstick by which everyone else must be measured.

It should be ok to tell people, for example, that dysphoria is central to the trans condition

I don’t agree. It’s ok to say “dysphoria is central to my trans experience, though I understand this isn’t universal.” That doesn’t gatekeep anyone. In fact it’s the opposite. But it’s not ok to tell others that dysphoria or medical treatment is required to be trans.

Sure, in many locations, having a diagnosis is required before doctors will allow you to even begin HRT or consider having surgeries if you want them. But that’s just a symptom of a broken medical system that enforces cisheteronormativity, and prevents self-ID and informed consent. It’s not what actually defines what being trans is all about. It’s just a hoop people are forced to jump through.

There’s a difference between having honest and good-faith discussions about the role dysphoria, surgery and HRT play in the overall trans experience, and making broad definitive statements. That’s what actually erases others’ experiences.

I think the problem comes when it’s framed as “you can only be trans if you have a diagnosis” as opposed to “you’re trans whether you have a diagnosis or any kind of medical experience with it or not.” One can say “it took a doctor diagnosing me with dysphoria before I could accept I was trans, but I understand that this is just my experience, and I know others have their own experience” and that’s totally fine.

LMAO no. They absolutely cannot. The Repubs have basically deadlocked Congress now in their ideological war. Dems won’t get any Repubs to join. But it’s moot because Dems won’t even bother. Even if they had a supermajority trifecta, they’d still kowtow and refuse to pass a bill without bipartisan support (like they always do). And we even have examples already. Congress knew for over a month that Roe was about to fall and did literally nothing to stop it. And in the time since, Dems haven’t said a single word about it or done anything to codify reproductive rights at the federal level.

Yeah, it essentially makes it a state issue, and each state can ban, or not, and choose to recognize marriages from other states, or not. So if you got married in Washington that might allow same-sex marriage and respect marriages from other states, and then you move to e.g. Tennessee that banned it and didn’t recognize out of state marriages, your marriage essentially wouldn’t exist there. I also imagine for the case of emergencies and whatnot, if you were traveling through such a state, you wouldn’t be recognized as spouses, making it literally a life or death issue for travel.

It’s very, very bad.

Probably a lot of both